Agriculture is the basis of human civilization. The Svalbard Seed Vault was built to preserve that foundation from wars, disaster, and the looming threat of climate change. How was it built? What's ...

Since the vault's inauguration in 2008, over 1.3 million seed samples, representing 6,000 different species (none of them genetically modified) from 128 countries, have been deposited.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has a practical mission – protecting seeds as a backup for seed banks around the world – but inspires strong cultural, political and artistic reactions.

The vault is designed to prolong their dormancy at zero degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) in three ice-covered caverns inside a sandstone mountain. The air is so cold inside that when I entered ...