Compared to the most prolific seed companies in the world like Bayer and Syngenta, TrueLove Seeds are small players. However, that has never mattered to Owen Taylor and Christopher Bolden-Newsom. They aren’t a seed company that focuses on profit or monopolizing the seed market for personal gain; they are what every seed company should be: for the people. For underrepresented communities, minority groups, indigenous peoples, and those looking to find their culture.
TrueLove Seeds is a farm-based seed company offering culturally important and open pollinated vegetables, herbs, and flower seeds. Owen has many years of work in food justice and environmental movements, and Chris has an incredibly history of farming in his family, which he has taken with him through his life. With their combined knowledge and experiences, both Owen and Chris have successfully worked with farmers and communities across the country to grow seeds and return them to their homes.
TrueLove Seeds started with just five seed farmers and has since expanded to over seventy across the nation. They give 50% of the seed sales back to the farmers who grow it, which is a radical but important business model that prioritizes the grower. They also prioritize the cultural significance of the seeds they offer. In Christopher’s words, they’re growing for a purpose: what each farmer grows has ties to their own heritage.
During their talk, Owen and Christopher opened with defining terms that the general public may not be familiar with if they do not understand the importance of seeds and agriculture. We talked about food justice, food sovereignty, and most importantly, seed keeping. Seed keeping is not just the preservation of the seed, but the preservation of an entire culture: their traditions, dances, songs, and everything associated with the food and heritage of those people. Owen and Christopher are practiced seed keepers, and they work hard with farmers and underrepresented peoples to bring uplight and highlight their own cultures through food.
As the discussion went on, Owen and Christopher dove into TrueLove’s mission and history. TrueLove Seeds was founded recently because of the couple’s ties and histories and passions for the food justice movement. Chris works extensively with the farming aspects of their company (specifically through the Sankofa Community Farm, which is a crop farm created for and rooted in the experience of the African Diaspora), and Owen manages most of the networking and business aspects. Both are equally important, and essential for what they have accomplished thus far.
Throughout our talk, one topic that came up frequently was culture. Owen explained that everyone has a culture and history, regardless of race or creed. He brought up his personal experiences discovering his own Italian and Irish roots through seeds, and encouraged the audience to discover their own. Chris shared his own history and reminded the audience that everyone’s ancestors were farmers at some point in their history. They each emphasized the importance of recognizing how prolific agriculture is in our history of civilization, and how that is related to our heritage and cultures.
Despite their impressive seed catalog, TrueLove Seeds is still looking to fill gaps in their offerings, working towards being representative of as many people and heritages as possible through seed keeping. However, one of the biggest challenges they face is land. Without sufficient or reliable
land access, it is nearly impossible to expand growth. Currently, Owen and Christopher are renting the land that they grow seeds on. They talked about the positives and negatives of their situation and opened a larger conversation on farmer land access. When borrowing land, as many farmers do, there is the constant threat of that land being taken away from them at any given moment. This was an impactful topic to end on, as we were reminded of how uncertain food system work can be, despite how meaningful and significant it is.
More Resources
Read more about TrueLove’s work and mission (and buy seeds from them!) here:
Listen to Chris and Owen’s Podcast, which they describe as “a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them”:
Seeds And Their People Radio Show – Truelove Seeds
Learn more from Amirah Mitchell, who works at TrueLove Seeds, about the cultural importance of seed keeping. The article discusses her journey with seed keeping, and the connection there is between seed keeping and her culture.
The Preservation of Culture Begins With a Seed | Sierra Club
The following article stresses the importance of seeds not just for cultural preservation, but biological resiliency, too.
“Seeds Have Stories”: Connecting Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity | Folklife Magazine
If you’re interested in seed keeping yourself, the Seed Savers Exchange offers several guides and how-tos that can help.
How to Save Seeds – Seed Savers Exchange
The following diagram is a good representation of consolidation in the seed market; it’s striking how few seed companies are in control of and connected to everything in the seed industry:
A visualization of the seed industry. Taken from: Sustainability | Free Full-Text | Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008 | HTML (mdpi.com)