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Safe Seed Pledge
FEAR NOT FINE FOLKS! OUR SEED IS SAFE!
Sustainably Grown Means...
- We do not knowingly grow OR buy seed that is surrounded by GM crops.
- We do not buy seed from abroad. We support local farmers and their families. When you buy seed from us you are supporting American farm families.
- We don’t chemically treat our seeds and since we don't buy from out of country the USDA does not treat our seed like many seed companies. Don't assume that if a company uses the word "heirloom" that it is grown here in the US. In fact we get hundreds of emails from companies in China and India trying to sell us cheap "heirloom" seed. Where does you seed company get it's seed from?
- We grow seed strictly without the use of ANY chemical fertilizers and pesticides. We use only organic fertilizers and methods of pest control.
- We farm in a sustainable, water conscious and environmentally responsible manner.
One of the major purposes of this heirloom organic seed company is genetic preservation of heritage open pollinated seeds. We believe it is every person’s right to control and grow their own food. We pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants. Unlike other seed companies (click & discover who...it might surprise you), we will not buy ANY seed from Seminis, a Monsanto owned subsidiary (Click here to learn more about Monsanto).
Heirloom seeds belong in the hands of people, not nameless, faceless corporations that we feel don't have our best interests at heart. Corporations that lobby our government so that GM food goes unlabeled in stores for example. We may not know what is in a box of cereal, but you can trust we will not be buying their seed. With this you have the ability to grow your own clean food for your family.
Why are you not certified organic?
There are a number of reasons for this. Honestly, I think the folks using chemicals on crops should be regulated not the other way around! However, here is why we are opting out of organic certification at the moment:
- Certification by the CCOF cost $1,500. That is a tremendous amount for a small company or a farmer to pay. The CCOF doesn't not make any exceptions or have any programs to off set this expense according to the policy director at CCOF. We want to support small family farmers and buy seed from them. I will not eliminate these hard working organic farmers because they cannot afford this certification expense.
- The CCOF is currently requesting that we have two separate warehouses for seed packaging since we buy from farmers who cannot afford their certification. Meaning, they want us to have one warehouse for certified seed and a completely other building for non certified seed. We cannot afford such nonsense. Two entirely separate buildings for packing seed!!! I've asked to use another room within the same warehouse exclusively for certified seed, but that has been rejected thus far.
- As with any program it comes down to the actual monitoring of the farms and the integrity of the farmer. As we have seen with our own government there is simply not enough people within the EPA for instance to stop corporations from polluting. A great deal of the responsibility falls on the integrity of the company. We monitor ourselves and our farmers far better than ANY regulatory agency. Our own guidelines of sustainability go far past merely being "organic". We do not need any agency to validate this company or "certify" that we meet their standards because our level of integrity far exceeds the bureaucracy of such organizations. You have my word on it and honestly that is all anyone has these days. You will either choose to buy from this company or not based on what you read and feel in the words of these pages. If I saw you in person I would gladly give you an old fashioned handshake for that is how we do business here at Sustainable Seed Company.
Do we test our corn seed for GMO?
- Corn by its very nature is pollinated in a very complex way. Each tassel held outside the ear receives a floating pollen grain in order to produce a single seed. (If not, that is why there can be spotty holes in your corn ear). Lets say there are 140 tassels and 120 get pollinated. Each one carries the a different genetic code because each one received a different floating pollen grain. Lets say 35 of those pollen grains were GM. Now, say you are going to test for GMO. You sample a 100# bag of corn. That bag contains MANY different ears, all pollinated by a different pollen grains. Your sample may contain 100 or even 500 seeds, but you took this from thousands of seeds. Whether you got the GMO pollinated seeds are not is pure chance. You can see that currently this method is not very accurate. Maybe they will develop a better method soon.
- These test currently run about $350 per sample. We would have to triple the cost of our seed to compensate for that price. Would you pay the difference and what would that test really tell you? That the particular sample you collected was clean, but you couldn't use those seeds because you've destroyed them for the testing process. What lurks in the rest of the bag?
- Last year we met a climatologist studying pollution migration patterns to the West Coast of the US. We were telling her how we isolate crops such as corn in remote mountain valleys to ensure their genetic purity. She told us that China was the biggest polluter to the West Coast contributing to 1/3 of our daily airborne pollution. She also said that GMO pollen grains were the 1# thing they found in abundance of the samples they collected! They were shocked and so were we. GMO pollen is literally raining from the sky. How do you protect against something that is being carried on global winds and falling from the sky?
Where do our heirloom seeds come from?
Since this company was founded fall 2008; we bought the bulk of our seeds from a cooperative of trusted family seed growers. These seed farmers are in alignment with our goals and beliefs in seed quality. We also grow ourselves on organic plots throughout the county. For example; we have a partnership with an organic winery. Russian River Vineyards was one of the very first in Sonoma County California to be certified organic! Here one of Sonoma countie's largest colonies of bats rid the fields of unwanted pest the good old fashioned organic way.
Why is it important to buy locally grown seed?
We try very hard not to buy seed from growers who are surrounded by known GMO crops. Several well know heirloom seed companies are located in Oregon. This area of Oregon has had a burgeoning seed business for many years. The challenge is GM crops moved in years ago. There is an estimated 5,000,000 acres of GM crops now planted in this fertile area of Oregon.
Many of the new crops being planted like the GM sugar beets have pollen grains that can float on the breeze for miles. Recently in this area of Oregon for example, bagged bark mulch was found to have GM beet seeds. Imagine laying down bark mulch in your garden only to discover you were growing GM crops! Would a corporate giant come after you for “stealing” there seed? Or more horrifying what if this seed contaminated any seed you were trying to save? You see this is just one of the issues facing heirloom seed growers these days.
Where does your heirloom seed company get its seed? Seed companies say they travel the world to collect exotic seeds.
Many heirloom seed companies out there tout having hundreds of varieties, but did you ever stop and think where they are coming from? It may sound great at first that you are getting a rare seed variety from China, but did you know that there is an estimated 9.3 million acres of GM crops in China?
It is well know that the prices are much cheaper for seed abroad, but then again so might be the quality of the seed. In many of these countries there is little regulation to ensure seed quality. In fact to import many of these seeds into the U.S. our government requires them to be chemically treated (fumigated) to kill any harmful pest or pathogens. Are you buying treated seeds?
Then there is the whole issue of sending our money abroad. That is the whole reason we have such a foreign trade deficit now. Do you really want to support farmers in another country when our family farmers are literally “losing the farm”? It is important to support local farmers to grow our food and seed crops. We don’t need to transport our food or seed crops for thousands of miles using petroleum when it is grown right here.
More important than all the above listed issues is just the plain fact that farmers have know for hundreds of years…plants grown and acclimated to your area just plain perform better. Any good gardener knows this. I used to spend hours as a kid seeking out heirloom varieties from old gardeners not because I knew what an heirloom seed was, but because it produced better. These plants have acclimated to the area and the strongest survived to pass on their genes. These seeds were coveted and passed down even through family lines.
So ya see there are many things to consider the next time you buy seeds. I can’t claim that we don’t have some level of GM contamination. Although we strive hard to prevent that, we were recently told by a climatologist that the #1 form of pollution they now find in air-born samples is GMO pollen. How do I as a seed grower prevent what is raining down from the sky? There is no easy answer. However I can tell you this.
- We do not knowingly grow/buy seed that is surrounded by GM crops.
- We do not buy seed from abroad. We support local farmers and their families. Our local California economy. When you buy seed from us you are supporting these California Families.
- We grow local seed that California gardens will succeed with.
- We don’t chemically treat our seeds.
- We grow seed without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
- We farm in a sustainable, water conscious and environmentally responsible manner.
Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds: Currently we are choosing not to carry any mass grown F-1 hybrid seed. In fact you will not find them at all in our seed catalog, we only carry open pollinated heirlooms that you can save seed from. Learn to save seed so you can ensure a safe food supply for yourself and family.
Understanding our Connection to Food
It is frightening to me that so many people do not understand where there food is coming from. They never question whether there food is safe. They trust in a government who openly employs executives from big business. Like yesterdays (July 8, 2009) news when the FDA announced that Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto executive was hired on to:
- Assess current food program challenges and opportunities
- Identify capacity needs and regulatory priorities
- Develop plans for allocating fiscal year 2010 resources
- Develop the FDA's budget request for fiscal year 2011
- Plan implementation of new food safety legislation
Are you kidding me! A former Monsanto employ is going to implement "new food safety legislation"!
The Seed is the Origin of Food
Big business figured out along time ago that if you want to control food you must first start with seed. Take a look at the top ten seed companies as reported in this document.
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