I think hybrids are evil.
Not hybrid cars, mind you. I’m all for those.
I’m talking about a kind of hybrids that most people are in contact with on a daily basis: Man-made hybrid food plants and their seeds.
“So, why are they evil, Thomas?” I hear the hecklers say. “Plants aren’t really capable of being evil, are they? Don’t you have to think to be evil?”
Yes, yes. Of course. But that’s nitpicking.
The fact of the matter is that the existence and common use of these so-called first-generation hybrids in food production is degrading your diet, increasing the gap between rich and poor, killing biodiversity and increasing the chance of famine.
Sound extreme? It sure is. Luckily, you can help alleviate all of these problems without any major inconvenience.
What exactly are first-generation hybrids?
The super-short explanation is that first-generation (F1 for short) hybrids are basically inbred plants that have been artificially fertilized by humans.
The slightly more detailed explanation is that two different plant types – say, two types of tomatoes – are inbred separately for ten or more generations, and then crossed with each other. This results in large batches of seeds that produce plants that are genetically very similar.
These plants will produce a large yield of fruit and other edible parts that look the same, taste the same and are of the same size and shape. All the fruit will also ripen at the same time.
This makes F1 hybrids popular in industrial agriculture. The uniform size and shape makes them easy to harvest, handle and pack by machine. Because of this, most fruit and vegetables you buy in a supermarket are F1 hybrids.
Why F1 hybrids are bad
- Less variation in your diet
Variety is the key to a healthy diet. With the tomato you bought yesterday being genetically the same as the one you’ll buy today, next week and next month, you’ll get exactly the same nutrients every day. - Farmers have to buy new, expensive seeds every year
While first-generation hybrids yield a lot the first season, their seeds are usually sterile or produce weak plants. Therefore, farmers have to buy new, expensive seeds every year. This is a serious problem for farmers in poor countries. - Hybrids are squeezing traditional varieties out of the market
With industrial farms growing exclusively hybrids, traditional varieties of plants are squeezed out of the market and marginalized. This threatens biodiversity – pollinators and other animal life included. - Increased danger of famine
The lower diversity that hybrids lead to, makes our food supply vulnerable. If a popular hybrid is vulnerable to a particular blight that turns up, it will wipe out all or most of the existing population of that hybrid.
That’s what happened during the Irish potato famine in 1840s. Irish farmers were reliant on one particular kind of potato. This kind of potato proved to be vulnerable to a fungus that grew during a damp spell. This wiped out Ireland’s main source of food for years, until a potato resistant to the fungus was found in Peru.
Modern, industrial farmers sort of get around this issue by using an ever increasing amount of herbicides and pesticides. Apart from all the other negatives of spraying poison on our food, this is only a temporary fix. Fungus, bacteria and pests are developing resistance and immunity to these chemicals.
What to do about it
Whenever possible, buy so-called heirloom fruit and vegetables.
Heirloom varieties are simply traditional varieties that have cross-bred with other varieties and managed to survive for centuries, enduring drought, freezing and blights with their natural defenses.
Heirlooms taste better, contain more varied nutrients and come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. Their seeds can be harvested and used for new plants next year. And the more heirloom varieties grown in the same area, the smaller the risk of a blight wiping them all out.
To find heirlooms, buy your fruits and veggies from local farmers and gardeners. In a farmer’s market, you can often find several types of any given fruit or vegetable. If you’re having trouble finding them, ask the farmers for them. They’ll be more inclined to grow them if they know there’s a market.
Alternately, you can grow them yourself. Search for “heirloom seeds” on any website selling seeds – for example Burpee’s site.
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This post was tagged with: agriculture, biodiversity, food, Gardening, heirloom, hybrids, plants
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Good article… very informative. (As always!!!)
If I would live down south where there are 30 types of heirloom tomatoes everyday at the farmers market, I would jump on them in a heart beat.
So far, up here, (climate zone 3-4), I’ve found 3 types of hybrid that cost 10$ a pound and last about 4 weeks in the middle of summer. You know what I mean… You come from a very northern place as well.
A will be honest, for as much as I’m all about being green, somethings (like you for a local diet) aren’t so easy.
We did try growing 2 varieties of heirlooms this year (Striped caverns and Brandywine) but the striped carverns were very low yielding (we got 2 tomatoes per plant for a grand total of 4) and the brandywines never grew… lots of flowers, no fruit. Both of them were zoned 8. It was dissapointing, but to be expected.
But in the meantime, when I buy tomatoes, I at least buy organic or greenhouse. It’s the best I can do.
Again, great post!
@Yanic A: I certainly agree that it can be hard finding a good selection of heirloom varieties for a lot of the year. I try to put more money aside for food shopping when these things are in season, so I can afford the more expensive (and better tasting) heirloom stuff. I don’t always succeed in finding them, though – even organic can be hard to find here (but luckily that’s improving rapidly).
Tomatoes are generally hard to grow in colder climates, they really need a lengthy period of sun and warmth to grow any decent crop. A good tomato crop is rare here in Norway unless one keeps them in a greenhouse.
A good tip for tomato plants that keep producing flowers but no fruit is to let it grow three or four bunches of flowers and then snip any new ones appearing off with a pair of scissors. That leaves more oomph for growing the flowers that are already there. Also, snip the top of the plant off once you have enough flowers. That forces the plant to focus on producing tomatoes rather than growing upwards.
This is a great post.. Very informative… I can see that you put a lot of hard work on your every post that’s why I think I’d come here more often. Keep it up! By the way, you can also drop by my blogs. They’re about Vegetable Gardening and Composting. I’m sure you’d find my blogs helpful too.
@Micah: Thank you for the encouraging words
I did stop by your blogs, and they’re both great! I read a few posts – all good – and will return later (I’ve added them to my RSS reader). I also did a bit of tweeting