Plant your way to food independence.

Most people have heard, and at least partially understand, that open-pollinated, non-hybrid, non-genetically modified, heirloom seeds are the best ones to plant. But not everyone knows exactly why. This information should help.

Unfortunately, there is a trend out there of relying on hybridized and cloned plants. In fact, genetically engineered foods are taking over. Among the problems with genetically modified foods is that the natural processes that plants go through as they produce seeds capable of replica reproduction are completely destroyed.

In order to breed desirable characteristics such as higher yield and more uniform size to accommodate the machinery used in industrial farming, hybrid plants are artificially cross-pollinated. But the seed produced by the second generation of hybrid plants does not reliably produce a true copy of that hybrid and often loses much of its yield potential.

This is a huge concern, although the government doesn’t seem to take it seriously. The key to stockpiling survival seeds is open-pollination. When a plant reproduces through natural means, it will adapt to local conditions and evolve reliably, especially in its own locality.

Open-pollinated plants are free from pesticides, chemicals and other forms of genetic modification by humans. Non-hybrid seeds are vibrant links in a long chain reaching back to ancient history. As always, nature knows what it is doing, and attempts to mess with nature usually fail.

Those who have acquired heirloom seeds have already taken a huge step in the right direction. Now it’s just a matter of fully utilizing those seeds in order to gain food independence that will serve your family well despite whatever disaster might occur. And even if you’re fortunate enough to avoid a major crisis during your lifetime, you’ll have better tasting, more nutritious and less expensive food than you would have had otherwise.

Does knowing that you and your family will be well fed regardless of food shortages, rising food prices and natural disasters give you a certain peace of mind that you didn’t have before you started growing your own food? Please let us know your thoughts about that.