California leads the nation in vegetable seed production, yet less than half of the vegetable seed planted on organic farms in the state is organic. This means that California’s organic farmers — like organic growers in other states — often plant non-organic seed due to a lack of variety options or insufficient quantities.
OSA is working with California farmers to develop the right tools to help fill the demand for more diversity and increased quantities in the organic seed marketplace. The following two projects are aimed at doing just that. Learn more about our work in California here.
Call for Proposals to Participate in 2018 California Organic Variety Trials
OSA is supporting on-farm organic variety trials throughout California thanks to funding from a USDA Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) grant that’s supporting the Student Collaborative Organic Plant Breeding Education project. This project provides mini-grants for farmers to conduct their own on-farm organic variety trials, support trial design and result analysis, and develop a platform to share their results and connect with each other across the state. To qualify, farms must be certified organic and be located in California. Applicants may submit proposals for multiple on-farm variety trials during two rounds of funding in spring 2018. The first round of applications is open now and will close February 1, 2018. For more information please contact Jared Zystro.
To apply for funding please submit your proposals here.
California Organic Seed Grower Directory
In an effort to help highlight and connect California producers to open markets, OSA is compiling a statewide directory of organic seed growers. The catalog will have two main features: one is an updated list of seed available for sale in 2018 and the second is a list of organic seed growers interested in contracting with seed distributors. This beautiful, photo-rich directory will be available in print and online, and is scheduled to be released at the 2018 Organic Seed Growers Conference in Corvallis, Oregon. For more information please contact Amber Keeney.
If you would like to be featured in this directory please fill out the 2018 California grower profile application here.
