Saving Seeds

by Farmer Dave
(Northern California)

Saving seeds!!
Its more important than ever for all of us to be saving seeds, trading and sharing and developing seed saving networks.
There is a push within the multinational seed companies to do away with the smaller organic seed companies that offer heirloom, open pollinated and organic seeds.
What inspired my thinking on saving seeds today was the fall of the organic Seed Company Seeds of Change. Which was owned by the mega companie "Mars"
I guess they were not making a big enough profit.
Here is the full article below.

Seeds of Change Farm Manager Eero Ruuttila guided a public tour of the company’s El Guique farm Aug. 14 for about 10 gardeners and farmers. Ruuttila gave the tour despite the news that the multinational candy company Mars, Inc., which bought Seeds of Change 10 years ago, was closing the farm and its Seeds of Change warehouse in Santa Fe.

Eero Ruuttila, the manager of the Seeds of Change farm in El Guique, gave no hint of the bad news to come as he quietly set up picnic tables the morning of Aug. 14 to prepare for a public tour of the grounds.

Some of the farm’s flower beds were growing over with weeds, and some of the crops looked wilted in the late morning sun, but that was easy to ignore as Ruuttila made casual conversation with about 10 gardeners and organic farmers from as far away as Arizona and introduced them to his dog. He set up the tables with cheese, apple juice and a colorful vase of freshly cut flowers.

It was only later in the day, when Ruuttila announced the farm would be closing within two weeks and this would be its final public tour, that the flowers became a more somber presence.

Though the farm, which was bought 10 years ago by the multinational candy giant Mars Corporation, will be completely closed by the end of August, Mars wanted the tour to happen anyway, Ruuttila said.

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“This is a very difficult position I’m in here,” Ruuttila said before a long pause. “As the farm manager, to see this facility close, and being asked to shut the farm down mid-season ...”

Operations Manager Bill Delval interrupted Ruuttila and threatened to shut down the tour if Ruuttila continued to talk about the farm’s closing.

“This is the tour, Bill,” Ruuttila said. “I’m a professional grower, and as a professional grower I have the right to say the fields here looked much better three weeks ago before this thing happened.”

Ruuttila went on with the tour, making only occasional references to the farm’s fate.

“This field was beautiful three weeks ago,” Ruuttila said, looking over his shoulder at several rows of herbs, fruits and vegetables, several of which were wilted or spotted with weeds. “Normally, you keep that at bay with intense management, but once that evaporates ... I can say I’m not surprised, but it makes me feel not so good as a professional grower. This is not the way this field should look.”

Ruuttila proved during the tour he can dish out plentiful advice on how to grow organic herbs, vegetables and legumes in the hot, dry northern New Mexico summer. He gave the somber gardeners and farmers in the tour tips on how to keep moisture in the ground despite high winds and scalding temperatures. He described doing battle with the beat leafhopper, an insect that was wreaking havoc on his legumes this growing season. He said he’s helped train National Guardsmen in farming and irrigation techniques to take overseas to Afghanistan. And Ruuttila can take credit for transforming one section of the El Guique farm from a barren desert patch into a productive acre of farmland growing over 40 varieties of legumes, beans and vegetables.

But when it comes to taking on a multinational corporation, even Ruuttila has his limits.

“I’m the end of the end,” Ruuttila said.

Seeds of Change started in 1989 selling dozens of varieties of certified organic seeds, including many types of what are known as heirloom seeds, according to Ruuttila. That market has left the company “ahead of the curve” and therefore in a precarious financial situation from the start, Ruuttila said.

“As a company, Seeds of Change has struggled because we are and have been ahead of the explosion in consumer-driven organics,” Ruuttila said.

Mars bought Seeds of Change 10 years ago when it was “in serious financial straits” because a member of the family-owned corporation also worked for Seeds of Change, Ruuttila said.

“It was a gamble that in time there would be a large potential market for organic beans and fruits and the company could be a strong player in the seed industry,” Ruuttila said.

Organic Loophole

Ruuttila said the gamble hasn’t paid off partly because of a loophole in federal regulations that allow nominally organic farms to buy conventional seeds so long as they can document three attempts to buy the seed from a certified organic seed company. What that really means is companies can bypass a company like Seeds of Change so long as they can prove three other companies don’t carry the seed they’re looking to buy, Ruuttila said. The result is only 5 percent of the $10 billion a year organic food industry is grown from certified organic seeds like those Seeds of Change sells, he said.

While Seeds of Change has never turned a profit for Mars, it has moved closer to breaking even over the past decade, Ruuttila said. And despite staying on-budget this year, the farm will shut down within a fortnight and the company’s Santa Fe warehouse will be consolidated with a similar operation in California, according to Ruuttila.

After the tour, Ruuttila declined to be interviewed for details on the farm’s closing.

Alice Nathanson, a spokeswoman for Mars, declined to answer questions about the farm’s operating budget and would only put the number of employees affected at “fewer than two dozen.” She called the decision “a strategic shift as part of (the company’s) long-term growth strategy” three times over the phone and once in an e-mailed statement.

Local Shock

News of the farm’s closing sparked surprise and outrage among several familiar with its mission.

“It’s ridiculous they were shut down in the middle of the growing season,” said Norma Navarro, of La Villita, who’s an assistant coordinator of the Española Farmers’ Market. “But I guess that’s the danger of a corporation like Mars. They work on a fiscal year, and they’re not in touch with the land or with people’s lives. It’s a totally different mind set.”

Nathanson declined to answer specific questions about the timing of the farm’s closure or why the farm was required to host a tour three weeks after most of its employees were fired and two weeks before it would be completely closed.

Navarro said the mission of a farm like Seeds of Change — to preserve and cultivate a wide array of seeds — is especially important given the debate over climate change.

“I like to call it climate instability, but the fact is we need all kinds of seeds — seeds that are drought-resistant, seeds that can withstand heavy rains,” Navarro said. “We don’t know what’s coming.”

Nathanson said a majority of the company’s organic seed production and its retail brand operations would remain intact, despite the El Guique and Santa Fe closures.

Sabra Moore, who oversees the Española market, gleaned a deeper lesson from the plight of the El Guique farm.

“It’s sad, but that’s one of the dangers of having corporations control our food,” Moore said. “Ultimately they only care about the bottom line, and they don’t care about people or ecology.”
Article By Lou Mattei
SUN Assistant News Editor


Think Global, saving seeds local
Save your own seeds and trade them with your friends and garden clubs don't rely on local seed companies they may actually be multi nationals in disguise.
Farmer Dave