When I came across a story, ostensibly about 'Crop Banks', I'm afraid that I almost skipped by it, as I assumed for a second or two that it was another of those tales that welfare benefits claimants in the UK are so poor, because of the £26k total benefits cap is too low and that they were going to free food banks in vast numbers ..... but at the last minute I dipped into the story, and found something interesting instead.
You learn something new everyday ... or should try to.
There are apparently 'crop banks' set up in many countries (over 100 in fact), the purpose of these 'banks' being to preserve the genes of as many species as possible. This to preserve the plants against some species threatening epidemic, or even over reliance on GM Crops (which Europe can only resist the arrival of for another decade or so at most), or possibly just extinction caused be human influence such as global warming.
Anyway, apparently in order to insure against any of the stored seeds getting corrupted, the Norwegians have created one such bank, deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, which is located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole - the vault, which cost £5m (US $7m), and took 12 months to build, offers permanent protection for the world's food crops, say its operators.
The main purpose of this depository, which is owned by the Norwegian government and maintained by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resources Centre, is to store duplicates of all seed samples from crop collections around the world .... many countries such as Japan have opted to send seeds to the bank, and now many of the national seed collections from around the world, have provided the samples being stored in the vault.
The innocuous looking doorway leads to a massive complex ..... who knows, one day our very future, or rather the future of generations to come, may rely on these isolated banks.
You learn something new everyday ... or should try to.
There are apparently 'crop banks' set up in many countries (over 100 in fact), the purpose of these 'banks' being to preserve the genes of as many species as possible. This to preserve the plants against some species threatening epidemic, or even over reliance on GM Crops (which Europe can only resist the arrival of for another decade or so at most), or possibly just extinction caused be human influence such as global warming.
Anyway, apparently in order to insure against any of the stored seeds getting corrupted, the Norwegians have created one such bank, deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, which is located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole - the vault, which cost £5m (US $7m), and took 12 months to build, offers permanent protection for the world's food crops, say its operators.
The main purpose of this depository, which is owned by the Norwegian government and maintained by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resources Centre, is to store duplicates of all seed samples from crop collections around the world .... many countries such as Japan have opted to send seeds to the bank, and now many of the national seed collections from around the world, have provided the samples being stored in the vault.
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| The Doomsday Vault |
The innocuous looking doorway leads to a massive complex ..... who knows, one day our very future, or rather the future of generations to come, may rely on these isolated banks.
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