chili pepper chill

http://www.thedailygreen.com/

Deep in the Arctic, carved inside a stone mountain, lies the Doomsday Vault. It's a locked, airtight structure that contains something more precious than money or gold. It carries seeds. Half a million variety of crops from different countries all over the world.  It's our safety deposit box against climate change, wars or any catastrophes.

Last week, several chili pepper seeds like, Wenk's Yellow Hots, Pico de Gallos (this a common ingredient in salsa) and San Juan Tsile were added to the collection.  They were delivered by a delegation of US Senators.

"The journey of the chili pepper from the indigenous cultures of the Americas to its current status as an essential ingredient in many Indian and Asian cuisines is a marvelous example of the global disbursement of agricultural diversity," Senator Tom Udall said. "I'm very pleased that we are saving one of New Mexico's most famous and most delicious crops in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault."

Besides chili, they also brought other seeds like peanuts and melons. There is now approximately 250 million seeds in the vault, with each variety having 500 seeds.  Check out their database here.  We can expect that number to grow in the future, but I hope we don't have use them anytime soon.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/spices-76967-chili-vault.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10603656.stm