![]() Mona Barlien, who says she was star-struck by Svalbard, calls the draw to this place “polar fever.” She works in the local tourism office where she fields a lot of questions about the vault. “The nearest I can tell you, it’s like being a little bit in love.” “Well, many people have tried to explain what it is,” Johansen said. In 28 years he’s adjusted to the long, polar nights - months with no sunlight.ĭoane asked, “What is this appeal with being up here?” Robert Johansen (who brews a good Svalbard pilsner) came up here as a coal miner. Svalbard also happens to be a spectacular place to catch the northern lights. ![]() Folks carry rifles when leaving town as “polar bear protection,” and they sled to school. It’s a place with more polar bears than people. ![]() Photographs from his new book, “Seeds on Ice,” capture Svalbard’s rugged beauty. It’s politically stable, cold, and - most essentially - remote. In 2008, that search led Fowler and the Global Crop Diversity Trust to Svalbard, far north of the Norwegian mainland. “We have the technology, we have the smarts, we know how to conserve seed, and so why can’t we figure out how to have a facility somewhere that’s really safe and where we can save the seeds long-term without any dangers?” “And I just thought, ‘Enough is enough,’” said Fowler. Since 1900, we’ve lost more than 75 percent of our crop diversity. But since industrialization, plant diversity has diminished dramatically, as a handful of big seed sellers control most of what’s sold and planted. “But we also protect against anemic budgets and budget cuts and stupid human mistakes as well.”Ĭultivating land for agricultural use began about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. “We protect, yes, against some of the natural disasters - war and civil strife and hurricanes and floods and fires,” Fowler said. Or when war destroyed seed banks in Iraq and Syria, the seeds were safe here. So, for instance, when a typhoon tore through a seed bank in the Philippines, destroying everything inside, all was not lost. But this one in Norway is known as the “Doomsday Vault.” It’s a back-up for the whole system designed to last for thousands of years. There are 1,700 seed banks worldwide of varied size and state of repair. “And Svalbard gives us an insurance policy where we can put our seeds there. ![]() “We represent a lot of amateur gardeners who have saved seeds in their family, or in their communities who have entrusted us with the protection of those seeds,” said director John Torgrimson. So they asked their local seed bank, Seed Savers Exchange, to help preserve it. The family never found anyone else, anywhere, with the same pepper. ![]() And this seed is definitely that type of fulfillment with us.” “Those things are, some of us hold dear to our heart. “It could be that wedding dress, that diamond ring that’s been passed on” Chad said. Her grandson, Chad Ogle Riccelli, says the pepper is now a family heirloom. Seventy-one years ago, Theresa Riccelli got the seed from her mother as a gift when she got married, at age 21. Seeds from this Riccelli family heirloom - a thin-skinned Italian pepper unique to their family - have been preserved. One piece of that puzzle is the prized possession of the Riccelli family, from Des Moines, Iowa: a thin-skinned Italian pepper that’s been a part of their family dinner for centuries. “So, the idea behind this whole venture is to save all of the pieces of the puzzle.” ![]()
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