Biodiversity, locally available and regionally adapted seed are key to resiliency on organic farms. In this month’s edition, Steph Hughes explores the story behind organic seeds and The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security.

Ten years ago, SeedChange (then USC Canada), along with partners including Seeds of Diversity Canada, completed a Pilot Year Environmental Scan of organic and ecological seed in Canada. The findings of that report led to the 2013 launch of The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security – a program to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of regionally grown seed in Canada for organic farming conditions.

The program was needed to fill critical seed security gaps in Canada’s organic and ecological farming sector. The report identified several areas of concern, including a lack of education opportunities about seed crop production for farmers in Canada, an absence of public plant breeding for organic farms,  a dwindling of agricultural biodiversity, and a reliance on imported seed, particularly in the organic vegetable farming sector, which make our farms and overall food security vulnerable to systemic shocks. Most recently this vulnerability was tested with the Covid-19 pandemic, which triggered international seed shortages.

Over the last 10 years, The Bauta Family Initiative has advanced programming to address each of these critical challenges, by providing resources to the sector, facilitating education and engagement opportunities with seed, and coordinating on-farm variety trials and plant breeding projects. The most recent of these initiatives, started in 2021, is the establishment of showcase gardens across Canada to trial and bring awareness to vegetable and grain varieties bred by farmers, on-farm, and/or stewarded and selected for regional, organic farms.

There are over a dozen sites established across the country, each providing a platform from which to evaluate the performance of regionally bred varieties, analyze their suitability for organic farm settings,  and celebrate their unique flavours, colours, traits, and stories. For example, Fertile Ground Farm, in Ontario, is showcasing over 50 varieties of vegetables, grains, and potatoes that have been either regionally bred and adapted, or are not currently available locally, but may be well suited to regional organic vegetable production and seed production by local seed companies and seed stewards. It is also home to okra and red pepper trials, including evaluating the Renegade Red bell pepper, a new variety developed by Ontario-based SeedWorks Plant Breeding Club.

In Atlantic Canada, two vegetable-based sites will be showcasing over 50 varieties from 15 regional seed growers and plant breeders. Among these are the Dandy Early broccoli and Tancook Island cabbage, which have been recently recovered from critical endangerment by farm stewards; regionally bred varieties Pink Peach tomato, Nomad pepper, and Glorious kale; and regionally historic varieties – Steeves Caseknife and Baie Verte beans, that all persist because of farmers’ seed saving efforts.

Through field tours, media, communication of trial results, and other efforts, our hope is that farmers will learn about varieties they would never see in a mainstream commercial catalogue, that have traits that will benefit their organic production systems, and that are available locally, shortening the seed supply chain and helping create community between seed growers, sellers, and farmers. Some of these varieties represent 10+ years of committed work by farmers to develop, or select and adapt these varieties. Seed work is slow work and it’s so rewarding to be able to highlight these efforts with this project.

Acknowledgements
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program (CASPP), a $50.3 million, five-year investment to help the agricultural sector adapt and remain competitive.

For more information about:
– The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, go to: seedsecurity.ca
– The Showcase Gardens project, go to: seedsecurity.ca/engage