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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] The Extinction of Fruits and Vegetables in 80 Years
  • Date: Wed, 20 May 2015 09:25:55 -0400

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1362397-the-extinction-of-fruits-and-vegetables-in-80-years/

93 Percent of Seeds Have Been Lost in the Last 80 Years

If you were alive in 1903, you would have been able to choose from more
than 500 varieties of cabbage, 400 varieties of peas and tomatoes, and 285
varieties of cucumbers.

Eighty years later in 1983, the varieties had dwindled sharply, to just 28
varieties of cabbage, 25 varieties of peas, 79 for tomatoes, and just 16
varieties of cucumbers.

In a comparison of seeds offered in commercial seed houses in the early
1900s to the seeds found in the National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983,
researchers found 93 percent of seeds were lost over eight decades.

The *National Geographic* infographic
<http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/food-variety-graphic>
shows just how many varieties of fruits and vegetables appear near
extinction. Even more concerning is the fact that the data is already more
than 30 years old, and the problem may have gotten even worse since.

For the record, it’s not *only *fruits and vegetables that are
disappearing. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership estimates that 60,000 to
100,000 plant species are in danger of extinction.

<>

Our Dwindling Food Variety
As we've come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and
vegetables, thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared. It's hard to
know exactly how many have been lost over the past century, but a study
conducted in 1983 by the Rural Advancement Foundation International gave a
clue to the scope of the problem. It compared USDA listings of seed
varieties sold by commercial U.S. seed houses in 1903 with those in the
U.S. National Seed Storage Laboratory in 1983. The survey, which included
66 crops, found that about 93 percent of the varieties had gone extinct.
More up-to-date studies are needed.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/food-variety-graphic




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