The Organic Food Industry Is In Serious Trouble, IMO

[tex]

Hi All,

This is just my opinion, mind you, but I truly believe that attempting to resolve the issues discussed in this article, amounts to a classic case of .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080312/us_ ... ation_dc_1

They can give lip service to this all they want, (and I do sympathize with them), but the fact of the matter is that the cat is out of the bag, and will never go back in there. IMO, the organic industry is just going to have to accept GMO, and consider it to be a "natural" event, (if the "organic" label is to continue to exist, because in many commodity lines, if any non-GMO-contaminated supplies still exist, they won't be around much longer, because GMO strains are now ubiquitous. I realize that this is a tough "pill" to swallow, but non-GMO items, in many product lines, either no longer exist, or will no longer exist in the near future.

As a farmer, I can guarantee you that out in the country, where all but a tiny percentage of the food that sustains the world is produced, virtually everyone plants at least some GMO varieties of the common crops that they produce. Since cross pollination of any similar crops within a radius of up to several miles is a common, (and perfectly normal), event, virtually everything that is not grown in a greenhouse, is exposed to GMO genes, and therefore expresses those genes in it's seed crop, after pollination. Even if that were not the case, no one in general commercial production bothers to segregate GMO varieties from non-GMO varieties, during harvest - it all goes into the same trucks, and into the same storage bins.

Granted, there are a few isolated growers that valiantly attempt to maintain pure genetics in their production, but unless that grower is separated from other growers by at least 20 or 30 miles, then he/she has no control over the actual genetic purity of their production. Anything else is wishful thinking, and entirely at the mercy of the winds, pollinating insects, etc. (Try to tell a bee that they can't legally visit both non-GMO and GMO crops, while they are making their rounds gathering, (and distributing), pollen).

The bottom line, unfortunately, is that 100% pure non-GMO crops are history, and will never again be available. I wish that statement were not true, but considering what is happening in the real world, I don't see how anyone could logically argue otherwise.

Tex

[mini]

Hi Tex

I agree with your point on the problem, living in what is basically a rural area of England farming is a big industry and I have heard this view from local farmers. I did buy as much organic produce as I could previously however, I now wonder if paying that extra cost is worth it!

[mle_ii]

FWIW the label Organic doesn't mean what it used to, at least in the US. But this sort of stuff doesn't make things much better either. :(

Never knew much about this until I read the "Omnivore's Dilemma", 3/4 of the way done and a very good book by the way. :)

Thanks,
Mike

[Polly]

Hi Tex,

I figured so much, but it is sad to know how true it is. It is especially worrisome to a double DQ like me, who will probably never be able to really know in the future what is upsetting her gut. Sigh.

I was reading about a company that has developed an interesting new experimental technology for growing crops. They are grown vertically in plastic bags to maximize sun exposure, and far more can be grown per acre than with a field. I think they said they need only 5 % of the water needed in a field. The food can be grown herbicide and pesticide-free, too. So far they have successfully grown quite a few veggies and grains. Two food companies apparently recently partnered with this company to try it out on a larger scale. Perhaps in the future systems like this can grow "pure" seeds from seed banks - and avoid the GMO ones. Another advantage of this system is that it can be located anywhere - even in the middle of an urban environment.

I found out about this while researching alternative energy technologies. This same system (there is a prototype in El Paso) is growing algae in the plastic bags and harvesting the lipids from the algae to be used for making biofuels. Apparently this is much more efficient than with other crops like corn or palm. I think an acre of corn yields about 20-30 gallons of biofuel, while a recent trial with the algae yielded 33,000 gallons per acre! And they think that they may be able to identify algae strains that may yield 100,000-200,0000 gallons per acre. A set-up like this covering an area 1/10th the size of New Mexico (or about the size of my state, Marytand) could supply the entire transportation needs of the U.S. every year.

Of course, you and I have agreed to disagree about global warming, but I'll bet we could agree on this...... that we need to eliminate our dependence upon foreign oil - especially from the middle east.

Have a great week, my friend.

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Hi Polly,

Wow! Those algae are prolific little dudes, aren't they. I'm sure that growing food crops in plastic bags is a pretty expensive operation, on a per-acre basis, but we're at the point where all food production is getting to be very expensive, so that concept is looking better every day, and I do agree that it holds a lot of promise, especially in a world where most of the water goes to the cities, so that conventional irrigation is becoming less of an option for agriculture. Obviously, I also agree that we need to find a much better way of supplying our energy needs than continuing to rely on the middle east production.

Actually, while I don't have the foggiest idea what the fuel production per acre of corn might be by means of a biomass process, (if one ever actually reaches the point where it is commercially feasible), but as far as ethanol is concerned, an acre of corn yields roughly 300 to 600 gallons per acre, depending on the corn yield, of course. It takes roughly a million gallons of water to grow that acre of corn, though, and a lot more to turn it into ethanol. 100,000 gallons per acre looks pretty inviting, doesn't it.

Incidentally, have you seen the reports on desalinization progress made by the Aussies? The city of Perth, for example, opened a plant in late 2006, that now supplies about a fifth of their water needs from the Indian Ocean, and they're planning to build another, larger plant. The kicker is that the plant that is already in operation, supposedly gets most of it's power from a wind farm. It doesn't get much "greener" than that.

Thanks. I hope everything is going your way this week, too.

Love,
Tex