Arctic 'doomsday' food vault welcomes millionth seed variety

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS FEBRUARY 25, 2020 / 9:02 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Gwladys Fouche
3 MIN READ

OSLO (Reuters) - A vault in the Arctic built to preserve seeds for rice, wheat and other food staples contains one million varieties with the addition on Tuesday of specimens grown by Cherokee Indians and the estate of Britain’s Prince Charles.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built on a mountainside in 2008, was designed as a storage facility to protect vital crop seeds against the worst cataclysms of nuclear war or disease and safeguard global food supplies.

Dubbed the “doomsday vault”, the facility lies on the island of Spitsbergen in the archipelago of Svalbard, halfway between Norway and the North Pole, and is only opened a few times a year in order to preserve the seeds inside.

On Tuesday, 30 gene banks deposited seeds, also including offerings from India, Mali and Peru.

The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in Britain banked seeds harvested from the meadows of Prince Charles’ private residence, Highgrove.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-crops-arctic/arctic-doomsday-food-vault-welcomes-millionth-seed-variety-idUSKBN20J1SN