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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Monsanto seed and organic
  • Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 20:54:41 -0400


On Sep 7, 2009, at 6:45 PM, sora AT coldreams.com wrote:

((Here is the U.S. Seminis site, I bet you have something of theirs in
your
fields today!

[ . . . ] Sora, harvesting many of these babies as we speak
so would this then make them not "Organic"?

According to the current USDA rules, if the seed a) is not GMO b) is not treated with any prohibited substance and c) is a variety not available as certified organically grown seed (and you can show a good reason to want that particular variety), it's permissible to use it. There is nothing in the regulations forbidding purchase from specific companies, or even acknowledging this as a legitimate potential part of the decision making process in deciding which seed to buy. (Admittedly, federal standards that did recommend boycotting of legally operating companies would be rather odd, and possibly themselves illegal.)

Whether a particular grower considers this good organic practice is another matter. There are a number of people engaged in trying to breed varieties that can replace the Seminis list, but that could be produced by the farmers themselves and/or within a network of small to medium growers supplying independent seed companies. Some progress has been made (you might, for instance, want to trial Peacework against Northstar pepper; Fedco carries it.) In the meantime, some are continuing to use the Seminis varieties, others are not, some are working on reducing reliance on them but are still using some of them. Probably there are some people USDA certified organic who just don't care; though I haven't talked to any of those.

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



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