Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Gloria Baikauskas <gcb49@flash.net>]

It wasn't a matter of whether it was organic, or not.  It got sick.  It was easy to see.  All the corn in this area was the same. All of it was bundled and gathered up.  It was baled like hay.  It was never said, but I got the idea they knew how dangerous it was because it had happened before....got into the food supply....was fed to cattle, etc, then people ate the meat and got sick.  See, they said that.....that people could become very ill from eating meat from animals fed it. 

 

I can't remember which year it was.  Maybe 1999.....somewhere in that time period give or take a year or so.  They said it had a cancer. 

 

I was devastated because I had cared for it so well.  In Illinois I just let it grow and didn't mess with it.  Here I added compost to the bottom where it would show roots, etc, as instructed in my organic gardening book....side dress.  I grew beans around the corn...inbetween the rows.....though it was planted in a block, not really rows.  Then all of  a sudden it turned brown and black on the top. 

 

That's why I haven't grown it again here.  I haven't noticed it happening again, but then most of what has been grown around here since is maize, not corn.

 

After what happened with the Diamond dog food being contaminated by diseased corn a few years back that caused the deaths of so many dogs I have wondered if it was the same thing.   Dunno, though. 

 

Gloria