100 Years Ago, People Were Eating Things That Most Of Us Will Never Taste. So What Happened?

In 1905, a book was published called “The Apples of New York.” The book highlighted numerous different apple ranges- the majority of which have actually vanished in the century since the book was released.

It’s difficult to believe that we when had thousands of varieties of apple, the majority of which have actually been eliminated thanks to industrial farming. There are a number of varieties which only exist in proving ground and on conservations. Instead of the thousands of apples we once had, we now have 15 apple varieties that make up for 90% of all apple sales in the nation.

However this swift and drastic change is not simply restricted to apples. Reports show 75% of our farming crops have actually vanished, leaving us with 12 crops that are grown mainly by farmers in the U.S

So exactly who or what is accountable for all of these changes? Much of it can, in truth, be attributed to seed regulation. Unlike in years past, lots of seeds are now trademarked and created by companies like Monsanto to produce a specific quantity of food come harvest, preventing farmers from dispersing the seeds among themselves.

Bottom Line: In the past century, 3/4 of our food ranges have disappeared thanks to industrial agriculture!

However fret not- all’s not lost. There are numerous small farmers across the world working to counter the tight control held on seed circulation by big companies. These farmers form what is known as seed sharing groups and store thousands of seeds from all over the world in buildings called seed banks. Watch a video about one such group below.