Every five years, OSA releases the State of Organic Seed report as a progress report and action plan for increasing the organic seed supply while fostering seed grower networks and policies that aim to decentralize power and ownership in seed systems. OSA published a third update to this report in 2022. The newest report represents 15 years of data that helps the organic community understand trends in organic seed sourcing, organic seed research investments, and more.
There was very little organic seed available when the National Organic Program (NOP) was implemented in 2002. Twenty years later, the organic seed supply has grown tremendously, and certified organic growers are still required to plant organic seed when commercially available. OSA’s newest findings show that most organic growers still plant non-organic seed for at least part (if not all) of their operations. While there’s evidence that organic seed sourcing is increasing among smaller vegetable producers, progress across crop types is generally stagnant. In other words, OSA’s most recent findings demonstrate no meaningful improvement in organic producers using more organic seed compared to five years ago.
In this webinar, OSA’s Kiki Hubbard and Jared Zystro share the report’s findings and recommendations, which are informed by numerous surveys and data sets. Webinar topics include:
- Trends in how much organic seed is being planted in the U.S.
- Barriers to growing the organic seed supply
- Challenges in enforcing the organic seed regulation
- Organic seed production challenges and needs
- Organic seed producer networks
- Investments in organic plant breeding and organic seed research
- Perspectives on intellectual property rights (IPR)
- Perspectives on climate change
- Organic seed policy solutions
The 2022 State of Organic Seed report can be found at this link.
