20 out of 7000 plant species ever grown, provide 90 % of the food of the world. Most of those crops originated in countries, which are now classified as Developing. It is an interesting fact that most of the world's major crops are grown on the other side of the world from which they originated.

• Wheat is exported mainly from the USA, but originated in the Middle East.

• Rubber was taken from Brazil to the Far East.

• Tea was taken from China to plant in India.

• Coffee originated in the centre of Africa but is exported mainly from South America.

Some people are concerned that the same process of stealing seeds from one country to another is now being replicated at the gene level.

More generally the reduction of biodiversity is considered to reduce the overall potential to respond to future environmental changes, caused naturally or by human intervention. Clearly it is almost impossible to quantify the value of "diversity" itself. But it is generally reckoned that the more species and the more geneplasm. The more likely it will be for people to respond to whatever future threats may emerge.