Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Patricia Ruggiero" <ruggierop@earthlink.net>]

Gwen wrote:

> I will probably never buy....seeds at Walmart again

How many of us know where our seeds come from?  Have you thought about what
the "Safe Seed Pledge" does and *doesn't* say when you skim right past the
first page of your favorite seed catalogs?

That pledge says the catalog folks don't knowingly deal in GM seeds.  It
doesn't say that the catalog folks don't buy from the same companies that
are busy genetically modifying other seeds or trying to patent OP seeds.

When I queried one well-known supplier of select seeds about its "trusted
sources," I received a list of suppliers, most of which are the largest
multinationals controlling the agricultural and horticultural seed supply
and all of which are engaged in genetic engineering.  This, despite the fact
that the supplier touts being a supporter of organic gardening and looks for
suppliers who engage in organic seed production; a bit of further
investigation revealed that "unfortunately" the supplier couldn't find
organic farms that met its standards of organic seed production.  I can
understand a supplier having high standards, but then its catalog shouldn't
give the impression it is buying seeds from small organic or sustainable
farms when, in reality, just the opposite is true.

Even if our favorite catalog retailers aren't buying most of their seeds
from biotech multinationals, it's still worth considering whether we want to
support non-organic seed production *on any scale.*  Sure, I can garden
organically; but am I "putting my $ where my mouth is" if I buy my seeds
from suppliers who get them from farmers growing them under conditions that
aren't organic or sustainable?

One catalog company, Fedco (Maine) *does* make this information available.
Each variety has a code number included in it description.  The customer can
consult the code list to determine if the seed was raised on an organic
farm, a small farm practicing sustainable methods, larger operations,
multinationals not engaged in GM, multinationals that do engage in GM.  The
customer can then choose accordingly.

Then we have the situation where one company, Seeds of Change, offers only
organic seed.  That should make our lives simple, right?  Well, it would be
if only Seeds of Change hadn't been bought by the Mars Corp. a few years
back.  So far Mars seems to be leaving SoC alone, to function as it always
has; but we've all lived long enough to know that this could change with a
change in directors or if "the bottom line" fails to meet expectations or
for no good reason at all.

Pat
Central Virginia