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  • From: Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] (no subject)
  • Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 15:54:38 -0500 (CDT)

There have been a number of seed companies disappear in recent years, mainly
through corporate acquisitions. Of those who've remained, many simply serve
as marketing channels for the remaining corporate seed companies. I noted in
the list of varieties being dropped by Fedco that some were old varieties or
public varieties that weren't always the property of Monsanto. Because they
are not GMO's, there is no reason why you can't save seed for your own
purpose. You couldn't sell the seed but you could grow them. Seed To Sow is a
good book on the subject of saving seed.

Bill


--- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 06:59:44 -0700
>From: alicia best <bestici AT hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] (no subject)
>To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>
> Anyone do any work with High Mowing Seeds out of
> Wolcott, Vermont or Baker Creek Seeds in
> Missouri???? And what can you all educated folks
> tell me about their seed sources. thanks, alicia
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> From: wyatt_jones AT netzero.com
> To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 09:52:30 -0400
> Subject: [Market-farming] (no subject)
>
> Johhny's isn't immune to the corporate shuffle, in
> fact they carry many Monsanto owned varities, one I
> noticed in the onion category, since I mentioned
> "Candy" , is "Mars" which is also a Monsanto owned
> trademark, aquired through Siminis, then there is
> Simpsons's Elite and Red Sails lettuce, Red Knight
> and King Authur peppers, big Beef Tomatoes etc etc,
> . I can't believe Johnny's could get away with
> using those names unless they had some sort of
> licenceing agreement with Monsanto. Siminis was
> pretty responsible as corporations go but Monsanto
> is an entirely different matter. My feeling is that
> its pretty much impossible to avoid stumbling onto
> these seeds but a lot of people do not like the way
> Monsanto in particular but others as well conduct
> their business. I mean doing things like suing a
> farmer because their genetics poluted his gene pool
> is a bit like suing somebody because you polluted
> their well claiming they stole the toxic chemicals
> you dumped into the ground water but the pull they
> have with the government enables them to somehow
> pull this crazy stuff off, not to mention that they
> constantly try to patent heirloom genetics using our
> government to help them make seed used by people for
> centuries illegal to use in many countries,
> including this one. You would think Canada would be
> more resistant to this sort of thing but they
> constantly decide cases just like the US courts in
> these matters. A prime example of this push is
> forcing the people in Iraq to use corporate souces
> exclusively, making the use of heirlooms and seed
> saving illegal, taking advantage of their
> vulnerability in this war., etc etc.. Then there is
> the fact that the entire US Sugar beet industry has
> converted over to Monsanto GMO varieties
> exclusively, meaning you have to buy cane sugar to
> avoid GMO's. If you are a vegetarian that means you
> have to avoid all white sugar altogether as they use
> bone charr to whiten cane sugar. The only proven
> benefit of GMO's I've heard is the use of BT corn in
> highly infested corn borer areas and that has been
> leaking into the human food chain causing people to
> get sick, The Star corn fiasco is a prime example of
> that and there is more to come, you can count on
> it. And Monsanto knows they have a bad reputation
> and often trys to hide information from the public
> about the pervasive use of their products. they
> have also fought to ban horomone free lableing of
> milk, enlisting various polititions in this effort
> stating the rBST milt is as safe as any organic mild
> even though the UN Codex Alimentarius Commission,
> thier Food Safety Agency , representing 101
> Countries, The University of Illinois,
>
> Here is an Excerpt of the report issued by the UN
> food Safety Agency compiled by Samuel S. Epstein,
> M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine,
> University of Illinois School of Public Health,
> Chicago:
>
> To which Monsanto issued this statement:
>
> "Unfortunately in an effort to profit from unfounded
> fears, many milk processors have labeled their milk
> to suggest that milk from cows treated with rBST is
> harmful, or somehow different from milk from
> untreated cows. We stand by the safety of our
> products. Therefore we do support legislation
> requiring that milk labeling be COMPLETE and
> ACCURATE. We are not alone in this goal. Labeling
> guidelines published by the U.S. Food and Drug
> Administration state that labels claiming the milk
> is “not from cows treated with RBST` should also
> contain the statement that “No significant
> difference has been shown between milk derived from
> rbST-treated and non-rbST-treated cows”. It is a
> simple matter of honesty in labeling."
>
> Too bad Monsanto isn't honest, they should follow
> their own advice.
>
> GMO is one concern but there are many many others.
>
>
>
> "Candy is a variety from Seminis Seed, a company
> Monsanto bought several years ago. When Candy was
> released, it was a product of Petoseed, which was
> bought by Seminis. So you can see, with corporate
> structure ubiquitous in the seed industry, its
> really difficult to avoid this problem. But there
> are companies like Johnny's who have managed to be
> productive vegetable breeders without becoming part
> of the corporate shuffle.
>
> If it helps, there's nothing GMO about Candy. Its
> just a well-bred variety through classical breeding.
>
> Bill"
>
> ____________________________________________________________
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William H Shoemaker, UI-NRES
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road St Charles, IL 60174
630-584-7254; FAX-584-4610



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