Perennial Plant Library and Intergenerational Seed Bank
Building seed banks is noble and important work for preserving the genetics of countless valuable seeds. The solution to the future crop failures is hidden within the vast global plant genome. The success of future breeding work, food soveriegnty, and social welfare depends on the preservation of plant species and their developed cultivars. The problem with seed banks is that they are vulnerable and require high inputs. Seeds must be continually grown out and seed recolleted in order for them to remain viable. Banks that are trying to achieve long term storage need temperature controled enviroments in order to achive a dry and cold enviroment for optimal seed preservation. Also, the valuable seeds are centralized to a single building. During the iraq war a seed bank was destroyed, and with it many important cultivars were lost forever.
I propose an alternative model, one that be used in conjuction with typical seed banks: perennial plant libraries. Perennial plants survive year after year, without having to be replanted. Their seeds do not need to be collected and preserved, they continually make more seeds, so when they are needed, the seed is simply collected. These perennial plant libraries would be desentralized all over the world, focusing on local plants, preserving the genetics for future genreations.
One of the goals of Interwoven is collecting and preserving a vast collection of perennial plant species and their developed cultivars. This effort doubles as regional variety trials, helping determine which cultivars perform best.
We do not know what the future brings. With climate chaos, weather patterns could greatly change. With commercial agriculture's dependance on a limited selection of cultivars, pest and disease pressure could wipe out entire plantings. We need to have a huge colection of cultivars to be prepared to determine which ones can survive the future pressures.
I propose an alternative model, one that be used in conjuction with typical seed banks: perennial plant libraries. Perennial plants survive year after year, without having to be replanted. Their seeds do not need to be collected and preserved, they continually make more seeds, so when they are needed, the seed is simply collected. These perennial plant libraries would be desentralized all over the world, focusing on local plants, preserving the genetics for future genreations.
One of the goals of Interwoven is collecting and preserving a vast collection of perennial plant species and their developed cultivars. This effort doubles as regional variety trials, helping determine which cultivars perform best.
We do not know what the future brings. With climate chaos, weather patterns could greatly change. With commercial agriculture's dependance on a limited selection of cultivars, pest and disease pressure could wipe out entire plantings. We need to have a huge colection of cultivars to be prepared to determine which ones can survive the future pressures.