Peace and Environment News* October 1993
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Peace and Environment News * October 1993 |
by Roma Quapp
 Dr. Guy Baillargeon at the Seed Gene Bank, Agriculture Canada. Photo: Morgan Duchesney. |
When our Native and European ancestors met on this continent half a millennium ago, a transfer of foods began that enriched world cuisine. Tomatoes, potatoes, and strawberries, among others, crossed the ocean to Europe, while various other cereals, vegetables, and fruit accompanied settlers west.
For these settlers, seeds represented a link to the past and a promise for the future. Seeds handed down from generation to generation, selected yearly from the healthiest plants, were brought by the precious handful to the new land. These varieties were not always suited to the Canadian climate. By keeping seed from only those plants that withstood the harsh seasons and new pests, settlers developed varieties that ensured not only survival, but prosperity.
Today the prosperity of food resources is threatened. Monoculture, reliance on seed corporations, population growth, development, and pollution all exert their pressures on agricultural techniques, the state of the environment, and the safety of our food supply.
The practice of monoculture has dangerous implications for our food supply. The genetic uniformity of commercial crops makes them vulnerable to disease. In 1845, the Irish potato famine resulted when a previously unknown fungus spread through hundreds of fields of genetically similar spuds. The 1970 U.S. corn blight wiped out half the crop in the southern U.S. and 15 percent of the total crop. As more and more countries turn to massive monoculture, the potential for disaster increases.
Traditionally, farmers avoided disaster by saving seed from plants that showed high yields or resistance to disease, thereby developing new varieties. Today, that role has gone to corporations that breed hybrids and sell the seed to farmers. The very success of such corporations cuts at the base of the genetic diversity they need to continue making improvements.
Currently, scientists make collection trips to Centres of Diversity—possibly the areas where our food crops originated—which host thousands of traditional varieties. Farmers in these regions often grow the traditional varieties, or these plants grow wild, in their natural habitats. But diversity in these areas is threatened. Located in developing countries, Centres of Diversity are under pressure from expanding populations and industrial development. "What happens," explains Heather Apple, president of Canada's Heritage Seed Program, "is the multinational seed companies go in with hybrids promising high yields. The farmers abandon their old varieties, which then risk going extinct. These hybrids require high chemical inputs, which is hard on the land, and expensive, and often they're not suited to the local environments."
The outlook is not all disaster. There is a growing awareness of the importance of maintaining genetic diversity. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, a landmark document that aims to maintain biodiversity on a world scale, was brought forward at the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Canada was the first country to ratify the Convention, and more and more Canadians are getting involved. Governments around the world are establishing seed banks, individuals are saving heirloom seeds, and Living History Farms preserve historical varieties in settings the public can enjoy.
Government seed banks
Dr. Guy Baillargeon, curator of the Seed Gene Bank at Agriculture Canada's Plant Gene Resources in Ottawa, notes that "people tend to think of gene banks as saving seed for the future, but our samples are being used daily, all over the world, in creating new varieties." In this manner, by introducing exotic germ plasm, the Bank contributes to slowing down the loss of genetic diversity in modern crops. As Baillargeon notes, "the very process of creating varieties is a process of reduction. Researchers select the best of the best, reducing genetic diversity. As long as the best of the best are fine, there's no problem, but when these become photocopies of one another they are vulnerable."
This is where the mandate of the Seed Bank takes over. Unlike researchers who select the best of the best, the Seed Bank tries to save the widest possible sampling of genetic diversity. Then, when problems do arise, people can come back for old varieties and move new genes into the stock.
Established in 1970 with a staff of one, the Canadian Seed Bank was one of the first to create a computerized database of seed collections. Initially, this was all the centre set out to do. Then in 1974 it received a collection of almost 7,000 varieties of wild oats from North Africa and the Middle East. After that, samples began to flow in. The Seed Bank has over 100,000 samples maintained by a staff of ten. In 1992 four new banks opened: Morden, Manitoba, handles ornamentals and new and alternative crops; Winnipeg collects cereals; Saskatoon deals in oilseed brassicas; and Fredericton handles potatoes. In addition, indigenous small fruits and berries, plus fruit trees, are the focus of the Clonal Gene Bank at the Smithfield Experimental Farm in Trenton, established in 1989 to collect plants that reproduce vegetatively. It has over 200 populations of wild strawberries collected from BC to California. In fact, the supermarket strawberry is a hybrid of a variety commonly found in Canada and another from Peru.
While preserving diversity sounds exciting, Baillargeon is quick to point out that the job requires a lot of manual labour. Quantity is determined by weighing every sample, and viability by running periodic germination tests. With this information, the Seed Bank can plan its rejuvenation schedule years ahead. In addition, every time seed is removed from or added to a package, the transaction must be recorded. With 20,000 samples going to researchers yearly, that's a lot of recording. The Bank recently implemented a bar coding system to speed up this process.
Seed-saving associations
The work Baillargeon and his colleagues are involved in is highly technical, and the Seed Bank's resources and international connections are beyond the scope of most people. However, preserving genetic diversity is not reserved for specialists. Anybody with a yen for gardening can do their part, by joining an association that fosters growing and preserving traditional varieties in the backyards of the nation.
One such program is the Heritage Seed Program (HSP), whose purpose, in the words of president Heather Apple, is to "search out and preserve heirloom and endangered varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and grains." Formed in 1984 by the Canadian Organic Growers association, the HSP gained new life in 1987 when Apple took over. From her acreage in Uxbridge, Ontario, Apple recruits members, maintains computerized records, and produces a magazine with information on heirloom varieties, gardening, and a yearly listing of the seeds members wish to share. While most of its 1700 members join for the information, Apple confirms that "the heart of the program is in those people who grow seeds and make them available to others."
According to Apple, the reasons to preserve heritage seeds do not rest on gloom and doom. "There are also very pleasant reasons, and one is that many heritage varieties simply taste better." The HSP also aims to reforge the link to our past that growing traditional varieties represents. Many community activities and celebrations once centred around the production and enjoyment of food. Thanksgiving, more than a time to stuff oneself on mass-produced turkey and boxed pumpkin pie, was once a festival of thanks to God and nature for supplying abundant harvest and ensuring the survival of the community through winter.
Living history farms
For those of us who don't have backyards or even a few large pots in which to grow heritage tomatoes, Living History Farms provide an opportunity to get in touch with the connection between our earth and the food we eat.
One such farm is Upper Canada Village. Nestled along the banks of the St. Lawrence an hour's drive south of Ottawa, Upper Canada Village is more than just another historical site depicting the human environment of the 1860s. If you look closely at the animals in the barns, the fruit trees and vegetables in the gardens, and the crops in the fields, you will see that they are "living artifacts," direct descendants from our past.
According to Harry Pietersma, who works with the Village's agricultural programs, much research has gone into obtaining the seed varieties historically grown in the area. Often this means delving into farmers' journals or flipping through old seed catalogues. Once a variety has been identified, seeds are obtained from places such as the Seed Bank and the Heritage Seed Program. Sometimes only a minute amount of seed might be available. Thus, in the late 1980s, the Seed Bank sent the Village a few grains of Red Fife, a variety of wheat first grown by David Fife in Peterborough in the 1840s. Those few grains were planted, the crop saved and replanted, and now the Village has enough seed to grow several acres.
Upper Canada Village was a pioneer in the development of Living History Farms. It began collecting heritage seeds in the 1960s and salvaged its first seeds from gardens about to be flooded by the Seaway. The program took off in the 1970s, and Pietersma notes that "in the last few years there has been a proliferation of groups dealing with historical plant material."
Agricultural researchers like Baillargeon rely on this sort of Living History Farm to spread the word. "One of the really attractive things about Upper Canada Village is our tremendous educational value," Pietersma states. "Our gardens are staffed by gardeners who make this part of their message." The Village regularly lets biennial plants, like cabbage and carrot, go to seed, and it has instituted an Heirloom Gardens weekend in May to sell its leftover bedding plants. It maintains an off-site growing program to keep varieties pure and to ensure sufficient seed stock, and it regularly fills requests to share seed with other Living History Farms.
Besides educating people on the reproductive cycle of plants and the need to maintain diversity, Upper Canada Village is a living illustration of the cultural and social place of food within a community. Its produce is used to demonstrate preservation techniques-making sauerkraut and apple cider-or in meals served to staff. Cereal crops are fed to the animals, and wheat is ground at the mill into flour, which is then baked into bread at the bakery. In this way, visitors are exposed to the entire production process.
Hope for the future
Food is a basic element of human survival. Food is also something to be delighted at in all its incredible variety, which we in Canada are privileged to enjoy. But if we continue to pollute the earth, destroy habitat, and cast aside traditional plants for the "new and improved," we will find the variety and abundance we take for granted will disappear. Scientists, historical parks, and ordinary gardeners who find a connection with our past in preserving heirloom seeds, all help to preserve the earth's incredible genetic diversity from humanity's reductionist tendencies. We can only hope it will be enough to ensure a safe and abundant food supply for future generations.
If people have seeds of interest they would like to place in the Plant Gene Resources collection, they are welcome to do so. Contact Plant Gene Resources of Canada, Agriculture Canada, Building #99, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6.
Resources
Copies of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity can be obtained from Environment Canada, Biodiversity Convention Office, Conservation and Protection, 351 St. Joseph Blvd, PVM, 4th floor, Hull, Quebec, K1A 0H3.
For information on the Heritage Seed Program, or to order the book "How to Save Your Own Vegetable Seeds", write to the Heritage Seed Program, R.R.#3, Uxbridge, Ontario, L9P 1R3.
For information on Upper Canada Village, write to Upper Canada Village, St. Lawrence Parks Commission, R.R.#1, Morrisburg, Ontario, K0C 1X0.
Roma Quapp is a writer living in Ottawa
Converted February 14, 2001 - Lg
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