Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC

Sounds.

Hello and welcome to the Witness Podcast with me Louise Adaggo.

In January 2008, Seize began arriving at the world's first global seed vault, buried deep inside the

permafrost in a mountain in the Arctic Circle on an island north of Norway.

The vault was built to ensure the survival of the world's food

supply and its agricultural history in the event of a global catastrophe. I've been

speaking to the man behind the idea American agriculturalist Dr.

Kerry Fowler.

We had chartered a plane from the mainland that came in.

I suspect it was the first plane in history to be carrying a load completely of seeds.

Kerry Fowler had been working towards this for years, the world's first truly safe deposit box for every seed known to man. What was it like

seeing those first seeds arrive? Just an extraordinary moment. If you see these

boxes from all the different countries in the world and you imagine what's inside of them,

living seeds that have been passed down successfully from one generation to another

basically since the dawn of agriculture,, 15,000 years ago.

It's almost a religious experience. I've had visitors that have walked out of that room

...