Human Footprint

This is the most secure vault we have on this site.

Okay.

I'm excited to see what's behind this vault.

Things that money can't buy.

Meet Sarah Hearn.

She's a good baker and an even better geneticist, working at one of the world's largest seed banks.

You have more security in here than I've seen in any biological building I think I've ever been in.

This is like CDC level.

It is like going into a bank vault.

How many different varieties of maize are in this room?

There are around 28 and a half thousand different kinds of maize.

28 and a half thousand.

This is like being in a candy store for me.

They're like jelly beans.

Every different one is a flavor.

There's black corn, blue corn, red, yellow, and white.

Small, medium, and large.

Experimentation by native peoples created tens of thousands of varieties of maize, each one adapted to a specific time, place, and purpose.

But in the last century, just a handful of commercial varieties have come to dominate global corn production.

What happened?