Seed Savers Exchange to send more seeds to seed bank in Norway

Seed Savers Exchange Collection Technician Aaron Burmeister prepares the shipment (Photo courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange)

The sixth shipment from Seed Savers Exchange is sending a sixth shipment of seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.  The two crates will bring the total of Seed Savers Exchange seeds at the Seed Vault to 2,248.

Seed Savers Exchange has been utilizing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to back up their collections since the seed vault's opening in 2008. Svalbard acts as a safety net for SSE and seedbanks worldwide by housing duplicate accessions for long-term storage.
 
To prepare the seeds for long-term storage, seeds are dried until they have approximately 5 percent moisture content, and are then heat sealed into air-tight packets.

Once inside the vault, the packets will be kept at 0°F (-17°C) and will remain viable for a very long time. Similar to a safe deposit box at the bank, only Seed Savers Exchange has access to the materials deposited. This 'Black Box' agreement is made with each depositor, and ensures that only the depositor can access their own seeds in the vault.
 
The Svalbard seed vault was built deep into mountainous permafrost, which keeps the vault at below freezing temperatures even without a cooling system. Furthermore, its treacherous and remote location protects the vault from possible harm due to natural disasters or human calamities. This kind of protection ensures Seed Savers Exchanges' seeds will be safe for many years to come.
 
"As one of 1400 seed banks in the world, Seed Savers Exchange is proud to deposit an additional 366 varieties in the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway, bringing our total deposits to more than 2,000 varieties," said Seed Savers Exchange president John Torgimson,  "The global seed bank, with 725,000 total deposits, represents man's best efforts to ensure that today's seed varieties are available for future generations," said Torgrimson.