Work Begins on Arctic Seed Vault

Aryabhata writes "BBC reports that Norway is starting construction on a 'doomsday vault' in the Arctic which is designed to house all known varieties of the world's crops. The vault's purpose is to ensure survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change; and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out. 'More than 100 countries have backed the vault, which will store seeds, packaged in foil, at sub-zero temperatures. ... Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen has called the vault a "Noah's Ark on Svalbard."'"

Comments

Re:All the worlds eggs in one basket

[Misagon]

Seed banks are nothing new. There have been seed banks in every western country for at least a hundred years, and there still are, so there is a lot of redundancy right there.
This seed bank is a little bit bigger, that's the only difference.

Seed banks need to replenish their stocks every few years by planting, because seeds will eventually degenerate even when stored in sub-zero temperatures.