The Doomsday Vault

Interesting article. What's the shelf life of a seed? Whenever I've tried to use "old" seeds (e.g. several years old) in my garden, I've grown nothing but weeds. If these seeds won't be of use, why store them at all?

Seeds can last a long time if stored properly. Normally we do not go to the trouble for last years garden leftovers. Also, if you store a sufficient quantity, even though the percentage of viable seeds declines with time there will still be some that germinate. Additionally, I'm sure with a project of this nature that they would periodically rotate in fresh seeds as long as they were available so that the stocks would be kept as viable as possible.

I don't think the sterile seed is some corporate conspiracy as much as it is about crop rotation. Each individual plant starves the soil of particular nutriuts when it is growing, and leaves another set behind when it dies, so the whole idea is rotate to a diffrent crop every year to take advantage of the nutriuts.

My understanding is that seed producers provide hybrids that maximize production. It is not so much a conspiracy, but what it takes to get the maximum bushels per acre, like a mule that is larger, stronger and more resiliant than either a horse or donkey, but not genetically viable. I remember hearing about the mystery of corn. There was no known variety that could survive without cultivation. I have also read from time to time about people finding stored ancient seeds and scientist being able to get some of them to sprout.

There is one other risk not mentioned regarding the genetic heritage of our food supply. Genetically Modified Organisms are infiltrating the natural genetic composition of our food change at an alarming rate. Although GMO's may offer a big advantage in feeding the world's hungry the greed of multinational corporations to profit from the same may push the technology faster than our ability to do it safely. Are we willing to bet the possible corruption of millions of years of successful evolution on the little bit that man has learned in 50 or so years? If you are interested in an eye opening view to all this find and watch the movie "Future of Food". It's not like we haven't already had a few "good" ideas that didn't exactly work out to be so good; CFC's, PCB's, DDT and the list goes on.

Oh and by the way, part of the genetic engineering is aimed at making sterile seeds so that you can't save your own seed stock to avoid buying the intellectual property on a yearly basis.