Arctic islands to host “Noah’s Ark” of genes

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Nordic Genebank are establishing an international gene bank in a closed down coal mine on Norway’s Svalbard Islands.

This cold-storage site is intended to serve as a kind of genetic “Noah’s Ark” in the event of a nuclear disaster.

More than 6,000 samples of seeds from grains, grass, vegetables and other agricultural plants from the Nordic countries are already stored in the mine.