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Food ark: Entrance to the Global Seed Vault in Norway which is home to more than two billion of the world's seeds
These incredible images give a rare glimpse inside the 'Doomsday' seed vault which protects the world's food supply. On an Arctic island off the coast of Norway lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is home to more than two billion seeds. The secure seed bank which can withstand a nuclear strike, aims to preserve crops in the face of climate change, war and natural disasters.

These rare images taken by photographer Jim Richardson offer a visual tour of the food ark, which safely homes up to 4.5 million varieties of seeds from almost every country in the world. It preserves duplicate collections of seeds for everything from peas to wheat on behalf of the world's genebanks.

The seeds in the vault can only be accessed when the original seed collections have been lost. The seeds are stored inside sealed envelopes, then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks and kept at a temperature of -18C.

The low temperature and limited supply of oxygen inside the vault prevents the seeds from ageing. The permafrost surrounding the facility helps maintain the low temperature of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The vault was started by conservationist Cary Fowler from the Global Crop Diversity Trust. It cost £4 million to construct and since it's opening in 2006 it has accepted deposits of seeds from all over the world.


Comment: In a world that isn't run by psychopaths the concept of having a 'back-up supply' of a 'food ark' would make sense, though we know who they are really concerned about - he who owns the food supply owns the people.

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