Belk Lecture: Bill McDorman, Executive Director of Native Seeds/SEARCH, presents "Glass Gem Corn Will Save Agriculture"

Date: Tuesday. October 23, 2012
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: 128 Pearson Hall
Reception: 8:00pm, Heimsch Conference Room, 316 PSN

Bill is the Executive Director of the non-profit Native Seeds/Search organization in Tucson, Arizona (http://www.nativeseeds.org/).

Bill and his wife founded this organization many years ago as a place for the conservation and distribution of native seeds of the southwest US. As part of that organization, they run a 160 acre conservation farm in Patagonia, AZ (http://www.nativeseeds.org/index.php/our-work/conservationfarm) where each year they cultivate native plants for seed production, accept students for internships to learn about conservation, and do lots of educational and dissemination work.

From the products of that farm and other collection efforts, they run a very nice seed bank in Tucson from which they distribute seeds at reasonable price for research and education. They also run a Cultural Memory Bank (http://www.nativeseeds.org/index.php/our-work/culturalmemorybank) with the purpose of archiving agricultural and cultural knowledge of native plants.

Over the years they have been working with the Tarahumara Indians in Northern Mexico, helping them with conservation efforts, native plant nurseries, rainwater harvesting systems, etc. Lastly, each year they run one or more "Seed Schools" aimed at teaching attendees the basics of how to save, store, reproduce, distribute, grow, etc. seeds of important native plants.