• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Organic Seed Alliance

Advancing ethical seed solutions to meet food and farming needs in a changing world

  • News
  • Programs
    • Research
    • Education
    • Advocacy
  • Publications
    • All Publications
    • How-to Guides
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Worksheets & Record-keeping
    • Conference Proceedings
  • Resources
    • State of Organic Seed
    • Organic Seed Producers & Intern Host Farm Directory
    • Variety Trial Tool
    • Seed Patent Watch
    • Seed Internship Program & Organic Seed Production Online Course
    • Seed Economics Toolkit
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Organic Seed Growers Conference
    • COVID-19 Protocols
  • Media
  • About
    • Staff Directory
    • Board & Advisors
    • Our Story
    • Our Values
    • Our Alliance
    • Commitment to Racial Equity
    • Business Partners
    • Annual Report
    • Contact Us
    • FAQ
  • Give

Uncategorized · March 7, 2011

Seed Digest (February 19 – March 4, 2011)

Mandatory Labeling of GMOs is Long Overdue The final results for MSNBC’s poll last week that asked: “Do you believe genetically modified foods should be labeled?” show 96% of respondents want labeling. This overwhelming support for labeling of GMO food ingredients is not surprising. For the last decade other polls have shown similar results, like this recent poll by CBS and the New York Times that found 87% of respondents want labeling and a 2001 ABC News poll that found 93% want the government to require mandatory labeling. Make these poll results known! Contact your members in Congress (find your Senators and Representatives) and ask President Obama to stand behind his campaign pledge to support the mandatory labeling of GMOs.

NOVIC: Breeding in Response to Farmers’ Needs Growing Magazine features the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) in an article titled, “Collaborative and Organic.” Jim Myers, professor of horticulture at Oregon State University, manages NOVIC. He listed a few advantages to the project: “I think it gives us a broad set of environments and many environments in one year for testing our breeding materials. That’s always a problem with breeders. It takes a lot of resources to run a trial. My rule of thumb is to have at least nine year-locations of data before I release a variety. That could be like three locations in three years, or one location in nine years or some combination. You need that multi-environment data to really understand how varieties behave.”

Farmer Reflects on the Promise of Participatory Breeding
Tom Willey of T&D Willey Farms reflects on his trip to Organicology earlier this month and lessons learned in the important role he and other farmers play in “recapturing immensely valuable” varieties. This blog post is cross-posted from EcoFarm.

Gettin’ Schooled in Seed Production Organic Seed Alliance hosted a hugely successful Organic Seed Intensive at the 2011 Organicology conference. Over 60 attendees were able to sharpen their seed skills thanks to 8 hours of in-depth workshops on topics like seed climatic considerations, seed disease, and seed quality, as well as seed crop specific workshops on onions, beets and chard, brassicas, carrots, lettuce, and vine crops. The intensive featured world-class experts on organic seed production from many parts of the seed industry, including OSA’s own John Navazio, Jodi Lew-Smith from High Mowing Seeds, Joel Reiten from Seeds of Change, and Don Tipping from Siskiyou Seeds.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Save the date for these two events:

Mother Earth News Fair (Seattle, WA) June 4 – 5, 2011

6th Organic Seed Growers Conference (Port Townsend, WA) January 19 – 21, 2012

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Categories: Uncategorized

Kiki Hubbard

Kristina (Kiki) Hubbard is the director of advocacy and communications for Organic Seed Alliance. She currently leads efforts to promote policies and actions that support organic seed systems, including managing OSA’s State of Organic Seed project.

Latest Tweets

Thanks to @chelliepingree for joining NSAC’s summer mtg this afternoon & for identifying farmer-driven policy solutions to our climate crisis 🌎 @sustainableag pic.twitter.com/nTxr…

Last week · reply · retweet · favorite

Interested in organic policy work? The Coalition for #Organic & Regenerative Agriculture (CORA) has a position open to help advance their WA-based policy goals. More details below. twitter.com/tilthall…

About 3 weeks ago · reply · retweet · favorite

"It’s not too late to change course...The administration would be wise to choose that path." – OSA's Kiki Hubbard on @USDAgov's inquiry on competition concerns in the seed industry as related to Intellectual Property Rights #IPR. @thehill thehill.com/opinion/…

About 2 months ago · reply · retweet · favorite

🌟 Thanks for joining last week's Showcase, @plantgoodseed!! twitter.com/plantgoo…

About 2 months ago · reply · retweet · favorite

✏️ 1 week left to MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. Submit comments on seed industry #consolidation and #IPR to USDA through June 15. (1/5) seedalliance.org/202…

About 2 months ago · reply · retweet · favorite

Follow @Seed_Alliance

Footer

Advancing ethical seed solutions to meet food and farming needs in a changing world

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Copyright © 2022 Organic Seed Alliance · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design