Doomsday Vault Seed Stock Grows: Earth's Banana, Yam Breeders Hard At Work - All 12 Of Them - AFP

[hatrack]

The stores of seeds in a "doomsday" vault in the Norwegian Arctic are growing as researchers rush to preserve 100,000 crop varieties from potential extinction. The imperiled seeds are going to be critical for protecting the global food supply against devastating crop losses as a result of climate change, said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

"These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation," Fowler said. "You can't imagine a solution to climate change without crop diversity." That's because the crops currently being used by farmers will not be able to evolve quickly enough on their own to adjust to predicted drought, rising temperatures and new pests and diseases, he said.

One recent study found that corn yields in Africa will fall by 30 percent by 2030 unless heat-resistant varieties are developed, Fowler noted.

EDIT

Their gene bank -- dug into a mountainside near Longyearbyen, in the Svalbard islands in the far north of Norway -- will be made public to help spur research, which Fowler says is woefully inadequate. "Six people in the world are breeding bananas. Ditto for yams, a major crop in Africa," Fowler said ahead of a presentation Sunday to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

EDIT

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Doomsday_seed_vaults_stores_are_growing_999.html

[phantom power]

1. I bet Monsanto can imagine another solution.

:hide:

[hatrack]

2. Doubtless involving ethylene glycol, flounder-brain genes and Smuckers residue . . .

Patented, of course!

[phantom power]

3. Mmmm...

I think the thing about companies like Monsanto that makes me sad is that they could use their powers for good, but instead they use them for profit. In the process they solidify opposition to genetic engineering.

I see hints at how helpful this could be. Strains of rice or wheat that require less water to grow, and produce more protein. That kind of thing could save many, many lives as climate change makes agriculture harder.

Instead, they fuck it all up by deliberately engineering seed that doesn't breed true, and adding genes for pesticides that jump species and accelerate resistant pest evolution.

[Warpy]

4. I hope they're not bothering with Cavendish banana seeds

The Asian grocery near me carries varietal bananas and all you have to do is taste one of them to realize just how tasteless the big yellow supermarket banana is.

I hope they've got ruby fingerling banana seeds. I'm a total sucker for those.