Posts in Crop Preservation
The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe

The indigenous Mesolithic societies of Europe never disappeared: they adapted, and survived in new ways. Their cultures, values, spiritual beliefs, and relationships with the land are encoded in the folk traditions and regional agroecological systems that persist throughout Europe. The elegance of these systems is shown in how they have thrived for millennia on some of the most contested land in Europe, surviving climate change, war, pestilence, drought, and economic upheaval. They are part of a 30,000-year-old unbroken tradition and relationship with the land, but they are rapidly disappearing. What’s at stake in their survival is not the preservation of a bygone relic, but the protection and expansion of relationships with the land that can feed our communities, preserve biodiversity through climate change, and create productive ecosystems that last for millennia.

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Dawn Redwood: In the Forest of Living Gods

When botanist Wang Zhan, dodging civil war and foreign invasion, discovered living Metasequoia trees in a remote valley of China in 1943, it was like someone had found a living dinosaur. The villagers who lived near the trees had long revered them as gods, having built shrines beneath them where they left offerings. This ancient tree has existed almost unchanged for 150 million years. Unlike redwood species native to the West Coast, dawn redwood grows so well on the East Coast that there are specimens less than 70 years old that are already over 130 feet tall here. Given another 70 years, these trees may very well become the largest living organisms on this side of the continent.

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The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Cuba’s Most Historic Tobacco

All modern Cuban tobacco varieties are descended from a single ancestor: an ancient heirloom known as ‘Criollo.’ This variety was one of their most prized sacred plants of the Taíno people, and after colonization was preserved by small farmers in remote mountain communities, along with many other parts of Taíno culture and tradition. It went from the edge of extinction to become one of the most well-known tobacco varieties in the world.

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