Thanks Budget Saving Nana for this post!!
Why We Buy The Seeds That We Buy:
A seed is a seed is a seed……not so anymore. Before you plant your garden, give some thought as to how frugal you could be by saving your seeds. Only Open Pollinated seeds can be saved to guarantee that you really get the results you want.
Why We Avoid Genetically Modified Seeds:
Thanks to genetic modification, many seeds that you now buy will no longer produce the same plant if you save the seeds. Both Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom seeds have open pollinated, non-genetically modified seeds. You can see my original post about where we buy our seeds here.
What happens when you plant a seed that you save from a plant that has been genetically modified? First, you really can’t do that. The producer of the genetically modified seed owns the patent and you do not have the legal right to save his seed and plant it. Second, GMO seeds just don’t breed true. You might wind up with something that sort of looks like broccoli for example, but it may or may not produce heads.
Why We Buy Open Pollinated Seeds:
Open pollinated seeds breed just like the parent plants. If you plan to save your seeds from what you plant this year, you need to give some thought to keeping the different types of tomatoes far enough away from each other to be sure you don’t get a cross between two types of tomatoes in the seeds you plant.
Saving Seeds Saves Money:
Seeds are expensive, although much less than buying vegetables at the store. You can save even more by saving your own seed!
Note From Rene:
1. I also just don’t want to eat genetically modified foods. I figure that God knows how to make food a lot better than men, so I would rather eat the food that He provides, than something that has been modified.
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Thanks Rene for this awesome post! Can you maybe comment on which seeds you buy from Baker Creek that have worked successfully for you? There are so many on the website and its a little overwhelming. It would be good to start with the broccoli, carrot, tomato etc seed that you are used to and that works. Thanks again for all your help with getting our gardening started!
I am slowly going through all of the seeds that we plant. I have covered broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and green peas so far. You can find those posts here: http://budgetsavingmom.com/category/organic/gardening/ I am going to try to keep writing a post a day about it. Thanks so much! Rene
How do I know if my seeds are genetically modified? Are they required to put something on the package?
Amy has an excellent question, I’m wondering that as well. I’ve never thought much about seeds as there is such a bounty of them – or so it seems. Thanks for the great post and I’m looking forward to your next post on how to save seeds : D
Most seeds today are genetically modified. However, heirloom seeds are not, nor are the seeds from the two companies I mentioned. There has actually been a shortage of “real” seeds the past 2-3 years. By real seeds I mean open pollinators that can be saved. Many farmers have actually gone out of business due to these shortages. Even this year, I have not been able to get all of the seeds that we typically buy, and seeds are selling out quickly each year. Farmers have to buy open pollinating seeds. With different crop failures, one major seed company taking over and producing terminator genes in their crop, there are many less seeds available. This company has sued many other smaller seed companies and cause them to go out of business. This is also the reason that I am very selective about where I buy my seeds. As the daughter of farmers, I think that it is important. It is something that most Americans probably aren’t aware of unless you know farmers.
Also, my mom is writing a post right now about specific seeds and how to tell if they are genetically modified, so I will post that soon! Thanks for the questions. (-: Rene
Where can I purchase non gmo seeds online? thanks
Here is a post where I talked about where to buy seeds:
http://budgetsavingmom.com/2010/01/30/where-we-buy-our-seeds/
Here is one on how to know if they are gmo:
http://budgetsavingmom.com/2010/03/04/how-to-know-if-your-seeds-are-genetically-modified/
Hope they are helpful. Let me know if you have further questions. Thanks! Rene
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