4 Ways to Keep Monsanto Out Of Your Backyard

By Tara Dodrill
March 4, 2019 07:58

Has Monsanto been sneaking into your garden and onto your dinner plate? Keeping the biotech giant and its competitors out of our lives is becoming increasingly difficult. Since 2005 the GMO seed and chemical pesticide maker has bought up more than 40 percent of the seed market in the United States – and 20 percent of the global market.
As hard as you may have tried not to, you may have unknowingly been putting money into the pockets of Monsanto. Because the company provides the genetics from 75 percent of tomatoes, 55 percent of lettuce, and 85 percent of peppers now available on the shelves of grocery store shelves, it is almost impossible not to ingest the work of the biotech industry giant.
To a lesser but still significant percentage. Monsanto also provides the genetics for spinach, beans, melons, peas, cucumbers, squash, cabbage, and broccoli.
Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow have been buying up every seed company they can get their hands on for well over a decade. Bayer controls at least 29 percent of the world seed market and 24 percent of the chemical pesticide market, too.
Do not expect the seed companies to advertise on their packets that they are linked to a biotech corporation. Nope, it would just not do at all to have the bucolic gardening scene and prose on the packet to also showcase just how closely related they are to the GMO manufacturers.
Monsanto now not only holds either the established or registered trademark for a bevy of GMO seed varieties, they also have established the same for heirloom seed varieties, as well.
Even if you do your research and buy heirloom seeds to avoid having your family ingest GMOs, you could still be lining the pockets of the biotech giant that now nearly holds the world’s food in its hands.
Because Monsanto owns the trademark name on copious amounts of heirloom seeds, any time these seeds are sold, they make a profit.
Biotech companies like Monsanto boast they are creating more sustainable seeds to feed the masses and have developed seeds with the most advantageous traits known to man.
But in all reality, they are merely walking on the backs of generations of American farmers, taking the work they have done to increase drought tolerance, enhance nutritional value, and improve growing traits in general. Once the Monsanto or other biotech corporation slaps their trademark or proprietary gene onto the see, they in own it – then sell the seed back to farmers, homesteaders, and gardeners, with stringnet patent restrictions.
Here is a (current as of this post) list of all the seed trademark names Monsanto owns. If you purchase any of the seeds below, the biotech corporation grows more powerful and wealthy.
Beans Varieties – Alicante, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema
Broccoli – Coronado Crown, Major, Packman
Cabbage -: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty
Carrot – Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III
Cauliflower – Cheddar, Minuteman
Cucumber – Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega
Eggplant – Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightning
Hot Pepper – Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierra, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz
Lettuce – Braveheart, Conquistador
Melon – Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno
Onion – Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision
Pumpkin – Appalachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster
Spinach – Hellcat
Squash – Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM
Sweet Corn – Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obsession, Passion, Temptation
Sweet Pepper – Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot
Tomato – Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Better Boy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui
Watermelon – Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia
Monsanto Owned Companies
Below you will find a list of seed companies Monsanto owns. But beware, the list is growing all the time and the names of the seed providers have been known to change somewhat frequently as well – perhaps because buyers find out they are connected to Monsanto and sales decrease.
Acceleron
Asgrow
Channel
Corn States
De Ruiter
Degree Xtra
Dekalb
Deltapine
Fontanelle Hybrids
Harness
Hubner Seed
Jung
Kruger
Lewis Hybrids
Monsanto BioAg
Monsanto Traits
REA Hybrids
WestBred
Warrant
Stone Seed
RT3
Seminis
Burpee seeds is now owned by Monsanto but has admitted to “buying a small number of seeds” from Seminis.
In 1999, a group of seed catalog companies, led by High Mowing Organic Seeds, teamed up to create the Safe Seed Pledge. The pledge solidified their commitment to remain unaffiliated with Monsanto owned seed providers and to steer clear of genetically modified seeds in general. Since the first seed catalog companies signed onto the pledge, more than 70 others have followed suit.
Related: 10 Beautiful Plants That Are Secretly Killing Your Garden
Safe Seed Pledge Companies
Below are some of the largest and nationwide retailers of heirloom seeds that are not linked to Monsanto or its affiliates. For a complete list please visit FarmWars. Seed companies are under a lot of pressure to comply to the new agricultural world order, so the companies on the list can change without notice. I have had great luck with seeds purchased from several companies on the list, and most frequently purchase medicinal herb seeds from Baker Creek.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Botanical Interests
Bountiful Gardens
Comstock Ferre & Co.
The Cook’s Garden
Ed Hume Seeds
Fedco Seeds
Ferry Morse Seed Company
High Mowing Organic Seeds
John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds
Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Lake Valley Seed
Nichols Garden Nursery
Horizon Herbs
Organica Seed
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Uprising Seeds
Renee’s Garden
Seed Savers Exchange
Select Seeds
Territorial Seed Company
Victory Seed Company
Amishland Heirloom Seeds
Seed Trust
Wood Prairie Farm
Family Farmers Seed Cooperative
White Harvest Seed Company
Sow True Seed
Wild Garden Seed
My Patriot Supply
Since the Bayer merger with Monsanto in 2015, the options for buying seeds without aiding biotech companies in their quest for world seed domination, are getting exceedingly fewer. The takeover reduced the small amount of competition in the agricultural food market from both the growing and grocery store product end.
In the same year, the World Health Organization finally declared the glyphosate in Monsanto’s lucrative Roundup Ready chemical pesticide is “probably carcinogenic” in humans. That should have caused great alarm and a decrease in sales right? Wrong.
The power Monsanto has over our health and our lives is staggering. But, all is not lost, not yet at least. There are some steps we can take to keep Monsanto out of our gardens and kitchens.
Monsanto’s products are strictly regulated in a host of European countries, but here in the USA the federal government continues to approve both genetically modified seeds and carcinoid laden weed killing products. Just like people can build up an immunity to antibiotics, plants can do the same with weed killer.
Some blame biotech companies for the growth of superweeds that are incredibly hard to kill and grow at startling rates. The GMO seeds are equipped with a special coating to protect them from the chemicals being sprayed. What is in the seed coating. I am not sure, but I am willing to bet my farm that they are not based upon natural ingredients.
Keeping the biotech giants out of your garden and off of your dinner plate will take constant diligence each growing season. Never assume simply because a seed is labeled “organic” or is an heirloom variety that purchasing it will not help Monsanto or its competitions beef up their bottom line.
Always read each seed packet carefully, comparing the trademark name to the Monsanto owned ones on the list above.
Get into the practice of saving your own seeds from season to season to ensure you know exactly where they are coming from and what they have been exposed to during the creation process.
Check to make sure the seed supplier is currently on the Safe Seed Pledge list. When in doubt, take the time to call the company and asked specifically if the seeds they sell are linked to Monsanto, Seminis, Bayer, Syngenta, or Dow.