Issue #10 - Summer/Fall 2010 FREE

“Building a just, secure, sustainable and

democratic food system.” COVERING THE POLITICS OF FOOD WWW.FOODFORMAINESFUTURE.ORG PO BOX 51, SEDGWICK, MAINE 04676 207-244-0908

Growing Habitat, Embracing Part II INSIDE THIS ISSUE by CR Lawn Standing Our Ground ...... 2 hirty years ago Wendell Berry, in his famous essay Solving for Pattern recognized that incurable cures are charac - Is Monsanto’s Alfalfa teristic of our time. We have a health system that incu - Monoculture Good For Tbates iatrogenic illness, a health insurance system that enriches insurance companies instead of promoting the Maine Farmers? ...... 3 health and welfare of our citizens, school systems that grad - uate illiterate students, correctional systems that release Welcome To Our hardened criminals, agricultural systems that produce food 10 TH Issue Of laced with harmful chemicals and food distribution systems Saving Seeds ...... 3 that adulterate foods with empty calories that make us d l e i obese. Berry warned against solutions that spiral problems f Food Sovereignty 101 ...... 4 n e e out of control or that address one immediate problem with - r G

d out regard to their potential ramifications that create or r Via Campesina’s Seven a h c worsen other problems. Manufacturing larger tractors to i R Principles of Food

y b solve soil compaction or genetically engineering to solve

o Sovereignty ...... 5 t o world hunger are good examples. h P As Berry realized, “A bad solution solves for a single pur - Preparing potatoes for planting at FMF’s seed farm in Sedgwick FDA Says . . . . pose such as increased production, either in ignorance or in Food For Maine’s deliberate disregard of the larger patterns in which it is con - in mutual dependence, successful solutions will be biological Future Says ...... 5 tained. It therefore purchases its immediate objective only at and not industrial and will require a concern for pattern that exorbitant biological or social costs. The real problem of food addresses the complex interrelationships of fertility, soil and Responsibly Destroying production occurs within a complex mutually influential animal husbandry, sanitation, economics, a concern for the the World’s Peasantry ...... 6 relationship of soil, plants, animals and people. A real solu - health, not only of soil, plants, animals, farm, farmer, farm tion to the problem will therefore be ecologically, agricultur - family, but also of farm community, or rural communityóa 2010 Jim Cook Memorial ally and culturally healthful.” Since yield or total production pattern of patterns. is only one factor in a complex equation in the causation of Our second challenge is to reverse society’s preoccupa tion Award Goes To poverty and hunger, a single-factor solution cannot solve the with enforcement at the expense of education. In reaction to Carly Delsignore ...... 7 problem. the obstreperous ‘60s, we adopted a collective attitude of Our first challenge is to search for a ramifying series of “lock ‘em up and throw away the key.” We threw our rejects The From See GROWING HABITAT on page 16 solutions. Since the farm is a complex system of living beings Our Waters ...... 8

10,000 Peasants SUPREME COURT RULING IN MONSANTO GMO March Against ALFALFA CASE A VICTORY FOR FARMERS Monsanto in Haiti ...... 10 Stop Land Grabbing ...... 10

High Court Delivers Ruling that Leaves Ban on Planting of Roundup Ready La Via Campesina Alfalfa in Place in First-Ever Case on a Genetically-Engineered Crop Participates in Post -Cochabamba Center for Food Safety Delegation to U.N...... 11 The Center for Food Safety celebrat - more away according to the agency, can be grown or sold until such time as ed the United States Supreme Court’s and even then, a deregulation move a new deregulation decision is in place, Ask CR ...... 12 decision in Monsanto v. Geertson may be subject to further litiga - and we also know that any party Farms [on June 21], the first genetically tion if the agency’s analysis aggrieved by a hypothetical Biodynamic Preparations ...... 13 modified crop case ever brought before is not adequate,” said future deregulation deci - the Supreme Court. Although the High Andrew Kimbrell, sion will have ample Preserving Our Harvest ...... 14 Court decision reverses parts of the Executive Director of opportunity to chal - lower courts’ rulings, the judgment the Center for Food lenge it, and to seek THEN AS NOW . . . holds that a vacatur bars the planting of Safety. “In sum, it’s appropriate prelimi - Why Farmers Are Poor ...... 15 Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Alfalfa a significant victory nary relief, if and until and unless future deregulation in our ongoing fight when such a decision occurs. It is a victory for the Center for to protect farmer is made.” (Opinion at Welcome to the 10 TH issue of Food Safety and the Farmers and Con - and consumer p. 22). sumers it represents. choice, the environ - The Court also held “The Justices’ decision today means ment and the organic that: Any further attempt that the selling and planting of industry.” to commercialize RRA even Roundup Ready Alfalfa is illegal. The In the majority opinion written by ban on the crop will remain in place Justice Samuel Alito, the Court held: See GMO ALFALFA CASE on page 3 until a full and adequate EIS is pre - “In sum…the vacatur of APHIS’s pared by USDA and they officially deregulation decision means that virtu - deregulate the crop. This is a year or ally no RRA (Roundup Ready Alfalfa) INSIDE THIS ISSUE: • Is Monsanto's Alfalfa Monoculture Good for Maine Farmers? page 3 PO Box 51 • The Local Food from Our Waters, page 8 Sedgwick, ME 04676 • Do It Yourself – Ask CR: Growing Grain, page 12; Biodynamic Preparations, page 13 • New Column! Eat & Drink with Merry, page 14 h Issue: Summer/Fall 2 Page 2 Tent 010 www.foodformainesfuture.org Editorial ABOUT Standing Our Ground

When the Wisconsin Department of and pigs. rations whose primary obligation is to , Trade, and Consumer Pro - Julie Murphy, age 7, had her lemonade turn a profit, not feed people healthy, tection executed a search warrant for stand shut down in Multonomah County, nourishing food. Vernon Hershberger’s dairy farm in Oregon, for lacking the proper license. Secondly, a review of history in this Food for Maine’s Future is pleased Loganville, Wisconsin, he was served (County officials later apologized to her country reveals that social movements to present our tenth issue of Saving notice to stop selling all raw dairy prod - mother.) (and let us not forget we are a social Seeds . Named after the age old prac - ucts produced on his farm. The DATCP According to the authorities in each movement) are typically ignored until tice threatened by a rapidly consoli - entered the farmstore where Mr. Hersh - of these cases there were either food safe - they begin to be effective. Ghandi said it dating seed industry and U.S. and berger sells milk, butter, cream, yogurt, ty or licensing issues that warranted the best; “First they ignore you, then they international laws that restrict and ice cream to about 100 families actions taken. In the case of raw milk ridicule you, then they fight you, then farmer’s rights, to the benefit of through a member-only buying club and dairies, states like Wisconsin do not you win.” For a while I thought we were powerful multinational corpora - taped the coolers shut. After the agents allow the sale of raw milk, therefore they early in the fighting stage, with the 70’s tions, this bi-annual newspaper left, Mr. Hershberger proceeded to do claim any sales are illegal, including pri - back-to-the-land/organic farm in g gener - provides readers with the latest what he believed was the fair and right vate contracts like those between Mr. ation being first ignored then ridiculed. news and views from the growing thing to do – he ignored the DATCP, Hershberger and his membership. (The But I’m now convinced that we are in international movement for food removed the tape, and opened for busi - WI legislature recently passed a bill fact winning and this has the powers that sovereignty. Please share it with a ness. Soon after, the DATCP showed up allowing the sale of raw milk on a trial be very concerned. And rightfully so. friend. to his farm and again told Mr. Hersh - basis but it was vetoed by the governor. For much the last sixty years people berger he was not permitted to sell raw As for the federal government, they have in the U.S. have had the luxury of cheap Ninth Issue: Summer/Fall 2010 milk to anyone, including those with a stated goal of eliminating raw milk food. Until recently those questioning Circulation: 5,000 print run whom he had a private contract. Again altogether by 2020.) the value and true cost of that cheap food Mr. Hersberger refused to shut down his State and federal regulators are claim - were relatively few and their voice effec - SAVING SEEDS farm and buying club. According to the ing that member-only buying clubs, cow tively marginalized. But over time that A Publication of blog The Complete Patient , “DATCP shares, or other private contractual voice has grown louder and louder. Peo - Food for Maine’s Future agents have since been back to his farm arrangements between parties, whether ple are willfully paying more for better www.foodformainesfuture.org twice more with search warrants, the last for raw dairy, bulk, or local foods, must quality food, and as a result standards Food for Maine’s Future time taking Hershberger’s computer, follow the same licensing and inspection are being raised. Parents are advocating PO Box 51 checkbook, and other records, [though] requirements as retail food stores. for better food in schools, threatening the Sedgwick, ME 04676 there has been no sign of any criminal or I don’t buy it, and here’s why. USDA school lunch program’s policy of other charges being filed against the As I’m writing this an email comes buying up corporate agribusinesses’ sur - farmer.” through with the headline “ E.coli con - plus and cast-offs (including a lot of When officers of the Los Angeles cerns prompts 1 million-lb. ground beef ground beef) and passing it off to our County District Attorney raided Rawe - recall. ” It contains a story by the on-line kids. Poor people are demanding better some Foods warehouse in Venice, Cali - trade publication Meatingplace about food, as are people of color, particularly fornia, with guns drawn , the Los Angeles how Valley Meat Co., a meatpacking in inner cities. Small farmers and their Times reported the “investigators plant in Modesto, California, issued this patrons are effectively telling the govern - entered an organic grocery with a search recall after the California Department of ment “we can do a better job” and “we warrant and ordered the hemp-clad Public Health identified a cluster of E.coli don’t need you”. Publisher workers to put down their buckets of 0157:H7 -related illnesses that sickened At Food for Maine’s Future’s 5th Food for Maine’s Future mashed coconut cream and to step away six people, and later a seventh. While the Annual Local and Sustainable Food Con - from the nuts.” The officers seized raw story does not say the illnesses were con - ference Mark Silber, cultural anthro - Editor milk, cheese, and other unadulterated clusively linked to Valley Meat, the com - pologist at USM, spoke about his experi - Bob St.Peter foods. Rawesome Foods, another private pany was clearly concerned enough to ences in the former Soviet Union. His buying club, has also chosen to ignore issue the recall. The story (and this is most salient comments were about the their orders to shut down and are contin - important) makes no mention of armed failure of the State to ensure the popu - Layout/Design/Production uing to provide their members with officers, plant shut-downs, or arrests. lous a steady supply of cheap food, and Lynn Pussic nutrient-dense food of their choosing. A year or so ago I read in an article that being the impetus for the collapse of That, unbelievably, is not all. Back in about Nestlé’s recall of Toll House Cook - the government. Cheap food, then, Food for Maine’s Future Graphic 2008, in what seems to be the kick-off to ie Dough after at least 69 people from 30 becomes a form social control. Is it a coin - Eric G the recent wave of escalation of tactics states reportedly suffered from E. coli cidence that following the unrest of the directed towards raw dairies and private food poisoning. Nine of those cases 1960’s the U.S. food and agricultural pol - Saving Seeds Logo Design food clubs, Manna Storehouse in resulted in a severe form of food poison - icy under Secretary of Agriculture Earl Beehive Collective LaGrange, Ohio, was raided and the ing associated with kidney failure. One Butz was “get big or get out”? More than operators, John and Jacqueline Stowers, woman from Las Vegas fell into a coma anything else, that policy drove down Board of Directors: along with their children, were detained for two weeks. She eventually came out the prices of commodities and made Rachel Katz for six hours. This all took place in their of it, but only after part of her colon was food cheap. It would be simplistic to say home where the family operated the removed, she endured multiple seizures, that alone has rendered social move - CR Lawn buying club as a way to “help the com - and had her kidneys and liver stop ments in this country since then ineffec - Merry Hall munity to have good, healthy, organic working. Again, no cops, no arrests, and tive, but it has certainly played a role. In Betsy Garrold food” that is affordable. Computers and Nestlé is still in business selling this part because the cheap food policy has food were seized, including a year’s product. driven millions of farmers from the land, Jim Amaral worth of the Stowers’ personal food that Stories like this are a dime a dozen. depriving them of them of their econom - Ryan Parker included beef, chicken, and lamb they Stories of people becoming severely or ic power and squashing their political had raised themselves. Jacqueline Stow - fatally ill after eating farm fresh food are voice. But also because of the point Mark ers described the event as “violent” and not. Why the unequal treatment? made – history has shown that people The articles in this publication do not “belligerent” and noted that the officers To understand the lengths to which are more likely to rise up against tyranny necessarily reflect the views or posi - didn’t identify themselves when they state and federal authorities have gone to and injustice when they’re hungry. tions of Food for Maine’s Future. burst into her home. The whole affair in raw dairy and buying club cases we Well, people are hungry and we’re was very traumatic for the Stowers. They must look at the context within which rising up. We’re hungry for justice. We’re and their children have had trouble the raids, harassment, and intimidation hungry for vibrant rural communities sleeping and have since sought counsel - are taking place. First off, we’re winning. and real food. We’re hungry for food pro - Food for ing. By “we” I mean all the people who are duction and distribution methods that The list goes on. actively working to build a more just, don’t degrade soil and pollute air and Maine’s Future A food club in Minnesota that offered equitable, and ecological way of feeding water. We’re hungry for accountability locally produced foods was raided by agents ourselves and our communities. By within Corporate America. We’re hungry Mission Statement and shut down. “winning” I mean that the jig is up – Big for a USDA and FDA that doesn’t push Agents searched a home and took comput - Food and their government enablers are around small farmers who produce safe, ers because a family allowed a raw dairy on the ropes. Films like Food, Inc., Fresh, delicious food with no need to pay Food for Maine’s Future seeks to farmer to park in their driveway while dis - and The World According to Monsanto through the nose to the agrochemical build a just, secure, sustainable and tributing raw milk to residents who had are pulling the curtain back on corporate cartels. We’re hungry for healthy bodies, ordered it. agribusiness and the policies that prop healthy minds, and healthy children. democratic food system to the bene - Agents raided Sharon Palmer’s farm in them up at the expense of our health, our And we’re going to stand our ground fit of all Maine farmers, communi - Santa Paula, CA, three times in 18 months environment, and our rights. Between against the lies, the intimidation, the U over issues with her labeling of goat cheese. the slew of films and a global communi - threats, and creeping Food Police State. ties, and the environment. Her twelve-year old daughter’s computer cation network Big Food is being Won’t you stand with us? U was seized as was milk used to feed chickens exposed for what they truly are – corpo - —R.A.S. www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 3

GE ALFALFA continued from 1 flagship Roundup, and the USDA’s plan to commercialize it, was Is Monsanto’s Alfalfa Monoculture at the heart of this dispute since 2006, in part may require an EIS subject to when CFS filed a lawsuit against the Good For Maine Farmers? legal challenge. USDA on behalf of a coalition of non- The Court further recognized that profits and farmers who wanted to the threat of transgenic contamination retain the choice to grow non-GE alfal - Monsanto claims that Round-Up Ready alfalfa would benefit is harmful and onerous to organic and fa. Central to the issue is unwanted farmers by allowing them to produce a weed-free stand of alfalfa, conventional farmers and that the transgenetic drift: GE alfalfa can spread thereby increasing yield and profit to the farmer. Due to the genetic injury allows them to challenge future uncontrollably by way of bees that can engineering that makes alfalfa resistant to Monsanto’s flagship herbi - biotech crop commercializations in cross-pollinate plants many miles cide, Round-Up, the crop would survive applications of Round-Up court. away, contaminating both convention - while eliminating competitive plants. But will alfalfa monocultures USDA indicated at the Supreme al and organic alfalfa with foreign improve farmers’ yields and income, or merely increase Monsanto’s Court argument that full deregulation DNA, patented by Monsanto. Round-Up sales and profits? The University of Maine Cooperative is about a year away and that they will “We brought this case to court Extension advises farmers growing alfalfa in Maine to avoid planting not pursue a partial deregulation in the because I and other conventional farm - alfalfa alone, citing benefits from planting the legume with grasses. interim. Any new attempt at deregula - ers will no doubt suffer irreversible This would not be possible in a Round-Up Ready alfalfa system. tion in full or part will be subject to economic harm if the planting of GE legal challenge. alfalfa is allowed,” said plaintiff Phil “Alfalfa-grass mixtures for hay or silage are the most com - “The bottom line is that the Geerston. “It was simply a question of mon use of alfalfa in Maine and throughout New England. Supreme Court set aside the injunction our survival, and though we did not There are several reasons for this. win on all points of the law, we are because the vacating of the commer - 1) The yield of alfalfa and grass together is usually greater grateful that the practical result of cialization decision already gave us all than either planted alone. the relief we needed, by forbidding today’s ruling is that Monsanto cannot 2) As the alfalfa stands thins out or dies, the grass can fill in The Justices’ decision today means that the selling the stand. This may mean fertilizing the grass with nitro - “ gen, but at least there is still a forage crop available for and planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa is illegal. ” harvest. 3) The alfalfa-grass mixture can be grazed with less poten - tial for bloat to occur. RRA planting until a new decision is take away our rights and Roundup made by the agency. And at such time, Ready alfalfa cannot threaten our liveli - In Maine the two grasses best adapted for use with alfalfa in farmers and consumers still have the hoods.” a mixture are timothy and orchardgrass. Timothy should be right to challenge the adequacy of that Alfalfa is the fourth most widely seeded at 6 to 8 lb/acre, while the more aggressive orchard - process.” said George Kimbrell, senior grown crop in the U.S., and a key grass should be seeded at less than 4 lb/acre.” Growing Forage staff attorney for CFS. “The Court’s source of dairy forage. Organic and Legumes in Maine, University of Maine Cooperative Extension decision affirmed that the threat of conventional farmers faced the Bulletin #2261 genetic contamination of natural loss of their businesses due to plants posed by biotech widespread contamination crops is an issue of signifi - from Monsanto’s patent - cant environmental concern ed GE alfalfa, and the now and in the future.” foreseeable contamina - In this case, CFS faced off tion of feral or wild Welcome To Our against powerful opposing alfalfa would ensure an entities, including the Depart - ongoing and permanent TH ment of Agriculture and source of transgenic pollu - 10 Issue the agricultural biotech tion in wild places akin to giant, Monsanto Cor - that of . Of Saving Seeds poration. The Center Roundup Ready alfalfa would also increase Roundup and the other respon - Thanks for picking up Food for Maine’s Future’s special Food use and thereby exacerbate the dents were supported by a Sovereignty issue of Saving Seeds . Food sovereignty is a subject of serious, ongoing epidemic broad array of diverse inter - increasing interest and importance and in this issue you’ll find Food of gly phosate-resistant ests, marshalling no less than Sovereignty 101 , Food Sovereignty Principles , and reports and articles superweeds. As recently seven amicus briefs in support. covering this global movement. Not just a rallying cry for the peas - discussed in the New The amici included three states’ ants of the Global South, the food sovereignty principles apply here York Times and Wall Street Jour - attorneys general, leading scientific in Maine, too, and anywhere else people care about human rights, nal, superweeds lead to increased use U experts, legal scholars, former rural life, and good food. Thanks again, and dig in! government officials, farmers, ex- of toxic , more soil-eroding porters, environmental groups, food tillage and higher production costs for companies and organic industry trade farmers. If allowed to spread, they groups. The Organic Trade association could reduce food production and lead and companies like Stonyfield Farms, to higher food prices. USDA has failed Cliff Bar and Eden Foods voiced united to take superweeds seriously or pro - concern over the threat a ruling for pose any means to address them. Monsanto would pose to the organic Further background information on Community food businesses, the fastest growing the history of this case and scientific sector in the American food industry. studies are available at http:// Attorneys general from California, truefoodnow.org/publications/ Radio Oregon and Massachusetts filed a brief supreme-court-briefs/. The Supreme A Voice of Many Voices... on behalf of their citizens emphasizing Court decision can be viewed here: “the States’ interests in protecting the http://www.supremecourt.gov/opini environment, their natural resources ons/09pdf/09-475.pdf and their citizens’ rights to be informed The Center for Food Safety is a national, about the environmental impacts of non-profit, membership organization, Diverse Music federal actions.” A full list of the more founded in 1997, that works to protect than sixty organizations, companies human health and the environment by Alternative News & Public Affairs and individuals who filed briefs in sup - curbing the use of harmful food production port of CFS and opposed to Monsanto technologies and by promoting organic and can be viewed at http://truefood other forms of . On 89.9 FM Democracy Now! now.org/publications/supreme-court- the web at: http://www.centerforfood U Downeast & Midcoast Maine airs 5:00-6:00 PM briefs/. safety.org Monday - Friday Monsanto was supported by a bloc 102.9 FM Bangor, Maine of powerful corporate interests and Free Speech Radio News industry groups, including the Ameri - Saving Seeds Welcomes & live on the Web at can Farm Bureau, the Biotechnology airs 4:30-5:00 PM Industry Organization, the American Your Letters to the Editor www.weru.org! Monday - Friday Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber E-mail them to of Commerce, and CropLife America. [email protected] The environmental, health, cultural, or mail to: PO Box 51, and economic impacts of the genetical - Sedgwick, ME 04676 offi ce: 207-469-6600 - email: [email protected] ly-engineered alfalfa seed, which is WERU - PO Box 170 - East Orland, Maine 04431 designed to be immune to Monsanto’s Page 4 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org Food Sovereignty 101 NEWS & NOTES 1,000 BIRD EXEMPTION What is Food Sovereignty? free” trade agreements of agricultural import dumping they are confronted SIGNED INTO LAW, OUT - Food sovereignty is the right of peo - products actually allow those compa - with. Access to international markets LAWS OUTDOOR PROCESS - ples to healthy and culturally appropri - nies to control the globalized food mar - affects only 10% of the world produc - ING IN MAINE ate food produced through ecologically ket. WTO is a completely inadequate tion, which is being controlled by On June 10, Governor John sound and sustainable methods, and institution to deal with food and agri - transnational companies and the Baldacci signed a law allowing their right to define their own food and culture-related issues. Therefore Via biggest agro-industrial companies. The Maine farmers to raise, slaughter, agriculture systems. It puts those who Campesina wants WTO out of agricul - example of tropical products (coffee, and sell 1,000 or fewer poultry produce, distribute and consume food ture. bananas,....) illustrates this clearly. without continual inspection by at the heart of food systems and poli - state or federal officials. Under cies rather than the demands of mar - this exemption poultry may sold kets and corporations. It defends the from the farm, through a interests and inclusion of the next gen - Community Supported Agriculture eration. It offers a strategy to resist and program, or at farmers markets dismantle the current corporate trade provided the product has proper and food regime, and directions for labeling and safe handling instruc - food, farming, pastoral and fisheries tions. The farm must also have a systems determined by local produc - ers. Food sovereignty prioritizes local state licensed and approved facili - and national economies and markets What is dumping? Wealthier countries have nearly free ty, which effectively bans time- and empowers peasant and family access of these foods while family tested outdoor processing of poul - Dumping is a term used when farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal farmers in the South are still not able to try for sale in Maine. Food for imported food costs less than food pro - fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and duced locally or domestically. Most improve their situation. Maine’s Future opposed the pas - food production, distribution and con - Agricultural policies have to sup - sage of the new law on the often the foods being dumped are com - sumption based on environmental, modities like corn, soy, wheat, and rice port sustainable family farming and grounds that the Maine social and economic . that are subsidized by wealthy nations. fishing in the North and the South. In Department of Agriculture failed to Food sovereignty promotes transpar - They are produced in surplus of what order to be able to make their food sov - make a compelling argument that ent trade that guarantees just income to is needed in those countries and ereignty work, countries in the North poultry produced on a small-scale all peoples and the rights of consumers through trade liberalization these and in the South have to be able to sup - and processed outdoors was to control their food and nutrition. It below-cost commodities are sold into port their agriculture and fishing to unsafe or a threat to public ensures that the rights to use and man - the international market where they guarantee the right to food of their pop - health. The Department of age our lands, territories, waters, seeds, end up replacing locally or regionally ulations, to preserve their environment, Agriculture cited the risk of poten - livestock and biodiversity are in the produced food. Take for instance Euro - to develop sustainable agriculture and tially losing $200,000 the state hands of those of us who produce food. pean milk imported in India, American to protect themselves against dumping. receives annually in USDA funding Food sovereignty implies new social pork in the Caribbean, European Union They should also be able to support for its meat inspection program relations free of oppression and meat and cereals in Africa, animal food their agriculture and fishing to fulfill were Maine to allow outdoor pro - inequality between men and women, in Europe, etc. Those products are other public interests that can differ cessing. peoples, racial groups, social classes exported at low prices thanks to dump - according to countries and their cultur - and generations. ing practices. This process has dis - al traditions. But at present the United MICHIGAN PASSES LAWS placed millions of people throughout States and the European Union in par - Where does the concept of ticular abuse public support to reduce ALLOWING HOME-MADE Food Sovereignty come from? the world and is the primary cause of FOOD FOR SALE migration from rural to urban areas. To their internal market prices and to dump their surpluses on the interna - Do you get raving reviews from The concept of food sovereignty achieve food sovereignty, dumping tional markets, destroying family farm teachers and other parents about was developped by Via Campesina and must be stopped! brought to the public debate during the based agriculture and fishing in the that homemade cake you provided North and the South. for the school bake sale? Are fam - World Food Summit in 1996 and repre - ily and friends who have tasted sents an alternative to neoliberal poli - What can be done concretely? your raspberry jam always asking cies. Since then, that concept has become a major issue of the interna - Get in touch with Via Campesina when you are going to make some tional agricultural debate, even member organizations in order to sup - more? You might want to consider within the United Nations bodies. port local and national initiatives and selling your homemade goods for Via Campesina has played a actions such as land occupation, sus - profit. major role in the development of tainable farm production initiatives, [In July], Gov. Jennifer international networks gather - defense of local seeds, actions against Granholm sign[ed] into law two ing social, environmental move - GMOs and dumping, etc... It is also cottage food operation bills that ments, development NGOs, con - important to bring this debate into will allow individuals to make or sumers...From Seattle to Genoa your organizations and into your gov - package certain foods in their and Porto Alegre, those networks ernments and parliaments. On the kitchens instead of having to use develop proposals and strategies international level, you can take part in a commercial food operation as which are essential to putting an end to the Day of Peasant Struggles on April they do now. neo-liberal policies and to develop soli - Does Food Sovereignty include 17 and the International Day of Action Against Transnational Corporations on Baked goods, jam and jellies, darity policies. fair trade? candy, vinegar, dried fruit, herbs October 16. and mixes made in your kitchen How are neo-liberal policies Food sovereignty is not contrary to Food for Maine’s Future is a member of could all be sold publicly provided wrecking food sovereignty? trade but to the priority given to the National Family Farm Coalition which in turn is a member of Via Campesina they are properly labeled to reflect Neo-liberal policies prioritize inter - exports. Under the responsibility of U that they are homemade and iden - national trade, and not food for the United Nations (UN) trade must be North America Region. tify all ingredients under guide - people. They haven’t contributed at all granted a new framework, which: lines provided by the state. to hunger eradication in the world. On • prioritizes local and regional pro - The new measures will allow the contrary, they have increased the duction before export; people to sell their goods publicly peoples’ dependence on agricultural • allows the Countries/Unions to at farmers markets, roadside imports, and have strengthened the protect themselves from too low stands, county fairs, flea markets industrialization of agriculture, thus priced imports; and festivals without a state jeopardizing the genetic, cultural and • permits public aid to farmers, provided these are not intended Department of Agriculture license. environmental heritage of our planet, directly or indirectly to export at An individual residence could as well as our health. They have forced low prices; make up to $15,000 gross annu - hundreds of millions of farmers to give • guarantees stable agricultural ally from such sales, which could up their traditional agricultural prac - tices, creating and a rural exodus and prices at an international level help some families with good bak - forcing migration in search of food and through international agree - ers and cooks make ends meet or work. International institutions such as ments of supply management. spur the creation of entrepre - IMF (International Monetary Fund), What about access to neurs. the World Bank, and WTO (World “The legislation will promote Trade Organization) have implement - international markets as the production and sale of ed policies dictated by the interests of a solution for farmers? Michigan-made food products and large transnational companies and The first problem for farmers is a superpowers. International (WTO), continued on page 5 lack of access to their own local market regional (North American Free Trade because the prices they receive are too Agreement – NAFTA), or bilateral “ low for their products due to the www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 5 Via Campesina’s THE FDA pNromEotWe MSich ig&an a gNricuOlturTe,E” S Seven Principles of SAYS... [Gov. Granholm] said. “It will be a boost to small- and medium-size The Federal Food and Drug farms, farmers markets and entre - Administration (FDA) is responsible preneurs throughout the state.” for ensuring the safety of the foods Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press, we eat. But over the past ten years, July 12, 2010 the number of incidents of food- Food Sovereignty borne illnesses has more than dou - GENETICALLY MODIFIED bled. In response, the FDA has taken a one-size-fits all approach to food CANOLA FOUND TO BE Food: A Basic Human Right. Everyone must EVOLVING IN THE WILD have access to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food regulation and has focused on Scientists currently performing in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain a healthy life with improving safety by encouraging and field research in North Dakota full human dignity. Each nation should declare that access to food is a sterilizing the mass production of our 1 foods. Their system isn’t working. have discovered the first evidence constitutional right and guarantee the development of the primary The Center for Disease Control esti - of established of sector to ensure the concrete realization of this fundamental right. mates 76 million Americans get sick, genetically modified plants in the more than 300,000 are hospitalized wild. Meredith Schafer from the Agrarian Reform. A genuine agrarian reform is and 5,000 people die from foodborne University of Arkansas and col - necessary which gives landless and farming people – espe - illnesses each year! leagues from North Dakota State cially women – ownership and control of the land they work In a recent case over the federal University, California State 2and re turns territories to indigenous peoples. The right to land must raw milk regulations, the FDA made University, Fresno and the U.S. be free of discrimination the basis of gender, religion, race, social class these arguments: Environmental Protection Agency or ideology; the land belongs to those who work it. “There is no absolute right to con - established transects of land sume or feed children any particular along 3,355 miles of interstate, Protecting Natural Resources. Food Sover - food.” state and county roads in North eignty entails the sustainable care and use of natural “There is no ‘deeply rooted’ his - Dakota from which they collected, resources, especially land, water, and seeds and livestock torical tradition of unfettered access photographed and tested 406 to foods of all kinds.” canola plants. The results, which breeds. The people who work the land must have the right to practice “[The] assertion of a fundamental 3 were recorded in early July and of natural resources and to conserve biodi - right to their own bodily and physi - are set to be presented at ESA’s versity free of restrictive intellectual property rights. This can only be cal health, which includes what foods Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa., done from a sound economic basis with security of tenure, healthy they do and do not choose to con - soils and reduced use of agro-chemicals. sume for themselves and their fami - provide strong evidence that trans - lies’ is unavailing because [con - genic plants have established pop - Reorganizing Food Trade. Food is first and sumers] do not have a fundamental ulations outside of agricultural foremost a source of nutrition and only secondarily an item of right to obtain any food they wish.” fields in the United States. Of the 406 plants collected, trade. National agricultural policies must prioritize produc - (Farmer to Consumer Legal Defense 347 (86 percent) tested positive tion for domestic consumption and food self-sufficiency. Food Fund v. USDA Health and Human Serv - 4 ices, April 2010) for CP4 EPSPS protein (confers imports must not displace local production nor depress prices. tolerance to glyphosate herbicide) or PAT protein (confers tolerance Ending the Globalization of Hung er. FOOD FOR to glufosinate herbicide). “There Food Sovereignty is undermined by multilateral institutions were also two instances of multi - and by speculative capital. The growing control of multina - MAINE’S ple transgenes in single individu - 5tional corporations over agricultural policies has been facilitated by als,” said Cynthia Sagers of the the economic policies of multilateral organizations such as the WTO, University of Arkansas, and one of World Bank and the IMF. Regulation and taxation of speculative cap - FUTURE SAYS... the study’s co-authors. “Varieties ital and a strictly enforced Code of Conduct for TNCs is therefore with multiple transgenic traits needed. We have right to choose REAL have not yet been released com - FOOD. Real foods nourish citizens mercially, so this finding suggests Social Peace. Everyone has the right to be free from and the community, support the that feral populations are repro - violence. Food must not be used as a weapon. Increasing lev - farmers who grow it, and sustain the ducing and have become estab - els of poverty and marginalization in the countryside, along environment. lished outside of cultivation. with the growing oppression of ethnic minorities and indigenous Individuals have an inherent free - These observations have impor - 6 dom to grow, buy and consume foods tant implications for the ecology populations, aggravate situations of injustice and hopelessness. The ongoing displacement, forced urbanization, repression and increas - that promote self-reliance, the preser - and management of native and vation of local food traditions and ing incidence of racism of smallholder farmers cannot be tolerated. weedy species, as well as for the family farming. management of biotech products Federal regulation of our local Smallholder farmers must in the U.S.” Sustainable Food Democratic control. food supply is UNNECESSARY. News, August 6, 2010 have direct input into formulating agricultural policies at all Small-scale farms insure a level of levels. The United Nations and related organizations will quality and safety without special - SUPERWEED PROBLEM 7have to undergo a process of democratization to enable this to ized facilities. YIELDS CALL FOR NEW become a reality. Everyone has the right to honest, accurate informa - Direct farm to patron sales insure ACCOUNTABILITY and INTEGRI - TAX, RULES tion and open and democratic decision-making. These rights form the Critics of agricultural biotech - basis of good governance, accountability and equal participation in TY. Farmers who depend on word of mouth must rely on their reputation nology used the increasing prob - economic, political and social life, free from all forms of discrimina - lem with herbicide-resistant weeds tion. Rural women, in particular, must be granted direct and active when they sell in the communities U where they live. This helps ensures to call for tighter regulation of decision-making on food and rural issues. the quality and safety of their prod - biotech crops. ucts. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who Saving Seeds Ad Policy We don’t need the federal govern - chaired a House hearing limited. Ads will be run on a first-come, ment to “fix” farming by enforcing Wednesday on the spread of first-served basis. We reserve the right to We will accept paid ads from all non- more stringent regulations. Small- Roundup-resistant weeds, said the refuse any ad. profit organizations, educational institu - scale, traditional farming methods Agriculture Department has been Note: Discounts are available for tions and locally-owned commercial have existed and worked for hun - multiple ads or multiple runs. Contact us too quick to approve new varieties businesses who support sustainable agri - for more information. dreds of years. The system is not bro - of herbicide-tolerant crops and culture. Submissions may be made in Ad Sizes Available ken! other biotech products. PDF, TIF or scanable hard copy, gray Government inspection DOES “Now, more than ever, farmers scale only. Digital images, including A) Size: 2 3/8" x 2 3/8" – ($20.00 per issue/program) NOT EQUAL food safety. New need to have a Department of those embedded in PDFs, should be at USDA and FDA regulations focused B) Size 3 3/16" x 2" – standard business Agriculture that takes care to pre - 180 dpi. Payment must be received before on increasing traceability fail to card ($35.00 per issue/program) serve and protect the farming the ad can go to print unless prior address the real problem: factory C) Size: 2 3/8" x 4 7/8" ($50.00 per environment for generations to arrangements are made. Ads submitted farming and the corporate control of issue/program) come,” Kucinich said. without payment or prior arrangement our food supply. are held until the next issue or until pay - D) Size: 4 7/8" x 2 3/8" ($50.00 per issue) LOCAL FOOD ment is sent. Food for Maine’s Future E) Size: 4 7/8" x 4 7/8" ($100.00 per LOCAL GOVERNANCE U continued on page 6 U publications are not “ad rags”, so space is issue) Page 6 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org Responsibly Destroying the World’s Peasantry continued NEOWneS w &ee dN scOieTnEtisSt, David Mortensen at Penn State by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food University, said the government should restrict the use of herbid - BRUSSELS – The World Bank, the supply has been lagging because of a cide-resistant crops and impose a United Nations Food and Agricultural The promotion of lack of investment in agriculture. tax on biotech seeds to fund Organization (FAO), the International “large-scale land Hence, if investment can be attracted to research and education programs. Fund for Agricultural Development agriculture, it should be welcomed, The resistant weeds can’t be (IFAD), and the UN Conference on investment is based on and whichever rules are imposed killed by the sole use of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) the belief that should encourage it, not deter it. glyphosate, the active ingredient Secretariat recently presented seven But both the diagnosis and the rem - in Roundup herbicide, which has “Principles for Responsible Agricultur - combating hunger edy are incorrect. Hunger and malnu - al Investment.” The principles seek to trition are not primarily the result of become broadly popular with farm - ensure that large-scale land invest - requires boosting insufficient food production; they are ers with the advent more than a ments result in “win-win” situations, the result of poverty and inequality, decade ago of soybeans, cotton, food production. benefiting investors and directly affect - ” particularly in rural areas, where 75% corn and other crops that are ed communities alike. But, though of the world’s poor still reside. immune to the chemical. well-intended, the principles are woe - In the past, agricultural develop - The weed problem is most fully inadequate. neglect the essential dimension of ment has prioritized large-scale, capi - prevalent in cotton and soybean It has been several years since pri - accountability. talized forms of agriculture, neglecting fields in the South, but is spread - vate investors and states began buying There is also a clear tension between smallholders who feed local communi - ing to other regions and will get and leasing millions of hectares of ceding land to investors for the creation ties. And governments have failed to worse if farmers don’t take meas - farmland worldwide in order to secure ures to control for them, including their domestic supply of food, raw spraying additional herbicides, sci - commodities, and , or to get entists told a subcommittee of the subsidies for carbon storage through House Oversight and plantations. Western investors, includ - Investigations Committee. Philip ing Wall Street banks and hedge funds, Brasher, DesMoinesRegister.com, now view direct investments in land as July 28, 2010 a safe haven in an otherwise turbulent financial climate. LAWMAKERS PROPOSE The scope of the phenomenon is LABELING IN RESPONSE TO enormous. Since 2006, between 15 and SUPREME COURT’S MON - 20 million hectares of farmland, the SANTO DECISION equivalent of the total arable surface of Ever since the Supreme Court France, have been the subject of negoti - ations by foreign investors. handed down its mixed 7-1 deci -

The risks are considerable. All too o t

sion, ruling that the lower court o h

often, notions such as “reserve agricul - p

overstepped its boundary by issu - a n i

tural land,” or “idle land,” are manipu - s e

ing an injunction on the planting of p

lated out of existence, sometimes being m a

genetically modified alfalfa, some C used to designate land on which many a i V

lawmakers were spurred to action.

livelihoods depend, and that is subject a Reuters, for example, reported L to long-standing customary rights. The Women and children bear the brunt of land grabbing and displacement . that more than 50 U.S. lawmakers requirement that evictions take place called on the U.S. Agriculture only for a valid “public purpose,” with Department to keep Monsanto’s fair compensation, and following con - of large plantations, and the objective protect agricultural workers from biotech alfalfa out of farm fields. sultation of those affected, is honored of redistributing land and ensuring exploitation in an increasingly compet - U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a more in the breach than in the obser - more equitable access to it. Govern - itive environment. It should come as no Democrat from Vermont, and Rep. vance. ments have repeatedly committed wonder that smallholders and agricul - Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from In Africa, rural land is generally themselves to these goals, most recent - tural laborers represent a combined Oregon, were joined by 49 other considered to be state-owned, and is ly at the 2006 International Conference 70% of those who are unable to feed representatives and five other treated by governments as if it were on Agrarian Reform and Rural Devel - themselves today. senators in asking Tom Vilsack, their own. In Latin America, the gap opment. Accelerating the shift towards large- the Agricultural Secretary, to between large landowners and small scale, highly mechanized forms of agri - ensure that Monsanto’s genetical - peasants is widening. In South Asia, Smallholders and culture will not solve the problem. ly engineered alfalfa is not many populations are currently being “ Indeed, it will make it worse. The approved for commercial use. driven off their ancestral land to make agricultural laborers largest and best-equipped farms are Additionally, Representative room for large palm-oil plantations, represent a combined highly competitive, in the sense that Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced special economic zones, or re-foresta - they can produce for markets at a lower tion projects. cost. But they also create a number of three bills in the House related to 70% of those who The set of principles that have been social costs that are not accounted for in the labeling of food containing proposed to discipline the phenome - are unable to feed the market price of their output. genetically engineered material, non remain purely voluntary. But what themselves today. Smallholders, by contrast, produce the cultivation and handling of is required is to insist that governments ” at a higher cost. They are often very genetically engineered crops, and comply fully with their human rights productive by hectare, since they maxi - the establishment of a set of obligations, including the right to food, The underlying problem runs deep - mize the use of the soil, and achieve the farmer rights regarding genetically the right of all peoples to freely dispose er than how the principles have been best complementary use of plants and engineered animals, plants, and of their natural wealth and resources, formulated. The promotion of large- animals. But the form of agriculture seeds. In his press release, and the right not to be deprived of scale land investment is based on the that they practice, which relies less on Kucinich stated that: the means of subsistence. Because the belief that combating hunger requires external inputs and mechanization, is To ensure we can maximize principles ignore human rights, they boosting food production, and that highly labor-intensive. benefits and minimize hazards, If smallholders compete in the same Congress must provide a compre - markets as the large farms, they lose. hensive regulatory framework for Yet they render invaluable services, in all Genetically Engineered prod - terms of preservation of agro- and bio - ucts. Structured as a common- diversity, local communities’ resilience sense precaution to ensure GE to price shocks or weather-related foods do no harm, these bills will events, and environmental conserva - ensure that consumers are pro - tion. tected, food safety measures are The arrival of large-scale investment o

t in agriculture will alter the relationship

strengthened, farmers’ rights are o h p

between these worlds of farming. It

better protected and biotech com - e r u

t will exacerbate highly unequal compe - u

panies are responsible for their F

s

’ tition. And it could cause massive

products. e n i

a social disruptions in the world’s rural

The bills introduced by Kucinich M

r areas. o F

are: (1) H.R. 5577, The d

o Certainly, agricultural investment o F should develop responsibly. But, while continued on page 7 Raising land prices in Maine, particularly in coastal areas, is putting farmland out of reach many have seen the scares provoked by for resource-strapped farmers. spiking food prices in recent years as an www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 7 2010 Jim Cook Memorial Award GNenEeticWally SEn g&inee reNd FOoodT REighSt Goes To Carly DelSignore to Know Act, as well as support - ing legislation that will provide a comprehensive regulatory frame - Food for Maine’s Future wishes to con - work for all Genetically Engineered gratulate Carly DelSignore and Tide Mill (GE) plants, animals, bacteria, and Farm for winning the 2010 Jim Cook Me - other organisms; (2) the morial Award. Your effort and dedication Genetically Engineered Safety Act, are inspiring and your food is really good. HR 5578, which prohibits the Keep up the great work! open-air cultivation of GE pharma - ceutical and industrial crops and Carly DelSignore, establishes a tracking system to regulate and ensure the safety of Standard Bearer GE pharmaceutical and industrial crops; and (3) the Genetically By Merry Hall Engineered Technology Farmer Protection Act, HR 5579 which Maine’s agricultural roots are deep would protect farmers and ranch - and nourishing. At Tide Mill Organic Farm , Downeast in Dennysville, they ers that may be harmed economi - go back many generations. When cally by genetically engineered Carly DelSignore married Aaron Bell, seeds, plants, or animals, to she joined a family that has run this ensure fairness for farmers and farm for eight generations. She is part ranchers in their dealings with of raising the ninth generation to carry biotech companies that sell GE on the legacy, begun in 1765, when a products. member of the Passamaquoddy tribe This is the fifth attempt by guided Robert Bell, an immigrant from Kucinich to push through GMO Scotland, to the site where he built a labeling and regulation bills, tide-powered grist mill. She loves attempts that date back to 1999. being part of something bigger than Deniza Gertsberg, GMO Journal, herself, earning her living and raising July 14, 2010 her family in the heart of a tradition, sadly lost to many, that holds the FEDERAL COURT VICTORY: promise of a healthier family, commu - ALMOND FARMERS CAN nity, and culture for the future. CHALLENGE USDA PAS - Carly tells us, “For the future of agri - TEURIZATION RULE culture, it is important for the wisdom, fer - A federal appeals court ruled tile soil, farm infrastructure, and respect [August 3], overturning a lower for the land to be passed on, generation to court decision, that a group of generation. The world cannot continue its California almond farmers have current agricultural, economic, or resource the right to challenge a USDA reg - guzzling model, because it’s going to col -

m ulation requiring the treatment of lapse.” o c . their raw almonds with a toxic m At Tide Mill , Carly and Aaron r a f c

i fumigant or steam heat prior to bypass the chemical “green revolu - n a g

r sale to consumers. For the past tion” of the second half of the 20th Cen - o l l i tury, to raise good, old fashioned food. m three years, the U.S. Department e d i t Carly explains: . of Agriculture has denied w w

“As organic farmers, we recognize the w American consumers the right to connection between the health of the earth Carly DelSignore and family, Aaron Bell, Paige, Hailey, and Henry. buy raw almonds, grown in the and the health of our selves. For the last 60 USA, when they shop in grocery years, agriculture has taken a very danger - and stores. ous path. We believe we have only begun to give up their babies for us, cows their moth - Farm . She is active and adamant in A group of almond growers see the tragic results of these practices and er’s milk. There is nothing more beautiful resisting the government imposed sued the government to challenge the unhealthy “American” diet. Cheap food than an animal carrying out its natural over-pasteurization of all milk in the USDA’s rule, but the federal dis - becomes very expensive when we consider function. When we honor their sacrifice, name of false “.” She feels trict court ruled that courtroom the effects of cancers, birth defects, immune even as we harvest them, we gain, not only part of retrieving something valuable doors were closed to the growers’ system failures, antibiotic resistance, early in nourishment but also in our dignity as to the community that was almost lost claims. The controversial rule has adolescent puberty, and many other health human beings. I was horrified by the atroc - to big agribusiness and is again threat - cost individual farmers millions of issues; as well as the polluted soil, air, and ities carried out in factory farming. If I raise ened by the fear and profit driven pres - dollars in lost sales since it was water and the disappearance of local farm - an animal with care, allow it to run around, sures on our legislators. enacted in September 2007. ers and producers.” not stressing it out, providing it fresh food Carly also casts a very strong vote “We are delighted by the Carly and Aaron’s commitment to that is natural for it to eat, then the food with her pocketbook, buying mindful - court’s decision,” said Will Fantle, traditional practices is clear in the way that they give us in return will be richer, ly to support the local economy. Again, Cornucopia’s Research Director. they treat their livestock. Carly is pas - more whole.” she bypasses the late 20th Century Cornucopia has been coordinating sionate on the topic: Carly is working toward the day with its big-box stores in favor of old the legal strategy for the farmers’ “These animals are performing a great when a creamery and bottler returns to fashioned, locally owned stores. She service for us, providing food and livelihood Washington County, facilitating a local explains: lawsuit. “At long last the farmers in return for our human care. We must market for raw or lightly pasteurized “It is more expensive to buy from local who have been injured by this rule allow them the full range of their species milk. She knows that they are doing office supply and hardware stores than will have the opportunity to stand specific activities, food, and habitat in their part to hasten that day by bring - from the corporate chains. We have major in court and state why this poorly return for their sacrifices for us. Chickens ing dairying back to Tide Mill Organic work to do with our financials, because we thought out regulation should be have been so values driven. It matters to us, thrown out,” Fantle added. RESPONSIBLY DESTROYING THE however, that the chains are cheaper The USDA and the Almond WORLD’S PEASANTRY continued ful economic actors, we risk widening because some people and some resources are Board of California imposed the further the gap with small-scale, fami - being exploited somewhere. We refuse to treatment scheme to minimize the opportunity for investment, opportu - ly farming, while pushing a model of support that, even though it pinches per - risk of salmonella contamination nities should not be mistaken for solu - industrial farming that is already sonally.” outbreaks like those that had tions. responsible for one-third of man-made Carly DelSignore and the Bell Fami - occurred with almonds in 2001 To re-launch agriculture in the greenhouse-gas emissions today. ly are standard bearers for true econo - and 2004. USDA investigators developing world would require an It is regrettable that, instead of ris - my, food security, and family values. were never able to determine how estimated $30 billion per year, repre - ing to the challenge of developing agri - Merry Hall is the author of BRINGING salmonella bacteria somehow con - senting 0.05% of global GDP. But how culture in a way that is more socially FOOD HOME: THE MAINE EXAM - taminated the raw almonds that much is invested in agriculture matters and environmentally sustainable, we PLE, from which this interview is excerpt - caused the food illnesses but they less than the type of agriculture that act as if accelerating the destruction of ed. Her book introduces readers to over 100 we support. By supporting further the global peasantry could be accom - people involved in Maine’s local food com - U continued on page 8 consolidation of large-scale monocul - plished responsibly. munity, revealing how true homeland and U tures in the hands of the most power - food security are developing in Maine. Page 8 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org

NEWS & NOTES continued The Local Food From Our Waters were able to trace back one of the outbreaks, in part, to the coun - by Maura Melley try’s largest “factory farm,” grow - When one drives by many homes ing almonds and pistachios on along the coast these days, neat stacks over 9000 acres. of four feet long lobster traps are piled Family-scale growers have high, with someone sitting and bend - argued that the onerous and ing over one, preparing it for the com - expensive mandated treatment ing season. This postcard picture masks regime is only needed by the giant the hard work that begins in each lob - industrial producers, who have ster season. Each vinyl-coated wire less control over the quality of mesh trap must be inspected, mended, their nuts, and has hurt their mar - and tagged every year to make sure it is ket because it consumer resist - functional and legal. The line from the ance. Cornucopia News, The trap to the buoy must be repaired, and Cornucopia Institute, August 3, each buoy scrapped and painted with 2010 the boat’s unique color code. Eight

hundred traps are allowed per license o t o

off most of the state’s waters. So the h p

JUNK FOOD-ADDICTED c i

work on the traps is repeated 800 times s RATS CHOSE TO STARVE s u P

before the traps are dropped in the THEMSELVES RATHER n n y THAN EAT HEALTHY FOOD water. L Commercial groundfishing (had - A diet including unlimited dock, pollock, sole, cod, hake, etc.) Portland, then shipped by menting with different netting amounts of junk food can cause boats, do not leave the harbor without wholesalers. Lobsters and fish sizes and fishing techniques rats to become so addicted to the knowing first which fish are running can change hands 4 to 6 times that would preserve juvenile unhealthy diet that they will starve where, how much can they bring in before reaching the consumer, fish and other species caught themselves rather than go back to and keep in compliance with legal lim - with each level taking a cut in up in nets. eating healthy food, researchers its, how long can they stay out, and the action. • Large factory boats compete have discovered. what the short and long term marine • Lobster boats were paid, dur - against Maine’s family com - In a series of studies conduct - forecast indicates. They have to get the ing the 2009 season, $2.50-3.00 mercial boats with their huge ed over the course of three years right amount of bait and ice to keep the per pound compared to $4.50 dragging capabilities and and published in the journal fish healthy all through the many two years ago. Costs of fuel, greater economic leverage. Nature Neuroscience, Scripps hands it passes until a retailer sells it to bait and overhead absorb up • Maine has 100 aquaculture Florida scientists Paul Johnson a consumer. to 60% of their catch, up farms, raising salmon, oysters and Paul Kenny have shown that These occupations are quintessen - sharply from 12% in the late and mussels using, what they rats’ response to unlimited junk tial Maine. The nutrient rich seafood nineties. consider, leading edge sus - food closely parallels well-known caught along the coast has kept genera - tainability practices. patterns of drug addiction — even tions of Mainer’s healthy, fed, Commercial fishers Traditional fishers do not down to the changes in brain employed, and feeling like they were “in Port Clyde made broadly support fish farms, chemistry. living the good life. For those of us who and most fish farms are run by “What we have are these core are not fishers, it may be seductive to history in 2007 when ex-commercial fishers. features of addiction, and these stay with the post card myth. If we just • The federal government and they created the state government have over - animals are hitting each one of open our eyes a bit, we can see that this lapping regulation of fishing. these features,” Kenny said. precious tradition needs our support state’s first This year new limits are in In their first study, the and advocacy. If we don’t help our fam - Community Supported ily fishing community, they will be place to manage the amount of researchers fed rats on either a pushed out by the big operations that Fishery. different fish species caught balanced diet or on the same diet have the fleets and resources to trawl ” across sectors dividing up the plus unlimited access to junk the oceans. We have seen it with family waters. This has been a contro - foods purchased at a local super - and small farms, restaurants, and hard - • Catches, especially for lob - versial and complicated market, including processed ware stores. Lobstering and fishing is sters, are increasing, but prices process with the small and meats and cakes. Within a short next and very close. have plummeted with less - local fleets demanding equity time period, the rats on the junk First, some information on ground - ened demand. In 2009, 76 mil - in the development of these food diet began to eat compulsive - fishing and lobstering: lion pounds of lobsters were limits. Though geared to keep ly and quickly became overweight. • 83% of seafood consumed in caught, a $224 million value, the waters alive with fish, the David Gutierez, Natural News, the US is imported. We import down $22 million from 2008, rules need to also protect the August 5, 2010 twice as much as we export. and down $100 million in fishing heritage of Maine from • Fish and lobsters are a $1 bil - money paid for close to the the giants in the national and THE ULTIMATE FOOD lion industry in Maine, with same amount of lobsters in international fishing world. BETRAYAL: HOW BIG 28,000 jobs connected to it. 2005. While these facts paint a challenging BIOTECH RIGGED THE • Maine has 5300 miles of coast - • When a commercial boat goes picture, the truth is many good things RESEARCH ON GM FOODS line and only 20 miles is used out to fish, it has no certainty are starting to happen. Commercial In 2004, the peer-reviewed as commercial working water - how much the catch will be fishers in Port Clyde made history in British Food Journal published a fronts. worth until it is bought by a 2007 when they created the state’s first study claiming that when shop - • Today there is no fishing fleet dealer. Community Supported Fishery, based pers in a Canadian farm store catching groundfish from east • Commercial fishers are paying on the successful Community Support - the price for over fishing in the ed Agriculture Model, and formed an were given an informed, unbiased of Port Clyde to Canada. past. Twenty years ago most alliance with their lobster fishing coun - choice between genetically modi - Downeast fishers are 90% fish were found out 15 miles. terparts. All the groundfishing boats fied (GM) corn and non-GM corn, dependent on lobsters. • Most fish and shrimp caught Today boats must go out 100 out of Port Clyde formed and joined a most purchased the GM variety. west of Port Clyde is miles to get the same catch. cooperative that has strict gear and The research, which was funded processed and auctioned in Community fleets are experi - quality standards, and conservation by the biotech industry and con - based marketing strategy. ducted by four staunch propo - Many are using the Cushman nents of GM foods, other findings net, named after the local lobster - around the world that show how man who designed it. It signifi - people avoid genetically modified cantly reduces the number of organisms (GMOs) when given a undersized and immature fish choice. caught in nets, allowing the stock The controversial article was to stay healthy while catching nonetheless given the Journal’s only larger fish. The net has prestigious Award for Excellence recently been tested in New - for the Most Outstanding Paper of foundland and is gaining wider 2004. It is often cited by biotech interest as it also helps the boats advocates as proof that people meet the new weight based fish - o t o

are embracing GM foods. h ing limits. Without these nets, p

c i millions of small fish die, as they s s u

P are caught and unable to be sold. continued on page 9 n n

y Working together to pool L www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 9

the coast are trying to get the attention of Maine residents to NEWS & NOTES continued buy Maine caught fish. Many Fortunately Stuart Laidlaw, a restaurants and grocery stores reporter from Canada’s Toronto sell local fish, and residents could Star, had visited the farm store help out our coastal neighbors by several times during the study and buying only local fish. Joining a described the scenario in his book CSF or buying fish at their booths Secret Ingredients. Far from offer - in the farmers markets helps out ing unbiased choices, huge signs more and often costs less. placed over the non-GM corn bin On the international arena, the read, “Would you eat wormy sweet World Wildlife Fund and corn?” It further listed the chemi - Unilever Corp have started a cals that were sprayed during the Marine Certification season. (MSC) process. They have By contrast, the sign above the designed a minimum sustainabil - GM corn stated, “Here’s What ity standard that fishing boats Went into Producing Quality Sweet must follow in order to market Corn.” No wonder 60 percent of under their label. The bad news is shoppers avoided the “wormy that this certification doesn’t take corn.” In fact, it’s a testament to into account what happens after the fish is caught. Much of the people’s distrust of genetically fish caught by big operations modified organisms (GMOs) that through sustainable practices are 40 percent still went for the then air lifted to China for fillet - “wormy” option. ing and then flown back to the US In addition to the signs, the to be then trucked to local stores. “consumer education fact sheets” Much Alaskan Salmon follows in the store were nothing more this global route. McDonalds Fish than pro-GM propaganda. And the Sandwiches contain MSC fish lead researcher, Doug Powell, was flown in from New Zealand even seen trying to convince a waters. Unless the fish is labeled customer who purchased non-GM as local, you can bet the fish you corn to switch to the GM variety. eat has been on planes and trucks Jeffrey Smith, Mercola.com, for thousands of miles. August 10, 2010 resources and catches, Port Clyde boats ago most fishers were diversified and For the local lobster industry, the sell high quality “Port Clyde Fresh caught fish, lobsters, shrimp etc economics are hitting hard: low prices, LONG WAIT COULD END Catch” fish at farmers markets in depending on the time of year and high catch numbers, lessened demand, SOON FOR BLACK FARM - Maine and New York City, to restau - resource available. Specialized boats and increased fuel and bait costs. Many ERS IN DISCRIMINATION rants here and in Boston, and on line to helped move them away from that families are being crushed by the turn CASE any interested customer. They only fish diversity, making them more vulnera - of the market and the weight of their Willie Adams has been waiting debt. Some of the lessened demand is what they can sell and are leaders in the ble when markets shrink. They have a for more than 10 years. But his from the decline in the cruise vacation effort to strengthen the ecological and Community Supported Fishery like wait could be almost over. industry. Cruise ships were big buyers Adams is one of more than Many families are being crushed by the turn of of lobsters. “ The other factor is the perception 70,000 black farmers who still the market and the weight of their debt. that lobsters are a luxury meal, or just haven’t received their share of ” too much work to cook. We know the money from the 1999 United prices the boats get are nowhere near States Department of Agriculture financial sustainability of Maine’s Port Clyde, and a very vibrant local discrimination-lawsuit settlement, groundfishing industry. community supporting the efforts. luxury level. We also know that people in which a federal judge ruled that Downeast in Stonington, the Penob - At Cobscook Bay Company, they today eat differently than before-many the USDA was guilty of decades of scot East Resource Center (PERC), is are working on a project to make frozen meals are quickly made and eaten due loan and subsidy practices that doing great creative and advocacy lobster and seafood pies, which could to work and family schedules. Finding work to ensure the long-term sustain - then be marketed, across the country. simpler ways to prepare lobster, like favored white farmers over blacks. ability of small scale fishing operations. This could be a great start to making the Cobscook effort, will help. The $1.15 billion in funding – They have their own CFA and are help - Maine lobster and fish accessible and Eating local fish should be the same the second part of what’s known as eating locally grown food. It’s food as the Pigford settlement – was ing a half dozen boats this summer to affordable to a wider public. U restart groundfishing in the area. Years These and other cooperatives along sovereignty from our waters. approved by the House this year, but has been repeatedly stripped from larger spending bills in the Senate. The measure could be brought up this week as part of a stand-alone unanimous consent bill. Under the unanimous consent rule, a bill is considered passed if no senator objects. John Boyd, the president of the Black Farmers Association, said the action represents “long-over - due justice for nearly 80,000 black farmers who, spiritually and mentally, have really given up on the federal government ever treat - ing them right.” In previous votes against bills that included the Pigford settle - ment funding, Republican sena - tors expressed concerns about the settlement money adding to the deficit. Alissa Irei, Politics Daily, August 5, 2010

FAMILY FARM DEFENDERS WINS SECOND ANNUAL FOOD SOVEREIGNTY PRIZE The Community Food Security Coalition has selected Family

continued on page 10 Page 10 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org

NEWS & NOTES continued Farm Defenders to receive the FRONT-LINES: Dispatches from the Second Annual Food Sovereignty Prize. According to the press release, Family Farm Defenders International Movement for Food Sovereignty was chosen to receive the prize because their organization has excelled in promoting food sover - 10,000 Peasants March Against Monsanto in Haiti eignty by raising public aware - ness, on-the-ground action, and Hinche, Haiti (June 9 2010)– An esti - developing and implementing pro - mated 10,000 peasants gathered for a grams and policies; recognizing massive march in Central Haiti on June the importance of collective action 4, 2010, to protest what has been in bringing about social change; described as “the next earthquake for recognizing global linkages in food Haiti” – a donation of 475 tons of sovereignty work; and demonstrat - hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds ing clear recognition of the impor - by the US-based agribusiness giant tance of women in agriculture and Monsanto, in partnership with USAID. food issues. While this move comes at a time of dire The Food Sovereignty Prize will need in Haiti, many feel it will under - be awarded to Family Farm mine rather than bolster the country’s a n Defenders at the 14th Annual food security. i s e CFSC conference “Food, Culture & According to Chavannes Jean-Bap - p m a C Justice: The Gumbo That Unites tiste, leader of the Peasant Movement a i V

Us All” in New Orleans, Louisiana of Papaye (MPP) and spokesperson for a L

, d to be held October 16 – 19, the National Peasant Movement of the l e i f

Congress of Papaye (MPNKP), the n

2010. The award ceremony will e K

entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti is “a a l

take place at the Plenary on l e b

very strong attack on small agriculture, a

Monday, October 18 from 9:30 – s on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole I 10:30 am. For more info, visit: 10,000 peasants march to protest Monsanto’s “gift” of hybrid corn and tomato seed http://www.foodsecurity.org/Food seeds... and on what is left our environ - SovPrize.htm. ment in Haiti.” While Monsanto is known for being the next. The hybrid crops that Mon - ers and that Haiti’s farmers among the world’s largest purveyors of santo is introducing do not produce simply cannot afford. This creates a LA VIA CAMPESINA ISSUES seeds that can be saved for the next devastating level of dependency and is CALL TO STOP RETURN OF genetically modified seeds, the corpo - ration’s spokespeople have empha - season, therefore peasants who use a complete departure from the reality ‘TERMINATOR’ sized that this particular donation is of them would be forced to somehow of Haiti’s peasants. Haitian peasants Four years after the moratori - conventional hybrid seeds as opposed buy more seeds each season,” explains already have locally adapted seeds um on Terminator technology was to GMO seeds. Yet for many of Haiti’s Bazelais Jean-Baptiste, an agronomist that have been developed over genera - reaffirmed by the United Nations peasants, this distinction is of little from the MPP who is currently direct - tions. What we need is support for Convention on Biological Diversity comfort. ing the “Seeds for Haiti” project in peasants to access the traditional seeds U (CBD), proposals to develop and “The foundation for Haiti’s food New York City. that are already available.” commercialize ‘genetic-use restric - sovereignty is the ability of peasants to “Furthermore, these seeds require tion technologies’ (GURTs) are save seeds from one growing season to expensive inputs of synthetic fertiliz - back on the agenda for policymak - ers and the biotechnology indus - benefit from land’s productive value. try. Terminator is a threat to food Stop Land Grabbing This vision does not take into account sovereignty and agrobiodiversity: the desire of people to produce food ending the moratorium on by Bob St.Peter for themselves, their families, and their Terminator will increase control of Note: The following statement was issued tural models and more development communities, but rather forces people seed by transnational corporations into production of commodities for (TNCs) and restrictions on farm - on the first day of the World Bank’s 2010 projects that primarily benefit wealthy Land Policy Conference held last April in nations and investors at the expense of export. It does not take into account ers’ rights to save and plant har - traditions and cultures that have vested seed. Additionally, pollen Washington DC. the poor and marginalized. The recent Humanity presently faces great wave of land grabbing offers us one developed from our relationship to the from genetically-modified (GM) challenges and today we too often vision for the future. It is a vision where land, nor does it offer a fair and equi - crops with Terminator will contami - speak in terms of crises: Food Crisis; land is a commodity to be bought and table solution to hunger and poverty. nate non-GM and organic crops, Financial Crisis; Climate Crisis. sold, rather than a sacred gift for us to There is another vision, another and native plant species. Transnational corporations, govern - share and steward. It is a vision where way forward, away from the failure to GURTs (herein referred to as ments, private investors, and interna - the people who depend on access to respect the right of all people to a ‘Terminator’) are genetic engineer - tional financial institutions such as the land for their livelihood, and often sur - healthy, dignified, and peaceful life. ing technologies that seek to con - World Bank would have us believe the vival, are simply not as important as We call this vision food sovereignty. trol plant fertility. First-generation answer is expansion of failed agricul - the nations or investors who seek to Food sovereignty is the right of people Terminator (also called ‘suicide to maintain and develop their own seed’) was developed jointly by capacity for producing their basic the US Department of Agriculture foods, respecting cultural and produc - and Delta and Pine Land Company tive diversity. It is the right of people to in the 1990s to protect the intel - produce food in our own territories, and to determine our agricultural and lectual property of US agricultural food policy. The vision of food sover - biotechnology TNCs. GM crops eignty offers solutions to hunger and produce sterile seeds to prevent poverty because it places the decisions farmers from replanting harvested about who will eat in the hands of seed with patented DNA. Due to many small producers rather than international public outcry from extractive agribusiness corporations farmers and civil society world - whose primary goal is profit. wide, Terminator has never been We, the peasants and small farmers commercialized anywhere, and of the world, do not need agribusiness Brazil and India have national and international investment schemes moratoriums prohibiting it. In to eat. We can feed ourselves, our fam - 2000, the CBD recommended a ilies, and our communities. And we de facto moratorium on field-test - can do so more healthfully and more

ing and commercial sale of n sustainably, without rural displace - r i a b

r ment and the degradation of indige -

Terminator seeds. In 2006, pres - i a F nous cultures. But to do so we need fair sure from La Via Campesina and e n i e l and equitable access to productive

its allies helped to strengthen this e d a land and waterfront, not low-paying

moratorium in Curitiba, Brazil. M Representatives of the National Family Farm Coalition, GRAIN, and Food for Maine’s jobs on corporate farms and interna - continued on page 11 Future protest the World Bank’s support of farmland grabbing outside a high-level brief - tional food aid. ing in Washington. During the Irish potato famine mil - lions of people starved or migrated in www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 11 La Via Campesina Participates in continued TNhEatW yeSar ,& US N-baOsTedE TSNC Monsanto Company, the largest Post -Cochabamba Delegation to U.N. seed company in the world, acquired Delta and Pine Land, New York, May 10, 2010 – On May 6 along with the intellectual property and 7, La Via Campesina participated rights to Terminator. Since then in a delegation of civil society groups industry, the US and European convened by the government of Bolivia governments and ultra-rich philan - to accompany President Evo Morales thro-capitalists have ramped up to present the People’s Accord of rhetoric on the need for Cochabamba to the United Nations Terminator and other biotechnolo - Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the gies to adapt to the climate, ener - G77 and China. The event was an his - gy and food crises. Various false toric opportunity for members of civil solutions are being proposed to society to gain political space in the UN sell the lie that techno-fixes allow dialogue on climate change ahead of rich countries to continue consum - the next round of official negotiations ing resources and emitting carbon under the UN Framework Convention dioxide, unabated: GM crops for on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Can - cun, Mexico in December. cellulosic and second-generation “As a delegate for La Via Cam- agrofuels; geoengineering ‘climate pesina, I can say to my colleagues in ready’ GM crops and trees with Brazil in the social movements that, increased albedo (reflectivity) and thanks to the intuition and action of resistance to drought, heat and Evo Morales, a new path was opened salt; monoculture plantation

+ forests of GM trees to industrially to raise the demands of the social k k movements to the UN through the Small farmers and peasants of La Via Campesina gathered from around the world to par - produce biochar for carbon General Secretary, and possibly in Can - ticipate in the People's Climate Summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia last April. sequestration; and GM algae and marine microbes for carbon diox - The Cochabamba an alternative to the Copenhagen up, which is in a class of highly-toxic ide sequestration. Monsanto is “People’s Accord is Accord, which, some say as a result of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. proposing that monoculture plan - political pressure by the U.S., has now In his briefing to the G77 and China, tations of its Roundup Ready soy - the product of the been signed by 120 of 192 UN coun - President Morales said: “There are two beans qualify for carbon credits collaborative efforts of tries. According to Pablo Solón, ways forward: Either save capitalism, under so-called “no-till” agricul - Bolivia’s Ambassador to the United or save Mother Earth. If Cancun is the ture. All of these false solutions over 35,000 participants Nations, the Accord seeks to under - same as Copenhagen, then unfortu - create new markets for agricultur - at the World People’s mine the , has no differ - nately the UN will lose its authority al biotechnology and ‘extreme ential treatment between rich and poor among the people in the world.” Conference on Climate ’. countries, and calls for reduced assis - Bolivia is leading calls for a new www.viacampesina.org. Change and the Rights tance to help poor countries combat the round of the Kyoto Protocol that in- of Mother Earth, held effects of climate change, with no spec - cludes legal mandates for emissions FOOD FOR MAINE’S ification as to the source of the funding. reduction at the source, as opposed to FUTURE RECEIVES GRANT from April 20th to 22nd Additionally, the Copenhagen Accord carbon credit trading and finance. The would make commitments to reduce Cochabamba People’s Accord calls for FROM HAYMARKET PEO - in Bolivia. greenhouse gas emissions voluntary $300 billion a year for financing emis - PLE’S FUND IN SUPPORT ” and no longer consensual. sions reductions and adaptation to OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY cun at the next official international cli - Another major point of contention is climate change, emissions reductions Food for Maine’s Future has mate talks,” said Father Tomás Bal - that the Copenhagen Accord received a $3,000 grant from the duíno of the Pastoral Land Commis - does not address how emis - Haymarket People’s Fund in sup - sion in Brazil, one of two Via sions from industrial agricul - port of its food sovereignty move - Campesina representatives in the ture, which causes about one- ment building efforts. Haymarket eleven-person delegation. third of global emissions, will People’s Fund is an anti-racist and The Cochabamba People’s Accord is be reduced. According to multi-cultural foundation that is the product of the collaborative efforts Ambassador Solón, “Agricul - committed to strengthening the n e t of over 35,000 participants at the World ture is not being discussed in r movement for social justice in a G

People’s Conference on Climate the UNFCCC negotiations as k New England. They give money to r a

Change and the Rights of Mother it should be, while at the Peo - M

/ grassroots groups of local people o t

Earth, held from April 20th to 22nd in ple’s Conference it was dis - o

h who believe that change is possi - P

Bolivia. La Via Campesina sent 300 cussed a lot, as a large part of N ble. Haymarket believes “that U international delegates and 3000 Boli - greenhouse gas emissions is Mrs. Yoon Guem Soon from Vía Campesina in the communities that come together vian delegates to the Conference, from agriculture. Agricultural background. with a vision of justice can get the which was called for by President development should not be job done, provided they have the Morales after the UNFCCC talks in based on the development of business of 50% by rich countries by 2020, as resources.” A portion of the grant Copenhagen last December. and profits, but rather on sustainable, well as an international climate justice will be used to help organize a The Cochabamba People’s Accord is peasant agriculture that is in harmony tribunal. 2011 youth leadership camp with nature. Food sovereignty needs to At a press conference Friday after - STOP LANDGRABBING sponsored by Food for Maine’s continued be put on the table.” noon, Morales was questioned about In fact, present and future UNFCCC the decision by the Obama administra - Future in collaboration with the legislation for agriculture will likely tion to deny climate aid to countries National Family Farm Coalition and search of food, even while corn and facilitate the expansion of industrial that refused to sign the Copenhagen La Via Campesina North America oats were exported to Britain. This agriculture, thereby increasing the ver - Accord. Just last month, the U.S. State Region. For more information injustice continues today throughout tical integration and market consolida - Department canceled $3 million in cli - about Haymarket People’s Fund the world. By making it easier for for - tion of agribusiness, especially the U.S. mate aid to Bolivia and $2.5 million to visit www.haymarket.org. eign governments, agribusiness corpo - biotechnology and chemical corpora - Ecuador. The funds were to come from rations, and private investors to buy tions Monsanto, DuPont, and Arborgen. the Millennium Challenge Corpora - SUPER SALMON OR farmland and export food for profit For example, the UNFCCC Secre - tion, a public-private corporation creat - FRANKENFISH? and their domestic needs, the World tariat is presently considering whether ed by the Bush administration. Morales WASHINGTON — After 14 Bank is creating the conditions for star - plantation monocultures of genetically- referred to the decision by the U.S. as vation, displacement, and severe inter - years of work, unceasing attacks modified (GM) eucalyptus and pine ‘blackmail.’ nal conflicts. from critics, and a $50 million trees will count as ‘forests’ for carbon According to Yoon Guem Soon, a So I ask the world leaders gathered investment without a penny of sequestration and emissions offsets South Korean farmer and member of here, what should the people in Sudan profit, a small New England under the program for Reducing Emis - International Coordinating Committee or Ethiopia do as they watch their fam - biotech company stands on the sions from Deforestation and Degrada - of La Via Campesina, “The Bolivian ilies starve while cargo ships full of doorstep of history – seemingly tion (REDD). Monsanto is lobbying to government and President Evo Morales food leave their harbors and airplanes poised to join agriculture’s “green have plantation monocultures of GM showed the social movements what is take off full of food? What would you revolution” as a game-changer in Roundup Ready soybeans be eligible the next step after Cochabamba. do? feeding the world. Globalize the struggle! for carbon credits through so-called Through Cochabamba and at this meet - Globalize hope! “no-till agriculture,” which will ing in New York, I am pretty sure we can continued on page 12 increase the use of the herbicide gly - have a victory in Cancun. In the mean - Food sovereignty now! U U phosate, sold by Monsanto as Round - time, Via Campesina has a lot to do.” Page 12 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org

NEWS & NOTES continued Ask Or not. With global pressing against food supplies and vast areas of the ocean already swept Do It clean of fish, tiny AquaBounty CR . . . Technologies of Waltham, Mass., has developed a variety of salmon Dear CR, that reaches market weight in half I’d like to grow wheat on a backyard scale. Can you give me the time of other salmon. basics of what I need to know for preparing the soil, plant - What’s more, AquaBounty not ing, harvesting, and selecting seed for next year? only promises to slash the ready- for-market time – and production So you want to grow wheat in your backyard? Congratu - costs — on a hugely popular, lations, you have already moved past the two most preva - nutritious fish that currently com - lent myths about this most important staple: first, that it is mands near-record prices, it plans too difficult to grow on a small scale and requires a lot of to avoid the pollution, disease and land and second that it is too difficult to thresh. Neither is other problems associated with true. Now you can be on your way to true food self suffi - today’s salt-water fish farms by ciency and no longer dependent on agribiz to provide our having its salmon raised inland. culture’s most essential food crop. But there’s a catch: First it is important to understand that wheat is a cereal AquaBounty’s salmon is genetical - grain, and like others of that genre, demands high fertility to ly engineered. Indeed, it aspires do well. If you are familiar with growing crops, think sweet to be the nation’s first genetically- corn. Wheat has many of the same fertility needs, requiring modified food animal of any kind. plenty of nitrogen for a high degree of tillering, and ample That means the Food and Drug potassium to grow strong stalks that won’t lodge (keel over) Administration must approve it. It in high winds or other extreme weather. (Don’t use raw or also means the company and its hot manure; too much nitrogen can cause nutrient imbal - salmon must withstand vociferous ances and lodging). opposition from environmental There are two basic kinds of wheat, spring wheat and winter wheat. Except in very cold climates such as in Zone 3 and other advocacy groups, win or possibly Zone 4A, my partner Eli Rogosa and I greatly over skeptical producers and — prefer winter over spring wheat because the plants are more possibly most difficult of all – vigorous with stronger root systems, compete much better overcome potential consumer with weeds and yield much more. If you must plant spring resistance to genetic tinkering My partner Eli Rogosa and I wheat, sow it in April as soon as the ground can be worked “ with food. and it will be ready for harvest in August. But the remaining greatly prefer winter over spring It is this combination of seem - recommendations here assume that you will be growing ingly great promise and large winter wheat. wheat because the plants are more obstacles that makes the compa - Optimal time for sowing winter wheat is the first two vigorous with stronger root systems, ny’s long, costly, and still-unful - weeks of September. That gives the plants time to become filled effort the stuff of history. established, set down root systems, go into dormancy and compete much better with weeds “This is the threshold case. If winter over. Vigorous growth will resume in April, followed and yield much more. it’s approved, there will be oth - by flowering, and culminating in harvest sometime in July. ” ers,” said Eric Hallerman, head of Ideally, begin preparation a full year before sowing. Fall the Department of Fisheries and is the best time to incorporate manure, compost and miner - Eli and I recommend that you sow each seed 6-8 inches Wildlife Sciences at Virginia Tech als into the soil. Then you will be ready to plant a spring apart to a depth of 1-2 inches or broadcast very thinly. Con - University. “If it’s not, it’ll have a cover crop that you will till in in late summer before plant - ventional wheat growers space much closer. However, chilling effect for years.” ing wheat in the fall. Cover crops provide slow release nutri - wider spacing allows for stronger plants with many more The FDA has completed its ents for winter wheat. If yours is a new field, buckwheat is tillers. Good varieties under fertile conditions may set as review of key portions of an excellent cover crop because it will smother weeds, but many as 20-30 tillers per plant, with each tiller producing a AquaBounty’s application, accord - you must wait till after frost to sow it. Mustard is another head averaging 30-50 seeds or more. Thus, it is possible to ing to CEO Ronald Stotish. good cover crop choice because it is said to deter fusarium, a attain a multiplication of up to 1,000 seeds from one, an Sometime in the weeks ahead, fungal disease that is especially prevalent in rainy seasons extraordinary example of nature’s bounty. However, 200- and is the biggest risk to your crop. Clover is another good 250 would be more common. company officials expect the choice and can also be undersown with the wheat, but will Do not harvest the heads when green. Harvest ripe seed agency to convene an advisory require equipment to turn. Allow 2-3 weeks after turning when the plants have dried completely brown. Birds can be committee of outside experts to under your cover crop before sowing wheat. a real threat so if they start coming around, get bird netting. weigh the evidence, collect public You can quite easily improve your seed stock by selection. If testimony and issue a recommen - you wish to save your own seed, select the seeds of the dation about the fish’s fitness for biggest heads from the healthiest plants. It is a good idea to human consumption. Andrew perform this selection before your general harvest, using Zajac, Los Angeles Times, August scissors. Then, when you have sufficient seed stock, perform 9, 2010 your general harvest using a sickle, scythe or equipment, depending on your scale. We tie our harvest in shocks and JURY AWARDS $940,000 IN get it inside under cover. ARKANSAS RICE LAWSUIT Eli devised a simple system that effectively threshed The German conglomerate many pounds of seed without endless hours of work. She Bayer CropScience has been cut off the seed heads and put them on an upside-down car ordered to pay six Arkansas rice mat on a tarp. Performing a foot twist or shuffle over the farmers $940,000 for allowing seed heads removed most of the chaff from the kernels. She genetically altered rice into the has since found an apple masher in an antique store that ful - commercial market. A jury in fills the same function a little more efficiently. Then she Desha County, [Arkansas] on blows off the remaining chaff with a hair dryer. The result - Wednesday found the farmers suf - ing seed, while not quite cleaned to seed company stan - fered losses when exports and dards, is plenty clean enough for grinding into flour. rice prices fell after the contami - Varieties vary as to the weight of the seed, but a rough nation was announced in 2006. approximation is 10,000 seeds to the pound. In our trial of more than 30 mostly heirloom winter wheats, the best plants Bayer issued a prepared state - produced nearly one tenth of a pound of seed and a good ment saying it will consider its average was 20 plants per pound. This means that in a back - legal options and that the compa - yard plot as small as 200 square feet (10x20’ for example) ny “maintains it acted responsibly with plants spaced a square foot apart, you could easily pro - and appropriately at all times” in duce 10 lb. or more of wheat, and in a 1,000 square foot plot, handling the rice. enough to bake at least one loaf of homemade bread every The U.S. Department of week for the entire year. In high fertility, you could do better Agriculture has said the rice than that, as yields in good fields as much as quintuple those in indifferent plots. That’s why the advance preparation is continued on page 13 worth the trouble. Happy growing! U —cr lawn www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 13

is very beneficial used twice a week when there is a drought, to balance an extreme in climate. I remember one droughty summer on a BD farm with pNoseEs Wno hSea lth& ris kN — ObutT it EhaSd very sandy soils, we sprayed 500 inten - not been approved for human con - Yourself sively, saved our vegetable crops and sumption at the time. Three feder - grew ample hay for the animals. When al juries and three juries in we came to harvest cabbages for the Arkansas have now awarded more Biodynamic Preparations Boston organic markets, we pulled up than $53 million to farmers for soil for a yard around the plants and damages in the case. Associated by Jennifer Greene saw the extensive and deep root Press, July 30, 2010 We live in a world of interdepen - What is extraordinary is that the dung growth. The cabbages were not woody dencies. Our understanding of the con - has transformed into the sweetest but, rather, were succulent and sweet U.S. UNSURE IF CLONED nections between all things, require a smelling, rich, dark humus like materi - and large. We can say that 500 is an MEAT HAS BEEN SOLD IN schooled sense of observation and a al that is teaming with vitality. There is “earth” preparation. NORTH AMERICA thinking that is both holistic and no rank odor whatsoever, no sign that When the potatoes have emerged, The U.S. Secretary of dynamic. The great American philoso - this was once dung. then 501, (the horn silica) preparation, pher Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his There was one time that I experi - will be stirred and applied in the early Agriculture on Tuesday [August central essay “Nature”, that “Nature is enced a horn full of material that had morning, before the sun is far over the 10] said he doesn’t know whether cloned cows or their offspring the incarnation of thought… The world What is extraordinary horizon. This preparation helps with is mind precipitated.” “ the photosynthesis processes, intensi - have made it into the North To garden and farm with Nature is that the dung has fying the light activity and the leaf’s American food supply. and not against her, requires much interaction between light and sub - But Tom Vilsack, in Ottawa to attention to both the seen and unseen transformed into stance. When there has been a pro - talk trade with food exporters and dynamics of the earth, the plant, and the sweetest smelling, longed cloudy spell this preparation is Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, the animal. We as human beings need rich, dark humus very beneficial. Once when I had a emphasized that if they have, the to guide our work with the land manganese deficiency in corn here in animals are safe to eat. toward health and balance of all these like material that is Maine, I sprayed seaweed one morning “I can’t say today that I can interdependencies. teaming with vitality. and on the next morning stirred (also answer your question in an affir - To this end was ” for an hour) 501 and sprayed it over the mative or negative way. I don’t asked in 1924 to give a course of lec - plants. The deficiency disappeared, the know. What I do know is that we 1 tures to experienced farmers and gar - not changed one whit; it was as corn greened out and grew 8 inches in a know all the research, all of the deners. In these Koberwitz lectures, the manure-like as the day we put it in. couple of days. 501 also helps with review of this is suggested that fundamental tenants of what has This was very odd because all the other ripening and adds to the flavor build - this is safe,” Vilsack told become known as Bio-Dynamic agri - 700 horns had transformed beautifully. ing activity in vegetables and fruits. reporters, pointing to an assess - culture, he gave indications how the This was strange until I looked over Yields are increased. ment of the U.S. Food and Drug life of the soil, and hence the health of and saw that Katherine Castelliz was At Mockingbird Farm, Food for Administration. plant and animal, could be improved. laughing. This told me that there was a Maine’s Future dunked the seed pota - Vislack said that because sci - While, in specific ways, toes in a stirred solution ence is often “ahead of the regu - linking the cosmos with of 500 prior to planting. latory process and ahead of the the earth, he describes This will aid tuber how the properties of growth. The Farm is ethics discussion,” the U.S. will silica, limestone and working with BD prin - continue their “moratorium” on clay work in soil fertili - ciples and the next step not allowing the sale of meat from ty and how these can be in preparation for next cloned animals until the products enhanced through year is compost mak - are widely accepted as safe. homeopathic amounts ing, along with green Vilsack’s comments come a of carefully prepared manure cropping. week after the U.K. Food and fermented plant This is a quick indica - Standards Agency told consumers substances and tion as to how the BD in that country that descendants manure. A cursory preparations 500 and of a clone made their way into the description follows. 501 work. When famil - local food supply. The cattle were There are 8 Bio- iar with the processes the offspring of a cloned cow in Dynamic preparations which each of the the U.S. and were shipped to the that Steiner gave in preparations enhances, U.K. as embryos. Sarah Schmidt, 1924. Over the 90 years then one, with trained Postmedia News, August 10, since the course was observation, can use 2010 given, farmers, through these preparations in a thorough knowledge Stirring biodynamic preparation 500. varied ways. Much CATCH DOWN, REVENUES of the dynamics in the research has been done UP FOR NORTHEAST soil, plant and animal in Europe and some in FISHERMEN have added further preparations to joke afoot and I had better look again at the US on the use, and efficacy of BD BOSTON—The catch for fisher - enhance soil fertility. the horn. Careful observation revealed preparations. men in the Northeast during the In what Steiner indicated, there are 5 that the horn did not have any of the Jennifer Greene Grew up on a Vermont first three months following drastic compost preparations prepared in very characteristic calving rings that show hill-country farm with cattle, chickens, pigs specific ways: yarrow (502), (Achilla up in a cow horn: it was a bull horn. and a very large commercial maple sugar - rule changes fell 10 percent com - milfolium); camomile (503), (Camomil - Steiner said specifically “cow horn”, ing operation. She did her agriculture pared to last year but revenues la officinalis); stinging nettle (504), not a bullhorn. This was Katherine’s training in England and has run farms, rose 17 percent, according to fed - (Urtica dioica); oak bark (505), (Quer - way of teaching. She ran Tablehurst milked cows and has run a large scale eral statistics released this week. cus robur); dandelion (506), (Taraxicum Farm, a 450 acre Bio-Dynamic farm, organic vegetable farm, selling organic pro - The rules were enacted May 1 officinale); valerian (507), (Valeriana that was connected to Emerson College duce in Boston, New York and at a roadside amid reports of broad confusion officinalis). There is a general prepara - in Sussex, England where we were farm stand, Temple Mountain Produce, in about the change and that numer - tion that is very effective, when pre - doing our agriculture studies. She had southern New Hampshire. She presently ous fishermen were keeping their pared in specific ways for special needs been farming bio-dynamically for 50 works in water research at Water Research boats docked due to the uncer - and is a good prophylactic against fun - years. Institute in Blue Hill, Maine. Email Jen - tainty. gus: Equisetum arvense, (508), the To what end is 500, a humus prepa - nifer at [email protected] It’s too soon to draw broad common horsetail. Two basic prepara - ration, used? Approximately four 1. Agriculture Course, R. Steiner, a series of eight conclusions, but the relatively lectures given Koberwitz, in June, 1924, trans. tions, the horn manure (500) and horn ounces is stirred in 2 ½ gallons of rain - George Adams stable first-quarter numbers are silica (501), round out what Steiner water for an hour and then is sprayed cause for cautious optimism gave. I will concentrate on the horn on the soil, in the late afternoon and or Further reading: about the switch, said Patricia manure preparation because that is early evening, as the earth is taking its 1) Life to the Land: Guide Lines to Bio-Dynamic Kurkul, the National Marine what was applied by Food for Maine’s nightly in-breath. (This is the propor - Husbandry , Katherine Castelliz, The Fisheries Service’s Northeast Future at Mockingbird Farm for the tion; larger quantities for farm land Landthorn Press, 1991 regional administrator. planting of the potatoes, shown in the areas can also be stirred.) 500 aids 2) Earth, Plant and Compost , William Brinton, Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening “It’s sort of on track with what picture above. humus formation, root formation, we saw last year, so there’s noth - To prepare the horn manure prepa - increases the volume of root hairs and Association, 2002 3) Gardening for Life: The Bio-Dynamic Way , ing catastrophic going on here,” ration, manure from a lactating cow is anchors the plant in the activities of the Maria Thun, Hawthorne Press, 1999 Kurkul said. The catch got a boost stuffed into a cow horn and then soil. It is used when turning land 4) Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming , Vol. 1,2 because the new rules allowed buried, in a hole dug in humus-rich under. It is used in the spring to pre - and 3, , Mercury Press, soil. The horns— it is advantageous to pare the soil for planting a new crop, or Spring Valley, N.Y. continued on page 14 bury a good number of dung filled transplanting and, in autumn when 5) BD Farm: Agriculture in ServiUce to the Earth and horns — are dug up in late spring. putting the garden and fields to bed. It Humanity , Dr. Herbert Koepf Page 14 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org

fNisheErmWen iSnto &area sN preOvioTusEly S EEaatt aanndd DDrriinnkk ...... with Merry closed in May, and unusually high prices helped fishermen at the Preserving Our Harvest start of this fishing season, said Jackie Odell of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, a fishing indus - After growing our own and buying try group. local food, our best way to secure our But the early numbers are like - food supply is to preserve it at home. ly masking that a broad section of Then we don’t have to be so dependent the fleet hasn’t started fishing yet on the policies and practices of indus - because fishermen are limited to trial agriculture. Especially in climates catching so few fish this year, she like Maine’s, we limit our food sover - said. “I know a lot of fishermen eignty if we don’t learn to overwinter right now that are very, very con - our harvest. cerned about their allocation for I am currently avidly rereading the whole year and don’t think INDEPENDENCE DAYS: A Guide for there’s anything positive out of Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation what’s taken place over the last by Sharon Astyk, which shows why three months,” Odell said Friday. every day you can eat from your own The old system tried to stop pantry is an “Independence Day” from by making fishermen hunger, malnutrition, contamination, less efficient through such meth - oil dependency, violation of your val - ods as limiting their number of ues, and economic slavery. Sharon tells annual fishing days. In the new us not only how but also why to pre - system, fishermen work in groups serve foods. She speaks persuasively to manage an allotted catch of for seven reasons to preserve our own groundfish, such as haddock, cod that I will explore in this article: food and flounder. If fishermen catch security, flavor, nutrition, economy, their limit on one stock, they must , cultural transfor - stop fishing on all stocks. mation, personal empowerment, and Canning, drying, and pickling are just some of the ways of preserving food. Environmentalists say the hospitality. (For information on “how tough limits are needed to stop to” preserve food, go to Sharon’s book sustain us through the long winters. consumption of oil in growing, pro - overfishing, but some fishermen or to So Easy to Preserve . Kathy Savoie Interestingly, we can monitor the cessing, packaging, refrigerating, trans - say the limits on many species also offers excellent instruction in her nutritional value of our food far better porting, and selling proc essed food. In were set so low, they can’t make UMaine Cooperative Extension Master by paying attention to our own bodies’ the “how to” sources you’ll go to, espe - a living. The new system’s early Food Preserver Program.) signals about flavor, satisfaction, ener - cially Sharon’s book, you’ll learn what numbers, posted Thursday, indi - Chapter 1 of INDEPENDENCE gy, and health than by any labeling are the least fuel consumptive ways to cated the total catch from Maine DAYS is entitled “Nine Meals from system or dietary dictates the govern - preserve and store food. However you to New Jersey fell about 10 per - Anarchy.” Frightening isn’t it?! We just ment and industry can come up with. choose to do it, you will be lessening cent (8,590 metric tons to don’t think of America as a place Our tastes co-evolved with our foods your for sure. 7,702), compared to the first where food riots or starvation are a and our health. For the most part, we You will be participating in the cul - quarter last year. But revenues possibility…but they are. Our super - can trust taste as our most accurate tural transformation that humanity rose 17 percent this year during markets only carry a three day supply indicator of nutrition. Of course that needs to undergo if we are going to the same May 1 to July 31 period, of food. Beyond that, unless we have a continue as a species, save the planet, increasing from about $18.3 mil - well-stocked pantry, we are vulnerable What many feed our people, create peace, and end lion to $21.4 million. to erratic weather, oil availability, con - “ the tyranny of the multinational corpo - Jay Lindsay, Associated Press tamination, food shortages, power out - may write off as rations. What many may write off as a Writer, August 13, 2010 ages, and terrorism. Astyk suggests we purely nostalgic pastime is actually store three months worth of food in a purely nostalgic one of the most forward-thinking new FEDERAL COURT case we are faced with one of these undertakings we can engage in. RESCINDS USDA crises. pastime is actually Personal empowerment is a crucial APPROVAL OF Fear can raise a red flag and moti - aspect of food sovereignty. You get to vate us powerfully. Unfortunately, it one of the most know the provenance of your food, GENETICALY ENGINEERED can also paralyze us. Or it can send the SUGAR BEETS select only the best and the ripest, con - corporate “us,” represented by Con - forward-thinking new trol the added ingredients, and partici - Order Bans Planting or Sale of gress, down the false pathways to pate actively in your family’s health Controversial Crop. Court Denies “food security” explored elsewhere in undertakings we can and welfare. You will take pride in Monsanto Request to Allow this issue. Fortunately, disaster pre - important work well done, knowing Continued Planting. paredness, as crucial as it is, should not engage in. that you have accrued all these benefits [August 13, 2010] Judge Jeffrey be our primary reason. ” of preserving the harvest. White, federal district judge for the Consider flavor! Let’s be honest: in Last, and perhaps most important, Northern District of California, the absence of starvation, flavor is our gauge has been highly perverted, as in you will be increasing your capacity issued a ruling granting the prime motivator when it comes to our cravings for salt and sugar that for hospitality. Your opportunity to request of plaintiffs Center for food. Fresh, local food tastes best. were in far scarcer supply when our invite extended family, friends, and Food Safety, Organic Seed Unadulterated food tastes better than tastes were evolving. Still, as we over - neighbors to your very welcoming Alliance, High Mowing Organic commercial food. Love expressed in come our commercially induced down-home dinner table will expand Seeds, and the Sierra Club to the preserving and cooking of food addictions in these areas and clear our exponentially. You will have ready- rescind the United States provides excellent seasoning. A tomato palettes, we can trust our bodies to tell made and much appreciated hostess Department of Agriculture’s savored in March from a jar that is us what we need. gifts and covered-dishes at the drop of (USDA’s) approval of genetically home-canned from fresh ingredients We have economic reasons to stock an invitation. Your pantry, kitchen, and engineered “Roundup Ready” reminds of the joys of summer and of our “homemade” pantry too. Because dinner table will be a nourishing sugar beets. In September 2009, family. Somehow, the flavor of com - we can preserve food in bulk at the source of family pride and together - the Court had found that the mercially tinned tomatoes just can’t time of peak abundance and ripeness, ness. Whether we ever experience food USDA had violated the National measure up. Food picked at the peak of we are likely to be getting the best pro - insecurity or not, this is enough reason Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by ripeness and preserved with love duce relatively cheaply. While the ini - to start expanding our knowledge of approving the Monsanto-engi - rather than artificial additives simply tial outlay for equipment can stretch canning, freezing, drying, root cellar - neered biotech crop without first tastes better. our resources temporarily (especially if ing, season extending, and stocking a preparing an Environmental The nutritional superiority of local, we are investing in a freezer chest!) the pantry. Impact Statement. The crop was sustainably produced, unadulterated turn around on our investment is Merry Hall is the author of BRING - engineered to resist the effects of food is being verified scientifical - rapid. The upfront time investment ING FOOD HOME: THE MAINE Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, ly…just in case common sense and also repays itself in trips we don’t have EXAMPLE which introduces readers to which it sells to farmers together observation didn’t teach us this lesson to take to the supermarket. over 100 people involved in Maine’s local with the patented seed. Similar already. The closer we can keep our Energy conservation is a major out - food community, revealing how true home - Roundup Ready crops have led to food to tasting like its fresh ingredi - come of preparing and storing our land and food security are developing in increased use of herbicides, prolif - ents, the more likely it is to maintain own food, especially when we source Maine. She is a local food activist and most of its nutritional value. Food our ingredients from our own or other member of the Board of Directors of Food eration of herbicide resistant U continued on page 15 preservation almost always loses some local gardens and farms. We can for Maine’s Future. nutritional value, but keeps enough to bypass commercial agriculture’s huge www.foodformainesfuture.org Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 Page 15 THEN AS NOW...

wNeeEds,W andS co n&tam inNatioOn oTf Econ S- Why Farmers Are Poor ventional and organic crops. In today’s ruling the Court offi - cially “vacated” the USDA “dereg - The Agricultural Crisis in the United States ulation” of Monsanto’s biotech Anna Rochester, 1940 sugar beets and prohibited any future planting and sale pending rices operating rowed capital and rented the agency’s compliance with against the farmers land. Such dependence, NEPA and all other relevant laws. “P with the resulting toll increased the inherent diffi - USDA has estimated that an EIS exacted from the farmers, culties faced by small pro - may be ready by 2012. has been one important ducers who try to expand Andrew Kimbrell, Executive their scale of operation. Low means of direct exploita - Director of plaintiff and co-counsel prices for farm products tion of middle farmers by the Center for Food Safety, stated, intensified the pressure finance capitalists.” page “This is a major victory for farm - driving each farmer to try to 183 ers, consumers and the rule of reduce his costs. High prices law. USDA has once again acted for labour-saving farm or farmers raising illegally and had its approval of a machinery and equipment meat animals or ship - biotech crop rescinded. Hopefully brought new costs for bor - “pinF g milk as their chief the agency will learn that their rowing. Farmers had to use product, the question of many different means of price is bound up more mandate is to protect farmers, obtaining funds and credit. obviously and directly with consumers and the environment Mortgages were one impor - the practices of a few great and not the bottom line of corpo - tant source of funds and corporations which stand rations such as Monsanto.” mortgages increased the between them and the non- Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, farmers’ instability. Many farm public.” page 224 lead counsel for the plaintiffs, dropped into tenancy and commented: “Time and again, the debt on mortgaged o the Shays’ Rebellion USDA has ignored the law and farms grew heavier.” page in 1786 was the culmi - abdicated its duty to protect the 15 “natSion of several years of environment and American agricul - o t

o ture from genetically engineered h acute distress among farm p

s

bviously the great s debtors in Massachusetts. crops designed to sell toxic chemi - e r g

non-farm popula - n They resented the contrast cals. Time and again, citizens o C

“O f between their extreme speaking truth to power have tion could not live without o

y r taken USDA to court and won.” the food produced on farms. a poverty and insecurity and r b i Most of this food reaches the L the luxury of merchants, In his order, Judge White noted consumer only after it has “Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange, 1936 lawyers, and judges. For that USDA’s “errors are not minor passed through the hands of even then the farmers bore or insignificant, and his “concern processors who use it as raw material in number of jobs open to Negro farm an undue share of the taxation. Interest that Defendants are not taking their accumulation of capital.” page 19 wage workers. Vagrancy laws in the on their mortgages added to the wealth this process seriously.” He also South and Southwest are often inter - of city nabobs. Lawyers and judges were pointed out that “despite the fact aking the entire population in preted in such a way as to force Negro kept busy with foreclosure proceedings that the statutes at issue are both great sections of society, the workers to take jobs in the fields, at and debtor cases that sent hard-working designed to protect the environ - “perT capita wealth of farmers and farm lowest wages, or go to jail for having no farmers to jail.” page 254 ment,” USDA and the sugar beet workers in considerably less than two- job. In the Old South, ‘where the Negro industry focused on the economic thirds of the per capita wealth of the non- is most numerous, he provides a ready n the long farm crisis after the first consequences to themselves, yet farm population.” page 22 supply of cheap labour for agricultur - World War, the federal land banks “failed to demonstrate that seri - al...operations that otherwise would f“ollIowed a strict policy of foreclosure, ous economic harm would be he masses whose labour built the require a mobile labour reserve for sea - intended to protect the tax-exempt incurred pending a full economic mines and factories of the great sonal and intermittent peaks of activity. bondholders at the expense of the farm - review.” f“ortT unes of American capitalists were ers. When President Roosevelt came into The Court held in part: drawn chiefly from European peasant Foreign-born workers form a large part office in 1933, the farmers, by ‘penny …the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ farms where poverty had been made of all farm wage labour than do Negro sales’ and other aggressive action, were request to vacate APHIS’s deci - more desperate by the competition of workers and also a larger part of the resisting the loss of their farms. ‘Our sion to deregulate genetically engi - wheat and meat animals sent into the migratory labour force. Historically, the wives and children hold first mortgage neered sugar beets and remands European market from farms in the Unit - foreign-born have been more signifi - on this farm.’ This principle of human this matter to APHIS. Based on ed States and Canada. The greater pro - cant than they are to-day among the rights above property rights penetrated this vacatur, genetically engineered ductivity of labour on these western rural wage workers. In 1930, the census deeply into the consciousness of the sugar beets are once again regu - farms could underbid the backward tech - counted 371,443 foreign-born hired farmers when the wave of foreclosures lated articles pursuant to the nique of the peasants. So the very process farm workers, or 13.5% of all farm was sweeping tens of thousands of own - U Plant Protection Act. This vacatur of expansion in American agriculture wage labour, divided equally between ers off their land every year.” page 259 applies to all future plantings… which tended to limit the supply of Amer - foreign white and other nationalities, in This is the second time a ican-born wage labour helped to swell the which are included Mexican, Chinese, Court has rescinded USDA’s masses who could be drawn into Ameri - and Japanese. Among all migratory approval of a biotech crop. The can industry from the rural population in workers, Mexicans are now about 9%, first such crop, Roundup Ready Europe.” page 22 according to recent estimates. alfalfa, is also illegal to plant, Many of the migratory workers are based on the vacating of its hroughout the North more and farmers who have left their farms deregulation in 2007 pending more farm owners were reporting because they could not make a living preparation of an EIS. Although “T and now exist by selling their labour mortgage indebtedness. Farm buyers Monsanto took that case all the found it increasingly difficult to achieve power in the fields and orchards.” page way to the Supreme Court and the full equity. Owners having clear title 147 High Court set aside part of the mortgaged their farms to improve their relief granted, the full prohibition equipment. And other owners expanded mall farmers are crowded out on its planting – based on the operations by hiring additional land.” from commercial agriculture. And same remedy granted here, the “S e page 45 even when they are able to compete in p o

r vacatur – remains in place. In the

commercial production they do this at u E past several years federal courts the cost of tremendous physical exertion d ace prejudice increases the diffi - e

e have also held illegal USDA’s S

culties of travel and limits the which brings them at best a totally inad - A

approval of biotech crop field tri - “R f

equate income. To the farmer which a o

y als, including the testing of medium-sized farm, whom we shall call s e t

r biotech grasses in Oregon and

a ‘middle’ farmer, economic crisis means u

Graphic o he has produced – or is equipped to pro - C the testing of engineered, pharma - Layout& Design duce – a fair volume of commodities ceutical-producing crops in ~ Publications a Specialty ~ which he cannot sell for prices covering Hawai’i. Center for Food Safety, August 13, 2010 U Lynn Pussic his cash costs of operation. And his costs [email protected] include a heavy burden of business debt piled up through his dependence on bor - RESISTANCE IS FERTILE Page 16 Saving Seeds — Summer/Fall 2010 www.foodformainesfuture.org

is so broad and so vague that it could nity as well as offering the farmer a happened in Waterville in at least 20 GROWING HABITAT include anyone who cuts, peels, trims, chance to cooperate with other farms to years. Our new Barrel’s Market, offers continued from page 1 washes, waxes, eviscerates, renders, further expand the possible range of not just local food but also local crafts cooks, bakes, freezes, cools, pasteur - diversity of products offered. and an emerging community center. into the correctional system where they izes, homogenizes, mixes, formulates, CSA is not a perfect model for every For the first time in so very long, I can were bored, sensorally deprived and bottles, mills, grinds, extracts, distills, farmer and every consumer. It requires purchase real food downtown. It is con - given endless time to percolate and labels or packages, the enforcement left a high level of farmer skills , a willing - venient. It is community minded. We maturate their resentment against the to an FDA that has never been friendly ness to embrace the whole community, will know we are winning when there society treating them thus, in the com - to small farms or processors. Here and requires a greater degree of con - is a Barrel’s in every downtown, even pany of the very persons who could again is a 1-size fits all solution, one fee sumer involvement with the whole the small towns, and when those cor - teach them the skills to wreak more for all size operations, lacking a risk- food process, whether it has a work ner Ma& Pa stores carry local sweet effective revenge when they came out! based analysis of specific activities as requirement or not. Characteristic of corn and farm-raised chicken instead of In twenty years our prison population they relate to specific foods, without good solutions, it is a complex system the generic brands of processed food tripled and our expenditures quadru - acknowledgment that centralized pro - that solves many potential problems and junk prepared by huge corpora - pled, a 121% increase in inflation- cessing and co-mingling present the and has a good ripple effect on the tions. The most important work we can adjusted $ during a time period when greatest risks and should therefore be whole community ecology. do is to continue what we have begun, real expenditures on higher education more closely regulated, without any But it is not for everyone and we redoubling our efforts with inner increased by only 21%. recognition that a complex problem re - must find other solutions for people strength and inner discipline, and We in the organic movement are not quires complex sophisticated solutions. who can’t be reached by CSA. And this, above all, with love. Recall that like the immune from societal trends. Despite Grange, our organic movement was having well-attended thriving educa - We face federal food safety initiatives that could curtail born, not with a desire for riches, but tional programs that take on much of “or even halt the growth of our movement by entwining our with an inner conviction that we could the role of the declining federal agricul - find a better way to farm, a way with - tural extension, MOFGA and its certifi - farms and modest value-added initiatives in a complex and out chemicals, a way with respect for cation LLC combined still spend more costly web of food safety programs, audits, paperwork the living organisms in the soil and on policing than on education. That’s around us. There were no organic requirements, certifications and regulations. —CR Lawn because the ” police to oversee us, only our own con - mandates a strict separation between sciences and our own desires that we education and inspection, viewing cer - Let’s not be naïve. With the writings with a bow to Al Gore, is OUR incon - could find a path with heart. tification as process-based, not prod - of Schlosser, Pollan and Kingsolver the venient truth: That the present system The more we are successful, the uct-based, as a compliance tool, not an cat came out of the bag. Now millions makes it inconvenient for us to vote for more we will be opposed. We must be educational opportunity. know enough to question our food sys - biodiversity. It is so easy and conven - determined. We must show the way Imagine what MOFGA could tem, and their purchases have the ient to shop at our Hannaford’s or Wal- with our own hearts and our own accomplish if it could spend half its potential to move us toward one that is Mart. But every time we do, we are vot - strength and the truth of our convic - enforcement budget on education! less concentrated and more bio- ing for monoculture and centraliza - tions, and we must ask of our leaders The enforcement model is every - diverse. Representatives of the large tionómonoculture in our farms and the same. We must not settle when on where a threat. We face federal food trade organizations and the big food monoculture in our markets, monocul - the one hand Michele and Barack safety initiatives that could curtail or processing corporations are concerned ture all the way up and down the line. Obama offer us rhetoric and symbolic even halt the growth of our movement that our local sustainable food move - And so, for now, embracing biodiversi - gestures like the White House garden, by entwining our farms and modest ment is steadily gaining market share. ty means tolerating some inconven - while on the other hand advocating value-added initiatives in a complex They would love to slow, then reverse ience, and yet, we must work toward onerous food safety laws that could and costly web of food safety pro - our momentum, all in the name of food the day when finding real food grown enervate our strength. We must ask for grams, audits, paperwork require - safety, and they are not afraid to scare sustainably close by is no longer diffi - substance not symbols, complexity and ments, certifications and regulations. people far removed from farm life cult or inconvenient, when we can subtlety, not one size fits all, fair and Happily, the USDA has shelved for about the dangers of animals and source that good bread, that local beef open process, not backroom politics now the NAIS program, but only manure, even though the integration of and chicken and those apples and with bribes for the powerful, but because we felled it with our grassroots animals and crops has been at the foun - rutabagas without going far out of our instead solutions forged skillfully with uprising. If we scrutinize through a dation of good husbandry for milennia. way and we must do so from the source the conviction of righteousness. close patterning lens the USDA’s GAP These corporations and trade organiza - marketplace: seed, all the way to the CR Lawn is founder of Fedco Seeds and program, and the FDA’s proposed food tions, with their phalanx of lawyers, end marketplace: the point of food pur - board member for Food for Maine’s Future. safety regulations on tomatoes, melons have the resources to dominate our leg - chase, and all along the line. Part 1 of this essay can be found in Saving U and leafy greens, it is clear what bad islatures while we stay close to the farm I celebrate the best thing that has Seeds Issue #9 Spring 2010. solutions they are for the problem of struggling to make ends meet. Any food safety. GAP features high annual rulemaking process within the federal certification fees of up to $1,000 per government and the FDA places us at a BECOME A MEMBER! farm, a pass-fail scoring system admin - serious structural disadvantage. istered by inspection service workers One might as well oppose apple pie, SUPPORT FOOD FOR MAINE’S FUTURE who are experienced in grading vegeta - motherhood and the Fourth of July as bles for color and size but lack any oppose food safety. Our daunting task Food for Maine‘s Future is now a membership organization! Being a expertise in whole farm systems, and a is to reconfigure the discussion. We can member gets you two issues of Saving Seeds mailed to you, and one series of metrics that penalize farmers start by proposing that food safety free classified ad per year. You also receive free admission to our annu - for wildlife activity near crops, using address concerns way broader than al Local and Sustainable Food Conference and the good feeling that manure and compost, being near any microbial contamination. Many propo - livestock operations, or God forbid, nents of food safety legislation are sin - comes with supporting grassroots activism in Maine. Memberships integrating livestock into the on-farm cere in their motives, just as were many start at $25. operation, without acknowledging proponents of health care reform. No ____ Yes! I support Food for Maine’s Future and would like to become a member. whatsoever that use might doubt our highly concentrated, central - pose any risk to food safety. The model ized food industry needs appropriate Name ______is one size fits all with no recognition of regulation, but, much like with the the benefits of compost and natural fer - health care reform debacle, any regula - Address ______tilizers, of conservation practices such tion we get is more likely to seriously as buffer strips or of organic or integrat - inconvenience us than to address the Phone ______E-mail ______ed pest control in slowing the move - root causes of the problems. Enclosed please find my tax-deductible contribution of: ment of pathogenic organisms. The Which leads us to the fourth and ideal is one of monocultures and steril - most important challenge. As a remark - ___$25 Membership level ___$35 ___$50 ___$100 ___$250 ___$500+ ity, biased toward large concentrated able example of solving for pattern, operations and discriminatory against CSA deserves its meteoric rise. Look at ___ Monthly donor (see below) ___other $____ small diversified ones. The USDA’s the problems it solves: 1) It provides ___ Yes! I want to support Food for Maine’s Future on a monthly basis. My credit goal is that all farmers supplying major farmers with up-front capital at the markets be GAP-certified. Ironically, time they most need it; 2) It gives them card pledge GAP will likely make our food less a guaranteed ready market for their safe, driving out small and medium- products; 3) Within limits it provides per month is: ____$10 ____$25 ____$35 ____$50 ____$100+ ____$ other______sized diversified farms by making flexibility for unexpected surges and Credit card information: Visa or Mastercard (circle one) market entry prohibitive, and concen - decreases in production; 4) It provides trating our food system even more into some buffer from the vicissitudes of Credit Card # ______Exp. Date ______the hands of the few. Consider also market pricing; 5) For consumers it is a HR 2749 and S510 the proposed Food dependable source of fresh produce Please make checks for $100 or more to Food for Maine’s Future/SHI (our fiscal sponsor) . Safety Modernization Act that would each week; 6) It offers them a connec - Checks less than $100 can be made directly to Food for Maine’s Future. require facilities to register with the tion to their farmer; 7) Best of all, it Mail to: Food for Maine’s Future, PO Box 51, Sedgwick, Maine 04676 FDA, pay an annual fee of $500, and necessitates a diversified model of pro - To join Food for Maine’s Future visit our website have bio-terrorism and food safety pro - duction that is good for the soil, good www.foodformainesfuture.org or call our office at 207-244-0908. tocols in place. The definition of facility for the farm and good for the commu -