Food

Seeds

The seed varieties in use today – even those that have been genetically modified – are the product of countless generations of farmers saving seeds from plants with desirable traits, and sowing them the following year. But corporate agribusinesses earn huge profits by interrupting this process: the traits built into their hybrid varieties won't be expressed in saved seeds, and farmers can be sued for saving genetically-modified seeds. The ability of smallholder farmers to save and sow their own seeds is an essential element of resilient, locally-adapted food systems. Seed sovereignty upholds the right to grow, exchange, and preserve open-pollinated seeds, free from corporate control.

Seeds Actions
Introduce seed saving into schools.
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Introduce seed saving into schools.

Educating the next generation on seed saving preserves valuable, intergenerational knowledge that we are at risk of losing, and empowers young people to become custodians of nature in its most delicate form. Seed saving education also connects children with nature at an early age and encourages them to participate in nature's cycles, from seed to plant, from plant to seed.

Take action

Get inspired

  • At the Sahyadri School in Pune, India, students and farmers work together to cultivate and market indigenous varieties of seeds, producing eight tons of heritage seeds per year while learning agricultural and business skills in the process.

Introduce seed saving into schools.

Educating the next generation on seed saving preserves valuable, intergenerational knowledge that we are at risk of losing, and empowers young people to become custodians of nature in its most delicate form. Seed saving education also connects children with nature at an early age and encourages them to participate in nature's cycles, from seed to plant, from plant to seed.

Take action

Get inspired

  • At the Sahyadri School in Pune, India, students and farmers work together to cultivate and market indigenous varieties of seeds, producing eight tons of heritage seeds per year while learning agricultural and business skills in the process.
Buy open-pollinated heirloom seeds for your garden.
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Buy open-pollinated heirloom seeds for your garden.

Seeds local to your area will work best with your climate, and we encourage you to seek out small growers, businesses and organizations producing open-pollinated, heirloom, locally-adapted, hardy varieties bred and maintained for small-scale agroecological farming. 

Take action

  • Discover local seed networks and seed suppliers with the following directories, lists and maps: Seed Savers Foundation (Australia), Seed Sovereignty (UK and Ireland), the Organic Seed Alliance (US and Canada), and the Open Source Seed Initiative's seed company partners (worldwide).
  • Red de Guardianes de Semillas in Ecuador offers a wide diversity of local seeds grown in permaculture farms and gardens. Check out their catalog here.
  • In Mexico, Las Cañadas center for agroecology and permaculture offers this catalog of agroecologically grown plants and seeds
  • Vanastree is a women-run seed-saving collective in the Malnad region of Karnataka, India. Their seeds are all organic and open-pollinated.
  • If your country or region isn’t listed here, ask your local gardening club, community gardening organization, permaculture or transition group, or organic nursery, and connect with nearby small-scale, organic, traditional farmers.

Get inspired

  • The Desi Seed Producers Company is a collective of organic seed producers and seed savers in India whose mission is "to bring back the tradition of seed saving amongst us by collecting, propagating, and exchanging indigenous and rare varieties [and to] seek sustainable living and a more self-reliant lifestyle." Their organically grown, open pollinated vegetable and cereal seeds are marketed under the brand name "Sahaja Seeds."

Buy open-pollinated heirloom seeds for your garden.

Seeds local to your area will work best with your climate, and we encourage you to seek out small growers, businesses and organizations producing open-pollinated, heirloom, locally-adapted, hardy varieties bred and maintained for small-scale agroecological farming. 

Take action

  • Discover local seed networks and seed suppliers with the following directories, lists and maps: Seed Savers Foundation (Australia), Seed Sovereignty (UK and Ireland), the Organic Seed Alliance (US and Canada), and the Open Source Seed Initiative's seed company partners (worldwide).
  • Red de Guardianes de Semillas in Ecuador offers a wide diversity of local seeds grown in permaculture farms and gardens. Check out their catalog here.
  • In Mexico, Las Cañadas center for agroecology and permaculture offers this catalog of agroecologically grown plants and seeds
  • Vanastree is a women-run seed-saving collective in the Malnad region of Karnataka, India. Their seeds are all organic and open-pollinated.
  • If your country or region isn’t listed here, ask your local gardening club, community gardening organization, permaculture or transition group, or organic nursery, and connect with nearby small-scale, organic, traditional farmers.

Get inspired

  • The Desi Seed Producers Company is a collective of organic seed producers and seed savers in India whose mission is "to bring back the tradition of seed saving amongst us by collecting, propagating, and exchanging indigenous and rare varieties [and to] seek sustainable living and a more self-reliant lifestyle." Their organically grown, open pollinated vegetable and cereal seeds are marketed under the brand name "Sahaja Seeds."
Save your seeds.
Expand Action
Save your seeds.

If you grow open-pollinated varieties in your garden, you can save your seeds from this season and plant them next year. This enables you to do what traditional farmers have done for millennia: select seeds from plants with desirable traits, especially for an ability to thrive in your particular climate and soils.

Get started

  • The Community Seed Network (US and Canada) has curated an excellent set of seed saving resources, for beginners to experienced seed savers, plus recommended readings.  
  • Seed Sovereignty (UK and Ireland) has assembled an extensive list of guides, books, videos, podcasts and more for all things seed saving.  
  • The Seed Savers’ Exchange (US) has tips for getting started, as well as specific guides for 35 common vegetables and fruits.  

Get inspired

Save your seeds.

If you grow open-pollinated varieties in your garden, you can save your seeds from this season and plant them next year. This enables you to do what traditional farmers have done for millennia: select seeds from plants with desirable traits, especially for an ability to thrive in your particular climate and soils.

Get started

  • The Community Seed Network (US and Canada) has curated an excellent set of seed saving resources, for beginners to experienced seed savers, plus recommended readings.  
  • Seed Sovereignty (UK and Ireland) has assembled an extensive list of guides, books, videos, podcasts and more for all things seed saving.  
  • The Seed Savers’ Exchange (US) has tips for getting started, as well as specific guides for 35 common vegetables and fruits.  

Get inspired

Start a community seed garden.
Expand Action
Start a community seed garden.

Creating a space for your community to grow plants for seed is a great way to build local resilience and preserve rare plant varieties. From season to season, plants adapt to the local climate and environment, passing on information to the next generation through their seed. This makes living seed-saving projects extremely important in the face of our changing climate. As a community, you'll work and learn together to grow locally-adapted plant varieties, become self-sufficient in seed, and share seed as a group.

Take action

Get inspired

  • At UK-based Down to Earth Stroud, members grow seed for vegetables, fruits, and flowers in their own backyards and community garden plots. 
  • Native Seeds/SEARCH has a 60-acre seed conservation farm in the US state of Arizona, where they have preserved nearly 2,000 varieties of indigenous desert seeds. They offer small grants and educational programs for communities in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico. 

Start a community seed garden.

Creating a space for your community to grow plants for seed is a great way to build local resilience and preserve rare plant varieties. From season to season, plants adapt to the local climate and environment, passing on information to the next generation through their seed. This makes living seed-saving projects extremely important in the face of our changing climate. As a community, you'll work and learn together to grow locally-adapted plant varieties, become self-sufficient in seed, and share seed as a group.

Take action

Get inspired

  • At UK-based Down to Earth Stroud, members grow seed for vegetables, fruits, and flowers in their own backyards and community garden plots. 
  • Native Seeds/SEARCH has a 60-acre seed conservation farm in the US state of Arizona, where they have preserved nearly 2,000 varieties of indigenous desert seeds. They offer small grants and educational programs for communities in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico. 
Create a seed exchange network or seed bank.
Expand Action
Create a seed exchange network or seed bank.

Because of industrial farming, more than 90% of agricultural biodiversity has been lost in the past century. Storing seed from endangered varieties in seed banks is a way to preserve what remains of that diversity, although farmers' fields remain the best seed banks of all.

Take action

Get inspired

  • The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, in Battir, Palestine, works closely with local farmers to identify local food crops and varieties that are threatened with extinction. Bringing those varieties back to life can inspire both farmers and the larger community to preserve their bioculture and repair their local landscape.
  • Vrihi & Basudha, in India, comprises a folk rice bank that has collected, saved, and distributed 940 indigenous varieties of rice, and a conservation research farm that grows out the rice using traditional agroecological methods.
  • Seed Libraries' Getting Started page offers case studies and wisdom from seed libraries across the US.

Create a seed exchange network or seed bank.

Because of industrial farming, more than 90% of agricultural biodiversity has been lost in the past century. Storing seed from endangered varieties in seed banks is a way to preserve what remains of that diversity, although farmers' fields remain the best seed banks of all.

Take action

Get inspired

  • The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, in Battir, Palestine, works closely with local farmers to identify local food crops and varieties that are threatened with extinction. Bringing those varieties back to life can inspire both farmers and the larger community to preserve their bioculture and repair their local landscape.
  • Vrihi & Basudha, in India, comprises a folk rice bank that has collected, saved, and distributed 940 indigenous varieties of rice, and a conservation research farm that grows out the rice using traditional agroecological methods.
  • Seed Libraries' Getting Started page offers case studies and wisdom from seed libraries across the US.
Voices from the field

  • The film series Seeds of Freedom Trilogy by the Gaia Foundation explores the global struggle for seed sovereignty through the stories of African communities reviving traditional seed diversity.
  • The documentary Seed: The Untold Story follows several seed keepers - people who are reviving ancestral seed varieties and our connection with them - and their struggles against biotechnology companies' control of our seeds and food systems.
Policy

  • The Legal Resources section of the Organizational Resources page by Community Seed Network shares knowledge and tools to advocate for laws protecting seed sovereignty in your community. These were written for US and Canadian audiences, though the frameworks are applicable elsewhere.

Resources