Comments on: Avoiding Seeds from Monsanto

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:01:27 +0000

Hi Julie:

I tried to answer your question in a post here:

http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2011/03/beginning-with-organic-gardening/

By: julie

julie — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:41:08 +0000

hi, i was just wondering if anyone has any information about specific brands of non-gmo seeds sold in canada? also, i was wondering if a product is called “organic” but does not have a certified organic label, can i trust that it is in fact organic? One more thing, im a complete novice, so bear with me, do i have to buy organic soil to grow an organic garden? and if so, any credible canadian brands?

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Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:23:07 +0000

[...] Burpee sound familiar ? It's a Monsanto company Here's a list of Monsanto owned seed companies: Avoiding Seeds from Monsanto | Bifurcated Carrots Here's a list of still independent seed companies: Seed Companies Safe from Monsanto Ties – [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:09:04 +0000

Hi Edi,

Yes, you are partly right. It is not so much all CMS hybrids, but rather CMS-Protoplast hybrids. Protoplast fusion is a technique that is a type of genetic engineering.

Certified organic F1 hybrid seeds are not allowed to be CMS-Protoplast. Since certified organic vegetables are mostly grown from certified organic seeds, these are not usually grown from CMS-protoplast seeds. It can happen that certified organic seeds are not available, and in this case an organic grower may instead use CMS-protoplast seeds. They are not supposed to knowingly do this, but these seeds are not labelled, so it can happen.

It’s very clear, this is yet another legal loophole where GM food can find it’s way into Europe.

Here’s a good paper on the subject:

http://www.saveourseeds.org/fileadmin/files/protoplastfusion.pdf

Thanks for your comment!

By: edi

edi — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:49:50 +0000

Be aware that F1 hybrids are being sold in UK which are Genetically Modified. Dahlimama’s comment is worryingly inaccurate -”A f1 hybrid is not a GMO”.
GM “CMS hybrids” ARE on sale in the UK which is the hidden and silent way by which GM is being slipped in through the back door. Mostly they are F1 cabbage family seeds but there are others. Tozer sell GM F1 cabbage and cauliflower. See http://www.biodynamic.org.uk/farming-amp-gardening/seeds/cms-hybrids-are-prohibited.html
Peace
(and heads up on the hidden GM seed threat)

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:46:22 +0000

Hi DM,

Thanks for your comments!

Indeed here I’m talking specifically about F1s that are sold by stores for home gardeners. This are nearly always useless for plant breeding or seed saving, and most importantly a store that sells any of these is generally a store that specializes in these kinds of seeds, and nowadays generally sells mostly seeds from Monsanto too.

If you want to avoid seeds from Monsanto, this is the kind of seed company to avoid.

Indeed there is nothing wrong with F1 hybrids in general, and those you make yourself in your own garden or get from an independent plant breeder can be very interesting and exciting seeds. In addition I didn’t mean to discourage anyone who wanted to try to do plant breeding with commercial F1 varieties, if they were interested in trying. There are some plant breeders that specialize in this.

By: Dahlimama

Dahlimama — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:29:43 +0000

One more thing, instead of telling folks f1 hybrids are bad, which is wrong and a big waste of good time, we might be better off as Terese above suggests in writing our representatives and urging them to stop companies from unfair practices.As long as politicians have to go to Big Business for campaign contributions they will NOT Legislate against them!We should be spending our time demanding campaign finance reform.

By: Dahlimama

Dahlimama — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:18:25 +0000

I stumbled upon this site while searching for a particular company.Just a thought here, we seem to be been between the proverbial rock and a hard place.You advocate not using F1 hybrids,Unfortunately,the truth is plants and diseases are always at war.A plant develops a defense against a disease through a natural mutation then the disease finds a way to overcome it with a mutation.Here comes the raw truth,this process takes a long time and with the worlds population growing as fast as it is with out our help nature its self would not be able to feed the mass of people on this earth right now.This is a fact,if you got rid of every f1 hybrid out there millions would starve to death! A f1 hybrid is not a GMO. A f1 hybrid just means man chose the parents and transferred the pollen not a bee.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:09:55 +0000

Thanks for the comment Ramon!

By: ramon

ramon — Mon, 31 May 2010 02:14:38 +0000

This website is a wonderful resource for those who want to spread the word about GM seeds from Monsanto and find reliable seed bank resources. keep up the good work guys & gals!

By: BC Dollar

BC Dollar — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:02:18 +0000

Thank you for this information. However, in addition to Park, Nichols (Oregon) is listed, and they do not sell GMO seeds – they signed the “safe seed pledge”…..here is the statement from their webpage: We are an original signer of the Safe Seed Pledge and offer no genetically modified seeds or plants. Nichols does not sell or offer treated seed.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:06 +0000

Hi Therese,

You’re welcome to come here and rant anytime! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

By: Therese

Therese — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:08:20 +0000

One of the most important reasons I can see for not using any GMO seed AT ALL, is to prevent or reduce the contamination of non GMO foods. It has been established that corn pollen from a GMO crop infested a non GMO crop, and the poor farmer was sued by Monsanto for infringement of their ‘intellectual property’. While Monsanto won’t be knocking on you door (this year) to see if you are seed saving, or if your plants contain their markers, your neighbors may be growing their gardens from GMO seeds. What is going to stop the pollen from crossing into your yard and contaminating your non GMO garden? Help spread the word, help educate others. Watch Food Inc. and encourage others to watch it too. By all meand buy your seeds and plants from trusted sources, but don’t be fooled for one minute that that is enough. We need to let our representatives know how we feel about safeguarding our food supply. We want to know where our seeds are coming from and if they have been altered in any way. Support legislation to lable Non GMO’s and GMO’s as such.
Thank you for letting me rant!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:47:53 +0000

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your comment!

By: Tom Duncan

Tom Duncan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:48:55 +0000

I have a small family farm that sells nothing but organic heirloom tomato,pepper and unusual seed.I do not like chemicals or GM foods but that is just my way of living.I don’t put down others for any reason.if they choose to use them ,that’s up to them.I just would rather not.Just my two cents worth for anyone who cares.