permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

My understanding of SSE is that, although there is a central seed 
storage at Heritage Farm, SSE is also a highly distributed network of 
many thousands of members who have provided some the seeds in the 
repository and who are growing them out, and growing many other SSE 
varieties at their own sites. As Marshall has tried to explain, it's not 
like one company with one seed list is being taken over; it's like one 
node that connects thousands of people together, with their heritage, is 
at risk. So the risk is not that the seed lines will disappear: they are 
being grown all over the world, not just in one place. But SSE connects 
all those people. Who will rebuild that network?

A big risk is that now, thousands of non-patented varieties could be 
privatized, and thus made unavailable and illegal for others to grow. 
So, although saving seed on your own and other suggestions made here are 
good things to do, SSE in some ways is an irreplaceable resource. If the 
lines grown by SSE members get patented, it doesn't matter who is 
growing them--they stop being public property.

So, "let's start our own SSE" has a few problems with it. It duplicates 
a massive, highly distributed and networked project already functioning 
well, albeit one that was just hit at its most vulnerable point: the 
board of directors (talk about least change for greatest effect!)

And, even it is possible to do the tremendous amount of work involved in 
duplicating SSE and its thousands of seed varieties, if many of those 
varieties end up getting patented, all that work will have been done in 
vain. It won't be legal to grow, sell, or trade them, or to let people 
know you are growing them. You would have to develop new strains or find 
ones not on SSE's list. That's a daunting task.

I think that the "least change for greatest effect" to be done here is 
to help Kent Whealey et al get control of the board back.

I'm not saying people shouldn't start their own seed-saving projects, 
just that regaining control of SSE is a much simpler solution than 
trying to duplicate what has taken 30+ years to create, if that is even 
possible.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



Marshall Chrostowski wrote:
>  Jay, yes this is a flawed world and a world filled with well-meaning people 
> rushing about doing good works. Most anyone can learn to save seed and 
> acquire the means of growing, selecting, protecting, harvesting, processing 
> and storing seed -- year after year after year after year. How many of us 
> have the time, opportunity and perserverence to conserve unique, mostly 
> annual plant materials over many years? The reality is closer to the 
> situation where relatively few people grow a relatively small roster of seed 
> types more or less readily available.
>
> I now get that you really don't understand the SSE's role and functioning in 
> conservation of heirloom and traditional varieties. The single organization 
> works closely with similar organization in country and abroad as well as 
> national governments. Yes, there is a large number of seed stored at Heritage 
> Farm but samples of many of these have been donated from other holders of 
> same seeds and many others have been distributed to listed members who grow 
> them out and conserve them. Other varieties have been introduced into the 
> commercial seed trade. This is a dynamic  and living conservation effort. 
> Yes, it would be cheaper to deep freeze germplasm to available for future 
> plant breeding. Is this to be the end result of 10,000 years of crop 
> selection by farmers and horticulturists from many parts of the world?
>
> Marshall
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:20:20 -0600
> From: Jay Woods <woodsjay@cox.net>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Seed Savers Exchange
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <200801210520.20694.woodsjay@cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> So what do we do to become trained and equipped. In this flawed world, to 
> depend on a single organization at a single spot is folly.
>
> On Monday 21 January 2008 12:19:51 am Marshall Chrostowski wrote:
>
>   
> > > 3. SSE practices living conservation of genetic resources with a
> > > rigorous program of rotating growouts. The USDA and other governmental
> > > agencies have been expanding germplasm banks held at very low
> > > temperatures. It was been SSE's experience that such germplasm storage
> > > systems do not protect living matter for advertised durations.
> > >       
>
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