This week saw the official opening of The Vegetable Kingdom, Henry Doubleday Research Association's new £2 million interactive visitor centre at Ryton Organic Gardens, Coventry.

Jackie Gear, the prime mover behind the initiative and HDRA's executive director told the Journal: 'The role of The Vegetable Kingdom is to highlight Britain's vegetable heritage and to show how important vegetables are to our health and well-being. Despite being constantly urged by government to eat five fruit and vegetables a day, few do, whilst for many people their entire vegetable intake consists of just chips and baked beans.' The new complex is aimed at all ages, but particularly children. It includes numerous interactive three-dimensional displays, which describe the history of vegetables and their cultivation; a debate forum where visitors will be invited to listen to, and vote on, subjects such as genetic engineering; and three new vegetable gardens. Celebrity chefs and gardeners will also give demonstrations throughout the year in the specially created theatre.

Chief executive Alan Gear added: 'Visitors will be able to see, touch, smell and taste vegetables, to experience them in a new way. Our aim is to provide information on everything there is to know about vegetables, using graphics, models and the latest interactive technology, in a light-hearted way, as well as on a serious academic and scientific level.' The creation of The Vegetable Kingdom is significant since many of the UK's traditional vegetables have been, and continue to be, threatened by a combination of commercial pressures and red tape. Further concern has followed a series of EU regulations, which make the sale of seeds a criminal offence unless varieties are registered on a national or EU list.

Jackie Gear said already 2,000 have disappeared since the early 1970s: 'Although exemptions were made for some older varieties, many slipped through the net. In fact, with the cost of registration running into thousands of pounds a time, the future for hundreds of historic varieties looked bleak.' To prevent further decline HDRA set up a heritage seed library which, today, comprises over 800 different vegetables.

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