Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday August 21 2018, @09:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-the-right-thing-at-all-costs dept.

A story of heroism and the ultimate sacrifice during the the 900-day Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War. I think it is safe to say we all benefit from the sacrifice these men made.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-scientists-who-starved-to-death.html

As the invading German army poured into the city looting and destroying anything of value, a group of Russian botanists holed up inside the vault of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry with a precious collection of seeds and edible plants. This collection, containing seeds from nearly 200,000 varieties of plants of which about a quarter was edible, constituted one of the world's largest repositories of the genetic diversity of food crops. Among them were plenty of rice, wheat, corn, beans and potatoes, enough to sustain the botanists and see them through the worst days of the siege.

But the scientists hadn't barricaded themselves in the vault with food grains to save their lives, but rather to protect these seeds from the Nazis as well as from the starving people plundering through the streets in search for anything to eat.

The collection filled 16 rooms, in which no one was allowed to remain alone. Workers guarded the storage in shifts all round the clock, numb with cold and emaciated from hunger. As the siege dragged out, one by one these heroic men started dying of hunger, but not a single grain was eaten. In January 1942, Alexander Stchukin, a peanut specialist, died at his writing table. Botanist Dmitri Ivanov also died of starvation while surrounded by several thousand packs of rice that he was guarding. By the end of the siege in the Spring of 1944, nine of them had starved to death watching over all that food. Many of the crops that we eat today came from cross-breeding with varieties the scientists saved from destruction.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:14PM (#724168)

    Compare that with Monsanto/Bayer being willing to lose it all for a dollar.

    I don't think they'd be satisfied with a single dollar.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Touché=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Touché' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @03:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @03:03PM (#724195)

    Whatever the market pays, no?