Passage V

Vegetable Seed Savers

[1]

Walking through any one of an increasing number of vegetable gardens these days and you're likely to shake your head in disbelief. Growing within many plots are such oddities, as purple carrots, white tomatoes, striped eggplants, potatoes with blue flesh, and other crops a casual gardener would find strange indeed.

[2]

“Seed savers," the people who nurture these rare and endangered vegetables, value the plants for more than their unusual appearance. Many of the plants are heirloom varieties whose seeds have been privately passed from one generation to the next. Others are once-popular commercial varieties that are no longer available through any seed company. All represent genetic strains in danger of extinction.

[3]

Because vegetable seeds must be planted every three or four years to maintain their viability, these rare varieties will be lost forever unless they are not kept alive by a network of dedicated gardeners. (66) Many seed savers order endangered plants through a small; but growing number of organizations that specialize in rare seeds. By now, the seed-saving gardeners agree to grow the plants and then offer the new seeds to other equally concerned growers.

[4]

[1] Seed savers point out that the world's food supply depends on fewer than two dozen species of plants, nearly all of which are being reduced to only a few varieties through the use of hybrids and plant genetics. [2] That lack of variety had made the plants more vulnerable to rapid climate change, insects, and disease. [3] Because of the plants' nearly identical genetic heritage, and a blight spread easily through Ireland's entire potato crop. [4] The Irish potato famine of the nineteenth century is just one example of the dangers of such genetic homogenization. (73)

[5]

While it may seem as if seed savers are doing nothing more than planting their gardens, in conclusion they are doing nothing less than ensuring the future of the world's food supply. Future generations may one day thank them for their seed-saving efforts.