Norway Builds Arctic Seed Vault “Just in Case”

Svalbard is one of those places that kids win the National Geography Bee by knowing. A Norwegian territory, it’s in the Arctic Ocean, about 600 miles south of the north pole and 300 miles north of Norway proper. It isn’t the sort of place one thinks would make good farmland. However, the Norwegian government is building a seed vault up there, just in case things farther south go awry.

According to Norway's agriculture minister, Terje Riis-Johansen, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault will serve as a repository for crucial seeds in the event of a global catastrophe. It is not unique; indeed, there are about 1,400 seed banks all over the world. However, the conditions in Svalbard are different. The independent Global Crop Diversity Trust, which will operate the SGSV, said that as many as 3 million different varieties of seed will be wrapped in foil and deposited within the thick concrete walls of the new structure. Even with a complete power failure, the seeds will remain frozen thanks to permafrost. This will allow the seeds to last hundreds, even thousands, of years and still be able to germinate.

The Norwegian government isn’t alone in this. The five Nordic states sent their heads of government to the “seed laying” ceremony on Monday, and over 100 countries will deposit seeds there. The vault will act like a bank’s safe deposit box. Every nation that puts seeds in gets to retain ownership of the seeds, to be withdrawn if needed.

At a cost to the Norwegian taxpayer of 30 million Norwegian Kroner (US$4.8 million), this may seem like money mis-spent to some. However, this addresses a low frequency, high damage risk that the world has escaped thus far. Imagine what would happen to the politics, economics and social structure of the world if a disease managed to wipe out rice as a crop? The miseries of Ireland’s potato famine in the 1840s would have to be expanded many fold to begin to describe what the world would face.

Nor does the loss of crop genetic diversity have to be a sudden calamity. The Guardian reported on Monday, “The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 75% of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost. The US had 7,100 varieties of apple in the 19th century, 6,800 no longer exist.”

Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, described the SGSV as “the only one of its kind. It is our final safety net.” The human race may never need it, but then, one may never need fire insurance either. That doesn't mean one does without.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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