Say NO to GMO Alfalfa

I have received a few e-mails from various sources on the need to speak up to keep the ban on GMO Alfalfa.    Alfalfa is key to organic farming in some many different ways.  GMO Alfalfa would compromise farmers and consumers ability to grown and eat organic, non-GMO foods.  Here's the e-mail that came in from NOFA-NH on what you can do to speak up regarding this issue and more information on the importance of retaining non-GMO alfalfa.

What can we do the influence the outcome?

Call or Email the USDA and the White House and request that they reject Genetically Engineered Alfalfa.

"I am ___________, a farmer/citizen in New Hampshire I am calling to comment on USDA's push to allow the commercial release of GE alfalfa and its failure to evaluate the public health, environmental, and economic consequences of that release."

Under heavy pressure from the Biotech Industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is hurriedly preparing to approve the use of Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) Roundup Ready ™ Alfalfa in time for spring planting.

This authorization ignores on-the-ground realities and will lead to widespread GE cross-pollination and contamination of organic and non-GE crops, corruption of seed supplies, and protracted economic injury to farmers and markets.

Alfalfa is the nation's 4th largest crop, planted on over 21 million acres. Forage and hay are primary feed crops for dairy cows and beef cattle as well as pork, lamb, and sheep. It's not just for livestock - some vegetable farmers use the hay as mulch and alfalfa meal as a beneficial soil amendment. Further, sprouts constitute an important sector of the salad market and alfalfa also plays a major role in honey production.

Organic standards do not allow the use of GE crops, including for animal feed. The purity of organic milk from alfalfa-fed dairy cows is a major concern. Milk is a primary entry product and mainstay for many U.S. consumers in the organic market and GE contamination would cause severe economic injury to farmers and have a devastating effect on the viability and integrity of the organic label. There are also test-verified GE-free domestic and world markets in Asia and Europe that would stop buying from US farmers whose crops are contaminated by GE alfalfa.

Despite three District Court rulings and a landmark Supreme Court decision that makes planting GE alfalfa illegal and requires USDA to formulate a valid management plan, the agency is going full steam ahead putting the deregulation of GE alfalfa on a fast track. While conceding for the first time that GE contamination of organic and GE-free crops and markets is a major problem in the U.S., USDA's court-ordered 2300 page Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) relies on faulty data and fails to take into account the scientifically-validated promiscuous nature of GE gene flow in crops. It also overlooks the widespread corruption of conventional seed varieties by GE strains (such as occurred with StarLink corn and LibertyLink rice) along with documented severe economic injury to farmers and markets. And there is no mention at all of possible health consequences from eating GM crops.

USDA has NOT shown that contamination-free coexistence with deregulated GE alfalfa is likely or possible. USDA's EIS fails to take into account the documented increase in Roundup-resistant "super weeds" that is requiring the use of highly toxic herbicide cocktails for weed control on conventional farms. Monsanto is in a big rush to spread GE alfalfa because the patent protections on their exclusive manufacture of Roundup expire in 2014. And, GE alfalfa is the all-important test case - waiting in the wings is an immediate decision on how to handle a lawsuit prohibiting GE sugar beets as well as a list of other GE crops coming along in the biotech pipeline.

Act now to preserve our organic future!

Thank you,

NOFA-NH Public Policy and Advocacy Committee

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Food Safety Modernization Act

I just received this in my inbox from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and thought I'd pass it on to all my real, local food lovers!

FOOD SAFETY ACTION ALERT

If You Value Safe, Local, and Healthy Food

Please call Senator Gregg!

The Food Safety Modernization Act (S510) now headed for the Senate floor would considerably ramp up FDA regulation on farms that even minimally process their crops and sell them to restaurants, food coops, groceries, schools and wholesalers.

The new regulatory burdens would include recordkeeping, expensive food safety plans, and regular on farm inspections by the FDA. This new regulation could erect substantial barriers to these increasingly important markets for small and mid-scale farmers unable to bear the expense of compliance.

Senator Gregg sits on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee which has jurisdiction over food safety legislation. He needs to hear your views on this legislation!

Calling your Senator is easy.

Step 1: Call Senator Gregg's office at (202) 224-3324 and ask to speak to the aide responsible for agriculture. If the aide is unavailable leave a brief voice mail message. Be sure to leave your name and a call back number.

Step 2: Urge Senator Gregg to support amendments to S510 which:

Focus FDA regulation only on those processing activities that present the most risk for causing food borne pathogen contamination.
Exempt farms with modest gross sales from new FDA regulation. These farms would still need to register with FDA and would be subject to existing state food safety regulation.

Exempt from recordkeeping requirements foods using labeling which preserves the identity of the farm all the way through the supply chain to the ultimate consumer.
Exempt from recordkeeping requirements food produced on farms and sold directly to a consumer, restaurant or grocery store.

Co-sponsor the Growing Safe Food Act (S. 2758) introduced by Senator Stabenow (D-MI). This bill creates a program to deliver training and technical assistance appropriate to small and mid scale farms to reduce the incidence of food borne illness.

Step 3: Report your call. Click on this link to let us know the results of your call.

With your help, we have already won a number of key changes to this legislation and we will continue to push for improvements. We can't let rules designed to address serious food safety deficiencies in our industrial food system shut down the move toward healthy, natural and local food. Your calls are essential.

If you would like to learn more check out the policy briefing on food safety on the farm.

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A Call to Young People

I picked up this essay from Annalisa Cox of Tuckaway Farm at the Newmarket Winter Farmer's Market.  I think it is very inspiring and an important read so take the time to read it all.  At the end, take action, join a community group, learn how to garden, try your hand at canning, or just visit the farmers' markets and cook one meal from local ingredients per week.  Let's encourage the young generation to rise up and be the food providers of the future, providing us with sustainable delicious foods!

A call to the young people…

I want to ask you to listen to me for a while and see if any of what I have to say
to you rings of truth to you in the center of your soul. We are living in a time of change, and a time of shifting, a time of searching. We are living in a time of truth seeking, of seeking for what grounds us to Mother Earth and what connects us to each other. We have been moving too fast and have been losing the connection to our sense of place. In order to live lightly upon the earth we need to feel connected to her and to our place on her and to our place in our community.

Why don’t we start at the beginning of our story. We all must be born, and then live, and then we all must pass on. Let us talk about the time in the middle, the time when we live. Let us speak of this time. How do we want to live? How do we want to practice this daily task of living? What are the skills we need in order to live upon this earth with respect for ourselves, the earth we live upon and each other? What are the skills we need to have in order to live lightly upon the earth and use only what we need? Our earth is trying to speak to us, so let us listen. She is asking us to slow down and step back. To slow down, and step back… to listen, to watch to look inside and to look at the natural cycles and harmonies of the earth to receive the clues as to what will be truly sustainable practices of living on this earth so that we will have a healthy home to pass on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren. What ties all of these cycles together and what we all need in order to live well is a healthy food system.

Let me tell you that I am concerned. I am very concerned about who will be the people growing food in twenty years? The average age of a farmer in the United States at this time is 54. I hope we are not relying upon 74 year olds to be growing all of our food in twenty years. I am concerned about our food security in New England. Our grocery stores have gotten to the point where they are stocking only 3 days worth of food for all of the people that they serve. We have gotten to the point where most houses do not have a root cellar. We have gotten to the point where we have forgotten the skills we need in order to provide the most basic necessity of all, food, for our loved ones.

We need to remember how to grow carrots. And we need to remember that when we harvest our carrots and store them in the root cellar to eat all winter long, we need to save out some of the best ones to replant in the spring in order to have them finish their life cycle to give us seed for the next year’s crop. We need to remember to practice growing food, and saving our seed for the coming years, so that even if we are not here, the seed is still here for our loved ones to plant. In this way we can continue to nourish our loved ones even when we are gone. But first we need to remember how.

We need to remember how to care for our topsoil. We need to remember that most things worthwhile take work. We need to remember that work is good for our bodies and souls. Our minds are sharper when our bodies are healthy and strong. Our topsoil. All of life on earth is dependent upon the quality of our topsoil, and the health of our fresh water supply. We need to remember that water and soil are sacred and a gift to us to be cherished and cared for. When we forget this, then we become detached and the soil becomes something to be mined. But we cannot take and take and take and take, and give nothing back and expect the soil to be there for us forever. We need to raise food on a scale that we can still pay attention and give back to the soil so that the generations to come will still have a chance to live. Let us remember that without soil and water, there is no life for us. We need to remember to slow down, we need to remember to listen, we need to remember to watch, and then to learn from the natural cycles that are our model for a sustainable way of life. We need to remember that the animals are put here as a blessing and a gift to us for us to cherish and to care for. We have been asked to care for them in their lives and they will give us life in their help with our soil’s fertility, and the food that they may provide and their nourishment of our souls and joy in our hearts. Let us be thankful.

We need to go through a practice of re-skilling and re-learning the cycles in order to have a healthy local food system for our community. New Hampshire people are currently producing less than 5 percent of our food here in NH. I wish I could grow enough food for all of the people of NH all by myself, but I cannot.

I am putting out a call for the young people who do not know their paths, for those who know their work and calling is not inside, but that their work is outside connected to the natural cycles of the earth and connected to the sun and the rain and the earthworms and the cover crops. You may not have had many people suggest this as a career, but let me tell you… this is not a career, but it is a life. I can think of no other life pursuit more worthwhile or life giving than the cultivation of food and health of ourselves, our land and our communities.

I am putting out a call to the young people whose work is caring for the animals and witnessing the miracles of every seed that is planted that bursts forth in the miracle of life to grow to reach for the sun and stretch those roots deep into the earth and to participate in the dance of life. My call is to those young people with a longing to feel connected. I am calling to those young people who want to experience a life full of purpose and connection to the place in which they live. I am calling to those young people who want to nourish and be nourished in their life. To those who want to know how to feed themselves and their loved ones. I am putting a call out to the young people who want to feel connected to the work horses though the touch of the reins in their hands, to the young people who want to feel the summer breeze, the smell of drying hay, who want to watch the field mice jump, and the red tailed hawk circling above, waiting for lunch.

Let us remember, that if we have shelter, and if we have food, and if we have community, then we are truly the wealthiest of the kings and queens on earth. Let us think about how we want to spend our lives, and how we want to leave this place for our grandchildren’s grandchildren. Let us remember. Let us be thankful. Let us cherish the sacred gifts we have been given. Let us take care of the water, the soil, the animals, our families, our communities and ourselves. Let us walk lightly upon the earth and leave to the young people to come good soil, healthy animals, plenty of seeds to plant and plenty of fruit trees.

Written by Annalisa W. Miller
Wild Miller Gardens
11 Randall Rd. Lee, NH 03861
603-988-4658

And in pairing with this, check out the awesome post by Amy at What Did She Do Today? about how she talks to her 3 year old about raising and eating their animals and the reactions of her daughter.

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Say NO to GE Alfalfa

Monsanto is at it again.  When are they not at it?  I know alot of local farmers depend on organic alfalfa to feed their animals in the winter.

From Food & Water Watch:

The USDA is getting closer to approving Monsanto's genetically engineered alfalfa.  One of the biggest impacts of allowing the use of GE alfalfa is contamination of other crops, including organic alfalfa, which is used by most organic dairies.  The USDA actually acknowledges the problem of contamination, but claims consumers and others in the organic movement may not care about the contamination.  This is absurd, considering one of the main reasons many people seek out organic food is to avoid genetically engineered crops.

We need to let the USDA know that consumers don't want genetically engineered foods, and don't want organic foods to be contaminated.  Tell the USDA to reject the approval for Monsanto's GE alfalfa.

You can sign the Food & Water Watch petition here.

Also from ana Sofia joanes of FRESH, the movie:

The USDA is well on its way to approving Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa. In its own report, the USDA says that not enough consumers care enough about organic foods for the USDA to block Monsanto's modified alfalfa seeds. [1]  This is absurd since one of the main reasons people buy organic food is to avoid genetically engineered crops.

The USDA is only accepting public comments for the next two weeks. We need you to write to the USDA right now and tell them they must not approve Monsanto's mutant alfalfa. We'll deliver your comments before the deadline. [2]

Click here: http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1753

Alfafa is one of the major food sources for certified organic animals, not only because of its quality as forage, but because Monsanto's patented genes are already found in 95% of soybeans and 80% of corn. If the USDA lets Monsanto sell its new alfalfa, it will inevitably overtake organic alfalfa crops through the natural pollination process. [3] As a result organic farmers may be feeding their cows genetically modified food.

Just like its corn and soy, Monsanto's alfalfa is designed to tolerate its leading herbicide: Roundup. We can't allow Monsanto's greed to take-over one more crop. The consequences to our choice as consumer, to biological diversity, to the survival of our small and organic farmers depends are too dire.

Monsanto's domination of our food must stop. For the USDA to shrug it off like nobody cares is to add insult to injury. We only have two weeks to submit our comments.The fight for FRESH food will continue, and with your help we'll make it clear that people care about the food they eat.

Please take a few minutes to sign these petitions.  You don't even have to comment if you don't want to.  It's so important to keep as much of our crops GMO-free. 

Also, there are two NH bills regarding GMOs.  More information can be found at Seacoast Eat Local.

Here's a great YouTube video I found last night regarding the dangers of GMO crops:

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National One-Minute Raw Milk Survey (NORMS)

This will be just a quick post to encourage you to head over to the Journal of Natural Food and Healing and take the National One-Minute Raw Milk Survey (NORMS).  This survey is for raw milk drinkers and non-raw milk drinkers alike!

The survey started December 1st and preliminary results have been released.

The Journal of Natural Food and Healing is sponsoring an informal Raw Milk Survey. So far, 1030 responses were received (from Dec 1 to Dec 20) of which 85% were raw milk drinkers. Here is a summary of the findings so far.

Health Benefits (of 877 raw milk drinkers)

74% have much health benefit

24% some

2% none

What all responders said about pasteurized milk:

62% believe it has long-term health effects

15% say it makes them very sick

40% say it tastes terrible

30% say it upsets their stomach

16% say it gives them diarrhea

And 53% say they will not spend their money to support the Milk Monopoly hurting dairy farmers

They will pay more for raw milk than for pasteurized

35% will pay double

26% will pay triple

16% will pay 50% more

5% will pay 25% more

90% of the raw milk drinkers will disobey the law to obtain it

There were 250 dairy farmers (or speaking for dairy farmers) responding:

If raw milk sales is or will be illegal:

53% will use herdshare programs where groups own a share of the herd

24% will disobey the law

11% will probably disobey the law

Only 3% will stop providing raw milk and obey the law

7% have to think about what they would do

Pretty amazing stuff.  Just this week I heard a testimonial from my mom.  She bought raw milk and cream from Brookford Farm for our Christmas festivities.  She told me later in the week she noticed she didn't have "tummy rumbles" after drinking the raw milk vs. when she drank commercial milk!  Score for raw milk!  Why Drink Raw Milk

The survey is still on going. If you have not done so, please take the one-minute survey.

Here's where you can purchase raw milk on the Seacoast.

• Thirteen Colonies Farm, Milton
• Brookford Farm, Rollinsford

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Free Our Farmers

This just hit my inbox from Fresh, an indie film by ana Sophia joanes.

The AP just uncovered a series of confidential commercial licensing agreements that give around 200 smaller companies the right to insert Monsanto's genes (resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide) into their corn and soybean plans.  These agreements outline the various practices that Monsanto employs to block out competition in the seed industry, compromising any choice that small farmers might have in the decision not to grow GMO plants.  
 
Now, more than ever, we need to make sure the Department of Justice recognizes that we won't stand for this any longer.  Please sign the petition and spread the word to your friends and family to do the same.

You can read the AP article here.


Sign the petition at the Fresh website.

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Say No to NAIS!

I wanted to make my blog readers aware of a very scary program legislation circulating around Washington DC. It is the National Animal Identification System or NAIS. Here's a brief synopsis:

The National Animal Identification System, (NAIS) is a government-run program in the United States intended to permit improved animal health surveillance by identifying and tracking specific animals. Administered at the federal level by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, NAIS will also be overseen by state animal health boards. While the federal program is voluntary, money received by some states, tribes, and non-profit entities from the USDA through cooperative agreements has been used to make parts or all of the program mandatory.

Joseph of Yellow House Farm sent out a wonderful e-mail to his website subscribers and I felt compelled to share some highlights with you. Written by Joseph Marquette.

N.A.I.S. was invented by corporate agribusiness and is blatantly bent to favor them in both paperwork and in matters of extraordinary expense.

N.A.I.S. is a one-size-fits-all notion that completely ignores that industrial agribusiness factories will be the hot-beds for disease should there be an outbreak. Because of their irresponsible, profit-motivated, and profoundly unnatural maintenance practices which have lead to farm animals with unsound immunity, their stocks could die by the tens of thousands. This, however, is an indictment of their own greed and short-sightedness and in no way reflects the wholesome nature of the small-scale American farm and homestead. It is also a clear measure of how willing they are to create in the name of personal gain tragically unhealthy environments that could produce devastating impacts on us and our food supply. N.B. That the health bureaucracy aids them, promotes them, and favors them in all they do.

Our heritage breeds, being an expression of natural life, are much more suited to life in nature. Pure-bred, heritage breeds, raised in natural settings, are the only true choice for any producer or consumer, if we are hoping to invest in a sustainable, life-affirming future.

If we return to pure-bred heritage breeds raised in natural settings, it will, on the one hand, mean the end of cheap meat as commodity, which of course is never available to us without the promotion of suffering in the world. On the other hand, our food will blessedly be deeply nourishing, community building, tradition forming, and free of the very real shame we suffer as a people, when we turn to hybrid, unnaturally reproducing, oil-dependent, industrial meat-product.

If we return to pure-bred heritage farm animals as the primary source of our food, it will undermine our pathological meat industry and put an end to their inhumane practices. They know this, and thwarting this demise is what the National Animal Identification System is really about.

N.A.I.S. is embraced by non-farming, unelected "health" officials. At the risk of sounding overly sharp, I share with you that the meta-lesson that I have learned in working with unelected health officials is that they are not concerned with what you, the people of New Hampshire, might want, even if many of you are much more informed than they. They are unelected regulators whose job it is to dictate to you what you may or may not eat. Of course, insofar as they are unelected and possess regulatory force, we are all subject to their personal psychologies. The reason for which poultry can be sold in Dover and cannot be sold in Portsmouth is in no way a difference in law but an expression of the personal psychologies of the unelected health officials who are empowered to tell you what you can or cannot do without you having any expedient democratic recourse to thwart their whim.

If N.A.I.S. becomes national policy you will lose your local farms for the foreseeable future either because we will be unable to pay the fees or because we will be forced to reflect these fees in our pricing which you will not be able to afford both of which will lead to the same end result of undermining our precious local economy and making you and your family entirely dependent on industrial food from farm away.

Sadly, if we are brave enough to encounter the Truth, we will dare to recognize that agribusiness and the transportation of food account for an estimated 20% of our national fuel consumption. Taking a deep breath, we then follow the simple, clear logic that the stability of industrial agribusiness depends on the arms race and the wars that feed it. It is time for us as a country to begin to face these humiliating truths.

I offer for your reading list: The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, by M. Scott Peck, M.D. It is outstandingly timely. As a military psychologist, he uses his insider experience to help us see specific areas of change that are needed for the establishment of enduring peace. Considering the last eight years; the last presidential election; the emerging economic depression; the ubiquity of chemical food-products; the virtual impossibility of consuming anything free from the guilt of international impoverishment; the stark realization that we are pouring unfathomable sums of money into the banks to whom we already give monthly almost every penny that we earn in the hopes that they will lend us our money back such that we can pay them even more of the money that we do not have in the first place; and the need to consider in all things our personal and communal impact on the Earth, our Mother, The Different Drum could not be more pertinent. Still, considering that community leads to joy, the book is fun and will make you feel empowered even in the face of all this brouhaha. A note, he is a Christian and writes through that lens. He is, however, in no way exclusive. Rather he is inclusive of all (race, gender, religion, sexual orientation) who would choose to rebuild our communities and experience that special joy.

Joseph has encouraged us to contact the following people:

Caroline L. French, Senior Advisor to Congresswoman Shea-Porter.
Phone: (603) 743-4813 (Dover office). (603) 641-9536 (Manchester office).

Terri Beyer, District Manager
TERRI.BEYER@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV
Phone: (603) 641-9536 (Manchester Office)

Other resources:
NoNAIS.org
NAIS at the USDA
NAIS Truth
Speak Out Against NAIS
NAIS Stinks

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Food Democracy Now!

Next week Food Democracy Now! is delivering the petition signatures and comments to Secretary Vilsack at his offices in Washington DC. Food Democracy Now! is looking to have 100,000 signatures to submit and they're currently at about 85,000 signatures.

From the e-mail I received from Food Democracy Now!:

So far we know that we’ve had success in changing the debate in how agriculture is being discussed in the 21st century. Since his confirmation, Secretary Vilsack has made a number of forward-thinking statements that prove he understands the urgent need for change in our nation’s food policies.

So do your part and click on over and "sign" the petition as well.

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