We take you on a video tour of replacing a broken water line with a new yard hydrant
Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM
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GMO Mouse Testicals
Barreling down the road, we take some feedback, touch on healthcare deform, lament the cost and extent of repairing our house, and scare the hell out of you with a discussion on genetic modification in the food supply.
Lots of Links for this show…
Correction! – It was not a fish gene that was used to create roundup ready plants, It was a type of Agrobacterium
Doctors Urge Non-GMO diets
Genetically Modified Organisms and Biological Risks (PDF)
GMO’s Actually Reduce Crop Yield
125,000 dead – GM Crops create ‘Suicide Belt’ in India
Effects of GMO Corn on Mammalian Health
Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM
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From: http://www.highmowingseeds.com/HMS-Wins-Lawsuit-Against-Genetically-Engineered-Crops.html
Thank you High Mowing Seeds for standing up in the face of evil. You are a hero and an inspiration to farmers everywhere. Let’s hope that your determination helps set a legal precedent against these companies and gives some power back to the farmers of this great nation.
September 23, 2009
Local Seed Company Wins Lawsuit Against Genetically Engineered Crops
High Mowing Organic Seeds, a mail-order organic seed company based in Wolcott, Vermont announced today that it has won its nearly 20 month lawsuit against the USDA for the premature deregulation of Monsanto’s genetically engineered sugar beets. Additional plaintiffs include the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance and the Sierra Club and were represented in addition, by Earth Justice attorneys. The groups filed the lawsuit in January 2008.
High Mowing’s founder and President, Tom Stearns says, “This ruling is a success not just for organic farmers but for all who have hope for a healthier food system in this country. All wise solutions to our agricultural challenges should serve our physical health, environmental health and the economic viability of farmers and the communities in which they live.”
The U.S. District Court for the northern district of California ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) violated federal law by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement before deregulating genetically altered sugar beets.Monsanto developed the biotech beets to be resistant to Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide Roundup, and promotes the sugarbeets as “Roundup Ready.”
In 2009, 1.1 million acres were planted with GMO sugar beets and almost half of the sugar in the U.S. is made from beets.Recently, the USDA has shown great signs of progress in support of local and organic food by elevating the National Organic Program to its own division and just yesterday, hiring Miles McEvoy as its head. The USDA, headed by Sec. Vilsack and Deputy Sec. Merrigan have also been making important announcements for the last week as they kick-off their new campaign, Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food. Stearns believes that these are critical and substantial changes within the department and “that a tipping point has been reached and that the USDA is now becoming part of the solution to re-building healthy food systems in this country.”
High Mowing is just one of dozens of farms and agricultural businesses in the Hardwick, Vermont region that have been collaborating with each other for many years. The NY Times, Gourmet Magazine, Eating Well Magazine and authors Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, Sen. Patrick Leahy and many others have declared the region as a national model for healthy food systems and building economic development through value-added agriculture. In mid-September, camera crews and Chef Emeril Legasse and Dan Rather Reports filmed many activities of the region for their upcoming shows on healthy food systems.
For more information contact:
Tom Stearns, High Mowing Organic Seeds
tom@highmowingseeds.com
802-472-6174 ext. 114
Heirloom Seed Swap
Johnny Max and the Queen over at the Self Sufficient Homestead have just launched their free seed swapping website: Heirloom Seed Swap!
Head over there and sign up today. We’ll likely be putting some of our seed up there later this season.
Great job Johnny Max and the Queen, and thanks for providing such a powerful resource to the community!
Instead of just allowing companies to sue farmers for seed saving – it would appear that the legal system is becoming a double-edge sword for biotech giants.
It’s about damn time.
Article: Bayer to pay 1.5 Million in rice case Verdict is 2nd against firm over genetic tainting of crop
Excerpt: A jury in Woodruff County Circuit Court decided Monday evening that Bayer CropScience LP must pay more than $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages to Lenny Joe Kyle, a rice farmer, for losses he sustained when Bayer’s experimental variety of genetically modified rice infiltrated the rice supply. More…
Garden Harvest
Laura and I take some feedback, pontificate spring preps, talk about gardening, beekeeping, and other springtime activities. Laura would like to apologize for mistakenly referring to the Brandywine Tomato as a “Rutgers”.
Links from the show:
Roy’s Alaskan Homestead Blog
Ison’s Nursery
Murray McMurray Hatchery
Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM
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A longer look at doing some hive manipulations. In this BubbaTube, we open up a hive with all intention of swapping brood supers, but get a surprise in the process. We also replace some hardware that has come to the end of its life.
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Today I’ll be swapping around supers at the Brooks and Woolsey beeyards. This is a swarming control technique that supposedly keeps the colony from feeling crowded. The idea is that bees constantly move up in the colony through the winter as they consumes their winter stores. By the spring, the bottom of the colony is basically empty. By swapping the top and the bottom supers, we open up another super of space above for the colony to move into.
I’ll also be putting honey supers on these hives. It takes a while for the bees to “get” that their hive has changed sizes and move up into the super. We’ve already got a light nectar flow going, which will quickly pick up in the next few weeks, so I want them up in there drawing comb ahead of the game.
My supers have top entrances too. I’m a big fan of top entrances for two reasons. They provide additional ventilation, but the air isn’t pulled up directly through the broodnest, and it gives the foragers a direct route to the honey stores – meaning they don’t have to walk all the way up the inside of the colony to get where they’re going.