Global Seed Vault Marks First Anniversary; 20 Million Seeds From One-Third Of Earth's Food Crops Now Stored In Case Of Disaster

February 26, 2009 9:32 a.m. EST

Longyearbyen, Svalbard (AHN) - The global doomsday seed vault located in the Arctic Circle received 90,000 food crop seed samples of hundreds of crop species on the one-year anniversary of its opening.

That gift increases the seeds being stored frozen there, against a time of global disaster, to more than 20 million.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault, was built 426 feet inside a frozen mountain located near Longyearbyen on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

It is a cooperative effort with the goal of protecting the world's food crop species against natural and human disasters.

The 90,000 seeds delivered to the vault on Thursday came from Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, the United States and three international agricultural research centers in Syria, Mexico and Colombia. That gift was part of the events planned to celebrate the opening of the vault.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault cost $7 million to build and now holds seeds from one-third of the food crops grown on earth.