Pinepig's Virtual Garden

Thanks to bluemeridian for This link about some of Monsanto's nasty practices.

Put aside things like their rBGH hormone in cows (which, whether or not it has negative effects on human health or not does have negative effects on cow health and well-being), genetically modifying seeds and then patenting them (all of which in my mind are bad enough), but are using Bully-Boy tactics on farmers and dairy owners. They secretly "investigate" farmers who they suspect of saving their patented seed and planting it again.

Never mind that farmers have always saved seed from the the best plants of the prior year's crop to plant again from time immemorial. If a farmer buys Monsanto seed they have to sign something to say they won't save and replant seed. But what about those poor farmers who, Goddess Forbid, never planted the genetically modified seed before? Farmers who have a Monsanto plant in their field not from choice but from bird droppings or wind drift?

Those of us who have gardened know that it's also possible to have 'volunteers' shoot up where you never planted them the next year. What about a farmer who planted Monsanto the previous year and ends up with volunteers in a fallow field?

In all instances Monsanto trains its big guns on the farmer, using threats and litigation to twist their arms into trying to settle out of court and pay the company large sums to 'go away'. How do you prove you didn't plant something but a bird did? As the article mentions, one farmer accused of re-planting Monsanto seed actually never did. It was a case of mistaken identity. So we can see how well (/sarcasm) Monsanto's investigators and lawyers do with being fair in figuring out who really has re-planted.

Then throw in the dairy owners who simply put something like "No rBGH" on their milk and dairy product labels. Monsanto has it's fingers in so many political pies it's influencing the FDA and Federal Trade Commission. It's trying to use the FTC to force diary owners to stop claiming they don't have rBGH in their products.

If you're a gardener, what can you do? It's easy enough to stop using Round Up and other Monsanto products. But go deeper than this. Look into your local seed saving organisation and/or heirloom seed company and get your seeds there. If you are in the US, there are organisations like Seed Savers. In NZ we've got Koanga. These places protect our gardening genetic diversity and are what prevent us from becoming a world of mono-crops. They also often run workshops on different aspects of "old time" skills like keeping bees, food storage, planting, grafting, etc. Support them with your purchases, become members where they allow that. Talk to other gardeners you know about the benefits of heirloom varieties & even get together with friends or family and exchange some of your seeds. I got my Scarlet Runners from a friend and gave her some of my heirloom tomato seeds.

Next year for our Relay for Life fundraiser I want to do an heirloom tomato tasting. I hope that in addition to raising money for our Relay team to pass onto the NZ Cancer Society, but that it will also expose more people to the variety heirloom tomatoes can provide, maybe encourage them to plant some next year. I'm also playing with the idea of a 'gardeners sale' where I ask our team who garden to plant a few extra seeds & sell the seedlings for say $2 each to raise money for our Relay team. We do well with our bake sales but want to look at other possible fundraisers that are more healthy.