Seed Power
You’ve heard of flower power, but are you familiar with Seed Power? Not all seeds are created equal and if you eat food, your life depends on both flowers and seeds.
Fortunately for humans, just one plant grown from one seed can produce thousands of seeds. Nature is generous, intelligent and miraculous. Each seed contains the genetic information needed for another plant to grow.
Unfortunately, our globalized world is led by the dollar and does not value diversity if it does not immediately turn a profit. Many do not realize that 75% of the world’s edible plant varieties have been lost in the last century. This is a direct result of the industrialization and commercialization of our food systems.
In this blog post I will outline some basic seed terminology, explain why seed diversity matters and why it is so important to grow open-pollinated and heirloom plants.
Cutting Through the Seed Jargon, here are some quick definitions:
A plant variety refers to genetic variation in a plant species that has developed naturally in response to it’s environment. Varieties occur without human intervention, and are open-pollinated. These plants will produce seeds that grow to be true to type, meaning plants grown from collected seed will have similar characteristics to their parents. You can save the seed.
Open-pollinated refers to pollination by insects, wind, birds or other natural mechanism.
Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated varieties that have existed for 80 or more years, they have stood the test of time often being passed down through generations. Heirloom plants produce seeds with natural variation, and saved seeds produce plants that have similar characteristics as their parent plants. You can save the seed.
A plant hybrid refers to plants that have been created by cross-breeding cultivated varieties (human selected) to obtain specific desired characteristics. These plants produce seed that will not grow plants with similar characteristics to their parents. Seeds cannot be saved and have to be bought new each year.
GE or GMO (Genetically engineered or Genetically modified organism) refers to plants whose genetic code has been altered in a lab to achieve desired characteristics. These plants will not produce seeds that can be saved and have to be purchased every year. GMO seeds are not accessible to home gardeners.
Why Does Seed Diversity Matter?
Seed diversity strengthens our food system. Genetic diversity increases the likelihood that a crop will be able to adapt to changing climate conditions, diseases, and pests. When a crop is made up of a diversity of plant individuals, the chances are greater that some individuals will be able to survive and produce seeds for future crops.
Here is a simplified example: In a field of open-pollinated sunflowers experiencing strong gusty winds the tallest sunflowers may be blown over and not survive to produce seed, but since there is genetic diversity within the crop not all the sunflowers are the same height and slightly shorter sunflowers survive to produce seed. That saved seed will produce a crop that has similar characteristics to the parent plants that survived the year before. In this way, over many years, the seed is programmed to your growing conditions.
Climate change is bringing about adverse weather and climate conditions such as strong winds, flooding, and drought. Open-pollinated heirloom seeds have the ability to adapt over time to these conditions.
Preserving Seed Diversity
Seed banks have been popping up around the globe. These are physical buildings that collect and store seeds under extremely controlled temperature and moisture conditions. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 in Norway and is built into arctic permafrost with 1 meter thick walls to protect from catastrophes, even nuclear catastrophes! Similarly, the Millennium Seed Bank in the United Kingdom is a multi-story underground nuclear bomb proof vault that aims to store every plant species possible. These approaches are impressive and have their place in preserving global plant diversity, but edible plant varieties locked away are no good to us right now, as we live and breath and eat three meals a day. I consider these seed banks to be the the back up plan if catastrophe does strike.
Perhaps we won’t need the catastrophe back up plan.
The good news is that around the globe there are grassroots organizations, propelled by communities of eaters and growers, who are actively working to save heirloom and open-pollinated seed varieties. Edible plant varieties and humans are inextricably linked, these plants do not grow in the wild, instead they have evolved alongside the humans who grow them for their outstanding flavour, nutrition, and dependability. These heirloom varieties need us and we need them!
Seeds of Diversity Canada is a non-profit working to save edible plant varieties. (www.seeds.ca)
“People Protecting the People’s Seeds”
By selecting the best healthiest plants to save seed from, a variety will adapt over time to the conditions of your garden. This seed saving practice is only possible with open-pollinated varieties whose seeds produce plants which have characteristics similar to their parents. Seed can be saved and replanted every year, no new seed has to be bought, and the plant variety will adapt to grow in your local region.
Search for the Heirloom Vegetables
I am no purist and I don’t think there is anything inherently bad in growing hybrid plants in your garden! Hybrid varieties can actually be easier to grow because they can be bred to resist diseases and pests, produce higher yields and more uniform shapes. For small farm businesses that rely on crops for their livelihood, using hybrid seed is one way that short term outcomes can be better controlled. That being said, I think every small farm and grower should be incorporating some open-pollinated crop varieties into their fields. The task of growing and saving a significant number of open-pollinated plant varieties can only happen successfully if it is done in a community network across many small farms and gardens.
Here in Cape Breton, and in all of Canada, we rely heavily on a couple of large corporations to provide the majority of our food. You will not find heirloom varieties in the grocery stores, instead you will have to look in your neighbour’s garden or perhaps talk to a farmer at the Saturday Cape Breton Farmers’ Market. As we continue to see changes from a warming climate we have to think critically about where our food is coming from. The saying ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ rings true here. We are going to need food producing plants that can adapt to a changing climate and the only plants capable of doing that are open-pollinated varieties grown locally by gardeners and small-scale farmers. Growing these plants and sharing their seeds is one way we can collectively resist wealthy corporations who control food prices and profit from our basic human necessity to eat.
To grow, eat and save seed from heirloom vegetables are acts that are both healing and sacred. Heirloom seeds have inherent value that cannot be commercialized and turned into big profits. These are the foods of our ancestors, a living chain of connection passed from generation to generation. Seed saving is a powerful practice and a tangible way to reclaim autonomy and build resilience as we face the challenges of our time. It is also a hopeful ritual, a thinking ahead and actively caring for future generations who will inherit our carefully saved seeds.
Sourcing Seeds for Your Garden
Seed companies where I buy open-pollinated and heirloom seeds:
Find free seeds at the local library:
Seeds of Diversity Canada has teamed up with local libraries across the country to offer open-pollinated seeds to library patrons! Our library, the Cape Breton Regional Library is giving away seeds through a program called ‘Learning to Grow together’. They have yet to announce which seed varieties they’ll be offering in 2024, but I’m looking forward to visiting the library this spring and picking up some quality seeds along with a good read!
Here is the link to find more information on the library’s seed program: https://cbrl.ca/seedlibrary
On our farm the annual gardens are mostly filled with varieties of cut flowers, but we always make space to grow food alongside the flowers. Saving seed is a skill that I am actively developing, and this year I look forward to growing heirloom vegetables, including tomatoes, beans, carrots, beets and squash! This is the best way for us to get delicious and nutrient packed food onto our plates. The heirloom varieties can be more challenging to grow than hybrid varieties bred for productivity, but you will be well rewarded for your efforts as their flavour and nutrient profiles are far superior.
Thank you for reading to the end of my first blog post!
Where will you be sourcing your seeds from this year? Have you grown Heirloom varieties in your garden?
What would you add to the conversation around seeds? Have you learnt anything new from this post?
Leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you.
Wishing everyone a cozy January filled with big garden dreams.
