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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] |
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] |
Svalbard
Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and . The largest settlement is Longyearbyen. The islands were first used as a base by the whalers who sailed far north in the 17th and 18th centuries, after which they were abandoned. Coal mining started at the beginning of the 20th century, and several permanent communities were established. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 recognizes Norwegian sovereignty, and the 1925 Svalbard Act made Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway. They also established Svalbard as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone. The Norwegian Store Norske and the Russian remain the only mining companies in place. Res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Seed Banks
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighbourhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms. Durable good relations that extend beyond immediate genealogical ties also define a sense of community, important to their identity, practice, and roles in social institutions such as family, home, work, government, society, or humanity at large. Although communities are usually small relative to personal social ties, "community" may also refer to large group affiliations such as national communities, international communities, and virtual communities. The English-language word "community" derives from the Old French ''comuneté'' (Modern French: ''communauté''), which comes from the Latin ''communitas'' "community", "public spirit" (from Latin ''communis'', "commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agricultural Organizations Based In The United States
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals ( grains), vegetables, fruits, cooking oils, meat, mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iowa Public Television
Iowa PBS, formerly Iowa Public Television (IPTV), is a network of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member stations in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is owned by the Iowa Public Broadcasting Board, an agency of the state education department which holds the licenses for all the PBS member stations in the state. Iowa PBS' headquarters are located at 6450 Corporate Drive in Johnston, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. The nine stations cover almost all of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska. History Iowa is a pioneer in educational broadcasting; it is home to two of the oldest educational radio broadcast stations in the world, the University of Iowa's WSUI and Iowa State University's WOI. The electrical engineering department at the State University of Iowa (SUI) in Iowa City demonstrated television with an exhibit at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 28, 1931. J. L. Potter supervised the project. At the conclusion of the Iowa State Fair, the televis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Swap
Seed swaps are events where gardeners meet to exchange seeds. Swapping can be arranged online or by mail, especially when participants are spread out geographically. Swap meet events, where growers meet and exchange their excess seeds in person, are also growing in popularity. In part this is due to increased interest in organic gardening and heritage or heirloom plant varietals. This reflects gardeners' interest in "unusual or particular varieties of flowers and vegetables", according to Kathy Jentz of ''Washington Gardener Magazine'' (Maryland). Seed swaps also help consumers who, due to increases in the cost of living or cut down on expenditures, wish to grow their own food. Some events are organized as part of an educational effort, where visitors are taught gardening and growing skills and how to preserve an area's cultural heritage and biodiversity. In the United States, the last Saturday of January is "National Seed Swap Day". Cultural and culinary significance Swapping ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Recalcitrant Seed
Recalcitrant seeds are seeds that do not survive drying and freezing during ex-situ conservation. By and large, these seeds cannot resist the effects of drying or temperatures less than 10 °C (50 °F); thus, they cannot be stored for long periods like orthodox seeds because they can lose their viability. Plants that produce recalcitrant seeds include avocado, mango, mangosteen, lychee, cocoa, rubber tree, some horticultural trees, aquatic plants such as ''Nymphaea caerulea'''','' and several plants used in traditional medicine, such as species of ''Virola'' and ''Pentaclethra''. Generally speaking, most tropical pioneer species have orthodox seeds but many climax species have recalcitrant or intermediate seeds. Mechanisms of damage The two main mechanisms causing damage to recalcitrant seeds are desiccation effects on the intracellular structures and metabolic damage from the formation of toxic chemicals such as free radicals. An example of the first type of damage would be fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthodox Seed
Orthodox seeds are seeds which will survive drying and/or freezing during ex-situ conservation, as opposed to recalcitrant seeds, which will not. According to information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there is variation in the ability of orthodox seeds to withstand drying and storage, with some seeds being more sensitive than others. Thus some seeds are considered intermediate in their storage capability while others are fully orthodox. One notable example of a long-lived orthodox seed which survived accidental storage followed by controlled germination is the case of the 2,000-year-old Judean date palm (cultivar of ''Phoenix dactylifera'') seed which successfully sprouted in 2005. This particular seed is reputed to be the oldest viable seed, but the upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown. See also *Micropropagation *Plant propagation *Seedbank A seed bank (also seed banks or seeds bank) stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heirloom Plant
An heirloom plant, heirloom variety, heritage fruit (Australia and New Zealand), or heirloom vegetable (especially in Ireland and the UK) is an old cultivar of a plant used for food that is grown and maintained by gardeners and farmers, particularly in isolated or ethnic minority communities of the Western world. These were commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but are not used in modern large-scale agriculture. In some parts of the world, it is illegal to sell seeds of cultivars that are not listed as approved for sale. The Henry Doubleday Research Association, now known as Garden Organic, responded to this legislation by setting up the Heritage Seed Library to preserve seeds of as many of the older cultivars as possible. However, seed banks alone have not been able to provide sufficient insurance against catastrophic loss. In some jurisdictions, like Colombia, laws have been proposed that would make seed saving itself illegal. Many heirloom vegetables have k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Gardening In The United States
Community gardens in the United States benefit both gardeners and society at large. Community gardens provide fresh produce to gardeners and their friends and neighbors. They provide a place of connection to nature and to other people. In a wider sense, community gardens provide green space, a habitat for insects and animals, sites for gardening education, and beautification of the local area. Community gardens provide access to land to those who otherwise could not have a garden, such as apartment-dwellers, the elderly, and the homeless. Many gardens resemble European allotment gardens, with plots or boxes where individuals and families can grow vegetables and flowers, including a number which began as victory gardens during World War II. Other gardens are worked as community farms with no individual plots at all, similar to urban farms. Overview A community garden is any piece of land gardened by a group of people. The majority of gardens in community gardening programs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Community Gardens
A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plot and the yielding or the production of which belongs to the individual. In collective gardens the piece of land is not divided. A group of people cultivate it together and the harvest belongs to all participants. Around the world, community gardens exist in various forms, it can be located in the proximity of neighborhoods or on balconies and rooftops. Its size can vary greatly from one to another. Community gardens have experienced three waves of major development in North America. The earliest wave of community gardens development coincided with the industrial revolution and rapid urbanization process in Europe and North America; they were then called 'Jardin d'ouvrier' (or workers' garden). The second wave of community garden develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Denver. ..., United States. The city population was 169,810 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, an increase of 17.94% since 2010 United States Census, 2010. Fort Collins is the principal city of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and is a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor. The city is the Colorado municipalities by population, fourth most populous city in Colorado. Situated on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, Fort Collins is located north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Fort Collins is a midsize college town, home to Colorado State University an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
