Friday, December 19, 2014

A Blow to Seed Security and Seed Libraries



Our friends from Seed Freedom LA gathering for our first
press conference/rally in 2013

Only a few days from our rebuff at the Los Angeles City Council, a few interesting facts come to the surface that make the story a whole lot more 'interesting,' as in "may you live in interesting times" supposedly an old Chinese curse.  As I begin to write this, I cannot even title it.  I have smoke coming out of my ears and as I realize that Seed Freedom LA was defeated as a part of a much more broad campaign to take seeds from the hands of individual citizens and concentrate our food growing in the clutches of agri-business. 

I wish to introduce you to an essay by Britt Bailey who introduces a new twist to thickening plot on the Environmental Commons page.  I'd like you to go that page and read the whole essay, it covers more than I want to get into right here, but it shows that California's AB 2470, passed in our last legislative session, is part of a national trend where many state legislatures have passed bills so similar that the wordings are almost identical. In all cases they ban municipalities in that state from enacting laws that govern seeds.  
These states include Pennsylvania, Iowa, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, Indiana, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, West Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, and California.

And just to fluff out our lesson on seed sovereignty being under attack, I include here a link to California's AB 2470.  Just read it and absorb the power grab this bill holds!  It literally sets in place for the Secretary of Agriculture to create lists of plants that shall be grown in California as well as other equally heinous provisions.  

The secretary, by regulation, may adopt all of the following:
(a) A list of the plants and crops that the secretary finds are or may be grown in this state.
Of course today, it looks rather innocuous and dull, but I find this concept a disturbing possibility, especially if it is only one of many laws throughout the nation.  This could effectively mean the loss of all our heirloom crops; the secretary might mandate only GMO crops be grown, it just doesn't pass the smell test.

If we are to have a sane seed (food) policy, this law must go and in it's place a law that makes seed libraries a part of a public policy against the loss of seed sovereignty and creates the legal framework for us to continue our work in making sure our world is seed and food secure.

david


 





Monday, December 15, 2014

Like a New Year's Resolution: A Target!


Burgandy Okra Seeds - "On the hoof" 


A year ago I drew up a list of seeds I thought would be the ones to save – I asked around for others to suggest varieties that I might have missed, but there haven't been a lot of responses.

I was explaining to someone the other day that SLOLA has something like 200 varieties of vegetables in our bank and how I would rather have fewer varieties with larger quantities of each. He suggested that I was postulating the same lack of diversity I decry in the world of seed today.

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I think I have an answer to that accusation: It is better to save a fewer varieties of seed and save them well than to have hundreds of different varieties and save them poorly. I would like SLOLA to save all the seeds that will grow here successfully, but that could easily be more seeds than SLOLA can handle at present.

It is more important that we start where we are (we can't really start somewhere else, can we?) and begin to learn how to save seeds of several major varieties and have them on hand. At present, there aren't that many members who are experienced at growing out to seed. Those who can reliably grow plants out to seed need to apply themselves to growing out the difficult seeds and grow enough out to insure a supply on hand for the rest of our members.

Last year, compiling my list of seeds to save, I was heading east on I-70 through Illinois into Indiana ending up at Ft. Wayne to celebrate Christmas. I was in the back of a car with my little Netbook and using a Blackberry to be online. This year, I'm at home and surrounded by seed catalogs, including the two most often cited as 'veggie porn' catalogs (Seed Savers' Exchange and Baker Creek Heirlooms) and was able to use their listings to create the following list of seeds to save.

In compiling this list, I have relied a lot on my own experience with these different varieties and have selected those first. In addition, I have sought diversity of plants (not all early, but some early, some mid-season and some late, where the varieties allowed that). I also looked for performance in many different criteria – including, hardiness, production, flavor, uniqueness as well as historical significance and, in a few cases, we have varieties to save because they are a family heirloom that might be lost if we don't save them.

Some types of plants have many varieties to save and some just a few. Limiting factors could be 1.) lack of varieties; 2.) lack of varieties that do well in Southern Califonia; 3.) I am not familiar with many varieties and so choose to not make a decision (eggplant is an example) and 4.) one or two varieties are considered sufficient to supply the need. For example, in the case of cilantro, there are several (not many) named varieties on the market, but having grown all the cilantros I've found, the differences are negligible and so I simply list cilantro without any varieties. Slo-Bolt bolted faster for me than the cilantro have self seeding in my garden.

Here's the number one reason to share this: we seed savers in SLOLA need to hear from everyone who has suggestions for varieties of veggies to save. The Seed Savers Of Los Angeles need to build a list of seeds to save – a 'target' for us to shoot for. Email us via the blog or bring your list to any SLOLA meeting – I’ll be willing to add your suggestions to my list. Let's see if we can double this in the coming year!

This is a work in progress! OUR work!

Varieties of Vegetable Seeds I Believe We* Should Save

Artichokes




Green Globe
Violetto


Beans (nominally
Phaseolus vulgaris)



Aquadulce (Fava)
Broad Windsor (Fava)
Cannelini Bush Bean (Dry/Bush)
Christmas (Lima/Climbing)
Envy (Soybean)
Golden Wax Bean (Wax/Bush)
Henderson (Lima/Bush)
Hutterite Soup
Pencil Pod (Wax/Bush)
Pineschi Family Bean (Vigna unguiculata)
Royal Burgundy Bean (Purple/Early)
Scarlet Runner (Phaseolus coccineus)
Beets


Bull's Blood
Crosby's Egyptian
Burpee's Golden
Chioggia
Detroit Dark Red
Yellow Cylindrical
Broccoli


DiCicco
Nutribud
Romanesco
Brussels Sprouts


Long Island Improved
Cabbage


Copenhagen Market Cabbage
Early Jersey Wakefield
Glory of Einkhuizan
Mammoth Red Rock
Perfection Drumhead Savoy
Premium Late Flat Dutch
Winningstadt
Carrot


Scarlet Nantes Carrot
Chantenay Red Core
Danvers Half Long
White Belgian
Cauliflower


Early Snowball
Chard


Five Color Silverbeet Chard (AKA Rainbow Chard)
Fordhook Giant
Celery and Celeriac


Giant Prague (Celeriac)
Utah Tall (Celery)
Corn


Black Azte,
Country Gentleman Corn
Golden Bantam Corn
Oaxacan Green Dent
Stowells Evergreen
Corn (Popcorn)


Strawberry
Cucumber


Armenian
Eggplant



Grains (except corn and wheat)


Flax
Quinoa, Shelly 25 Black
Sesame, Light Seeded


Kale
Blue Curled Scotch
Lacinato
Leek
Blue Solaise
Carentan
King Richard
Lettuce




lBack Seeded Simpson
Brune d'Hiver
Cimmaron
Drunken Woman Frizzy Head
Forellenschluss
Merlot
Merveille des Quatre Saison
Parris Island Cos
Red Romaine
Rouge d'Hiver
Rouge Grenobloise
Summertime
Tango
Tom Thumb
Webbs Wonderful
Yugoslavian Red
Melons



Charentais
Green Nutmeg
Hale's Best
Metki White Serpent (cucumber)
Tigger
Okra




Burgundy
Clemson Spineless
Don't Knowcra
Star of David
Onion




Iitoy
Red of Florence
Parsnip




Harris Model
Peas
Alaska
Lincoln
Little Marvel
Tall Telephone
Oregon Sugar Pod
Sugar Snap
Pepper
Anaheim
Corno di Toro
Fish
Italian Pepperoncini
Jalapeno Early
Jimmy Nardello Italian
Red Marconi
Squash – Summer
Lebanese White Bush Marrow
Zucchini – Lungo Bianco
Squash - Winter




Black Futsu
Chersonskaya
Delicata
Marina di Chioggia
Queensland Blue Squash
Sweet Meat
Tomato




Amish Paste
Big Rainbow
Black Cherry
Black From Tula
Black Icicle
Cherokee Purple
Copia
Cream Sausage
Federle
Flammé
Orange Banana
Orange Icicle
Roman Candle
Rutgers
San Marzano
San Remo
Striped Roman
Thessaloniki
Wapsipinicon Peach
Turnip




Purple Top White Globe
Wheat




Federation 126
Perennial Wheat
Sonoran White


david




*“We” being the Seed Library of Los Angeles   

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Tis the Season To Be Seedy

It's a good time of year to reflect.  And it's excellent for the Seed Library of Los Angeles' members to reflect at this time of year because today, the 4th of December is the library's 'birthday.'  On December 4th, 2010 the first group of people met on the patio of The Learning Garden and began to formulate what everyone sees today as this marvelous seed library serving the Los Angeles area - which continues to grow monthly!  

From twenty four members present at that first meeting, we have over 800 members today, and many of those original members not only serve on our board but are some of our most able seed savers.  We are stable organization with officer elections in January.  We have more varieties of seeds we can handle and we have some wonderful success stories of saving varieties of seeds from extinction.  SLOLA has taken on some of our own breeding and countless talks have been given all over Los Angeles to audiences of 3rd graders to groups of elderly folks.  This last month we spoke at Otis College of Art and Design on saving seeds, Santa Monica College debating the efficacy of GMOs and UC Santa Barbara about saving seeds.  The message of seed saving and diversity is getting out with even non-gardeners and farmers becoming aware that our food supply is at risk because our seed supply is at risk.

Seed libraries have blossomed all over the United States - they are something local citizens can do and a way to participate in our saving our seeds from patents and the industrial model of growing food from manipulated genetics and poisons.  Seed libraries are the result of the innate knowledge that all gardening is local and diversity is what will prevent starvation, not patented seeds. 



In fact we might be a little too popular and maybe doing enough good in the world that we've pissed some big boy agriculture companies off.  Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (DoA) forced a newly forming library to shut down because they were not conforming to the seed laws imposed on commercial ventures; Maryland's DoA concurred and threatened to apply the same approach to any seed libraries formed in that state; Nebraska's DoA served notice on the seed libraries in that state to cease and desist.  

And Big Ag pulled their overalls up high and struck in the middle of the night.  In Sacramento, California in the last session of the year, our legislatures passed AB 2470, one of the most onerous of bills we've seen come down in modern times.  AB 2470 does a number of things, all of them bad.  I have a lot more to say about AB 2470 that will wait until after the first of the year, but today, on the fourth anniversary of SLOLA, I only want to deal with one:  the provision that makes it illegal for municipalities to make seed laws without the approval of the state's secretary of agriculture.  This law takes effect this coming January 1st, 2015.  If we want to have Los Angeles be a sanctuary for non-GMO seeds, we HAVE to have our bill passed by city council before December 31 to be grand-fathered in.

We are calling on all gardeners in Los Angeles to please come to LA City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 09, to stand in solidarity with us and have Los Angeles declared a GMO Free Zone!  Meet us in council chambers, on the third floor, in City Hall between Spring and Main Streets and Temple and First Streets - entrance on Main. If you oppose GMOs and have done nothing this year to oppose them, now is your chance to redeem and deguilt yourself!  We want, we really want, that chamber filled with supporters!   

This law will only be applied to seeds and to plants.  It will protect the plants grown in Los Angeles from genetically engineered pollen, so your corn and your beets and chard cannot be contaminated and can remain untainted. This law will not change anything in your grocery store, because we cannot legislate that.  It only applies to seeds and to the plants grown in LA.  Because there are currently no - or very little - GMO crops grown in the city, the economic hit will be slight but the economic boon could prove to be very lucrative!

With all the motions and laws that LA City Council has already passed, this law will be a substantial underpinning of the nascent urban agriculture movement in Los Angeles.  With produce that is legally protected from genetic alteration, our produce will have more cache. And every dollar spent on buying LA grown produce will stay in the community - unlike fast food, that money will contribute to LA and not to some far off corporate headquarter entity.  We build a better Los Angeles - and the people growing the food, entrepreneurs employ other Angelenos to help them and that is more money circulating in LA's economy.  

If food and gardens are important to you, please come to City Council this coming Tuesday morning, December 09 and stand in solidarity with us as the motion is introduced - if you have a garden apron, or garden shoes, wear them!  Be a gardener among gardeners pointing the way towards the new future of food in Los Angeles and the World! 

And all the blessings of the season to you and yours - and may your gardens be bountiful and delicious and forever GMO Free!

More can be found with these two blogs:
  
      http://seedfreedomla.blogspot.com/

      http://lagreenmachine.org/2014/12/04/urgent-gmo-free-la-is-here-but-only-if-you-help-us-get-it-passed-this-monday-and-tuesday-at-city-council/

david