Seed is the foundation of life. Each seed is a complete self-contained work of art, a unique life capsule containing the blueprint for the whole plant with every cell, hair, vein, leaf, petal and root pre-programmed and waiting for germination and growth in order to manifest itself to its full potential. Seeds are masters of ingenuity when it comes to survival. When you hold a seed in your hand and imagine it’s potential, these possibilities draw from 10,000 years of observation, selection and stewarding by farmers and gardeners all over planet Earth. Open-pollinated and heirloom seed has the mysterious and uncanny ability to take the environment into itself and adjust its own gene expression to unfold new qualities in the next generation, such as greater tolerance to heat and cold, water or drought, or pests and disease. This is why the Hawai’i Seed Growers Network is growing and offering seed for sale to Hawaii’s farms and gardens at our online Seed Marketplace.
An estimated 60 million Americans grow a portion of their own food in a vegetable garden but very few choose to bypass the garden seed industry and save their own seed from year to year, remnants of a recently lost era which purchased nothing that could be produced at home. Here in Hawai’i with our favorable growing climate, we could all be growing some of our families food at home. It could begin as a small herb garden for cooking, and slowly expand to a greens and salad garden and then to vegetables that you and your family loves to eat. We can all grow varieties of banana, papaya, pineapple, and passion fruit in our yards. You may not remember, but nothing you can buy tastes like or has the same nutritional value as home grown food. A small garden boosts our families health, saves lots of money, and instills and inspires these traditions in our children to carry on.
You’ve probably heard about the increase in corporate seed ownership. This is becoming one of the hot topics in agriculture as the multi-national corporations move to genetically engineer, patent, and own traditionally grown varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs, flowers, fish, trees, and animals and indigenous sources of knowledge. Today just 3 chemical companies, the Monsanto/Bayer merger, the Syngenta and Chem-China merger, and the merger of Dow and Dupont to form Corteva, now control 60% of the world’s crop genetics. Bottom line, decrease in crop biodiversity for the planet just when climate change insists that we work with greater biodiversity of variety.
All of us had ancestors whose hands were turned to the soil, and for centuries, they saved seeds that were finely adapted to the diverse ecosystems in which they have evolved. The development and control of farmers’ and gardeners’ own biodiversity is an inalienable right and the basis upon which food security is achieved. Here on Hawai’i, we are indeed fortunate to be able to grow, harvest, exchange, or sell our locally improved seeds.
By the year 2005, 95% of the open-pollinated savable seed varieties that were grown in the United States in 1900 were either extinct or unavailable. Most agriculturists agree that diversity is the basis of agricultural health, but the direction seed is going today is steering our future in the opposite direction. The Hawai’i Seed Growers Network strives to renew our connection to locally produced heirloom and open pollinated varieties that have been bred for Hawaii’s farms and gardens.
By purchasing locally grown seed you are helping to reverse the corporate trend toward consolidation of world’s seed varieties, and use varieties that have been grown in Hawai’i through many generations by Hawaii’s farmers and home gardeners.
Our 2018 Hawaii Seed Growers Network strategy meeting and gathering! These are the farmers who are growing the great seed we offer on our website. Check it out and order Today!