Seeds to Transform the City

Agriculture, like most every business, is growing in two directions – very big or very small.  Most businesses in the middle find it very difficult to grow in either direction.

Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Seeds To Transform The City

Those businesses that do grow very big do so to take advantage of the economies of scale and the specialization of resources. As a consequence, they can grow the most commodities for the least money, and in doing so, win the consumer dollars.

A good example of this drive for scale is the seed business, which is now dominated by 3 seed companies that own and control 62% of the seeds we buy at the store.  And one of those seed companies, Syngenta, is a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party.

As these companies grow ever larger, they select and sell fewer and fewer varieties of seeds, and as a consequence, local varieties of seeds – those seeds that bring forth plants of unique character – disappear from their seed catalogs in favor of those seeds that bring forth commodities!

However, we city people do not like to eat commodities. We simply do not care for that tomato that was a one in a million grown on 10,000 acres, picked green, trucked a thousand miles, gassed into redness and that hits our dinner plate with the taste of a tennis ball.

We like to eat foods with character. We like to tell the neighbor, “I found these really great organic heritage tomatoes that were dry-farmed and picked right at the peak of their ripeness. I couldn’t wait to get them home so I ate one in the car. The taste was worth the mess I made!”

And so we ask: Where can we get seeds to transform the taste of city?

Leave a comment below: Do you think carefully selected seeds can transform a city?

Tune in here, for the syndicated Michael Olson Food Chain Radio Show #1394 June 14, 2025 Saturday 9AM Pacific