diff --git a/railties/Rakefile b/railties/Rakefile
index 9bdb3372f9c1c..5a3d65ce9e982 100644
--- a/railties/Rakefile
+++ b/railties/Rakefile
@@ -199,11 +199,14 @@ task :copy_configs do
 
   cp "configs/locales/en.yml", "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/locales/en.yml"
 
+  cp "configs/seeds.rb", "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/db/seeds.rb"
+
   cp "environments/boot.rb",        "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/boot.rb"
   cp "environments/environment.rb", "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/environment.rb"
   cp "environments/production.rb",  "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/environments/production.rb"
   cp "environments/development.rb", "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/environments/development.rb"
   cp "environments/test.rb",        "#{PKG_DESTINATION}/config/environments/test.rb"
+
 end
 
 task :copy_binfiles do
diff --git a/railties/configs/seeds.rb b/railties/configs/seeds.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..3174d0cb8a87f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/railties/configs/seeds.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# This file should contain all the record creation needed to seed the database with its default values.
+# The data can then be loaded with the rake db:seed (or created alongside the db with db:setup).
+#
+# Examples:
+#   
+#   cities = City.create([{ :name => 'Chicago' }, { :name => 'Copenhagen' }])
+#   Major.create(:name => 'Daley', :city => cities.first)
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails_generator/generators/applications/app/app_generator.rb b/railties/lib/rails_generator/generators/applications/app/app_generator.rb
index 2c31d89538919..c8c2239f34f8c 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails_generator/generators/applications/app/app_generator.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails_generator/generators/applications/app/app_generator.rb
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ def create_config_files(m)
       create_database_configuration_file(m)
       create_routes_file(m)
       create_locale_file(m)
+      create_seeds_file(m)
       create_initializer_files(m)
       create_environment_files(m)
     end
@@ -176,6 +177,10 @@ def create_routes_file(m)
       m.file "configs/routes.rb", "config/routes.rb"
     end
 
+    def create_seeds_file(m)
+      m.file "configs/seeds.rb", "db/seeds.rb"
+    end
+
     def create_initializer_files(m)
       %w( 
         backtrace_silencers 
diff --git a/railties/lib/tasks/databases.rake b/railties/lib/tasks/databases.rake
index fbad8a1ae0df5..b86b5c0406ff0 100644
--- a/railties/lib/tasks/databases.rake
+++ b/railties/lib/tasks/databases.rake
@@ -156,8 +156,8 @@ namespace :db do
     Rake::Task["db:schema:dump"].invoke if ActiveRecord::Base.schema_format == :ruby
   end
 
-  desc 'Drops and recreates the database from db/schema.rb for the current environment.'
-  task :reset => ['db:drop', 'db:create', 'db:schema:load']
+  desc 'Drops and recreates the database from db/schema.rb for the current environment and loads the seeds.'
+  task :reset => [ 'db:drop', 'db:setup' ]
 
   desc "Retrieves the charset for the current environment's database"
   task :charset => :environment do
@@ -206,6 +206,15 @@ namespace :db do
     end
   end
 
+  desc 'Create the database, load the schema, and initialize with the seed data'
+  task :setup => [ 'db:create', 'db:schema:load', 'db:seed' ]
+
+  desc 'Load the seed data from db/seeds.rb'
+  task :seed => :environment do
+    seed_file = File.join(Rails.root, 'db', 'seeds.rb')
+    load(seed_file) if File.exist?(seed_file)
+  end
+
   namespace :fixtures do
     desc "Load fixtures into the current environment's database.  Load specific fixtures using FIXTURES=x,y. Load from subdirectory in test/fixtures using FIXTURES_DIR=z. Specify an alternative path (eg. spec/fixtures) using FIXTURES_PATH=spec/fixtures."
     task :load => :environment do