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Seeds Of Diversity
Seed of Diversity, Semences du patrimoine, is a Canadian charitable organization that aims to "search out, preserve, perpetuate, study, and encourage the cultivation of heirloom and endangered varieties of food crops", particularly Canadian plants, and to educate the public about their use. It has been called "The Canadian NGO leader in two key areas of food system sustainability: crop genetic diversity and the redesign of pollination strategies". Seeds of Diversity originated in 1984 as the Heritage Seed Program of the Canadian Organic Growers organization. Members of Seeds of Diversity propagate and share seeds and other plant material, and the organization also runs a "seed library" using seed-storage technology. Educational materials related to seed saving are a major focus of the organization. Seeds of Diversity acts as a central organizing force for Seedy Saturday events across Canada. History In 1984, Canadian Organic Growers organized a conference on the loss of genetic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-governmental Organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in humanitarianism or the social sciences; they can also include clubs and associations that provide services to their members and others. Surveys indicate that NGOs have a high degree of public trust, which can make them a useful proxy for the concerns of society and stakeholders. However, NGOs can also be lobby groups for corporations, such as the World Economic Forum. NGOs are distinguished from international and intergovernmental organizations (''IOs'') in that the latter are more directly involved with sovereign states and their governments. The term as it is used today was first introduced in Article 71 of the newly-formed United Nations' Charter in 1945. While there is no fixed or formal definition for what NGOs are, they are genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food System
The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ..., food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, Food packaging, packaging, transporting, Agricultural marketing, marketing, consumption, Food distribution, distribution, and disposal of food and food-related items. It also includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each of these steps. Food systems fall within agri-food systems, which encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities in the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in foo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Saving
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after the embryo sac is fertilized by sperm from pollen, forming a zygote. The embryo within a seed develops from the zygote, and grows within the mother plant to a certain size before growth is halted. The seed coat arises from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of vegetable gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns, mosses and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates. The term "seed" also has a general meaning that antedat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seedy Sunday
The heart of a Seedy Sunday or Seedy Saturday event is the swapping and sale of seeds of landraces, folk varieties, farmer varieties and heritage seed. Sharing information about the social, cultural and culinary aspects of the seed is an important part of heritage seed saving around the world. Providing education about techniques for seed-saving, small-scale agriculture and horticulture, and about local, national and international laws that affect public-domain crop plants can also be an important part of the event. The titles Seedy Saturday and Seedy Sunday are dedicated to the public domain by the event founder Sharon Rempel. The first Seedy Saturday was held at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, Canada, in 1990. History The idea of conserving heritage varieties of garden and field crops was in its infancy in Canada in 1989. It was very difficult to find heritage varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and grains. In 1988 Sharon Rempel wanted to find period-appropriat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Organic Growers
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kent Whealy
Kent Whealy (April 27, 1946 – March 23, 2018) was an American activist, journalist and philanthropist who co-founded Seed Savers Exchange and promoted organic agriculture and the saving of Heirloom plant, heirloom seeds. Raised in Wellington, Kansas he was inspired by the works of agricultural geneticists Jack Harlan and H.Garrison Wilkes to use his training in communications to promote the protection of genetic diversity in agriculture. Career Kent Whealy graduated from the List of University of Kansas people, University of Kansas in 1969 with a degree in journalism. He started a family garden in 1975 which through various land acquisitions he helped developed into the Heritage Farm six miles north of Decorah, Iowa growing nearly 2,000 varieties of vegetables. In 1990, Whealy received a Fellowship from the MacArthur Fellows Program for his work in agriculture. Whealy was also awarded the N. I. Vavilov medal from the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1981, Kent Whealy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Savers Exchange
Seed Savers Exchange, or SSE, is a non-profit organization based near Decorah, Iowa, that preserves heirloom plant varieties through regeneration, distribution and seed exchange. It is one of the largest nongovernmental seedbanks in the United States.. The mission of SSE is to preserve the world’s diverse but endangered garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, and educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity. Since 1975, Seed Savers has produced an annual yearbook of members’ seed offerings, as well as multiple editions of ''The Garden Seed Inventory'', and ''The Fruit, Nut and Berry Inventory''. SSE also publishes ''Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners''. The nonprofit has sold seeds to about 600 retail stores in the United States and Canada. History The SSE was founded by Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy in 1975, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heather Elizabeth Apple
Heather Elizabeth Apple (born 1948) is a Canadian writer, artist, and educator, with an interest in organic horticulture. She was awarded a 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal in 1992. Early life She attended Branksome Hall, and graduated in 1967, then earned a B.Sc. Honours degree in 1972 in biology from the University of Toronto. Heritage and organic agriculture In 1984, Canadian Organic Growers (COG) organized a conference on the loss of genetic diversity in food crops, with Kent Whealy the director of the U.S. organization Seed Savers Exchange as keynote speaker. Inspired by that conference, COG's Heritage Seed Program (HSP) was initiated to help salvage Canada's crop-plant heritage, with Alex Caron as coordinator. In late 1987, after the HSP had lain dormant for about two years, Heather Apple, as a long-term organic gardener, past president of the Durham, Ontario chapter of COG, and a Seed Savers Exchange contributor, responded to a request from Alex Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Durham, Ontario
Durham is a community in the municipality of West Grey, Grey County, Ontario, Canada. Durham is located near the base of the Bruce Peninsula. Location Durham, Ontario is 44 kilometres South of Owen Sound and 89 kilometres North of Guelph on Ontario Highway 6. The middle of the town is the intersection of Highway 6 and Grey Road 4. Durham is approximately 18 kilometres east of Hanover. The population of Durham has stayed steady at roughly 2500 people over the past decade. This compares to neighbour Hanover which has grown from 6,400 to 8,200 people in the past decade. Durham is built around the Saugeen River and has three human-made dams. These dams have suffered at least two major floods, once in 1929 when the dam broke and again in 1997 due to ice blockage. Durham also used to be the centre of the livestock exchange for the surrounding Grey and Bruce counties; it lies close to the county border. On the outskirts of Durham, there are several small communities, such as Varne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honey Bee
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century), and Australia (early 19th century). Honey bees are known for their construction of perennial colonial nests from wax, the large size of their colonies, and surplus production and storage of honey, distinguishing their hives as a prized foraging target of many animals, including honey badgers, bears and human hunter-gatherers. Only eight surviving species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43 subspecies, though historically 7 to 11 species are recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. The best known honey bee is the weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colony Collapse Disorder
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and have been known by various names (including disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease), the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in early 2007 in conjunction with a drastic rise in reports of disappearances of western honey bee (''Apis mellifera'') colonies in North America. Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it affected some Asian and African countries as well. Colony collapse disorder co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USC Canada
SeedChange (Sème l'avenir in French), formerly known as USC Canada, is a non-profit organization that works with farmers around the world, including in Canada, to strengthen their ability to grow food sustainably with locally adapted seeds. The organization was founded in 1945 by Lotta Hitschmanova as the ''Unitarian Service Committee of Canada''. It updated its name in October 2019, a few months short of its 75th year. The mission of SeedChange is to build food sovereignty by working with partners to enhance biodiversity, promote ecological agriculture and counter inequity. Its work serves to help farmers build and maintain strong rural communities thanks to resilient family farms and healthy ecosystems. The organization partners with other non-profit organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to design and deliver programs to help farmers strengthen biodiversity, food sovereignty, and realize their rights. SeedChange also works to influence global food production policies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
