Seed Series

Why Save Seeds?

We are facing a global seed crisis. Our biodiversity has been reduced by as much as 94% as a result of monoculture practices and giant agri-chemical companies who have marketing Roundup-ready GMO seeds on a global basis. This practice has changed the age-old practice of saving seeds that are locally adapted, seeds that represent a wide genetic diversity that makes them readily adaptable to the wide climate variability that we are seeing in recent weather patterns. The goal of today’s seed advocates is to alert farmers and backyard gardeners and consumers of the importance of growing, saving, sharing, and banking their own local seeds. As Bill McDorman, co-director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance says, if you buy new seeds each year, you are starting from scratch year after year. Why not instead save your best seeds from your best plants each year and develop landraces that are adapted to your own very local growing conditions and that get better and better each year. And then share those seeds with your community?

Seed Series Podcasts

2/3/18 Greg Schoen, Botanist, on Breeding Glass Gem Corn

1/20/18 Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel, Directors and Producers of Seed: The Untold Story (repeat)

1/13/18 Laurie McGrath interviews Dr. Julie Ettinger, University of Minnesota/Duluth on Project Baseline

12/16/17 Carey Gillam, author of “White Wash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science”

12/2/17 Beata Tsosie-Pena on Tewa Women United‘s Health & Environmental Justice program and the Espanola Healing Foods Oasis

  • Listen: GardenJournal 12 2 17
  • Green Fire Times article about Espanola Healing Foods Oasis
  • EHFO Collaborative Organizations:  Christie Green, of Radicle, Inc.; Anchor Engineering; Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute; Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA); Sostenga Center for Sustainable Food, Agriculture and the Environment; New Mexico Acequia Association’s Sembrando Semillas program; Honor Our Pueblo Existence; Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute; and the CARE Coalition, which includes New Mexico Breastfeeding Taskforce, Las Cumbres Community Services, TWU Doula Program, First Born, DOH-WIC, and Breath of My Heart Birthplace; and The Northern Youth Project.
  • Beata reading her poem, Farmer’s Market

11/11/17 Shawn Stone and Ella Samuel with the Southwest Seed Partnership, a project of the Institute for Applied Ecology/Southwest Region

10/14/17 Amy Upperman, Sandoval County Master Gardener: Sandoval County Seed Library

10/7/17 Loretta Sandoval, Zulu’s Petals Farm and Sam Hitt, The Succulent Garden: How to Collect Seeds

9/9/17 Thor Hanson, author of The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History

9/2/17 Bill McDorman and Belle Starr with Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance