Norway’s Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg had the honor of unlocking the Svalbard Global Seed Vault today, alongwith African Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, along with dignitaries from around the world placed seeds in the vault which lays 130 meters deep inside a frozen mountain.
My husband RennyBA in Svalbard
The opening ofthe seed vault is part of an effort to protectthe plantet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The deversity of our crops which is essential for food production is being lost due to deforestation, and speciallisation within the food industries. This vault located on the remote island of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle with protect seeds from over 100 countries so these plants will not disappear from the earth.
The deposits range from unique varieties of major African and Asian maize, rice, wheat, cowpea and sorghum to European and South American eggplant, lettuce, barley and potato. The deposits represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds held anywhere in the world. The vault now contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds, each one originating from a different farm or field.