美国种子保存和交换组织 Seed Savers Exchange – 非营利种子保护组织

机构概况

Seed Savers Exchange（简称 SSE，中文常译”种子保存和交换组织”）是一家成立于 1975 年的美国非营利组织，总部位于爱荷华州温纳希克县迪科拉（Decorah）的 Heritage Farm 农场。组织通过收藏、再生和分享传家宝（heirloom）及开放授粉（open-pollinated）种子，致力于保护美国本土正在流失的园艺与农作物遗传多样性，并向公众提供教育与交流活动。SSE 同时管理着约 20,000 个品种的非政府种子库，是北美同类机构中规模最大的之一。

核心使命与运作模式

组织的核心使命可概括为”守护美国文化多元且濒危的园艺与食用作物遗产”，具体工作包括：在隔离花园中再生种子并冷藏储存在理想条件下；记录每一品种的农艺特性与历史文化信息；通过 The Exchange 种子交换网络让家庭种植者互通有无；与科林斯堡（Fort Collins）的美国农业部国家种子库和挪威斯瓦尔巴全球种子库（Svalbard Global Seed Vault）建立备份合作。所有入库品种均为开放授粉、非杂交、非专利，种植者可自行留种与分享。

The Exchange 交换网络与社区科学

The Exchange 是 SSE 旗下最知名的种子交换社区，会员可免费注册账户后浏览和申请由其他园艺爱好者自留的种子，覆盖蔬菜、花卉、香草、马铃薯块茎、大蒜鳞茎、果树插条等多个类别。同时组织运营 Community Science（社区科学）项目，召集志愿者对特定品种进行适应性试种与评估，每年发布 ADAPT 试验推荐品种目录，鼓励参与式保存，让不同地区的种植者找出最适合本地的栽培种。

参观、活动与公众教育

组织在 Heritage Farm 设有 Lillian Goldman 访客中心，向公众开放花园与农场参观、种子实验室及种子加工车间导览，并定期举办线上线下混合形式的种子保存、传家宝品种试种、园艺工坊等活动。访客亦可在每年开放日携带自家留种前来分享。SSE 拒绝销售转基因与未经认证的有机种子，承诺仅保存传统可繁育种质资源，其年度种子目录（Seed Catalog）已成为美国本土园艺爱好者与小型农场的重要参考。

官网：https://seedsavers.org

About the Organization

Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is an American nonprofit founded in 1975 and headquartered at Heritage Farm, an 890-acre property in Winneshiek County, Decorah, Iowa. The organization stewards America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy by collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, while educating and connecting gardeners, farmers, and the wider public.

Mission and Operating Model

Its core mission is to safeguard, for present and future generations, the open-pollinated and non-hybrid varieties that constitute the nation’s horticultural heritage. SSE maintains approximately 20,000 varieties in its on-site seed bank—the largest nongovernmental collection of its kind in the United States—and maintains backup samples at the USDA National Plant Germplasm System in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.

The Exchange and Community Science

The Exchange is SSE’s member-run seed swap, where home gardeners list and request open-pollinated seeds, tubers, bulbs, and cuttings they have personally grown. The accompanying Community Science program recruits volunteers to trial varieties in their own regions; the resulting data informs the annual ADAPT recommendations, helping growers identify the best-performing cultivars for their local climates and conditions.

Education, Events, and Heritage Farm

At Heritage Farm, the Lillian Goldman Visitors Center hosts garden tours, seed lab and processing shed visits, and seasonal workshops on seed saving, plant breeding, and organic gardening. SSE also produces an annual seed catalog and a yearbook print edition of The Exchange, and it maintains a Safe Seed Pledge, refusing knowingly to grow or sell genetically engineered or patented seeds.