Fedco Seeds: The David to Monsanto's Goliath

[greenbird]

by Kerry Trueman, Co-founder of EatingLiberally.org

Seed money for start-ups may be evaporating faster than California's dwindling reservoirs, but this rocky economy's proving to be fertile ground for the seed industry. Cash-strapped consumers, scared by the specter of an empty fridge, are investing in the ultimate low-tech, high-yield start-up: the kitchen garden. The National Gardening Association estimates that some 43 million Americans are gearing up to grow at least some of their own food this spring.

And no wonder. As Roger Doiron, founder of Maine-based Kitchen Gardeners International, has documented, a few dozen seed packets costing $130 can yield more than two thousand dollars worth of produce over the course of the growing season. "We have a fabulous opportunity," C.R. Lawn, the founder of another Maine mainstay, Fedco Seeds, told an audience at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture's Farming For The Future conference last month. "The challenge is on us to come through." Lawn, an endearingly shaggy character who looks a bit like a pale Papa Smurf, rocked gently from side to side as he spoke of the challenges that his company faced following the acquisition of Fedco's largest seed supplier, Seminis, by monolithic Monsanto back in 2005.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://blog.eatwellguide.org/2009/03/fedco-seeds-the-david-to-monsantos-goliath/

[msongs]

1. hmm a few dozen seed packets should only cost about $50 tops nt

[NJCher]

2. Figuring $130

if it were a few dozen seed packets, that would be $5.41 per packet.

If it were the figure you mention, $50, it would be a little more that $2 per packet. That's more like it. I just bought seeds and they ranged in price from $1.29 to 5.69 for a jumbo packet.

Anyway, that's just dollars and cents. The real benefit is being outside, working with nature, and enjoying something that YOU grew in your own home garden.


Cher

[bvar22]

3. Toss in a dozen chickens, a couple of bee hives,...,

...some fruit trees and several berries, a handful of goats (milk & chese)....and you could just about say goodbye to most of Corporate America.

[greenbird]

4. The article isn't about the price of seeds

it's actually a happy-ending story, which I sorta thought we could use around here!

". . . Fedco, being the cooperative that it is, polled its customers: should they drop the Monsanto/Seminis seed altogether, phase it out gradually, or keep it? The majority voted to drop Monsanto like a genetically modified hot potato.

. . . Fedco has been scrambling ever since to find replacement seed varieties for the ones its customers have come to rely on. It’s been a struggle, Lawn admitted, but he has no doubt they made the right decision, and sales have doubled over the past two years. . ."