We are getting more and more requests for survival seeds. Buckets and cans of hermetically sealed garden seeds are being promoted on survival websites. Frightened citizens want backup in case our fragile food system is disrupted. The thought of growing a garden if necessary is comforting. This leads to calls and emails to heirloom seed companies like ours.
Having extra food and seeds is something we promote. I’m just not sure it has anything to do with survival. The thought of being the only family with a bountiful garden in an ocean of hungry neighbors, many of whom own guns, is informative if not somewhat disturbing.
Real food security is at best a regional issue. The emergence of modern terms like "foodshed" are evidence of the serious thinking involved in this issue at neighborhood, community and regional levels. We even hear the USDA has grants available now for assessing the food security of each region.
We try to encourage everyone who addresses this issue to get involved in finding out where their food comes from. We encourage them to work with others in their "foodshed" to explore the larger issues involved in food security. While important, this doesn’t address the immediate need for something that will make a difference in how people feel now.
To this I speak only to the issue of seeds and survival. After starting both nonprofits and corporations to disseminate open-pollinated seeds and seed saving information over the past 30 years, I now think the best answer is relatively simple one. Don’t buy anything.
Do this instead. Every concerned farmer and gardener should attend an annual seed trading event in their region. If you can’t find one, organize a seed saving pot luck dinner. Once a year after the gardening season is finished, (November or December are great months), invite all the gardeners and seed savers in your region to come together to trade seeds and stories and important growing information. The ticket to admission should be a dish for dinner and some seeds for trade.
In this way, gardeners can gain direct access to best seeds adapted to their own backyard climates. They gain direct access to the information necessary to grow, save and select new seeds from the ones they have planted. No nonprofit or corporation or USDA study is necessary. Meet folks as excited as you are about seeds and survival. Learn what the community really needs in the way of seeds so you can begin to plan for next year’s potluck. Stuff into your pocket some seeds that can’t be bought. Invaluable some would say.
None of this is new. It is actually a modern adaptation of a ritual that has taken place in some form since the dawn of modern agriculture more than 10,000 years ago. Original community strength was arguably a function of the strength of its agriculture. Its agriculture rested solely on how well seeds were selected, saved, passed on and planted. Our modern insecurity about food is rooted in our current national ignorance about where our food comes from.
Planting, growing, saving seeds and trading them with your neighbors may be one of the most important steps you can take to help reassure regional food security. Enjoying your own fresh-picked tomatoes could be the immediate payoff. Saving seeds from your own special plants may cement your legacy or at least give you more seed trading material for next year’s pot luck. If you need them, you can find seed saving instructions for all the common vegetables on the website of our 20 year-old non-profit: http://www.seedsave.org/...