Camire Interviewed for Potato Seed Preservation Article
Mary Ellen Camire, professor of food science and human nutrition at UMaine, was interviewed for a March 4 article in The Scientist magazine about
efforts to preserve and protect Peruvian potato seeds at the Svalbard seed bank in Arctic Norway. In a discussion about the evolution and development of more than 4,000 potato varieties now in existence, Camire comments that preserving heirloom potato varieties is important, as our understanding of the health benefits change as scientists discover unrealized health benefits of certain varieties whose beneficial attributes may have been bred out when they didn’t seem important.