Doomsday or Bloomsday? (127)

Have you heard of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?  I hadn’t until recently.  It’s a large storage facility on Spitzbergen Island just off Norway.  In fact, the island is part of Norway.  It has the capacity to safely protect and store up to three million seeds.

Svalbard was brought to my attention first via the radio show Splendid Table, when one of the guests talked about the importance of collecting and saving seeds.  I know there has been a resurgence in ‘heritage’ type vegetables and grains and a huge movement against the more current GMO eatables, but didn’t know there was a world wide effort to collect and save seeds.  This has been going on to some extent since the 1940s and of course, with farmers, has been going one since the beginning of agriculture.  The more recent focus on collecting takes on more interesting nuances.

My first impression of the seed vault was that it is a wonderful idea.  We need to save old strains of plants to be able to use them as a safeguard against new plant diseases or world crop blights.  Makes perfect sense.  One would think the ‘greenies’ of the world would be very happy with this.

On the other hand, it is worthwhile to notice who is involved with the seed vault and who controls it.  Norway is the home provider so they are involved.  Past that governmental involvement, the other major players are:  Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer, the Syngenta Foundation, Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation.  The first three are the worlds largest holders of patented genetically modified plants.  The Rockefeller Foundation CGIR, has been involved in genetically modified plants since 1946. I haven’t quite figured out the interest of Bill Gates and why he would be investing some $30 million in the project. A sinister answer would be that he, like the other groups involved, has been known for monopoly and product/patent control. I would hope his involvement is altruistic. I just don’t know.

Anyway, what is interesting here is that sometimes when things seem very simple and seem like a great idea, more can be uncovered and the purpose is then not so clear.

Although I am comforted by the idea that our world’s seed resources are being saved, I am concerned about who holds the keys to the vault.