Know What You're Buying

So, continuing on my theme of perusing seed catalogs and plotting my purchases, I thought it would be good to point out the obvious:  Shopping from all catalogs is not equal.  By now, you've likely figured out that I am opposed to GMOs (I like to keep my flounder and corn genes separate, thank you very much) and I really don't like the idea of ingesting tons of  reportedly "safe" pesticides that are imbued in my food.

I particularly dislike monopolies.  I really, really don't like big companies coming in, bullying farmers, and forcing them into greater and greater debt to buy modified seeds and massive quantities of pesticides and herbicides, and if they don't, forcing them out of business by ruining them, politically, socially, and financially.

Not. Nice.

When it comes to what I, as one little individual in the great big world, can do, however, I have to pause, look around, and get off my soap box for a moment.  The only thing that I really can do, is spend my dollars (few that they may be) as a consumer on what I believe is the best thing to buy.  So, organic food?  Yep. Shop local from friend farmers?  Wahoo!  Non-GMO products?  Yes please.  Recycle and reuse more?  Absolutely, sign me up.

Now, as a backyard farmer, I spend quite a bit of money every year on seeds.  Seed potatoes, all manner of vegetable and herb seeds, and good quality nursery stock for my fledgling orchard--there's my budget, in a nut shell.  When your budget is small, it is very very tempting to buy seeds for a catalog offering tremendous deals:  Save $25 when you buy $25 in product!  Get a free $50 to shop with!  Free Shipping, Buy Here!  Oh yes, I know the seductive call of a seed catalog very well.  (There is a reason why I refer to them as "gardener porn", you know.)  Unfortunately, what is not so obvious is that quite a lot of the seed houses are owned by Seminis, aka Monsanto. Or, even if they continue to be independently owned, they buy a LOT of seed owned by Seminis/Monsanto, and redistribute it.  They may not be selling GMO seed, but...the company that owns them or that they buy from DOES.  I will not go into my hatred of all things Monsanto, but I'll leave it at that I prefer to buy my seed from an agency that still believes that food belongs to the people, not a corporation, and that food should be...well, food, not a mixture of chemicals, viruses, and foreign DNA.

Anyway, because Monsanto has started buying up lots and lots of seed catalog companies, this means that they now (a) can limit varieties severely, creating a backyard monoculture, (b) can restrict access to seed, period, and (c) can start dictating whether or not it is "legal" to grow certain crops from seed in your own backyard.  This is all based on the idea that if you control the food (down to the seed), you control the people.

Well, I refuse to be controlled, thank you very much.  To that end, I looked up a few forums online and found a list of currently-owned-by-or-purchasing-in-quantity-seeds-owned-by-Seminis/Monsanto seed catalog companies.  I found this list at a couple of different sites, including The Garden of Eatin', Planet InfoWars, and Hawke's Health.  Let me be clear:  I am NOT advocating to not to purchase items from these companies.  Good people work for them, and overall, they likely have great business practices.  But...I personally don't want any of my meager garden dollars possibly finding their way into the pockets of a giant company that I firmly believe doesn't have my health, or the welfare of this world, as any part of it's corporate agenda.  You might agree with me, and you might not...but information shared never hurt anybody, right?

Here's the most recent listing of companies that I could find:

Audubon Workshop
Breck’s Bulbs
Cook’s Garden
Dege Garden Center
Earl May Seed
E & R Seed Co
Ferry Morse
Flower of the Month Club
Gardens Alive
Germania Seed Co
Garden Trends
HPS
Jungs
Lindenberg Seeds
McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
Mountain Valley Seed
Nichol’s
Osborne
Park Bulbs
Park’s Countryside Garden
R.H. Shumway
Roots and Rhizomes
Rupp
Seeds for the World
Seymour’s Selected Seeds
Snow
Spring Hill Nurseries
Stokes
T&T Seeds
Tomato Growers Supply
Totally Tomato
Vermont Bean Seed Co.
Wayside Gardens
Willhite Seed Co.

Look familiar?  Me, too.  I get a LOT of these catalogs free in my mailbox.

But then again, I get these other ones, too, from the companies that are independently owned AND are committed to non-GMO/open pollinated seed varieties.  Oh, how I like my variety!  You, too, could consider checking out the catalogs from one of these companies when making your seed purchases this year:

Abundant Life Seeds
Amishland Seeds
Annapolis Valley
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Heritage Seed Company (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Diane’s Flower Seeds
Ed Hume Seeds
Fedco
Garden City Seeds
Heirlooms Evermore Seeds
Heirloom Seeds
Heirloom Organics
Horizon Herbs
Irish-Eyes
Landreth Seeds
Lake Valley Seeds
Livingston Seeds
Local Harvest
Mountain Rose Herbs
Organica Seed
Pinetree
Sand Hill Preservation Center
Seeds of Change
Southern Exposure
Sustainable Seed Co 

 Tiny Seeds
Uprising Seeds
Virtual Farm Seed Co
Wildseed Farms

Gosh.  I think I'll be able to source my seeds from a "safe" dealer, don't you?

(Yes, I may be becoming a bit of a vigilante.  Watch for me by night, bearing seed bombs and aged manure...)