Seed Keepers

[Anders Skarlind <Anders.Skalman@telia.com>]

Sam, I don't see this in black-and-white, but I am sceptical towards 
this kind of huge centralised "solution".
I see this mainly from a Swedish perspective, and conditions are 
different and worse in other parts of the world. It is possible I 
have not given this enough consideration. However let me tell a 
little more about what I know.
In Sweden the seed saving ngo Sesam, based completely on volutary 
work, has done more than the Nordic Gene Bank to collect and keep 
Swedish landraces of vegetables. There is also another small 
organisation, Allkorn, doing similar work in grains. However the 
Nordic Gene Bank has the best Nordic grain collection, and 
considerable benefit has been reaped from this, as Allkorn has been 
able to retrieve grain seed make old varieties available again. 
However there is I would say a constant battle between different 
interests: idealistic, personal career, academia, political, commercial.
The Nordic Gene Bank, like I think more or less all gene banks, is 
lagging behind in regrowing their seed. Meanwhile knowledge how to 
grow these varieties may be lost. Of course all seed must be regrown, 
reproduced, now and then. It doesn't live forever. And neither does 
the knowledge how to grow it.
There is more to tell but enough for now.
I see some point in governmental gene bank activity, but I think we 
should not rely on them for the safety of our seed. And I think they 
should put money into regrowing their seed rather than keeping it 
locked in in the Arctic.

I would be interested to know if you think of any specific examples 
when you say "no-one knows how easy it will be to maintain these 
seeds by growing them out".

Anders


At 21:11 2008-02-29, you wrote:
> I was shocked by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the 
> announcement about the seed repository.  Seems like it should be 
> considered a positive development, considering that no-one knows how 
> easy it will be to maintain these seeds by growing them out. -- Sam 
> Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn.