Stephen Smith

What is an heirloom? What is a landrace? An heirloom is a seed that has local history usually with a certain family, person, or related matter and has usually been handed down from generation to generation.  A landrace is a locally adapted, traditional variety of a domesticated plant or animal that has developed over a period of time via adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of uses/agriculture

 

 

I have been working with landraces and heirlooms for 6 years now and my collection of both beans and corn number 200 each, if not even more. That many varieties to do exist, but they are also in a great threat of being lost. According to SSE, 97% of varieties vegetable and fruit varieties available in 1900 have been lost.1903 to 1983, 93 % of heirloom varieties have went extinct (Rural Advancement Foundation study).

 

Numerous landraces and heirlooms remain only within a handful of people or groups, thus being "undiscovered" and not available to others who can keep it goingThe genetic diversity of the world's food crops is eroding at an unimaginable and increasingly accelerating rate. The vegetables and fruits currently being lost are the result of thousands of years of adaptation and selection in diverse ecological niches around the world. Plant breeders (may/can) use the old varieties to breed resistance into modern crops. (rapidly evolving diseases and pests). Without these infusions of genetic diversity, food production is at risk from epidemics and infestations. We are on the verge of losing  much of the agricultural diversity it took humankind 10,000 years to create.

 

We are on the verge of losing  much of the agricultural diversity it took humankind 10,000 years to create.

 

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