Anti Monsanto-Rant Part 1

It is I, the Anit- Monsanto Mommy!

I grew up in the Salinas Valley. My family moved to the Salinas Valley in 1976, when my Dad was hired by Moran Seed Company. He was hired to help hybridize broccoli to develop a variety that would be frost resistant by cross breeding the frost resistant cauliflower with the not-so-frost- resistant broccoli. As a kid we ate a lot of these experiments. He also worked on a hybridized iceberg lettuce that developed larger heads for the growing trend of salad bars. His research also helped developed better farming technique to prevent Black Rot and Big Vein diseases in lettuce. My Dad’s research was the old fashion kind. He would patiently cross one desired variety with another variety by doing what the bees would have naturally done. He just hurried up the process. The strange an exotic DNA genetic cross breeding was unheard of in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Moran Seeds was bought by the Harris Company that was eventually bought by the larger chemical company Celanese. (Celanese.com). Why would a chemical company want to invest in a seed company? Celanese share patent agreements with Monsanto.

A little further digging I discovered that the California State Teacher Retirement and California Public Employment Retirement funds own 519,568 shares ($23 million) in Celanese. That doesn’t sit well with me.

Growing up in the Salinas Valley gave me a unique and rare backstage view of the agricultural world. Over the years I have watched many of the small seed companies like Moran Seeds and Foxy Lettuce disappear into the larger corporations like Dole and Monsanto. How much has Monsanto influenced the seed industry? It is a billion dollar industry!

Now, that Spring has officially arrived many gardeners head to the local gardening center to purchase tomato plants, zucchini, corn and watermelon plants to plant in our gardens. Little do we know Monsanto also owns many seed companies that the big gardener stores sell. Here is a short list.

Beans: Aliconte, 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 Lightening

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 Salvatierro, 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: Applachian, 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, Obession, 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, Betterboy, 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

Note: Not all of the veggie varieties in the above list are Monsanto/Seminis exclusives. Consequently if you spot some of these varieties in the catalog of an heirloom seed-seller, just check with the seller to make sure the seeds were not purchased from Seminis/Monsanto. But if you find these seeds on a rack at a big-box garden center, you have every right to suspect they were purchased from the evil empire.

That’s quite a catalog, huh? No wonder Monsanto paid $1.4 billion in cash to acquire Seminis Seeds. You can see the catalog for yourself on Seminis’s own website.

The list I found a blog by Kevin Lee Jacobs. Check out A Garden for the House and Garden. Inspirations from Kevin Lee Jacobs. Check it out here.

We have all heard of the dangers of eating GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) and that Monsanto is THE largest company of GMO produce. We have all heard that Monsanto products are in Aspartane (Nutra Sweet, Equal), Round Up Herbicide, Genetically Enginnered Soy, Corn and Canola products (these products have Roundup IN the plant) rBGH Dairy (possible Breast cancer and prostate cancer) and Ambien Insomnia Medication.