Without infusions of genetic diversity, food production is at risk of epidemics and infestations.

Genetic Erosion and Diversity

Biodiversity: Genetic Diversity of Vegetables and Apples

Seed Savers Exchange

Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit grassroots network of gardeners, orchardists and plant collectors, for over 30 years has been saving a significant part of the vegetable, fruit, nut and other genetic diversity of the planet.

Through their efforts the Seed Savers Exchange seed bank currently holds 20,000 cultivars, and the number of varieties continues to grow. 2,000 varieties are grown out each year to ensure the vitality of the stock in the seed bank. Easily available varieties and their sources are documented in The Garden Seed Inventory and The Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory. In addition, its 500-page yearbook lists a network of 900 people who have about 12,000 varieties of seeds not offered commercially. These invaluable resources are periodically updated and revised, so that the public can have ready access to a description of each variety and the sources for obtaining it. These publications list all the open-pollinated varieties in the United States that are not extinct. In addition, Seed Savers Exchange has saved thousands of endangered species from around the globe.

The Sustainablity Fund Endowment will enable the Seed Savers Exchange Initiative to:

• strengthen its professional staff by enabling the organization to pay adequate salaries;
  
  
• continue to expand and make more accessible its seed collection; and
  
  
• enable others around the globe to better save and maintain plant genetic diversity by replicating the seed saving network and seed bank that Seed Savers Exchange has created in the U.S.

Beginning the fourth year of this program, one-year Interns will be part of this work so that they can set up similar programs in their own countries. The first intern(s) will be from Mexico. Their work/study will be facilitated by a bilingual full-time Coordinator.

In the sixth year, two educational videos will be developed about this work—a PBS-TV special for the general public and a “how-to” video to facilitate the setting-up of similar organizations.

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Genetic Erosion and Diversity

• Detailed proposal available.

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