Hot chili peppers stored in sub-zero Arctic vault
July 12th, 2010 - 6:59 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 12 (IANS) A new collection of some of North America’s hottest foods — an eclectic range of chili peppers — has been sent to be stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility in the Artic to preserve seeds for eternity.
It includes Wenk’s Yellow Hots, a pepper that starts out yellow and hot and cools somewhat to red and medium-hot; the unpredictable San Juan “Tsile,” a New Mexico chili still grown by elder farmers in a native American pueblo that can be anything from mild to medium to hot.
Overall, this week’s deposit consists of a total of 537 varieties of 13 crops, according to a statement of the US Department of Agriculture.
The so-called “doomsday” seed vault now contains seeds of more than 525,000 crop varieties, making it the most diverse assemblage of crop diversity amassed anywhere in the world.
“As we manage the impact of climate change around the world, the seed vault in Svalbard will be the safety deposit box that ensures we can keep that food supply intact,” said US Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, chairman of the US-Helsinki Commission.
The seeds were delivered to the vault by a seven-person bipartisan delegation from the US Congress led by Senator Cardin.
The latest samples of seeds come from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Plant Germplasm System , Colorado.
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