“The myth of “free choice” begins with “free market” and “free trade”. When five transnational corporations control the seed market, it is not a free market, it is a cartel.”
Readers of this blog are familiar with my thoughts on cultural dilution in a globalized world. It’s not that I rail against one culture adopting intellectual “property” from another, or some supremacist delusion about cultural purity. My issue is that industrial methods and global supply chains eviscerate local flavor. By creating massive surpluses of a handful of commodity crops, government subsidies and transnational corporations force diversity out of the system. Where, once, local production gave rise to local ingredients and a local cuisine appropriate to the region, there is now a sea of chain restaurants offering the same corn, soy, and canola based pseudo food across America, and beyond.
The cost of factory farming will come due, like a margin call, in the near future. This system of soil mining and chemical supplementation turns the fecund and vital earth into impotent dust. Tillage (the turning of soil, for all of you non farmers) is bad enough, but the subsequent application of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides creates a soil environment unfit for the complex biology that fuels healthy plant growth. The factory farming economy hangs on too many potential failure points. If oil prices rise, the cost of tractor fuel spikes. Petrochemical inputs also spike. Transportation to market does, too. Then there’s the electrical grid that runs the computers and powers the grocery stores that offer the “food” to the people. Any number of scenarios could lead to grid failure. Cyber attack, state or freelance sabotage, natural disaster, or just human incompetence could cause a “grid down” scenario, at any time. A large American city typically has only a three day food supply, at any point in time. If the supply chain is interrupted, for whatever reason, things get sketchy, quick. Food security is weak, in this model.
Not only is the whole system as fragile as it is massive, it isn't healthy. I ran across a study, recently, about the effects of canola oil in mice. More shocking than the revelation that a diet rich in canola oil caused multi-fold increases of the incidence of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia in the test group was the gaping holes in the study’s methodology. The premise for the study (the abstract for which was published in Nature, and can be read here) was to examine whether the positive mental health effects of an olive oil rich Mediterranean diet translated to a cheaper canola oil rich diet. Once again, the reductionist approach of “nutritional science” coughs up a virtually useless fur ball. Among the lesser issues with this study are the attempt to isolate one ingredient’s health benefits from an entire culture, and lack of an olive oil control group. The glaring omission to me, however, was the absence of an mention of the source of this canola oil. You see, about 90% of the US canola production is GMO. Because these “scientists” made no mention of whether they used GMO canola oil, or not, the odds are overwhelming that they did. Why does that matter? For that, we must examine the lightning rod of Genetically Modified Organisms.
My problems with GMO food crops are numerous. The meta motivation for creating them is sold as a way to reduce pest pressure from weeds and insects, and thereby feed the world. The actual motivation is to corner the market on crop seeds, and create a market demand for chemicals like glyphosate,. That’s Monsanto's tasty treat sold as Round-up. This chemical kills plants by disrupting their nutrient uptake mechanisms. Monsanto’s line of Round-up Ready seeds have been modified to resist the effects if this herbicide. Is there a threat from genetically modified plants, independent of the chemicals they have been modified to survive? I have no idea. I do know that I am not “Round-up ready”. I have not been modified to resist the life destroying effects of glyphosate. On a non-scientific level, I do take issue with the whole notion of gene manipulation. It just seems to me that a plant mutation, which occurs through pollination, and natural stress, and survives the rigors of the natural environment to produce viable seed, is somehow sanctified in the natural order. The violation of inserting genetic code from species wholly unrelated to the host organism (to produce seed that will grow in an artificial environment) sounds, at the very least, unwise. There is something of a clear rule, in nature. Viable mating offspring are added to the soup. Cheating the mating game by forcing the offspring of a corn daddy and a bacteria mommy out into the world just sounds like a horrible idea, to me. That is not an argument. It is a spiritual conviction, and should be considered as such.
The advent of patented seeds has had a deleterious effect on the farmer, too. Once he makes the deal with the devil, and plants those modified seeds, there’s no going back. Natural seeds won’t grow in his polluted soil, so he must buy next year’s seeds from Monsanto, as well. He must also buy all of the gick to spray on them. Oh, and the weeds (sanctified in the natural order) have adapted to the changing conditions, so you will need to apply twice as much glyphosate, this year. Don’t save your seed, either, or our investigators will find out, and we’ll sue your old MacDonald ass into oblivion. Even Farmers who resist the GMO temptation get beaten to pieces by Monsanto. Because the government is the tool of such businesses, if a farmer’s non-GMO canola crop is polluted with the pollen from a neighbor’s GMO crop, Monsanto’s legal army will sue him for patent infringement, and win. That’s the other part of the business model.
Anyhow, back to the mice. Did eating a bunch of canola oil wreck their brains, or did eating a bunch of Round-up do it? There are no GMO olives on the market, at least not yet. Sadly, that is no assurance of glyphosate free food, anymore. As previously mentioned, wheat farmers started applying round-up to non-GMO wheat to force ripen it, years ago. The same is true for sugar cane. One used to be able to buy cane sugar over beet sugar to avoid this chemical. Now, you must buy organic flour and cane sugar, to avoid it. And you have to trust the same government that lets Monsanto set agriculture policy to certify that standard.
The alternative to relying on the factory farming system for your life is in the seeds. Much ado is made about “heirloom” produce, and seed. The heirloom movement is born of not just demand for a wider variety of produce, but also in response to threats to seed choice. The EU forbids the sale of seed cultivars not on an approved list. In Colombia, laws have been proposed that would criminalize seed saving, itself. How did we fall so far, as to permit government to tell us what seeds we are allowed to plant? This is really dangerous policy. What GMO’s promise to do, heirloom seeds actually do. More over, locally selected and saved seeds can be tailored down to the micro climate. By planting old lines of seed in your garden, and keeping seed from the plants that do well and exhibit treats you find appealing, you develop a unique genetic bank. This seed bank performs better, every season. After a decade, or two, you have produce that can only be found on your land, and everything responds beautifully to your specific micro-climate.
Permafrost seed banks are novel, but a real store of seed value is a living seed bank. By sharing, planting, and refining seed lines, we ensure food stability for our communities. We begin recapturing regional cultures based around the food we grow, and the ways we prepare it. I get a kick out of visiting my friends and seeing one of my giant pink banana squashes crowding the tops of their refrigerators. I know the seeds will be saved, and planted. On large gathering occasions, one of these beasts will get prepared, and a new recipe enters the culture. If it’s good, it enters the rotation. Next season, giant pink banana squash may be grown by a dozen local farmers who got seed from me. All of that food can be traced back to a package of seed I bought in about 2012. This year, I will grow out a sixth generation of the green corn I was given around the same time. A whole catalog of local favorites has developed, within our community. The seeds unite and sustain us.
It has been said that saving seed is a revolutionary act. It is certainly a defiantly human act. At a time when transnational corporations and despotic governments want to dictate what we can plant, the need for a seed saving culture has never been greater. I encourage everyone to find your local seed banks. Many will lend seed for the season, asking only for the return of seeds in the fall. Seed swaps are happening all over. Save the seeds from heirlooms you buy at the farmer’s market. You will never regret being involved with a rich, local seed culture!