Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been stewarding seeds. Traditionally bred seeds are the result of careful selections over time, the inheritors of traits selected by both environmental pressures and human desires. Seeds hold information for how to birth life anew, passed down along with the knowledge of how to care for them. They are tended into crops used for familiar meals and healing medicines.

Yet we live in an era of consolidated control of seed, where more and more of the agrobiodiversity underpinning our food systems are controlled by fewer and fewer entities. As the seed industry has transformed from thousands of independent seed companies in the early 20th century to being dominated by a handful of multinational agrochemical corporations in the present day, seed prices have increased and available varieties have plummeted (Howard, 2020). Modern agricultural landscapes are marked by homogeneity instead of diversity; and consumers in distant locales can expect to eat food from the same varieties of produce.

Masha Vernik

This homogenization is a problem in the context of a changing climate. Resilience frameworks teach us that diversity is important for resilience – or the ability of a system to learn from, adapt to, or withstand change while still maintaining its same structure and function (Berkes et al., 2002). Crop diversity can help this because if one crop, variety, or planting fails, another might survive. Diversity at the crop and variety level can also support the healthy soils we need to retain moisture during drought or prevent erosion during floods. Organic[1] farming systems often exhibit high levels of crop diversity (Grandi, 2008), with seed from alternative sources that help maintain biodiversity in the food system.

But how do organic farmers think about and access seed diversity in the context of a changing climate? This was the focus of my research question, informed by conversations with the Organic Seed Alliance, a national non-profit that uses research, education, and advocacy to promote an abundant and diverse supply of organic seed.

We often think about farmers as producers. But to seed breeders, growers, and distributors, they are consumers – end users of the seeds that were carefully bred and grown over many seasons. Understanding how organic farmers think about climate change can inform the work of those who breed, grow, and distribute seed for organic farmers to be more attentive to the changes they’re experiencing in their day-to-day.

With the help of funding from PCC Graduate Education/Climate Solutions Fund, I was able to interview 29 organic farmers in western WA. I asked questions about how they choose the seed they use, how they experience and adapt to climate change, and if they consider climate resilience when they select seeds.

The interviews were rich and interesting! The findings could speak to many different practices and debates, depending on the intended audience. I pulled out information that would be particularly useful for organic production farmers, for the organic seed community, and for researchers studying resilience. And thanks to PCC, I had the opportunity to share these actionable findings with practitioners.

In November 2024, I attended the Tilth Conference for organic farmers in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. There, I presented some of my findings that would be most actionable to farmers: how their peers decide which crops to grow, how they find their market niche, and how they adapt to climate change. Because I interviewed producers with a wide range of experiences, my hope is that some of the learnings I synthesized from more experienced farmers would be helpful to those who are just getting started.

Masha Vernik

In February of 2025, I attended the Organic Seed Growers Conference, attended by organic seed breeders, growers, researchers, community members, company representatives, and more. There, I distributed more than 100 copies of a handout describing the traits that farmers voiced they are looking for in different crops, which can inform efforts to breed and grow seeds that farmers are saying they need. I included a section of the ‘new crops’ organic farmers in the Pacific Northwest are starting to grow like melons, sorghum, and okra, given the longer seasons and warmer temperatures caused by climate change.

I also have findings about seed systems, resilience and adaptation that I plan to share with an academic audience in a journal publication. I find that crop diversity on organic farms in western WA certainly contributes to climate resilience – as climate change makes weather patterns unpredictable, crop diversity helps farmers hedge their bets so that if one variety, crop, or planting fails, another might survive. But crop diversity is not necessarily motivated by resilience. Instead, crop diversity is shaped by a host of factors including market strategy, farmer preferences, and the limitations posed by a farmer’s land, climate, and available equipment. Crop choices are developed through a process of trial and error where farmers learn what works best for their land, climate, and customers over time. In this framework, climate is a context in which farmers make decisions around what they can grow and when – and a changing climate means that the window of what is possible to grow also changes. Organic farmers were already growing diverse crops and experimenting with different seeds as part of their existing crop strategy – a strategy which helps position them well to handle the increasing weather extremes and unpredictability brought about by climate change.

The idea of continuing in the face of uncertainty is not new. Humans and plants know it all too well – our ability to adapt to changing social and ecological landscapes is why we’re all still here. My research suggests that one important part of adaptation is accepting change, which means learning to adapt to it, not only trying to manage it. As one of the farmers I interviewed shared:

“So the only thing you can count on is change. And Mother Nature will always throw a wrench in whatever best laid plans you have.”

References

Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2002). Navigating Social-Ecological Systems: Building Resilience for Complexity and Change. Cambridge University Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/washington/detail.action?docID=218001

Grandi, C. (2008). Organic agriculture enhances agrobiodiversity. Biodiversity, 9(1–2), 33–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2008.9712878

Howard, P. H. (2020). How Corporations Control Our Seeds. In Bite Back: People Taking On Corporate Food and Winning Account. University of California Press.

[1] I define organic as farmers who identify as using organic practices, whether or not they are certified. Certification doesn’t always make sense for those who farm organically, like farmers who sell direct to customers or who have limited resources. Organic may include farmers who farm regeneratively or are practicing agroecology. Organic was selected over other descriptors because it is widely used by farmers and consumers alike in North America.

By Masha Vernik, PCC Climate Solutions Awardee, M.S. Student, University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences