Saving Seeds to Protect Crop Biodiversity

There's an old man named Will who lives on a farm in the tiny town of Industry, Maine. He has a bushy white beard and wears suspenders and spends his days collecting plant seeds. Not just any old seeds, but the rare seeds of heirloom vegetables and plants from the past. He is a self-proclaimed Noah of sorts; his garden of forgotten and endangered vegetables is the Ark. His goal is to preserve the genetic diversity of vegetables in a world flooded with modified and uniform seeds.

Will's Scatterseed Project is the largest of its kind in the country. However Will is not alone, though efforts like his are few and far between. Will collaborates with the US Department of Agriculture's National Plant Germplasm System, which is part of collective of public and private organizations all over the world trying to save seeds in seed banks. The USDA is particularly concerned with the effort to collect and preserve the plant germplasm of important economic crops. In conjunction with major seed banks, small, specialized seed companies, like Seed Savers Exchange out of Iowa, are also saving seeds, as are handful determined seed farmers, like Will.

However, despite all of these levels of effort, saving seeds is no easy task, and the genetic diversity of seeds is still dwindling. This is a little alarming, because protecting crop biodiversity is a vital component of ensuring the future of sustainable food and agriculture. The more farmers and industrial agriculture depend on handful of uniform seed varieties distributed by a few big seed companies, the less secure our agricultural future becomes. It's hard to know which seeds will stand up to the anticipated stresses of climate change, pests and new strains of plant diseases. Therefore it is so important to preserve as many varieties and species of seeds as possible. Many seeds are also culturally important, and the loss of seeds that are found only in specific regions can be detrimental to local heritage.

Ideally, seeds should be saved through cultivating live plants, and thereby multiplying seeds. This is precisely what Will and projects like Seed Savers Exchange are trying to do, by giving away or selling samples of various rare seeds for farmers to grow and propagate. Saving seeds is an increasingly important side of agriculture that is often forgotten but so easy to be a part of.
You can help by planting rare seeds in your own garden, collecting and dispersing them. By growing and saving rare seeds you can help protect and increase plant biodiversity and take responsibility for the quality and sustainability of our own food rather than rely on large distributors. You will also be supporting sustainable, local food by growing varieties of crops suited for our specific region.