Monbiot on Agricultural Subsidies, Austerity, Ecology and Beyond

Here is George Monbiot at his insightful and impassioned best, speaking about agricultural subsidies at the Oxford Farming Conference in January.

This is really worth a half hour of your time to understand how things could begin to be different if we are concerned to integrate: biodiversity, social justice, food security, soil protection, sound energy policy, flood and drought management, and more.

He is calling the National Farmers Union to task for what he sees as profound hypocrisy, and suggesting ways that working together, “forming alliances” across assumed loyalties, might benefit most of us.

Of everything that this talk opened in my mind, I was especially shocked to learn about the growing dominance of biofuel maize on prime agricultural land, to be burned in schemes meant for methane capture of crop waste and slurry.

Please share this talk widely, or “reblog.”You might not agree with everything, but Monbiot weaves together many issues crucial to agricultural, ecology, social equality and the future of food justice in the broadest sense.  Wow.

F1 Hybrid vs Open Pollinated Seeds

Last week I received some exciting seeds in a Seed Swap, yet I still need to order a few more packets of particular veg I want to grow, so I’m thinking about seeds…  I know so little really, so what I share may seem basic, or maybe not…

In a recent post on Syngenta’s  Kumato Tomatoes, I discussed some social-political-ecological problems inherent in the patenting of seeds, in this case, a hybrid variety.

This is a really good, concise piece by Vertical Veg on the problems with F1 hybrids.

Hybrids are often promoted by big seed companies, but they are less desirable for small, ecologically minded growers.  Open Pollinated seeds, as this excellent resource of a website explores:

“are naturally pollinated – by insects or wind; not enforced pollination or in-breeding.  

•contribute to food plant biodiversity

•are adaptable – they are genetically variable and therefore able to adapt to climate change, to particular landscapes and environmental conditions and evolve along with them.

•can be seed-saved by farmers, market gardeners, home gardeners and allotment holders.

•seed saved will breed true-to-type plants, resembling parent plants – unlike hybrids.

•can be used to develop local varieties.

•are non-GM, non-hybrid, and non-patented.”