This document articulates our recommendations for fair, mutually equitable contracts and working relationships between seed producers and seed sellers, as part of quality seed systems.
Our goals for this work:
Familiarize beginner seed growers and those wanting to grow seed with the language, constructs, challenges, and ethos of growing seed for livelihood.
Offer existing seed growers language, pathways and approaches to overcome potential challenges in their seed work.
Offer a common baseline of language, constructs and challenges to enhance collaborations between seed grower and seed buyer.
Express that a seed contract is a very clear view into our seed system and its intended or unintended goals, consequences, equity, parity, and longevity.
Identify Risk Sharing, Information Sharing, Communication, Attribution and Transparency as foundational principles that define successful business transactions within a seed system we wish to participate in and perpetuate.
Uphold Stewardship and the support thereof as the “gold standard” of successful seed systems.
Begin a seed community conversation about the language, constructs and ethos that we all need to support a mindful, sustainable, and mutually supportive seed system, both locally and globally.
These guidelines were created by a group of five seed growers who have varying levels of experience growing seeds on contract and with other seed industry and seed movement work.
Seed Worker Organizing originally formed around a workshop presented at the 2022 Organic Seed Alliance conference that explored contract seed growers’ need for better contracts and pay. We have held monthly meetings since then, with a core of 6-8 seed growers who come to most meetings, and around 60 folks who are part of a discussion listserv.
We envisioned a relatively short and simple document at first, but realized there are many complex elements of contract seed growing needing exploration – for instance: compensation and attribution for skilled stockseed selection and maintenance, and many variations in compensation and risk-sharing models. The document not only explores a range of current practices, it recommends and advocates for practices that we hope have the potential to make seed growing more economically viable and to make seed systems more functional for all involved.
While we see this document as a work in progress, we offer all ideas and concepts within for public use and iteration. We only ask that you share back with us any outcomes and adaptations.
We want to share this work with many seed growers and seed sellers, in order to both put our ideas out there and to seek input for improving and clarifying the text.
We are especially interested in feedback from seed growers who grow on contract, and seed companies who buy from contract growers – but we expect that others who work with seeds (as growers and otherwise) will also have helpful insights.
Share your thoughts using the forms below. Answer from the role you most identify with, or fill out both if you’re willing. If you work with seeds but don’t fall into either category, we still want your input – please respond using whatever form works for you.
We plan to post summaries of all the input we receive – we will not however publicly share names or identities of those giving the input.
Thank you for contributing!