Bid Now on a Trip to Norway For an Expedition to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault With Martha Stewart

Bid now to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Norway for an expedition to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with Martha Stewart in support of The Crop Trust.

WHAT YOU'LL WIN

• An Exclusive Expedition to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with Martha Stewart
• A Private Tour of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
• Intimate Dinners and Discussions with Leading Food Scientists and Policy Makers
• Arctic Adventures such as Polar Bear Tour, Dog Sledding, Snowmobiling & Glacial Cave Adventures
• Roundtrip Airfare and Hotel Accommodations for Two

Click here to bid.

A NOTE FROM Martha Stewart

Ever wondered what precautions are being taken to safeguard our food supply for the future? In a town of 1,100 people on a remote Norwegian island just 1,800 miles from the North Pole lies the answer-the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Carved deep into the side of a mountain close to Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on the planet, is a magnificent concrete structure housing seeds from nearly every country in the world. This February, I want to invite you to Norway for a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to the Seed Vault.

We'll will fly you and a friend to Oslo and cover your hotel and transportation, then we'll be off on the incredible expedition that includes a private tour of the vault, intimate discussions with leading food scientists and global policy makers, Michelin-rated dinners and a champagne reception to view the Northern Lights, intimate discussions with leading food scientists and global policy makers, and even a day of adventures including a polar bear tour, dog sledding, and exploring glacial cave - It's a trip you'll never forget!

All it takes is a $10 donation to support The Crop Trust's work in protecting the seeds that will guarantee our food supply. If you want to donate more, you'll earn extra entries to win, plus get some cool exclusive outerwear and more. It's my way of saying thank you for supporting this organization's important conservation efforts.

Bundle up-it's cold in Norway in February! Sees snart! (That's Norwegian for "See you soon"!)

-Martha

ABOUT THE SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault houses duplicates of seed conserved in Gene Banks all over the world. The Seed Vault, which opened in 2008, facilitates security conservation of seeds, comprising genetic material of importance for food and agriculture. The seeds that are safeguarded in Svalbard are of value for food and agriculture, and and of importance for research, plant breeding, and education, in accordance with International laws, including the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Conserved accessions (seed samples with unique genotypes) have been duplicated and are conserved in a suitable gene bank, in order to make the Seed Vault the second security back up. The Seed Vault conserves seeds under "black box conditions".

The seeds that are secured in the Seed Vault include crop varieties, farmers' land races, breeding material, and wild plants that are related to and could be gene donors to new varieties of crops. To date, Seed Vault holdings include more than 5,000 plant species.

The largest numbers of accessions stored in the Seed Vault are varieties of rice, wheat and barley crops. Other well represented crops are sorghum, Phaseolus bean species, maize, cowpea, soybean, kikuyu grass, and chickpea. Crops such as potatoes, peanuts, Cajanus beans, oats and rye, alfalfa, the cereal hydrid Tritikosecale, and Brassica's are also represented. These seeds originate from most countries in the world.

Learn more at http://www.seedvault.no/.

ABOUT THE CROP TRUST

The Crop Trust is building an effective, sustainable global system to conserve the world's crop diversity forever. Crop collections come in all shapes and sizes, which is a good thing. Not one collection can safeguard our planet's millions of crop varieties, landraces and wild relatives, or put their diversity to use.

As we see it, the global system of crop conservation stands on three pillars: a small group of international collections; a larger group of national and regional collections; and a failsafe backup for all seed collections, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. These three pillars already stand, and we are working to make all three stronger. This means ensuring long-term conservation happens in the most effective, cost-efficient, and reliable manner possible, so that crop diversity will always be available.

Learn more at https://www.croptrust.org/.

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