Q&A: John Torgrimson of Seed Savers Exchange

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The year was 1975. Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy wanted to save two heirloom seeds - Grandpa Ott's' morning glory and German Pink' tomato - brought over by Diane's great-grandparents when they immigrated to Iowa from Bavaria in the 1870s.

Today, the Seed Savers Exchange they co-founded has grown into a well-respected network of passionate gardeners interested in preserving heirloom varieties and sharing seeds.

With 13,000 members and nearly 30,000 plant varieties, Seed Savers Exchange makes its home at the scenic 890-acre Heritage Farm in the bluff country of northeast Iowa - just outside the city of Decorah.

There are rolling hills, stoney bluffs, beautiful rivers and streams, as well as multiple gardens.

Right before the start of spring, I had the chance to speak with Seed Savers Exchange's executive director John Torgrimson. Here is what he had to say:

Why should the general public care about heirlooms and genetic diversity in our foods?

German Pink' tomato. Photo courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange.

In the case of heirlooms, these seeds are living things. Heirlooms are open-pollinated seeds that grow true-to-type to the parent plants, so the seeds can be collected and grown again. All heirlooms started out as hybrids that different breeders created, unless they were accidentally created by nature. But most plant breeders created a particular heirloom variety, because they were trying to solve a problem. For example, Tom Wagner of Everett, Washington bred the Green Zebra tomato in the 1980s. He took the lines of four tomatoes to create a small green canning tomato that wouldn't crack.

The reason we should care about conserving heirlooms and genetic diversity is that we don't know what type of conditions we'll be dealing with a hundred years from now. So, it's important that we save this genetic diversity. Maybe there's a particular variety that's not very popular now, but it could solve future problems that we can't even imagine today. It could be overly wet conditions. Or, it could be extra long or short growing seasons. So, it's really about maintaining diversity and genetic heritage.

At Seed Savers Exchange, our gene bank has nearly 30,000 varieties. We have 6,000 varieties of tomatoes and 4,000 varieties of beans. Is every tomato or bean a wonderful, great tasting variety? Probably not, yet at some time in history someone felt strong enough to create it, and we think it's important to save that variety for future generations.

Or, it could be an accident in the garden, and the gardener thinks, I like how this variety evolved. That aggressive bee brought pollen from another plant to create a new line. I'm going to try and maintain that variety.' So, you could say that some heirlooms are accidental.

Heirloom seeds have often traveled to America from other parts of the world, and people have saved these heirloom seeds for generations.

How has genetic diversity decreased in recent decades? Can you offer specific examples of diversity loss in different foods?

The National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation did a survey in 1903, which was compared to another survey taken in 1983. They found the number of varieties offered by seed companies had declined substantially.

For example, there was white celery grown around Kalamazoo, Michigan called Kalamazoo Celery. In 1903 there were 58 seed companies selling that celery, and it was one of the top-ten celeries sold in the United States. Now we can't find that celery anywhere and we think it is extinct. In fact, we are asking our members in our magazine if anyone has it.

So, seed companies do a good job of getting seeds into the supply chain, but they don't do a very good job of maintaining and protecting genetic diversity. Seed Savers Exchange, on the other hand, is concerned about all varieties - for their genetics, not just their marketability. We're also concerned about old seed trade varieties, which we want to make certain don't get lost and become unavailable. We want to keep those genetics around, either to reintroduce back into the marketplace or because those genetics may be useful in the future.

John Torgrimson. Photo courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange.

Since the early 1600s there have been 20,000 different varieties of apples documented in North America. Today, we think there are a little more than 4,000 varieties remaining. Seed Savers Exchange has about 1,000 varieties of apple trees, or about 25 percent of the apple varieties of North America growing here. Most of our varieties are pre-1900. We also have built a new orchard that's focused around Midwestern varieties, and also around functionality, such as ciders, pies, winter storage, apple sauce so gardeners can learn which types were considered best for certain functions.

If you go to a grocery store, you'll probably have access to about 10 apple varieties.

The Seed Savers Exchange catalog helps distribute these old varieties. Last year we provided 40 types of grafted apples. We sold about 1,400 apple trees to people in 48 states, who are helping to preserve these varieties by planting them in their gardens. This year we're offering 20 varieties. These heirloom trees are basically the same as what we're trying to do with seeds - get them back into orchards as well as the marketplace.

The best way for these varieties to be conserved is to have them growing in gardens across the country.

How does Seed Savers Exchange support heritage foods and genetic diversity with its work? What are some reasons you've grown so quickly?

Photo courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange.

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