There’s an article about USDA’s long-term genebank at Ft Collins, Colorado in the Denver Post:
Global warming is predicted by some seed-physiology scientists to wipe out as much as 40 percent of the world’s crops, according to Kathryn Kennedy, director of the St. Louis-based Center for Plant Conservation, a longtime user of the seed bank.
Plant breeders and researchers will turn here for the seeds to produce the crops adapted to new climatic conditions.
“We have always tried to stay three steps ahead, but with global warming, we’re concerned three steps may not be enough,” said Christine Walters, a plant physiologist and self-described seed nerd at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation.
Inevitably, Svalbard gets a name-check, though accompanied by a little bit of a sneer :), I thought:
Unlike the new, attention-getting “doomsday” seed bank dug into the permafrost of Svalbard, Norway, to be the ultimate seed backup, seeds go in and out of the Fort Collins site. About 150,000 seed samples were sent out last year.
It’s a long article, but well worth reading. And check out the slide-show too. The only blemish ((And thanks to Karen Williams for pointing it out.)) is that the genebank is referred to as the “CSU gene bank,” CSU being Colorado State University. Well, it’s undoubtedly on the campus of CSU, but the National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation is a federal facility under USDA.