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Gardening is crucial for self-sufficiency in a time of a contracting division of labor, but conventional gardening is based on hybrid seeds. So is conventional commercial farming. We have become dependent on commercial hybrid seeds. A hybrid seed will not grow a plant whose seeds will predictably grow a similar plant. The offspring may be much smaller or in other ways defective. To have confidence that next season's plants and seeds will be close to this year's, you must plant nonhybrid seeds.
If the banking system fails, commercial agriculture will not be able to produce the food we expect. The farmers will not be able to buy seeds for the next planting, yet they will not be able to trust the seeds produced by the latest crop (even if they saved any seeds, which is doubtful). So, we are trapped by the logic of hybridization. The "green revolution" rests on that other green: paper money. (Here I reveal my national bias for green pieces of paper with dead presidents' pictures on them.)
The moderator of the Nonhybrid Gardening forum is Geri Guidetti of the Ark Institute. She sells a $99 package, which includes Build Your Ark...Book I: Food Self-Sufficiency, Living Well on Wheat; my 90-minute taped interview with her, "You MUST Become Food Self-Sufficient"; the Non-hybrid Seed Personal Food Security Program; and a special report, "The Crash of '97/'98 -- How to Prepare Now." Call 1-800-255-1912 , or send check or money order to: The Ark Institute, POB 364, Monkton, MD 21111.
I want all of the forums to be lively. I want as many people to get involved as possible on the open forums: an increase in the division of intellectual labor. Questions generate discussion. Discussion generates new information. We are all after better information at a low price. Maybe we can get it if we obtain larger quantities of new information. That's my goal, anyway.
If you see a problem with a previous answer, and you know from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that there is an open pit that we may fall into, warn us all. But don't offer hearsay and rumor in place of personal experience and published warnings, with these published warnings identified by title, date of publication, and page number. Be specific. Also, don't get sued.
If you post a specific answer, and a product is involved, go the extra mile to supply the product's model number, its price, the seller's name, address, and phone number. An e-mail address would be nice, too. If you have information that calls for action on our part, give us as much information as you can that will enable us to take this action.
If you know of a Web site that provides more information, please supply the Web address and any additional information that we can use to make better use of the site. The rules of this forum are like the rules of all the others. First, there are my Ten Commandments, which I have posted on the introductory page of the Discussion Forums - Mirrorcategory. These are basic rules of discussion etiquette.
Second, if you would like to see a new subtopic on this forum, send your suggestion to the moderator:
arkinst@concentric.net
Warning: I have told all of the moderators that I advise against answering too many questions by e-mail. Any question worth asking a moderator is worth posting on the forum.
Of course, if you want to buy a bulk order of something from a moderator at a discount, send that e-mail! Every seller wants to hear from potential buyers. But understand that these moderators serve for free. To ask them to do more than moderate for free is to be overly greedy. Don't be greedy. The post-1999 world must be built on mutually beneficial trade, not a quest for zero-price wealth at the expense of others.
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