NORTH BAY BOH EMI A N | MAR C H 1 6-22, 20 1 1 | BO H E M I AN.COM
12
Dining BARLEY MAN John Fendley of the Sustainable Seed Company, one of many heirloom purveyors in Petaluma .
Fruit o’ the Heirloom Petaluma sows the seeds of a revolution
I
t’s hard to talk about heirloom seeds without a little endof-the-world-aswe-know-it creeping in. With Monsanto pushing a genetically modified agenda; with the USDA approving genetically modified Roundup Ready
alfalfa, which could kill organic dairy practices; with organic giants like Whole Foods and Stonyfield Farm surrendering to Monsanto; and with crosscontamination from GMOs threatening the foundation of food as we know it, where’s a person to turn?
BY KYLIE MENDONCA Well, Petaluma, actually. With a proliferation of heirloom seed companies, Petaluma has become ground zero for a growing revolution in farming. Unlike many hybrid and genetically modified varieties, heirloom variety plants—generally more than 50 years old and openpollinated—contain viable seeds. Before WWII, most plants
would have been considered “heirloom,” and while many “new” heirloom varieties are becoming available to consumers, there are several varieties lost each year via cross-pollination or other means. Saving and protecting heirloom varieties, especially in light of Monsanto’s raid, is more important than ever. Petaluma is home to two separate seed houses that do just that, specializing in cataloguing, propagating and protecting heirloom variety seeds. In downtown Petaluma, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company occupies some of the best real estate in the city with its Petaluma Seed Bank. A former bank, the building is stately and imposing, an amusingly ironic place for a company with a mission-beforeprofit attitude. Paul Wallace, manager, says the location is perfect. “When you go to any city,” Wallace says, “it’s like the bank is the focal point. In San Francisco, you have the Bank of America building, and it’s the same here. In this town, the bank is the focal point, but for a different reason.” Baker Creek Seed Company was founded in Missouri and expanded into the Petaluma location in 2009. This fall, it holds the first-annual National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa. Christian Dake recently joined the company to plan events like the expo, and says the renewed interest in heirlooms is natural, given the state of agriculture in the United States. “People are realizing what we have right now, and what we have to lose,” Dake says. “It appears that corporations want to have control over what we grow. Once a corporation owns your right to plant a seed, you lose a lot of freedom.” Like many in the heirloom movement, Baker Creek and its founder Jere Gettle are concerned about just such a corporate takeover of food; genetically modified crops, particularly corn, have been known to crosspollinate with non-GMO varieties, often rendering them sterile and unsellable. Because of this, the