The 2012 conference was held in Port Townsend, Washington, near one of the world’s foremost seed production regions, Washington’s Skagit Valley. Coastal Washington, with its mild and unvaried climate, offers ideal conditions for production of cool-season crops like spinach, cabbage and broccoli. Farmland here holds value as farmland, unlike elsewhere in the U.S. where development value trumps agricultural value.

Above: Photos from the 6th Organic Seed Growers Conference

Here are some highlights from my trip.

Seed stock: Until very recently, farmers and gardeners grew, dried and stored much of their own seed for planting their fields and trading with neighbors.  The result was a global seed bank of great diversity, with each seed finely adapted to a particular place, particular conditions, and a farmer’s particular taste.  But things have changed.  Growers no longer rely on their own seed stocks.  Of all the fruits and vegetable varieties in existence in 1903, 96% are now extinct.  There are relatively few varieties sold commercially, and seed in our National Germplasm Repositories ages in drawers as Federal funds are directed elsewhere.  Contamination from genetically modified plant pollen threatens organic seed production worldwide, and sometimes compromises a farmer’s right to use seed.

Despite all this, there is hope.  The goal for the Organic Seed Growers Conference is to share the basic knowledge needed to produce high quality seed, and to inspire a nation of organic seed advocates.  New seed companies and cooperatives are popping up to serve specific regions, some with emphasis on old world varieties and some exclusive to homegrown seed stock.  Some communities are even creating Seed Libraries for community sharing and expansion of seed.

Pollinators: Though some plants have mechanisms to self-pollinate or depend on wind currents to distribute pollen among plants, more than 70% of plant species depend on some kind of animal-mediated pollination.  Worldwide, 35% of food crops are dependent on pollinators.  This means that without pollinators, these crops would fail to produce the fruits we eat and/or the seeds we eat and plant.  Unfortunately, there has been a frightening decline in both managed and wild populations of pollinating insects.  Since 1950, the number of managed honeybee colonies has dropped 50%, and feral colonies have declined between 70% and 100%.  Just as soil health and clean water are essential to crop production, pollinators too are essential tools in a farmer’s toolbox.

GMO Seed Study: Few people know that the World Bank conducted a four-year study on the impact of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) worldwide, and found some very interesting conclusions.  The World Bank found that:

1. GMO’s are not needed because they do not increase intrinsic yields and they don’t respond to climate change;
2. Industrial agriculture and trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT benefit northern partners only (farmers in developing countries see no significant benefit); and
3. Agroecology and local food economies are what’s needed.

The study is both uplifting and disheartening – uplifting because it tells what so many of us already knew or suspected – disheartening because the study was commissioned by Monsanto, and when Monsanto learned that the conclusions were not beneficial to its marketing plans, it pulled funding and the report remains unpublished.  The studies’ findings and its censorship from public knowledge add volume to the call for organic farmers and gardeners to stand up and take control of our seed future by growing organic seed—and for every person who eats to advocate for organic seed production.

-Tracy Noel
Rural Production Manager

Download Tracy’s full report including other recommended readings.

Hoophouses at the Wood Street Urban Farm allow Growing Home to grow throughout the winter.

The overwintering spinach transplanted into the hoophouses last October is biding it’s time under row covers until the sun returns enough in February to begin growing again. The mizuna/mustard greens are appreciating the unusually mild winter we’ve had so far.

Winter crops are covered to prevent freezing.

Cold weather promotes sweetness in overwintered spinach and other greens.

Winter is a time to prepare for the new season ahead. For the urban farm staff the biggest change approaching is our first season at our new urban farm site. This extension of our Wood St. Urban Farm, the Honore St. Farm, will provide space this season for an additional hoophouse and more outdoor field space. We’re excited to have the ability to grow more produce for our customers, but also for the additional work opportunities this site will provide for participants in Growing Home’s transitional jobs program.

Ground posts for the new hoophouse are already installed, and the structure will be completed by early spring.

The first plantings of the season this past week were a reminder of just how soon the farm will again be overflowing with produce and bustling with activity!

-Tim Murakami
Urban Farms Manager

Update (02/22/2012): We are no longer accepting applications for this position. No phone calls please.

The organizers of Chiditarod describe it as “a mobile food drive that combines elements of Alaska’s Iditarod with a costumed race and Chicago’s own unique brand of social activism.” On March 3, 5-person teams of racers will don hilarious costumes while pushing shopping carts filled with canned food through the streets of Chicago.

The Chiditarod draws together over 800 people as participants and spectators, and has raised over 46,000 pounds of food and over $21,000 in direct donations since its inception in 2006. The food items will be donated this year to The Greater Chicago Food Depository, a nonprofit food distribution and training center that supplies 69 million pounds of nonperishable food, fresh produce, dairy products and meat to 650 pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters for feeding more than 678,000 adults and children in Cook County each year.

Many teams will also conduct a fundraising drive as part of their race, and the recipient for 2012 will be Growing Home, collaborating on a community garden project with the 8th Ward. Thanks to our current matching drive, donations will go twice as far!

We are excited to be a part of The Chiditarod! Register before February 18 to participate in this fun, worthy event! Then sign up here to set up a fundraising page for your team, to benefit Growing Home.

(slides will advance automatically, or you can click on a photo to go to the next)

Thank you for your encouragement and support! We look forward to 2012!

Growing Home is the lucky nonprofit that receives 10¢ for every bag that is reused while shopping at Chicago area Whole Foods Markets until December 31st.

Our job training program for formerly incarcerated and homeless individuals stands to make up to $20,000 through this campaign. We will use this money to pay our program participants wages, create opportunities for healthy fun with our neighbors in Englewood, and purchase seeds and other farm supplies for the 2012 growing season.

Thank you Whole Foods! And thank you to everyone who recycles, reuses, and brings their own bag when they shop at Whole Foods!

Thank you CBS Chicago!

In June of 2011, photographer, Emily Schiffer, began a project on food security and urban agriculture on Chicago’s Southside. Her captivating photographs and project are on Time Magazine’s photo essay section this week.

An intern at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2011, by Emily Schiffer.

In the summer of 2010, David Hanson, Edwin Marty, and Michael Hanson traveled across the U.S. in a vegetable-grease powered bus documenting successful urban farms. Their book, Breaking Through Concrete, goes on sale this coming January.

An image of a hoophouse interior at Growing Home's Wood Street Urban Farm. Copyright, 2010, Breaking Through Concrete.

Additionally, Carrot City, a recently published book showing that design can enable the production of food in cities, includes a section on Growing Home. It grew out of the exhibit “Carrot City,” which emerged from work done at Ryerson University in Toronto in 2009.

The interior of a hoophouse. Copyright, 2009, Carrot City.

In 2011, Cordia Pugh approached Growing Home about creating a new community garden in Englewood. In a recent Youtube slideshow Glenda Daniel of Openlands speaks about Cordia’s courageous effort and the successful first year of this garden.

Englewood Community Gardens, 2011.

Growing Home, Inc. is a Chicago-based nonprofit with a mission to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle of job training, employment, and community development. The administrative office at Clark Street is responsible for the fundraising and management of the Employment Training, Urban Farming, Rural Farming, Outreach, and Special Projects departments.

Update (01/06/12): We are no longer accepting applications for this position. No phone calls please.

The whole Growing Home team has been working hard to make our CSA program better than ever this coming year. We hope you’ll like the changes as much as we do. If at any time you have questions about these changes or about anything else feel free to shoot us an email.

• We’ve added an “Individual Size” share. This size is well suited for households with around 1-3 people, or people who want to suppliment their CSA share by shopping at the farmers market. Our “Full Size” share is a 5/9ths bushel box packed full of organic produce, and tends to last a family of 4 who eat a medium or “normal” amount of veggies for a week. The new “Individual Size” share comes in a Growing Home tote bag and is about 2/3rds the size of our full share.
• Along with our usual Chicago area sites in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Evanston, Edgewater, and Logan Square, we’ve added a pickup location in Bucktown. (Along with these Chicago area sites you can pickup in Joliet or Marseilles.
• We’ve also extended the both spring and fall seasons by a week.

To find out more read our CSA Membership page.