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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: Market Farming <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Alternative to USDA Organic standards | Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?
  • Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:31:56 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:14:32 -0500
From: Michael Astera <michael.astera@GMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

During December of 2008 I was in a long email round-robin with a few other
people discussing food standards. Here's what I wrote then:
*************
"In my view the whole USDA organic program was poorly conceived, poorly
written, and is being poorly implemented. It started out
dysfunctional and is already too broke to fix and not worth trying to
fix. I would suggest ignoring it as much as possible in the hope that
it will wither from neglect.

We need to start from scratch: Define what we are looking for and what
we don't want and put a label on that that is so far above USDA
Organic that no one even cares what the previous standards were. I'd
also suggest that whatever label we come up with be private,
copyrighted, trademarked, patented, and whatever else it takes to keep
the government's big nose and sticky fingers out of it."
***************
USDA Organic standards have never been anything positive, only lists of what
is not allowed and what is. The quality produced can vary from sublime to
junk. How about setting some real standards for quality and nutritional
value that the chemical and GMO camp simply cannot match? Glyphosate
prevents mineral uptake by crops, so any crop grown in glyphosate treated
soil will be nutritionally deficient and unable to compete.

Here are some test results that I was looking at yesterday:

Beets, Detroit Dark Red, Morse's Strain, Ferry Morse Seed Co.
Brix: 11 (10 is good, 12 is excellent)
Grown in Minnesota USA, 2010

Difference between USDA sr23 average and beets grown in mineralized soil, in
percentage:

Protein: +193%
Calcium: +931%
Iron: -6%
Magnesium: +122%
Phosphorus: +77%
Potassium: +104%
Zinc: +151%
Copper: +140%
Manganese: +31%

Re alfalfa, those who know ruminant nutrition say that the amount of Calcium
in the crop should equal the amount of Potassium, and both Magnesium and
Phosphorus should be around 1/3 of Calcium. GMO alfalfa will not be able to
compete with real nutritional standards, nor will any other GMO crop.

Michael A
http://soilminerals.com





  • [permaculture] Alternative to USDA Organic standards | Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 01/28/2011

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