‘No normal seasons any more’: seed farmers struggle amid the climate crisis

Floods, freezes and heatwaves threaten seed production as farmers scramble to produce strains that resist climate chaos

Once upon a not-so-distant time, the growing season for the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Green Things Farm Collective followed a steadfast trajectory.

We reliably had rainy springs and early summers, then hot and dry in late July and August, with the rains picking up again in September," said Stacy Mates, Green Things' seed company manager. For a crop like lettuce seed, it was perfect."