Re; Sustainable Ag in India
sorry in advance for the long post/threadjack, but this has been worrying me like a bad tooth:
As y’all know, i’ve been concerned of late about the availability of seeds for this coming year, given what we saw this year…with panic buying and a very large and sudden increase in “victory gardens”.
The thing that really put a point on this, for me, was the related panic buying of things like baby chicks and goats…the latter, according to my contacts in goatworld, was suburban people buying up goats at the auctions to put in their back yards by the pool. This was an unexpected development, to me…and I saw it as in indicator, potentially, of things to come, as our new reality sunk in with folks, and all the uncertainty led them to consider things like food security.
From 30000 feet, I reckon this new awareness of the fragility of our supply lines is a good thing…i’ve worried about it for decades, but could get little traction in getting others concerned, because the “shelves were always full”.
But it’s also a bad thing, because our common practice of Just In Time Inventory Management means that there’s no wiggle room to accommodate disruptions and unforeseen craziness.
This is especially concerning when it come to seed production. Nature is our partner when it comes to the provision of seed…you can’t just “make some more”.
So I went a-wandering on the web this early AM. Much of what I found was anodyne “Everything’s Fine” from the retail seed vendors…like this, from my own main supplier:
https://territorialseed.com/pages/a-message-from-territorial-president-tom-johns-may-2020

This sort of sentiment was reflected on every such website I visited…and in digging through their online catalogs…still for 2020, of course…there are many out of stock notices, but still apparently plenty of seed from this year available.(I’ll be making as much of an order as I can afford, given that today is our payday…but I have the cool dark space to store seeds, while many, I’m sure, do not)

I also perused as much of the trade rags and industry groups as I could gain access to….much of this is, of course, behind paywalls,lol.
Some samples:
https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2020/04/20/need-for-vegetable-seed-strains-supplies/

https://seedworld.com/adjusting-to-a-new-normal/

https://seedworld.com/isf-reports-on-current-outbreaks-of-covid-19-and-the-international-movement-of-seeds/

and this dude mentions that the seed growers are ramping up in anticipation of higher demand next spring in the home grown market.
https://georgeweigel.net/georges-current-ramblings-and-readlings/the-great-2020-seed-surge

Of note…i saw mentioned in several places, including some of these industry level sites, reference to the importance of Seed Saving…I’m a nut for saving seed, and it’s important for maintaining local ag. It’s surprising to see it even mentioned at that level, since the industry trend in the last 30 years has been exactly the opposite, including the move towards terminator seeds that make sure you cannot save seed from this year, and must instead, go and buy more from monsatan, or whatever.

Wife and I are off to San Antonio manana for a scan…which takes less time than Chemo…and instead of hanging around the parking lot, I’ll visit the nearest garden supply place(preferably mom and pop) and talk to whatever fenceposts I can find, and try to get a read on the outlook, going forward.
Again, forgive for the long post and multiple links, please…but I think it’s important.