Creators of ‘doomsday vault’ for seeds win $500,000 World Food Prize

May 9, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

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The two men behind the so-called “doomsday vault,” which contains 1.25 million seed samples – seeds that can be used to rebuild much of the world’s food supply if a catastrophe strikes – are this year’s winners. of the World Food Prize of $500,000.

Cary Fowler, US special envoy for global food security, and Geoffrey Hawtin, founding director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, won for their work establishing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which houses more than 6,000 plant species in a underground installation in the Arctic Circle.

Fowler, a Tennessee native, said many thought creating the Svalbard seed vault was a crazy idea. But since it opened in 2008, “we have managed to collect and preserve the diversity of all major crops, including 150,000 types of wheat” and as many types of rice.

Since 2018: Global warming prompts Norway to strengthen its apocalyptic seed vault

Hawtin spent much of his early career, even risking his life, collecting, preserving and protecting species of chickpeas, fava beans and other legumes from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, the World Food Prize Foundation said. Des Moines-based food. .

Preserving the genetic diversity of crops is key to food security, Hawtin said, and many strains are “as endangered as pandas and rhinos.”

The prize, established by Iowa native Norman Borlaug and doubled from last year’s $250,000, will be awarded at the culmination of the World Food Prize conference Oct. 29-31 in Des Moines. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad and others announced the prize Thursday in Washington, DC.

Here’s what you should know about the award and the winners.

What is the World Food Prize?

Borlaug, who founded the World Food Prize organization in 1986, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his research that led to the creation of high-yielding, drought-resistant wheat varieties. He is credited with being the “father of the Green Revolution”, which saved one billion people from hunger.

Borlaug created the award, often called the Nobel Prize in Agriculture, to honor people who have made significant contributions to improving the quality and quantity of food around the world.

Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who was the longest-serving governor in U.S. history before resigning to serve as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to China, became president of the World Food Prize Foundation in 2023.

Why is the World Food Prize Foundation honoring Fowler and Hawtin?

The two helped develop what is now known as the Plant Treaty, adopted in 2001, which allowed plant genetic material to move globally, laying the foundation for the Svalbard vault.

The vault is buried under permafrost deep in a mountain. The Norwegian government operates it with the regional gene bank Nordic Genetic Resource Center, called NordGen, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, known as Crop Trust. Fowler was the Crop Trust’s first chief executive.

What happens in the Svalbard seed vault?

The vault stores duplicate samples of countries’ seed collections, providing backup for losses that can occur in natural disasters, wars, fires and floods, as well as equipment failures. Permafrost helps keep the temperature at -18 degrees Celsius.

With room for 4.5 million seed samples, the vault, which supports 1,700 gene banks worldwide, is considered “the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply.”

“The seed vault underpins the work of all these seed banks around the world,” said Hawtin, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2017 for his work on global agrobiodiversity and sustainable food programmes.

“They’re not just collecting materials,” he said. “They are distributing materials and making them available” to researchers and farmers and “learning about them.”

“In a very real sense, the vault allows them to have confidence in doing their extremely important daily work,” he said.

Have the stored seeds already been extracted?

Syrian scientists expelled from the country in 2014 by civil conflict have already taken advantage of seeds stored in that nation. Relocated to Morocco and Lebanon, scientists have been rebuilding stocks that include barley, lentils and chickpeas.

Hawtin said he was recently in Morocco, where Svalbard seeds were being grown in the field.

“It was being tested, for example, for its resistance to drought,” he said. “In the coming years they will find their way to new varieties.

“In a very real sense, it’s contributing today… it’s not just a future activity,” he said.

Fowler added: “Not only does it secure the collections of different seed banks around the world, but in a sense it puts an end to the extinction that is occurring in agricultural diversity.”

Is the Svalbard seed vault primarily a long-term insurance policy?

“We’ve had people ask us, well, how do we get there to get the seeds if there’s an apocalyptic day,” Fowler said, adding that his “somewhat flippant answer” is “Don’t worry… we’ll get to you.” “

“I think the apocalyptic nickname that has been given to it is largely inaccurate, but there is a grain of truth to it,” Fowler said. “Yes, if there were any global or regional catastrophe, do I think the seed vault would be invaluable and useful? … Absolutely.

“But it wasn’t actually built in advance of an asteroid hitting Earth or anything like that,” he said. “It was created to address the real-life, almost daily, practical problems we experience in seed banks around the world.”

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, environment and energy for the Register. Contact her at [email protected] or 515-284-8457.