Seeds

This is one for the glutblog really, but as I can't track it down right now I shall put it here for later.

It's that time of year when (despite the snow outside) thoughts turn to the garden, and impending seedage.  Some interesting info from a bit of trawling round the web:

In 2014, Monsanto started buying up heritage seed companies, and started trademarking the names of heritage varieties.  So if you buy organicallly grown heritage seed from an independent grower, they may still have to pay royalties to Monsanto if the variety name has been trademarked.  Example: Black Beauty aubergines.

Some seed companies are more ethical than others.  I can't find out if any of the standard (non-agricultural) UK ones are owned by Monsanto or other big pharmaceutical companies, but I was already aware that some "brands" are owned by the same company (although, confusingly, the two different brands often have different customer satisfaction - presumably a result of the historical culture of the company before it was bought out).  There's an ethical ranking of seed companies at Ethical Consumer, although you'll need to subscribe to see the reasons for the rankings.  Unsurprisingly though, companies like Tamar Organics are towards the top while the big names are towards the bottom.

As to brands owned by companies, here are the groupings I've found so far:

Suttons = Dobies = B&Q's own-brand seed = Jekka McVicar herbs = James Wong
Marshalls = Unwins (both owned by SE Marshall, itself owned by Westland)
Johnsons = Mr Fothergill's = Wilkinson's own-brand seed