The Largest Seed Exchange in the World Inspires Change – Shareable.
Ethical consumers in the US are increasingly concerned with the seeds used in the production of their food. However, this has been an issue in Europe for many years. In fact, there are several transnational seedsaver networks, like Arche Noah, which have become policy reform experts on heritage seeds.
One of the most famous groups within Arche Noah’s 8,000 member network is the “live” seedbank Peliti, which has been raising awareness about endangered varieties of heritage seeds since 1995. Once tiny, now Peliti is an NGO that receives thousands of visitors for its annual seed swap where you can get a mind boggling number of seed varieties for free. It’s the biggest event of its kind in the world with an estimated 5,000 visitors last year from about 50 different countries. Recently I had the opportunity to interview one of the 200 Peliti volunteers, who are spread throughout Greece and beyond.
They call themselves a live seedbank because traditional seedbanks store seeds under refrigeration, sometimes for up 10 to 15 years, which is “more like a seed museum than a seedbank,” according to volunteer Vasso Kanellopoulou. Peliti concentrates on keeping their seeds reproducing and germinating so they don’t fall vicitim to genetic erosion. Originally they started out with only a few hundred varieties, now they have thousands they’re saving from extiction.
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