August 20, 2025 • 19 mins
This week on American Family Farmer, host Doug Stephan (EastleighFarm.com) welcomes Jared Zystro, Research & Education Director of the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA). For more than two decades, OSA has worked to put the power of seed back into the hands of growers through research, education, advocacy, and community-building.
Jared shares how OSA is confronting the challenges of seed industry consolidation, advancing organic plant breeding, and ensuring farmers have access to diverse, high-quality organic seed. He also discusses OSA’s vision for a resilient and equitable future of food—where seed is stewarded by interconnected communities across the country.
From the history of seed preservation to the fight for farmers’ rights to save seed, this conversation sheds light on why seed sovereignty is essential for the health of our farms, food systems, and future generations.
Learn more about Organic Seed Alliance at SeedAlliance.org.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
Jared shares how OSA is confronting the challenges of seed industry consolidation, advancing organic plant breeding, and ensuring farmers have access to diverse, high-quality organic seed. He also discusses OSA’s vision for a resilient and equitable future of food—where seed is stewarded by interconnected communities across the country.
From the history of seed preservation to the fight for farmers’ rights to save seed, this conversation sheds light on why seed sovereignty is essential for the health of our farms, food systems, and future generations.
Learn more about Organic Seed Alliance at SeedAlliance.org.
Website: AmericanFamilyFarmerShow.com
Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
the safe, proven way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. The American Family Farmer with
a focus on organic seeds. There's such thing as the
Organic Seed Alliance and its research director is Jared Zeistro,
who joins us this week for our conversation about organic seed,
(00:24):
organic seeding and the organic industry. What's going on as
we diversify the focus on organics. I buy on my
farm all organic seeds. What's difference between these seeds other
than that which is obvious? Jared, you have joined us,
Thank you very much. What's your background? How did you
(00:45):
become interested in have expertise in this area? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thanks, really happy to be here. So I had come
to organic seed as working on farms. I had been
working first on organic vegetable farms and then on an
organic seed farm, and then studied in school organic plant breeding,
(01:09):
so looking at how to adapt and develop plants for
organic systems for organic farms, and then have continued on
in my current role and the various roles at the
Organic Seed Alliance.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So in terms of organic and organic seed versus the
regular stuff, there's so many different bastardizations into the organic
world as we've begun. I mean, it used to be
it wasn't organic, it was food. If you go back
one hundred years, we didn't have any processed foods. It
was all the stuff, all the seeds, all what we
(01:46):
grew was organic. The cows, the milk was organic, the
veggies were everything was organic. And then we got into
the Industrial Revolution changed the face of food. So now
we have pointed out the difference, and it's made a difference.
But are people really paying attention to this, Jared?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
In terms of organic seed, it's certainly I would say
a niche area for the larger public when it comes
to farmers. As you well know, seed is paid quite
a bit of attention to for by many farmers, So
I think it is something that's important within the farming community.
(02:30):
But most consumers, I don't think, necessarily think even folks
who are care about the organic or the organic label,
necessarily think about what it means to be organic in
terms of the seeds. And frankly, what we've learned, as
(02:51):
most people assume, if they're asked, if they think about it,
that their organic food is being grown with organic seeds,
which may or may not always be the case.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
How can it be that it's not the case?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, so, when organic evolved from, as you said, a
place where everyone was essentially growing things organically to becoming
a more regulated formal label back in the early two thousands,
there were a lot of conversations about what it meant
(03:26):
to be organic and what inputs you'd have to use
to be organic, and when seeds came up at the time,
it was a bit of a chicken and an egg
situation where if you have if you don't have organic
really just getting started as a label, well, you can't
(03:47):
really ask farmers to try and find seed that's labeled
organic before it exists, right, So there was an expectation
that it would take a little while for the seed
industry for organic farmers to catch up and start producing
organic seed that farmers could use, And so there was
(04:08):
an exception, an exemption, a loophole I suppose in the
regulation that says, if organic seed is not available of
the variety or quality or quantity that you need for
your farm, you can use conventional, non organic seed if
you can show that you tried.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Jared Zeistro is here the research and Education director for
the Organic Seed Alliance. An American family farmer, Elizabeth Miller
is here a very pleasant and informative conversation. We always
have because she is pleasant and informative one of the counselors.
Would you may be exposed to if you go to
top loss dot com the website for a calitron. So
(04:50):
what if we look online right now at top laws
dot com. What are we going to see it?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
If you go on our website top loss dot com,
you're going to see this new website. And with every
single order, the mo or you buy, the more you
say you're going to say that you get a free
gift with purchase. With every order, you can even get
free shipping on there. And then we do have the
buy three get three free. That's the one that everybody
loves to stock up and say big, and it is
unlimited to there's also buy four get four. You can
(05:14):
also do afterpay on our website if you want to
just lit up your payments, and we do custom payment
plans at no additional charge as well. So if you
want to do that by phone, you can call us.
So the website is top loss dot com or you
can call us eight three three top.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Loss use the dug code when you're doing the orders.
That helps out as well getting free shipping and the
best deal top loss dot Com for Caldron back on
the American Family Farmer with Jared Zeistro or the Organic
Seed Alliance. I'm very much a believer in this. But
(05:48):
the thing that sticks in my cross something you've said
a few minutes ago about regulation. I am really damn
tired of regulation and people coming up with rules and
regulations that serve them and don't serve the public, and
don't serve in this case, the farmers who want to grow.
There's there's there's an impracticable, impracticability, if that's a word,
(06:14):
it's unreasonable. So my question here for you is and
understanding the involvement or interference, if you will, of government.
Can't we do without government? Can we do without regulation?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think certainly there are many many farms out there
that that practice organic practices that grow food just as
you said that the same and similar using similar practices
as our grandparents and great grandparents, without any label or
regulation or involvement of the government. And I think for
(06:56):
for you know, local food production, and for people who
have direct connections with their farmers that can work in
a lot of ways. I think the the trick sometimes
comes in as we live in a more global world
and it becomes harder, I think, unfortunately, for people to
(07:17):
feel trust in understanding exactly you know, where their food
comes from and what is involved in growing their food.
And so when you have, you know, a grower in
California selling to folks in Kansas and the food for
(07:38):
people who are when you're buying food in the grocery store,
how do you know how the food has been grown?
And that's one of the places where a label like organic,
it does have certain standards attached to it, and so
it you know, isn't.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I think that was the case when we first started
getting into this, but as I mentioned a few minutes ago,
that's been bastardized, especially in the dairy industry where there's
no real rhyme or reason. Where people have organic milk,
do they really and have they separate I know people
(08:18):
dairy farmers who have separate herds, and I trust that,
but I don't trust going into the store and seeing
one label from one Dairy Farmers of America Milk Producer
next to another bottle that says organic from the same producer,
I think that's boloney, frankly, and so they have so
(08:41):
ruined it. But I'm going to reflect back on which
has had a few minutes ago. I'm an example of
what you just said. I don't have any real I've
not been declared organic, but I do everything on the
farm that is organic, and I satisfy myself that what
I'm doing, and I can say that to the customers.
(09:03):
The people who eat my ice cream are the people
who buy or use the composting that I make here,
or whatever else is going on, I tell them it's natural.
I mean, there's all kinds of different ways of creating organic,
and so what I wanted to have you here for
was to sort of not too much into the weeds,
(09:24):
but understanding that there is a real difference, and it
can be something that's formal or it can be something
that's informal, and that's sort of where I am at
the moment. If that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I think something like
organic seed, whether it's this label or informal, I think
still the seeds that people choose to grow for your
farm still can really make a big impact in terms
of how they were selected and what kind of seeds
(10:02):
they were. And there's definitely differences between seeds that have
been selected for more you know, convention, what we call
conventional or kind of more chemically intensive food production, and
things that are for people who follow more organic practices.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah. Well, I think one of the things that you
discussed so that you have made people aware of through
your website, which is seed Alliance dot org. Seed Alliance
dot org is the seed consolidation, like in every other business,
whether it's farming, I mean, the difference what the business is, consolidation, internationalism,
(10:43):
all of that stuff. I mean, the Chinese owned Sigenta,
I wouldn't buy a seat no matter what. I would
never buy any seed from them because I don't trust,
frankly things that come from China. That's me. But in
trusting looking at these concers alidators that had bought up
a small little eye used to I remember fifty years
(11:06):
ago when I was buying a seed lot of corn
seed and some other regular stuff for a forage. It
was pretty easy to find this local guy that I
could depend on. Now he's been bought up, and that
company's been brought up and the next company's been brought up,
(11:26):
so they're all the same now, and that's really I
think the focus here is that there used to be
a lot of regional seed companies that don't exist anymore,
and they don't have to conform. They can tell you anything.
How do you know whether it's true or not?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Right, Yeah, it's it's definitely a tragedy and one that,
as you said, that we see in a lot of
different industries, but it has a big negative impact on
farmers when the seed industry has become incredibly consolidated over
these last you know. You know, this has been a
(12:06):
trend that's been happening for a while, but yeah, it's
only accelerated. Yeah, and you think about I mean, if
you look at kind of the model of you know,
or the question like is the seed company acting in
your best interest or not? I think, you know, to
(12:29):
be fair to the seed companies, it does depend. Right,
they're in the business of selling seed and they want
people to buy that seed. But the flip side is
they're in the business of selling kind of the most
seed they can of every variety that they bring to market,
and so what that means is they're looking for varieties
(12:50):
they're looking to to to breed and to produce and
to sell varieties that they can potentially find a market
for all the way around the globe, you know, possibly
at like the same latitude all the way around the globe.
That's the most profitable model, rather than our varieties that
are being purchased in like the major production region.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, that's swell for them, but that's not necessarily good
for the consumer. And that's kind of what we're focusing
on here, having farmers grow things that's good for them,
that is good for their the customers they have. Hold
on a second, we'll continue our conversation. Jared Zeistro is here,
who's the research director of the Organic Seed Alliance. Their
(13:35):
website is seed Alliance dot org. And you can run
a lot about the seeds that you are planting that
you may not know by looking at that website, right,
And that's kind of the direction I'm going in when
it comes to aiming you toward toploss dot com, which
is the website for calitron, the way to lose weight
and keep it off the non toxic natural way you
(13:57):
talk about organics.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Folks, go to toplass dot com and check out the reviews,
check out the science. How this was put together by
a doctor and his staff almost thirty years ago. How
does a company that doesn't do what it says is
going to do stay in business for thirty years? Not possible.
These people have been around and they've been adding a
little bit here and there to their main product, which
(14:21):
is Caltron, But they have a detox complex product, they
have a garcinia product, and all of those things are
available right now to you using the DOUG code at
toploss dot com. You get the best deal. You go
to the checkout page and you use the DOUG code
and you'll get what you need in order to lose weight,
(14:44):
keep it off the natural way keeping it off. That's
the bottom line top loss dot Com for Caldron. All right,
let's spend some more time here with Jared Zeistro from
the Organic Seed Alliance talking about the whole business of
them doing what's good for them and then trying to
find or convince you as a consumer of seed that
(15:09):
theirs is better than the next guys. And the way
I've overcome that is just to go to an open
pollinated farm and in terms of my corn seed, my
solid seed to go to a guy who I've been
to his farm. He grows five hundred acres of corn
every year. He and his son do the old time method,
and so I know I've seen it. I know what
(15:31):
I'm getting. I know that I trust it. But as
I've said, and a lot of these guys, it comes
back around to outfits like Montsande and I know him
on a kind of a pedestal or a eye horse here.
But any company that would sell you seed and then
tell you can't do what you want, You've bought it,
but then you can't do what you want to do
(15:52):
with it, and they sue you if you do something
with it that they don't like. I mean, why would
you do business with them? And I don't know if
you can't even find a organic seed in any of
those companies anyway, can you.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well it's it's interesting because there there are starting to
be some organic varieties available through some of these largest companies,
and I'm happy to see that. But I at the
same time, everything that you said in terms of just
the alignment of these global companies with your individual needs
(16:29):
as a farmer, you know they're they're not aligned necessarily
with you unless you're unless you're growing twenty thousand acres
of lettuce and salinas or something like that, unless you're
one of the kind of you know, top customers. And
so the story, like you said, of finding local seed
can be you know, not everyone can find that. It
(16:49):
doesn't always exist or exist easily. But you know, especially
as these companies sort of drop varieties as they focus
on global markets finding varieties finding more local seed companies,
saving your own seed starts to make more and more
of sense because now you can find and or do
(17:12):
your own breeding, your own selection, to create your own
varieties that are really specifically adapted to your needs, to
your farm, to your market, to your environment.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Who's the best? Let's talk about, because we only have
a few moments left. Who's the best? Where is it
best for people to go? They go to your website
Organic seed Alliances website is seed alliance dot org. But
in terms of going I do business with a couple
of different people, and I have found that when I
(17:47):
went to the store versus directly to the farmer who's
making the seed, I get kind of bumped around because
they do business with one of the big companies that
incentivizes them to sell more of their stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I don't know if there's a perfect right answer for
where to look, and it makes it hard. I think
that I certainly come to our website. We don't sell seed,
but we do have a lot of great educational information
on how to save your own seed and things like that,
and I think I.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Think that's perfect, saving your own seed. And that's why
I so resent Monsanto for suing these farmers. They put
farmers out of business because the farmer's misinterpreted whatever the
rule was for not reusing the seed. That's outrageous. So anyway,
and I want people to walk away from this conversation
(18:40):
knowing that there is a place to go and you
can learn and it's not all. You don't have to
go to the government for don't always just as the
government the government the government. Go to the Seed Alliance
dot org and see what you can do on your
own and then you know what's that Take a couple
of corn seeds and call me in the morning. There
(19:01):
you go, all right, Jared, thanks very much, nice to
have you here. Jared Zeistro from the Organic Seat Alliance. Again,
their website for your information is cdelliance dorg. This program
was produced at Bobksound and Recording. Please visit bobksound dot com.
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
(19:22):
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
the safe, proven way to lose weight. Check it all
out at toploss dot com. The American Family Farmer with
a focus on organic seeds. There's such thing as the
Organic Seed Alliance and its research director is Jared Zeistro,
who joins us this week for our conversation about organic seed,
(00:24):
organic seeding and the organic industry. What's going on as
we diversify the focus on organics. I buy on my
farm all organic seeds. What's difference between these seeds other
than that which is obvious? Jared, you have joined us,
Thank you very much. What's your background? How did you
(00:45):
become interested in have expertise in this area? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thanks, really happy to be here. So I had come
to organic seed as working on farms. I had been
working first on organic vegetable farms and then on an
organic seed farm, and then studied in school organic plant breeding,
(01:09):
so looking at how to adapt and develop plants for
organic systems for organic farms, and then have continued on
in my current role and the various roles at the
Organic Seed Alliance.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So in terms of organic and organic seed versus the
regular stuff, there's so many different bastardizations into the organic
world as we've begun. I mean, it used to be
it wasn't organic, it was food. If you go back
one hundred years, we didn't have any processed foods. It
was all the stuff, all the seeds, all what we
(01:46):
grew was organic. The cows, the milk was organic, the
veggies were everything was organic. And then we got into
the Industrial Revolution changed the face of food. So now
we have pointed out the difference, and it's made a difference.
But are people really paying attention to this, Jared?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
In terms of organic seed, it's certainly I would say
a niche area for the larger public when it comes
to farmers. As you well know, seed is paid quite
a bit of attention to for by many farmers, So
I think it is something that's important within the farming community.
(02:30):
But most consumers, I don't think, necessarily think even folks
who are care about the organic or the organic label,
necessarily think about what it means to be organic in
terms of the seeds. And frankly, what we've learned, as
(02:51):
most people assume, if they're asked, if they think about it,
that their organic food is being grown with organic seeds,
which may or may not always be the case.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
How can it be that it's not the case?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, so, when organic evolved from, as you said, a
place where everyone was essentially growing things organically to becoming
a more regulated formal label back in the early two thousands,
there were a lot of conversations about what it meant
(03:26):
to be organic and what inputs you'd have to use
to be organic, and when seeds came up at the time,
it was a bit of a chicken and an egg
situation where if you have if you don't have organic
really just getting started as a label, well, you can't
(03:47):
really ask farmers to try and find seed that's labeled
organic before it exists, right, So there was an expectation
that it would take a little while for the seed
industry for organic farmers to catch up and start producing
organic seed that farmers could use, And so there was
(04:08):
an exception, an exemption, a loophole I suppose in the
regulation that says, if organic seed is not available of
the variety or quality or quantity that you need for
your farm, you can use conventional, non organic seed if
you can show that you tried.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Jared Zeistro is here the research and Education director for
the Organic Seed Alliance. An American family farmer, Elizabeth Miller
is here a very pleasant and informative conversation. We always
have because she is pleasant and informative one of the counselors.
Would you may be exposed to if you go to
top loss dot com the website for a calitron. So
(04:50):
what if we look online right now at top laws
dot com. What are we going to see it?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
If you go on our website top loss dot com,
you're going to see this new website. And with every
single order, the mo or you buy, the more you
say you're going to say that you get a free
gift with purchase. With every order, you can even get
free shipping on there. And then we do have the
buy three get three free. That's the one that everybody
loves to stock up and say big, and it is
unlimited to there's also buy four get four. You can
(05:14):
also do afterpay on our website if you want to
just lit up your payments, and we do custom payment
plans at no additional charge as well. So if you
want to do that by phone, you can call us.
So the website is top loss dot com or you
can call us eight three three top.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Loss use the dug code when you're doing the orders.
That helps out as well getting free shipping and the
best deal top loss dot Com for Caldron back on
the American Family Farmer with Jared Zeistro or the Organic
Seed Alliance. I'm very much a believer in this. But
(05:48):
the thing that sticks in my cross something you've said
a few minutes ago about regulation. I am really damn
tired of regulation and people coming up with rules and
regulations that serve them and don't serve the public, and
don't serve in this case, the farmers who want to grow.
There's there's there's an impracticable, impracticability, if that's a word,
(06:14):
it's unreasonable. So my question here for you is and
understanding the involvement or interference, if you will, of government.
Can't we do without government? Can we do without regulation?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I think certainly there are many many farms out there
that that practice organic practices that grow food just as
you said that the same and similar using similar practices
as our grandparents and great grandparents, without any label or
regulation or involvement of the government. And I think for
(06:56):
for you know, local food production, and for people who
have direct connections with their farmers that can work in
a lot of ways. I think the the trick sometimes
comes in as we live in a more global world
and it becomes harder, I think, unfortunately, for people to
(07:17):
feel trust in understanding exactly you know, where their food
comes from and what is involved in growing their food.
And so when you have, you know, a grower in
California selling to folks in Kansas and the food for
(07:38):
people who are when you're buying food in the grocery store,
how do you know how the food has been grown?
And that's one of the places where a label like organic,
it does have certain standards attached to it, and so
it you know, isn't.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I think that was the case when we first started
getting into this, but as I mentioned a few minutes ago,
that's been bastardized, especially in the dairy industry where there's
no real rhyme or reason. Where people have organic milk,
do they really and have they separate I know people
(08:18):
dairy farmers who have separate herds, and I trust that,
but I don't trust going into the store and seeing
one label from one Dairy Farmers of America Milk Producer
next to another bottle that says organic from the same producer,
I think that's boloney, frankly, and so they have so
(08:41):
ruined it. But I'm going to reflect back on which
has had a few minutes ago. I'm an example of
what you just said. I don't have any real I've
not been declared organic, but I do everything on the
farm that is organic, and I satisfy myself that what
I'm doing, and I can say that to the customers.
(09:03):
The people who eat my ice cream are the people
who buy or use the composting that I make here,
or whatever else is going on, I tell them it's natural.
I mean, there's all kinds of different ways of creating organic,
and so what I wanted to have you here for
was to sort of not too much into the weeds,
(09:24):
but understanding that there is a real difference, and it
can be something that's formal or it can be something
that's informal, and that's sort of where I am at
the moment. If that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I think something like
organic seed, whether it's this label or informal, I think
still the seeds that people choose to grow for your
farm still can really make a big impact in terms
of how they were selected and what kind of seeds
(10:02):
they were. And there's definitely differences between seeds that have
been selected for more you know, convention, what we call
conventional or kind of more chemically intensive food production, and
things that are for people who follow more organic practices.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah. Well, I think one of the things that you
discussed so that you have made people aware of through
your website, which is seed Alliance dot org. Seed Alliance
dot org is the seed consolidation, like in every other business,
whether it's farming, I mean, the difference what the business is, consolidation, internationalism,
(10:43):
all of that stuff. I mean, the Chinese owned Sigenta,
I wouldn't buy a seat no matter what. I would
never buy any seed from them because I don't trust,
frankly things that come from China. That's me. But in
trusting looking at these concers alidators that had bought up
a small little eye used to I remember fifty years
(11:06):
ago when I was buying a seed lot of corn
seed and some other regular stuff for a forage. It
was pretty easy to find this local guy that I
could depend on. Now he's been bought up, and that
company's been brought up and the next company's been brought up,
(11:26):
so they're all the same now, and that's really I
think the focus here is that there used to be
a lot of regional seed companies that don't exist anymore,
and they don't have to conform. They can tell you anything.
How do you know whether it's true or not?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Right, Yeah, it's it's definitely a tragedy and one that,
as you said, that we see in a lot of
different industries, but it has a big negative impact on
farmers when the seed industry has become incredibly consolidated over
these last you know. You know, this has been a
(12:06):
trend that's been happening for a while, but yeah, it's
only accelerated. Yeah, and you think about I mean, if
you look at kind of the model of you know,
or the question like is the seed company acting in
your best interest or not? I think, you know, to
(12:29):
be fair to the seed companies, it does depend. Right,
they're in the business of selling seed and they want
people to buy that seed. But the flip side is
they're in the business of selling kind of the most
seed they can of every variety that they bring to market,
and so what that means is they're looking for varieties
(12:50):
they're looking to to to breed and to produce and
to sell varieties that they can potentially find a market
for all the way around the globe, you know, possibly
at like the same latitude all the way around the globe.
That's the most profitable model, rather than our varieties that
are being purchased in like the major production region.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, that's swell for them, but that's not necessarily good
for the consumer. And that's kind of what we're focusing
on here, having farmers grow things that's good for them,
that is good for their the customers they have. Hold
on a second, we'll continue our conversation. Jared Zeistro is here,
who's the research director of the Organic Seed Alliance. Their
(13:35):
website is seed Alliance dot org. And you can run
a lot about the seeds that you are planting that
you may not know by looking at that website, right,
And that's kind of the direction I'm going in when
it comes to aiming you toward toploss dot com, which
is the website for calitron, the way to lose weight
and keep it off the non toxic natural way you
(13:57):
talk about organics.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
This is it.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Folks, go to toplass dot com and check out the reviews,
check out the science. How this was put together by
a doctor and his staff almost thirty years ago. How
does a company that doesn't do what it says is
going to do stay in business for thirty years? Not possible.
These people have been around and they've been adding a
little bit here and there to their main product, which
(14:21):
is Caltron, But they have a detox complex product, they
have a garcinia product, and all of those things are
available right now to you using the DOUG code at
toploss dot com. You get the best deal. You go
to the checkout page and you use the DOUG code
and you'll get what you need in order to lose weight,
(14:44):
keep it off the natural way keeping it off. That's
the bottom line top loss dot Com for Caldron. All right,
let's spend some more time here with Jared Zeistro from
the Organic Seed Alliance talking about the whole business of
them doing what's good for them and then trying to
find or convince you as a consumer of seed that
(15:09):
theirs is better than the next guys. And the way
I've overcome that is just to go to an open
pollinated farm and in terms of my corn seed, my
solid seed to go to a guy who I've been
to his farm. He grows five hundred acres of corn
every year. He and his son do the old time method,
and so I know I've seen it. I know what
(15:31):
I'm getting. I know that I trust it. But as
I've said, and a lot of these guys, it comes
back around to outfits like Montsande and I know him
on a kind of a pedestal or a eye horse here.
But any company that would sell you seed and then
tell you can't do what you want, You've bought it,
but then you can't do what you want to do
(15:52):
with it, and they sue you if you do something
with it that they don't like. I mean, why would
you do business with them? And I don't know if
you can't even find a organic seed in any of
those companies anyway, can you.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well it's it's interesting because there there are starting to
be some organic varieties available through some of these largest companies,
and I'm happy to see that. But I at the
same time, everything that you said in terms of just
the alignment of these global companies with your individual needs
(16:29):
as a farmer, you know they're they're not aligned necessarily
with you unless you're unless you're growing twenty thousand acres
of lettuce and salinas or something like that, unless you're
one of the kind of you know, top customers. And
so the story, like you said, of finding local seed
can be you know, not everyone can find that. It
(16:49):
doesn't always exist or exist easily. But you know, especially
as these companies sort of drop varieties as they focus
on global markets finding varieties finding more local seed companies,
saving your own seed starts to make more and more
of sense because now you can find and or do
(17:12):
your own breeding, your own selection, to create your own
varieties that are really specifically adapted to your needs, to
your farm, to your market, to your environment.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Who's the best? Let's talk about, because we only have
a few moments left. Who's the best? Where is it
best for people to go? They go to your website
Organic seed Alliances website is seed alliance dot org. But
in terms of going I do business with a couple
of different people, and I have found that when I
(17:47):
went to the store versus directly to the farmer who's
making the seed, I get kind of bumped around because
they do business with one of the big companies that
incentivizes them to sell more of their stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I don't know if there's a perfect right answer for
where to look, and it makes it hard. I think
that I certainly come to our website. We don't sell seed,
but we do have a lot of great educational information
on how to save your own seed and things like that,
and I think I.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Think that's perfect, saving your own seed. And that's why
I so resent Monsanto for suing these farmers. They put
farmers out of business because the farmer's misinterpreted whatever the
rule was for not reusing the seed. That's outrageous. So anyway,
and I want people to walk away from this conversation
(18:40):
knowing that there is a place to go and you
can learn and it's not all. You don't have to
go to the government for don't always just as the
government the government the government. Go to the Seed Alliance
dot org and see what you can do on your
own and then you know what's that Take a couple
of corn seeds and call me in the morning. There
(19:01):
you go, all right, Jared, thanks very much, nice to
have you here. Jared Zeistro from the Organic Seat Alliance. Again,
their website for your information is cdelliance dorg. This program
was produced at Bobksound and Recording. Please visit bobksound dot com.
The American Family Farmer podcast sponsored in part by Caldron,
(19:22):
which is the safe way for you to lose weight
and keep it off
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.