Seed company

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Seed companies produce and sell seeds for flowers, fruits and vegetables to commercial growers and amateur gardeners. The production of seed is a multibillion-dollar global business, which uses growing facilities and growing locations worldwide. While most of the seed is produced by large specialist growers, large amounts are also produced by small growers who produce only one to a few crop types. The larger companies supply seed both to commercial resellers and wholesalers. The resellers and wholesalers sell to vegetable and fruit growers, and to companies who package seed into packets and sell them on to the amateur gardener.

Most seed companies or resellers that sell to retail produce a catalog, for seed to be sown the following spring, that is generally published during early winter. These catalogs are eagerly awaited by the amateur gardener, as during winter months there is little that can be done in the garden so this time can be spent planning the following year’s gardening. The largest collection of nursery and seed trade catalogs in the

National Agricultural Library where the earliest catalogs date from the late 18th century, with most published from the 1890s to the present.[1]

Seed companies produce a huge range of seeds from highly developed

organic and open pollinated varieties of seeds as opposed to hybrids. Many of these varieties are heirloom varieties. The use of old varieties maintains diversity in the horticultural gene pool
. It may be more appropriate for amateur gardeners to use older (heirloom) varieties as the modern seed types are often the same as those grown by commercial producers, and so characteristics which are useful to them (e.g. vegetables ripening at the same time) may be unsuited to home growing.

History

Shakers were among the earliest commercial producers of garden seeds; the first seeds sold in paper packets were produced by the Watervliet Shakers in Colonie, New York.[2][3]

Until 1924, US farmers received seed from the federal government's extensive free seed program that distributed millions of packages of seed annually. At its high point in 1897, over 2 million packages of seed were distributed to farmers. Even at the time the program was eliminated in 1924, it was the third largest line item in the United States Department of Agriculture's budget.

In 1930, seed companies were not primarily concerned with varietal production, but were still trying to successfully commodify seeds. There was no need to protect seed breeding at that time because there were few markets for seeds. Seed companies' first priority was simply to establish a market, and they continued to view congressional seed distribution as a principal constraint.[4]

Consolidation of the commercial seed industry

From 1994 to 2010, seed prices increased drastically due to a consolidation of the commercial seed industry into six major companies. During this time, companies introduced six genetically engineered crops for just two traits: herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. In 1996, Monsanto introduced its first RoundUp Ready seeds engineered to tolerate the companies proprietary herbicide.[5]

By 2019, four seed companies,

oligopolies for the production of cereals and other products needed for their cultivation. This dependency would be aggravated were the production of infertile seeds to be considered; the effect would be to force farmers to purchase them from larger producers.[9]: Para. 134 

Francis calls for a dialogue on seed production issues involving seed producers and all parties affected.[9]

: Para. 135 

Seed packets and seed information

A farmer's son holding out seeds

Generally, seed packet labels include information covering:

  • Common plant name and the
    botanical
    name (in parentheses).
  • Spacing and depth: How deep to place the seeds in the soil, space between plants (from one row to the other one and from one plant to the other one in the same row).
  • Height: Approximate height the plant will reach when mature.
  • Soil: Type of soil the plant prefers.
  • misting
    of water" and "almost dry out before re-watering".
  • Sun: Full direct sunlight, partial sun, diffused sunlight, or grows well in the shade.
  • Indoors or outdoors: If the plant is best suited for growing indoors, outdoors or both.
  • Whether it is a
    perennial or annual
    .
  • quarters of the year
    .
  • Special requirements, if necessary.

This information may be represented graphically.

See also

References

  1. National Agricultural Library
    , Special Collections. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
  2. ^ Work and worship among the Shakers: their craftsmanship and economic order, Edward Deming Andrews, Faith Andrews, Courier Dover Publications, 1982, p. 53.
  3. ^ Landmarks of American women's history, Chapter: Watervliet Shaker Historic District, Page Putnam Miller, Oxford University Press US, 2003, pp. 36 ff.
  4. ^ Susan A. Schneider, Food, Farming, and Sustainability p. 563-64 (2011) (discussing J.E.M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., 534 U.S. 124 (2001))
  5. ^ "The Big Six: A Profile of Corporate Power in Seeds, Agrochemicals and Biotech" (PDF). The Heritage Farm Companion. Summer 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  6. ^ "The Sobering Details Behind the Latest Seed Monopoly Chart". Civil Eats. 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  7. doi:10.3390/su1041266
    .
  8. ^ "Too Big to Feed" (PDF). International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems. October 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Pope Francis (2015), Laudato si', accessed 2 February 2024
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