Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden

Seed Saving Conserves More Than Seeds

Sharing and saving seeds is becoming a popular activity on the Big Island, and the fourth Annual Seed Exchange event at the Amy Greenwell Garden on June 17 proved it. (Check out the Garden's web site at www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/greenwell/greenwell.html) Organized by Nancy Redfeather, Hawai`i GEAN (Genetic Engineering Action Network, www.geaction.org) and Peter Van Dyke and the staff of the Greenwell Garden, this event drew around 400 people, all eager to give and share seeds and plants and to attend the educational displays and workshops that filled the day.

People came from around the island to talk story with others who care about the environment, to get some free seeds and plants, and to enjoy the beautiful sunny day in Captain Cook. Isis was there from Waipio, sharing sugar cane (ko) stalks for planting. Nancy and her Hula Halau Na Wai Iwi Ola, under the direction of Kumu Hula Keala Ching, danced an inspired hula after the morning blessing. Peter Van Dyke, the caretaker of this incredible native Hawaiian garden, was scurrying about making sure that everything went well. "Know Your Farmer Alliance" was busy sharing information about their new campaign, the "Hawai`i Island Farmer and Gardener Pledge," which is a call to Hawai`i's home gardeners and farms: "On our farms and in our gardens we will not knowingly grow genetically engineered seeds or plants. We pledge our farms and gardens to be GMO-Free Zones." (Contact Geoff Rauch at 936-7040). The Hawai`i Gourd Society (www.outtayourgourd.net) was there, helped along by Evie of Evie's Natural Foods. Many others gave away seeds, plants, roots, corms, and other treasures relating to the earth, good nutrition, health and an awareness of working with the environment in order to sustain ourselves. In all, there were about 25 booths, plus numerous drop-in folks who came to share the wealth of their own gardens.

The seed exchange pointed up the importance of biodiversity, which is simply the growing and continuation of naturally occurring, old-fashioned, or "heirloom" varieties of fruits and vegetables, many of which have been lost because of the commercialization of the farm and food industry. Biodiversity might sound a little like "bioengineering," but the two could not be more different. Biodiversity is a term that is finding its way into common usage today as people learn about the wonders of nature and the diversity that she provides us.

We hear a lot about "GMO" (genetically modified organisms) and related terms and topics lately. It gets confusing. We might think of "normal" tomatoes as red, corn as yellow, and string beans as green - right? And if we were to see purple string beans or an orange tomato, we might think that they aren't quite right or that they have been "manufactured" in a laboratory. Not necessarily so! Common commercial varieties of string beans are green, true, and that's what we mostly see and eat. "But they can also be purple, maroon, or yellow. Tomatoes can be orange, yellow or purple. Many familiar fruits and vegetables grow in a rainbow of colors," says Rosalind Creasy in her book Blue Potatoes, Orange Tomatoes. Just look through a seed catalog, like Richter's Herbs (www.richters.com), to discover 40 varieties of basil, or the Thyme Garden's (www.thymegarden.com) to discover 70 varieties of thyme. The Seeds of Change catalog (www.seedsofchange.com) lists 50 varieties of tomatoes! This is biodiversity, which is what seed saving and events like the seed exchange are promoting.

Much Diversity Has Been Lost

Our grandparents knew about biodiversity. They had more diversity of crops than we do in our non-diversified food crop culture of today. The Rural Advancement Foundation reports, "75 types of vegetables, approximately 97% of the varieties that were available in 1900, are now extinct. Many have survived only by the graces of backyard seed savers." All we have to do is open our eyes and look for these unusual varieties, sometimes called "heirlooms," because some are still out there.

Many people have written about biodiversity. Here is an explanation that helped me understand the concept: "Natural biological diversity is the key to the maintenance of the world as we know it," said Edward Wilson, a biologist at Harvard University. "This is the assembly of life that took a billion years to evolve... and created the world that created us. It holds the world steady." When things get out of balance, when humans take control, this balance is lost. It happened in 1845 when the only variety of potato being grown in Ireland was attacked by a fungal disease. Poor people depended on this important crop so much that in 1846 one million people died, while another 1-1/2 million left Ireland.

Buy Heirloom Varieties of Seeds

So what can we do to help solve this problem? Buy heirloom varieties of vegetables and other seeds through companies like Seeds of Change. Save a few seeds of the delicious corn, tomatoes and other veggies that your original seeds produce, share them with friends and family, and keep looking for new varieties to grow. Don't buy hybrid varieties or those that have been genetically engineered because "the biggest single trigger of extinctions today is the introduction of new hybrid varieties by multinational seed companies," according to Kent and Diana Whealy, of Seed Savers Exchange. "Seed companies drop more of the old kinds as they introduce new hybrids, and the reliable heirloom and traditional varieties are then almost certain to disappear." In monitoring the loss of our "irreplaceable garden heritage," they found that "44.6% of all the non-hybrid vegetable varieties available in 1984 had been dropped from mail-order catalogs by 1991, and those losses appear to be escalating."

You can make a difference, I can make a difference, we all can contribute to helping make sure that these wonderful, TRUE varieties of our favorite foods do not totally vanish from the world, by simply saving and sharing seeds of heirloom varieties and saying NO to GMO foods, by buying and sharing heirloom varieties of seeds, and by educating yourself about biodiversity and other fascinating aspects of the natural environment.