Monsanto VS seed banks, will 6 billion starve?

Hello all,
I was driving around with my daughter today and had a very disturbing chain of thoughts. The way I understand it, Monsanto designs it's seeds to only be used once. What would happen if there was a total world wide recession, and farmers were not able to get theire seeds for a season or two? Whether they just could not afford them or for some reason they were not available, what would be the outcome? What would happen if Monsanto just closed it's doors and decided to cut everyone off? I have heard that they have been going to great lengths to drive the old seed suppliers out of business as well by actively hunting them down and suing them into bankruptcy. They have effectively driven out the local seed harvesters everywhere, at least acoss the U.S. One could probably not find many who have the machines or the know how for the lost trade of the old seed saving practices.

I have no idea what the percent of farmers around the world are using the single season seeds from Monsanto, but I can bet it is a large percentage of the total worldwide commercial farm trade. This may ultimately lead to mass starvation across the planet if we do not have a back up plan.

I have heard about the world seed bank project in Norway, and am wondering now if that was a direct reaction to this dellima caused by Monsanto. I am sure that they are keeping seeds actively available for the case that some strains are lost due to drought and such, but would they be able to provide the world with healthy seeds in order to repopulate the native vegetables and grains that the farmers used to use? Would the worlds farm trades just blow away in the wind all together if Monsanto were to disappear?

When I lived in Tucson there was a small company the was searching for the old native seed strains and trying to keep them alive by farming the plants and harvesting the seeds every few years in order to keep the strains alive. I just wonder how many companies are there out there like this one and what will their role be in the future?

I haven't done a lot of research on theis subject yet other than all the negative effects of Monsanto, but I would like to start a discussion about the subject.

What is going to happen if Monsanto goes away, and how will we as a global community deal with it? Will we try to beat the problem with back yard gardens? Are there any resources out there where we could get live healthy native seeds? Will 3/4 of the worlds population starve due to the loss of the farms, crops, and ultimately meat production?

The Native Seed Search in Tucson is a great start, very cool project. I will provide a link to their site, and would like to find other sources like this one if anyone out there knows of any other organizations like this

Native Seed Search

Researchers rush to fill Noah's ark seed bank while politicians bicker

Harvest of Fear

Please feel free to share any ideas or info on this subject. Conspiracy to swiftly gain population control, or just simple lack of forethought? What kind of effect will Monsanto ultimately have on our children? Let's talk about solutions, or ideas. There are already pleanty of other threads out there that would be great for a rant, let's let this one be a place to get good info or discussion.

ETA. I was reading about someone's process for saving tomato seeds the other day, it just occurred to me that if anyone had any cool techniques in their garden, please feel free to share them here as well.

Thanks all,

[There are numerous places to purchase heirloom and native or organic seeds. Once you get these you grow a few and reap the seeds to keep for yourself.Learn how to do this, some seed harvesting techniques vary from plant to plant species, but still basically drying out fruit and cleaning and drying again, then long term storage. I have mine in a pvc vault- (12 inch long by 4 inch diameter pipe, with two slip caps over the ends), butcher paper, two plastic bags and set in bottom of chest freezer. Stay away from genetically modified as just the name alone sounds like it will cause problems. I am a landscape contractor and i sometimes design edible scapes and use several places to obtain seeds and /or plants.
Another thing that i notice more so this year but for at least the last three, is that alot of plants are doing their thing three to four weeks ahead of schedule. Seems plants will migrate north now to adjust to earlier growing season.
Hey, FYI-cool website. These folks travel the world and relocate plants, propagate them and then patent and release. Not many places are allowed to do this and with it comes the MOST interesting varieties of plants.www.plantdelights.com
ENJOY.