Seed Keepers

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Viewing SSE & Seeds of Change changes
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 10:37:04 -0500
From: Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

Like Toby points out, SOC has been owned by MARS for a long time. I
believe around 14 years. Believe it or not it had more to do with
members of the Mars family's interest in organic agriculture than
anything else. They understand that their global candy business will
ultimately depend on a sustainable ingredient stream. MARS always
supported a research facility, primarily for extensive trialing (every
SOC variety was grown out there numerous times,) but also for some
limited breeding, education (like Scott and Toby's excellent PDC's)
and of course PR.

The mission of the farm took a lot of twists and turns as SOC
management changed, but the bottom line was a lot of people learned a
lot about a lot of things there, both about seed and agriculture, an a
lot of that information was disseminated widely. I personally edited
over 50 eNewsletters of around 10,000 words each, and the catalog, of
which millions have been mailed was/is full of useful information.

The current management has decided to close the farm and move
operations west. Great people, with a deep knowledge base about the
germ plasm and deep roots in the organic seed community, were let go.
While this might suck for the individuals and ultimately be bad for
the company, I know that one person is already working with a farmily
farm seed growing collective, and I'm sure others will likewise find
good use of their skills.

I've seen 'em come and go, all the way back to when Kenny Ausubel and
Nina Simons were running the company. Nina hired me for my first gig.
There has been a lot of amazing work done, relationships forged, and
markets created. As of now they are selling organic seed and
supporting growers through it.

Oh and yes, Alan Kapuler was a driving force behind the SOC breeding
program for many years and is still heavily involved with breeding,
along with his daughter and her partner. He hasn't been part of SOC
for years but has sold some varieties recently. They still sell a lot
of his cultivars. Peace Seeds and now Peace Seedlings (the next
generation) is alive and well and producing and selling some fine OP,
highly adaptable public domain seed.

I wish SOC well, and have no idea at this point what my involvement
will be down the road. When you step back, it has been an amazing 22
years in the seed world, and the momentum is there no matter what
happens to that one brand.




Scott Vlaun Moose Pond Arts+Ecology Design Solutions for a Sustainable
Future
450 Main Street, Studio 2, Norway, Maine 04268 • 207-739-2409

On Dec 1, 2010, at 12:06 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

> SoC Research Farm was a place I taught at several times, thanks to
> Scott Pittman (who knows more about this than I do, but I do know a
> bit from talking to many who worked there).
>
> The Farm always had very high staff turnover, was terribly
> underutilized, never seemed able to really get off the ground, and
> was marred by constantly changing plans and directions because no
> manager seemed to be able to last there for more than a year or two,
> and often much less. This sort of chaos made it unlikely that good
> people would stay. Every time I was there, particularly for the last
> 3 years, there were always troubles of one sort or another going on,
> and it often looked like very little was being done there. Some good
> work was done there, but overall it was a money-loser that was
> completely subsidized by Mars, and couldn't have kept running
> without the large cash infusions that the corporation kept plowing
> into it. The staff understood that Mars would eventually tire of
> pouring money into a losing operation, and yet they still never were
> able to make it profitable or make it look like a successful
> operation. Mars finally pulled the plug. They stayed with it an awfu
> lly long time. So I can't really blame Mars for tiring of getting so
> little for all the money they put into it. Without Mars's subsidy,
> it would have failed much earlier, as no small seed business could
> have possibly afforded to run such a place. I wish it could have
> been better run and been more successful, but it wasn't.
>
> Remember that the research farm is only a small part of Seeds of
> Change. The firm itself is still operating in much the same way it
> always has. Most of the employees I talked with felt that being
> bought by Mars (which happened years ago), even though it went
> counter to the ideological beliefs of many of them,  turned out to
> be good for them, and made it possible for the company to develop.
> But some people didn't like it, for sure.
>
> But I will miss that farm. It was a sweet piece of ground.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
>
>
>
> On Nov 30, 2010, at 9:33 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
>
> > On 11/30/2010 11:21 PM, Scott Vlaun wrote:
> > > I've worked with Seeds of Change for the last 17 years as a
> > > photographer
> > > and writer. While recent events have been difficult to swallow for
> > > many,
> > > including me, there are still a lot of well intentioned people there
> > > that are working hard to support organic seed growers and increase
> > > the
> > > stock of high quality organic seed on the market. They also still
> > > support a lot of community gardening projects. We all knew that
> > > there
> > > would be compromises when they were taken on by Mars, but millions
> > > of
> > > dollars worth of good organic seed has been grown and distributed
> > > none
> > > the less.
> >
> > I had heard that Mars bought SoC outright, shut down the research
> > farm and seed production facility in New Mexico, fired all the
> > employees,
> > shut down the operation completely, locked the gates and plan to
> > sell the entire farm while keeping some outlet stores operational
> > in the Northern Midwest with plans to market new products created
> > by Mars California operation.
> >
> > I am glad to hear that SoC is still doing good things. Do you have
> > more information?
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