With an ever-growing population, climate change and new plant diseases, we need crop varieties that can secure future food supplies – we need to conserve what we already have, before it disappears. Åsmund Asdal (born 1957) is a Norwegian biologist and agronomist employed at the Nordic Center for Genetic Resources (NordGen) as coordinator of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV). He facilitates seed deposits at SGSV to the international community of genebanks and research institutes holding seed collections of plant genetic resources, and is responsible for informational and media visits to the Seed Vault. From 2001 to 2015, he led the Norwegian National Program for Plant Genetic Resources at the Norwegian Center for Genetic Resources. He has also conducted research for the Norwegian Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk), the Norwegian Genetic Resources Center and the Norwegian Crop Research Institute. Publications include Fra forsøksgården på Landvik til Norsk institutt for Planteforskning:Planteforsk Landvik 50 år (2000) and Kompostkvalitet – dokumentasjon og anbefalinger: rapport fra prosjektet Utvikling av kompostprodukter (2002). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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