Seed Keepers

[Pumpkin Lady <pumpkin@xanadoo.com>]

LINDA who I am not picking on, but she gave me a jumping off point wrote:

> IMHO we should all be doing that anyway. The farmers know how to keep 
> their seed alive- How much can vault staffers know?

Well, unless the seed vault staff are supposed to also grow out the 
seed, how much about growing seed do they NEED to know?  What the 
staffers need to know is how to keep seeds at the optimum conditions to 
keep it viable for as long as possible, and how to access these supposed 
files of growing and usage tips and hand them out to the people who need 
them.

Besides, how do you know the staffers DON'T know more than you? There's 
this whole perceived "knowledge" about how certain people are that the 
media has given us. Academians are all bookish and timid and not much 
use. Scientists are all either evil and mad or brilliant and useless. 
People want to pull out examples and hold them high of "we" are better 
than "they" are, and that's normal, but not really useful. Most of the 
FARMERS I know buy GM seed and use lots of petroleum based power and 
fertilizer to grow it. I doubt many of them have a clue about how to 
save seed or keep it in good condition any more.

But really, this whole "because X" is on the funding list it's all going 
to be crap it kind of silly. NO ONE is going to be able to know for 
DECADES what good or bad is going to come of this, and I heartily wish 
the list would MOVE ON. There is nothing "we" can do good OR bad about 
this. It is already a done deal. Those who think it is good, great. 
Those who think it is bad, so sorry.

Do we really need to go round and round about it?  If there was some 
news "we" could benefit from (say, they wanted people to grow out seed), 
or help with (like, they wanted volunteers to help with something) I 
could see that being of interest and conversation worthy, but there 
isn't. News like "X agri-giant appropriated all the seeds" would also be 
topical and useful, so would "the bank helped save and culture these 
seeds back into their native habitat".  But all of that will come years 
down the line, if ever.

I keep thinking this is the most angry and negative garden list I have 
EVER seen. I sure hope it mellows out soon.

Morgan