#Dupont doomsday vault tv#
#Dupont doomsday vault free#

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the worldвЂ™s most remote spots, Svalbard. So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in BuffetвЂ™s Berkshire Hathaway put the GatesвЂ™ foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United NationsвЂ™ World Health Organization.

#Dupont doomsday vault free#

With the investigation turning in other directions, this beige building in Colorado can return to business as usual: securely storing the worldвЂ™s seeds.In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the worldвЂ™s largest вЂtransparentвЂ™ private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. ThatвЂ™s how all eyes fell on the vaultвЂ™s doors when news broke in June about Monsanto's glyphosate-resistant, commonly called RoundUp Ready, found growing in small volunteer patches in a wheat field in Oregon, with a potential connection to the Fort Collins vault.Дierig said heвЂ™s unable to comment on the Oregon case as the USDA is still investigating the exact source of the errant wheat plants. ThereвЂ™d have to be some kind of extenuating circumstances, for them to say, вЂWe need you to keep this seed,вЂ™вЂќ Dierig said.Д®ven though it is rare, privately owned, genetically modified seed does make it into storage. вЂњIt would really be a rare case where we would keep another companyвЂ™s seed. Private companies such as Monsanto and Dupont can also store their seeds in the federally owned building. Other seed vaults throughout the world store their back-up collections here because of the facilityвЂ™s reputation not just for the promise of security but also the ability to preserve the viability of seeds for longer periods of time. It serves as another reminder of the buildingвЂ™s emphasis on security.

#Dupont doomsday vault tv#

To the right of the large, grey metal vault doors, a TV screen shows a live stream of the seed vault. You need access to a secure database to find out whatвЂ™s inside. Looking at a seed pouch, thereвЂ™s nothing that tells you what kind of seeds youвЂ™re holding, just a bar code. Another security measure is the labeling system. вЂњTheyвЂ™re all bar-coded so we know exactly where everything is,вЂќ said Dave Dierig, research leader at the center, and one of six people in the building with access to the vaults. The temperature is kept at a level similar to a home freezer, at low humidity to arrest seed degradation and keep them viable longer. In this room, there are 600,000 seed packets, which puts the total number of seeds in the billions. Upstairs, in the facilityвЂ™s main cold storage vault, ceiling-high shelves hold seemingly endless rows of white pouches. Inside, it holds one of the worldвЂ™s largest collections of seeds, genetic material for livestock, microbes, and endangered plants under highly-sophisticated lock and key. From the outside it may not look like a bastion of the American agriculture industry. Just a friendly welcome video playing in the lobby and a warm-natured receptionist behind a desk, who hands you a clipboard with a sign-in sheet.Д«ut that doesnвЂ™t mean the center is lax on security. ItвЂ™s a nondescript, beige building just off the quad at Colorado State University. Officially, the Fort Collins facility is called the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation. But the investigation brings up questions of how secure these seed vaults actually are. Department of Agriculture spokesman says all of MonsantoвЂ™s 1,500 pounds of wheat seeds held at the vault were incinerated a year and a half ago at the corporationвЂ™s request. The facility's been cleared of wrongdoing since then. A flurry of initial finger-pointing cast potential blame on a federal seed vault in Fort Collins, Colo., which housed the same strain of wheat, developed by Monsanto Corp., for about seven years up until late 2011. When unapproved genetically modified wheat was found growing in Oregon earlier this year, it didnвЂ™t take long for accusations about how it ended up there to start flying. The vault was not the source of contamination, but the event raised questions about security. It once stored unapproved biotech wheat that was recently found in Oregon.

serves as a locked-down, genetic warehouse.