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| Editor’s
NOTE:
Response to Richard
Glenister’s letter Organic
farmers left holding the bag for substandard seed
in response to Jeff Moyer’s column titled
Let’s
get real, and all commit to using organic seed.
We serve a diverse audience of readers engaged
in regenerative, organic and sustainable agriculture
at many levels for many reasons. We want to hear
from you about the issues that are important to
your life and work, and your vision for agriculture
that builds a strong future.
We run selected comments from readers in this
space. Please tell us who you are, with name,
address and phone number for verification. Sending
correspondence to us conveys a right to us to
publish it as is, or in a form edited for length
and/or style. Opinions expressed in this space
do not necessarily represent the perspective of
The New Farm® or The Rodale Institute®.
If you have something important to say about
agriculture in a sustainable global food system,
please -- speak
to us.
NF
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Posted March 15, 2007: I am a certified
organic grower of vegetables. I have had several problems
with the germination of organic seed, and one problem with
a cucumber not being as described (and inedible). I trust
organic seed coming from Johnny’s [Selected Seeds],
but have had germination failure with seed from other companies
– with well-known names.
I try to add organic varieties as they become available,
but I have mixed feelings when I see a variety that is important
to me come out in organic, for fear I will have poor germination.
There is often no time to replant, as I do a lot of transplants.
Timing is everything.
Of course I agree with using organic seed, but I feel that
flexibility with the organic grower's seed choices is absolutely
necessary for a while. The organic grower has the extra cost
for organic seed, the extra time to search out the organic
seed, and the extra effort to test new organic varieties to
see if they can substitute for current varieties that are
not available organically.
The risk of poor seed quality is an added burden. Let’s
not make the organic farmer bear too many burdens all at once.
Click
here for Johnny’s organic seed statement
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