Last year, Deb cultivated 1,340 traditional varieties of rice on land in Odisha, India. More than 7,000 farmers in six states in India were given the seeds – with the condition that they also grow them and give some away in their local communities.

The loss of rice varieties is not unique to India, nor is the erosion of genetic diversity limited to one food crop. Food varieties are disappearing across the world and Deb’s efforts are part of a global movement to protect agricultural biodiversity.

A seed does not just contain genetic markers, it is the start of true food sovereignty. It is a driver of political and social change. Deb, a fierce advocate of farmer-led agrarian models and open-source seeds, will share his experiences with the NYU community, including the specific methods he has used to ensure these seeds’ survival.

This event is being hosted by NYU Steinhardt’s Nutrition and Food Studies Department, A Growing Culture, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting farmer-led research and innovation, and The Institute for Public Knowledge's Food and the City Working Group.

WHERE:

Pless Hall, 1st Floor

82 Washington Square East

New York, NY 10003

Members of the NYU community interested in attending should RSVP at http://bit.ly/DebalNYU. Journalists interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Jordan.Bennett@nyu.edu.

About Debal Deb

Debal Deb is a biologist, with a doctorate in ecology from Calcutta University. He has conducted post¬doctoral research in the human ecology of estuarine resource use at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (1988), and in ecological economics at University of California – Berkeley, as both a Ford Foundation Fellow (2001) and a Fulbright Fellow (2009). Deb currently serves as guest faculty at the SIT, Jaipur (in ecological economics), B.R. Ambedkar University, New Delhi (in development studies), and is professor of eminence for agroecology at Centurion University, Odisha. In 1997, Deb founded Vrihi (Sanskrit for 'rice'), India's largest open source rice seed bank, conserving 1230 folk rice varieties, and a research farm Basudha to demonstrate ecological agriculture, eco forestry, alternative energy use, and ecological architecture.

About the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

Located in the heart of New York City’s Greenwich Village, NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development prepares students for careers in the arts, education, health, media and psychology. Since its founding in 1890, the Steinhardt School's mission has been to expand human capacity through public service, global collaboration, research, scholarship, and practice. To learn more about NYU Steinhardt, visit steinhardt.nyu.edu.