In a new report, the Organic Seed Alliance says an increase in private and public investment in organic breeding and non-GMO research is needed to increase the number of farmers who use organic seed. The investment should make boosting seed variety during breeding trials a priority, the report urged.
Most organic farmers use non-organic seeds because they can’t get the supply or variety of organic seed they need. It’s a longstanding problem that the alliance first looked at in 2011. Back then, a total of just $9 million was being invested by both public and private sources in organic breeding and plant research. By 2016, that had increased to more than $30 million.
“This progress is encouraging, especially since it includes more diversity in funders,” the alliance said. “However, organic seed investments still pale in comparison to funding directed toward other sectors.”
Vegetable farms with less than 10 acres planted more of their land to organic seed, the alliance said, because “larger operations had more problems with the quantity of seed available.” These small farms used 75 percent organic seed, compared to large farms with more than 480 acres which used 20 percent organic seed.
The seed shortage is also a problem for farmers when it comes to meeting the booming consumer demand for organic food. Sales of organic products totaled more than $43 billion in 2015, an 11-percent increase from 2014. Food purchases represent $39.7 billion of this total.
The 1,365 organic farmers included in the study, representing 47 states, prefered organic seeds to conventional ones and reported fewer problems with germination, variety integrity, and seed-borne disease than they did in the alliance’s 2011 report. But because conventional seeds are cheaper — sometimes less than half the cost of organic — and more widely available, they opt for conventional.
The USDA gives organic farmers leeway because of the lack of seed supply, but mandates that “organic seeds must be used unless they are not commercially available.” Farmers must show that they have tried to procure organic seed before turning to conventional, non-GMO alternatives, according to Civil Eats.