My organic garden, 2009

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by BailOut

3) I produce roughly half my own seeds. I have never had a plant fail to produce seed, or had those seeds fail to germinate. Evil companies like Monsanto typically "turn off" the reproduction genes in seeds in order to lock you into buying from them for each crop.

That's not the entire story, Brian.

Sterile hybrids have been popular seeds for a long time. The commercial seed companies claim that they can get better yields and better disease resistance from these hybrids. What they don't tell you is that you cannot breed these plants "true". They're like mules than like horses or donkeys.

Monsanto's "terminator gene" was meant to prevent the diffusion of their special GMO plasm into nature and keep poor farmers on the hook with Monsanto.

Monsanto has been suing farmers who have plants which contain "Monsanto genes" that came to them through genetic diffusion from the environment. I wish to heck I'd known about the first of these lawsuits because I'd have been glad to slip the Farmer's lawyer a $100 or $50 buck note to keep the defense strong. This is the kind of horseshit lawsuit that makes Capitalism look like a scam and creates stupid "Rights" that are crap.

I don't buy hybrids myself. I have a fourth generation of Kale coming up in my garden. Every one of them, all six of them, are volunteers from last year. I plan to add to these six about five more from a separate line to keep up the genetic diversity. Might also add Scotch Kale in the indoors for variety.

Odd as it sounds, Brian, we do agree on the necessity of sexual reproduction of foodstuffs to build up vitality, defend against parasites and diseases and create robust foods. Maybe some GMO will work, some day, but for today it's in its infancy and given how Monsanto acts like Brigands they're making it a tough sell.

I give away my seeds to friends and fellow gardeners.

This year I'm trying to grow Quinoa and keep a seed collection from it. My Amaranth from last year was good but I dislike how Amaranth tastes so I don't plan on growing it in abundance this year. The two don't cross so I don't see a problem if I grow some more this year to keep the strain vigorous with new exposure to the environment.

Gene

[cali yaris]

+1 about Monsanto. They sued a corn farmer when their GMO pollen blew onto his field and pollinated his corn. Lame.

Some of our seeds are products of last year's plants that we allowed to go to seed.

Here's mine for 2009:

x2 cherry tomatoes
x2 large tomatoes (2 kinds)
x2 eggplant
x3 hot peppers
x4 green and red bell peppers
x5 yellow squash
x5 zuchinni
x2 cantalope
x8 corn
x19 bush beans
x3 basil
x1 oregano
x3 chives
x2 rosemary
x1 lemon balm
x1 raspberry
x4 chard
x8 spinach
x3 cilantro
x5 aloe vera
x2 sage (two kinds)

TREES
grapefruit
tangerine
peaches
Meyer lemons
dwarf avocado

[Shroomster]

how do you know if the seeds you purchased are monsanto?

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by Shroomster

how do you know if the seeds you purchased are monsanto?

AFAIK Monsanto doesn't sell seeds in the consumer segment, just their newest flagship pesticide, Roundup (their previous flagship product was Agent Orange and we all know how that turned out).

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by BailOut

AFAIK Monsanto doesn't sell seeds in the consumer segment, just their newest flagship pesticide, Roundup (their previous flagship product was Agent Orange and we all know how that turned out).

That's non-sense, Brian. Agent Orange and Roundup are as different as gasoline and ethanol. What's more, glyphosphides are now available in "generic" forms, which kind of demonstrates their age on the market.

Agent Orange (a blend of the agents 2,4,5 T and 2,4 T) was produced by Dow Chemical and Dupont, not Monsanto. The most toxic part of it was not really part of the specified chemicals but was the product of an unwanted "side reaction", that produced "dioxin". Sloppy processes, probably because of the volume needed for LBJ's dirty little war, lead to dioxin being sprayed onto US troops, Vietnamese people and vast areas of Viet Nam. This came to light when a producer of 2,4,5 T had a thermal issue, lost control, and contaminated areas of Italy with dioxin. At that point Dow and Dupont couldn't bluff and BS their way out of it.

Roundup is one of the "glyphosphide" class of herbicides. The stuff is used as part of a "no-till" mode of agriculture that reduces soil erosion. There is no way in hell that farmers could put Agent Orange on crop lands due to its persistence. Monsanto loves the stuff because they can market "Roundup resistant" seeds to farmers.

The two do not even share the same mode of attack - Agent Orange burns out plants by forcing them to over grow. Roundup interferes with protein synthesis.

I've never seen Monsanto seeds for non-commercial sales but I would not be surprised if they have a consumer division out there. Monsanto is sneaky.

Gene

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by GeneW

Agent Orange (a blend of the agents 2,4,5 T and 2,4 T) was produced by Dow Chemical and Dupont, not Monsanto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_o..._manufacturers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto#History

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by BailOut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_o..._manufacturers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto#History

Ahhhh! Misread it. Sorry, Brian.

Gene

[Shroomster]

well I picked 4 cukes today and ate one and I'm not dead (referring to my previous thread), they were delicious, and I think I'm liking this gardening thing :)