Monday, February 13, 2012

Monsanto vs. GMO's

There's a growing movement in the food industry as more and more people are realizing the lack of transparency coupled with an alarming habit of our government to favor certain private industry giants within our food production system. One of the biggest outcries from the grassroots movement is the idea of GMO's becoming more common in our food supply without proper testing or labeling. But is this movement rejecting new scientific breakthroughs, which could possibly benefit society, because the companies which wield them do so irresponsibly?

Since there is little documented evidence among the plethora of rumors regarding the dangers of genetically engineered foods, the argument against GMO's is based on ad hominem attacks towards the corporations which have cornered the genetic engineering field. While these attacks may not be sufficient evidence for the harmfulness of GMO's, they are not in the least unfounded. There's tons of reading material online as well as popular documentaries which highlight the strategies of GMO giants like Monsanto, so I won't go into too much detail. But when we find the ex-VP and main lobbyist for Monsanto serving as our government's“food czar” (as well as many other Monsanto ex-employees findingjobs in shaping our public policy), when hapless farmers are sued by Monsanto for frivolous cases or situations outside of their control, when our Monsanto infiltrated government proposes retaliation for European countries who refuse to use Monsanto crop, and Monsanto's reach is far enough to twist the arms of local news stations to misrepresent studies and fire reporters who try to tell the truth, there is obviously something wrong with the way businesses are allowed to conduct themselves in a free market.

But is the behavior of one megacorporation enough reason to completely reject a new technology in which the possibilities are unimagined at this point? The fact that Monsanto doesn't allow independent study on the safety or side-effects of their crops which are being pumped into our food system is alarming regarding our personal health, but does that mean we should reject GMO's from all angles, forever? Imagine if things were run a little differently. What if genetically engineered crops were allowed to be independently tested, or even required to be independently tested in wide, long-term trials before allowed for human consumption? What if we could be sure that our government was no in bed with the megacorporation pushing to change the entire landscape of our food production system, so we knew that all agricultural viewpoints got fair treatment? What if we could engineer crops to produce more energy efficient biofuels, allowing us to greatly increase plausibility of renewable fuel energy? What if we could engineer crops that could grow in the places where the population exceeds the food production potential of the land? Or we could certainly find some usefulness in a situation like we are facing now with bananas, where the popular Cavendish variety (the only variety suitable for shipping to consumers worldwide in mass amounts) faces possible extinction within the next decade because of wide-spread blights. Would we prefer no bananas, or independently tested, proven safe for human consumption GM bananas?

Biotechnology, and genetic engineering specifically, holds massive potential. The power we have when we're able to manipulate the building blocks of life to act in any way we wish is massive.  As the saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility.” I don't think the power is being handled very responsibly, but we shouldn't let that sour the potential for great innovations in the biotechnology field.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

This week: Ramping up for Spring, preparing soil.

Things have been steady here on Two Bridges Farm. The lack of any good sunlight recently kept a lot of the winter produce in dormancy for a few extra weeks. Since we only had an experimental amount planted, veggie production has been on hold for a couple weeks, and will probably stay that way for a month or so. This is okay though, considering how new growing produce is for us (let alone growing winter produce), we're happy with the results we had this Winter. We didn't produce an amazing amount, but what we have learned from the successes and mistakes will be priceless in the end.

It all works out for the better anyways, since it's crunch time for getting things prepared for the Spring produce. I have been busy starting seed, tilling soil, spreading compost and amendments, and regularly visualizing what this Spring plot will look like.

We treat our soil using our own livestock along with some recommendations from Eliot Coleman, a pioneer of small-scale organic growing. Before the ground is to be prepared for production, we have our broiler chickens on top of the plot, moving the houses frequently to help intensively add chicken manure as fertilizer to the soil. Once this is done, the ground is tilled. The ground has never been worked for veggie production and is very compact, so this year I used the rotary plow on our walking tractor for deeper tillage. Deep tillage is important to break up deeper compaction in the soil and help aerate, so the crops' roots are able to reach further down for nutrients, allowing for closer spacing with healthier plants. After the deep tillage, we add compost. We had some very nice 2 year-old compost ready to use, as well as horse manure from the pastures and chicken manure from our stationary chicken coops. Other organic amendments will be added to help preserve the soil integrity and then I will use the shallow tillage to mix in the compost and amendments, then the soil will be ready for production. This should be done by the end of the weekend.

It's going to take a few years to get the soil balanced, loose, and fertile, but plant quality and increased yield in the long run, as well as full soil sustainability, make all the work worth it. I plan on implementing a system of biointensive-style double-dug beds after the initial work is done on the soil, which is my long-term goal for maintaining soil health.

The baby goats are running around playing and growing fast, the chickens are breaking egg records almost every day, and the weather just can't seem to make up its mind. I've heard a saying around here regarding this fickle weather: “Welcome to North Carolina, if you don't like the weather, stick around a couple days, it'll change!” I guess it at least makes things interesting!

Since winter production is slow, we are not going to the Western Wake market next week, but we will be at the Wake Forest market with plenty of chicken and eggs. Hope everyone is staying warm with this blast of cold air this weekend!