The Incredible Story That Changed the World's Food Production

In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad—now St. Petersburg—and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the world’s largest collection of seeds, more than 250,000 samples hand-collected over two decades from all over the globe by world-famous explorers, geneticist, and dissident Nikolai Vavilov.

These were not just any seeds. The botanists believed they could be bred into heartier, disease-resistant, and more productive varieties suited for harsh climates, therefore changing the future of food production, and preventing famines like those that had plagued their countrymen before. He is the author of The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice.

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