Seeds and spores need water, water needs seeds and spores. This simple truth underlies what we now describe as blue and green water. Blue water flows through rivers, lakes, and aquifers — visible, measurable, and contested. Green water lives in soils, roots, and biomass — quiet, local, and sustaining. Seeds and spores are the bridge between the two. They turn rainfall into resilience, flow into fertility, and weather into memory. When that bridge erodes, water becomes unstable, and food systems soon follow.

In Arizona, developers proposing a subdivision (typically six or more lots) must demonstrate that there is an Assured Water Supply — enough water to reliably serve the development for at least 100 years — before the development can be approved and sold. This isn’t just a guideline in the news article, it’s part of a long-standing state law tied to water resource planning and subdivision regulation.

Water is one of those things that hides in plain sight. It is everywhere in language and nowhere in attention. We speak of money, resources, assets, inputs, allocations, offsets, credits, efficiency. Yet remove water from the equation and life itself collapses with astonishing speed. Three or four days without water and a human body ceases to function. No ideology survives that timescale. No accounting framework spans it. No token, no promise, no future compensation matters when circulation stops. And yet water is hardly discussed in mainstream media unless there is a catastrophe - drought/floods etc.

That simple physiological truth is not a metaphor. It is the foundation on which all ecological and social systems rest. Water is not an abstract commodity that can be shifted, delayed, or neutralized. It is medicine to every life-form that requires it. Dosage matters. Timing matters. Place matters. Substitution fails. Absence kills. In that sense, water planning is far closer to medicine than to finance, and the failure to recognize this distinction underlies many of the tensions now emerging across climate policy, infrastructure expansion, and so-called “net-zero” transitions.

Blue Water - Green Water

In recent years, planners and scientists have increasingly distinguished between what is often called blue water and green water. Blue water refers to the visible, extractable flows we are accustomed to managing: rivers, reservoirs, lakes, and aquifers. Green water refers to water held in soils, cycled through plants, and returned to the atmosphere via evapotranspiration. It is the water that feeds crops, forests, and grasslands. It is the water that sustains ecosystems between rains. It is also the water most easily overlooked, because it does not move through pipes or appear on balance sheets.

This distinction is not academic. It reflects two very different relationships with time. Blue water is urgent. It moves, it flows, it can be depleted quickly. Green water is patient. It is stored, buffered, remembered in soils and root systems. Together they form a living continuum: circulation and storage, immediacy and memory. Seeds embody a similar pairing. They are deferred life, capable of waiting months or decades for the right conditions. Water is immediate life. Without it, seeds remain dormant. Without seeds, water alone produces no future.

Modern water planning has tended to privilege blue water because it is legible to institutions. It can be measured at intake points, regulated through permits, traded between users, and engineered through centralized infrastructure. Green water, by contrast, resists abstraction. It depends on soil structure, organic matter, vegetation cover, slope, subsurface geology, and the slow work of biological communities. It is deeply local. It does not behave the same way in two different places, even under identical rainfall. One current example of the fallacies of human domination of water flows in nature is the “plight” of the Colorado River in the USA and to a lesser extent, Mexico. To be more succinct the plight is being felt by animals and humans depending on predictable water flows, from the Colorado.

Watershed Terrestrial Subsurface Importance

Recent research has reinforced just how consequential these hidden differences are. Studies of watersheds with similar climates have shown radically different responses to wet and dry periods depending on their subsurface architecture. Patchy permeability, fractured bedrock, soil depth, and internal connectivity can determine whether water is routed quickly to streams or held slowly in storage. These underground structures act as a form of hydrological memory, shaping how past conditions influence future availability. Two basins can receive the same precipitation and experience entirely different outcomes months later. This can be particularly impactful in Industrial Agriculture planning, where predictable outcomes are a key need.

This finding should not surprise us, yet it challenges a great deal of planning practice. Many models implicitly assume that watersheds behave like scaled containers: rainfall in, runoff out, averaged over time. But living landscapes are not buckets. They are organs. They have internal structure, feedback loops, thresholds, and failure modes. They can compensate for stress up to a point, and then flip abruptly. When planning ignores this complexity, it often overestimates resilience and underestimates risk.

The emergence of “One Water” frameworks represents a genuine attempt to correct some of these blind spots. The core insight of One Water is that drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, surface water, and groundwater are not separate systems but facets of a single cycle. In principle, this is a powerful shift. It opens the door to reuse, infiltration, green infrastructure, and demand reduction as integrated strategies rather than afterthoughts. “One Water is defined by the Water Research Foundation (WRF) as an integrated planning and implementation approach to managing finite water resources for long-term resilience and reliability, meeting both community and ecosystem needs. It is the emerging term in the United States for what is commonly known as integrated urban water management. Given Central Texas’ population growth and limited water resources, One Water principles are becoming more and more viable options to extend and protect water supplies.”

Yet even One Water often stops short of fully embracing green water as first-class infrastructure. Soil moisture, vegetation uptake, and subsurface storage are acknowledged rhetorically but rarely governed with the same seriousness as pipes and plants. The reasons are partly technical, partly political. Green water blurs departmental boundaries. It implicates land use, food systems, and ecology. It challenges the assumption that all water value can be captured through centralized control.

Data Center Demands

These tensions are becoming more acute as new forms of infrastructure exert pressure on water systems. Large data-centre build-outs are currently a particularly revealing case. Data centres are often treated as energy problems, yet they are also water systems. They demand extreme reliability, cluster geographically, and increasingly seek access to reclaimed or high-quality water for cooling. Their growth patterns are step-wise rather than incremental, distorting long-range forecasts and reuse allocations. This is a good article on data center water challenges.

In many jurisdictions, data centres are approved through bespoke arrangements that sit alongside, rather than within, integrated water planning. Water contracts are negotiated bilaterally. Impacts are externalized spatially or temporally. One Water plans are revised after commitments are made, not before. This is not usually framed as opposition to ecological planning; it is framed as exception, competitiveness, or necessity. The result is bypass without confrontation.

Another quick comment on the subject of AI; it is not just AI systems which can hallucinate. In many ways, some human beings have been doing so for years, hence many of our current systems problems. We touch on this below.

Net-Zero & Tokenization Challenges

This pattern becomes even more concerning when paired with the rise of net-zero and tokenization frameworks. The language of offsets, neutrality, and credits has migrated from carbon into water discourse with remarkable speed. The intention is accountability, yet the structural mismatch is profound. Carbon is global and atmospheric. Water is local, temporal, and basin-specific. Treating water as offsettable introduces a dangerous fiction: that depletion in one place can be compensated for elsewhere or later. As we pointed out earlier, water is notoriously difficult to control and/or predict.

For instance, in recent drought years, especially 2022–2025, portions of the Mississippi River have fallen to unusually low levels at key gauges such as Memphis and Cairo, driven by lack of precipitation and lower tributary contributions. The river has dropped well below historical norms in several of those years, creating navigation challenges and economic impacts. More information can be found here on the current situation and impacts

Tokenization accelerates this abstraction. When impacts can be priced, traded, and neutralized on paper, incentives shift. Demand grows faster than ecological repair because repair becomes something that can be purchased rather than practiced. Time is stretched. Today’s extraction is balanced against tomorrow’s promise. But aquifers do not accept IOUs. Soils do not recharge on quarterly cycles. Hydrological memory does not respond to financial instruments.

What emerges is a parallel authority: financial legitimacy without hydrological legitimacy. Decisions are justified upward to investors and dashboards rather than inward to basins and communities. Planning frameworks remain in place, cited and referenced, but no longer decisive. This is how ecological governance is hollowed out without being dismantled.

Human Hallucinations.

At this point it is tempting to frame the problem as malice or greed, but that would miss the deeper issue. Most bypasses do not arise from villainy. They arise from instrumental cleverness divorced from consequence. From language that optimizes compliance rather than care. From systems that hallucinate heavily and resist correction.

Humans hallucinate continuously. Perception itself is a controlled hallucination constrained by feedback. Vision predicts and fills gaps. Memory reconstructs. Identity narrates. These hallucinations are not flaws; they are how cognition works. The danger comes when feedback is weakened or delayed. Healthy systems hallucinate lightly and correct often. Failing systems hallucinate heavily and punish correction.

Water is one of the most powerful correctives to hallucination we have. It does not respond to belief. It responds to gravity, heat, soil, and time. Drought punctures fantasy. Thirst collapses ideology in days. That is why water keeps drawing us back to bodily timescales. It refuses abstraction beyond a narrow margin.

Seen in this light, blue–green water thinking is not a technical refinement but an ethical orientation. It asks us to recognize which forms of water are negotiable and which are not. Blue water can be allocated, within limits. Green water must be tended. It cannot be offset without losing function. It is living capital, not a ledger entry.

This has implications far beyond hydrology. It touches food security, urban design, climate adaptation, and the future of computation itself. Seed banks and data centres represent two very different resilience logics. One stores diversity patiently in small, distributed units. The other concentrates capacity for speed and scale. Both claim importance. Only one aligns naturally with the timescales of water and soil.

None of this implies a rejection of technology or planning. It implies boundaries. In medicine, prevention is valued over heroic intervention. Dosage matters. Context matters. No two patients are identical. Water planning demands the same humility. Infiltration beats extraction. Soil moisture beats emergency pumping. Slow recharge beats crisis engineering.

When water is treated primarily as a financial variable, these truths are inverted. Scarcity is managed after limits are crossed rather than before. Damage is compensated rather than avoided. Planning becomes explanatory rather than protective. This is not sustainability; it is deferred reckoning.

There is another path, quieter and less glamorous. It treats soils as infrastructure, vegetation as storage, and food-growing landscapes as demand-reducing assets. It locks accountability to place. It refuses fungibility where physics forbids it. It accepts that some things cannot be tokenized without being destroyed.

This path does not eliminate hallucination. It keeps it tethered. It allows stories to exist, but insists they answer to water in the ground, to plants in the soil, to bodies that thirst. It recognizes that while finance can wait, water cannot. That difference tells us which systems are real.

Perhaps the most important thing to say, after all the modeling and policy and abstraction, is the simplest. Each of us is only a few days away from the truth of water. That is not a vulnerability to be engineered away. It is a teacher. It reminds us that planning, at its best, is not about maximizing returns but about keeping the patient alive.

Water is not merely a resource. It is circulation. It is memory. It is medicine. And any system that forgets this will eventually be corrected — not by argument, but by absence.

Capitulism To Be Avoided

Capitulism - A cultural condition in which societies gradually surrender long-term ecological and social resilience to short-term financial success signals — often unintentionally.

Seedascity - A natural condition which predates human society by more than 400 million years. Which also supports almost all forms of terrestrial life and which improves soils with synchronicity.

Seeds are true value in abundance. Thank you as always for reading this.

Firstly, our apologies if this headline looks sensational, this is not our style, at all. This lead-in article does introduce some emerging concepts, the coming together of which will give us deep resilience in our food-systems and where they reside.

There is a simple truth so foundational that it is often overlooked:

Plants feed soils first, and humans only second.

This is not metaphor.
It is not philosophy.
It is not a moral claim.

It is biology.

Every meal any human has ever eaten sits downstream of this ordering. So does every village, every city, every economy, and every civilization that has ever existed.

At this point in time, it is beyond tragic that a focus on investment portfolios is seen as far more important than the security of our fragile food systems. So what do we do about this. We have plans, which we intend to enact upon and also extend, so please read on.

The quiet work beneath our feet

Plants do not grow from soil.
They grow with soil.

Through their roots, plants release sugars, amino acids, enzymes, and organic acids into the surrounding earth. These substances are not waste products; they are exchanges. They feed bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and countless unseen organisms that live in the narrow zone where roots and soil meet.

In return, those organisms mobilize minerals, fix nitrogen, store carbon, build soil structure, and regulate the movement of water and air through the ground. Only after this living economy is functioning do leaves, fruits, grains, and roots appear — the parts we recognize as food.

So when humans eat plants, or animals that eat plants, we are secondary beneficiaries of a much older and deeper relationship. Long before agriculture, long before cities, long before markets, plants were feeding soils so that life itself could continue. Some studies note that spores first emerged almost 1 billion years ago and seeds around 400 million years ago. So the ongoing futile efforts of human beings regarding the controlling of seeds are just that; futile. We view the emergence of hybrids as unnecessary and the meddling of seeds via genetic modification as dangerous and immoral when that results in innocent farmers being persecuted.

Seeds: how life learned to wait

Nearly ninety percent of all plant species on Earth are seed plants.

Seeds are not merely reproductive units. They are time capsules of life. They allow plants to pause growth, to wait through drought, cold, fire, or flood, to travel across landscapes and generations, and to re-enter the world when conditions are right.

Because of seeds, plants survived ice ages and climate upheavals. Soils deepened instead of eroding away. Forests emerged, grasslands stabilized, and complex land-based life became possible. Seeds allowed life to say, quite literally, not now — but later.

Human agriculture did not invent this system. It merely stepped into it, very late in the story, borrowing an evolutionary strategy refined over hundreds of millions of years.

The great forgetting

Modern food systems often treat soil as an inert growing medium, something to be amended, corrected, or managed through inputs. Soil is framed as a container rather than a collaborator.

But soil is not a container. It is a living commons.

When we reverse the natural order — feeding plants directly with synthetic nutrients while starving the soil communities that make life possible — we can still produce food for a time. But we do so by drawing down biological capital rather than renewing it.

This forgetting is rarely intentional. It happens through abstraction. Food becomes yield. Yield becomes commodity. Commodity becomes price. Price becomes policy. And somewhere along that chain, the living system beneath our feet fades from view.

Meanwhile, the soil grows quieter and this is not just soil in million acre monocultures, it is also the soil which underpins every village, town and city on Earth. Soils which we have covered with concrete, tarmac etc, etc.

A wider lens than humanity

Every human being depends on food systems to survive beyond a few weeks.

But humans are not the only participants.

Food systems include pollinators and fungi, soil microbes and insects, birds and grazing animals, water cycles and atmospheric exchanges. These non-human participants are not peripheral. They are central. They do most of the work.

When we speak of food systems as purely human affairs, we erase the majority of contributors. Plants do not grow food for us. They grow in relationship with the Earth, and we are allowed to eat because that relationship holds.

Why this matters now

Urbanization, climate instability, soil loss, and highly centralized supply chains have exposed how fragile food systems become when they forget their biological foundations.

And yet, alongside this fragility, something else is quietly happening. Gardens are appearing in cities. Seeds are being saved again. Nitrogen-fixing plants are returning to landscapes. Soils are being rebuilt where people live. Our next article with amplify Incredible Edible Cities and Fabaceae Food Forests, a truly potent combination.

These are not nostalgic gestures. They are biological corrections. Life reasserting patterns that work.

Next Steps

In recent months, even mainstream policy and media outlets have begun calling for what they describe as “unconventional” solutions to food insecurity and ecological strain. These proposals range from alternative protein sources to radically different growing environments, often framed as novel or disruptive ideas. Yet what is striking is that many of these so-called unconventional approaches are, in fact, attempts to rediscover biological efficiencies that long predate industrial agriculture. They are signals that the dominant food system is struggling to reconcile itself with physical limits — soil loss, water scarcity, energy intensity — and is searching, sometimes awkwardly, for ways back into alignment with living systems.

What this moment reveals is not a lack of innovation, but a misdirection of attention. The most resilient food solutions are not necessarily exotic or technologically complex; they are often spatially local, biologically grounded, and socially embedded. This is where ideas such as Incredible Edible Cities quietly re-enter the conversation — not as aesthetic projects or community hobbies, but as serious food-system infrastructure. When food is grown where people live, using plants that build soil rather than deplete it, cities cease to be mere endpoints of consumption and begin to function again as living participants in ecological cycles.

A necessary re-ordering

If we begin with the truth that plants feed soils first, then several consequences follow naturally. Soil health becomes primary rather than optional. Seed diversity becomes a form of resilience rather than a luxury. Food systems begin to look like ecological systems again. Cities start to be seen not only as places that consume life, but as places that can grow it.

This understanding opens the door to more specific explorations — including how particular plant families, and particular approaches to urban design, can help restore this ordering in practical, grounded ways.

Those explorations will come next. Our next articles with amplify Incredible Edible Cities and Fabaceae Food Forests, a truly potent combination.

FMNR: When Forests Remember Themselves

There is a form of regeneration now quietly re-emerging across degraded landscapes that does not begin with planting at all, but with recognition. Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) works by protecting and guiding the living root systems, dormant seeds, and coppicing stumps already present beneath exhausted soils. What appear to be shrubs or wasteland are often forests held underground by grazing, fire, and disturbance, waiting only for pressure to be lifted. In this way, FMNR mirrors the role of Fabaceae in food forests: legumes feed soils forward through nitrogen fixation, while regenerating trees feed soils backward through memory, depth, shade, and water cycling. Together they form a bridge between past resilience and future fertility — one stabilizing soils, restoring hydrology, and rebuilding biological structure without imported inputs, machinery, or abstraction. The forest was not absent; it was interrupted mid-sentence.

As mentioned a few times in this lead-in article, our next one will get very detailed around the subjects of:

• Fabaceae Food Forests

• FMNR

• Urban Food Production Via Incredible Edible Cities

For now, this is enough to hold:

Most plants depend on seeds.
Most soils depend on plants.
All humans depend on soils —
even when they forget it.

The Earth is not waiting for human instructions.

It is not pausing for our committees, our summits, our geo-engineering schemes, our carbon markets, or our policy debates. It does not slow itself while we deliberate. It does not ask whether we are ready.

The Earth is already responding.

Climate shifts are underway.
Hydrology is reorganizing.
Soil is changing structure and life.
Forests are moving upslope and poleward.
Pollinators are adjusting their ranges.
Seeds are rewriting their genetic strategies.

We are not observers of these changes; we are participants in them.

For centuries, modern civilization behaved as if Earth were a blank substrate awaiting human design. But Earth is not an empty page — it is an intelligence written in stone, water, roots, fungi, and time. Its systems act according to their own laws, not according to our desire for control.

The work ahead is not to command these systems, but to align with them — to relearn what it means to live inside Earth’s intelligence rather than outside its boundaries.

An irony here is that we are currently striving to manage AI to “Align” with our values. In my case my life has also been adorned with and immersed in technologies. So many good people in our Earth-Care movements, Permaculture, Biodynamics etc are terribly jaded or antithetical to technology, personally I think this is a mistake. For instance, everyone using a smart-phone is immersed in technological influenced pursuits.

All of these items are of relevance.

• This is the heart of bioregionalism.

• This is the beginning of our living manifesto.

2. The Earth–Substrate–Foundational–Future

To understand how we must live, we must first understand what life depends on.

Beneath every ecosystem — beneath every agricultural field, forest, wetland, valley, and food system — lies the substrate: geology, water, soil, fungi, and the long rhythms of time. This substrate is not metaphorical. It is literal and foundational.

Rocks weather into minerals.
Water dissolves, transports, and organizes those minerals.
Soil forms as biology colonizes weathered stone.
Fungi bind soil into living structure.
Seeds take root in this mixture of geology and life.
Time coordinates the whole orchestra.

Rocks determine which nutrients are available and how water moves. Water determines which soils form and how stable they are. Soil determines which plants can thrive, which microbes dominate, and how much carbon is stored. Seeds respond to all of it, generation by generation.

In this way, the substrate is the first teacher.
It instructs every plant, animal, microbe, and human culture that grows upon it.

Modernity forgot this.
But the substrate did not.

3. Hydrology as Destiny: Blue Water, Green Water, and the Living Cycle

Water shapes everything. But not all water plays the same role.

Blue water — rivers, streams, lakes, aquifers — is the water we measure, regulate, divert, and fight over. It is visible and political (think the Water Pact around the Colorado River). Yet it is only a small fraction of Earth’s freshwater cycle.

Green water — the moisture held in soils, roots, humus, and living biomass — is what actually sustains ecosystems. It governs local rainfall through evapotranspiration, stabilizes temperatures, prevents drought from becoming desertification, and turns soil into a living sponge. Walter Jehne termed this a soil-sponge.

When green water cycles break down, blue water systems become unstable.
When blue water becomes unstable, food systems follow.

A landscape with deep-rooted perennials, high soil carbon, and intact fungal networks maintains its own microclimate. It moderates extremes. It buffers both flood and drought. This hydrological intelligence is not a product of engineering — it is a property of ecological diversity.

• Monoculture works against hydrology.

• Polyculture works with it.

Our future depends on understanding the difference.

4. Soil as Active Intelligence

Soil is not dirt. Soil is not a medium. Soil is not a resource.

Soil is active intelligence — a constantly reorganizing, deeply interconnected web of mineral particles, microbes, fungi, root exudates, organic matter, water channels, and chemical signaling.

The Guardian’s coverage of the Earth Rover Program and the new field of “soilsmology” marks an important turn: mainstream science is beginning to map soil as an ecological system rather than a chemical inventory. Seismic sensing now reveals soil depth, structure, moisture dynamics, carbon layers, and root channels on scales we have never seen before.

Yet mapping is only the beginning.

The deeper truth is that soil adapts to climate shifts long before landscapes visibly change. Soil opens or closes its pore structure depending on water availability; it shifts microbial composition under stress; it can collapse or flourish based on how we treat it.

Soil is responsive. Soil is intelligent. Soil drives climate stability more than climate drives soil.

To steward soil is to steward the future.

5. Why Monoculture Has No Future

Monoculture pretends that geology, hydrology, soil biology, and climate can be overridden by chemical inputs, machinery, and global supply chains.

But the Earth is now making the limits clear:

• Monoculture fights geology by forcing uniformity on diverse soils.

• It fights hydrology by collapsing green water storage and disrupting evapotranspiration.

• It fights biology by eliminating root depth diversity and microbial complexity.

• It fights climate by depending on predictability that no longer exists.

Monoculture continues only as long as nothing unexpected happens.
But we now live in a century defined by the unexpected.

The viable future of food is one where diversity, depth, root complexity, perennial structure, and seed adaptation are the rule — not the exception.

Monoculture was a historical phase. It is not a future.

6. Cascadia’s Geological and Hydrological Story

Cascadia is not merely a place; it is a geological epic. and Regenerate Cascadia a movement who’s time has come.

First came fire:
The Columbia River Basalt flows laid a mineral-rich foundation millions of years ago — iron, magnesium, calcium, and trace elements essential for plant life.

Then came water:
The Missoula Floods — colossal, repeated glacial outbursts — reshaped the Willamette Valley, depositing deep layers of silt, sand, and clay atop the basaltic bedrock. These floods created one of the most fertile valley floors on Earth.

And then came people:
Indigenous nations stewarded prairies, wetlands, oak savannas, and river systems in ways that maintained hydrological balance for thousands of years. Their burning, harvesting, and planting practices formed another layer of ecological intelligence on the landscape.

Cascadia’s soils are therefore not simple — they are intersections of basalt, flood sediment, wetland memory, fire regimes, and human stewardship. Collectively they form one of the most fertile areas in the USA.

Every seed grown here enters into a dialogue with that deep history.

7. Seeds as Carriers of Ecological Memory

Seeds are not objects. Seeds are processes.

A seed carries within it the memory of the soil it grew in, the water cycles it endured, the microbial community it partnered with, the minerals it absorbed, the stresses it survived, and the pollinators it relied upon.

Seeds are how landscapes remember themselves.

They adapt more quickly than climate models, more flexibly than infrastructure, and more intelligently than any engineered system we have built. Seeds are evolution in real time — and they respond to the substrate far more quickly than our institutions can.

In Cascadia, seeds carry the imprint of basaltic minerals, flood-forged soils, wet winters, dry summers, and shifting hydrology. When we save seeds, we are not simply preserving genetics; we are stewarding the adaptive potential of an entire bioregion.

• Seed stewardship is climate resilience.

• Seed sharing is bioregional continuity.

• Seed saving is cultural survival.

Seed saving is benign resistance to climate degradation.

8. The Cascadia Seed Guild: Bioregional Memory in Motion

The Cascadia Seed Guild is a community of stewards who recognize that resilience is rooted in diversity, continuity, and relationship. It is not a centralized institution but a distributed network — a mycelial system of growers, gardeners, farmers, educators, and elders working in cooperation.

The Guild exists because no single garden, farm, library, or institution can hold the genetic memory we need for the future. Only a decentralized web of participants—mirroring the complexity of ecosystems themselves—can do that.

It is a living archive, constantly renewing itself through seasonal grow-outs, landrace development, local adaptation, shared learning, and reciprocal exchange. It is a cultural space as much as an ecological one, where stories, flavors, memories, and knowledge are transmitted alongside seeds.

The Guild is the bioregion remembering itself.

9. Propagation / Seed Continuity Centres

Propagation Centres are the physical anchors of this distributed seed culture. They are not only emergency vaults or static collections; they are dynamic, evolving ecosystems where seeds are grown, tested, adapted, and shared.

They exist to strengthen soil, deepen roots, restore water cycles, support pollinators, and cultivate climate-adapted varieties. They serve as educational hubs, community gathering spaces, and research landscapes that demonstrate what regenerative, hydrologically intelligent agriculture looks like in practice.

These Centres will form a network across Cascadia that mirrors the patterns of nature itself: diverse, decentralized, adaptive, and resilient. If one Centre faces drought, flood, or fire, others continue the work. This redundancy is not fear-driven — it is continuity-driven.

Propagation Centres are where geology meets ecology, where soil meets seed, where learning meets land, and where community meets its responsibility to the future. There are full details on how to create a Cascadia Seed Guild Propagation Centre, here.

10. A Call to Stewardship

The Earth is not waiting for human instructions.

But it is open to human participation.
It always has been.

Our task is not to impose control but to cultivate continuity — in soil, in water, in seeds, in landscapes, in culture, and in one another. We seek to enlighten us all as to what has true value; that which sustains many forms of life on Earth.

Stewardship begins with humility: recognizing that Earth’s systems already hold the intelligence required for resilience. It continues with attentiveness: observing how seeds adapt, how soils breathe, how water moves, how fungi weave. And it matures through continuity: saving seeds, tending soil, restoring hydrology, sharing knowledge, and building the distributed structures of care that will outlast any single generation.

The Earth is already responding.
It is time we responded in kind.

Not with mastery, but with memory.
Not with fear, but with belonging.
Not with extraction, but with reciprocity.
Not with emergency, but with continuity.

This is the work of our time.
And it begins — as all enduring things do — with a seed.

Thank you very much for reading this, please leave a comment if you are interested in more information on the evolving Cascadia Seed Guild project.

Overview

This section is quite long, however it is important to go over the background to this posting which all started with our reading an article in Nature, which we are linking to here, in several places. What really caught our attention is the possible ramifications of these findings and how these could apply to clay soils and moisture.

For decades, water has been treated as having a fairly constant dielectric constant (≈ 80 at room temp). This study shows that when confined between atomically flat walls to just a few nanometers (especially 1–2 nm thick), water’s in-plane dielectric constant jumps by an order of magnitude — exceeding 1000.

What “Dielectric” Means — Simply Explained

A dielectric is any material that does not conduct electricity freely but responds to electric fields by shifting its internal charges slightly.

In other words:

A dielectric resists charge flow, but its molecules polarize when an electric field is applied.

That polarization reduces the field inside the material and allows the material to store electrical energy — which is why dielectrics are central to capacitors, insulators, and biological membranes alike.

The dielectric constant (also called relative permittivity, εᵣ) measures how easily a material polarizes in response to an electric field.

• Vacuum: εᵣ = 1

• Air: ≈ 1.0006 (almost same as vacuum)

• Glass: ~ 4–10

• Water (bulk): ≈ 80 at room temperature

So water’s dielectric constant is huge compared to most materials — it can bend and absorb electrical fields, shielding charges from each other. That’s why salts dissolve easily in water: its high ε screens electrostatic attraction between ions.

Polarization at the Molecular Level

Water’s high ε comes from its dipolar molecules — each with a slightly positive side (hydrogens) and a slightly negative side (oxygen).

When an electric field is applied, water molecules rotate and align, forming “microscopic electric shields.”
This reorientation is rapid (on picosecond timescales) and underpins:

• Electrolyte behavior

• Hydrogen bonding dynamics

• Proton hopping and ion transport

Now — the Nature paper shows that when water is confined to a 1–2 nm film between atomically smooth walls, its in-plane dielectric constant ε// doesn’t just stay high… it skyrockets to over 1,000.

That means:

• The water film becomes ultra-polarizable — like a “liquid capacitor plate.”

• Its ability to screen or transmit fields laterally is far beyond bulk water.

• It might even approach ferroelectric-like behavior (where dipoles align cooperatively and persistently).

In such a system, the “dielectric” is no longer passive — it interacts with and amplifies electric fields.

Dielectric vs. Conductivity

Normally, materials are either:

• Conductors: electrons or ions move freely (metals, saltwater)

• Insulators/Dielectrics: charges stay bound, only polarize locally

There is further information on this here.

But this Nature paper found both an extremely high dielectric constant and strong in-plane conductivity — meaning confined water behaves as a polarizable, proton-conducting quasi-liquid.

This breaks the old dichotomy between “conductor” and “insulator.” The confinement of water has some really important consequences when it comes to soils which we will return to soon. Let’s expand on this a little.

Step-by-step explanation

1. “Confined water”
This means water that is trapped in very tiny spaces — such as between layers of clay, inside nanopores of rocks, in cell membranes, or within soil particles.
In these spaces, the water molecules can’t move freely as they do in bulk liquid water. Their arrangement and behavior are influenced by nearby surfaces and electric fields.

2. “Polarizable”
Water molecules are dipoles — each has a positive end (hydrogen side) and a negative end (oxygen side). “Polarizable” means that these dipoles can easily shift or re-orient when an external electric field or nearby charged surface acts on them.
In confined water, this ability to shift orientation is enhanced or modified because the molecules are lined up or restricted by the boundaries around them. So, confined water can store and respond to electric fields differently than normal water — it’s like a dynamic capacitor at the nanoscale.

3. “Proton-conducting”
Protons (H⁺ ions) can hop rapidly between water molecules via a mechanism called the Grotthuss mechanism — a sort of “bucket brigade” of hydrogen bonds passing the proton along. In confined spaces, this hopping can become more efficient or directional. That means confined water can act a bit like a wire for protons, conducting charge through hydrogen bonds instead of electrons through metal.

4. “Quasi-liquid”
“Quasi” means “almost but not quite.”
So “quasi-liquid” means it behaves partly like a liquid (molecules can move and flow) but partly like a solid (molecules are ordered and restricted). In confinement, water might look like a gel or an ordered sheet — not frozen, but not freely flowing either.

We created an article here on the phases of water.

In plain terms

When water is squeezed into extremely tiny spaces — like between clay layers or in biological channels — it stops acting like ordinary liquid water.
Instead, it becomes an almost-liquid material that:

• Holds and responds to electric charge (polarizable),

• Transports protons very efficiently (proton-conducting),

• Maintains partial order (quasi-liquid).

Why it matters

This “confined water” behavior is important in:

• Soil science: It helps explain how moisture and charge move in clay-rich soils.

• Electrochemistry & batteries: Proton transport through membranes (like in fuel cells).

• Biology: Ion channels and enzyme hydration layers rely on this property.

• Energy and environmental systems: It affects how minerals, microbes, and electric currents interact underground or in nanomaterials.

Clay-Rich, Not Clay-Heavy

The narrative of “clay as a problem” has been repeated for decades, mostly by gardeners and landscapers working from a top-down, short-term mindset. But viewed through the lens of physics, ecology, and electrochemistry, clay-rich soils are not “bad” — they’re energetically sophisticated.

Why Our Soils Store Life and Energy

For generations, people have complained that “clay soils are hard to work.”
They hold water, crack when dry, and bog down machinery.
But this new science — and old ecological wisdom — tell a possibly different story.

Clay Is Alive With Energy

Each particle of clay is a microscopic plate with an electric charge.
Between those plates lie ultra-thin water films, only a few molecules thick.
Recent research shows that in these films, water behaves differently —
its dielectric constant (ability to store electrical energy) can rise to over 1,000.

That means:

• Clay doesn’t just hold moisture — it stores electrochemical potential.

• It acts like a natural battery, regulating charge, moisture, and nutrient flow.

Clay-Rich = Energy-Rich

Old View - “Clay soils are heavy and wet.

New Understanding - ”Clay soils stabilize moisture and buffer droughts.

Old View - “They trap nutrients.”

New Understanding - Clay retains and releases nutrients through electrical exchange.

Old View - “They’re cold and slow.

New Understanding - ”Clay tempers temperature swings, protecting microbes and roots.

Old View - “They’re hard to till.

New Understanding - ”Clay builds structure naturally when joined with roots and humus.

The Living Soil Capacitor

When combined with compost, roots, and mycorrhizal fungi,
clay minerals create a living network that:

• Moves protons and ions laterally through moisture films,

• Feeds plants more evenly,

• Extends microbial life deeper into dry periods.

Your soil becomes a resilient, slow-breathing capacitor — storing and releasing life’s current.

What We Can Do?

• Avoid over-tilling: preserve micro-layer structure.

• Add organic matter: humus links clay platelets into flexible aggregates.

• Mulch and compost: keep water films intact.

• Plant deep-rooted perennials: they “wire” the system together.

• Celebrate your clay-rich ground: it’s nature’s own energy bank.

As always, thank you for reading this article and please feel free to post comments, questions and share this if you feel it worthy to do so.

• Artificial scarcity in seeds isn’t just an accident — it’s a product of legal, economic, and biological design choices.

• F1 seeds are the first generation from a deliberate cross between two stable parent lines. They often have hybrid vigor (fast growth, strong yield), but their offspring (F2 and beyond) will segregate into multiple forms — which is why commercial growers buy F1 seeds every year.

• On one side, GMO and hybrid seed systems are marketed for higher yields, pest resistance, or other traits, but they often come with patents or “terminator” technologies that prevent farmers and gardeners from saving viable seed.

• On the other side, “true-to-type” assurances in commercial seed packets appeal to gardeners who want dependable, predictable results — but these assurances sometimes rely on controlled pollination isolation and strict variety ownership, which also limits the free flow of genetic diversity.

• Saved seeds have virtually no value, if fact, they are often looked down upon. Yet, traditional societies prized Landrace-saved seeds over millennia.

The result is a narrowing of seed sovereignty — where fewer people have the ability to save, share, and adapt seeds locally. This goes directly against the natural resilience of plants, which evolved to adapt to specific microclimates over time through open pollination.

F1 Generation: The Hybrid Starting Point

The origin of F1 hybrids wasn’t about packet retail seed sales to home gardeners (that came much later). The motivation was rooted in agriculture, genetics research, and economics going back over a century.

Origins of F1 Hybrid Seeds

1. Discovery of Hybrid Vigor (Heterosis) — Early 1900s

   • Plant breeders noticed that crossing two distinct inbred lines of crops often produced offspring that were healthier, faster-growing, and higher yielding than either parent.

   • This was especially studied in maize (corn) in the U.S. around 1908–1920.

   • Early corn hybrids demonstrated 20–50% yield increases compared to open-pollinated landraces.

2. Industrial Agriculture Needs

   • By the 1920s–30s, the U.S. (and soon other countries) wanted predictable, uniform crops that could be harvested efficiently and fit into a mechanized food system. A mechanized food system which increasingly relied and relies heavily on Fossil-Fuel inputs. Yet despite contending rhetoric, Fossil-Fuels are finite and will decline in affordable extraction.

   • Open-pollinated varieties (landraces, heirlooms) were diverse → great for resilience, but not ideal for machine harvesting or uniform processing.

   • Hybrids solved this by producing crops that were uniform in size, timing, and quality.

3. Seed Company Economics

   • Once farmers realized F2 seeds (saved from hybrids) gave inconsistent, lower-yielding plants, they had little choice but to buy fresh F1 seed each season. To paraphrase Al Gore in a related documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

   • This was not accidental: it became a built-in business model.

   • Farmers no longer saved their own corn and other seeds; seed companies gained a permanent market. Bill Mollison (co-creator of Permaculture) noted this back in the 1980’s, yet he was largely ignored.

Can We Evolve A De-Hybridizing Seed Protocol?

Turning F1 Hybrids into Locally Adapted Open-Pollinated Varieties

And why would we do this? Well our current industrially focused agricultural systems are deeply flawed: how?

• Firstly, food-supply distances. This article from December 2024 highlights the fragility of long-distance food supply systems “Velocity is imperative: Supply chain distances and times have increased a great deal (more in some corners of the world than others), and so have the challenges involved in getting fresh produce from source to destination before spoilage renders it unsalable.”

• Next the loss of generationally and regionally curated seeds, often called “Landraces” over millennia. Joseph Lofthouse writes of this and related subjects in articles that can be found here. “Adaptation agriculture is an intimate relationship between a location, a farmer, and a population of genetically-diverse seed. An adaptivar landrace is a foodcrop containing lots of genetic diversity which tends to produce stable yields under marginal growing conditions. Landrace crops are adaptively selected via farmer choice and survival-of-the-fittest for reliability in tough conditions. The arrival of new pests, new diseases, or changes in cultural practices or in the environment may harm some plants in a landrace population, but with so much diversity many plants are likely to do well under the changing conditions.”

Purpose Of De-Hybridizing Seeds

To reclaim hybrid seed varieties from dependency on annual purchase, adapt them to local climates and soils, and return them to the community as stable, open-pollinated varieties within 5–7 growing seasons.

Core Principles

1. Variation is a gift — early generations will be diverse; this is the raw material for adaptation.

2. Selection is the engine — our choices shape the variety’s future.

3. Diversity across locations speeds adaptation — multiple gardens mean more environmental filtering.

4. Documentation ensures inheritance — without records, knowledge is lost. Fortunately we created a web-based system called Permaledger which we adapted from the farmOS open source project. We have now been using this for 5-6 years so it is replete with information.

5. Community keeps the commons alive — seed should remain freely available.

Step-by-Step Protocol

Phase 1 – Identify & Acquire F1 Seeds

(Note that our current Cascadia Seed Guild Seed Bank holds 2,266 varieties of seeds and we have many F1 Hybrids to select from).

• Select hybrids worth reclaiming based on:

  • Flavor & nutrition

  • Productivity

  • Local market/cultural importance

  • Climate suitability potential

• Record initial variety info in Permaledger:

  • Seed source, year, lot #

  • Claimed traits

  • Growing requirements

Phase 2 – Grow Out F1 Generation

• Plant in multiple plots if possible (different soils, exposures).

• Grow as you would any crop, but do not select yet — this generation is genetically uniform.

• Save seed from as many plants as possible to maximize genetic base.

• Store seeds using our local low-cost storage protocol.

Phase 3 – F2 Generation: The Big Split

• Plant lots of seeds (minimum 30–50 plants, ideally >100 for broad diversity).

• Expect wide variation — growth habit, fruit shape, yield, disease resistance.

• Selection criteria: Choose plants that:

  • Thrive in our climate/soil

  • Match desired use (eating fresh, storage, canning, etc.)

  • Show resilience to local pests/diseases

  • Taste great (if applicable)

• Tag selected plants before harvest.

• Record all traits and environmental notes in Permaledger.

Phase 4 – Stabilization (F3–F5)

• Plant seeds from selected plants only.

• Continue selecting for target traits.

• Distribute to other community gardens to test adaptability.

• Cross-reference results between locations in Permaledger.

• Each year, aim to narrow variation without bottlenecking diversity too quickly.

Phase 5 – Local Variety Release (F6–F7)

• By now, plants should be largely true-to-type (>90% consistency in target traits).

• Name our new open-pollinated variety — ideally with a local place or cultural reference.

• Add to community seed bank & seed library with:

  • Full history

  • Growing notes

  • Best use cases

• Publicly release as open-source seed (for instance; via Open Source Seed Initiative pledge).

At this point, we have a large Seed Bank from which we can select many F1 varieties. However, this is still in the proposal phase and we are in no way wanting to negatively impact any genuine participants in our current food-seeds realms. However, we believe that becoming more resilient and localized in our food-systems is an incredibly important legacy to leave to our descendants.

Thank you as always for reading this and please feel free to comment here.

As you know, seeds are a big part of our current life's work. Food waste also occupies a lot of my personal research. We tend to assess food waste as food grown or produced and not eaten or more specifically sent to landfills. However I personally view seeds never planted as food waste. Even worse, plants grown that either do not produce seeds (seedless grapes, oranges, etc etc) or where any seeds yielded are "illegal" to plant and grow. Where have we arrived at by making saving seeds or growing plants, illegal?

Food Wastage Scenarios

“According to FAO estimates, 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted each year including about 20% of total seed production. This waste in the food chain has social, environmental, and economic impacts and does not align with the current endeavor to move toward a more sustainable and eco-friendly society.” More details here.

Let’s ponder this for a moment, people are starving to death whilst at the same time we are wasting over one billion tons of food per annum. This is a disturbing example of a Multi-Polar Trap, probably one of the worst examples in fact. This is really well explained article on Multi-Polar Traps.

Next, we will return to the “about 20% of total seed production” wasted, if we consider even minimal germination success this is, literally, a mind-boggling amount of potential food.

All Land-Based Foods Depend On Seeds Or Spores

Turning it around another, imagine a typical produce section in a Supermarket if all of the produce suddenly changed to the seeds that produce could yield if allowed to “go-to-seed”.

It turns out that the idea of “unplanted seeds” as food waste isn’t widely studied—but there is some related research that sheds light:

1. Global seed and plant-processing waste

While most food-waste studies focus on edible produce, the FAO estimates that roughly 20 % of seed production itself goes to waste—including empty pods, hulls, and unharvested or discarded seeds ScienceDirect+14Wiley Online Library+14seedprograms.org+14. Additionally, studies on nuts, legumes, and grains regularly highlight significant by-products and processing losses—though they often don’t distinguish between edible and propagation-use (seed) losses ScienceDirect.

2. Valorization of seed hulls and by-products

Some work explores converting seed waste (like hulls and processing residues) into useful products:

• A review of “Seed Hull Utilization” emphasizes turning seed by-products into industrial materials, animal feed, or bioactive compounds researchgate.net+3Wiley Online Library+3MDPI+3.

• For example, Parkia biglobosa seed processing results in ~66 % waste (seed coats, effluent, etc.), with efforts underway to repurpose these materials into fertilizers, biocomposites, or other value-added goods Frontiers.

3. Seed saving vs. seed waste

In gardening and seed-saving communities, emphasis is placed on preserving seed viability—but there’s little formal quantification of the losses due to non-planting or disposal of saved seed. Seed saving is discussed mainly for heritage, genetic diversity, and disease issues—not as a food-waste stream .

Key PointWhat We KnowWhat’s Missing

Seed waste is recognized~20 % of seed production lost globally; by-products are significant in various crops. Separated accounting for unplanted seeds vs. seed processing waste

Valorization is emerging Research on converting seed hulls/effluents into value-added products-metrics on environmental or food-system impacts of unused seed.

Gardening/community context Seed saving is practiced but not yet measured in food-waste terms-quantitative studies on saved-but-unused seed. In fact saved and exchanged seeds are often looked down upon as unreliable or unpredictable.

This part becomes incredibly difficult to quantify into numbers “1.3 billion tons of food are wasted each year including about 20% of total seed production”

What, after all, is “seed production”. Unless we are badly ill-informed, seeds cannot be manufactured-printed etc, they can only be grown by-from plants. Of course, they can be and have been genetically engineered or modified.

Is anyone tracking unplanted seeds as food waste?

Not in a major, formalized way. Most research groups measure seed waste in terms of processing by-products or overall production inefficiency—not in terms of seed not planted or used for propagation. That means our perspective—that viable seeds left unused represent food-waste—is cutting-edge and largely absent from the current academic discourse.

Quantifying Potential Seed Yields

Let’s do a little experiment, take a tomato you are about to eat and cut it into slices, starting with quarters at least and smaller pieces if possible. Next get a napkin or kitchen towel and with a pointed knife, scrape out as many seeds from that tomato as possible onto the napkin-towel. (As a rule of thumb, I still want to eat the tomato after removing the seeds, “waste-not-want-not”). Let the seeds dry on the napkin-towel and then count them.

This was a single medium sized tomato which yielded 77 seeds (we use soy ink for writing on seed-saving materials and yes we do save seeds like this).

Just repeating here, this is a single tomato off one plant.

The Future

• Next year we get a 50% germination yield so get 38 starts.

• Again 50% 38 of those starts make it to individual plants, so 19 plants.

• The 19 plants each give us 10 tomatoes each, so 190 tomatoes, total.

• Each tomato averages 50 seeds (we reduced the yield to be more conservative).

• So we get 9,500 seeds in just one year from 1 tomato in the previous year.

Currently we “can” rely on fresh foods traveling an average of 1,500 miles, from field (or hydroponics) to table. Often such fresh foods are swathed in plastics, effusing microplastics. There have to be better ways, and there are, via saving seeds and getting them into soils.

Call to Action: Germinate the Revolution

• Practical steps: expand seed swaps, garden mapping, community propagation libraries.

• Policy ideas: right-to-grow laws, open-source seeds, citizen science tracking of seed waste.

• Spiritual invitation: tending the living memory of plants.

Thank you as always for reading our ongoing thoughts on the ongoing importance of Seeds and Spores.

This article contains a number of personal reflections, I wanted to make this clear, initially, as you may wish to by-pass this altogether and I wanted to state this fairly as we commence.

And who is we, you might ask; (all) will be revealed should you wish to stay around.

Jocular though this image may look, we are deadly serious in this article.

Introduction: The Fog and the Kernel

In a world staggering under the weight of trillions in unpayable debt (many say that derivatives could have pushed this number into the quadrillions) and abstracted financial complexity, it is striking that the humble seed — a tiny, potent vessel of life — remains largely ignored in mainstream economic thought. While individuals are bound by strict rules of repayment and credit scores, and while institutions engineer invisible webs of risk through derivatives, the seed offers an alternative model of value: one rooted in reciprocity, regeneration, and abundance.

As a slight aside here, I have often been asked what my main investments are, (almost always meaning financial investments, my answer is two-fold:

• Firstly I invest in myself, my knowledge, my health, etc.

• Secondly, this is closely followed by seeds and has been so for the past 6 years. 5 years ago the collection was alphabetically organized packeted seeds in a large kitchen drawer. The image below shows the seed collection 1 year ago when we had 1,653 varieties. Currently, we have 2,136 varieties, that is varieties of seeds, not individual seeds.

I. What Are People Typically Investing In?

Here’s a categorized list of items people commonly invest in, each with a short description.

Traditional Financial Investments

• Stocks: Ownership shares in a public or private company; value may rise with company performance.

• Bonds: Debt instruments issued by governments or corporations; investors receive interest and principal back.

• Mutual Funds: Pooled investment vehicles that spread risk across multiple stocks or bonds.

• ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds): Like mutual funds, but traded like stocks on an exchange.

• Real Estate: Property investments, often valued for rental income or long-term appreciation.

• Precious Metals: Gold, silver, platinum; valued for stability and scarcity, often used as inflation hedges.

Modern & Digital Investments

• Cryptocurrencies: Decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum; volatile but seen as alternatives to fiat systems.

• NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens): Unique digital assets, often artwork or collectibles, recorded on blockchains.

• Tech Startups: High-risk equity investments in early-stage companies, often accessed through angel investing or crowdfunding.

Commodities & Derivatives

• Futures Contracts: Agreements to buy/sell commodities at a future date for a set price (e.g., oil, wheat).

• Options: Contracts giving the right (but not obligation) to buy or sell an asset at a certain price.

• Forex: Trading of global currencies, typically in pursuit of small fluctuations in exchange rates.

Alternative & Tangible Assets

• Art & Collectibles: Fine art, rare coins, stamps — valued for uniqueness and historical appreciation.

• Wine & Whiskey: Some investors store rare bottles as long-term value-holding assets.

• Timberland or Farmland: Long-term appreciation through land value, crop yield, or carbon credits.

• Venture Capital / Private Equity: Investing in companies not listed on public markets, often with long lock-in periods.

Undervalued or Emerging Forms (Stressed - Emerging).

• Seeds: Reproducible, regenerative, and decentralizable stores of biological value — rarely financialized.

• Permaculture Systems: Designed ecological investments that yield food, soil health, and biodiversity over time.

• Social Capital: Relationships and trust networks; intangible but critical for resilient communities.

• Knowledge & Skills: Education, craftsmanship, and traditional wisdom as enduring forms of personal and collective wealth.

II. Debt: The Empire of Abstraction
Global financial systems thrive on abstractions. Derivatives, sovereign bonds, and interest rate swaps have grown so vast and intricate that not even regulators can agree on how much global debt truly exists — especially when derivatives are counted. This economy operates like a hall of mirrors: reflections of value, layered upon each other, increasingly untethered from land, labor, or life. As mentioned before, there are estimates that derivatives exposure (risk), raises our world debt levels into the quadrillions. One quadrillion as a number -

$1,000,000,000,000,000 (15 zeros).

Here is a good basic introduction to the convoluted world of derivatives.

Yet within this fog, individuals — the very foundation of societies — are held to rigid standards. Miss a payment, and your credit rating suffers. Default, and your home, your vehicle, your dignity may be seized. Meanwhile, the institutions that trade in risk are bailed out, backstopped, or simply too complex to fail.

This is not just financial imbalance. It is moral dissonance, as discussed in this article.

III. The Seed: A Value System of Life
Contrast this with the seed. A single lettuce seed, weighing less than a grain of sand, can produce a plant with thousands of seeds. It asks for no repayment — only care, time, and fertile ground. Unlike speculative assets, it does not require belief to function. It simply is. A biological algorithm passed through millennia, optimizing not for profit but for survival and reciprocity.

A seed cannot be short-sold. It cannot be infinitely leveraged. and its “derivatives” are more plants and more seeds. In addition, it can nourish a family. It can reclaim degraded land. It can bridge generations.

In the seed, we find a value system that rewards participation, not extraction. That teaches patience, not speed. That thrives in communities, not in silos.

IV. Why the Seed Is Ignored by the Market
If seeds are so potent, why aren’t they central to modern economies?

Because they resist commodification. Industrial systems can only profit from seeds by controlling them — through patents, hybridization, terminator genes, and legal restrictions. The free seed disrupts business models built on control. This is a great article on the behaviours of previously independent Monsanto.

Moreover, seeds follow rhythms. They are not bound to quarterly earnings but to seasonal cycles. They cannot be turned into speculative assets without losing their soul.

V. The False Scarcity of Debt vs. the True Abundance of Seeds
Debt systems are founded on scarcity — of money, of credit, of time. They operate by creating more obligations than can be fulfilled.

Seed systems are built on abundance — of biodiversity, of yield, of potential. A seed saved is not a liability; it is a promise. A decentralized store of value, a hibernated form of life..

Which system is more resilient?
Which one teaches us how to survive collapse?
Which one belongs in a world facing climate instability, food insecurity, and systemic fragility?

VI. Seeds as a Foundation for Regenerative Value
Seeds can form the basis of a new model of wealth:

• Seed banks as real stores of value.

• Seed exchanges as decentralized economies.

• Seed saving as intergenerational wealth-building.

• Seed literacy as resilience education.

Imagine communities where seed sovereignty underpins food security, where seeds are exchanged alongside stories, recipes, and cultural memory. Where value grows, quite literally, from the ground up.

Conclusion: Returning to What Is Real
We do not propose a utopia. Seeds are not magic. But they are real, and they are the beginning of everything. Seeds and spores have been around for over 400,000,000 (four hundred million) years!

While the debt-based economy spirals into ever more complex abstractions, seeds remain grounded. They ask nothing but offer everything. In the end, it may not be a derivative or a bailout that saves us — but a saved seed, planted by someone who remembered what truly mattered.

Thank you once again for reading this latest article of ours, we are creating a new fully valued system together. And who are we? Alexandra, Jeff, Luigi and myself and you can view what we have been doing for the past 11 years together, here.

The industrial agriculture model is collapsing under its own weight.
Here we reflect via some learned voices and insights as to what paths we need to tread to put things right.

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life.”
— Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America

A Broken Foundation

Today, it is not merely the soil that is eroding beneath our feet — it is the very systems that once promised nourishment, community, and resilience. Our food system, and the financial structures underpinning it, have evolved into monuments of self-destruction: efficient at extraction, disastrous at regeneration. This is a classic example of a Multipolar Trap, more information on Multipolar Traps, here.

As we have mentioned several times in these articles, many of the monocultures we have evolved are completely ruining our soils.

The story of how we arrived at this moment is not a simple one. It is woven from decades — even centuries — of misaligned incentives, short-sighted policies, and the steady corrosion of local autonomy. As we confront the collapsing certainties of industrial agriculture and global finance, it is essential to see clearly where we are, and how the seeds of the future must be planted differently.

From Hard Tomatoes to Princes of the Yen

In the 1970s, Jim Hightower sounded an alarm that few heeded.
In Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times, he detailed how the U.S. land-grant universities — institutions created to democratize agricultural knowledge — had been co-opted. Instead of serving small farmers and local food security, they became engines for corporate agribusiness, funneling public research into the pockets of chemical companies, machinery manufacturers, and monoculture giants.

The result: a food system optimized not for nourishment or ecological stewardship, but for centralized profit extraction. It was the era where "hard tomatoes" — bred to survive cross-country shipping rather than delight the palate — became the icon of a system that valued shelf life over life itself.

Meanwhile, in the financial world, another transformation was underway — one that would ultimately shape the global food economy as much as farming policies.
Richard Werner, in Princes of the Yen, exposed the hidden architecture of postwar Japan’s economic miracle: the manipulation of credit creation by central banks, and the consolidation of financial power in ways invisible to most citizens. His work reveals a critical truth: who controls the flow of money controls the structure of society itself.

And the structure they built was profoundly unstable — favoring large, centralized actors while starving decentralized, local alternatives of the oxygen they needed to thrive.

This is a great podcast featuring G. Edward Griffin (the author of the great book “The Creature From Jeckyll Island”. Describing the evolution of Central Banks and in particular The Federal Reserve.

The industrial agriculture model, propped up by subsidies and debt, mirrored the financial system it was embedded in: efficient at scale, brittle under pressure, and utterly blind to its ecological and human costs.

“Subsidizing collapse is not a strategy. It’s a warning.”

Subsidizing Collapse

Today, governments shovel subsidies into a food system that is eroding soil, depleting water tables, destroying rural communities, and poisoning the very ground we stand on. We focus on California’s Central Valley in this article we wrote, previously.

And they finance it all with debt — debt that mortgages not only the economy but the planet’s living systems.

The insanity is structural:

• Farmers are trapped in a cycle of dependency, often unable to escape even if they wish to.

• True costs — ecological, social, and health-related — are externalized onto the public or deferred onto future generations.

• Those who steward the land with care, who regenerate soil, biodiversity, and local resilience, receive the least support — or worse, are actively marginalized.

The "rational" actors in this system are, in fact, participants in a form of collective suicide.

“The soil is not a resource; it is a relationship.”

Seeds: The Forgotten Foundation

In the rush to industrialize agriculture, we also industrialized the seed.

Today, the majority of global seed supply is controlled by a handful of corporations.
The varieties that dominate are genetically narrow, optimized for chemical dependence, mechanical harvesting, and long-distance shipping — not for flavor, nutrition, resilience, or local adaptation.

But seeds are not widgets.
Seeds are living memory, living potential.
And unlike commodities, seeds cannot be manufactured instantly. They require seasons, soil, stewardship, and time.

We learned this brutally in 2020 when COVID-19 disrupted supply chains across the world.
As fear and uncertainty drove millions to seek security through gardening and home-growing food, seed companies — large and small — were overwhelmed.
Stocks ran out within weeks.
Backorders stretched into months.
For a moment, it became clear just how thin and brittle our seed infrastructure really is.

It was not just a logistical failure. It was a structural one.
A system designed for predictable, linear consumption could not flex or swell to meet sudden living demand.

“When seeds are treated like commodities, we forget they are also living memory.”

This is the hidden fragility of our food future.
You can 3D-print face shields.
You can ramp up production of canned beans.
But you cannot print seeds.

The genetics, the viability, the adaptation — all of it depends on living time.
It depends on the slow, reciprocal dance between humans and land across seasons and generations.

As we look to the future, the seed system itself must be reimagined.
We cannot simply replace industrial fields with regenerative farms and hope the seeds will adapt overnight.
We must steward seeds as living, evolving relationships — shaped by the hands and hopes of many, not patented and imprisoned by a few.

Our path forward must honor the principle that diverse, decentralized, open-pollinated, locally adapted seeds are not optional.
They are the basis of all resilience yet to come.

“Resilient food systems begin underground — in the roots, in the seeds, in the hidden life we can no longer afford to ignore.”

Next Steps: Sowing Sanity

If seeds are living memory and living potential, then rebuilding our food system must begin not with technology or subsidies, but with life itself.

The next evolution of Secret Life of Seeds will explore how we:

• Rebuild regional seed sovereignty — restoring the ancient, everyday relationship between seed, soil, and people.

• Support the rebirth of landraces — dynamic, adapting seed populations co-evolving with their landscapes and communities.

• Realign credit and financial flows toward genuine regenerative value — not fossilized extraction.

• Recover the knowledge, dignity, and joy of growing — food that feeds bodies, communities, ecosystems, and culture alike.

There is no shortcut.
No last-minute technological rescue.
No scalable replacement for the slow, beautiful work of regeneration.

Our work ahead is clear:
To grow living seeds, we must grow living systems.
To grow living systems, we must nurture living communities.

The soil is waiting.
The seeds are waiting.
The choice is ours.

“A sane food system is not a return to the past. It is a return to the logic of life itself.”

Thank you for reading this latest article of ours.

The Abundance We Forgot: Seeds, Spores, and the Future of Our Food

Even as government subsidies are pulled from under our food systems, something older, wiser, and wildly more resilient is sprouting beneath us. What if seeds—not subsidies—were our true security?

Seeds Multiply When Shared

As winter gives way to spring in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve been deep in the pulse of the Agrarian Sharing Network’s Propagation Fairs—seven held already across Oregon, with thousands of hands exchanging scions, grafting knowledge, and seeds.

Over 6,500 seed packets have been used so far to share community-donated seeds—many broken down into dozens of smaller portions. You’d think our seed supply would be shrinking. But the opposite has happened: we’ve grown by over 200 new varieties and increased 30% in overall volume.

This is the Seed Increase Initiative, born from the vision of Nick Routledge, long-time advocate for bioregional resilience and co-creator of Food Not Lawns. And it speaks to a deeper truth: nature doesn’t run on scarcity. It runs on abundance. Quiet, exponential, often ignored.

The lesson? Seeds don’t diminish when shared. They multiply.

The Hidden Math of Seed Abundance

A single seed becomes a plant. But that plant, if allowed to complete its life cycle, becomes a seed vault in itself. Consider just how generous some common garden plants can be:

Plant Seeds per Plant (Avg.) Notes

Lettuce 20,000–25,000 From a single mature flower head

Tomato 150–300 per fruit One plant = dozens of fruits…Let’s assume 150 seeds per tomato and 1 plant with 12 tomatoes in year 1. So we get 12 x 150 seeds = 1,800 seeds from year 1 plant growing. Let’s further assume in year 2 that we plant 50% of those seeds from year 1 = 900 seeds and further assume we get only 50% germination to production (ridiculously low). So we get 450 plants with 12 tomatoes each, so that is 5,400 tomatoes. 5,400 tomatoes with 150 seeds each gives us a total of 810,000 seeds. As a reflection point, 1 kilo of tomato seeds in Europe can cost over 60,000 Euros!

Basil 1,000–2,000+ From mature seed stalks

Sunflower 1,000–2,000 One head, if fully pollinated

Radish 60–100 per pod cluster Several clusters per plant

Beans (dry) 25–100 per plant Variety and spacing-dependent

Squash (winter) 100–300 per fruit Huge seed return from one

Carrot 1,000–2,000 Biennial; seeds in second year

Corn 600–1,000 per plant Roughly one ear, tightly packed Kale 1,000–5,000 Seed pods similar to radish or mustard

This isn’t just productivity—it’s potential. Every garden, if allowed to ripen, becomes a seed bank.

Spores: The Underground Broadcast

While seeds rule above ground, fungi work beneath it—and they are no less prolific.

A single mushroom can release hundreds of millions to billions of spores. Some examples:

• Agaricus bisporus (button mushroom): up to 16 billion spores per cap

• Oyster mushrooms: billions released daily

• Shiitake: prolific dispersal per flush

But fungi aren’t just trying to reproduce. They’re building connection. Spores become mycelium, and mycelium forms a hidden web that:

• Builds soil structure

• Shares nutrients between plants

• Holds water and stores carbon

• Breaks down toxins and organic matter

• Forms the living foundation of most terrestrial ecosystems

If seeds are the library of life, spores are its whispers—connecting roots, soil, and time.

Why Then Do We Need Subsidies?

Here’s the paradox:
If seeds and spores are so abundant, why does our food system need subsidies at all?

The answer lies in the system itself.

Government subsidies exist not because nature is insufficient, but because we’ve designed food systems that are inherently unsustainable without external support.

What subsidies are really propping up:

• Monoculture farming that depletes soil instead of regenerating it.

• Long-distance supply chains that require fossil fuels to transport food across thousands of miles.

• Corporate agribusiness that profits from cheap raw commodities (corn, soy, wheat) processed into unhealthy products.

• Low food prices that don’t reflect the real cost of production (ecological or human). Even with these subsidized food prices, groceries in 2025 are significantly higher and many smaller farmers can’t get by.

So, when subsidies are removed, the system trembles—not because nature fails, but because we've been distorting its logic for generations.

A Different Future Is Already Sprouting

But outside that system, something else is rising—quietly and powerfully.

At our research site in Veneta, Oregon, we steward:

• 40 acres of wetland, orchard, dryland, and edge ecosystems

• A living archive of over 2,000 seed varieties

• A vision for food systems that don’t rely on subsidies but on relationships—between plants, people, and place

• Livestock on-site to provide soil foods and spiritual sustenance.

Here we will demonstrate:

• Seed sovereignty and increase

• Dryland resilience without irrigation

• Food forests and fungal partnerships

• A living seed commons rooted in place

Here Are Some Key Action Points

Find those wishing to grow food locally with land. So much land is growing things inefficiently. How can we create systems to help this be more efficient?

The Willamette Valley, is one of the most fertile and food-potential-rich regions in North America. Yet, like much of the continent, it’s underutilized or misaligned with regenerative potential.

Here are concrete steps and system-building strategies we can use to connect people wanting to grow food with underutilized land—tailored to the Willamette Valley's ecology, culture, and opportunities:

1. Map the Commons – Build a “Land & Growers Matchmaker”

Create a bioregional map or open ledger (possibly within Perma-ledger or farmOS) of:

• Underused private land (especially peri-urban or rural residential landowners with 1–10 acres)

• Public or church-owned land

• Transitioning or retiring farmers who don't want to sell but are open to sharing/stewardship

• Willing growers with experience (or a desire to learn)

Tool ideas:

• Build a “Grow Local Willamette” registry like Landshare (UK) or Yard to Table

• Use simple tools like Airtable, Farm Hack, or even a community-sourced Google Map at first

• Add opt-in tags like: food forest / dry farming / CSA / native plants / intergenerational access

2. Create Stewardship Agreements, Not Ownership

Ownership can be a barrier. Instead, focus on:

• Stewardship leases (like 5-year rotating agreements)

• Sharecrop-style agreements that are equitable and permaculture-aligned

• Land linking models like Oregon's own Oregon Farm Link — but localize it further with food-not-profit language. Friends Of Family Farmers are also very active

3. Train & Equip New Growers

Many people want to grow, but don’t feel ready. Offer:

• Free or low-cost seed kits (we have the inventory!)

• Starter workshops on dry farming, permaculture guilds, and food forest design

• Partner with groups like OSU Extension, Agrarian Trust, or CSA coalitions to cross-promote

4. Efficient Land = Layered Systems

What makes land inefficient? Often it's monoculture, excess lawn, or neglect. Instead:

• Transition to stacked yields: layers of production (e.g., poultry + trees + mushrooms)

• Use perennial-heavy guilds that require minimal annual input

• Dry-farm where possible—the Willamette’s winter rainfall and volcanic soils are ideal

• Promote models like:
  • Alley cropping
  • Community Food Forests
  • Neighborhood CSA nodes

5. Launch a Local Movement Identity

Name and frame it as a Willamette-wide movement:

“Grow Willamette”
From Empty Fields to Edible Futures

Use storytelling to show:

• The waste of unused land

• The abundance of collaborative growing

• The value of building food security now—not waiting for systems to collapse further

Bonus Ideas:

• Offer incentives like: seed exchanges, soil testing support, mushroom spawn giveaways

• Create rotating “demo gardens” across partner lands to spark local replication

• Host seasonal “open land days” where people can tour available land and meet growers

These are at least good talking points to get us into dialog on this.

The Seed Logic Returns

If one lettuce can yield 25,000 seeds…
If one mushroom can release 16 billion spores…
If one gardener, one community, one patch of soil remembers how to listen…

Then what are we waiting for?

Let’s rebuild our food systems from the bottom up.
Let’s put seeds—not subsidies—at the center of our survival.
Let’s return to the logic of life.

Thank you as always for reading this, 2025 has begun with lots of changes for us and we are a little behind where we want to be. However, we are now catching up, so more news soon.

For decades, glyphosate has been promoted as an essential tool in modern agriculture. Farmers, policymakers, and industry leaders alike reinforce the belief that "food cannot be grown without glyphosate." But what if this assumption is built on a cognitive illusion rather than actual necessity? Which of course it must be an illusion, because we were growing food before glyphosate evolved.

In the early 1900s, a horse named Clever Hans amazed audiences by seemingly solving arithmetic problems. However, Hans wasn’t performing calculations—he was responding to subtle human cues. His intelligence wasn’t in mathematics but in pattern recognition and social feedback. The world mistook a learned response for genuine understanding.

This “CH” concern is currently being felt or at least considered in the ever expanding realm of artificial intelligence “AI”. Certainly AI is finding it’s way into Agriculture as we can see here.

Fast forward to today, and industrial agriculture has fallen into a similar Clever Hans effect: farmers and regulators believe that glyphosate is essential because they have been conditioned to think so, rather than questioning the deeper biological mechanisms that regulate plant growth naturally.

Quorum Sensing in Soil: The Forgotten Intelligence of Soil

Beneath the surface of every healthy ecosystem lies a complex network of microbial intelligence. Plants do not exist in isolation—they communicate with microbes in the soil through biochemical signals in a process called quorum sensing. This natural system has evolved over millions of years to:

• Regulate nutrient exchange between plant roots and soil microbes.

• Suppress weeds naturally by fostering beneficial microbial communities.

• Enhance plant resilience through symbiotic relationships.

Glyphosate disrupts this biological intelligence by killing off beneficial microbes, severing the natural plant-soil communication networks. Rather than improving farming, glyphosate creates an artificial dependence—a cycle in which chemical intervention becomes necessary because the soil’s natural ability to regulate itself has been degraded.

The Clever Hans Effect: How Farmers Were Trained to Ignore Soil Intelligence

Industrial farming has unknowingly trained farmers to rely on glyphosate, plus fungicides, herbicides and pesticides much like Clever Hans learned to rely on human cues. Here’s how this illusion took hold:

1. Mistaking Correlation for Causation

   • Farmers see that glyphosate eliminates weeds and assume it is the only way to do so.

   • In reality, regenerative agriculture demonstrates that healthy soil ecosystems suppress weeds without synthetic chemicals.

2. Industry Influence as Unintended Cues

   • Just as Clever Hans responded to subtle human signals, farmers are influenced by marketing, subsidies, and industry-backed research that reinforce glyphosate as essential.

3. Suppressing Alternative Narratives

   • Many farmers never see examples of large-scale farming without glyphosate because alternative approaches are underfunded, overlooked, or dismissed.

Breaking Free: Rethinking Weed Management Without Chemicals

Understanding the Clever Hans effect in agriculture allows us to challenge the assumptions that keep farmers locked into glyphosate dependency. Here’s how we can restore soil intelligence and move beyond chemical agriculture:

1. Regenerative Agriculture: Working with Soil, Not Against It

• Cover Cropping: Suppresses weeds naturally while improving soil structure.

• Companion Planting: Uses plant diversity to disrupt weed establishment.

• Minimal Tillage: Preserves soil microbiomes, allowing quorum sensing to function properly.

2. Microbial Inoculants: Restoring Natural Soil Intelligence

• Mycorrhizal fungi and bacterial inoculants enhance soil resilience and reduce weed pressure.

3. Policy and Education: Shifting the Narrative

• Funding regenerative practices instead of chemical-based farming.

• Promoting soil health education to help farmers transition away from glyphosate dependence.

Conclusion: Time to See Beyond the Illusion

The story of Clever Hans reminds us how easy it is to mistake learned behavior for true understanding. Just as Hans wasn’t really solving math problems, modern industrial agriculture isn’t truly managing weeds—it’s merely responding to a system of reinforcement and incentives that make glyphosate seem necessary.

But nature has already developed a far more advanced, self-sustaining system—quorum sensing. By restoring soil intelligence instead of disrupting it, we can eliminate our dependence on synthetic herbicides, rebuild soil health, and grow food in a way that supports both farmers and ecosystems.

The challenge now is simple: Are we willing to break free from the Clever Hans illusion and trust in the intelligence of nature?

Here are some final details from a video making the important point that glyphosate is not directly the same as Roundup.

Thank you as always for following our Substack articles.

Earth care involves looking after and rebuilding natural capital, which includes not just plants and trees but also the air system, soil system, water system, and other species.

People care aims to provide for people's needs, including access to good food, water, air, and companionship, as well as other needs like joy, community, and fulfillment.

Fair share is about setting limits on our consumption and creating and redistributing a surplus, such as using no more than our fair share of water and clear air.

Agrarian Sharing Network (ASN)

“The Agrarian Sharing Network (ASN) is a decentralized, collaborative network, focused on distributing plant diversity to friends and neighbors and creating a shareable reproducible model for others to implement.
It’s as much about the plants as it is about the people.”

In the early part of each year, ASN volunteers go out, firstly collecting cuttings, scion and rootstock. After sorting and organizing this material, local Propagation Fairs take place located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States in Winter and Spring. Here is the poster for 2025.

Sharing In Our Ever-So “Developed” World.

This touches on the core of why movements like the Agrarian Sharing Network (ASN) and propagation fairs are so important. Historically, human societies functioned largely on principles of reciprocity, mutual aid, and communal resource management—things we now see in traditional agrarian and indigenous cultures. However, in most “developed” economies, several factors have eroded these natural tendencies:

1. Market-Driven Mentality

Our economies are deeply entrenched in capitalism, where everything is commodified, and value is often measured in monetary terms rather than relationships, reciprocity, or ecological health. Sharing challenges the system that profits from individual ownership and consumer dependency.

2. Individualism Over Collectivism

Western societies in particular emphasize self-sufficiency and independence, often at the expense of community cooperation. While independence can be empowering, it sometimes comes at the cost of disconnection and hoarding of resources instead of collective abundance.

3. Loss of Common Spaces and Structures for Sharing

Many societies used to have commons—shared lands, seed banks, tool libraries, and mutual aid networks—but these have been systematically dismantled through processes like privatization, enclosure, and urbanization. Without these physical or social infrastructures, spontaneous sharing becomes less practical.

4. Disconnection from Nature and Food Systems

Many people no longer produce their own food or have direct ties to land-based knowledge, making the idea of propagation fairs, seed saving, and sharing unfamiliar. As agriculture industrialized, plant genetic material became corporate property rather than a shared cultural and ecological resource.

5. Distrust and Legal Barriers

Modern societies are often regulation-heavy and liability-conscious, which sometimes discourages informal sharing. People fear being sued, fined, or taken advantage of, leading to skepticism toward open-source, decentralized resource exchanges.

6. Hyper-Specialization and Dependence on Institutions

We’ve become specialized consumers rather than generalist producers, meaning fewer people have skills in propagation, grafting, or seed saving. Instead of exchanging knowledge and resources, we rely on corporate supply chains.

Hope: Rebuilding a Culture of Sharing

Despite these challenges, movements like ASN, permaculture, and community-led sharing initiatives are rebuilding these traditions. Seed swaps, tool libraries, community gardens, and open-source farming knowledge are all ways to reclaim collective abundance.

Perhaps the bigger question is: How can we make sharing a fundamental part of how we live again? What lessons can we take from events like the Propagation Fairs to rebuild resilient, cooperative systems?

Thank you as always for reading this.

Seeds, Spores & Food – The Foundations of Regional Resilience

The Central Valley & The Willamette Valley: A Tale of Two Agricultural Futures

Why Cascadia Must Build a Regenerative Food & Seed System Now

1. Introduction: The Need for a Regenerative Cascadia Food & Seed System

Our modern food system is built on fragile foundations. For decades, the U.S. has relied on industrial-scale monoculture to feed its population, with California’s Central Valley serving as the backbone of fresh food production. However, the Central Valley—a region that supplies nearly 40% of the nation's fruits, nuts, and vegetables—is on the brink of collapse due to water shortages, climate extremes, and soil depletion.

As California’s agricultural heartland falters, Cascadia has a choice:

• Do we continue to rely on a failing food system?

• Or do we step up and create a regenerative, decentralized food network rooted in bioregional resilience?

This is not just a theoretical discussion—it’s an urgent necessity. The Willamette Valley, one of the most fertile agricultural regions in North America, has the potential to be a model for food sovereignty. But to achieve that, we must take action now—through seed-saving, regenerative farming, and a regional food infrastructure that can withstand future disruptions.

In this article, we will explore:

• Why California’s Central Valley is facing an agricultural collapse.

• How the Willamette Valley offers a sustainable alternative.

• What steps we must take to build a resilient Cascadia Food Guild.

2. The Central Valley: An Agricultural Empire on the Brink

A Food Giant Built on Borrowed Water

California’s Central Valley is often called the “food basket” of the U.S., producing:

• 80% of the world’s almonds

• 99% of the U.S. walnuts, pistachios, and artichokes

• One-third of the country’s tomatoes

• Massive amounts of lettuce, grapes, citrus, and avocados

However, this productivity comes at a steep cost. The valley’s agriculture is heavily dependent on irrigation, drawing billions of gallons from the Colorado River and California’s over-pumped aquifers.

The Water Crisis: A Looming Disaster

The Colorado River, once a reliable water source for farms, is now in severe decline due to:

• Decades of overuse—more water is allocated than the river actually provides.

• Mega-drought conditions—2020-2022 saw the worst drought in 1,200 years.

• Collapsing reservoirs—Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the largest in the U.S., are at historic lows.

As a result, farmers are now losing water allocations, leading to:

• Mass crop failures and land abandonment.

• The destruction of almond and citrus orchards that took decades to establish.

• A growing exodus of farmers selling their land to agribusiness corporations.

Even worse, in 2023, extreme flooding followed the drought—eroding topsoil, drowning crops, and causing billions in damage. Instead of replenishing groundwater, much of the floodwater washed away into the Pacific.

This is a graph of groundwater declines in California’s Central Valley over the years. There is a full video on water challenges, here.

It Gets Worse!

On January 31, 2025, the Trump administration directed the Army Corps of Engineers to increase water releases from reservoirs such as Lake Kaweah and Success Lake. The stated purpose was to maximize water supplies for firefighting efforts in Los Angeles. However, this decision raised concerns among local officials about potential flooding and the loss of irrigation water. After discussions, the planned releases were scaled back to mitigate these risks.

politico.com

Critics have labeled this action as dangerous and unnecessary, pointing out that the released water would not effectively reach Los Angeles for firefighting purposes. Instead, it could lead to flooding in downstream communities and reduce water available for agriculture.

globalnews.ca

This event is part of a broader debate over water management in California, with differing perspectives on how to balance water distribution between environmental needs, agricultural demands, and urban requirements.

This is a great Youtube overview of this and other varied fiascos.

Industrial Farming’s Hidden Costs

Beyond water shortages, Central Valley agriculture suffers from:

• Soil degradation – Overuse of synthetic fertilizers has depleted microbial life.

• Salinization – Irrigation mismanagement has turned some farmland into salt flats.

• Corporate Land Grabs – As small farms fail, major agribusinesses buy them up, consolidating food production into fewer hands.

The Central Valley is a cautionary tale—a region that once seemed unstoppable is now crumbling under the weight of its own excesses.

3. The Willamette Valley: A Model for Resilient Agriculture

Why Cascadia is Different

The Willamette Valley, stretching from Eugene to Portland, is one of the most diverse and fertile bioregions in North America. Unlike the Central Valley, it:
✅ Receives reliable rainfall (even during dry years).
✅ Has naturally rich soils built from volcanic activity and river deposits.
✅ Supports a wide range of crops—over 200 different varieties can thrive here.
✅ Has a history of diversified farming (before globalization shifted it toward monoculture).

Even in the fertile Willamette Valley we have gone in the wrong direction. In the 1950s-70s, the Willamette Valley provided over 50% of its own food needs. Today, that number is less than 5%—an alarming decline caused by globalization and industrial food systems.

But this can change. Cascadia has the resources to feed itself—if we invest, as we must, in localized, regenerative agriculture.

How the Willamette Valley Can Lead the Way

To prevent the mistakes of California, we must focus on:

• Regenerative farming – Moving away from petrochemical-based agriculture toward soil-building practices.

• Seed sovereignty – Saving and cultivating regionally adapted seeds through community-based seed banks.

• Perennial food systems – Developing food forests and polyculture systems to increase long-term resilience.

• Water self-sufficiency – Using rainwater harvesting, swales, and greywater systems to reduce reliance on external water sources.

• Local food networks – Strengthening farmers’ markets, CSAs, and cooperative distribution systems.

• Recent research has unveiled a substantial aquifer beneath Oregon's Cascade Range, with significant implications for the Willamette Valley's water resources.

  Discovery of the Cascade Range Aquifer:

  

  • Magnitude: A study led by the University of Oregon estimates that this aquifer holds at least 81 cubic kilometers of water, nearly three times the capacity of Lake Mead.

    news.uoregon.edu

  • Location: The aquifer is situated beneath volcanic rocks at the crest of the central Oregon Cascades, particularly between Mount Jefferson and south of McKenzie Pass.

    statesmanjournal.com

  Formation and Function:

  • Geological Composition: The aquifer is formed within layers of porous volcanic rock, resulting from historical lava flows.

  • Recharge Process: It is primarily replenished by snowmelt and rainfall, with water percolating through the volcanic rock and taking approximately seven to ten years to emerge at springs.

    statesmanjournal.com

  Implications for the Willamette Valley:

  • Sustaining River Systems: The aquifer feeds into major rivers such as the McKenzie, Deschutes, and Upper Willamette through large-volume springs, ensuring steady river flows even during dry periods.

    statesmanjournal.com

  • Water Resource Management: Understanding this aquifer enhances water resource planning for the Willamette Valley, supporting agricultural activities and urban water supplies.

  Considerations:

  • Climate Change Impact: The aquifer's recharge depends on snowpack levels, which are projected to decrease due to climate change, potentially affecting the aquifer's sustainability.

    smartwatermagazine.com

4. A Call to Action: Building the Cascadia Food Guild

The Role of the Cascadia Seed & Food Guild

The Cascadia Seed Guild was founded on the principle that seed sovereignty is food sovereignty. Now, we are expanding this vision into the Cascadia Food Guild, focusing on:
🌱 Preserving and distributing heirloom seeds through decentralized seed banks and local seed suppliers.
🌱 Developing emergency food security projects, including community seed propagation centers.
🌱 Supporting permaculture-based food production in both urban and rural areas.
🌱 Creating cooperative models for food processing, storage, and distribution.

How You Can Get Involved

1. Start saving seeds—join a local seed swap or support regional seed banks.

2. Grow your own food—even small-scale gardening reduces dependence on industrial agriculture.

3. Support local farmers—buy from CSAs, farmers’ markets, and regenerative producers.

4. Advocate for local food policies—push for zoning laws that protect farmland and encourage local production.

5. Join the Cascadia Food Guild—help build a resilient, community-based food system.

5. Conclusion: A Defining Moment for Cascadia

California’s Central Valley is a warning sign—a region that once seemed invincible is now on the edge of collapse. We cannot afford to wait until crisis hits. The time to build a regional food system that is resilient, regenerative, and locally controlled is now.

The Willamette Valley has everything it needs to become a model for food sovereignty, but it will take community action and forward-thinking leadership to make it happen.

This is our moment. Let’s reclaim our food system—one seed, one farm, and one meal at a time.

🌱 Join us in building the Cascadia Food Guild.

Now, it’s time for the next step.

The Cascadia Food Guild is emerging as a logical and necessary evolution—one that takes the work of seed stewardship beyond the garden bed and into the larger food system. While the Seed Guild safeguards the origin of our food, the Food Guild will focus on the entire ecological cycle of nourishment—from cultivation to consumption to community resilience.

Back in the mid 2,000’s Dan Armstrong, of Eugene OR and a group of others, started a movement in the fertile Willamette Valley, in Oregon. Their aim was to help Farmers here to transition away from grass seed growing to the growing of beans and grains instead. This is an expanded article from Dan…“Globalization, facilitated by cheap oil, has turned our food systems inside out. Over the last twenty-five years, the globalization of the market place has expanded trade with a rich and diverse new array of products and product sources; however, it has been at the cost of regional economic balance, especially at the local level and especially for local food systems.”

Why Now?

Our region—the bioregion of Cascadia—is abundantly fertile, capable of producing a significant portion of the food we currently import from elsewhere. And yet, our food system remains heavily dependent on supply chains that are fragile, extractive, and misaligned with the principles of regenerative agriculture. As an example, back in 2019 we got quite a heavy snowfall, up to 11” over a Monday morning. Later that day, the airport was still closed, the railroad also was closed and most significant, the 5 Freeway was closed. That Freeway (the 5) is an arterial food corridor for pretty much all of the Pacific Northwest and with our current “just-in-time” food systems, a few days closure of the 5 Freeway could be catastrophic. Luckily, the 5 closure only lasted a few hours, in this case, however it was a wake-up call for many here. Our food systems need to be far more resilient.

We believe in something different. A food culture that is rooted in place, that is collaborative instead of competitive, and that is designed for long-term abundance rather than short-term profit.

What is a Guild, and Why Does it Matter?

In our world of permaculture, a guild is a collaborative ecosystem—a group of plants, organisms, and functions that work together in mutual support. A fruit tree guild, for example, isn’t just a tree—it includes pollinator plants, nitrogen-fixers, pest deterrents, and beneficial fungi, all playing interconnected roles to create a self-sustaining, thriving system.

The Cascadia Food Guild follows this same principle but applies it to food sovereignty. Instead of isolated farms, restaurants, foragers, and food activists working separately, a guilded food system connects them in a resilient web of collaboration.

How Could the Cascadia Food Guild Work?

Imagine a network of growers, food producers, educators, and eaters working together as an interdependent ecosystem:

• Regenerative Farmers & Urban Growers cultivating nutritious, locally adapted foods.

• Seed Savers & Indigenous Land Stewards ensuring biodiversity and cultural food heritage.

• Foragers & Wildcrafters reconnecting people with the edible landscape.

• Community Kitchens & Chefs turning raw ingredients into preserved abundance.

• Mutual Aid Groups & Co-ops redistributing food to where it’s needed most.

• Permaculture Designers & Food Foresters planting perennial polycultures for long-term sustainability.

• Policy Advocates & Educators working to protect farmland, influence food laws, and share knowledge.

This is about more than just local food—it’s about resilient community networks, regenerative land practices, and a food system that nourishes people while healing ecosystems.

What’s Next?

This is the beginning of an evolving conversation. Over the coming months, we’ll be working to shape this vision into tangible projects, connections, and actions. We invite YOU—growers, eaters, foragers, educators, permaculturists, and food activists—to be part of this living guild.

If you’re interested in contributing ideas, joining a working group, or simply staying connected, let us know in the comments, or reach out through seeds AT regeneratecascadia.org

What’s Next?

This is the beginning of an evolving conversation. Over the coming months, we’ll be working to shape this vision into tangible projects, connections, and actions. We invite YOU—growers, eaters, foragers, educators, permaculturists, and food activists—to be part of this living guild.

If you’re interested in contributing ideas, joining a working group, or simply staying connected, let us know in the comments, or reach out through seeds AT regeneratecascadia.org.

This is how we regrow our food system—from the ground up, together.

🌱 From Seeds to Food, From Guilds to Community.
The Future is Resilient. Local. Cascadian.

This is how we regrow our food system—from the ground up, together.

🌱 From Seeds to Food, From Guilds to Community.
The Future is Resilient. Local. Cascadian.

Thanks as always for reading our articles.

1. Vision and Purpose

Why Seeds and Spores Matter

This article is based on the work of the Cascadia Seed Guild based in the Cascadia Bioregion of the USA and via the Regenerate Cascadia initiative. Here we detail how we evolved the Cascadia Seed Guild to hopefully help you to do the same.

Seeds and spores are the bedrock of life on Earth. Almost all terrestrial ecosystems depend on these tiny, yet profoundly powerful life forms. From the towering forests that regulate our planet's climate to the crops that sustain human civilizations, seeds and spores are the starting point for growth, diversity, and resilience. Without them, the intricate web of life that sustains soil, plants, animals, and humans would unravel. Over the years a good deal of our seed systems were captured by a few chemical companies via patent systems; here Bill Mollison speaks to this.

• Seeds: The reproductive units of flowering plants, grasses, vegetables, and trees that provide the essential resources for food, shelter, and ecological services.

• Spores: The primary reproductive mechanism of fungi, mosses, and ferns, which play critical roles in soil formation, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem health.

These fundamental life forms connect us to the land, ecosystems, and one another. Stewarding seeds and spores is not merely a technical task but an act of ecological and cultural preservation.

The Vision of Bioregional Seed Movements

The mission of Bioregional Seed Movements is to reclaim, protect, and celebrate the foundational importance of seeds and spores as sources of life. These movements aim to:

1. Foster Community Resilience
   By building localized seed systems, communities become less dependent on external, fragile supply chains and more capable of thriving in the face of environmental and economic challenges. Locally adapted seeds ensure that crops and ecosystems can withstand climate variability, pests, and disease.

2. Promote Biodiversity
   Biodiversity starts with seeds. The genetic diversity preserved in locally adapted seeds supports robust ecosystems that can adapt to changing conditions. Diverse crops and plants not only feed people but also provide habitats for pollinators, soil microorganisms, and wildlife.

3. Ensure Food Sovereignty
   Seeds are a symbol of sovereignty and self-determination. By protecting access to seeds and spores as a community resource, people can make choices about what they grow and eat, breaking free from dependence on corporate-controlled seed systems.

4. Strengthen Bioregional Identity
   Seeds reflect the ecological, cultural, and historical stories of their regions. Growing and preserving bioregionally adapted seeds reconnects communities to their landscapes and fosters a sense of place and belonging.

5. Heal the Soil, Sustain the Earth
   The interdependence of seeds, soil, and spores underpins ecological health. Seed systems rooted in regenerative practices enhance soil fertility, water retention, and carbon sequestration, contributing to broader efforts to heal the planet.

Purpose

Bioregional Seed Movements strive to establish a living legacy of seeds and spores that will sustain future generations. By embedding these systems in permaculture ethics, technological innovation, and community collaboration, they aim to:

• Serve as a bridge between traditional knowledge and modern science.

• Provide a model for sustainable living that can be replicated globally.

• Offer a practical pathway to align human activity with the natural rhythms of the Earth.

In nurturing the smallest forms of life—seeds and spores—we safeguard the future of all life.

The Role of Seeds in Bioregional Identity

Seeds are more than the building blocks of plant life—they are living archives of a region’s ecosystems, cultures, and histories. They carry the genetic information that allows plants to thrive in specific conditions, but they also encapsulate stories of human connection to the land. By cultivating, preserving, and sharing seeds, we strengthen our ties to place and create a shared identity rooted in resilience and abundance.

Seeds as Reflections of Local Ecosystems

1. Adaptation to Local Conditions
   Each seed is shaped by the unique climate, soil, and ecological interactions of its environment. Seeds grown and saved in a bioregion become genetically attuned to local conditions, developing resilience to specific pests, diseases, and climate fluctuations.

2. Keystone of Local Food Systems
   The crops grown from these seeds often form the basis of local diets, sustaining communities through their nutritional and cultural significance. For example:

   • Coastal regions may rely on drought-tolerant grains or salt-tolerant crops.

   • Mountainous areas often cultivate high-altitude-adapted root vegetables.

3. Supporting Biodiversity
   Locally adapted seeds encourage a wide variety of plant species, which in turn support pollinators, wildlife, and soil microbiomes. This biodiversity strengthens the entire ecosystem, creating a foundation for long-term ecological health.

Seeds as Carriers of Cultural Heritage

1. Heirloom Varieties and Traditional Crops
   Heirloom seeds carry the cultural history of a community. They represent the crops that have been selected, grown, and passed down through generations, often reflecting the tastes, agricultural practices, and innovations of a specific culture.

2. Sacred and Ceremonial Significance
   Many Indigenous and traditional communities consider seeds sacred. They feature prominently in rituals, ceremonies, and oral traditions. Stewarding these seeds is not only about survival but about preserving spiritual and cultural continuity.

3. Culinary Traditions
   Local seeds shape regional cuisines, providing the ingredients for dishes that connect people to their ancestors and homelands. A unique pepper variety or an ancient grain can tell the story of migration, adaptation, and resilience.

Strengthening Connections to Place

1. A Living Memory of the Land
   Seeds serve as a record of the land’s ecological and cultural changes. When we save seeds, we preserve the history of how people interacted with the land over time—what they grew, ate, and traded, and how they adapted to shifting environmental conditions.

2. Rebuilding Local Resilience
   In an era of globalized food systems, cultivating bioregionally adapted seeds allows communities to regain autonomy and resilience. Seeds become a tool for reclaiming local sovereignty over food production, ensuring that communities can thrive independently of industrial systems.

3. Fostering Stewardship
   Caring for seeds fosters a deeper relationship with the land. It involves observing seasonal changes, understanding the needs of plants and soil, and cultivating a reciprocal relationship with nature. This practice reconnects people with their bioregion, encouraging sustainable and regenerative practices.

The Future of Seeds in Bioregional Identity

By recognizing seeds as vital to bioregional identity, we also recognize the urgency of protecting them. As climate change and industrial agriculture threaten seed diversity, the work of saving and stewarding seeds becomes a form of resistance—a way to protect the ecological and cultural heritage of a place.

Through Bioregional Seed Movements, we can ensure that seeds not only survive but continue to thrive as living symbols of the deep connection between people, place, and the web of life.

Practical Components of Seed Collection and Conservation

Here we are going into more detailed explanations of some of the more technical aspects of Bioregional Seed Operations.

a. Seed Collection and Conservation

Seeds are both a biological resource and a cultural treasure, and their conservation requires thoughtful, intentional practices. By focusing on seed sovereignty, landrace breeding, and innovative ecological techniques, Bioregional Seed Movements can ensure that seeds remain a resilient and accessible resource for generations.

1. Seed Sovereignty

Definition and Importance
Seed sovereignty is the right of communities to save, share, and grow seeds without external interference or control. It emphasizes the idea that seeds are a public good, belonging to the communities and ecosystems that sustain them, rather than to corporations or individuals.

Strategies to Achieve Seed Sovereignty

• Community Seed Banks: Establish community-managed seed banks where members can deposit, access, and exchange seeds freely. This ensures that seeds remain in the hands of local growers and not locked in corporate control.

• Open-Source Seed Licensing: Promote open-source agreements that legally protect seeds from patenting, ensuring they remain available for community use and adaptation.

• Advocacy and Policy Engagement: Work to influence local, national, and international policies to protect the rights of farmers and communities to save and exchange seeds.

Challenges and Solutions

• Threats from Corporate Patents: Advocate against laws and practices that allow patenting of seeds.

• Loss of Traditional Knowledge: Document and share seed-saving practices through workshops, online platforms, and mentorship programs to preserve cultural and ecological knowledge.

2. Landrace Breeding

What Is Landrace Breeding?
Landrace breeding involves cultivating plant varieties that are specifically adapted to the environmental conditions of a region. These plants are genetically diverse and resilient, making them better suited to withstand pests, diseases, and climate variability.

Benefits of Landrace Breeding

• Resilience: Plants grown through landrace breeding are often hardier and better equipped to handle local challenges such as drought, flooding, or frost.

• Genetic Diversity: By encouraging natural genetic variation, landrace breeding supports robust ecosystems and provides a buffer against crop failure.

• Cultural and Culinary Value: Landrace varieties often have unique flavors and characteristics tied to their bioregion, contributing to local food traditions.

How to Implement Landrace Breeding

• Start with Diverse Seeds: Use a mix of varieties to maximize genetic potential.

• Grow Under Local Conditions: Allow plants to adapt naturally to the soil, climate, and pests of the region.

• Select and Save the Best Seeds: Each growing season, save seeds from the plants that perform best. Over time, this creates a unique, bioregionally adapted variety.

• Collaborate with Farmers and Gardeners: Share seeds, data, and techniques within the community to accelerate adaptation and innovation.

3. Quorum Sensing Techniques

What Is Quorum Sensing?
Quorum sensing is a biological process where microorganisms communicate and coordinate their activity based on population density. In agriculture, quorum sensing can be harnessed to improve plant health, soil fertility, and seed vitality by fostering beneficial microbial communities.

Applications in Seed and Soil Health

• Enhanced Germination: Microbial treatments can improve seed germination rates by creating a supportive microbial environment that reduces stress and promotes vigor.

• Soil Microbial Health: By fostering a diverse and active microbial population in the soil, quorum sensing techniques can enhance nutrient availability, improve disease resistance, and support plant growth.

• Symbiotic Relationships: Leveraging the natural relationships between plants and microbes (e.g., mycorrhizal fungi or nitrogen-fixing bacteria) can significantly boost productivity and resilience.

How to Apply Quorum Sensing in Seed Movements

• Seed Inoculation: Treat seeds with microbial solutions that promote beneficial interactions. For example, inoculating legumes with rhizobia bacteria enhances nitrogen fixation.

• Soil Amendments: Use compost teas, biochar, and microbial additives to enrich soil microbiomes.

• Research and Experimentation: Collaborate with scientists and agricultural experts to study the effects of quorum sensing on seed germination, growth, and resilience.

• Education and Training: Provide workshops and materials to teach farmers and gardeners how to apply these techniques effectively.

Challenges and Opportunities

• Access to Resources: Ensure that microbial treatments and tools are affordable and accessible to small-scale farmers.

• Education Gap: Increase awareness and understanding of microbial techniques through community education programs.

• Integration with Traditional Practices: Blend quorum sensing approaches with traditional seed-saving and soil management practices for holistic solutions.

Conclusion

The pillars of seed sovereignty, landrace breeding, and quorum sensing techniques form a powerful foundation for Bioregional Seed Movements. By prioritizing community control, biodiversity, and ecological innovation, these approaches create seed systems that are resilient, adaptable, and deeply rooted in local ecosystems and cultures.

The Seed Increase Initiative emphasizes the importance of both summer and winter crops. For winter, the focus is on crops requiring vernalization, such as Brassica species (kales, cabbages, etc.), which need prolonged cold periods to induce flowering. ASN has been distributing seeds and providing transplants from their nursery in Cottage Grove, Oregon, to support growers in these efforts. This approach aims to secure a regenerative local food system by ensuring a continuous supply of diverse and resilient plant varieties.

The initiative also encourages community involvement through events like propagation fairs and seed exchanges, fostering a decentralized network focused on distributing plant diversity to friends and neighbors. These efforts are part of ASN's broader mission to create a shareable, reproducible model for others to implement, emphasizing that it's as much about the plants as it is about the people.

These are the planned dates for the 2025 Propagation events which are well worth attending:

Williams, Oregon: Sunday, 03/02

Cottage Grove: Saturday, Oregon 03/08 12-4pm

Corvallis, Oregon: Saturday, 03/15

Eugene, Oregon: Saturday 03/22

Florence Area, Oregon: Saturday 03/29

Springfield, Oregon: Saturday 04/05

Oakridge, Oregon: Sunday 04/06

Cascadia Seed Guild

The Cascadia Seed Guild was formed during a tour of late 2023 by Joe Brewer who wrote the book “The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth”. In 2024 there was a working relationship formed between the Agrarian Sharing Network (ASN) and the Cascadia Seed Guild to support the ASN Propagation Fairs, as shown above.

If you're interested in participating or learning more about the Seed Increase Initiative, you can reach out to ASN at seed@agrariansharing.net.

Since their emergence around 360 million years ago, seeds have survived at least five major glacial periods, including the most recent cycles of the Pleistocene Ice Ages. Their resilience highlights their evolutionary success, making them one of nature's most enduring innovations—a trait we continue to rely on for food and ecological stability today.

That’s the good news, now let’s dig a bit deeper into seeds, climate and weather.

Several in-depth studies have examined the potential impacts of climate change on global seed supplies, focusing on seed physiology, production, quality, and the broader implications for food security.

Impact on Seed Physiology and Quality

Climate change affects seed physiology by altering environmental conditions essential for seed development and germination. Factors such as increased temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and elevated CO₂ levels can impair seed quality, reduce germination rates, and hinder seedling establishment. For instance, temperature stress can decrease seed number and weight, accelerate seed growth rates, and shorten grain filling periods, potentially negating any positive effects of increased CO₂ on seed production.

SpringerLink

Effects on Seed Production

The seed industry, a cornerstone of global food security, faces challenges due to climate change. Extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, disrupt seed production cycles, leading to reduced yields and compromised seed quality. In vegetable seed production, climate-induced stresses can adversely affect plant growth, development, and reproduction, thereby diminishing seed output.

SpringerLink

Climate Change Impacts Overall

As of early January 2025, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels have reached approximately 426 parts per million (ppm).

GML

The last time Earth's atmosphere contained this concentration of CO₂ was during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period, roughly 3 million years ago. During that era, global surface temperatures were about 2.5–4°C (4.5–7.2°F) warmer than pre-industrial levels, and sea levels were significantly higher, ranging from at least 16 feet to possibly as much as 82 feet above present levels.

It is incredibly important that we do not diminish our efforts at adapting to the possible ramifications that these elevated levels could bring. There are concerted efforts by some corporations and governments to deflect us in these regards.

Climate.gov

This historical context underscores the unprecedented nature of current CO₂ concentrations in human history and highlights the potential for significant climatic and environmental changes.

Climate-Change consquences’s continue to impact our lives, in 2024 we faced the following major issues.

1. Heatwaves and Record Temperatures

• Global Heat Records: 2024 is on track to become Earth's hottest year on record, with average global temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

  Reuters

• South America: Central regions, including parts of Brazil, experienced extreme heat, with temperatures surpassing 41°C in August, despite it being winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

  Wikipedia

2. Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

• In 2024, tropical cyclones formed across various ocean basins, with notable activity in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The Atlantic hurricane season was particularly impactful, with several major hurricanes causing significant damage.

  • Atlantic Basin:

    • Hurricane Beryl: An early Category 5 hurricane that caused significant damage across the Caribbean and the southern United States in July, resulting in numerous fatalities and widespread destruction.

    • Hurricane Helene: In late September, Helene devastated parts of the southeastern United States, particularly North Carolina, leading to severe flooding, landslides, and a substantial death toll.

    • Hurricane Milton: One of the most intense hurricanes of the season, with a minimum central pressure of 897 hPa, causing widespread damage in the Gulf Coast region.

  • Pacific Basin:

    • Typhoon Yinxing: One of four simultaneously active tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific on November 11, marking the first such occurrence in November since records began in 1951.

    • Typhoon Toraji: Part of the unprecedented simultaneous activity in the Western Pacific, contributing to significant weather events in the region.

    • Typhoon Usagi: Another of the four concurrent typhoons in November, impacting parts of East Asia with heavy rains and strong winds.

    

    • Typhoon Man-yi: The fourth typhoon in the simultaneous November event, affecting maritime activities and coastal regions in the Western Pacific.

  • Indian Ocean Basin:

    • Cyclone Fengal: A significant system in the North Indian Ocean, contributing to the regional cyclone activity in 2024.

    • Cyclone Robyn: Another notable cyclone in the Indian Ocean, impacting coastal areas with heavy rainfall and strong winds.

  2. Tornadoes

  The United States experienced a near-record number of tornadoes in 2024, with significant outbreaks causing considerable damage and loss of life.

  • April 26 Outbreak: The most active day for tornado reports, with over 100 tornadoes occurring across multiple states, leading to widespread destruction and numerous casualties.

  • December 28 Outbreak: A severe weather system produced approximately 90 tornadoes across the Southeastern United States, resulting in fatalities and extensive property damage.

  • Ohio's Record Year: The state of Ohio recorded 74 tornadoes in 2024, surpassing its previous record of 62 set in 1992, marking it as the most active tornado year for the state.

  These events highlight the increasing frequency and intensity of severe weather phenomena, underscoring the importance of preparedness and resilience in the face of climate change.

3. Floods And Their Impacts

• Spain Floods: In late October, southeastern Spain faced catastrophic flooding due to a "cold drop" phenomenon, intensified by the warming Mediterranean Sea. Nearly 100 people lost their lives.

  Le Monde

• Afghanistan–Pakistan Floods: Between March and September, severe flooding in these regions resulted in over 1,000 fatalities, displacing thousands and causing extensive infrastructure damage.

  Wikipedia

4. Droughts

• Amazon Drought: The Amazon Basin experienced one of its worst droughts on record, leading to dried-up riverbeds, disrupted ecosystems, and increased wildfire activity.

  AP News

• Southern Africa: Nations like Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe declared states of disaster due to severe drought conditions, impacting agriculture and water supplies for millions.

  Wikipedia

5. Wildfires

• South America: High temperatures and prolonged drought conditions sparked wildfires across Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, leading to habitat destruction and air quality issues.

  AP News

• Australia: The country faced an early and intense wildfire season, with significant fires in the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales, exacerbated by dry conditions linked to the ongoing El Niño event.

  Wikipedia

6. Economic Impact

• Global Insured Losses: Natural catastrophes in 2024 resulted in insured losses exceeding $135 billion worldwide, marking the fifth consecutive year with losses surpassing $100 billion. The United States accounted for two-thirds of these losses, notably from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

  Wall Street Journal

Insurance Industry Impacts

The increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters in 2024 have significantly impacted the insurance industry, leading to notable financial strains and operational challenges. Key developments include:

Climate change is significantly impacting the insurance landscape for food crops and seeds, leading to increased costs and challenges for farmers and insurers alike. Key developments include:

1. Rising Insurance Costs Due to Climate Change

• Increased Payouts: A Stanford University study found that higher temperatures attributed to climate change caused payouts from the U.S. crop insurance program to increase by $27 billion between 1991 and 2017, accounting for just over 19% of the $140 billion total.

  Stanford News

• Projected Premium Hikes: Research indicates that crop prices could increase significantly by 2080 due to climate change, potentially causing serious implications for the affordability and availability of crop insurance if it becomes too cost prohibitive without additional government intervention.

  SOA

2. Challenges in Insurance Accessibility

• Coverage Gaps: Extreme heat waves in the U.S. are causing significant annual damage, estimated to run into tens of billions of dollars, which standard insurance policies do not typically cover.

  The Wall Street Journal

• Disincentives for Climate Adaptation: Some studies suggest that crop insurance may serve as a disincentive for farmers to adopt climate change mitigation measures on their croplands, as insurance coverage might reduce the perceived need for such adaptations.

  NCSU News

3. Global Initiatives to Enhance Climate Resilience

• Innovative Insurance Solutions: Organizations like Pula are helping smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America mitigate the financial risks of climate change by providing insurance payouts, which have exceeded $120 million, aiding faster recovery for farmers.

  Time

• Policy Proposals: The European Central Bank has proposed policies to increase coverage of insurance against climate catastrophes in Europe, suggesting the creation of a public-private reinsurance system at the EU level to address the protection gap.

  Reuters

4. Implications for Farmers and Food Security

• Financial Strain: The increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters are leading to higher insurance premiums and reduced availability of coverage, placing additional financial strain on farmers.

• Adaptation Strategies: There is a growing need for integrating insurance with climate-smart technologies, such as drought- and flood-tolerant seeds, to enhance resilience and ensure food security.

  Cega

In summary, climate change is exacerbating risks for food crop and seed production, leading to increased insurance costs and challenges in coverage accessibility. Addressing these issues requires a combination of innovative insurance solutions, policy interventions, and the adoption of climate-resilient agricultural practices.

The Impermanence of (perceived) Permanence.

In our introduction we cited the fact that seeds have survived major climactic shifts over, literally hundreds of thousands of years, including several Ice Ages. So how can it be that current climate change effects seem so detrimentally impactful to our food supplies? In one phrase, our Industrialized Food System(s) which are almost 100% dependent on complete predictability. There are many examples of this here in the USA; in fact, we recently created this piece about California’s Central Valley. Which still supplies 50% of our fresh food supplies, 80% of our Winter fresh food supplies and almost 100% of the entire World’s almond supplies. This part of California is facing ongoing droughts interspersed with occasional deluges of precipitation. As a reflection point, the total human population of California’s Central Valley is estimated at 4,993,148 as of 2020, the US total population is just over 341 Million. Why are we growing so much food so far away from the people who eat it? That in a nutshell is the heart of the problem, we need to grow food much closer to where we eat it and get used to seasonal foods (again).

The greatest news of all is that seeds are exponential and abundant, this Winter Squash, pictured above, yielded 314 seeds along with food for 11 people. So let’s grow plants together, close-by and keep on saving seeds and strengthen our adaptability to climate change effects.

Thanks as always for reading this article and for your ongoing support

The Imperial Valley in Southern California is a critical hub for U.S. agriculture, particularly during the winter months. Despite receiving less than three inches of annual rainfall, the valley's fertile lands are sustained entirely by water diverted from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal. This irrigation enables the Imperial Valley to produce approximately two-thirds of the nation's winter vegetables, including lettuce, broccoli, and carrots. We will return to the winter vegetables subject soon, the first question is where are most of the #seeds needed to grow these vegetables coming from?

Seed Sources

The seeds used to grow food in the Imperial Valley come from a combination of local and global sources, with seed companies, cooperatives, and individual farmers playing key roles in their procurement. Here’s an overview of where these seeds typically come from:

1. Commercial Seed Companies

• Domestic Suppliers: Many seeds are sourced from U.S.-based seed companies specializing in high-yield, drought-tolerant, and pest-resistant varieties. Companies like Monsanto (Bayer Crop Science), Syngenta, and Corteva Agriscience provide a significant portion of the seeds for large-scale agriculture. We have found that there is a blurring between organic standards and GMO seeds and these names sound familiar. In addition, none of these companies started life as seed companies. We covered the hijacking of our seed supplies in this article.

• Specialty Seed Companies: Smaller seed companies such as Johnny's Selected Seeds, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, or regionally-focused suppliers provide seeds for niche crops and organic farming practices. There are some great presentations on seed suppliers and the seed system from Dan Kittredge in this piece we created.

2. Global Seed Networks

• International Seed Companies: Some seeds come from global suppliers due to their expertise in specific crops. For instance, hybrid lettuce seeds or varieties adapted for arid climates might originate from Europe or Israel, where similar environmental conditions prevail. One item we feel fairly strongly about is the aspect of hydroponics having USDA’s Organics Standards applied. We feel that Organic Produce should be grown in soils only.

• Seed Banks: Seeds for rare or unique crops are occasionally sourced from global seed banks, such as the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) or the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

3. Local Seed Production

• On-Farm Seed Saving: Some farmers in the Imperial Valley save seeds from previous harvests, particularly for non-hybrid crops, to reduce costs and ensure compatibility with local soil and climate conditions. This is by far the most powerful methodology with local resilience fully in mind.

• Local Seed Cooperatives: Regional seed-saving groups and cooperatives, though less common in large-scale industrial farming, contribute to the availability of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds.

4. Research and Development

• University Programs: Institutions like the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UCANR) develop seed varieties tailored for the region’s unique climate and soil.

• Private R&D: Many commercial seeds are hybrids developed through research programs aimed at increasing yields, disease resistance, and resilience to the region’s arid conditions.

5. Government Programs

• USDA Partnerships: The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) supports research into crop varieties suited for arid and semi-arid farming, contributing to seed availability in the Imperial Valley.

6. Imported Seeds

• Vegetables like Lettuce and Broccoli: Seeds for lettuce, broccoli, and other vegetables are often hybrids specifically bred for high yields and uniformity. Many of these seeds come from suppliers in countries known for agricultural innovation, such as the Netherlands and Japan. This uniformity is costing us billions of dollars in wasted food which is perfectly fine to eat. Perfectly aesthetic fresh food is not normal. We wrote about these aspects in this piece.

The seeds used in the Imperial Valley reflect the industrial nature of agriculture in the region, with a strong emphasis on maximizing productivity in challenging environmental conditions. Let’s cover some of these “challenging environmental conditions”, next.

Challenging Ecological Conditions

The Colorado River is facing significant challenges due to prolonged drought and increasing demand. The river's flow has diminished, impacting the water supply for the Imperial Valley's extensive agricultural activities. Farmers in the region are expressing concerns about the potential effects on crop diversity and pest management, which could have broader implications for the US national food supply.

New York Post

In response to these challenges, the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) is collaborating with farmers to implement water conservation measures. These initiatives include the adoption of advanced irrigation technologies such as drip and sprinkler systems, as well as precision laser leveling of fields to enhance water use efficiency. Despite these efforts, the cost of implementing such technologies remains a concern for many farmers.

New York Post

The current water usage agreement among the seven states that rely on the Colorado River, along with Mexico, is set to expire in 2026. If a new consensus on water allocation is not reached by then, the Bureau of Reclamation may need to intervene to establish usage guidelines. This situation underscores the urgency for collaborative solutions to ensure the sustainability of the Colorado River and the agricultural economies it supports. We cannot ignore the fact that, currently, The Colorado River flow is diminishing. The Bureau of Reclamation cannot do much, if anything, to increase the Colorado River flows.

New York Post

The challenges facing the Colorado River and the Imperial Valley highlight the complex interplay between water resources and agriculture in arid regions. Addressing these issues is crucial not only for local economies but also for maintaining the stability of the nation's food supply.

Impacts On Food Supply Of Imperial Valley Soils

The Imperial Valley's soil quality has been extensively studied due to its significance in agriculture and environmental health. Key findings from various studies include:

Soil Composition and Classification

The region's soils are primarily fine-textured, calcareous, and inherently saline, necessitating effective irrigation and drainage management to maintain agricultural productivity. A comprehensive soil survey by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides detailed classifications and characteristics of these soils.

Internet Archive

Salinity Management

Managing soil salinity is crucial in the Imperial Valley. Research has focused on salt and water balance, emphasizing the importance of leaching practices, irrigation management, and drainage systems to prevent salt accumulation in the root zone. A study on salt balance highlighted the need for continuous monitoring and management to sustain crop yields.

Agricultural Research Service

Nitrogen Oxide Emissions

Recent studies have identified unusually high soil nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in the Imperial Valley, which significantly influence air quality. These emissions are linked to fertilization practices and high temperatures, underscoring the need for improved management strategies to mitigate environmental impacts.

Arroma

Agricultural Runoff and Environmental Impact

The effects of agricultural practices on soil and water quality have been examined, particularly concerning runoff into the Salton Sea. Research comparing organic and conventional farming methods has provided insights into nutrient leaching and its environmental consequences, highlighting the importance of sustainable farming practices to protect regional ecosystems.

Way Up North - The Willamette Valley

The Missoula Floods, also known as the Spokane Floods, were a series of cataclysmic floods that occurred at the end of the last Ice Age, around 15,000 to 13,000 years ago. These floods significantly shaped the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, including the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Here are some insights into their impact:

What Were the Missoula Floods?

• Origins: The floods were caused by the periodic failure of an ice dam on the Clark Fork River in present-day Montana. This dam held back a massive glacial lake, Glacial Lake Missoula, which was roughly the size of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario combined.

• Flood Events: When the ice dam broke, an estimated 500 cubic miles of water were released in a matter of days, rushing across the landscape at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. This process occurred multiple times over several thousand years.

Impact on the Willamette Valley

1. Deposition of Fertile Soil:

   • The floods carried vast amounts of sediment from eastern Washington and Idaho into the Willamette Valley.

   • As the floodwaters slowed, they deposited layers of nutrient-rich silt, creating some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world.

   • This fertile soil contributes to the valley's reputation as a prime location for farming, including grass seed production, hazelnuts, and a growing wine industry.

2. Formation of Geologic Features:

   • The floods carved out distinct features such as the Columbia River Gorge.

   • The Willamette Valley became a large temporary lake during each flood, with floodwaters sometimes reaching depths of 400 feet.

   • The valley’s flat floor and fertile soil are direct results of these events.

3. Legacy on Ecosystems:

   • The diverse ecosystems of the Willamette Valley owe much to the deposits and changes caused by the floods.

   • Wetlands and floodplains in the valley were formed, providing habitats for a wide range of species.

4. Human History and Settlement:

   • The fertile soil laid the foundation for agriculture, making the Willamette Valley a hub for Native American communities before European settlement.

   • In modern times, the valley became the "Land of Milk and Honey" for settlers on the Oregon Trail.

Key Features Left by the Floods

• Erratics and Ice-Rafted Boulders: Large rocks carried by icebergs that floated in the floodwaters were deposited throughout the region. Some erratics in the Willamette Valley came from as far away as Canada.

• Scablands: The floods created rugged terrain in eastern Washington, known as the Channeled Scablands, which funnelled water into the Columbia River and down into the Willamette Valley.

• Flood Layering: Geologic layers in the valley reveal the sequence of floods, with distinct sediment deposits marking each event.

Modern Implications

• Agricultural Richness: The legacy of the floods is still evident in the valley’s productivity, supporting crops like hops, berries, hazelnuts, and wine grapes.

• Geologic Research: The Missoula Floods are a focal point for understanding catastrophic geological processes and their long-term effects.

• Climate and Flooding Awareness: These events remind us of the power of natural forces and the importance of understanding regional flood risks, particularly as climate change impacts weather patterns.

The Missoula Floods profoundly shaped the Willamette Valley, leaving behind a landscape that continues to influence agriculture, ecosystems, and human settlement. They remain a cornerstone of geologic and environmental history in the Pacific Northwest.

Conclusion

The breadbasket of the USA is still mainly California; given enough hydration, it is still an amazing growing area, particularly in Winter Fresh Food. However, challenges are mounting, so it is fortuitous that we have another great growing area just to the North

This is a really great article from Dan Armstrong on the history and promise of the Willamette Valley.

Thank you as always for reading this.

First, here is an important point, the free subscriptions will continue and the content will not be diminished, in any way. However, in order to keep up with the inflow of seeds we need more equipment and hands-on; hence the subscription option. Instead of reaching out via GoFundMe etc we feel it better to offer something palpable in return for your support. All current subscribers will automatically be enrolled.

Our Vision: Stories + Seeds + Sustainability

On January 1, 2025, we will officially launch The Secret Life of Seeds subscription option, to support our project designed to inspire and grow community stewardship of seeds, featuring:

An Annual Seed Catalog/Storybook:

A vibrant collection of 50 seed stories, each written from the unique perspective of pollinators—bees, butterflies, and other allies. These stories celebrate the magic of seeds while sharing their histories, growing details, and companions in the garden.

The Seed-Story-Catalog will be downloadable online for all paid subscribers.

A printed version available as a premium option for those who cherish tangible books.

Quarterly Seed Mailings:

Paid subscribers will receive three seed unique varieties each quarter—heirloom and open-pollinated favorites like Asparagus, Broccoli, and Carrots—carefully selected to grow in temperate zones for now; we will be adding other zones as time passes. In addition our subscribers can reach out to request seeds for their climate zones, as localized substitutions. These seeds are part of the mission stewarded by the Cascadia Seed Guild to ensure seed diversity and resilience.

Free and Paid Substack Content:

Free Option: Twice-monthly articles celebrating seeds, growing tips, and the stories behind them. As stated above, these will not be diminished in any way.

Paid Option: Full access to seed catalog/stories, quarterly seed mailings, and premium content that deepens your relationship with seeds and their ecosystems.

About the Cascadia Seed Guild

The Cascadia Seed Guild is a community-led initiative I steward, dedicated to saving, sharing, and preserving seeds in the Cascadia bioregion and beyond. We believe that seeds are more than just potential plants—they are living threads connecting generations of growers, ecosystems, and food sovereignty.

Every seed we mail, every story we tell, and every dollar we raise through The Secret Life of Seeds directly supports this mission. Your participation helps us:

1. Improve Seed Storage: We currently steward seeds in 26 waterproof ammunition cases plus 4 large totes, and with more on the way, we need a dedicated freezer and more proper storage boxes to preserve their vitality.

2. Support Growth: To expand the Guild’s work and reduce bottlenecks, we aim to bring on a helper in 2025 to assist with cataloging, packaging, and mailing seeds efficiently.

3. Inspire More Growers and Stewards: Seeds are meant to be grown, saved, and shared. By sharing their stories and placing seeds in your hands, we are building a community of seedkeepers for future generations.

How You Can Support the Seed Movement

i. Subscribe to the Paid Option: For just $8/month, you’ll:

Fund the work of The Secret Life of Seeds and the Cascadia Seed Guild.

Receive inspiring seed stories and quarterly seed mailings.

Be part of a growing movement to preserve seed diversity and resilience.

ii. Share the News: Invite fellow gardeners, seed savers, and dreamers to join us.

iii. Engage and Grow: Whether you’re reading the free articles, subscribing, or planting seeds, you are part of this story.

Seeds hold the future. The Cascadia Seed Guild and The Secret Life of Seeds invite you to plant it.

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Monsanto launched the first genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds in 1996. These were Roundup Ready soybeans, which were engineered to tolerate glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide; Roundup. This development marked a significant turning point in agriculture, leading to widespread adoption of GMO crops in the subsequent years.

Here, Bill Mollison speaks to the actions which relate to our next sections.

Monsanto was the first company to commercially launch GMO seeds with its Roundup Ready soybeans in 1996. However, other companies were involved in GMO research and development prior to that. Notable competitors like Calgene and Syngenta (under its predecessors) were active in genetic engineering around the same period.

Calgene, for instance, introduced the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994, which was the first genetically engineered food crop to be commercialized. The Flavr Savr tomato was engineered for delayed ripening but had limited commercial success. However, this was a food crop rather than a seed designed for large-scale agricultural systems like Monsanto's.

Bill Mollison Speaks Out On Seed Hijacking

Bill Mollison was the co-creator of #Permaculture along with David Holmgren, in Tasmania. Bill Mollison's assertion that chemical companies like Monsanto (now part of Bayer) engaged in acquiring major seed suppliers to monopolize seed supply chains. Over the decades, Monsanto and other agrochemical giants strategically bought seed companies, consolidating control over global seed markets. This practice raised concerns among farmers, environmentalists, and permaculture advocates about the erosion of seed diversity, farmer autonomy, and the centralization of agricultural power.

Key Evidence of Monsanto's Strategy:

1. Acquisition of Seed Companies:

   • Monsanto began purchasing seed companies in the 1980s and aggressively expanded its portfolio in the 1990s and 2000s.

   • By the 2010s, Monsanto had acquired over 40 seed companies, becoming the world’s largest seed supplier. This included companies producing conventional and genetically modified (GMO) seeds for staple crops like corn, soybeans, cotton, and vegetables.

   • Notable acquisitions included:

     • DeKalb Genetics Corporation (corn and soybean seeds) in 1998.

     • Seminis (vegetable and fruit seeds) in 2005, which controlled an estimated 40% of the U.S. vegetable seed market.

     • Delta and Pine Land Company (cotton seeds) in 2007.

2. Integration with Agrochemicals:

   • Monsanto's strategy involved pairing GMO seeds with its proprietary herbicides (like Roundup). Farmers who purchased Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds were often required to buy the associated chemicals, creating a vertically integrated system.

   • This further consolidated control by tying seed usage to chemical inputs, reducing farmers’ choices. There is a video featuring Monsanto here.

   

   • Smaller, independent seed companies struggled to compete against Monsanto’s acquisitions and market domination, reducing the diversity of seed suppliers.

   • As a result, farmers increasingly depended on a few large companies for seeds.

3. Consolidation Across the Industry:

   • Other chemical companies, like Dow Chemical, DuPont (now Corteva), and Syngenta, followed similar acquisition strategies, consolidating the global seed market.

   • Today, four companies (Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, Syngenta/ChemChina, and BASF) control more than 60% of the global seed market. This is an incredibly tenuous situation for us all to be in, so what are we able to do about it? More on this soon.

Criticisms and Implications:

• Loss of Seed Diversity: Consolidation has led to a significant reduction in the genetic diversity of crops, making global agriculture more vulnerable to pests, diseases, and climate change.

• Patent Enforcement: Monsanto’s aggressive use of seed patents often forced farmers to buy new seeds annually, rather than saving and replanting seeds as they traditionally had.

• Monopoly Concerns: The control of seeds—the foundation of food production—by a handful of corporations has sparked debates about food sovereignty and corporate power over agriculture.

Bill Mollison’s concerns align with the permaculture principle of seed sovereignty, which emphasizes maintaining access to open-pollinated, non-patented seeds as a cornerstone of sustainable, resilient agriculture. The rise of seed libraries, heirloom seed networks, and farmer-led seed breeding initiatives has been a direct response to counteract these trends.

So What Can We Do?

Revoking patents on GMO seeds is a complex and challenging process due to legal, economic, and political factors. It would require significant shifts in policy and practice, as well as a rethinking of intellectual property (IP) laws. Below is an outline of the key challenges and possible pathways:

1. Challenges in Revoking Seed Patents

Legal Protections for Intellectual Property:

• Patent Laws:

  • GMO seeds are patented under existing IP laws, which grant the patent holder exclusive rights to the invention for a specific period (usually 20 years).

  • Revoking these patents would require changes to national and international laws governing patents, such as the U.S. Patent Act and the global Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

• Precedents:

  • Revoking patents could set a legal precedent that might deter future innovation in agriculture and biotechnology, leading to resistance from industry stakeholders.

Corporate Resistance:

• Economic Power of Corporations:

  • Companies like Bayer/Monsanto, Corteva, and Syngenta have substantial financial and political influence. They would likely lobby against efforts to revoke patents.

• Contracts and Licensing Agreements:

  • Farmers who use GMO seeds sign contracts prohibiting seed saving and mandating the purchase of new seeds each season. Revoking patents would disrupt these legal arrangements.

Global Trade Implications:

• Patents are often tied to international trade agreements. Revoking seed patents could strain relations with trading partners and disrupt agricultural supply chains.

2. Pathways to Revoking or Reducing Seed Patent Dominance

Policy and Legislative Changes:

• Government Intervention:

  • National governments could pass laws limiting or banning patents on living organisms, including seeds. For example, countries could follow India’s lead, where plant varieties cannot be patented, though they can be protected under the Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act.

• Compulsory Licensing:

  • Governments could issue compulsory licenses, forcing companies to allow others to produce and use patented seeds at lower costs while keeping the patent in place.

Legal Challenges:

• Patent Invalidity:

  • Activists or organizations could challenge the validity of seed patents in court, arguing they fail to meet the legal requirements for patents (e.g., novelty, non-obviousness).

• Morality Clauses:

  • Some jurisdictions allow for patent revocation on ethical grounds. Activists could argue that patenting seeds violates public interest, food sovereignty, or biodiversity principles.

Public Movements:

• Pressure on Corporations:

  • Public campaigns could push corporations to release patents voluntarily, as was seen with COVID-19 vaccine IP debates.

• Seed Sovereignty Movements:

  • Advocacy for open-source seeds and community seed banks could reduce reliance on patented seeds over time.

Alternative Innovations:

• Open-Source Seed Initiatives:

  • Initiatives like the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) provide an alternative framework for sharing seeds without patents.

• Heirloom and Landrace Revival:

  • Supporting traditional seed varieties and breeding programs can diminish reliance on GMO seeds.

3. Feasibility of Revoking Patents

While revoking patents outright is legally and politically difficult, the following approaches could chip away at their dominance:

• Encouraging public and nonprofit organizations to develop and distribute open-access seeds.

• Advocating for policy reforms that prioritize farmers' rights and biodiversity over corporate IP protections.

• Creating incentives for companies to release patents once they expire (e.g., tax benefits or subsidies).

Conclusion

Revoking seed patents would require significant political will, legal changes, and public advocacy. While difficult, it’s not impossible—especially when aligned with broader movements for food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. A combination of legislative reform, public pressure, and alternative seed systems is likely the most effective way forward.

Lets Create Decentralized-Distributed Seed Propagation

Let’s create decentralized-distributed seed propagation centres, far and wide. Here we created a fully developed plan for the Cascadia Bioregion of the USA. This is to bring resilience to the Pacific Northwest of the USA, which is under threat via the Cascadia Subduction Earthquake. “The purpose of these Emergency Seed Banks is to improve our resilience in the face of any challenges which we may encounter. As a note-point, there are 185 Bioregions on Earth in total, as defined here.”

We can accelerate our success rate by moving to growing landrace gardens all around our Country, well in fact, our World. Here, Joseph Lofthouse describes landrace seed evolution so succinctly: "A locally-adapted, genetically-diverse, promiscuously-pollinating food crop. Landraces are intimately connected to the land, ecosystem, farmer and community. Landraces offer food security through their ability to adapt to changing conditions." This is something the seed monopolies simply cannot do.

Once again, thank you for reading this, please stay tuned for our next article in our evolving series on the critical importance of seeds for all forms of land-based life forms. And best of all, save seeds.

Why Haven’t We Effectively Stopped The Use Of Neonicotinoids; Overall?

The difficulty in achieving meaningful action to stop the use of neonicotinoids stems from a combination of economic, political, scientific, and regulatory factors. Here are the key reasons:

1. Economic Interests and Industry Influence

• Agricultural Industry Dependence:

  • Neonicotinoids are among the most widely used insecticides globally, primarily because of their effectiveness and ease of application (e.g., seed coatings).

  • Many large-scale farming operations view them as essential to maintaining crop yields and profitability, particularly in monoculture systems. As we have mentioned many times, having the average travel distance of fresh foods from farm to table at 1,500 miles; we should be bringing food growing back closer to where we eat it, details on this here.

• Pesticide Manufacturer Lobbying:

  • Companies producing neonicotinoids (e.g., Bayer, Syngenta) wield significant influence in political and regulatory processes.

  • They actively fund studies, marketing campaigns, and lobbying efforts to downplay risks and emphasize benefits, complicating regulatory action.

• Grocery Store Demand Perfect Fresh Foods:

  • In many countries, a significant percentage of food is wasted at various stages of production, and a large part of this waste occurs because of strict aesthetic standards for produce. “Around 6 billion pounds of produce are wasted annually in the U.S. due to cosmetic filtering alone.” We created a complete article on this here.

2. Scientific Uncertainty and Complexity

• Conflicting Research Findings:

  • While substantial evidence links neonicotinoids to pollinator decline, some industry-funded studies question these findings, creating doubt among policymakers.

  • The complexity of ecosystems means proving direct cause-and-effect relationships is challenging, which can delay regulatory decisions.

• Sub-lethal Effects on Pollinators:

  • Neonicotinoids' impacts on bees often manifest as sub-lethal effects (e.g., impaired navigation, reduced reproduction) rather than immediate mortality, making it harder to quantify the scale of harm.

  • From our perspective any and all detrimental impacts on pollinators are palpable. Whilst we state that pretty much all land-based life-forms depends on seeds and spores; the majority of seeds and spores depend on pollinators.

3. Regulatory Challenges

• Slow Policy Processes:

  • Regulatory bodies often require years to evaluate scientific evidence, solicit public input, and finalize decisions.

  • In countries like the U.S., federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) face bureaucratic hurdles and industry opposition that slow progress.

  • There is also evidence of lobbying and financial impacts which can be swaying or delaying beneficial policies for pollinators.

• Patchwork Regulations:

  • Inconsistent rules across regions (e.g., the U.S. vs. European Union) create challenges in enforcing bans or restrictions, as countries with weaker regulations can undermine global efforts.

4. Lack of Effective Alternatives

• Farmer Concerns:

  • Many farmers argue that viable alternatives to neonicotinoids for pest control are either less effective or more expensive.

  • Transitioning to integrated pest management (IPM) or other sustainable practices requires education, time, and financial support, which may not be readily available.

  • We need to evolve meaningful policies to help farmers to get off the use of neonicotinoids and related ecological catastrophes. Farmers are vital to our current food-supplies and need to be supported far more than far-flung wars are.

5. Political and Social Factors

• Weak Political Will:

  • Addressing the use of neonicotinoids often conflicts with powerful economic interests, leading to political resistance to strict bans. (We mentioned this earlier in this post).

  • Short-term economic considerations tend to take precedence over long-term ecological concerns, (which then leads to long-term species extinction).

• Public Awareness:

  • While public awareness of pollinator decline has grown, the connection between neonicotinoids and pollinator health is not universally understood, limiting grassroots pressure on policymakers.

  • This has a far deeper relevance, our food systems in the USA are terribly convoluted and at the same time, our healthcare spend per capita is at astonishing levels. It is good to recall that famous phrase “we are what we eat”. The United States consistently spends more on healthcare per capita than any other developed nation. In 2022, U.S. healthcare expenditure was approximately $12,742 per person, significantly higher than other high-income countries.

    PGPF

    For comparison, in 2022:

    • Norway: $8,693 per capita

    • Switzerland: $8,049 per capita

    • Netherlands: $7,358 per capita

    • Austria: $7,275 per capita

Despite this substantial investment, the U.S. often experiences poorer health outcomes compared to its peers. Factors contributing to higher costs include elevated prices for medical services and pharmaceuticals, higher administrative expenses, and greater utilization of advanced medical technologies.

Johns Hopkins Public Health

There are many questions to ponder here and remember; “we are what we eat”!

6. Legal and Trade Concerns

• Potential Legal Battles:

  • Banning neonicotinoids can lead to lawsuits from manufacturers and trade groups, which further delay regulatory action.

The risk of lawsuits from manufacturers and trade groups over bans on neonicotinoids remains a possibility, even after the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Here’s why this remains a concern:

i. Trade Agreements and Investor-State Dispute Mechanisms (ISDS):

• The TPPA included provisions allowing corporations to sue governments under Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses if they believed regulations harmed their investments.

• Although the TPPA failed, similar ISDS provisions exist in other trade agreements and treaties, such as:

  • NAFTA (now USMCA): Includes certain ISDS mechanisms.

  • EU Trade Agreements: While some are phasing out ISDS, elements still allow arbitration.

• These mechanisms can be invoked by multinational pesticide manufacturers if they argue that bans on neonicotinoids constitute "indirect expropriation" of profits.

ii. Current Legal Risks:

• Manufacturer Lawsuits: Companies like Bayer and Syngenta, which produce neonicotinoids, have historically challenged bans in jurisdictions where they operate.

  • Example: Bayer and Syngenta sued the European Union after its 2018 ban on outdoor use of neonicotinoids, claiming it was not scientifically justified.

• Domestic Lawsuits: In the U.S., state-level bans or restrictions can be challenged under domestic law, particularly if industry groups claim such regulations violate federal preemption principles or lack adequate scientific basis.

iii. The Changing Landscape:

While the TPPA would have expanded ISDS provisions, its failure does not eliminate the broader risks:

• Global Trade Agreements: Other trade agreements still allow for ISDS challenges.

• Regulatory Frameworks: Governments must navigate domestic and international pressures to enact bans that withstand legal scrutiny.

iv. Mitigating Risks:

• Strong Scientific Evidence: Governments must build robust, peer-reviewed evidence linking neonicotinoids to ecological harm to defend bans in court.

• Alternatives Promotion: Providing viable alternatives to farmers and industry can reduce opposition.

• Public and International Support: Strong public advocacy and international collaboration (e.g., aligning with EU standards) can mitigate pushback.

• Global Trade Implications:

  • Countries reliant on export-oriented agriculture may resist bans out of fear of losing competitive advantages in global markets. This is a classic example of Misaligned Incentives or Multipolar Traps, aka Molok. The graphic above represents the obstacles that not only individuals but nation-states can face via ISDS or Investor-State Dispute Settlements. More on these in the next section.

1. Origins of ISDS:

• Post-WWII Era:

  • ISDS mechanisms emerged after World War II to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) in a global economy recovering from the war.

  • Early treaties focused on protecting investors from arbitrary actions by host governments, such as expropriation without compensation.

• Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs):

  • The first BIT was signed in 1959 between Germany and Pakistan, laying the foundation for ISDS provisions.

  • BITs were designed to provide legal protection for foreign investors in countries with weak legal systems.

2. Expansion in the 1980s and 1990s:

• Globalization:

  • The rise of globalization in the 1980s and 1990s saw a surge in investment treaties, incorporating ISDS provisions.

  • By the late 1990s, there were thousands of BITs, covering a wide range of industries and sectors.

• NAFTA (1994):

  • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) included Chapter 11, which allowed investors to sue governments directly for perceived violations of the agreement.

  • High-profile cases under NAFTA highlighted both the advantages and controversies of ISDS.

3. Controversies and Criticism:

• Allegations of Corporate Overreach:

  • ISDS mechanisms allowed corporations to sue governments for implementing policies that allegedly harmed their investments, such as environmental regulations or public health measures.

  • Critics argued that ISDS gave disproportionate power to corporations, undermining national sovereignty.

• Examples of Disputes:

  • Philip Morris vs. Uruguay: Philip Morris used ISDS to challenge Uruguay’s anti-smoking regulations.

  • Vattenfall vs. Germany: Vattenfall sued Germany for transitioning away from nuclear power, claiming damages for the lost investment.

• Lack of Transparency:

  • ISDS cases were often conducted behind closed doors, with little public scrutiny.

Conclusion:

We cannot carry on prioritizing profit motives above all else. It is starkly obvious that neonicotinoids are harmful and dangerous or they would not exist, these exist to kill life-forms that we, as humans, deem to be “pests”. Life-forms which might cause blemishes on the perfect fresh foods so many demand and expect, we created an article on this here.

We started this article addressing neonicotinoids as part of a seed coating but this of course is not the only way they exist. Here is the stark fact, if we lose the pollinators we and many other life-forms are over. From a moral perspective this is not about obscure legal arguments like ISDS, TPPA, North American Free Trade Agreement(s), it is about the ongoing existence (or not) of many life-forms, including humanity. We need to stop the use of neonicotinoids with immediate effect.

As always, thank you for your reading of our articles here and please feel free to comment.