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This past week, Norway opened its "doomsday" seed vault to safeguard seeds from around the world against climate change, wars or natural disasters:

After several years of planning and digging, the world has its first secure, deep-frozen repository for backup supplies of seeds from hundreds of thousands of plant varieties that underpin agriculture. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was built into a frigid mountainside in Norway's northernmost archipelago, deep in the Arctic.

Located about 600 miles from the North Pole, the repository entrance lies 400 feet above sea level, so there's no chance of being flooded when all the ice has melted. There are 268,000 distinct samples of seeds from more than 100 countries - about 100 million seeds in all.

And who's paying for all of this?

The Norwegian government put up more than $7 million for construction. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing money to help developing countries package and ship seed samples, as part of a broader $30-million project to protect the genetic diversity of the world's main food crops.

In addition, The Global Crop Diversity Trust is paying for the operation of the seed vault through contributions from countries, international agencies, and foundations.

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