ABOUT GMOs - Support both our health & the environment

Saying no to GMOs = support the bees & our health!

GMO= GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM

Issues associated with GMOs

The main concern I have associated with GMO use is the use of chemical spray and how that impacts our health & the environment. There have been some pretty great things that have come out of GMO's, not going to deny that! Seedless watermelon is probably my favourite!

That being said the main issue that concerns me about GMO agriculture is related to a chemical spray called RoundUp made of glyphosate, a synthetic compound (said to be a neurotoxin) created by Monsanto- now Bayer.

A plant can be grown from a seed genetically modified to be resistant to RoundUp, therefore it will not die in the field when the crop is drenched in spray- but everything else will, making us humans have the ability to farm thousands of kilometers of food without man power, and instead with machines that spray, till and harvest.

What is the disadvantage to all this? We can see wildlife negatively impacted, such as a decrease in pollinators (due to the neurotoxin), local wild species patterns and in nearby waterways due to the chemical runoff from the crops. Not to mention when farming is done mono-cropped with massive machines, it kills small animals in the ground and living on the fields.

Did you hear that quote by Einstein? "If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, Man would only have four years left to live".

I used to work on an organic farm out in Cumberland, Ontario. It was here I learned about bee keeping and producing fresh, delicious honey! Years later, I am still in touch with the farmer who mentored me, and he tells me about how he loses hives every year (hundreds of thousands of bees dead), due to the surrounding properties that use chemical spray on their corn and soy fields.

Another disadvantage I see to this type of farming, also referred to as 'monocropping'- which is when you grow the same crop for many kilometers and perhaps even dedicate a whole farm to one crop, is it loses the real heart of farming and does not value the importance of healthy soil!

Why organic?

Traditional practices of agriculture, such as crop rotation, manure, cover crops, crop pairing, etc. all have the goal of nurturing and preserving and promoting quality soil. This in turn produces a more nutritious and resilient plant without the need for synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

Can pesticide spray harm our health?

• Farmer's are told to wear suits when they are in contact...

• California health tried to add glyphosate to the carcinogen list and Monsanto sued them...

• Residues of glyphosate are recorded in the average mother's breast milk...

Did you know? To grow organic produce in a field that has been exposed to chemical spray legally it must be detoxed for 3 years.

This is why I aim to buy GMO-free foods (and our product line follows same path), I believe supporting traditional chemical-free farming techniques is more sustainable in the long run.

Samantha