Svalbard Global Seed Vault opens

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

The purpose of the repository is to preserve crop genetic diversity. I think it's an important project, but is it really enough?

Source: EurekaAlert!

Additional coverage from the New York Times.