Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

I also recommend Fedco http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds.htm .  See Monsanto 
buys Seminis http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/monsanto.htm .

Download the 2006 catalog (3 MB).
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/forms/sds28_cat.pdf

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not 
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only 
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/26/2006 at 10:53 PM Patricia Ruggiero wrote:

>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