“Conserving the genetic diversity of crops is a reasonably easy thing to do; it’s much more expensive to lose the diver- sity,” Fowler says, “because it deprives farmers of the pest and disease resistance and other traits they need in their crops.” Unlike other seed banks in the world, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is tun- neled into a mountain, and it’s the most northern point that you could fly on a commercial airline. It’s remote, but still accessible. Fowler also notes that it’s an extremely cold area, which means the seed vault doesn’t depend completely on machinery to freeze the samples. “At the time, I was based in Norway,” Fowler says. “It was a trusting country. Fifteen years ago, creating a global seed vault seemed like a reasonable idea, but also an equally crazy one. It was difficult to approach a government and say, ‘We’d like to build a tunnel in a mountain and put seeds in it.’ But, Norway understood the importance, approved the project, and paid for the construction of the seed vault.” Besides the unique location, Fowler notes that the Svalbard Seed Vault is also purely a back-up plan. Unlike other seed banks, there’s no redistribution to serve plant breeders directly. “We’re purely an insurance policy for the seed banks that do serve plant breeders,” Fowler says. The vault contains just under a million samples, ranging from row crops to veg- etables to grazing crops. “We have over 150,000 wheat varieties, 150,000 rice varieties and 30,000 samples of beans,” says Fowler. “It contains all crops that relate to food and agriculture.” SEPTEMBER 2018 SEEDWORLD.COM / 7 Fowler isn’t one not to practice what he preaches. He lives in New York on his own farm, where he has more than 130 varieties of apples, a herd of Red Pole cattle and a flock of Buckeye chickens. “I also play around with breeding a variety of grass pea in my free time,” says Fowler. “My wife is a serious gardener and writer, as well. She’s working on a book about peppers. She grows a lot of older varieties and documents them with field notes on their history, how to grow them and their use. Last year, she grew around 500 varieties of peppers.” But, even with the Svalbard Seed Vault and Fowler’s efforts, there’s still more that seed businesses can do to help conserve crop diversity. “What I’ve tried to do with my life is really a service to the seed industry. It goes with- out saying that I think it’s important,” Fowler says. “Even though I haven’t been a direct member of the industry, I certainly admire it. “This genetic diversity is critical to seed companies — it’s the foundation of their business. If seed companies can provide more education and more advocacy for preserving crop diversity, that would be a great help. Conserving diversity 49 out of 50 years isn’t good enough. We need to conserve 50 out of 50 years.” SW Fowler holding two seed sample tubes. Svalbard Global Seed Vault. PHOTO: MARI TEFRE PHOTO : JIM RICHARDSON