GMO sugar beets on Boulder County Open Space Agricultural Land.

I am an appointed member of the Food and Agricultural Policy Council for the County Commissioners of Boulder County Colorado. The council had been asked to consider a request for 6 farmers that have leases to farm land owned by the County as Open Space Agricultural Land to rotate into their crop plans GMO sugar beets. I have reviewed the request, read supplied documentation, understood why the county staff recommended allowing farmers to use GMO crops and the restrictions they suggested to appease the concerns. I have researched for hours the implications, the science, the hype, and both sides using fear, uncertainty and doubt to plead their case. On July 30 I listened carefully to over 75 concerned citizens in a public meeting describe their concerns and recommendations. I understand how incredibly difficulty farming is in any form, conventional or organic. Ultimately it falls on the Food and Agricultural Policy Council to make a decision as individuals and then as a group for a recommendation to our elected County Commissioners.

I have documented here most of my comments during the discussion after the motion to allow the farmers to grow GMO sugar beets on their leased land.

The decision to allow or not to allow GMO sugar beets on Boulder County Open Space agricultural land will affect the livelihood of some farmers. We’ve heard them and I do empathize with their position. However, it grieves me that the only way these farmers believe they can survive is to use the new technology of GMO sugar beets. The farmers say they believe there is no other choice if they are going to be successful, they feel GMO is a sustainable option, that GMO would use less poisons and be ecologically advantageous.

At the same time we are hearing these farmers decry the possible restriction of GMO technology we are experiencing a demand for more land for citizen farming, organic farms and for young farmers to use open space land in new and sustainable ways. These new farmers are looking for innovative ways to access and use land. They aren’t asking for government support, just fair access and protection from the subsidized industrial farms and pollution of the conventional farms. They do need community support to continue to discover the science of organic and sustainable farming, these are sciences in their infancy and they are rediscovering the science of natural biological interactions. They want to use the most economically sustainable method to continue in their efforts, which is to sell direct to their community. Farming is the most economically simulative and sustainable new entrepreneurial business we can bring back to this County.

Boulder County has a unique opportunity for use of this available public owned agricultural land to provide leadership for the economic viability of our farming future. Our county can enhance our international reputation as a large natural food manufacturing base or it can choose to support the GMO method that is clearly not going to be a long term solution in this county. Our petitioning farmers tell us they are in their last attempts at maintaining their success. Their supporting infrastructure is moving further and further away. It is a difficult argument to make that growing a patented plant when it is illegal to save its seeds and has restrictive contracts to grow it or do research upon it, is an economically, ecologically or a socially sustainable solution.

We are seeing unprecedented growth in the organic, natural, and local food movement with the food industry clamoring to find a way to meet this demand. It is very clear organic and real natural food is now experiencing the largest growth in the industrial food chain.

This is a serious enough question that it has been posed to these councils to make a recommendation. Is this proper use of Boulder County Open Space agricultural land? This land is owned by the citizens of Boulder County and it is clear there is an overwhelming wish was to keep the land open and kept in a sustainable way. There comes a time when a government must use it resources when free enterprise cannot find a viable solution. The County has policy established wishing to see its opens space agricultural land used in organic and sustainable production. The use of GMO products is a slap in the face of this agenda and policy.

Our organic farmers are finding youth interested in their methods and willing to investigate their farms. Workers are willing to work for them to learn the methods. We hear the conventional farmers say labor is almost nonexistent and impossible to find. It is easy to see why when given a choice a talented farm hand would chose to work in a clean environment instead of a toxic field full of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that slowly leach the land of all topsoil and life.

I urge the County Commissioners to not allow the increased use of GMO on County Open Space land.

Mark Menagh

Up and running

I have twitter running and now have the Blogger page up.
Thanks for visiting much more to come.

The family farm table

I can now write about the other fantastic things that are happening in Boulder County not just promoting the Farmers' Market. They are doing a great job of documenting their new lifestyle!

The family farm table
About The Farm
This site documents our second year of learning to be vegetable farmers. It’s still a bit of an experiment, but the main goal is to learn how to produce high quality food on a regular, consistent basis. The farm is located on leased land a few miles from our suburban neighborhood, and is actually more of a large garden. It’s scaled to feed approximately 20 families. We’ll be holding down regular day jobs and trying to raise three young children while we’re doing this, so it should be a pretty busy year!

click to read about the farm

You Can't Fix Rising Health Care Costs Without Fixing Food

You Can't Fix Rising Health Care Costs Without Fixing Food
by: Jill Richardson

La Vida Locavore article - Very thorough this one you want to share with your representatives!

Trying to fix our rising health care costs without fixing our food system is like trying to fix our defense budget without ending our two wars in the Middle East. In fact, it would be like trying to get a grip on defense spending while invading Pakistan. Or something like that. Here's what I mean:

Link to La Vida Locavore - read the rest

Digging In

Wendell Berry On Small Farms, Local Wisdom, And The Folly Of Greed

by Jeff Fearnside

Read the article in The Sun

Mobile slaughterhouse

Mobile slaughterhouse. This is so needed in Boulder County.

Link to a video on Yahoo News. (not grahic content)

Disturbing Trend organic companies moving toward natural

WhiteWave shifts from organic to natural soybeans

The Denver Biz Journal covers this trend of using the confusion of customers between organic and the undefined "natural". Build the costs and following of an organic brand then subtly change your product.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/07/20/daily21.html

Heirloom Bison

Nature Conservancy

For the first time in 150 years, bison have been born on native prairie in Iowa within a herd established exclusively for conservation.

Bison help native grasslands to thrive. But most bison herds today aren’t pure — they’ve been bred with cattle. Only two herds exist in the United States that show no evidence of cattle genes. These herds are serving as “source” herds for efforts to reintroduce pure bison to other prairie locations, such as Iowa’s Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve.

There is a lengthy article in the Sacramento News and Review covering corporate co-opting of local brands. It gives an overview of what's happening across the country and Canada, but also focuses on efforts in Fresno and Orlando.

News Review in Sacromento

What Should We Do About Beef From The Amazon?

Blog on the Nature Conservancy. Really if we don't eat the beef from the Amazon are they going to stop cutting down the rain forest. David Cleary provides a perspective that is very informative.

Nature Conservancy Blog by David Cleary

"Then, in June, something extraordinary happened. Friends of the Earth in Brazil and Greenpeace in Europe came out with separate reports detailing the role of the beef industry in driving Amazon deforestation. There was a media firestorm. Within days, all the major Brazilian supermarket chains (Carrefour and Walmart among them) announced new policies banning the purchase of meat linked to deforestation in the Amazon. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth achieved in a couple of weeks what I’d tried to do for years with no success.

But there are big risks. Right now, none of the meat processing companies have any way of documenting land-use change in the ranches that supply their Amazon slaughterhouses, and thus no way of guaranteeing to the retailers that their meat is deforestation-free. Getting such a monitoring system up and running was the reason I was in that meeting in São Paulo. In those circumstances, the easiest option for the Walmarts of this world is “redlining” the Amazon – simply suspend meat purchases from the Amazon, and buy meat from somewhere else less risky.
"

Dr Hyman on "real food"

Are You Also Being Deceived into Eating Fake Frankenfoods?

I've been following Dr Mark Hyman for a while. On this Huffington Post Blog he shows his frustration at the deception of advertising in food. Knowing that he touts the eat real food concept this blog is expected from him. Still I enjoyed reading his experiences including trying to help a food scientist with his ailments.

"A recent patient of mine is a food scientist who works for a large food
industry company. His job is to invent and create new foods in the laboratory by
mixing food and chemicals to create certain tastes and flavors that mimic real
food or that stimulate appetite and satisfy our need for various
tastes.
Think of these as "Frankenfoods."
My patient became quite sick from
handling these compounds and chemicals everyday. I have been working hard to get
him to not only stop eating processed food, but also to stop playing with it.
He wore a funny T-shirt to my office, which listed the top 10 reasons to
major in food science, a scientific discipline that teaches people how to invent
foods for the food industry.
According to his shirt, here are the top 10
reasons to become a food scientist:
1. Eat ice cream for breakfast and get
credit for it.
2. We are in it for the dough.
3. Grocery shopping is
research instead of a chore.
4. We get to eat the results of our research
project.
5. Because hairnets are a fashion statement.
6. Because we know
what is really in your hot dogs.
7. Not only do we know how to drink beer,
we can make it.
8. Cheese, yogurt, and buttermilk -- who says we are not
cultured?
9. As long as you are eating, we will be working.
10. We have
not stopped playing with our food and now we are playing with yours.
He gave
me a food industry trade journal which I found very enlightening.
I was
shocked to read the very careful and deliberate marketing ploys used to gain a
foothold in our increasingly health conscious market."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/are-you-also-being-deceiv_b_228130.html