Yes on Prop 37 – Right to Know Act

In November, California voters will be able to say “yes, we want to know if there are genetically-engineered organisms in our food.”  Thanks to the efforts of the California Right to Know Campaign, the Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act will be on the November ballot as Proposition 37.

This act does not ban GMO foods but merely requires products with genetically-modified ingredients to be labeled as “GMO.”  The vast majority of the food we eat contains GMOs.  So what?  Why should we be worried about GMOs?  Farmers have always purposefully selected certain phenotypes of crop varieties, thereby altering their genetic makeup. So, what’s different now?

Well, let us tell you!  There are a number of reasons for why we should at least be cautious about eating GMO foods.  Of course, you can make your own decisions about these things, but here are a few reasons why GMOs cause problems in our food supply:

1. Pesticide Resistance: GMO corn and soybeans are designed to withstand high levels of weed killers and other pesticides (a.k.a. “Round-Up Ready” crops).  By using bacteria genes and splicing them into corn and soybeans, the plants become resistant to weed killer.  So when the field is doused with weed killer or pesticides, all of that poison is still on the corn and soybean plants and, therefore, part of our food supply.

2. Unknown Allergies: Since genetic modification involves taking genes from any plant, animal, or other organism, even those we don’t actually eat, and putting them into plants that we do eat, there is potential for new food allergies to emerge.  In order to know whether allergens are present, testing must be done, which is difficult when the organism from which the gene is coming from is not eaten by humans.

3. Cross Pollination: Obviously, not all farmers choose to use GMO seeds.  However, if this farmer has a field next to a farm that does use GMO seeds, cross pollination can occur.  This is problematic not only because now the non-GMO farmer now has contaminated crops, he or she can also be sued by large agribusinesses like Monsanto.  These large companies own the patents on these seeds and if a company like Monsanto finds their GMO crops in a non-GMO field, they will sue that farmer for illegally growing their product.  Is that not $@&$-ed up or what?  On a related note, farmers are not allowed to collect the seeds after the growing season and use them again next year because they have to buy them again from the patent owner, Monsanto. Monsanto lawyers are a step above serial killers on the morality ladder.

So, in short, you should really consider voting YES on Prop 37 in November just so we can have a CHOICE in selecting what we want to eat!

Additional Information:

California Right to Know Act Campaign: http://carighttoknow.org/

Monsanto, Chemicals, and GMOs (this 5-minute video really summarizes Monsanto’s influence on crop production really well): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbvYwg-Aqis

Bt Corn (not only is it pesticide resistant but the Bt gene itself can be toxic to us!): http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/06/dangerous-toxins-from-gmo-foods.aspx

May Garden Update!

If there was any concern about our seedlings not making an appearance in the past, we can safely say that concern has disappeared.  Our ten-by-ten plot is becoming a highly productive green “mini-farm,” minus any sort of livestock, of course.

We’ve been able to harvest lettuce and baby beets from our plot, both of which are tasting really good.  We see signs of peas, beans, and cucumbers flowering and our corn is alreadyabout knee-high. Even Sean’s hops are looking good!

We have both been very busy lately (as shown in our delay in blog posts) but visiting the garden is always an exciting, rewarding trip that we rarely let pushed aside.  Look forward to more interesting blog posts coming soon but here are some photos for the meantime!

The lettuce after we harvested it from the garden. It lasts for a long time in the fridge.

Spring mix and red-headed lettuce.

Beefsteak tomatoes in the foreground with cabbage, peas, and lettuce behind them.

The only squash that sprouted from the seeds really likes it here.

So… how big does this get?

At about three weeks in, our little plot is beginning to look more like a vegetable garden and less like a rock garden (although Sean would probably say otherwise). Little green shoots are becoming leafy shoots and new plants are sprouting, including the Gentleman’s white sweet corn and sugar snap peas, which make this Midwestern girl very happy.  We had a good rain the other day that really helped bring things to life.  It’s good to know that while we struggle with how to put an “under construction” page on our Web site, we can at least say we know how to grow vegetables.

But vegetables are not the only plant we’ve started to grow; yesterday a new crop has been planted.  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s in the Cannabaceae family, it has aromatic buds, and it’s been known to cause a good time.  I’m pretty sure all of you have enjoyed it at least once in your life, and, for most of you, about once a week.  What?  No, it’s not THAT fun little stimulant.  I’m pretty sure Long Beach Organics doesn’t have a permit for that.  It’s the hop plant!  To be more specific, a Cascade hop and a Nugget hop.  For those that don’t know, my boyfriend, Sean, has been learning the artistry of beer brewing and hops add really good flavor to tasty brews.  For his fourth brew, he is hoping to use hops grown by our own hands.  Or, as you see in the photo above, our pink-gloved-hands.

A few interesting tidbits about hops: they have been cultivated since the 16^th Century, can be used as sedatives, and can reach heights of 20 feet.  Yes, 20 feet.  That presents a bit of a problem for a 10-foot by 10-foot garden plot with a space of no more than 1 ½ feet between our neighboring four plots.  But, Sean likes researching and following rules so he put together a couple latticed stakes that will allow the hops to twist and turn their way to the sky.  I was quite impressed.  We also think these structures would make great directional signs, such as “Bavaria = 5,995 miles (9,650 kilometers).”

My first thought was “I think these are too big.”  However, because we were unable to find the garden rules (oops), we hoisted our seven-and-a-half-foot stakes and trekked it to the garden.  I kept envisioning Life of Brian and Michael Palin asking, “Crucifixion? Good.”  Fellow gardeners gave us a couple looks and made the bad jokes.  “So, we think you should set the TV up right here!” Our solemn neighbor gave us a sour look and said, “Aren’t there height limits here?”  As good community gardeners we chopped off a foot on the bottom, dug a good-sized hole in the middle of our plot, and decided we only needed to put ONE pole in the ground, not two.  In the end, it’s not any bigger than the ginormous tomato cages in the plot next to us. We planted one of each of the hop plant rhizomes on each side of the structure and gave them a good drink. No pun intended.

So, hopefully in about three months, we will have harvestable hops.  These suckers grow fast.  We accidentally dug up the string bean seeds when we planted the hops so I hope these guys are worth it.  Trial and error, right?

Parting Thoughts and Links:

Observations:

Leah: “Our ambitious plans require more than 100 square feet.”

Sean: “Thanks for letting me use your garden to develop my skill set.”

Caitlin: “ Technically, ‘Bavaria’ is only about 15 miles away in the Old World Village in Huntington Beach.”

Links:

Northwest Hops: http://www.northwesthops.com

 

 

A Dirty Venture!

Gardening . . . is fun, frustrating, therapeutic and dirty. All things that appeal to my largely Pitta personality. Today has been a good day for tiny green shoots. Not only are the cukes, beefsteak tomatoes and zinnias in our dining room finally showing a little gumption and poking their heads out, but we have teeny tiny beet shoots in the actual garden plot!  My previous frustration with the plant’s inability to immediately sprout, mature and produce food has been replaced with parental pride. My rainbow beet babies have entered the world, and I can’t wait to  . . . . eat them? Hmmmm not entirely parental.

We are, however, getting ahead of ourselves  . . . . sprouts of any kind are exciting enough to make us squeal like a middle school girls, but a lot of work has been done over the past week that should not go undocumented.  First and foremost, SOIL PREP. I put this in caps because it falls firmly into the manual labor category, and I mean the large letters as a visual pat on the back to both of us. We aerated, turned, composted and weeded 100 sq. ft. of back-hoe packed earth using nothing but a hoe, shovel and pitchfork. Our plot now looks like a fluffy raised bed of earth with semi-perfect rows of seeds awaiting the right temperature to get growing. Go us!

While we were prepping our soil, we took on the super fun task of deciding what to grow. If you have never looked through an heirloom seed catalog, you must. Barbara Kingsolver was not joking when she described it as one of the most exciting phases of planning a garden.  Pages of possibilities sent our minds into daydreams of fat yellow tomatoes and jars of homemade pickles and the riotously colored veggies begged us to plant them.  If we had not been careful we would have had more species than our plot can handle . . . honestly there was still some overflow. Leah armed with her intense new garden book, and a far more detail oriented eye than myself, drew a garden chart before we ordered anything and saved us from committing to tons of seeds that we simply did not have room for. I have found, that the excitement of having this plot is driving us to want everything immediately . . . forgetting that there are more seasons in our future, with plenty of time for all the varietals we MUST try.

As it stands, we have seeds in the ground (Beets, Carrots, Salad Greens, Cabbage, Squash, Cukes and Beans) and seedlings in the dining room (Tomatoes, Cukes, Eggplant, Flowers, and Tomatillos). My impatience, which I am sure was beginning to drive Leah slightly insane, has been replaced with happiness for now. Short of actually sitting there and watching the spouts grow, I could not be more of an overprotective parent. We check these seed(ling)s every day and exclaim happily when a new one breaks the surface.

We at Currant Table have now joined the ranks of urban farmers, and can say without fail, that if you have the opportunity to do so as well, you should most certainly take it.

Parting Thoughts and Links:

Favorite seedlings of the week :

Leah: “Zinnias, because a garden is simply not complete without zinnias!”

Caitlin: “Beets … first seeds to sprout in the actual garden plot and provide hope that we did this right”

High Mowing Heirloom Seeds:  http://www.highmowingseeds.com

Annie’s Heirloom Seeds: http://www.anniesheirloomseeds.com