Amid Commercial Hybrids, Why Do Farmers Still “Have Seed”?

Seeds are the essential vessels through which plant species carry on. Human flourishing, too, is inseparable from them. All manner of food we eat — whether rice, flour, cooking oils or fresh fruit and vegetables — traces back to a single, tiny seed. And different seeds yield different flavours. In today’s maize, watermelons and tomatoes, we can no longer taste that “vanished flavour of childhood”, and that may well be the result of seeds being swapped out, generation after generation. The old varieties that once took root in particular places, shaped over long years by natural or human selection, simply tasted better.

So why have these old varieties been fading away? When it comes to the seeds on which our very survival depends, perhaps we know far less than we think.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, as populations swelled and the pressure on food supplies intensified, a global agricultural revolution unfolded, driven above all by the pursuit of “high yields”. New varieties — hybrid rice and hybrid maize foremost among them — were rolled out at speed, far outstripping traditional landraces in yield per unit area, uniformity and disease resistance. In China, the widespread adoption of hybrid rice brought nearly a “doubling” of output and was hailed as a critical technological breakthrough in solving the basic problem of feeding the nation. For farmers, choosing varieties that were high-yielding, stable and easy to manage meant a quicker return on the land; for the country, it was a vital underpinning of food security.

But the logic of high yields also quietly reshaped the fate of seeds. Hybrid seed, as a rule, must be purchased anew each year; saving one’s own is all but impossible. Adaptability was standardised, and local terroir gradually slipped into the background. In a system where yield was the paramount measure, those old varieties that grew a little slower, yielded a little less, yet carried unique flavours and were finely attuned to local conditions, began to be dismissed as “not worth it” or “not advanced enough”, and within just a few decades they had vanished from both the fields and the dining table. We eat more fully now, yet without quite realising it, we are eating more and more alike.

As a fundamental means of agricultural production for humankind, the seed touches on food security, legal frameworks, biodiversity, farmers’ livelihoods, food safety and much more. From a single grain of rice to the complexities of genetic engineering, a seed is far from the simple thing we imagine.

This episode brings together friends from near and far, recorded remotely. Through sound, we hope to follow the seed from Thailand to Qiandongnan, from Baoding in Hebei Province to the Philippines. Who decides what we grow decides what we eat. Let us feel the story of the seed — it is the history of agriculture, and it is also a choice for the future.

When it comes to seeds, we in fact have many questions:

• Why did old varieties disappear so swiftly within just a few decades?

• How have commercial hybrid seeds changed farmers’ choices about food, and how do they shape what we eat day to day?

• Why did Filipino farmers take the new variety “Golden Rice” to court?

• Why do some say: “Protecting old varieties means protecting the human race”?

• Within the food system as it stands today, is there still a possibility of old seeds making a comeback?

If any of this stirs your curiosity, we invite you to listen to this honest conversation about the land, food, diversity, and “who owns the means of production”. May every seed be seen, and may the freedom to choose what we grow and what we eat be preserved.

Guests / of / This / Episode

Chen Xi

From Qiandongnan, Guizhou · Zhaoxi She. He practises agroecology and rural development in Yangdong Village, saves seeds of more than 20 varieties of local rice and coarse grains, and runs the Yangdong Children’s Public Library.

 

 

 

 

Li Guanqi

Farmers’ Seed Network · Head of the Eastern Office, long involved in in-situ living conservation and advocacy for farm-saved seeds across the country.

Chen Ziyu

From Wocuiyuan Family Farm in Baoding, Hebei Province. Together with his family, he runs a 147-mu farm, has followed his father in saving 63 old varieties, and conserves 183 varieties for the Baoding Seed Station.