Peer Schilperoord presents his new book

Peer Schilperoord from Alvaneu is a biologist and has been involved with alpine cereals and alpine cultivated plants, both from Graubünden and from all over Switzerland, since 1982. He was managing director of the Gran Alpin cooperative for 11 years, carried out variety tests and actively worked on the history of cultivated plants in Switzerland.

In his new book, he focuses on this very history and portrays a selection of arable and vegetable plants: When did the crops arrive in Switzerland, how did they develop and which ones have survived? Only a very small part of the diversity of the last 250 years has been preserved in Agroscope's national gene bank. On the one hand, the book summarizes the already published series "Cultivated Plants of Switzerland", on the other hand, it traces the developments that cultivated plants have undergone since they arrived in Switzerland, up to and including the upheavals of the twentieth century.

The book also shows the loss of diversity since 1900, with the use of artificial fertilizers and the emergence of hybrid varieties ending the classic range of varieties, as this comprehensive and rich reference work demonstrates.

Reservation requested by 26.9.

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