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Developing Quality Seed: Seedfolks celebrate successes at 4th Organic Seed Growers Conference
Twenty years ago, chances are you could have fit all the organic seed grown in this country under the z-bed in a 1967 split window Volkswagon microbus. Organic agriculture was in its infancy, being led by a burgeoning back-to-the-land organic gardening movement and there were probably more organic seeds bartered than sold. Today organic agriculture is a billion dollar business, organic seeds are housed in large climate controlled warehouses, and sales are in the millions, both through colorful racks in a wide range of outlets, as well as catalog and web-based sales. But while it is certainly a burgeoning movement, the organic seed “industry” is still dwarfed by its chemical-based “conventional” counterpart.
The growth in the organic seed movement has come from three basic sources. Many of the early “grass-roots” seed-savers have matured into serious producers of high quality organic seed for the market, often involving themselves in variety improvement projects, and selling to more than one seed company, and/or through their own businesses. Growth has also come from the top down, as large commercial seed companies, spurred on by the USDA ruling, delve into the organic market, bringing their expertise in quality control, hybridization, and mechanization. The third source is the public sector, as universities are beginning to show interest in working with the organic seed movement to identify crop improvement strategies and non-profit and grass-roots organizations form to facilitate collaboration.
A full house at Edgefield
The 2006 biennial Organic Seed Growers Conference, hosted by the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) and Washington and Oregon State Universities (WSU, OSU), was attended by a sold-out crowd of seedspeople and was truly a convergence and collaboration of these three once disparate entities—microbus meets late model diesel pick-up meets Toyota Prius. The historic and intimate McMenamins Edgefield Resort in Troutdale, Oregon provided a perfect setting for the two-day event that was preceded by a well attended, one-day “Seed Biology Short Course.” In total over 220 people attended the two events. Even more extraordinary than the fact that representatives from these various entities had convened to share information, was the respect and admiration that they showed for each other and the genuine interest in further developing a rigorously informed organic seed movement, dedicated to producing the highest quality seed for the organic gardeners and farmers.
The conference theme of seed quality, pervasive throughout the presentations, was eloquently set forth by conference coordinator Micaela Colley in her opening address. Seed quality, she pointed out, is “vital not only to the future of organic seed producers, but to the whole of agriculture.” While seed quality encompasses a broad range of characteristics, such as vigor, purity, and uniform genetics, Colley also reminded us that, especially for organic agriculture, “seed quality means maintaining the genetic diversity necessary for adapting to a constantly changing ecosystem.” 
Low-tech seed cleaning demonstration Seed We Need
Over the course of the two-day conference, nowhere was the efficacy of utilizing genetic diversity more apparent than in the work of the first presenter, David Christensen. After leading the group in some spirited gospel singing to get everyone’s attention, David shared the story of how he developed his extraordinary “Painted Mountain” corn by combining a wide array of genetics from stress-enduring corns and selecting the strongest survivors. The result of his more than three decades of work is a short-season, cold- and altitude-adapted corn that survives where others fail, is extremely adaptable, and shows higher levels of protein and anthocyanins than most commercial corns. David’s talk set an inspiring tenor for the conference and filled the crowd with a sense of possibility as to what can be achieved with vision, perseverance and limited resources. His project, dubbed “Seed We Need” has supplied seed to indigenous people from Siberia to North Korea where the results have been more than promising.
David Christensen speaks about Painted Mountain corn Universities Join the Party
If one man can develop corn to feed a hungry world, imagine what progress can be achieved when university scientists work with farmers to develop vigorous, disease resistant crops specifically tailored for organic production. While university research in agriculture has been more than dominated by the needs of a chemical-based food system and the high economic stakes of genetic engineering, it was clear to conference attendees that times are indeed changing. Nearly half of the presentations were, either wholly or in part, from university researchers, addressing many important issues for organic producers.
These presentations covered a broad range of topics, often integrating practical information, leaving the audience not only enlightened to important issues, but armed with techniques to improve the quality of their seed. One example of this synergy was the presentation entitled “Management of Black Rot of Crucifers from Seed to Seed.” Ken Johnson of OSU, Robin Ludy of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Jodi Lew-Smith of High Mowing Seeds, and Alex Stone of OSU joined forces to give a compelling presentation covering everything from identifying and controlling the disease in the field, to a hands-on demonstration of treating contaminated seed with carefully controlled hot water baths. Along these lines, another important University-based research report came from WSU’s Lindsay du Toit. Her “Seed Borne Diseases: An Overview” was a hit with conference attendees, addressing an area of critical importance to the organic seed industry.
 Demonstration of hot water treatment of diseased seed
Many in the crowd were also delighted to see attention given to nutrition and organics. Alyson Mitchell from University of California at Davis presented research that is beginning to confirm what many of us have always suspected: Organically produced food is more nutritious. While not conclusive, the Davis study did show higher levels of many nutrients in organic fields vs. their conventional counterparts, especially in tomatoes. Other presentations focusing on nutrition included Shree P. Singh and Dale T. Westerman’s compelling study on the “ Effect of High- and Low-Input Organic and Conventional Production Systems on Dry Bean Nutrients” and Phillip W. Simon’s (USDA/University of Wisconsin, Madison) colorful presentation on “Breeding Carrots for Improved Nutritional Value.” Simon challenged our carrot preconceptions with his research into increased phytonutrient levels of yellow, red and purple carrots.
Alyson Mitchell on breeding for nutrition Setting the tone for all of these university presentations and for the conference in general, was a presentation by George Moriarty, who was standing in for Molly Jahn of Cornell University. George and Molly's research program is the home of the Organic Seed Partnership, which facilitates the collaboration of public and private plant breeders, non-profit organizations, seed companies, and farmers in developing vegetable varieties for the organic market. For many in attendance, the involvement of farmers in seed research hit close to home. It is central to the work of conference host Organic Seed Alliance and the knowledge and breadth that seed farmers bring to the movement was apparent in many presentations.
Fred Brossy speaks to the farm value of seed production
In addition to the personal perspectives of the farmers, the seed industry perspective was shared by Tom Stearns of High Mowing Seeds and Joel Reiten from Bejo Seeds. Coming from opposite ends of the spectrum, (High Mowing, a small, family-owned, organic-only enterprise and Bejo, an international seed giant with a commitment to organics) Joel and Tom shared unique and varied insights into the economics of the organic seed business, not to mention a few good laughs. Added to the industry perspective, David DeCou of the Organic Materials Review Institute proposed the idea of an organic seeds database and solicited ideas as to how this might work to connect organic growers with seed company offerings. Many constructive ideas ensued from the discussion and hopefully a much-needed database of available organic seed varieties will be a reality in the near future.
If there is one person who epitomizes the organic seed movement, it has to be John Navazio. His career as a seedsman, researcher and educator has crossed over into all the segments of the industry, and few in the business have not benefited from his expertise. His discussion of the “Environmental Challenges of Raising Organic Vegetable Seed West of the Cascades” demonstrated and effectively shared his broad knowledge, especially of “cool season, dry seeded, vegetable crops” which he has affectionately dubbed CSDSVC. While we all appreciated his discourse on establishment of adequate photosynthetic area and day-length sensitivity of angiosperms, nothing compared to seeing him wailing on his guitar and belting out some Johnny Cash at the previous night's social gathering.
I think that anyone who attended the 2006 Organic Seed Growers Conference couldn’t help but come away a little smarter and a little more inspired. From the insightful presentations, seed cleaning demos, seed swap and resource center, to the late night conversations about storage onions and lettuce diseases, there was a sense that an industry, fueled by passion and commitment, is finally coming of age and is well on its way toward what OSA director Matthew Dillon described in his emotion-filled closing remarks as “an essential step in fulfilling the spirit of organics.”
Scott Vlaun is the co-founder of Moose Pond Arts+Ecology. He’s a regular contributor to garden publications including Mother Earth News and the Seeds of Change Cutting Edge Newsletter.
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