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Special Supplement onOrganic Seeds

Winter, 2011-12

Seed Development and Germination

by Jack Kittredge

Sources for this information include theseedsite.co.uk, Ohio State University, and Oregon State

University

Seed Development

Seeds develop from ovules in the female part of the plant after they have been fertilized, or pollinated, by pollen from the male parent plant. This is sexual reproduction and the seeds contain the genes of both the male and female parents.

The ovules are the embryos from which the seed will develop. At the time of pollination, they are very small compared to the mature seed. Without being pollinated, the ovules will not develop into seeds.

Pollination can be accomplished by cross-polli-nation or by self-pollination.

Cross-pollination occurs when pollen is deliv-ered to a flower from a different plant. Plants adapted to outcross or cross-pollinate often have taller stamens (the male reproductive or-gan) than pistils (the female reproductive organ) or use other mechanisms to better ensure the spread of pollen to other plants’ flowers.

Self-pollination occurs when pollen from one flower pollinates the same flower or other flow-ers of the same individual. It is thought to have evolved under conditions when pollinators such as insects were not reliable vectors for pollen transport, and is most often seen in short-lived annual species and plants that colonize new locations. Plants adapted to self-fertilize often have similar stamen and pistil lengths. Plants that can pollinate themselves and produce vi-able offspring are called self-fertile. Plants that cannot fertilize themselves are called self-ster-ile, a condition which mandates cross pollina-tion for the production of offspring

Each pollen grain contains a vegetative cell and a generative cell that divides to form two sperm cells: the male gametes. Pollen is transferred from the stamen by the process of pollination. In 80% or more of the cases this involves trans-fer by one of 200,000 species of living agents, most of which are insects but include birds and bats. Of the cases of abiotic pollination (that not involving an animal vector) the vast majority is by wind, with some by water for aquatic plants.

Once reaching the pistil, or carpel, the pollen is caught by hairs, flaps, or other obstructions in the stigma, or receptive tip. The pollen germi-nates in response to a sugary fluid secreted by the stigma. The vegetative cell then produces the pollen tube, a protrusion from the pollen grain which carries the sperm cells within its cytoplasm. This tube is the transportation me-dium of the male gamete to reach the egg cell.

The germinated pollen tube must drill its way to the bottom of the ovary to reach the ovule. Once the pollen tube successfully attains an ovule, it delivers the two sperm cells with a burst. One of them fertilizes the female gamete (the egg cell) to form an embryo, which will become the future plant. The other one fuses with both polar nuclei (created in the ovary by the process of cell division which created the ovule) to form the endosperm, which serves as the embryo’s food supply. The endosperm is rich in starch, proteins and oils and is a major source of human food (e.g., wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn). Finally, the ovary will develop into a fruit and the ovules will develop into seeds.

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We can often judge how close the seeds are to being ripe from the size or color of the fruit or seedpod. Unripe seeds are soft, white or green, and enclosed in a hard green fleshy fruit or pod. When seeds are ripe and mature they change to brown or green, de-velop a hard covering, and the seedpod dries out and changes to white or brown. It eventually splits to release them.

Producing seeds uses a lot of the plant’s energy. If the plant is dead or dying, it will not have enough energy to complete the process. This is one of the reasons you are unlikely to be able to get seeds from cut flowers. The plant needs to be able to gather food while it is developing seeds, and the seedpod needs to remain attached to the parent plant until the seeds are fully developed.

Development of the seeds, from pollination to shed-ding of the ripe seeds, can take several weeks or even months, but seeds gathered before the process has been completed will not be viable.

Seeds and Germination

Most seeds contain less than 20% water, as opposed to about 80% in growing tissues. Most of the limited water in seeds is bound to macromolecules, so that little is available for metabolic reactions. Cellular membranes are disorganized under these conditions. Because the water potential of seeds is extremely low they are capable of drawing water from soils that have too little water to support normal plant growth. As the seed imbibes water, cell membranes reorganize and metabolism begins. The seed may not germinate at this point, however. In addition to water, many seeds require a period of cold exposure (stratification) or leaching of inhibitors by water before germination is possible. This applies particu-larly to wild species; many cultivated plants have been selected for ease of germination.

Many seeds require light for germination; much of our understanding of this phenomenon derives from experiments with lettuce seeds in which germination is stimulated by red light and inhibited by far-red. These seeds, if buried in the soil, will not germinate unless the soil is turned over so that they are ex-posed to light. This is part of the theory behind “no-till” crop production and recent ideas that it might be a good idea to plow at night

The radicle or root is usually the first part of the em-bryo to emerge from the seed coat. After this, differ-ent structures emerge, depending on the species. The most fimdamental structural difference is between a monocot and a dicot.

A monocot has only one seed leaf (monocot is short for ‘monocotyledon’. A cotyledon is a seed leaf, and ‘mono’ means one). This seed leaf is usually the

same shape as the adult leaf, long and thin, and the leaf veins nearly always run parallel to the central midrib. Sometimes the adult leaves are pinnate, as in many palms, but the veins are parallel on each leaflet. There are several monocot plant families that are instantly recognizable. Many food plants are grasses, so crops like wheat, oats, barley and corn are all monocots. Palms, Orchids, and most bulbous plants are monocots.

A dicot has two cotyledons (dicot is short for ‘di-cotyledon’, and ‘di’ means two). The seed leaves are usually rounded and fat, because they are the two halves of the seed. The first true leaves can be many different shapes, from long and thin to rounded or

palmate. Most trees and shrubs and many garden an-nuals and perennials are dicots, and there are many more species of dicots than there are monocots.

Seeds need a supply of food to support the embryo plant until it can collect its own food. This is the reason for the endosperm. With some exceptions, in monocots, this is inside the seed coat but separate from the cotyledon. In dicots, the cotyledons contain the endosperm.

monocot (oats) dicot (beans)

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by Frank Morton as interviewed by Jack Kittredge

I’m a self-trained seedsman, I grow 7-8 acres of organic seeds on a 50 acre organic farm in Oregon. I’m business partners with the people who run the vegetable farm. My wife and I and our workers pro-duce the seeds that we sell to seed companies – pret-ty much all the seed companies that supply organic farmers: Johnny’s, Fedco, High Mowing, Burpee, Territorial.

Our catalog at www.wildgardenseeds.com lists 156 varieties, plus several seed mixtures, from 28 crop species. We concentrate on salad greens because I used to be a salad green grower, I’m one of the orig-inators of the idea of plastic bags of salads. I started selling to restaurants in 1983. I shipped a lot to the east coast using recycled packaging and UPS deliv-ery. That’s how we paid for our farm. In the process I was also breeding varieties. That seems like a spe-cialized skill, but if you realize it, in the past farmers bred everything -- starting10,000 years ago.

I started breeding as a fluke. I started keeping my own seeds – it seemed the natural thing to do. Self-sufficiency seemed natural. I was learning as I went along. Accidently I had a cross pollination between a red and green lettuce. It appeared spontaneously. It was a red oak leaf. I realized that there had been a cross between a red romaine and a green oak leaf. I realized this is where new varieties come from. It was a hybrid. I kept it and grew it out to seed. I got only 55 seeds, but I planted those seeds. In the F2 generation (editor: F1 is the first filial generation after breeding diverse lines, F2 is the second, or the grandchildren of the original lines, so to speak) I got the traces of all the parents in an unbelievable level of genetic diversity. There were new greens and reds, that hadn’t been in the parents. There was new ruffling of the edges. When I saw all these new vari-eties I realized I could be a plant breeder in conjunc-tion with raising salad. I thought that would make marketing easy!

Becoming an Organic Seedsman

Then I realized I could even have an organic seed company and I wouldn’t have to change anything I was doing. I thought that would be a very good idea. After September 11. 2001 that is what happened. My salad business disappeared. All the restaurants on the east coast closed down. They couldn’t get shipments from the west coast. Some never opened again. My biggest customer sent his staff home for 3 weeks and never reopened.

So we were in the seed business. We had been grad-ually pruning down our salad work for 5 years and starting to sell seed to a few companies. We had ac-cumulated a seed collection those years and figured out which varieties had the best traits. You have to know your plants if you are going to breed seeds. The only way to learn what makes a cabbage is to grow it over years.

For anyone doing breeding, the concept of self-pollinating versus cross-pollinating is crucial. Self-pollinating plants such as wheat, lettuce, purslane, and sweet peppers pollinate themselves. Heirloom tomatoes cross-pollinate but modern ones usually

self-pollinate. I am growing a huge variety of let-tuce this year -- 35 varieties. I make them by cross-pollinating varieties -- growing lettuce side by side and holding the flowers together. Then, after 10 generations of self-pollinating, you get 99% similar-ity -- essentially they are clones. Plants which self-pollinate in nature don’t seem to develop inbreed-ing depression, or loss of vigor, the way naturally cross-pollinating species do when you force them to self-pollinate.

The reason is that cross-pollinating plants are like people. The population that we come from has a lot of deleterious, recessive genes. In normal popula-tions of humans or of corn most of the genes that are delirious are recessive. Because they are rare they tend to be paired up with the dominant gene. So the bad effect never shows up. By mating in large popu-lations of people or corn you try to encourage cross-ing. The plant makes an effort to encourage this. In corn, for instance, the male and female parts are far apart to discourage self-pollination. The tassel (male) is way up on the top of the plant. The silks are down on the ears (female). It practically guaran-tees that genetic mixing will occur.

In plant breeding for agriculture you have crops that naturally cross-pollinate -- carrots, cabbages, squash -- but about 60 percent are self-pollinated. About 30-40 percent are cross-pollinated. Then there are ones that are in between.

Self-pollinating plants don’t have the deleterious genes. There is a lot of debate about which kind of pollination came first. A lot of scientists thought cross-pollination did. But they have shown recently that self-pollination is very old.

Tomatoes and peppers are in the middle. You can self-pollinate a pepper for many years without that inbreeding depression. The same with a tomato. But in nature they cross readily. The tomato and pep-per, of course, got taken from their home in South America to Europe and the same pollinating insects

photo courtesy Frank Morton

Frank Morton collecting lettuce seed

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were not there. So those plants that were more likely to self-pollinate were the ones to make seeds. It’s a survival strategy. If you don’t make seeds, you’re out!

What we have seen is that if you go to the Andes, where peppers and tomatoes are native, they cross-pollinate. But if you follow drainages and go up in elevation, their numbers decrease until when you reach certain altitudes there won’t be tomatoes. Then there will be new ones in different valleys. The mountains are wonderful for breeding this di-versity. So selection occurs within populations that favor self-pollination.

They are not necessarily using the same genes as the tropical tomatoes or peppers. It might be that in these new environments the deleterious genes become favorable. When plants leave where they originated that is when self-pollinations occurs. The same thing happens when you breed them across the world.

A few things do not cross -- beets, Swiss chard. One beet plant will not produce seed. Chicory is the same. Whereas an endive plant is 100% self-pollinated. Spinach normally has male and female plants. But if you remove all the males, the females will make their own pollen.

Breeding for Organic Plants

Conventional farms have an environment moder-ated by chemical inputs. The nutrients are soluble in water so roots don’t have to compete. On the disease and insect fronts, if you are spraying fungi-cides plants don’t need resistance to disease. Same for insecticides. If those diseases aren’t part of the growing environment, of course, you can’t breed for resistance to them. Breeding should be done in the area of intended use using the farming practices expected to be used. If you are breeding for chemi-cal agriculture, use those chemicals on the breeding farm.

Plant breeding for organics has to take place in an organic environment.

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There are traits we want in organics -- such as roots. Organic growers need plants with extensive roots because they are putting down organic fertil-ity which is widely distributed and you needs roots which are extensive and have lots of root hairs. Not every plant is the same in the ability to pick up calcium, for instance. So ask how is the fertility ap-plied.

Another trait is tops, as in carrot tops. A lot of hy-brid carrots have small tops. I’ve heard farmers complain you can’t even bunch them! Carrot tops make the carrot grow. They also shade out weeds. Getting carrots established requires forming a good leafy canopy to slow weed growth.

I breed kale so I ask people what shape of a kale plant do they want. How tall? There is a class of dwarf kale with short stems. It has less stalk and more leaves. In cold areas you want short dwarf kale because it can hide under the snow and not freeze. When I ask people in Oregon, they want tall kale. There is no snow cover here, but we do get rain and that makes mud and short plants get muddy. Bacte-ria also splash up with mud and can cause disease. Finally, tall plants are easier to pick.

Organic growers tend to produce food in agricultur-ally marginal areas. So in Vermont or New York you have really different environments than around Da-vis, California. Breeders in Davis are thinking about the production centers of the crop. So to the extent that organic agriculture is local, you need to breed to know the local situation. The centers of breeding are not breeding for these marginal areas. They are breeding for the Salinas valley or for spinach grow-ers in Arkansas or Texas. I would like to see local breeders everywhere.

To the extent that something is locally bred and the environment is unmoderated by chemicals, there is no difference between organic and conventional seed. But nobody is doing local breeding except the organic breeders. It is a skill that is accessible to everyone. You don’t need a degree in plant breeding to do it.

Books for organic farmers on plant breeding are scarce. I would recommend two. One is Seed to Seed, published by the Seed Savers Exchange. It is quite outdated and needs to be revised. I understand that the Organic Seed Alliance is collaborating with them on revising it. The other is Breed Your Own

Vegetable Varieties by Carol Deppe, published by Chelsea Green. It has had 2 editions. It shows you anybody can do it. It has a lot of breeder stories and is illustrative of how you can go about a breeding project.

Breeding is all just practice. Cleaning is part of it. You winnow and screen and do that again and again.

There are some easy exercises if you are interested in plant breeding. I suggest growing two radishes to seed side by side. Grow one long white radish and one red round one. Let them cross, then keep them separate and keep the seeds. Grow those out to be round and pink. They all will they look the same – you have created a hybrid. But save and plant that seed and the next generation is incredibly diverse in color and shape. Mendel did this a hundred and fifty years ago with peas!

But it all takes time. That is what discourages people. That is why you need to do it in conjunction with regular gardening. Save a few, let them cross, if it catches your interest you won’t let go.

Also, if you want to experiment in genetics without waiting a year, there is company in Wisconsin called Fast Plants. They have come to me for genetic re-sources. It is one guy who worked at the University of Wisconsin and got an idea for breeding plants on his desktop under lights. He bred a mustard genotype that grows fast and continued to select for fast growth. He now has seed to seed mustard in 28 days! He then took those and crossed them with plants showing many colors and shapes. He sells them to schools, so children can learn about genet-ics through several generations in one school term. They also use them in space for experiments in growing in orbit under microgravity.

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by Bryan O’Hara

Tobacco Road Farm is primarily a vegetable grow-ing operation. Over the last twenty years or so we have saved seed from numerous crops and worked to develop more beneficial varieties for our growing conditions here in Eastern Connecticut. These ef-forts have been undertaken for a number of reasons, including to improve productivity and to provide an interesting endeavor in our agricultural pursuits. These efforts have lead to a more harmonious re-lationship with our natural environment as well as more vegetables and also profit.

A major benefit to our seed saving has been im-proved germination and vigor of the seedlings and crops. This vigor comes from our ability to select the most vigorous plants to supply the seed as well as freshness of the seed and our ability to interbreed the seed crop. In selecting specimens for seed sav-ing we generally will rogue out small or otherwise inferior plants while still maintaining a larger ge-netic pool of superior specimens. Size of seed can be selected during the cleaning process to secure the largest and heaviest. Seed freshness is also certain. As an example, seed harvested from a kale crop in July can be seeded in the same month of July. This freshness cannot be secured from commercial sources where age of seed is not even known by the purchaser.

Beyond selection, breeding crops for vigor generally takes advantage of large genetic pools to provide hybrid vigor. Often these crops are diverse in ap-pearance and are referred to as “land races”. Exam-ples of our land races include – mizuna, tatsoi and maruba, all bred together with seed of the offspring saved for many successive years. These mizuna-like plants are faster growing and hardier than any of

Plant Breeding and Seed Saving at Tobacco Road Farm

photo by Rob Durgy

Ripe kale seed ready for harvest

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their original parents and have diverse leaf shapes and colors. It is an excellent selection for winter salads. Another example of a land race grown here is our watermelons, which originally came from a Polish neighbor many years ago. This melon is a very highly productive melon that produces melons of different color green rinds from green striped to a more solid, lighter green color. All the melons have excellent flavor and the markets have accepted these melons’ appearance. Vigor is derived from the genetic diversity in out crossing crops. Out crossing crops are those that readily breed with other plants, that is, are not self-pollinating. Out crossing crops are generally those crops that are pollinated by wind or insects. In the self-pollinated crops like toma-toes, seed is simply saved from the healthiest few individuals as the need for diversity is much less. This gives us the ability to readily maintain pinnacle specimens in self-pollinated crops like tomatoes or peppers.

While crop vigor is certainly a major benefit of seed saving, the ability to select for the desired character-istics is also very helpful. Some of our efforts have been to improve cold tolerance, improve coloration or lengthen harvest periods. In the case of cold tolerance, we took a variety of arugula and over-wintered an October seeding. This variety had about a 10% survival rate. We saved the seed from this 10% and replanted them the next fall. These plants survived winter at essentially 100% and were much less prone to damage in freezing temperatures. This is now our standard fall and winter arugula.

An example of lengthening harvest times is our ef-fort to breed a true biennial kale. In this case it was noted that about 5% of Konserva kale plants will not flower in the spring following their over-wintering from a previous spring planting. These plants are dug up and placed together during their second spring in an effort to have them flower in their third spring. This project is ongoing and is difficult be-cause of its long growth period and low plant count, leading to low diversity. The benefit of having pro-duction kale, however, that does not bolt in spring after overwintering will be great.

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Often we save seed simply to preserve varieties that are no longer commercially available, such as the Siegfried leek or presto cress. These varieties are further adapted to our farm’s environment by our selection of them and kept vigorous with high popu-lations for breeding.Sometimes we will re-invigorate existing commer-cial varieties. For example, Dwarf Scotch Kale from commercial sources seemed to be lacking vigor; perhaps the seed that was being offered was old. We grew out a large population and secured a vigor-ous fresh seed. Also, hybrid seed can be stabilized. Many hybrids are quite true to type if succeeding generations are grown. Here stabilization may re-quire several years of breeding to secure a consistent plant. High plant populations are important to main-tain diversity for out-crossing crops using this pro-cess. Or if diversity in plant type can be tolerated, a land race type of crop may be successfully started from a commercial hybrid source.

Large volumes of seed are often produced, and most can be saved for many years. This allows us to pro-duce seed in different years that would have cross breeding problems if grown during the same season. Large volumes of seed are also useful for reducing seed expenses, and gives us the ability to seed very heavily if desired. This allows for broadcast seeding of salad green crops, or seeding vegetables for cover crops.

Seed production has also resulted in an increase in beneficial insects and therefore a reduction in insect pests. This occurs because the production cycle of crops to seed often results in a food source and habitat for these insects. An example is the Cotesia Wasp, a predator of cabbage caterpillars. This wasp lays its eggs on the caterpillar. The larvae burrows into and then consume the caterpillar. The larvae then emerge, pupates and new wasps emerge. The pupal stage generally occurs on the leaf of the cab-bage family, and pupae are seen as small white cocoons, often in clusters. The wasp feeds on the nectar of cabbage family plants. We have overwin-tered the pupal cocoons in collards and seen the wasps emerge the day the collards started to flower in the spring. Now what if all the cabbage family

residue had been tilled in the fall. Would any pupae that survived have anything to eat when they emerge as wasps?This relationship of the crops full growth cycle pro-viding both the necessary habitat and nectar source for the proliferation of the appropriate beneficial in-sects led to a new understanding of crop production. These crops offer us much in the way of their use-fulness. Therefore, in return, we should help them to proliferate and evolve through seed production -- a simple, effective relationship.

In terms of how we produce seed, probably the most important factor is soil fertility. A well-balanced soil that can sustain healthy plant growth through to seed production is critical to achieve large, vigorous seed. Soil overly rich in nitrogen and other vegeta-tive growth elements will not yield high quality

seed, nor will a soil deficient in necessary nutrients. A fertile soil also helps with weed control, which is critical in a long term crop like a seed crop. Often seed crops are grown with an organic mulch like leaves, straw or hay to assist weed control and pro-vide for better soil. The growing practices for the straw or hay need to be ascertained in order to avoid hazardous herbicides, herbicides known to damage vegetable crops.

In terms of the growth cycle of plants, it seems best to grow crops for seed in their natural patterns. The vast majority of vegetable crops are either summer annuals or winter annuals. Summer annuals are generally frost sensitive crops which are seeded in spring or summer and produce seed by fall. Tomato, pepper, squash, melon, bean, pea, okra, basil and amaranth are examples of summer annuals. Winter

photo by Rob Durgy

Mizuna land race in flower

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annual crops generally start growth in spring or summer or later, and flower and produce seed the following spring. Lettuce, carrot, beet, the cabbage family, onion, leek, parsley and many others are in this group. Often they are mistaken for biennials, but this is inaccurate as their growth period is only one year, generally from summer to the follow-ing summer, an annual cycle. A true biennial like burdock starts its growth in one summer, forming a small root. This crop then spends the entire next year growing a larger root which spends a second year underground and then flowers the next summer, a full two year growth cycle.

It is critically important to understand this winter annual cycle in order to grow high quality seed in our environment. Winter annuals seeded in summer or fall and grown through winter and allowed to flower in spring have consistently grown seed free of seed borne diseases and are vastly more prolific than a winter annual sown in spring which then flowers in summer. Lettuce has been a perfect ex-ample of this with prolific overwintered production and next to nothing of quality from spring sowings. This is not to say that you cannot produce seed from spring sown winter annuals. Some winter annu-als will generally not flower in their last summer if sown in winter or spring, such as cabbage, kale, carrot, beet, parsley, onion etc. Others will perform as summer annuals from a winter or spring sowing such as broccoli, lettuce, mustards, cilantro etc. and produce seed in their first summer.

Often crop cycles are staggered in order to pro-duce pure seed from similar crops that will readily cross breed – for example, mizuna may be sown in October for an early flowering seed crop, where a late sowing in December of tatsoi will flower late enough in the spring to miss the mizuna’s flowers. Crops can also be separated by harvesting, which delays flowering, or by distance, such as another field entirely.

In the case of selecting the best plants for seed col-lection, rogueing generally occurs. This is especially important in the out-crossing crops where large populations are maintained. In rogueing, plants are removed which are weak or otherwise do not meet our requirements. In the land races where vast di-versity is tolerated and even encouraged, rogueing is performed even less and is limited to very undesir-able traits, such as hairiness in a salad crop. In self-pollinated crops much less rogueing takes place and

seed is simply saved from the superior specimens, though if we are really trying to “clean up” a variety we will use rogueing to give better isolation.

The basic process for most seed crops is to cut seed stalks when the first basal seed pods are just start-ing to shatter. These basal seed pods generally have the best seed so it is important not to let many of them shatter before harvest, yet they also need to be at full maturity. These seed stalks are then brought into a shade cloth covered hoop tunnel and allowed to dry either hanging from the hoops in bunches or spread out on benches. Once dry they are stomped upon in a large sheet metal pan. The bulky materi-als are then removed from the top. The seed and chaff is then poured from one smaller pan to another through various sized screens, both too large and too small for the seed to pass through. This removes the vast majority of the chaff.

The seed is then winnowed by pouring from one pan to another in front of a fan. If done carefully almost all chaff and small light seed can be removed in this

manner. The seed is then left for a day or two in a very dry location to allow any insects to leave. The seed is then stored in airtight glass gallon jars in the dark with desiccant packs inserted into the jars.

For summer fruits the seeds are simply removed from the melon, bean, pepper or squash and dried before storage. In the case of the tomato, the seed and pulp is removed and allowed to ferment for sev-eral days, then washed, dried and stored.

All of these efforts have seemingly led to increased profit since the benefits are substantial. However, no cost benefit analysis has ever been done here. Seed production does require additional planning, labor, and observation and may be too much to embark on for many labor-strapped farms. Even small, well placed efforts, however, may have a dramatic effect. This could lead to more seed developed for our spe-cific region, and if distributed and shared with other regional farms would create greater self-reliance in our means of production.

photo by Ropb Durgy

Various screens attached to wooden frames for sifting seed by size

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by CR Lawn

Seed is an essential living component of organic systems. The use of organically-grown seed that is adapted to organic systems and free of contaminants is critical to overall organic integrity.

Few in the organic movement would take issue with such noble sentiments. But the dream that organic farmers use only certified organic seeds, while salu-tary as an end goal, is of no help in navigating the way there.

From the get-go, the Organic Seed Rule has been one of the most controversial features of the NOP, for it had no precedent in the decentralized certifi-cation operations that the NOP replaced. In effect, it called for an entire industry to develop out of a vacuum, a pertinent fact that puts the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) impatience at the slow pace of industry development in perspective. In railing at a too-slow increase in organic seed use since imple-mentation of the NOP, OTA failed to appreciate why 11 years transition time has been insufficient to allow production of organic seed to catch up to the demand. Given that it takes a minimum of 7-10 years using classical breeding to develop a new va-riety or to stabilize an hybrid, and that the organic method rightfully, in my opinion, forbids certain faster breeding techniques, organic seed develop-ment represents the ultimate form of slow food.

NOP regulations 205.2 and 205.204 establish a re-quirement that certified operations use organic seed and planting stock, but allows an exemption if these are “not commercially available in an appropriate form, quality or quantity to fulfill an essential func-tion in organic production. Price cannot be a consid-eration.” While many in the organic industry lament the lack of clarity inherent in the ‘commercial avail-

The Organic Seed Rule

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 212B-

ability’ loophole, and wish that the NOP would take steps to close, or at least tighten it, much of their position relies on two premises, both of which are, in my experience, demonstrably false: First, that as long as exemptions are permitted, organic farmers will shirk the organic seed requirement whenever they can. Second, that the organic seed industry will not be willing to invest in capacity absent the assur-ance of a stronger, more strictly enforced rule.

My experience at Fedco Seeds gives lie to the first contention. I have found that reasonably priced or-ganically grown seed of good quality flies off the shelf. Not only is it purchased by certified organic farmers, who are required to look for it under the NOP rule, but it is also chosen by droves of non-cer-tified farmers and gardeners who are under no such obligation. That’s because organic is far more than a market niche, it is a social and ethical movement. Much of the demand for organic seed preceded the Rule. It sprang from grass roots ethical choices made by the pioneering generations of the move-ment and enthusiastically embraced by the next. To test this contention I conducted a small survey. I found that our customers chose to purchase organic seed 38.1% of the time, even though only 26.5% of our listings were certified organic, and even though organic seed cost 2-3 times as much.

The second contention is harder to refute. I can point to numerous capacity building initiatives un-dertaken by entrepreneurs in the last decade, howev-er -- by us, by our friendly competitors, by our sup-pliers and by growers -- and I believe that these will continue to grow in the decade to come. Given the ever-increasing demand for quality organic seed at a fair price, there are tremendous investment opportu-nities even with the Rule as it is. To those would-be suppliers who might hesitate, I would advise: don’t wait for an iron-clad Rule. High Mowing didn’t wait, Family Farmers Seed Co-operative didn’t wait, we didn’t wait to invest. Our biggest need in the in-dustry is for more quality wholesalers in the States. Assess the market and take the risk. We’ll be knock-ing at your door!

Last year the Organic Seed Alliance, as part of its first State of Organic Seed Report, conducted a sur-vey of 1,027 organic farmers in 45 states, finding that by far the biggest obstacles to greater use of or-ganic seed are the lack of availability for the specific varieties wanted (for 79% a moderate or significant factor) and the lack of sufficient quantity of avail-able seed (50%).

The quality of available organic seed is quite un-even. The best varieties, such as those bred and produced by Frank Morton and Gathering Together Farm, those originating from Cornell University’s farmer-breeder collaborations, and some releases from Europe where organics developed much earlier and faster than in the States, were trialed and bred specifically under organic conditions. These are worth every penny of their price and more. Fedco’s seed receivers, however, can recite a litany of hor-rors to attest that some organic seed growers need additional technical assistance and seed-cleaning capacity to get up to snuff. In recent years we’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars to bolster our lot grow-out and trials research, and our condition-ing capabilities, to respond to these glaring needs.

Unfortunately, the OSA chose to downplay seed quality issues in their report, dismissing the signifi-cance of the 21% of growers (more for vegetable seed) who reported significant problems, particular-ly of germination, emergence and trueness to type. The survey results showed a serious asymmetry, with only 3% of seed users having more problems with untreated conventionally-grown seeds com-pared to 23% having more problems with organic seed. Since growers are paying a premium of any-where from 1.5 to ten times the price for organic seed compared to conventional, they have a reason-able expectation that its quality should be at least as good.

Which brings us head-to-head with perhaps the most problematic feature of the Rule: price. Fully 41% of organic farmers in the survey admitted taking price into consideration in their seed selection, despite the express prohibition of the Rule. It is from this statis-

tic that the “shirker” argument gains traction. Let’s look at this from the farmers’ perspective. Farming is one of the highest arts. The ability to observe and choose varieties best suited to one’s climate, soil conditions and marketing needs is one of the distin-guishing characteristics of the skilled practitioner. Take away the farmer’s right to choose and she is little better than a serf.

The best farmers choose whatever varieties will offer the highest value. What factors determine value? Price, satisfaction with the supplier (acces-sibility, prompt and accurate service), the genetics of the cultivar, its consistency, its quality compared to other strains and similar varieties, its ability to fill the required marketing niche. As the price for achieving certification, organic farmers are expected voluntarily to ignore price; to give up a key factor in determining value, which is a huge sacrifice. To quote the OSA report “There is a long and unfortu-nate history in agricultural policy of treating farmers unfairly...in order to benefit consumers, retailers, food companies, processors, financiers and suppliers of agricultural inputs” (read seed companies). If the organic movement is not to repeat this tragedy, how can it reconcile a Rule that asks its farmers to make such a sacrifice with the lofty desiderata of keeping organic agriculture “farmer-driven and farmer ori-ented?” There are no easy answers.

The Rule as stated presents seed companies like mine with a dilemma as well. Aware that organic farmers are required to source organic seed, we take on an added burden whenever we consider adding an organic cultivar. Because organic farmers are forced to consider it if we offer it, we must make doubly sure that it is of sufficient value to justify the price we’d charge for it. If not, our clear duty to or-ganic growers is to leave it out of our catalog.

At present, certifying agencies are inconsistent in applying the rule for sourcing organic seed. Some are much more stringent than others, but the trend is toward increasing strictness. Many still maintain a minimum requirement that farmers search at least three sources, a requirement that could be clearly inadequate depending which sources are chosen and

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how thoroughly they are searched. Others ask for a pattern of continued improvement in the percentage usage of organic seed. Although both the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) and OTA, in their 2011 recommendations to the NOP, endorse the percentage usage test, it is at best a crude measurement of compliance, requiring cer-tifying agents to have a significant degree of seed industry knowledge to apply fairly. As a farmer, I could be making progress toward greater organic seed use even while my percentage use is dropping. How could that be? Let’s look at Carmen pepper. Johnny’s introduced Carmen pepper in 2006 when it won an All-America award. For the past five years it has been available only in conventional seed. 2012 is the first time organic seed will be available. This is typical for the industry; with few exceptions, new cultivars usually show up first as conventional offer-ings and several years elapse before organic seed is available. Should growers who purchased Carmen the past five years have been penalized by certifiers? How about those who want to stay at the cutting edge by continuing to try new varieties that sound superior but are available only in conventional seed?

Or let’s suppose that I have specialized in heirloom tomatoes. Shopping 2011 catalogs from Seeds of Change, High Mowing, Johnny’s and us, I found 63 different organic listings for heirloom tomatoes. My certifier could have reasonably insisted on 100% or near 100% organic seed usage for heirloom toma-toes. However, now my market has changed and it demands shell peas and hybrid watermelons instead of tomatoes. For the latter I could find only three organic options in the four seed catalogs; for the peas, just seven. Unless my certifier is knowledge-able about the seed market, it will unfairly take me to task when my market changes to peas and melons or to hybrid summer or winter squash. In particular, the supply of organically grown hybrid varieties in the States is way underdeveloped, and the price of some of the imports, prohibitive.

Because certifiers clearly need more tools to get up to speed on seeds, and farmers need a more con-venient jumping-off place to begin their organic search, I have, after years of holding out, recently

come to support the organic industry’s longtime push for a national database of organic seed avail-ability, provided it is used as a tool to benefit farm-ers in making selections rather than as a cudgel to enforce the Rule high-handedly, and provided it observes the following caveats:

1) Seeds are live products. Their availability is in constant flux, new developments are continu-ous. The database will be worthwhile only if it is carefully and knowledgeably maintained and kept current.

2) For that reason it will be costly to keep up and farmers and seed companies should not be asked to bear these costs. Public funding must come from the NOP.

3) Although I am in favor of requiring organic farm-ers to search this database as part of their organic sourcing, it is only a starting point. It cannot replace a more detailed search through seed cata-logs, and wise farmers searching for value will not use it as a short-cut.

4) The mere mention of an available variety on this database is insufficient to require a farmer to pur-chase that variety as such a listing is no guaran-tee of quality or suitability of purpose. Certifiers may not use this listing to force farmers to pur-chase specific varieties or deal with seed compa-nies with whom they do not prefer to patronize. OSGATA’s recommendation to NOP places pri-mary responsibility on farmers, not certifiers, to determine varietal suitability for a given specific purpose and seed quality sufficiency, recognizing the complex nuances of seed issues.

Well kept, wisely used and fairly applied, such a da-tabase can become a valuable tool, not only to farm-ers to source varieties, not only to certifiers to assess progress in organic seed use, but also to the entire organic industry to identify areas of insufficient sup-ply and develop responses. Applied unfairly, it could become a bureaucratic nightmare for organic farm-ers. Though it might be our sextant in navigating to a truly organic shore, it must be supplemented with astute observation and close collaboration between

certifiers and farmers, as colleagues working for a common goal, not as cops and clients!

In recommending any further hurdles for organic growers, the trends toward increased costs, bureau-cracy, and onerous documentation in organic certifi-cation give me great pause. In fact, in the fall issue of the Organic Broadcaster, longtime organic in-spector and MOSES organic specialist Harriet Behar warned that she is seeing organic producers leave the certified marketplace due to the hassle factor of excess paperwork.

Along these lines, OTA’s recommendations to the NOP regarding varietal equivalency present a real can of worms. Equivalency is mentioned in the Rule, but its definition is sufficiently vague to leave open different interpretations. Represent-ing the goals of some of the larger players in the industry, OTA would like to see the NOP enforce equivalency. Depending on specific definitions, equivalency could be used to force growers to use a different variety if they cannot source the one they want. Varietal equivalency, for example, might re-quire growers to use Michelle lettuce if Sierra were unavailable, on the grounds that the varieties are sufficiently similar. Kind equivalency, even broader, could treat such varieties as Italienischer, Plato II, Parris Island Cos and Jericho as interchangeable tall green Romaine lettuces. Not only would this abro-gate farmers’ fundamental right to choose varieties, but it would also prove a bureaucratic nightmare both for growers and certifiers.

In conducting and observing trials, attending con-ferences, and visiting farmers these past 25 plus years, I have learned that there is no such thing as an equivalent variety. Michelle is not Sierra is not Canasta. Farmers have definite preferences among varieties as among seed companies, preferences that should be honored. Even varieties that seem simi-lar may perform differently in different soil types, microclimates, or under different practices. The dif-ferences among varieties can be as subtle as the dif-ferences in fine wines.

Not only are there significant differences between similar varieties, but there is also variation among

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different strains of the same variety. If you don’t believe me, try planting arugula, Scarlet Nantes car-rots or Cherry Belle radishes from 6 or 8 different seed companies. Put them alongside each other and you will see variation. Varieties are alive, constantly evolving with their environment. Seed companies and their seed stocks are different, too.

Equivalency is American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) sophistry at its worst. Its implementation would turn organic farmers into captives of the seed industry. It is nothing more than a scheme to enrich seed companies at the expense of organic farmers. I cannot imagine why any skilled farmer would ever want his/her choices to be so restricted. Wisely, OSGATA elected to eschew all references to equiva-lency in its recommendations to the NOP. Equiva-lency has one further fatal drawback. In a worst case scenario in which the organic industry abandoned zero tolerance of genetically engineered varieties in exchange for a defined acceptable threshold, equiva-lency could be used as a back-door means of permit-ting the use of GE-contaminated seeds in organics.

Keep in mind that organic seed is still a nascent industry and needs more time to develop capacity to bring the supply of quality organic seed into line with the rapidly-growing demand, and don’t forget how the law of supply and demand works. If farm-ers are made captives of the Rule, the resultant spike in demand will sharply increase the cost of organic seed. While the seed industry reaps the benefits of this indirect government subsidy, farmers will pay the price -- a sad re-enactment of an old and familiar refrain. While I, too, look to the eventual day that our organic farms are 100% organic from seed to table, while I, too, respect those high organic ideals, I also remember from Economics 101 that setting the bar higher in the form of stiffer regula-tions restricts entry to the market. While all sorts of persuasive public policy benefits are advanced to justify licensing requirements, the hidden motive, to limit market access and keep prices high, is rarely acknowledged. Let us honestly assess where the or-ganic seed industry fits in this model before we raise the bar much higher.

Sailors know that the straightest line is seldom the shortest distance in sailing between two points. Rarely in life, as in the water, is the wind right behind our backs. To successfully navigate to our goal on the other shore, often we must tack and tack again.

While acknowledging that the organic Rule has pro-vided an important stimulus in increasing the pro-duction and use of organic seed, I would argue that now is not the time to close all loopholes and make it absolute, or even to greatly intensify enforcement efforts at the expense of our farmers. Instead let’s focus most of our energies on expanding capacity in ways that will benefit rather than hurt organic farm-ers. As we build infrastructure, develop and refine skills, we will expand our productive capabilities,

opening up ways to increase the quantity and quality of good organic seed. As the supply expands over time to approximate the demand, we will experience more favorable winds, more opportunities to navi-gate more directly toward that shore of all-organic seed use, without having to jettison many members of our crew. The Organic Seed Alliance report and the OSGATA recommendations are filled with cre-ative ideas for such capacity building that could jus-tify a full-length article of their own.

CR Lawn founded Fedco Seeds in 1978. Full dis-closure: CR was on the OSGATA Policy Committee that drafted its latest recommendations to the NOP. Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are neither those of OSGATA nor of Fedco Seeds, Inc. but rep-

resent only those of the author.

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Eastern New York, between the Hudson River and the Berkshires, is Biodynamic country. Hawthorne Valley Farm, Roxbury Farm, and Copake’s Cam-phill Village are among the important institutions in the area that follow the biodynamic philosophy. And because of the unique features of Camphill Village, it has become home to a thriving organic seed com-pany, Turtle Tree Seeds.

The company was started by Beth and Nathan Cor-ymb in Minnesota, at the headwaters of the Mis-sissippi. They chose the name based on the Native American belief that the North American continent is a turtle with a tree, which is the Mississippi, on its back.

In 1998 the Corymbs came to Camphill Village in Copake, looking for a home for the company. They brought with them the roots they used for perennials and started putting seed crops in the ground. After discussion, the community decided the company would be a good fit. There is a lot of handwork in-volved in processing seeds, and Camphill Village has lots of hands. Plus they have a vegetable garden, a dairy, and an herb garden. So Nathan and Beth gave Turtle Tree Seeds to the Village.

Ian Robb, who was a farmer at Camphill Village before becoming active in the seed company, has a long history of biodynamic growing. He explains why the company and the Village make such a good combination: “When you talk about Turtle Tree as a seed company, people could imagine that it is a thing unto itself. But that is oversimplified. We can function because we are in the center of a Biody-namic support group. How could we be a sustain-

Biodynamic Seeds at Turtle Tree

able seed company if we didn’t have cows to give us manure? To be just a seed company, I don’t know how it could be sustainable unless you have a farm organism around it. We’re extremely lucky. We have a dairy farm for manure, an herb garden and a veg-etable garden where we can trial varieties. We have a 250 member residential community which can

taste our food. When we grow squash we can extract the seeds and still feed 200 people with the part we aren’t using. To take us out and plunk us somewhere else, I don’t think it would work.”

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a farmer & educator . . .Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, Gary

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The Zimmer family’s Otter Creek Organic Farm has dairy, beef and crops on more than 1,000 acres, with direct marketing of their farm products including specialty cheeses.

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gary f. Zimmer & leilani Zimmer-durand

Anyone who’s attended a winter meeting featuring Gary Zimmer knows why he’s considered one of the nation’s leading authorities on biological farming. As a farmer, agri-businessman, educator, and author with four decades of experience under his belt, Zimmer is recognized around the world for his dedication to improving farming by restoring soils.

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Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, Gary Zimmer has been evaluating U.S. farming practices for over 35 years. In this time, he has established a close understanding of dairy, soils and successful farming methods, which has led to the development of a robust system of biological farming.

Gary Zimmer is president of Midwestern Bio-Ag, a sustainable agriculture input supplier and biological farming consulting firm established in 1985, where he works with 75 trained consultants and thousands of farms across the U.S. Gary also manages the Bio-Ag Learning Center, a livestock and crop demonstration farm where he tests products and methods for successful biological farming.

The Zimmer family’s Otter Creek Organic Farm has dairy, beef and crops on more than 1,000 acres, with direct marketing of their farm products including specialty cheeses.

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photo by Jack Kittredge

Turtle Tree’s Ian Robb shows his inventory of seeds raised in a Biodynamic setting

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 216B-

She got her training in a biodynamic apprenticeship producing seeds for lettuce, chard, onions, leeks, tomatoes and cucumbers. She has continued to edu-cate herself during the two years she has been at Turtle Tree. She explains what it means to be a part of such a community: “I’m a volunteer – I’m not paid, but my needs are all met by the community. If you volunteer here you get room and board, gener-ally in a shared house with people with and without developmental disabilities -- sometimes with a fam-ily, sometimes not, sometimes with a small team. But part of living here is supporting people with developmental disabilities.”

“There is health care covered by the community,” she continues. “There are vehicles if you need to drive somewhere. After three years they also make some provision toward retirement or toward your next step. And there is needs-based help as well. If I need to visit my ailing mother I could go to the community and ask for travel money and time off. They would try to figure out a way to make that pos-sible. We try to put something aside each year for that kind of need. There is a really rich cultural life. There is a lot of music that goes on, an ensemble that meets every Monday has gone down to Park Avenue and played there, for instance. All the prop-erty is owned by the community. Sometimes people come who just want to live in a place like this!”

Turtle Tree staffing changes every year as different volunteers come to work there. Right now there are seven full time workers, two of whom are devel-opmentally disabled and two who are brand new apprentices, and 20 part time workers. Ian does the germination testing and organizes the fine seed cleaning. He also does the bookkeeping and bill paying, and coordinates the shipping. Lia is respon-sible for the gardens and the rough cleaning of the seed. Eli, who has just been hired, is going to take responsibility in those areas too, especially the first seed cleaning. Lia is also responsible for the catalog and public relations. The apprentices work one in the shop and one in the garden.

“We get a lot of questions about seed saving,” Lia says, “and I try to answer them all and encourage people to do it. We get school groups which will

come by and want to learn about it. They come for a day or even a few hours. But if you are going to volunteer here you have to be interested in the whole package and living here in the community. Sometimes it is hard for people to uproot their lives that way. Some people love it, but it’s also a lot of work.”

The Village has three different growing plots, each of which has completely different soils. This makes it an excellent place to isolate and grow particular crops. Some plots are good for first year onions, for instance, but second year onions don’t do well there. Turtle Tree is still learning about the best places to grow out particular crops, and on ways to record and make that kind of information accessible to the Village growers.

In order to provide isolation they sometimes plant an early variety early, and a late one late, so they won’t be flowering at the same time. Of course there

are many crops and varieties that the Village can-not effectively grow, sometimes because of climate, sometimes soil, sometimes weeds or disease.

“We can’t grow carrots, for instance,” Lia says. “We can grow the roots, but we would have to send them out the second year because of all the Queen Anne’s Lace here. It is botanically the same plant as the car-rot. Its pollen would contaminate our seed. Beth and Nathan are now in Nebraska, where they don’t have Queen Anne’s Lace, so that is a good place to grow carrots out the second year. This is a good place to select for disease resistance, however, since we have so many diseases here.“

“A number of the brassicas are really hard for us to get,” she continues. “They are possible to grow here, but don’t do really well. There are ways to get rid of some of the diseases, but they take a labora-tory, which we don’t have. The Northwest is a great place for them, and we have a couple of growers there who grow brassicas for us. There are a few things we still have to get from Europe – some of the herbs, for instance.

Lia estimates that they grow about half of Turtle Tree’s varieties in Copake, getting the rest else-where.

“We have a network of about 15 active growers,” she says, “of whom maybe 8 are growing for us in any given year. That involves growing out a crop and getting it to the point where they can box and mail it. It is usually dried seed, removed from the plant. You can usually dry seeds on a sheet in your greenhouse or just in a shady location in a dry cli-mate. For biennials, we buy the roots.”

“Most of our seed growers are not just growing for us,” she continues. “They are also serving a CSA or are market gardeners. We want them to select their best for us, so we offer good money. They are all biodynamic, although not necessarily certified.”

Demeter, which is the biodynamic certification or-ganization, certifies all Turtle Tree’s seed. In the last few years, however, for small growers Demeter has changed their certification system. Instead of pay-ing each year for certification, farmers are certified

photo by Jack Kittredge

Lia Babitch shows how onions are tested for germination

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rW i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 2 17B-

every three years. In between, the program talks to them about their practices and makes sure they are still using biodynamic practices. They sign an af-fidavit that they are doing so. It is just too costly to do every year.

For some crops, such as the cucurbits, it is some-times possible to use the crop and save the seeds both. With pumpkins, for instance, some growers have a pumpkin festival where they sell the pump-kin but they are then carved into jack-o-lanterns on the spot and taken home. Frugal growers can collect and dry the discarded seeds for sale. At the Village they have an annual Watermelon Seed Spit and Bean Stomp Festival which provides both entertain-ment and a wealth of discarded seeds.

Seed companies pay by the pound for seed. Lia says a pound of tomato seed would command a good price – maybe $80 -- because it is pretty light. For beans or peas it would be a lot less per pound. Grain is also lower because it is easier to harvest and store. Seed usually goes for between $40 and $100 per pound, depending on how much work is involved.

“Most of our growers grow one or two things really well,” says Ian. “They are not primarily seed pro-ducers. They have a market garden. So it is tricky getting spots which are isolated enough to keep seed pure. Take these 4 watermelon varieties. This one is from here, this is from Colorado, this is from Nebraska, and this is from Sacramento, California. This melon from Sacramento, for instance, is from a teaching garden which doesn’t have to support itself on production. So they can afford to isolate and raise melons for seed. I have great sympathy for people who are trying to make their living doing this, growing vegetables.”

“If you are going to do a business in open pollinated seed,” adds Lia, “you have to find creative solutions. Southern Exposure is also in a community, for in-stance, like us. Then there are the seed libraries, and groups like the Seed Savers Exchange, where grow-ers participate in a lending library way.”

Ian figures that there is probably a small percent-age of their customer base that save their own seed. He says they get calls from them, asking questions

about details.

Turtle Tree generally keeps a two to three year sup-ply of seeds. Each kind of seed has a different lifes-pan. Corn seed has a long life, for instance. It will easily last ten years. But parsnip seed is notoriously short-lived, as is onion seed.

One of the reasons Turtle Tree and other organic or biodynamic seed companies are important for organic growers is that they are selecting seeds for organic management. Conventional seed companies don’t do that.

Lia explains: “Being able to outgrow weeds may be important in an organic situation, where in a non-or-ganic system they may use herbicide so that would

not be so important. We’re really interested in se-lecting for good flavor, for good storage quality, and for being able to grow well without a lot of inputs. We apply a lot of compost, but we don’t force feed nitrogen. So the plants have to be able to grow well in a natural system.”

It is tricky to do good flavor selection on crops like peas and beans, she says, because once you have eaten them it is too late. But you can taste other seeds from the same plant and since peas and beans mostly inbreed (pollinate themselves), you can fig-ure one pod on the plant will be much like another one. Corn and cabbages, however, are the opposite. Corn is wind pollinated, and cabbages are self-in-fertile. They can’t pollinate themselves. Carrots also need a wide population for pollination.

photo by Jack Kittredge

Camphill resident Peter sorting oat seeds with tweezers

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T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 218B-There are many variations in how plants are pol-linated, Lia continues, and you have to work with many of them before you grasp the details. There are some things you can get from charts – isolation distances for plants, for instance. You have to keep a plant certain minimum distances apart from other varieties of that species to prevent pollination, and that distance is easy to look up. But, as we are learn-ing with GMO crops, the only real isolation is if you want to grow on the moon. Otherwise you are not growing in isolation!

“Isolation from relatives is important,” Lia states. “But there are other factors to consider when you are setting up a garden to raise seed. You need to consider the height of the surrounding plants to get proper airflow for drying the seeds. If you are grow-ing lettuce to eat it will always be low to the ground. But if you are growing it for seed, it will get four and a half feet tall. So if you have corn, then lettuce, then a pole bean, you might not have enough air flow to dry things. You need to vary the height. That drying also helps prevent disease.

“For squash,” she continues, “we will do a full sec-tion, maybe 40 to 50 feet wide, in 50 foot rows. That way pollination is encouraged. And we wouldn’t have any relative nearby. This valley is pretty good because first of all it is a valley and not a lot comes in from outside. Also it is covered in trees and hills, which makes it frustrating for growing because it is not great soil for vegetable production. But for seed production it is pretty good because you don’t want to give the plant the easiest ride. If you do, you are just seeing what it will do in the best possible condi-tions. You want to make sure it is being put through its paces – it is able to grow in difficult conditions. It was healthy and vigorous and strong in conditions that were not ideal.”

Cleaning, or separating the seed from its surround-ing husk or other protective membrane is, of course, one of the fundamental tasks in this business. Much of it is done mechanically, using the principle that the seed will be heavier than the chaff.

One device they use a lot for this purpose is called a “Pelz Thresher”. You can put whole plants in the top and rotating rubber pads thresh the seeds out

of the plant. Various sizes of screens enable you to determine what size of seed you are looking for. A fan creates wind so anything light will be blown off, and heavy things go into a bin at the bottom of the machine. You can adjust the speed of the threshing pads, the strength of the blowing air, and the size of the screens.

Once the seeds are removed, they are usually sifted through various screens to separate them by size. For seeds of the same size, however, some will be more or less viable. The best proxy for selection in that case is weight.

For this purpose, another device is handy. It is a small adjustable blower. Air is sucked in through a fine screen in the bottom of the machine, and a setting at the top allows more or less air to escape, adjusting the pressure within. Seeds are put into a canister at the bottom and lifted to various heights

by the air flow. The heavier ones never travel far be-fore falling of their own weight. Lighter ones, how-ever, are lifted further and trapped in two cylinders at the top.

A final process used at Turtle Tree is handwork. It takes a certain kind of person to enjoy sorting seeds with tweezers, Lia admits, but some of the commu-nity residents in the Camphill Village are very detail oriented and perfect for the work. They use magni-fiers and bright lights to pick out the most viable seed by its visual appearance. It is a learned skill, but some of the qualities they are sorting by are size, color, and proper appearance.

“Other seed companies do most of this mechanical-ly,” she says. “Machines do it fairly well. But I’ve often noticed that when I open other seed packets it is not what we would call ‘packing ready’.

“Seeds which aren’t dry-seeded,” Lia explains, “but have a wet fruit around them -- such as all the cu-curbits, tomatoes, and peppers -- present a special problem. With those you have to get rid of the mem-brane around the seed before it can dry. A lettuce seed dries as it matures. But a tomato seed stays damp as it matures until you dry it. So the processes are different.”

“We scoop the seeds out of the tomatoes first,” she continues. We’re lucky here to have lots of hands and we can use the rest of the tomato for making to-mato paste or whatever. Then we ferment the seeds, as we do with cucumber seeds, (the other wet-seeded crops like the squashes don’t need the fer-mentation process). The fermentation breaks down the membrane around the seed, as well as kills many seed-borne diseases. The acidic fermentation envi-ronment (which is really just seeds in tomato juice in a jar) makes it hard for disease organisms to sur-vive. We stir it occasionally. The fermentation starts on its own, from organisms which exist on the to-mato. If it is a ninety-degree week it takes maybe 36 to 48 hours. If it is more of a seventy degree week, it might take 72 hours. At a certain point you can tell it is done – the membrane is broken down and the seeds are ready. After that, we rinse off the bits and allow a water winnowing. The heavier seeds sink faster, and you can pour off the lighter ones. You re-

photo by Jack Kittredge

Lia demonstrates the blower which sepa-rates light from heavier seeds.

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peat that process several times and you are left with the more viable seeds. You can then spread them out and let them dry. If it is not dry enough naturally in the fall, we have dehumidifiers and fans we can use. Some need to be rubbed because they tend to stick together when drying. Once dry, there might be a few small or discolored ones to pick out, but they are pretty clean and ready to pack.

One step every seed company has to do before pack-ing the seeds is to run germination tests.

“Some seeds, notably peppers and eggplants,” Lia explains, “have dormancies. Some plants need the dormancy to be broken by cold, so you need to put them in the refrigerator or freezer for awhile. Some need scarifying -- rubbing -- so that the outside protection is damaged and water can get in. That happens naturally in the earth over the winter from the grinding caused by freezing and thawing. Some have a time delay – they don’t like to germinate right away. In tomatoes the membrane contains things that prevent the seed from germinating too fast. Many seeds have requirements before they can germinate, but if we need to do a germination test in the fall, we use either cooling or a chemical solution the USDA recommends to break dormancy.”

“The USDA puts out standards,” she continues, “for how you do germination tests for various plants. These two machines are germinators. One is set at 20˚ Celsius (68˚ F) and the other is set at 20˚ at night and 30˚ (86˚ F) during the day. They also have lights. The seeds are germinated on these blotter papers. A few plants need nutrients to germinate, but most don’t. Beans and peas and cucurbits are rolled in special paper towels. But basically you put out 100 seeds and count how many germinate. All seed companies are required to do seed testing every year. The USDA has a different legal percentage for each variety. We would never like to settle for the legal minimum germination rate, though. Some-times that is as low as 50%!”

The germination rate for each lot of seeds (the seeds from a particular field grown by one person in one year) is printed on the package. Turtle Tree makes up their packages in the fall, listing the germination rates, and then publishes their seed list and sends it

out to customers – mostly individuals, small CSAs and market gardens.

Turtle Tree is relatively small, even in the organic seed world. “We started the same year as High Mowing,” relates Lia. “Tom Sterns and Beth and Nathan all knew each other. High Mowing has gone on to be about $3,000,000 in annual sales. We’re about $150,000. We’re pretty small. Southern Expo-sure Seed Exchange, Hudson Valley Seed Library, Wild Garden Seeds in Oregon – those are our col-leagues.

“But I think we shouldn’t expand a huge amount,” she continues. “I wouldn’t want to be a multi-million dollar a year business. We would need more mechanization. Why we fit so well here is that at our scale there is lots of handwork. Not only in the seed handling, but also hand digging our beds in the spring when it is too wet to use a tractor. There was this crucial moment this spring when everything had to get in. So we said to the garden people: ‘You use the tractor and we’ll do the handwork this year.’ If we were a lot bigger, that wouldn’t be possible. The same with cleaning the seeds. We would have to mechanize to handle the load. The community is only a certain size and doesn’t plan to get bigger. We would have to have more outsiders employed. Right now we have Ian and another full time em-ployee, and one part time employee, but the rest of us are volunteers and live in the community.”

Ian says sales picked up immediately once the com-pany began marketing on the Internet. He feels their prices are competitive with similar companies. They base their rates on the competition, rather than their costs, however. He says that just like a farmer at a market, you can’t always charge what the product is worth if others are selling it for less!

Robb reflects on the changes he has seen as a grow-er, and why he feels seeds are so important: “I came to America in 1981. There was little organic and no biodynamic growing here then. I was even growing hybrids in my CSA in Amherst. I still meet many growers in farmers markets who do the same -- the idea of even open pollinated seeds is a big step. I was growing for 10 years in Amherst before I first heard of them.”

“One of my strongest memories,” he continues, “was when I was at Brookfield Farm in Amherst many years ago. We were connected to Hampshire College and they were bringing over groups from developing countries to get ideas to take back. There was a group of women from Bolivia visiting, with their beautiful costumes and hats. They asked many questions and admired many things. Then one of the women said to me: ‘Where do you get your seed from?’ At that time it was Fedco and Johnny’s. That concept was foreign to them. They wanted to see my seed bank. I could see their disappointment. They were thinking: ‘This is a nice man, he has a won-derful farm, but he doesn’t know where his seed is from.’ That was enough to get me thinking. I wanted to be so self sufficient, but something as basic as seed I didn’t control.”

He farmed for 28 years before getting involved in Turtle Tree. He thinks that farming for an extended period is necessary before one can grow good seed.

“That is where it should start,” he insists. “You need to grow vegetables before you grow vegetables out to seed. I’m not saying you need 28 years of ex-perience to grow seed, but you need some kind of solid foundation. It wasn’t until 11 years ago that I thought I was in the next level where I could grow out to seed. I didn’t know much about it, but I had enough background to have good judgment.”

“It’s funny,” he continues, “but probably because I was born in Scotland I was brought up not to be against something, but to be for something, to pur-sue what you are for. Now things may have changed over the years, but you can put all your energies against what Monsanto is doing. Or you can de-cide how you are going to be for something like this. There have to be both, of course, but we need people working on projects like this. I think this is the next big thing. I don’t think we need to explore CSAs or community farms anymore. They’re doing all right. We need to work on the next problem. All the young people who are interested in agriculture, how many are just passing through and will become doctors and lawyers? And how many will save and breed seeds as a profession?”

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by Mary-Howell Martens

The label on a bag of certified organic seed is a complex legal document, carefully designed to satisfy several complex sets of requirements. The New York Seed Law and the Federal Seed Act, as administered by New York Dept of Ag and Markets, specifies the information that must be on the seed quality portion of the label, and the USDA National Organic Program, as administered by certification agencies, specifies the information that must be on the organic portion of the label. Seed companies then use additional label information to describe the variety, offer valuable agronomic tips, or cover their own liability.

This information should be clearly visible on each bag of seed. Some companies sew or stick the label to the bag, while others stamp or print this information on the bag itself. Regardless of how it is attached, the purity (% pure seed and % contaminants) and the germination of the seed should be clearly readable, along with the seed lot number (for traceability), the seed company and its address.

Purity - New York law requires that seed companies clearly identify the composition of the contents of the bag - both the intended crop seed and also any contaminants such as weed seeds, other crop seeds and inert material (broken seed, chaff, or dirt)

To obtain this information, New York Ag & Markets recommends that seed companies pull a composite sample of each seed lot, using a standard technique developed by AASCO (American Association of Seed Control Officials), to insure that an adequately representative sample of the seed has been evaluated.

When a seed sample is analyzed, weed seed and other crop seeds are identified, and determined to be “noxious “ or not. A low percent of most weed species is tolerated, but some common weeds are considered so undesirable that they are termed “prohibited noxious weeds” and are not allowed in commercial seed. Other less undesirable weeds are considered “regulated noxious” and must be identified separately on the label. Weeds can be considered noxious because they are difficult to remove from small grains after harvest (vetch, wild onion and garlic) or because they are invasive, overly competitive, or toxic to animals (corn cockle). Any farmer/processor who has battled with trying to get vetch, cockle or garlic seed out of small grains after harvest can certainly understand why it is much better to avoid having them in the seed lot to begin with!

An Organic Seed Bag Label - Demystified!In a seed mixture, like a pasture or lawn mix, all component species must be identified on the label as % of the total by weight with their separate germination rates. The seed label should also include the state or country of origin where the seed was grown, and the total weight of seed in the container.

Germination - all bags, packets and bulk seed sold in New York must state % germination and a test date that is within 9 months of the date of sale. This does not imply that all seed sold must be fresh ‘current year’ seed, because it often is not. But if seed is carried over from a previous year, it must be re-tested in the calendar year of sale, and tagged with the current germination rate.

This germination labeling requirement applies equally to seed you buy from a farmer dealer, from a seed company, or from Walmart - this is New York state law. New York has requirements for minimum germination for most species, below which the seed must be clearly labeled as being inferior quality. New York Ag & Markets employs seed inspectors whose job involves visiting seed companies, farmer dealers, and retail stores throughout the season to take random samples that are sent to the NY Seed Lab in Geneva. The results are matched to the stated information on the label and if there are discrepancies, the seed company is required to re-tag, or in severe cases, stop selling the seed.

Certain species, such as clover, alfalfa and other legumes, typically produce some hard seed. These are live viable seed, but have a hard impermeable seed coat and often take longer than one year to grow. Other species, such as many grasses, exhibit a different type of dormancy and may also not germinate the first year. These types of seeds are considered live seed, but on the label, the % dormant or hard seed must clearly be distinguished from the germination rate.

Seed companies are allowed to put additional information on a label such as seed count, seed size, planter plate recommendations, days to maturity, inoculant date, and agronomic suggestions.

What is NY Certified “Blue Tag” Seed? Most newer varieties of small grains and other seed are ‘protected’ by the breeder/owner under the Federal Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws and are legally allowed to only be sold as Certified Seed. In most cases, a farmer may save back enough seed grown from PVP protected varieties for their own re-use, but legally they are not allowed to sell any of the seed, not even to their neighbors. This process ensures two things - royalties to the breeder/owner and a higher level of genetic purity and seed quality for the farmer.

The process of producing Certified Seed is rather similar to organic certification – a lot of paperwork, extra expense, significantly more time, and thorough inspections for the privilege of selling a product at a slightly higher price. The primary difference is that the possibility of “flunking the test” with seed certification is much higher! Certified Seed growers are carefully selected by NY Seed Improvement Project as farmers with proven ability to produce high quality and pay attention to details. They purchase super-pure Foundation seed each year as planting stock. Their fields are thoroughly walked and examined by inspectors who evaluate the genetic purity and plant quality of the crop, and weed species present. Only fields that are visually free of noxious weeds pass the inspection. In order to pass the inspection, most seed growers walk their fields before the inspector arrives to carefully rogue (remove) off-types and weeds that might jeopardize approval, and to be confident themselves in the crop.

After harvest and cleaning, Certified Seed quality and germination analysis must be done at the state seed lab, such as the lab in Geneva, by licensed seed analysts (non-Blue Tag seed quality analysis can be done “in house” by the seed company). A much larger and more carefully drawn seed sample is required for Certified Seed to ensure that the analysis is representative of the seed lot, and the tolerances for allowed quality and germination are much more stringent. Germination requirements for Certified Seed are fairly high - for example, Certified oat seed must have a germination of no less than 85% to be eligible for Blue Tag status. If the seed passes all the requirements for Certified Seed, then the seed company is permitted to purchase the Blue Tags, which generate royalties to the breeder and income to the Seed Improvement Project. Each Blue Tag is numbered and a producer is only allowed to purchase an appropriate number of Blue Tags for the quantity of seed they certified.

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T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rW i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 2 21B-of vigor is required on the seed tag. This is largely because vigor is difficult to measure accurately and quantitatively with lab techniques, especially in a way that is likely to estimate field performance. Damaged or old seed may be technically alive, and therefore the germination will look fine, but the vigor can be low, and the seed will grow more slowly and unevenly. This makes the seedlings more susceptible to disease and will make timing mechanical weed control operations much more difficult, This is why using new seed, or testing any carryover or “bin run” seed yourself, is especially important for organic farmers, either by sending your own sample into Geneva, or doing a casual kitchen counter germination test.

Another reason seed companies are unwilling to provide vigor assessments is that they have no control over how seed is handled or stored after purchase. When farmers store seed, for a few weeks or until next year, many things can happen to damage seed quality. Seed that gets wet, is stored under damp and moldy conditions, is left in the back of the pickup truck overnight in the rain, gets excessively hot, or is damaged by pests will deteriorate rapidly, first losing vigor and then germination. Leftover seed bags, stacked on the gravel floor in a hot warehouse over the summer, are going to contain a very different quality product then when they were purchased in the spring! Bean seed (soy and dry bean) that is banged around, thrown from the back of a truck or dropped, can get physically damaged with tiny interior cracks that increase rot susceptibility and reduce germination and vigor. Rhizobium inoculant, either in bags or on seeds, will rapidly die if it gets hot - a barn or a pickup truck seat is NOT a suitable place to store inoculant! If you must store inoculant, even for a few weeks, put it in a freezer.

Unfortunately, every year, farmers often end up with leftover seed than that they didn’t get planted and want to carry over until the next year. With some species, such as corn, small grains and grasses, this can be successful as long as the seed bags are stored off the ground, in a dry location, and are protected from rodents and other pests. Soybeans, and other seeds high in oil tend to deteriorate much

more rapidly and usually have much lower quality the second year. It is always a good idea to test germination on any seed you carry over before planting.

Assessing seed germination and vigor at home - for many crop species, this is fairly simple. Put 100 seeds on most paper towels and cover. Keep moist (but not dripping) and in a warm room for 7 days - do not let it dry out, but do allow air exchange (don’t put in a plastic bag). After 7 days, count the number of seeds that have germinated - this will give you an estimate of percent germination. Then, look at the germinating seeds. If all are about at the same point of development (roots, shoots and leaves) the seed probably has pretty good vigor, but if the seedling development is variable, with some much farther along than others, it is likely that some of the seeds are weak. As you evaluate the seedlings, it is important to remember that when a seed lab tests for germination, they only count normal seedlings as “germinated seeds”. You can still use the seed, but you will probably want to plant a little heavier and make sure the field conditions are better. Seed that sprouts unevenly and produces non-uniform seedlings. often yields less and is less competitive with weeds.

For more information about seed quality, or about how to submit seed samples for testing, contact the NY State Seed Lab at the NY Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva at 315-787-2242 or www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/seedlab/main.htm. At the website, there is a list and pictures of weed species considered noxious in New York.

The label or bag for certified organic seed must contain several other key pieces of information to meet USDA National Organic Program requirements. The USDA NOP seal is eye-catching and a good verification of the organic status, but it is actually not required. What is required is the name of the organic certification agency, which must be stated immediately below or next to the name of the seed company. A farmer must be easily able to identify and be able to contact that certification agency if desired to verify the valid current organic certification of the seed company for that product. Farmers should also request a copy of the seed company’s current organic certificate in addition to their statement on the seed tag.

Sufficient information about any seed treatments, including inoculants, must be clearly stated on the label so organic farmers can determine before purchase whether the treatments are allowed for organic use. If the treatment is OMRI listed, often

the OMRI seal will be on the label. Organically approved seed treatments are generally a combination of coating materials that form a pathogen barrier, plus protective bio-fungicides, bio-stimulants to energize the good soil microbes, and extra nutrients for strong early plant growth. Especially under marginal conditions, organic seed treatment on corn is often well worth the additional $10-20/bag cost.

The results of other seed tests, such as % GMO and GMO testing procedures, are generally not printed on seed tags/bags, but may be available for certain species where GMO contamination is likely to be an issue (corn, soybeans) upon request. If you ask for these tests, it is important to understand that in the seed industry, “non GMO” does NOT mean “GMO-free”. It is widely accepted, both in the conventional and organic seed industry, that a low level of “adventitious transgenic presence” or ATP (we call this contamination) is nearly universal and is not necessarily cause to discard a seed lot. There is not, and never has been, a widely accepted definition for the maximum % ATP allowed for “non-GMO” status of seed. Organic seed companies do generally discard organic corn and soybean lots that test above a certain level of ATP (often 0.25%) but to conventional seed companies, “non-GMO” means simply “not a transgenic variety” – they do not routinely discard (or even test for) mild contamination.

** For organic certification, always be sure to save at least one complete label and bag of each type of seed you use for your organic inspector to see. It also is a good idea to save a sample of the seed, just in case you need to refer back to it. Make sure you obtain the certificates/letters needed for seed treatments and inoculants to show they are organically approved. If you use any non-organic, conventional untreated seed, be sure to document your search in writing for organic seed of the same type and be prepared to justify your choice to use non-organic seed.

Most seed bags also include some form of disclaimer in very small print. Essentially, this disclaimer states that if the seed does not perform as the farmer thinks it should, compensation is limited to the original purchase price of the seed, and that by buying and planting the seed, the farmer has already accepted these terms. The disclaimer also describes the process a farmer must use to place such a claim. Most seed companies will only accept seed back on trade or for credit when returned by a certain date (usually in June) in unopened clean intact bags that are in salable condition.

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 222B-

by Kiki Hubbard

Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) is a national non-profit organization established in 2003 to advance the ethi-cal development and stewardship of seed. OSA grew out of Abundant Life Seed Foundation (founded in 1973) after its founders realized that the agriculture community was losing seed knowledge – how to manage and improve our seed – as quickly as we were losing seed as a diverse resource.

Today, through research and education, OSA works with farmers and other seed professionals to restore and develop seed varieties for current needs while safeguarding plant genetic resources for future gen-erations. We believe the best way to meet the seed needs of farmers is to engage them in creating region-al, decentralized seed systems. And we advocate for policies that impact the integrity of the seed systems we help create. OSA is sustained through public and private funding sources, including grants received from federal programs, private foundations, and indi-vidual contributions.

In 2009, OSA set out to take a snapshot of the bur-geoning organic seed sector. We knew organic agri-culture continued to expand as demand for organic food increased, but was organic seed keeping pace? What were the barriers to building seed systems that met the diverse needs of organic farmers, and how do we overcome them?

These were just some of the questions behind OSA’s State of Organic Seed project, an ongoing effort to monitor the status of organic seed systems in the U.S. Our report provides the first comprehensive analysis of organic seed usage on U.S. farms, research invest-ments into organic seed, risks to the integrity of or-ganic seed, and a roadmap for collaborative actions.

The National Organic Program (NOP) requires the use of organically produced seed when commercially available. Yet the organic seed sector was almost nonexistent when the organic program began. De-spite continued growth in the organic industry – now a $29 billion industry that experiences growth each year – organically produced seed is still only used on a small percentage of organic farmland. Responses to our nationwide survey in 2010 indicate the organic sector is underserved in genetics specifically adapted to organic systems, regions, and market niches. For varieties in organic seed that are available, many farmers are challenged by a lack of sufficient quantity and scarcity of information on variety performances under organic conditions.

Organic seed availability is low because there is little investment in these programs. This is in part due to consolidation in the seed industry, where few regional seed companies are interested in meeting the diverse needs of organic farmers. Market consolidation has also concentrated the ownership of invaluable plant genetic resources. For example, patents are aggres-sively enforced by seed firms, and inhibit farmers and breeders’ ability to protect and enhance genetic diversity. Diminished funding for public plant breed-ing programs has also contributed to the problem. As industry investments in public research increase, research priorities narrow to focus on proprietary and profitable products that benefit larger industries, like agricultural biotechnology, as opposed to the diverse needs of farmers.

The good news is that, despite these troubling trends, organic seed systems are developing. Farmers report increased attempts to source organic seed and more pressure from certifiers to do so. Public research in organic plant breeding has increased slightly, with investments from both the public and private sector.

Still, challenges and needs loom large for expanding organic seed systems. The lack of organically bred and produced seed is a barrier to the ongoing growth and success of organic agriculture.

Because conventional seed production often relies on toxic chemicals, using conventional varieties creates a conflict with the principles of organic agriculture. But beyond the NOP organic seed requirement, there are many benefits to expanding organic seed sys-tems. For starters, seed bred under organic conditions

provide organic farmers with the optimum genetics for their production systems. Seed is the critical first link in organic production, and provides farmers the genetic tools to confront day-to-day challenges in the field. Organically bred seed also provides food pro-cessors, companies and retailers with improved traits that organic consumers value, including nutrition, flavor, and other beneficial traits.

We believe the benefits are even greater. The chal-lenges of resource depletion, climate change, and population growth require ongoing improvements in agriculture, including innovation in plant breeding to deliver beneficial traits that address these issues. Organic farming and organic seed systems are well suited to address these challenges in a socially ethi-cal and environmentally responsible manner. With further investments in organic research and breeding we will see exponential improvements that recognize local ecological systems and address food consumer needs, including regionally adapted seed varieties that are suitable to a range of growing seasons, resist im-portant crop diseases, and have enhanced flavor and nutrition.

That’s why OSA’s research and education programs are helping farmers restore the skills needed for seed production. Our work responds to the urgent need to protect our genetic resources for future generations while ensuring farmers have adequate seed choices to feed their communities today. Expanding knowledge and skills for developing alternative seed production and distribution networks at the community level is one solution that lays the foundation for long-term, transformative change.

One example of these alternative networks is the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collabora-tion (NOVIC). NOVIC brings together researchers and organic farmers in northern states to breed new varieties, identify the best performing varieties for organic agriculture, and educate farmers on organic seed production and plant variety improvement. The collaborative includes researchers and educators from OSA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and four universities: Washington State University, Oregon State University, University of Wisconsin, and Cor-nell University.

NOVIC’s regional breeding projects focus on traits important for season extension, flavor and horticul-tural traits crucial to organic agriculture. Plant breed-ing projects are underway in five states – Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin – and focus on five vegetable crops. The breeding goals in-clude broccoli (heat tolerance, marketable uniformity in an open-pollinated variety); carrot (cold-tolerant, weed-competitive, ‘Nantes’ type); snap pea (heat-tolerant, disease resistant, stringless variety); sweet corn (good cold soil emergence in a sugar enhanced variety); winter squash (long term storability).

NOVIC is committed to education and shared re-sources. Collaborators have hosted workshops for farmers to gain skills in seed production and plant variety improvement. Participants are also developing publications and a national database of organic vari-ety trial results through eOrganic (to be shared with the public on www.eXtension.org).

In the Northeast, breeding efforts at Cornell Uni-versity are focused on squash and peas, and trialing continues for all six crops mentioned above. (NOFA farmers interested in participating in on-farm tri-als should contact Michael Glos at mag22@cornell.edu to learn more.) Eventually farmers across the U.S. will have access to new varieties to better meet compliance with organic regulations and through new resources that help identify which organic varieties perform well in their region. The collaborative is an example of a working model that the organic com-munity can embrace and replicate to collaboratively build infrastructure for developing and distributing organic seed.

We employ traditional breeding techniques, including population improvement, controlled pollination, and family selection. We use many of the same techniques that conventional breeders use in public breeding pro-grams and in the seed industry. However, our breed-ing program is based on principles not generally seen

in conventional breeding programs. We use partici-patory plant breeding to produce genetically diverse varieties adapted to organic agriculture.

In our participatory breeding work, there is a true and equal partnership between a farmer and a plant breeder. The farmer understands how the crop re-sponds to the challenges of their environment and the agronomic traits needed to excel under those conditions. They also know what horticultural traits are essential for their markets. The classical plant breeder knows how to isolate those traits and how to test the new crosses in the field, relying on the farmer’s expertise to select the best material as the farmer gets to intimately know the material over the course of the season.

We strive to produce varieties that have the broad genetic elasticity necessary for continual adapta-tion to shifting climatic, environmental, and energy constraints. This diversity allows them to be se-lected for local environments. They will stand up over time, thrive under organic conditions, and be worked with and handed down by farmers and gar-deners for many generations to come as “heirlooms of tomorrow”.

Due to the lack of plant varieties that have been de-veloped or screened in organic (or other low-input) systems, most organic producers rely on conven-tionally bred varieties that have been selected to perform well under high-input chemical systems. Fundamental to the success of organic agriculture is the use of plant varieties that are most suitable to organic production challenges and methods. OSA’s breeding objectives support sustainable and organic agriculture, recognize local ecological systems and address food consumer needs.

As an organic community, we need to keep chal-lenging threats to the integrity and expansion of or-ganic agriculture, especially consolidation of market power and genetically engineered organisms. But we also need to devote attention to real solutions, including organic seed systems that restore farmers’ role and rights, ensure new varieties are available and shared for breeding purposes, and provide a di-versity of healthy food now and into the future. We hope you’ll join us in this important work.

Organic Seed Alliance Studies State of Organic Seed

$15 for a US address, or$20 for a foreign address

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rW i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 2 23B-

These are excerpts (selected by Jack Kittredge) from the Executive Summary and sections on history of seed in the organic movement, and concentration in the

seed industry. For a copy of the full report, visit www.seedalliance.org

State of Organic Seed (SOS) is an ongoing project to monitor the status of organic seed systems in the United States. The project aims to develop diverse stakeholder involvement in implementing policy, research, education, and market-driven activities that result in the improved quality, integrity, and use of organic seed. Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), a national non-profit organization committed to the ethical development and stewardship of the genetic resources of agricultural seed, facilitates the project with the belief that developing and protecting organic seed systems is a top priority for organic food and farming.

This report is the first comprehensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities in building the organic seed sector. A planning team of farmers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), certifiers, and food industry and seed industry representatives directed project activities. To collect information from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders, OSA and its partners conducted a series of surveys with farmers in 45 states, and gathered questionnaires from researchers, certifiers, food and seed industry representatives, and farm and food policy experts. OSA also hosted a full-day SOS Symposium to discuss data and prioritize next steps.

Why is the State of Organic Seed project important?

The USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) standards require the use of organically produced seed. Yet, even with the organic industry’s impressive growth, the organic seed sector has not caught up to meet this demand. There is a limited availability of appropriate organically produced seed for a variety of reasons, including cutbacks in public plant breeding programs, lack of investments from the private sector, seed industry consolidation, and ongoing disagreement regarding implementing NOP requirements pertaining to organic seed, among others.

The lack of organically bred and produced seed is a barrier to the growth and ongoing success of organic farming. Seed is the critical first link in organic production, and provides farmers with the genetic tools to confront day-to-day challenges in the field. Organic systems have different challenges than conventional counterparts and have fewer spray-on solutions. Further investments in organic plant breeding will yield adapted genetics suitable to a range of pest and disease pressures, growing seasons, and flavor and nutrition needs. Organic seed that is appropriate for regional agronomic challenges, market needs, regulations, and the social and ecological values of organic agriculture is therefore fundamental to the success of organic farmers and the food system they supply.

State Of Organic Seed 2011 (excerpts)As we work to build organic seed systems, other challenges must simultaneously be addressed. In crops for which there are genetically engineered (GE) counterparts (i.e., alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, soybeans, and sugar beets), organic seed increasingly contains detectable levels of GE material, a technology that is explicitly excluded in NOP regulations and rejected by the organic industry and consumers alike. The lack of federal protection for organic markets from GE contamination poses a serious risk to the credibility, viability, and success of organic farmers and the NOP.

Concentration in the seed industry is another challenge. The seed industry has consolidated quickly, concentrating the ownership of seed resources through corporate acquisitions and mergers and the restrictive use of utility patents. In addition to placing constraints on germplasm, this consolidation has decreased the number of regional seed and genetics firms with the potential to serve organic markets. Alternative intellectual property models that enhance innovation while protecting investments must be explored.Key findings: Organic seed systems are improving but require increased attention and resources

SOS data shows that organic seed systems are developing. Farmers report increased attempts to source organic seed and more pressure from certifiers to do so. Research in organic plant breeding has increased slightly, with investments from both the public and private sector.

Still, challenges and needs loom large for expanding organic seed systems. While this project captured an array of priorities that varied by crop, region, and perspective of different professional sectors, overarching priorities are clear, including the need to:• Develop seed systems that are responsive to the diverse needs of organic farmers through increased public-private collaboration.• Refine understanding of organic plant breeding principles and practices.• Engage the National Organic Program in policy initiatives that move organic seed forward.• Reinvigorate public plant breeding with an emphasis on the development of cultivars that fit the social, agronomic, environmental, and market needs of organics.• Protect organic seed systems from threats of concentrated ownership of plant genetics.• Protect organic seed systems from threats of contamination from genetically engineered traits. • Improve sharing of information in the areas of organic seed availability, lack of availability for specific varieties and/or traits, and field trial data.• Create opportunities for organic farmers to work with professional breeders through trialing networks and on-farm plant breeding to speed the development of regionally adapted organic cultivars.

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 224B-History of Seed in Organic Movement

In any history of seed we have to first recognize the 12,000 years of farmer and plant breeder innovation that existed before the advent of 21st century agriculture. We have been bequeathed an incredible living resource that is beyond economic valuation. We have no modern food crops, only modern variations on crops from the centuries before. From the diversity of grains, to the broad array of brassicas, we have been the beneficiaries of more than we can ever give back. That said, it is our responsibility to leave this seed inheritance better than when we received it. The authors want to recognize the diversity of cultures, individuals, breeders clubs, and early scientists who observed, recorded, studied, and selected. They have left us with much to appreciate, protect, and improve.

Organic seed has developed slowly, at a pace behind many other innovations in the organic movement. Modern U.S. organic farming can be traced back to the early work of the Rodale Institute in the 1940s. Organic farming gained proponents and practitioners throughout the next two decades, but it was not until the early 1970s that formal organizations developed, including California Certified Organic Farmers, Maine Organic Famers and Gardeners Association, Tilth Association, and many other regional groups. In the early years these organizations focused attention on farmer education, certification standards, and research (e.g., field trials), but have left no public record of specific programs focused on seed system development.

In fact there is little formal historical documentation of the development of US organic seed systems prior to the 1990s. Certainly organic farmers from the 1940s through the 1970s were engaged in seed saving and basic breeding, but we have no record of commercial organic seed development in this period. We know that the early back to the land movement, which valued a “do it yourself” approach, supported the seed saving movement. Backing up this idea, Rob Johnston, founder of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, said that his motivation in starting the company and publishing a seed saving guide was to promote the “hand crafted aspect of seed work.”

The first Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog was published in 1974. Johnny’s became a mainstay for organic gardeners and farmers, and was very likely the first seed company with its own certified organic research farm (1979). In 1975, two organizations with missions of conserving and distributing heirloom seed launched: Abundant Life Seed Foundation published its first seed catalog, and Seed Savers Exchange (originally “True Seed Exchange”) published its first yearbook annual newsletter (which became the yearbook). These organizations, along with companies such as Peace Seeds (1975), Fedco (1978), and Territorial (1979) were suppliers to many organic farms, and indeed worked with organic farmers to produce some of their seed.

While no studies from this period indicate farmer preferences or behavior in purchasing seed, it is likely that organic farmers in the 1970s and 1980s used heirloom varieties much more than their conventional counterparts. This preference was likely tied to a philosophical response to the conventional

agricultural industry, as organic farmers were opposed to the negative environmental, economic, and social justice impacts of industrial conventional agriculture, while valuing diversity, local systems, and the sovereignty that comes with a “do it yourself” approach to life. Along with concerns about genetic diversity, early organic advocates were also concerned about the taste and nutritional value of their crops and expressed concerns that conventional breeding systems favored the development of crops with heavy chemical inputs.

The focus in the organic movement on open-pollinated (OP) and heirloom varieties is apparent in that many of the first seed companies serving the organic vegetable market primarily sold heirloom seed. Seeds of Change (1989) is considered by many to be the first seed company that only offered 100% certified organic seed, and it was nearly twenty years before the company offered hybrid varieties. A scan of commercial organic vegetable seed catalogs in 2010 continues to show more OP and heirloom varieties than hybrid varieties. In conventional seed catalogs, the majority of options are hybrids, with few if any OPs available (for crops in which hybrids are available.) Interest in using hybrid vegetable varieties has increased among organic farmers, yet the market offers very little in hybrid options. The corn seed market is an exception to the OP-Hybrid ratio, with major organic corn seed dealers offering primarily hybrid seed. These dealers are even breeding new parent lines specifically for organic systems. There is talk of U.S. vegetable seed companies developing organic parent lines and experimenting with hybrid production, but the small U.S. market at present comes primarily from European firms.

The majority of organic breeding projects funded through USDA programs are also focused on OP development (see Public Initiatives section). This may in part speak to a “do it yourself” value that remains among organic farmers, as well as a desire to decentralize seed systems and increase farmer involvement. However, organic farming is diverse, and requires varied approaches to seed. Not all farmers want to or could save seed, and not all favor OPs. The seed saving movement has pointed out that the shift toward hybrid varieties resulted in a reduction in crop and genetic diversity, and was a by-product of the monoculture approach to agriculture. We do not contest this, or that the seed industry dropped OP varieties in favor of hybrids to have customers who had to return for the next generation of seed. However, hybridization in and of itself is only a tool, one used often in creating OP populations. Many organic farmers rely on and are strong proponents of hybrid varieties. If organic seed systems are to move forward and provide high quality organic seed to meet the needs of diverse organic farmers, then we will need diverse varietal offerings, including both OP and hybrid seed.

While the appreciation of seed saving and heirloom varieties by early organic vegetable farmers may have been a factor in the slow development of certified organic hybrid varietals, the factors that continue to slow development today in organic hybrids likely has more to do with investment and access to germplasm. The development of breeding lines for organic systems requires time and significant resources, and seed industry professionals who gave input for this report have stated that they have been slow to make such investment due to concerns that they will not be able to recoup costs. These financial risks are real not only for hybrid development but for improvements or breeding of new OP varieties, which also require large amounts of time and resources to deliver a finished product. One factor that has slowed investment in organic breeding is uncertainty regarding the implementation of the National Organic Program (NOP) rule as it pertains to seed. In particular, there is concern that allowing organic farmers to use conventional untreated seed has been, and will continue to be, a loophole without sufficient auditing, oversight, and metrics to determine if or when allowances should be denied, or the allowance itself removed from the rule.

The lack of investment from the private seed sector in organic seed is directly related to this regulatory quagmire around seed. It is not the only reason for inadequate investment, but one that must be addressed for the seed sector to gain confidence in delivering varieties appropriate for organic agriculture. The seed sector fears the cost of unsold organic seed due to farmers claiming a lack of equivalent variety and requesting allowances for conventional untreated seed. In this scenario, seed companies stand to lose huge investments in breeding, production, and marketing expenses.

Farmers also fear they will be forced to purchase organic seed that is not equivalent or does not meet quality standards. The NOSB attempted to give guidance in addressing these concerns and others, but initially it gained no traction at the administrative level of the NOP. Fortunately there are signs that the new NOP leadership will provide more clarity. Still, the lack of clarity has damaged organic seed systems as well as organic stakeholders’ confidence in the public process. These are difficult but important issues, and at stake is not simply a regulatory rule or the development of a niche seed industry.

Regulatory History of Organic Seed in National Organic Program: Prior to the NOP in 2002, farmers who purchased organic seed did so based on philosophical or agronomic reasons, as there was no federal regulatory requirement to do so. A brief review of the development of organic standards shows that, from the start of the federal program, there was recognition that seed

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systems needed investment and action if organic producers were ever going to use 100% organic seed.

The first federal codification of organic occurred in the 1990 Farm Bill with the passage of the Organic Food Production Act (OFPA), which gave the federal government authorization to create national organic standards and initiate a National Organic Standards Board. From the outset of the discussions on national standards, there was recognition of the importance of requiring the use of organic seed, but also the lack of availability – pointing to a need for allowing conventional seed to be used. OFPA recognized the importance of organic seed in stating, “For a farm to be certified under this title, producers on such farm shall not apply materials to, or engage in practices on, seeds or seedlings that are contrary to, or inconsistent with the applicable organic certification program.”

In a 1994 interview, NOSB founding Chair Michael Sligh said, “We recognize currently there is not enough of untreated organic seed of every variety necessary to say this is required tomorrow. At the same time, we don’t want to discourage companies from making this type of progress.”

When the NOP rule was published in December of 2000 it included the seed section as it exists today, requiring the usage of organic seed except that “Nonorganically produced, untreated seeds and planting stock may be used to produce an organic crop when an equivalent organically produced variety is not commercially available.”

In the public response to the published rule, the federal register noted that the “seed and planting stock practice standard in the proposed rule generated a very diverse array of responses that, while largely favorable, highlighted a potentially disruptive impact on organic producers.”

The NOP responded that while some comments identified the seed and planting stock requirement as unreasonable, they had chosen not to change the standard, stating: “The objectives of spurring production of organically grown seed and promoting research in natural seed treatments are compatible with the OFPA’s purpose of facilitating commerce in organically produced and processed food. We designed the practice standard to pursue these objectives while preventing the disruption that an ironclad requirement for organically produced seed and planting stock may have caused.”

The NOP rule became effective in October of 2002. There was an immediate backlash from farmers on certain aspects of the rule, including the price of organic seed. Some farmers protested that their seed bills would triple, and that the certifying fee was not as expensive as the extra cost of organic seed. Within the first few years of the seed requirement farmers also began to voice concerns about the quality of organic seed, with complaints in the media and at conference discussions about germination rates and varietal off-types.Complaints from the seed industry also emerged almost immediately. The American Seed Trade Association’s Organic Seed Committee noted these issues fourteen months after the rule became law. The following are direct quotes of their concerns: • Organic growers are reluctant to use organically produced seed because of the higher cost over conventional seed. • While some certifiers are imposing the organic seed requirement on their clients when there are equivalent varieties available, other certifiers hesitate to do so. Some of these certifiers have said they would not force growers to use organic seed if the price difference was over a certain amount—even though the NOP has confirmed in a letter that price is not a factor in determining whether an organic seed is “commercially available.”• Most organic certifiers are not well informed on the varieties of organic seed that are currently commercially available. Many certifiers are calling for a central database to tell them what varieties are available in organic form. • When a grower claims to a certifier that he needs a particular variety for which there is no equivalent organic seed, most organic certifiers are not well equipped to evaluate the grower’s position. Thus there is a danger of haphazard decisions by certifiers, and no third party oversight of these decisions.

American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) members also issued a statement to the NOSB on the equivalency issue with a deadline for the usage of organic seed: “ASTA believes equivalence should be measured by ‘species’ when the transition period is over and organic producers will be required to select the most suitable variety [within the same species] for their production location and time. ASTA’s proposed transitional deadline for variety and species certification and equivalence is October 2004.”

NOSB did not recommend this deadline to the NOP, and if they would have it is likely that many organic farmers would have protested given the wide range of diversity within a species, versus the more localized adaptation of varietals. But the NOSB was hearing from enough stakeholders for them to create a joint committee to address the varying concerns over how the seed rule was being interpreted, implemented, and enforced.

NOSB Recommendation on the Commercial Availability of Organic Seed: In August of 2005 the NOSB presented the NOP with their “Recommendation on the Commercial Availability of Organic Seed.” This statement received so much public feedback that in 2006 the Crops Committee of the NOSB began a new round of discussions and public comment periods to further develop a guidance statement on organic seed.

The final document – “Further Guidance on Commercial Availability of Organic Seed” – was approved in November of 2008 with the intent of having an “increased level of compliance with Title 7 Part 205 National Organic Program (§205.204)� (the seed section of the rule). The introduction states: “This Joint Committee acknowledges that only a small proportion of the seed currently used by organic farmers is certified organically grown seed. Also that, many certifying agents do not believe they have been given viable guidelines for their role in verification procedures concerning organically grown seed availability. The Committee now offers adjusted guidance that we hope will bring clarity to the issue and accelerate the utilization of organic seed in all sectors of organic crop production.”

The document goes on to give specific guidance to the NOP, Accredited Certifying Association (ACA) and to certified growers for their specific “role in increasing organic seed usage.”

The development of the guidance statements received mostly favorable comments from the seed industry, mixed comments from accredited certifying agencies (with some very opposed and others supportive), and no comments directly from farmers.

Particularly polarizing was the following recommendation to the NOP: “Emphasize to ACA’s that organic seed usage by clients must be monitored and improvement in percentage usage is expected and must also be monitored. Documentation of the levels of organic seed usage and evidence of improvement in the percentage vs. total seed usage by the ACA’s clientele should be audited as part of the NOP accreditation reviews.”

Also controversial was this recommendation to ACAs: “Maintain and submit upon request to the National Organic Program documentation of the organic seed usage status (current percent levels as compared to historical levels of usage by acreage) of each certified operator.”

Comments made by the National Association of State Organic Programs (NASOP) were emblematic of those ACAs who responded negatively to the guidelines. Miles McEvoy, NASOP President at the time (now director of NOP) wrote in his comment letter, “The suggestion that organic growers and certifiers maintain records on the percentage of organic seed usage by acreage is unworkable. The additional recordkeeping requirements will not increase the availability of organic seeds.”

The letter points out a burden in both record keeping and increased cost in certification. Going into further detail in a breakdown of the guidance document by sections, McEvoy writes: “There are problems with determining compliance with the commercial availability of organic seed requirement by the percentage of organic seed used. The standards require the use of organic seeds if they are commercially available. The percentage of organic seed usage could decrease from one year to the next because the producer is planting different seed varieties that are not available organically. On the other hand if organic seeds are available then the producer should be using 100% organic seeds. A producer may be increasing the percentage of organic seed used but still be in violation of the organic seed requirement if they do not use organic seeds that are commercially available. Another complicating factor is that many diversified direct marketing operations do not calculate the acreage planted to their various crops. Calculating the percentage of organic seed used could be a recordkeeping nightmare and not lead to any greater adoption of organic seed usage. Organic seeds can only be used if they are commercially available.”

These NOSB recommendations – with hundreds of volunteer hours in research and writing, review, revisions, and further review and input from stakeholders over a three-year period – were approved and presented to the NOP in November of 2008. And yet, two years later, there has been no formal response from the NOP.

Current Situation with National Organic Program: Many of the certifiers we spoke with during the course of this project expressed a positive opinion that the NOP, under new leadership as of 2009, is taking actions to strengthen the integrity of the organic label, including encouraging greater enforcement of the

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use of organic seed and that they expect additional input on seed from the NOP in 2011. Several ACAs report that they are strengthening their own policies and procedures regarding commercial availability of seed.

Oregon Tilth is one example of a certifying organization that has changed its approach to the seed issue. If a new farming operation applies for certification and has not performed a commercial availability search (contacting or searching through a minimum of three seed company lists/catalogs), Oregon Tilth’s previous practice was to give the producer “a reminder of the requirements for using organic seed and demonstrating commercial availability.” Beginning in 2010, Tilth started to issue a notification of noncompliance, asking the operator to demonstrate that the seed was not available in organic form. If the operator fails to demonstrate this, Tilth now denies certification of that specific crop.

Kristy Korb, Certification Director of Oregon Tilth, states that “If it happened the next inspection there would most likely be denial of [certification for that particular] crop or suspension [of certification] if it was all crops or a pervasive problem. In a renewing client situation if it moves to suspension there would have to be ongoing issues from year to year, as otherwise we would simply deny that specific crop.”

NOP staff recently said they were in a “new age of enforcement.” The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service reports of “adverse actions” taken on organic producers and handlers provide examples of this commitment. In August of 2010, suspension of organic certification was issued to producers in Georgia and Oregon for “failure to use organic seeds or demonstrate absence of commercial availability.” In July, a New York producer was issued a suspension for using “seeds treated with a prohibited substance.”

While some may be encouraged by signs that ACAs are tightening procedures, we caution that regulatory enforcement will only be as good and fair as the information that all stakeholders have regarding commercial availability of seed. The goal from the perspective of SOS is not to move as quickly as possible to 100% usage of organic seed, but to move as quickly as possible to 100% usage of high quality organic seed that is optimal for organic farming systems. Certifiers, farmers, seed companies, researchers and the NOP itself all need more information. The development of a pubic database that allows all parties to search for seed availability, track allowances of conventional seed (including variety name or characteristics, volume of seed, and crop type), verify certifiers, and provide seed suppliers with information to promote and market their varieties was one of the highest priority actions requested by multiple stakeholders involved in this project (see “Priority Actions, Information-Perception” in section seven). Developing this public database is also in line with NOSB recommendations. Good regulation requires good information, and we do not have that at present.

Concentration in the Seed Industry: Implications for Organic Agriculture

Seed is not only an input for crop production, it is a natural resource that demands management in a manner that is ethical, sustainable, profitable, and effective in delivering agronomic adaptations for the diverse agricultural systems and markets within the U.S. Plant genetic resources were once managed and maintained as a public commons with intellectual property rights in the form of Plant Variety Protection Act certificates that were adequate to compensate private innovators, while allowing both farmers and other researchers to save seed, sell seed and further adaptation and the development of new characteristics within the crop. Diversity and competition thrived through most of the twentieth century with public and private breeding programs delivering improved genetics to a broad array of farming systems. This changed dramatically when the Supreme Court upheld the use of utility patents on living organisms. Large corporations that had little to no previous investments in seed and genetic traits rushed into the market to take advantage of this powerful intellectual property tool. This trend led to the highly concentrated seed industry that we face today.

Concentration in the seed industry has a negative impact on organic farming. It has resulted in decreased public and private research and development of varieties and breeding populations for minor markets, such as organic. As the industry consolidates, farmers have seen varieties sold in smaller volumes, often those that serve organic farming systems. In 2000, the world’s largest vegetable seed company, Seminis (prior to being bought by Monsanto), acquired several smaller international seed companies. The mergers resulted in a decision by

Seminis to drop over 2,000 varieties from production in a single season, a trend that continues. The result has been fewer options for organic farmers, and for the researchers and seed companies trying to serve them.

Seed Industry Concentration: The seed industry stands out as one of the most concentrated in agriculture. Once comprised of mostly small, family-owned companies, the industry is now dominated by a handful of transnational biotechnology/chemical firms. The top three firms, for example, account for more than 75% of U.S. corn seed sales. One firm’s patented genetic traits are in nearly all corn, soybean, and cotton acreage planted in the U.S. Vegetable seed is following a similar consolidation trajectory and is dominated by a single player – Seminis (Monsanto) – that dwarfs any competitor.

Rapid and extensive consolidation is a consequence of the following factors:• Weak antitrust law enforcement allowed large firms to acquire and merge with a significant number of competitors; • Supreme Court decisions paved the way for firms to patent plant parts, including seeds, traits, and described plant characteristics (and Congress has not acted to clarify the intent of the Plant Variety Protection Act); • Federal legislation (1980 Bayh-Dole Act) encouraged the privatization and patenting of public research; and• Funding for public plant breeding and cultivar development has dramatically reduced.

These factors have led not only to fewer choices in the seed marketplace, but also concentrated control over important plant genetics needed for research and development for all agricultural systems. This level of concentration has severe consequences for the organic community.

Impacts to Organic: Organic farmers are underserved in genetics specifically adapted to their cropping systems, regions, and market niches, and experience a basic lack of availability of organic seed, with an even greater gap in varieties specifically bred under certified organic conditions. As private concentration and intellectual property control of plant genetics expand, the public sector weakens, innovation stagnates, and minor markets such as organic do not receive needed investments in seed system development.

Other consequences of seed industry concentration on organic agriculture are clear:• Dominant firms do not serve organic interests: This is because the organic community embraces ecological alternatives to biotechnology and has deemed genetic engineering an excluded method in the National Organic Program (NOP). The organic and biotechnology sectors are generally in conflict with each other’s goals, objectives, practices, and values.• Loss of regional independent seed companies: Companies that for decades served the regional needs of farmers by breeding varieties with agronomic traits adapted to very specific environments – including some that were serving or preparing to serve the organic market – have been lost with seed industry consolidation. What regional companies exist often struggle to get access to

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optimum parent lines, or when they can access them they are expensive with cost-prohibitive and restrictive licensing agreements. Firms such as Monsanto have a clear strategy of purchasing independent seed companies, many of whom once served the organic market with untreated conventional seed and certified organic seed. In general, these smaller regional independent companies have greater flexibility in serving local markets and minor markets such as organic. The loss of regional companies has limited the number of seed companies investing in conventional and organic, limiting not only availability but also the continued research and development that all markets need to evolve and thrive.

• Public breeding programs are increasingly privatized: Private funding of industry research surged after 1980 as public funding declined. This coincided with passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, which allows the patenting of publicly funded research. Land grant universities and other public breeding programs now find themselves financially dependent on a concentrated industry sector to fund infrastructure, graduate students, and breeding programs. As a result, research goals narrow to meet the needs of larger industries, such as agricultural biotechnology, rather than the diverse needs of farmers. The influence these companies have on Land Grant Universities (LGU) impacts not only innovation, but distorts objective research and education, and weakens the mission of public institutions. While the private and public sector should and can be mutually supportive, agricultural research is currently imbalanced and tipped toward benefiting a few corporations and their shareholders. Ideally the public research sector would add competition to the market by continuing to release significant volumes of finished public cultivars, with an increase in innovative germplasm for emerging agricultural markets such as organic.

• Patents lock up important genetics: Patents hinder innovation by removing valuable plant genetic material from the pool of public resources breeders rely on. Breeders are restricted or prohibited from using patented varieties, traits, or tools unless onerous licensing agreements are signed and expensive royalties paid. The result is a public sector that lacks an ability to provide for – and an understanding of the underlying values and needs of – the organic market. For example, in field corn a utility patent was filed and granted to Hoegemeyer Hybrids (now owned by DuPont-Pioneer) for a trait they call PuraMaize. This trait has been bred and recorded in public research for decades, yet the flawed patent system has provided a single company the proprietary rights. This is a trait that the organic seed market is very interested in using, as it creates a characteristic in corn crops to accept only pollen from genetically similar plants. Such a trait can significantly reduce cross-pollination of organic corn crops from GE corn crops. Yet seed companies report that restrictive licensing fees make it cost-prohibitive for them to lease the trait from Hoegemeyer.

Conclusions: The trends described above put the integrity of organic agriculture at risk and hinder the success of this growing sector. Organic farmers already find it difficult to access quality certified organic seed. Varieties they once relied on have been abandoned as the industry consolidates. Seed companies looking to serve organic markets do not have access to genetic traits tied up by patents, or parent lines that are proprietary and held by larger firms. Public breeders looking to serve smaller markets such as organic are not encouraged to work on these projects, as they do not return high royalties on intellectual property to their universities. Concentration and the misuse of patents also have global impacts, as they encourage biopiracy -- where indigenous knowledge of nature is exploited for commercial gain with no compensation to the indigenous people -- of public resources and threaten food security. The system is broken.

Confronting industry concentration must be coupled with efforts to create an environment in which new innovators, private and public breeders, and entrepreneurs interested in organic seed systems have an opportunity to thrive. Investments need to be made both at the public and private (e.g., food industry) level. See Priority Goals section of this report for additional actions and policy recommendations regarding seed concentration.

by Roberta Bailey

When people visit my farm for the first time, one of the comments often made is that they are surprised by how little space it takes to grow seed crops. On the home scale it can be quite small. Erase the vision of acres of dry beans or fields of wheat. Picture a ten foot row of garden peas or a trellis of Morning Glories, ten tomatoes or peppers. On the farm scale, rows of seed crops can be inter-cropped with market crops.

You may ask why make the time in your extremely busy farm life to save seed? A bit more seed security may be one answer. How many times have you gone to order your favorite seed variety only to find that it is no longer available in any seed catalog? Or have you ever wished a certain crop was just a little hardier or that all of it performed like that one plant in the row did that one year? Are you concerned about Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) contamination? Are you having trouble finding pea seed that is not full of other types of peas (off-types)? Do your spring seed bills scare you? Are you looking to diversify your farm income? Or looking to get away from weekly deliveries and markets? The seed industry continues to merge into a few very large multi-national corpo-rations. When small companies are bought out, their locally adapted varieties are dropped in favor of varieties that perform pretty well in many climates. If not for an upsurgence of local seed saving efforts and of small seed companies special-izing in hardy heirloom varieties, we would be left to grow varieties that do well in Texas and just barely produce in New England.

GMO contamination is a growing concern. It is increasingly more difficult to find clean corn, soy, and beet or chard seed. Even organic seed is getting con-taminated by pollen drift from nearby GMO crops. Much of the beet and chard seed available in the seed industry is grown in or around the Willamette Valley. And Monsanto keeps trying to grow GMO sugar beets there too. Saving your own seed is not going to lower that spring seed bill by as much as we would all like but every little bit helps. Perhaps a greater gain comes from an increase in quality. Peas are a good example. Pea seed is fairly cheap. It can’t be turned into a fancy expensive hybrid. So pea growers are trying to produce it with as little cost as possible. And it costs money to pay the labor of rogueing the fields. So no one is walking the field pulling out the plants that are not true to the variety being grown. The result is that we farmers are seeing huge amounts of off-types in our pea rows. The same is happening to inexpensive radish and rutabaga and carrot crops. As a result farmers lose productivity in their rows

Seed Saving on the Farm

photo by Rob Lemire

Author with her seed crop of Lutz beets which have become difficult to find in the seed market. The roots were overwintered in a root

cellar then re-planted in early spring.

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and incur added labor time to avoid or sort out the problems.

It is worth the time and money to grow your own or at least buy organic seed produced on a small scale by farmers who are rogueing their fields. If you save your own seed, you always have that variety. I save Lutz beet, Blizzard snow pea. Mi-ragreen shell pea, Scarlet Keeper carrot, Beer Friend and Sayamusume soybeans because I was tired of going to my seed catalogs and finding that they were no longer available. In New England, it is not possible or practical to save seed for everything we like to grow. It is pos-sible to save seed from many crops. Our short grow-ing season and cold winters limit us to plants that

can mature seed in under120 days. Peppers, toma-toes, peas and beans are an easy place to start. When you save seed on your farm, it begins to adapt to your micro-climate and growing techniques. Of-ten the seed that we buy has been produced under intensive chemical spray regimens. A convention-ally grown cabbage seed crop may be sprayed ten times in its lifetime. The plants produced from that seed know how to grow best under those conditions. A plant grown on your farm in your soil and climate and with your organic farm practices will adapt to those practices. The Czech Black hot peppers that I grow are now more uniform and produce more pep-pers per plant because I saved seed from the plants that had the best yields and the fruit shape I desired. My Bread Seed poppies no longer have any vents in the heads and the seed does not fall out of the heads

when I harvest them. I am selecting a Russian vari-ety of rice for early maturity in central Maine. Growing seed as a cash crop can also be profitable. The seed can be the entire goal or it can be part of a value added system. I started saving seed from tomatoes because I was making sauce and removing the seed. I looked at all the seed and realized I could be selling it. One farmer who raises Long Pie pump-kins as a seed crop removes the seed then sells the pumpkins to a dog biscuit maker. Hot peppers can be grown for seed and the flesh made into hot sauce, salsa, or a chili paste to sell. Value added products may fit well into your farm system or they may add more work than your life can support. A successful farmer is always look-ing at systems, figuring what works and what can be added, trying new things and scaling up the ones that fit well. On my farm, the Green Doctor cherry tomato seed crop is grown solely for its seed because that is the most efficient use of time. The pulp goes to the chickens. The Goldie tomato is a beefsteak with a solid core of pulp. I extract the seed and make a golden salsa from the pulp. Some of my pepper crops get ground up and the seed extracted while the pulp gets fed to the chickens. When chick-ens eat pepper pulp, their egg yolks turn scarlet. Seed crops sometimes need more time in the field than food crops. Plan your field rotations accord-ingly. Peas planted for fresh eating are done 3-4 weeks before seed peas. When I save seed for farm use, I usually tie off a section of the row and do not pick any of it. Once the peas are all mature and dry I pick the entire section and save it for next years seed. Twenty feet of peas will usually yield at least one pound of seed. I plan my rows so that the seed section will not interfere with tilling and replanting of the next crop.

Some years I plant a long row of each variety and save all of it, harvesting enough seed for three or four years. Most seed will last three years, many will keep five to ten. One needs to know some basics in order to save seed well. The web site savingourseed.org has very thorough seed saving information in free pdf down-load form. Here are some of the basics.

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photo by Rob Lemire

Duborskian, a short grain Russian variety of rice that Bailey grows in central Maine

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rW i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 2 29B-Plants are arranged by botanical class and within each class are families. Families are broken down into genus and species. When you see the latin name for a plant (Daucus carota, for carrot), that is the genus and the species. Such classifications help us identify plants and figure out if they will cross pol-linate or not. Open pollinated varieties grow seed that will pro-duce the same true variety for generations. Hybrid varieties are the offspring of a cross between two parent varieties. The seed saved from a hybrid will not produce that same plant, but some genetic com-bination of the two original parents. Some plants like peas, beans, soybeans. tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce are self pollinating. You can save the seed and it will grow true the next year. All of the fruit on the plant, big or small, have the same genetic make up. To maintain a full array of the plants genetic diversity, grow and save from twenty or more plants. If you save seed from one self-polli-nating plant it will grow fine but you are narrowing the genetic diversity. Starting with self-pollinated varieties is the easiest way to begin saving your own seed. If you decide to save some tomato seed, plant those plants as far away from your other tomatoes to reduce any inci-dence of crossing. Potato leaf varieties will cross with each other and the double blossoms can get pollinated by another variety. If possible, isolate va-rieties by about 25 feet. Cross pollinated plants like brassicas, corn, carrots, beets, squash, cukes and melons rely on the pollen from other plants to produce viable fruit. They need much larger populations to maintain health and vig-or. Twenty five to one hundred plants are the mini-mum, and corn needs at least two hundred plants. They need isolation distances of 250 feet to many miles. The easiest approach is to only grow one va-

riety of a given genus and species. Tall barriers like a corn patch or row of trees can break insect flight patterns and help reduce the distances needed be-tween varieties that could cross pollinate. A physi-cal barrier such as a screen cage or row cover can keep the seed crop isolated. I use wire hoops and poly row covers on some seed crops to keep them pure. I also alternate years, growing one variety one year and another the next. My Lutz beet seed crop produced enough seed for 5-10 years leaving me free to produce other beet seed crops in the interim years. Think about your spacing. A tomato or pepper plant does not need any more space as a seed crop, but a spinach or lettuce or carrot does. My beet plants took up close to 2 feet apiece. A lettuce plant will spread to 18 inches or 2 feet. I give my seed crops extra minerals (usually in the form of azomite) to help feed the seed production. Good record keeping is essential. Label your seed-lings, then the planted rows, and the stored seed. Keeping a map as a back up record covers situa-tions where a critter eats the row marker or weather washes out the ink. When I harvest seed I label the harvest bucket and throw the row marker inside the container as well.

If you notice an ‘off-type’ plant or one which is very different from the other plants, it should be rogued or pulled out. Any diseased plants should be pulled. Rogueing will keep your seed pure and healthy. Sometimes a variety takes a few years of rogueing before no off-types are found. You can save the seed from an interesting off-type and grow it out the next year to see what happens. You may be on your way to creating a new variety or at least on a little bo-tanical adventure.

When you save seed you are changing the plant. It is adapting to your growing area and conditions. What are you selecting for? You may save from the dis-

ease resistant plants. Or the highest yielding plants. Or the blemish free ones. Over time you can tailor your varieties to your own farm needs. Avoid sav-ing from the first lettuce plants to go to seed as you are selecting for lettuce that bolts early. Rather try to save from the ones that bolt last.

Yields vary widely with varieties. Generally 100 tomato or pepper plants yield one pound of seed. A 300 foot row of soup peas yields 30-40 lbs seed. Thirty feet of bread seed poppies yields 1-1/2 lbs seed.

To grow seed for profit, try it on a small scale first to see if it fits into your farm operation and time con-straints. Some crops need little attention other than planting, weeding and harvest. I do all my pepper seed cleaning in late October, whereas tomato seed is an ongoing harvest throughout the late summer.

Seed companies usually contract with growers in the early months of the new year. Contact companies then to see if they want specific crops grown for them. Growing their crops with their seed stock is usually easier to arrange than growing a seed crop on your own then trying to sell it. Seed companies will want to trial any new varieties before picking them up. But they are often looking for farms to produce crops for them. Some companies have a seed contract. Some are far less formal. Some have specific delivery deadlines and bonuses for early delivery or penalties for late delivery. Some will clean the seed. Others expect seed to be delivered completely cleaned. Some charge for the cleaning process. Get these terms spelled out. Whether for farm use or for income, seed saving connects you with generations of farmers who saved their own seed. Your farm thrives on the results of the work of these ancestors. Is it time to select a few varieties for future profits or future generations?

by Bethany Schroeder and Suzanne McMannis

Tompkins County has a population of 100,000 resi-dents, about 50,000 of whom live in the city and town of Ithaca. The rest make their homes in rural and semi-rural towns, hamlets, and villages through-out the county. Many, many residents garden for food or work small farms, and many hale from gar-dening and farming backgrounds.

Cornell, the single land-grant university in New York, is situated chiefly at the east end of the town of Ithaca, with project centers, fields, and green-houses found around and outside of the county. Seed saving at an institutional level, either in particular academic departments or specific greenhouses, is likely, without being publicly known. On the other hand, the Cornell Cooperative Extension program hosts a small, informal seed saving effort, and many casual growers use it. Otherwise, experienced grow-ers save seed in some measure at their own proper-ties.

Local seed savers cull for size, taste, weather hardi-ness, regional availability, disease resistance, genet-ic variation, and they invariably note the attraction of managing the earth, from the choice of plot and seeds to choosing the source of nitrogen. An infor-mal survey of area growers indicates that local gar-deners and farmers would appreciate an accessible and disciplined seed saving program, and plenty of them have the expertise to support such a project into maturity. Three profiles of Tompkins County growers testify to individual skill and determination in saving and using seed.

Sean Dembrosky: Permaculture Gardener

When you visit edibleacres.org, you will see a lively and creative approach to getting food into the ground. Sean Dembrosky, chief designer and steward, started this enterprise in Trumansburg with a view to modeling responsible gardening behav-iors and giving others a place to see his ideas about permaculture principles in action. In exchange for

Seed Saving in Tompkins County, NY

disturbing the soil as little as possible and using conventional winnowing for those specimens he has access to in small amounts, Sean says he can expect biennial or over-wintering activity in his garden, even without the use of cold frames or hoop houses to protect against inclement weather.

Along with developing the gardens and other proj-ects of Edible Acres, Sean has been saving seeds from many of his plants. Employing an observation-al approach, in which he tries one method of plant-ing, culling seeds, and then selecting from among them, he opines, “There’s not any mystery in plant communities. You just need to look and listen, and they’ll show you what to do next.”

True to form, Sean is for the most part a self-taught gardener. He took a weekend permaculture for-est farming intensive with Dave Jacke before fully starting the maintenance and further development of his own groves and hedgerows. Otherwise, he scours the web during winter months to learn more, meeting with local gardening enthusiasts, some well known and some not, to pick up new ideas.

One inspiration has been Steve Bryer of Tripple-brook Farm in Massachusettes. The farm, using or-ganic practices since 1904, includes more than 1000 perennial examples rated to Zone 5 hardiness. Bryer invites other gardeners, established and aspiring alike, to sleep in the greenhouse and work alongside him for a living wage. Another of Sean’s mentors

photo by Jon Bosak

Sean Dembrosky with (left to right) stinging nettles, orach, and dill

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e r W i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 230B-has been Erik Toensmeier, author of Perennial Veg-etables. Toensmeier’s website includes growing tips and lists beyond the author’s original 100 edibles, as well as choices by climate and useful links for gar-deners across the U.S. and elsewhere.

Sean says he primarily selects seeds from plants with the best yield and the greatest number of seeds. For example, in choosing kale seeds, he considers the plants in his garden with the largest leaves among plants that have demonstrated both hardiness to ex-tremes in weather and resistance to predation. Along with the methods he has found to be easiest and most useful for seed saving, Sean is not averse to acquiring seed through the area’s seed bank housed at Cornell Cooperative Extension. “Germination rates might sometimes be low and I might not always have a lot of variety to choose from, but it’s a good way to use what’s locally available,” says Sean.

With a decidedly low-tech approach, Sean tethers and hangs ideal plants upside down in his airy equip-ment shed before broadcasting the thoroughly dried specimens onto raised beds. Called the “magic wand” approach, Sean shakes seeds onto the ground, loosely covers them with surface dirt, and then sticks the stems into the center of the planted area. “That way I am reminded of what I put into each bed,” he says.

An inveterate contributor of time and energy, Sean shares his techniques with the community through work on his property; education at the Veteran’s Sanctuary in Trumansburg; and, this autumn, through Freeskool programming, which will include sustain-able farming practices.

Sean’s favorite vegetable seeds over the past several years have included orach, a lovely spinach-like leaf with great color; kales of all varieties, especially “krepe,” a combination of red Russian kale and rape; collard greens; spinach; dill; fennel; cilantro; parsley; calendula; borage; leeks; and heirloom tomatoes.

For more information go to: edibleacres.org,http://veteranssanctuary.blogspot.com/ andhttp://ithacafreeskool.wordpress.com/class-descrip-tions/

Teresa Vanek and Brent Welch: Market Farmers

Red Tail Farm, in Jacksonville, is a four-acre organ-ic farm and the home of Teresa Vanek, Brent Welch, and their young son, Milan. Teresa and Brent have owned the land since 2004 and are close to finish-ing work on their straw bale house. The couple sells produce at two Ithaca Farmers Markets, as well as to a home delivery service and some area restaurants. They also produce and sell raw honey.

Traveling abroad in their formidable years, particu-larly in South America, fostered in Teresa and Brent a fascination for seeds. They agree that whereas no

single farmer mentored them, farmers in the area have always been generous with time and advice. Michael Glos gave them how-to information on seed saving strategies, and they have returned to this local well-known resource for more help when needed.

They currently save seed for garlic, tomatillos, hot peppers, and several heirloom tomatoes. They select for flavor, yield, and disease resistance, but beyond these obvious traits, Teresa and Brent are drawn to characteristics perhaps less easily defined. For in-stance, they have had good luck saving seed from a hot pepper that came to them from the Bolivian Andes. About three inches long, this Red Aji pepper is hot and spicy as one would expect but also very sweet. A “wonderful flavor,” says Brent, adding that you can just about completely abandon it in the gar-den and it will still do well.

The Red Aji dries nicely, too, another key feature that recommends it to Teresa and Brent. They use it mostly for cooking at home, but they have given thought to committing it to seed production, so en-amored are they of this pepper. They have not found its match in seed catalogues over the years; hence, their seed saving efforts with this variety have been worthwhile.

They also save seed from an heirloom tomato named Opalka, a luscious sauce tomato with very little seed and almost no water. Brent notes that Opalka is still available through the Seed Savers catalogue. Having been stung by the disappearance of a San Marzano tomato they really enjoyed, how-ever, Teresa and Brent are careful with their Opalka seed, despite its availability elsewhere.

The seed garlic at Red Tail Farm includes German Red, German White, and what the farmers call Red Tail Farm Mix, a favorite with customers. Brent ex-plains that one year their seed garlic got a bit mixed up, but they decided to market it cleverly and have found that customers love the variety in it. (Note to seed savers everywhere: never underestimate seren-dipity.)

Clements Law Office, LLC 9 Damonmill Square, Concord, MA 01742978.287.4901 www.clementsllc.com

Appeals and Litigation • Advice and Advocacy

“A griculture. . . is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals and happiness.” Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1787

Clements_4.875x7.5.indd 1 1/10/10 12:07 PM

photo by Jon Bosak

Brent Welch of Red Tail Farm with tomatillo, garlic, and red peppers

T h e N a t u r a l F a r m e rW i n t e r , 2 0 1 1 - 1 2 31B-Red Tail Farm also produces a favorite tomatillo with huge fruit but rather low yields. It makes a marvelous salsa verde, and Teresa and Brent share the fruit with some of their farmer friends. They hope other growers in the area will commit to grow-ing it in the future, so that the “seed bank” for this variety can be preserved for this bio-region.

For more information go to:redgooseberry@yahoo.com

Thor Oechsner: Grain Farmer

The equipment at the Oechsner Farm in Newfield is the most obvious aspect of the operation. As owner Thor Oechsner points out, “Grain farming is equip-ment farming, and you have to know how to manage the machines if you’re going to succeed.”

Schooled in agriculture at Cornell in the early 1980s and auto mechanics at his own auto shop between 1989 and 1997, Thor sounds a grateful note at hav-ing learned the skills that make him the rare certified organic wheat farmer in this southern tier commu-nity. Although he demurs at the notion of formal sources, Thor does cite mentors such as Tony Poten-za of Trumansburg, John Meyers of Ovid, and Klaas Martins of Penn Yan. As Thor sees it, “They taught me farming and the principles of organic farm man-agement. They encouraged me to think about farm-ing on my own terms.”

In addition to every manner of tractor and truck on this farm, the air screen cleaner in the main barn is a sight to behold. Standing almost 15 feet high, the massive wooden contraption, built in 1910, had been useful for many decades by the time Thor bought it in 2009. As the primary machine used both to sift seeds for saving and to prepare wheat and other grains for milling, this cleaner has three screens of varying gauges, down to a 64th of an inch, and a strong fan to blow out light materials.

After Thor’s preparations, he sends the wheat on for milling at partner Greg Mol’s Farmer Ground Flour in Trumansburg. The flour is used to bake bread and pastries at Wide Awake Bakery in Mecklenburg (in which Thor has also invested) and at Ithaca’s food co-op, GreenStar. The flour is sold at increas-ing numbers of stores across the state and in New York City. Harkening back to more than a century ago when New York was called the nation’s bread basket, the entire Oechsner enterprise is focused on grain.

Along with growing and threshing, Thor has been saving seed for many years. For example, he saves and selects from among the most nutritional oats for animal feed. He also selects for disease resistance, agronomic traits and, at the same time, looks for good baking characteristics in the field products, all of which he learns through trial and error. Thor continues to search out different varieties of grain, including heirloom varieties, by researching a new seed each year and analyzing the results at the end of the growing season. He maintains files on seed types, both for inspection by the state and in order to compare his observations and experiences over time. He sets aside specific fields for seed saving, depending on the size of the grain and its overall health. Thor notes that it often takes a couple of years to be confident about a grain. “You can lose a lot of your investment, either due to bad weather or just by making the wrong bet on seed.”

One grain that Thor likes is a dark rye from Po-land, which he says is good for milling. Varieties of wheat seed that have produced well include Glenn, AC Morley, Steele, and Warthog, the latter of which has both wonderful baking qualities as well as hav-ing proven to be an excellent source of wheat grass seed, ultimately used for juicing.

Most of his seed saving is for the benefit of his own farm, but other area farmers have come to depend on Thor’s seed saving work, too. Estimating his seed saving activities to be ten percent or less of his operation, he nonetheless carefully records his findings from year to year in order to protect the product.

For moore information go to:http://www.smallworldfood.com/about/farms/oech-sner-farm/

A Seed Bank from the Ground Up

The seed saving impulse is strong in people who work to wrest a living from the soil. Despite frantic sched-ules and a heavy workload, the interest in seed saving thrives across the seasons. As growers come to under-stand both the power and vulnerability of seeds in the current climate of consolidation, their thoughts might naturally turn to a community-based seed bank. Noth-ing seems to compare to the piles of glorious seed cata-logues that show up in the winter months to encourage a grower’s appetite, but the work of creating a commu-nity seed bank could well bring its own inimitable joy.

What would such an effort entail? First, growers would have to know each other well and trust one another’s abilities—not only regarding the growing of plants for seed but also in terms of record keeping. Ideally, they would then need to make an extensive effort to docu-ment soil types in order to optimize the seed production of different plants on each farm. They would need to analyze current research on the influence of soil, cli-mate, and other environmental factors. Keeping track

of quantities and varieties of seed and insuring proper storage and viability records would demand a consis-tency of purpose, and the group or collective would necessarily have to be clear about expectations from season to season, as more varieties of seed were in-cluded in the bank.

Reflecting on an initiative this seemingly complex, we might do well to consider that throughout the Third World, local seed saving has been the basis of survival for centuries. Although not widely so, the knowledge is available. Perhaps we just need to be-lieve that the future of our food is safest when it is in our own roughened and soil-stained hands.

Bethany Schroeder is a founding member of TCLocal (tclocal.org), a long-time writer for hire, and a newly committed food grower in Ithaca, New York. She can be reached at nidus@pinax.com. With her husband, Lynn, Suzanne McMannis owns Earth Walk Farm in Dryden, New York. She can be reached at earthwalk-farm@gmail.com. The authors thank Kristina Strain

for advice in developing this article.

photo by Jon Bosak

Thor Oechsner with a “new” air cleaner

“The main bene� t of Udder Comfort™ is the milk quality,” says � fth generation dairy farmer Leon Corse. He and his wife Linda and their daughter Abbie milk 50 to 60 cows at Corse Farm Dairy in southern Vermont, which was certi� ed organic in 2008. “Since we’ve been organic, we get pretty terri� c quality premiums, and that made SCC an even greater focus than it was before.

“Historically, our SCC was up in the 150 to 200,000 range. Our numbers for the last 12 months show averages of 95,000 and as low as 75,000 in the � rst few months of 2010. It’s been a gradual decline since we’ve been using Udder Comfort consistently.

“We use Udder Comfort on any cow with a known high SCC, unusual swelling or any � akes. We apply it after both milkings for a few days. We monitor bulk tanks and cell counts from the milk company, and we test suspicious quarters and also all fresh cows for SCC levels. If high, we put Udder Comfort on for 2 to 4 days to take care of it.

“ I was asked to give a quality milk presentation at the NOFA Vermont Winter Conference in 2010. Part of my preparation was to � gure out our quality results for 2009. The interesting number I came up with was: On 956,000 total pounds shipped, we received $26,187 in quality premiums for all 4 measures-SCC is a very signi� cant portion of that.

“ Initially, I was somewhat skeptical about what to expect from using Udder Comfort, but I’m glad I was willing to give it a try because we are totally happy with it. The best way to see what it does, is to pick out a couple cows that have got a cell count problem and try Udder Comfort on them, and see what you get for results.”

“… glad we tried it because we are totally happy with it.”

Quality Udders Make Quality Milk

For external application to the udder only, after milking, as an essential component of udder management. Always wash and dry teats thoroughly before milking.

Call to locate adistributor near you.

Keep the milk in the system1.888.773.71531.613.543.3263uddercomfort.com

Keep the milk in

— Leon Corse

CORSE FARM DAIRY, LLC, Whitingham, VTLEON AND LINDA CORSE & daughter ABBIEMilking 60 cows – Certi� ed OrganicRHA: 16,600 lbs. (2x) - SCC: 75,000

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U. S. Postage PaidBarre, MA 01005

Permit No. 28 NOFA Education Fund411 Sheldon Rd.Barre, MA 01005

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