Thanks for the hearty welcome!
I am here primarily because of of my work with potatoes and tomatoes, utterly too much in regards to breeding and variety development and alas!, too little to with practicality. I got people to take note of my breeding work back in 1983 when I printed a small catalog of seeds called Tater Mater Seeds. In some ways, however, my breeding work with tomatoes were part of the Renaissance of Heirloom tomatoes. Green Zebra, Green Grape, Banana Legs, and other quickly became part of the farmer's market craze, upscale restaurants like Chez Pannise....
Chez Panisse Restaurant Menus, wine list, directions, Alice Waters information. www.chezpanisse.com
You can Google this all you want ....Alice Waters of the renowned Chez Panisse restaurant chose 'Green Zebra' as one of her favorite varieties. The ripe fruits of this unusual tomato have a ...
I posted a message elsewhere on this forum about my TPS (true potato seed) as I seem to have more experience with it than most folks. I like to think of TPS as a poor man's way of having a ready supply of seeds and tubers to survive an economic downturn. There is a peculiar opposition to me in the greater potato industry; that somehow I am guilty of peculation, the fraudulent appropriation of property (potato germplasm) entrusted to my care but proprietorially owned by universities and national government and that my human activity with potato breeding is a wrongdoing, a transgression, a law-breaking act against registered seed potatoes and that my potatoes can not be registered in foreign governments nor can be protected within the USA.
I am anti-GMO, mostly by default, since most breeding facilities are working with GMO's and my public breeder status runs contrary to the patented, controlled growing of certified seed potatoes. The worry is that a free breeder getting access of GMO clones to use in breeding in a Monsanto type nightmare. My tomato and potato breeding effort has largely been a thankless endeavor to diversify genetic germplasm tracing back to plant introduction varieties, wild species, heirloom, and more modern breeding efforts.
I am a walking, breathing,
conflict of interest to the industry. My independence seems to worry some people but was cheered wherever I went in Europe, during a two month long series of workshops there last September and October. I got lots of applause when I said I was a law breaker, growing potato and tomatoes that were not registered, and hoping that individuals in Europe could do the same.
Not sure of how I can help in the discussion forum here, but Atash and I get together from time to time in person to talk about subjects much like the ones addressed on mutuallyassuredsurvival.
Tom Wagner TaterMaterSeeds
