New Zealand's Seed Scene

18 May 2004
An invitation to speak at the Eco-Show near Auckland, New Zealand provided the opportunity to meet with members of the sixteen Seed Savers organisations in that country.

The seed saving scene is different to Australia as they started with regional groups and now hope to strengthen their national group. The issues that they face, however, are the same as ours.

Kaye Baxter is a veteran campaigner on seed issues and proprietor of Koanga Gardens, a non-hybrid seed company north of Auckland. Kaye organised a seed hikoi, a Maori word for long walk, over two months on seed issues, including GM. There was a big public response and it resulted in an audience with the Minister for the Environment who was moved by their presentation to promise government support for protecting crop diversity.

During the five day Eco-Show there were over fifty workshops, two large marquees full of exhibitions, several large ones for plenary sessions with panel discussions on subjects such as alternative financial systems, corporate globalisation, non-toxic food production, genetic engineering, sustainable designs for the future and quality seed production.

Our seven presentations were on genetic engineering of vegetables; seed saving techniques; local seed networks in our two countries and around the world and a practical entitled "Eat Roots, Shoots, Flowers and Seeds" on the culinary benefits of a seed saver’s garden.

We had the opportunity to spend time with people who have changed how we think about sustainability such as:

• Edward Goldsmith founder in 1969 of The Ecologist magazine (with the very good offshoot, Pacific Ecologist, available in Australian newsagents) and author of a several noted books,

• David Holmgren who spoke with erudition on many topics,

• Dr Rose Pere, a grand tribal Maori leader,

• Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris, an evolutionary biologist,

• Eva Stenius from an interest free bank in Sweden.

The traditional Maori leaders touched our hearts and minds deeply, sharing their wisdom, their ways of relating to others and their customary lifestyle that some of them follow on their traditional land. The Polynesian welcoming ceremony set a tone of warmth and hospitality that lifted the participants’ spirits for the duration of the Show. Their singing and uncompromising passion for the earth and the need to protect it were impressive. Different islander groups cooked delicious fish, pork, lamb, roots and greens in the hungi pit each day.

Afterwards we responded to invitations from participants to visit the organic seed production scene and meet with some of the most innovative farmers in New Zealand. We visited Koanga Gardens to see many New Zealand heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables and the model twenty-year-old Permaculture Rainbow Valley Farm of Jo Polaischer and Trish Allen.

It was heart warming to see the mixed orchards of Tim Vallings because Tim as a young man looked after our mixed farm 22 years ago when he took time off from his parents' conventional orchards in New Zealand. He has become a natural farmer, growing avocadoes of the finest quality we have ever seen with no fertilisers, manures or pesticides. No machinery is allowed in the orchard so as not to injure the vulnerable tree roots, except a light lawn mower to gain access up one side of the double rows of trees. Grass, herbs and even blackberries are allowed to grow on 90% of the area; fruits are picked by hand and carried out. Logs are used for mulch and slashing is done by hand. They have had no Phytopthera (root rot) in sixteen years, not needing to inject the trees which is allowed even by organic standards.

Large scale native plant seed collection and propagation also keep the Vallings busy and they work on revegetation projects.

We visited Colin Walker, an organic seed production expert, on the Coromandel Peninsula. Colin is working in conjunction with Koanga Gardens to preserve traditional varieties. The government came forward with NZD500 000 for three years’ research into broadscale organic seed production and breeding for taste and disease resistance. He is halfway through that period and collecting information and trialling different methods as fast as he can go.

The end of summer is always a busy time and for Colin now is no exception. He is running between four gardens collecting ripe seeds before summer storms blow them away or cause them to rot.

He has devised many ingenious methods for seed production such as netting for bird control which is routinely done with poison baits on conventional seed farms; drying the harvested seed pods and heads in plastic tunnels on large squares of shade cloth suspended from the ceiling; pegging wide flower netting horizontally at half the eventual height of seed heads as they grow so they do not fall over, particularly useful for lettuce heads.