The first supermarket is said to have appeared in The States (not very long ago) in 1946. Before then, where was all the food?! How did people eat and feed their families? The food was in homes, gardens, community fields, vacant lots, and nearby forests.

Today, global agriculture is increasingly reliant on commercial seed produced and distributed by a small number of companies that control our food. The disadvantages of this system have become evident in recent years: 

• More than 90% of genetic diversity in agricultural crops has been lost. 
• Farmers and their communities have lost sovereignty over their seeds – many of which are not even allowed to be saved and replanted. 
• Commercial varieties are often poorly adapted to the environments in which they are grown and depend on fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and crop protection to thrive (aka “sissy plants”). 
• Food security has become precarious as the climate changes and becomes unpredictable. Even varieties that were once well-adapted to their environments may not succeed in tomorrow’s climate due to their lack of genetic diversity. 

There is an alternative to this system: we can breed our own crop varieties – either alone or in collaboration with neighboring growers. By growing multiple varieties close together, allowing them to pollinate promiscuously, and selecting seeds from plants that thrive with minimal inputs, a grower can develop a genetically diverse, locally adapted variety (often called a landrace) that requires significantly less inputs than most commercial varieties.

Supporting the community food sovereignty movement through seed keeping is a perfect outlet for my seed saver OCD. I was delighted to discover this small town seed library in the heart of Georgia and excited to share my heirloom seed collection with them…but not nearly as excited as they were to receive it! Check out the video below☺️

It’s valuable to have a local seed source in every community. Stewarding seeds locally will create more climate adapted plants and provide access to healthy nutritious food within communities. Everyone should be empowered to grow food that heals the body, the soul, and the planet. Together we create a resilient and environmentally adaptive food system that works with nature and can withstand its unpredictability.

As I expand my farm, I will continue to share in bigger and broader ways – to continue to disrupt the system. The reality is, there’s no real food security without seed security. This begs the question: Am I saving the seeds or are the seeds saving me?