Keep Monsanto out of your garden
GM-crop producing, seed patent-owning, farmer-suing Monstanto Corporation owns the seed company that supplies Burpee, Johnny’s and other favorite providers with some of their most popular seeds. Keep reading for details.
It’s seed catalog season. I poured over our Johnny’s catalog for an hour and a half last week, reading each and every description and fantasizing about spring. Later, leafing through the catalog for a second time himself, Cian said “I just want to grow everything. Even the cover-crops!”
I know we aren’t the only ones lusting after green growing things right now, and I’m sure it’s a boon to seed companies that farmers and gardeners order their seeds in the depths of winter, when we’re planting imaginary gardens that would put out more produce than we could ever use (if we even had the space for them).
Which is why now is an important time to ask if Monsanto will own your garden this year.*
In 2005, Monsanto bought a multinational corporation called Seminis, which produces and distributes more than 3,000 varieties of popular garden seeds. I mean really popular seeds; over the years they’ve distributed such well-known varieties as Early Girl and Better Boy tomatoes, Red Sails lettuce and Red Knight bell peppers.
Because of Seminis’ market share, it’s difficult for the seed companies we love to stop selling them altogether. The Organic Seed Alliance reports that
Seminis’ varieties account for 11 percent of Fedco Seed’s gross sales, and the numbers are much higher in categories like melons and squash. While Fedco founder C.R. Lawn expressed his personal inclination to have nothing to do with Monsanto, the volume of sales demands careful consideration.
(Fedco has since dropped all Seminis varieties.)
To keep Monsanto out of your garden this season, avoid buying seed produced by Monsanto-Seminis — and ask your gardener friends to do the same. The list of varieties they produce is too long for me to list here, but you can use Seminis’ website to research specific varieties. Make sure you look at products for both home gardeners and professional growers.
Johnny’s currently carries 21 varieties produced by Monsanto-Seminis, and they’re working on phasing out those varieties as suitable replacements are found. They sent Emily of Eat Close to Home this list of all the products in their catalog currently supplied by Monsanto-Seminis:
- 103 SIERRA BLANCA onion
- 224 FREMONT cauliflower
- 240 HANSEL eggplant
- 241 GRETEL eggplant
- 568 BISCAYNE pepper
- 642 DULCE pepper
- 733 CELEBRITY tomatoes
- 2038 KING ARTHUR pepper
- 2063 BIG BEEF tomatoes
- 2212 PRIZEWINNER pumpkin
- 2260 FAIRY TALE eggplant
- 2309 X3R RED KNIGHT pepper
- 2365 ORANGE SMOOTHIE pumpkin
- 2368 PATTY GREEN TINT summer squash
- 2894 SERRANO DEL SOL pepper
- 2954 CHEDDAR cauliflower
- 2991 CANDY onion
- 122 BEAUFORT tomatoes
- 2794 GERONIMO tomatoes
- 2700 MAXIFORT tomatoes
- 2373 TRUST tomatoes
Alternately, you could get your seeds from one of the many distributors that isn’t supplied by The Devil Monsanto; High Mowing Seeds, Fedco, Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek are all good examples, and Botanical Interests, whose first-ever print catalog comes out very soon, carries only one Monsanto-Seminis variety (the “celebrity” tomato).
Monsanto has their fingers in our food system every step of the way — and if we’re not careful, before long it’ll be their food system. Check out The Organic Consumers Associations’ Millions Against Monsanto campaign for more.
*I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. Monsanto doesn’t own your garden unless you try to save seeds from one of their products. Then, watch out — they might come after you.
6 Responses to “Keep Monsanto out of your garden”
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Cian and Amanda live in Vermont, where they spend their days farming and their evenings planning for the future. Read more about this project.
Nick and I were just talking about this last night! (As we were also planning our garden.) Luckily out on the west coast of Canada, we’ve got West Coast Seeds & Salt Spring Island Seed Bank – 2 great companies dedicated to preserving heirloom & organic varieties of seeds – and both within 100 miles!
I think it’s great that people are making wise consumer choices, and I’m comforted that so many people are reacting with their hard earned dollars to avoid Monsanto products. But your use of the phrase Monsanto-Seminis is a bit misleading.
Seminis was previously owned by an eccentric Mexican billionaire, who sought to buy up many, many seed production companies from around the world, not just in North America. Some of these (Peto Seeds, for instance) had been in operation for decades prior to Seminis’ purchase of them. The fields (and farmers) that grew seeds for Peto, now just grew them for Seminis. Same high quality, often organically grown, and this trade allowed for seed farmers to make a competitive buck growing and breeding top-of-the-line vegetable seeds. Seminis actually promoted genetic diversity in seeds, and came to control production on (as you say) some of the golden standards in garden seeds.
There is no question that Monsanto has purchased and now controls Seminis, but Seminis operates as a division of Monsanto, and still relies on contracts with the same grower families that provided seeds for Peto and so many others. Seminis sells seeds. Monsanto’s chemical divisions sell the GM products, and after all, Monsanto is a chemical company, just like Bayer and Syngenta, and many others who have invested in seed production.
So the misleading element here is to suggest that small seed companies that still carry the Seminis products are somehow on the payroll or in cahoots with Monsanto – which is inaccurate. Also inaccurate is the general assumption that all these seeds are suddenly genetically modified. Of course they’re not! They’ve made money over the years because of good breeding, not laboratory tampering. A blinkered boycott of all Seminis products will simply put a lot of farming families out of business. This is not a defense of Monsanto, but your readers should be better informed before they jump on the bandwagon that paints Monsanto (tellingly deleted above) as the Devil.
It might be a poster child for evil corporatism and dubious science – that’s not my beef. But be aware that if you’re wearing denim right now, or if you own a pair of jeans bought in the last ten years, you’re wearing Monsanto’s roundup-ready cotton, and you’ve paid for it. And it is industrially grown crops like cotton (as well as soy – for those of you who enjoy tofu, miso, etc…) that directly contribute money to Monsanto, unlike buying a packet of garden seeds that benefits Seminis (by possibly a penny) and the growers who produce the seeds.
I hear these discussions all the time, and really think the conversation should be expanded and kept in check. Again, informed consumers can make a difference, which is a good thing. Partially informed consumers just make partially informed choices.
For the record, I do not work for Seminis and would never apologize for Monsanto – I’m just trying to shine a more full-spectrum light on this very common debate that is raging about garden seeds.
Thanks for your comment, Mark. You’re right that I was simplifying things — a conscious choice on my part, although maybe I took it a little too far. I didn’t intend to imply that all Seminis seeds are genetically modified, and I’ll edit the post to reflect that.
Regardless of what they may have done for biodiversity in the past, the fact remains that Seminis’ vegetable seed packets now come with Monsanto’s standard warning to growers: By opening the packet, we contractually agree not to save seeds from our crops.
Seminis is wholly owned by Monsanto. They may continue to buy from the same seed producers — and I’m sorry for those producers — but as long as Monsanto’s in the picture, I choose to give my seed-buying business to others.
Hey Amanda, thanks for the reasoned response.
For the record, Seminis does not sell “seed packets.” They sell bulk seeds in quantities generally over 10 lbs at a time. You are incorrect that Seminis products are distributed with any standard warning regarding Monsanto’s rights or patents. No such warnings exist on Seminis products, and seed companies who still sell Seminis varieties are under no obligation, written, stated or implied, that their repackaged seeds cannot be grown out for seed saving. They don’t sell a lot of open pollinated varieties, but that’s kind of moot. Even with their hybrids, there is absolutely no warning from Monsanto.
The only legal restriction applying to seed wholesalers is that named hybrids sold under patent cannot be sold as something else, and you can’t sell something as those hybrids that isn’t… (If that makes sense).
I’m with you 100% on the conscientious choices we make as consumers. But once again, we WANT to believe that the situation is worse than it actually is. And as critics of Monsanto, we need to give ourselves frequent reality checks, I think:
I don’t care for tofu or soya milk, but those products produced in North America almost certainly incorporate Monsanto’s GMO roundup-ready soya bean seeds.
Similarly, I wear jeans. I acknowledge that nearly every thread of denim now produced on the planet comes from Monsanto’s GMO roundup-ready cotton, regardless of where it is grown.
We may be better served by engaging in the hard work of producing alternatives to Monsanto products rather than trying to weed them out of what we buy. Personally, when I need to buy a new pair of jeans (or cotton shirt, or cotton swabs), I’m just going to grit my teeth and pay for them, despite my political resistance to doing so.
That’s interesting, Mark — the Organic Seed Aliance says:
And if you follow that link, you’ll see they actually have a photo of a Seminis seed packet, complete with the technology agreement.
Anyway, yes: I am all for consumers being aware of the preponderance of roundup-ready cotton and soy products, and avoiding them when possible by eating primarily whole foods, finding alternatives to cotton swabs, and buying second-hand cotton clothing. There are also a wide variety of organic cotton products available, from clothing to cotton swabs, which are a great alternative to GMO-cotton products when you absolutely must have them.
Big Beef is a hybrid tomato. There would be little point in growing out seeds from this or any hybrid. Seed saving revolves around the collection of open pollinated varieties, not hybrids.
Though I am not a fan of patents on vegetables, I do understand that it takes years to achieve a hybrid that is good enough that market and commercial growers would want to grow it. The investment of research and development warrants some protection for the patent holder, for at least a limited time. Patents do expire, and occasionally, the best of the best hybrids are grown out into OP forms… There are growers in Wisconsin who are frantically trying to work out an OP version of Early Cascade, for instance.
Think if it in terms of the organic plant breeder who devotes years to a particular variety – maybe a gang-buster, super productive type of quinoa that matures before any threat of frost… The inference here is that either all plant breeders should conduct their research out of a spirit of generous altruism, or that hybrids have no place in patent-free, organic farming.
When I mentioned seed packets above, I was referring to those that are available to home gardeners, most often repackaged by smaller seed wholesale companies. Keeping Monsanto out of your garden is simple if you shop from these companies. You’ll note that the seed packet shown in the link seems to hold 5,000 seeds. 5,000 hybrid tomato seeds would cost the home gardener (and the wholesaler) at least several hundred dollars.
Anyway, I don’t mean to be purely contrary. I like this blog, and I especially like that consumer caution has met home gardening in such a vigorous debate. My minor beef is still about being fully informed rather than only informed about certain aspects of a very complex situation. And I’m happy to report that the complex situation is being moulded in part by consumer feedback. I’m sure Seminis never imagined being confronted by consumer backlash.
The best result will come from fully informed consumers. All power to them!