Why Seeds Are Important

When we think about modern agriculture we often think of man made inventions like equipment, new methods of planting, harvesting and maintaining crops. Things like trestles built of steel wire and fence posts hold raspberries up in straight rows that are easy to pick, equipment allows us to plant and harvest large acres of the same crops.

What we sometimes forget when thinking about agriculture is that none of it would be possible without the seeds that nature provided. No man or woman has yet invented a seed, although we have further developed seeds from what nature provided us, we have never created life. We are here to nurture life.

The way that nature was able to provide us the seeds that we humans have further developed for use in agriculture, was by nature promoting genetic diversity. Without genetic diversity nature cannot provide a high survival rate of plants in diverse environments.

Modern agriculture however has further developed seeds by restricting the genetic diversity in pursuit of uniform and predictable results. This in itself is not wrong and is the way that we were able to develop tasty big vegetables for example. What becomes a problem is that our system of agriculture, because it restricts genetic diversity, is in danger of robbing nature of the opportunity to keep alive a system of further developing genetic diversity as she has always done. For eons of time nature has been where we have gone to get genetic diversity to develop new strains and plants. Now we have put agriculture in most places where nature was, and nature can't keep generating adequate genetic diversity without large natural areas. 

We are at a place in time where humans must take on the responsibility of maintaining and developing genetic diversity, as we have largely taken away nature’s ability to do this for us. If we don’t maintain genetic diversity, we will loose the tools to grow adequate  food for future generations.

Organic agriculture pays much attention to the genetics of seeds and places great value on protecting seed diversity. The organic movement supports the genetic integrity of seeds, and recognizes that if we lose that natural genetic diversity, we will not be able to survive as a species.

Why Organic Doesn't Use Genetically Modified Bio-Technology

Many organic enthusiasts believe that genetically engineered seed is in itself not good. However in the large picture this is a small part of the concern. The real organic concern is that genetic engineered seed will push out the current genetic heritage in our seeds. This has already happened to crops like the Canadian Canola oil seed. Read more.  

To the bio-tech developers and promoters of GMO crops, we say: Do whatever you want in your own back yard, but don’t bring your GMO toys into the organic food supply system. 

It is alarming that the bio-tech developers and promoters are attempting to control the world seed supply.  Is it a coincidence that there has been lobbying for changes to our seed savings laws in Canada that would reduce the farmers right to save seeds? Read a full description here.

US farmers also have concerns about the control of seed and who is trying to keep the control out of the hands of farmers. Read more.  

What is really at stake with genetic engineering?  Is it something inherently bad that we need to avoid at all cost, or is it a tool used by some multinational corporations to control our seed for their own profit? Or is it both?  Will the world survive the loss of genetic diversity that will be the result if farmers can’t share and develop seeds, and all seeds are “owned” by large corporations?