AGRICULTURE REPORT - Non-Profit Group Helps Farmers and Gard

AGRICULTURE REPORT - Non-Profit Group Helps Farmers and Gardners Exchange Seeds
By Staff

Broadcast: Tuesday, September 06, 2005

I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

 
In nineteen seventy-five, a young husband and wife in the United States began an organization to save seeds from rare plants. Diane and Kent Whealy established the Seed Savers Exchange. They still work there, though they are no longer married.

The Seed Savers Exchange operates Heritage¹ Farm in Decorah Iowa, in the Midwest. The farm has grown to three hundred fifty-six hectares.

Before Diane Whealy's grandfather died, he gave her a few seeds from three plants he loved. The plants had been brought from northern Germany in the late eighteen hundreds. One grew pink tomatoes that tasted sweet. Another was a climbing bean. The third grew a morning glory flower with a red star.

When immigrants left Europe for America, many brought their best seeds with them. Many of those seeds were lost now. The seeds from Diane Whealy's grandfather gave the Whealys the idea to start the Seed Savers Exchange.

The organization describes its farm as a living museum of heirloom plants. It defines² heirlooms as any garden plant passed down over time within a family, just like a piece of jewelry³.

More than twenty-four thousand kinds of rare vegetables are in the permanent collection at Heritage Farm. These include four thousand traditional kinds from Eastern Europe and Russia. About ten percent of each crop is grown every summer, to produce fresh seeds.

Also, there are thousands of vegetables, fruits, grains, flowers and herbs that members of the exchange can buy from each other. These are listed each year in a yearbook. People who are not members can order from seed catalogs also published by the organization.

Big seed companies sell mostly hybrid⁴ seeds that cannot reproduce⁵ themselves. So people must buy new seeds each year.

Seed Savers calls itself an organized link for gardeners who want to protect the food supply through biodiversity. The idea is to grow many kinds of plants so one disease cannot harm them all.

The group says current best sellers include German extra hardy⁶ garlic and the Mexican sour gherkin cucumber. They also include Russian giant garlic and Georgian crystal garlic. In fact, there are lots of kinds of garlic, because the exchange ships garlic in September and October.

The non-profit organization is on the Web at seedsavers.org.  I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 heritage   

n.传统，遗产，继承物

参考例句：

• The ancient buildings are part of the national heritage.这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。
• We Chinese have a great cultural heritage.我们中国人有伟大的文化遗产。

2 defines   

规定( define的第三人称单数 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条

参考例句：

• This name defines us all. 这个名字造就了我们。 来自演讲部分
• The range of incomes over which this happens defines the 'poverty trap'. 发生在这种情况的收入范围，称为“贫困陷阱。”

3 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

4 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

5 reproduce   

v.生育，繁殖，复制，重做

参考例句：

• The machine can reproduce a key in two minutes.这机器能在两分钟内复制一把钥匙。
• The picture will reproduce well.这照片会印得很清楚。

6 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。