SEED SELLERS: SIGN THE PLEDGE

For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners, and consumers, we pledge that we do not knowingly buy, sell, or trade genetically engineered seeds or plants (genetically modified organisms or GMOs) including those created via transgenics, cisgenics, intragenics, or genome editing techniques such as CRISPR.

Seeds are essential for the provision of healthy food, our well-being, and that of our environment and planet. We must protect the diversity and genetic integrity of our seeds to provide the foundation for a stable, safe food supply for us and for generations to come.

The alteration of genetic material by direct intervention instead of using natural reproductive methods poses great biological risks and creates many unknowns as well as environmental, economic, political, and cultural threats.

New genetic engineering techniques such as genome editing are promoted as precise and safe by the biotechnology industry. Independent studies, however, find the same risks of off-target and unintended changes to the organism as older genetic engineering methods. Yet, the U.S., Canadian and other governments have decided not to regulate many plants produced with genome editing and no government safety assessments are required prior to their release.

An ever-increasing number of organisms are being genetically engineered in laboratories and could quietly make their way into our gardens, farms, and food supply. In particular, new genetically engineered food crops and ornamental plants are being marketed to small-scale farmers and home gardeners, increasing the urgency of protecting the genetic integrity of our seeds.

We wish to support agricultural systems that lead to healthier soils, genetically stable and diverse agricultural ecosystems, and ultimately people and communities.