Sow True Seed: Our Generative AI Policy

[Staff Writer]

Sow True Seed will never use generative AI in any art, copywriting, blog posts, or advertisements of any kind. Our human-first business will continue to be just that - human first.​

You might think, as a seed company, that we’re not being asked to interface with AI a whole lot. After all, AI can’t grow food. It can’t hand pack seed packets. It can’t troubleshoot with you about your garden in our garden shop… Well, it can, but wouldn’t you rather talk to us instead of a computer? Us, too. That is why, today, we are taking a firm stance against generative AI. Let us explain.

As you may already be aware, we are a small but growing business. We are steadily increasing our reach to new customers all over the country. We are getting more and more submissions for our annual Call to Artists every year. We are facing the same challenges that small businesses have faced for years: limited funds for limited labor hours with an ever increasing demand for product, trendy new advertising, photoshoots, video content, written blogs to stay current in search engines, the list goes on.

As a small business, it’s easy to get caught up and overwhelmed by the demand. After all, we’re endlessly grateful to be supported by so many incredible customers. Plus the fact that more and more people want to get involved and grow our seeds each year? It’s truly an honor. Beyond that, while we love the work we do here, our business operates as a catalyst for providing good jobs for real people. Jobs that are steady, secure, provide benefits, and pay a living wage. So, when offered the opportunity to grow that business and make more money to better take care of our employees? It’s really hard to turn your nose up at that.

Modern marketing is all about staying at the forefront of people’s minds. You’re expected to constantly pump out viral-worthy content, have new brand photos every season, and to spread brand awareness to reach a variety of people, places, and their gardens. And after all of these efforts, it’s said a customer has to interact with your brand at least seven times before making a purchase. And from there, your marketing pivots from getting that new customer, to keeping that customer. You can imagine how many different blog posts, videos, and graphics we’re expected to pump out to keep a customer, or potential customer, engaged. Don’t get us wrong - we love to create engaging, unique, and educational content for our amazing customers. However, one size does not necessarily fit all, which makes it necessary to put out a wide variety of content folks may be interested in. Given all of this, it is tempting to utilize generative AI to be able to compete with bigger businesses, larger marketing departments, and companies already utilizing AI to pump out this content at a lightning speed.

And then there’s our products themselves. If you’re familiar with our business, you are familiar with the art featured on many of our seed packets, seed collection boxes, catalog covers, merch, and more. We are deeply proud to be able to not only work with real artists to bring our vision to life, but to be able to share and promote their work. In a time where being a working artist is as perilous and unpredictable a career as ever, it has never been a more crucial time to work with and promote them. Our Annual Call to Artists each spring is a great time of year around here because we get hundreds of amazing applications from incredibly talented artists all over the country. We tend to go through them as a team, selecting 30 to 40 artists to add to our ever-growing number of art packets for the following year. We are proud to work with artists both small and large, novice and professional, and being able to pay them for their hard work is a core part of our business. Unlike utilizing AI, working with real artists requires time and money - which couldn’t be more worth it when true, human creativity is on the line.

As the reality of the prevalence of AI has set in more and more over the past year, we’ve had to sit down and really think about what our priorities are. Is it always our number one priority to be competitive? Is it our number one priority to keep up with other, bigger businesses? Do we want to risk potentially trading quality for quantity to maybe connect with a wider audience, but as studies show, not connect as deeply? The answer to all of these once we wipe away that overwhelm and scarcity mindset: No. It is not and never has been Sow True Seed’s priority to produce poor quality content that may misdirect you in your garden. It has and will never be Sow True Seed’s priority to connect with a customer for connections sake, but instead for the sake of conversing, growing, and learning. And it will never be the priority of Sow True Seed to grow for growth’s sake. We would rather grow slowly and at a controlled pace, to ensure the longevity of our business and that the jobs we provide are truly secure.

AI can be tempting because it’s “cheap.” Of course, the rate at which it produces content is not monetarily expensive, but what’s the price on our environment? What’s the price for our mental and emotional well-being? What’s the price of careers becoming irrelevant and replaced by a computer? Like other companies, we could use AI to produce art on every seed packet we have (art packets sell better than our generic packets). We could use AI to produce a huge number of graphics, video advertisements, and blog posts that you would see on every corner of the internet, at an astonishing rate and affordable price. We could use AI to replace our customer service team, making folks chat with a bot before just being able to ask us a very straightforward question. We could do all of that, but we won’t. Generative AI is a useful tool when it comes to consumerism. It’s a useful tool when it comes to working and existing at a lightning pace. It’s a useful tool when it comes to saving money over saving human livelihoods. We won’t argue that. But what we will argue is that Sow True Seed is and always will operate human-first, and this means never utilizing generative AI in our content, copy, art, or advertising. Art, writing, and design done by humans is far more valuable to us than being the top result on every search engine page, or ensuring that you purchase every seed packet from us. There’s no pride or dignity in putting those priorities aside, regardless of what it means for the bottom line. Let’s all take a minute and, as the kids say, go touch grass, and then get in the garden and grow the food we know and love - AI could never do that.

	Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons​

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About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee and owner at Sow True Seed since 2020, has over a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all.
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