Seeds are a wonder, aren’t they?   Hold a seed and you literally hold life in your hand – the sheer miracle of putting a seed into healthy soil, nurturing it and seeing food grow from that tiny seed in return, never fails to amaze us at LCMG.  This is why we are part of the  Down to Earth Stroud Community Seed Bank project, which aims to save and preserve these precious food species, but we need your help.  Farmers and gardeners have saved and shared their own seeds for thousands of years, but with the rise of global agribusiness, enclosed, soil-less plant factories using artificial light, hybrids and GM seed (some of which are already in the food chain, without your knowledge or agreement), many delicious heirloom and local varieties are being lost and natural, genetic diversity eroded.   Also, much of the stock in British seed catalogues has been bred for industrial scale production and distribution, favouring qualities such as uniform ripening, superficial appearance and ability to withstand mechanical harvesting.  

There’s also the issue of food resilience; the catastrophe that unfolded in 2020 showed everyone the vulnerability of the ‘just in time’ system – food delivered on and to meet demand.   A workable system if there are no conflicts, but if your supply chains are suddenly cut off, under threat… what happens then?   What is food resilience? There are various definitions – e.g.,  by UK Government sources as “…A resilient food system would be robust, able to recover quickly after any disruption and reorient towards more sustainable outcomes” or the dictionary definition quoted by Professor Tim Lang (University of London) as the: … “ability to bounce back from or adapt to shocks” also makes sense and surely, what any nation would want firmly in place.

By saving and growing our own seeds, we can contribute to food resilience, help to turn the tide of food control and make our own communities more food resilient at a local level, by planting natural food crops for the future, that are suited to local soil and conditions.  Not only that, seed growing can be great fun and deeply satisfying, anyone can do it and we love the stories and connections that come with locally saved seeds – handed down through generations of families, passed from friend to friend.  

So if you’d like to get involved or have a collection of seeds that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you (info@lcmgstroud.co.uk).  We can advise on saving quality seeds, the best way to store them and the suitability of your soil and growing conditions.   Looking to the future, you may have seen recent reports about the protests in London and elsewhere, by farmers, about the Government’s plans for the agricultural sector.   While the proposed changes focus on how family farms are handed on to the next generation, the protests have opened up a much wider discussion about farming in general and how our food is produced.   Saving seeds and preserving the land to grow our own food, rather than selling it off to the highest global bidder, is just the start.