Native Seeds/SEARCH

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Native Seeds/SEARCH
Type Nonprofit
Founded 1983
Headquarters
  • 3584 E. River Road
    Tucson, AZ 85718
Key people Bill McDorman, Executive Director
Mission "To conserve, distribute, and document the diverse varieties of agricultural seeds, their wild relatives, and the role these seeds play in cultures of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico."[1]
Website www.nativeseeds.org

Native Seeds/SEARCH, founded in 1983, is a nonprofit conservation organization located in Tucson, Arizona in the United States.

In the words of its mission statement, it seeks "to conserve, distribute and document the adapted and diverse varieties of agricultural seed, their wild relatives and the role these seeds play in cultures of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico." It maintains a seed bank and a Conservation Farm in Patagonia, Arizona, and distributes seeds, native food products, and indigenous arts via mail order and a retail store in Tucson.

SEARCH is an acronym that stands for Southwestern Endangered Aridland Resource Clearing House.

History

Native Seeds/SEARCH was founded in 1983 by Gary Nabhan, Karen Reichhardt, Barney Burns, and Mahina Drees.[2][3] The organization grew out of a Meals for Millions gardening project in cooperation with the Tohono O'odham Nation. Native Seeds/SEARCH was founded as a means of curating, collecting, and distributing seeds of traditionally grown crops of the Southwest. In addition to a seed bank, Native Seeds/SEARCH opened a conservation farm in 1997.[4] Seeds are distributed by mail order and a retail store in Tucson. Since 2001, Native Seeds/SEARCH has operated Southwest Regis-Tree to conserve Native Southwestern perennial species.

Crops being conserved

As of 2012 these are the crops they are conserving and have sufficient seed of to offer to others to plant.[5]

  • Amaranth
  • Beans
  • Black-eyed peas
  • Chiles
  • Chiltepins
  • Corn/Maize
  • Cotton
  • Devil's Claw
  • Garbanzo
  • Gourds
  • Greens
  • Herbs
  • Indigo
  • Lentils
  • Melons
  • Okra
  • Onions
  • Panic Grass
  • Peas
  • Sorghum
  • Squash
  • Sunflowers
  • Teosinte
  • Tobacco
  • Tomatillo
  • Tomato
  • Watermelon
  • Wheat

References

  1. ↑ 990 filing 2010
  2. ↑ MacCaskey, Michael. "Preserving Desert Crops". Retrieved 30 November 2013. 
  3. ↑ "History and Mission". Native Seeds/SEARCH. Retrieved 30 November 2013. 
  4. ↑ "Conservation Farm". Native Seeds/SEARCH. Retrieved 30 November 2013. 
  5. ↑ Native Seeds/SEARCH
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