10 February 2007

Doomsday vault for your greens and carbo

A bit of a sensationalised name, perhaps, but the Svalbard International Seed Vault intends to serve as a cryogenic storage for the world's agricultural crop diversity: seeds! I love the idea of this seed vault built to last against anything we humans can throw at the environment - very practical AND beautiful.

What about proteins though? Meat sources are going to much, much harder to preserve. Cloning runs the risk of destroyed labs, perpetually reproducing 'stock' animals are no better than your normal farm.... under an ice mountain. Tough question. Perhaps we might all become vegetarians, since all essential amino acids can be found from plant sources.