Sentient Times April/May 09

Where Are The Seed Growers?

By Don Tipping

At one time not long ago seeds men (or women as the case may be) occupied an important link in the food chain of nearly all-rural communities. Farmers either grew their own seed or trusted in small family run businesses, which stewarded old varieties or worked on developing new ones. With few notable exceptions this continued to be the primary mechanism through which farmers bought seed. Two exceptions are worth mentioning for historical sake. The first being the W. Atlee Burpee seed company that initially took advantage of free postage until the turn of the century to develop a loyal customer base of over one million catalogs shipped in 1915. At that time it was the largest seed company in the world. In Pennsylvania, George Washington Park printed his first seed list (with a hand printing press) in 1878 at the age of 15 and grossed $6.50. He persevered and capitalized on free postage at the time to deliver the Floral Gazette magazine and seed list. This became Park Seeds, a burgeoning seed company with 800,000 catalogs going out in 1918. These two seed companies predominantly catered to gardeners. Not to be swayed by lavish catalog descriptions, farmers still relied on local seeds men.

Growing the seed we need is something I encourage young farmers to direct their attention to. Developing a diversity of niche markets has helped our farm to become successful, secure and rewarding, enabling us to grow on an artisan scale and receive just compensation. Diversity also helps our farm organism to evolve in multiple directions, fostering ecological resiliency, multiple income streams, and opportunities for stacked functions—like seed crop waste becoming poultry food, animal bedding and compost.

Growing biodynamic and organic seed is one of the most promising niches in organic agriculture. A recent Washington Department of Agriculture study revealed that less than two percent of the seed used on organic farms was grown organically. The other ninety-eight percent is a vast opportunity area. Although the USDA’s National Organic Program rules state that organic growers must use organic seeds, an enormous loophole exists. If growers try three sources and none of them have the variety they want, or if the price or quality are unacceptable, they can simply use conventionally grown seed. Hence many organic (and presumably a significant number of biodynamic growers as well) sidestep the organic seed search requirement and source their seeds wherever they choose as long as it isn’t fungicide treated. At some point in the future, organic certifiers will more strongly require that organic growers make a more concerted effort to use organic seed. Therein lies opportunity.

Our world, people, plants and animals beseech us to close our resource loops. Producing bioregionally adapted seed is a critical step towards reducing pest and disease problems in our crops, on par with the need to generate fertility on-farm. Seeds are easier to move around than compost, so I propose a compromise to the overwhelming task of every farm needing to grow all its own seed. Let us further a return to supporting bioregional seeds men and women. Most agricultural communities have farmers who have been tinkering around with their own varieties for decades. Oftentimes these farmer/landrace varieties have been selected (bred) to perform well despite disease, insect, and climate stresses. This process of developing “farmer” varieties is how plant breeder Raoul Robinson suggests we achieve horizontal, or elastic resistance, in plants in his landmark book Return to Resistance.

Some communities are fortunate to already have small, family run seed businesses. High Mowing (VT), Turtle Tree (NY), Uprising (WA), Peace Seeds (OR) and Wild Garden Seeds (OR) are just a few examples. Farmers would do these and similar businesses a great service by buying seed from them, growing seed for them, or honestly communicating their likes and dislikes of current varieties and specific growing challenges so that we can work to develop the seed we need. We will create a better local seed system if we can strengthen these feedback loops. Seed companies can work with local growers to help conduct variety trials or share samples of breeding work in progress and farmers can help direct where future organic plant breeding goes by communicating their needs. Also farmers can do participatory plant breeding as advocated by the Organic Seed Alliance in Washington State, working with plant breeders, university specialists and seed companies.

Participatory Plant Breeding is one of the most exciting elements to emerge from the ongoing discussion about bioregional seed systems. Young farmers looking for a life in biodynamic farming are strongly encouraged to delve into this fascinating field. Consider liberating yourself from a life of harvesting and washing vegetables and trucking them to cities that you may not actually enjoy spending time in and picture yourself an active participant in the ongoing process of plant domestication. The reason some heirloom vegetables don’t perform as well in market gardens as the modern hybrids is that the work on breeding and selection on these varieties stopped over fifty years ago. Domestication requires us to be fully engaged for it to yield successful results. Let’s pick up the slack and get to work on helping to create the heirlooms of the future and restoring the gems of the past.

On our farm we weave plant breeding in every time we grow plants for seed. Sometimes it is as simple as rouging, and pulling out all the early bolting plants in a population and feeding them to the sheep. Other times it’s crossing different strains or varieties to create something new. Although seed production is a passion of mine I feel that it is critical that it doesn’t occur in a bubble, isolated from the real world of market gardening. I really appreciate the opportunity to take produce that we have grown, from seed that we have grown, to market or our cooperative CSA program and get direct reactions from people who are eating these plants. We have found many creative ways to dovetail commercial scale seed growing with our CSA program and local farmers market. A few examples of this are:

• We grow 3 rows of lettuce on a bed and then harvest the middle row for market or CSA because the seed plants get so much larger they use up the space. If we wind up not needing them for market, they can stay and grow into seed plants.
• During onion bulb selection most of our culls are completely suitable for fresh market use.
• Calendula flowers to be dried for herbal use and used for seed production are grown in the same area.
• Rouged plants are fed to livestock.
• Seed byproducts become value added items (tomatoes, pepper and melon flesh dried in the greenhouse for winter storage)

Hosting young would-be farmers as interns for the past decade has shown me that many people are seeking a meaningful way to achieve right livelihood. Seed growing can fulfill this goal while also providing an opportunity to be spokespeople for freedom from corporate control of our seed supply, helping to qualify us as professionals who understand the necessity of restricting the uncontrolled spread of transgenic (GMO) seeds and pollen.

Seed growing never ceases to pose unusual challenges for the grower, with many new factors that one doesn’t encounter with market gardening. Seed growing will enlighten you about new disease issues, biennial peculiarities, pollinators, migratory birds, seed harvesting and processing, crop fermentation, and many other wild and wooly tales from the brink of domestication.

Don Tipping is a biodynamic farmer, plant breeder, father, activist and lover of wild nature. One of the founding members of the Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative, Don and his wife Kimberly grow vegetable seed crops on contract for three seed companies, raise animals, vegetables and fruits for the CSA and two growers markets, and are creating a perennial food forest with many fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs. Don also offers classes in basic permaculture and bio-dynamic agriculture, writes articles for publications including the Permaculture Activist, and mentors new seed growers through a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant. Don can be reached at (541) 846-9233 or Sevenseedsfarm@Yahoo.Com and he blogs at http;://biodynamicseeds.blogspot.com.