Clearing The Intentional Confusion Surrounding Heirloom Seeds, Organic, Hybrid, and Open Pollinated

Written by Sarah Cain Thursday, 19 November 2009 03:02

The Cost Of Living Well, and the Hidden Costs of Cheap Junk Foods

Those who enter the health movement often quickly realize how difficult it can be to eat wholesome and unadulterated foods.  All processed foods are full of dangerous additives, supermarket meats are full of antibiotics and growth hormones, and vegetables lack nutrition and are expensive.

It is much cheaper to buy junk foods in the U.S. because tax money is funneled to support foods that profit the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, such as corn for high fructose corn syrup, and sugars that are intended for bleach processing.  Tobacco is conveniently subsidized too, but just try to get the governmental cronies to subsidize organic spinach, and see how far that effort goes.  Spinach, you see, is so bad for business that they even went so far as to make the ridiculous claim that dangerous spinach could cause deadly E.coli infections.  It was later proven that organic spinach was safe.  Only the industry's 'conventionally grown' spinach that was 'processed' into utter bastardization actually harbored such horrible pathogens, but interestingly and conveniently for its pharmo-chemical partners, Big Media did not report this finding at all.  Who would have thought?

Whilst shopping, the junk foods seem cheaper based purely on the retail prices.  They are only cheaper when we neglect to compute the long term costs in medical and health insurance costs, as well as the common illnesses that prevent us from being consistently productive workers, and the extremely poor quality of life that they generate.  Junk food is very expensive when the big picture is examined.  We recommend that doubtful readers compute in the cost of one chemotherapy treatment (between 5 and 10 thousand dollars) with every bag of junk purchased to get a more realistic picture of the long term cost that they can expect for these purchases.  The price for life and health can be paid now, or it will be paid later.  It will be dramatically more expensive later.  In fact, there's approximately a 20% chance that you will be left bankrupted if you opt to pay later, as most people do.  Just remember that we told you so.

Do It Yourself!

Growing your own food makes a lot of sense, given the rising costs of healthy foods, the increased nutrition that will be gained from your own fresh produce, and the sunlight that you'll get in the process.  However, most people do not know which seeds they should be buying.  There are multiple brands selling what seems to be exactly the same products, and all these companies use industry lingo which is misunderstood by the general public.  Hopefully, this will clear up the confusion.

Remember that if a seed packet does not tell you exactly what type of seeds it contains, then you should assume the worst.  The seeds will be clearly labeled if they are organic or heirloom.

Seed Types

Heirloom or Heritage:  You cannot usually find these seeds in most stores, because these seeds are not very profitable.  You can buy them online, or at some farmers markets.  These seeds have been saved by farmers for generations to preserve their genetic integrity.  They have strong, full flavors, and are virtually always organic.  They are generally easier to grow than most seeds.  They are never genetically modified, but they unfortunately cost about three times more than regular seeds.  The additional price is usually worthwhile.

Organic:  The parent plant was not genetically modified, grown with synthetic pesticides, or fertilizers.  These are usually a good option if heirloom seeds are not available.  Try to buy from a small company if possible, because larger companies generally produce organic varieties that have less nutrition.  This is because their soils are so depleted by synthetic fertilizers from previous years.  There is also an elevated risk of cross-pollination contamination with the larger companies.

Open Pollinated:  These seeds can be dried out, and saved over winter, to be grown the next year.  There are no guarantees about the use of pesticides or fertilizers in the parent plant, and there may be some chemical residue on the seeds themselves.  It is unlikely that they are genetically modified, because genetic modifications usually hinders fertility.

Hybrid:  These are seeds have been intentionally cross-pollinated to yield produce that does not bruise as easily, and ripen much faster.  They have the drawback of having a diluted taste, significantly lower nutrition, and if the seeds do germinate the next year; they could have different characteristics.  Often, these can not be saved for the next year.  Most supermarket varieties are 'hybrids'.  The chance of these seeds being genetically modified is still fairly low, as groups like Monsanto, the leading provider of G.M.O. seeds, prefer to market to large scale farmers.  It is not easy to convince the general public to grow genetically modified foods, and Monsanto wants to monitor those who do, in order to ensure that their customers do not save patented seeds.  Just remember that hybrids are never a desirable crop.

Prologue:  Sowing Intentional Confusion To Support Biotech

There is a lot of intentional confusion surrounding modern food.  An informed consumer is a dangerous one for big business.  That's why P.L.U. numbers are used on fresh produce instead of labeling that is understandable to the average person.  That is also why 'all-natural' remains undefined, and why 'organic' does not mean '100% organic'.  It explains why radioactive foods are being labeled as "cold pasteurized" (see your mayonnaise), instead of being labeled as 'irradiated'.  Seeds are just another example of this campaign of disinformation by regulators and big industry.  Be an informed consumer, and break the mold.  To be free and healthy is a beautiful thing.