:’Doomsday Vault’ to Protect World’s Seeds

Sometimes, especially on warm summer mornings (sense a hint of longing?), I feel like a farmer. Outside doing chores. Watering the deck garden. Caring for the animals. Tending an ancient gene pool. My grandmother and grandfather had an ‘acreage’ before moving to the farm. In those days ‘acreage’ was synonymous with small-time farmer. Big vegetable gardens. Big flower gardens. A chicken coop. Grandma had practical chickens – laying hens, chickens destined for butchering. She also had her Bantee chickens. Small, colorful chickens allowed to roam the acreage during the day. Those chickens often followed grandma while she was tending her gardens. They were her pets.

Hybrid seeds were developed to improve the performance of a crop. Wanting more production, perhaps a more colorful vegetable, a vegetable that would last during shipment, farmers chose hybrid seeds. Fortunately there were people that recognized the importance of preserving – banking – the former seeds. These old-school seeds are often called heritage seeds. With genetic engineering, banking old-school seeds seems even more relevant.  

I found this very interesting..

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (Feb. 26) – A “doomsday” seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

More photos and the whole story.