TEIKEI Network › Breeders, Farms and Producers · 6 min read
Every food has a story that begins before the farm. Before a field can be cultivated, a tree planted, a herd established, or cheese aged, there must be seeds, planting material, animals, and cultures. Someone has bred, preserved, and propagated them.
In the TEIKEI Network, the description of the responsibility chain therefore begins with seed and breeding. They are the root from which everything else grows.
This section shows what belongs to this root, who carries out this work today, and why it must be supported.
Those who preserve seeds do not merely preserve a product, but the ability for life to regenerate. This is how the glossary entry Transaction Chain, Syntropic describes it.
Seeds cannot be stored like a stockpile. Over time, they lose their germination capacity and must be kept alive: planted, selected, harvested, and sown again. The same applies to animal breeds and the cultures used to produce cheese, bread, and ferments.
A supply system that does not recognize this work lives off a foundation it does not nurture. A supply system that begins at the root can strengthen the conditions from which it will emerge again tomorrow.
Breeding is understood broadly here. It encompasses four fields:
| Field | What It Involves | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Seeds and Varieties | Developing, preserving, and propagating varieties | Vegetables, grains, herbs, field crops |
| Young Plants and Planting Material | Raising plants and propagating perennial crops | Nursery production, tree nurseries, grafting for fruit, berries, and vines |
| Animal Breeding | Breeding and preserving breeds and lines | Dual-purpose chickens, cattle, old livestock breeds |
| Cultures for Processing | Cultivating and developing microorganisms | Cheese cultures, sourdough, ferments, even new cheese varieties with new bacterial cultures |
Each field involves three types of work, often carried out by different people:
| Stage | What Happens Here | What Is Passed On |
|---|---|---|
| Breeding | Breeding, preserving, propagating | Seeds, planting material, animals, cultures |
| Farms and Producers | Cultivation, livestock keeping, harvest | Produce |
| Refinement and Further Processing | Pressing, sorting, bottling, baking, cheese making | Finished food |
| Logistics | Bundling, storing, transporting | Deliveries to communities |
| Communities and Members | Picking up, distributing, cooking, eating | Contributions and feedback |
The responsibility chain does not run in only one direction. What farms and businesses experience in cultivation, barns, and processing flows back into breeding. This way, varieties, breeds, and cultures adapt to places and people.
Many farms carry out part of this work themselves. One example from the network is Piluweri with its own seed production and nursery. How seed production and variety preservation work in cultivation is described on the page Annual Crop Systems.
A few companies dominate the seed market. The share of the four largest corporations in the seed sector has risen from 21 to 57 percent since 1994 (Heinrich Böll Foundation, Pesticide Atlas 2022).
Diversity is lost if it is not used. According to the FAO, about 75 percent of agriculturally used species and varieties have disappeared over the last 100 years (cited in Wirz, Kunz, Hurter 2017).
Breeding requires long-term commitment. Breeding projects run in cycles of 10 to 15 years and need long-term commitments. To date, only 1 to 5 percent of varieties for organic farming come from organic breeding (Wirz, Kunz, Hurter 2017).
Animal breeding is also highly concentrated. In poultry breeding, three major players and their subsidiaries dominate the market, and laying hens come from just two breeding companies (top agrar, September 2026).
Cheese cultures are also losing diversity. The populations of the blue mold fungus Penicillium roqueforti used for cheese have lost most of their diversity, and the Camembert fungus Penicillium camemberti is a single clonal line (Crequer et al. 2023).
The following organizations are examples from publicly accessible sources. They show how breeding and preservation can be supported collectively.
| Organization | Country | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| ProSpecieRara | Switzerland | Foundation, has preserved endangered cultivated plants and livestock breeds since 1982: over 5,700 varieties and 42 breeds. Principle: "Preservation through use" |
| Kultursaat | Germany | Non-profit association, preserves open-pollinated vegetable varieties, breeds new open-pollinated varieties, and conducts breeding research |
| Ökologische Tierzucht | Germany | Non-profit company of Bioland and Demeter, breeds dual-purpose chickens and cattle, among others. Motto: "Organic begins with breeding" |
| Agroscope Strain Collection | Switzerland | Around 15,000 isolates, mainly lactic acid and propionic acid bacteria from milk and cheese, as a basis for cheese cultures |
In the TEIKEI Network, breeders can be supported long-term by the entire network: through a minimal basic contribution that members pay monthly and that goes to the breeders. It is a separate contribution, as minimal as possible, and helps stabilize seeds and breeding.
Sales of seeds and license fees are not sufficient for organic breeding (Wirz, Kunz, Hurter 2017). In other places, there are several approaches to this:
↑ One level up: Breeders, Farms and Producers
Compiled by the TEIKEI editorial team with support from AI (Claude)
Created on October 10, 2026 · Last updated on October 13, 2026
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