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Monsanto in Cyberspace

Monsanto is Here

A number of posts have been made in recent weeks on different blogs about Monsanto buying nearly all commercial seed companies, everywhere.  There was a particularly good one on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.

It’s pretty clear in the aftermath of all this consolidation, the next frontier for Monsanto is the Internet.

This blog has received quite a number of requests for Monsanto seed companies to be added to my list of recommended sources of seeds in recent weeks, and comments challenging old posts I’ve made critical of Monsanto are also starting to come in.  Note the one here dated Jan 26th from ‘Rick’.

A discussion forum I frequently participate on also just had some visitors from Monsanto.  At least one of these visitors had actually been around for months, and out of the blue just started spewing nonsense about how good Monsanto’s seed companies were.  He did this together with someone else, so it sort of looked somehow like a legitimate conversation was taking place.

He started by giving a list of his favorite seed companies, including some many well known and trusted places like Baker Creek, Sandhill and Seed Savers Exchange, then went on to include some relatively unknown Monsanto seed companies and started promoting them.

Common Theme

Until now, all of these visits have had a common theme.  Monsanto is ‘normal’.  Each one has in some way tried to promote Monsanto as a normal seed company, and people who don’t want to grow seeds from Monsanto are somehow extreme.

These visits have included marketing slogans like ‘Most experienced gardeners trust Johnny’s.’  In particular, the theme that Johnny’s is somehow a trusted place to buy seeds seems to reoccur.  Any blog or other place on the Internet that recommends Johnny’s Seeds is suspect as advertising for Monsanto.

The Truth

The real truth is that us bloggers have been tremendously successful at proving commercial seeds, in particular from Monsanto, have very little legitimacy in a home garden.

When you grow commercial seeds, you can’t re-save them for sharing or replanting.  In general your chance of success is often lower, and you usually don’t end up with something worth taking a picture of and posting on your blog.  There are very few serious and successful blogs out there about gardens growing commercial seeds, because they just aren’t interesting.

Of course I don’t mean to suggest gardeners who grow a few commercial hybrid seeds are doing something wrong, but these plants don’t usually end up being the ones they post and rave about.

What to Do

I’m afraid more is likely to come!  Even if we have a wave of this nonsense and it passes, it’s reasonable to assume Monsanto will keep trying.

In the short run, keep an eye out for it on your blogs and discussion forums.  I don’t do Facebook or Twitter, but those of you who do or visit similar places on the Internet, keep an eye on it there too.

If you see someone who seems to be promoting commercial seed companies in the wrong place, be sure to say something.  Be sure to mention Monsanto, and don’t accept being told that growing seeds from Monsanto is somehow normal!  If they persist, ask them about who they are and what they are doing there.  Make sure you are very clear that you think what they are saying is wrong and just nonsense.

Be sure and talk about your experiences other places on the Internet, so the rest of us can be prepared to cope with the same thing.  By all means, please use this post as a place to leave comments on this.

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Dumping High Fructose Corn Syrup

Since I’ve been to the US twice in the last couple of years, one of the things I’ve noticed is the apparent increasing rejection of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  A year ago, it was astonishing.  Everything, just absolutely everything was full of HFCS, and excruciatingly sweet.

There’s little doubt, I wasn’t the only one who noticed this.  Friends and family noticed too, and when I was back last November it was clear there was increasing demand for products that didn’t contain HFCS.  Soft drinks are becoming available, and more and more other products, that are just made with normal sugar.  This almost certainly was connected with the world wide shortages of cane and beet sugar over the last year or so.

Where did it go?

If Americans aren’t eating HFCS anymore, it must have gone somewhere.

It’s pretty clear Europe is at least one of the recipients of the surplus.  They don’t call it by the same name here.  It’s usually called something like ‘glucose syrup’ or ‘glucose-fructose syrup’.  It seems to go under a number of names.  These are in a lot of foods and beverages here by now.  I especially notice it in a lot of beers and sweet alcoholic drinks marketed towards young people.  It’s also in many processed foods.

It does not seem to have any so-called European E-numbers associated with it, I guess because it’s not an additive but rather a foodstuff.  For those of you reading this who aren’t in Europe, because of the number of different languages here, and because it helps the food industry hide what they add to food, they have created a special coding system for food additives.  I would have to think about the the politics of it not having an E number a little more, but I guess consumers are more reluctant to buy E-numbers now, and perhaps it was an issue to get HFCS certified as a safe food additive.

What’s wrong with it?

Besides many people disliking the taste, HFCS is associated with many health problems.  It’s use as a food additive in the US corresponds almost exactly to the increase of obesity and related health problems we’ve seen in recent decades.  It’s associated with diabetes, gout and many other health problems.

If you’re trying to avoid eating GM foods, you should avoid this too.  It’s not necessarily made with GM corn, but often is.  According to Monsanto and other large food companies, processing will remove GMOs from this product.  That means, even though it may be made from GM corn, it is legal for sale as a food in Europe.  There hasn’t been any independent confirmation of food industry claims that GMOs are removed, and many people dispute it.  Nevertheless, it is legal for sale in Europe, GM or not.  There is also no requirement to label it as a GM food.

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Kokopelli in New Conflict

Kokopelli Seeds of France, who last year was fined more than €17.000 for selling ‘illegal’ seeds, is involved in a new legal conflict.  Baumaux, the same company that instigated the previous legal action against Kokopelli Seeds has now registered the ownership of the name Kokopelli and is selling a new variety of tomato with it.

Baumaux is not stopping there however, they are also demanding Kokopelli Seed cease and desist in their use of the name Kokopelli and all business activities associated with it.  They are also demanding a payment of €100.000 in compensation for use of the name to date.

The original French language story is here, and a Google translated version here.

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EU Seed Laws?

Okay, so here’s what I know.

I made this post a year and a half ago.  It seems the EU has quietly put through a directive that may allow the relaxing of seed laws in some cases, but it’s still not very clear what it means.  It does however seem like different countries are free to interpret the directive in different ways.

A few months before this, Association Kokopelli in France was fined for selling unregistered seeds.  I’ve since heard some conflicting information on the size of the fine and don’t know if there were appeals.  What I understand was at issue was a per variety registration fee for the 1000 or so varieties on offer at Kokopelli.

About a year ago, Søren left a comment here and mentioned some seed companies in Denmark were experimenting with selling some unregistered seeds and it was expected Denmark would go in the direction of Sweden, which allows the sale of unregistered varieties in small packets to home gardeners.

I’ve now just had an email exchange with a local friend, who is planning himself to register several hundred varieties here in the Netherlands.  He gave me the impression the organization he is a part of plans to register many more varieties, and he says this can now be done for €25 per variety.  He said money was available to pay for these registrations, so he won’t have to pay it himself.  I don’t know where this money is coming from, but I have the impression it’s a lot, and they are trying to register as many new varieties as possible.

I was also in a food store a few days ago, one that was not likely to be selling unregistered varieties.  I was in the produce section and I had a choice between different kinds of beets; chioggia, yellow mangel, golden and standard red.  As far as I know, other than the normal beet, these are unregistered varieties in Holland, unless they were recently registered.

Further, I had a conversation with someone in the UK this fall, who mentioned an effort was under way to register UK landraces, apparently as part of this EU directive.  I was under the impression it was being done in kind of a stupid way, and in reality the UK has just not decided if and how they want to relax their seed laws.

If, as it seems, this EU directive is so vague it in effect allows countries to relax their seed laws as much as they want, there’s a bit of a chaotic situation going on with seed laws in Europe.  It’s really hard to get any information on this kind of thing, because it tends to be in out of the way places and in local languages.

Does anyone have any idea what’s going on in other places in Europe or have any information I don’t have?  Please, let us all know!

Low Cost Registration No Solution

Just for the record, I don’t consider low cost variety registration to be an acceptable compromise in the debate over EU seed laws.  Any registration needs to meet the so-called DUS standards, meaning breeding materials and genepool mixes would remain illegal no matter what.  In addtion, the profit involved in selling heirloom seeds is too small for independent seed companies to be able to afford these registration costs.  Low cost registrations only ensure large seed companies will control the distribution of these seeds.