Saving seeds vs. genetically engineered seeds

When we bought our first farm my new bride insisted on having a vegetable garden. For advice I visited with the oldest nurseryman in San Antonio. This old gentleman only had a forth grade education, however his knowledge of plants was vast. There were many plants carrying his name. The Texas A&M professors called him when they ran into problems. While looking over his seed rack I ask the old gentleman if all these varieties were adapted to our area.

His answer was “some what” then he gave me a sermon, he said “son if you want something really good for your farm you have to develop it yourself, you start out with these broadly adapted varieties and save your own seed from the best of the first fruit each year, then eventually you will have plants that are perfectly happy on your farm. Being young with still a little know it all attitude I didn't heed his advice, seamed like too much trouble. Years later I got to see excellent proof of what the old man was talking about.

My family and I finally found the time to visit the farm my wife's mother grew up on. Two old uncles were still working the place. These old fellows weren't very friendly or talkative, they didn't care for city people, but when they learned we too lived on a farm they changed and were willing to show me the whole place.

These old fellows had a fine collection of antiques, everything on the farm was old but still in working condition and still being used. The newest piece of farm equipment was an early model Allis Chalmers tractor to replace the draft animals, one old mule was still alive but he didn't have to work anymore, the tongs of all the horse drawn equipment was cut short and pulled behind the Allis Chalmers.

It was really interesting to be toured around this old farm, the old timers enjoyed showing and telling history. The cornfield was last; it was the surprise of the tour. This was a dry land farm with the stalks having ample spacing. That was the tallest and best corn I have ever seen. Each stalk had two or three big ears. These uncles were really proud of their corn. When I finally looked down I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The corn was growing in a solid stand of nut sedge. I ask the closest uncle how could they possibly grow a crop in nut grass this thick? The old uncle's answer was simple and short “that's what keeps the soil rich” he said. That was hard for me to believe but no way was I going to argue.

I asked the uncles what variety corn they planted. They said that when their mom and pop got married one was German decent and the other Polish, each brought a corn from home, one was bloody butcher red and the other was a yellow dent. They planted them together and had equal red and yellow kernels on each ear.

They told how their dad always selected the best of the best for next year's seed and they had followed pops example. They said, about this crop, the selection had gone on for the past 82 years.

I ask for some of that seed. They proudly went into the barn and filled me a sack of their finest. Long beautiful ears, no sign of corn earworm and there were 22 rows of seed on each cob.

I couldn't wait for planting season. Just think what I could do in my composted, irrigated, black land without nut grass. Planting season finally came, those rows got the best of care, and I wouldn't let anyone take roasting ears from that patch. The stalks were beautiful, green and tall.

Finally harvest time arrived. But, what a big disappointment. I had shucks and cobs but not a single grain filled out in the whole patch. I got more seed from the uncles for next season, and another disappointment. I have yet to grow a single grain of that corn. Those many years of selection had developed the perfect specimen for shallow plowing in sandy soil and with no fertilizer. Was the nut grass really helping? Maybe it had some beneficial symbiotic association with the corn.

Years later we visited the Yorktown farm again. By that time, the uncles were up in age and had leased some of their land to my wife's cousins. The cousins had always believed that grandpa's farm must have super rich soil in order to grow the huge open-pollinated corn. They assumed that their excellent hybrid corn would grow to new heights on that old farm. To their surprise, the hybrid, even with fertilizer, did no better there than on any other farm.

The cousins gave the uncles a share of the hybrid corn. Like most old farmers, the uncles had a typical farm—a few old hounds, chickens, ducks, cows, and pigs, and of course, the corn was used to feed all of them. For the hounds, they ground corn and cooked it with lard. One day they ground the hybrid corn for the dogs, but the dogs wouldn't eat, they took one sniff, then went and laid back down. The next day they still wouldn't eat, and at first they thought the dogs were sick, until one uncle decided that maybe the dogs wanted the old corn. They cooked up a batch of the old corn and the dogs gobbled it up. Boy, were those dogs hungry. They all got a laugh at the dogs, so they decided to see if the hogs would eat the hybrid. Sure enough the hogs wouldn't touch it. Neither would the chickens, nor the ducks unless they were really starved.

Animals have instincts, which tell them which food is the most nutritious for them to eat. A healthy, adapted and well-grown plant will pick all the nutrients from the soil to make it nutritious food animals will prefer. Since humans have lost these instincts maybe we should pay more attention to the animals.

Since this corn had been grown on the same farm for nearly 90 years, and had been constantly up-graded by choosing seed form the very best ears for the next year's crop, it was perfectly adapted to it's particular spot in the world, with nut grass probably helping it some how.

After so many years of selecting the best from the best on the same farm, that corn would never produce as well anywhere else. On the other hand, in it's own place no other corn could beat it.

Wouldn't this be valuable today if all farmers had done their own seed selecting? Farmers could be completely independent of the seed companies. The weed problem could be an asset. The product would be most nutritious. It would be much better than the modern hybrid and genetically engineered seed. And it was all done by Nature without a minute of research or dollar spent. Man, just helped speed up the natural process of survival of the fittest.

Malcolm Beck