A Brief History of Hip-Gnosis Seed Development

[Alan]

A Brief History of Hip-Gnosis Seed Development and The Homegrown Goodness Message Board:

Written By: Alan Reed Bishop/The man behind the curtain



A Brief History Of Homegrown Goodness/Hip-Gnosis Seed Development
Written By: Alan Reed Bishop/Hip-Gnosis Seed Development/Bishop's Homegrown/Homegrown Goodness.


Mike and some others on the Homegrown Goodness Message Board had asked me to write an intro to a couple of projects we are working on, I decided to wax philosophical about this history and this is what I came up with:

A brief history of Hip-Gnosis Seed Development and the Homegrown Goodness Forum.


10,000 years ago a paradigm shift occurred. Humankind, in short order, went from a hunter-gathering society of nomadic peoples and evolved into a focused agrarian society centering much of their life on taming the wild plant and animal life and parlaying them into domesticated species for specific use as human food.

Even the earliest forms of agriculture were close approximations of “eco-logical” webs in that they mimicked to one degree or another what was naturally occurring in the pastures, forests, and desserts of the locale in which the gardens were planted.

For 10,000 years this system supported our entire food web.


Unfortunately during the 20’th century our evolving ancient technologies was commercially ripped from under our very feet and replaced by “modern” hybrids, unsustainable fossil fertilizers, and an inordinate amount of so called agricultural knowledge, but this is not the knowledge of our ancestors and certainly not the genetic memory of our 10,000 year agrarian history.

It is into this world that Hip-Gnosis Seed Development and the Homegrown Goodness Forum was delivered from the spiritual and physical womb of the earth herself. It was in this modern agricultural system that I first felt the alienation of what we were doing to the bio-diversity, the soil, the water, and the air of our planet and how this affected all of us and the extant “human condition”.

In the spirit of all the generations of our ancestors Hip-Gnosis was created to both foster the seeds which were saved for us by generations of our agricultural ancestors and to further their work with agricultural crops by creating new varieties and returning their genetics to the public domain in such a way that would allow others to affect the outcome of these genetics and leave their own fingerprint on our future food crops and their history. A public domain seed breeding and genetic material exchange. For the people and by the people, and with an emphasis on exploration. Seeds for inner and outer space explorers. Hip = New, Gnosis = Knowledge.

The Homegrown Goodness forum became an essential extension of such an endevor as a seed is only of value if it is shared, disseminated, and grown by others. As I gathered knowledge of self sustainable systems and plant breeding as well as agricultural history I knew that I had to have a way to let this excitement and enthusiasm for what would be possible in the future and for what has come by way of the past in order for this project to live outside of my own being, as such it was important to find like minded individuals who were interested in self sustainability, love, and knowledge and to share what I had with them and them likewise with myself. At first it was slow to grow, now it has a life of it’s own. It has become a self sustainable loose association of interrelated cells, each working towards a common goal.

This flower, this project, this fertility of Gnosis is blooming now.

[raymondo]

Thanks Alan. Makes me feel privileged to be part of it, albeit on the fringes.

[houseodessey]

Beautifully written. I like it when you wax philosophical.

[atimberline]

inspiring...

how about adding a wikipedia sort of breeding/seedsaving knowledge bank for all the beginners (which we all are in some area). ...something we could pull from and share into, to speed the progress of our efforts. ...what do you think? ...does it fit into this realm?

[Alan]

I did start one for Hip-Gnosis Seed Development a while back but I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet as I've not released that much material to the public yet. I will probably do some more work to it this fall, however this might be something to discuss as far as setting up a general one for Homegrown Goodness. I'll definitely look into it my friend!

Glad you guys enjoyed the article!

[PatrickW]

Alan,

Before you put a lot of time into something like that, you should at least give a little thought to if you would be better off using something non-proprietary to base it on. When you use something free on the Internet, like blogspot or proboards, you never have full control over how it works, you may not be able to fix something if it goes wrong and you usually don't have the ability to easily move if you aren't happy with how things work. It can also happen that these companies can end up owning part of the contents, or rights over the use of it.

There are some similarities with growing commercial F1s or OP varieties in your garden, the former tends to trap you into continuing to use their product(s) but the latter can have a larger learning curve...

Maybe you are familiar with Windows verses Linux. Most people who use Linux say it's better, but there is a little bit of a learning curve that goes along with it.

Choosing non-proprietary options can cost money, but it's not too much. The way to start is to look for and buy your own domain name, then choose a hosting provider to host it for you. If you want to get started on this, and if I can help or offer advice, send me a PM.

[flowerpower]

Very nice, Alan!

[bunkie]

beautiful alan!

[marina]

I am very happy to have found my peeps!

[canadamike]

no offense Jason

[americangardener]

Marina... Welcome to our little group. I'm glad you found your peeps!

Never mind the confusion.. it happens sometimes with so many people and several different languages. I knew what you meant.

Michel.. like Jason said originally.. peeps = people. It is a slang word used to say that she was feeling at home with the group here. Her kind of people. Least i hope she still feels the same now.

Dave

[kimikat]

*sigh* You guys should read some of his poetry!

It is amazing...we find ourselves as a species wondering around haphazardly on this rock searching for the meaning of life...and all this time, its been right under our noses. A tiny seed...a pile of dirt...a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, tears, and love...and it emerges, from that pile of dirt...the meaning of life, the Light that exists in all things and radiates from the very core of the Mother, a connection with something that unites our past, present, and future...Right in our finger tips.

[jason]

Yeah Marina.. this is definitely a great place and I'm sure we are all glad to have you here. When you get a few minutes it would be interesting to find out more about you and your interest in plants.

[loki]

I don't want to exactly rain on your parade, and I do feel almost spriatually connected to my garden, and I grow mostly organically.... However to completely dismiss 20th century agriculture is a big mistake. As is revering traditional agriculture as some sort of mystical oneness with the Ecosystem. Nonsense. Traditional farmers have ruined ecosystems just as 20th century farmers have. There was no secret plan to foster the ecosystem, there was trial and error methods that coincidentally allowed for more environmentally friendly methods to endure - but not always for all situations. Mayans depleted their resources and when climate change affected them, their agriculture was wiped out. Many other civilizations also fell prey to this. There is pretty convincing evidence that early civilizations wiped out many animal speices when they appeared on the scene as well. They burned vast areas and changed areas to suite their needs. Slash and burn agriculture (an ancient method used by many tribes in tropical and warmer temperate forest areas) has devastated rain and dry forests, which when population size was small could easily be replenished, but now it's very damaging. The Irish potato famine was more complicated, but is another example that pre-20th century agriculture was not easy. In fact, famine was part of life in many parts of the world (and still is).

What I see as important is knowing more of ecologic sytems, along with plant physiology, agronomy, etc. and use that knowledge. With extreme hubris and failure to consider the whole picture 20th Century ag has not lived up to it's full potential, yet it has allowed for much more abundant food production more reliably than ever before. Modern ag is far from perfect, as it is now so dependent on fossil fuels and nutrients. It is not sustainable. We know that - we can work towards a sustainable future when we use all our knowledge and wisdom.

[grunt]

Loki: Once you get past the small independant farmers, and into agribiz territory, farming has about as much to do with feeding the worls as building pickup trucks does. It becomes nothing but big business, and feeding the bottom line, not the bottom of the economic chain. That is the facet of the 20th century that is being put down. Yes they are growing more food than ever before, but it is costing almost ten times as much as it should to do so, and at great expense to the environment, and the health of all of us, and is not feeding more people. Farm and industrial pollution has reached the level that there is considered NO safe to drink surface water in all of the continental US, including your home state, but excluding Alaska. Farming, thanks to the expanding use of herbicides and pesticides, is becoming one of the largest polluing "industries". And the more chemicals that are used, the more you have to use them. The land that we grow on here was so badly abused by the last two tenants, that we still have to use a small amount of chemical fertilizers, but we do not spray for anything, insect or plant. Your bringing up the Irish potato famine is a point that you should examine a bit closer, if you are defending the progression of 20th Century agriculture. The potato famine only happened because they were, in effect, doing monoculture agriculture, ie there was only one main strain of potato being grown. A form of blight that was particularly virulent to that strain of potatoes developed, and wiped them all out. 20th Century agribiz has reduced the number of varieties of different food crops being grown, from several hundered each, to a dozen or less. What Hip-Gnosis Seed Development is all about is turning that narrow minded rush to disaster on its head.
I don't hold any agricultural period up as being perfect, any more than I condemn out of hand any one of them, but the major trends in agriculture in the latter half of the 20th century were not beneficial to any one but big business. Most of the increase in food production that occured in 3rd world countries in the late 20th century did not benefit the citizens of the countries the food was grown in. It was used to feed livestock for export, and the locals couldn't afford to buy it. Check out where most of the corn and grain that is grown in the US is exported to. In most cases it goes to feed livestock in other countries, and the meat is then shipped back to one of the only countries in the world that is rich enough to afford it. Most of the increas in food production that has occured in the last 60 years or so, has done little to alleviate the plight of the truly hungry.
I truly relish every advance that has been made in the ability to increase yield and quality in any and every food source, but I equally truly suspect every "promise" of increased yield or quality that any corporation makes for any of its products, because I know that the only reason they are selling the product is to increase their bottom line, and keep the shareholders happy, not to benefit us. And unfortunately, that last comment is the main reason that most of us are here on Bishop's Homegrown, and sums up where we are all coming from.

I don't mean to speak for everyone on the forum, by any means, but that is the sense I have of the feelings here. I usually don't say too much in my posts, and may have gone a bit overboard and off track in my comments. If so, my apologies, but I'm saying it anyway.
Cheers