When we talk about seeds and agricultural varieties, we often come across words that may seem very similar, but actually describe different things. What exactly is a landrace? Is a hybrid the same as a transgenic variety? What does it mean for a seed to be open-pollinated?
At the Local Varieties Association, we want to shed some light on these concepts and explain them in a simple way. Because knowing the words we use when talking about seeds also helps us better understand our agriculture and the importance of preserving its diversity.
One local variety It is an agricultural variety that has been cultivated and selected over time in a specific territory, adapting to its environmental, agricultural and cultural conditions.
But a local variety is much more than a plant with certain characteristics. Behind a tomato, a bean or a wheat there are people who have selected the seeds, sown them year after year and have passed on the knowledge necessary to cultivate and use them.
Therefore, when we preserve a local variety, we also preserve a part of our agricultural and cultural heritage.
The terms local variety i traditional variety are closely related and, in some contexts, can be used in similar ways. However, they do not always have exactly the same meaning.
The term traditional places special emphasis on the fact that a variety has been maintained and used through traditional agricultural practices and passed down between generations.
In any case, the important thing is to understand that these varieties are part of an agricultural history built by many generations of farmers.
One hybrid variety It is obtained by the controlled crossing of two parents that have been selected to obtain certain characteristics in the offspring. Hybrids are widely used in agriculture and are not genetically modified organisms.
Therefore:
Hybrid does not mean transgenic.
A hybrid variety may have been obtained through conventional crossings, without introducing any genes through genetic engineering.
Furthermore, a hybrid seed is not necessarily sterile. What happens is that, in many commercial hybrids, the offspring obtained from their seeds do not uniformly maintain the characteristics of the original hybrid.
We are talking about open pollination when plants reproduce through natural pollination mechanisms, with the help of wind, insects or other agents, and not through controlled crossing.
This is especially important when we want produce and preserve our own seed. If a plant can crossbreed with other plants of the same species, we must take into account what is around it.
For example, if we want to keep a purple carrot, we leave some plants unharvested so that they flower and produce seed. Carrots are mainly pollinated by insects and can cross-pollinate with other carrots that flower nearby, even with wild carrots. Therefore, if we want to maintain the characteristics of our variety, we must ensure that there are no other carrots in flower at a distance that allows these crossings.
With the Indian wheat something similar happens, but the pollen is mainly transported by the wind. Thus, if we want to preserve the Sa Pobla Indian wheat variety and we have another corn nearby that blooms at the same time, the pollen from one crop can reach the other. To avoid this, it is recommended to maintain an adequate isolation distance between the crops or to ensure that the blooms do not coincide.
Therefore, when we want to conserve a variety through its seed, knowing how each crop is pollinated helps us avoid unwanted crossings and, consequently, avoid losing the variety.
An organism transgenic is an organism into which genetic material from another organism has been introduced using genetic engineering techniques.
Transgenics are part of a broader group: genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Therefore, they are not exactly synonymous: a transgenic is a type of GMO.
This also helps us understand another important difference:
A hybrid variety and a transgenic organism are not obtained in the same way.
In the first case we are talking about crossing plants. In the second, about a modification of the genetic material through genetic engineering techniques.
In recent years we have also heard a lot about genetic editing. These are techniques that allow specific DNA sequences to be modified in a targeted manner.
It is a field of biotechnology that is different from traditional plant breeding techniques and that raises new scientific, agricultural, environmental and social debates.
That's why it's important not to put all these words in the same bag: hybridization, genetic modification and gene editing refer to different processes.
A seed can contain a large amount of genetic information, but for a variety to remain alive it also needs people to cultivate it, select it, know it and transmit it.
For generations, farmers have observed the plants, chosen the ones they considered most suitable and saved their seeds for the next planting. In this way, many of the varieties we know today have been maintained and adapted.
Therefore, at the Local Varieties Association we understand conservation as a task that goes beyond seeds: conserving local varieties is conserving biodiversity, culture, knowledge and ways of doing agriculture.
And now that we know what some of these words mean, the next time we talk about seeds we can do so with a little more precision. Because naming things is also a way of valuing them and defending the agricultural diversity that we have received and that we want to continue transmitting.
To preserve the local varieties of our territory, we need farmers, orchards, schools, organizations and also people who, even if they do not cultivate, want to contribute to keeping this diversity alive.
You can also put your grain of sand in it.
One of the most direct ways is grow local varieties. If you have a vegetable garden or a small growing space, choosing these varieties helps keep them alive and, if we save the seeds, to continue transmitting them.
You can also become a member of the Local Varieties Association and support the work we do to conserve, recover, promote and disseminate the local varieties of the Balearic Islands.
Participate in our free courses, conferences and activities is another way to support the project. These spaces allow us to share knowledge, recover practices and put people interested in agricultural biodiversity in contact.
You can also make a donation and contribute directly to making possible the conservation, training and awareness projects that we develop.
And, at no cost, you can follow us on social networks, share our posts and help us reach more people. Giving visibility to local varieties is also a way to contribute to their conservation.
Finally, something as simple as talk about it can be very valuable. Cooking a local variety, explaining its uses, telling where it comes from or encouraging someone to grow it helps keep all the knowledge that goes with it alive.
Because a variety is not only preserved in a seed bank. It is preserved when it is cultivated, when it is eaten, when the seeds are saved and when knowledge is passed from one generation to another.
Together we can contribute to keeping the agricultural diversity of our territory alive.
