This pandemic has brought into even sharper focus the need for resilient local food and seed systems--and a run on seeds across the county. Cultivate Oregon is partnering with Rogue Seed Keepers to immediately get seeds (and some starts) into the hands of those that need them, especially connecting heirloom seed varieties like the Three Sisters (corns, beans, squash) with indigenous communities in Oregon, and potentially beyond.

However, we are also working to simply connect those in need with the seeds that we have available, which include many other seed varieties.

Cultivate Oregon and Rogue Seed Keepers have officially become a “seed hub” for the Cooperative Gardens Commission and we received our first shipment of seeds to share! We have additional seeds and starts from our connections with Oregon’s seed growing community. Thank you #coopgardens!

However, because of the timing of getting seeds dispersed into communities for *this* growing season, we are looking for emergency funding for Phase I of this work, which includes the purchase of additional small envelopes for seeds that are currently in bulk, larger envelopes for mailing, postage costs, and potentially small stipends for people packaging and transporting the seeds. Even small donations will help! Please donate right now if you can. 

If you're in Oregon and in need of seeds to grow food, or if you would like to volunteer for this project, please contact us here.

Phase II will be working on a seed germination project to determine the viability of large stores of seeds that also will be shared with communities in need. Please stay tuned for more information.

I knew firsthand how calming gardening can be, especially when you’re not dependent on the food for your immediate survival. Time slows down a little, thoughts meander, and a feeling of flow can arrive, even when the land you’re cultivating is a tiny patch in earshot of a bus stop.

But as I searched for seeds to grow beautifully swirled red and white Chioggia beets, fiery peppers and enough basil to start my own pesto company, website after website warned that my vegetative dreams may be delayed.

"It feels like we are selling toilet paper," Mike Dunton, the founder of The Victory Seed Company, a small seed company focused on horticultural biodiversity told me via email. (He was too busy filling orders to come to the phone.)

I’d been searching his company’s website for glass gem corn, a popping corn that originated with Carl Barnes, who was a part-Cherokee farmer in Oklahoma. In recent years, the corn has become internet famous because of its kaleidoscopic jewel-like appearance. My pandemic prep included buying four pounds of standard yellow popping corn; glass gem corn felt like a way of stepping up my game.

But the website cautioned that all buyers were agreeing to abide by “pandemic ordering terms,” and warned that the current shipping backlog was 18 to 24 days.

Clearly, I was not the only person who felt that the best path through the pandemic was to panic-buy a bunch of seeds."

....

Noah Schlager, the conservation program manager of a nonprofit seed seller called Native Seeds/SEARCH, said: “I was talking with a colleague who was saying that a lot of elders lived through the Great Depression, and they remember times like this."

“They’ve been saying, ‘This is the time to be saving these seeds and making sure that we can feed ourselves,’” he added.

The mission of Native Seed Search, a nonprofit, is to promote and conserve the crop biodiversity of the arid American southwest. (Native Seed Search is responsible for bringing attention to glass gem corn.) The company sells seeds to the public, “but our priority is seeds for Indigenous communities,” Mr. Schlager said, pointing out that the Navajo Nation is already suffering because of the new coronavirus.

“They’re oftentimes the last place where real aid, or FEMA support, or anything really gets handed out to people,” he said."

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The 500 acre cap on canola production in the Willamette Valley sunsets July 1. Additional canola acreage could have disastrous effects on Oregon’s specialty seed industry through increased pest and disease pressures, as well as genetically engineered (GE) and other cross contamination.

Cultivate Oregon is actively working to protect Oregon’s farmers and seeds by lobbying in support of SB 885, the bill to maintain the 500 acre canola cap, as well as requesting that ODA strengthen the agency’s proposed canola rules, which do not offer enough protections against GE and other contamination. 

Cultivate Oregon is looking for members of the seed community to come to Salem next week to speak to why allowing more canola into the Willamette Valley is a bad idea. Funds are available to cover reasonable travel costs. If you or someone you know would be willing and able to come to Salem, please contact us. 

Read ODA’s proposed rules. 

TAKE ACTION! Review Friends of Family Farmers excellent template for submitting testimony and/or talking points if you can testify in person.

 

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WHY PROTECTING THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY FROM CANOLA AND GE SEED IS SO IMPORTANT

Oregon is one of the top five specialty seed growing regions in the world. This unique heritage should be protected and expanded. Unfortunately, the potential introduction of thousands of acres of canola could threaten this legacy, as can further genetically engineered (GE) contamination. Other seed growing regions that have allowed extensive canola cultivation have experienced reductions in the varieties of specialty seed crops that they can grow, as well increased cross contamination issues. For example, radish seed can no longer be grown in Europe—only Oregon and New Zealand

Large-scale canola cultivation poses unique threats to the specialty seed industry in Oregon for several reasons:

 

• Specialty seed needs robust purity—canola for oil does not, thus putting a greater burden on the specialty seed grower to fence out canola contamination.
  
  
• Increased pest and disease pressures (and while this is true of any brassicaceae crop, the risks rise with increased acreage. Specialty seed acreage is arguably less than what is desired by commercial canola production and doesn’t pose as intense a threat.)
  
  
• Strong volunteerism - it is difficult to control volunteer canola plants, which can spread easily.
  
  
• Seed banking - canola seed can remain in fields for several years, even after the canola has been harvested.
  
  
• Various cross pollination concerns--seed purity and GE.
  
  
• It is becoming increasingly difficult to find “clean” GE-free canola seed. For example, in February of 2019 farmers in France and Germany had to rip out thousands of acres of canola fields because the sowed seed was sold as non-GE but was determined to be contaminated with GE-varieties as well.
  
  
• There is a growing need for organic, non-GMO seed. Oregon has the potential to contribute to this, as long as the right protections in place.
  
  
• The U.S. organic seed market for crops was worth more than $460 million in 2015 and is predicted to reach $5.4 billion by the year 2024. However, the supply for organic seed is insufficient. Ensuring protections for organic seed growers could be a major economic opportunity for Oregon. Organic seed can yield between $10K and $50K an acre; GE seed only $1000 an acre. Canola, at best, yields $1500 an acre.
  
  
• Organic seed grower Frank Morton submitted this excellent testimony to Oregon Dept. of Agriculture and it offer a deep dive into why large scale canola production should be kept out of the Willamette Valley.
   
• Limiting the threat of GE contamination through maintaining a cap on canola acreage is also important to seed growers in other parts of Oregon, like the Rogue Valley. Many farmers in southern Oregon source seeds from the Willamette Valley. Further, GE contamination could drift from northern to southern Oregon, endangering seed growers in the south.

Update on HB 2882: First off, a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who showed up and submitted testimony for the GE Liability Bill last Wednesday. It is appreciated and is helping to keep up the momentum on this bill.

And HB 2882 is still alive. However, in order to maintain forward momentum, the bill’s original intent was amended. It is simply not politically feasible to create patent holder or manufacturer liability for genetically engineered (GE) contamination events. Yet. The new intent of HB 2882 is to grant ODA the authority to regulate GE crops in Oregon. This is a positive step forward, as ODA has long claimed that the agency does not have this authority. While many may be disappointed that a bigger step is not being taken, HB 2882 is farther along in the legislative process than ever before.

The GE industry still has incredible political power and it should be considered a win that an incremental step is being made. However, we’re not across the finish line yet. The hearing for HB 2882 will resume on Monday May 13th at 3pm in Hearing Room C. It is our hope that a work session will follow and the bill will be voted out of committee.

Please stay tuned for updates, which hopefully will include doing outreach to the next committee where HB 2882 lands. And you can still submit testimony up until 3pm tomorrow.

Farmers, seed savers and those who care about the future of Oregon’s seed stocks, take note! HB 2882, the GE Liability Bill is moving forward thanks to the work of all of our coalition partners, especially Our Family Farms. There is a hearing and possible work session scheduled for this Wednesday, May 8^th at 3pm in Hearing Room C before the House Rules Committee.

Having a hearing and a work session is a big step forward and we need to keep up the momentum by having the public testify or submit testimony.

If you can come testify THIS WEDNESDAY, please contact our Policy Director, Amy Wong at [email protected] or (805) 455 4200. We have a small travel fund to bring farmers to Salem but we will need to coordinate quickly. Amy can also help you create personalized testimony if you like. In-person testimony is powerful and moving.

If you can’t testify in person, please consider submitting written testimony. We have provided a template and instructions on how to submit on our website. Please also send a message to your Representative and Senator to tell them that you support HB 2882. Find who represents you here.

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Update on GE Liability Bill: HB 2882 has been scheduled for a Work Session at 1pm on April 3rd. This alone is a big win because the legislature is overwhelmed with thousands of bills and many pieces of legislation don’t make it though, regardless of their underlying merits. The Speaker of the House helped ensure the forward movement of the bill and we are appreciative of her support.

What will happen at the work session? This work session is different from a public hearing in that no testimony will be taken, although the public may attend if they like. The purpose of this work session is to simply move the bill from the Judiciary Committee to the Rules Committee where it will (hopefully) get a full hearing. That's where you come in!

What you can do: Please do make sure you've filled out our support form and let us know if you can be available to write testimony or testify in person once a hearing does get scheduled.

What this bill does: HB 2882 will create liability for patent holders or licensed manufacturers of genetically engineered products that cause GE contamination events in Oregon. The bill will not pit farmer against farmer. The parties that will be held responsible are the corporations behind genetic engineering, not the farmers who use them since in some instances, contamination is out of the hands of the farmer who planted the GE seed. GE contamination, and the threat of contamination, has cost farmers--including Oregon farmers--billions of dollars. 

What happened to SB 434? We introduced identical GE Liability bills in both the House and Senate—a slightly amended version of the bill that was introduced in 2017. We got off to a great start in terms of getting the bills drafted early and into committees in both chambers where they would have a chance. Because GE issues are incredibly contentious in Salem, some committees would be hostile to the bills and not take steps to move them forward.

We were repeatedly re-assured from our Chief Senate sponsor, Sen. Frederick, that the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Prozanski, would be scheduling a hearing. Sen. Prozanski even signed onto the bill and has long been a supporter of GE issues! However, last week Sen. Prozanski changed his mind because he is concerned that the bill could create negative, unintended legal consequences.

While it is disappointing that the Senate version is not moving forward, we still have the House version, and Sen. Prozanski committed to holding an Informational Hearing followed by a Work Group in the Senate because he does see the need to “draw a line in the sand” with GE issues but wants to make sure that he does so in a way that he is comfortable with. Our Chief Sponsor has gotten pieces of legislation out of Work Groups before, so ultimately, this is a step in the right direction. Sen. Prozanski said that he would schedule this hearing in late April or May so stay tuned.

It often takes multiple tries to get legislation passed, so while some of you may be feeling disappointed, we are still on a good track! We also found new Republican allies—Rep. Findley signed on and Rep. Stark is also supportive of the House version. We also are working with a new coalition partner, Oregon Organic Coalition, and through this relationship, we will be attending quarterly meetings at Oregon Department of Agriculture. These are really great developments.

What About Canola?
SB 885, which will address the sunset on the current limit of 500 acres of canola grown in the Willamette Valley, also has a work session scheduled on April 4th and we will know more after that time.