Great American Seed Up:
Who Really Owns The Seeds That Feed Us The following is excerpted from an article published by Great American Seed Up in 2025. Seed-saving is an essential part of GB, and of a healthy, resilient, and independent food web. Find EA Booklet 13: Growing to Seed Just four corporations—BASF, Bayer/Monsanto, Chem- China-Syngenta, and Corteva Agriscience—control over two-thirds of global seed sales. This concentration of ownership has happened rapidly, consolidating what was once a network of thousands of local seed producers. The consequences are profound and often invisible. When seed companies merge or get acquired, they typically streamline their offerings. Varieties that don’t sell in high volumes get discontinued. Varieties that don’t ship well or store long enough for global distribution disappear from catalogs. The numbers are staggering. According to the UN-FAO, 75 percent of crop diversity was lost between 1900 and 2000. That’s three-quarters of our agricultural genetic heritage—gone in a single century. This isn’t just about having fewer options at the garden center. It’s about resilience. When climate patterns shift, when new diseases emerge, when growing conditions change—genetic diversity becomes our insurance policy. Different varieties contain different traits that might thrive under new conditions. Without diversity, our food system becomes increasingly vulnerable. The good news? A growing movement of gardeners, farmers, and organizations is working to reclaim seed sovereignty. ... These grassroots efforts represent more than nostalgia or hobby gardening. They’re rebuilding local food resilience from the ground up. Every time you save seeds from your garden, you’re participating in an ancient tradition that predates corporate agriculture by thousands of years. You’re also doing something revolutionary. ... Three Steps Toward Seed Sovereignty
...you can read the full article & listen to the podcast at
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