Heirloom Varieties as Ecological Luxury – implications for local sustainability?
Jiří Musil, Zbyněk Ulčák, Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk
University, Brno, Czech Republic, ulcak@fss.muni.cz
The purpose of the study is to characterize the current state of heirloom vegetable cultivation in the
Czech Republic and the reasons for this renaissance.
Heirloom, regional and family varieties of vegetables are important mainly due to their genetic variability. At the
same time these vegetables have cultural significance as they are the result of focused, long-term human work
and thus they are cultural heritage artifacts. During the second half of the 20th
century however these varieties
were gradually eliminated. This was due to legislative measures that restricted the seed market, as well due to
small scale growers’ interest in new attractive varieties and F1 hybrids.
Methods
Our case study presents the results of a qualitative survey of heirloom vegetable growers. We studied the
growers’ motivations, basic information about how seed is obtained, the ways in which the vegetables are grown,
including organic farming, and the possibilities for commercializing heirloom vegetables.
Summary of the results
The research indicates that these vegetables are cultivated under conditions that could be characterized as
intuitive organic agriculture. Conscious attempts to protect biodiversity were not determined to be the primary
motivation for growing the studied varieties; the protection and expansion of vegetable biodiversity are a side
effect of the growers’ actions, in other words a positive externality.
Theoretical and practical implications
Growers’ motivations were studied in comparison to the theoretical concepts of ecological luxury, the idealized
value of food and neophilia. The study presents information about the potential of heirloom vegetables for the
development of local gastronomy and locally specific organic farming products.