From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Jun 08 1998 - 13:22:27 MDT
From: Geoff Smith <geoffs@unixg.ubc.ca>
>I have a feeling this is done for endangered plants, except that
>instead of freezing the plants are grown in a large
>endangered-plant farm. I think this is an important initiative:
>just compare the number of types of apple (probably around 100),
>to the number of types that exist at your local grocery (probably
>no more than 4). The other apples are not getting used since they
>don't keep as well-- if they were not grown they would disappear
>forever, which would be a very silly mistake. How hard do you
>think it would be to sell a bunch of health-conscious,
>enviro-friendly, trendy yuppies some short-keeping specialty
>apples? It would be tragic to miss a business opportunity like
>that because no one though to freeze a few seeds.
Actually there are thousands of types of apples and most other
common food plants, there are tens of thousands of rice varieties
for example.
The good news is that we are revisiting a topic discussed here
before, but I shall briefly recapitulate.
In the early 70's a group of amateur gardeners all concerned with
the disappearing variety's of favorite fruits and vegetables, and
the dwindling number of seed companies, began seeking out lost
varietys and each other to form what is known as "Heirloom
Gardening" (because varietys were handed down generation to
generation) This started largely with a man who noticed the
dwindling supplies (around the 1920's)and single-handedly preserved
over a thousand varieties of beans (most seeds need to be grown
every three years or so) this has grown into a worldwide movement
and new seed companies are emerging all the time. One of my
favorites is "Seeds Of Change". At the same time Cambell's is
creating the "flavorsavor" these people have brought back the
Brandywine (awesome). These companies all produce "open-pollinated"
seeds. Not only have they saved thousand's of old varietys, but
they are creating new ones.
New restaurants and some not so new (Chez Pannisse) are the driving
forces.
Seeds of change is also the name of a book on this movement.
Good news......
Brian
Member,Extropy Institute
Current reading: "The man who listens to horses"
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