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Technoratif the so-called Doomsday Vault didn't exist, someone would have to invent it -- probably a science fiction writer. Buried beneath Arctic permafrost on a remote Norwegian island, the secured, remotely monitored vault has been built to withstand everything from global warming to nuclear war.
And what precious objects will be stored there for retrieval in case of planetary Armageddon? Not BlackBerrys, cellphones, computers, large screen TVs or any of the other modern detritus many of us believe we can't live without. Not even gold, oil or medicine.
The world is banking its future on a cache of seeds --- and that says plenty about what is necessary for survival and how far many of us have come from understanding this.
The Svalbard International Seed Vault, which has been described as a modern-day Noah's Ark, is designed to preserve the genetic diversity of the plants responsible for the world's food supply. Canada has sent 6,000 samples of barley, canola and other grains, and countries around the world have so far contributed a total of 100 million seeds.
Many countries already have seed banks, but they are increasingly vulnerable. Seed collections have been lost due to power outages, a typhoon, even looting in the case of war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our world may not be safe, but its food supply should be.
In recent decades, there have been growing concerns that our unhealthy diets and the industrialized farming methods that produce our food, especially in North America, have reduced the genetic pool of plants. Amateur and professional seed-savers around the world, increasingly concerned about the erosion of genetic diversity in food, have been saving and sharing heritage seeds to keep plant breeds alive. In the 1800s, for example, there were more than 5,000 commercial varieties of apples grown in the world. Now, most commercial apples are related to just a handful of those varieties.
Writer and food industry critic Michael Pollan expressed the need for seed diversity this way in his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto: "Today, a mere four crops account for two-thirds of the calories humans eat. When you consider that humankind has historically consumed some 80,000 edible species, and that 3,000 of these have been in widespread use, this represents a radical simplification of the food web." Humans are omnivores, he notes, "requiring somewhere between 50 and 100 different chemical compounds and elements to be healthy. It's hard to believe that we can get everything we need from a diet consisting largely of processed corn, soybeans, wheat and rice."
The seed vault is a recognition that diverse seeds are crucial to human survival.
Still, for many in the western world, it might just as well be science fiction.
Life is about as far removed from a handful of seeds as it can be. The number of Canadians who have held, planted and nurtured seeds is ever shrinking. Even fewer grow their own food.
As our relationship with food becomes ever more distant -- what we eat is often processed beyond recognition -- our connection to seeds has all but vanished.
The Doomsday Vault is a reminder of how badly we need them.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
24 Comments so far
Show All"Our food is the safest and most nutritious."
Based on... This is you opinion. Studies in the UK show declining soil fertility - a result of modern agriculture - has resulted in declining nutrient levels in food crops. Nice try, though.
"Neopaganism is alive and well in America."
You're still going on about this? Christ, I regret teaching you what the word neopaganism means. I tried to teach you what the word metaphor means, but that was beyond your grasp. Then again, you are only a libertarian.
"Many studies have tried to establish the advantages of organic food over conventional production, but have failed."
Rodale's 15-year trial report. There, that was easy to disprove that little claim. Then there are numerous studies such as this. Finding this, however, means actually looking for counter-evidence - something you apparently never do.
Treefrog - Other than that last crack, the positions that I advocate are in line with my current beliefs. I am a cross between a liberal and a libertarian. While I believe in many liberal ideals, I do not believe that government is the best place for many of these to be exicuted. Rather, I believe that many liberal government programs have destroyed community effort and self reliance. I respect your freedom to have a different perspective on food.
I believe that our country will remain strong and healthy if we adhere to the US Constitution. Our founding fathers set up a representative government for a reason. Pure democracies don't work. The majority are often wrong. There is no such thing as concensus science (this is politics). Science is based on evidence and reproducability. Show me reproducible scientific studies that conflict with my current beliefs on food, and I will reconsider my current hypotheses. Many have conjectured that our current pre-occupation with Mother Nature is a basic human reaction to our move away from belief in God. We need to believe in something bigger than ourselves. I enjoy and respect natural habitats, but I do not endow nature with a purpose.
Mr. Obvious
I generally enjoy your posts but I this one I feel you are quite wrong. Better take another look at some of your positions.
Neopaganism is alive and well in America. Nature is neither our friend or enemy unless you suggest worshipping mother nature as a god. Knowing where your food came from is much less important than knowing if it is healthy. Buying food based on the process that was used to produce it is a philosophical choice. Buying food that is healthy base on its composition and influence on your health is a logical choice based on science. The two are not he same. I don't talk to my cells. I use my brain. Many studies have tried to establish the advantages of organic food over conventional production, but have failed. Both types of production can produce healthy food if standards are followed. Using manure on food has produced many confirmed cases of food poisoning, while use of synthetic fertilizer has produced none. Proper composting should reduce the risk of using manure on food crops but it does not eliminate the risk, and human error is possible. Choose healthy foods rather than those everyone knows are unhealthy and your chances of being healthy are good. I'd love to advocate buying from local farmers since my wife and I sell our vegetables at local farmer's markets and benefit from this marketing ploy, but we focus on produce that does not ship or store well, like good-tasting tomatoes. Our stategy is to produce a superior product that we can charge a premium for, and we are successful. We do not focus on religious beliefs to sell our produce. We are not mystics, we are farmers. We have not traded common sense for suburban insanity. We use the safest and highest standards of production regardless of their source. It is truelly amazing that we continue to live longer and longer lives as we adopt technology. How could this possibly be? Unfortunatly natural selection no longer operates.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". This bit of wisdom has served the truth for a long time now.
If everything you eat has been scientifically modified, industrialized, and redefined by everything but natural standards (nature), you have given up more than you think. (you have been robbed) If you don't know what is in your food or where it came from, or how it was produced, then it is no wonder people argue about what they are (herbivore,carnivore,or omnivore). If you have a living connection to your living environment, you know what you are, your cells remember where they came from all you have to do is ask them. Talk to them...
I hope someone else out there knows we need more than 50 to 100 chemical compounds. In fact, we get thousands of compounds out of every food we eat, some which we do not need of course. We also have more diverse diets now than we have for at least the last five centuries. Calories do not equate to nutrients. Calories are calories, just like oxigen is oxigen. Just because a lot of our calories come from a few foods does not mean our diets must lack diversity. We live longer now than any time in recorded history. Our food is the safest and most nutritious. We have endless choices. However, this does not mean that people do not eat too much and choose lots of fatty foods. This is a problem of education and self control not food production. In a free country, people have the freedom to do stupid things. Its smart to preserve the genetic deversity in our crops, so we can mine these for genes in the future, but forcing all these varieties into the food chain is really silly. Anybody walk through a grocery store lately? The produce section is brimming with variety. Just skip the junk-food isle.
EZEFLYER
yeah, and don't forget the 'thai sticks'.........
but it just goes to show as the author says, it might just as well be science fiction.............
I hope they didn't forget skunk, Maui Wowee, BC Bud, Acapulco Gold and all the really important other ones.
Many of the people who work for Solutia (Monsanto) live in the second congressional district in Missouri. Their representative is a military industrial complex Bush/Cheney clone who votes 95% against the environment. It's a mini Frankenstein district.
We have been growing an organic garden for three years and even though the Doomsday vault is a good idea we can all save seed as we have done for centuries. Not all seed are hybrid and some can reproduce from saved seed.
We will survive, by God, and reproduce our food supply and FUCK monsanto and the rest of the greedy corporate world!
Playing God - Part II:
First, they select the seeds...
Then, they select the people....mostly likely white, blonde, Nordic types...
Then,....
What politician dares talk about the overpopulation that is causing species extinctions?
"Our world may not be safe, but its food supply should be."
Explain again how our food supply may be kept safe in a world that is not safe….
Charleton Heston, "The Omega Man", will burst into The Vault; leading he and his girlfriend with the afro and big knockers to become Nordic organic farmers. If they can just keep the half-human zombies at bay. Oh and the crazed radioactive bears.
Sad.
The problem of monoculture will solve itself when this civilisation collapses - which is just as well, because those seeds in Svalbard will be mighty hard to retrieve by dogsled, even if anyone remembers that they're there.
Even if the seeds survive melting of the permafrost, rising sea levels, etc., will these seeds be able to grow in a vastly different climate and atmosphere? Plants are just as adapted to environment as animals are. In the last mass extinctions on the planet, most of the plants of those eras disappeared also. We may be saving seeds that will do us no good even if humans survive the coming environmental cataclysm and are able to plant them.
Well, I personally can't prevent a doomsday scenario -- but I've been purchasing heirloom seeds, and heirlooming my own seeds, for the past few years.
kelmer wrote "Veganism is the answer."
But it seems you aren't clear on the question.
I am sympathetic to animal rights arguments. But strict veganism is not sustainable.
Where do you get your B-12? In little pills from a petroleum-based plastic bottle, shipped from far away? Are you eating heavily-processed vegan food, like soy milk, made from beans in the midwest shipped to a processor in New Jersey, shipped to a packager in California, shipped to your local health food store, in non-recyclable tetrapacks?
(I'm defining "recyclable" as "closed-end" recycling, where a product is recycled back into its original use. There's only so many park benches you can make out of shredded tetrapacks. Yes, it's a rigid definition, sorta like veganism.)
Limited quantities of humanely, locally produced milk and eggs are going to be essential to human survival in the coming catabolic collapse caused by increasing declines in fossil fuel. 3,000-mile soy milk and tofu burgers may seem like "the answer" to kelmer, but if so, I still don't understand the question.
Unfortunately, preserving seeds is the least of our problems. If we don't quickly do something to massively cut back on our carbon emissions, including the slashing and burning of the rainforests, there won't be any places to even plant seeds.
As the new and terrifying book "Six Degrees" points out, if we allow the earth's temperature to pass the two degree celsius "tipping point"--avoidance of which would require us to hold CO2 in the atmosphere to 400 ppm, just slightly above the current 380 ppm level--the earth is likely to go into an uncontrolled heating spiral, with temperatures rising as much as six degrees celsius or more, which could lead not just to mass extinctions, but to our own extinction.
Indeed, looking at the seed vault photo, I note that it does not appear to be that far above sea level. If earth temperatures rise by above 3 degrees celsius, that entrance may be below water. Worse yet, the permafrost upon which it depends to maintain the seeds will be long gone, and with it, the viability of those seeds.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
bystander,
I think you make a great point! That's why only small local and diversified seed savers that are ensuring local supply and diversity and that operated under the radar. These these ultra large mega seed storage facilities have already been corupted by the Monsanto's of the world.
There is hope, people just have to take back their food, while we still can.
Wait a minute.
All those seeds need to be destroyed because they are now the property of Monsanto. Monsanto's patented genes have contaminated crops and heirloom seeds all around the world. As soon a seed has one of Monsanto's patented genes in it, it becomes the property of Monsanto, even though it was Monsanto irresponsible release that caused the contamination. A great documentary on this issue is "The Future of Food".
Who cares about future generations as long as current Monsanto stockholders get rich? Please pass the Round Up.
kelmer, arguing over whether we are omnivores or herbivores is to miss the whole point of the article.
Our food supply is being co-opted by corporations, through seed patents and terminator seeds and ridiculous regulations trying to prevent seed saving. As Vandana Shiva puts it we are experiencing in our world a form of "food fascism".
This biopiracy is the most insidious thing we need to fight. And the local gardeners and farmers that are increasing our biodiversity by searching out, preserving and encouraging the cultivation of heirloom and endangered food crops are the heroes of our time. People growing their own food and people supporting local food chains. These are the quiet revolutionaries of our time, changing the food pyramid from the bottom up.
The author's comments about how disconnected most people are from the reality of life is well taken. People need to be reconnected and by becoming more aware of our food chain is a great step towards that.
." Humans are omnivores, he notes, "requiring somewhere between 50 and 100 different chemical compounds and elements to be healthy. It's hard to believe that we can get everything we need from a diet consisting largely of processed corn, soybeans, wheat and rice."
** well Michael-- you routinely try to suggest that humans should be hunting and buying meat from small farms.
That aint gonna do it bubba.
Humans have the anatomy of a committed herbivore--which, like many species, can eat anything, but shouldnt.
Veganism is the answer.