Getting to the hub of seed saving

It seems every new website these days is a hub or an academy. The latest example that has come across my desk is the Seed Knowledge Hub developed by the Erasmus+ project Seeds of Growth: Strengthening Community Seed Banks and Sustainable Seed-Saving Practices in Europe.

The Hub brings together guides, technical manuals, case studies and policy materials on seed saving and cultivated diversity. What was included into it was decided on the basis of a capacity gap analysis that reached 868 people across Europe and collected 140 responses from seed savers, community seed bank managers and seed librarians.

You can subscribe to keep up to date.

Fresh Nibbles

Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.

Published on October 21, 2026

Somewhat related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply