Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

Food security requires consistent access to safe, affordable, culturally appropriate, and healthy foods that meet caloric and nutritional needs to support an active life. As one of the most important inputs for crop-based production systems, seeds are essential to food security. In addition to fulfilling sustenance needs, seeds and plants are also interconnected with cultural knowledge, practices, and traditions. However, in the United States, the dominant commercial seed industry has excluded cultural and regional aspects of agricultural production in favor of (bio)technological approaches such as genetically modified seeds and hybrid varieties (often referred to as “improved seed”) with traits that may protect against pests and disease and produce higher yields but are also genetically uniform and often bred to be used with agrichemicals that cause harm to the environment and contribute minimally to diverse landscapes and diets. To enhance food security holistically, improved seeds cannot be the only ones available to growers. As we stress in this report, there is a need to enhance the availability of heirloom, organic, open-pollinated, and culturally meaningful seeds: seeds with deep histories and stories, reflecting deliberate selection and adaptation that has occurred over long periods of time and that hold significant cultural meaning. Yet, while culturally meaningful seeds have long been (and are currently) produced by farmers and seed growers at small scales around the world, these growers are often disconnected from one another and lack profitable market opportunities that would enable them to spread their seeds to more growers.

This technical report emerges from data collected during a three-year collaboration between the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and the University of Vermont (UVM) on a research project funded by Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education entitled “Culturally Meaningful, Regionally Adapted Seed: Making the Ujamaa Cooperative Farmers Alliance Market Ready.” The research used surveys and focus groups with seed-to-food value chain stakeholders, including farmers, gardeners, seed companies, restaurants, food distributors and processors, and grocers. The purpose was to ascertain interest in growing and selling culturally meaningful seeds and food. The data provide important insight for the development of marketing opportunities for culturally and regionally relevant seeds and serve as a knowledge base for organizations interested in expanding pertinent seed research and programs alternative to the conventional seed industry that highlight the cultural, economic, and social aspects of seed and food systems.

This report draws on data collected from 1,789 survey respondents comprised of seed-to-food value chain stakeholders across the United States as well as focus group participants (n = 31) from the Northeast U.S. Survey respondents were emailed an online survey to answer questions related to the opportunities and bottlenecks for culturally meaningful seed and food supply, demand, and marketing. Data collection occurred between October 2023-January 2024. We also conducted a series of focus groups with six seed-to-food value chain stakeholder groups and used those data to complement survey findings for this report.

Key findings include the following:

  • Cultural meaning as a seed/food trait was found to be important among respondents, though not as important as other qualities.
  • Supply uncertainties exist for culturally meaningful seed/food.
  • Culturally appropriate marketing was found to be difficult for seed companies but less so for downstream seed-to-food value chain stakeholders like grocers.
  • Consumers lack familiarity with culturally meaningful seed/food.
  • Culturally meaningful seed and food are viewed as more than market goods, as they also provide community, cultural, and culinary ties.
  • Seed-to-food value chain stakeholders desire to strengthen their connections with others along the chain.
  • To amplify culturally meaningful seed/food in the market, increased policy support and multi-stakeholder partnerships are necessary

Our aim through this report is to inform decision-making regarding the cultivation of genetically diverse, culturally meaningful seeds and the development of improved marketing opportunities for growers, seed sellers, and end users of culturally meaningful seeds and food.

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