As seed companies consolidate and American agriculture moves toward fewer and fewer crops, the importance of preserving genetic diversity – and keeping that diversity in the hands of farmers and gardeners – has become increasingly important.

Join us for a presentation by John Torgrimson, executive director of Seed Savers Exchange. His talk, “Preserving Genetic Diversity and Cultural History in Our Food Supply,” starts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10 at the Goodman Community Center, 149 Waubesa St., Madison. The event is free and open to the general public.

“Crop, variety, and ecological diversity are at the heart of Community Supported Agriculture,” said Kiera Mulvey, FairShare’s executive director. “Preserving this diversity helps farmers and members ensure delicious, varied and reliable harvests in difficult seasons and contributes to our larger mission of nourishing not only ourselves, but also our greater community and environment.”

The mission of Seed Savers Exchange is to conserve and promote America’s culturally diverse but endangered food crop heritage for future generations by collecting, growing, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants.

Torgrimson will discuss how the seed exchange works and how this allows gardeners to become backyard preservationists and advocates for a diverse food supply. In addition to preserving diversity, seed savers and seed exchanges also conserve agricultural history. The stories and knowledge passed down with each seed can be as important as genetic diversity itself.

Torgrimson has served as executive director of Seed Savers since July 2010. (He previously served as the organization’s editor and media coordinator.) He has considerable experience managing nonprofit organizations, including serving as executive director of Oxfam Hong Kong, an international development and relief organization in Southeast Asia. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer, and worked in community development along with his wife Patricia in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The couple live on a certified organic hobby farm in Minnesota.

This is the third presentation in FairShare’s four-part Year of CSA Speaker Series celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the coalition (formerly Madison Area CSA Coalition, or MACSAC). The series welcomes good food movement leaders to Madison to inspire and expound on the health, community, environmental, and economic aspects of community supported agriculture and the local food movement.

The speaker series concludes with Ken Meter of the Crossroads Center presenting “Local Food as a Strategy for Economic Recovery” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14 in room 270 of UW Madison’s Soil Building, 1525 Observatory Dr.

Co-Sponsor:
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

Community Promotional Sponsors:

• Community Groundworks
• REAP Food Group
• Sustain Dane
• UW Extension – Dane County
• Wisconsin Foodie

University Promotional Sponsors:

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture
• Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
• Slow Food UW
• Urban & Regional Planning

For more information, please contact FairShare CSA Coalition at info@csacoalition.org or call (608) 226-0300.