As gardening and growing seasons appear on the horizon, folks with green thumbs ask how worried they should be about GMOs. Our advice: Be aware, but not worried. A little knowledge and informed choices are all you need.

Since the 1990s, GMOs have become a standard feature on North American farmland. However, the average home gardener was unlikely to accidentally buy and plant GMOs, which came with restrictive use agreements.  

That's starting to change.

In 2023, the FDA completed its review of the genetically modified purple tomato, paving the way for a US launch. The purple tomato is the first GMO to be available and marketed toward home growers — a departure from the restrictive user agreements that govern previous GMOs. While its availability has been limited, seeds are for sale online without restrictions on saving seeds. 

If you prefer to keep your home garden non-GMO, there is a rainbow of traditionally bred tomatoes in delightful colors. Or, make the most of the antioxidant benefits of purple-hued foods by growing and eating cherries, blackberries, blueberries, pomegranates, cabbage, eggplant … the list goes on!

Beyond seeds

The GMO issue is about more than just seeds. 

The biotech business strategy also involves product bundles. For example, some of the earliest GMO crops were engineered to tolerate herbicide applications — a savvy combo that helped chemical companies sell more weedkillers, even though the environmental costs (think, lost plant diversity, reductions to beneficial insects and soil microorganisms) have been steep. Since GMOs came onto the scene in the 1990s, pesticide use has skyrocketed across American farmland, proving that the chemicals that go with GMOs can be as impactful as the seeds themselves.

GMOs can also be found in garden products containing high-risk crops such as soy or alfalfa meal. Animal-derived ingredients, such as bone, blood or feather meal, are another potential GMO risk because they often come from animals that ate a GMO diet.

Grow your own … soil?

A great way to save money, reduce waste and dodge questionable ingredients in garden products is to make your own soil amendments through composting. The best method for making the most of your yard waste and food scraps depends on how much time and space you have at your disposal. Here are some of our favorites:

• Outsourcing compost — For a "hands-off" approach, look for curbside pickup services in your area. Many municipalities provide a green waste bin for yard and food scraps, which they collect with garbage and recycling. To keep your green bin a clean bin, add some old newspapers to the bottom before adding compostables. Layer yard waste with kitchen waste as you go, and put the bin out for collection every week. Refresh that newspaper after each pickup.
• Build your own — If you have extra space, consider making your own compost heap and watch waste turn into “black gold.” A well-managed compost heap doesn't smell, and a well-designed one can be quite attractive. If you keep protein and fat sources out of the compost and get the right ratio of "greens" to "browns," pests shouldn't be a problem. For happy composting, pick your location carefully: If you live on a slope, place it uphill so gravity is your friend when it comes time to spread that black gold around (we learned that lesson the hard way).
• Let worms do the work — If you're light on space but long on time, try making a worm bin. Vermicomposting takes more time and management than a traditional compost pile, but watching the population grow and the food scraps disappear can be a great year-round project for kids. 

Are hybrid seeds the same as GMOs? 

The experts at Botanical Interests provided this helpful primer on the difference between hybrid seeds and GMOs. While the whole article is well worth a read, here's an abbreviated version.

GMOs are living organisms that have been subjected to biotechnology. Biotechnology techniques are used to alter an organism's DNA in the hopes of changing its fundamental characteristics. Biotechnology is different from traditional crossbreeding. 

In traditional crossbreeding, humans take a process that already happens in nature and replicate it in a more controlled environment — hybridization is one of those processes. If two plants from different but related species cross-pollinate, the fertilized flower will produce hybrid seeds that display a combination of the traits it inherited from each parent. Humans have learned to orchestrate this process intentionally  — the "more controlled environment" part of traditional crossbreeding. 

The results of hybridization abound. For example, through hybridization, humans developed a wide variety of Brassica crops — broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, cabbage, bok choy and kohlrabi — from Brassica oleracea plants. "They are the same species," say the experts at Botanical Interests, "but careful cross-pollination and time have enabled humans to gradually transform these into the variations we now recognize as a multitude of vegetables. These changes took place over hundreds, perhaps thousands of years." 

The development of maize from wild teosinte is another example of hybridization. All the corn varieties in existence today were developed from a wild crop by skilled Indigenous farmers and plant breeders. Today, this remarkable accomplishment provides a nutritious staple to a third of the world's population.

A gardener's glossary

Cultivar — A cultivar is a group of plants bred through human intervention for desired traits. The word "cultivar" is short for "cultivated variety." Cultivars may be propagated reliably through cuttings or grafting, but are unlikely to retain the characteristics of the parent plant if grown from seed.

"F1" — This term appears frequently in seed catalogs. "F1" indicates a hybrid seed, the first generation following the successful cross-pollination of the two parent plants. The cross-breeding process can continue: Offspring of F1 hybrids would be called F2 hybrids, indicating that they are part of the second generation, and so on. As a hybrid, "F1" seed will be stable for one generation, but the seed those plants produce will not remain "true to type," retaining the characteristics of the original parent plant.

Heirloom — An heirloom plant variety is a named, open-pollinated strain that either pre-dates modern breeding programs or has not been altered by them. As a general rule of thumb, heirloom varieties have undergone open-pollinated reproduction for more than 50 years. 

Hybrid — A hybrid is a new variety of plant that is made through crossing two different parent plants of related species. Home growers most often encounter hybrids that were purposefully created by seed breeders. The increased genetic diversity of a hybrid can result in more abundant crops, a phenomenon known as "hybrid vigor." However, if you want to save seeds season after season, remember that hybrid plants grown in your garden won't produce seeds that are "true to type" because the genetics aren't stable. 

Landrace — A landrace crop is a cultivated variety, or cultivar, that has evolved over generations of farmer selection. Landrace crops contain great genetic diversity and can display a range of traits. They will thrive in the bioregion where they were produced — a quality called "local adaptation." Their genetic diversity makes them a gold mine for traits such as drought tolerance or pest resistance. Landraces are constantly changing in response to their environment and the decisions of the farmer who grows them.

Open-pollinated — Open-pollinated plants are propagated in a field, the pollen carried by wind or pollinating insects and animals to neighboring plants. Open-pollinated plants grown in isolation will produce seeds that can be saved year to year, whereas open-pollinated plants allowed to cross with others of their species will produce hybrids (see hybrid). Open-pollinated seeds are better than hybrids if you're interested in saving seeds produced in your home garden and replanting them next year.

Variety — A variety is a group of plants that has evolved due to natural selection rather than human intervention. The plants have naturally evolved to exhibit a common set of characteristics, and those characteristics vary from the rest of their species. Plants grown from the seed of a species variety will often produce exact copies of the parent plant. 

Saving and sharing seeds is a fascinating, empowering and nourishing practice. You don't have to be an expert to give it a try. Plus, every expert started out as a curious amateur — why not you?

Indigenous author and seed keeper Diane Wilson taught us a valuable rule of thumb: Save the best seeds from the strongest plants in your garden for replanting the following year. Seeds that are stunted, malformed or from weak-looking plants can be given to wildlife to support their nourishment, and the middle-quality seeds go toward feeding you, plus friends and family. This simple practice ensures the strongest genes are carried forward to the next generation and that our actions nourish all life with whom we share this beautiful place.

Get started today by finding Non-GMO Project Verified seeds through our online Product Finder. Happy growing!