Tuesday, January 9, 2018

The Guy at Svalbard Who Might Save the World

From Motherboard:

This Agronomist Is Safeguarding the World’s Seeds
Åsmund Asdal coordinates with gene banks to preserve thousands of seed varieties in a safely guarded Nordic vault.
Åsmund Asdal, a Norwegian biologist and agronomist, is storing seeds to safeguard our future. As the coordinator of operation and management at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which stores seeds from around the world, his job is to coordinate with gene banks interested in sending seed safety duplicates to the Vault for preservation.

Asdal has been fascinated by plants since he was a boy. “I started to cultivate my own vegetables and herbs quite early,” he told me. He decided to study plant science at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (called the Norwegian Agricultural University at the time) in Ås. While completing his thesis on plant genetic diversity in the mid-1980s, Asdal made his first connections to the national Norwegian Genetic Resource Center, and in 2015, began working at the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

NordGen is responsible for conserving genetic resources and diversity, which will be important in future years for the challenges that come with climate change and a growing population. For example, as Senior Plant Scientist Jan Svensson says in one of NordGen’s videos, preserving seeds allows researchers to cross a disease-resistant plant with a high-yield plant. Farmers can then produce a huge amount of produce if disease strikes.

NordGen is also responsible for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has been under Asdal’s care since 2015 (he was previously the manager for the Norwegian national program for plant genetic resources at NordGen). Asdal is responsible for establishing connections with gene banks and depositing seeds in the vault, as well as disseminating information about the project to the public.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault “offers a safe place for the depositing duplicates of seed samples that are conserved in gene banks all over the world,” said Asdal. “So, if any gene bank loses their seeds, they can get the copies back from Svalbard and start re-establishing a lost seed collection.”...MORE
In other Svalbard news, I'm not clear on all the details but apparently Martha Stewart is doing some fundraising for Crop Trust with a sweepstakes prize for donating:
The trip is in February so bring your mittens should you win.
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