An Argument to Save Your Own Seeds

I have been obsessed with plants since I could articulate full sentences. Throughout my life, I have also sought out many sources of knowledge and experiences. On top of all that I’ve done more experiments with plants than I can remember. This includes trying to sprout almost every seed available to me. Due to this, I’ve heard my whole life “You shouldn’t sprout seeds from (insert plant name here) because it won’t be the same.” My response was always “And what’s wrong with that?”

Humans are often funny creatures. We find something we like, and we don’t want it to change. With food diversity this is problematic. I’ll provide a quote from the article Edible Extinction: Why We Need to Revive Global Food Diversity: “In the United States, at the beginning of the 20th century, farmers grew thousands of different locally adapted varieties of corn. By the early 1970s a small number of hybrids dominated, and all were later found to be susceptible to a disease called leaf blight.” (Saladino, 2022) The entire article has multiple examples but this one is relevant to our own country. How did all those varieties occur? By people saving seeds from plants that they enjoyed and did best for them. But there are problems with this in our modern world and it started in 1980.

Supreme Court case Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980) paved the way for the patenting of organisms. This allowed for the Supreme Court case Bowman v. Monsanto Company (2013) which prohibits farmers from saving seeds from patented seeds. Admittedly, this paragraph discourages saving your own seeds. Sadly, I have one more paragraph of doom and gloom.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we have lost 75% of our agrobiodiversity since 1900 (FAO 2004). This push towards a monoculture is already leading to so many problems. So how can seed saving help with this?

Start by using non-patented plant varieties. Then learn how to save your seeds. Tomatoes, peppers, okra, eggplant, amaranth, squash, and so many others are easy. Just let your fruits and vegetables ripen, then save your seeds after cleaning them if needed. For things like cucumber the seeds need to be fermented, or if you’re lazy like me I just let the ripe cucumbers rot and ferment then wash off all the pulp. There is so much research and help out there on how to save seeds that is literally at your fingertips. Now you’ve learned to save your seeds. How can you help with diversity?

One way is to create your own hybrids. Plant several varieties of something and when they are flowering get out there with a tiny paintbrush and cross-pollinate those flowers. Now, you’ll have to wait and see. Save those seeds and plant them next year and see what you and nature have provided. Maybe the changes are small, maybe they are huge, but you’ll never know until you try.

Another method is simply selection. Maybe you have one plant that produces better food. Well, save seed from it. Diseases are rampant among plants in our gardens but you may see a plant that isn’t affected or is resistant. Save seeds from them. If you get an unusually shaped fruit or vegetable and you like it, save seeds and see if you can grow more.

Are either of the methods mentioned above fast? No. Can they be enjoyable and fulfilling? Yes, very much so. With each set of saved seeds, you tap into something that humans have been doing for 12,000 years or more. You are sharing in cultural practices that span time and the continents. Each tiny step you take is a small step towards diversity.

If you go down this route there is one more thing I encourage. That is to gift and share your varieties. Share seeds with your friends, your communities, and your neighbors. Encourage those that you share with to save seeds. I’ll end this with a recent anecdote from my life. I am working on a corn variety that will hopefully grow well in smaller plots in urban and suburban areas. I selected a few varieties and then a friend who grew up in the same town as I shared another variety with me that I added to my plantings. I’m still in the very early stages of this but as I was setting kernels aside to save for my planting this year, I set some aside for him as well. I mailed him a package and he contacted me. I sent him enough seeds that not only is he going to plant them, but he is sharing them with other friends of his who plan on mixing them in with their plantings. I believe that this should be a culture where seeds are concerned. I hope I’ve convinced you too.



References

Bowman v. Monsanto. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/11-796

 Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980). (n.d.). Justia Law. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/447/303/

Saladino, D. (2022, March 1). Edible Extinction: Why We Need to Revive Global Food Diversity. Yale E360. https://e360.yale.edu/features/a-look-inside-the-global-movement-to-revive-food-diversity

FAO (2004) What is Agrobiodiversity? (n.d.). Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.fao.org/3/y5609e/y5609e02.htm