ORGANIC FARMER GROUP Dumps ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION

OSGATA

 

By a unanimous vote of its Board of Directors, the organic farmer-controlled Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) has withdrawn its membership from the Organic Trade Association (OTA). OSGATA’s decision was prompted by OTA’s duplicity towards organic farmers and consumers when a small number of OTA board members endorsed a dangerous Senate bill that would immediately preempt existing strong state GMO Labeling laws that are widely supported by the Organic community and ninety percent of consumers.

Biotech giant Monsanto is universally recognized within the Organic community as organic’s greatest threat.  Recent revelations have made clear that the OTA has created numerous close partnerships with Monsanto including intensive lobbying efforts by the notorious biotech-linked lobbyist Podesta Group on behalf of the deal brokered by Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Roberts (R-KS).  The Stabenow-Roberts (S.764) is a Senate bill - backed by industrial agriculture and large food conglomerates and whose primary intent are nullifying of historic mandatory GMO Labeling laws passed by huge margins in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Alaska legislatures and relieving multinational food companies of the requirement to clearly label products that were produced by genetic engineering.   OTA support for the Monsanto-backed bill proved essential for passage. Last week Stabenow-Roberts passed in the Senate by a narrow four-vote margin of victory on a vote of 63-30.

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Organic farming can feed the world if done right, scientists claim

Comment: The so called "scientists" have finally got around to telling us what was known by many in the field (literally) for centuries and those with any common sense whatsoever...

Conventional agriculture = foods saturated with chemicals and genetically modified. And now they are surprised when findings underscore the obvious: that natural food is best.  Modern agribusiness has succeeded in turning natural into something to be avoided while manipulated food and soil is something to be encouraged. Clearly, what passes for conventionality and normality is in fact the exact opposite and more akin to pathology than wisdom.

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The Independent 

Organic farming is much more productive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of agricultural studies that challenges the conventional “biased” view that pesticide-free agriculture cannot feed the world. 

The study says that organic yields were only 19.2 per cent lower, on average, than those from conventional crops and that this gap could be reduced to just eight per cent if the pesticide-free crops were rotated more frequently.

Furthermore, in some crops - especially leguminous plants such as beans, peas and lentils - there were no significant differences in yields, the researchers from the University of California, Berkeley found.

“In terms of comparing productivity among the two techniques, this paper sets the record straight on the comparison between organic and conventional agriculture,” said Claire Kremen, professor of environmental science, policy and management at Berkeley.

The study comes amid rising concerns that intense farming practices are damaging the environment, with the widespread use of nerve agent pesticides frequently blamed for declining populations of bees and other pollinators. Meanwhile, fertilisers are producing smaller and smaller increases in yields because they are now so effective they are difficult to improve upon.

“With global food needs predicted to greatly increase in the next 50 years, it’s critical to look more closely at organic farming because, aside from the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture, the ability of synthetic fertilizers to increase crop yields has been declining,” said Prof Kremen.

The researchers based their findings on a meta-analysis of 115 studies – a dataset three times greater than any previous such paper – comparing organic and conventional agriculture.

In addition to finding a smaller – 19.2 per cent – productivity difference between the two than previously calculated, the researchers also found that optimising organic productivity through different techniques could further reduce the gap.

Multi-cropping, or growing several crops together on the same field, would cut the yield difference to nine per cent, with crop rotation reducing the gap to eight per cent.

The study, published in the journal Royal Society B, suggested that the gaps could be even smaller than they have calculated because existing studies were “often biased in favour of conventional agriculture”.

“Our study suggests that through appropriate investment in agroecological research to improve organic management and in breeding cultivars for organic farming systems, the yield gap could be reduced or even eliminated for some crops or regions,” said the study’s lead author, Lauren Ponisio, a graduate student in environmental science, policy and management.

The researchers suggest that organic farming can be a very competitive alternative to industrial agriculture when it comes to food production.

“It’s important to remember that our current agricultural system produces far more food than is needed to provide for everyone on the planet,” said Prof Kremen.

“Eradicating world hunger requires increasing the access to food, not simply the production. Also, increasing the proportion of agriculture that uses sustainable, organic methods of farming is not a choice, it’s a necessity. We simply can’t continue to produce food far into the future without taking care of our soils, water and biodiversity,” she added.

Let’s reimagine the way we connnect with food: The Open Food Network

C4SS

We are the Open Food Foundation and the Open Food Network is our first project. It is a free and open source project aimed at supporting diverse food enterprises and making it easy to access local and sustainable food.

The Open Food Foundation is a non-profit, registered charity established in October 2012, to develop, accumulate and protect open source knowledge, code, applications and platforms for fair and sustainable food systems.

While established in Australia, we support global collaboration on open projects for food system transformation. We want to build and support communities that bring the people who need the software together with those who can develop it. We are currently working with communities in the UK, Europe, US and Canada on developing OFN pilots.

The Open Food Network is being brought to life by many wonderful people and organisations. Special thanks to VicHealth, WiCreate, Matt Arnold, Random Hacks of Kindness, DiUS computing, City of Casey and Stroudco and other members of the Online Food Hubs Network. Amazing tech guys: Rohan Mitchell, Rob Harrington, Raf Schouten, Andrew Spinks, David Cook, Alex Serdyuk, Will Marshall, and Yin Shen. Early adopters and trial partners: Amoro Foods, Earth and Sky, East Food Hub, Eat Local Eat Wild, Eaterprises Australia, Farm Hack, Fife Diet, Folk Labs, Food Connect Brisbane, Food Coop, Greenhorns, Kildonan Uniting Care, Local Organics, Northcote Bulk, Grow Lightly Connect, Jonai Farms, Mildura Healthy Food, South East Food Hub, StroudCo Food Hub, and other Food Hubs networks around the world.

Organic farm in Benin sows example for Africa

Brazilian activists launch petition to stop approval of GMO 'Terminator' seeds

Natural News

In today's globally connected economic environment, entire governments can be infiltrated by industry insiders who seek to further their business agenda. It's easy for government safety boards and commissions to be coerced into supporting a corporation's high-dollar demands. It's now very easy for corporations to conspire globally to take advantage of expanding markets in agriculture. Follow the money.

Genetically manipulated crops aren't the answer for feeding the world

Supporters of big GMO agribusiness are often deluded by the thought that they are feeding growing populations around the world. Realistically, genetically altered seeds have been changed at the molecular level, sometimes spliced with bacteria genes. This kind of DNA designer crop doesn't always interact well with the human body. Chemicals like glyphosate, mass applied in this agricultural system, disrupt the shikimate pathway of the good bacteria in the gut. Even worse, GM "Terminator" seeds are actually designed to make the seeds die in their second year, which definitely doesn't help farmers feed the world. The world's hunger slowly becomes more dependent on the GMO design, limiting food security.

Countries becoming guinea pigs at the mercy of those who think they knows what's best

As genetically altered seeds are peddled to governments for approval, entire populations of people may be at the mercy of a select few commissioners and board safety connoisseurs who are easily influenced by securing positions of power and influence. While experimental seeds are approved into a country's agriculture, people inadvertently become guinea pigs for lab-developed food. At the same time, farmers are trapped into being seasonally dependent on genetically altered Terminator seeds.

Terminator seeds transform hard-working farmers into dependent slaves

Highly controversial genetically altered Terminator seeds are lab-designed to die at their first harvest, making crops unable to reproduce in their second year. This immediately makes farmers dependent on corporate seed each growing season.

This inevitably consolidates all the power and control into the hands of the corporations who lab-engineer new seeds every year. This disturbing agricultural practice is anti-life, anti-independence and anti-health. Terminator seeds are really about control. Instead of working with nature and allowing nature to take its course in breeding heritage seeds each year, farmers are forced to buy experimental seeds and their chemical companions. Some GM seeds are designed to perform tasks like creating their own insecticide. While corporations take over and control the seed market, farmers are made to be their slaves.

Independent organic farmers are being silently robbed by Terminator seed cross-contamination

Independent farmers who refuse genetically altered seeds are also at risk. Organic farmers who use heritage seeds could face the harsh reality of cross-contamination as their real seed is contaminated by varieties of Terminator seeds. Completely organic crops are at risk of being infected, so to speak, as they are cross-contaminated by Terminator varieties. This may create a line of dying "suicide" crops within an organic farmer's field. Within one growing season, an honest, independent farmer could be robbed of the fruits of his own labor, silently. Terminator seeds could literally cut his prosperity quietly each year, subjecting his freedom to the controlling hands of GMO seed plotters.

Brazil activists seek to stop Terminator seeds with your help

In the country of Brazil, Congress is proposing a bill, (PL) No. 268/2007, that would allow exemptions to the ban on genetic use restriction technologies, as Terminator seeds are formally known. This bill would basically allow Terminator seeds to freely flow into Brazil's agriculture, cross-contaminating real seeds and putting farmers at the mercy of biotech firms. Filed by Rep. Eduardo Sciarra, this bill allows for marketing and production of "suicide" seeds that are engineered to become sterile in their second generation. A commission is set to vote on the matter soon; if a quorum is reached, the bill would appear for a final vote in the Brazilian Congress.

GMO Terminator seed activists have launched a petition to be directed to the newly elected President of the Judiciary Commission. The petition states clearly that Terminator seeds threaten farmers and food sovereignty in Brazil.

The links to the petition are below:
In Portuguese (http://change.org), in English (http://change.org) or in Spanish (http://change.org).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.etcgroup.org

http://www.change.org

http://www.junkscience.co.uk

Are you inflamed over GMO foods?

Erica Burt
Sott.net

Several years ago the general public was completely unaware of GMOs and GE foods (genetically modified organisms or genetic engineering), but today the topic is becoming rather well known, thanks to growing education and alternative media coverage. The general public is becoming better informed about the potential harms and health issues associated with biotechnology and bioengineered foods, but the smoke and mirrors the mega-corporations use to obfuscate deeper understanding of the dangers inherent in such 'mad science' increases in tandem with growing awareness.

Ok, so a lot of people know they are eating GMO's and what they are, but the real question is: are GMOs actually safe, as proponents and supporters of biotechnology claim, or are they not? Should we be worried about the long-term health and environmental effects of genetically altered foods? In the following article I hope to present clear evidence and data for stating very definitively: YES! We should be very concerned!

As an organic farmer, agriculture consultant and researcher, I became interested in the GMO issue over seven years ago, particularly their effects on the soil and the contamination or mutation of various plant species. 'Connecting the dots', so to speak, it dawned on me how serious this issue is, not just in terms of the environmental effects of GMOs, but also the consequences of eating GMO foods for human health.

A very disturbing picture began to emerge.

As I realized that this 'genetic engineering' is essentially a mad science, I joined a local group called 'Seeds of Truth'. We began meeting weekly to discuss how to get the word out about the growing takeover of Hawaii's agricultural lands by several biotechnology corporations. 

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City Forces Homeowners to Destroy Veggie Garden

Comment: A heck of a lot of this going on in downtown US of A:

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The USDA’s Organic Deception

By Barbara H. Peterson

farmwars.info 

Organic is organic, or is it? It would seem that it is all a matter of perspective when one takes a stroll through the mountains of documents on the FDA and USDA websites.

The word “organic” is fast becoming a high-dollar money-maker for corporations smart enough to jump on the bandwagon and start marketing their products as “made with organic ingredients,” or “certified organic.” Even Monsanto is taking advantage of this burgeoning market, and people naïve enough to believe that what we have traditionally thought of as pure, organic food, is still that way, are being duped.

It makes perfect sense, however, in a Machiavellian sort of way. Flood the food supply with poisons, then lead people to believe that the only safe choice left is USDA Certified Organic. Then buy up the organic companies one by one, and start changing the “organic” rules from the inside out via the bought and paid for government agencies so that you can reap the profits from those trying to escape the poisons.

 (click to enlarge)

So let’s take a closer look at just what the word “organic” refers to according to these government agencies. You might be surprised at what we find. The fact that the very agencies (FDA and USDA), which are supposed to be protecting our organic food supply, are intensely active in its adulteration will become apparent.

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Timeline of FDA raids on raw milk farmers, dietary supplement makers and natural medicine practitioners

Natural News

The US Food and Drug Administration has a long history of conducting armed, SWAT-style raids on farmers, cancer treatment pioneers and dietary supplement manufacturers. This list, compiled by the editors of NaturalNews, reveals only some of the hundreds of armed FDA raids that have been conducted in the last twenty-five years.

What you see from this is a pattern of government-sponsored terrorism against innocent Americans and small business people; all done in the name of "protecting" the public from milk, walnuts, vitamins, plants or fruit extracts. The real reason behind all this, of course, is that the FDA has long waged a campaign of fear and intimidation against natural product providers for the sole purpose of destroying the natural products industry and thereby handing Big Pharma a monopoly over health treatment medicines.

If you're skeptical of that conclusion, read the timeline and see for yourself. And if you're currently a farmer who might be targeted in a future FDA raid, be sure to read this helpful resource created by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund entitled How to Survive a Farm Raid: http://www.ftcldf.org/farm-raids.html

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Organic versus Monsanto

UTNE

More than 270,000 organic farmers are taking on corporate agriculture giant Monsanto in a lawsuit filed March 30. Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the family farmers are fighting for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic - and preemptively protecting themselves from accusations of stealing genetically modified seeds that drift on to their pristine crop fields.

Consumers are powerful. For more than a decade, a cultural shift has seen shoppers renounce the faster-fatter-bigger-cheaper mindset of factory farms, exposéd in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc. From heirloom tomatoes to heritage chickens, we want our food slow, sustainable, and local - healthy for the earth, healthy for animals, and healthy for our bodies.

But with patented seeds infiltrating the environment so fully, organic itself is at risk. Monsanto's widely used Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed has already turned heirloom canola oil into an extinct species. The suing farmers are seeking to prevent similar contamination of organic corn, soybeans, and a host of other crops. What's more, they're seeking to prevent Monsanto from accusing them of unlawfully using the very seeds they're trying to avoid. [...]

Monsanto trying to take over world seed supply, nation by nation

naturalnews.com

He who controls the seed controls the food supply; and he who controls the food supply controls the world. There is no question that Monsanto is on a mission to monopolize the conventional seed market. In fact, they are steadfastly working towards the goal of creating a world where 100% of all commercial seeds are genetically modified and patented- basically a world where natural seeds are extinct.(http://www.naturalnews.com/029325_M...)

Unfortunately for the global community Monsanto is accomplishing their purpose. They currently own 90% of the world's patents for GMO seed including cotton, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...)

Yep, the creators of chemicals that will go down in history for their toxicity and horrific side effects, is attempting to take over the world's seed supply. Ask yourself- do you really want companies such as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Syngenta, and Dow involved with your food? Sadly, to a large extent they already are. These Monsanto chemical and GMO cronies all share genetically engineered traits and create the patented herbicides and pesticides that GMO crops require to thrive.

Monsanto is infamous for taking advantage of small farmers, and with the advent of MoU's they are doing so with governmental license. Countries like India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand have all executed MoU's with Monsanto. MoU's or memorandum's of understanding permit Monsanto to use publicly owned lands to create so called demonstration farms (GMO breeding camps) which in turn -at least in the case of Rajasthan - are subsidized by the government.

Monsanto literally takes farmer seeds, creates genetically engineered copycat versions, and then retains all intellectual property rights. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Executive Director of the Navdanya Trust, an Indian organization committed to organic biodiversity, states that "the MoU's will in effect, facilitate bio-piracy of Rajasthan's rich biodiversity of draught -resilient crops .... by failing to have any clauses that respect the Biodiversity Act and the Farmers' Rights Act, the MoU's promote bio-piracy and legalize the great seed robbery." (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/edit...).

It is common knowledge that GMO seeds are much worse than conventional ones. As with all of their agreements, Monsanto shields itself from any liability- so when the Monsanto's promises of higher yields with less work ring hollow, when farmers crops fail, or when mass suicides are committed because of crop failure and spirit crushing debt- Monsanto presses on with no worries. (http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/03/0...)

Farmers that sign up for Monsanto's seeds of destruction find themselves hooked. Year after year, no matter what prices are being charged, they are dependent on GMO seeds for new crops because GMO seeds - the bastardized versions they are - don't regenerate. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031742_G...)

Monsanto has no qualms about robbing farmers that don't play poker with them. As a mater of fact; it makes a business of it. Conventional and organic farmers in both Canada and the U.S., who have the misfortune of having lands that border GMO farms, often end up with trace contamination in their crops, making them (if organic), unsuitable for sale. Monsanto actually uses this situation against farmers and files patent infringement claims that they often win.

The result farm owners are left with exorbitant legal bills and fines often forcing them to shut down: clearing away Monsanto competition. In a savvy move for survival, a preemptive suit on behalf of almost 300,000 plaintiffs seeking legal safe harbor, has been filed in New York. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031922_M...)

Monsanto's product has changed from poison to food, but it has held true to its history of violating the rights and health of people around the globe. Monsanto is a 100% committed to the sale of their seeds of destruction no matter what it takes: bullying, infiltration of high government offices with company friendly individuals, or intimidation. The organic movement has taken up the standard against Monsanto's machinations in court as well as through grassroots education and activist efforts. The organic revolution is Monsanto's Achilles heel, and its goal is a world without Monsanto.

Obama Deregulates GMO Crops Despite Supreme Court Injunction

Truthout

Early this spring, while the world was distracted by Egypt's uprising, President Barack Obama pushed the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets in the United States. The USDA came through as he directed, totally deregulating these Monsanto-patented genes in early February.

In so doing, Obama and the USDA have chosen to override and ignore decisions and injunctions made by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned planting of genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets without consideration of the Environmental Impact Assessments, which showed high risks to organic and conventional (chemical) farmers.

So how does this affect you and me? Neither of us remembers seeing alfalfa or sugar beets on our breakfast table or even on our Seder table. Or do we?

Sugar beets provide over 50 percent of the sugar Americans use in their coffee, cereals, and desserts. For the moment, let's not focus on the fact that sugar beets can cross-pollinate with red beets and make our borscht genetically modified.

Alfalfa reaches our tables within milk, cream, butter, and meat, as it is used as a major animal feed in the dairy industry. It is also used to enrich soils in organic farming.

At this time, no genetically engineered crops are permitted for sale in the European Union (though WikiLeaks has revealed that the U.S. government is exerting strong pressure on the EU to allow them). Thus this new deregulation will potentially close off present markets for organic farmers' crops.

Obama's push for deregulation potentially also means the end of the organic meat and organic dairy industries as we presently know them. Essentially, he is choosing to favor the profits of big agribusiness over the survival of America's family farmers, and especially America's organic farmers.

Our democracy has to work for farmers and consumers and not just for multinational biotech corporations. It makes absolutely no sense that the economic risks to farmers are not considered before genetically engineered crops are put on the market. It is farmers who pay the costs of genetic contamination, not the biotech companies.

How else does this affect you and me? I'll defer to Canadian geneticist David Suzuki on this.

In an interview with the True Food Foundation, Suzuki said anyone who claims genetically engineered food is perfectly safe is "either unbelievably stupid, or deliberately lying," adding:

"The reality is, we don't know. The experiments simply haven't been done, and now we have become the guinea pigs.... I am most definitely not in favor of release of GMOs in the food stream and given that it's too late, I favor complete labeling of GMO products."

In "More Science Needed on Effects of Genetically Modifying Food Crops," a September 2009 article for the Vancouver news site Straight.com, Suzuki wrote:

"Some have argued that we've been eating GM foods for years with few observable negative consequences but as we've seen with things like trans fats, it often takes a while for us to recognize the health impacts. With GM foods, concerns have been raised about possible effects on stomach bacteria and resistance to antibiotics, as well as their role in allergic reactions. We also need to understand more about their impact on other plants and animals."

And in "Experimenting With Life," an article in Yes! magazine, he wrote:

"We have learned from painful experience that anyone entering an experiment should give informed consent. That means at the very least food should be labeled if it contains GMOs so we each can make that choice."

Like Dr. Suzuki, I think it's worthwhile to acknowledge that we are also guinea pigs in another big experiment. Ours is the first generation to ever eat food that has been intentionally sprayed with poison before being eaten. While it may be argued that we need greater quantities to "feed the world," the truth is that we've lost quality, we've lost fertility in humans and in the soil, and our health care budgets are indicative of the effects of this path.

Maria Rodale's book Organic Manifesto cites shocking studies that make a strong case against chemical farming, while at the same time highlighting the positive nutritional and environmental benefits of organic farming. And according to a 2009 report from the UN Environmental Program, organic farming may be the only way we can solve the growing problem of hunger in the developing countries. Yes, organic farms can feed the world, and do it sustainably.

So why is Obama favoring Monsanto? This is the company responsible for more than fifty uncontrolled or abandoned places where hazardous waste is located ("Superfund sites" according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites). We also have Monsanto to thank for Agent Orange, PCBs, DDT, and more.

Monsanto's genetically modified seeds already dominate the entire U.S. corn, soy, canola, and cotton crops. About 93 percent of soy, 86 percent of corn, 93 percent of cotton, and 93 percent of canola seed planted in the United States in 2010 were genetically engineered. Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, explained the company's regulatory philosophy thus:

"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA's job."

To assure the Food and Drug Administration and USDA do not regulate genetically engineered crops, biotech has spent more than half a billion dollars lobbying Congress since 1999.

If we follow the "historical" pattern of genetically engineered corn, soy, cotton, and canola, we will likely soon see engineered alfalfa and sugar beets, with their wind- and bee-carried pollen, completely taking over the entire seed industry for those crops. This contamination would disallow farmers' ancient practice of keeping and breeding seeds from year to year, and drive up expenses for all farmers. This is nothing new from the American government, which has historically supported policies favoring the consolidation of U.S. seed ownership in the hands of a few major corporations.

So let us remind our children that we were "slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt." For surely having one corporation control the seeds gives it unprecedented control. The state of affairs reminds me of how Pharaoh, at Joseph's urging, took control of the grain supplies of Egypt, causing Jacob's family to go down into Egypt and eventually become enslaved. Not worried yet? Chew on this: it's been said that most U.S. cities do not have three days of food supplies on their shelves.

Extremes of weather in recent years have shown us how vulnerable this situation is. Meanwhile, the National Farmers Unions in the United States and Canada have advocated support for local family farmers and the implementation of local and national programs to ensure food security and food sovereignty - programs that fail to interest corporate-controlled politicians.

The fact that the executive wing of government has chosen to override a recent major decision by the Supreme Court to stop all dissemination of genetically engineered alfalfa until the completion on an environmental assessment of its danger is certainly cause for questioning.

What's going on here? Did Obama betray us? Did Obama, a man, a charismatic politician, betray the people who voted for him, whose spirits were raised high with the slogan "Yes, we can"?

Perhaps. Yet I am reminded that to run a presidential campaign requires a great deal of money. And since the Supreme Court Citizens United decision - supported by Clarence Thomas, a former attorney for Monsanto - to allow corporations the unlimited ability to anonymously fund political campaigns, it is becoming obvious that Obama owes something to many rich people.

U.S. corporations have gained inordinate power over all our politicians by manipulating the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was adopted in 1868 to protect the rights of newly freed Blacks, yet by 1886 the Supreme Court had begun recognizing it as a protection of the rights of the "persons" called corporations - persons which do not breath, do not have consciences, and are mandated to make a profit for their shareholders.

Which group would you betray? Your funders or your fans?

When Obama cried, "Yes, we can!" he obviously was speaking for a different "we" than those who voted for him imagined.

Monsanto's seeds are genetically engineered for use with the company's chemical herbicide RoundUp. Last year we learned that weeds are growing resistant to RoundUp. Monsanto's profits and stock prices began dropping.

A failed technology is now getting another chance to dance and prop up a failing corporation. Oddly, alfalfa (Arabic for "king of herbs") does not need herbicides for more than 93 percent of its common applications. Farmers have been growing it for many centuries and know how to do so without herbicides. The push for genetically engineered alfafa is just a game move toward controlling the food supply.

After all, what will we eat when America's family farmers are all driven off their farms and into our cities? We would then be dependent on corporate factory farms, whose managers are far from the soil and lack experience in dealing with the whims of nature and weather. We would also be dependent on oil and the prices of oil to supply us with imported food. WikiLeaks has just revealed dispatches from Saudi Arabia to the United States from 2007 - 9 stating that Peak Oil is happening now: reports of oil in the ground were exaggerated by 40 percent. Thus shipping prices, and agrichemical prices are soon to rise even further.

In the 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in 9 percent of the nation's total income. Today, the top 1 percent take in 23.5 percent of total income. With median workers earning less than they did thirty years ago, who will be able to afford food, let alone nourishing food?

Even in the face of these dire circumstances, however, the consciousness of humans is rising. People are increasingly demanding to know where their food comes from. People are supporting organic production even in the face of recession. People are taking up gardening and shopping at farmers markets.

Obama taught us not to look for a charismatic messiah, while also teaching us those magic words, "yes, we can!" The coalitions that came together to elect Obama can be revived, as can the networks, and the social media to keep alive the connections.

The Center for Food Safety has already filed a legal brief to halt the actual dissemination of these genetically engineered seeds, and Canadian Organic Growers and several other organizations have joined in on the lawsuit. This struggle needs our support. We all eat; it goes beyond all differences. In addition to supporting the legal struggle for food safety, we can also make our voices heard by refusing to invest in big genetic engineering companies such as Monsanto and Bayer.

We can do it. We can craft food security and food sovereignty for the people of America and beyond.

About the author

Robbie Hanna Anderman co-founded Morninglory Farm in Eastern Ontario in 1969 and is blessed to live there with his family (including four grandsons) and extended family. An organic orchardist, gardener, and cook - as well as a musician and craftsman - he is grateful to be alive and at home on Liferaft Earth at this moment.