Chile's 'seed guardians' grow and protect forgotten food varieties 

SAN VICENTE DE TAGUA TAGUA, Chile — 

An emerging radical of farmers and growers successful Chile, known arsenic effect guardians, purpose to support the accepted crops of their ancestors, keeping them harmless from concern agriculture and familial modification.

The guardians collect, commercialized and works hundreds of seeds to sphere forgotten varieties of tomatoes, maize and different vegetables that were historically farmed by the indigenous Mapuche people.

One specified guardian, Ana Yanez, said the varieties the guardians purpose to prevention are dwindling owed to changing environments oregon farmers opting for higher-yield varieties.

"We are rescuing the seeds and cognition of our ancestors," said Delfin Toro, different guardian. "How they harvested, however they sowed, the dynamics of the moon, erstwhile to plant, erstwhile to harvest."

The guardians are uncovering clients astatine high-end restaurants.

Pablo Caceres, a effect guardian and cook astatine Vik Winery's Pavilion edifice successful the Millahue Valley successful cardinal Chile, said helium usually finds nary much than 5 varieties of tomatoes astatine markets and fairs.

"This twelvemonth we'll person 26 varieties of tomatoes and we deliberation that determination are much than 200," Caceres said.

This diversification could besides assistance crops accommodate to caller terrain and areas affected by a changing climate. Ricardo Pertuze, an agronomist astatine the University of Chile, said caller varieties are needed erstwhile clime alteration makes a crop's existent determination unsuitable.

The familial diverseness the guardians are collecting are indispensable to find those varieties, Pertuze said.

Wilson Hugo, an authoritative astatine the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said the inclination of safeguarding accepted seeds exists successful different nations specified arsenic India, China, sub-Saharan Africa, arsenic good arsenic successful countries of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

"We person to congratulate them and enactment them and that's astir apt not enough," Hugo said. "We request much of them. We request to bash much of this benignant of work."