Organic Seed Alliance Publishes 2012 California Organic Variety Trial Report

Publication includes methods and results from nearly 100 organic variety trials

Port Townsend, WA – Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) announces the release of its 2012 California Organic Variety Trial Report to the public. The report is the result of variety trials conducted in 2012 by Organic Seed Alliance in Arcata and San Juan Bautista, California. Researchers evaluated close to 100 varieties, including varieties of broccoli, kale, Swiss chard, green beans, and Japanese cucumber.

Even though California produces the most vegetable seed in the U.S., many of the state's organic producers find they don't always have seed that's optimal for their organic systems. OSA is working hard to address this need by establishing research and education networks in the state. These networks, including those that participated in the 2012 California Organic Variety Trial Report, aim to improve organic seed availability and quality through new models for collaboration and information sharing.

California stakeholder input is valuable to building organic seed systems that meet the diverse and regional needs of California's organic community. OSA recognizes this and will host a forum focused on organic seed and the needs of California producers at this year’s EcoFarm (http://www.eco-farm.org/) conference. The meeting is open to the public and will be held on January 24th from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Sanderling meeting room.

OSA’s 2012 California Organic Variety Trial Report includes detailed descriptions of trial locations, trial methods, trial result evaluations, and recommendations. Authors include Jared Zystro and John Navazio of Organic Seed Alliance, Christine and Dale Coke of Coke Farm, Eddie Tanner of DeepSeeded Community Farm, and Steve and Moria Peters.

This publication was made possible through a grant from Columbia Foundation and Gaia Fund. The toolkit, along with all other OSA publications, is available for free download on the OSA website (www.seedalliance.org).

Organic Seed Alliance advances the ethical development and stewardship of the genetic resources of agricultural seed