Thanks for posting. Sounds like a good reason to save your own seed (or it would have been a good idea to do so last year!). It actually bolsters the idea of planting primarily open pollinated varieties. What I mean is, hybrids have their place in the world, but they don't come true from seed. So if seed shortages become more frequent (as they might, with 7 million new gardens in the US alone last year), then we might all do well to save seed, which means we should plant OP.

-Diggity

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative

I did a Google search on "vegetable seed shortage" and got several hits. The shortage story seemed to come from the same AP - MSNBC story. This is SOP in today's 'quick & dirty' news media environment. One source gets repeated over and over until it has run its newsworthy "15 minutes", and then gets picked up and repeated for years, even when proven not to be so. I am leery of this story. You will note that a similar rumor/story was circulating in fall/spring [seed-buying time]of '08 and '09

1] - http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/02/09/no-seed-shortage-for-gardeners-this-spring-despite-reports-to-t/
...snip...." I had the chance to speak by phone with George Ball, chairman of the home-garden seed industry leader W. Atlee Burpee & Co., who told me that its supply of home garden seeds was plentiful.".....

2] - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35184731/ns/business-consumer_news/
...same AP story cited in all stories I found.

3] - Spring of '09 Heirloom Forum
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/heirloom/msg0321202823962.html

4] - GRIT Forum - Spring 08
http://www.grit.com/forums/forum.aspx?boardid=214&g=posts&t=7789

I have not done seed saving even though I plant mostly OP varieties. That said, I'm lucky enough to have purchased 95% of what I need already.

I have a blog and will be posting reviews of some of the top garden catalogs to help my readership plan their gardens.

I will review, Baker Creek, Seeds of Change, Wild Seed, Territorial, Burpee, Parks, Seed of Change, Johnny's Select.

I have asked folks to tell me if they would like me to review other catalogs. If anyone here would like to nominate a favorite catalog to be reviewed, please just post it as a comment to my blog. The entry covering seeds is titled:

"Seed Catalogs: Weapons of Mass Distraction"

The link is below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Seed Catalog Reviews

I already ordered my seeds from Scheepers, because I ran into this problem last year. I thought I'd order seeds in March and they were out of some of the things I wanted to try. This year I started early :)

My local source for bulk garden seed could not get the usual selection of cucumber seed and Straight Eight was not to be had.

Well, if you think that there will be a real seed shortage, run to HD, LOWES, Walmart, Pikes and other garden centers and buy the seeds you needs. For specialty seeds order from mail order , internet venders. I am pretty much all set now. Excep if I decided to buy/plant somthing unusual not sold in general nurseries. All I need is: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants,cucumbers, basils, and maybe some squash, gourds. I got the seeds.
Another thing is that with internet and sites like GW, we can find somebody who has extra seed to give away to their fellow gardeners or ask a reasonable price. Then the seed companies will be in a serious trouble. HAHA
This hype could be just like stock market, oil prices, .. that speculations can drive up the prices for no fundamental reasons. Most serious gardeners have several years supply of seeds. And the amatures will go to the garden centers and buy seedlings/plants anyway.

cyrus_gardner it will not cause price rises do the current seasons prices are already. set but it might be intend to cause a shortage by encouraging mass buying and hording.
As for cukes or carrot seeds they really are not a good choice for hoarding. I will be checking with someone who owns a US seed company see to what they say about the hype. sorry but i will withhold name of company or the owner unless hear any thing for certain.