Hi all,
I'm a Software Engineer and backyard veggie grower based in Braybrook, Victoria. I started growing veggies in 2016 and since then became passionate about permaculture and all things sustainability.
I recently watched a couple of documentaries about the loss of seed diversity and was really surprised to learn that in the last century, over 90% of the seed variety used for food production has been lost.
This inspired me to start saving seeds and to try and encourage more home gardeners to save seeds. As a software engineer I started thinking about how technology could help, so I built Local Seeds: https://www.localseeds.com.au. Local Seeds makes it easy for people to buy and sell untreated, non-GMO, heirloom, open pollinated, organic seeds online from local growers.
Would love to hear what others think about seed saving and if you have any feedback on the website.
Local seeds
Discussion
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I think this is a brilliant idea Daniel. Fabulously local, and fabulously hope-filled. I wish you all the very best with the project, and hope we can do more in the future to help promote it.
One aspect I find very interesting in the heirloom seed argument is that one key feature that has been lost from the long heritage of these seeds is the constant quality control applied by home growers who, quite naturally and over generations, only saved seed from the best individual plants in their crop. We make the mistake of considering all heirloom, open pollinated plants to be genetically stable, and it’s a fair assumption (in the absence of any formal studies) that stability varies enormously (and lets face it, it has only been the inherent mutability in these plants that has allowed for the hundreds of varieties in the first place). My hope is that as home gardens tune into the very appealing idea of saving their own seed, they’ll be equally attracted to the idea of making sure the qualities of the variety are maintained, and even improved, through consideration of which plants become parents of the next generation.
I just had a look at your website Daniel, it’s such a great initiative- well done.