Knittlin covered most of what I intended to say... nice synopsis. With one exception, perhaps: "Let's say there's someone out there who is the only person to have an unusual type of seed. The holder of the unusual seed sends a small portion of seeds to Svalbard. He continues to grow out and share the seeds. If, for some unknown reason, the only people who accept the seed from him all lose their seeds at the same time the original holder of them does, the original holder requests some of the seed he sent to Svalbard and is able to start over again." As I'm sure you already know, Svalbard does not accept seed from individuals, regardless of the merits of the seed. To get into their bank, the seed would need to be deposited into another bank first, and that bank would need to back it up into a second bank. So in the end, Svalbard + two other banks + the original grower would all have the seed. The good news is, that because SSE (Seed Savers Exchange) is now a depositor at Svalbard, it is possible for heirloom varieties to be protected. Don't get me wrong; I am still somewhat critical of the project. As another poster stated, if the great calamity does occur, it may be difficult or impossible to get the seeds from Svalbard to the depositor. Nor am I satisfied that all legal situations have been addressed... such as what happens to the seeds if the depositor no longer exists, has been taken over legally/politically, or lacks the means to propagate the seed. I am also apprehensive of corporate involvement, regardless of what rules might presently be in place. Governments change. Rules change. Greed is a constant. There are clauses in the Depositors Agreement that could, IMO, be abused to benefit the large multi-national seed companies. But for those that see Svalbard as the salvation from famine, it may never fill that role - or not directly. It is designed to preserve germplasm, not to propagate seed on a worldwide scale. That will always be the role of the the original depositors, their supporting governments, and the private sector. Were a major disaster to suddenly occur with one of the food staples (wheat, for example) it would take many years to multiply seed stocks, and in the interim, millions would starve. Sorry to end on a dark note, but that's the reality. Svalbard is something we hope we will never need to use.

I am baffled because I have the opposite point of view entirely. Has anyone ever thought about what your ancestor Gunter in Germany was eating a thousand years ago? Probably cabbage, cabbage, cabbage, onions, garlic, barley, cabbage, pork, and turnips. How about Earnest in England?... pretty much the same. Far from food going extinct, I think there is tremendous diversity now in food production. Industrial production might require GM and capitalization of research through protection of intellectual property, but the fact remains that you are eating tomatoes, kohlrabi, six kinds of lettuce, two kinds of carrots, brussels sprouts, etc. All of those are robust and are grown as millions of mini varieties in gardens all over the world. I mean EVERYWHERE. Seed banks, seed companies, and people's dresser drawers hold huge stores of DNA, all slightly different. In five minutes, I could buy 100 different packets of seeds at the hardware store. Was that even possible in the 50s? And that is F1 or F2. Some okra farmer in Alabama has seeds produced through 50 crosses. People can and do create and study their own cultivars of darn near everything every season and then trade them internationally. How will that change? Activism is all well and good, but GM and Mxxxxxxo are small in the big picture and probably getting smaller. Remember that they have to invest millions in a cultivar just to get it to a commercial seed stage. How many cultivars can they do that with? And they and their timing are going to be wrong how often? Monsanto is not a juggernaut, it is a riverboat gambler. The bigger it gets, the bigger it bets. For better or worse, some gardener in China has a seed that is better than what Mxxxxxxo has got, and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world finds out about it. In Japan, a single pumpkin seed can sell for hundreds of dollars. Mxxxxxxo has not moved in on that action, and it never will. The market is fuelled by enthusiasts and connisseurs. If the market gets cornered, people will immediately lose interest. Viewed in terms of sheer greed, it is in Mxxxxxxo's interest to maintain wild type specimens in environments all over the world. Even if Mxxxxxxo could sell one type of tomato seed that would make all others extinct, it would not do it. Has anyone considered that? Well, I guess that is enough. I could give 20 more examples. Viewed from a wider perspective, food diversity has never been better. And I will not be buying Mxxxxxxo stock. I should watch more TV, it sounds very entertaining.

Monsanto sells sterile seed. Sterile seed, which is genetically modified, is not meant to have reproductive properties so that farmers will not be able to save seed and will have to buy seed every year. If sterile seeds become widespread enough they will create threat of worldwide famine. Yellow corn can be genetically modified. White corn has, for some reason, been prohibited from being genetically modified by the government. Canola and soybean are the other major GM crops. One of the worst things about the Monsanto GM patent is that cross pollination can cause contamination of crops on neighboring farms. Monsanto has thugs who trespass and take samples from crops of farmers who have refused to go GM. Monsanto knows darned well that cross pollination has likely contaminated the crops such that lab tests will show Monsanto patented DNA. The farmers are then taken to court and charged with illegal possesion because they didn't purchase from Monsanto. There is no way to prevent this cross pollination contamination. Wind can carry the pollen as far as fifty miles. Until this year Monsanto has won every court case they levied against farmers. The legal fees have forced nearly every accused farmer out of business, many of whom were farming land which has been in their family for generations and using seed which has been in their family for generations. An American judge, trying a case this year, accused Monsanto of terrorizing small farmers and and conspiring to put non GM farmers out of business, and he ruled in favor of the farmer. This is the first time the ruling went against Monsanto. These accuasations and trials have been going on for at least a decade in both Canada and America. GM may be killing Monarch butterflies. Research is being done to pinpoint the culprit. There is a consumer movement to demand that any GM foodstuffs be labelled as such. I'm not sure how trustworthy it is at the moment. I think it is probably hit and miss until more strident measures regarding food labelling are legally required. Lorna

This is an old post, but there may still be some interest in it, seeing where the prices have gone on the commodities market and the fall of the dollar. Many seed companies in addition to those listed offer small quatities of grains--Johnny's and Peaceful Valley (groworganic.com) both offer a number of varieties. As usual, Brendan was wrong about Monsanto--the Terminator gene has shown some ability to spread by pollen, making seeds in adjacent or nearby fields sterile. He is right when he implies that they will probably sue you for "stealing" their genetic property. The government is trying to control the food supply, so don't expect assistance from them in being self-sufficient. That is the last thing they really want, despite what is on ready.gov or whatever the website is now. Good luck on you grain projects, and try some unusual grain like Amaranth, Quinoa, and Spelt.