Title: Food security and the doomsday vault: foresight or fallacy?

Authors: Charles R. Simpson

Addresses: State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA

Abstract: In 2008, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture initiated a Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, an ex situ collection of the world|s domesticated food plants for conservation and research. After examining seed vault policy in the context of shifts in agriculture over the last decades - centralization of seed innovation, seed patenting, and the impact of industrial agriculture on crop diversity - the analysis supports the conclusion that the vault| approach is not an avenue to food security because it accelerates the very system eroding genetic diversity in food crops and marginalizes in situ crop conservation.

Keywords: seed vault policy; seed vaults; agriculture shifts; seed innovation; seed patenting; industrial agriculture; crop diversity; food security; genetic diversity; food crops; in situ crop conservation

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2009.053971

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2009 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.73 - 99

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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