Consider heirloom and open-pollinated seeds this spring
When you select seeds for your garden, you have many varieties to choose from. Some are F1 hybrids; others are open-pollinated or heirloom. Though it might seem that a seed is just a seed, there are some big differences among these types. Using heirloom or open-pollinated seeds when available can help secure a better future for our food crops and reduce your carbon footprint.
Now that so many food crops are grown from just a few hybrid, GMO and patented varieties, they are at major risk of being attacked by pests and diseases. (This has happened with bananas. The typical banana available in grocery stores nowadays is called Cavendish, the replacement for a more delicious variety called Gros Michel. In the late 1950s, Gros Michel was wiped out from plantations worldwide by a fungal pathogen. Now another fungal pathogen is putting Cavendish, too, at risk of collapse. Because Cavendish represents 99% of the bananas available in U.S.
grocery stores, a collapse would mean no more bananas until another variety is found, if that is even possible.)
About heirloom and open-pollinated seeds:
Heirloom seeds typically have a generational history or are tied to a specific group of people and have been passed down for at least five generations.
Open-pollinated seeds
are varieties that result from a natural cross of two plants of the same variety. (Hybrid seeds are also a cross but are carefully controlled crosses, so the cost to purchase is
much higher. They are not historical like open-pollinated can be, and they do not come “true to type” — they don’t produce the exact characteristics of the parent plant — and thus must be purchased every year, unlike open-pollinated.)
While hybrid seeds do have their place, the home gardener and smaller scale farmers can help secure the future for the world’s food crops and reduce their carbon footprint by selecting open-pollinated and heirloom crops when possible. As much as 75% of crop diversity has been lost in the past 100 years because of increased availability and use of GMO and hybrid seeds. Further, most modern food crop selections are under patent by just a few multinational corporations, which threatens people’s ability to feed themselves as heirloom and open-pollinated varieties are lost or fall out of popularity.
Luckily, until you can build your own supply of open-pollinated seeds, there are a few good sources to order from.
Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit organization that focuses on saving heirloom varieties from extinction. Other good resources include Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, based here in Virginia; Sow True Seed; and Eden Brothers.