PrintFirst Seeds Delivered to Arctic Seed Vault
The Global Crop Diversity Trust's Arctic Seed Vault just took the first delivery on seeds this week, and the New York Times has a beautiful slide show that tells the vault's tale in almost sci-fi-like visuals. The vault, which burrows 500 feet into the permafrost of a Norwegian island near the Arctic Circle, was created as a bulwark against the extinction of plant species.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
4 Comments:
Staggeringly awesome!
foodiegirl at 12:43PM on 02/29/08
oh they talked about this on the news the other day. looks very cool but who gets to say, "i need some seeds"? the ppl who contributed or the Norwegians?
foodinmouth at 3:51PM on 02/29/08
When I think about it, if something kills off the plant life, then it would probably affect the soil as well. We talk about nuclear holocausts, but we sometimes forget long-term nuclear fallout. Even volcanic / meteor impact dust clouds can block the sun and kill plants.
Perhaps a chemical analysis to make "soil synthesis" possible would be in order? After all, seeds can't grow without soil (hydroponics aside). In addition, maybe a method of setting up a strictly-controlled environment (light, water, soil, wind) for each seed type would be a good idea.
levinedym at 6:39PM on 02/29/08
They are not planning on germinating these seeds. This is just one of many storage facilities for the genes of the plants. Seeds just happen to be the most stable tissue in plants. They are designed to be stored.
We have lost quite a bit of genetic diversity in our crops and other plants already due to lack of interest in perpetuating less commercially profitable varieties. People eventually figured out that even if we don't want to use those plants in large commercial scale production, we could profit from having access to their genes and they want to prevent similar loses in the future.
In other words, the goal of this project is not to bring back plants after they have all died but to save genes that we could use to engineer improved plants in the future. Do you all really think we'll survive something that kills off all plant life?
rudbeckia at 7:40PM on 03/02/08