With a still growing population, climate change and new plant diseases, we need crop plant varieties that can secure future food supplies — we need to hold on to what we already have, before it’s gone. Åsmund Asdal (born 1957) is a Norwegian biologist and agronomist employed at Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) as Svalbard Global Seed Vault(SGSV) Coordinator. He facilitates seed deposits in the SGSV from the international community of gene banks and research institutes holding seed collections of plant genetic resources, and is responsible for information and media visits to the Seed Vault. From 2001 to 2015 he managed the Norwegian national program for plant genetic resources at the Norwegian Genetic Resource Centre. He has also conducted research for the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk), the Norwegian Genetic Resources Centre 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