You probably never think about it, but that head of lettuce in your crisper drawer was once a tiny seed that some farmer had to sow, a few months ago. The farmer probably bought that seed from one of the corporate behemoths that controls much of our food supply. And since the primary goal of corporations is to maximize profits, that lettuce you bought was grown not for its outstanding flavor or nutritional content, but because it's a fast-growing, pest-resistant variety that doesn't go limp at the prospect of being schlepped from the West Coast to the East.

Does it matter if most of our vegetables are brought to us courtesy of Monsanto and Dupont? I'll admit I don't think about this issue a whole lot myself. But when I kicked back with a stack of seed catalogs on Sunday to find out what's new and novel in the edible landscape, I opened up the Fedco Co-op Seed Packers catalog and found a can of worms.

Fedco sells the finest hybrid and heirloom vegetable seed to farmers and home gardeners alike, offering a wide range of certified organic cultivars and regional heirloom varieties at terrific prices. A cooperative venture committed to fostering sustainable agriculture, Fedco conducts extensive trials of its seeds in order to select the best tasting, hardiest varieties with the highest germination rates.

So when Fedco's largest seed supplier, a company called Seminis, got snapped up by Monsanto last year, Fedco was faced with a major ethical dilemma. Monsanto, king of the genetically engineered crop crowd, is anathema to the folks at Fedco, but Seminis has long provided Fedco with many of its most popular vegetable varieties, including my all-time favorite cherry tomato, a super sweet golden hybrid called Sunsugar.

Fedco, being the cooperative that it is, polled its customers: should they drop the Monsanto/Seminis seed altogether, phase it out gradually, or keep it? The majority voted to drop Monsanto like a genetically modified hot potato, and many customers added their two cents worth, including the following:

“You don't need to sell your soul for a Sunsugar.” Tell that to my friend Frank, who's been known to sneak into my garden to pilfer my precious Sunsugars.

Another Fedco customer declared, “We'll survive on the sweet tastiness of the moral high ground.”That, and a brand new hybrid called Tess's Land Race Currant Tomato; according to Fedco, its intense flavor is “highly appreciated by restaurant chefs and discerning farmers-market customers.” But will Frank like it?