SOS save our seeds

Seeds are critical to our success as gardeners and farmers. They are compact packages of genetic information and stored food reserves, just waiting for the conditions found in warm, moist soil in order to germinate and create tomatoes, carrots, beans and thousands of other delights out of sunshine, air, water and soil. For most of the last ten thousand years of human history, seed-saving was something nearly everyone practiced, because in order to eat and therefore to survive, it was necessary. The grains and beans which formed the basis of most diets were both seed and food. Grown in large quantities, the best were saved for planting and the rest were eaten. Our ancestors did this each year, generation after generation through the centuries. Variations in climate, soil and techniques from garden to garden and community to community, accumulated through the years, creating the incredible diversity which existed over much of our planet well into this century. These local seeds were integral to life and culture everywhere. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these varieties have disappeared.”
From Bill Duesing - Living on the Earth 1999

Some Statistics

According to FAO estimates 75% of the genetic diversity of crop plants was lost in the last century. A survey by RAFI found that approximately 97% of U.S. Department of Agriculture lists have been lost in the last 80 years

Before the 1940's very few pesticides were used on crops. Now 800 million pounds of pesticides alone are used on US farmlands each year and yet crop losses from pests are on the increase. The big producers of agro-chemicals have bought control of seed companies in order to produce seeds that require doses of their chemicals.

Seeds companies are being bought up at an alarming rate by Monstanto. Their most recent purchase was Seminis. It is estimated that Seminis controls 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and 20 percent of the world market

Almost all these cultivars have been replaced by 4 or 5 supermarket varieties because, as one grower stated, the supermarket buyer is not interested in buying any apples or peaches with less than a 4-month shelf life. This is the reason why 90% of all fruit and vegetable varieties have disappeared.

Our food is so altered that the supermarket hybrid tomato has become both the box and its contents

Preventing farm saved seed
An estimated 1.4 billion of the world's poorest people now depend for their survival on farm saved seed. Hybrid seeds and their required fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation systems have trapped many of the world's poorest farmers into a cycle of debt.

Terminator technology sterilises a seed as it develops in a plant. This means farmers can’t store or replant seed from season to season as many now do. Instead, they must buy new seed and pay a technology fee. If Terminator were commercialised, farmers would be prevented from using the ancient practices of harvesting, saving and replanting seed. Farmers rely on these processes to adapt their local varieties to unique environmental, soil and management conditions. As climates change globally this will become even more crucial. As the plant’s pollen remains fertile, Terminator genes can be transferred to other plants. This would sterilise them, too, wreaking environmental havoc and threatening food security

In India hundreds of farmers have committed suicide due to debt. Monsanto pushes their pesticide-producing Bt cotton, “there was no non-BT hybrid seed available in the market,” says agronomist Kiran Sakhari.

Farmers had to borrow heavily to pay four times the price for the GM varieties, along with the chemicals needed to grow them. In spite of glowing promises of higher yields by Monsanto’s ads, Bt cotton often performs poorly. Tragically, tens of thousands of indebted desperate farmers have resorted to suicide, often drinking unused pesticides. In one region, more than three Bt cotton farmers take their own lives each day.

In the US Monsanto are vigorously pursuing their proprietary rights. Using investigators to identify farmers suspected of saving their seed, Monsanto threaten criminal charges and damages in excess of $1 million. The company requires farmers to sign a contract that they will not save and replant GM seeds from their harvest

Conclusion
Commercial interests currently dictate the path of research and development of new crop varieties. There is a chronic shortage of research looking at the adverse effects of, and the alternatives to, the chemical paradigm. Scientists are discouraged from co-operation and publishing their work by the secrecy required for patenting.

It is a myth that large, intensive farms growing modern high response seed are efficient. Such measures of efficiency exclude social and environmental costs. Numerous studies indicate that utilising practices such as mixed cropping; small farms practising alternatives to chemical agriculture can produce greater yields

We can all help on a grass roots level by

Refrain from purchasing seed varieties controlled or purchasing chemicals by Monsanto

Grow your own food and save seeds from each crop and share them with others

Support local seed banks

Purchase organic, heirloom or open pollinated from independent seed companies who’s mission are to save seed diversity.