Native Seeds/SEARCH: Conserving Southwest Seed Diversity

Founded in 1983 in Tucson, Arizona, Native Seeds/SEARCH maintains a climate-controlled seed bank of roughly 1,900 accessions of traditional crops such as corn, beans and squash, adapted to arid conditions. The collection is tied to the farming and cultural heritage of Indigenous communities of the Southwest US and northwest Mexico, including the Tohono O'odham, Hopi and Navajo. Each growing season the organization regenerates seed stock at its Tucson Conservation Center and with partner farmers, then distributes surplus seed through retail sales and free Indigenous community seed-sharing programs.