Organicology & seeds
Mar 5th, 2009 by Amy
I spent the latter part of last week in Portland for Organicology and then stayed through the weekend to spend time with friends. Many of the sessions at Organicology were appropriately focused on farmers, but I took away tons of valuable information even as a non-farmer. There was a particular focus on seeds, which I found incredibly interesting and terrifying at the same time. Although I already knew much of the story, I learned more about the peril of thousands of varieties of vegetables. Monsanto is trying to identify 15,000 traits of vegetables over the next couple of years. Of those traits, they will apply for patents on those they think will make them profit. This means that not only will corn and soybean farmers being sued by Monsanto, but also other vegetable farmers. Who knows, they may even start suing home gardeners who have vegetables that have cross polinated with nearby crops.
On the bright side, there are some great ideas and partnerships being developed to preserve as much of our crop diversity as possible. One example is a partnership between Gathering Together Farm and Wild Garden Seed in Philomath, OR. Wild Garden Seed collects the most reliable, highly productive seed from Gathering Together Farm and in turn , Gathering Together gets reliable seed for future crops. Their partnership is one example of a newer approach to seed research called participatory plant breeding (PPB) where farmers and researchers work together in the farmer’s field. Unlike the industrial approach where farmers buy seed from a small set of seed companies, farmers participating in PPB are able to diversify their production by receiving compensation for varieties they have helped develop and select. This breeding method also seeks to maintain genetic diversity and to develop crops that minimize inputs.
As a home gardener and local food enthusiast, I want to take steps to support genetic diversity so that we can continue to buy a variety of seeds that are suited for our climate and can grow with little to no inputs. I reached out to Matthew Dillon at Organic Seed Alliance to ask what we can do as home gardeners. He promised to send his thoughts and ideas so that I can post them here. In the meantime, I found a link on their website that lists seed companies that have signed the Safe Seed Pledge. Signing the Safe Seed Pledge simply requires that the seed company not knowingly sell GMO seeds or plants. A step in the right direction, but certainly not the final step. Several local seed companies are on the list including Territorial and Nichols.
Thank you for the info on seed companies and their practices. I too am concerned about seed diversity and making sure that we don’t lose all the precious varieties of each kind of veg/fruit - it is sad to see all the “standardized” produce out there in stores. I wish though that some of the less common veg were also considered. I’m thinking of longbeans, opo squash - I’m planting both this year and have no idea what has been going on with the seeds…. I’m just glad to have them at all!
thanks for sharing list of participating seed companies. It is scary to learn how infiltrated our food system has become with GMOs and GE seeds. Yuck. So important to keep true seeds alive!
Mangochild - I’m curious what seed companies you use on the East coast?
Rebecca - I am hoping that Matthew has some more ideas to share. Crossing my fingers.