Once there was a boy ,while carving his pumpkin, saved the seeds to plant the next spring. His mother, knowing that this was a "store-bought" pumpkin, shared with him that the seeds would not grow and produce pumpkins for next year because of seed engineering. 

"Seed Engineering? A seed won't grow?" he questioned. How does one engineer a seed to not grow?

And that's when the mother told him the story of Monsanto and their quest to rule and own our food source by deciding what seeds would grow, who could grow them, and how they engineer seeds to only produce vegetables for one year so that we would have to buy seeds every year. 

"You mean like a monopoly for gardens and farms?" he asked his mother.

"Yes exactly."

The boy doubting that such a thing could even exist, carefully guarded his seeds until the next spring, when he threw all of them by the bird bath, stating that "If all of these seeds grow it will look like mars. We'll have more pumpkins then we'll know what to do with."

And just like the mother had warned, nothing grew. Nothing sprouted, not in two weeks, not in three weeks, not even after a month. Finally on the fifth week a plant started to grow. It became a big strong vine and had many blossoms.

Over the summer the blossoms faded away and no pumpkins appeared. The boy couldn't believe that someone or anyone for that matter would want to intentionally make a seed not grow. His mother noticed how disappointed he was when he spoke of it. 

One day, the boy happened to pick up the vine and there he saw it, one orange and small pie pumpkin.

Rushing for his camera he took a picture of it. "This is our sacred pumpkin! It has refused to be modified or engineered in anyway. Let's save the seeds from this pumpkin so that we have a source of seeds for next year." 

Though the boy continues to take care of his pumpkin, his mother suspects that the growing seed is a fluke of nature or engineering. The mother is visiting her organic garden daily and sharing seed saving knowledge with her son so that they will have seeds for next year.

Organic Seed Sources:

• Seeds of Change
• Fedco
• Fork and Bottle
• Sustainable Seed Co

Organic Seed Registries:

• Organic Seed and Seed Sources
• Organic Seed Alliance