The new Food Safety law may effect the sale and trading of open pollinated seed. The original bill was sponsored by a well financed lobby by Monsanto and Dole. These mega Agribiz companies now control about 90% of seed production and sales in the world. It is now illegal to harvest and sell or trade any seed you grow. The new law states that seeds are considered food and therefore come under the scrutiny of the FDA and the seed cleaning guidelines as set down in the law. The law says if you are going to sell seeds for the production of food you must use approved machinery as approved for that purpose by the regulations as set down by law. (a condensed explanation). The machinery approved has a cost of slightly over 1 million dollars each, per each seed variety. That kind of expense is not the kind of money that small farms or seed producers can afford, so they will be forced out of business. Guess who can afford it ? Not only will the seed selection be limited to what the suppliers want to sell, but also will be limited to what ever GMO seed the the suppliers elect to produce and sell to the growers. This will effectively result in total control over food production in this country. The law says if you produce food and you trade it, sell it or cause it to be exchanged to another by any means you must register with the FDA. This means any backyard gardener who sells their produce at the local farmer's market must have the permission of the FDA. The grower must have a license and if caught selling without the permit faces stiff fines or imprisonment. The law makes a provision for the small farmer (less than $500,000.00 yearly sales within 275 miles of the farm's location) to be exempt from the red tape/paperwork and exhaustive record keeping required by the large agrabiz interests. However any grower still must register and have the permission of the FDA to produce food. By registering, the grower agrees to giving the FDA or it's appointed agents the right to inspect, test, confiscate and stop the production of any item the FDA even suspects is a source of food borne contamination. (a condensed explanation). So, if you have a garden and do not have a license, and one carrot is consumed by someone outside your family you could be in deep doo-doo. The government, in reality, could care less if the food we consume is free of contamination. What they do care about is their ability to exert total control over our food.
I would suggest that whether you grow a garden or maintain a small farm for profit or if the only interest you have in food is to eat it that you purchase and store as much Open Pollinated seed as you can afford. It's going to be a valuable trade item and may enable you to stay alive during the turmoil to come upon us. See this post to register your opinion to your representatives. httpi//tinyurl.com/nofoodcontrol.
Thanks.

When I save seed from great tasting fruit or vegetables:

I take the seed put it onto a plate lined with paper towels, or alone so it doesnt stick to the paper.
Second, after its dried I wash the seeds, and put it into a quart or pint sized jar with a screen lid, and add enough water to cover the seeds. I change the water everyday for the next 2-3 days as long as the water doesnt smell too bad.After the third - fourth day, put the seeds on a plate, or paper towels to dry them, You can dry them in microwave or leave them outside in the sun and turn the seeds to the other side gets equal dryness. The seeds need fungi so that it doesn't mold as you're saving the seeds. (I have learned my lesson from saving green bean seeds which i didnt use this method, and when i went to find out if i can plant them, there was mold growing all over them, Folks don't make the same mistake i did. )

I also put it after i have dried it for a second time into a ziplock bag, or a container with a tight fitting lid.

seeds will not mold using this method. I have tried it on cucumber and cantelope seeds, and they have worked out well.