The most obvious hypothesis is that these corporations see in Svalbard an opportunity to gain further control of the world’s plant genetics - being able to utilize the seed bank as a resource for germplasm that can be used for creating patentable hybrid or genetically engineered seed varieties. Why this interest by these biotech companies and their surrogates in paying the operational costs of Svalbard? These companies have no record of altruistic concern for the integrity and diversity of seeds and have in fact been destroying that diversity through genetic engineering and patenting for decades.

Together these two companies own another 25% of the world’s commercial seeds and are also among the leaders in agriculture biotechnology and in patenting of plant genetics. (Global Diversity Trust, “Funding Status 1-1-2011.” ). Dupont/Pioneer Seeds has donated $1 million as has Syngenta. Only two private corporations have donated to the GCDT. Svalbard’s ties to the Gates Foundation and Monsanto are not the only issue. Monsanto has also had a decade long history of persecuting and prosecuting thousands of farmers for saving seeds. This Monsanto connection to Svalbard is very troubling as the corporation owns almost a quarter of all the world’s commercial seeds and is the world’s leader in the genetic engineering of crops and the patenting of plant genetics (including plant genes, cells and seeds).

In 2006 the Gates Foundation hired Rob Horsch, a former Monsanto Vice President and a key scientist involved in the creation of the company’s Round Up Ready crops in the 1980s, as their Senior Program Officer for their International Agriculture Development Program. The Gates Foundation invested $23 million in Monsanto in 2010 to help the company through some financial woes, and has been a determined supporter of spreading Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops throughout the developing world. As is well known, the Gates Foundation has very close working ties to Monsanto. This is by far the largest support of any non-governmental entity. ( Global Diversity Trust, “Funding Status 1-1-2011'). The Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), which supports the operational costs of Svalbard, has received almost $30 million dollars in support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There is however yet another important concern about Svalbard. ) Sadly it seems like the Fort Collins fiasco redux. Some at NordGen believed that she was a “scapegoat” for the seed bank’s well known problems including continuing deficits, significant understaffing, and failure to do routine tests on the deposited seed to determine viability. In December 2010 NordGen, the entity overseeing Svalbard, fired its Director Jessica Kathle. Not surprisingly these fears have recently been justified. This has been one of the bases for CFS’ longstanding concerns about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. As noted elsewhere on this site, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) strongly advocates for in situ protection of plant diversity, and when ex situ seed saving is required it should reside at the most local and ecologically appropriate level. Since that first experience I learned that bigger is definitely not better or safer when it comes to seed saving. This litigation ultimately forced a settlement where USDA agreed to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and conditions at the seed bank improved somewhat. As such I reviewed much of the material in the case that documented USDA’s complete disregard for the safety and integrity of the seeds under its care.

I was a very active member of that legal team. But when no real action resulted we litigated. A legal petition by my organization to rectify the decision seemed to get the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) attention. Numerous seed deposits were spilling out onto the floors of the facility, the facility was woefully understaffed, there was no testing of the seed and a virtually complete failure of required regeneration - in short a seed saving disaster.

Journalists had published stories dramatically detailing the grossly negligent manner in which deposits to the seed bank were treated. My first experience with the perils of large scale seed banks was the scandal that erupted over the Fort Collins collection in the mid-1980s.

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