Independent Lens

Oh, my gosh. This is amazing. Check it out, check it out. This is how we roll. That's why they call me-- the corn--they call me the corn hippie. Gosh, this is unbelievable. There's so much corn here. I mean-- Right here in-- in these bags right here, this one has, uh, 87 different-- Oh, my gosh. What in the hell is this? 87 different kinds of corn from Urubamba Valley. Oh, my God. This is from the Sacred Valley. I get certified with the phytosanitary from the Peruvian government, and once we get it certified, then we're, uh, ready to ship it wherever we want to send them. And some of the beans. That's astounding. Look at that faba. Joe Simcox,

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For all the crazy people like me who sit there at night and look at bags of beans, it leaves us a mystery. This is so precious. No one even has an idea how much this-- they're like jewels. They look like polished agates. Look at this one. Joe Simcox, Must be artistic genius of nature that allows this to happen. I got to sleep with this, my best friend right there. Joe Simcox, When I was six years old, my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said, "Well, I want squash." I didn't want a G.I. Joe and I didn't want a baseball bat. I wanted squash, and I wanted those because I wanted to save the seeds and grow them.

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My seeds are my kitchen table. My seeds are my way of sharing food with people all over the world. I've been to over a hundred countries, collecting thousands and thousands of seeds. Here from Bolivia, looking like a speckled robin's egg, this bean here from Tanzania, one that's coming from Zimbabwe, variety raised by the West Virginia hillbillies, and this exquisitely sculptured seed of a Trichosanthes gourd from Vietnam. The seed is a time capsule. It's preserving things from the past, but it's also bringing things for the future.