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R.A.F.T. : Renewing America's Food Traditions

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The idea of conserving species has been around for a long time. Concern about the possible loss of specific foods and the culinary traditions associated with their preparation has emerged as a conservation priority.

Travelers to the Pueblos in the late 1500’s noted the high degree of crop and food diversity present, indicated it was the norm rather than the exception. Since that time, two-thirds of the distinctive seeds and breeds which then fed America have vanished. One in fifteen wild, edible plant and animal species on this continent has diminished to the degree that it is now considered at risk. These declines in diversity bring losses in traditional ecological and culinary knowledge as well as the food rituals linking communities to place and cultural heritage.

In an effort to rescue endangered foods and revitalize those that remain, a coalition of experts on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity conservation and food aficionados has initiated RAFT-Renewing America’s Food Traditions. The RAFT initiative is dedicated to documenting, celebrating, and safeguarding the unique foods of North America—not as museum specimens, but as elements of living cultures and regional cuisines. The campaign will explore novel means to support traditional ethnic communities that are striving to make these foods once again part of their diets, ceremonies, and local economies. In short, it aims to protect and revive the remaining culinary riches unique to this continent, and support those who are reintegrating them into the diversity of cultures that are rooted in the American soil.

Comprised of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Center for Sustainable Environments, Chefs Collaborative, Cultural Conservancy, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Slow Food USA, and Seed Savers Exchange, the coalition launched its national campaign with the release of the book, Renewing American’s Food Traditions: Bringing cultural and culinary mainstays from the past into the new millennium. The book highlights stories of twenty authentic American foods – profiles of ten endangered and ten recovering foods – and includes the first Redlist of America’s Endangered Foods.

NS/S holdings on the RAFT Redlist:

Red Dye Amaranth (Hopi)
Amarillo del Norte bean
Anasazi bean
Bolita bean
Four Corner’s Gold bean
O’odham Pink Bean
Rio Zape bean
Taos Red bean
Hopi Red lima bean
Pima Grey lima bean
Aztec White runner bean
Four Corners runner bean
Brown tepary bean
White tepary bean
Tohono O’odham cowpea
Zuni tomatillo
Casaba (Santa Domingo, Cochiti)
O’odham Ke:li Ba:so melon
I’itoi Shallot
New Mexico pea
O’odham pea
Chiltepin (O’odham)
Chimayo chile
Cochiti chile
Black Amber sorghum
Big Cheese squash
Navajo Blue hubbard
Peñasco Cheese squash
Hopi-Havasupai, Hopi Dye sunflowers
Tarahumara White sunflower
Yellow-meated watermelon (Hopi, O'odham)
Chapalote corn
Kokoma corn
Mexican June corn
Taos Blue corn
Tohono O’odham 60-day corn
Sonoran Panicgrass
Early Baart wheat
Sonoran White wheat

The RAFT Red list includes approximately 40 heirloom crops maintained in the NS/S Seedbank that were once common within Native American communities in the southwestern US or northwestern Mexico. Botanically speaking, not all are native to the New World, having been brought instead by early Spanish explorers and missionaries as well as recent immigrants. They were, however, all adopted by native cultures and became culturally important as foods, within ceremonies, and part of local languages.

As a partner in the RAFT initiative, NS/S is growing out many of the 40 listed crops in order to supply sufficient quantities for cooking and tasting events and distribution to growers and producers. Between 2005 and 2006, we have grown one-half of the list, including O’odham Pink bean, Taos Red bean, Hopi Red and Pima Grey limas, Four Corners runner bean, Tohono O’odham cowpea, Santa Domingo melon, yellow-meated watermelon, O’odham chiltepin, Chimayo and Cochiti chiles, O’odham peas, Hopi Red Dye amaranth, Zuni tomatillo, Taos Blue corn, Early Baart and Sonoran White wheats, and Hopi and Tarahumara sunflowers.
For more information on RAFT, please visit the RAFT website or contact the Center for Sustainable Environments at 928-523-0637.

chilis and flowers seeds

You can purchase a copy of Renewing American’s Food Traditions: Bringing cultural and culinary mainstays from the past into the new millennium online or in our Tucson store.

renewing american's food traditions book cover

To learn more about the RAFT coalition organizations, see the following websites:
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Center for Sustainable Environments
Chefs Collaborative
Cultural Conservancy
Seed Savers Exchange
Slow Food USA