Surrounded by Seeds

As you tuck into your fourth helping of stuffing tomorrow evening, spare a few seconds to think about some of our less fortunate brothers from history—specifically the valiant disciples of Nikolai Vavilov, who deserves a place alongside Norman Borlaug in the pantheon of agricultural saints. Vavilov spent much of his career traveling the world in search of plant genetic materials, which he stockpiled at his institute in St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad). For his troubles, Vavilov was...