Call your senators today and ask them to support Senator Tester’s Farm Bill amendment to improve seed choices for American farmers and strengthen U.S. agriculture.

What this means: Establishing classical plant breeding (or “conventional,” field-based selection) as a priority for public research is critical to the competitiveness and resiliency of U.S. agriculture. Farmers constantly face changing climate, insect, weed, and disease pressures that vary by region, and they lament reduced options in regionally appropriate seed cultivars held in the public domain. Crops must continuously be adapted to meet these changes, and the most productive approach is to have seeds adapted to the same environment as their intended use through classical plant breeding.

Find your senators here or call the Senate switchboard and they’ll connect you: (202) 224-3121.

The message is this: “As the Senate debates the 2013 Farm Bill, I urge you to support the amendment sponsored by Senator Tester that aims to reinvigorate classical plant breeding to ensure farmers have the seed they need to be successful. Developing regionally appropriate seed varieties held in the public domain is paramount to the success of U.S. agriculture.”

Classical plant breeding is cost-effective, proven, and the best source of the diverse, complex traits that allow farmers and researchers to respond to changing conditions, new challenges, and new market opportunities. It’s not controversial, it has obvious benefits for researchers and consumers, and it’s good for every American farmer, no matter what kind of crop they choose to grow.

Your call will help ensure that public research dollars deliver diverse, public seed choices to American farmers.

More talking points and background after the jump.

Classical breeding is a proven science to meeting our food and fiber needs

Classical (or “conventional”) plant breeding is our most successful approach to crop improvement, accounting for about half of our dramatic food and fiber crop yield increases throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Classical breeding is highly cost-effective and complements newer forms of breeding and fills important roles that lab-based approaches, such as genomics, are not well suited to.

In recent decades, public resources for classical plant and animal breeding have dwindled, while resources have shifted toward lab-based and molecular breeding, with a narrow focus on a limited set of major crops and breeds.

U.S. farmers face diminished seed choices to meet specific farming needs

The shift in funding priorities has restricted the diversity of regionally appropriate seed and breed choices for farmers.

Farmers in many regions of the U.S. are relying on seeds that are designed for other regions, or no longer meet the changing conditions and pest and disease pressures of their regions.

U.S. armers will be at a competitive disadvantage in the national marketplace without renewed funding for seeds and breeds adapted to regional farming needs.

Classical breeding projects improve food security for our growing population

Beyond farmer choice, the lack of seed availability and the narrowing of genetic diversity makes our food system less secure.

The maintenance and improvement of genetic diversity through classical breeding is essential for resilient food systems and the greater global food supply, both now and into the future. This is a national issue and should be addressed, at least in part, through national programs such as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).

We invite submissions of scientific trial reports conducted in organic systems to include. The trials should be replicated and be evaluated using documented methods.

This database was created as part of the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) project, as USDA-NIFA funded project including Organic Seed Alliance, Washington State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oregon State University, Cornell University, and USDA-ARS. Now in its fourth year, the Organic Variety Trail Database includes results from the NOVIC project and hundreds of other trials from around the country.

If you have trial results to share and are interested in participating in the Organic Variety Trial Database, please contact OSA’s Jared Zystro.

Nancy Redfeather and Gerry Herbert

Nancy Redfeather of Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, remembers the exact moment she became a seed saver.

“I was at a three-day conference with John Jeavons of Bountiful Gardens/Grow Biointensive here in Hawai’i in the winter of 1994,” she says. “He was quoting a new Food and Agriculture Organization seed study that predicted 95 percent of all seed varieties grown in the U.S. in 1900 would be extinct by 2005. I fell off my chair.”

Nancy asked herself, “How could this have happened? This was the seed that kept our ancestors alive.”

Nancy and Gerry Herbert have operated Kawanui Farm since 1999. The climate in Kona, Hawai’i, is unique, typically providing six months of rain followed by six months of relatively dry weather. They grow crops year round at an elevation of 1500 feet.

She describes the winters as semi-tropical and temperate, cool and dry conditions ideal for growing many types of vegetable, herb, and flower seed. The summer moisture provides good growing conditions for corn and sorghum, “grains of the tropics,” she says, “though no one else seems to grow them.” The summer conditions also yield good dry beans and squash.

Seed saved from Kawanui Farm

Nancy and Gerry primarily grow seed for their own farm, but they also share a good amount with school gardens and other farmers and gardeners in their region.

“Growing seed provides so much abundance,” she says.

And this abundance is used for enhancing the genetic diversity in their region as well — from seed saving to on-farm plant breeding projects. Kawanui Farm has conducted plant breeding trials for 14 years. These trials support the conservation of Hawai’i’s seed heritage while also serving to expand well-adapted seed varieties for various farm conditions and regions.

As one example, Nancy says it is hard to get short-day onions to go to seed in her region, but that she will keep trying.

“We experiment with any crop that can be grown for seed in the semi-tropics,” Nancy explains. She is determined to adapt crops that currently don’t perform well as seed crops, showcasing a common character trait of seed innovators: a quiet doggedness.

“Cabbages and chard will not go to seed here, nor will beets, and only occasionally carrots or onions,” Nancy says. “But after reading John Navazio’s new book we’re going to try the vernalizing techniques he describes.” Vernalization involves exposing seed and young plants to certain conditions of cold temperature and light exposure to promote floral induction without development of the plant.

She says finding short-day varieties of many types of plants is an ongoing need.

“I know these vegetables exist in other tropical regions around the world, but very few people go out around the world like they used to, looking for new varieties and bringing them home to trial.” (Read about two seed stewards who did just that.)

The kitchen table at Kawanui Farm displays diverse crops from variety trials

If Nancy could travel anywhere to look for new varieties of seed, she would head to Mysore, India.

“Mysore varieties seem to do very well here,” she explains. “Recently a friend of mine was traveling in Asia and I asked him to look for short-day garlic varieties. He came back saying that China is their chief supplier now.”

This hits home for Nancy. “What has happened here in the U.S. is happening all around the world,” she says. “A loss of locally adapted varieties due to globalization.”

Nancy notes that there are no commercial seed companies established in Hawai’i except for the biotech companies doing experimental field trials or maintaining parent lines. She feels fortunate that no biotech companies are operating on Hawai’i Island at this time, pointing to her concerns about genetically engineered crops.

One day she and Gerry hope to start their own commercial seed business. Until then, she has a full plate working for the Hawai’I Public Seed Initiative (HPSI).

In 2010, she helped start HPSI, a program of The Kohala Center, to help farmers and gardeners select, grow, harvest, store, and improve seed varieties that will thrive in Hawai‘i. A statewide conference called Hua Ka Hua, meaning “Restore Our Seed,” launched the initiative. The three-day conference brought together 120 farmers and gardeners, and Organic Seed Alliance attended to provide education and other support.

“We partnered with OSA because they had the expertise, knowledge, and innovative thinking to help us begin this project, and really, lifelong work,” she says. “I think rediscovering and rebuilding the world of farmer and gardener saved seed is the most important work that can be done on the planet today.”

Hawai’i Public Seed Initiative workshop participants look at taro production and seed called “huli”

Following the conference, a statewide working group was created as a joint effort between the University of Hawai’i and non-profits to travel around the state doing seed workshops. (Learn about a 2013 “Train the Trainers” event here.)

Nancy hopes the initiative will build a strong network across islands of farmers and gardeners who have the knowledge and skills to build the diversity of regionally adapted varieties.

“It is our ‘kuleana,’ our responsibility, to steward seed from one generation to the next,” she says, which is why she invests in the next generation of not just seed, but people.

“I work with children as much as possible,” she explains. “This is a natural activity for them — they love to collect and replant seed. Seed education should begin with our children in their school and home gardens.”

Earlier this year, a local seed exchange invited five middle school garden groups to attend and participate in special activities, including a scavenger hunt and seed mandala. The youth were fully engaged, Nancy says, bringing seed packets to fill and mingling with adult gardeners who exchanged both seed and stories.

“I heard last week from the teachers who came that the children are still talking about the seed exchange,” Nancy says. “We can engage our youth in meaningful and fun work through seed. It is a way for them to value this natural resource, and to protect and preserve it for their children and their children’s children.”

Children clean seed at the Hawai’i Island Seed Exchange

She hopes to see more farmers in Hawai’i incorporating seed work into their lives, too.

“We continue to lose varieties at a rapid rate, and few farmers feel they have time to add seed work to their busy days,” she explains. “But it is an essential part of growing a whole system.  When you begin growing, selecting, and replanting your own seed, you see how the varieties adapt to your specific climate, soil type, and seasonality. Plants adapt themselves to respond to the unique situation they find themselves in. We must learn to do the same with our lives.”

Nancy recommends saving seed from crops that grow well in your area, and, ideally crops that are especially important to your farm. That way you’ll be more inclined to grow, select, dry, and save with care. Then, “replant and observe,” she says. “You may be surprised at how enjoyable seed saving can be,” she says, “and how much money you will save.”

Beyond enhancing the genetic diversity of our seed and food, Nancy also views seed saving as a right that needs to be exercised. This has become important, she says, as restrictive intellectual property practices, such as patenting seed, increasingly impacts farmers in profound ways. This includes barriers to operating as seed stewards.

“The loss of knowledge necessary for growing, selecting, and saving seed impacts us all, including future generations,” she says. “Seed is the foundation of life, the beginning and end of our food system. There should be no patents on seed.”

It is clear that beyond a sense of urgency and duty, Nancy has fallen in love with seed as a craft.

“I love watching plants go to seed — stretching out, losing its form, expanding into something wild and unique,” she explains. “And I love cleaning seed.”

And her favorite varieties?

That seems to change with time, she explains. Right now she points to two varieties. The first is an older open-pollinated sweet corn called ‘Supersweet #9’ developed in 1977 by plant breeder James Brewbaker at the University of Hawai’i.

Dr. James Brewbaker from the University of Hawai’i in Manoa shows participants of a Hawai’i Public Seed Initiative workshop his parent lines of food, feed, and fiber maize varieties for the tropics

“I have been saving and improving this variety on my farm for 25 years,” Nancy explains. “And I still look forward to planting and eating it.”

She also loves the ‘Komohana’ tomato bred by another University of Hawai’i plant breeder in the 1970s named Jim Gilbert. This is a clustering grape tomato that does well in tropical climates and makes incredible pasta sauce.

These varieties carry with them two stories that illustrate the vulnerable nature of plant breeding programs and seed as a natural, living resource.

One is the story of sweet corn breeder Dr. Brewbaker who is now in his 80s with no one in line to take his place. The second story is that Dr. Gilbert’s varieties of tropical tomatoes were lost in a flood that swept through the University of Hawai’i in Manoa in the 1990s.

“We can never take seed for granted,” Nancy says. “It can be lost in a blink of an eye.”

These stories reiterate the need to adequately support plant breeding work happening in the public domain, including the next generation of plant breeders. They also reiterate the importance of public seed initiatives like HPSI that are building a foundation and network of seed innovators to ensure the security of both seed and seed knowledge.

“I have been working with seed for almost 20 years, and I feel like a novice,” Nancy says. “There is so much to learn, so much to experiment with, so much to share. It will be part of my life’s work.”

This post is part of our Farmer Seed Stewardship initiative series. The initiative is a partnership between OSA and Seed Matters, and promotes farmers engagement in seed systems – training farmers in seed production and crop improvement, and advocating for farmers’ ability to save, improve, and plant the seed they need. Learn more here.

“I am truly honored by this award,” said Navazio. “To have an organization like the American Horticultural Society recognize the importance and need for an advanced seed growing manual for organic farmers is fantastic. I wrote this book to build a foundation of knowledge for any grower to safeguard and improve the seed of the crops that we depend on for our livelihood and sustenance. The importance of having well-maintained seeds of our crops in the hands of many people can not be underestimated in our quest to have agricultural communities thrive and flourish long into the future.”

The Organic Seed Grower is a comprehensive manual for the serious vegetable grower who is interested in growing high-quality seed using organic farming practices. Detailed profiles for each of the major vegetables provide users with practical, in-depth knowledge about growing, harvesting, and processing seed for a wide range of common and specialty vegetable crops, from Asian greens to zucchini.

“Though this book is aimed at seed producers on a larger scale than the average gardener,” writes the AHS book committee, “all book committee members agreed that the issue at its core—food crop biodiversity—is a crucial topic for a much wider audience.”

The committee chair, Susan Appleget Hurst, adds: “There’s nothing else like this guide with so much detail about how to protect the diversity of open-pollinated plants.”

The Organic Seed Grower was published by Chelsea Green and can be ordered at this link. To set up an interview with Dr. John Navazio, contact Kristina Hubbard at kristina@seedalliance.org or (406) 493-6965.

These are large replicated trials intended to help identify wheat varieties that will thrive on organic farms in the rainfed environments of northern California. Organic wheat production is taking off in Northern California and organic farmers have specific challenges that make it important to identify the best varieties for them. These challenges include weed competition and less readily available nitrogen.

The trial includes soft white and hard red spring wheat varieties, with a mixture of heirloom and publicly developed modern varieties represented. Researchers are comparing the performance of the varieties based on traits including maturity, disease resistance, height, resistance to lodging, yield, and protein content. At the end of the season, the results from the trials will be published and made available in the Organic Variety Trial Database.

In addition to the on-farm trials, this project includes a survey of small grain production in the Northern California counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Humboldt. This project is supported by a grant from the California Wheat Commission.

If you are a farmer growing small grains in any of these counties, contact Jared Zystro to participate in the survey.

Conference attendees receive practical information, cutting edge research, updates on policy and seed advocacy efforts, and inspiring stories from the field. The 7th Organic Seed Growers Conference theme is Innovation in the Field, a celebration of advancements in organic seed and the role farmers play in improving our crop genetic resources. While we welcome a diversity of proposals, those that fit the following categories are encouraged:

•   Advancements in organic plant breeding
•   Breeding for resiliency and biodiversity
•   Farmer-led breeding projects
•   New models for organic seed production and enterprise development

Deadline:
Proposals must be submitted by July 1, 2013. Applicants will be notified by August 1, 2013.

Proposals (presentations and posters):
To submit a proposal, please copy the Proposal Application fields below into a Word doc, complete it, and email to Cathleen McCluskey. If you have any issues, please contact Cathleen with questions.

•   Name
•   Title
•   Organization/Business
•   Phone
•   Email
•   Check one: Poster or Presentation
•   Title of Presentation
•   Brief Description (300 words or less)
•   Target Audience

We welcome not only academic sessions, but also encourage advocates, government staff, and others with practical knowledge of organic seed systems to participate. Each presenter will be required to submit a paper for the conference proceedings no later than November 15, 2013. Please contact Cathleen for assistance with the proposal process.

Suggestions for content:
We also welcome suggestions for speakers and topics. What issue would you like to learn more about? What questions do you want to see addressed through a panel discussion or presentation? Who would you like to hear speak at the conference? Email your ideas and questions to Cathleen McCluskey in Word format or in the body of an email. If possible, please include: name and contact information (for follow-up questions), suggested topics, suggested speakers, and any additional input regarding conference format and agenda (note: the date and location are already set).

Selection process:
Proposals are evaluated and chosen by a review committee with diverse representation from the organic seed community. The agenda is also informed by input received from past conferences.

Conference location:
The conference venue is the Oregon State University Alumni Center, a beautiful facility located on campus in Corvallis. Registration opens September 1, 2013.

Past proceedings and updates on the 2014 conference are available at:  
http://www.seedalliance.org/organic-seed-growers-conference/

Information Sharing and Mentoring: Many seed producer participants spoke to how the complexity of the seed industry, both in production and marketing, presents a challenge for producers who want to work in new crops or new markets. Seed producers are often geographically separated and have less of a chance to “talk shop.” As a result of the discussion, OSA has launched the California Organic Seed Producers Forum, a listserve that allows seed producers to easily share, ask, and answer questions of one another. Please contact Jared Zystro for more information.

Variety Information Sharing: Many of the farmers present identified the need for information sharing tools for sharing variety performance results. Participants described a “Seed Wiki” where farmers could annotate varieties on-line with information. OSA is working on projects that fill this need. The first project is an addition to eOrganic’s Organic Variety Trial Database. The new system will allow farmers to include comments along with the existing information from formal trials.

Fostering Direct Relationships: A number of farmers at the meeting expressed a desire to directly interact with seed producers. They want to form relationships to share their needs with independent seed producers and potentially enter into custom seed production contracts. Following the stakeholders meeting, Steve Peters of Seed Revolution has been organizing farmer / seed purchaser groups in the Capay Valley and the San Juan Bautista / Hollister area to identify their needs and connect them with custom seed from organic seed producers.

We recently had the pleasure of evaluating (and tasting!) our winter sprouting broccoli project. The breeding goals are to produce a crop that reliably overwinters in the region, and that has flavorful, consistent, four to five inch heads, born on highly productive shoots with tender stems. This project is a collaboration with Organically Grown Company, the largest all-organic produce distributor in the Pacific Northwest. OGC is investing in the project to expand access to regionally grown, organic produce.

You can help! Farmer participation is critical to the success of CIOA. We depend on feedback from farmers to prioritize our breeding and variety trial objectives. If you are a farmer who grows carrots of any color, let us know which varieties you currently grow and which quality traits are important to you.

Email Cathleen McCluskey to weigh in on our organic carrot trials with the following information: varieties you use, qualities of highest importance, your location, and your primary market (i.e. wholesale, farmers markets, other).

Last year the controversy grew to a new level when the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) adopted a temporary rule that allowed canola production in areas where it was previously banned. The temporary rule was quickly terminated after the ODA was bombarded with protest from the food and farming community, in addition to a successful legal action that resulted in the Oregon Court of Appeals stepping in to stop it. But since that success, the ODA has adopted a final rule that expands canola production in the Willamette Valley and threatens to diminish an invaluable region for seed production.

While questions and issues are seemingly regional in scope, canola production in the Willamette Valley affects specialty seed production decisions – and potentially the diversity of seed options – across the U.S. as well as overseas.

Canola is a threat to the Willamette Valley’s thriving vegetable seed industry for two main reasons. Canola cross-pollinates with other Brassicas like turnip and broccoli, impacting the genetic integrity of these relatives if they cross, and making the seed unmarketable. Furthermore, most canola is genetically engineered, posing challenges for farmers (especially organic) who need to avoid GE material in their seed crops. But even if most canola didn’t contain a GE trait, we would still be having this debate and there would still be as much opposition. Genetic integrity of seed crops is threatened when seed producers cannot avoid unwanted traits, GE or not, that impact the purity and thus marketability of their seed crop. For example, a seed lot will be rejected if more than three out-crossed seed per 1,000 seed are found.

Canola cross-pollinates via wind and pollinators (some traveling as far as five miles). Canola seed pods are also prone to shattering, and canola seed remains dormant in the soil for two or more years. Volunteer canola plants serve as vectors for pollen transfer, creating significant challenges for containment. One California study found thousands of volunteer plants (per hectare) that resulted from dormant canola seed planted four years prior.

Cross-pollination isn’t the only problem. Canola increases disease and pest pressures for seed and fresh vegetable producers. The concern is that canola will serve as reservoirs for important pests, such as the cabbage maggot. Another disease of great concern is white mold. Research points to the need to take a precautionary approach by not allowing canola in this region.

The Willamette Valley has an ideal climate for seed production, with mild winters and warm, dry summers. The other four areas with similar climates for commercial specialty seed production include parts of British Columbia, Chile, the Mediterranean, and Australia. Some countries with similar conditions to the Willamette Valley, like France, have allowed canola and consequently saw their seed production industry decline. Several international companies now produce seed in the Willamette Valley.

The region’s specialty seed industry is valued at $50 million (compared to the canola industry’s estimated value in the region of $3 million). These small acres of specialty seed also represent a majority of the world’s Brassica seed production. The genus of Brassicas includes many vegetable crops important to our diet, including broccoli, radish, turnip, and rutabega. The genus also includes canola and mustards, as well as weed species. Brassica specialty seed crops are profitable to growers, even when acreage is small. A report commissioned by the ODA estimates that the Willamette Valley produces more than 90% of the European cabbage, Brussel sprouts, rutabega, and turnip seed, and 20 – 30% of radish, Chinese cabbage, and other Asian Brassica vegetable seed.

At a recent Oregon state legislature hearing, a Japanese seed company testified in support of House Bill 2427, which aims to ban canola production in the region: “If canola production is allowed … my company and other companies will immediately start looking for other places to produce our seed.” Some specialty seed companies have threatened to pull all seed contracts (not just Brassicas) from the Willamette Valley if canola is allowed.

It’s clear that the consequences of sacrificing this region — the last in the U.S. most ideal for Brassica seed production — greatly outweigh the benefits to the canola industry. Precautions are necessary to safeguard these unique growing conditions and the regional economy. Organic Seed Alliance is especially thankful for the good work of Friends of Family Farmers. They’ve been working tirelessly to reverse the ODA’s final rule to expand canola production in the Willamette Valley. Currently, they’re organizing around House Bill 2427. (See OSA’s opinion piece in support of this bill.)

If you’re not an Oregonian, remember that the outcome of this decision may extend to your backyard garden or dinner plate – whether you live in Delaware or Denmark. If you haven’t been keeping tabs, get caught up by reading the timeline of events below and stay tuned through our Seed Broadcast blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

August 3, 2012: ODA published a temporary rule allowing canola production in areas previously protected in the Willamette Valley.

August 16, 2012: Thanks to good organizing by Friends of Family Farmers, and legal work by the Center for Food Safety, the Oregon Court of Appeals granted a stay to the temporary rule, meaning canola cannot be planted in previously protected areas until other rules are finalized.

September 28, 2012: ODA held a public hearing in Salem, Oregon, that attracted widespread opposition to the proposed permanent rule.

October 18, 2012: ODA extended the comment period to November 2nd, 2012, and convened a Canola Advisory Committee. (Friends of Family Farmers point out the committee was not tasked with reaching consensus.)

November 2, 2012: ODA closed the public comments on its proposed permanent rule.

January 23, 2013: ODA held a public hearing before closing the final rule comments on January 25, 2013.

February 7, 2013: ODA adopted a final rule that expands canola production by a maximum of 2,500 acres in an area where it was previously banned.

March 19, 2013: The Oregon state legislature’s Agriculture and Natural Resources committee held a public hearing on House Bill 2427, which aims to ban canola production in the Willamette Valley. The committee needs to vote by April 8, 2013, or the bill will die.