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  • From: "Woody" <wderyckx@peoplepc.com>
  • To: "Seed Keepers" <seedkeepers@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Seed Keepers] [seedkeepers] GMO pollen and what to know...
  • Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:23:39 -0800

Beet seed is grown in one kinda place and sugar beets are generally grown in a very different kinda place. Actually, beets and chard are a bit like spinach and cabbage in that they are pretty specific where they really produce seed well - prefering mild winters and cool summers (relativelly). Surely there is some danger associated with volunteer sugar beets in beet growing regions but currently we are most threatened by the GMO pollen from sugar beet seed production in Oregon which so out numbers table beet and swiss chard seed production it is bound to contaminate. We are looking at a massive GMO monitoring program to test seed lots for contamination and, as I reported earlier, we are suing APHIS for non-compliance with NEPA (the national environmental protection act). From the seed grower point of view - biennials are every bit as susceptible to contamination as are annuals.
The next level of concern is the seedsaver - people like you and me who want to exercise our freedom to save seed from our gardens without getting it contaminated with engineered genetics.
Then there is the big one - the huge increase in herbicide use on all those thousands of acres of sugar beets and what effect that has on the soil ecosystem etc.
I was wondering - if we could get a few big companies who buy beet sugar to use in making popular processed foods (I'm thinking Mars and Hershey here) to decide not to use GMO beet sugar, I bet they could stop this in a day and a half.
All best to all on this list.
woody
----- Original Message ----- From: "Elise Lutrick" <seedsaverslist@gmail.com>
To: "Seed Keepers" <seedkeepers@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Seed Keepers] [seedkeepers] GMO pollen and what to know...


Lucy,

Are you absolutely sure that NONE of those GMO beet plantings are
being done for the purposes of producing GMO seeds for sale to
gullible farmers? They have to be raising them in a massive manner
SOMEWHERE, and where ever that place is will have GMO beet pollen in
an abundance plentiful enough to contaminate every beet field for
miles.

Also, I don't know that I quite buy the claim that 100% of all such
beets will be harvested in the year in which they are planted.

I garden about 2 acres. I have had turnips reappear in the spring and
bloom after they have been plowed under. And I pay attention to
detail. These folks will not care about the details. Profit is the
goal.

As an analogy, in commercial chicken houses there are always some
birds that are not harvested because they run around the periphery of
the house. At some point the cost of gathering the last few more than
offsets the benefit of catching them, and so they are left behind.

It will be the same thing with the beets. People are fallible, and
they are sloppy. Life (and death) sometimes gets in the way. Harvest
does not always occur. Rains come and wash planted seed downstream and
they sprout and grow outside the area maintained by mechanical
cultivators or seed is accidently scattered in unplanned places. In
large-scale commercial farming, harvest will only be done on a scale
that is fiscally profitable. I just do not buy the suggestion that any
extra effort will be expended to round up any plants that grow outside
the designated mechanical harvest area.

On top of that, Mother Nature is fickle. There is the way she usually
does things. But there is also usually an exception.

The effects of even a small-scale contamination of this sort will be
cumulative to those who save their own seeds. And contamination of
this sort will not be easily contained or reversed.

Elise



On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 6:49 AM, lucy Owsley <boulderbelt@voyager.net> wrote:
i know about the Monsanto vs Schmieser case. But canola is an ANNUAL crop
that makes flowers/pollen/seed/ the same year it is planted. beets are
BIENNIAL which means they have to be over wintered in order to make
flowers/pollen/seed the following year after they have been planted.

My point is the GMO beets grown for the suugar trade will be harvested long
before they go to seed.make pollen. Thus should not be a problem for anyone
growing out beets or chard for seed. And if this becomes a problem Isolate
the flowering beets with hoop houses (this is what I do with my chard I save
for seed)

Thus the argument that GMO beets are bad because they will cropss pollinate
is not a good argument and we can come up with much better ones. I have been
in the anti-GMO fight a long time (15+ years) and one thing I have learned
is if you come up with a bad arguement that the Biotech shills can poke
holes in they will and they will turn the argument back on you quickly and
with devistating effects. they are good at what they do. So choose your
arguements and examples carefully. beet pollen can be shot down too easily
(I just did it using the fact beets are beiennial and that a food crop will
be 100% harvested the 1st year so no pollen to contaminate non GMO beets the
second. this is basic plant sex people, don't get blinded by your rage)




On Feb 22, 2008, at 5:13 PM, mayo.eh wrote:

You might want to read about Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian grower sued by
Monsanto because their GMO pollen contaminated and ruined his crop!
http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

The website above explains the reason for, and the beginning of, the
lawsuit. The movie by Deb Garcia "The Future of Food" brings the story up
to date, explaining how Percy lost (not only the lawsuit but his life
savings) and Monsanto won this ridiculous suit. There are interviews with
other farmers as they experience the problem themselves and show their anger
at first, then do an about-face after Monsanto gets to them. It's
definitely worth watching. http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

Greenly,
Mayo

By the way, it's great to have this up and going with seed and plant
questions. Thank you, Lawrence.




Because when I grow beet or sweet chard seed organically to supply organic
farmers and gardeners, some of the GMO pollen will get into the female
flowers of my organic beets or chard and then my organic seed will be
contaminated. Then someone tests the seed and finds GMO and then it would
no longer be organic nor pure and I would have my crop rejected. I did not
ask for the pollen to come and contaminate my table beet seed or swiss chard
seed - it is trespassing on my place - but I (or other organic seed grower)
would be the loser - the victem. Don' t think that is worth caring about?

----- Original Message -----
From: lucy Owsley <mailto:boulderbelt@voyager.net>
To: seedkeepers <mailto:seedkeepers@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:28 PM
Subject: Re: [seedkeepers] Thanks to Lawrence

I am unhappy about GMO sugar beets but why is everyone paranoid about GMO
Beet pollen flying around. Beets are biennial and so will be harvested long
before they go to flower so should not be a threat in this way.

If we are going to fight this do not give bad reasons for banning these
seeds/plants because this just gives the genejockys fuel to keep on going
with this.


On Feb 22, 2008, at 3:50 PM, Woody wrote:

Did you know that the few companies that control sugar beet production (and
beet sugar production) in the USA are quietly switching over to ROUNDUP
READY sugar beets with MONSANTO technology? Yes, right now as we
converse, beet seed growers in Oregon's Willammett Valley are transplanting
planting vernalized plugs for the first mass seed crop of GMO seed.
This means:
Beet Sugar and all products that contain this ingredient will most likely be
GMO
Pollen from GMO sugar beets will soon be flying all over the sugar beet seed
growing regions potentially contaminating table beet seed and swiss chard
seed.
Organic seed growers are threatened by GMO contamination!!!!
The Organic Seed Alliance along with High Mowing Seed and the Center for
Food Safety and others has filed suit against the USDA APHIS for allowing
this without proper environmental impact review but there will be no
imediate injunction against the planting out of this GMO material. See
www.seedalliance.org for more information.
I wonder if B.T. Cabbage won't be next. And then what? The government
continues to approve these monsters without due process and prudent review.
The government continues to resist demands to require labeling of GMO
products.


Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com





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Lucy Goodman
Boulder Belt Eco-Farm
Eaton, OH
http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com





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