From Switzerland we traveled back north up to Germany for a visit with Ulla Grall of Bio-Saatgut. The name of her company says it all: “Organic Seeds”. Ulla offers through her catalog seeds that she produces herself and those grown by several small contract growers, as well as seeds from Sativa Rheinau and a French seed company called Ferme de Sainte Marthe. Ulla told us she wants to grow more of her own seed herself, but also takes pride in the fact that she offers seeds from two other countries. Because of the EU seed laws it is difficult for many people to order seeds from other countries, or they simply don’t think of it as an option. Through her seed company, Ulla offers many varieties that would otherwise be unavailable to German gardeners.
R to L: On the streets of Armsheim, Ulla grall in her garden, more of her gardens.
Ulla became involved in seeds initially as a translator and marketer for Ferme de Sainte Marthe in Germany more than a decade ago when the company was trying to expand into the German market. After Ferme abandoned this project, Ulla took on selling some of their varieties personally. What began as a small mail order resale company has since blossomed into one of the only independent organically certified seed companies in Germany.
Latvia for new year’s eve was a bit more drunken than our other new year’s spent traveling, when we were in Malaysia (2003-04). A few thousand people gathered under the Freedom Monument in the central part of Riga, danced in the street to pop music courtesy of a live DJ, and oohed and aahed at fireworks exploding directly overhead, closer than I have ever seen them. We were in Latvia for about five days, but most of this time was New Year’s holiday celebrations, and so our opportunities for meeting with seed related contacts were minimal.
Photos Left to right: Powerful statues outside the Latvian Occupation Museum, Beautiful Old town Riga, The liberty Statue (where people where once thrown in jail for putting flowers at its base).
Our first impressions of Latvia seemed to indicate that this country was much more economically developed/ “successful” than Lithuania, judging only by superficial views of the size and glitz of Riga compared to Vilnius, the amount of English speakers, and the general cosmopolitan feel of the city. Because of these opinions, we were expecting the Organic scene here to be more mature than in Lithuania, but we learned that in many ways Latvia is on par with Lithuania, and in some ways has further to go in developing organic agriculture, seeds, and markets.
We had the luck of arranging a last-minute visit with Dr. Livija Zarina of the Priekuli Plant Breeding Institute, about a two hour bus ride north east of Riga. The work at the Institute, whose logo is a potato flower, is focused almost entirely on field crops. The state institute of Priekuli owns 286 hectares and grows on an additional 100 hectares rented from neighbors. The six departments at Priekuli include potato, barley, tritcale and rye breeding programs, agrotechologies, seed production of field crops, and a tissue culture lab. They have also managed a small organic experimental field for many years now, which Dr. Zarina counts as one very important aspect of Priekuli, “We are really rich. Not many places have this, but in ours, it exists.”
Photos right to left: Dr. Zarina our host at the Plant Breeding Station, A beautiful Potato flower for a logo, Display of their pea breeding accomplishments, Short term seed storage, Latvia’s main organic certification office.
Dr. Zarina is the Head of the Agrotechnology Department, and her work is focused mostly on canola. She is also involved in an intensive study that, for at least the past ten years, has been trying to establish a system of crop rotation that is beneficial for fertility needs of organic production of Latvia’s main field crops of rape, rye, barley, peas, and a few others. The experiments are evaluating six fertilizing schemes and soil management practices with 11 different crop rotations.
L to R: 1. A view of some of the Organic Certification paperwork, including the three colors of certificates: Red and yellow for the first two years of transition to OG, and green for fully Organic. 2. Kayla looking at some documents with the head of the Lithuania Organic Certification agency. 3. The shelves and folders of the Certified Farmers (unfortunately only a few seed growers).
After learning about the paperwork we when to a small special organic farmers market.
L to R: 1. The Kaunas Organic Farmer’s Market. 2. Some local produce (apples, beats, parsnips sunchoke!, Rutabagas!, cabbage, squash, parsley, onions, potatoes, and some little yellow Lithuanian quinces). 3. Herbal teas that can be mixed special for your own needs. 4. Grains and the first OG kids cereal in LT. 5. Collecting some LT grain and caraway accessions.
The organic scene in Lithuania is still in its relative infancy compared with that of Germany or the US. Though government affiliated Organic Certification began in Lithuania in 1993 (with nine farms certified), entry into the EU in 2004 brought on a new and different set of organic regulatory laws. The Lithuanian Chamber of Agriculture has played a key role in helping farmers keep pace with these laws, but in a country whose organic industry is so young, many of the regulations are somewhat difficult to follow.
If an organic farmer wants to grow organic seed for sale, s/he must obtain a seed certification in addition to the standard organic certification. As of 2006, only about 20 farmers in the country have this certification and all but one of them grow only grain.The single grower that produces vegetable seed is contracted to Institute of Horticulture for growouts of some of their crops (carrots and onions especially), which are then sold commercially (mostly to gardeners) by the Institute. Grain accounts for 69% of the organic ag. production here (most of the rest in fodder or sugar beets), with only 0.1% in vegetables, so the country’s need for certified organic vegetable seeds for farm use is pretty small.
One of the goals of the Chamber of Agriculture is to increase the amount of organic vegetable production in Lithuania, but the market for organics is small here and there are no marketing boards to help the farmers sell their produce. Also, most farms are pretty small by production standards and the farmers can’t produce enough to satisfy a grocer’s demands, let alone meet export quantities to reach developed markets. Organic vegetable growers would then have to rely on the local markets, where consumers will pay a price premium on some products but not others (see: http://www.vic.lt/ris/index.php?id=12933&action=more. for recent prices of organic crops in Lithuania).
