New USDA Grant Supports Seed Savers Exchange’s ADAPT Program Through UW–Madison Partnership
New USDA Grant Supports Seed Savers Exchange’s ADAPT Program Through UW–Madison Partnership
Gardeners invited to express interest in 2027 trials by December 31
DECORAH, Iowa — Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is proud to announce its participation in a major multi-regional collaborative initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “From Seed to Market: A multi-regional collaborative infrastructure for organic vegetable breeding and variety adoption.” Led by Dr. Julie Dawson at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the initiative brings together UW–Madison, Seed Savers Exchange, SeedLinked, and Oregon State University (eOrganic) to strengthen organic vegetable breeding, improve trial networks, and accelerate organic variety adoption across the country.
Funding comes through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), which supports research, education, and outreach addressing the needs of organic agriculture.
This grant will support three initiatives at Seed Savers Exchange:
- Sustaining & Expanding the ADAPT Network: SSE will continue running its community science trial program, ADAPT, for the next four years. By partnering with the SeedLinked platform, SSE will gather data directly from gardeners and farmers evaluating heirloom varieties side by side in real-world growing conditions.
- Upgrading Genebank Data Access via GGCE: SSE will migrate its extensive genebank characterization and evaluation data to the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s GGCE system. This upgrade will make decades of variety data captured by SSE staff fully accessible to the public via Genesys, giving breeders, researchers, and growers the tools to select varieties tailored to specific regional challenges.
- Genebank-to-Catalog Commercialization Pipeline: SSE will take promising heirloom varieties from the genebank collection, evaluate their performance under organic conditions through ADAPT, and track top-performing varieties to bring them directly into the commercial Seed Savers Exchange Catalog.
“Seed preservation is a shared effort, and this partnership shows what we can accomplish by bringing gardeners, researchers, and conservation organizations together,” said Mike Bollinger, executive director of Seed Savers Exchange. “We’re excited to continue this work with UW–Madison and invite more people to help document and shape the future of our food crop diversity.”
ADAPT participants grow seed bank varieties in their own gardens and report on characteristics such as flavor, yield, earliness, and disease resistance. Their observations help SSE understand how varieties perform across different regions and growing conditions, informing seed regeneration, distribution priorities, and future catalog selections.
Participants choose the crops they would like to trial and receive three randomly assigned varieties to grow side by side. SSE provides seeds, plant labels, and instructions, and participants submit their observations through SeedLinked.
“Every garden offers an opportunity to learn something new about the seeds in our care,” said Vivian Bernau, Ph.D., preservation director at Seed Savers Exchange. “The observations participants share help us better understand these varieties and make informed decisions about how to preserve and share them.”
Get involved in 2027
Gardeners interested in participating in the 2027 growing season should complete the ADAPT interest form by December 31, 2026. SSE will contact interested growers in early January with available trials and participation details.
Watch a video about ADAPT to learn more. Program questions can be directed to comscience@seedsavers.org.
About Seed Savers Exchange
Founded in 1975, Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is a nonprofit organization based at Heritage Farm near Decorah, Iowa. SSE preserves America’s culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop heritage by collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants, and stories. Through seed conservation, education, and a community of gardeners and seed stewards, SSE keeps these varieties growing for future generations. Learn more at seedsavers.org.