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The Farmers' Bank

On February 26, a bank on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic accepted its first depositoa container of rice seeds from 104 countries. One day, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault will house some of the world's most precious treasures. Built to withstand natural and manmade disasters, the bank will hold samples of every crop on the planet.

"It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations," says Norway's prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg.

Farmers have been storing seed varieties for thousands of years. Today, seeds are saved mostly in national seed banks. Often, the banks with the richest collections are located in unstable countries that don't take care of them.

Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which provides support for the bank, says it is a safety net for the world's food supply. The specimens will be kept very dry, and in temperatures around 0°F. Properly stored, some seeds can last thousands of years.

Norway owns the vault, which cost about $9 million to build. Other countries can deposit seeds without charge. "If you think of it as an insurance policy for the world, you can't beat the value," says Fowler.

Next: All of Earth's Species, from A to Z