Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Modern agriculture threatens to destroy the very means by which it developed. The recent establishment of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources will help to coordinate international efforts to conserve the rapidly diminishing genetic resource represented by traditional varieties of crops grown for generations. Eleanor Lawrence looks at some of the projects now under way.
