I’ve been getting a fair number of emails from customers stating that they are glad that I signed the safe seed pledge. Here is one of the responses I sent to a customer today:
“Fortunately, til now those who want to tinker with genetics have left the alpines alone. I fear that won’t last long. The renewed interest in these wild types has caught the attention of the breeders who cannot accept plants for what they are. They think they need to “improve” even what is the best the God ever made. Their idea of improvement is to make them larger and harder so they can be shipped long distances. Haven’t they ever heard of “grow local”? No need to ship those grown locally.”