Why save a seed?

Abstract

This essay takes as its central explanandum the survival of an unusual personal seed collection within a larger government institution, ultimately asking why individuals and institutions save seeds. To answer this question, it considers the cultures of seed collecting and preservation among amateurs, enthusiasts, and others without professional status in botanical or agricultural research and, simultaneously, among professional breeders, geneticists, and seed scientists. The essay also reviews the roles played in saving seeds by institutional policies, technical procedures, and biological realities. Returning to the particular collection in question, the author suggests that its survival is not surprising but, instead, overdetermined given the many circumstances that drive the preservation of seeds as resources for an uncertain future.