The Pavlovsk Seed Repository and Gardens, located outside of Lennigrad, houses an extremely rare collection food crops seeds and living specimens of fruit trees including apple & cherry, berry plants (over 100 varieties of gooseberries and raspberries)and black currants, 9 out of 10 of which are found no where else in the world. During the WWII siege of Lenningrad, the Institute's scientists risked starvation rather than eat or allow starving residents to eat the repository's collection of wheat and potato seed. I had the privilege of meeting one of the scientists who risked death to save this collection at a Slow Food Presidia event in Turin many years ago. Through a translator, I thanked her for dedication and her fortitude. As we shook hands, I tried to imagine the physical and mental stress of having to choose between food today, and a nation's food supply in years to come. Having survived this brush with extinction, it was incredibly painful to hear that a Russian court recently ruled that the estate could be demolished to make way for a housing development.
continued at Daily Kos....
