Seeds

I seed the potential! 😊

So much hope and potential is contained in this seed!

It is so fascinating to me, that this little seed, with the right conditions can grow to become a vine that yields 4 to 5 pumpkins! One pumpkin has enough seeds to feed families on my city block.

By the way, do you know that there’s a plan to create a seed bank on the moon? Yup!

Proposed by Jekan Thanga’s research team at the U of A, scientists hope to send a solar-powered ark to the moon (like Noah’s ark), filled with 335 million seed, spore, sperm and egg samples, in case a catastrophe happens on Earth.

Earth has its own vault called the Global Seed Vault buried deep in ice between Norway and the North Pole. Over 930,000 varieties of seeds, many wild and rare are stored there. Some seeds are no longer in general use.

In the past 50 years, humans have increased crop yield and decreased biodiversity to the point where only 30 crops provide 95% of human food-energy needs. In the U.S. for example, we have lost over 90% of our fruit and vegetable varieties since the 1900s.

Seed conservation is happening at smaller scales too, such as in Tucson with The Native Seed/SEARCH organization who's mission is “to conserve and promote the arid-adapted crop diversity of the Southwest in support of sustainable farming and food security.”

Seeds hold life! From my little backyard in Brooklyn, I will save some of these seeds. I will eat some, plant some, and give some away, and then repeat next season. I'm also interested in finding different plants that are suitable for my 6b / 7a climate zone. Any suggestions? Please comment below👇🏾

I wonder…

🤔Why are seeds so important? Well, seeds turn into plants from which we make almost everything: food, medicine, shelter, clothing, etc. It also represents culture, heritage, and traditions.

🤔Why is plant diversity is so important? Less diversity means less choice and resources to deal with life’s changes from health, climate, disease, pests, famine, etc.