#37 So Called Doomsday Vault

Food Non-Fiction

1300 km past the Arctic Circle, nestled in the permafrost, amongst inhabitants like polar bears and reindeer, lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

In the media, it’s better known as the “Doomsday Vault”. The vault contains backup copies of our world’s seeds...it protects the genetic diversity of our crops in case of large-scale disasters.

The location was chosen in 1983 by the Nordic gene bank. Originally, they had used an old coal mine to store containers of seeds. The coal mines were so big that they had the idea to include the seeds from many other gene banks in this secure storage. But at the time, the project couldn’t get the international or financial support that it needed and it was put on hold.

In 2004 when The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was taken into force then the project was started again. The facility was opened in 2008.

Thank You To Our Interviewees:

Evjen Grethe Helene - Senior Advisor at Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Ahmed Amri - Head of the genetic resources unit at the International Centre for Agricultural Research for Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Thank You to Looperman Artists for the Music:

2015 Holiday Movies Mashup ActionCue2 String Arp by supertex

Classic Choir 02 by Cbeatz

Summit Full Lead Remake 2 by Optimus1200