Stordalen and Crop Trust in alliance on food safety

Crop Trust CEO Haga Minister BrendeApril 2016, Norway signs agreement to support final Phase of CWR Project. Photo: Crop Trust

Stordalen and Crop Trust in alliance on food safety

Gunhild Stordalen and Crop Trust Manager, Aslaug Haga, join forces in a strategic alliance in the effort to secure the planet’s nutritionally rich food in the future.

 

The global organization Crop Trust works to preserve the environment through the securing of seeds and genetic material from plants that they believe are important for the world’s food supply. The bank includes the world’s largest secure storage facility for seeds in Svalbard, the newspaper VG reports.

Collaboration with the EAT Foundation

Indonesian Minister of Health, Nila Moeloek and EAT President, Gunhild A. Stordalen. Photo: Pierre Michel Virot

Now the organization is collaborating with Stordalen’s EAT Foundation.

– Loss of biodiversity is one of the biggest threats to food safety. 75 percent of the world’s food comes from just 12 plant species and 5 animal species. Still fewer species make us the most vulnerable to climate change, epidemics and natural disasters, says Stordalen.

Haga says they mainly work to ensure plant diversity.

– Some species are easy to preserve for eternity, such as wheat, which can be stored in Svalbard vault and still be spawning after 1,200 years, while coconuts and coffee, for example, must be preserved in their own fields in the wild, she says.

Monday and Tuesday, the EAT conference will take place in Stockholm. Here, one common goal will be discussed: to feed the whole world’s population in a healthy and sustainable manner.

About the Crop Trust

Expert consultation group meeting at the Crop Trust, November 2016, Photo: Crop Trust

– The Crop Trust is a small organization with a big mission, says Aslaug Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust

The Trust was founded in 2004 in Rome, Italy by the Food and Agriculture Organization and Bioversity International on behalf of the CGIAR international agricultural research consortium.

The Crop Trust concluded a Headquarters Agreement with the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in December 2012 and transferred its headquarters to its permanent location in Bonn in 2013.

Throughout its 10-year history, the Trust has made significant leaps in ensuring the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security world-wide.

 

© NTB Scanpix /Crop Trust / Norway Today