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Protection for Global Crops

Svalbard Global Seed VaultWhat would happen to the world's food supply if natural or manmade disasters wiped out crops across the globe?

Luckily for us, the Global Crop Diversity Trust is one step ahead of the rest - the Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in February 2008 with upwards of 100 million seeds (268,000 distinct samples) from more than 100 countries.

The vault is near the village of Longyearbyen, Norway - and it sits at the end of a 125-meter tunnel blasted out of a mountain.

All the seeds are stored at -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit, and if maintained at that temperature, some seeds could last thousands of years.

Even in the worst case scenario of global warming, the vault rooms can remain naturally frozen for up to two centuries.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault InteriorThe Svalbard vault is designed to provide "fail-safe" protection against war, civil strife, natural catastrophes, poor crop management, equipment failures and lack of funding, with a capacity for 4.5 million seed samples, or 2 billion seeds in total.

Some of the current deposits include maize, rice, sorghum, eggplant, barley, lettuce and potato.

To find out more about the seed vault, visit the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Photos by Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust

Posted by Erika Pitera in: All About Food

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