CAJ:Curious aspects regarding the 'Svalbard Global Seed Vault'

The 'Svalbard Global Seed Vault' is an ambitious project to store seeds from all over the world. It is situated in the Norwegian city of Svalbard, one of the most remote towns in the world. As far as financing goes, it is primarily supplied by the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’. Other sponsors include the US agribusiness giant Du Pont/Pioneer hi-Bred and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Regarding the dimensions of the bank, it will store 3 millions of different crops of the global flora. The walls used for the bank will be one-metre thick and supported by massive steel. The main aim of the project is to preserve the global seed diversity for the future and save it from all calamities the world could  possibly be confronted with one day. This is why Svalbard is also referred to as the ‘doomsday seed bank’.

A closer look at what seems so entirely inspired by nobel motifs, however, will reveal some curious facts about the bank. The real beneficiaries of such seeds banks are namely scientists and large plant breeders as Monsanto and DuPont. The Monsanto shares the world patent rights for Genetic Use Restriction Technology with the US Government. This technology works with special seeds that commit suicide once they are harvested. As a consequence, farmers are forced to buy new seeds each year and therefore steadily earn Monsanto a fortune. The control of private seed companies is likely to grow even more due to such seed banks.

Another interesting fact involves the aforementioned Rockefeller Foundation. Ever since the early twentieth century, it has been interested in eugenics. Actually the Rockelfeller Foundation was a great supporter of the Ayran Master Race of the Nazis and their striving for the perfection of the human race. Hitler’s researchers have taken genetic engineering a long way. A company, which now seems to have rediscovered its fascination for genetic perfection in the Svalbard Global seed Vault somehow does not lack a certain macabre note.

After all and despite critical notes, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault should in first place still be seen as the result of a high reputation of the nature and the flora surrounding us.