Yesterday, I got to go on a tour of the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, which is the largest seed library (or germplasm storage facility, as they like to say) in the world. It is much more comprehensive than the Norwegian one that was featured in the New Yorker and the National Geographic a while back. In fact, they are the back up facility for that one, having samples of everything they have, plus a bunch more.
They preserve over 750,000 unique specimens of plant and animal matter against natural disaster, Armageddon, etc. it was all quite interesting. They get donations, test for viability, store seeds, etc. Some are stored in freezers and others are stored in liquid nitrogen. The big vaults are all password protected and have various redundant systems and are waterproof, etc. We got to go in the big zero degree safe and see the liquid nitrogen storage area, which looked much like a giant micro-brewery with kettle after kettle of liquid nitrogen storage.
Preserving such a large selection of seeds is critical to the protection of the biodiversity of the planet. What a cool place. What an excellent mission.
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