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Link Between Disappearing Bees and GM Crops?

For some time now bee keepers in the US have noticed their bees have been disappearing, the so called Colony Collapse Disorder.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of this problem. The vast majority of our food crops are pollinated by insects, and quite simply without the insects there can be no harvest. Bees are among the most important pollinating insects.

A Pennsylvania bee farmer has a theory why this is happening. He thinks it’s because of GM crops engineered to produce Bt, a naturally occurring pesticide.

I say naturally occurring, because it’s present in small quantities in the environment. In these GM crops however, it’s another story. Crops engineered to produce Bt do so in very large quantities. It’s produced by every cell in the plant including roots, stems, leaves and flowers. It’s also present in the pollen of these plants. The amount of Bt in these plants is enough to trigger allergies in some people, and irritate the skin and eyes of farmers who handle the crops. In India, when sheep were used to clear a field of left over Bt cotton, several sheep died after eating it.

Even if this farmer’s theory turns out not to be true, it should really serve as a wake up call. The genetic contamination from these GM crops has long ago left the fields where they were grown, and if it is necessary to clean it up, it could prove to be enormously difficult. GM contamination is after all the only self-replicating contamination human beings have ever released into the environment.

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GM Medicine Rice

The US Department of Agriculture appears to be in the final stages of approval for commercial planting of a variety of rice genetically modified with human DNA. This is the first of what is expected to be a large number of crops developed to produce medicine. This particular variety of rice will contain a medicine used to treat diarrhoea and dehydration. Future GM crops are planned for treating diseases like measles, cancer treatments and contraceptives.

What this means is if pollen escapes from these commercial farms and contaminates similar food crops, then our food will likely contain the same medicines. How likely is this to happen? The company producing this variety of rice says there is “no risk”. Consider that Europe recently discovered that supposedly non GM rice imported from the US was in fact contaminated with an unapproved GM variety, that had unknowingly escaped from a research facility. Because there is no regular testing, this contamination went undetected for unknown period, but was probably months or years.

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Vegetarian is the New Prius

This article is about a month old now, but Kathy Freston wrote a really thought provoking article on how what we eat can have a bigger impact on global warming and other environmental issues than the car we drive.

For those people living outside of the US, or perhaps North America, a Prius is a hybrid electric car marketed by Toyota. Together with other hybrid cars and light trucks, they have become popular among people who want to drive a more fuel efficient car.

In the US more petroleum products are consumed each year producing food than by private cars. In addition, a stunning amount of water is consumed and vast quantities of chemicals and animal wastes are released into the environment. This is primarily because of the centralized food distribution and processing system that by now feeds almost everyone living in a developed country. Of course these problems are magnified in the context of meat production, because first crops have to be grown for animal feed, then the animals have to be raised, and the amount of feed they consume is enormous when compared to the meat produced.

Almost all of these problems are avoided when we eat foods that are organically and locally produced. If we eat in-season vegetables we grow ourselves or buy from a local organic farmer, the environmental impact is a tiny fraction of what it is when we buy out-of-season conventionally grown produce shipped in from far away. The same comparison can be made when we buy local, organic and grass fed eggs, meats and dairy products, versus conventional products.

Since most of us will continue to eat conventional food products, one of the most important environmentally friendly choices we can make is by eating fewer meats and other animal products. It can be better for your health too!

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It’s here!

Seed Savers Yearbook

It arrived a few days ago, and I’m really excited. The 2007 Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) Yearbook, their annual list of member offered seeds and plant samples. Nearly 500 pages, and 12,920 unique varieties of plants. The number of unique varieties offered by the SSE is at an all time high! I have just enough time to order a few last things for the garden…

With the the excitement also comes some more sobering news, a 4% decline in the number of listed members. A listed member is one who offers at least one plant to other members via this annual yearbook. This decline comes after more than a decade of steady declines.

Statistics

With fewer members actually sharing materials, the long term viability of the SSE is in jeopardy.

In the introduction, a few explanations were offered for the decline in listed members. First the popularity of their Internet sales, and the ease of being able to place small orders without having to pay a membership fee, may have caused some of their less devoted members to drop out. Another is that some members have complained that seeds they go to the trouble of offering, are not being reoffered by other members. Since this in itself is a symptom of not having a large enough base of dedicated listed members, the problem is potentially self perpetuating.

Like we have been talking about on several blogs this year, in spite of all the excitement being seen now surrounding growing heirloom foods and seed saving, the actual numbers of people doing it continues to be in decline.

It takes time and trouble to become a listed member in the SSE. The first year you have to become an unlisted member, read the materials and understand how it all works and perhaps order some seeds to get started with. You have to grow the plants in your garden that will produce the seeds you can offer to other members, and if you don’t have a lot of gardening experience learning this can also take some time. It can take two or three years, or longer, before you can start offering plants. It’s important to get focused on the issue, and get started as soon as possible.

In the meantime, those of you in the US, be sure and visit the SSE website and support them financially by buying products from them.