diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 9c29c7bf9..fdac95d57 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -10,8 +10,10 @@ module Bundler::SharedHelpers
   end
 end
 
-def rails4?
-  !!ENV["RAILS4"]
+module ::Kernel
+  def rails4?
+    !!ENV["RAILS4"]
+  end
 end
 
 if rails4?
@@ -36,6 +38,7 @@ if rails4?
   gem 'rails-observers'
   gem 'protected_attributes'
   gem 'actionpack-action_caching'
+  gem 'seed-fu' , github: 'mbleigh/seed-fu'
 else
   # we had pain with the 3.2.13 upgrade so monkey patch the security fix
   # next time around we hope to upgrade
@@ -45,6 +48,7 @@ else
   # REVIEW EVERY RELEASE
   gem 'sprockets', git: 'https://github.com/SamSaffron/sprockets.git', branch: 'rails-compat'
   gem 'redis-rails'
+  gem 'seed-fu'
 end
 
 gem 'redis'
@@ -105,7 +109,6 @@ gem 'rest-client'
 gem 'rinku'
 gem 'sanitize'
 gem 'sass'
-gem 'seed-fu'
 gem 'sidekiq'
 gem 'sidekiq-failures'
 gem 'sinatra', require: nil
diff --git a/Gemfile_rails4.lock b/Gemfile_rails4.lock
index bcb7b7f2b..f7fdae95b 100644
--- a/Gemfile_rails4.lock
+++ b/Gemfile_rails4.lock
@@ -17,6 +17,14 @@ GIT
       redis-activesupport (>= 3.2.3)
       redis-store (~> 1.1.0)
 
+GIT
+  remote: git://github.com/mbleigh/seed-fu.git
+  revision: f89ea306472c500ec7911c7be111a4aad9c1bc78
+  specs:
+    seed-fu (2.2.0)
+      activerecord (>= 3.1, < 4.1)
+      activesupport (>= 3.1, < 4.1)
+
 GIT
   remote: https://github.com/CodeMonkeySteve/fast_xor.git
   revision: 85b79ec6d116f9680f23bd2c5c8c2c2039d477d8
@@ -398,8 +406,6 @@ GEM
       railties (>= 4.0.0.beta, < 5.0)
       sass (>= 3.1.10)
       sprockets-rails (~> 2.0.0)
-    seed-fu (1.2.3)
-      rails (>= 2.1)
     shoulda (3.5.0)
       shoulda-context (~> 1.0, >= 1.0.1)
       shoulda-matchers (>= 1.4.1, < 3.0)
@@ -547,7 +553,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   sanitize
   sass
   sass-rails
-  seed-fu
+  seed-fu!
   shoulda
   sidekiq
   sidekiq-failures
diff --git a/app/models/topic.rb b/app/models/topic.rb
index d57e539de..0bde49f43 100644
--- a/app/models/topic.rb
+++ b/app/models/topic.rb
@@ -51,7 +51,11 @@ class Topic < ActiveRecord::Base
     self.title = TextCleaner.clean_title(TextSentinel.title_sentinel(title).text) if errors[:title].empty?
   end
 
-  serialize :meta_data, ActiveRecord::Coders::Hstore
+  if rails4?
+    store_accessor :meta_data
+  else
+    serialize :meta_data, ActiveRecord::Coders::Hstore
+  end
 
   belongs_to :category
   has_many :posts
diff --git a/config/application.rb b/config/application.rb
index 9fd458820..676f7bcf6 100644
--- a/config/application.rb
+++ b/config/application.rb
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ module Discourse
     # dumping rack lock cause the message bus does not work with it (throw :async, it catches Exception)
     # see: https://github.com/sporkrb/spork/issues/66
     # rake assets:precompile also fails
-    config.threadsafe! unless $PROGRAM_NAME =~ /spork|rake/
+    config.threadsafe! unless rails4? || $PROGRAM_NAME =~ /spork|rake/
 
     # route all exceptions via our router
     config.exceptions_app = self.routes
diff --git a/config/environments/development.rb b/config/environments/development.rb
index cd91e41ab..11458f74a 100644
--- a/config/environments/development.rb
+++ b/config/environments/development.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ Discourse::Application.configure do
   config.cache_classes = false
 
   # Log error messages when you accidentally call methods on nil.
-  config.whiny_nils = true
+  config.whiny_nils = true unless rails4?
+  config.eager_load = false if rails4?
 
   # Show full error reports and disable caching
   config.consider_all_requests_local       = true
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index e9f2a0ffc..fa5e13a3e 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -49,9 +49,8 @@ Spork.prefork do
   Dir[Rails.root.join("spec/support/**/*.rb")].each {|f| require f}
 
 
-
   # let's not run seed_fu every test
-  SeedFu.quiet = true
+  SeedFu.quiet = true if SeedFu.respond_to? :quiet
   SeedFu.seed
 
   RSpec.configure do |config|