GRAND RIDGE, Ill. — Curt Bedei would like to plant the seeds of organic gardening in the public mind and hopefully help the growers harvest better health as a result.

Which means he’s been digging around the past couple years for ways to inform gardeners and non-gardeners alike the 10-year-old Streator Farmers’ Market in Streator, Ill., is selling organic seeds to benefit the organization. The money goes toward helping promote the nonprofit market and to sponsor educational classes focused on raising organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

“We bring in special guests for the classes,” market co-master Bedei explained. “We also do a big event at Farmers’ Market Week in August. Last year, we had three different classes with more than 100 people attending. The classes dealt with cooking, use of herbs and things like that.”

The market is in its second year of offering organic seeds. Bedei said sales were good enough last year to try again this spring. The seeds will be available through June. Also, the market is moving to a different location, which Bedei expects will increase its foot traffic.

“I’m anticipating more customers this year,” he said.

The difference between conventional and organic seed is the absence of synthetic chemicals in growing the latter. Conventional vegetable seed crops rely on petroleum-based synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, while organic seed production only uses natural pesticides and fertilizers in lesser amounts, according to a 2010 publication by the Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension.

Also, some conventional seeds are genetically modified organisms (GMO). This means science has changed the seed’s DNA to work with certain chemicals or to resist certain pests, the publication stated. Additionally, organic seeds must be certified and labeled as such by the producers.

“They don’t use pesticides or herbicides or anything like that,” Bedei said. “They’re not tampered with – they are just grown in their natural state under very strict regulations, and that’s where they get the organic seeds from. Organic seeds are what the gardening public was probably accustomed to 30 years ago.

“GMOs are genetically modified organisms in which different types of elements are taken from plants and injected into the seeds of other plants so they can fight insects and diseases. Different scientific studies by private researchers have proven GMOs are a health risk, like cancer, or allergies or autism,” he opined.

Growth rates for organic and GMO plants are about the same, he said. Gardeners who wish to raise their produce organically must use organic pesticides. Those who want to raise organic seeds by conventional methods can use pesticides and herbicides if they wish. Most gardeners who buy organic seeds want to raise the plants organically, however, he added.

“Organic plants are quite hardy,” Bedei said. “We’ve been using them for the last several hundred years. These are what your grandparents and great-grandparents grew their fruits and vegetables with. It’s just within the past 30 years the GMOs have been popular.”

The Streator Farmers’ Market is making available five packets of 48 varieties ranging from arugula to zinnias and everything in between. Arugula is a spicy little leaf with a bitter or peppery mustard flavor, often mixed with milder greens in salads. Zinnias, as just about everyone knows, are colorful annual flowering plants.

“The 48 varieties are the best-selling varieties from High Mowing Organic Seeds of Vermont,” Belie said of the five-packet offer. “The company raises the plants and harvests and packages the seeds, which are organic-certified. Basically, you’re getting about 250 seed packets altogether, and that’s just to get you started.”

The market co-master raises organic produce; he said there are no GMO seeds in his garden. “I got started with the organic mostly because of health concerns,” he said. “And being in the farm world myself, I noticed people coming down with certain health problems and people who passed away because of that.

“It became a concern of mine as well as my family, so we thought this was the route to go – being natural and pure and growing things the way they were meant to be grown.”

The market’s organic seeds are available at Flowers Plus, 216 E. Main St., Streator, Ill.; call 815-673-3114. Bedei can be contacted at 815-249-6806.