In the far northern reaches of Europe on a Norwegian island, is what many hope will save the genetic diversity of plant life throughout the world. Opened last year and deemed the “ultimate safety net for the world’s most important natural resource”, and backing up individual nation’s seed banks. it is intended as a second line of defense in preserving the genetic diversity of plant life world wide. The idea is that in case of a natural or man-made disaster, seeds stored here will be safe and can be used to repopulate plant species after such an event. Recently these vaults have become seen as a defense against the widening use of genetically modified seeds. As genetically modified seeds gain acceptance in spite of the concerns many of us have, someday we may be fortunate to have a natural stock seeds stored at Svalbard.
You can visit the Svalbard website here or read some of the recent news stories at this link.
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Will, did you know that the construction of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault cost more than 9 million dollars? So far, it recorded there are more than 1.5 million distinct seed samples have been stored in Seed Vault!
I heard that figure, Wilson and was surprised that it was so low. I bet if constructed in the U.S. it would have been 10 time that! 1-1/2 million distinct seeds in the first year is really something.
One of the things I thought of when I heard about the vault is that if there were a natural disaster that required re-population of seeds in nature, would there be humans left to do it? I guess it depends on the disaster.
One of the great things this vault could provide is to revive a plant species if it goes endangered or extinct sometime in the future.
Hey Will this is very interesting, thanks for sharing. Boy this is good idea. Anna
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hi Will,
A “Noah’s Ark” for seeds. Awesome! I just hope it is never needed.
~ Steve, the gardening trade show guru
PS. I wonder what different types of tomatoes they picked…
Steve´s last blog ..Are You a Trade Show Kinsella
The way I read it, Steve, they take all comers. So as many different seeds as possible. I think hybrid seeds are welcome also. I bet they reject GM seed but I am not sure.
“I bet they reject GM seed but I am not sure.” Yep, GMO’s seeds are totally excluded, as they didn’t want those survivals to eat the GMO’s foods, after the horrible disaster violated the Earth, Will.
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