This great post is a reprint from one of the many blogs in our network: eatdrinkbetter.com. Multi-National corporations continue to develop agricultural strategies which indirectly destroys food crop biodiversity.
Some estimates suggest that we have lost as much as 75% of our food crop diversity in the last century We have so many pressures on food crop security – mono-cropping to GMO’s – that this type of popular action is very important.
Saving Heirloom Seeds Through Crowd Sourcing
by Urban Artichoke
Want to Save an Heirloom? Grow it!
I’m getting ready to sow my Three Heart Lettuce seeds and be part of a volunteer team that is evaluating a special heirloom variety of lettuce that is in danger of extinction. Just like rare wild plants and animals, food crops can disappear forever. It happens when people are no longer growing them, and it’s happening more often now that we rely on industrial agriculture for the produce we eat.
The project is the Member-Grower Evaluation Network (M-GEN), run by Seed Savers Exchange (SSE). The program was initiated last year to involve Seed Savers Exchange members in evaluating the numerous heritage varieties of edible plants maintained at their headquarters, Heritage Farm, in Decorah Iowa…
To read the rest of the article, as well as more about crowd sourced seed saving, please click here.
Photo from Flickr
Some rights reserved by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML
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