Seed vault in the arctic

[barleychown]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23051146/

The Norwegian government is building a vault to store a variety of seeds from around the world. What do you guys think about this?

[Jim]

That is quite interesting.  I clicked on a few of the links that referred to it as a "doomsday vault".     I didn't see any info that stated we (US) were sending any seeds. Wonder why?

How close is this big vault to biita?

[christy]

in that other link it said According to the project, there are already about 1,400 seed banks, mostly run by countries for their own seeds,
http://ori.msnbc.msn.com/id/21825614/
maybe we have our own valt?
wonder if there putting tree seeds in it?  not much is gonna surive without trees.,,,,,,,if it happends.
reminds me of every one going nuts over the y2k thing, there was people on the news who bought a ton of astrnot foods n stuff n it didnt happen. ya never know though.

[christy]

check this out http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529
seems bill gates is involved in it, n a few other us organisations

[Jim]

Now that link has some scary stuff in it.  It's a long article, so be sure to read it all.  Sure makes you stop and think. 

[barleychown]

I had heard most of what was in the second link already. I personally have a huge problem with GMO seeds. The thought that they can now "build" a seed that "commits suicide" instead of being able to save seed for the next years' crop is downright scary.

[biita]

Svalbård is about an hour by plane from where i live,, by boat about 6 hours.  The funny thing about all this is that it was built to be earthquake resistant.  just 2 days ago Svalbård had an earthquake.  the facility came out just fine with no damage.  the other thing i find facinating with this is the way used the permafrost of the ice berg.  (isborg)  should the power ever go out for what ever reason, the ice berg then continues to do its thing.  I didn't read the articles because i watch it on the news here.  my opinion is that should what ever happen to the earth or to countries for what ever reason,, i think its nice that there will at least be some seeds left to help that part of the world to grow again.  and yes there is tree seeds there also. 

[christy]

   its good they have tree seeds.

 they may be hiding some real seeds n plan on passing out the suicides so people have to depend on them,     kinda like a taking over the world thing   

[patches]

Geesh, I remember hearing a discussion about this on T.V., but it's been several weeks ago.  Seems to me that someone in the group was discussing the importance of saving heirloom seeds in these vaults for future generations. 

[duh]

Well if they put out a list of seeds that they haven't got enough of yet I'll gladly look through my seed stores and contribute. 

Certainly things happen and it's nice to be prepared.  Even if it isn't "doomsday" it's nice to have backups. 

I didn't read the article yet but I know that it was nice after Katrina hit the gulf coast to be able to send seeds to the gardeners in that area to get them up and running again.

[biita]

It is nice to know that even if something happens, no matter what the issue it is, its nice to know there are seeds that will help to continue the future food stores.  it is mostly seeds that the world depends on.  And yes there is a huge store of seeds that are heirloom so we never loose what our world was at one time, should a catastrophe happen to any part of the world.  That was the whole point of the vault.  To never loose what once was.  Plus it is voluntary, not mandatory, for those countries who wish to participate.  Should America choose not to participate, for example, your outta luck.  Each store is by country and what they choose to send.  Theres more that goes on, on Svalbård than what the world relizes.  There are vaults all over that iceberg, that contain the different countries whole histories,, Norway is one of them. 

[duh]

I just read the article it is quite different than I thought it would be.  I think it is a nice idea but I would hate to put all my "seeds" in one basket so to speak. 

I'm sure they have very limited space so they had to limit the types of seeds that they could store.  It sounds like a great idea for those species that they are focused on. 

[patches]

Geesh, the one article is a little scary,     but I think the whole concept of storing seeds is a brillant idea!     I would hate to think that so many of the things I love to eat and enjoy would become exstinct.

[Peggy]

I'm still in the process of reading the links, but I do believe that there is a little bit of media going on here.  People are down playing their own power.  We don't have to accept what these companies are doing, and we don't have to play into it either. 

Save your own seeds! There are companies that sell seeds from popular older crops. I have three catalogs here in my house from seed companies.  Don't be apathetic, if we all work together, then together we are bigger and more powerful than those silly super corporations!

:0) Peg

[notherdigger]

     I believe the US has an extensive seed bank of heirloom seeds because I've read about it before and also a couple years ago the Pepper Joe pepper site posted an addy where you could get seeds from the government seed bank and I got about 15 or 20 different samples from them.  I saw the list of available seeds at the time, both vege and flower,tree and whatever seeds or cuttings and the list went on forever.  However when I tried toget seeds this year I received an e-mail stating that they only released seed to research or study /experiment groups as ppl took too much advantage of it.  They have about everything there is here I am guessing though we may never see them directly in a true emergency.  But I don't think we can have too many resources.  But in many types of hypothetical disasters ie: volcano, atomic blast etc the problem would be the potential loss of solar exposure leading to no crops/failed crops resulting in obvious starvation.  Now I better read the article and make sure I'm not being redundant and thanks for the link.

[notherdigger]

Well I just read the Bill Gates link and it is indeed scary.  It has to make one wonder if the backers plan to be part of the possible final solution or do they have other plans for themselves?

[Jim]

The more info the better.  I think this has been in the news weekly since Sarah(bc) posted it.  I saw it on the Today show, and then again on the evening news with Brian Williams.  Like you, I thought the article about Bill Gate and company was suspect.

[Dianna]

Update on the seed vault...

[Penny]

Thanks Dianna.

[bestofour]

something to ponder for sure.