I recently traveled to Terra Madre in Italy. There was not much of a focus on seeds or even vegetables, but at the end there was a workshop about the Slow Food Seed Declaration. I’d like to support their movement towards including seeds in Slow Food (and beyond heirloom varieties, of course), so I plan to submit feedback and support their next step, I’d love your input before I do.
Does anyone have feedback on the concepts in the slide deck? Do you feel like it is inclusive enough and includes your voice as an Adaptation/Landrace seed saver?
If you want to submit your own feedback, you can do that here:
On theme that I don’t see represented in the draft document is nutrition. Julia you are one of the people who has alerted me to the potential improvement in nutritional value when growing and eating plants with diverse varieties and genetics.
In the declaration it mentions: " Seeds were selected to develop new and diverse landrace varieties over time for their qualities of bearing the tastiest and most nourishing foods, with resilience to climatic challenges, capacity to germinate, resistance to disease."
On the sticky note page near Biodiversity: “Celebrate flavor and nutrition of biodiversity.”
I don’t see it as a huge theme, but it’s mentioned here and there.
I was surprised to see in the call to action to “buy from heirloom seed companies”, as I often think of heirlooms as synonymous with inbred. And most of the seed companies I buy from aren’t what I’d consider “heirloom” companies, but instead companies/non-profits actively striving for genetic diversity in their seeds.
I think as an Adaptation seed saver, it falls short as it still seem they’re promoting heirlooms as the thing to focus on.
It also dances around the idea of “community” without outright saying this whole thing is a community effort. I was surprised I didn’t see “community” in their SEED wordcloud. But then again, that’s something we all focus on here at GTS. I don’t know how widespread that focus is.
Call to Action could include something like “Share your seeds within your community”. That seems like an easy win vs buy heirloom seeds. Unless it’s your neighbor’s heirloom…
I don’t think casting heirloom seeds in a bad light is a good thing. All of the seeds I buy are either heirlooms or F1 hybrids. Catalog descriptions, especially regarding heirlooms are often romanticized but still, I get a little hint of where they may have originated. More importantly with them and with F1s I get a good idea of days to maturity. Shortest possible days to maturity within a species, with few exceptions is prerequisite for me to add new things in my garden. A lot of other important things are in there too, like is it bushy or climbing, do the fruits weigh five pounds or fifty pounds? I don’t want corn that gets fifteen feet tall or takes 120 days to mature. I don’t bother to protect against natural cross-pollination in my garden, but I want to start out with a bit of confidence that new seeds may do well in my geography and produce a harvest in line with what we like.
The term “heirloom” was all the rage for fifty years or so starting with the Seed Savers Exchange. For seed savers, if it wasn’t an heirloom, it was bad for one reason or another, if it got crossed up the world might end. The F1 seeds aren’t necessarily bad nor did the world end when someone let some heirlooms do the natural thing they might do.
I’m very grateful to and for the Seed Savers Exchange, whom I believe was responsible for saving a whole lot of genetic diversity in vegetables and making it available for folks to buy. I hope those folks that like to keep the various ones alive and pure keep doing it. I do grow outs for a couple of them quite often, and I do take measures to return pure seeds. I get to trial lots of things for free and, next year, do anything I want with the seeds I keep. I can also do anything I want with the seeds I buy.
So, like I said discouraging the use of heirlooms in adaptive gardening is a bad idea I think, especially for new gardeners and or those with small spaces.
I don’t worry about nutrient density. I don’t poison my garden or fertilize it and figure some flavorful and satisfying food is more nutritious that none, which I’m afraid I might get if I try to track down genetics based on that and grow it instead of what I know will grow. If I came along some seeds that had the prerequisites for introduction to my garden and that I had reason to believe was more nutrient dense I would absolutely and happily add them in. Except purple carrots, I think they taste like gasoline smells.
By gardener, I am referring to people like me that have a garden in the back yard of only three or four thousand sq ft or even less, maybe just some big pots on a patio. I point that out because I’m not sure who the target audience of the material is, but that’s the lens through which I view everything.
Im thinking yes, what we do as adaptive growers aligns with the slow food and Ark of Taste movements. We are like, “slow growing plants” letting the environmental conditions help choose what grows and what does not. But in the process, the soil improves because its not drowning in salts and chemicals. Soil health goes hand in hand because the microbiome is fostered with biodiversity that is also important for nutrition as we consume what we grow. Its synergy between seeds, the soil and ourselves as grand observers and stewards of the growing process. Its also human experience by participating in seasonal weather changes to grow, harvest and cure seeds. Taking time to store seeds and protect them from insects or moisture damage, caring for them so they can grow again. Keeping seed is also a crucial knowledge for surviving and health after growing, harvesting and preparing meals. The seeds and plants that grow keep the water cycle and carbon cycle stay conditioned for life. Plants protect the topsoil, give off oxygen, interact with microbes, clean the water, and help hold carbon under the soil layer. Seeds are portable and free when shared. Its a spiritual connection too, seeds give strenghth to communities. Literacy isnt necessary to grow them, just perseverance and participation. Technology isnt required, just your daily routine of walking the garden.
Way off topic…but I recall seeing a picture of an ancient person holding a small pouch with a flower on it…possibly seeds inside the pouch? If I travelled from my home, surely I would bring seed to my new home.
I don’t really know what the slow food and ark of taste organizations are. Looking at the slides I noticed one of them had a little square that said this;
"Activists - Join your country’s local seed advocacy group to encourage policy changes at government level"
We already have the Open-Source Seed Initiative, and we already have access to heirloom, non-GMO seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange as well as a number of relatively new smaller, non-corporate seed companies, several of which are members of OSSI and or contributors to SSE.
I think, or at least it makes some sense to me, that most heirlooms are non-GMO and non-patented. SSE has lots of them available and maybe could have even more if more people supported and participated. As it is they can’t grow and offer all of their collection every year, some from what I understand, remains frozen for years.
OSSI is working to establish real, legally binding protections against corporate ownership of the varieties its members develop. From that point not only the pledged variety but all that descend from it are also protected. You can produce and sell all you want but you can’t patent something that derived from an OSSI variety. As far as I know the effort to protect a variety has not yet been tested in a court, but they are working to build the resources to respond to that probable eventuality.
So, a good way in my opinion, for a small gardener or plant breeder to make a bit of difference would be to acquire a collection of heirlooms, or other non-patented seeds, including F1s, breed some new varieties and pledge them under OSSI. “Encouraging policy changes at government level” by advocacy, in an oligarchy bordering on fascism is just silly, in my opinion.
I also admire what the US and Canadian governments, and probably others did with the War and Victory Garden programs back during and after the world wars. Everyone was encouraged to grow a garden as best and as large as was possible for them to do. Lots of publications from the War Garden Commission back then have great advice on what to grow and how to process and store it. They cover how to can and dry foods as well as how to build root cellars and greenhouses.
This suggestion for activism is more for countries that have much more strict seed laws regarding distribution and selling of the seeds, such as all EU countries. We are much more constrained in what and who can sell seeds and what kind of seeds one can sell (e.g. must be ‘approved’ varieties on national or EU level lists). For example some years ago Kokopelli, French cooperative that sells large number of varieties, mostly heirlooms and traditional ones, got sued for it. And NGO community seed bank in my country got in trouble with the law too for selling some of their seeds. And so on.
Nowdays big ag lobby is pushing for stricter seed laws again, and some smaller companies are closing shop, some get creative and disclaim that they are selling breeding material (it’s just your ‘normal’ varieties) etc.
There are also laws on what kind of seeds farmers can use for growing vegetables for market - again lobby is pushing on to outlaw using farmer’s own seed.
So here we must push back, both farmers and gardeners, if we want to have all those miriads of varieties available, not just for planting them in our gardens and fields (or play with them adaptive gardening style ), but also to have food grown from them available to others in our communities, in farmer’s markets and small grocery stores. If we didn’t resist, those laws would already be much worse.
Different national and international seed networks do majority of the work needed, with rounds of campaigns when needed to mobilise people and communities for actions such as signing a petition (those that EU administration is legaly bound to take into account), sending cards with seeds to all parliament members, sending e-mails to representatives from their countries etc etc
Here we must push back, because if we don’t, the whole seed community of Europe will get outlawed and available food diversity will drop down even more.
I didn’t realize that is the situation there, sounds like push back is certainly called for. I think it might be worse here than I fully appreciate. But I guess I have joined the resistance, so to speak, with my support of OSSI and SSE.
I rebel a little in the “landrace” and “permaculture” communities too, when I stand up for heirlooms. If the SSE hadn’t stepped in fifty years ago when all the little regional seed companies were going belly up, we wouldn’t still as much diversity as we do now.
That is certanly true.
Same thing here, if there weren’t all those seed networks, community seed banks and self-organising groups much more would be lost.
Personally, I focus my energy on growing as much diversity I can and on adaptive seeds approach. I want to ‘push’ more people growing food here on the island, too . But I also firmly believe that resistance on every level is needed.
You’re absolutely right, Mark. We owe SSE a huge debt of gratitude. And everyone else who’s done so much to preserve rare varieties. Inbreeding is an important concern, of course, but sometimes it’s the best way to preserve valuable rare traits.
I think our world benefits most from having lots of different kinds of personalities, and the values that come with them. One person loves surprises; another loves predictability; another wants some of both. Everybody benefits from having those options available to them.
Everyone who’s working hard to preserve valuable rare traits deserves a big hug.
), but also to have food grown from them available to others in our communities, in farmer’s markets and small grocery stores. If we didn’t resist, those laws would already be much worse.
. But I also firmly believe that resistance on every level is needed.