Back to December 2014 Newsletter

What's in our Canadian Seed Catalogue Index?

Seeds of Diversity's Canadian Seed Catalogue Index is a terrific resource for gardeners, seed savers, and conservationists. It shows the wide range of vegetable and fruit seeds sold in Canada, and the companies that sell them. Sort of like a stack of seed catalogues, but in reverse - you look up the seed variety first, and then you see the companies.

If You're a Gardener

Use the Index to find sources of your favourite varieties, from Canadian companies. We have 95 companies indexed, which gives you an impressive assortment, tested for Canadian growing conditions, and no need to sneak seeds across the border! How many varieties can you get from Canadian seed companies?  Almost 6400!  

If You're a Seed Saver

This is the tool for you.  If you're looking for a rare variety to save, you'll easily be able to find one that's only sold by one or two companies.  That's sad, but hooray to those companies for carrying them, and you'll make a difference by saving a rare variety instead of a common one.

If You're a Seed Adopter

Making an adoption donation to Seeds of Diversity's Seed Library?  Well, thanks!  The Canadian Seed Catalogue Index is the list we use for prioritizing our conservation, and you can use the same information to choose a variety that really needs a safety net.  If it's only sold by one or two companies, we feel it needs to be in back-up safe storage, and your adoption donation will make that happen.

What Can We Learn?

Those are all great reasons to use the Index, but we actually created it many years ago as a research tool to help seed savers monitor the Canadian seed market.  We've indexed 15 more species, partly due to new categories, but also because there are new crops available like Red Aztec Spinach, Teff, and Grass Pea.  Canada has more vegetable seed companies than ever, but they're carrying fewer varieties.

Also, an analysis of the companies reveals an enormous turnover in the small-scale seed market: there are 95 companies now compared with 77 two years ago, but during that time 18 of those companies had closed or stopped selling seeds, so there are actually 36 new companies. Sadly, many of the companies that shut down were offering some unusual varieties that aren't available now. Despite more companies and more species, we now index 6397 distinct varieties, compared with 7179 in 2012.  This appears to point to a gradual homogenization among small seed companies, growing and selling the more popular varieties - the same varieties that others supply - and offering less biodiversity overall. In other words, perhaps vendors have tried selling the unusual varieties and are dropping them in favour of the more popular.  Clearly a reason for Seeds of Diversity members to back up those rare varieties! 

Check out the Canadian Seed Catalogue Index. The same database powers our Seed Explorer and the Bauta Family Initiative Ecological Seed Finder.

Back to December 2014 Newsletter