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Let us go back to one hundred years ago at the timeof Federation. It was a time when we all grew our own food,and there were no trucks to carry tomatoes or watermelonsfrom Queensland, no refrigeration to increase the shelf lifeof lettuce or spinach, no supermarkets to threaten the rangeof vegetables a few greengrocers might carry. Most of thefood we ate was grown by us in our vegetable gardens,or in regional market gardens close to us. It was grownin organic soil, using manures and compost because thiswas before widespread use of soluble fertilizers, so therewas no fertilizer run-off to infect our water supply. Wedidnt use much pesticide, so we didnt kill birds whenwe sprayed. We didnt use herbicides, and therefore didnt

poison our soils. Our air was clear, our water was pure and

our food was healthy and free of chemicals. Our CO2 levelswere below the levels that cause global warming. Butmost importantly, we grew hundreds of vegetable varietiesadapted to our climate. They were our favourites, andeach capital city had its special tomatoes and pumpkins.In short, our food then was regional, seasonal and organic.

Today, most of these garden varieties havedisappeared from our food supply. By the 1980s, 90% ofvarieties grown in gardens in the USA had disappearedfrom seed lists. It was this startling fact that stimulatedThe Seed Savers Exchange in the USA to begin the rescuework. Over 30 years, The Seed Savers Exchange hascollected and saved 25,000 varieties which we now call

heirlooms in its collection.There were at least 4,000 different heirloom

tomatoes, 3,600 different heirloom beans, 800 differentlettuce; each having been selected over 200 years (ormore) to suit the needs of gardeners in each area.

All these varieties of seeds which we now callheirlooms were grown in solar powered gardens orselected by seed merchants to be grown in market gardensclose by. They were fresh, ripe, tasty and nutritious. Theywere what we in the seed trade call Open Pollinatedand true to type, so farmers and gardeners collected theseeds of the earliest, tastiest or latest harvest crops to grow

back next year. We you and me owned the seeds they

were publically owned and improved by natural selectionworking to continually improve our crops and diversity.They represent an unbroken chain of improvement backthrough time.

The creation of themodern hybrid haschanged our seedselection, and this can beexplained by looking atthe modern supermarkettomato.

At Davis Universityin California in the 1950s

Wrestling backcontrol of our foodClive Blazey gave this edited talk on heirloomsduring Sarah Wains lecture tour last spring

the modern hybrid industrial tomato was created vastly different characteristics to existing heirlobecause of machine harvesting.

1. Flowering time needed to be reduced fromdays down to 15-30 days.

2. Tall everowering branching (indeterminate phabit) needed to be replaced by the compact self prun(determinate) growth habit.

3. To overcome plant damage in transport a gneeded to be inserted to create a tomato that would sepafrom its stalk during the mechanical harvesting stage.

4. A slow ripening gene with rock-hard esh identied so that the tomato could be picked unrip

a green fruit, dropped into trucks like quarry rocks driven three thousand miles from California to warehoin New York, then ripened with the chemical ethylene.

5. Because literally hundreds of thousandsplants were grown in mono-culture farms special disresistance was vital since this unnatural growing procaused blights and fungal problems to spread rapidlevery plant.

Now lets look at how hybrid plant breeding haschanged the quality of our food.These hybrids bred in California began the start of theglobalisation of our food supply. Farmers who grewhybrids could not save seed and had to buy from the s

merchant each year, and so we began to lose control oour food supply to corporate multi-nationals.

The quality of food deteriorates in direct proportiothe distance it travels

Local, regional solar powered heirlooms thatowned and selected were replaced by global compowned seed strains from America that need huge amoof energy to grow and transport, accounting for up30% of our CO2 pollution! Hybrid seeds are ownedcompanies such as Monsanto and Syngenta that cregenetically-modied seeds, which they refused to laSo lets see how trustworthy they are, because whoowns the seed controls our food supply.

They also change their names to avoid custoantagonism. Syngenta used to be Ciba-Giegy invented DDT that gave us our rst environmental disaand prompted Rachel Carson to write Silent Spring.

Monsanto was found guilty of OutrageBehaviour in 2002 by the state of Alabama for releatonnes of one of the worlds most toxic chemicals innearby river. So outrageous and extreme in degreto go beyond all possible grounds of decency, so as tatrocious and utterly intolerable to civilised society.

They bribed Indonesian ofcials and Canascientists to gain approval of their GM crops.

Clive Blazey

Sarah Wain

Actual image froma commercial seedcatalogue extolling

toughness! Hybridsupermarket tomatoeshave become the boxand its contents

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ow lets return to our backyards

At our Heronswood garden, instead of one cropeing grown in 50-100 hectares called mono-culture

e have natural diversity, 1000s of different species. Weont use fertilizers and our soil has very high organicarbon content because we garden organically with carbonvels over 22%. We use sunlight for energy, not coalowered energy.

When you have a diversity of plants you dont need spraysecause the good bugs keep the bad bugs under control.s all about balance.

he History of heirlooms in Australia

So now lets go back 18 years to the story ofeirlooms in Australia. I visited Seed Savers in Iowa, USA

1991, and they sent us lots of heirloom seeds.

In 1993 we grew out 100 different tomatoes to

ompare in a taste test between hybrids and heirlooms.ephanie Alexander, Rita Erlich -Age Food Writer anderman Schneider were part of the panel. The taste testinner was Tommy Toe, an unknown heirloom.

All the taste test winners were tall indeterminateeirlooms not dwarf supermarket hybrids.

o if heirlooms have better taste and nutrition, doybrids produce better yields?

NO! You dont get hybrid vigour from self-ollinating crops like tomatoes.

o hybrids give a longer harvest?

NO! Because maturity is now concentrated for

achine harvesting.Its unbelievable that the seeds cost 150 times as

uch heirlooms, particularly when all the breeding wasone by the government in the 1950s. These companiesMonsanto and Syngenta have been telling the world thate need GM crops to feed the world, but would any third-orld farmer ever be able to afford to buy them?

Imagine an Asian or African farmer living on $1-2 aay affording $106,000 a kilo for seed.

Italian cuisine our future model?

Now lets look at a cuisine that is based on heirloomsith no global hybrids. These are all Italian favourites -

uscan Kale, Costoluto tomato, Listarda eggplant, chicory,omano bean have never been surpassed by hybrids.

You see they are all heirlooms the Italians value theirregional varieties. At their local co-op every vegetableis labelled by variety and where it is grown so you can

properly choose whether to buy it of not!The word heirloom is only relevant when hybrids

replace them. Italians dont want McDonalds they havethe healthiest cuisine in the world, based on locally growntomatoes and melons, locally raised prosciutto, cheese,

pasta and wine. Its their own why would they wantAmericans controlling their food supply?

And so you have to ask Why do we?

We will never create a local cuisine like the Italianshave, using global hybrids!

So heirlooms taste better, cost less, give longerharvests, and because they must be grown locally, cutdown on CO2 pollution. And most importantly give us

back ownership of our food supply.

Is it any surprise that the modern supermarkettomato has the highest customer dissatisfaction rating ofany vegetable?

Its now so unpopular, that growing heirlooms today,is a subversive activity just like throwing tomatoes was 50years ago. You can grow your own heirloom tomatoes soyou start to gain control of your food supply, cut down onCO

2pollution and reduce greenhouse gases.

Growing your own food is the single most importantstep towards self-sufcient lifestyle.

So please grow your own heirlooms for your health

and the planetsSo lets summarise.

Its our choices that we make as gardeners thatpreserve our best garden varieties.

If you want to solve climate change then gardeningis a large part of the answer.

If you care about the food you put in your mouthyou can, by your choice, develop a food culture as rich anddiverse as Italys.

Do you think it wise to let multinationals control ourseeds and our food supply?

Thank you for coming today.

Italian heirlooms apart of the world

healthiest cuisithat was never brfor globalised fo

distributi