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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Baker's Creek, GMO, monopoly

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  • From: Mike Rock <mikerock AT mhtc.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Baker's Creek, GMO, monopoly
  • Date: Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:06:31 -0500

If you want a view from the Third World, check out The Seedling, published by GRAIN.

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?type=66

It is pretty sickening to see what Monsanto has done world wide. For those who are concerned about all the illegal aliens of Mexican birth (and further south), many of them are small holdings farmers whose life was destroyed by GMO pollution. Between the 'big guys' just staking a claim on the small holders land, many times by brute force, or by spraying, or by aerial spreading of GMO corn pollen (document with photos and analyses). Thousands (their count) of corn types have been lost in the last ten years. Once they are lost they are like the carrier pigeon......never to be seen again. And you all know that the genetic pool is shrinking very fast. What happens when we have a widespread disease like rust and it likes GMO corn or beans or what other crops are GMO by then? You have no base to rebuild from. Roundup won't help you then.

Beginning to rant so I will shut up. Check out the website and make up your mind without my interference.

Most respectfully,
Mike
where tomatoes are on strike....a few are ripening but most are large, healthy and green...... and where the peppers are threatening to take over the mint patch. This is the oddest gardening year I have ever seen since the early sixties. And we did not have summer.... kind of a warm spell for a bit.

Road's End Farm wrote:


On Sep 7, 2009, at 9:33 AM, Richard Stewart wrote:


Companies like Baker Creek and Johnny's are not selling GMO seeds,
they are selling hybrids, heirlooms, and organics,


Nitpick 1: Baker Creek I think does not sell hybrids. (Johnny's does. And I do not think hybrids are necessarily bad; though I don't think they're always better than OP's.)

which I suppose, technically, are ALL genetically altered by cross
breeding since few if any seed lines are 100% pure.

Nitpick 2: yes, technically every plant that's been grown by humans for more than a plant generation or two is genetically altered in that sense. This isn't, however, the sense that most people are using it in. The English language is often confusing, and this is one of those instances.



I do not like Monsanto but if I can EASILY avoid purchasing from
them, that is great. Doing that with our field crops is nearly
impossible


Main point of this email: That is exactly the problem that a lot of us are concerned about: that Monsanto has succeeded in getting themselves into a position in which it is nearly impossible for many farmers to get seed from anyone else.

That's an entirely separate issue from the GMO issue; they just happen to be associated with the same company (though some of the association has to do with the current legal situation, which makes it easier for Monsanto to keep control of GMO's than of open-pollinated or even non-GMO hybrid varieties). I would be equally worried about that degree of monopoly if it were held by a company not selling any GMO's.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale


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