GMO Primer Part 1 – What is GMO?
GE gives desireable and marketable traits to common veggies.
It’s easy to get buried in the wash of information available on GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). The stuff is everywhere; Dave provided an excellent piece in November of last year in “The GMO Seed – the root of the evil” in which he explores the consequences of distributing a genetically modified seed that kills everything that eats it, is genetically altered to be resistant to pesticides (manufactured and sold by the same company BTW), and the cross contamination of non-genetically engineered crops through natural pollination. While the information is out there, it’s hard to figure out where to begin. Today we’ll start with the basics and go from there.
What exactly is a GMO or Genetic Engineering? Genetic modification is the technologies and practices used to alter the genetic makeup of an organism. This is generally done by introducing DNA from another species (plant, animal, bacteria, etc.) into the organism.
This is not the same as cross breeding two similar animals, or selectively breeding plants by the most desired traits, but a completely artificial alteration of the genome. Other terms commonly used are “Genetically Engineered” or “Transgenic”. The idea is to incorporate a quality not normally expressed in the recipient. One example is inserting genes from cold water fish like a flounder into strawberries to make them less susceptible to cold.
Genetic engineering is also used on mammals. GE salmon are given an additional growth hormone that causes them to grow faster. Similar practices are used extensively in medical and biotechnology research, altering bacteria to create specific microorganisms such as growth hormones or proteins, insulin being an example. The first successful attempts at genetic engineering go back to the early 1970s, and have been increasing on massive scales ever since. We will likely see more and more research in the areas of food and medicine, but if that’s a good thing or not is questionable.
Dig up your own research, evaluate objectively, and make your own decisions.
Next time, we will start looking at arguments for and against genetic engineering in the agricultural system.
[div class="note" class2="typo-icon"] David Martin is a passionate advocate for sustainable living and holistic nutritional health. He has spent a good part of the last 10 years improving his diet, reducing his carbon footprint, and learning as much as he can about restoring the balance of humans and nature. By day he works the system to beat it, by night he plans his ideal self-sufficient future. When not slaving away in the office, you can find him tending to plants, camping under the stars, or practicing his latest discovery: Tai Chi.
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The Generosity of Seeds
I found and posted this video the other day on the Not Quite Hippie Tumblr and it spread like wildfire through the blogosphere. I’m reposting it here because I think it has an extremely important message and is beautifully made.
Claire from Compeller Pictures on Vimeo.
Right now all of our seeds are germinating. Our indoor seed trays are packed with new life as hundreds of seeds soften, take root, and start producing their first leaves. It is exciting to watch. I feel thankful that these seeds are able to do so much with so little. One seed, a bit of soil and water, and in a few months I will have more food than I know what to do with. I give this seed the most basic, elemental essentials and it provides me with flavors and nutrients I’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
The above clip comes by way of the Untitled GMO Film Project that I have been following via Kickstarter for some time now (if the clip speaks at all to the rest of the film, then we are in for a treat). Our narrator - Claire – takes us through a garden and shows us plants in the autumn just before they produce and send off hundreds, thousands of seeds. These seeds are the very definition of generous. Before the plant dies for the season, it gives off thousands of copies of itself not only so it can live on as a species, but so we can also enjoy their fruits in future generations as well.
If only we could all be as selfless as seeds.
With the arrival of spring everyone is outside more. Many are landscaping their yards, washing their cars, planting gardens and all around enjoying the wonderful weather. In my neighborhood, we didn’t see much of the other people living here during the winter. No one was out on bicycles, but cooped up in cars instead. Windows weren’t open, we couldnt’ hear the conversations going on all around us. Plans were detered or modified based on the snow and ice and cold temperatures and, overall, we saw less of our friends. For the first time in a long time, I understood the idea of “hibernation.” A hibernation also felt by seeds after they give way in the fall.
What are you learning from the seeds? How will you spread generosity this season?
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read moreHunting down the 2012 seed catalogs
I remember, as a kid, I would always get excited this time of year because that’s when the enormous Toys ‘R’ Us catalog would show up with one of the newspapers. It was like the September Issue of Vogue, but for toys, and what kid didn’t love glossy-page after glossy-page of plastic crap, brightly colored encyclopedia of all the cool crap that we would outgrow in a month or two?
Oh! To be young again!
Growing older, interests change, and I find myself thinking about seed catalogs. Pouring over page after page of stuff that I want to grow next Spring. Yes, now is the time to acquire your catalogs and plan out your plots for the next growing season. There are thoudsands of seed companies all over the world, many of them with some kind of catalog. Not all are heirloom varieties, or organic, or even non-GMO. But if you are interested in those things, here’s a few companies that will deliver pure goods:
Big, pretty vegetables from garunteed non-GMO seeds. What’s not to love? Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds also publishes Heirloom Gardener magazine. Definitely worth the look. Currently only the 2011 catalog is available. Look for 2012 sometime in the middle of December.
Baker Creek
Terrior Seeds/ Underwood Gardens
Offering only the finest in hand selected, untreated heirloom seeds for vegetables, herbs and flowers. Family owned and operated, good people.
Established in 1784, the Landreth Seed Company is one of the oldest seed companies in the United States. This last August they ran into a bit of fiscal trouble, but were able to stay afloat thanks to the increased sales and donations given by concerned gardeners everywhere. Proving that heirloom gardeners are not a dying breed.
Landreth
Do you have a favorite seed company? Where are they from and why do you return to them? Leave your answers in the comments below.
read moreThe GMO Seed – the root of the evil
Yes, really.
Remember the Green Revolution? No, not the one we’re sitting in the middle of now, but the first one? Happened in the late 80s, early 90s? It was a push to have engineered foods produced under the pretense of having enough to feed the entire world? Yow know – the “Green Movement” That was essentially a huge advertising and PR campaign for companies like DuPont and Monsanto to get their foot in the door of the global market and convince everyone that bioengineered food is good for them?
This is the green revolution that we will forever be recovering from.
Genetically modified foods come from, naturally (or, as the case may be, not so naturally), genetically modified seeds. While every seed undergoes some kind of modification through the natural trading of genetic material while the plant is growing, GMO seeds are modified in a lab. Geneticists screw around with the DNA of the seed to give it particular attributes. Most commonly what they aim for is to arm the seed, and subsequently the plant, with the very things it will need to survive to the end of the growing season. Many of the “Roundup Ready” seeds which are sold by Monsanto are designed to 1) force the plant to act as a pesticide, so whatever bug eats it dies 2) be completely resilient to Roundup (the herbicide that kills everything) and 3) ensure the plant produces only sterile seeds (they’ve delicately named this “the suicide gene”).
Taking action against the Secret Farm Bill (which shouldn’t be a secret at all)
Why are we still surprised that politics comes in secret? Yes, we are a “Democratic Republic”, which means we elect representatives to handle most of the decision making, to do most of the research, and to craft bills and laws that will benefit the people they represent. When something can’t be decided on in Washington, it goes to the people in the form of elections.As a result, a lot of what goes on happens in relative secrecy. Bills end up being encyclopedic in length and no one actually wants to review them. Not surprisingly, what the bill is supposed to do and what it actually does end up being two different things.
The farm bill is one of those things that happens under the radar because 1) most citizens wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of it and 2) it has become super-greasy with the hundreds of lobbyist, corporate, and special interest paws that are all over it.
The Farm Bill is, for the most part, pretty important and well-intended. It does, after all, determine what crops and practices will be subsidized. However, in recent decades the bill has become more and more of a machine to allow for the greatest profits in BigAgriculture and the huge food corporations. The Farm Bill is more or less the reason corn and soy is in absolutely everything.
Food authority and writer Michael Pollan (author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both great reads) speaks his mind in this short video.
What can you do? Well, take a few moments to educate yourself. This does, after all, concern your food – the very thing you eat every day. Why not do it right?
