re: Many food and agricultural varieties going "extinct"?

quote:

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One thing I know is the corn we got from the Indians is so far gone I don't think it can be found anywhere.

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Umm, no. If you made an effort to seek out traditionally planted varieties of corn, you'd find plenty of them. Sure, some micro adapted varieties have died out, but (as just one example) you can find ceremonial Hopi blue corn carefully planted and harvested & seeds saved; ditto for traditional varieties planted in many communities in MesoAmerica. It's not all field corn, flint & dent. Places like Victory Seed can hook you up with all sorts of obscure corn varieties: LINK

Again, simply because you can't buy the seeds at your local garden center doesn't mean they're not available. Agriscientists take biodiversity seriously: plant breeders are ALWAYS looking for new material to introduce into their crosses. The biggest proponents of seed saving are often plant scientists in the employ of Big Ag companies.

A guy at NC State is working on a collection of heirloom/traditional collard seeds, and you can always shop with Baker Creek, which has a libertarian bent: www.rareseeds.com

And the previous poster's point about seed storage is an important one. The Norwegians have a huge arse seed vault, full of stuff from around the world: LINK