Norway To Build Doomsday Seed Bank

Filed in archive Food and Agriculture on January 23, 2006

This entry is submitted by Gloria Gamat, via Creative Reporter.

Norway is planning to build a �doomsday� vault:

The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island, Spitsbergen to hold the seed bank.
It will be designed to withstand global catastrophes like nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet's sources of food.

Currently, there are 1,400 seed bank around the world, including International Rice Research Institute's Genetic Resources Center, which currently stores the widest germplasm of the world�s most important crop.

BBC News states that the "doomsday" vault is set to be a back-up of the world's germplasm of important crops which are currently located in countries which are either politically unstable or facing threats of the natural environment.

Well, sure sounds like Noah�s Ark of the modern world, doesn�t it?

About Gloria Gamat: Gloria is a proud single-mom to Raine (Rainier Brando: born 29 December 2002) and a chemist. Gloria also blogs about motherhood at EMothersOnline and about life and travel in the Philippines at The Philippine Culture Blog and at Pinoy Travel Blog respectively.Photo Credit: IRRI Knowledge Bank