Being aware of where we are can give us information on what to expect and how to interact with the environment. Recently, I became aware of the importance and consequences of latitude in organic seed production and agriculture in general. The latitude where a farm is located determines sunlight duration, which influences its temperature, rainfall, and seasonal patterns.
For a big part of my life, I was unaware of this, because I was born and raised very close to the Equator, in the tropics, where nights and days are the same length all year round. We don’t have four seasons, only two (rainy and dry), and as I recall, they are not that clear either. Our crop plans, weeding, watering, and pest management strategies, and how we relate to Earth are different than in other latitudes, and our season is practically “eternal”.
One day, out of curiosity, I googled the “agriculture characteristic of Latitude 45th North”, where the Willamette Valley territory is located, and the first thing it said was the “Golden Latitude,” clear seasons, good soil, and balanced temperature; then I understood one of the reasons the Organic Seed Movement has rooted successfully in the generosity of this latitude.
Among the expressions of gratitude for this Golden Latitude‘s generosity is farmers’ desire and willingness to share their knowledge and experiences with new organic seed growers, and for some reason I was allowed to be part of a harvest in Parallel 45th North. With Dr. Carol Deppe from the Open Source Seed Initiative, OSSI, and with the generous financial support of the Western Extension Risk Management Education Center, WERME, we produced and delivered abundant and robust educational material in On-Farm Plant Breeding for Resilient Organic Systems this season. At this point, we are ready to share with all of you, our Organic Seed Community, a very advanced draft of this collective co-creation. In the first video of the series on On-Farm Plant Breeding for Resilient Organic Systems, Dr. Deppe shares a Welcome to the Series. Following is a video on Fundamentals of On-Farm Breeding. Then, we talk about model crops, such as inbreeding crops or “selfers”; we produced On-Farm Breeding with Beans as an example of these kinds of crops, On-Farm Breeding with Squash as an example of cross-pollinated crops tolerant to some inbreeding, and On-Farm Breeding with Corn to illustrate cross-pollinated crops susceptible to inbreeding.
We really hope this content interests you, our Organic Seed Community, and that it continues igniting curiosity and action towards the local adaptation of crops and varieties to our local environmental conditions. If you want to be part of this co-creation, please check the material and send us comments and feedback to ana@seedalliance.org or use this link.
Being aware of where we are can give us elements to know what to expect, and also an idea of where we want and can go. The Golden Latitude whispers to us ideas to encourage us to walk towards the co-creation of more Resilient Organic Systems, of course, in all latitudes.
*The reflections of this piece are exclusively the position of the author and do not reflect the position of the organization.
