Remarks at the Irish Seed Savers Association Seed Bank Facility
Scariff, 14th June 2014
Mo bhuíochas daoibh as an fáilte sin agus as an cuireadh bheith anseo libh inniu.
My thanks to you all for that warm and generous Scariff welcome and to Geraldine Tobin for inviting me to visit here today. Of course this isn’t my first visit and I am happy to have this opportunity to return as President and to see for myself the many very positive changes that have taken place since I was last here. Comhghairdeachas libh as na h-oibreacha sin.
The place is looking splendid with its organic orchards, native woodlands organic seed gardens, visitor garden trails shop and Café and now a new Seed Bank.
My congratulations on your 21st Birthday this year and also for your work in putting together this Seed Bank – Ireland’s first – and which I understand will hold more than 800 varieties of heritage vegetable seeds. I know that this is only part of the story and your Association preserves and stores 48 heritage grain varieties; a heritage potato collection of over 50 varieties; maintains 140 different native apple varieties in your orchards; and holds the Native Apple Tree collection on site and your collection of more than 33 varieties of self rooters are amongst the largest collection in the world.
From little acorns, oak trees grow and from modest beginnings in 1991, the Irish Seed Savers Association has grown to such an extent that impressively it now employs 16 people – one of the biggest employers in the area and one of the largest Non-Governmental Organisations in Ireland (1,800 paying supporters). The extent of the activities conducted here are formidable.
The production of seeds for supporters is, I know, central to your mission. I’m told that you distributed over 30,000 packets of organic heritage seeds in 2010 alone.
The complexity of the challenges the staff here face are significant. From ensuring they are fully aware of the crops they are dealing with to understanding the significance of the varieties involved; pest and disease control; appropriate fertility and husbandry methods; pollination requirements and seed collection methods.
In times when commentators speak of the need for action in relation to biodiversity loss, the Association’s Seed Bank is recognised by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as a depository for Ireland’s plant genetic resources and will as a consequence become a central component of our response to that loss.
It is heartening to know that in addition to all this important work you undertake, you also educate other growers about its importance and equally importantly, pass on those skills and that expertise developed over the past two decades to others. It is a very positive measure to provide a demonstration facility for visitors, school-groups and other interested parties into the behind-the-scenes work of seed saving, as well as an opportunity to visit a working in situ genebank.
That expertise and skill and understanding have probably never been in greater demand than now as we witness in recent years more and more people coming back to growing vegetables and wanting access to varieties that are suitable to our climate, yield well and taste good without adding copious amounts of chemical fertilisers to soil. We know that there is an increased understanding amongst growers that our heritage varieties score well in these regards but aren’t available to shoppers as they are not considered to be commercial varieties. I know that you make great efforts to keep these heritage varieties alive and available now and for future generations and to ensure that we don’t revisit the mistakes of the past – something I know you are keenly aware of – the reality that we have lost most of the vegetable varieties that existed a century ago.
Your work is important as it is regrettably rare in this country, with the numbers involved in the work of seed saving in Ireland down to a mere handful with the majority of these known to be involved with your Association either now or at one time.
I wish you well with your important educational and outreach programme, the objective of which is to bring back those skills and knowledge of seed saving to growers in Ireland. We must do all we can to protect our heritage, all aspects of our heritage, to ensure that future generations are imbued with both a keen understanding of its significance and a passionate sense of custodianship of something special and irreplaceable. I wish you well in all that you do to protect this vital part of that heritage.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh anseo. Gub fada buan sibh ‘s go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.