For some time now, the El Tamiso Cooperative has been working in the farms of its farmer members, to encourage and experiment with seeds that are not only organic, but also linked to the agro-food heritage of the places, and above all not artificially hybridized, that is, obtained simply by encouraging the reproduction of the best specimens of a certain plant population.
A selection defined as' massale 'that man has been making since agriculture existed.
Every living individual maintains in his genetic heritage the prevailing traits and recessive traits; the man in his work as “Guardian Farmer” chooses and encourages the most significant traits of the plant (rusticity, resistance to adversity, ability to adapt, taste, color, etc.).
In organic agriculture today, often, legitimately, conventional, untreated seeds are often used, or hybrids obtained by artificially managing fertilization, that is, by selecting and making them reproduce only the plants with the desired characteristics (segregation). By repeating the process several times, an increasingly evident expression of the character sought is obtained, but the genetic heritage of the plants is weakened. When the characteristics sought are few (for example: tomatoes all the same size and color), crossing these pure lines results in an F1 generation with these very marked characteristics, what is called a 'genetic explosion'. The genetic impoverishment caused by the 'forced' selection process and by 'autogamous' reproduction often results in generations unable to reproduce themselves or even sterile. This pushes and forces farmers to buy seeds with the desired characteristics from year to year, without being able to reproduce them, becoming dependent on multinational seed companies, also paying the royalties deriving from the system of patenting the seeds
themselves.El Tamiso is trying to counteract this process and in this process it is followed by two seed companies specialized in organic farming: the 'Sativa', Swiss, and the 'Arcoiris', Romagnola.
In this direction, the work of some local members also goes, who for some time have been selecting different seeds (sending the “best” plants, or those with the desired characteristics), including vegetables and cereals (for example Chioggia's sea pumpkin, black cabbage, Paduan brioccolo...), products identified under the name “geniuses of organic Veneto”.In the name of this renewed need for “semen libertas”, products obtained from these experiences will be distinguished in the offer, in the hope that the end user will be able to know and appreciate their value.