SEED JOURNAL
Interviews, field notes and seed news.
Posts from the making of Open Sesame and the years since: conversations with seed keepers, notes from the road and news from the seed movement.
Food Sovereignty, Politics, Seed Sunday, Sustainable Agriculture
Seed Sunday: Herbicide by Drone, GM Maize in Pakistan and $8 Billion for Fuel
This week: a Colorado county’s plan to spray herbicide from drones, Pakistan weighing GM maize licenses for Bayer and Corteva, and who gets paid first from USDA’s $8 billion fuel aid.
Gardening, Heirloom Seeds, Seed Saving, Seed to Table
Seed to Table: How to Grow Fava Beans, the 10,000-Year-Old Crop You Plant in Fall
How to grow, harvest and save seed from fava beans, one of the oldest crops on earth, plus when to plant in fall or spring, a simple spring fava recipe and where to find seed.
CRISPR, Heirloom Seeds, Politics, Seed Saving, Seed Sunday, Sustainable Agriculture
Seed Sunday: Seeds to Svalbard, Atrazine in California and Bayer’s Gene-Editing Pitch
This week: Ukraine and 20 other genebanks send seeds to the Svalbard vault, California moves to list atrazine as a cancer risk, Big Food’s regenerative programs get graded, Bayer talks up gene editing in Europe, and Ugandan farmers return to their own groundnuts.
Gardening, Heirloom Seeds, Seed Saving, Seed to Table
Seed to Table: How to Grow Seminole Pumpkin, the Heirloom That Hung From Trees
How to grow, harvest, store and save seed from the Seminole pumpkin, a heat-loving Florida heirloom squash that keeps for months, plus a simple roasted pumpkin recipe and where to find seed.
CRISPR, Politics, Seed Saving, Seed Sunday, Sustainable Agriculture
Seed Sunday: $180 Million for Seed Banks, Roundup in Idaho and Gene-Edited Strawberries
This week: USDA puts $180 million into the national seed bank, an Idaho judge lets a Roundup lawsuit go forward, gene-edited strawberries advance in England, a study makes the case for sorghum in Europe, and regenerative organic food gets tested for nutrition.
Gardening, Heirloom Seeds, Seed Saving, Seed to Table
Seed to Table: How to Grow Music Garlic, the Heirloom That Came in a Suitcase
How to plant, grow, harvest and save Music garlic, a cold-hardy heirloom hardneck brought from Italy to Ontario, plus the 10-minute trick for garlic’s health benefits and a roasted garlic white bean spread.
CRISPR, Heirloom Seeds, Politics, Seed Saving, Seed Sunday, Sustainable Agriculture
Seed Sunday: A Seed Giant Spins Off, Roundup Back in Court and Desert Seeds
This week: Corteva’s seed business becomes a separate company called Vylor, a Roundup trial opens in St. Louis, USDA puts $1 billion into regenerative farming, Britain clears a gene-edited banana, and a Moab farm saves water with desert-adapted seeds.
Heirloom Seeds, Seed Saving
Seeds: The Software of Food
I started this post while editing Open Sesame, but got caught up in the whirlwind of the film’s release. I found the draft again this month while digging through the site’s archives. The ideas have aged well, so I decided to finish it. You’ve probably heard the term ‘open source’ even if you aren’t completely […]
Gardening
Seed Chart – What to Plant When
What to Plant When Yes, it’s finally time to check your seed chart and plant seeds! No matter where you are in the Northern Hemisphere, you can start something, even if only indoors for now. I’ll start with some general tips that you can make notes on to create your own Seed Chart – and […]
Heirloom Seeds, Seed Saving
Seed Saver Ira Wallace (Part 1)
IRA WALLACE: I’m Ira Wallace. I’m with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange – a small heirloom, open pollinated seed company. We like to work with small growers when they’re growing a very small amount of one thing. SEEDS DOCUMENTARY: What brought you to seed saving? IRA WALLACE: Well, I’ve been a Seed Savers member for, off […]
CRISPR, Politics, Sustainable Agriculture, Zika
What is CRISPR/Cas9? Part 2: From Micropigs to Woolly Mammoths
CRISPR/Cas9 isn’t a new technique. It was first discovered in the DNA of bacteria back in 1987. But it was only in 2012 that researchers at UC Berkeley ramped up and begin to more fully exploit the gene splicing tool in the field of genetic engineering. It might be safe… In 2014 wheat was modified […]
CRISPR, Politics
What is CRISPR? USDA says regulation not needed.
CRISPR or “Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (a mouthful, but not something that sounds good to eat) is being called a game changer by the biotech community. CRISPR is a gene-editing tool with applications beyond seeds (a human test passed safety review in 2016). The technology reportedly occurs naturally. Microbes use CRISPR molecules to […]