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Seed catalogs of all types are starting to arrive at our home daily – what one gardener I know calls “gardening porn”. There they are, in all their splendid glory…glossy colorful pictures of our horticultural dreams. Oh the potential, the possibilities of what those seeds could become in our own gardens and food storage. The health benefits, the yummy delicious juicy fruits and veggies we will have come harvest time. I'm so excited and have my gardens planned out and orders ready to go. As the seed catalogs come in the mail I toss out for recycling and send a request to be removed from their mailing list if they are not Heirloom or GMO free seeds, plants, and trees this year. It is getting harder and harder to find TRUE GMO heirloom seed these days. You REALLY have to do your research. A lot of planning and research has went into our gardening decisions to buy seeds and plants this year.
We are concerned with buying non-GMO - non hybrid seeds, but personally, I’m also concerned with avoiding seeds that come from Monsanto or any of their subsidiaries. This is becoming more and more difficult as the charts below illustrate. The easiest solution is to buy organic, heirloom, open pollinated seeds whenever possible. Of course, the safest practice is saving your own seed…but that’s another blog post! As with most things these days, being a careful consumer is the key in determining that what we put in our gardens is the purest possible and will help ensure the continuation of our open pollinated seed source. This is a personal choice of course but, the more you know, the better off your garden and the world will be and the healthier your family will be!
Look at these facts! Monsanto and Dupont are getting almost impossible to stop! But WE can do it!!! Speak out and Educate!!
World Domination: The World’s Top 10 Seed Companies
Company – 2007 seed sales (US$ millions) – % of global proprietary seed market
1.Monsanto (US) – $4,964m – 23%
2.DuPont (US) – $3,300m – 15%
2.DuPont (US) – $3,300m – 15%
3.Syngenta (Switzerland) – $2,018m – 9%
4.Groupe Limagrain (France) – $1,226m – 6%
5.Land O’ Lakes (US) – $917m – 4%
6.KWS AG (Germany) – $702m – 3%
7.Bayer Crop Science (Germany) – $524m – 2%
8.Sakata (Japan) – $396m – <2%
4.Groupe Limagrain (France) – $1,226m – 6%
5.Land O’ Lakes (US) – $917m – 4%
6.KWS AG (Germany) – $702m – 3%
7.Bayer Crop Science (Germany) – $524m – 2%
8.Sakata (Japan) – $396m – <2%
9.DLF-Trifolium (Denmark) – $391m – <2%
10.Takii (Japan) – $347m – <2%
Top 10 Total – $14,785m – 67% [of global proprietary seed market]
Source: ETC Group
Top 10 Total – $14,785m – 67% [of global proprietary seed market]
Source: ETC Group
This year we are exclusively ordering from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds and Sow True Seed.
The companies listed on this link have signed the Safe Seed Pledge for 2012. I encourage you to support them in their efforts to preserve the integrity of our seed supply.
http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261
Here is a list of GMO free seed companies.
http://www.occupymonsanto360.org/2012/03/06/monsanto-free-seed-companies/
This is a great article to read about GMO contamination.
http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/01/seeds-are-the-key-to-a-gmo-free-food-future/
Here is a list of companies that are either owned by Monsanto or are supplied by them or Seminis:
* Territorial Seeds
* Totally Tomato
* Vermont Bean Seed Co.
* Burpee
* Cook's Garden
* Johnny's Seeds
* Earl May Seed
* Gardens Alive
* Lindenberg Seeds
* Mountain Valley Seed
* Park Seed
* T&T Seeds
* Tomato Growers Supply
* Willhite Seed Co.
* Nichol's
* Rupp
* Osborne
* Snow
* Stokes
* Jungs
* R.H. Shumway
* The Vermont Bean Seed Company
* Seeds for the World
* Seymour's Selected Seeds
* HPS
* Roots and Rhizomes
* McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
* Spring Hill Nurseries
* Breck's Bulbs
* Audubon Workshop
* Flower of the Month Club
* Wayside Gardens
* Park Bulbs
* Park's Countryside Garden
Monsanto and Dupont seem to be monopolizing our world in just about every market. The only way to stop these companies is to put forth a little effort and choose wisely before you make purchases.
Buy made in the USA, buy local, utilize the local farmers markets. YOU and I can make an impact!
Grow and raise your own food!!!
Please buy and plant non GMO - non hybrid,open pollinated seeds for your 2013 growing season!
♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy
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Hi Wendy, I ran across your blog in my continued search for clarity and truth about where the seed I buy for my home garden truly comes from. As you point out, making a choice to avoid the "Big 6" biochemical companies is fraught with obstacles for the casual gardener!
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to compile your list! It will help those of us that care about the loss of bio-diversity make educated choices.
First let me say that in my research I've found that the "home gardener" does not get GMO seed when buying that packet from the market shelf, or are they likely to when buying from the retail/online merchants that stock seed for the home gardener. We don't need to fear that we are inadvertently planting GMOs to eventually serve them to our family. We don't get offered GMO seed at the retail level!
You see, my hubby thought he was being nice and brought home some seed for me, that I didn't recognize. So I went searching to be sure it wasn't a GMO! After several hours of digging online, I found the trademarked brand of "Triplesweet" corn in an Ag catalog listing my variety right alongside many varieties of BT and other GM engineered types of corn. (all of the text and images I confirmed by finding them on the Syngenta website later) All but 2 varieties were marked with an *asterisk which led me to the disclaimer that they [the farmer] would have to sign a contract to purchase all the brands listed with an asterisk. The variety listed that was in my hand did not have that! Sure, they were hybrids, were treated seed and resistant to x. x and x, but were NOT listed as GM seed! That made me dig deeper and so far I can't confirm ANY seed I've purchased in a seed pack is a GMO. Whew!
Now, I've decided that I don't want to support biochemical companies if its humanly possible, so I've started the task of finding ways to reliably confirm that the seed companies I buy from (that claim the "safe seed pledge") are in fact NOT sourcing their seeds from Seminis or Syngeta. That is proving to be a hard row to hoe! I've found a few "cultivars" databases that allow me to actually reference the brand name of the seed to verify who has developed it and where its sourced from.
Here are the two links to the databases I mentioned. They aren't as up to date as they could be, but they are a start!
http://ashs.org/cultivars/index.lasso
http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/wehner/vegcult/
Keep up the good work, fight the good fight!