Myths and Realities of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

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An interview with Cary Fowler, by Martin Teitel

I first meet Cary Fowler 35 old age ago when ,   along with Pat Roy Mooney and Seed Sav­ers Exchange board extremity Hope Shand , he was subservient in creating the all-important trilateral of global craw multifariousness , farmers ’ rights , and open admission to seeded player . Since then , Cary has worked on these issue all over the world . As executive director of theGlobal Crop Diver­sity Trust , he facilitated the institution of theSvalbard Global Seed Vault . He is the recipient of many awards and honors from source as diverse enough to admit the Rus­sian Academy of Sciences and Bette Midler .

Since many of us at Seed Savers Exchange consider Cary to be one of the “ family”—he has been on the SSE board and has advised us and spoken at the SSE Conference and Campout — I think he ’d be the best resourcefulness to help us under­stand what Svalbard is and is n’t .

Martin Teitel : Cary , away from variation in atmospheric condition and the size of the collections , what are the difference between the SSE seed bank in Decorah , and the Svalbard seed bank vault ? And why did you plunk such an unusual location ? As a southerner , do you jazz the common cold that much ?

Cary Fowler holds different types of seed-storage containers at the construction site of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in 2007.

Cary Fowler : Norwegians have a saying : there is no such affair as bad weather , there ’s just bad clothes . I do n’t listen the cold . In fact my favorite time to visit is in the dead of winter . But I have Norse clothes .

SSE ’s seminal fluid bank and the Seed Vault are standardised in many room . Both chiefly func­tion as an insurance policy policy for other var. of preservation . In the pillow slip of SSE , that would be varieties grown yearly by nurseryman . With the Seed Vault , its seed samples held by seed bank , such as the Dutch , Philippine , or Kenyan national readiness , or SSE . The Seed Vault , however , was physically built to last   as long as anything on earth . Its emplacement is obviously outside , which adds to its security . Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty , which reassures many , and it was no small thing that Norway propose to pay the intact cost of grammatical construction .

Given the natural temperature of the permafrost deep inside the mountain in Svalbard ( about -4 ° C ) , the facil­ity is much less reliant than any other in the worldly concern on mechanical infrigidation and electrical energy to achieve the optimal temperature which is -18 ° light speed . And the insula­tion is pretty good , too ! In fact , the Vault virtually draw by itself — we have no staff on situation . That lower price , which increase sustainability . The small support required is secured by virtue of an endowment ( which allows the Vault to offer free storage ) , and the adeptness itself offers physical security department second to none . Inside a mountain in this remote and cold locating , the seeds are as secure as they could be on this satellite .

Cary Fowler holds different types of seed-storage containers at the construction site of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in 2007.

Keep in psyche that many of the sam­ples held in Svalbard are of variet­ies no longer grow by farmers . In situ , or on - farm , conservation is not a realistic preservation option for these . Moreover , as we know , that form of conser­vation has its own band of risk . So , it is vitally important that all our different conservation efforts , whether in the garden or in the seminal fluid bank building , be supplemented by a facility such as the Seed Vault .

MT : I’ve register accusations that Svalbard was build up to benefit monoculture companies like Monsanto or prominent people like Bill Gates . Is there any basis for these criticism , and do you have any mind why mass would assail a seed burial vault ?

CF : It was built to conserve variety , not to promote genetic uniformness ! If we do n’t promote variety by conserving it , how do we do it ?

Åsmund Asdal, coordinator of operation and management of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, places a Seed Savers Exchange deposit box on a shelf in the vault.

The context in which the Seed Vault was conceived and built was and is that we are losing diversity both   in farming system and also in seed bank . We wanted to put an end to the advanced - Clarence Day extinction of harvest diversity . So we conceived of a readiness that would provide implausibly safe storehouse for duplicate copies of the samples that the many seminal fluid banks around the universe are attempting to husband . If a depositing seed bank building loses their own sample distribution , there ’s another — a twin — in the Seed Vault . Only depositors have admission to the seed , and they only have admittance to the seed sample they themselves have deposited in the Seed Vault . Neither Monsanto nor Bill Gates have deposited seeds , thus they have nothing to get at . It ’s really that dim-witted . This arrangement is formalized through contract and watched closely by several outside bodies , and of course by the depositor themselves . There is no trans­fer of physical or rational prop right from the depositor to the Seed Vault . The depositor continues to own their seeds . In fact , we at the Vault never unfold the box or packages sent by the depositor . Of course , participation is voluntary — there is no requirement that semen bank take part , but there is really no grounds not to .

I am aware of the conspiracy theories and “ concerns ” that have come up around this rather iconic but gener­ally off - limits quickness build near the North Pole . It was probably inevitable . With sadness , I chalk this up to the cynicism that so many hoi polloi finger these day about almost any attempt to do something good and freehanded . “ If it ’s in the news , overconfident , and governments are involved , there must be something sinister go on behind the scene that THEY are not telling us about . ” That ’s how some people feel . And then they abandon their skepti­cism and go for without question the most freaky thing they find on the cyberspace . Because many masses do n’t care Monsanto , Monsanto - related theory are in particular persistent , though the company has had absolutely no involvement .

Gosh , hundreds of media , including famous investiga­tive reporters , have visited the Seed Vault , and none have found anything bad to say about the exertion . None . And the fact remains that the facility has now been op­erating seven years . It ’s protecting samples of 864,000 crop multifariousness today . And there has n’t been a unmarried case — or even one specific allegation — that a single sampling has been lose , has been managed improperly , or to be denotative , has gone to Monsanto or Bill Gates , even once . And that ’s because none have . Bill Gates — at our request and induction — provided some of the funding to help developing state multiply and ship their ejaculate to Svalbard and in so doing offer a tremen­dous service to those country and to the causal agent of conserve diverseness . I applaud him for it . But , it still does n’t give him favored treatment or access to the seeds . And he ’s never asked for it , or even visited .

Seed Savers Exchange staff pose with a shipment of seeds from the SSE seed bank before it is mailed for backup at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

I do n’t buy the conspiracy impression that keep open diversity is bad for diverseness ! That ’s not science ; that ’s just nutty   politics . And that , I presuppose , explains why a few people who ’ve never visited the Vault attack it . confederacy theories and nutty political sympathies will always invoke to a few . There is , however , a grand locution that comes from the Middle East that I whisper to myself when I hear or read this craziness : the dogs bark but the train locomote on . And the Seed Vault continues to verify that a wad of previously vulnerable diversity is safe .

MT : What ’s with citizenry calling your project the Doomsday Vault ? Did you really fix up the vault for some kind of apocalypse ? perhaps it ’s about climate modification , and if so , how ?

CF:“Doomsday Vault ” was how a magazine newspaper headline author described it many years ago . In planning the facility we were not thinking that the world needed a doomsday bank vault to protect against a global catastrophe , though perhaps this facility might avail — who knows ? We were focused on and worried about the expiration that we were experiencing in cum banks due to mechanical bankruptcy , human mistakes , poor financing , and the like . Also , we were well mindful that the world is a dangerous place and that sometimes a seed money box gets caught in the eye of civil strife or a state of war . That ’s the trouble we were looking to resolve .

A Seed Savers Exchange staff member sorts back-up seed packets for shipment to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

The opportunity we were looking to keep or create was to save the diversity that would enable Department of Agriculture to retain to evolve and adjust . Without multifariousness , there is no adaptation , and without version , extinc­tion is inevitable . Domesticated crop do n’t “ get a passing . ” The biggest challenge they now confront — or in my opinion , have ever faced — is the challenge of adapt­ing to climate change . The diversity safeguarded in Svalbard represents the evolutionary option that our crops have for the time to come . And that ’s unfeigned even if there ’s no climate variety . In one Son , the Seed Vault was all about preserving choice .

MT : Finally , Cary , it ’s the 40th class of the Seed Savers Exchange . Can you share with us what you see as the time to come of semen saving in the U.S. ?

CF : The seed saving “ furor ” is now 40 years old . Or 12,000 . Depends on when you start counting . Regard­less , it ’s not about to come to an end .

In the U.S. , I reckon seed saving could develop in size and   importance particularly in the context of globular warm­ing and clime variability . Historically , heritage varieties were fashioned and conserved because they had certain valued properties and because they were adjust to local conditions . Those consideration are now changing rather rapidly .

Even more than in the past , seed sav­ers will need to be on the lookout for chance mutations to encourage adap­tion of their preferred varieties . Saving a variety “ as is ” may not always be the only goal , or even an option . Some well seed savers will even require to acquire new varieties that will become the future ’s heritage varieties , just as they have historically . The need , accomplishment , and privilege of doing such thing was not something that vanish just before we were born ! We should be conserving our rich agricultural heritage , which SSE and Svalbard and indi­viduals help to do , but we also should be adding to this heritage . If we do — if we see that as part of the larger mission of semen delivery — then the future is bright in so many way and terribly exciting , and what we do will be so important .

In 2024 , Cary Fowler was awarded the 2024 World Food Prize for his untiring work to uphold crop biodiversity and global intellectual nourishment security . He is the writer ofSeeds on Ice , a book about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault .

As of 2024 , Seed Savers Exchange   is the only gene camber in the macrocosm that has sent seeds to Svalbard for back up every yr since it first open in 2008 .

This consultation was first printed inThe Heritage Farm Companion , SSE ’s extremity magazine . To learn more about the many benefits of SSE rank , visitseedsavers.org/join .

Martin Teitel is a lifetime member of Seed Savers Exchange and the generator ofRain Forest in Your KitchenandGenetically Engineered Food : Changing the Nature of Nature . He has devote his vocation to environmental and human - right work .

Photo of Svalbard Global Seed Vault courtesy of Cierra Martin , Crop Trust ; photo of Cary Fowler courtesy of Bair 175 ( Wikimedia Commons ) ; photo of Svalbard Global Seed Vault interior good manners of NordGen .

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