INTERESTING FACT

The Global Seed Vault

Svalbard Global Seed vault was established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. It is an assurance to reduce of hunger & poverty due to the national disaster. Construction of the Seed Vault, which cost approximately 45 million Norwegian Kroner (9 million USD), was funded entirely by the Government of Norway. The seed bank is constructed 120 meters (390 ft) inside a sandstone mountain at Svalbard on Spitsbergen Island. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened officially on February 26, 2008. The first seeds arrived in January 2008. This vault can storage 4.5 million samples of different seeds in the dry temperature of 0° F (-18° C). This storage process can protect the seeds for the thousands of years. Svalbard Global Seed Vault ranked no.6 on Time's Best Inventions Of 2008.

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Posted by: Interesting Facts Team

FACT COMMENTS

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Oldest comments first!

interest instigating and intriguing stuff right
here!!!

kanishk at 10:12AM, Oct 21st 2009.

So shouldn't they leave the door open or post the security code for whoever survives the zombie apocalypse?

tonikaku at 10:35PM, Nov 24th 2009.

The seeds are not for you. The people who plan to survive don't intend to share.

CD Address at 11:12PM, Nov 24th 2009.

when the zombies come i plan on going there and hiding, with my shotgun and faithful dog "brains"

calgary web at 09:50AM, Nov 25th 2009.

Do they have any black eyed pea seeds? Or collard green seeds?? I can't fight zombies without collard greens!!!!

Ian at 06:03PM, Nov 25th 2009.

yeah err.... what about the people?you know the ones that are supposed to open the vault and plant the seeds.I would be more inclined to think this is cool if it was for people. Why would they build this expensive thing anyway . where are the people vaults? do they know something we don't?hmmmmm....

cashqueen100k at 11:03PM, Nov 25th 2009.

Of course the governments know something we don't. Duh! Maybe you should take a look at the rifts books or you can believe in whatever you want. Either way there are "people vaults" , you just don't know about them.If you are not an asset to the government,or a very big spender$$$$$$$$$ then you wont ever know. There's always those trusty fallout shelters, ha ha ha.

that guy with thumbs at 03:33PM, Nov 26th 2009.

I find it strange that an article about something as important as this has been translated so badly. I realise it was originally written in Norwegian, but would it have been too much trouble to have it checked by a native English speaker?

"If you want to report the problem with the fact please comment bellow"

I mean, really!

Mark at 12:45AM, Nov 30th 2009.

Hopefully we will organize this web site to be more like a Wikipedia so our users can contribute.

Interesting Facts Team at 06:41AM, Nov 30th 2009.

The vault is a very important structure, today natural seeds are being replaced by Genetically modified seeds, GM seeds have a greated yield than natural seeds, although GM seeds only produce once therfore one has to perchase new seeds for the next crop. The people who produce the GM seeds therefore have the POWER of controlling agriculture. Eventually poor nations will starve as rich nations will withhold seeds for staple foods. This power should not be given to anyone. This vault should therefore store all NATURAL seeds and no genetically modified ones, as storage of GM seeds would be pointless.

Imraan at 04:05AM, Dec 8th 2009.

Whoever wrote this has terrible grammar. Please write properly so people will take you seriously.

nad at 07:58AM, Dec 8th 2009.

Imraan wrote: #
The vault is a very important structure, today natural seeds are being replaced by Genetically modified seeds, GM seeds have a greated yield than natural seeds, although GM seeds only produce once therfore one has to perchase new seeds for the next crop. The people who produce the GM seeds therefore have the POWER of controlling agriculture. Eventually poor nations will starve as rich nations will withhold seeds for staple foods. This power should not be given to anyone. This vault should therefore store all NATURAL seeds and no genetically modified ones, as storage of GM seeds would be pointless.

This is not completely accurate GM seeds do not only produce once, they produce new seeds like other plants. In fact this has been an objection to GM crops, that once they establish themselves they are hard to remove again.

Poor nations may indeed starve, but not because rich ones withhold seeds, what would be the point? They want the poor nations to grow the crops and sell the cheaply to the rich ones, just like today!

Indeed they should only store natural seeds, as the point is to preserve the variety of seeds and plants, but you can be sure that, if we ever need to use the seed store, the seeds will be mnodified to suit the conditions they will be grown under. And who knows what they might be?

Mark at 09:57AM, Dec 8th 2009.

Please excuse the spelling errors, I was in a hurry to post my comment

it should read "...sell them cheaply...."
and "..seeds will be modified..."

And a comma after accurate!

Mark at 09:59AM, Dec 8th 2009.

"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened officially on February 26, 2008. The first seeds arrived in January2008", uh, january comes BEFORE february. were they sneaking seeds in before the opening?

Quote now just a cotton pickin minute.'s commment

now just a cotton pickin minute. at 11:25PM, Dec 17th 2009.

i did not know that!

Sam at 05:16PM, Dec 19th 2009.

Anyone else think it rather odd that should anything happen, we've hidden these seeds in the baron wasteland of Siberia? Why not somewhere a little closer to the equator? I know that once we've quelled the masses of brain munching zombies I'm not really going to be in the mood for a hike through siberia just to pick up my handy dandy seed packets,assuming I can even get in the front door.

Liz at 06:28PM, Dec 31st 2009.

I think everyone is being ridiculous. I can understand trying to preserve such things, but if you read the Bible, you will fully know that God intends on *everything and everyone* being taken up or destroyed during the end times. When God comes back to rule, the earth shall be perfect, therefore, needing no seeds to be kept. He will provide everything. God bless you. If you need more information on what I am speaking of, please refer to King James version of the Bible, preferrably the book of Matthew c.24 and c.25.

Nikki at 10:10PM, Jan 8th 2010.

Wow, very futuristic...

itsashirt t shirts at 08:13AM, Jan 13th 2010.

interesting

Vusal Zeynalov at 09:06AM, Mar 15th 2010.

Please, leave out broccoli

Ferd at 09:55PM, Mar 28th 2010.

I want to know how is any survivor going to get inside this thing????

that's assuming some of us survive the catastrophy, find this thing,have a spot of land to plant the seeds, hav e enuff resources to last us, until the seeds produce food we can eat...

in one way I see it as a wise thing, but in another I see it as a waste of money...when things get so bad, we desperately need those seeds, the land all over will be so polluted, there will be no place they will grow anyhow....