In my recent post about GM foods, I talked about how to avoid eating them, but what about growing them?
You would be surprised how alarmed many people get when I tell them I get many of my garden seeds from the US. They ask me if I am afraid of importing GM seeds into Europe. Of course this is a concern all of us should have, but understanding the problem can also help put it into perspective.
First the problem of GM contamination is worldwide, it’s not just the US. Secondly, there are a limited number of crops that have commercially grown GM varieties, and if you don’t grow one of these crops in your garden you are very unlikely to encounter GM contamination issues. Thirdly, of those crops that do have GM varieties, not all of them are out-breeding (plants whose pollen is spread from plant to plant by insects or wind), meaning the contamination would be unlikely to spread beyond my garden even if it did occur. Perhaps most importantly, I grow heirloom plants, not GM varieties and there are usually distinct differences between the varieties and I would almost certainly notice if cross pollinating were occuring. If any unintentional cross pollination occurred in my plants I would normally discard the affected seeds.
I also get my seeds from people I trust, and who themselves care deeply about the problem. With the exception of corn (which I will discuss more in a minute), I would be unlikely to receive GM seeds from someone unless it was a deliberate act, and I have to trust the people who send me seeds not to do that.
The problem of contamination is much greater in processed foods, and centralized distribution and processing, as I described in my earlier post.
From my earlier post, lets consider the crops where there is a commercial GM variety:
- potatoes
- tomatoes
- soy
- long grain rice
- corn (maize)
- rape (called canola in the US)
- Quest tobacco (sold in the US)
- cotton (used for cotton seed oil used in cooking)
- Hawaiian papaya
- a few zucchini and yellow squashes (courgettes).
Of these, the potatoes and tomatoes have been withdrawn from the market, and in any case are not out-breeding plants.
Rice, tobacco, cotton and papaya won’t grow in my climate, so for me at least these are not an issue.
I do grow soy. Soy is not out-breading, and in any case the varieties I grow are distinct enough that I think I would notice if any cross pollinating did occur.
I don’t have any plans to grow rape.
I do grow squashes, and I suppose this is a risk. The production level of GM varieties of these plants is very low, and like I said I do trust my seed sources. These type of plant is insect pollinated, so the contamination can only travel as far as an insect can fly. If it seems like the risk of growing this plant increases, I will reconsider having it in my garden.
Corn is really the biggest problem. The pollen from corn spreads very long distances in the wind, and probably there are very few places in the world where there is not at least a little contamination. On one hand growing corn can introduce GM contamination into my garden, and on the other hand not growing heirloom varieties will decrease the availability of these seeds to other gardeners. In my case not very much corn is grown in the area around my garden, so there are not likely to be a lot of cross pollination issues.
If you use common sense, nothing should keep you from growing the plants you want in your own garden. Use seed sources you trust. Think about what you are doing when growing out-breeding varieties of plants where GM varieties are commercially grown.
I work in the seed lab at one of the larger catalog seed companies in the US. I know for a sure (Just called and confirmed a second ago) that we don’t sell any GMO or treated seed. On the issue of contamination, personally, I don’t know anything about it, but it seems highly unlikely. Every batch is tested to see if they are true to form. It seems slightly paranoid to assume that so many of the seeds you purchase are GM.
Hi Jorge,
Thank you for your comment.
I can understand coming across this post out of context and possibly not knowing anything about the theme of the blog behind it. Perhaps that’s what happened here.
This is a blog about topics concerning seed savers, so gardeners who grow heirloom vegetables and other plants and save their own seeds for future plantings. In this case GM contamination, even in a small amount, is a big concern because it would be carried forward from year to year. We also trade seeds amongst each other, so contamination could pass from garden to garden.
A quick look through your company’s catalog suggests you don’t sell very many seeds suitable for seed savers, because most of your seeds seem to be F1 hybrids or at the very least patented varieties, so I think we are talking about two very different classes of seeds.
I have no reason to suspect there is anything wrong with the seeds your company, or indeed any other seed company sells, nor was it my intention to suggest this.
Far from being paranoid, I was trying suggest concern for this problem be put into proper perspective. For example, like we both said, most of the time plants can be inspected to see if they are true to type and no unintentional crossing has occurred.
I apologize. Your assumption that I did not understand the context of your blog was correct. Thank you for your response; I will definitely look more into seed-saving.
Jorge – No need to apologize. Welcome! Please come back and share your experiences with us. That’s great you are interested in seed saving. As you start to save seeds, I think you will find other people here interested in trading with you.
I’m very grateful for this post, because although there’s plenty of info out there about GM and its related issues there’s very little specific info aimed at or meaningful to gardeners. And it’s something which does worry me, because I have no means of testing my plants for GM contamination and no idea how big or small the risk really is.
I bought some tomato seeds from the US last year and afterwards had a minor panic over whether I might be importing something contaminated and risked releasing it into my other crops or the wider environment. But you’ve helped put it in perspective … an inbreeding plant which isn’t subject to large-scale commercial GM crop production is probably very low risk. It’s good to be vigilant though and conscious of your seed sources, as you say.
Just wanted you to know your efforts to research and write up this stuff are appreciated!
Do you know where we can shop for genetically modified plants/seeds? I’d like to get a much bigger harvest for my time and energy (feed more people from my garden). I realize you guys are too risk-averse to try it yourselves, but I don’t mind, science is about testing your hypothesis. My hypothesis is that GM food is fine, and I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Hi Dan,
I think for most GM seeds you need to be a farmer to buy them. You might try a farmers supply store or a farming seeds outlet.
Keep in mind you will almost certainly need chemicals to go with the seeds, that’s how most commercial crops are. For example, the same company makes Round Up ready seeds as well as the Round Up itself, and of course they want to make sure you end up paying twice, once for the seeds and once for the chemicals. Some commercial varieties require dozens of chemicals to grow properly.
Good luck with your experiment.
Hi i have just bought a bunch of seeds from my local hardware store and i want to know if they could be gm.I am a soon to start my garden and i want to keep it all natural.I would be happy to list the type of seeds and the brands upon your reply if needed, or are gm seeds only sold to farmers, and also what is organic seeds and what are the pro’s and con’s.I am from Australia if that helps with your answer.
thanks
Hi Chris,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
I think it’s pretty rare for a person to be able to go out and intentionally buy a packet of GM seeds. I think these are mostly only available to farmers, or at least only sold through farm supply stores.
It’s always possible seeds you buy have been unintentionally contaminated with GM genes, through cross-pollinating when the seeds were produced. Corn is one of the the biggest problems in this respect, because by nature it’s an outbreeding plant, and the plants can spread pollen over great distances. In addition, since I made this post here GM sugar beets have begun to be commercially grown which are also outbreeding, meaning beets of all kinds could potentially be contaminated. All other plants are either inbreeding, or there are no commercially grown GM varieties, so the chance of contamination is very small.
If you grow any of the types of plants listed above in this post, there’s always a small risk, but the risk isn’t particularly greater with a packet of seeds than if you go to the supermarket and buy the vegetables there.
The best thing to do in general is buy your seeds, or get them free, from a more trustworthy place than a hardware store. In Australia, both the Digger’s Club:
http://www.diggers.com.au/
As well as the Seedsavers network are excellent sources of non-commercial seeds:
http://www.seedsavers.net/
Non-commercial seeds are much more likely to be produced by someone like you who wants to avoid GMOs, and Seedsavers is potentially a great way to meet other gardeners. Non-commercial varieties are also almost always much more interesting.
A friend of mine, Kate, who lives in Adelaide has a blog:
http://hillsandplainsseedsavers.blogspot.com/
She and others who are part of the blog are probably a great source of seeds and information about seeds.
As far as organic vs. conventional, I have heard the argument that if you buy organic seeds you are doing something positive for the environment, because they can’t use chemical sprays. In my opinion, this argument is pretty weak. A large number of seeds can be made with a small number of plants, and the most commonly used sprays are to improve the cosmetics of food which aren’t necessary to use when producing seeds. I think the environmental impacts of producing seeds are pretty small in general.
Other than environmental issues, there is no fundamental difference between an organic seed or a conventional one. When you plant a seed, all you care about is the DNA, and the rest of the seed rots away. The potential amount of pesticide that could be in a conventionally produced seed is so infintesimally small, that it could not be significant.
The main problem with certified organic seeds, is the system of organic certification is used unfairly against small farmers and seed companies. Even though there is no difference in quality between organic and non-organic seeds, the paperwork involved is so cumbersome and expensive that generally only larger companies can can afford it. I did a post a little while ago about this:
http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=263
Seeds can sometimes be chemically treated. This is something completely different, and you should never buy or use treated seeds. The chemicals used for this are often very toxic. By law, treated seeds have to be brightly colored. If you come across seeds that are bright pink or green, or some other strange color, they have probably been treated.
If I didn’t already answer your questions, you’re welcome to list the seeds you bought here, and I’ll tell you if I know anything about them.
cheers Patrick
Thank you for the information and the links you have put my mind at ease.I will soon start my garden i hope to grow enough food to save some money,and have peace of mind on how its grown.I don’t know anyone my age (21) who has a garden,but i think with all the problems with the financial system more people might start to grow there own food.We need to get down to the roots of living excuse the pun : )(e.g food water shelter)being self reliant.I often think how screwed we all would be if the grocers all closed.
thanks for the help Patrick
Hi Chris,
Best wishes with the garden!
I hope it all goes well, and if you feel like it, please come back and let us know how it goes or ask more questions. It would be great to hear from you again.