Seeds of Hope in Uncertain Times
Increased demand for seeds during Covid-19 shows the need for stronger, decentralized seed systems in Latin America and the United States.
By Valeria García López and David Greenwood-Sánchez
NACLA
October 9, 2020
(Must read. Mike)
Excerpt:
Seeds are the essential input of our food system, yet we know little about how local seed systems are adjusting to the Covid-19 pandemic. Media coverage tends to ignore seed production, and to route our attention through the lens of our own personal consumption. However, seed producers’ ability to adapt to this crisis has important consequences for our agrobiodiversity, food security, and food sovereignty.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced local seed systems across Latin America to adopt a range of diverse strategies to confront this new reality. These challenges are shared by small seed producers in the U.S., who serve as primary sources of access to quality, organic seeds for the Latinx community in the U.S. For this reason, it is informative to analyze seed systems in Latin America and the U.S. in an integrated manner. We also aim to draw attention to the diversity of initiatives available for Latinx communities interested in becoming more involved with seeds.
We approach these issues as scholar-activists working in the fields of agroecology and political science. We are active in civil society groups in Latin America and the U.S., and work in defense of seeds and for the promotion of alternative, ecologically friendly seed systems.
We spoke with community groups, seed libraries, seed companies, urban farmers, and educators to understand how seed production has changed during the pandemic. For most of these organizations, the central challenge has been how to cope with the unexpected increase in demand. Many are simply not structured in a way that allows for the rapid and immediate scaling-up of operations. This has created new stresses on internal operations. For example, Semillas Colibri (Colibri Seeds), a seed bank and garden-school in Guadalajara, Mexico, said:
“During this time, our orders have increased by 80 percent compared to other years, in both the amount of seed requested as well as demand for training to build gardens, including family gardens, community gardens, and commercial gardens. We have also increased our seed donations. The amount that we have traditionally donated each year we are now donating each week.”
