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The Organic Seed Grower is what we need to take back community control of seeds from
those who have taken it from us.
Tom Stearns, president, High Mowing Organic Seeds
Dr. John Navazio has written the definitive book on organic vegetable seed production. This
seminal work deserves a place in every growers library.
John Navazio has made a keystone contribution to the future of the grassroots organic seed movement. The Organic Seed Grower is a fundamental resource for the preservation and improvement
of agricultural biodiversity.Jeff McCormack, founder, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
John Navazio has written a fantastic guide for organic seed breeders and producers. He has
taken organic seed production to a higher level.Suzanne Ashworth, author, Seed to Seed
With the recent strong demand for certified organic
produce, many regional seed companies are increasingly seeking out dedicated seed growers to ensure
a reliable source of organically grown seeds for their
farmer and gardener customers. This trend represents
a great business opportunity for small-scale commercial growers.
At the same time, organic farmers are becoming
aware of the ever-diminishing number of high-quality,
organic vegetable seed choices available to them. The
genetic diversity of our vegetable crops has been dangerously eroded, with proprietary one-size-fits-all
hybrids often taking the place of regional farmer
strains that are often much more resilient and better
adapted to local growing conditions.
The Organic Seed Grower will both help dedicated
home seed savers, commercial seed growers, and
diversified small-scale farmers learn the necessary
steps that are involved in successfully producing a
commercial organic seed crop and provide details on
many of the standard methods used by professional
seed growers.
OrganicSeedGrower_cover.indd 1
The
Navazio
The
Organic
Seed
Grower
John Navazio
A Farmers Guide to Vegetable Seed Production
Chelsea
Green
10/31/12 11:14 AM
A Short History of
Agricultural Seed
Seed as Trade
Trade in seed has been a key component in
the spread of crops since very early in the
domestication process. Seed of a promising
crop has probably been a large enticement in
many bartering situations. The commercial
sale of seed, however, didnt become commonplace in North America and Europe until
the second half of the 19th century, and the
seed trade of that era consisted almost entirely
of small packets of vegetable, flower, or herb
seed that served as starter packets for future
seed-saving activity. The growing and saving
of farm and garden seed was as much a part
of any agricultural pursuit as was working
the soil and planting in the spring. With the
advent of commercial seed companies, farmers and gardeners bought seed of specialty and
hard-to-find items. Sometimes they purchased
seed of a particular species that was difficult
to produce in their climate. And sometimes
people purchased seed packets to try something new, exciting, and full of promise.
Starting in the 1880s and continuing into
the 1920s there was a steady increase in the
number of start-up seed companies in North
America. In addition to many
new companies entering the
vegetable and flower seed
market, there were also companies specializing in seed
corn and other agronomic
staples on a scale that hadnt
been seen before. It is impossible to get a comprehensive
list or an accurate count of
all of these companiessome
were quite small, and some
only lasted a few yearsbut
by the 1920s literally hundreds of them had sprung up
in every agricultural region
The Change
Many social, cultural, and political events
occurred between the 1920s and the end of
World War II that had a profound effect on
agricultural practices in many industrial societies. Modern plant breeding came of age
during the 1920s, and the development of
hybrid corn received most of the attention.
Much of the early breeding work in corn concentrated on improving its stalk strength and
ability to produce under challenging conditions. This proved invaluable in many areas of
the Corn Belt when several cycles of drought,
extreme heat, and high winds conspired with
poor farming practices to create the Dust
Bowl crisis in the American Great Plains during the 1930s. The Dust Bowl, coupled with a
worldwide economic depression and a near
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As productivity increased with the new industrial model, many aspects of agriculture became
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The Ownership
Conundrum:
Seed as Big Business
Selling agricultural seed had become a good
business in the middle of the 20th century. It
wasnt exactly fast money, since profits were
made based on the quality and volume of
seed sold. Yet if a seed company offered good
varieties that catered to the farmers needs and
sold seed of varieties that met high quality
standards, then it was sure to have a place at
the table when farmers laid down their hardearned cash. Seed companies were run by
seedsmen, as they were then called, and indeed
they were a special breed, with a connection to
seed that far surpassed their business interests.
From the late 1940s to the 1970s there
was unmitigated growth in all matter of
agricultural goods globally, and seed was no
exception. The spread of modern agricultural
techniques such as mechanization and the use
of inputs like synthetic fertilizer and insecticides spread to many of the major commercial
agricultural centers around the world during
this period. Seed of modern crop varieties
bred in the United States and Europe wasnt
far behind. Plant breeders had learned that
when crops were selected and evaluated across
environments, they could produce varieties with wide adaptation. Occasionally these
varieties would have such good adaptation
across environments and geographic regions
that they would perform well in numerous
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