Seeds of Change was owned by Mars for a long while before they went
downhill. Eventually the higher ups at Mars got tired of losing money
(which they were), so they closed the research farm and fired a lot of the
old crew who kept up the good work. Good news is Steve Peters who ran
research and seed buying at SoC is now managing Family Farmers Seed Co-op.
I'm not trying to trash Johnny's in entirety, as they at least still have a
research farm, but their major emphasis on hybrids takes a lot of control
out of the farmers hands, and subsequently shifts production to China. Most
hybrid seed is produced in China as the hand labor involved in hand
pollination, pollen gathering, and rougeing is significant and costly in
the US. Also, the production methods for non-organic hybrids are nasty.
Lots of biocide all around to keep such in-bred plants going. It is
essentially a life-support system of chemicals. When we buy that seed, we
support those practices. OP is the way to go, and it is likely some of
Johnny's OP seed is US produced, in fact I know growers who supply them.
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