Seed rEvolution Now

Promoting and distributing high quality, open-pollinated, organically grown, public-domain vegetable seeds , and working with organizations and farmers to create a functional cooperative network of seed breeders, producers, and customers.

Proud seed farmer Rich Pecoraro of Abbondanza Seeds in Colorado shows off some of his high desert quality seed.

The Challenge

Today we are facing an unprecedented challenge to our very survival as the climate destabilizes. Farmers everywhere are scrambling to find crops that perform well under stressful conditions. At the same time, we have lost 90% of the crop varieties that were available just 80 years ago, as corporations have moved to commodify and monopolize all aspects of our food system.

To counter this dilemma, Seed rEvolution Now is working with skilled, certified organic seed growers and seed specialists to promote and provide open-pollinated (OP) top quality certified organic seed that farmers can save, select, and regrow if they so desire. This is our heritage and our birthright.

The Challenger

Steve Peters is a seed professional who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. With over 35 years of experience in organic farming and agricultural research, Steve has specialized for the past two decades in working with organically grown, open-pollinated seed. 

After a start as a market gardener in upstate New York, he returned to graduate school and obtained an MS in veg crops. He worked as a research scientist at the Rodale Institute Research Center in Pennsylvania for nine years. Next, for fifteen years, he built a remarkable inventory for Seeds of Change, creating a cadre of skilled seed growers in the process. 

Most recently he was the farm supervisor at the Native Seeds/SEARCH farm in southern Arizona. Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay Area for family reasons, he’s founded Seed rEvolution Now, in order to further the mission of providing the organic community with high quality public domain seed.

Contact Steve Peters:

T:   505-660-3933  E:   stevegrows@gmail.com

Seed rEvolution Now Services

Bridging the gap between seed customers,  plant breeders and seed producers, Seed Revolution Now provides the following services:

• SRN offers certified organic OP seed in bulk quantities to farmers and retailers at competitive prices.
• Provides detailed information on crop performance under varied conditions.
• Contracts with seed farmers to satisfy specific custom seed requests.
• Consults with market growers to assist in seed selection appropriate to their situation.
• Conducts on-farm variety trials and disseminates findings to the organic farming community.
• Teaches workshops and classes on seed saving.
• Writes articles on seed sovereignty.
• Networks with farmers and organizations to establish a national co-operative of organic OP seed breeders, growers and customers. 

Steve teams up with OSA crop scientist Jared Zystro to set up comparison trials on a leading organic farm in the Capay Valley of California. Field trials on organic farms are a critical stage in the development of improved strains. By growing a broad range of varieties including  growers’ current standard cultivars and several promising new strains,  informed decisions can be made. 

Meeting the needs of organic seed consumers

Organic market farmers face continuous and growing challenges to meet the desires of their customers. Seed Revolution Now offers help, matching seed customers with producers who can develop OP varieties that address market demands.

Traditional OP Breeding

We have been told that GMO technology is the only way we can possibly feed our burgeoning population. This is not true. Traditional breeding is fully capable of meeting our needs. OP breeding allows every generation of plants to respond to a changing environment, with each new selection leading to further adaptations. Key features of this dynamic approach include:

• Developing “workhorse” varieties for a wide range of environments.
• Developing varieties for specific climatic and soil conditions.
• Selecting for durable, multi-gene disease and/or pest resistance.
• Breeding for plant vigor and reliably high yields.
• Selecting for distinctive consumer qualities such as outstanding flavor, unique color, and elevated nutritional content.
• Invites the participation of seed customers in the improvement of varieties for their specific needs.
• Allows farmers to save and select seed, if they so choose, for their own seed sovereignty.

 Seed Bred For Organic Conditions

All of the varieties offered by Seed Revolution Now are open-pollinated, public domain, and organically grown by skilled certified organic seed farmers. They are either tried and true heritage varieties or new improved selections with characteristics that are especially valuable for organic market gardeners. At times we may offer seeds that carry a royalty charge to compensate breeders for their work, but access to genetic material is never restricted. The following offerings are a representative sampling of available seed.  Contact Steve Peters for the most current seed listing.

Stella Blue Winter Squash

Dark orange flesh is exceptionally sweet and nutty on a high-yielding Hokkaido/Kabocha cross.  This Cucurbita maxima has light slate blue smooth skin. 95-105 days 

Discovered by Bill Reynolds at a local market in northern CA and selected for organic cultivation at his dryland farm in Humbolt County, Stella Blue is a reliable yielder, offering the market grower an excellent medium sized winter squash with a chestnut-like texture that appeals to discening clientele.

Scarlet Runner Bean

Originally from Mexico, and a favorite in the British Isles, this beautiful, long-producing climber is great eating as a snap bean, in the green shell stage, or as a dry bean. Brilliant red-orange flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Excellent quick screen. 90-95 days to dry stage.

Lemon Cucumber

Unusual spherical fruit with thin tender skin and sweet/tart succulent flesh, this is a traditional  backyard favorite for fresh eating. A reliable yielder of 2-3" diameter juicy yellow cukes. Great market variety. 70-75 days

Shiraz Tall Top Beet

This delicious improved dual-purpose beet was developed for organic production, and shows significant resistance to rhizoctonia dry rot. As the name implies, the tops are especially tall and sturdy, and make a wonderful steamed green. It's the result of a five-year breeding collaboration between Organic Seed Alliance crop scientist Dr. John Navasio and organic seed farmers Randy Carey (OR) and Bill Reynolds (CA). 55-60 days

Dark Star Zucchini

Proven superior to hybrid varieties on large organic farms, this drought and frost resistant variety has a sturdy, open habit with 30% more leaf area, and a deep root systems, resulting in strong, healthy, easily harvested plants; a boon to the organic grower. Straight, faceted, glossy dark fruits of high lutein content.  Long harvest window from vigorous plants. 50-55 days

A collaboration between John Navazio, Steve Peters, and Bill Reynolds, perfected on Bill’s dryland farm in northern CA. Bill credits the remarkable qualities of this break-away variety to his dry farming technique.

                                                                                                        A dozen years later, Bill examines his                Dark Star grown in a trial at Full Belly Farm in California's Capay Valley, where it exhibits more vigor under disease stress than their standard hybrid variety. Continuing trials and selections in different environments lead to further crop improvements.

Dragon Carrot

With deep red-violet skin and yellow-orange interior, this is the best tasting purple carrot on the market, with a bit of spiciness. This is another excellent variety bred by John Navazio and selected by skilled Colorado seed farmer Rich Pecoraro. Strong tops for good bunching.  70-80 days

Contact Steve Peters for the most current seed listing and prices. Seed available in quantities from one ounce to ten pounds for most varieties.

505-660-3933

 stevegrows@gmail.com

Shiraz Tall Top Beet Breeding Project

Seed Revolution Now! is all about promoting crop breeding for organic conditions. This installment is the tale of a successful breeding project in which we were involved.

As we've stated, open-pollinated (OP) traditional breeding holds the key to a broad spectrum of genetic traits, including improved flavor and nutrition, storage ability,  resistance to diseases and pests and other valuable characteristics. What is missing is a concerted breeding effort to carefully select for these attributes.

In the early 2000's Steve Peters was involved in a breeding project that drew together crop scientists from the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), organic seed growers, and seed retailers in an effort to create a better table beet for organic cultivation. The goal of the group was to develop a genetically elastic phenotype displaying heterotic vigor, good performance under organic conditions, and acceptance in the marketplace. The picture above shows the result after about five years of breeding: Shiraz Tall Top.

One of the main concerns of beet growers is Rhizoctonia solani, or Rhizoctonia dry rot, a fungal disease. The photo above shows the typical rough, pocked skin of an infected beet, rendered unsalable by the disease. One of the goals of this breeding project was to develop genetic resistance to this common pathogen.

Before the collaborative effort began, OSA plant breeder Dr. John Navazio spent several seasons developing the base population of a new beet variety by cross-pollinating three genetically distinct heirloom beet varieties, each of which held certain desirable traits. His familiarity with many varieties made his contribution particularly valuable.

Beets are in the Amaranthaceae family, related to spinach and chard. This root crop is a biennial, and requires two growing seasons in the ground to go to seed. Roots may be pulled after the first season for evaluation, and the best ones stored over the winter in a cool (32-35 F) and moist (90% RH) environment.

The next step was to grow this promising OP population side-by-side with another high-quality OP beet and the leading commercial F1 hybrid variety, for a comparison trial. The field used was deliberately chosen because it was already infested with Rhizoctonia. Each variety planting was replicated four times across the plot to eliminate field effects from soil and water variation. Over 3000 plants of each variety were grown.

The beets were pulled at market-size maturity, and laid out for observation. Traits evaluated included root smoothness (Rhizoctonia-resistance), root shape, and tops quality and vigor. Here, left to right, John Navazio, farmer Randy Carey, and farmer Tim Franklin, with researcher Micaela Colley (photographer), and seed company representative Steve Peters not shown.

To the left is the standard table beet, Red Ace, an F1 hybrid variety. On the right is an early generation of the Shiraz project. Note the extra length of the Shiraz tops and the nice smooth skin and rounded shape, making it an excellent dual-purpose vegetable. 

Micaela Colley taking detailed notes on field trials; an often under-appreciated, yet essential component for making genetic improvements.

Here are the three varieties that were trialed. From left to right: Red Ace F1 Hybrid, Pronto, and the breeding population that was to become Shiraz. It was determined that the Shiraz was potentially a superior beet to existing commercial varieties, and was worth developing.

From the original 3000+ roots of Shiraz, the very best 500 (16%) individual roots were chosen to be placed in cold storage and replanted the following spring in a different location. The roots were replanted in a disease-free field on the same farm, to ensure the best possible outcome for seed production. The resultant seed was harvested that fall.

Farmer Randy Carey discusses beet selection for Shiraz grow-outs with seed technician and researcher Emily Skelton at his Oregon farm.

In this early generation of Shiraz, notice that we have good healthy tops and smooth-skinned roots, but the form is more heart-shaped than round. This was improved in subsequent generations.

The following summer, we repeated the process, planting the newest generation of seed on disease-infested ground once again, for yet another hard selection. Ten thousand roots were grown, and only 700 (7%) were saved to be replanted. The following year seed was collected from the replanted selected roots.

Each generation was compared to Red Ace for quality evaluation. While root shape uniformity was a little better in Red Ace, Shiraz had significantly smoother roots and larger and more vigorous tops. At this point it was deemed ready for production.

After the original selection process was completed to the satisfaction of the collaborators,   it was sent to anther certified organic seed grower, farmer Bill Reynolds in Northern California (left, shown with John Navazio), to multiply the seed to commercial quantities.

As an open-pollinated strain, Shiraz offers the opportunity for continued selection for further improvements. These might include adaptations to local bioregions, more disease resistance, improved interior color, or higher sugar content. For anyone interested in pursuing crop breeding and vegetable seed production, Dr. Navazio's recent book, The Organic Seed Grower is an invaluable resource.

For observation of interior characteristics, a vertical wedge may be sliced from a beet root (not a horizontal slice as shown above!), and a beet showing the desired traits can still be stored and replanted successfully.

After flowering and going to seed, plants are allowed to dry before cutting. It is important, however, to harvest before the seed "shatters" and is lost to the ground. Harvest just before fully dry, and finish drying on a tarp. 

Beet seed may be hand-threshed from the chaff, and cleaned with simple winnowing and screening in a small-scale production. Seed should be stored in a dark, cool and dry environment. It should remain viable for at least five years.

Shiraz Tall Top Beet is a valuable new cultivar for organic gardeners and farmers. It is a good example of how OP breeding can be accomplished by anyone willing to put in the effort.

The recipe for success in OP crop breeding includes:

• A knowledge of available genetic resources containing desired traits
• Farmer participation in the selection process
• A sufficiently large population to allow for strict selection criteria
• Growth under intense disease pressure to allow selection of the best adapted plants

Certified Organically grown Shiraz Tall Top Beet seed is available through Seed Revolution Now! Contact Steve Peters at stevegrows@gmail.com for quantities up to ten pounds, and the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative for one ounce to one pound.

Seeds In a Nutshell

The Basics of Seeds

Contained in a package which is both resistant to decay and yet biodegradable, a seed is the epitome of potentiality. Every open-pollinated seed contains the genetic code to not simply reproduce the traits of its parents, but of all its ancestors. Each seed is a veritable treasure trove of diverse traits, and those varieties that have lasted up to the present time have done so because they carried traits which enabled the plants to be maintained, year after year, under the care of human farmers.

Land Race, Heirloom, Open-Pollinated, Hybrid, GMO, and Patented Seeds

What is the Difference?

Agriculture developed as observant gatherers saved the seed of the plants they thought were best to replant near their homes. Thousands of years of deliberate selection brought us to a time of untold genetic wealth. Seed for a specific variety was selected by a farmer because of certain traits observed in that plant. It may have resistance to a disease common in the farmer's region. It may be especially productive. It may be particularly delicious. Hopefully it combines several desirable characteristics. For some reason it has stood the test of time.

Mural of Mississippian woman cultivating corn. Illinois State Museum, Dickson Mounds. Artist, Andy Buttram.

The attributes of any crop grown in a particular region will gradually differentiate from related crops in other areas. This is simple evolution, enhanced by human selection based on many cultural and environmental factors. One village's corn may be especially good for making posole (hominy), while in the next valley over there's a village famous for the delicious tortillas. Each isolated crop will contained a broad spectrum of possible traits within its genetic code, enabling it to thrive in spite of annual vicissitudes in local climate. For example, one year the shorter, stockier plants may survive when there's little rainfall, while in a wet year the tall plants do better. Local farmers will get a harvest in spite of conditions. This broad crop type is called a Landrace, and this is how humans have survived for the past ten thousand years.

A Landrace of tomatillos called Purple Keeper, demonstrating diversity in color

The next refinement in seed-saving picks one expression out of the Landrace's multiple possibilities, and refines and improves it. When a particular selection of plant cultivar is saved over many generations, it is considered an Heirloom. Heirloom Seeds are always, by definition, open-pollinated. This means that seed collected from the plant will reproduce true-to-type, as long as there was no cross-pollination with another related variety (more on this later). Heirloom crops include treasured selections such as Brandywine Tomato, revered for its flavor, and Lemon Cucumber, a reliable producer.

Lemon cucumbers ripened for seed

In the 1930s the Hybrid Revolution began. Hybrids are not open-pollinated; they are rather the result of a careful process of controlled fertilization, created by crossing two or more inbred lines in order to achieve desired traits. Thus, hybrids result in plants which will not reproduce true-to-type. They may be sterile, as with mules, or they may exhibit any random combination of genes from their ancestry. This was a boon for commercial plant breeders, as farmers could no longer grow their own seed, and had to purchase new seed for each season. Hybrid breeding has had the benefit of huge amounts of time, effort and money inputs in order to produce profitable seeds.

It is significant, if little known, that traditional open-pollinated breeding techniques hold the potential to achieve all of the advantages of hybrids, including vigor, disease resistance, and yield, and at significantly lower seed cost to the farmers. What is needed to achieve this is funding for prolonged research and development. This is what our land grant university system once did, and could do again if public pressure is brought to bear!

Stella Blue winter squash is an O-P developed for organic production conditions

GMO (genetically modified organism) seed is created by the actual manipulation of the DNA of the plant in a lab. Gene splicers have inserted foreign genetic material into their subjects, including animal genes into plants. A famous case is still a heated controversy. Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria which kills the larval stage of butterflies and moths, was used by organic farmers and gardeners to control many crop pests in an environmentally safe way. GMO Bt corn was developed to eliminate the need for spraying. Sounds good? Unfortunately, the Bt proved to be carried by the wind-born corn pollen. Settling on milkweed stands away from the corn field, the toxin killed one half of all the monarch butterflies in the country in one season. In addition, there is evidence that this bacillus is detrimental to intestinal flora of mammals, including farm animals, as well as humans. It is illegal to save the seed of GMO plants, and the corporations which hold the patents are determined to prosecute any infringements.

Monarch caterpillars on a milkweed leaf dusted with pollen

In addition, there are two legal ways which restrict the right to save seeds. The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 offers intellectual property protection for non-hybrid seed propagated crop plants. To sell the seed of a PVP variety, the seller must pay royalties to the developer. This enables seed breeders to receive appropriate compensation for their work, while still allowing farmers to save seed and use the material in their own breeding programs. 

The second type of patent is the Utility Patent, which is much more restrictive. Any seed with a Utility Patent cannot be saved, resold, or used in breeding. This removes all access to this genetic material by the general public, consequently removing precious biodiversity from the public domain in a time of increasing climatic instability. The Utility Patent is a dream come true for corporations set on the monopolization of our food resources. Alarmingly, even general agronomic traits, such as drought resistance, can be placed under Utility Patents. 

Monarch on milkweed

We do not pretend to be without bias in this blog. The stakes are too high. We are running out of time to save the wealth of genetic diversity passed down to us from our forebears. Already, in the seventy years since hybridization became the norm for seed companies, we have lost an estimated 70-80% of the varieties that were available a century ago. This is a worldwide phenomenon. The problem is succinctly explained by Dr. John Navazio, senior scientist at Organic Seed Alliance and Washington State University seed research and extension specialist, in his recent book The Organic Seed Grower:

"In the 1980s major oil, agrochemical, and pharmaceutical companies started to buy many of the major seed companies worldwide, having recognized that seed was an untapped intellectual property resource of major proportions for the future. Seed company mergers became the order of the day, and by the mid-1980s Royal Dutch Shell, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, became the largest seed company in the world.

Decisions on the direction of research or the types of services the seed companies would direct toward different market sectors were now made by corporate managers or "bean counters" and were no longer under the purview of agronomists. Many minor agricultural regions, market sectors, and crop types were increasingly ignored as the bean counters from corporate headquarters eliminated the breeding programs and crop varieties that served the least lucrative markets. Increasingly, the commercial development of agricultural seed was directed at the highest-profile, highest-profit market: farms on prime agricultural land in large-scale, centralized production areas that are favored by agribusiness. This trend resulted in a narrowing of the breeding focus by all of the seed companies. The deathwatch for regionalism in commercial seed was beginning."

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Saving Seeds

A farmer or gardener today can join in the traditional practice of saving seeds by learning the art of observation and practicing careful husbandry of the genetic puzzle which each variety reflects. Many crops are relatively simple to save, and some can be grown in a small amount of space. Those that self-pollinate, such as beans, tomatoes or lettuce, are an appropriate introduction to the discipline. The recent innovation of Seed Libraries around the country is a boon to novice seed savers.

Card catalog repurposed at the Richmond Seed Library

Other crops, such as squash or corn, may cross-pollinate; their pollen distributed by insects or by the wind. These require special care to avoid unwanted hybridization. Isolation from the pollen of related crops, which could change the resulting offspring, may be achieved by maintaining distance in space (exact distances vary greatly among different crops) or time (when pollen is spreading), which may put constraints on the seed growers ability to save pure seed. There is a lot to know, and it is easy to mess up a favorite line through poor practices.

Corn breeding on an organic farm in California

Another form of isolation is the use of physical barriers, such as paper bags, which can be tied over the female flowers before they open. Then the desired male pollen can be applied by hand to the receptive females by the dedicated seed grower. This technique is used by breeders to grow new varieties of both hybrid and open-pollinated crops, as well as a way for preservationists, like Native Seeds/SEARCH to grow out many varieties of precious heirloom crops without fear of crossing.

For folks seriously interested in the art of seed preservation, Seed School is offered by Native Seed/SEARCH. A quick Google perusal of the words "seed school" reveal several other such courses around the country. It is well worth attending a course if you really want to get into seeds and do it right.

The first graduates of Seed School, Sedona AZ, Oct. 2, 2010

Several have gone on to start Seed Libraries and seed companies around the country

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Steve Peters, founder of Seed Revolution Now, is an agricultural researcher and seed specialist who works closely with organic farmers like those in The Family Farmers Seed Cooperative to not only preserve heirloom varieties that have proven to be good performers, but to develop and promote new varieties of regionally adapted, open-pollinated, public domain seed to compete with the more expensive proprietary patented hybrid and GMO seeds which have increasingly dominated the market.