Category Archives: Agriculture

Mutant corn rootworm in Illinois defying Monsanto GMO corn

Mutant pigweed here, mutant rootworm there, pretty soon no Monsanto pest protection anywhere.

Carey Gillam wrote for Reuters 28 August 2013, GMO corn failing to protect fields from pest damage: report

(Reuters)—Researchers in the key corn-growing state of Illinois are finding significant damage from rootworms in farm fields planted in a rotation with a genetically modified corn that is supposed to protect the crop from the pests, according to a new report.

Evidence gathered from fields in two Illinois counties suggests that pest problems are mounting as the rootworms grow ever more resistant to efforts to fight them, including crop rotation combined with use of the biotech corn, according to the report issued by Michael Gray, a professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois.

Here’s the report, by Michael Gray in U. Illinois Bulletin, 27 August 2012, Severe Corn Rootworm Injury to Bt Hybrids in First-Year Corn Confirmed, Continue reading →

Okra seized by SWAT team

An anonymous tip was the basis for a warrant for a SWAT team to hold small farmers at gunpoint in handcuffs while the cops took their okra and tomatoes and code compliance officers mowed the grass. Is your grass mowed to code? If sometimes not, maybe you’ll agree police militarization has gone too far.

As Monika Diaz put it for WFAA on 12 August 2013, Owner irked after raid on Arlington’s ‘Garden of Eden’.

Shellie Smith, the owner of Arlington’s “Garden of Eden” says police and code enforcement agents “destroyed everything” in a raid on August 2, 2013.

You might be irked, too.

Radley Balko wrote for Huffpo Thursday, Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid,

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized “17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, Continue reading →

Monsanto crops: same as and different from natural crops?

If Monsanto’s crops are indistinguishable from non-GMO, aren’t natural crops prior art invalidating MON’s patents?

Ethan A. Huff wrote for NaturalNews.com 26 June 2013, Monsanto hypocrisy: GMOs supposedly identical to natural crops on safety, but unique for patent enforcement,

The biotechnology industry has pulled a fast one with regards to the legitimacy of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). Straddling both sides of the fence, multinational corporations like Monsanto continually claim that their GM monstrosities are “substantially equivalent” to natural crops when it comes to their safety. And yet at the very same time, this ilk also insists that its products are uniquely different from natural crops when it comes to enforcing its patents, a clearly hypocritical and duplicitous stance that proves the illegitimacy of the entire GMO business model.

On its corporate website, Monsanto clearly expresses its opinion that Continue reading →

USDA approves Non-GMO meat label

Now easier to vote at the checkout counter (or the farmers market), at least for non-GMO meat.

Stephanie Strom wrote for NYTimes 20 June 2013, U.S. Approves a Label for Meat From Animals Fed a Diet Free of Gene-Modified Products,

The Agriculture Department has approved a label for meat and liquid egg products that includes a claim about the absence of genetically engineered products.

It is the first time that the department, which regulates meat and poultry processing, has approved a non-G.M.O. label claim, which attests that meat certified by the Non-GMO Project came from animals that never ate feed containing genetically engineered ingredients like corn, soy and alfalfa.

Seen here.

-jsq

Mallory blueberries on WCTV 2012-06-25

More blueberries than peaches in Georgia fruit production, featured on WCTV and at Valdosta Farm Days.

Eames Yates wrote for WCTV 25 June 2012 Blueberries Overtake Peaches as Georgia’s Largest Fruit Crop,

The Georgia peach has been bumped from the top spot when it comes to fruit production in the state. The new leader of the pack: Blueberries, which are now the number one selling fruit crop in Georgia.

Georgia has more than 19,000 acres of blueberries. And about 12,000 acres of peaches. The Mallory’s operate a blueberry farm in Valdosta. So far this year they’ve sold about 1,200 gallons of blueberries worth more than $9,000 dollars.

Mallory’s Farm owner Shirley Mallory said Continue reading →

Potatoes to market

We dug the potatoes and washed them yesterday, and this morning Gretchen just left with them for Valdosta Farm Days, Historic Courthouse Square, 100 West Central Avenue, Valdosta, GA:

Digging and washing:

Digging Washing

Potatoes and grits, plus rosemary, in the car for Valdosta Farm Days: Continue reading →

Monsanto loses French appeal, reconvicted of poisoning

Will we listen to French farmer Paul François, who sued Monsanto for nerve damage due to inhaling Lasso weedkiller, and won last year? Monsanto appealed, but François just won

“Farmers need to understand that those who speak for them are businessmen who defend other interests, very lucrative for the businessmen, who do not care about farmers’ health or the health of those around us.”
the appeal, too. Now the court is gauging losses to determine penalties for Monsanto. This after back in 2009 France convicted Monsanto of lying about its claims that Roundup was “biodegradable” and “left the soil clean”. And Argentinean tobacco farmers are suing Monsanto in New Castle County Court, Delaware, saying Monsanto “knowingly poisoned them with herbicides and pesticides and subsequently caused ”devastating birth defects” in their children”. These same Monsanto herbicides and pesticides are sprayed on most fields around here, and they’re just as much poisons here as in Argentina or France.

Paul François answered questions from Pierre Penin for Sud Ouest (southwest France) 8 February 2013,

Continue reading →