New Anti-GMO Leaflet By The National-Anarchist Permaculture Information Network

Click HERE to download PDF file.

GMOs - Why YOU should say NO to Genetically Modified Organisms, and YES to Organic, Local, and Homegrown foods.

What are GMOs?

GMOs are Genetically Modified Organisms. GM food has had it’s genes altered or spliced in a laboratory by genes from other plants, bacteria, viruses, or animals. This experimental technology is not found in nature.

GM products were created under the claim that they would be resistant to pesticides and drought while being nutritionally dense and also create a high yield. These claims, however are not true.

Why should I care?

GM foods have been on your table since 1994. 

An ever-expanding amount of evidence is linking GMOs to health problems, environmental damage, and farmer and consumer rights. 

Studies show that genetically engineering food can create new, unintended toxic substances and in-crease allergies, cancer risks, and other health problems.

  

Doesn't the FDA look out for me?

In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration claimed that they had no information showing that GM foods were substantially different from conventionally grown foods and therefore were safe to eat. But internal memos made public by a lawsuit reveal that their position was staged by political appointees under orders from the White House to promote GMOs. FDA scientists, on the other hand, warned that GMOs can create un-predictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged long-term safety studies, but were ignored. The FDA does not require any safety evaluations for GMOs.

Biotech companies are now in charge of determining whether their GM foods are safe.

(via: responsibletechnology.org)

What can I do?

The amount of products on the market that are GM is overwhelming, and unfortunately none of them are labeled.

The best place to start is to make a few small changes. When you find yourself starting to feeling better, and cleaner, you will no doubt want to make bigger changes!

* Buy organic whenever possible!

* Avoid processed foods, or buy their organic equivalents.

* Buy local. Find out where your local farmers market is and sup-port your community.

* Shop at local run cooperative grocery stores.

* Grow your own organic garden!

* Avoid fast food chains.

* Educate your-self: know what it is before it goes in your body.

Want to see the science?

www.whataregmos.com/Genetically-Modified-Crops-Just-The-Science.pdf

  

They hurt your local farmers

Since these seeds are genetically altered they are patented. The owners of these abomination seeds have shut down small, organic, and local farms since their patented seed flew into these farms and grew. Farmers rights are being taken away fast. The farmers who are forced to switch to these GM seeds are not allowed to save extra seeds and therefore forced to buy new product every year.

Anti-GMO Shopping List

This is a list of foods that should only be bought  organic, or not at all.

01. Celery*

02. Bell Peppers*

03. Potatoes

04. Leafy Greens* (Lettuce, Spin-ach, etc.)

05. Soy

06. Rice*

07. Flax

08. Beets

09. Zucchini

10. Corn (remember, corn is in a lot of processed foods)

11. Fruits with a thin skin* (apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, etc.)

12. Canola (rapeseed) and vegetable oil.

13. Sugar

14. Wheat

*Not necessarily GMO, but have a high amount of pesticides used on them.

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Amateur gardeners accused of fuelling national potato shortage by spreading dangerous fungal blight

* Commercial farmers have suffered wettest summer in 100 years

* Downpours left fields waterlogged and much of the crop left to rot

* It has also made potatoes particularly vulnerable to fungal infections

* So-called 'late blight' is caused by fungal spores spread on the wind

* The Potato Council says 'grow your own' gardeners make it worse

Commercial farmers across the UK have suffered amid the wettest summer in 100 years, with downpours that have left fields waterlogged. Here a farmer shows some freshly dug new potatoes

Farmers say the situation has been made worse by the army of ‘grow-your-own’ gardeners. 

The Potato Council says they are responsible for spreading the blight because they can’t identify it quickly and do not know how to control outbreaks.

To blame? 'Grow your own' gardeners, 

like this woman on an allotment in Peckham, 

south London, have been accused of 

unwittingly helping to spread a disease affecting potatoes

Farmers say the situation has been made worse by the army of ‘grow-your-own’ gardeners. 

The Potato Council says they are responsible for spreading the blight because they can’t identify it quickly and do not know how to control outbreaks.

While farmers routinely douse crops in fungicides to kill off the spores, gardeners tend to avoid using such chemicals. 

As a result, even small garden or allotment plots of infected potatoes can threaten farms across a wide area.

The Potato Council warned they were responsible for a ‘disproportionate amount of overall blight pressure’ in warm, wet seasons.

Council chairman Allan Stevenson said it would be better if amateurs left the growing of potatoes to the professionals.

The Duchess of Cambridge recently told a group 

of gardeners in Newcastle that she grew her 

own potatoes, but had suffered a poor crop this year

He told The Grocer magazine: ‘People should be encouraged to grow their own vegetables to learn about the origins of their food.

‘But the blight risk is real, and it would be preferable if people bought healthy, well-produced potatoes from their retailer, rather than grow their own.’ 

The spores can survive through the winter months on vegetation, in the soil and on any potato plants that are not properly cleared at the end of the harvest.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s have warned of shortages of UK-grown vegetables and higher prices in the run-up to Christmas. 

Stores have doubled the price of popular varieties such as Maris Piper over the past year, while further increases on all types of root vegetables are expected.

Farmers will routinely douse their crops in

 fungicides in order to kill off the spores 

but that has not helped this year

Some retailers have even put up warning notices saying that fresh produce was not up to the normal ‘beauty pageant’ standard because of the rain.

The Potato Council has contacted amateur gardening organisations to produce a special blight fact-sheet and other guidance and advice on growing potatoes.

It has also recruited hundreds of ‘blight monitors’ to check on the development of late blight both on allotments and in commercial crops.

(Source)

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Fruit and veg prices have soared by more than half in just one year... and the pain isn't over

* Prices up after wettest summer in a century ruined crops

* Increase in prices means people aren't buying fresh produce needed for a healthy diet

* Droughts in US and Russia have hit grains, pushing up price of animal feed

Expensive: Fruit and veg prices have doubled in the past year after the wet summer ruined crops

Fruit and vegetable prices have soared by 50 per cent plus in the past year after the wettest summer in a century devastated crops.

A snapshot survey of fresh produce costs reveals some startling increases, and supermarkets are warning of more to come.

Grain prices are also surging because harvests both in the UK and abroad have been hit, which will put up the cost of bread and pasta.

It has already led to dramatic increases in the cost of animal feed and this will have a knock-on effect on the price of milk, chicken, eggs, pork and bacon.

The survey by the shopping and price comparison website MySupermarket.co.uk found that at Asda a 2.5kg pack of Maris Piper Potatoes has doubled in price from £1 to £2 since October 2011, while a pack of British Gala apples is up 70 per cent to £1.70.

At Tesco, a kilo of loose carrots is up 50 per cent to 90p, while a 400g pack of cauliflower and broccoli florets is up 25 per cent to £1.25.

Sainsbury’s has put up the price of its Conference pears by 39 per cent to around 39p each, while its loose Royal Gala apples are 19 per cent more.

The price increases mean that many
people are not buying the fresh
produce they need for a healthy diet

The Essentials range at Waitrose is designed for shoppers on a budget, but a 1kg pack of carrots is up 55 per cent in a year to 90p, while pointed spring cabbage has risen by 35 per cent to 80p.

The price rises mean many people are not buying the fresh produce they need for a healthy diet. 

The poorest 10 per cent of households are buying 25 per cent less fruit than in 2007, while their  vegetable consumption has fallen by 15 per cent, according to a  study published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London’s City University, said the surge in the price of fresh produce is ‘a disaster for public health’. 

The British Retail Consortium, which speaks for the major supermarkets, insists its members are protecting customers against the worst effect of rising prices.

Its food director, Andrew Opie, said: ‘Retailers are doing a lot to keep fruit and veg affordable, from running record numbers of promotions to putting more produce into their basic ranges.’

But bosses at Tesco and Sainsbury’s have warned of shortages of home-produced fruit and vegetables and higher prices in the run-up to Christmas.

Poor harvests will affect the price of animal feed, 

which will push up the cost of meat

The problems for British farmers relate to the torrential rain during the summer months and more recently, which have left many fields waterlogged.

The national potato harvest could be the lowest in 35 years, while the apple crop is down by around 25 per cent.

Farmers are also highlighting the fact that Britain’s wheat harvest has fallen by around 15 per cent this year on the five-year average, with productivity down to 1980s levels.

While the problem in the UK has been too much rain, in the US and Russia droughts have hit wheat, soya, corn and other grains, pushing up the price of animal feed.

The National Farmers’ Union has suggested that some members will pull out of chicken and pig production because the rise in feed costs mean they cannot make it pay.

Its president, Peter Kendall, said: ‘It’s been soul-destroying for the farmers growing the crops.’

Sussex-based Nyetimber, which makes wines, 

has decided its grapes aren't worth collecting

He added: ‘The challenge for the pig and poultry market is to make sure retailers pay a fair price, because in pigs 50 per cent of the cost is grain, poultry it’s 60 per cent.

‘These farmers at the moment, because the prices haven’t responded yet, they’re saying I’m not going to fill my sheds with poultry or pigs any more.’

The extent of the washout is starkly illustrated by the decision of one of England’s leading wine producers to abandon its harvest.

The wettest summer in England and Wales for 100 years means  that for the first time since it planted its first vines in 1988, Nyetimber has decided its grapes are not worth collecting.

Sparkling wines made by Nyetimber, which is based at West Chiltington in West Sussex, are popular with the Royal Family.

The 2007 Classic Cuvee was the only sparkling wine served on the Royal Barge during the Diamond Jubilee pageant on the Thames and was also served at the Diamond Jubilee lunch at Westminster Hall.

Winemaker Cherie Spriggs said: ‘My first obligation is to ensure the quality of Nyetimber’s wines, and we have decided that the grapes from 2012 cannot deliver the standards we have achieved in the past and will again in the future.’

(Source)

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Organic Farming: Resilience in the Time of Drought

As climate change brings extreme weather, organic farmers say their methods are the answer

While the historic drought that has plagued the Midwest for months wreaks havoc upon many conventional farmers' soil, organic farmers are saying it is not conventional farming or genetically modified crops that will save agriculture from the effects of climate change. Rather, organic farming is the best way forward to be resilient in the age of climate change.

As Mother Jones writer Tom Philpott has written, the drought has laid bare the failure of industrial, or conventional farming. "The message from the Midwest is clear: Chemical-intensive, industrial-scale farming is vulnerable to spells of hot, dry weather—some of the very conditions we can expect to become common as the climate warms," writes Philpott.

University of Illinois small farm advisor James Theuri tells Al Jazeera that organic farming can beat those vulnerabilities. "If indeed we are going to see a climate change and we are going to see less of rain," says Theuri, "organically managed soils will definitely have advantages over conventionally managed soils." Of conventional farming, he says, "We are destroying life below ground."

Unlike industrial farming, organic farmers' soil conservation techniques are better prepared to weather droughts.

Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of the Minnesota, has noted that "decades of industrial farming have depleted the natural organic matter (and 'tilth') of many Midwestern soils, reducing their ability to absorb and store moisture. Fortunately, no-till agriculture and organic farming practices can restore the health of the soil, and greatly improve the resilience of crops to extreme weather."

Organic farmer Molly Breslin tells Al Jazeera, "A lot of people say organic food can't feed the world, and my response is, if we put as much money into research for organic agriculture research as we do for conventional agriculture, then I think that that would probably be a different story."

(Source)

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Bhutan aims to be first 100% organic nation

Bhutan's focus on wellbeing and the
environment has caught the UN's eye

NEW DELHI — The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, famed for seeking "happiness" for its citizens, is aiming to become the first nation in the world to turn its home-grown food and farmers 100 percent organic.

The tiny Buddhist-majority nation wedged between China and India has an unusual and some say enviable approach to economic development, centred on protecting the environment and focusing on mental well-being.

Its development model measuring "Gross National Happiness" instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been discussed at the United Nations and has been publicly backed by leaders from Britain and France, among others.

It banned television until 1999, keeps out mass tourism to shield its culture from foreign influence, and most recently set up a weekly "pedestrians' day" on Tuesdays that sees cars banned from town centres.

Its determination to chart a different path can be seen in its new policy to phase out artificial chemicals in farming in the next 10 years, making its staple foods of wheat and potatoes, as well as its fruits, 100 percent organic.

Two-thirds of Bhutan's 700,000
strong population depend on farming

"Bhutan has decided to go for a green economy in light of the tremendous pressure we are exerting on the planet," Agriculture Minister Pema Gyamtsho told AFP in an interview by telephone from the capital Thimphu.

"If you go for very intensive agriculture it would imply the use of so many chemicals, which is not in keeping with our belief in Buddhism, which calls for us to live in harmony with nature."

Bhutan has a population of just over 700,000, two-thirds of whom depend on farming in villages dotted around fertile southern plains near India and the soaring Himalayan peaks and deep valleys to the north.

Overwhelmingly forested, no more than three percent of the country's land area is used for growing crops, says Gyamtsho, with the majority of farmers already organic and reliant on rotting leaves or compost as a natural fertiliser.

"Only farmers in areas that are accessible by roads or have easy transport have access to chemicals," he explained, saying chemical use was already "very low" by international standards.

In the large valleys, such as the one cradling the sleepy capital Thimphu, chemicals are used to kill a local weed that is difficult to take out by hand -- a challenge compounded by a lack of farm labour.

Elsewhere, the fertiliser urea is sometimes added to soil, while a fungicide to control leaf rust on wheat is also available.

Bhutan has been determined to phase
out artificial chemicals in farming

"We have developed a strategy that is step-by-step. We cannot go organic overnight," Gyamtsho said, describing a policy and roadmap which were formally adopted by the government last year.

"We have identified crops for which we can go organic immediately and certain crops for which we will have to phase out the use of chemicals, for rice in certain valleys for example."

Bhutan's only competitor for the first "100 percent organic" title is the tiny self-governing island of Niue in the South Pacific, which has a population of only 1,300. It aims to reach its objective by 2015-2020.

Nadia Scialabba, a global specialist on organic farming at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, says the organic food market and its premium prices are attractive for small countries and territories.

"This is happening in very small countries who are not competitive on quantity, but they would like to be competitive in quality," she told AFP.

The country's staple foods of
wheat and potatoes are
100-percent organic

The global organics market was estimated to be worth 44.5 billion euros (57 billion dollars) in 2010, according to figures from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

Bhutan sends rare mushrooms to Japan, vegetables to upmarket hotels in Thailand, its highly-prized apples to India and elsewhere, as well as red rice to the United States.

By shunning fertilisers and other chemicals, the country also stands to gain by reducing its import bill -- a particular concern for a country short on foreign currency.

Peter Melchett, policy director at Britain's organic Soil Association, says the main benefit of becoming 100 percent organic is an assurance of quality to consumers.

"Because there won't be pesticides or other chemicals on sale in the kingdom, they would be able to offer a high level of guarantees that products are organic," Melchett explained.

In countries like Spain, for example, there is a problem of contamination when organic farms are next to highly industrialised producers using large quantities of artificial chemicals, Melchett said.

"It's difficult for organic farmers in those circumstances to keep their crops and supply-chain free of contamination."

Bhutan's organic policy would "start to give the country a reputation of high quality organic food which in the long-run would give them a market advantage and the possibility of price premiums," he added.

Jurmi Dorji, a member of the 103-strong Daga Shingdrey Pshogpa farmers' association in southern Bhutan, says his fellow members are in favour of the policy.

"More than a decade ago, people realised that the chemicals were not good for farming," he told AFP. "I cannot say everyone has stopped using chemicals but almost 90 percent have."

(Source)

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