Monstrous Monsanto

I only found out this evening that Monsanto has bought up a huge seed company, Seminis, Inc., a leading Vegetable and Fruit Seed Company, making Monsanto the owners of the seed suppliers for 40% of American vegetable seed customers and 20% of the global customer base.

That’s pretty scary news and I only found out because I was browsing the web and happened on the story and this is a link to the details. I am rather surprised that I have not heard the news through the Irish media, it is an important issue.

I haven’t fully thought through the implications of this news yet or how I feel about Monsanto owning such an important resource and will probably write about this in the future.

It is so important that we save our own seeds and support people like Seedsavers in Scarriff in Co. Clare. We are planning to grow some food on our land next year, having let the garden go wild for a few years and we will be making a special effort to only use seed that grows plants which we can collect further seed from. You can read a post about doing just that in Australia, check out this link here. Another good thing to do is talk to other gardeners and swap seeds with people in your locality, that way the plants will be best suited to your weather conditions.

Food for thought…