Ecology is the study of the environment.It has two overriding components, production and consumption.Production involves the world of green plants from microscopic to macro, whether marine, fresh water, or on land.Green plants are the source of food for animal life, directly or indirectly.All food sources emanate from plants.Healthy plants have a healthy immune system.We depend on healthy plants for a healthy food supply.
Biology is the study of life, whether one flourishes, merely survives, or perishes depends to a great degree on our stewardship practices of the earth as it impacts on the productivity (green plants), our food supply on this sphere.Biodiversity is essential on our planet and transgenic manipulation defies biodiversity of the plants we utilize as our food supply.GMO’s are an understudied and dangerous paradigm in modern society.
Transgenic Seeds are not sustainable, since they can’t reproduce themselves, and the possible harmful effects of consuming such genetically manipulated organisms has been totally disregarded by the enabling agencies, USDA and FDA.
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine states, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with genetically modified (GM) food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system.They ask physicians to advise patients to avoid GM food.Since 1996 Americans have been eating GM ingredients in most processed foods.GM plants, such as soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola, have had foreign genes forced into their DNA.The inserted genes come from species such as bacteria and viruses, which have never been in the human food supply.
The entire European Union has denounced transgenic crops, but our government agencies, USDA, and the FDA might as well be working for Monsanto, ironically, our watchdog agencies.The FDA official in charge of creating this policy was Michael Taylor, the former attorney for Monsanto, the largest biotech company, and later their vice president.
In reality, FDA scientists had repeatedly warned that GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems.They urged long-term safety studies, but were ignored.Today, the same biotech companies who have been found guilty of hiding toxic effects of their chemical products are in charge of determining whether their GM foods are safe.Industry-funded GMO safety studies are too superficial to find most of the potential dangers, and their voluntary consultations with the FDA are widely criticized as a meaningless façade.
Each year, I struggled to find a field where I would plant my soybeans, which by the way had been in my family seed stock for 42 years.One year I could not find a field on any of my farms that weren’t influenced by a neighboring transgenic soy field, so I gave an organic neighbor my seed stock to plant.I only requested my seed back so as to assure continuity of my seed stock.He had a non-productive year, and by the next year my seed stock germination viability did not justify planting.There went a 42-year seed stock, totally adapted to my soil conditions, biome gradients, longitude, latitude, and all the rest, out to door.All because of Monsanto’s patented seeds.
Transgenic technology could be a good thing, but when you are introducing unnatural phenomena into the plant such as viruses, bacteria, salamander genes, even human genes in some cases, this is unnatural. Particularly since we have no idea what consequences ingesting these transgenic crops might have.
Organic seeds are living organisms in a dormant state.Transgenic seeds normally have a terminator gene, which means it cannot reproduce itself.For 30 years as an organic farmer, I have strived to become sustainable.A large part of that sustainable goal is to be independent of outside input, and for an organic farm to be sustainable first and foremost, it must have its own renewable seed supply, free of artificial manipulation.
Ron Gargasz: Ron is a certified organic farmer from Lawrence County, Pennsylvania who has been farming organically since 1979. His organic beef is entirely grass-fed and he has done extensive studies with Penn State University. These studies verify through analytical biochemical analysis that forage-fed beef raised without grains produces a profoundly healthier fatty acid profile with an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio at 1.7:1 compared to the grain-finished beef which averaged 17.7:1. This translates into saturated (grain-fed) vs. unsaturated fats (grass-fed). Grass-fed beef also contains another essential fatty acid called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which studies verify as enhanced antioxidant anti-cancer agents that are almost completely missing in grain-fed beef. Penn State Study Chart showing the nutritional differences between grass-fed and grain fed beef. Compost Food Web Poster showing the role of soil organisms in maintaining soil health, productivity, and the nutritional quality of the crops grown in the soil. The role of these organisms is compromised by chemical agriculture.