Saving the Southern Legacy: Heirloom Plants and Local Knowledge for Profitable, Sustainable Agriculture

Saving the Southern Legacy: Heirloom Plants and Local Knowledge for Profitable, Sustainable Agriculture

Summary

Objectives
The Southern Seed Legacy originated in response to the notable absence of the American South in the nation-wide grassroots effort to save heirloom or landrace seeds. In 1996, the project received three years of funding from SARE for the following purposes:

1.Identify individuals, and communities involved in saving heirloom seeds in the South;

2. Map the “at risk” plant varieties that are culturally and historically relevant to ethnic groups within the agroecoregions;

3. Document knowledge associated with heirloom varieties;

4. Conduct marketing studies on heirlooms and products;

5. Facilitate exchange of germplasm and associated knowledge.

Results
The funded project ended in August, 1999, with all of the above objectives accomplished. Today, the Southern Seed Legacy is a self-sufficient organization supported by over 150 paying participants, and is no longer dependent on government funding.

During the research phase, the project uncovered active and viable seed saving networks (both of individuals and organizations) throughout most areas of the South. This was especially true of southern varieties of vegetable, fruit, ornamental, and other useful domesticated plants.

The SSL seed bank holds approximately 300 seed sample accessions of nearly as many different named varieties collected in our field research or donated by SSL members. These varieties are important as heirlooms in some families and ethnic traditions, but they were becoming less and less available. SSL has expanded our efforts to both document and bolster support for seed saving and continued cultivation of these “old timey” crops in their home regions. Moreover, we are discovering through our memory banking research that many of these heirloom seeds and plants serve as artifacts of larger cultural expressions (cuisine, folklore, community values, social customs), that they serve as connections to ancestry, identity, and what it means to be Southern in a globalizing world.

Unfortunately, the expertise and knowledge which these old varieties represent, while still extant, is seriously threatened, often vanishing at a more rapid pace than the plant varieties it evolved to sustain. This project is based on the conviction that the expertise, values, and favored varieties of an earlier farming generation can play an integral role in building sustainable and profitable agriculture in the South. This is why SSL is not soley devoted to collecting seeds of old timey varieties, but is memory banking the knowledge, stories, and other information associated with these plants and their products. The aim of this project has been to collect, record, and disseminate this legacy of knowledge providing a resource for all Southerners to draw on for business or pleasure. We believe these long time favorites offer potential low cost, low maintenance, and high value, high interest crop options for Southern region producers working toward the goals of sustainable agriculture.

The outreach and education component of this project has involved building a Southern region-wide SSL Network, outreach visits, presentations, exhibits, display gardens, teaching kits, and SSLP-sponsored workshops/conferences. The SSL Network, a communication and information network, consists of over 500 individual and institutional seedsavers and seedseekers of different states, and is encouraging and supporting heirloom variety cultivation, seedsaving and exchange among growers. Our Resource Directory of network contacts and members illustrates this broad participation.

With origins as a voluntary network since 1993, and then three years of SARE funding since 1996, SSL has grown and expanded its breadth and impact. Accomplishments in 1999 include the publication and distribution of 200 Resource Directories and 50 “Yesterday’s Way’s, Tomorrow’s Treasures: Heirloom Plants and Memory Banking” Teaching Packet and Tool Kits to educators. The Resource Directory will be revised annually (a 2000 edition is in the works now) and will facilitate networking between individuals and organizations of fering and seeking heirloom seed throughout the Southern Region.

Also in the Resource Directory are state-by-state listings of farmer’s markets, living history farms & museums, botanical gardens, seed saving & alternative agriculture organizations, regional seed companies, agricultural newspapers, kindred web sites, and a bibliography of suggested readings. Further outputs of SSL researchers include a report on marketing of heirlooms and their products, two masters thesis (one in horticulture and one in ecology), and one dissertation in anthropology. Abbreviated reports of the findings of these studies will be found in future SSL publications made widely available.

This year also saw the further development of PASS: Pass Along Southern Seeds, an initiative designed to promote conservation through use. We have added information about our PASS initiative and listings of the seed available to our Southern Memories web site (http://www.uga.edu.~sm). Since February 1999, this has generated over 25 requests for seed that participants will agree to grow out, record performance information about, and then return one third of the seed to SSL, keep one third for themselves, passing along the final third.

SSL is now successfully moving into another phase as a non-profit, member-supported organization institutionalized separately from the University of Georgia. Since announcing at the end of August, over 150 members have contributed $10 or higher membership donations to support our mission. Members receive our publications, including the Resource Directory and newsletter, Seedlink, and free participation in all SSL-sponsored events, such as the Annual Seed Swap. Our Third Annual Seed Swap in May 1999, marked the first occasion the Southern Seed Legacy Award was given. Long time seed saver and memory banking participant Ernest Keheley of Marietta, Georgia, received a plaque commemorating his years of seed saving.

SSL’s impact is gauged in part by the responses we’ve had to our initiatives and efforts from farmers, gardeners, and consumers over our three years of research, outreach and education activities in the South. Our project has been written up in many newspaper and magazine articles. An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiling SSL that appeared Sunday, August 29, 1999, edition, “For these gleaners of seeds, older is better” generated an immediate overwhelming response via e-mail (96 messages to date) and written mail, even from outside the region as the article appeared in subsidiary papers as well. Respondents have ranged from educators, writers, hobby gardeners, activists, agricultural historians, to farmers. Through our marketing study we have found that people are demanding more and more quality ant that the old varieties carry a value added when marketed in the right places.

We believe our message is reaching a larger audience as well. We were commended to the US Secretary of agriculture by the national Genetic Resources Council for our efforts in maintaining agrobiodiversity on American Farms. The Washington Area Practicing Anthropologists association recognized SS L codirector Virginia Nazarea and her memory banking work with their prestigious PRAXIS award in November 1999.
The Southern Seed Legacy is just over three years old. At this point, we have established a regional network of enthusiastic partners. Hundreds of local farmers and gardeners have participated by either being interviewed, reading and responding to our newsletter, or by mailing us their own saved seeds. There is a great deal of research we would like to pursue, and in future we will likely submit additional grants. In the meantime, SSL will continue its outreach efforts with the help of our supporters.

Collaborators: