permaculture

[Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>]

Seeds of Change was owned by Mars for a long while before they went
downhill. Eventually the higher ups at Mars got tired of losing money
(which they were), so they closed the research farm and fired a lot of the
old crew who kept up the good work. Good news is Steve Peters who ran
research and seed buying at SoC is now managing Family Farmers Seed Co-op.

I'm not trying to trash Johnny's in entirety, as they at least still have a
research farm, but their major emphasis on hybrids takes a lot of control
out of the farmers hands, and subsequently shifts production to China. Most
hybrid seed is produced in China as the hand labor involved in hand
pollination, pollen gathering, and rougeing is significant and costly in
the US. Also, the production methods for non-organic hybrids are nasty.
Lots of biocide all around to keep such in-bred plants going. It is
essentially a life-support system of chemicals. When we buy that seed, we
support those practices. OP is the way to go, and it is likely some of
Johnny's OP seed is US produced, in fact I know growers who supply them.


On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Jason Gerhardt 
<jasongerhardt@gmail.com>wrote:

> The stat could be a tad out of date, but in 2008 I was a part of early
> meetings to start the Family Farmer's Seed Cooperative (which is now
> launched, and I encourage anyone who is interested in bioregional seed
> production to look into them). The founding members all met in Colorado for
> a few days of discussion and one of those guys (John Navazio, Frank Morton,
> Don Tipping, Nash Huber, or someone else) mentioned in 2007 that Johnny's
> produced 70% of their seed in China. My guess is the current state of
> affairs is not too far off that number and very well could be higher. I
> know Seed Savers Exchange started shifting some seed production to China in
> the mid 2000's too.
>
> What is most concerning about this is that genetic adaptation occurs each
> time a seed is produced, and if they are being grow somewhere like China
> they are adapting to China's bioregional latitude, elevation, rainfall,
> soil types, temp swings, pests and weeds, etc. The same is true if they are
> grown in your bioregion. So obviously there is a huge benefit to using
> locally produced seeds, simply due to climatic adaptation (adaptation to
> organic growing conditions is equally important, so buy organically grown
> seed). After generations of saving seed in the same area they slowly become
> place-based seeds, which is really what heirlooms are at their best. Second
> best is handed down through familial lineage in my opinion.
>
> I totally agree that seed can and should be produced in the US. The work
> of Organic Seed Alliance and Family Farmer's Seed Coop is helping us move
> in that direction, but we are also losing ground too. Seeds of Change used
> to be a great company that did breeding and research and that were supplied
> by a network of small bioregional growers, but not so much anymore. In the
> end, seed is safest in our own hands as growers, from backyard to
> broadacre. Which is why I buy seed from farmer-owned and farmer-produced
> seed companies. Plus you get higher grade seed. As a former seed producer
> and company manager I can guarantee that seed the farmer's company sells
> under their own label is the highest grade. What gets sold to companies
> like High Mowing, Seeds of Change, Seed Savers Exchange, etc is second
> grade. What gets sold to companies that are just buyers and repackagers
> like Botanical Interests, Lake Valley, and other seed companies you might
> find at a hardware store are third grade at best, but mostly they just buy
> seed nobody wants, like third grade from China. The higher the grade, the
> bigger the seed. The bigger the seed, the bigger the cotyledon leaves. The
> bigger the cotyledon leaves, the healthier plants grow and get started, and
> the quicker they produce and mature.
>
> --
> Jason Gerhardt
> Designer and Educator
>
>
>
>


-- 
Jason Gerhardt
Designer and Educator