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Organic Seed; Putting Roots Down
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by Adrian Crabb
Organic Producer
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Since the 1930’s, when the first hybrid corn varieties hit the Midwest, emphasis has shifted away from the centuries-old heirloom and open-pollinated varieties. Fewer and fewer farmers passed on seed-saving knowledge and the ability to develop new open-pollinated varieties. By and large, this job fell into the hands of corporations and university researchers, some of whom had no farming background and rarely stepped foot in a field. Farmers were told that only people with PhDs in genetics and an understanding of molecular biology could do plant breeding. Hybrids quickly left the older varieties in the dust due to hybrid vigor, which gives plants better germination and faster early growth. Market forces then directed hybrids towards commercial growers' needs. Hybrids, however, do not adapt to a new environment and farmers must purchase hybrid seed year after year.
Yet open-pollinated cultivars, which have greater adaptive abilities than hybrids, are stores of valuable genetic information. But as hybrids captured the imagination of agriculturists, farmers stopped taking care of many genetically rich open-pollinated varieties. Those varieties need to be re-selected regularly to maintain resistance to environmental stressors like heat and drought, and biological stresses like pests and diseases said Frank Morton, owner of Wild Garden Seeds and board member of the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA). If we do not maintain those genetics, he said, we lose thousands of years of our ancestors work developing crops.
So important is the germplasm in the old open-pollinated varieties that they are the only ones that will be stored in the Arctic “Doomsday vault” which will contain all of the world’s plant genetics. "We are going back to the older varieties because that is where you find the largest genetic diversity ... and diversity is protection,” said Cary Fowler of the Food and Agricultural Organization's Global Crop Diversity Trust in an interview with Reuters.
Collecting seeds in seed banks is one way to conserve our seed resources. But there are several ways that farmers can get involved in the process right on their own land, and simultaneously help to improve the organic seed market.
The OSA is an organization that puts plant selection and breeding skills back in the hands of willing farmers. “Farmers are intimately connected with the full life cycle of a plant,” said OSA Advocacy Director Matthew Dillon. “They have a great body of knowledge and wisdom about what a plant’s attributes and needs are in a particular environmental system.”
The OSA has several educational outreach programs. One is an annual seed grower’s conference. The conference grew from about 85 participants in 2000 to about 220 in 2006 said Dillon. Farmers field days are another outreach. Farmers can walk through the fields of veteran seed producers who are doing crop improvement projects and learn through farmer to farmer contact.
“We also bring university extension agents to the field days as well as some of the smaller, regional seed companies,” said Dillon. “They can share their experience and network with farmers and discuss market opportunities. The field days have been quite successful.”
Intensive two to three day classroom events, usually during the winter, are a third successful outreach the OSA hosts. Experts teach farmers the fundamentals of crop improvement and genetics, and how to do appropriate plant selection and breeding in the field. Several OSA publications such as specific seed production and variety trial manuals are coming out in 2007. OSA also has a grant proposal out to write and publish a book about on-farm plant breeding.
Farmers may not realize that they have a high value seed crop on their hands. “For example,” said Dillon, “a farmer could be growing high-quality organic spinach. Good spinach seed could potentially bring in up to $10,000 per acre.” So his organization helps farmers address their ability to fill a niche market with seed that may grow especially well in their particular area. On OSA’s website, farmers can join a seed grower’s database to share information and make connections.
A new project that the OSA is developing is a project to teach farmers how to do their own variety trials. Morton said variety trials are essential for farmers to determine seed quality. Starting in the Pacific Northwest, the program will grow to other parts of the country.
“Organic producers are being required more and more to use organic seed,” said Dillon. “When farmers can’t find organic seed, the certifiers are asking if they have trialed some other organic varieties in seed catalogs. So we want farmers to have the skills to do high-quality trials to give them the data as to what the appropriate genetics are for their farming system.”
Quality, quantity, price, and demand have all been issues facing the organic seed industry.
Zea Sonnabend, conference coordinator of the Ecological Farming Association (Eco-farm) said that the organic seed market is not growing as fast as the rest of the organic market. Eco-Farm is an organization that host conferences that cover many aspects of the organic industry, including seed production.
She said that there is a gap between seed companies not knowing what their companies want in terms of organic and growers not knowing which seeds to grow. Many times seed producers grow on a contractual basis. They may be asked to grow different varieties of seed every season. This has been a problem for quality of seed.
“You cannot get good at something, in farming, unless you do it every year,” said Morton.
Conventional varieties and seeds often perform poorly under the low-input conditions of organic agriculture, resulting in low yields. And the seed industry still offers an inadequate selection of seed varieties suitable for organic production.
Other problems include seed safety, economic efficiency, biodiversity and the coordination of seed regulations with certification systems. Many are concerned about the tension between the use of GMO’s and organic production. Gene flow, liability, and the coexistence between the two farming systems remain unsolved problems said Sonnabend.
But as the organic seed system continues to grow, alliances are formed and the infrastructure becomes more robust, the problems will hopefully diminish, said Steve Woodward of High Mowing Seeds in Vermont.
What can organic farmers do to ensure they are getting quality seed?
Woodward said that running on-farm variety trials is important. If you have something that is working for you over many years, keep using it. But at the same time, it is important to run trials of new varieties in case your usual seeds become unavailable due to a shortage. Morton said that it is interesting to trial the same variety from three different sources and see the differences. Variety plots can be very small so don’t feel like you have to use much space.
Put pressure on local extension services and certifying agencies to do variety trials.
Build personal relationships with seed companies, said Sonnabend. Be cautious about claims and be aware of the level of customer service, shipping rates, quickness of delivery and prices.
Ask a seed company the name of the farms they get their seeds from. Ask about their growing practices. Ask about their stock-seed program. Developing quality stock-seed maintains good genetics in open-pollinated varieties. Ask a company whether they do their own variety trials.
Determine whether seeds are hybrids or whether they are open-pollinated. Open-pollinated seeds that are grown year after year will adapt to a particular farm micro-environment, whereas hybrids will not. Crops for which hybrids excel include corn, squashes, melons, peppers, spinach, and broccoli. For tomatoes, carrots, beets, onions, and cucumbers there are both excellent hybrid and excellent open-pollinated varieties. For other crop groups, including beans, peas, lettuce, and mustard greens, open-pollinated varieties remain the standard.
If possible, find seed that is bred under organic conditions as it may prove to have traits favorable to organic farmers. These traits include disease resistance, high seedling vigor, high marketable yield, vigorous root and root hair growth, insect resistance, high nutritional content, good taste and healthy appearance. In organics, said Dillon, a growth habit that enables a plant to out compete weeds is important. Nutrition and taste have been key factors in the development of the organic movement as well. Whereas in the conventional system, breeders did not focus on those characteristics said Woodward. If it is bred organically it will say so. If it doesn’t say it is bred organically, it is not. Some seeds may be labeled as bred by individual plant breeders such as John Navazio, research director for OSA, or Allan Kapuler of Peace Seeds. Certified organic companies such as Wild Garden Seeds have their own breeding programs and High Mowing Seeds offers varieties bred organically.
Try to find seed from your region, which may prove to be better adapted. Join the seed producer database on the Organic Seed Alliance website. The database serves:
• producers of organic seed in search of new contracts and markets for their products
• seed companies in search of seed producers
• organic farmers looking to purchase larger bulk quantities of certified organic or biodynamic seed direct from farms
• farmers looking for regional seed sources
• seed producers seeking to network with other seed producers in their region or crop focus.
What is the value of planting with organic seed?
When you buy organic seeds, you are in theory buying a GMO-free seed. It may be wise, however, to have an independent source verify that seed you buy contains no GMO’s.
Organic seed is, like organic produce, grown without pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Many organic seed producers grow with the goal of achieving a healthy farm environment. Organic seeds are more expensive than conventional seed for the same reasons that organic produce is more expensive than conventional produce.
By purchasing organic seed, you are increasing demand which may drive companies to start introducing new organic varieties.
How can a farmer help increase the supply of quality organic seed offerings?
Continue to search for seed grown organically for your farm. If you think you are interested in actually producing seed, familiarize yourself with the process and get to know people already doing it.
Sonnabend said that Organic farmers should also request the specific certified organic varieties that they want to see on the market. Continually pressure some of the bigger companies such as Fedco, Seminis, Seed Savers, and Johnny’s Selected seeds to offer more organic varieties, she said.
Morton said that as a farmer himself, he thinks it is important that more producers educate themselves about how and where seeds are grown. “For the organic seed system to work,” he said, “we need to have organic seed users come to some appreciation for what it is that organic seed growers are trying to do.”
For more information on organic seed contact:
www.seedalliance.org
http://www.plbr.cornell.edu/PSI/OSP%20home.htm
www.organicseedsourcing.com
Seeds Under Siege
Genetic information within old-time plant varieties is so important that people have given their lives to preserve it. During World War II, Leningrad was home to a seed bank in which Nikolai I. Vavilov and his assistants had gathered over 200,000 seed varieties from around the world. After the 900-day Nazi attack on the city, during which a half a million people died, reinforcements came and ended the siege.
When liberators entered the besieged seed vault, they found scientists starved to death next to piles of edible seeds. "There were wheat varieties they could have cooked, potato tubers they could have eaten and seeds they could have sprouted,” said Matthew Dillon of the Organic Seed Alliance. “They did it because they understood that these genetic materials were not for their survival but the survival of the world.”
Political instability has endangered precious seed resources throughout history. More recently, instability in the Middle East put the black box, a time capsule containing Iraq’s genetic heritage, in danger. The collection is said to be connected to the oldest domesticated germplasm in the world. Thankfully plant scientists grabbed what seeds they could and moved them to the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas in Aleppo, Syria.
Definitions
Heirloom:
Carolyn Male divides the family of heirloom seeds into these classifications:
1. Commercial Heirloom Seeds: created by seed companies prior to 1940
2. Family Heirloom Seeds: selected and grown into a genetically stabilized form by farmers and gardeners
3. Deliberately Created Heirloom Seeds: varieties created by deliberate cross-pollination
4. Mystery Heirloom Seeds: varieties that are result of accidental cross-pollination
Source: "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden" by Carolyn Male
Open Pollinated:
A term used to describe varieties resulting from natural or uncontrolled pollination, as opposed to hybrids whose pollination is controlled. All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated seeds are heirloom. Open-pollinated varieties have more diverse genetics than hybrids. Classical breeding of open-pollinated varieties is an exacting science, aside from random pollination, said Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds. A plus is that open-pollinated varieties can produce crops that will adapt to new environments.
Hybrid Seed:
In agriculture and gardening, hybrid seed is seed produced by artificially cross-pollinated plants. Hybrids generally display hybrid vigor, or heterosis. This is where plant have uniformity, higher yields, more vigorous germination and other traits that are aimed at commercial production. However, hybrid seed needs to be purchased every year and cannot adapt to new environments.
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