Deep inside the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, a concrete wedge in the permafrost holds a backup copy of the world’s food supply. Seed vaults like this are often framed as props in an apocalypse ...

Two-thirds of the world’s food comes today from just nine plants: sugar cane, maize (corn), rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, oil-palm fruit, sugar beet and cassava. In the past, farmers grew tens of ...