From: The New York Times

In its first-ever ruling on genetically modified crops, the Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ban on the planting of alfalfa seeds engineered to resist Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.

The decision was a victory for Monsanto and others in the agricultural biotechnology industry, with potential implications for other cases, like one involving genetically engineered sugar beets.

But in practice the decision is not likely to measurably speed up the resumption of planting of the genetically engineered alfalfa.

A federal district judge in San Francisco had ruled in 2007 that the Agriculture Department had approved the genetically engineered alfalfa for commercial planting without adequately considering the possible environment impact, as required by federal law. The judge vacated approval, known as deregulation of the crop, and also imposed a nationwide ban on planting those seeds. The ban was later upheld on appeal.

But the Supreme Court, in a 7-to-1 decision, said the lower court judge had gone too far, ruling that the national ban prevented the Agriculture Department from considering a partial approval. That avenue, the court said, would have allowed some of the alfalfa to be grown under certain conditions; for example, isolating it from conventional alfalfa.

Full Article Here…

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

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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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!

http://www.draperbee.com/webcam/beecam.htm

The infamous Borris

A real treat for you guys today. I get my beautiful wife and garden diva, Laura, in on the podcast action. We go through some updates, catch you up on the latest weimaraner suicide attempt, talk about a pending new addition to the farm, take some great feedback, and finally break the hour mark talking about seeds and gardening.

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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This has been a phenomenal year here at the old homestead. With your help, we’ve taken what was a small farmers market booth and turned it into what some might even call a legitimate business.

Thanks to you, our customer, we have made and sold literally hundreds of jars of jellies, jams, pickles (some of which were a little soggy it seems.. Sorry!!), and fruit butters! We blew straight through all our honey, and sold through a number of soap batches several times over. We’ve seen the podcast explode in popularity – receiving over 2200 downloads a week on average – for reasons I still can’t fathom in all honesty.

It has been a busy year, and we could not be more grateful for your support in 2009. I hope that our service and our products have lived up to your expectations and we look forward to serving you in 2010.

So what do we have planned for 2010??

More products with better consistency – we’ve partnered with a processing operation in north GA that has agreed to handle the processing and packaging of our harvests using our own recipes. They have a state certified and inspected commercial kitchen and a sterling reputation among other growers for being on the up and up. This also allows us to partner with other local growers to offer you a wider range of products. For example, If farmer Bob is processing 600 lbs of vidalia onions (which I can’t grow), but didn’t get a good apple harvest, we can trade on the raw goods and the facility can process them for both of us. I think it’s a good strategic move for us right now that will allow us to serve you better in the long run – and avoid being shut down by the State Dept of Agriculture.. which is always a nice perk.

Going Official LLC – we’ll be moving BubbaTanicals and all associated operations into an LLC. This is probably something we should have done some time ago, but with volume picking up and money actually flowing through it, it’s become clear that this is a viable effort and is worth investing in.

Podcast improvements – My wife has expressed an interest in being on the podcast so if I can make that happen, it will greatly add to the quality of the content. Not only because she is way more knowledgeable on what we would probably be talking about, but you won’t just have me prattling on in your ear for an hour. And we all know that my public speaking skills are less than par. I’ve also upgraded the podcast equipment somewhat and will be adding some additional upgrades in the coming months. I’m breaking away from my laptop as the main recording device and now using a Tascam DR-7 (sorry Darcy, it was a third the price of the Ederol, but does everything I need it to). This is a hand-held studio quality recording device that will allow us more freedom in how we conduct the podcast. Recording it outside, with the animals, or even at a bee yard are only a few examples.

Website Improvements – We’re always looking for ways to add value to the website. In the coming months look for better integration with the blog, newsletters, and even a live chat feature where you can talk to us directly right from your browser!

And much more.. so stay tuned!

Now go have a happy new year!

-Brian and Laura
BubbaTanicals.com

just a quick note to let you know that I’ve added live help functionality to the shop. WooHoo!

That means that if I happen to be online, you can click that button and it will start up a chat with someone from our customer service department.. which is also the sales department.. and executive management.. well you get the idea. We’re a small shop.

So if you’ve got some questions about a product, a purchase, tracking an order, or just about anything else having to do with BubbaTanicals, just get to clicking and we’ll do our level best to make sure that you’re taken care of.

-Brian

The New Well House

Happy Holidays from BubbaTanicals.com! Today we go through some quick updates and then geek out on setting up your farm website and blog!

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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