To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Revealed: how seed market is controlled by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow & DuPont
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:07:42 -0400
On Oct 13, 2010, at 4:03 PM, Mark Angermayer wrote:
But farmers haven't saved seed back to replant for 50 years.
I haven't time now to address the rest of this issue properly; but
just have to fire off a quick reply to this one.
It's very common in this area for field crop growers to save some of
their seed for replanting themselves, and/or to sell to their neighbors.
It's also common for direct market produce growers to save seed of at
least a few varieties, often breeding their own strains.
In both cases, the advantage (and it is a huge advantage) is that the
seed is locally adapted, and adapted to the production style of the
growers using it. Varieties on the general commercial market are
always changing -- it's extremely common for varieties to disappear
from the commercial market, often with little or no warning -- and,
while the replacements may indeed have "enormous genetic improvement
gained through painstaking research" if grown under the conditions
under which the research is conducted, they may nevertheless produce
worse, not better, when grown under the conditions of any given farm.
-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
Re: [NAFEX] Revealed: how seed market is controlled by Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow & DuPont
, (continued)