Getting to know a new crop is a bit like entering into a new relationship. Often times, the first season is spent learning about the nuances of this new life form. We are constantly learning of the potentials, limitations, and peculiarities of every crop that we grow, just as one might do with a new significant other.

This past week, we were harvesting some Floriani Red Flint corn—a crop variety new to us, yet a very old variety of corn for milling into cornmeal. I am hoping to start a long-term relationship with Floriani, so I spent Saturday afternoon saving seed. I picked through the Floriani planting looking at the dried ears for the most stunning and complete ears. My criterion for choosing included:

Position of the ear on the plant
Whether the ear was completely filled out
The number of rows of seed on the ear
Deep brilliant red color
Double ears on the plant
Whether the ear appeared to resist corn earworm
Weight of the ear and size of the kernel

These were points to consider as I saved the ears that had the best combination of the above. In doing so, I was choosing based on my one-season relationship. In selecting one ear over another, I was influencing the character of the saved seed to be planted next year. The process of choosing linked me to the native peoples of the Americas who chose and refined and saved those seeds from ears that spoke to them, and to the Spaniards who appropriated the seed in the 16th century. Over time, that seed made its way to Italy where it was called “Red Spined of Valusgana.” This corn underwent another 400 years of selection and refinement and eventually became the Floriani we grew this summer.

What those farmers chose was the best seed adapted to Northern Italy — refining some, culling some each year, tasting, and observing resilience through a number of conditions. The heartiest and the best corn every year became seed saved. Each farmer in this history was party to the long process of improving and giving their gift of choosing to others. This was a generous community. Each year they were receiving, growing, choosing and giving out to others. This corn is a landrace variety, able to reproduce itself annually, and one whose seed I can save.

The remarkable relationship with seed and a variety like Floriani allows us here at Full Belly the opportunity to make our own refinements and allow this corn to become once again connected to a new environment. Each seed that we choose here will begin to incorporate unique Full Belly genetic information and the biases of our selections.

We enter a century old-chain of choosing made possible because this corn is not hybridized. Its genetics are not owned by a company who appropriates that history and flavor. With time, the Floriani we grow here will become a reflection of Full Belly soils. Its own microbiome will shift to our place here and hold information about Capay Valley summer warmth, the early season north winds, the call and song of the birds who visit us, and the care and attention that we give to the relationship. Yes, we have also acquired that long history, and we do so with a thankfulness of receiving a gift. By caring for that legacy, we are required to improve and observe, taste and evaluate, choose color and girth of the ear, and impart our affection to its future.

Saving seed is indeed part of generations who practiced agricultural arts. It has been fundamental to the sharing of history, food culture, celebration and survival. The choices of many people in many cultures provide the genetic diversity that creates stability in adaptability. The ownership of those genetics is a common legacy and a cultural asset. Whenever possible, we choose open pollinated seeds and look to build a relationship over time. We also choose to plant some hybrid varieties that have essential characteristics for the realities of fresh market vegetable production. Many of those varieties are disease resistant and remarkably productive.

There are movements in different countries of the world to prohibit the saving of culturally important and open pollinated seeds. That effort coincides with the increasing monopolization of the seed industry; today four companies control over 60% of the worldwide seed market. Those companies have base industries in pharmaceuticals, genetics and agrochemicals. The patents for seed often seek to combine genetic manipulation and agrochemical support to patent “their” genetically modified seeds.

Those companies argue that they are the only responsible keepers of plant genetics; that the chemicals supporting the genetic modification of their seeds require protection and freedom from legal accountability. They claim that the package of technologies produce the abundance critical to “National Defense” – as Glyphosate has been so duly protected by the Trump Administration. The Big Four today are:

Bayer: Acquired Monsanto, making it a giant in genetically engineered corn, soybean, and cotton seeds alongside the herbicide Roundup.
Corteva: Formed from the merger of Dow and DuPont’s agricultural operations.
ChemChina: State-owned enterprise that acquired Syngenta.
BASF: A major global chemical and seed-trait corporation.

A monopolistic marriage with “science” of precision ag is promoted as the future of food production. These companies fight for appropriation, exclusion, and ownership of genetics that is part of our collective history and wealth. Bayer (Monsanto), for example, produces 90 % of the soybean seed sold in this country- all GMO and “Roundup Ready.” They patent genetics and sell chemicals.

The same is true for markets of crops like berries. Driscoll’s is a genetics company who contracts with growers to grow their berries. They have a model that absolves them from risk, licenses the genetics to growers, and then buys the berries to sell to customers. They control 90% of the worldwide berry market.

The marriage of agrochemicals with seed production parallels the concentration of capital in markets from grocery markets, and wholesale buyers to supply chain concentration (contract growing for large farm product aggregators).

That path increasingly appears unlikely to be the future for farms like Full Belly. Their economic and ecological model abandons any relationship of love or perspective on history and the gifts of generations that are the basis of our abundance. That is not our world and is not our science.

In the case of Floriani seed, we have the potential to experiment with the flavors of the corn itself, plant out a block next spring that will carry our choices in its DNA. We hope to choose a “right relationship,” and in the process delight in the variations, beauty, flavor, and idiosyncratic character of this variety. We will make our mark on its long trajectory of love and choosing — a gift received and best passed on.

We should all be aware of the monopolistic world of seed and the implications of their increasing power legally, legislatively, and in the market. For each of the more than 200 varieties we grow here, we are looking both to save seed or find seed growers who share our values.

It is indeed an ongoing delightful relationship.

Blessings on your meals.

Paul Muller

The post News from the Farm | October 19, 2026 first appeared on Full Belly Farm.

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