CONSERVATION

documented over the following pages, varieties and breeds thought to be close to extinction
a half century ago are once again being grown by thousands of small scale farmers, and are
back on the tables of fine restaurants, brew pubs and home kitchens in every state in the union.
It is our premise that dollar for dollar, support for rescuing, growing and returning
heirloom seeds and heritage breeds to the American landscape has been a tremendously costeffective
effort by philanthropic foundations, business, grass roots alliances and non-profits.
The purposes of this survey are threefold. First, we wish to document the extraordinary
growth in the production, sales, and use of America’s heritage foods over the last five decades.
We will give special attention to species and varieties which were on the edge of extinction
when certain biocultural conservation efforts and ecogastronomic restoration strategies
emerged a quarter century ago. But we are also interested in new farmer-bred varieties
selected for flavor.
The heritage food revival of the last quarter century has accomplished
one of the highest returns on investment of any
public effort to conserve biodiversity in the entire world. It has
succeeded in bringing tens of thousands of unique species and
varieties back to the table—it is conservation you can taste.
Second, we wish to discern the best practices that food producers, activists, distributors,
marketers, journalists, chefs and food activists came upon in advancing the market recovery
of particular heritage foods. We include here a number of case studies of particular plant
varieties and livestock breeds that have recovered from the brink of extinction. We highlight
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