Hybrid Vs. Non-Hybrid Seeds

Many major crops--corn, wheat and others--are grown almost exclusively from hybrid seeds.

Hybrid seeds are developed from the seeds of two distant and distinct lines of the same plant species. Although a boon to farmers during the Depression, the requirements and characteristics of hybrid seeds spark controversy.

Background

Through eras of time, plants have been grown by "open-pollinated seeds"--seeds created from pollen blowing in the wind. Although the scientific basis for hybrid seeds goes back nearly 150 years, it wasn't until the 1930s, as the Depression brewed, that hybrids caught the attention of farmers, particularly corn farmers. The appeal to farmers is that the seeds have "hybrid vigor," meaning their crop yields are greater.

Farmer Drawbacks

Farmers must purchase hybrid seeds for each season. It is, in fact, considered patent-infringement to collect and use seeds taken from the plants of many hybrid varieties. Advocacy groups such as Primal Seeds say seeds taken from a hybrid also may either be sterile or, more often, fail to develop the desired traits of parent plants. Hybrid seeds also require fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and lots of water and irrigation to reach high yields. These requirements can hurt farmers, particularly in developing countries.

Consumer Drawbacks

Know where your produce comes from.

The advocacy group Primal Seeds also says that nutritional content is not a major concern of companies developing hybrid seeds; instead their chief concern is maximizing profit. Consumers have no way of knowing whether the produce they choose has a high nutritional content, unless they know its source. They recommend knowing your farmer and/or growing your own produce.

Open-Pollinated Seeds

Supporters of non-hybrid seeds, or open-pollinated seeds, say the produce grows with more desirable flavor, which is hard for seed breeders to manipulate. Also, they say the non-hybrid seeds are better able to adapt to local weather and land conditions, which isn't the case with hybrid seeds.

The Market

Corn was the first hybrid seed crop to be marketed extensively, and it is still the most important economic crop grown in the United States. Today, about 99 percent of U.S. corn is grown from hybrid seed, and that is the same case for wheat, soybeans, grain sorghum, cotton, peanuts and many other crops.

References

• Wessels Living History Farm: The Science of Hybrids
• Primal Seeds
• Heirloom Organics: Why Use Non-Hybrid Seeds?

Resources

• Wessels Living History Farm: Hybrids, Fertilizer & Irrigation
• Aggie Horticulture: Saving Seed