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Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008

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Native Seeds/SEARCH

Native Seeds/SEARCH
Mahina Drees and Gary Nabhan, co-directors
526 N. 4th Ave.
Tucson, Ariz. 85705
(520) 622-5561
E-mail: info@nativeseeds.org
Web: http://www.nativeseeds.org

This innovative organization offers a variety of creative approaches to hunger, coming at the issue from the perspective of sustainable agriculture and cultural pride.

Descended from a 10-year-old gardening project on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, Native Seeds/SEARCH is committed to rediscovering ancient American Indian food crops, encouraging people on the reservations (who are given the seeds free) to grow them and use them in a healthful diet, and also makes the seeds available at retail prices through mail-order catalogs distributed to hobby gardeners, farmers and researchers all over the country.

Located in adobe buildings at the rear of Tucson’s aridly beautiful botanical garden, Native Seeds/SEARCH has several program components. Its scientists scour the high desert country from Northern Mexico through Southern California, Arizona and New Mexico in search of seeds, and they find ways to preserve and propagate them. In addition, program staff also work on education and outreach, encouraging reservation residents to grow and consume the ancient produce in preference to unhealthful prepared fast foods.

The result is two-barreled:

First, the area’s American Indians, who have suffered severe health problems, including endemic diabetes, because of poor diet on the reservations, now have a chance at a healthier diet that they can grow or collect themselves at little cost. Drees noted that some specific native foods, including cholla buds, prickly-pear pads and mesquite flour, have been shown to help control the metabolism of sugar in the body, helping fight diabetes directly. Other simple crops, particularly tepary beans and corn, provide a nutritious, high-protein diet that’s much more healthful than the high-fat, that had become all too typical on the reservations just as in the main culture.

Second, by developing a market for unusual desert seeds and crops, Native Seeds/SEARCH is able to help support its own budget, as well as provide a source of additional income for Native American programs, through its catalog sales.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.
Browse his book, Reinvesting In America, at Amazon.com.
Send him E-mail.
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