The main purpose of my visit to Port Townsend was to visit the Organic Seed Alliance. A long-standing contributor to the organic seed movement in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, OSA is celebrating its 20th year, and was a considerable inspiration for the Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme in the UK.
OSA evolved out of the Abundant Life Seed Foundation which closed its doors after a tragic fire destroyed the office and most of the seed. Out of the loss came the determination of its founders to continue to support seed keepers to preserve seed in perpetuity in the field. Rather than focusing on purely preservation work, OSA was founded to fill the gap in formal instruction about organic seed production and improvement, to ensure that seed skills and knowledge were enhanced and passed on over time.
OSA‘s mission is to serve growers working with seed across the US through three main programme areas: participatory research, practical education and legal and cultural advocacy. These areas are grounded in the desire to increase seed quality and quantity of organic seed available to organic farmers by developing networks and connections between seed growers, seed companies, university researchers, policy advocates and other seed organisations. OSA prioritise partnerships with organisations and individuals aligned with their values, and embrace opportunities to amplify movements for community sovereignty, racial equity and social justice.
During my time with the OSA, I was hosted by Micaela Colley, who has worked for the organisation since its fledgling days. Micaela has had many roles with OSA over the years, including a spell as Programme Director. Her current role is Research and Education Co-Director, co-leading programmes focused on organic seed production and plant breeding. Micaela is author of several publications, and in 2022 completed a PhD focused on organic and participatory plant breeding from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Micaela was a rock star in hosting both myself and Bonnetta Adeeb from Ujamaa Seeds & Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance during the same week, and she arranged an incredible multi day tour to many of the seed folks in the area (more on that to come…).
Early in the week, I accompanied Micaela to OSA’s offices in downtown Port Townsend for their weekly team meeting to meet more of the OSA family online. It was comforting and familiar to be part of a gathering of people with similar motivation and intention as my colleagues in the Seed Sovereignty Programme team back in the UK. Listening to the team share their updates and news of projects they are working on, it was reassuring to know we’re all working towards a similar vision.
As well as getting a glimpse behind the scenes at the main office, I also visited the OSA Research Farm several times throughout the week. The research farm is based out in Chimacum at the Finnriver Farm & Cidery, just a short drive from Port Townsend. It is here where OSA runs many of its organic variety trials, plant breeding and seed production projects. This farm is essential to much of OSA’s trials and breeding work, and it was amazing to see their setup. OSA were collaborators in the NOVIC trials that I have heard much about during my travels (Micaela was one of the researchers on that team) – and they continue to collaborate with farmers and universities in national projects including the Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture (CIOA) and the Tomato Organic Management and Improvement (TOMI) project. Farm Manager Kayla Ierlan and Research and Education Associate Susana Cabrera-Mariz showed me around the site.
As we walked the field, the highlight were the carrots being grown as part of the CIOA trials. Isolated from cross pollinating with large cages, there were 18 varieties being trialled to establish their suitability for organic systems. Kayla explained the selection criteria was largely focused on concentrated colour, sweetness and disease resistance. She was particularly excited about the diversity of colours that the carrots displayed – purple with yellow cores, raspberry blush, and some beautiful yellow carrots that didn’t seem to be exhibiting the green shoulders common in yellow varieties. These carrot trials stemmed from hundreds of varieties drawn from the GRIN database and from the breeding work of Dr Philipp Simon of the University of Wisconsin. The trial has been running for 8 years, and they are on the cusp of releasing stable varieties to the farming community. Trials like CIOA allow the team at OSA to compare and evaluate the diversity within crops in real organic conditions. They can take the risks for the farmers and make informed decisions on what varieties are likely to thrive in organic systems, and breed from those that are particularly successful. I asked Micaela about the importance of this diversity:
‘To me it comes down to the word possibilities. Diversity is the promise of possibilities for the future, possibility to adapt, to change, to enjoy different things, to grow no matter what the conditions are. So diversity is essential for our crops to continue forward. And human diversity is equally essential so that no one is carrying the load of ensuring that we have food in the future. And ensuring that the crops we breed fit the climates, the cultures, the preferences, the potential of everyone and not just a few.’
‘There’s nothing better than spending an entire afternoon with a bunch of famers in a field and looking at plants, and realising that everybody sees the plants through a different set of eyes, and I get to see through a lot of different eyes because I have the opportunity to walk through field with a lot of different people. To me that’s just the potential embodied. There’s nothing like noticing…when you’re out in the field looking at plants, your eyes, your mind quiets and moves away from worrying about all the big picture, all the needs and should and woulds, and you just start noticing patterns and textures.’
OSA works collaboratively with and educates thousands of farmers and agricultural community members across the US each year – largely through on farm and online events and resources, but they also bring the whole seed community together for the biennial Organic Seed Growers conference. I asked Micaela why organisations such as OSA are important for the future of seed.
‘OSA is an alliance. It takes an alliance to bring diversity to the work. We don’t just need OSA, we need a diversity of organisations, a diversity of models, a diversity of approaches, a diversity of leaders. So, OSA is just one vehicle for connecting seed people with other seed people, and seeds with seed people. That’s how diversity spreads, that’s how knowledge spreads. I’d say OSA plays an important role, but clearly we need the diversity in alliances in and of themselves, and OSA is just one of them.’
Susana Cabrera-Mariz is one of the newest members of the OSA team, she is based at the Research Farm with Kayla, and as well as working in the field her main role is to support the research and education programme in Washington State. Susana has organically farmed for 8 years, as well as holding a Masters degree in Anthropology amongst extensive agroecological studies. We travelled together on the seed tours throughout the week, and I had the opportunity to chat to her extensively about what inspires her and keeps her in this work.
‘Hands in the soil! There’s nothing better than being able to get your hands dirty and to be covered in soil. I think it’s very much an embodied experience, so I really appreciate being able to be present with myself and with the beings around me. I also love sharing, sharing whether it’s knowledge about the plants or seed or food. I think oftentimes the work can be difficult, but when we’re able to share it’s beautiful and very very rewarding.’
Susana is committed to participating in the creation of a just food and seed system that supports cultural reclamation and sovereignty efforts. I asked her for her thoughts on diversity in food and seed sovereignty:
‘It’s important for resilience. Not only resilience in a human’s need to exist capacity, but in a cultural and a heart resilience. We need diverse food systems and seed systems because they represent our own diversity and the beautiful things that we bring to the world. And so, when I think about diversity, I think of all the different people and all the different beings that make up that system. Whether it’s the seeds, or the microorganisms in our soil or the humans that tend the seeds, or the birds that rip your seeds out of the soil and eat them! All those things are beautiful and create a memory and they tell a story. I think those types of stories and those memories allow us to exist and to thrive. I think without having diversity in the food and seed system we lose so much and a lot of things we lose are not just plant material, but rather a way of being, a way of seeing the world, a memory, a food way, a way of relationship in many ways.’
The team at Organic Seed Alliance aspire to return the power of seed into the hands of growers. Their brilliant work promotes an abundant and diverse supply of ecologically seed that will hopefully be tended in perpetuity by skilled, diverse and interconnected communities of seed stewards. It was powerful to see the team at work during my week in Port Townsend, and inspiring to witness the impact these types of organisations and alliances can have on building community, and working towards an equitable, abundant and resilient seed future.
