HERD ABOUT IT?
by Ana Grarian
The NY Times ran a story Friday March 12th about the rapidly rising price of seeds
.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12seed.html
“since 2001 corn seed prices have risen 135 percent” Well DUH!?!
Today more than 90 percent of soybeans and more than 80 percent of the corn grown in this country are genetically engineered.
A majority of those crops contain one or more Monsanto genes.
Let’s see. If you cut back competition, give licensing rights to a company whose product is guaranteed to cross pollinate with neighboring crops,and then allow the company to sue the neighboring farmer as if they illegally used your seed – Don’t you think your setting up an unfair advantage that will cause prices to rise?
In addition Monsanto has bought out many smaller companies and licensed the use of it’s seed traits to others. Monsanto says this licensing encourages competition. HUH? Usually those licenses come with caveats. For instance if the XYZ soda company allows me to use it’s logo for my hot dog stand, it also requires me to sell only their soda. A company I worked at had a soda machine. The employees wanted some healthy drink choices. The beverage company would not even allow their own juice drinks to be dispensed from the same machine as the soda. Licenses often tie the hands of the licensee more than they provide a benefit.
For more on how much Monsanto has inserted itself in our everyday lives, I recommend reading “A Month Without Monsanto” a daily blog of an intrepid soul who has ventured out to live an entire month without Monsanto products.
In closing I’ll leave you with an inspiring quote from a Monsanto representative
Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food, our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDAs job.
– Phil Angell, Director of Corporate Communication for Monsanto
I’m moving to a place with a large backyard and sideyard and I plan to grow vegetables and spices from heritage seeds only. Ana, do you have any suggestions as to where to order heritage seeds that have no attachment to Monsanto or any other Big Agra corporation? (I know what some of these online seed outlets claim, but they can be misleading, as you point out in your piece.)
Thanks for any advice you can offer; I’m a neophyte in gardening, but I’ve been studying up on it.
The resources page at Month w/o Monsanto http://web.me.com/aprildavila/MWM/Resources.html
lists several sources for seeds including Freedom Seeds which states on its website
“Freedom Seeds is founded to protect the purity and security of our seeds sources and, thus, our food supply.
We offer only undadulterated, uncontaminated, and regenerative seeds not owned by corporations whose purposes deviate from the natural way. We seek to take back control of our future in a struggle to free the seeds.”
Though I have not used their seeds and can’t vouch for them, it looks like a good place to start.
Thanks much, Ana.
Hi… as one of the members of the family behind freedomseeds.org, if you have any questions, feel free to email or call. We handle everything personally.
Freedom Seeds carries only 75 varieties of seeds and it took us more than a year to track down what seeds the big “M” doesn’t own. So, not only are they not genetically modified, they aren’t supporting “M” in any way.
It’s a small selection and we are still looking for more seeds that Monsanto doesn’t own… when we find them, we will add them.
Thanks for sharing!
Jordanne
Thanks for that info, Jordanne. It sounds like you have what I’m looking to plant in my little city garden.