Seeds, Agrodiversity and

If a crop that is desired for food, fodder, or fiber, is to be available for the next planting season, some of its seeds must be preserved. For biologists, agricultural scientists, gardeners, and farmers, there is growing concern about the dependence upon seed companies. Seed companies produce billions of dollars worth of seeds every year; however, their products are often hybrid varieties of seeds that produce a high yield one year, but not in subsequent years. For example, some varieties of hybrid tomatoes give large abundant tomatoes the year that they are planted; however, if seeds are saved for the next year, the resulting tomatoes are small, full of liquid and seeds, and covered by a tough skin. There are several reasons critics give for lessening dependence upon seed companies and upon hybrids. One reason is the danger of the loss of disease resistance in seeds because a plant pathogen such as a mold, fungi, rust, virus, or bacteria has mutated or has developed resistance to pesticides. Another reason is the cost of seeds purchased each year is greater than those simply saved each year. A third danger is that many genetic characteristics have been bred out in successive generations of hybrids. The danger for society if this situation were to prevail is that the original gene pool that included a gene resistant to a viral strain or to some forms of bacteria may be lost.

There is a growing movement among gardeners, scientists, and agriculturalists to promote heirloom varieties of seeds. Many of these heirloom varieties have genetic features that enable them to be preserved by “seed savers” and to be replanted from year to year. Agrodiversity is a fundamental feature of farming systems around the world. Using heirloom seeds preserves agrodiversity and increases seed security from the dangers of plant diseases that could conceivably wipe out a major food plant. Organizations and universities, as well as informal groups of gardeners, are developing databases of heirloom seeds. Others are making it a point of pride to plant them, even though a hybrid might give somewhat better results.

The cost of seeds is an important factor in the growing interest in agrodiversity through the preservation of old seed stocks. The Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program at the University of Georgia is promoting a Southern Seed Legacy (SSL) Project in order to identify and to preserve the diversity of seeds in the American South. The program is also creating a database of memories in which people describe how older crops were grown, how they tasted, and other culturally significant information.

The United Nations (UN) is developing a program to preserve seed stocks. Food security is a major motivation. Unless the “gene pool” for domesticated plants is maintained, the world's supply of many staples could be destroyed by the emergence of a new form of pathogen, or by the global spread of a disease that could kill plants that were not previously infected. The UN program is called [Page 1582]“People, Land Management, and Environmental Change” (PLEC). It recruits farmers in the tropics who work small plots of land. Projects to locate and study farms that could be sources of biodiversity in places like Tanzania are already in place. Because these farmers have been choosing crops that match their local ecology, they have also preserved more of the genes of the species they plant, which means that their crops have more inherent agrodiversity.

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