Mr. Seed is an organic seed, and he’s sexy. He eats dry-aged manure, reads from the Kama Seedra in a chest-baring silk robe, and is extremely angry about the pervading specter of Big Ag.
The manly kernel appears in a charming animated short by Seed Matters, a campaign pushing for more research on seeds for organic farmers. According to Mr. Seed, it’s wholesome, flannel-wearing organic varieties like him who are the antidotes to those “chem seed motherf****s” — portrayed in the video as roided-up gym bros snorting a parody version of a contentious herbicide.
But as with all first-impression charmers, we should all take this glib grain with a grain of salt. Seed Matters is an initiative of the Clif Bar Family Foundation, joining the host of sleek, high production-quality content from Companies with Agendas. (Here’s looking at you, Farmed and Dangerous.)
In the real world, of course, there’s not a clear choice between good and parodically evil. For instance, fertilizing all the world’s crops with manure — dry-aged or otherwise — might require many, many, many more ungulates than we already have.
All of which is to say, go ahead and ogle Mr. Seed’s hot bod, but don’t bring him home just yet.