Near Arctic, Seed Vault Is a Fort Knox of Food

[groovedaddy]

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway — With plant species disappearing at an alarming rate, scientists and governments are creating a global network of plant banks to store seeds and sprouts, precious genetic resources that may be needed for man to adapt the world’s food supply to climate change.

This week, the flagship of that effort, the Global Seed Vault near here, received its first seeds, millions of them. Bored into the middle of a frozen Arctic mountain topped with snow, the vault’s goal is to store and protect samples of every type of seed from every seed collection in the world.

As of Thursday, thousands of neatly stacked and labeled gray boxes of seeds — peas from Nigeria, corn from Mexico — reside in this glazed cavelike structure, forming a sort of backup hard drive, in case natural disasters or human errors erase the seeds from the outside world.

Descending almost 500 feet under the permafrost, the entrance tunnel to the seed vault is designed to withstand bomb blasts and earthquakes. An automated digital monitoring system controls temperature and provides security akin to a missile silo or Fort Knox. No one person has all the codes for entrance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/world/europe/29seeds.html?th&emc=th

[kickysnana]

1. Is it just me or should the location of this thing be secret?

I keep thinking about the nuns who kept the older animal species alive and who were burned out "accidentally".

:shrug:

[BridgeTheGap]

2. There's probably a Monsanto team on the way! n.t