Heirloom Gardening, Food and Other Thoughts
Sorry for not posting recently. More to come soon.
For those of you who filled in or are interested in the online questionnaire concerning the review of EU seed legislation I posted about here, you can read everyone’s answers here.
I think it makes quite interesting reading, and it shows how your voice can really be heard if you take the time to participate in something like this.
Richard just sent me an email to tell me about his new blog Nu Trac (=New Track).
He recently left formal employment, and is pursuing a more self-reliant lifestyle on a property north of Atlanta, Georgia. This includes bees, chickens, organic gardening and composting, rainwater collection, bread baking and more! His blog looks really good so far!
One of my favorite gardening books is Carol Deppe’s Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant breeding and seed saving.
I’ve recently come across her website where you can find links to her books for sale on Amazon, and download some excerpts. You can also find her contact information if you want to ask her questions about her books and inquire about seeds for sale.
Here’s a Google translated version of the open letter published in the Flemish newspaper De Morgen from the eleven scientists who chose to participate in Field Liberation Day.
You can find the original Dutch language version here.
Here is a reply from the scientists who opposed the demonstration.
The original Dutch language version is here.
Here’s a quote from the second letter:
Sleep comfortable
Just think: what carries the least risk to humans and the environment? A potato with well-characterized resistance genes (the GM version) or a potato with the same genes in it and also a lot of other genes that we all know nothing (and bionica and toluca example)? If you do not see dangers in the use of bionica and toluca varieties, sleep on both ears in terms of the GM potato.
Part of the strange language here is the translation from Dutch, and I’ve fixed it a little by hand, but the point is clear. From a scientist’s point of view — fewer genetics are better. The traditionally bred blight resistant varieties Bionica and Toluca are dangerous to plant, because they have too many unknown and not useful genes in them! Really?
The only way forward is monocultures, and as little biodiversity as possible? Otherwise humans and the environment are at risk? If you don’t agree, sleep comfortably on both ears? This is like president Bush telling the world they were either with him or against him in Iraq. I don’t think this is the basis for common ground.
Friend and fellow blogger Mike in South Africa just moved his blog. What better a time to mention him here so all you new readers know who he is, and to help Google find the new address!
For those of you who know him, be sure to update your blogroll and bookmarks.
If you don’t know him, be sure to have a look! His new blog is here, but he hasn’t migrated his content yet. You might also want to have a look at his old blog so you can see what he’s written in the past.
