FAO: Ancient Peruvian potato crops preserved for future generations in Arctic seed vault

Varieties of one of the world’s most important staple crops, among them Peruvian potato seeds, have now been stored for perpetuity deep in the Arctic ice, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Thursday. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of (FAO) joined scientific experts and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway to witness a ceremony that will help to preserve these vital crops for future generations. The deposit was made at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a back-up facility in the permafrost far north of the Arctic Circle that currently holds over 860,000 food crop seeds from all over the world. More