The Svalbard Global Seed Vault Is the World’s Greatest Insurance Policy

Every year, it becomes clearer and clearer that climate change is extremely likely to affect our food supply; crops may not grow as well in certain areas as they did in the past, wildfires are becoming more common, which threatens crops, and both heavy precipitation and drought can destroy entire fields of food. Already, many wild, uncultivated species that are similar to the food crops we eat are in danger of extinction: Some types of potatoes, bananas and apples are all at risk. Our food supply is officially in danger.

But there are efforts to ensure the world’s long-term food security. Perhaps the most notable of these efforts is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located on the Norwegian island of Svalbard in Norway. It currently houses 1,214,827 seed samples from across the globe and is jointly managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, an organization called NordGen, a genebank, and the Crop Trust, an nonprofit dedicated to crop diversity and food security.

The goal of the seed vault is to provide genetic copies for the world’s food plants. Although other seed banks exist across the world, many of them are vulnerable to both natural and human disaster. Just last year, for example, seed samples were destroyed in Ukraine after a Russian bomb attack. But even far less dramatic accidents can result in the destruction of a seed bank’s genetic material—a loss of electricity required to refrigerate seeds, for example, could render them useless.

The seed vault in Svalbard, though, is especially protected from harm. First of all, it’s in a remote location; Svalbard is not likely to find itself in the crosshairs of a war anytime soon. It’s also quite cold there, and the vault is built into rock and permafrost that can guarantee the low temperatures seeds need to be preserved for long periods of time. Plus, it’s well above sea level, even if sea levels were to rise precipitously. In this way, the global seed vault is the most reliable insurance policy for the world’s genetic plant matter, preserving the genetic diversity of our crops.

Why Do We Need Genetic Diversity, Anyway?

Today, most of us on the planet are eating the same few species of food plants that have been shipped around the world, patented by massive agricultural corporations and genetically altered to yield the highest possible yields. But it wasn’t always that way. In the past, people in different corners of the planet ate different plant foods; tomatoes changed shape and color depending on where they were grown and what seeds the farmer had managed to get their hands on. When a plant disease would spread, one specific species of a plant may have died, but other species could have been immune to said disease, which largely prevented large-scale hunger crises.

Now that huge swaths of the world’s farmers are using genetically identical seeds, disease poses more of an existential risk than it once did. For example, a banana pandemic in the 1950s all but completely wiped out the Gros Michel banana, which many considered the most delicious variety. Now, commercial banana production has been forced to switch to another species, the Cavendish, that now faces the same risk as its tastier, creamier cousin. Similarly, the phylloxera outbreak in the late 19th century crippled the wine industry for years before scientists figured out how to graft wine-producing grape vines onto the root systems of phylloxera-resistant grape species. Even more than disease, changing climactic conditions have the potential to wipe out the common cultivars we as a global society have come to rely on for basic sustenance.

Imagine a similar situation with wheat, which is the main source of calories for a full 35% of the global population. People would starve. This is why genetic diversity is so important. By using different species of wheat, for instance, plant geneticists could create varieties that would be more tolerant to disease or drought or higher temperatures—all events that seem increasingly likely as our climate spins out of control.

Even if we were to completely halt greenhouse gas emissions today, we would still continue to see higher-than-normal temperatures for centuries. But earlier this year, a study found that greenhouse gas emissions were at an all-time high. Essentially, that means that we can fully expect our planet—and our agricultural system—to change in ways that are likely to disrupt the food supply for many, if not all, of us. In the midst of all the terrible decisions humanity has made to get ourselves to this point, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault should serve as a reminder that we can and should take steps to at least attempt to safeguard our increasingly uncertain future.

Samantha Maxwell is a food writer and editor based in Boston. Follow her on Twitter at @samseating.