“Seeds of Time,” a documentary about agriculture pioneer Dr. Cary Fowler ’71, who is on a mission to protect the world’s food crops for future generations, will have its North American premiere March 10-14 at the South-by-Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Its world premiere was in November at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.
“When I met Cary Fowler a whole new world opened up to me,” says director Sandy McLeod. “I realized that, although I thought I knew a thing or two about food, the issues that he was grappling with were entirely new to me. And that those issues, largely concerning food security, are issues that anyone who likes to eat should not only know about, but have a say in too.”
Dubbed “The World’s Seed Banker,” Fowler is former executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and largely responsible for making its Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway a reality. The vault holds the most diverse collection of food crop seeds in the world.
Fowler grew up in Memphis and graduated from White Station High School in 1967 before enrolling at Rhodes. In 2011, Rhodes presented him with an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree, and in 2013, the college announced the Cary Fowler ’71 Environmental Studies International Fellowship in collaboration with the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Currently a member of the Rhodes College Board of Trustees, Fowler has traveled the world educating the public about crops facing new threats from disease and changing climates. His journey is a personal and passionate one to solve a global crisis.
“We’re really in a race against time. We need to mobilize before it’s too late. We’re going to pay a price if we don’t do the smart thing and help agriculture adapt,” says Fowler.