Is the trust responsible for gathering the samples for the Svalbard vaults?
First, we’ll provide the ongoing funding to maintain the vault forever. We can do that due to an endowment that generates perpetual income. Second, we’ll have a project headquartered in Rome that works with institutions and seed banks around the world to coordinate the shipments of their seed samples up to Svalbard. What’s your take on GM seed? How does that affect what you’re doing? It’s not a big issue for us. The media (often asks) if GMO seeds will be in the Svalbard vaults — if we’ll prevent them or seek them out. Or, they’ll ask ‘how do pro-GMO or anti-GMO people feel about the vault?’ I always point out that I can honestly provide whatever answer they want to hear. The fact is both pro-GMO and anti-GMO groups like what we’re doing. This vault might be the only thing they agree on. The logic is this: if you’re anti-GMO, the vault is a great thing because you may believe that GMOs will destroy agriculture, backfire ecologically and result in a gigantic disaster. If that happens, a
