GMO is Poison

I had a disturbing discussion with a local organic pig farmer this morning at our local farmer’s market.  When I was buying some sausage I asked her if her pigs were GMO-free.  She shook her head and told me that pretty soon no meat farmer will be able to guarantee their pigs are GMO-free.

Genetically Modified Organisms are here to stay.  

We talked about cross pollination and the fact that buying semen from pigs online to diversify their blood line will likely be contaminated from GMO.  In 5 to 10 years, most corn seed will likely have traces of GMO genes.

Today, there are 5 grains that are GMO: corn, soy, barley, alfalfa and rice.  Many of these grains are used to produce processed foods.  Even if the ingredients don’t include these grains, many of the ingredients are the by-products of processing these grains or may be cooked in oils pressed from GMO grain.

I support the initiative to label GMO foods but I’m realizing now that labeling is only a temporary stop-gap.  In years to come, how will we certify that foods are not GMO when traces will likely show up in all crops that have GMO versions and the animals that eat them?

The only solution is to stop the introduction of any new GM organisms and prosecute the companies that have damaged our food system.  If we can sue tobacco companies for poisoning our bodies when we have a choice, we can certainly hold companies responsible for destroying our food system and poisoning our children without us even knowing it!

If you doubt the toxicity of GMO, you need to watch the documentary Genetic Roulette.  I passed this movie along to a friend who’s 3 year old son is suffering from severe gastrointestinal issues and they are experimenting with a 60 day purge of GMO foods to see if it will help.

I spent last weekend at a Sustainable and Growing Local Conference in Tatnall County, Georgia.  In addition to learning about organic and sustainable agriculture, I learned about a documentary on Genetically Modified Organisms and how they are destroying our food system and our families.  

GMO is an experiment to “improve” our system of growing food that has successfully sustained human kind for thousands of years.  Scientists are mutating organisms such as corn, soybeans and other cash crops in order sell patented seeds and chemicals.  In the process, they are reducing the nutrition of the crops and making our families and children sick.

I am an advocate of science and technology but do not support unregulated experiments that can harm us and our food system.

The Institute for Responsible Technology has released a documentary on GMO and Monsanto that clearly presents the threat of GMO.  Please watch this video and share it with your friends and family.  Spread the word that we need to push Congress to require labeling of GMO foods so we can choose to buy only Non-GMO foods and protect our food system.

Fall Crop of Spinach

I live in the SouthEastern United States.  One of the disadvantages is the hot, dry summers but one of the nice perks of a warm climate is the extended growing season.

This year, I prepared a fall crop of spinach in a new bed just by my driveway.  Spinach is a little difficult to get started in a warm climate but here’ s how I got the job done.

Germinating the Seeds

As I mentioned previously, spinach is not easy to germinate in warm climates for a fall crop.  If I just put the seeds in the bed, the temperature doesn’t get cold enough to trigger the seeds to germinate.  I learned from Janisse Ray how to do this in the South in her book, Seed Underground.

I placed the seeds in some damp soil in a ziplock plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator.  After about 2-3 weeks, I had nice seedlings intermingled in the cold, damp soil.  They are ready to plant.

Preparing the Bed

I have a small plot of dirt near my back door where I like to plant herbs in the spring.  I decided to prepare it this fall and plant spinach with the hopes of having a nice bed ready for spring as well.

I cleared the bed of most leaves and then used a small two cycle Ryobi tiller to break up the soil.  Once it was tilled, I added a bag of Black Kow and a bag of Mushroom Compost to fertilize the soil.  After mixing the soil well with a solid rake, I was ready to plant the spinach.

Planting Time

When you open the ziplock germination bag, you should see small spinach sprouts throughout the soil.  Be careful when you pull them apart not to break the seedlings.  I like to pull off small clumps and plant them evenly throughout the bed.  I don’t try to break apart each individual sprout.

After planting the sprouts, make sure to water the bed well every other day until the spinach is established.

I’m looking foward to a nice winter crop of spinach in late December and early January!

Does this sound like you?

Now that I’m in my late forties, I’m starting to take simple living to heart.  I’ve started making a list of what I want from my life, home and environment.  Here is a partial list:

1. I want to be out of the city and suburbs.
2. I want to live in a quiet setting where life is more about family, friends, neighbors and quality of life.
3. I want enough arable land that I can have a large garden to grow most of what I eat.
4. I may want chickens and animals to help raise most of what I eat.  However, I don’t want to be tied to the land and caring for animals. (I know, I can’t have the best of both worlds!)
5. I want to plant fruit trees in the yard and have mature nut-producing pecan trees nearby. (I live in Georgia)
6. I want some woods with wildlife like deer, dove, turkey and squirrel so I can hunt and have wild game in my diet
7. I want a small but adequate home that is super-efficient to the PassivHaus Institut standard.
8. I want a fresh supply of water from at least one deep well.
9. I want a solar array large enough to offset my daily electricity use
10. I want either a geothermal climate system or will settle for electric AC and propane as a heat source if I am offsetting electricity with solar energy production.  I will also leverage passive solar design to reduce energy usage for heating in the winter.
11. I want a Listeroid or other diesel generator as backup and convert it to burn biodiesel or waste vegetable oil
12. I want to collect rainwater from the roof and have underground storage for the runoff water.
13. I want a large underground diesel tank for fuel storage.
14. I want a diesel tractor and implements

I have started looking at properties that meet these requirements.  I hope to find an inexpensive piece of property with a house that would be a good starting point to upgrade with the improvements listed above.  My hope is that I can buy the land and farmhouse now and rent it until I’m ready to settle there.

For me, slow food also involves living a simple lifestyle and making good decisions on habits as well as the food you eat.  I guess you could call it choosing the sustainable choice and lifestyle.

Wish me luck.

While some of these recipes don’t guarantee every aspect of slow food, they provide a solid foundation for any individual or family interested in adopting these practices.

Please share with us your slow food recipes and we’ll add them to the collection!

Slow Food Recipe Collection at Old South Cooking Journal

Greek Communal Oven

For thousands of years in the Middle East and along the coast of the Mediterranean sea, small villages shared a communal oven for their baking and cooking needs. Traditionally, the ovens were made from a clay, sand and straw mixture known as “cob.” Villagers would bring their risen loaves of bread to the oven to bake their bread for the day.  They would return later in the day for cooking lunch and dinner meals. The communal hearth became a gathering point where neighbors would share in the daily routine.

To me, this is the ultimate version of slow food. Taking the time to make meals a time of fellowship is an ancient ritual. It brings people and families closer together. There is a movement in the US and other countries to revive this tradition both at the family and neighbor level.

The New York Times reported on a gathering in California of chefs and Michael Pollan, a well-known local food expert and author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” They fired up an earth oven in a backyard one afternoon and feasted on different local meats, vegetables and grains for 36 hours.

In searching the internet, you will find plans for cob ovens for the backyard that can be built with local materials that are either free or cost less than a hundred dollars.

My son and I built a fire pit in the backyard last year and often build fires on winter evenings after work and school that the whole family can enjoy. Typically, the night rounds up with some form of hot dog or sausage cooked on sticks over the fire and marshmallows for s’mores at the end of the night.

After viewing several plans for earth ovens, we may make our next backyard project a Georgia red clay oven! Putting it right next to the fire pit should make a nice addition to a backyard gathering place.

Forage Restaurant - Los Angeles, California

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are of hunting and fishing trips with my father where the game we caught was cooked by a local hotel or restaurant.  I remember a fishing trip to Wyoming for cutthroat trout that ended at the hotel dining room with fresh trout fixed several different ways for our whole family.

In the spirit of providing your own ingredients, a restaurant in Los Angeles, CA has taken the local food movement one step closer to it’s customers.  Instead of sourcing produce from local organic farms, Jason Kim, the chef/owner of Forage Restaurant, is working with his customers who have small gardens to provide produce to the restaurant from their backyards.

Many of Kim’s customers have small backyard gardens where they grow fruits and vegetables both as a hobby and as a fresh, organic food source.  Often, they produce more than they can consume and end up giving their produce to neighbors and family.  In some cases, much of it goes to waste.

Chef Kim takes in the excess fruits and vegetables from these gardener-customers and gives them dining credits in the restaurant.  During the peak season, a dozen backyard gardeners supply close to 35 % of the produce served at Forage restaurant.  Many of the items are rare and exotic varieties of produce that are not available from commercial suppliers.  Some of the dishes that Kim makes from this produce are not available at any other restaurant in Los Angeles.

Kim’s method of acquiring produce has had its share of issues.  Once the city found out about the practice, they cracked down and told Kim he could not take in produce from unapproved sources.  To keep the program going, he helped his local growers get state certifications similar to how farmer’s markets are approved for distribution.

In many states, sustainable communities are built around a small community farm that supplies fresh, local organic produce to the residents through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program where members buy shares in the produce grown throughout the season.  This allows the grower and consumer to share in the risk.  Consumers pay a fixed amount to provide upfront resources to the grower to prepare the crops and maintain them.  The consumers only receive their share of what is produced on the farm during the season.

Serenbe Community

In Georgia, the Serenbe Community has a similar model but also provides produce from its farm to restaurants in the community and in downtown Atlanta.  They also attend farmer’s markets and offer shares of their CSA to members outside of the Serenbe Community.

Imagine if local communities that are not built around an organic farm provided fruits and vegetables from their backyard gardens to local restaurants and farmer’s markets?  Maybe farmer’s markets would become more like local “Swap Meets”?  It could bring on a whole new dimension to the Saturday Yard Sale.

Please share your comments with us.  If you would like to participate in the discussion of sustainability and local food issues, visit the Mapawatt Community’s Sustainability of Food forum.

Grow your own Slow Food

There are several answers that describe slow food.  It depends who you ask.  If you are impatient and you are at a restaurant with slow service, you might be inclined to assume that is “slow food.”  If you really don’t like fast food, you might want to focus on the exact opposite and look for “slow food.”  For purposes of this website, we are talking about food that is grown, harvested, prepared cooked and eaten without any involvement of packaging or processing and hopefully little transportation as well.  You could say this site is about slow and local food since they both have tremendous benefits to those who partake of this way of eating and living.  When you grow your own food or buy from local farmers, you’ll often get organic produce that uses little or no petroleum-based fertilizers.  Therefore, we’re talking about slow, local, organic food.

Why Slow Food?

Slow food is healthier than fast or processed food. If you prepare and eat it in a healthy way that retains most of its original nutrients you can really benefit from slow food.

Slow, local, organic food saves energy and petroleum. It is good for your health and good for our environment.

Slow food tastes better and is fun to grow and harvest.  There is nothing like a home-grown heirloom tomato picked fresh and eaten right away.  Picking and eating fresh sugar snaps from the vine is a real treat

Shopping at local organic farmer’s markets and meeting local farmers is fun and helps you to get to know an important group of folks in your community.

How do I find Slow Food?

If you’ve never had your own vegetable garden, a great way to start eating slow food is to go to the Local Harvest website and search for farmers in your area.  This site is a great resource for finding farmers and markets that are near where you live.

Technically, you can get started with slow food by cutting back on how often you eat at restaurants and try to be more discerning about where you go when you eat out.  Many communities have healthy, organic restaurant options to choose from that is better for you and better than your typical fast food restaurant.

Thank you for visiting Slow Food Journal.  I hope you’ll come back to visit or sign up for our RSS feed to get our latest articles on eating simple and living simple with slow food!

Read the whole article on Polyface Farms’ Sustainable Model on the Mapawatt Blog.

A resource for living and eating a simple and healthy lifestyle!

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