Doomsday Seed Vault...this is interesting

The USDA holdings in Colorado can indeed probably survive such a blast. But the stock would rapidly deteriorate without Man being around to supply the energy needed to keep the freezer equipment running. That makes it a short-term arrangement as versus a virtual eternity in the Arctic permafrost. At Svalbard, Man could vanish from the island or the entire hemisphere for a thousand years and Nature would be there to attend to it.

Martin

We can never know for sure. But given the changes in the world, any and all seed banks are a good thing. Meanwhile, all us little guys must grow and save seed as best we can. Things have changed so much in the last couple of generations, even before the horror of GMO's. Farmers used to save their own seed as a matter of course, so even with standard varieties there would have been some regional variation.
How many people even try to save their own veggie seeds year to year? It would take some cooperation with neighbors, as everyone cant save everything due to cross-pollination. I've grown my own potatoes, onions and garlic (all easy) for years, and even in this rural area that surprises most people. Why grow potatoes they say..they're so cheap to buy. Garlic from china..why bother growing your own..onions - two bucks a big bag..
I remember a few years back there was a truckers strike. No bread anywhere for a few days. Big panic and a rush for the few loaves that were left on the shelves. I had wheat berries in pails and flour in the freezer

Makes me think of when bananas became extinct back in the 1950s.

They just started growing a new variety. There are thousands of varieties/species of bananas.

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