Examining the world's largest international police organization
What exactly is germplasm? Germplasm in a broad sense is any type of plant matter that can be used to study the genetic nature of any given plant. This can be seeds, leaves, or even an entire plant. All sorts of germplasm are kept in the Svalbard Vault, not just seeds.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault lies on an Arctic island only about 500 miles (some 800 km) south of the North Pole, belonging to Norway. Inside is the largest collection of genetic plant resources in the world.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault could one day be the key to humanity's survival. In the case of a worldwide catastrophe, such as irreversible climate change or nuclear war, the seeds and germplasm safely stored within the Vault would be essential in feeding the post-apocalyptic generations of humans.
It's hard to find a place in the world more remote than Svalbard, but that's what makes it the perfect place to keep the future of humanity safe. High up in the Arctic Circle and surrounded by permafrost, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is unlikely to become a casualty of war and is in one of the last places to be affected by climate change.
The Vault is jointly run and managed by the government of Norway, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen). The Crop Trust is a non-profit organization that foots most of the bill for the maintenance of the Vault, while NordGen handles day-to-day operations, recordkeeping, and oversees seed shipments in and out of the vault.
Even today, climate change, geopolitics, and irresponsible agriculture policies are having damaging effects on the world's food supply. Loss in biodiversity, extreme floods and droughts, and mass extinctions all factor into the planet's ability to grow food.
The extreme coldness of Svalbard Island and the freezing conditions within the Vault are essential to germplasm preservation. The colder the environment, the slower the seeds and other types of plant matter can mature, essentially keeping them young and viable for as long as possible.
When the Seed Vault first opened in 2008, seeds were kept in glass vials. Today, however, the Vault has transitioned to three-ply aluminum foil packets. When boxes of seeds arrive at the facility, they are never once opened by staff or anyone else to ensure their safety until they are sent back out.
Biodiversity in agriculture is one of the greatest safeguards against food shortages in a rapidly changing climate. The more we rely on monocultures like corn, the more we put ourselves in danger of worldwide hunger. As the Earth continues to warm, the conditions suitable for our major crops will continue to disappear. Diversity in agriculture ensures that if one crop fails, we are prepared with other crops to take its place, avoiding worldwide starvation.
After making it through the tunnel, the building consists of five rooms. There is a control center, for monitoring internal and external temperatures and for cataloging all of the materials in the vault; next is a generator room that powers all of the air cooling machines in the Vault; and, finally, there are three separate vault rooms at the very back of the complex.
As of 2022, only Vault Two is in use, with vaults One and Three remaining empty for the time being. Each vault is kept sterile and stable between two sets of airlocks each, and are kept at a constant temperature of -0.4°F (-18°C).
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is set deep within a sandstone mountain, to protect it from the events of the outside world as much as possible. In between the entrance to the Vault itself lies a tunnel 479 feet (146 m) long.
We have seen devastating food shortages around the world in recent years, and a consequent drop in crop diversity.
In 2001, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, also known simply as the Plant Treaty, was signed by 147 nations and the European Union with the purpose of sharing and supporting genetic resources in order to combat food shortages worldwide.
While the Vault itself only opened in 2008, its conception had been germinating for decades beforehand. The story really begins in Norway in 1984.
Three years later, in 2004, members of the Plant Treaty approached Norway about the possibility of constructing and maintaining an international seed bank on Norwegian territory. Norway accepted, and construction in Svalbard began that same year.
As of 2021, there were 1,081,026 different crop samples kept in Vault Two, all of which cover over 13,000 years of agricultural history. Some of the species kept in Vault Two no longer exist anywhere else in the world. In total, the three vaults have the capacity to store 4.5 million plant samples, totaling around 2.25 billion individual seeds and germplasms.
Four years later, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened on February 26, 2008, and began accepting seeds and other forms of germplasm from around the world.
The Vault has a history of receiving major seed shipments to celebrate the building's anniversary. In 2009, some 90,000 crop germplasms were delivered to celebrate the Vault's first anniversary. For the Vault's 10th anniversary, another 70,000 specimens were delivered and pushed the total number of deposits past the one million mark.
Stretching across the roof and down the front of the entrance to the Vault is an art piece by Norwegian artist Dyveke Sanne titled 'Perpetual Repercussion.' The installation, made up of stainless steel and mirrored prisms, helps the Vault stand out against its mostly barren surroundings.
It was in 1984 that NordGen, previously known as the Nordic Gene Bank, opened a small-scale seed bank in an abandoned Norwegian coal mine. The organizers of NordGen quickly began to develop the idea of a seed vault that operated on a global scale.
There are tens of thousands of different crops and crop variations held within the Vault, and each one of them is important. Some, however, due to their wide usage or climate change-resistant nature, might end up being more important than others.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is looked after and maintained by employees of NordGen, but the germplasm within is still the property of the seed banks around the world that sent them in, and thus are not accessible by anyone within the facility. The Vault acts like a safety deposit box at any other type of bank.
One of the big reasons that Svalbard was chosen was because of the permafrost present that, by definition, is supposed to stay mostly frozen year round. But in 2016, during a record-breaking heat wave in the Arctic, melting permafrost leaked into the tunnel that leads to the vaults, prompting Norway to reinforce the tunnel's seals to prevent any leaking in the future.
Admittedly, corn might not be as surprising a choice as alfalfa. Corn, or maize, is far and away the most used agricultural product in the world. Its importance cannot be overstated.
Alfalfa, for example, is an essential crop in agriculture. Planting alfalfa promotes healthy soil for other crops to thrive in, and positively affects insect diversity in fields and farms.
The Vault is home to more than seven million soybean seeds, and for good reason. Not only are soybeans used for cooking oil and fuel, but they are also a primary source of protein in animal food in many parts of the world.
Sources: (Food Tank) (Time) (Svalbard Global Seed Vault)
See also: How can we eat fish sustainably?
The Seed Vault acts as a safeguard for other seed banks around the world and for humanity itself. Due to its secluded and (relatively) environmentally-stable location, Svalbard is the perfect place to store backup seeds and germplasm, in the case that other, more vulnerable, seed banks are compromised.
Over 100 countries worldwide have contributed to the Seed Vault, either with seeds or financial support. Seeing as the Vault is a project that benefits all of humanity, most countries in the world support the project in whatever way they can.
But what exactly the Svalbard Seed Vault? Read on to find out.
The arctic vault that could safeguard humanity's future
What exactly is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and what's inside?
LIFESTYLE Climate change
The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, is one of humanity's greatest achievements, and may very well one day be our salvation. Amidst the wars and always-escalating geopolitics of the 20th and 21st centuries, the whole world has managed to come together, put nationalities aside, and build something beautiful for the good of all humankind. In the Global Seed Vault, where millions of seeds are kept safe in preparation for an environmental collapse, the plants of nations who are at war sit side by side in the sub-zero conditions of the Vault.
But what exactly the Svalbard Seed Vault? Read on to find out.