Saving see ds to replant during the next season is the fundamental principal of People’s Production™. This actually used to be common practice all around the world until the 20th century when seed producers started expanding and producing hybrids and GMOs to provide farmers with a genetically ”stable” seed year after year. Globalization forced seed companies to focus on producing plants for high yields, conservation and mass production . Along with this came other technologies such as chemical fertilizers, machinery, automated irrigation systems, herbicides, insecticides etc. All this advancement revolutionized the world of agriculture by boosting yields to all time highs but with all the recent environmental crises and droughts around the globe we are starting to see another side of this reality. Farmers are using more and more pesticides while insects, weeds, fungal and bacterial diseases are rapidly adapting and creating resistance to these products. The repeated use of heavy machinery is destroying the soil’s structure and microbiology which restrict water and nutrient cycles (which leads to many problems and ultimately: desertification).These techniques not sustainable and are clearly detrimental to the health of humans and our ecosystem. Technology has it’s limits : It’s time to go back and learn from nature.

Like any other living being, plants transfer what they learned during their lifetime to their offspring trough DNA. For example, if plant is over-protected and constantly sprayed with insecticides and fungicides it wont learn to fight-off diseases by itself. Neither will the next generation. Slowly the succeeding generations will become weaker and more and more addicted to the whole support system offered by agricultural technology (irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides etc.) This also negatively affects the nutritional value of the plant which responds to environmental stress by producing bioactive compounds (polyphenols, antioxidants etc.) that can confer stress resistance and health benefits to animals that consume them . (see Xenohormesis). Which explains why a wild or organically grown fruit is more nutritious (and tasty) then a conventionally grown one.

Farmers u se to save and replant seeds every season. The genetics of their crops would constantly adapt to a changing environment. Nowadays everyone orders the same seeds from a handful of major providers who benefit from selling a lazy and unadapted plant in order to sell the whole support system that comes with it.

Alot of the most common weeds are actually edible plants that our ancestors used to cultivate. Did you ever wonder why they grow anywhere, without support and are so hard to get rid of?

They wer e left untouched by humans for years and have adapted to their environment, and keep on adapting every year. So why don’t we use this same logic to strengthen the genetics of our modern crops? Pascal Poot, a french farmer is one of the first people to bring these type of ideas to the mainstream. For the last 20 years, he has been growing everything from corn, to tomatoes and cucumbers without giving them any care whatsoever. No irrigation, fertilizers, or pesticides, no care at all. His philosophy is simple: Trusting nature, instead of waging war against it. The results: through years of carefully selecting ,saving and replanting seeds he developed strains which are genetically strong and can survive almost any weather extremes (excess rain, drought etc) and don’t require the use of phytosanitary products. His seeds got some media attention in 2015, during the drought in the south of France. Many agricultors had to completely abandon entire fields due to the lack of rainfall while Mr. Poot’s plants were adapted to this rough environment and therefore produced as usual. The same people who used to be skeptic are now reaching out to Pascal for his seeds, even agronomists of INRA institute are starting to take interest in studying his techniques.

People’s Production™ is the way of the future, and the only way for young horticulture enthusiats to follow their dreams and start producing food for their communities in a way that is profitable to both them and their environment !

Here is a short documentary about this french farmer and his discovery (english subtitles coming soon)