“He who controls the seed – controls the world”
Now that’s a scary statement… but very true when you consider that the world relies upon seed for sustainability. It is vital for our food chain. We need it to grow a majority of our fruit and vegetables, the dairy industry requires greens to feed the cattle, and ‘meat product animals’ need plant life (either directly or indirectly) for food.
Seeds are our Future and need to be Protected
Seed is a necessary part of lifecycles, or what they call in Permaculture, a network. Consider: the seed germinates, the bug eats the plant, the bigger insect (eg. dragonfly) eats the bug, a frog eats the dragonfly, a snake or lizard eats the frog, a bird eats the lizard or snake, the bird poohs which becomes compost and helps nurture the seed to create a healthy plant… and on it goes. And, don’t forget seeds begin the lifecycle of most trees – those green things that developers and some agriculturalists forget are what suck up the carbon dioxide… and keep up alive.
Seeds have become a lucrative business, and for this reason ‘the big’ companies have become involved with an eye on monopolizing the industry. Five large multinational corporations control 57% of the world’s vegetable seed market. And the truly scary thing is that most are involved in, or have close dealings with, the genetically modified industry.
You may have heard of the Terminator Gene? It’s the reason that any plant that you grow from a commercial seed doesn’t produce viable seed for re-planting. That’s right, the big seed companies have genetically modified the seed so it can’t be reproduced by you or farmers in the future. That way each year the farmers (and you) have to go back to the big seed company and buy more seed. For example, if you bought some capsicum seeds, planted it, grew your capsicum, ate it and kept some seed from it, planted it… only to have nothing grow.
Oh, and to let you know there are other gene manipulation practices going on – there is a chemical called the Zombie which scientists can add back to the seed that is ‘sterile’ due to the Terminator Gene, and it will make it viable for germination again. And then there is the Exorcist (great names, hey?) which involved gene splicing and gives the big seed companies even more control over how the food is grown.
And, here’s a dreadful thought; because the Terminator Gene is already being used in seeds sold to farmers (here and overseas) then you are more than likely eating Genetically Modified Produce. Here’s the truth: not all of the produce, fresh or other, that you buy from the Supermarket comes from some local Mum and Pop Farm that use Heritage Seed, that hasn’t come from the big seed companies. Sorry to destroy any illusions you had there. And as a little side note, did you know that here in Australia, two foreign companies now control the processed vegetable business, and that they buy the majority of the vegetables overseas where labour is much cheaper.
This gene splicing and growing trend towards adding chemicals to seeds – and ultimately the food you eat – is one of the main reasons I have opted for growing my own fruit and vegetables (and, of course, to become more self sufficient) and using Heritage Seeds rather than the commercial seed.