Deep in the Arctic Circle, there lies a facility that looks strangely like something you’d see in a movie… No, it’s not a supervillain’s lair, and it’s definitely not Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. It’s a vault designed to permanently withstand all natural and human disasters. What’s waiting inside? The world’s most important crops, of course!
Tucked away in a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, the $7 million (£5 million) six-year old vault houses duplicates of all seed samples from crop collections around the world, according to BBC News. With this latest 20,000 crop delivery, it now keeps more than 800,000 samples safe and sound. This delivery now includes the first shipment from Japan, whose collections were threatened by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
“It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today,” said the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), which maintains the vault along with the Nordic Genetic Resources Center. The facility is owned by the Norwegian government. “The vault can therefore be considered the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply.”
In case of a power cut, the seed samples will remain frozen thanks to permafrost and thick rock surrounding the facility.
BBC News also reports that during a meeting at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, GCDT Executive Director said, “Our annual gatherings at the seed vault are a sort of Winter Olympics of crop diversity, only we are not competing against each other but against the wide array of threats – natural and man-made – ranged against the diversity of food crops, diversity that is so crucial to the future of human civilization.”
Do these threats include the zombie apocalypse? If so, I know where I’m going! :)
