Dispelling myths around the Arctic Circle’s famed ‘doomsday’ seed vault

by Adrian Higgins

Located not far from the North Pole on the island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault safeguards the agricultural plant collections of more than 230 countries. Photo: Mari Tefre/Prospecta Press

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a hedge against potential disasters that could wipe out varieties of crop seeds, causing hunger.  The vault today houses more than half a billion seeds representing 881,473 unique varieties of plants used to feed people. The seeds come from the existing seed banks in 233 countries, and they are insurance against the loss of an irreplaceable crop to something as unexciting as a budget crisis in a poor country (or a rich one) to, yes, a cataclysmic nuclear war.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/dispelling-myths-around-the-arctic-circles-famed-doomsday-seed-vault/2016/12/19/65d68c00-c228-11e6-9578-0054287507db_story.html?utm_term=.7384838378be

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