The Svalbard Global seed bank was established in February 2008. It was designed to store seeds for hundreds or even thousands of years in the event of a global disaster. But now, only seven years later, the Syrian civil war made it necessary to withdraw seeds from this doomsday vault. Svalbard Norway: It would have […]
ProGen, a Turkish seed developer and supplier, has specialized in crop varieties that can withstand the hot Mediterranean climate. As climate conditions in European countries increasingly resemble those of their southern neighbors, European farmers are seeking new strains of staple crops that can adjust to the new climate. A pan-European research project, EASTBRED, brought European […]
As populations surge and climate change destroys existing crops, seed and gene banks prepare us for potential food-shortage emergencies. As we learned when fires raging through Russia destroyed wheat crops, countries all along the food chain, including Egypt, feel the pinch, though climate change is not all that puts at risk Israel’s tomato, cucumber, and […]