Embargoed for Release until 10:30 AM CET (0930 Hours GMT) on Tuesday, 26 February 2008 The Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Securing the Future of Agriculture Cary Fowler Global Crop Diversity Trust February 26, 2008 2 By Cary Fowler The Global Crop Diversity Trust February 26, 2008 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………… 4 Seeds and Food…………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Importance and Use of Crop Diversity………………………………..…….. 9 Collecting and Conserving………………………………………………….……... 11 Svalbard Global Seed Vault……………………………………..…………….…… 15 The Value of the Vault……………………………………………….……….….…. 16 Inside the Vault………………………………………………………………………...….23 Looking Forward…………………………………………………………………….……..25 Resources……………………………………………………………………………….….….27 About the Author…………………………………………………………………..……...28 4 Executive Summary This report combines the historical view Around the world, countries and and a unique moment in the story of agriculture. institutions created seed banks, also called The formal opening of the Svalbard Global Seed genebanks. Today, there are some 1400 Vault deep inside an Arctic mountain on February collections of crop diversity, ranging in size from 26, 2008 marks a turning point toward ensuring one sample to more than half a million. These the crops that sustain us will not be lost. It seed banks now house about 6.5 million samples. follows millennia of haphazard forms of About 1.5 million of these are thought to be protecting crop diversity, and decades of catch- distinct samples. And within each crop, the up preservation efforts to save more than a diversity of varieties is stunning. Experts, for million different varieties of crops. With growing instance, estimate 200,000 types of wheat, evidence that unchecked climate change could 30,000 types of corn, 47,000 types of sorghum, seriously threaten agricultural production and the and even 15,000 types of groundnut. diversity of crops around the world, the opening of the Seed Vault also Some of the more popular represents a major step varieties are widely distributed in toward finishing the job of seed banks, occurring in literally protecting the varieties now hundreds of collections, while others held in seed banks. A quiet are in just a single facility. rescue mission is underway. Information systems will eventually It will intensify in the coming aid in identifying unintended years, as thousands of duplication. About half of the stored scientists, plant breeders, samples are in developing countries, farmers, and those working and about half of all samples are of in the Global Crop Diversity cereals. Trust identify and save as many distinct crop varieties The Global Crop Diversity as possible. Trust is working with the Consultative Group on International The story of Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and agriculture dates to some seed banks from around the world to 13,000 years ago, when assist in preparing and shipping human societies began the seeds to the Seed Vault in Svalbard. transformation from hunting The Trust has assembled leading and gathering to forms of experts in all of the major crops to growing food. But the story identify priority collections. Some of systematically saving 500 scientists from around the world varieties of crops didn’t have been involved. The rescue and begin until less than 100 regeneration effort is under way, and will result years ago. In the 1920s, plant breeders assembled in a steady flow of samples being sent to Svalbard collections of seeds to breed new varieties. in coming years as the genebanks produce fresh Gradually, scientists began to sample and collect new seed. For the February 26 opening of the more generally in an attempt to assemble the Seed Vault, workers will load shipments from 21 complete diversity of each crop—before distinct seed banks, which have sent 268,000 samples varieties were lost. that contain about 100 million seeds. These scientists delved into the makeup When fully stocked, the Seed Vault will of these varieties. Plant breeders created variety contain samples deposited by large and small upon variety. Today, the documented pedigrees genebanks, by those in developed and developing of modern crop varieties are longer than those of countries as well as international institutions, by any monarchy. One type of wheat, for instance, those that have state-of-the-art facilities, and by has a pedigree that runs six meters long in small those whose facilities fall far short of type on paper, recording hundreds of crosses, international standards. They will share a using many different types of wheat from many common desire to use the Seed Vault to insure countries. A number of crops could not be against losses in their own facility. produced on a commercial scale if not for genes obtained from their botanical wild relatives and Why do they want a backup? Put simply, used in breeding programs. without the diversity represented in these collections, agriculture will fail. This diversity is 5 vital in guaranteeing a successful harvest and in as an essential element in a global network of satisfying our needs for variety. On one level, facilities that conserve crop diversity and make it consumers want diversity within crops because available for use in plant breeding and research. they need wheat for pasta and wheat for bread Its genesis lies primarily in the desire of scientists (for which they need two types of wheat), or they to protect against the all-too-common small-scale want tomatoes for eating fresh and for making loss of diversity in individual seed collections. sauce (again, two types of tomato.) On another, With a duplicate sample of each distinct variety farmers want diversity not just to supply safeguarded in the Seed Vault, seed banks can be consumer demands, but because different assured that the loss of a variety in their farming and environmental conditions require institution, or even the loss of the entire crop varieties with different characteristics. collection, will not mean the extinction of the variety or varieties and the diversity they Plant breeders help consumers and embody. farmers. They have to produce varieties that are productive and popular. This is a moving target. Svalbard, in the northern reaches of Pest and diseases evolve, the climate changes Norway, was chosen for a variety of reasons: The and so do consumer preferences, and the plant permafrost in the ground offers natural freezing breeder has to incorporate the appropriate for the seeds; the vault’s remote location characteristics into the variety he or she breeds. enhances the security of the facility; the local And so a farmer’s field, over time, is a study of infrastructure is excellent; Norway, a global change. One has to run fast just to stay in the player in many multinational efforts, is a willing same place, just to beat back the pests and host; and the area is geologically stable. diseases and other constantly evolving challenges. In the case of a large-scale regional or even global catastrophe, it is quite likely that the Three partners are overseeing the Seed Seed Vault would prove indispensable to Vault: the Nordic Gene Bank, the Norwegian humanity. Still, we need not experience Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Global apocalypse in order for the Seed Vault to be Crop Diversity Trust. They have a simple purpose: useful and to repay its costs thousands of times provide insurance against both incremental and over. If the Seed Vault simply re-supplies catastrophic loss of crop diversity held in genebanks with samples that those genebanks traditional seed banks around the world. The lose accidentally, it will be a grand bargain. Seed Vault offers “fail-safe” protection. It serves 6 Seeds and Food For most of human history, people have not only adapted to growing in conditions from lived through hunting and gathering. The vast South Africa to Sweden, from Mexico to China, it majority of people who have ever lived, lived by also comes in varieties for eating fresh, for such means. Agriculture is a relatively recent grinding into flour, for popcorn, for beer, for phenomenon. The slow transition from hunting making into sugar for soft drinks, and now for and agriculture began “just” 13,000 years ago or fuel for automobiles. And some special varieties so. of maize have been used in religious ceremonies and for medicinal purposes. There is a big difference between the seed of wild plants and of domesticated plants. Some crop diversity is visual. Potatoes Wild plants are engineered to scatter their seeds come in an array of colors, for example. They can widely. They “shatter,” to use a biological term. be white, red, black, blue, purple, or yellow- Our early hunting and gathering ancestors, fleshed. But different varieties or types have however, would have found it easier and more hidden traits. Some may be heat or drought lucrative to harvest seeds that stayed on the tolerant or resistant to a disease or pest. Others plant, seeds that had not already fallen to the may have enhanced nutritional attributes. And ground. Gatherers understood the connection from one variety to the next, you can even taste between seeds and plants. By taking the non- the difference. shattering harvested seed back to their camps and growing them, or by encouraging nearby stands of such plants in the wild, they would have increased the percentage of these non-shattering plants and correspondingly increased their harvest. Typically, the genetic difference between shattering and non-shattering seeds is spelled out in one or two genes. But this is the difference between wild plants and domesticated crops, a difference that our ancestors took hold of and began to exploit in earnest in the Neolithic period, more than 10,000 years ago. Domestication usually took place where wild forms of the crop plant were native. Thus, crops originated in certain regions. Rice, soya, All of these characteristics are produced banana, and oranges are from China in the Far by the genetic make-up of the plant or variety.