You probably haven’t heard of Axel Diederichsen, yet he holds our past, present and future in the palm of his hand. He’s been entrusted to protect a resource our very existence depends upon, and it on us.
Those are the opening lines of Grainews editor Kari Belanger’s story about Axel Diederichsen, research scientist and curator of Plant Gene Resources of Canada in Saskatoon, Sask. The seed bank holds 110,000 seed samples of crops such as barley, oats and pearl millet, as well as everything from grasses to Saskatoon berries. Diederichsen ensures PGRC’s seed collections are in good condition, so they can be used for research, education and crop breeding.
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Science and preserving diversity is very important to Diederichsen, but he’s a philosophical man, driven by curiosity. How did the first crop plants, which look so different from their wild relatives, come about? It’s a question that still intrigues him. Read more about Diederichsen’s journey from a small farm in Germany to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
