This is a sweet video of Alan (Mushroom) Kapuler, his daughter Dylana and her partner, Mario DiBenedetto, showing us portions of their diverse organic farm, Peace Seedlings —aptly re-named after they took over Dylana’s father’s farm, Peace Seeds. As Mario and Dylana explain in the video, Peace Seedlings practices organic, open source plant breeding to increase diversity and enhance the varieties of food crops.

Their passion for farming is mainly driven by their desire to improve the nutritional value of the foods they grow and develop hardier plants for further breeding and seed collection. Unlike hybrid plant varieties, as they point out, even the organic versions, the seeds after harvest can’t reliably be reused because their traits breakdown in the first generation. By contrast, open-pollinated plant breeding —relying upon pollinators to create pollination, produces plants whose seeds may be reused and saved for future generations with their desired traits remaining intact.

It refreshing to see young farmers embrace the creativity involved in farming and to focus on farming practices that are ecological and beneficial to eaters, the land and the local community.