The New York Times: The World’s Doomsday Plant Vault Gets Thousands of New Seeds
29 October 2024
The world’s seed savers are racing to safeguard the world’s crop diversity in “the world’s doomsday garden shed,” writes Amelia Nierenberg in her The New York Times report of the final 2024 depositor event at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
In October, the Seed Vault received over 30,000 seed samples from 23 genebanks worldwide, marking one of the largest groups of depositors in recent years.
Åsmund Asdal from the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen), which operates the Seed Vault alongside Crop Trust and the Norwegian government, noted the significance of contributions from developing regions, where crop diversity is particularly vulnerable. “It is more important now that many new genebanks in developing parts of the world are depositing valuable and unique genetic material,” he explained, emphasizing the collaborative global effort required to safeguard these resources.
Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, emphasized that many of these seeds, including resilient varieties from Chad, are crucial for developing climate-resistant agriculture. "Mankind forgot, a little bit, the richness, the wealth of what we have," Schmitz observed, underscoring the importance of preserving diverse crop varieties for future food security.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault provides a safe haven, supporting global initiatives to preserve crop diversity against climate threats and geopolitical challenges.
Categories: For The Press, BOLD, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Climate Change, Food Security, English