And those newly patented Monsanto seeds will not be heirlooms, thus guaranteeing the end of seed saving as the seeds from this year’s crop will not be able to reproduce, thus guaranteeing the need to purchase new seed each and every year.
While heirloom tomatoes taste wonderful, they are unsuited for my microclimate (North-facing valley at 44 degrees N). I have planted them. They have low germination rates. They take too long to mature. They are blight-prone. They are poor keepers. They are not cold hardy. They are mediocre producers in my garden. I can buy them from local gardeners when I so desire. They are far from threatened or extinct.
Various seeds companies spent a lot of time, effort and money developing hardy tomatoes that are cold or heat tolerant, will mature quickly, are multi-disease resistant, will tolerate drought or even too much rain, are very productive and are good keepers, as well.
In addition, I have better germination rates with my commercial seeds and I have access to varieties developed specifically for various end uses, like Big Mama Romas. I also do not have to go thru a fermentation or stratification period with commercial seeds.
There is no shortage of heirloom seeds. Burpee, for example, sells almost all of the various Crimean, pink, Amish tomato seeds, as well as Mortgage Lifter (which the original grower developed from at least two other varieties, using hand pollination methods to modify the genome). They are inexpensive. The hybrids I buy as plants are also inexpensive, as are the seeds. In a bad growing season, can anyone guarantee there will be plentiful fertile seeds available inexpensively for the next year? No.
For how long can you save seeds and under what conditions to guarantee germination? I have used 2 and even 3-yr-old commercial hybrid seeds with an equal germination rate to heirlooms.
This entire argument/thesis is flawed, IMO. It is really just another way to reduce ag yields and limit who can grow what and where. I do not want yet another successful capitalistic and scientific endeavor demonized by idiots with an agenda (nothing personal meant to you or the previous posters). Much of the original development of cold tolerant, early tomatoes and other plants was done in Manitoba by a US Ag Department research station, IIRC. An example, IMO, of my tax dollars being used for my benefit. I highly doubt that all the seeds stored cryogenically in Norway (IIRC)are heirlooms. If Earth is really entering an ice age, do we want so-called heirloom seeds that developed in warmer periods or do we want seeds that were engineered to withstand climactic extremes? Hybrids will nourish just as well as traditional varieties.
Anyone can buy, trade and save seeds, providing someone can successfully grow the original plant. No one is stopping this from occurring. Hybrid seeds are a commercial enterprise and no one is forced to buy them or grow them. People do so because of all the reasons I listed above.
GMO are not poison. They do not harm the environment. When wheat skyrocketed in price last year, the EU suddenly became interested in GMO plants. Heirlooms are not automatically better or the best available. I have spoken with my Amish neighbors and they (gasp) _buy_ their hybrid, named, patented seeds from Walmart. As an aside, we have an *activist* locally who goes around lecturing the Amish on why they should not buy anything from Walmart. Being polite people, they listen quietly and ignore her.
I really have doubts that Monsanto or any other seed company is out there terrorizing innocent farmers who are saving seed. If this is actually occurring and is prevalent, are there links to the court cases brought by the terrorized farmers? Why are these cases not in court and if they are, what were the verdicts? Sounds like a good candidate for a civil case.
Years ago, I did some Internet research on this entire anti-GMO hoo haw. At base, you have Europeans, mainly, who are ostensibly concerned with depletion of their natural essence (whatever that means). They are, upon further investigation, being used or are willing pawns of EU ag policy, which protects EU farmers at the expense of anyone else, anywhere else.
What happened to freedom? You can take my hybrid, patented, named, inexpensive and reliable seeds from my cold dead hands and that is exactly what could ensue.