Follow Up On Seed Catalog Companies

There were follow up comments on the seed companies mentioned in the last email from friends in Canada and PA.   (One forwarded email is at the bottom here.)  From the emails, it appears that (many, most?) of the home seed catalog companies are still owned by families or small companies.  I'll quote from p. 52 of Barbara Kingsolver's book, and you can see how it would be easy to infer that they were bought up by larger corporations.   And that would not be too hard to believe with the mergers, acquisitions, and company buyouts so prolific in recent years.  From "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle": (emphasis mine)
 

"Agribusiness can patent plant varieties for the purpose of removing them from production.  (Seminis dropped 25 percent of its total product line in one recent year, as a "cost-cutting measure"), leaving farmers with fewer options each year.  The same is true for home gardeners, who rarely suspect when placing orders from Johnny's, Territorial, Nichols, Stokes, and dozens of other catologs that they're likely buying from Monsanto.  In its 2005 annual report, Monsanto describes its creation of American Seeds Inc. as a licensing channel that "allows us to marry our technology with the high-touch, local face of regional seed companies."  The marriage got a whopping dowry that year when Monsanto acquired Seminis, a company that already controlled about 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market.  Garden see inventories show that while about 5,000 honhybrid vegetable varieties were available from catalogs in 1981, the number in 1988 was down to 600."

 
After the input from comments, and re-reading this more carefully, I can only surmise that what Barbara Kingsolver must mean is that the small, family owned seed catalog companies are distributors, or sales reps, for Monsanto's seeds.   Fewer companies produce all their own seed now. 
 
This still begets the question, how can I, directly or indirectly, not support Monsanto if I choose to?   Is Monsanto growing any non-hybrids also?  Would it be safe to buy just open pollinated heirloom seeds from any company?   Of course we know that individuals produce and contribute the seeds for the organization Seed Savers Exchange.  And I feel confident buying from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (just read the catalog and you'll know why).  Sandhill Conservation is single-handedly saving lots of plants, and animals from extinction.   They have a comprehensive catalog.  One reader's comment suggested that Johnny's is trying to produce more of their own.
 
This still comes down to my standing principle that if you don't know the hand that made it, or the farmer that grew it, you should reconsider acquiring it.  Just as I need to now ask for foods,"Is it locally grown?"  Where is the garment (or whatever) made?  China?  I'm more than curious now who gets the money and where is my seed grown?
 
p.s.  I'll try to contact the author and find out where she got this particular information.