permaculture

[Jack Rowe <jackrowe@compuserve.com>]

Miekal,

This is basically correct, might be more specifically stated as, "more than
90% of varieties on USDA's 1903 list of commercially-available food
varieties were no longer commercially available in 1983."

Best source I know for this info is "Shattering: Food, Politics and the
Loss of Genetic Diversity" by Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney. The quote refers,
again, to loss of varieties on the USDA's 1903 list of seeds available
commercially in the US. Well over 90% of many of these varieties were no
longer available commercially in 1983. Since 1983 loss of
commercially-available varieties has accelerated exponentially due to
takeover of small companies by mega-corps such as Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy,
DuPont, and many others. . . yes, these are chemical manufacturing
companies. Some of the lost seeds may be in the National Seed Saving
Laboratory's huge frozen collection, which basically means 'lost and gone
forever' (there are too many seeds and they aren't able to do growouts, how
long the seeds will last is difficult to determine). Others may be in the
hands of home seed-savers. Many are simply extinct.

Here are some example data from "Shattering", comparing varieties
commercially available in 1903 and 1983: 

TYPE            # of vars in 1903               # of vars in 1983         
% loss 

Beans           578                     32                      94+%
Tomato          408                     79                      80+%
Sweet Corn      307                     12                      96+%
Lettuce         497                     36                      92+%

Again, some of the missing varieties are saved by home seed-savers (how
many of us save seeds from our gardens for replanting?). Others are in
storage. Also, new varieties have been developed in the meantime. However
many, many valuable seeds have been lost to extinction. These were often
very productive, hardy varieties, as you'll know if you've grown heirloom
varieties. And modern seed-breeding trends have both narrowed the genetic
base of new varieties while adapting them to higher herbicide levels (done
purposefully by Monsanto, see "News on the Genetic Front", below), shipping
qualities, etc. Nutrition, taste, etc have basically been ignored or
considered side concerns.

You can find further reading and a review of Mooney and Fowler's book at
Seeds of Texas' newsletter web page at
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/stse/nws_cont.htm. Some specific places to
look:

Review -- Shattering: Food, Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity. A
short review of Fowler and Mooney's book,  very good reading. The review
includes a link to the book at U. of Arizona Press, where the it can be
purchased (also available at bookstores).

Five Laws of Genetic Diversity. Discusses 5 laws of food plant genetic
conservation as brought up in Fowler and Mooney's book.

Why Save Seeds? By Brett Bakker of Native Seeds/SEARCH, this article
discusses reasons to save seeds, and techniques for saving many vegetable
seeds. A good, basic, readable intro. More seed-saving info can be found at
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/stse/handbook.htm

News on the Genetic Front. Discusses recent ominous trends in commercial
seed-breeding. 

Jack