Reflection on the limitations of modern plant breeding
The following is a review of and reaction to the following paper: Extending Darwin’s Analogy: Bridging Difference in Concepts of Selection between Farmers, Biologist, and Plant Breeders by DA Cleveland and D Soleri
As an aspiring plant breeder, following the traditional route in academia, you learn about both the theory and practice of modern day plant breeding. Likely one will come across the works of Darwin and Mendel, as they are the fathers of this revolution in plant breeding (i.e., they provided the foundation on which ‘scientific selection’ stands upon). This paper attempts to question this foundation, by comparing our modern day assumptions with ideologies of traditional farmers.
Read More»Organizing Seeds: Alphabetically or by planting date?
Organizing Seeds: Alphabetically or by planting date?
When we start to save seeds (or if we still buy our seed) and are left with extra, the question ultimately becomes, how do I categorize everything?
For some a shoebox will do, or at the very least a rubber band can hold all your seed packets together. On the larger side of things, the granary and what has become commodity trading, is another way to organize seeds. For the plant breeder, some system of organization will prove tremendously helpful–categorizing by year, plot, and pedigree etc., tools of the trade.
Our tomato-melon collection mostly originated from a traveler in New England. We were travelin’ ourselves north from CT and because the community of Brattleboro (VT) was on our way, I scheduled a serendipitous visit with a member offering a large collection of tomato/melon varieties. I remember we had to meet on a Friday, because Saturday was some sort of religious event. Both the smell of fresh baking bread and the mothball seed bombs he used to keep mice and other critters from eating his seeds are forever burnt into my memory. I still have the original bag and seed packets–some even have seeds in the them after almost 10yrs! I wonder if any will still germinate after this long….
Currently our seed display/collection (up-cycled seed envelopes) has evolved from being alphabetized and is morphing into a seasonal scheme.
I’m thinking of doing some research into biodynamic scheduling based on lunar cycling. Will I finally read Steiner’s lectures on Agriculture and understand that there is something more than just Ag as I know it?….well…I suspect this is true but the question remains…Does planting by meteorological cycles help to support the attainment of full potential within the plant life form?
The journey down the rabbit hole continues…
How do you organize your seed collection?
Post a seed selfie ‘seedie’ on FB.
Participatory Plant Breeding: Breeding for Organic and Low-Input Farming Systems
Here at Backyard Seed Savers, we breed for resource use efficiency under low-input (compost only) conditions. We do not exactly experience harsh conditions, but we do have a very short growing season and cool nights. Our summers are dry, so we try to grow crops well-suited to our agroecological niche.
So why not use the results from almost one hundred years of modern high-performance breeding? Well, while some of this material is useful, it can be genetically homogeneous and from a narrow pedigree. The comparison of the wild stallion and the thoroughbred is illustrative here. The thoroughbred is elite in that the parents have been selected according to their breeding value. Their pedigree has been carefully tracked and optimized for certain ‘quality’ traits. Modern crop varieties are very similar—bred to be responsive to high-input environments and possess certain quality traits. Yield potential is often only realized with optimal fertility and within a managed environment leading to crop failure under marginal conditions. Wild stallions on the other hand tend to be hardy, but vary in their forms providing a breeding ground where new forms may evolve in response to changes in their natural environment. We believe that like a herd of wild animals, a population of heterogeneous plants supports resilience of the whole over the long-term, particularly under low-input farming systems in diverse, and, particularly marginal environments.
Read More»Agroecology: The next buzzword or a grassroots movement?
Chickpeas drying down, communities dying out…all at the expense of the environment.
Since the industrialization of agriculture, alternative voices in the sustainable agriculture movement have fallen on deaf ears. Overtime, a clear dichotomy emerged between models of industrial and alternative agriculture. The industrial model is feasible due to new and improved technologies (mechanization, engineered crops, subsidized transport, fertilizer, and commodity prices, information technology, and capital investment). However, the consequences of external economic dependence (credit, resource inputs, and trade), in addition to environmental (land, water, air, flora, and fauna), and social (rural to urban migration) consequences have over time, given credence to an alternative model of agriculture.
Read More»Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: Genetic Modification Just Another Tool in the Toolbox
Since the commercialization of transgenic crops in the mid-1990s, the sale of seeds has become dominated, globally, by three agrochemical companies; Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta. So how have the ‘big three’ taken control of our food system? Their success has been attributed to a growing percentage of farmers who purchase their products year after year and believe in the biotech giant’s mantra that this new technology, and their suites of chemical protectants, will boost productivity and bring big dividends. However, by going the biotech route, farmers give up their right to save this seed, and by default, become locked in, literally, by contract. This causes a reduction in seed diversity and the consolidation of genetic resources stewarded by farmers and smaller seed companies. Small farmers and seed companies cannot buy into this technology and are often bought out by the ‘bigs’. There are those who have resisted increasing agricultural industrialization, but because of strong capital interests, the risks associated with crop production, and the market which drives it a more mechanistic and dependable production system has ensued, albeit one that is increasingly dependent on a corporate agricultural structure.
Read More»Intercropping for the home gardener
One of the oldest examples of agricultural coexistence is intercropping. Beans, corn, and squash—or rice/cereals and carp—or cereals, legumes, and camelina/mustard—these are all good examples. What is in common with these intercropping examples is nutrient cycling. Whether through N fixation by legumes, or P uptake by brassicas, the most limiting plant nutrient is added through the specific planting combination chosen. Then why does it seem as if intercropping is a thing of the past? While intercropping is often practiced in “developing” countries on small-holder farms, synthetic nitrogen, arguably the life force behind agricultural intensification, has effectively replaced intercropping and animals in the majority of industrial agricultural systems.
Read More»Qualitative vs. Quantitative Traits
Breeding can be summarized as the creation of and selection for phenotypic diversity. Modern or ‘capitalist’ breeders tend to select for homogeneity because it is either more productive or it’s demanded by the consumer. Can diversity be all that bad?
As a backyard seed saver you will, without a doubt, be taking part in some sort of breeding. When selecting your traits of interest two simple yet infinitely complex terms should be at least acknowledged: Qualitative and Quantitative. Mendelian genetics deals primarily with qualitative traits, the things we can see and characterize. Mendel’s peas were revolutionary and still remain valid today for understanding discontinuous dominant and recessive alleles. However, we must remember that there are few, although important, traits that are single-gene mediated and classifiable into discrete categories…another post for another time :)
Read More»Seed Sovereignty: The Promise of Open Source Biology –Some thoughts…
“Who controls the seed gains a substantial measure of control over the shape of the entire food system.”
This quote from Professor and Rural Sociologist Jack Kloppenburg, expresses a concern shared by many who have come to understand the dominant seed industry. Indeed, the seed is a vehicle of heritage, and through the seed, traditions and cultures persist and evolve. Planting a seed, cultivating, harvesting, and consuming it’s flesh completes the cycle of the seed and advances both the seed and food sovereignty movements.
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