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Plants have been the the subject of human-imposed genetic manipulation for over 10,000 years. Historically this orchestrated effort was accomplished by way of selective breeding, but more recently technology has allowed direct manipulation of the plants’ DNA. Each successive generation of genetically modified crops produces bigger yields, more appealing output, greater nutritional value, or greater resistance to disease than each generation before it, making a modern crop plant a far more efficient human-feeding machine than its humble progenitors.
As a way to protect this huge investment of time, effort, and money, special-purpose seedbanks have been established which house quantities of seeds for each important crop. In the event of a natural disaster, disease, or war which wipes out the crops, these banks offer a way to re-introduce lost plant lines by way of their seeds. It’s a great idea, but because the vaults must be under constant refrigeration over very long periods of time, the infrastructure is difficult to maintain and highly dependent on electricity. But Norway has an answer.
The Norwegian government plans to hollow out part of the island of Spitsbergen and build what amounts a bunker for the sole purpose of housing seeds. Spitsbergen is a mere 1000 kilometers from the North Pole, which will allow the vault to naturally maintain a low temperature due to the surrounding permafrost. Even in the event of a sharp temperature rise due to global warming, the interior of the facility should remain cold enough to preserve the seeds for decades without maintenance.
Once the facility is completed, all of the world’s seedbanks will be invited to add a portion of their inventory to the Spitsbergen vault for safekeeping. This “doomsday” hold is intended to house around two million seeds, representing all known varieties of the world’s crops. The vault will be built with one-meter-thick walls of reinforced concrete, and will be protected behind two airlocks and high-security blast-proof doors. Its location and design should allow it to withstand nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, and earthquakes… all without the need for electricity. The existing seedbanks will remain in operation, but Spitsbergen will offer a chance to rebuild the Earth’s agriculture even if all of the other seedbanks are compromised due to destruction or failure of the power grid.
As are many well-laid plans, the concept of this seed vault is pessimistic yet prudent. It would be a bleak future indeed if humanity must make use of the vault’s contents, but it’s nice to see plans afoot to preserve humankind’s efforts.
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My only question is; if the world gets bad enough to where we need this bank, are we actually going to be able to get to it at that point. An island fairly far north might not be something we can even get to.
Still its a neat idea.
O.K. A little off topic, but the picture accompaning the article bears a striking resemblance to a certain “herb” I was rather fond of de-seeding in my misspent youth.
I have to agree with beanaroo. If we do need these plants, chances are, we’re not going to be able to get there and come back, plant them, and harvest them in some extremely harsh, possibly radioactive – environment.
TDavis said: “O.K. A little off topic, but the picture accompaning the article bears a striking resemblance to a certain “herb” I was rather fond of de-seeding in my misspent youth.”
And the resemblance is not a mere coincidence, as it happens.
Is that your personal stash? Nice. Email me, we’ll talk business.
For a moment, I pondered the interesting fact that all strains of “a certain herb” were going to be securely stashed by deadly serious biologists in a nuclear winter-proof vault for future generations to investigate. Then I noticed that they are only storing food crops. But hey, birds like to eat the special seeds…
So…Suppose there is a worldwide nuclear incident and we need seeds. Is the key under the door mat or in the flower pot?
“Each successive generation of genetically modified crops produces bigger yields, more appealing output, greater nutritional value, or greater resistance to disease”
I used to believe this, and was kind of excited about genetically engineered crops at first. But all I ever hear about is how they modify crops to resist pesticides, so they can use even larger amounts. I think the true value of seed banks are preserving unique varieties before they are lost to huge agriculture businesses who taint smaller farms as their modified crops cross-pollinate.
kizh said: “I used to believe this, and was kind of excited about genetically engineered crops at first. But all I ever hear about is how they modify crops to resist pesticides, so they can use even larger amounts.”
Well, the “genetic engineering” has been ongoing for thousands of years by way of selective plant breeding… the anti-pesticide effort is relatively recent. For the bulk of history, the goal has been to produce better crops.
kizh said: “I used to believe this, and was kind of excited about genetically engineered crops at first. But all I ever hear about is how they modify crops to resist pesticides, so they can use even larger amounts. I think the true value of seed banks are preserving unique varieties before they are lost to huge agriculture businesses who taint smaller farms as their modified crops cross-pollinate.”
You haven’t researched this much have you? I can tell you take quite a negative view on the world and don’t like capitalism. There is a lot of research done around the world on producing crops that have higher yields, resistances to bugs and diseases, grow in harsher climates, and require less resources. This is done to feed people in many countries. Genetic engineering isn’t to just feed corporations’ pockets. Don’t lose hope they do more than just pesticide/herbicide resistance! And have you noticed organic food? That trend is going to keep growing trust me… and oh ya just to let you know I have a degree in the food industry so I am not speaking out of my tail. I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching these things.
I hope they have some of the seeds pictured above in the seed bank=>
Ozzie said: “You haven’t researched this much have you? I can tell you take quite a negative view on the world and don’t like capitalism. There is a lot of research done around the world on producing crops that have higher yields, resistances to bugs and diseases, grow in harsher climates, and require less resources. This is done to feed people in many countries.
I am not a professional, but I do have more than an average person’s interest in the subject. I believe that genetic engineering has tremendous potential, but as long as we are a capatalist society the bottom line is always going to be return on investment. Helping people = little financial reward. Like I said, I started out loving the idea, and was slowly turned away. If you can point towards something I could read to change my beliefs, please do. I would love to see more altruistic efforts in this field. I am aware of Goldenrice, and although it sounds great, I don’t believe it has yet to be shown of use yet. My belief is that it was a Mosanto project to gain public support for the industry, and the end result didnt quite pan out as people had hoped.
But I did kind of miss the point, as Alan has pointed out.
Ozzie said: “You haven’t researched this much have you? I can tell you take quite a negative view on the world and don’t like capitalism. There is a lot of research done around the world on producing crops that have higher yields, resistances to bugs and diseases, grow in (harsher climates, and require less resources. This is done to feed people in many countries.”
First, a link: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/not_reg.html
If you look at the overall history of what genetically engineered crops have been approved by the USDA (above), you’ll see scads of herbicide resistant-plants created by chemical companies, BT crops (remember the great butterfly debate?), a lone disease-resistant plum (created by a university) and a nicotine-free tobacco variety. Except for golden rice, not much has actually been done towards feeding the poor … just talk, and one solitary instance of kindness in the form of golden rice. (Correct me if I’m wrong here! I would love a chance to become less cynical.)
Golden rice was rejected, in part, because its creator (Monsanto) had done so much to tick off so many people. Monsanto has a long history of … oh … bribery and pollution and harassing people.
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4153635.stm ,
Supreme Court of Canada: http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/2004/2004scc34.html ,
Aniston Star: http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2001/as-editorials-0329-0-vd291478.htm
Monsanto was doing this sort of thing well they got into the genetic engineering market, so it’s not a reaction to the tactics of Greenpeace, et.al. I think genetic engineering had a wonderful future until Monsanto got involved: they gave it a bad name.
More generally: the reason why more complicated modifications generally aren’t made, by the way (of the “feed the world” variety) is that we generally don’t understand enough about the genes of the plants involved. (Think about how little we still know about the various individual genes in humans, in spite of all the NIH grants.) A simple modification–adding a herbicide-resistance gene, or a vitamin A gene, or carefully tracking down and removing the gene for a simple chemical (like nicotine) … that’s about all we’re capable of right now. It will probably be a while before we have the ability to make really complicated modifications. (For instance, some existing old crop strains are known for their built-in disease resistance, but we don’t know why, and so we don’t know which genes to copy to higher-yielding, better shipping varieties.)
You forgot about a rat trap and roach bait. Those pests can get anywhere and survive just about anything. Someone is goona be pissed when they open that door after some horrific event and there’s some rat terds and a few stray roaches. HAHA!!!
“Its location and design should allow it to withstand nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, and earthquakes”
Sooo . . how would we get in if we needed to?
Why you knock twice and tell the man the password. You could protect it from everything that way. So long as you asked anything that came knocking two specific questions:
1) Are you a terrorist?
2) Honest?
Looks like I am the only one here who does not know what these seeds under discussion are…
just got this as today’s random article… i do indeed love teh tag picture, and find myself sad that the Norwegians are not taking care of those seeds in particular… after all, whatever there is left to eat post-apocalypse would be far tastier. I vote we petition the Spitsbergen vault for a few sq. feet of space.
As for the “special seeds” bunker, maybe we could get Holland to build one. Also, there’s a very small one already existing at coordinates 51.091738;4.864165. Look for the green chemical waste disposal box (it’s probably bomb-proof) in the basement. If the house survives the catastrophe, the key is under the mat. If I survive, you might not find anything and I might come after you with my air gun.