1. Why We Grow Organic Seed
Richard Moyer
Moyer Family Farm
Castlewood, VA
ramoyer@gmail.com
2. Why So Far, Dad?
• 12-year old Analise loves to read seed
catalogs, as soon as they arrive
• Dreams and plans what she’ll grow come
spring
• Can’t wait for Dad to come home each day, to
show him the new catalogs
• One day, she asks:
• “Why are the seed companies so far from us?”
• “Can anyone around here grow seed?”
3. Why we grow
• Another grower referred us to Ira Wallace.
• We met in the elevator; SSAWG at Louisville.
• She’s still the new grower contact for
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• They’re a southern seed company, and we
made sure Analise has their catalog.
• In the SESE catalog, and on their website,
Analise can see families she knows, and read
about the seed they grow.
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5. Artisanal Farms
• “The small family farm is one of the last places—where men
and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be
an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands.
• It is one of the last places where the maker —and some farmers
still do talk about “making the crops” — is responsible, from
start to finish, for the thing made. This certainly is a spiritual
value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic
one.
• In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love
to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer,
and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They
gain the means of life, the goodness of food, and the longevity
and dependability of the sources of food, both natural and
cultural. The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in
turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need…”
• Wendell Berry, Home Economics, 1987
11. Why We Grow Seed
• So all can contribute to the household
economy
• Meaningful work for our children
• Delayed gratification---no pay until seed
passes germ
• Contracts with built-in incentives
• Consequences of failure (disappointment, less
money)
• Satisfaction of doing a job well
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17. Why We Grow Seed
• More $ per row foot than many market crops
• $4-10/row foot; some of the better paying ones
• $2-20 per hour, including wet-fermented seeds
• Increasing portion of our farm income, over 1/3
• “Because Dad thinks it’s a good idea”
• Guaranteed contracts
• Winter income
• Diversify Risk
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26. Why We Grow Seed
• As Pam said, it’s a value added process.
• Instead of selling the whole vegetable at
market, we sell the seed and eat the rest.
• Of course, only works for certain crops.
• But seed production doubles our income for
certain crops
• Sorghum and tomatoes are two examples.
