Seed saving as an art in agriculture should be taken seriously
It's surprising to me that nowadays, people go straight to the market to get seeds. As if that's the way things have always been but that's not the case.
My grandfather told me how for thousands of years nobody ever bought seeds in a shop. Farmers would go through their fields at the end of the season and pick the strongest plants, the ones that had managed to grow and not die in the dry heat of summer or get eaten by bugs. The farmers would then save the seeds from these strongest plants for the following year.
Thousands of different varieties of vegetables and grains would have been developed in different regions around the world because of this way of farming.
That has changed dramatically now because for the last 100 years agriculture has taken a big turn for the worse. The majority of Hybrid seeds are produced in laboratories for big agriculture and are meant for big commercial farming. This type of seed gives a big initial harvest which can be easily transported to far off places, but unfortunately seeds from these types of plants cannot be saved for sowing the following year. These seeds do not grow properly and farmers are forced to buy new seeds every year from big companies.
Because of everyone using the seeds from these companies, we have lost about 75% of the different varieties of plants that existed since 1900. These all grew naturally in the fields of farmers and the plants were able to fight off pests and be strong in bad weather. This means that if we all grow the same crop, and a bad pest or a strange weather condition comes along, the whole harvest can fail, because the plants weren’t given the chance to grow with any variety.
Seed saving is one of the most important things going on today. As more and more small farmers and gardeners around the world save the seeds from heirloom varieties, they are not only preserving history but are also keeping strong and healthy varieties of produce, able to withstand the local diseases and harsh dry weather.
You probably should learn to do the same and save the seeds from your own garden, it'll give you complete control over the food that you are growing and eating.