Nibbles: Poland, Aguaje, Climate Change, Seed Law, Apples, Seed Secretariat

One seed at a time activism

I’ve been having an argy-bargy with Gary of Muck and Mystery over how best to achieve diversity in the seed supply. To polarize, he seems to think that government research in seed breeding for specialized markets, like organic growers, is evil and serves to undermine further the diversity that does exist. I believe that the biggest obstacle is regulation, especially in Europe, where everything not permitted is forbidden. In a recent comment, he said this:

Seed companies do not seek to prevent seed saving. That’s nonsense. Seed companies seek to provide better seed, so good that growers will buy them. This is as true for the smallest independent seed shop as for the huge commercial suppliers. Europe can buy seeds from the world. There’s this thing called the internet to find them and companies that deliver even the smallest packages for decent prices. If that is illegal, then you have identified the problem. The only problem. What’s more. if there are local landraces that those seed companies do not sell, they’d likely be interested in doing so if they had a market for them. Once they are available, growers in other places are sure to try them since their customers would pay for variety. If the people deal with one another without state mediation and control there will be no diversity problem.

There are bits of that I would definitely argue with, but rather than pour fuel on the fire, I’ll simply say that he does have one very good point. In Europe unregistered seeds may not be available locally but “this thing called the internet” does at least offer the opportunity to try things from elsewhere. OK, your package could be confiscated, but it might get through and then you’ve got something new to play with, especially if you know enough to save your own seed in future. There’s also a “Traveller’s Exemption” that allows Europeans returning from abroad to bring back five small packets of seeds unregistered in the EU.

In that spirit, I was happy to see, on the same day as Gary’s advice, a new post at Bishop’s Homegrown. Hip-Gnosis Seed Development List of Available Seed 2009 is just that. A list of the varieties that Alan Bishop is developing and that he’s making available to growers elsewhere. He explains it like this:

We continuously select (year round) for new adaptations, unique colors, and higher nutritional content as well as taste and performance in our seed crops. Many of our seeds are unique breeding lines that will allow the home gardener to select for what they like and need in their own unique micro-climate conditions as well as in taste and color. Hip-Gnosis Seed Development operates now as a unique collective of seed growers and plant breeders working and trading together on the homegrown goodness message board (http://alanbishop.proboards60.com) where many of our varieties can be traded and bartered for (both from us and from other members). As always, all of our seed is public domain property and as such should be traded and allowed to continue its regional expansions into new territories for new selections and strains. We openly encourage everyone to share these special seeds far and wide.

I’m sure he’d welcome some (more?) Europeans in there, to explore and work with Astronomy Domine sweetcorn, Jack White tomato or even Robert Johnson Mississippi Delta Burley Tobacco. ((Can you tell where Alan Bishop is coming from?))

Bishop is just one of the grower enthusiasts at work using ancient and creating modern diversity. There are others like him, not just in the US but in many other parts of the “developed” world. There are even some in Europe.

So yes, go ahead, order seeds over the internet, see what works for you, select and adapt your seeds, and spread them around.

I bet, though, that if Europeans were able to pursue diversity directly instead of through loopholes and over the internet, we would see a lot more of that kind of thing here.

Of cabbages and kings and laws and asses

ResearchBlogging.orgThis is a heartwarming tale of a group of farmers, isolated from the mainstream, seeking new products for a growing market, realizing that they have lost some of their traditional knowledge and their traditional varieties, and working closely with scientists in a participatory plant breeding effort to get what they need.

So far, so familiar.

The kicker is that these farmers are not isolated 3000 metres above sea level in a narrow valley. Nor are they eking out a living in poor red soils that are lucky to see 15 cm of rain a year. They are organic farmers growing cauliflowers and cabbages in Brittany in northwest France. ((The work is described in this paper: Véronique Chable, Mathieu Conseil, Estelle Serpolay, François Lagadec (2008). Organic varieties for cauliflowers and cabbages in Brittany: from genetic resources to participatory plant breeding Euphytica, 164 (2), 521-529 DOI: 10.1007/s10681-008-9749-7))

Brittany has long been famous for its brassicas, notably broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages. In the 1980s, breeders developed F1 hybrids that offered conventional growers the advantages of yield, uniformity and an extended harvest season. The first hybrid cauliflower was introduced in 1983. Before that time production was based on seed from open-pollinated populations raised on farms by growers who often specialized in seed production for their neighbours. While conventional growers were quick to adopt the range of F1 hybrids that the seed companies offered, organic farmers found themselves increasingly neglected.

They want seed breeders to respect both “the natural characteristics of species” and the “integrity of the organism”. The F1 hybrids, which require a form of male sterility developed by fusing two different types of cell, do neither. But conventional seed breeders do not find it worthwhile to develop varieties for organic farmers, a small market that actively seeks diversity and autonomy from the seed companies.

The organic farmers of Brittany are well organized. They have a professional body, Inter Bio Bretagne, and a research organization called PAIS (Plateforme Agrobiologique d’Inter Bio Bretagne à Suscino). The French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) has undertaken organic research since 1999 and in 2004 limited European Union support became available. the organic farmers and scientists decided to develop the brassica varieties they needed.

First they rounded up genetic resources from genebanks in France and elsewhere; Wellesbourne in the UK, Wageningen in the Netherlands, CHERAC in Switzerland and the Vavilov Institute in Russia. A European programme, RESGEN, had collected numerous heritage varieties just before the flood of F1 hybrids.

The team focused on four primary aims:

  • Reviving the traditional activity of Roscoff cauliflowers and local cabbages.
  • Extending the traditional activity into autumn cauliflowers.
  • Diversifying production into new coloured cauoliflowers.
  • Creating new types of population for broccoli and coloured cauliflowers.

For each of these, the Euphytica paper goes into considerable detail. Cabbages, for example, were first grown out and assessed for marketable quality by the farmers and their advisers. the most promising — 7 of the 22 accessions evaluated — are being developed by mass selection at PAIS to make the varieties more suited to mass marketing. The growers adopted a similar strategy to improve autumn cauliflowers, where 8 out of 55 accessions are being pursued. Broccoli and cauliflowers with coloured curds are also in development.

The research side of developing new varieties was going well when, according to the researchers, “the next step occurred spontaneously in the field”. Farmers realized that although agricultural biodiversity, breeding and selection could give them the varieties they sought, they would then have to assure themselves of a supply of seed. “Some of them remembered having seen a father or grandfather producing and breeding seed.” Alas, they “did not remember the traditional know-how or were too young”. And the traditional methods covered only the traditional crops, not the new introductions.

cauliflower.png Working together, the farmers and their advisers are tackling these issues. They have introduced new varieties, with a label that mentions the role of PPB in their development. And they have re-established specialist seed farmers who supply seed for all in a collective framework. The big stumbling block now is European legislation.

Until now, the exchange of seed has remained an experimental dimension of PPB because of the current seed regulation which does not allow seed exchange of non-registered varieties. So, the seed legislation represents a limitation on the development of a “market” for seed from PPB. The term “market” is understood as all forms of gift, exchange, free or financial transactions.

The authors of the paper describe how poor farmers “from the Andes to the Himalayas and beyond” have made use of participatory plant breeding and have adapted local laws to make seed available to poor farmers. Europe lags far behind. As the authors say, “French seed legislation represents a limitation on the development of seed exchange by PPB”.

And not just French.

Photo from here.

Calling Colorado State University locals

Rebecca Nelson, who researches improving disease resistance in crops, will be the speaker at the ninth annual Thornton-Massa Lecture at Colorado State University at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, in the Lory Student Center Theatre. Her topic is “Science vs. Hunger: The Challenges of Funding Research in International Agriculture,” and it would be great to get a report here.