Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - [Livingontheland] Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship
  • Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:55:12 -0700


from A Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/heirloom/heirloom.htm

Like any heirlooms passed from generation to generation, the vintage
varieties of garden plants that we still grow today have lasting value. Some
old types of vegetables have been kept alive within families or communities
by succeeding generations of seed savers. Others with a long history in the
seed trade can be traced back to the 19th C., when commerce in seeds
expanded, or even to the Colonial period. Some consider true heirlooms to be
those belonging to the first group above, the "folk varieties" that have
existed for long periods outside of commercial and professional plant
breeding circles. Most, however, favor more inclusive usage, viewing all
traditional varieties, regardless of their lineage or means of distribution,
as bona fide heirlooms.

(In practical terms, making such distinctions can be difficult, since many
old varieties are poorly documented, and the same or similar varieties may
exist under different popular names. These uncertainties, along with changes
in physical traits that occur naturally as plants are continually propagated
over time, can make it difficult to know the origin and identity of a
particular cultivated variety. From a stewardship perspective, the more
inclusive view may be more useful, since both types are threatened with
commercial extinction, their continued survival depending largely on popular
interest and initiative. According to the 1994 Garden Seed Inventory, for
instance, two-thirds of the 5000 non-hybrid varieties available in 1984 seed
catalogs from North America were dropped during the next decade.1)

With respect to heirlooms, how old is "old"? Most people agree that heirloom
vegetables and fruits are those types known through historical documentation
or folk history for at least 50 years. Dating to the early 20th C. and
before, many originated during a very different agricultural age--when
localized and subsistence-based food economies flourished, when waves of
immigrant farmers and gardeners brought cherished seeds and plants to this
country, and before seed saving had dwindled to a "lost art" among most North
American farmers and gardeners. For apples, for instance, antique apple
grower and historian Lee Calhoun uses 1928 as the cut-off date to delineate
the heirloom varieties that were once grown in the U.S. South. By this time,
subsistence farming in the region had nearly disappeared and commercial apple
breeding was severely diminished. (According to his research, only 300 of the
1600 apple varieties that originated or were once grown in the South still
exist.2)

In addition to their long history of use, the heirloom vegetables that are
routinely grown from seed are open-pollinated, meaning that they set seed
"naturally," often aided by wind, rain, or pollinating insects, and can thus
be renewed by sowing the seeds harvested from each generation of plants.
Known also as standard or non-hybrid, open-pollinated varieties tend to be
stable and true-breeding. They differ from F1 hybrids, which in usual
practice result from deliberate crossing of two distinct, highly inbred
parent lines. (The term "F1" to describe the hybrid offspring indicates the
"first filial" generation, with respect to the parent lines.)

Since their genetic makeup has been manipulated--and simplified--in this way,
F1 hybrids tend to be highly uniform, and may display "hybrid vigor," as
shown by improved yields or more robust garden or field performance.
Irrespective of hybrid vigor (which tends to occur in particular kinds of
plants, including corn and brassicas), hybrids are used increasingly in
large-scale, intensive agriculture because they provide production advantages
for farmers and commercial incentives for seed sellers. The benefits of
hybrids tend to be less cut-and-dried for home gardeners, however, and saving
seeds from hybrids is problematic. Although seed collected from F1 hybrids
may be viable, the resulting plants tend to be highly variable, hence
undesirable for many growers and especially un-economical for commercial
producers. Thus, gardeners and farmers who grow hybrids must return to the
seed company each year to obtain the same varietal "package."

Many of the perennial fruits grown in gardens and orchards (including
slow-growing trees and shrubs), and also a few of the more popular garden
vegetables (such as potatoes and onions), are propagated routinely by plant
pieces or cuttings, rather than by seeds. In addition to faster maturity, a
distinct advantage offered by grafting apple trees or planting potato "eyes"
(the portion of the tuber containing the growing point) is that these
procedures preserve varietal identity. With apples and a number of other tree
fruits, for instance, desired traits are not passed reliably through seeds,
and many potato varieties fail to flower or to produce functional seeds. For
these kinds of plants, like the vegetables typically grown from seed,
heirloom varieties are also the distinct named types known for at least a
half-century or so.

Growing interest in heirlooms. Although they belong to the past, heirloom
varieties of vegetables and fruits are by no means obsolete. Since the 1970s,
an expanding popular movement dedicated to perpetuating and distributing
these garden classics has emerged among home gardeners and small-scale
growers, with interest and endorsement from scientists, historians,
environmentalists, and consumers. Although active seed savers tend to be a
minority among the millions of Americans who plant a garden, broad-based
support has expanded for grassroots plant conservation networks such as Seed
Savers Exchange in Iowa, and Seeds of Diversity Canada, two organizations in
North America with national scope. A variety of other groups with local or
regional membership, or with ethnic or crop-oriented focus, are also active.

With support from these networks, the seeds of vintage varieties are being
introduced--or reintroduced--to the garden seed trade, and old varieties of
vegetables and fruits are appearing at local farmers' and specialty markets.
New, independent seed companies offering unique collections of regionally
adapted varieties have emerged (a trend that serves, in some degree, to fill
the void created from the decline in recent decades in long-established,
regional seed companies, which have been displaced or absorbed by corporate
seed and agrichemical firms serving national and global markets). Fruit
hobbyist groups--whose members include antique and rare fruit
enthusiasts--are thriving, and old fruit varieties are increasingly available
from specialized and mainstream nurseries. Traditional crop varieties are
being restored to native farmers and gardeners, and associated farming
traditions revived. In addition, growing and disseminating authentic old
varieties have become important program elements at a number of living
historical farms and open-air museums. Besides bolstering the heirloom
movement, these activities (which are often supported by historical research
to discover the past uses and values of particular plants, and historical
growing methods) lend vital support to the museums' work in recreating the
foodways and lifeways of earlier generations.

Heirloom appeal and related issues. Interest in traditional varieties has
been gaining momentum for a variety of reasons that are as diverse and
difficult to characterize as the old varieties themselves. They reflect
practical motives (which are based, for instance, on garden performance or
epicurean interests), as well as curiosity and nostalgia, and also broader
philosophical interests and social concerns. The opportunity to take an
active role in preserving the genetic repository still existing in our garden
vegetables and fruits--although impoverished in comparison to earlier
periods--has been a strong motivator for many heirloom preservationists. And
for some, interest in heirlooms relates strongly to the perceived limitations
of modern hybrids and other exclusive varieties, which can be said to lack
"pride of ancestry or hope of posterity."3

Novelty, nostalgia, and general merit. Many heirloom enthusiasts have
discovered the endless variety and novelty still existing among the old types
of vegetables and fruits. To some, their sensory qualities (unusual shapes,
distinctive colors, and uncommon flavors), as well as departure from standard
fare, are especially appealing. Even the old names exercise the imagination,
suggesting the unconventional, and in some cases, recalling the "sounds and
tastes and tales of gardeners past."4 (To name only a few within the existing
pool of old varieties...consider the Cherokee Trail of Tears bean...or Moon
and Stars watermelon...or Bloody Butcher and Howling Moon corns...or Sops of
Wine, Esopus Spitzenburg, and Rambo apples...) According to ethnobotanist
Gary Nabhan, expressions of curiosity and kindness on the part of crop
stewards have, in themselves, helped to foster varietal diversity, and
continue to support the perpetuation of traditional varieties.5 To explain
the enormous variation in the shapes and colors of beans found among
different cultures around the world, one scientist has suggested that, in
addition to yield, hardiness, and flavor, beans have been selected for their
beauty, "to feed not only the body but the spirit."6

Beyond their novelty, sentimental, or aesthetic appeal, heirlooms are
considered by many who grow them to be top performers in home gardens, or
under conditions that likewise differ from intensively managed, commercial
norms, and where toughness and dependability are desirable. Or, they stand
out in situations that display their out-of-the-ordinary qualities--superior
flavor or cooking properties, for instance, or unique harvest or storage
characteristics. Many traditional varieties display combinations of traits
that make them especially responsive to local or regional conditions, or
well-suited to particular growing methods (such as those used in organic,
low-external-input, or permaculture systems), or tolerant of local pests and
diseases, or other stresses and constraints. The corn and bean varieties
developed by native Southwestern farmers, for instance, are highly adapted to
the local soils, climate, and growing methods that shaped them, allowing
survival of the plants, along with their caretakers, under harsh, dryland
conditions.

Some of these sought-after heirlooms--a drought-tolerant bean; an
insect-resistant or high-protein corn; a cold-hardy tomato; or an apple
variety that bears early, or stores well, or is exceptional for baking,
cider-making, or fresh-eating--have fallen from favor because they are not
widely adapted, or they fail to satisfy commercial production standards or
mainstream tastes. These factors limit the ability of the old varieties to
compete against newer introductions whose general or specific attributes (or
in some cases, their novelty) have broader appeal, making them less
profitable to seed and plant merchants.

Sustaining connections. Those who grow and disseminate old varieties are
offered a tangible means to engage the past, and also to cultivate community
relationships and associated values of participation, equity, and
sustainability.7 Some seed savers perpetuate a family legacy, or share
favorite plants with neighbors or friends. Others express community or tribal
kinships by growing varieties that are central to traditional, local foods
and cuisines, or to religious practices, or that embody other cultural
meanings. Some who delve into the histories of particular local or ethnic
varieties discover connections to fading agricultural traditions and rhythms,
and to the social customs of past generations. Some heirloom advocates have
taken to heart Wendell Berry's urgings to "learn the life histories of the
food species," to assist in reducing the growing gap between food producers
and consumers.8

Patronizing old varieties and exploring their histories may offer gardeners
(and other eaters) the means to honor the ancient crop stewards who
domesticated and further refined our food plants, or to salute the efforts of
more modern plant breeders and the years of effort often invested in a single
improved variety. One writer, in referring to the plant selection efforts of
North American farmers in the previous century alone, has noted that the
genetic base that underpins our highly productive crops, which was adapted
largely from imported plant materials, resulted from "thousands of
experiments by thousands of farmers committing millions of hours of labor in
thousands of diverse ecological niches over a period of many decades."9

Preserving alternatives. Particularly within the agricultural sector, there
is growing awareness that crop surpluses, supermarket abundance, and product
and brand name proliferation (albeit conditions more common to the developed
nations) mask a general decline in agricultural diversity, which spans
farming and food systems, from farmers' fields to food processing and
distribution. Of particular concern to garden stewards is the serious decline
in our food plants' genetic base, as evidenced by significant reduction,
especially within this century, in the range of vegetable and fruit varieties
grown on farms and in gardens. According to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization, crop genetic resources are being lost, on a global
scale, at the rate of 1-2% per year.10 Many who support the preservation of
heirlooms and other "public domain" varieties are working to safeguard a
portion of this diminishing legacy, and also to address the factors that have
contributed to its decline, and threaten to further undermine broad public
participation in food production.

In North America and similar agricultural settings, a variety of forces play
out to reduce genetic richness in the crop and livestock base, and in
consequence, to lessen the ecologic and economic resilience of farming
systems. Despite impressive yield gains in modern production agriculture,
widespread adoption of simplified farming systems with low genetic diversity
carries a variety of risks. In the short term, such systems risk potential
crop failure, and in the longer term, they encourage the demise of the broad
genetic base that contributes to high yields, and thus compromise the future
genetic health of crop populations. The devastating ruin of the Irish potato
crop during the last century, and more recent crop losses from the Southern
corn leaf blight in the U.S. in 1970, signaled clearly the dangers of genetic
uniformity in our staple food crops.

Especially prominent among the "enemies" of genetic diversity are the
economic and social pressures that have influenced breeding practices that
promote uniformity, and have encouraged extensive cultivation (within crop
monocultures) of preferred varieties with low variability. In addition, these
forces have stimulated decline in seed companies serving local and regional
markets, and heightened losses in seed-saving traditions among farmers
(themselves a disappearing breed) and gardeners.

Beyond our borders, similar influences shape events in the developing world,
including the sites where many of our important food crops have originated
and evolved. In some of these "centers of diversity," a variety of
homogenizing forces imperil survival of vast numbers of existing "landraces,"
the heterogeneous, locally adapted, farmer-bred crop varieties that have
traditionally supported local food producers and rural communities. Along
with their wild relatives, these "gene treasures" 11 deliver the genetic
infusions that are needed to improve crops the world over. Here also, the
results are farming systems with diminished ecological, biological, and
genetic complexity, fewer farmers with reduced seed-saving skills, and
impoverished natural habitats.

It is widely agreed that wise management of our biological resources is
central to ensuring food abundance. While broad public interest barely
exists, issues relating to plant and animal genetic resources have taken
center stage within the agricultural arena. How best to safeguard diminishing
plant and animal biodiversity, while enhancing crop productivity to serve
expanding food and fiber needs, and also preserving social and economic
equity, have become issues of serious international debate.

Concerns over "genetic erosion" (the continuing, absolute losses in crop
species and varieties) are intensified by questions surrounding ownership and
equitable access to plant genetic materials. Various stakeholders--from North
American seed savers to Third World farmers--are apprehensive over
potentially widespread use of bioengineered varieties, including the specter
of "terminator" seeds that fail to reproduce.12 Of concern also are expanded
uses of legal mechanisms (such as patents and plant breeders rights, or
restrictive commercial seed lists) that remove plant germplasm from public
use. Alongside the many opportunities and challenges offered to the
agricultural sector and society-at-large, at the farm and garden gates, these
developments may work to further limit growers' access to seeds--the
fundamental materials of plant breeding and propagation--and potentially to
risk further declines in plant genetic diversity.

Fostering participation and choice. Preserving a measure of personal or
community independence is an important motivation for many who perpetuate
heirlooms and other public domain varieties, whether a grower plants a garden
for the many pleasures it brings, or chooses particular foods for the table.
Seed saving is inherently self-reliant, allowing people to bypass the seed
trade and to maintain choice varieties found commercially wanting, or to
breed desired types themselves. (Organic growers, for instance, who seek to
grow "full-cycle," are working to ensure the continued availability of
organically grown seeds, which may lose quality as they become economically
marginalized.) Alongside farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture,
urban and community gardens, and similar initiatives, grassroots efforts to
preserve heirlooms and other commonly-held varieties may contribute to
efforts to return food production and consumption from "the global
everywhere"13 to serve more locally responsive and regionally reliant food
economies.14

Community-based stewardship. There are considerable ongoing efforts by
national governments and international organizations to preserve plant
germplasm (i.e., seeds and other plant materials) in "genebanks" (known also
as ex situ or "offsite" storage). These measures fall short as fail-safe
approaches, however, since they "protect the products of evolution, but not
the process,"15 and they rely heavily on continued political stability and
support, including sustained governmental funding. Although their stored
plant materials are held for public use, the U.S. collections, in particular,
fail to serve the direct needs of many gardeners and other small-scale
growers, since the stored materials are largely those favored by professional
plant breeders to improve commercial crops. Thus, the national collections
consist overwhelmingly of breeding lines and other specialized types of
germplasm, as well as farmers' landraces and wild relatives of crop species.
The old commercial varieties and family heirlooms of various garden crops
(many of them lacking the "deep diversity" typically sought by breeders), and
crops with low commercial appeal, have received less priority. (Limited
institutional resources, alongside the recent growth of alternative suppliers
in the form of grassroots seed banks and exchanges, work also to restrict
seeds and other materials to professional users who, in exchange for plant
germplasm, agree to return agronomic information on the seeds and other
materials received.)

Within the "PGR community" (i.e., those with diverse roles and interests in
managing plant genetic resources), there is expanding support for
conservation strategies that rely on more natural settings, including
farmers' fields and garden plots. Managing crop resources under these
conditions, which are a form of in situ conservation (or conservation "in
place"), may serve to enhance and complement the "Noah's Ark"16 strategy that
has been emphasized traditionally in the formal conservation sector. Within
their original and natural environments, crop plants are subjected to
particular changing conditions and stresses, and thus are continually shaped
by natural selection. A further advantage, from the point of view of
community stewards, is that such measures put vital plant germplasm into as
many "hands" as possible. People are thus allowed continued access to plant
materials valued for their horticultural, cultural, and historical relevance,
and with their qualities--for better and worse--clearly visible.17

Variety's merits. As their commercial demise suggests, the old vegetable and
fruit varieties are not uniformly appreciated. To some, they are
retrograde,18 championed by people seeking a return to simpler times. Others
doubt that quality seeds can be produced by gardeners or farmers, and
farmers' breeding efforts are generally dismissed as nonprogressive. Some
have disparaged the "confused condition" that accompanies varietal and name
proliferation,19 and decentralized production and conservation, and question
whether nonspecialists can, or should, play an important role in conserving
plant genetic resources.

Among gardeners, many choose freely among the growing array of old and new
varieties currently available, acknowledging the gains (such as improved
disease and pest resistance) conferred by plant breeders, and advances in
seed purity and quality provided by professional seed producers. Heirloom
promoter Carolyn Jabs has acknowledged, for instance, that in light of modern
breeding work, as well as changing tastes and environments over time, "some
heirlooms do resemble museum pieces."20 Likewise, Seed Savers Exchange
co-founder, Kent Whealy, has asserted that the network is not "anti-hybrid,"
but he points out that the ascendency of modern hybrids has loomed large in
the "wholesale destruction of traditional standard varieties."21

Narrowing discussion of the values of old and new varieties to their
respective horticultural merits ignores the broader appeal of traditional
varieties--as cultural, historical, and genetic resources--and deflects the
complex issues that surround their use. Focusing attention on "need for
improvement" in old varieties discounts the potential tradeoffs in terms of
diversity, quality, and broad public participation that have accompanied
specialization, standardization, and consolidation in agricultural
production.22 Or, to paraphrase another observer, "[E]very seed of change,
whether accidental or incidental, [has] both positive and negative
consequences."23

In the end, the question of whether old or new varieties are "better" remains
elusive, since the answer implies values and priorities: Better for whom, and
for what purposes? As seed activists Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney have written,
"Someone else's seeds imply someone else's needs."24 Growing old varieties
allows people to express their individual tastes and preferences, and their
personal or commonly-held beliefs about what is worth sustaining. As Carolyn
Jabs has put it: "In a world...changing so rapidly, one of the most
meaningful things we can preserve...is a full range of possibilities."25

More than seventy-five years ago, Liberty Hyde Bailey asked readers of The
Apple Tree, "Why do we need so many kinds of apples?" His answer--"Because
there are so many folks."26 In the same book, the eminent American
horticulturalist lauded the part played by the "amateur" in creating,
appreciating, and preserving variety in our domestic fruits, declaring that
"when we lose the amateur, we lose the ideals."27 Professor Bailey
anticipated the views of modern heirloom stewards when he stated that
"...there is merit in variety itself. It provides more contact with life, and
leads away from uniformity and monotony."28

A note on terminology: The terms used to describe old varieties are varied
and often used loosely. Some writers lump together such terms as landraces,
and folk, traditional, indigenous, or heirloom varieties. Others make
distinctions among these different terms, reflecting differences in the
geographic and cultural histories of old varieties (and thus their genetic
diversity aspects). The term "landraces," for instance, is favored by
scientists and seed professionals to indicate the particular kinds of old
varieties that are farmer-selected in areas where local subsistence
agriculture has long prevailed. (According to this usage, among the New World
crops, "landraces" is most accurately applied to the varieties of corn,
squash, and beans, for instance, that were domesticated by native farmers,
and further modified by native and also immigrant farmers.)

For the purposes of this publication, the term "heirloom" is used broadly and
synonymously with such terms as traditional, vintage, antique, heritage, or
classic, since each of these terms conveys the age and perceived value of
heirlooms, but says little about who grows them, or where, or how. This usage
follows that of plant breeder, Carolyn Deppe, who describes the
seed-propagated vegetable heirlooms as "any old open-pollinated variet[ies]
that [have] been around for a while."29 Also for this publication, the term
"historical varieties" denotes the distinct plant types known from historical
documentation; when they still exist today, they are called "heirlooms" or
the equivalent. Otherwise, the terms used to describe old varieties are
adopted, or inferred, from the respective authors' more specific or contrary
usage.





  • [Livingontheland] Guide to Heirloom Varieties and Community-Based Stewardship, Tradingpost, 01/01/2005

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page