2023-11-17 11:29:00
Patent-free open-pollinated varieties are vital for agriculture, says vegetable and seed grower Cor Zenhorst. This allows farmers to propagate and re-sow themselves. “It completes the circle.”
Vegetable grower Cor Zenhorst (39) reaches into a large crate of New Zealand spinach seeds. “With what I now have in my two hands, you can sow a quarter of an acre,” he says. “When you later harvest the seed from the plants that grow from it, you will have another box full, a total of 450 kilos.” He laughs: “The extent to which seed multiplies is enormous.”
In addition to the spinach seeds, the farmer’s shed also contains boxes with seeds for pole beans and parsley. Zenhorst will soon deliver this harvest to organic seed traders, such as De Bolster and animal feed and seed company Agrifirm. Outside, on his land, there are not many vegetables left; only a strip of purple kale overwinters. Zenhorst will collect the seed from there next summer.
Zenhorst, together with his father, has a company with 21 hectares in Creil, Noordoostpolder. The number of hectares is relatively low, he says. Buyers of potatoes and carrots or pumpkins often go for large volumes and he cannot offer that. He does sell some of his vegetables, but father and son mainly focus on selecting the best plants and harvesting their seeds. That can also yield quite a bit of money: 25 euros for a kilo of spinach seed, for example, and 90 euros for a kilo of trefoil seed.
‘The circle is complete’
In addition to economic value, seed propagation offers a lot of satisfaction, says Zenhorst. He sows, takes care of the crop and when the vegetables are actually ready to harvest, he lets them sprout; the spinach grows from twenty centimeters to more than half a meter. The plant will flower and produce seeds that can be harvested. “You can sow and reap once more the following year. So the circle is complete and that is absolutely fantastic,” says the grower.
Zenhorst is also chairman of the Zaadgoed Foundation, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Saturday, November 11. The organization encourages the availability of a type of organic seed that farmers can propagate themselves; so-called open-pollinated varieties. They can breed such varieties by selecting the best plants and allowing them to flower, then harvesting the seed and sowing it once more. This allows them to improve a crop over the years. For example, there is a higher yield or the plant is more resistant to diseases. If farmers produce seed themselves, they are not dependent on seed suppliers.
Due to the concentration of seed suppliers among a small number of large companies such as Bayer/Monsanto and Syngenta, farmers’ freedom of choice has decreased over the years. There are only three relatively large independent seed companies in the Netherlands: Enza, Rijk Zwaan and Bejo Zaden. They all also have a branch for the sale of organic seeds. So there is supply.
It’s a shaky foundation
But that is a very shaky foundation, Zenhorst notes. “The organic market is small. These companies invest little money in research into improving organic varieties and farmers are regularly told that a certain seed is no longer available. Furthermore, they often sell so-called hybrid seed that has been bred for a higher and uniform yield. Hybrid seeds are bred in such a way that you will not get a usable crop the following year. In addition, many seeds from large companies are patented, which makes it impossible for growers to do anything with them themselves.”
It therefore remains important, he says, to encourage the development of so-called patent-free open-pollinated varieties. “These plants produce seed that can be used for sowing a year later. Plants grow from it that have the same properties as those of the previous year.”
The European Commission has a proposal to allow certain forms of genetic modification in plant breeding. It is still unclear whether that plan will go ahead. If that becomes reality, Zenhorst believes it will be even more necessary to have our own seeds for organic farming. Most organic farmers are averse to genetic engineering. They see a plant as a living being and do not want to tinker with the DNA. Genetic modification is not permitted in Europe for organic agriculture, but also not for conventional agriculture.
Food system resilience
Another goal of the foundation is to make a multitude of crop varieties available. This is useful in the fight once morest diseases and pests, says Zenhorst. The damage is less significant if a breed is affected by a disease, because other breeds are likely to survive. More biodiversity also attracts more species of insects, especially bees. A great diversity of varieties strengthens the resilience of the food system. “Monoculture is a dangerous development.”
A large number of varieties is also important for organic farmers because each soil type requires its own type of seed. “I recently looked at an onion variety that is grown in Zeeland. Don’t start, say our Zeeland colleagues. It doesn’t work in the Noordoostpolder. I have sandy soil here. It is a combination of loam, sand and 10 percent clay. They have much more clay in Zeeland.”
Zenhorst puts his ‘construction plan’ on the table in the living room. This diagram shows the crops he sowed this year, such as turnip greens, oats and marigolds. Some of the potatoes are still in the shed. “For home sales,” says the grower.
The Seed Foundation has donors and supports projects for improving organic old and new varieties. For example, the historic spelled variety Utrechtse Blauw, antique Frisian cauliflower, a tomato with more flavor or the development of a potato that is resistant to the disease phytophthora. Last year, eight projects together received almost 19,000 euros. The organization also organizes courses to teach growers and private individuals how to propagate or breed seeds.
A ‘living seed bank’
Together with De Zaderij, a cooperative trader, and Caring Farmers, an association of green farmers, the Zaadgoed Foundation will set up a ‘living seed bank’ this year. This makes it clear which seeds are available from professional growers and fanatical amateurs. The organization states on its website: “Nowadays in the supermarket you often only find one form of crop that is optimal for transport, storage and processing. Due to an enormous impoverishment of diversity, we believe it is time to bring old varieties and selections from more recent varieties back to the field.”
Zenhorst explains: “We know that there are growers who maintain old vegetable varieties themselves, but we do not have exact data on this. There are certainly gems in there. We will see if we can further develop a number of seeds that we encounter in a test field next year.”
The chairman of the Seed Foundation hopes that the ‘living seed bank’ will provide more usable seeds for farmers and stimulate social interest in the diversity of seeds. But he has nothing to complain regarding, he thinks. “In recent years, attention has increased for the importance of the availability of good seed. Is it patent free? Can it be reproduced by a farmer? There is now also good cooperation in Europe to argue for this.”
He also sees that ‘organic and conventional are growing closer together’ on the seed market. Zenhorst: “An example: in conventional agriculture, seed can be given a chemical coating to protect once morest diseases. But that coating is also available in the form of a natural, non-chemical variant for organic seed. I think that with the increasing attention to sustainability, there is also a growing awareness that seed companies cannot continue to further develop their products. All kinds of farmers and companies are trying to become more sustainable. I hope that in 25 years we will be redundant because organic, biodiverse agriculture with open-pollinated varieties will have become commonplace.”
Also read:
Can GM-free food still be recognized if the EU relaxes the rules?
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