One Clear Dot

I’ve never given much thought to what happens to the future of our crops and other plant life in the event of a disaster. I suppose I assumed it would just find a way of regenerating.

People in Norway must think otherwise. The Norwegian government just opened an underground vault that was made especially to store up to 4.5M seed samples, most of which will be key crops from around the world. It is similar to a facility in England that stores seeds from wild plants.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has been dubbed the “Doomsday Vault” because it is intended to protect the world’s seed collections from such things as war, natural disasters, lack of funding, and poor agricultural management.

Seeds can be kept safe for centuries. Important crops like wheat, barley and peas can potentially last up to 10,000 years.

Posted on February 25th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Education & Learning