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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Native harvest: Groups stress importance of seed-saving
  • Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:30:43 -0600


This is OUR state
paul tradingpost@lobo.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Native harvest: Groups stress importance of seed-saving
Kathy Pinto | For The New Mexican
Posted: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 -
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Food/Native-harvest-042810

In January 2007, the New Mexico Food & Seed Sovereignty Declaration — drafted
by the Traditional Native American Farmers Association and the New Mexico
Acequia Association — was passed, approved and adopted as resolution by the
New Mexico State Legislature.

This valuable resolution underscores the importance of farming systems and
native seeds to New Mexico's food security. Because of concern over genetic
engineering and protection of indigenous seeds from bio-engineering
profiteers, it renounces corporate ownership claims to seeds and crops.

Throughout history, humans have been selecting the strongest, most desirable
plants and saving their seeds for propagation for future generations. Saved
seeds were traded among neighbors and communities, thus preserving genetic
diversity. But as elders passed away, these heirloom varieties were being
lost.

Today, the urgency for gardeners and farmers is to save and preserve seeds
from potential contamination of local genetic pools by GMOs (genetically
modified organisms) carried in wind and insect-borne pollen. As small seed
companies are absorbed by the corporate seed industry, the tradition of
specialty varieties declines and heirloom crops are lost in a mire of
corporate hybrids.

Returning to tradition

At the Indian pueblos, a revival has been under way to recover many of their
native seeds and crops. The goal of Tesuque Pueblo's Agricultural Initiative
— started in 2007 by tribal member and seed sovereignty advocate Louis Hena —
was to re-establish its Native agricultural traditions and grow enough
nutritional, diverse and organic food to feed its members.

Under the guidance of Ag Resources Director Emigdio Ballon, the pueblo grows
a wide array of crops adaptable to arid lands: fruits, berries, vegetables,
medicinal herbs and important traditional native foods such as corn, beans,
squash and chile. The pueblo also raises livestock for nutritional needs:
goats for milk and cheese, chickens for meat and eggs.

An indigenous Quechua agronomist from Cochabamba, Bolivia, Ballon stresses
the importance of seed-saving and the revival of traditional crops both
nutritional and medicinal. Through his Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture
Institute — a collective effort of farmers, educators, healers and spiritual
leaders — Ballon helps native communities by utilizing traditional Quechua
techniques and rituals.

The Southwest Bridge Project focuses mainly on the pueblos surrounding
Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Española. The South American Bridge Project assists
Quechua and Aymara communities in the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia to
survive and thrive in their remote Andes locations.

"Indian people were already using the (so-called) new-age techniques of dry
farming and bio-dynamics," Ballon said. "But we forgot them because society
demanded profit." Ballen's ancestors successfully grew quinoa for over 1,000
years — on dry land.

Ballon, an accomplished plant geneticist, warns against the dangers of
genetic engineering. This, he says, not only keeps farmers dependent on big
corporations for seed stock, but also results in sub-par food quality that
doesn't provide much nutrition. Many farmers have been threatened into buying
what he terms "terminator seeds" that can't be replanted after being
harvested. Because farmers can't afford to repurchase seeds year after year,
he says, "they are faced with financial ruin."

>From seed to seed

Seeds of Change, an organic food and seed company based in Santa Fe,
specializes in organic and heirloom varieties and is one of very few seed
companies selling only 100 percent organic seeds to gardeners and commercial
growers.

The company develops its line of seeds at its research farm located in El
Guique on six acres of land originally cultivated by the Tewa people.

"We use the farm to trial new products," says Marc Cool, the company
director. "We scour gardens, seed banks and other sources for planting on the
farm," he said. "If they perform well, we commercialize them and put them in
our catalog."

Because Seeds of Change Farm produces its seeds through a network of
contracted organic seed growers across the U.S., they are able to concentrate
on seed research. More importantly, they create new varieties through
traditional plant breeding techniques, bringing out unique and improved
characteristics and combining desirable traits from existing varieties.

With prices of fresh produce — often of dubious quality and freshness — at an
all-time high, there has been an increasing interest in gardening and growing
your own. Saving seeds from a food garden can become an extended hobby for
avid gardeners and is a good way to get out of the garden and mingle with
other growers at the many festive seed-exchange events in Northern New Mexico.

At the Seeds of Change research farm, field-day gatherings provide an
invaluable opportunity for lively discussion and important feedback from
local growers and chefs. Participants have the chance to see first hand how
their organic varieties perform "in the field," and visitors often take part
in tastings.






  • [Livingontheland] Native harvest: Groups stress importance of seed-saving, Tradingpost, 04/28/2010

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