World Seed Bank in Norway

[Tephus]

Did you know they have a vault built on the frozen Norwegian island of Spitsbergen?

This vault will be used to store all kinds of crop seed in case they get wiped out by natural disasters. And beginning next year, approximately 4.5 million samples will find a new home here.

Seed banks don’t just store dried peas; they preserve our most precious resource, biodiversity. (You can’t eat petroleum.) The banks back up farmers and thus the food chain, minimizing the impact of catastrophic crop failures. Without seed banks, when a species is destroyed or a genetically modified variety has supplanted wild strains, farmers have no recourse if weather or pest infestation devastates their crops.

Do you think this is necessary? Is it possible to wipe out a (incredibly) widespread crop like potatos and rice?

[David Tan]

It's more of an insurance in that they stockpile tons and tons of crop seed so that if large expanse of crops were destroyed (eliminating the ability to collect the seeds), they can use the stock to quickly replant and thus stabilize and help maintain the supply of the crops.

Famine, hurricane, floods. Perhaps it's cheaper than to buy from many different other sources. Plus it might take along time to resupply without stockpiling it.

But why such a remote cold place? Natural refrigeration? Can't they stockpile the stuff in their own countries?

Which reminds me that if we are able to anticipate some downturn in sales, due to trends, seasons, etc, than we need to be ready with counter-strategies to increase or maintain the level of sales. Don't wait till it hits you and you're scrambling for a solution.

[Nasika]

Are banks in Europe more safer then in USA?

[fred333]

I have heard about this vault before. I think it is a great idea.

[SpaceBOT]

Actually this is to safeguard against the worse of disasters like an asteroid hitting earth and perhaps all of our technology is wiped out... the reason they put in such a cold place is because a lot of seeds will not be viable without being refrigerated and in such cold places it's naturally cold so we don't need electricity.

But my question would be, would the survivors know of such a remote place and be able to reach it in the first place...

also, i think this ensures that a lot of plant species are also saved and not wiped out....