Even though I’m not supposed to have favorites among the businesses that work with my organization, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being especially fond of Sarah and Andrew. They’re a young, ambitious couple who have finally found a farm of their own just outside Sweet Home, Oregon, and, among other enterprises such as their Bean and Grain CSA, run an heirloom seed company called Adaptive Seeds. Their stated goal is to provide gardeners and farmers with “artisan quality, public domain, open-pollinated seeds, grown without the use of synthetic chemicals and with ecologically mindful methods.” They describe their seeds as “robust productive varieties as well as rare adaptive gems.”



This couple came into my mind this past week as several cases involving Monsanto, an agribusiness super power, have come to the fore in the same, relatively short, time period. Please let me assure you that this is not a post about the ‘MORAL EVILS OF GENETIC MODIFICATION’ or a call for all farmers to back to using only chicken poo and mules; that’s not my ‘thing.’ Though if we’re making ‘full disclosures,’ I should say here that I am a passionate believer in the central role of farmers in our human community, the fundamental right of all people to save seeds, and in the importance of preserving and promoting genetic diversity as a provision to protect against future calamities. Which is why we’re talking about Adaptive Seeds.

I always feel inspired to dig in the dirt (despite my black thumb) after listening to Andrew and Sarah describe their travels across Europe and Asia (which they funded on farm hand wages) to work and learn with local farming communities, and bring back unique and ‘heirloom’ varieties of seeds that had been handed down for innumerable generations.

While genetic engineering of crops has undoubtedly had a huge impact on agricultural practices across the globe, it does have its limits. Specifically, genetic engineering can only ‘tinker,’ it cannot create anew. Plant breeding and genetic engineering have yet to create a wholly new food crop. The fruits and vegetables we enjoy today are simply variations and evolutions of the ones we started with eons ago. Genetic ‘tinkerers’ (I mean this with all due respect) do, however, rely on heritage varietals to provide them with their building blocks and ‘backup systems.’ Much the same as no new types of crops have been produced, no new genes have been produced either, but are plucked and stuck from existing varietals or organisms. Which is why Sarah and Andrew’s work is so vitally important, and why the promotion of small, dynamic farms is so crucial.
 

(Sarah and Andrew of Adaptive Seeds)

The Organic Seed Alliance summed up the issue nicely:

Plant genetics were the last natural resource to undergo commodification, in part because the mechanism for ongoing production (the seed) was a natural byproduct of growing the plant. When you bought the product it came with its own start-up factory. With recent innovations of hybridization and genetic engineering, and subsequent patenting of plant materials, corporations gained the ability to control the flow of production.

Since the advent of genetic engineering, the US has seen a rather pronounced decline in diversity in the varietals of crops planted, especially in commodity crops. Monsanto’s patented genes (predominantly the Roundup Ready kind) are found in 80 to 90 percent of the U.S. sugar beet crop, roughly 95 percent of all soybeans, and 80 percent of all corn. The issue at hand, at least for me, is not the Roudup Ready gene, but a) that gene’s propensity to ‘wander’ into other seed stock and b) the near total dependence of commodity growers on a single source of seed.

Roundup Ready beets grown for seed in the Willamette Valley begin to flower as early as mid-May following a spring planting. The pollen from the crop, which has the ability to cross pollinate with non-modified and organic seed crops, can be blown for incredible distances on the wind. Cross pollination, were it to occur, would result in permanent ‘contamination’ of heritage varieties, and our collective safety deposit box of genetic diversity.

“[Oregon's] Willamette Valley is the prime region for organic chard and beet seed production,” explained Frank Morton, owner of Wild Garden Seed in the Willamette Valley and grower of organic chard and table beet seed. “Without measures to protect farmers like from GE contamination, organic chard and beets as we know them are at serious risk of being lost.”

This threat of potential contamination of genetic stock has motivated the Center for Food Safety and other plaintiffs to file a request for a preliminary injunction last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern Division of California. If approved, the injunction would prohibit the planting of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets until, among other stated concerns, the possibility of genetic contamination of organic and conventional crops is duly considered. At the same time the Court has agreed to hear Monsanto’s appeal against an injunction placed on their Roundup Ready alfalfa, in place since 2006.

The debate isn’t simply a ‘small farms and environmentalist vs big agriculture and corporations’ issue, but is derived from serious economic concerns on both ends. If the injunction were to be imposed, conventional beet farmers are apprehensive about finding adequate sources of alternative seeds, and could suffer massive losses and cause shortfalls in American sugar production.

This dilemma raises the question of whether or not an entire industry should allow itself to be so completely dependent on a single varietal of seed… no matter how ‘super powered’ it may appear at the moment. Remember the Martians in War of the Worlds? Remember what brought them to a screeching halt? That’s right… one simple virus and they were all wiped out. An abundance of genetic diversity to draw on when new pests or disease epidemics emerge is key to ensuring the resilience of crop production for future generations.

Potential economic implications for organic and heritage growers are also grave, and in their case irreversible. According to Frank Morton, “If biotech traits show up in my seeds, then my seeds are worthless. If my traits show up in conventional or biotech seeds, it's not a big deal to them, it does not destroy their value. It's an asymmetrical relationship we have here.”

In an additional twist in this story, the Supreme Court of the United States decided on January 10th to grant Monsanto’s petition to review the Roundup Ready Alfalfa injunction, in place since 2005. The Court hasn’t set a date for hearing Monsanto's alfalfa appeal, but the bench is positioning to hear it. Justice Stephen Breyer has recused himself because his brother, 9th District Judge Charles Breyer, heard the alfalfa case in a lower court and ruled in favor of the Center. Clarence Thomas, a former staff attorney for Monsanto’s herbicide division, is not recusing himself. Whatever the outcome of that hearing, it will doubtless have a large impact on the subsequent decision of the California court and the future of genetically engineered crops and their heritage cousins.

© 2009–2012 Rural Development Initiatives, Inc.
Contributor Login   |   Terms & Privacy Policy