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Seed catalogs for the upcoming growing season are arriving in mailboxes across the Northern Hemisphere with home growers everywhere starting to plan which seeds they will sow in freshly composted garden. A positive trend in recent years is the growing number of gardening enthusiasts choosing to plant gardens using organic and/or heirloom seeds.
What most of these home gardeners don’t realize is that corporate behemoth and GMO titan Monsanto has been gobbling up the seed market faster than a caterpillar can munch a tomato plant! With one fell swoop in 2005, Monsanto grabbed approximately 40% of the US vegetable seed market with its acquisition of Seminis.
This means that a home gardener could unknowingly be supporting the development and proliferation of genetically modified crops if the seeds used are from Seminis. In addition, Monsanto now apparently owns the trademark for many of the names of the heirloom seed varieties themselves!
Planting a sustainable home garden is much more than just choosing certified organic seeds and seedlings, eschewing pesticides/herbicides and using organic compost. This is because Monsanto has cleverly positioned itself to make money off the home gardening trend.
Does this mean that even if you buy organic or heirloom seeds from a completely independent company some of your purchase might be supporting the bad guys?
Yes, it does.
Surprise!
Home gardeners would do well to bone up on where to purchase their seeds so they aren’t inadvertently doing business with companies that maintain a working relationship with Monsanto-Seminis or were acquired by them.
Buying Organic or Heirloom Seeds Without Supporting Monsanto
Here are the recommended steps for the 2014 growing season for those who want to truly strike a blow for sustainability in every way with their home gardens:
Avoid buying from the seed companies affiliated with Monsanto. Here’s a list of these seed companies by location (enter you zipcode for a list of dealers to avoid).
- Buy from companies Monsanto HASN’T bought and are not affiliated or do business with Seminis: The graphic above indicates numerous companies that are worthy of your patronage as compiled by the International Seed Saving Institute. Please note that this many not be a complete list. If your seed company does not appear, just be sure to clarify with the owner about any potential affiliation with Monsanto-Seminis before buying from them.
- Avoid buying heirloom varieties for which Monsanto owns the trademark.
- Ask seed companies if they have taken the Safe Seed Pledge. Here’s a list of companies that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge and believe in responsible plant genetics. These are good companies to buy from.
Background on Monsanto’s Quest for World Seed Domination
Monsanto’s corporate quest is clearly to make money on each and every one of us whether we choose to eat supermarket frankenfoods produced with abominable, patented GM crops or carefully plant and tend an organic garden at home. Here’s some background information on the subject you may find interesting as well as enlightening:
If you are a home gardener and have information to contribute regarding these steps, please add to the discussion in the comments section. Also, please spread the word via gardening forums you may participate in that folks need to be very careful when seed sourcing for their spring gardens this year else they might be unknowingly supporting Monsanto.
Let’s make this the year when Monsanto’s grip on the worldwide seed market loosens and the movement to seed sustainability gains momentum!
Update
The day after this article was originally published in 2013, the CEO of a large GMO soybean seed company in the Midwest emailed me complaining that the article was short-sighted and insisting that Monsanto is helping feed the starving people of the world. He even went so far as to say that GMO crops are “proven safe”. Click here for the text of this CEO’s entire email plus my written reply.
I have also received email complaints from two other seed companies, one in Canada and one in Arkansas, that do business with Monsanto-Seminis and were offended by what they viewed as inaccuracies in the post. In response, I have adjusted the text slightly and moved linked sources to within the text rather than only listed at the end to make the message of the post as clear and precise as possible so as to not result in any consumer confusion over the information.
I have received no complaints about this article from seed companies completely independent of any affiliation or ties to Monsanto-Seminis.
More Information
Why I Avoid Organic Hydroponic Produce
The Hydroponic Invasion of USDA Organic
Heirloom vs Hybrid Produce
Photography Credit
Hello…. after receiving some disturbing emails from a couple of customers who had visited your website, I feel compelled to write you about some misleading statements that you have posted online. In your article about Monsanto, you state: “Avoid buying from the seed companies Monsanto has devoured. Here’s a list of the seed companies they bought out”.This is NOT true and is a very misleading statement. Although Vesey’s Seeds has purchased seeds from Seminas for decades (long before Monsanto purchased Seminas) Monsanto has not ‘bought’ our company and will NEVER be buying our company. We are a local, family-owned business and have no company connections to Monsanto or any other international seed company. The sad fact is that since Monsanto purchased Seminas, they have started to drop good reliable home-garden varieties of vegetable seeds that many of our customers have grown to love over the years. Monsanto appears to be favouring those varieties that are grown by very large commercial operations instead so the time may come when this is no longer an issue. As long as the tried and true home garden varieties are available and are non-gmo however, Vesey’s will most likely continue to purchase seeds from Seminas for the simple reason that 95% of our customers demand those varieties which have proven to be reliable, vigorous, high yielding and good tasting vegetables. Many of you have a personal philosophy which has led you to the belief that you do not want to support Monsanto because of their business practices and history of patented genes, gmo’s and so on. We fully understand that, however as a business that has been operating here in Canada for 73 years, we have to balance personal philosophies with practical good business sense, and if 95% of our customers are asking for non-GMO Seminas seed, we simply cannot drop those varieties to make the other 5% of our customers feel good about us. Personally, I don’t like Walmart, but when I need a particular product that they carry – I still will go and purchase it there – as I’m sure many of you do. I do hope that you will continue to support Vesey’s as well – as we continue to search for an increasing number of certified organic seed varieties from Canada and around the globe as they become available, and as we continue to stand by our commitment NOT to sell any genetically modified seeds. Your comments are always welcome, and we would love to talk with you further about making gardening an enjoyable and easy experience for you and your family.
Gary, the current percentages do put your company in a predicament, sorry to say. Hopefully soon the 95% to 5% will invert to a point at which you can join us in standing up against this.
Please don’t confuse sketchy corporate practice with the sound science behind GMO.
NOT sound science. you obviously haven’t read the research papers describing their materials and methods as well as the safety testing they have done. NOT unbiased, NOT good protocols. for example: results that disagree with their goals were thrown away for unclear reasons…
My favorite seed company is Landreth . . .
Next on my list for reliable seeds and a great employee owned company, http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
I LOVE my catalog from Baker….Do I need to worry about cross-contamination from the farm behind me who I know is planting seeds from Monsanto??? The field is planted to winter wheat this year but I’m worried about contamination when they go back to corn….
One thing is that you could try to figure out when the field corn would be tasseling and pick a variety of sweetcorn or whatever corn you are growing that won’t be tasseling at the same time. A lot of catalogs will tell you. I know they say that corn pollen can travel long distances but I think it’s rare. I’ve grown popcorn 50 ft away from sweetcorn and I never had a problem with cross contamination. This isn’t a perfect solution but it’s the best we can do besides giving up corn all together.
Thanks Lisa. I hope I can remember that next year when that field is back in corn. That said, I never have good luck with sweet corn. Mine gets corn smut every time. I know the smut is a delicacy in some places but, to me it’s just gross….
sarah! wish there were one of you in every city in america and beyond. thank you!
A question…if Monsatan are patenting all these seeds, can’t we get together and do the same? If there is a race to patent, can’t we apply for patents on as much as possible to protect them, and get in their first?
Henny, NO ONE can patent heirloom varieties, not even Monsanto … there are many, many flaws in the above article with respect to seed varieties and Monsanto
You are correct that they cannot patent them. They CAN, however, buy up varieties and then make them unavailable, forcing people to then buy their patented seeds. The only way to prevent this from happening is to make sure you save your seeds and share them!
Wow, once again, I am amazed at how anyone can claim to be an ‘expert’, i.e. you Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist, without writing the truth? How much biochemistry, biology, or chemistry background do you have to be able to write the above article? Interesting how your sources are other blogs…now thats great scientific research.
You may want to re-check your list of so called Monsanto ‘devoured’ seed companies, as many of those companies are INDEPENDENTLY OWNED.
Stop spreading lies…
I am a fourth Generation Seedsman supplying seed to Organic Growers and Gardeners in Canada.
I am saddened to see that most people believe what is written here. It is not true. Why do people write with out checking the facts.
I am currently writting a peice that I will post to our website tomorrow afternoon Friday January 24 telling the facts.
William A Dam
William Dam Seeds Ltd
I fully agree with you Bill… we also have found many errors and misleading facts on this website and it’s unfortunate that people do not research facts before they are published. See my note dated January 25th below. Simple fact is: Monsanto has NOT purchased the companies listed on this website. Seminas is one of many suppliers…who happen to carry some very good varieties that customers want and that are NOT genetically modified.
Fact: Seminis IS owned by Monsanto therefore, GMO or not, when you buy seeds from Seminis, or anyone selling Seminis seed, you are putting money in the pocket of Monsanto.
Ironically, the OccupyMonsanto360 website appears to be down. Had no trouble getting Seminis website to load. Hmmm.
What’s this about Seeds of Change? They are not on the Seminis list. Are they not good???
Nevermind that question about Seeds of Change. They have taken the Safe Seed Pledge. It says so on their website. See my reply to the second comment on this post.
Seeds of Change is owned by Mars, Inc, a proponent of GMO and a company who gave money to kill the GMO labeling bill in Cali.
I’ve put them on my boycott list.
No, boycott Seeds of Change. Their parent company helped destroy prop 37 in California. They’re little more than a front company for Mars and Mars has stated that it bought it to try and push in to other food markets under a friendlier “brand”.