Pair behind 'Doomsday vault,' a bank of 1.25 million seeds, win $500,000 World Food Prize

The two men behind the so-called “Doomsday vault” holding 1.25 million seed samples ― seeds that can be used to rebuild much the world's food supply if catastrophe hits ― are this year’s winner of the $500,000 World Food Prize.

Cary Fowler, the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, and Geoffrey Hawtin, founding director at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, won for their work to establish the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds more than 6,000 plant species in an underground facility in the Arctic circle.

Fowler, a Tennessee native, said many thought creating the Svalbard seed vault was a crazy idea. But since it opened in 2008, "we’ve since managed to collect and preserve the diversity of all of the major crops, including 150,000 types of wheat" and as many types of rice.

From 2018: Global warming prompts Norway to strengthen its doomsday seed vault

Hawtin spent much of his early career — even risking his life — collecting, preserving and protecting species of chickpeas, fava beans and other legumes from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, the Des Moines-based World Food Prize Foundation said.

Preserving the genetic diversity of crops is key to food security, Hawtin said, and many strains are "as endangered as pandas and rhinos."

The prize, established by Iowa native Norman Borlaug and doubled from $250,000 last year, will be awarded at the culmination of the Oct. 29-31 World Food Prize conference in Des Moines. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, World Food Prize Foundation President Terry Branstad and others announced the award Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Blinken said Fowler and Hawtin's work has strengthened agriculture's foundation. "That is more important than ever, largely because of climate change," he said during the ceremony. "Our global food systems are under unprecedented stress. More than 700 million people around the world are experiencing chronic hunger." with "devastating consequences."

"Malnutrition can affect someone's health for a lifetime. Widespread hunger can fuel instability, violence, irregular migration, and in turn, greater food insecurity," Blinken said, adding that the Biden administration has provided $20 billion to address global hunger.

Here's what to know about the prize and the winners.

What’s the World Food Prize?

Borlaug, who founded the World Food Prize organization in 1986, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his research that led the creation of drought-resistant, high-yielding wheat varieties. He is credited as the "father of the Green Revolution," who saved a billion people from hunger.

Borlaug created the award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of agriculture, to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to improving the quality and quantity of food throughout the world.

Former Iowa Gov. Branstad, who was the longest-serving governor in U.S. history before stepping down to serve as President Donald Trump's ambassador to China, became the president of the World Food Prize Foundation in 2023.

Why is the World Food Prize Foundation honoring Fowler and Hawtin?

The two helped develop what’s now referred to as the Plant Treaty, adopted in 2001, that allowed plant genetic material to be moved globally, providing the foundation for the Svalbard vault.

The vault is buried under permafrost deep in a mountain. The Norwegian government operates it with regional gene bank Nordic Genetic Resource Center, called NordGen, and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, referred to as the Crop Trust. Fowler was the Crop Trust's first executive director.

What goes on in the Svalbard seed vault?

The vault stockpiles duplicate samples of countries’ seed collections, providing backup for losses that can occur in natural disasters, war, fire and floods as well as equipment failures. The permafrost helps keep it at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

With space for 4.5 million seed samples, the vault, which supports 1,700 gene banks worldwide, is called “the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply.”

“The seed vault is underpinning the work of all these seed banks across the world,” said Hawtin, awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2017 for his work in global agrobiodiversity and sustainable food programs.

“They’re not just collecting materials," he said. "They're distributing materials and making them available” to researchers and growers and “learning about them."

“In a very real sense, the vault enables them to be confident in doing their extremely important everyday work,” he said.

Have the stored seeds been tapped yet?

Already, Syrian scientists driven from the country in 2014 by civil conflict have tapped that nation's stored seeds. Relocated to Morocco and Lebanon, the scientists have been rebuilding stock that includes barley, lentils and chickpeas.

Hawtin said he was in Morocco recently, where the Svalbard seeds were being grown in the field.

“It was being tested for drought resistance, for example,” he said. “They're going to be finding their way into new varieties over the next few years.

“In a very real sense, it's contributing today ... it’s not just future activity,” he said.

Fowler added: “It doesn’t just ensure the collections of different seed banks across the world, but in a sense, it puts an end to extinction occurring with agricultural diversity.”

Is the Svalbard seed vault primarily a long-term insurance policy?

“We've had people ask, well, how do we get up there to get the seeds out if there’s a doomsday,” said Fowler, who added his "somewhat flippant answer" is “Don’t worry … we’ll come to you.”

“I think the doomsday moniker that it's gotten is mostly inaccurate, but there is a grain of truth in it,” Fowler said. “Yes, if there were some global or regional catastrophe, do I think the seed vault would be invaluable and useful? … Absolutely.

“But it wasn't really built with anticipation of an asteroid striking the earth or something like that,” he said. “It was built to deal with the practical real life, almost daily problems that we experience in seed banks around the world.”

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Creators of 'Doomsday vault' for seeds win $500,000 World Food Prize