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Scotland Coordinator, Sinéad, delves into the cultural significance of seed. Going beyond filling fields and bellies, we are invited to reweave ourselves back into our regional food cultures and welcome the nourishment they provide in unpredictable times.
What’s in a seed? The genetic code for the next generation of plants which produced it, sure. The potential for a delicious meal, a healing salve, a beautiful bloom? Quite possibly. Generations of ancestral wisdom, cultural significance, stories, generosity, and hope? Yes, if you’re willing to look deep enough…
As with many things in life, a seed is what you make it. Unfortunately, too many people view seed as an object, a commodity. However, the idea of ownership of seeds is problematic; ‘owning’ seed in a commercial sense – with patents and property rights to protect others from using them in a way that doesn’t result in profit – is a very modern concept. Even if you develop a new variety, you’ve only changed a tiny fraction of the overall genetics. We owe the vast majority of the work behind the delicious, nutritious, varied crops we enjoy today to 7000 years of seed stewardship by communities who shared their seeds freely. It’s only since the ‘70s that the idea of ‘ownership’ of seeds has come into play with the privatisation and patenting of seed.
By choosing to see past the surface-level utility of a seed, seeing beyond it as a means to produce food (though this is of course important!), we can unlock the wealth of stories surrounding a particular variety. Willfully reconnecting with the seeds and varieties linked to our culture, our heritage, and our ancestors, as well as other cultures and heritages, means making a conscious decision to re-establish ourselves as an active member of the food system.
In recent years, there has been a deliberate attempt to disconnect people from the food that nourishes them; to commodify that which we rely on so heavily, and to mechanise, process and chemicalise our food to such an extreme that what we eat is now the cause of many of our illnesses. This systemic disempowerment that has swept our societies has taken power out of the hands of individuals and communities and put it into the hands of multi-national corporations driven solely by profit for shareholders. Most people no longer know where their food comes from, how it grows, what’s in it; people consume without questioning. Vast ecosystems are disrupted and wiped out to feed this insatiable global hunger for commoditised food; tonnes of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides are sprayed on crops, killing microbiomes in the soil and in guts. And we as individuals grow sicker, more vulnerable, more suffocated by the precarity of our situation – disconnected, dependent, disempowered.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. When we reconnect with the seeds of our past, we re-empower ourselves. By taking our seeds into our own hands, learning their names and their stories, who stewarded them and cared for them, and in turn how we can care for them, we can reconnect with the ecosystem of which we’re naturally a part.
There are wonderful examples of this across our seed networks here in the UK. Up in Scotland, Seeds of Scotland offers a Scottish Heritage landrace kale grown by the Shetland Kale Growers Seed Network. Grown since at least the 17th century, it is as hardy as the Shetlanders themselves, adapted to withstand the driving wind and formidable weather. The vital crop has inspired art from poetry to knitting patterns and offers a crop of cultural and culinary importance for the people of Shetland and beyond.
Another initiative in the north of England helps growers reconnect with the pea varieties linked with communities there. The Peas on Tees Project homes in on the Teesside area, delving into the heritage of three pea varieties known to have been cultivated in the region. The humble pea, once celebrated and honoured in local festivals, is now experiencing something of a renaissance. With dramatically changing growing conditions and the need for a locally produced, healthy and sustainable protein source, these peas with roots deep in the heritage of the areas they’re grown hold the key to future resilience as well.
Of course, the wealth of seeds and crops we enjoy today did not all come from the cultures traditionally based on these isles. We owe the beautiful, genetically diverse array of our food to communities and cultures around the world – those who came to call the UK home and those from whom seeds and plants were taken and adapted.
It needs to be recognised that in many cases, this exchange was not consensual or mutual. The bio-piracy of colonialism and modern patenting is antithetical to the generosity of indigenous and community seed stewardship. Across generations and journeys, the stories of many of the seeds we use today have been lost; they have been separated from their original names, cultural connections, and possible medicinal, spiritual or ritual significance.
However, this is not always the case, nor does it have to be. Many ethical seed companies credit the communities or cultures who stewarded the seeds they sell wherever possible (Real Seeds is a great example) and farther afield, wonderful organisations like the Indigenous Seed Savers Network and Native Seeds/SEARCH work to recognise, reimburse and rematriate seed to the indigenous communities who traditionally stewarded them. This recognition is not always possible because so many connections have been lost; but where it is, it holds a vital part of the story for the seeds we rely on for our food. And it also holds the key to seeing seeds as more than commodity, more than objects; the key to connecting with seeds as living beings with embedded wisdom who we can learn from, if we’re open to doing so.
So how can we reclaim this connection, we who have been mostly handed the role of customer and consumer, whether we like it or not? The first option is to choose wisely who you buy your seeds from. Not all seed companies are created equal, and there are small but mighty ethical, agroecological, independent seed companies who we are honoured to call part of our network. These companies are committed to fair conditions for workers and plants, biodiverse offerings, and delve into the stories behind their seeds when possible. Being a part of this movement of open-pollinated, open-minded growers and merchants is itself a culture.
You can do your own research. In the dark, cold months of winter, while poring over seed catalogues, delve a bit deeper into the seeds you have access to, their histories, their stories, and strengthen the connection to those who cared for the seeds before you. You might find that you become the next steward of this seed, and it becomes part of your own story!
Finally, you can create your own culture and connection around the seeds you work with. It’s no coincidence that so many of the rites and rituals of our past revolve around the turning of the seasons, the growing cycle, and seeds. We have always been vitally connected to and reliant on these tiny parcels of hope, so lean into it. Take part in community seed swaps or start your own. Share the overabundance of seeds the plants give us with family, friends and neighbours, and celebrate the harvest together with meals using old family recipes or those inspired by other cultures. When working with the seed – holding it in your hands before you place it in the soil, waiting for it to germinate, gathering, drying and storing it – it would do no harm to pause for a moment to give thanks for all the generosity imbued in it. For all the care and tenderness of past stewards. For all the nourishment of future harvests, stored in the bellies of loved ones.
We’re raising £20,000 to reclaim our future from profit-led giants. By placing seeds back in the hands of growers, we can revive the climate and community resilience of farmer-led food systems. Every donation is doubled, multiplying our work to strengthen regional and national seed networks, revive heritage and endangered crops, and retrain growers to save seed adapted to their bioregions.
