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Like most farmers we struggle to earn a living every year, but for us it is even a bit tougher. You see, unlike some other small heirloom seed companies we haven’t inherited any family land. In fact we have to lease all of our organically certified land which drives the cost of seeds and making a living up even more.

This also plays into the fact that we want to build community. That means we just don’t want to live any old place, but one where there is a thriving community or a large enough place that we can co-create one. We have other seed farmers that are in the same position that we are in. We try to support them by purchasing their seed every year as well. We need farmers not only for seed, but to feed us nutritional, non-chemically poisoned, non GMO foods that nourish us.

Without small farmers in the new world paradigm, healthy, thriving communities don’t have much of a chance. The world is changing and giant petroleum driven corporate farms will no longer be able to feed the masses. The cost is too high not only in petroleum, but the cost to the planet.  What will be left for the children of the world to inherit?

What does this all have to do with you?

Well, of course your seed purchases go to fund this. However, many people (as we have seen here) in Sonoma County, CA have land that never gets used. Beautiful farm land sits fallow because the owners might live out of state or have no desire to live in the county or they inherited the family farm but have no desire for such a profession. There are many reasons, but the land is there.

Given a chance, we can do great things for not only our community, but for you as a gardener. We strive to grow seeds that are not chemically treated, non GMO and on organic ground. We are literally seeding the world with nutritionally healthy food and most of all hope for tomorrow.

A seed is hope, a seed is the ability to grow your own food and support yourself. Something humanity has done for hundreds of years till now. Don’t let big corporate companies take this right away from you. Despite the arrogance of governments to “patented life”, no one…no company will every “own” the earth or its life. This is something the Native Americans knew well. Everyone dies, and you truly can’t take it with you, but what will we leave for the children? We are merely stewards of this land and I would say we haven’t been doing a very good job so far.

We can change that! You can help us make that change. How? It starts with land. Land for farming, land that has abundant water and land for living healthy lives. So how do we acquire land and where do we look?

Sustainable Seed Company is open to moving our operations further north (in CA) to the counties of Mendocino, Humboldt or Trinity.   As a company we have the ability support a very small community of people in a rural setting. However, the opportunity for other similar business in this community is tremendous: beekeeping for example.

As most of you know we need more honeybees as the world is losing them quickly. The cost of honey has skyrocketed as well as the cost of crop/seed pollination. Bees pollinate directly over 1/3 of our food supply and 1/2 indirectly! We need bees in seed production. There are beeswax candles, cosmetics from beeswax, furniture polish, medicine and the list goes on! All these products can be sold in the community and on-line; employing a number of people. 

Someone has to build all these wooden bee boxes and that opens up another cottage industry for a carpenter. As you can see a healthy, thriving community could be established or we could certainly add to an existing one. However, we need the land to start with.

So how do we do this? I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I can put a few ideas out there and see what you have to say. I know many of you out there do have the other parts to this puzzle I’ve been working on for years now. So tell me how do we bring this together?

• Are you one of the people that I mentioned that has land sitting empty? What kind of deal can we work out? Lease option buy? Owner finance? Perhaps you want to hang on to the land, but see the farm return. What kind of agreement can we come to? There are some many options…
  

• Do you have monetary resources? Are you yourself looking to move to a rural setting, but don’t have the needed skills or resources on your own? Does it feel overwhelming to jump out there with just your family? Many hands not only make light work, but pooling resources can create dreams.

• Do you have skills like an attorney to help bring the paperwork together? Perhaps your expertise is marketing, construction, animal husbandry, or whatever! A community is built by many minds, professions and dreams.

Like I said I don't have all the answers, but I know there is a group of folks out there that does.  As a community we can solve just about any problem together.  If any of this resounds with you at all shoot me an email.  Tell me what you think and what you might bring to community.  We are going to create a forum here soon so we can openly exchange ideas and see what can grow.  So check back for that, but until then give these ideas some thought and email me what you think.  

Farmer John