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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
Here is an article about a couple in Orlando fighting city hall to keep their front yard garden.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-front-yard-gardens-20130115,0,7386168.story
when you use any kind of fertilizer or food be sure it too isn’t owned by Monsanto. Many folks don’t know that bags of potting soil contain Monsanto products. Beware!
http://www.groworganic.com/fertilizers/organic-fertilizer.html
Organic, non-GMO fertilizer!
I just got my seed order for 2013 in, today. From Rareseeds.com, and yes they are very much opposed to GMO. Can’t wait to plant all those healthy beet and broccoli seeds!
This is a wonderful,organic, GMO free company out of Vt. http://www.highmowingseeds.com/
I have a feeling that I’m not going to make many friends here, but please hear me out. I feel that I first need to state that I am an organic gardener (who carefully purchases seeds), mindful of what I put into the bellies of my friends, family, and livestock. GMO foods definitely give me the hee-bee-jee-bee’s.
However… it does bother me a little to read sentences like, “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.”
Monsanto has a location in the neighboring town from me, and the owner lives about a mile down the road. I have to say, I have been impressed with what his “quest” actually is. His motto is to, “Feed the World”. That is admirable. That has special meaning to me, because we have a Ugandan girl living with us who shared that organic seeds are difficult to grow in her village, but GMO seeds grow well and feed her family. Now, of course, it grows well because it’s not natural, and it is not the healthiest food for her family… but the other option is no food for her family.
I realize that stories like this do not apply to the large majority of Americans. But I do have to give credit where credit is do… Monstanto wants to feed the world, and they are feeding many hungry people. No, they are not feeding ME, and I hope they are not feeding others that have the means to put healthy foods into their growing bodies, but they are feeding those who cannot grow their own produce or buy organic. I have to respect that.
Katie,
That’s pretty good. The “feed the world” argument is nonsense. They’ve been saying that for years, yet it hasn’t happened, and yet it’s not because there’s a shortage of food, it’s because it’s not being distributed to the people who need it.
Industrialized countries throw away tons of food that has gone bad because we simply have too much of it. If they really cared about feeding the world, they would make sure that the food got to where it needs to be, but instead they only care about profit.
If they just cared about feeding the world, they wouldn’t be patenting HUMAN genes, and suing farmers whose farms were contaminated by there seeds.
I’ll also add, that the so-called food that Monsanto produces is actually harmful to us, and therefore if they were actually able to feed the world, they would actually be killing everybody, slowly.
We don’t need large industrialized farms, we need smaller farms who grow via sustainable methods that feed their own community. If we want to feed the world, that’s how we should go about it.
There are many farmers who are going to these places and helping them set up aquaponic systems so they can grow under dry climates, and teach them how to grow food and sustain themselves.
That’s feeding the world.
I’m not arguing that their food isn’t harmful. I’m not supporting large, industrialized farms. Again, I am a small organic farmer, with a small head of cattle and a few chickens to feed my family. I agree that organic is better for everyone, which is why I feed my family that way.
But I will refuse to stick my head in a hole and ignore some pretty remarkable evidences of them following through with their mission statement. I tried to provide a clear example of how GMO seeds have actually helped third-world communities, but perhaps I didn’t do a good enough job at explaining. Maybe we can look at it this way: many homeless individuals go to shelters for meals, those meals often come out of a can, and those cans are filled with anything but organic foods. Is that food good for those hungry bodies? No, not especially. But does it fill their tummies and give them another day to live? Yes, it does. I know you mentioned that if Monsanto is feeding people this way, they are killing them slowly. All I’m saying is that the alternative is to die much more quickly of starvation… I’d choose the former if I were in that situation. I am glad that I’m not — and so I take advantage of my situation and grow/eat organic. And I try my best to share any surplus I might have. But not all of us are that fortunate.
Katie, you miss the bigger picture. GMO, by definition, is not only harmful to the body, but also to the environment. This goes beyond feeding people.
Typical use of these seeds relies on chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticides/herbicides. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how this practice kills the soil, pollutes the plants, and creates superweeds and bugs that thus require increased use in chemicals.
I’m sorry, but we do not need their “technology” in order to feed people. It’s doing more harm than good. There are better ways to feed people, and giving kudos to a company like Monsanto because they’ve fed some poor people is just short sighted.
I’m surprised too, because it seems like you really know what you’re doing and I’m a bit jealous of your operation.
Monsanto is the most evil company on this planet. The harm they do to the world far outweighs anything they do that would be considered good.
Yes, GMO foods are also harmful to the environment. That is one of the many reasons why I am so thankful for informed individuals like you who encourage smart, organic farming. You mentioned the very true fact that there are many individuals who dedicate their time to helping others in difficult climates set up aquaponic systems and teach agricultural education. That is wonderful! If any of us on this page are able to contribute to that cause, we really ought to — whether that means going ourselves, or supporting someone who does. But in the meantime, until every community has those resources, I’m glad that at least some of those communities have SOMETHING to eat, even if it’s not the best.
I do and will encourage and support local, organic farms. I am thankful for this article and that the writer is helping gardeners make good choices for this coming spring. It was just that one sentence that rubbed me the wrong way — I just will not make a claim on Monsanto’s behalf of what they’re “really up to” when they actually are feeding people. That’s all I’m saying. But if we can feed people better food, then we ought to do so as well.
Phil, I am whole-heartedly with you on this. If Monsanto really cared about feeding the world, they wouldn’t be suing farmers who have inadvertantly planted Montsanto-tainted seed (because it blew over the fence, via trespass, and they didn’t know they had it).
Perhaps there are individuals here and there who work for Monsanto who have ideas of helping humanity, but that’s not the Monsanto bottom line.
Agriculture in Uganda from Wikipedia: “Uganda’s favorable soil conditions and climate have contributed to the country’s agricultural success.”
Monsanto’s “feed the world” lie is just that, a lie. Truth is farmers in Uganda are rejecting GE seed. “Haidee Swanby, a researcher for the African Centre for Biosafety said that the purpose of multinationals who have acquired rights to produce GMOs is to make profits by controlling the rights of propagation, making the small-scale farmers dependent on the seed producer by not allowing them to replant harvested seeds, as it has been for generations.”
I’m sorry, but that means very little to me… having actually been to Uganda, having family living and helping there, knowing the soil first hand, and having a Ugandan farmer currently living in my home, I actually know the difference.
I’m not trying to insult anyone here, and I feel like the fact that I agree with everyone on this page in regards to most points is being overlooked. I’m not a fan of Monsanto, everyone. I am just not willing to judge their intentions.
Someone else posted that Monsanto is a band-aid, and I could not have said it any better myself. Band-aids are not what we need — they are not going to really fix things — they are not the long-term solution. But I am thankful for the parts they are temporarily helping until everyone else has the proper help they need.
Maybe you can educate me on this Katie, but Uganda has a LONG history of horticulture and for the overwhelming majority of that time, they grew organically by DEFAULT, and they’re still here after thousands of years to tell the tale so I think that it’s not Uganda itself that can’t grow flourishing organic crops.
Monsanto garbage grows better in fields that have been assaulted w/ industrial fertilizers and pesticides for generations, whereas organic seeds grow better in organic fields. If the reason that GM grows better in Uganda is because these farmers have been taken for the same ride that we’ve all be taken for (i.e. they’ve used industrial fert and pesticides in their fields for year), then I can hardly say that Monsanto is doing them any favors. They’ve poisoned the fields to a point where the farmers have no choice, they need to buy the poison seed that grows in the poison field, then that sounds a lot like organized crime. So no, no credit to Monsanto. They aren’t feeding the world, they’re destroying our ability to feed ourselves without them.
Interesting that anyone would accuse bloggers of “hiding behind their anonymity” of the internet. How many millions of dollars has Monsanto and other corporate pesticide and GMO interests to defeat truthful labelling initiatives. In my opinion, Monsanto and all of it’s affiliates can burn in hell. Onward, to our health!
Sarah, thank-you for the link to Organic Seed aliance. It is full of credible information. Things have changed since 2005, but the history and problems as seed merchants are well laid out. Also thank-you for rewording your blog it should reduce the frantic emails I have been recieving from customers. As for occupymonsanto360 – they do have still have flawed informatiion – but I will ask them for thier facts. Again we are an independent seed firm selling to Organic farmers and Gardeners in Canada. In the coming days I hope to post a list of seminis varieties to our website that we have trouble finding replacements for and many of our northern growers depend on them for thier food. We are in a catch22 – we do not support GMOs but we also depend on certain seminis varieties. I wish you all the best.
Bill
nice-thanks!
Thank you so much for putting this article together with good resources to help home gardeners avoid planting GMOs. I am so thankful for what you do 🙂 Keep up the good work.
I was getting ready to purchase some seeds from Park Seeds. Does anyone know anything about this company. I did not see their name on the list of companies that have signed the safe seed pledge.
Not all seed company’s have the time to fill out all the paper work stuff. Just read about the company and maybe it tells more.