Seed Saving//GMO's

Last tuesday we discussed the importance of seed saving, especially with the recent proliferation of genetically modified organisms [GMO's] in the marketplace and farms. Historically, agriculture progressed through the selection of preferred traits in fruits and vegetables. Hunters and gatherers - when they weren't hunting and finally settled down- and farmers both selected for 'mutant' traits, finding, for example, big berries in a dominantly small-berry bush. After finding a plant with desired traits, farmers would gather and save its seeds. A farmer now had a seed library from which he could take a seed he selected for, plant it, then begin the process of selection again. This agricultural selection took time, and quite a bit of it. I believe this time allowed farmers to appreciate and respect their crops as living beings beyond only food. It also allowed for much tastier food for people! Enter science.

With genetically modified organisms, traits are selected for, but not in the historical sense. They're selected from a menu of desired features. "Oh, well, hmm...these red beets could be a bit more...golden! and uh... plump! and could I add some more sugar?" I imagine this is what industrial farmers say. Of course, the Green Revolution feeds many more people than traditional agriculture can, but at a cost to nature and a long-term risk for people.

GMO's are plants too. And plants reproduce, something they're are quite good at after doing it for millions of years. To survive, they have evolved -through natural selection- neat and sometimes tricky ways of reproducing. So, when GMO's are planted near non-GMO's, there is a high chance of cross pollination. In that case, GMO's contaminate non-GMO's. Natural crops with one set of features are contaminated by GMO crops with a completely different set. The chances increase of a genetic monoculture, whereby GMO's would completely dominate another crop, leaving only themselves. I won't argue about whether GMO's are fundamentally evil, or about Monsanto, or the 1980's legislature declaring life patent-able, but I will say that mono-cultures scare me. If we rely on mono-cultures for our bananas and turnips, not only do we risk those mono-cultures being wiped out by a single disease: our food becomes boring! On an end note, we eat ONE type of banana in the U.S., while Indians have a selection of about 300 different types of bananas.