The Svalbard seed vault was created to protect and store as many unique kinds of seeds of crop plants as possible. Why? Think of it as an insurance policy for future global agriculture.

As our world changes, we need to be prepared. Crops may fail in a given area during a pest infestation or as a result of climate change. That’s when we need to replace certain strains of seeds with new ones. Ones that are tough enough to tolerate pests. Or ones that can handle flooding. Or ones that can take on extreme temperatures or poor soil conditions. These super seeds might be present in some rare types of crop plants. But we may want to breed one kind of plant with another to get the seed we need. So, it’s important to have a large supply of the raw materials available to us.

Unfortunately, that pool of plants is shrinking. We are beginning to lose distinctive kinds of seeds. Records show that the United States had 500 varieties of cabbage and 285 types of cucumber for sale in 1903. By 1983, the National Seed Storage Laboratory listed only 28 kinds of cabbage. And just 16 varieties of cucumber. That sweeping change was the same for other kinds of seeds. America lost 93 percent of its seed types in only 80 years.

Seed loss is not limited to the U.S. China has seen a sharp decline in varieties of rice. Only 10 percent of the types of rice that were being grown there in the 1950s are still being grown.

Some changes in agriculture have been revolutionary. People now produce crops with more machines and on larger scales. That’s great—more food for more people. But, only 30 crops provide about 95 percent of humans’ food energy needs. We are relying on very few kinds of foods. Yet, the world’s food supplies are always at risk of disease or drought or some other peril. So, storing seeds for the long term is a smart idea.