Biodiversity begins with the seeds, within the smallest kernels of life. Heritage seeds are essential for food sovereignty, apart from guaranteeing local production, exchange and ultimately, political sovereignty itself. The last generations have seen the greatest loss of biodiversity in the history of humankind. People are no longer acquainted today with the hundreds or even thousands of varieties of edible plants or cultivars which our great grandparents were once familiar with, and which many indigenous cultures are the guardians today as part of their tradition. This is another treasure lying deep within indigenous communities, often in the caring hands of women or of dedicated gardeners who relish at perpetuating such diversity and quality passed on from time immemorial. The main reason for the loss of such richness is again the poverty engendered by Western culture’s appropriation of the Earth’s resources. Cash crops require the standardization of quality, color and kind. Industrialized grains and foods have undergone an excruciating process of selection, hybridization, or even genetic manipulation at the level of the seed itself. The corn and wheat we see in supermarkets today are literally kinds of Frankensteins. Wheat has undergone hundreds of hydridizations solely for money-minded production’s sake, while corn has seen loss of quality, variety, and potency, both for nutrition and for its own perpetuation (due to the weakening of its seeds, now dependant on fertilizers). Indigenous cultures have nonetheless guarded a great variety of strong seeds from each crop they grow in their gardens and have equally aided in the spread of seed varieties in nature with the kinds of practices they have undertaken in the ecosystems they inhabit. They have thus kept important seed banks as part of their heritage. Such diversity cannot be lost and give way to a simplification that benefits only the monopolies of so- called "improved seeds”, those tailored for productivity and industrial efficiency. Constituting seed banks for the preservation of indigenous heritage and sovereignty is perhaps one of the most important actions to be taken today to save the Earth’s biodiversity.