Josh Grix

The I.R.R ( international rice research) sent 42,627 samples of seeds from different types of rice last week to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, called the "Doomsday Vault," to help secure the world's rice diversity. The black boxes containing the rice seeds traveled to the mountains of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, its kind of close to the North Pole. Deep inside Svalbard's icy mountains, the Vault houses all of the world's important crop seeds that may be humanity's ultimate insurance in food security in the event of a major crisis. The rice collection that left IRR is the Institute's second deposit to the Vault. The first deposit of 70,180 rice samples was made during the inauguration of the Vault in February 2008 – the largest shipment for the Vault's opening.