Winter is far from over here in Central PA but it’s been a very mild season so far and January’s coming to a close with temperatures near sixty degrees! So it’s becoming a lot easier to think about springtime and getting back out into the vegetable garden again.

I realize that these freak days of warm temps will be followed by more cold and possibly snow, but the other thing that has me thinking green is the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s (PASA) Conference that takes place this week.

Breaking Ground for a New and Sustainable Agriculture

This will mark the 21st meeting of the annual event and the theme this year is “Breaking Ground for a New Agriculture: Cultivating Versatility and Resilience.” Pre-Conference Tracks begin on Wednesday, February 1st and run through Thursday, February 2nd. The main conference workshops occur on Friday, February 3rd and Saturday, February 4th.

One of PASA’s goals is in “Promoting profitable farms which produce healthy food for all people while respecting the natural environment.” The PASA Conference has become a favorite sustainable agriculture gathering of interest to farmers, gardeners, and anyone concerned about the quality of our food supply.

Pre-Conference Educational Tracks Kick Things Off Early

The pre-conference tracks feature all-day sessions focusing on specific topics that include:

• Introduction to Permaculture Principles & Concepts
• Advanced Orchard Health for Sustainable Fruit Production
• Hands-On Poultry Processing & Marketing
• Cheesemaking for Beginning & Advanced Producers
• Maximizing Food Production on the Integrated Homestead
• Building & Managing Soil Fertility on the Farm
• Applying Permaculture Design to Urban & Rural Landscapes

There are 12 tracks in total and you can get details on each of them over at the PASA website. The big dilemma is picking just one track from the line-up of great topics!

Interesting and Informative Sustainable Agriculture Workshops

Speakers delivering presentations during the main conference sessions include; Harvey Ussery (the Modern Homestead), Sam Comfort (Anarchy Apiaries), Dave Jacke (Dynamics Ecological Design), Jenn Halpin (Dickinson College Farm), Michael Phillips (Lost Nation Orchard), Kathy Demchak (Penn State University), Daniel Salatin (Polyface Farms), and Jerry Brunetti (Agri-Dynamics Inc).

Here is a partial list of breakout workshops that will be offered:

• Harvesting, Preparing & Preserving Wild Edibles & Medicinals
• Managing Fertility: Ways to Build & Maintain Soil Health
• Creating an Urban Food Forest
• Small-Scale Seed Saving for the Home & Farm
• Gardening Like the Forest, Home-Scale Ecological Food Production
• Grow Food Where You Live: Micro-Farms & How They Work
• The Marvelous Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania
• Treatment-Free Honey Bee Stewardship
• Diagnosing Pest & Disease Problems in Crops & Vegetables
• The Art of Grafting Fruit Trees

Looks like more tough choices in deciding which of the concurrent sessions to take in! Well the good news is that all of the sessions are professionally recorded and available for sale even if you can’t make it to the conference. I’ll also provide future coverage right here of the gardening tips and info that I pick up at the 2012 PASA Conference.

Growing baby ginger in the home garden sure sounds interesting; but isn’t ginger a tropical plant that’s not suitable for the climates here in the U.S.? Well not exactly, farmers and gardeners across the country are discovering that they can raise a crop of fresh ginger under a wide range of conditions and climates!

I first gave the idea of growing ginger in the vegetable garden serious thought a year ago when I met Susan Anderson of East Branch Ginger at a PASA Farm Conference. The thing that immediately caught my eye was the gigantic, plump clusters of seed ginger on display at her booth.

Pre-Sprouting to Get a Good Start with Growing Baby Ginger

Of course my immediate question was “Can you really grow ginger here in PA?” Susan spent the following twenty minutes telling me all about cultivating baby ginger and the potential that this crop has for production here in the U.S. I was sold on the spot and determined that I would try raising some baby ginger in my backyard that summer.

I placed an order a couple weeks after the conference and received a box containing the seed ginger that was shipped directly from Hawaii in early March. Enclosed were detailed cultivation instructions, and I later received follow up emails inquiring how the ginger was doing and offering further information and additional growing tips.

The cultural information and follow ups were welcomed since this was my first time growing ginger, but it turns out that this is a fairly easy crop to raise in the home garden. You begin by pre-sprouting the seed indoors during late winter or very early spring. I used shallow flats filled with coir, a plastic humidity dome over them to help retain moisture, and a germination mat underneath to provide gentle warmth.

Care and Culture of Ginger in the Home Garden

The seed slowly germinated and after a few weeks shoots began appearing above the soilless growing media that they were planted in. The ginger was next transplanted into individual containers where the plants continued to grow alongside the light cart that I use for starting my vegetable seedlings. They did just fine indoors until conditions were okay to harden the plants off and move them out into the garden.

Susan had mentioned a variety of growing methods for cultivating baby ginger that included container culture, using hoop houses, or planting ginger in the open garden. I decided to experiment with each option but the bulk of my plants were destined to be treated like any normal vegetable in my raised bed garden.

I’ll even confess to not following all the advice and recommendations that came from East Branch… “heavy feeding,” hmm, I figured my garden’s soil was fertile enough, “hilling the plants,” well I didn’t get around to that either; but it was a good growing season with adequate rain, warm temps, and plenty of sun. I did make sure that the weeds were kept under control and checked regularly for any signs of insect infestations or disease; neither of which was ever an issue.

The ginger plants continued carefree and as the months passed I had no clue as to how well the rhizomes were growing below the soil’s surface. My expectations were pretty low because the plants were over four feet tall but otherwise rather unassuming. Towards the end of summer when the other summer crops were fading the ginger remained in the garden and seemed unaffected as conditions cooled and the days grew shorter.

Harvesting and Using Homegrown Baby Ginger

When I finally got around to digging the plants during early autumn I was surprised and impressed by how well the crop had produced! There were huge hands of baby ginger spread out underneath of those tall bamboo-like shoots. The overall production was even greater than I saw from the gourmet garlic crop that season. The ginger planted in containers was just as productive if not more productive than what was raised directly in the garden.

Baby ginger is much different from the mature ginger that you find at the grocer. The harvested crop was white with pink tips and accents and lacked the tough tan skin or fibrous flesh that you get from commercial ginger. Baby ginger has a more decidedly tender texture but definitely delivers that distinct ginger flavor and bite that you are familiar with. Maybe a tad milder, homegrown baby ginger makes a perfect substitute for the store bought variety.

There is no curing necessary and the crop can be used as soon as it is harvested. I sliced and dried part of the harvest but my favorite way to preserve it was to simply clean it, place in plastic bags, and pop it into the freezer. Later it’s a snap to remove individual pieces from cold storage and grate them right into your favorite dishes for kitchen uses.

I highly recommend growing baby ginger as an interesting and productive crop for the home garden. I’ve already ordered more seed from East Branch Ginger, and this time around I intend to abide more strictly to the cultural recommendations to see if I can raise an even more impressive crop this coming season!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE) has been one of my favorite heirloom seed suppliers for over twenty years, and is the original source of the potato onion seed stock that I continue to grow today. I was pleased to receive some great gardening tips and ideas from Ira Wallace, a worker/owner at SESE, and a board member of the Organic Seed Alliance back in September.

Ira presented four workshops at the Mother Earth News Fair on the topics of; Fall and Winter Gardening, Cultivating Herbs, Heirloom Tomatoes, and Growing Great Garlic. I later had the opportunity to interview her to gather some of her great tips on seeds and gardening. With many celebrating the New Year and others preparing their seed orders, this is a great time to share some of Ira’s gardening tips!

Make Resolutions to Grow Some New Vegetable Varieties

Let’s start with a few unusual crops that Ira described during our conversation. Shallots are a gourmet vegetable that’s more popular with gourmet chefs than with the typical backyard gardener. And when it comes to outstanding flavor, Grey Shallots are the ones that the fancy restaurants and discriminating cooks go wild over. You’ll have to get beyond that rough and homely looking exterior, but if you do you’ll discover why grey shallots are the ones that gourmets prefer.

Tomatillo and Ground Cherries are also unusual crops that you rarely find growing in backyard gardens, but they are pretty high up on Ira’s list. She enjoys using tomatillos for making salsa and recommends ground cherries for baking. Roselle, or Red Sorrel is a crop that I discovered on a trip to St Croix and have attempted to grow in my garden ever since. The tall shrub-like plant has grown well but never yielded flowers or fruits in my garden. Ira shared that they are day length sensitive and recommended that I try a variety that SESE carries.

Perennial Leeks is the other vegetable variety that Ira sold me on trying in my garden this coming season. With perennial leeks you can harvest and use both the leaves and bulbs of this rare edible plant. It is very cold hardy and its perennial habit means that it is easy to maintain, divide, and keep the harvest coming year after year. I have some seed on order and will report back on my experiences with it.

Gardening Tips for a More Productive New Year

Ira is an expert at extending the growing season and had a lot of information to offer the fall and winter gardener. Recommended crops for the fall garden include; arugula, spinach, kale, collards, turnips, oriental vegetables, mustard, Brussels Sprouts, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, kohl rabi, cabbage, and various root crops.

Her best tip regarding the fall garden was the recommendation to stagger your planting dates by sowing seeds a couple weeks apartrather than target a specific planting date for those fall vegetables. This makes so much sense because the weather is always going to vary from one year to the next. By staggering multiple plantings you’re more likely to hit that sweet spot for production in spite of unpredictable changes in the seasons.

Think about August and early September as prime times for starting fall vegetables, depending on your region, and keep in mind that a week or two difference in the planting can translate into a long gap when it comes to maturity and harvest time for your crops.

Other Ideas and Techniques from Ira Wallace

• Don’t harvest leafy greens while they are frozen, let them thaw on a warmer day and then harvest.

• Use the garden as an outdoor refrigerator to store produce right on the plants as the temperatures begin to drop in the fall.

• Run a sprinkler or mister overnight to protect sensitive plants from cold snaps if an early frost is in the weather forecast.

• Fall grown carrots are the best flavored, beets can be dug until the ground freezes, and salad greens are great for growing in cold frames and under cover.

• Plant spinach in early winter, for a crop that you won’t eat that season but early the following spring.

• Try Asiatic garlic varieties for an earlier harvest though not as long keeping. Plant softneck garlic varieties for better results in southern climates.

• Harvest your garlic during the summer when there are still about four green leaves on the plant.You can start potato onions in the spring as well as fall. Use a range of sizes as small seed cloves produce bigger bulbs while large cloves result in larger clusters.

For more recommendations and a great selection of rare and heirloom seed choices you can request a catalog or visit the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange website.

Barbara Pleasant is an author, gardener, and public speaker who loves sharing her experiences related to raising organic backyard gardens. I spoke with her during the summer and also sat in on a presentation of her innovative composting and gardening techniques.

She describes compost gardening as the art of arranging perfect marriages between compost and the garden. Composting is considered a seasonal activity because it happens faster during the summer and a reductive process because you wind up with so much less than you begin with.

Innovative Ideas for the Backyard Composter

Home composting has different goals in mind from what you would find on a farm or commercial composting operation; it’s more laid back, doesn’t require the high internal temps of the pile, but still results in improved soil quality and healthy productive plants.

One twist that Barbara utilizes is to bring the compost pile right into the garden. This saves labor by not hauling the waste organic matter to the composting area and then finished compost to the garden. It also allows for a “walking heap” as the pile is turned it moves down the row or garden bed, enriching the soil as it travels.

Natural allies in the quest to compost include crickets who are tremendous eaters of weed seeds and earthworms who Barbara describes as the “quietest pets you’ll ever keep.” She practices a system of catch and release vermicomposting where the worms spend their summers outdoors but are captured and brought inside during the fall.

Other Composting Strategies for the Home Gardener

• Add charcoal from burned hardwoods to the compost pile to absorb nutrients and further enrich the soil when the compost is applied to the garden.

• Chop your organic materials before adding them to the compost pile in order to create more surface area for the microbes and break the materials down faster.

• For convenience freeze kitchen scraps until you have enough accumulated to trench compost, and then bury the food waste right in the garden.

• Grow right on your compost piles to maximize space, certain crops such as squash and pumpkins will grow fine in a mountain of decomposing leaves or compost.

• Separate families of plants to compost them separately and then use the finished compost to feed other types of plants and reduce the risk of spreading diseases.

Barbara’s Perspectives on Home Vegetable Gardening

Barbara also shared some great general gardening ideas and additional thoughts to reflect on. She considers gardening to be a Co-Creative process between the gardener and all of the intelligences that share the area. Therefore she supplies perches for birds, tolerates the activity of yellowjackets, and thinks diligently about all her actions in the garden.

Her speaking and writing is all geared towards helping people to garden, feed themselves, enjoy the beauty of nature, and to reconnect to the green world. She acknowledges that vegetable gardening isn’t for everyone but still believes that most would benefit from a garden, even if it consisted of just a single, solitary, houseplant!

For those desiring to start a new garden Barbara’s recommendation is to start with six crops at the max; “you can’t mess it up!” A couple growing beds with three or four different vegetables and a small number of plants for each will provide the perfect opportunity to learn them and gain valuable gardening experience.

Barbara has written several books including “Starter Vegetable Gardens” and “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide.” You can also find her contributing to the pages of Mother Earth News magazine or visit her website at BarbaraPleasant.com.

Gardeners recognize the plight of honeybees and the important role that they play in pollinating the crops that find their way unto our dining tables. The desire to lend a helping hand to the honeybee has led to the increasing popularity of backyard beekeeping as a hobby that fits in nicely with home gardening.

James Zitting of Bee Landing spoke at the Mother Earth News Fair and met with me afterwards to share his tips to make sustainable beekeeping a feasible option for the backyard gardener. The following ideas highlight his philosophy and recommendations on caring for honeybees.

A Sustainable Philosophy to Managing Honeybees

Some of his ideas and practices sound similar to things that you hear when discussing sustainable farming and agricultural concepts; focus on local bees, eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and drugs, and work in concert with nature rather than attempt to control it.

James views beekeeping not as a source of income, but rather as a source of enjoyment. I can attest to the pleasure of keeping bees in the backyard, and the joys to be gained from simply watching them come and go, or in discovering the fascinating inner workings of the hive.

James Zitting’s Seven Keys to Natural Beekeeping:

1. Employ beekeeping strategies such as top bar hives or foundationless frames that allow the bee’s decide the dimensions of cells they will construct and possibly deter mites in the process.
2. Reduce exposure to pesticides and fungicides which can build up in beeswax, contaminate pollen, have a negative impact on queen bees, and ferment to become even more toxic inside the hive.
3. Construct hive bodies with thicker walls that more closely simulate a natural tree cavity. Use thick hive materials to make life easier for your bees by providing better insulation and reducing the amount of condensation that forms inside.
4. Avoid medicating honeybees, miticides are toxic chemicals and can be harmful to bees as well as the mites. Instead look for resistant and hygienic breeds of bees that are able to manage pests on their own.
5. Buy local bees rather than ship packages in from distant suppliers. Local bees offer many advantages, in particular you are more likely to obtain bees that are adapted to your climate and will have an easier time surviving.
6. Employ a natural selection breeding program that promotes healthy bees rather than maintaining colonies that can’t survive without constant treatments. Propagate the strongest hives and don’t continue to prop up weak or diseased colonies.
7. Zitting is a stickler for feeding bees only with their natural food; honey, and avoids feeding sugar or high fructose corn syrup. If you must feed sugar he recommends that you discontinue as soon as there is a nectar flow available.

Getting Started with a New Colony of Honeybees

To get started with a new hive James prefers catching a feral swarm of bees over purchasing a package from commercial suppliers. Concerns with commercial packages can include high prices, inconsistent quality, and a supply that has had trouble keeping up with the demand in recent years.

While luring or trapping a swarm of bees is free, you are at the mercy of Mother Nature to actually deliver the goods and there is no guarantee that you will secure a wild swarm. You can increase your odds by adding your name to swarm lists in your area or by notifying police and fire departments that you are available to catch swarms in your community.

Start with two hives if possible to take advantage of what Zitting referred to as “the Robin Hood thing” of sharing resources from a stronger hive to help build up another hive that is off to a slow start, has lost their queen, or needs an infusion of capped brood to quickly boost the workforce during a nectar flow.

More Tips for Success in the Backyard Apiary

Use end entrances and face you hives to the south. An ideal location offers midday shade during the heat of summer but full sun during the winter months. Never paint the interior of a beehive. If pesticide contamination is suspected to be an issue, rotate out older combs and wax to reduce the amount of toxic accumulation within the hive.

Mutts, or mixed honeybee breeds turn out to be Zitting’s best colonies. He stressed the importance that drone bees serve in passing on their genetics and in improving the diversity of local bee populations. James also emphasized the role that backyard and hobby beekeepers will play in improving the conditions for honeybees; as commercial beekeepers are not likely to change their standard practices.

Buy or build your own beehive to discover what an amazing hobby and how much fun you can have with beekeeping. All the while you will be helping out the local stock of bees and enjoying a lifelong hobby of learning. Bee Landing offers top bar hives for sale or you can download free top bar hive plans on the Internet and build your own.

The final word of advice offered was to not become discouraged if your first hive does not survive. Instead of viewing it as a failure, use the resources of comb that the first colony produced and apply the lessons that you learned to provide a better foundation for success with the next colony of honeybees that you care for!

The mild temps continue here in Central PA with yesterday’s high reaching into the 70’s. These are great times to enjoy a fall vegetable garden and to complete those final fall clean-up tasks before colder weather arrives.

My garlic, shallots, and potato onions are all in the ground, the last seeds have been planted, and the cold frames and low tunnels are in place and ready to grow. Not much left to do in the garden besides harvest the crops as they mature, and to enjoy the scenery.

Enjoying the Fall Garden as the Growing Season Lingers

There are carrots, beets, parsnips, gobo, and other root crops biding their time underground but there is no rush to harvest these just yet. The broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts are still maturing and will hopefully have enough growing season left to yield a decent harvest.

Those hardy greens like kale, collards, and mustard are growing well in spite of the more than usual amount of slug damage that’s been inflicted on the plants. This year I’ve been mixing assorted greens and herbs together before dehydrating them and then crushing into flakes to store them for use during the winter months.

The garden has yet to be visited by the first frost so there are tender herbs like basil and flowers such as nasturtiums that I continue to collect and preserve while I still can. Even the honeybees in the backyard apiary are busy with a fall flow as they pack in additional pollen and nectar to last them until the early spring blossoms appear.

Here’s What is Still Growing in the Fall Vegetable Garden

Take a look at the photos below to see what’s growing here during late October in the fall vegetable garden. Hopefully there are more seventy-degree days ahead before winter, but I’m not counting on it and will be grateful for every warm moment that’s left to enjoy!

Red Leaf Lettuce

Brussels Sprout Plant

Nasturtiums

Tuscan Kale

Basil

Turmeric and Ginger

Mexican Sage

Golden Beet

Low Garden Tunnel

Spicy Mesclun Mix

That’s just a sampling of the fall vegetable gardening photographs from my garden. I’ll have a fall album with more pictures posted up on the Veggie Gardening Tips Facebook page later this week. If you still haven’t tried your hand at a fall garden I hope that you will because for me it is the most enjoyable time to garden!

I never had much interest in gardening with chickens, ducks, rabbits, or any animal livestock. After all, I live in the middle of a residential neighborhood, on a lot that is just over half an acre, and I’m a vegetarian…

But today I’ll share what’s forced me to take a closer look at the benefits, sustainability, and self-sufficiency that maintaining a flock can add, and to admit that there is a lot to be gained by sharing a garden with chickens.

Beneficial Relationships between Chickens and Gardens

It all started at a  PASA conference where I met Harvey Ussery and sat in on a presentation that detailed a winter greenhouse setup that incorporated a manure filled worm bin underneath, raised beds of vegetables in the center, and a couple chicken enclosures on the ends of the structure. The system worked together to recycle waste, produce organic fertilizer, shelter small livestock, and raise organic foods!

Then there was a visit to the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute where I first saw a chicken tractor in operation as it transformed an overgrown tropical field and cleared it of weeds, insects, and seeds; at the same time that it prepared the ground for planting, added organic nutrients, and yielded eggs for the kitchen. It struck me as the ultimate form of energy efficient, solar powered and low emissions farm equipment!

Things came full circle last month when I ran into Harvey again at the Mother Earth News Fair and later had a chance to speak with him about gardening with chickens and his new book; “The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers.” These experiences combined to force me into looking at livestock from a completely different perspective.

Joys of Gardening with Chickens and Putting the Flock to Work

Harvey shared an overview of how chickens can be put to use in working the garden in a manner that is natural, and allows the birds to live a life that is healthy, and under the ideal conditions that they enjoy! Of course any livestock has to be properly managed and you must accept and work within the limitations of your specific site.

But chickens may be a great addition to the small homestead, market garden, and even in urban settings that don’t allow much room for other types of livestock. And the beauty of poultry is that they can be incorporated in a manner that increases the overall sustainability of a single household or of a larger community. Chickens add to soil fertility and food production while reducing some of the labor that typically falls upon the back of the gardener.

The three aspects of “putting the flock to work” by gardening with chickens that Harvey focused on during our conversation were tillage, composting, and insect control. Chickens can trash a garden area rather quickly if left unmanaged, but properly handled they become an asset and fit perfectly into the garden’s landscape. And it can form an arrangement that is beneficial to the gardener and pleasurable for the entire flock.

Chickens Can Manage the Garden’s Toughest Work

Why bother with a gas powered tiller or waste your own energy digging and shoveling when you can let the flock handle some of the chores around the garden? You know how difficult it can be to break up established sod… well a flock can make short work of that job. They’re just as competent at clearing a bed of overgrown weeds or turning under a cover crop, and they can take care of this business without leaving behind much in the way of weed seeds to germinate and cause further problems down the road.

Poultry will Relish the Garden’s Messy and Dirty Jobs

Composting can take time, effort, and valuable space, but add chickens to the picture and the work gets done faster and easier. Harvey creates a compost corner in the garden where the birds are allowed to scratch, graze, and root through piles of yard waste, kitchen scrapes, and other organic matter as they do all the turning, add their own nitrogen-rich poop into the mix, and feast on an assortment of goodies that must seem like a buffet dinner to them.

The Garden Flock Can even Organize a Security Detail

Free range chickens are great for chasing down bugs, ducks love to visit raised beds plagued with slugs, and while guinea are well known for devouring ticks, they are just as happy to dine on marmorated stink bugs. Give them complete access to the garden in the pre-season and again after the end of the growing season and your flock will go right to work removing insect pests. Harvey hasn’t sprayed a thing for insect control in over three decades thanks to his flocks.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: A Natural Approach

While I still don’t know if I will ever add any poultry to my suburban back yard, I can appreciate the value and benefits of maintaining a flock, even if it didn’t include the use of meat and eggs. Chickens have a lot to add to the sustainability of a garden, and the self-sufficiency of the gardener. Harvey’s  book; “The Small-Scale Poultry Flock” is a great read for the curious organic gardener as well as for those seriously involved or interested in raising chickens.

There were many facts about chickens that I found fascinating such as the heritage breeds that are still around but rarely seen, the habits of predators and simple ways to protect the flock, efficient poultry management techniques, and the specific how to’s of gardening with chickens that are all covered in detail in the book. Harvey also has great insights on gardening and homesteading that I hope to share more of here in the future, but for now you can visit his website at The Modern Homestead or pick up a copy of his new book; “The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.”

Ken Roseboro is the editor of the Organic & Non-GMO Report, and author of “The Organic Food Handbook” and “Genetically Altered Foods and Your Health.” I sat down with Ken at the recent Mother Earth News Fair and spoke with him about the potential threats of Genetically Modified Organisms and what we as consumers can do to protect ourselves from the hidden presence of these products in the food supply.

October happens to be Non-GMO month and is a perfect time to raise awareness of these important issues or to take part in the Right 2 Know March from New York to Washington, D.C. that is taking place right now. I’ve shared my feelings on hybrid and genetically modified seeds in the past and have always been an advocate of heirloom seeds and open pollinated varieties here at Veggie Gardening Tips.

Concerns over Genetically Engineered Foods

There’s nothing wrong with plant research or breeding to improve seeds, but genetically altered organisms aren’t a magic bullet to control insect pests and plant diseases, or to boost food production enough to feed the entire world’s population. Some of the reasons for advocating Non-GMO’s that Ken Roseboro touched on during our conversation included:

• European studies that show a negative impact when feeding GMO crops to animals.

• A scatter shot approach where genes are inserted with no control over where they will land or what the results will be.

• Claims that the Bt in Bt corn will break down when digested, while Bt has been detected in the bloodstream of women and fetuses.

• Weeds that are developing a resistance to weed killers, and the detection of herbicides in the air, rain, and streams in the Midwest.

• Ability of genetically modified canola to replicate with some weed species and corn (which is wind pollinated) contaminating Non-GMO corn crops.

• Risk of unforeseen consequences of using GMO’s and questions as to whether they actually result in increased crop production yields.

Why Not Just Label Genetically Modified Foods?

The absence of labeling here in the U.S. to identify genetically modified products has been a major concern of Non-GMO groups who are worried about the presence of these products in the food supply. At least 50 other countries require labeling of GMO foods but the FDA’s policy here has been that genetically modified foods are “substantially equivalent” to conventional foods and therefore do not require labeling of any kind.

The GMO industry is strongly opposed to labeling and continues to fight against any attempts to force their products to be labeled as such. I can’t think of another example of a product that is touted as being safe and superior to competing products but which the distributors try to hide rather than advertise their presence in the marketplace!

It’s pretty obvious that the industry is aware that consumers don’t want genetically modified food and that people would avoid them if they were identified and an alternative was available. As it stands if you’re eating products made of corn or soybeans, or that contain corn syrup, more than likely you are consuming GMO’s whether you realize it or not.

Setting Your Family’s Dinner Table with Non-GMO’s

Genetically engineered food is basically being forced upon the public in what has been characterized as a “massive feeding experiment in America.” Ken Roseboro indicated that 70 – 80% of processed food products contain GMO ingredients and they are found in everything from condiments to baked goods. Livestock is also being fed and raised on genetically modified feeds.

On a more positive note; so far engineered crops are made up mainly of field crops such as cotton, sugar beets, corn, and soybeans. There are also smaller quantities of genetically modified papaya, sweet corn, zucchini, and yellow squash currently in production. Most of the vegetable crops in the food supply are not genetically modified varieties.

For those of us who wish to avoid the consumption of genetically altered foods options include; eating certified organic products, reducing the amount of processed foods in the diet, supporting labeling initiatives, and growing your own produce from heirloom and open pollinated seed varieties.

Celebrate Non-GMO Month and Encourage Labeling Requirements

October is Non-GMO month and there is a Right2Know march in progress to promote laws requiring the disclosure and labeling of genetically engineered foods. The march is taking place from October 1st through the 16th, with stops and special events planned in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington D.C.

You can find more information at either Right2KnowMarch.org or NonGMOproject.org. There is also currently a campaign in California to have labeling laws considered on a 2012 ballot initiative. Finally, you can head right over and visit the site at Just Label It to send a quick message requesting the FDA to Label Your Food!