Native Seeds/SEARCH

Native Seeds/SEARCH
Founded 1983
Type Nonprofit
Location
  • 3584 E. River Road
    Tucson, AZ 85718
Key people
 Laura Jones, Interim Executive Director [1]
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."[2]
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. The organization also provides free or reduced-cost seeds to Native Americans.[3]

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.[4][5] 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. As of 2016, the Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank contained seeds from over 1800 plant varieties. [6] In addition to a seed bank, Native Seeds/SEARCH opened a conservation farm in 1997.[7] 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.

References

  1. ↑ Weingarten, Debbie. "Community Spotlight Native Seeds/SEARCH". Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  2. ↑ 990 filing 2010
  3. ↑ Allen, Lee. "Sowing and Distributing Centuries-Old Seeds". Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  4. ↑ MacCaskey, Michael. "Preserving Desert Crops". Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  5. ↑ "History and Mission". Native Seeds/SEARCH. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  6. ↑ Weingarten, Debbie. "Community Spotlight: Native Seeds/SEARCH, Part II".
  7. ↑ "Conservation Farm". Native Seeds/SEARCH. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
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