By Melissa Wagoner
Choosing plants and seeds for a backyard garden can feel daunting, especially when faced with unfamiliar words like GMO, hybrid and heirloom.
“These terms are important depending upon the gardener’s goals, offering different qualities especially for seed saving,” Michael Paruch – who has spent the past 34 years working and volunteering in various horticultural endeavors, including ag research and ag science – explained. “GMO [genetically modified organisms] are ‘engineered’ for certain traits and qualities. Hybrids are bred to combine two parent plants to [obtain] their best qualities… Heirlooms are open pollinated then selected for the home gardener’s preferred tastes…”
But one of the biggest differences between the three – and one home gardeners saving seeds from one year to the next should be aware of – is seed production. That is because those seeds produced by genetically modified plants are protected by intellectual property laws and hybrid plants don’t produce reliable seeds. In other words, if you’re a seed saver, heirloom plants are an obvious choice.
But if it’s merely a broader selection you’re after, then the decision isn’t quite as clear.
“It’s hard to make objective decisions in a fast-paced world with so many choices and food additives,” Paruch said. “In our children’s lifetime I believe we will see designer plant options for the homeowner garden and landscape. For example, choose from a new selection of colors and shapes for your old traditional favorite plants. Who wouldn’t want their yard full of a rainbow of dandelion colors with balloon sized flowers and seed heads instead of today’s yellow uninvited friend in our lawns? Earlier this year we had the first offering of a GMO plant to home gardeners, a purple tomato.”
Developed as “the first genetically modified food crop to be directly marketed to home gardeners” by Norfolk Plant Sciences – a plant science research institute in England – the purple tomato is being marketed as “disease fighting” due to the elevated levels of anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory anthocyanins it contains.
But as exciting as this discovery may sound, not everyone agrees that the creation of GMOs is a good idea. In fact, a PEW Research study conducted in 2020 showed that “about half of US adults think GM foods are worse for health than non-GM foods.”
“Some might argue, this is the age-old question of quality versus quantity,” Paruch said, referring to the use of genetically modified seeds in “big business” farming, “but the answer… is much more nuanced.”
And often complicated by marketing, which is why Paruch suggests that, rather than spending time debating GMO, heirloom and hybrid, gardeners instead take into consideration from whom they are buying their plants and seeds.
“[F]ood and garden dollars support either big profit driven industry or small family businesses,” Paruch pointed out. “We live in an age with lots of privilege and a wide range of food and ag industry choices… search out products to support family farms.”
