Put your mouth where their money is, say no to GMO

A sugar beet harvester

The beleaguered genome of the sugar beet needs your help, as do the farmers who want to raise food gifted to us by evolution (0r by God for the Creationists out there).

Farmer’s in Boulder County, CO have gone through a tense summer. Six farmers petitioned the county for permission to grow genetically-modified sugar beets on open space land they lease. The sugar beets in question are engineered by Monsanto to resist the herbicide Roundup, also made and sold by Monsanto. More Roundup used on engineered sugar beet mon0-cultures results in higher yields for that particular field, at least as long as Monsanto techno-seed and Roundup are continually used.

On one side are farmers like Jules Van Thuyne Jr. who, at a Boulder County commission hearing considering their petition to plant the simulated beets,

spoke on behalf of six Longmont-area farmers who are hoping to plant genetically modified sugar beets on roughly 1,000 acres of county open space that they lease.

The farmers say raising Roundup Ready sugar beets would be more economical and give them a better chance to survive in a market where 95 percent of the sugar beets in the United States are already Roundup Ready.

via Boulder County growers back off sugar beet petition – The Denver Post.

On the other side are farmers who emphasize natural methods of food production

Monsanto critic and local farmer Steve Demos said Boulder must hold on to its “aura” as a leader in the natural foods movement.

“Boulder is the epicenter for natural and organic foods,” Demos said. “Boulder is our brand, and everyone in the United States knows it.”

via Boulder leaves door open for modified beets – The Denver Post.

While the 95% number Thuyne cited  is high, the techno-invasion of our food’s genetics is well underway,

Plantings of crops with genetic modifications have risen sharply over the last decade, to the point that about 85 percent of corn and canola and 91 percent of soybean acreage this year was sown with biotech seed. Few food products in the supermarket lack at least some element derived from these crops, including oils, corn syrup, corn starch and soy lecithin.

The most recent agricultural sector to convert is sugar beets. Once this year’s crop is processed, close to half of the nation’s sugar will come from gene-engineered plants. Monsanto, a major developer of such seeds, has said it plans to develop biotech wheat, and scientists are moving forward on other crops.

via ‘Non-GMO’ Seal Identifies Foods Mostly Biotech-Free – NYTimes.com.

It is important to say that farming is a tough business. It is simply not fair to take  farmers like the Boulder County sugar beet growers to task for trying to make a living. If we want farmers to grow actual rather than simulated food, we need to make it economically viable for them to do so by making food choices that support markets in actual food. Whether you call it slow, local, organic, natural, or just non-GMO we can make choices against the intrusion of simulated foods. But it is a fight; it is a fight of eater vs. agri-business and the battlefield is the economic decisions made by farmers.

The fight is not easy. Large agri-businesses like Monsanto have successfully lobbied against  requirements to label GMO food as GMO food. In trying to lock-down control over our food system through vertical integration they steal the freedom to choose what and how to eat by depriving us of information. In contrast, European regulations require GMO food to be labelled as such. One positive development is a recently announced Non-GMO seal that some organic producers will be implementing in the Fall.

The project’s seal, a butterfly perched on two blades of grass in the form of a check mark, will begin appearing on packaged foods this fall. The project will not try to guarantee that foods are entirely free of genetically modified ingredients, but that manufacturers have followed procedures, including testing, to ensure that crucial ingredients contain no more than 0.9 percent of biotech material. That is the same threshold used in Europe, where labeling is required if products contain higher levels.

via ‘Non-GMO’ Seal Identifies Foods Mostly Biotech-Free – NYTimes.com.

But that’s not enough. Lots of growers worthy of support don’t bother with an official organic designation. We need more than just a designation that this or that organic product does not have GMO, we need clear requirements that anything that does contain GMO be clearly labelled as such.

Along with our farmers, our genomes deserve  better. Get information. Buy from people you know. Fight simulated food. Remember, soylent green is people!