Seed Keepers

[Sam Brungardt <sam739is@hotmail.com>]

Anders, what I was referring to was no-one can predict for sure what the environment will be like in any one place if global climate change takes place as predicted.
 
I do not mean to belittle seed-saving organizations, I'm only saying it's unfortunate that so many people cannot see the value in this new seed repository. 

> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:56:23 +0100
> To: seedkeepers@lists.ibiblio.org
> From: Anders.Skalman@telia.com
> Subject: Re: [Seed Keepers] Fort Knox of Food
>
> 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.
>
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