Hawaii’s idyllic, self-sustaining past came to a brutal halt in the 1960s, when the archipelago became ground zero for the world’s largest chemical companies to test their most dangerous proprietary pesticides and turn it into a GMO food factory. Filmmaker Cyrus Sutton delves into this question of sustainability, genetic engineering, and homeland in the new film “Island Earth.”

The 63-minute documentary, which is available to the public on iTunes, follows the journey of Cliff Kapono, a PhD candidate and scientist, to understand Hawaii’s complicated connection to GMO food. While he believes in the power of genetic modification to further the development of better, more resistant foods, he also understands the way the technology has been used by chemical companies and the devastation it has caused.

Through interactions with people on both ends of this complex spectrum of thought and philosophy, Kapono becomes the viewer’s guide.

Hawaii’s Self-Sustaining Past

The film offers a glimpse at what island nations such as Hawaii once were – “entire worlds” in the era before globalization, according to Peter Vitousek, Ph.D, Professor of Biology at Stanford University. Before Europeans arrived, the population of Hawaii was even greater than once it was colonized, and yet the islands produced enough food to feed everyone. This was thanks to native Hawaiians’ ingenious use of the natural resources of the island: water trickling from the sacred forests would seep into the taro terraces below before journeying further, through the villages, to where fish ponds on the coast naturally sourced fish from the oceans.

These pre-colonial systems were scrapped, and today, while approximately half of Hawaii’s land is designated for agricultural use according to the Hawaii Data Book, the state imports between 80 and 90 percent of its food; commercial crops grown on the island are shipped elsewhere (and often return to Hawaii in processed form).

Because Hawaii has three growing seasons, the island is subjected to three times as much pesticides, and they have the acute instances of illness to prove it, including one at a school highlighted in the film.

“Within two generations, Hawaiians have become canaries in the coal mine for a tangled web of public policy and private interests,” notes a press release for the film.

GMO Food: Walking the Line Between Innovation and Destruction

The film effortlessly toes the line with regards to GMO technology, addressing the danger posed by Big Ag yet offering a measured view of the scientific possibilities afforded by GMOs.

Dennis Gonsalves, retired Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Cornell and director of the USDA’s Pacific Basin Agricultural Center, is one interlocutor who explains the ways in which genetically engineered papaya saved the papaya industry in Hawaii after most of it was wiped out by disease. Today, 85 percent of the papaya grown in Hawaii is genetically engineered.

“I felt like my mind changed while making the film,” notes Sutton of his own preconceptions with regards to GMO food. “It was only after interviewing people who had devoted a large part of their lives to understanding the technology that I realized that it would be irresponsible of me to villainize it.”

But the film also illustrates how the GMO food crisis reached its breaking point in Hawaii.

“GMOs originally came on the industrial agriculture scene to reduce the amount of pesticides needed by creating traits that would make plants stronger in fighting pests and disease,” says Kapono. “But somewhere along the way, it seems something has changed.”

The issue highlighted by the scientists in the film is compared quite appropriately with a similar issue plaguing the medical industry: companies sell seeds that are resistant to their pesticides to sell more chemicals, just like drug companies sell medicines that treat symptoms rather than curing illnesses: this isn’t treating the problem, but rather selling a temporary solution.

The film effortlessly builds rage and indignation in the viewer, as it explores 2016 legislation that maintained that Maui could not ban GMO food production or Dustin Barca’s 2014 campaign for mayor of Kauai on a platform of fighting GMO food in Hawaii, which failed in the face of incumbent Bernie Carvalho.

“Now it’s really just time to lead by example,” says Barca, going back into his garden to continue the hard work.

In fact, Sutton made the bold decision to end the film on this loss.

“I had an original ending that was more of a call to action,” says Sutton. “I felt like it was disingenuous. It was more accurate to end bittersweet.”

Locals Are Fighting the Good Fight

Barca, who is also an MMA fighter, is not the only local battling the GMO food issue in Hawaii.

The film also features Dashiell (Dash) Kuhr, founder and director of Hawai’i Institute of Pacific Agriculture (HIP Agriculture), where he explains the notion of a permaculture garden or “food forest,” a project that he says needs “very little energy” to maintain.

Hawaiian cultural practitioner and educator Malia Chun, meanwhile, says that as a working parent who doesn’t have the time to grow her own food, she is doing what she can by voting with her dollar.

“The only way these corporations are able to survive and thrive is because we keep feeding them our money,” she says.

“Part of what drew me to make the film was just being inspired by the level of ownership of community that local people have,” says Sutton. “Time will tell, but I think if anyone has a good shot, I think they do.”

Related on EcoSalon
Ho’oponopono: What Hawaii Taught Me About Forgiveness and Healing
Non-GMO Project Brings Transparency to Organic Foods
What’s the Latest in Genetically Modified Foods? Apples that Don’t Turn Brown: Foodie Underground

The post ‘Island Nations’ Highlights Hawaii’s GMO Food Battle (and It Doesn’t Look the Way You’d Think) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Horror films are typically about that one guy with the mask and the knife that moves reeeal slow, or that one ghost child who likes to eat souls. Well, horror fans, it’s time to get acclimated to a new genre of horror film, and it’s positioned to be the most terrifying one ever.

Horror movies about climate change, environmental disasters, GMOs, and scientifically engineered nasties, are “in.” This shouldn’t be surprising, considering the world is in a whole lot of trouble. (Hellllo, climate change.)

While this horror genre is still in its infancy, we’ve recently seen a few titles that any horror fan and climate enthusiast could enjoy.

1. “Consumed”

This film is a tad less horrific than the others and much less gory (in fact, there’s no real gore at all), but it still manages to get its point across. (The point being that GMO food isn’t labeled and we really don’t know what it could be doing to our guinea pig-esque human bodies… Playing screenings now.)

2. “Unearth”

“Unearth” was recently backed on Kickstarter and thank goodness for that because we can’t wait to see this horror story come to life. I mean, just read the description:

“Inspired by increasing environmental concerns ripped from today’s headlines, “Unearth” is a uniquely American horror story about two neighboring farm families whose relationships and very lives are put to the test when one of them chooses to lease their land and have it drilled for natural gas.” (No word on a release date.)

3. “Unnatural”

This is probably the silliest pick on the list, but what is a horror list without a creature feature? In this film, scientists decide to genetically modify Alaskan polar bears after global climate change makes it tough for them to live. Needless to say, the science project doesn’t go well and horrific things happen. (Available on VOD.)

4. “The Bay”

This is the oldest film on the list, but it’s worth a watch. “The Bay” is a found-footage film that tracks what happens to a small town when invasive sea creatures take over the town’s bay. A lot of people end up incredibly sick and dead, and it’s all because of a cover up. Be aware: This film is not for the faint of heart or those with squeamish stomachs.

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Women watching movie via Shutterstock

The post 4 Horror Movies That Climate Change Deniers Need to See appeared first on EcoSalon.

Genetically modified food is a hot button issue. But state labeling bills keep failing to pass. Could it be that we’re not as informed about the issue as we think? 

While Oregon is still counting ballots from the vote earlier this month that was favored to win, Colorado’s GMO labeling ballot initiative lost by a landslide. Much of that has to do with the millions of dollars spent by Big Food and Ag to defeat the measure. But we can’t blame them entirely, can we?

A few weeks ago while shopping at my local farmers market, I overheard a conversation that stopped me in my tracks:

Woman: Are these avocados genetically modified?

Vendor: No, ma’am, they’re certified organic. See the sign?

Woman: Yes, but how do I know they’re not GMO? There’s so much genetically modified food out there.

At this point, I politely butted in and told the confused woman that for one, there are no genetically modified avocados commercially available, and second, the organic certification ensure customers that whatever food they’re buying is not genetically modified. The seller looked relieved but the woman became even more confused and challenged my response: “Why should I believe that there are no GMO avocados? Basically everything we eat is GMO.”

I knew it was a losing battle, so I took my organic avocados and suggested she spend some time researching it. But I couldn’t get the conversation out of my head. It reminded me of another chat I had with an acquaintance several years ago. She has celiac disease, the condition that makes digesting gluten somewhat of a nightmare. She casually told me the reason she developed the disease was likely due to all the genetically modified wheat. Which, I gently told her, doesn’t actually exist. She also refused to believe me, so I changed the subject, not wanting to press the issue.

In Jeremy Seifert’s award winning film, “GMO OMG”, he polls random people about what GMOs are. Jimmy Kimmel recently conducted a similar stunt, and the results are funny but also really sad because they illustrate that not only do Americans have no idea what they’re eating, they don’t really seem to care very much. They may say they want to avoid eating GMOs with firm resolve, but when it comes down to explaining in the simplest terms what a GMO is, most people are stumped, confused and misinformed.

But if we really want “the right to know” what’s in our food, we have to be better informed. We should know the most common culprits for GMOs (soy, corn, canola, sugar beets, cottonseed oil, meat, eggs, dairy). We should also know which foods are generally safe, like whole, unprocessed foods, like avocados, organic or not.

It’s also probably in our best interest to not lambast Monsanto ad nauseum, even though the company is hegemonic and largely responsible for genetically modified food and the herbicide (Roundup) most often used on the crops. But it’s not the only company producing GMO seeds. Others, like Syngenta, Dow, Dupont and Bayer CropScience are creating numerous genetically modified seeds and companion pesticides and herbicides that threaten our food, health and environment. To localize our frustration on one company can prevent us from seeing the damage these other companies are causing until it’s too late.

We can’t assume that illuminati-affiliated evil overlords are producing all of our food. Victimization can be crippling. We do still have choices – lots of them. And if we want to see GMO labeling ballot initiatives pass, we have to peer past the fear-mongering of sites like Natural News and Foodbabe just as much as we have to look past the Big Food and Ag companies telling us their products are perfectly safe, sustainable and environmentally sound.

Fifty years ago we really could be misinformed. A lot of that cluelessness has led us to this point in the first place. We’ve given corporations too much wiggle room, and now they’re intent on taking even more. But we’re too connected now to be misinformed. There’s too much at stake. Do we want to be actively engaged in deciding what type of future our children will inherit or do we want to play Words with Friends?

A revolution doesn’t have to be an uprising. It can be a slow shift over time, successful mostly as a result of our spending power. But we tend to look at revolution like other things that are healthy for us – like that juicer sitting in the cabinet. It’s right there. We know it has the power to change our lives, but all we can think about is the hassle of taking it all apart, cleaning it out and then putting it back together. But now more than ever, we need to do what we can to get informed on the issue of genetically modified food. Then, we need to vote for labeling every time we can and be able to talk with our friends and family about this issue. It’s everyone’s right to know and everyone’s responsibility.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: Nigel Hanlon

The post Do You Really Know Enough About Genetically Modified Food? appeared first on EcoSalon.

How could something so good be so bad? While quinoa has become a superfood, its close cousin is a superweed. It’s called Palmer amaranth and it’s resistant to pesticides. While we import quinoa from Peru and can’t get enough of this protein-rich staple, we can’t seem to get rid of Palmer amaranth.

It’s wreaking havoc on our nation’s farmland, specifically in Iowa. The superweed can grow seven feet tall and in the process it can sprout 600,000 tiny seeds. What’s more, Palmer amaranth is increasingly resistant to herbicides. As a result, farmers are using older, more toxic herbicides to kill it.

GMO crops maybe causing the resistance, though scientists haven’t proved this yet. But it has been shown that an over abundance of GMO crops and the use of glyphosate to control weeds, is making American farms toxic, dead zones.

“If we use one single system, one tool to control a pest, Mother Nature will find a way around that tool,” Brent Wilson, a technical services manager at DuPont Pioneer, tells the Register. “That’s just the law of nature.”

To fight the resistant weed, biotech companies are trying to come up with new seeds that are resistant to numerous pesticides in the hopes that they can just dump a variety of poisons into a field and it will somehow do the trick, according to TakePart.

“Stacking up tolerance traits may delay the appearance of resistant weeds, but probably not for long,” the Nature piece reads, reported in TakePart. “Weeds are wily: farmers have already reported some plants that are resistant to more than five herbicides. And with glyphosate-resistant weeds already in many fields, the chances of preventing resistance to another are dropping.”

In the end, it’s a side effect of trying to poison nature, which will find a way to survive. It’s the misperception that you can just kill off everything but the crop. A healthy soil ecosystem is a must to producing a healthy crop and superweeds like Palmer amaranth are just a byproduct of trying to work against Mother Nature.

Related on EcoSalon

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Image: Delaware Agriculture

The post Palmer Amaranth: Is it a Supergrain or Superweed? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Oh, living a simple life. Do you look back to a time when distractions were few and family time was plentiful? Do you miss home-cooked fare and eating foods straight from the source? Dream of living like your ancestors? Here’s why you may want to consider living a simple life:

Modern medicine has done a lot with the extension of life. It used to be common to die while giving birth, or from what today would be considered an easily treatable infection. But even as modern medicine extends our lives, our own bad habits may once again shorten them. Diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and depression are a byproduct of a sedentary, overworked, and overfed society. This is where living like our ancestors comes into play.

1. The joy of the simple life on the farm.

Working out for an hour a day just isn’t enough to balance an entire day spent at a desk. My grandparents and their grandparents were farmers–they worked in the fields all day. The idea of paying for a gym membership to workout would have been humorous. That’s not to say that a daily work out isn’t a good thing. But the key is to attempt to be active throughout the day. Bike to work, take the stairs, walk after dinner, take the dogs for a stroll. You get the point.

2. Processed what?

Processed foods didn’t become a mainstay of the American diet until the 1950s. Today’s processed food market would still seem like a dream to our ancestors. Processed foods are calorie dense and often loaded with artificial flavors, colors, trans fats, and sugars. The more you can do without them, the better.

3. A world of distractions.

How often do you do just one thing at a time? It’s hard with so many distractions. Do you watch television and look on Instagram at the same time? With so many choices, it can be hard to pick one. But multi-tasking is the biggest myth ever invented. If you’re doing one thing, it’s impossible to do something else at the same time effectively. Try and minimize your distractions throughout the day. Remember a time when smartphones, televisions, and tablets were replaced by books and quiet time.

4. Organic didn’t have to be labeled.

Pesticides were largely non-existent until after World War II. Imagine if everything was organic. While today that may seem like a dream, buying organic or pesticide-free foods is no small deal. The market has grown to $35 billion per year. Skip the pesticides like your ancestors did.

5. GMOs in the food supply.

The first GMO to hit grocery stores didn’t come until 1994 when FDA approved the delayed-ripening tomato to have a longer shelf life than conventional tomatoes. My, how far we’ve come. Today, 95 percent of sugar beets, 94 percent of soybeans, 90 percent of cotton are GMO. Eat like your ancestors by choosing organic foods (which cannot be GMO) and avoid conventional foods that are commonly made with GMO ingredients, like the big three listed above.

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Photo: USDA 

The post 5 Reasons Living a Simple Life Like Your Ancestors is a Really Good Idea appeared first on EcoSalon.

Public outrage over genetically-modified foods is growing by the day. But is it OK to cross the line into vandalism? Recent actions by anti-GMO activists in Hawaii force us to decide.

A family farm in Puna, Hawaii, suffered from a recent act of eco-activism where over 100 genetically-modified papaya trees were cut down by machete during the night.

“It’s hard to imagine anybody putting that much effort into doing something like that. It means somebody has to have passionate reason,” said Delan Perry, vice president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association.

Genetically-modified (GM) papaya trees were introduced to the region to protect against ringspot virus. In 1992, the virus became widespread, infecting thousand of papaya trees by killing the plants leaves. As a result, the virus cost farmers millions of dollars in losses. The genetically-modified papayas, which are planted on the majority of farms in Puna, Hawaii, are resistant to the dangerous ringspot virus. And it’s estimated that the genetically-modified seed has saved Hawaii’s papaya industry over $11 million.

Puna is the center of Hawaii’s commercial papaya industry, and this incident of eco-activism wasn’t the first of its kind. In 2011, the same farm was attacked, with 3,000 genetically-modified papaya trees cut down over 10 acres. And only a year before 8,500 GM papaya trees were destroyed.

Should Genetically Modified Foods Be Destroyed?

There is a clear divide between consumers who support organic farming and those who support GMOs. Genetically-modified crops often tote reduced pesticide use, but reports show GMOs often require extra chemicals to combat weeds. Even more so, the untested effects of GMOs raise enormous concerns, and consumers are still fighting for the right to know through GMO labeling.

At first, those of us who oppose genetically-modified foods might cheer at this valiant act of civil disobedience. Yet, it quickly becomes apparent that each act of vandalism negatively impacts farmers who are already struggling to hold on to their land. The most recent attack on the genetically-modified papaya farm in Puna cost the family over $3,000 in lost crops.

“These farmers are working really, really hard to support their families,” says regional property owner Peter Houle. “They’ve done nothing wrong and they feel violated.”

If papaya farmers are only protecting planting genetically-modified seeds against the ringspot virus by , should they be punished in this way?

Images: Hawaii News Now

The post Activists Destroy Genetically-Modified Papaya Trees in Hawaii: Awesome or Too Far? appeared first on EcoSalon.

After a photo of a grocery store note went viral, the discussion about food marketed as “natural” got a lot more heated.

Natural cereal brand Kashi made headlines in recent weeks after information about the company’s corporate ownership and use of genetically modified and pesticide-containing ingredients went viral in the social media space. The firestorm was ignited by a photograph, taken of a note posted in a Rhode Island natural foods store explaining why the store had pulled Kashi products from its shelves. Since the image has made the rounds on the internet, customers and food bloggers have been up in arms, posting nasty messages on Kashi’s Facebook page and writing impassioned editorials expressing their disappointment and betrayal.

It’s all very dramatic, but it’s raised some important discussions on the marketing of natural products and the politics of genetically modified foods. One also has to wonder how much of the information circulating on the internet about the subject is valid, how much is exaggerated, and how much is downright false. In this week’s Behind the Label, we take a look at the facts behind the recent Kashi controversy.

The Good

Kashi was founded in 1984 by Phil and Gayle Tauber, a health-conscious couple living in La Jolla, California, who were passionate about whole-grain nutrition. The company’s first cereal, Kashi Breakfast Pilaf, contained a blend of seven whole grains and sesame, and its subsequent offerings included the same basic ingredients throughout a variety of natural breakfast foods. With its small line-up of products, Kashi grew slowly and steadily through the 1980s and 1990s, until the Kellogg Company purchased Kashi in 2000. The acquisition propelled Kashi’s distribution forward, turning it into a household name.

Today, Kashi continues to be “independently operated” in La Jolla (though we’re still not quite sure what that means when you’re owned by a corporation). The product line has grown to include snack bars, crackers, cookies, waffles, and frozen entrees, all stamped with words like “all natural” and “nutritious.” While Kashi does not specifically claim to use organic ingredients in all of its products, the company has taken steps toward greater supply chain sustainability, like releasing a handful of USDA certified organic products and working with the Non-GMO Project to verify the organic ingredients of seven of its cereals.

And just on Monday, in response to the consumer outrage of the past few weeks, Kashi general manager David DeSouza announced the Kashi Commitment, which stated that all new Kashi foods will be Non-GMO Project Verified and contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients, starting in 2015. The announcement also promised that all existing GoLean® Cereals and Chewy Granola Bars — the company’s most popular products — will be Non-GMO Project Certified by the end of 2014.

The Bad

The man behind the now-infamous note is John Wood, who owns The Green Grocer in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Wood told USA Today that he decided to remove Kashi products from his shelves after reading a report on natural cereals from the Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy group for family-scale farming.

The report, called “Cereal Crimes: How ‘Natural’ Claims Deceive Consumers and Undermine the Organic Label,” explores the difference between organic products and “so-called natural” ones, which the organization says tend to contain ingredients that are genetically modified and/or contain harmful pesticides. The report called out Kashi for its use of hexane-extracted soy protein, which is immersed in a bath of more than 50 percent n-hexane, a known neurotoxin. The report also included the findings of a GMO Mon 40-3-2 test on the soy ingredients contained in Kashi’s GoLean® cereal, which were shown to be 100 percent genetically modified.

Responding to the reaction generated from the note and report, general manager DeSouza told USA Today that Kashi had done nothing wrong, since the FDA does not regulate the term “natural.” The company also released a video from a Kashi team member and nutritionist, which aimed to dispel the “inaccurate information being circulated online about Kashi ingredients.” The response passed the buck for Kashi’s GMO usage to the fact that more than 80 percent of crops being grown in the United States are grown using GMOs and suggested that blame can be assigned to “factors outside our control,” like pollen drift and practices in agricultural storage, handling, and shipping.

The Cornucopia Institute immediately snapped back with a news item criticizing the video response, particular where the nutritionist calls Cornucopia’s information “scientifically inaccurate and misleading because it was not based on actual testing of Kashi products.”

“This characterization of our work by Kashi is blatantly false,” said Will Fantle, Cornucopia’s Research Director. “We purchased a readily available box of Kashi’s GoLean® cereal from a Whole Foods store. We then sent a sample to an accredited national lab for testing, finding that the soy in the natural cereal was 100% GMO.”

How dangerous are these findings, exactly? According to Cornucopia, studies have found health hazards and toxic effects associated with genetically modified soy, which “suggest” that there might be an effect on human health. However, they admit that the possibility has not been properly investigated. As for whether hexane-extracted soy protein is safe for consumption, the Soyfoods Association of North America says that it is because virtually all of the hexane is removed from the soybeans before they are processed. The FDA also recognizes hexane solvent extraction as a safe processing method, so long as residue levels don’t exceed a specified amount.

That information may not sway organic food purists, but it might comfort regular consumers who have been spooked by media reports into thinking that Kashi products have extremely high levels of poisonous toxins.

The Questionable

One of the most significant byproducts of the recent Kashi controversy is the resulting discussion, with consumers questioning what companies mean when they use words like “natural.” As DeSouza pointed out, the FDA doesn’t regulate this sort of language, so each company is left to define for themselves – and their customers – what their standards are. Kashi, for instance, defines natural as “food that’s minimally processed, made with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners.” Only their certified organic and Non-GMO Project Verified products claim to use organic ingredients that haven’t been genetically modified.

Another big shocker for many Kashi customers was the revelation that the company, which on its website represents itself as a small business – “after 25 years, still fewer than 70 of us” – is actually owned by Kellogg, the mega-corporation behind fellow cereal aisle brands like Froot Loops, Corn Pops, and Frosted Mini-Wheats. Nowhere on Kashi’s packaging is the Kellogg’s logo found, nor is Kashi listed on the Kellogg Company’s online list of brands. It’s obvious that both parties want to maintain the psychological distance that exists between Kashi and its high-fructose-corn-syrup-heavy sister brands on the supermarket shelf.

So what could have prevented the consumer outrage and Kashi’s extensive crisis management response? On the industry’s part, further definition of and regulations around the marketing of natural products. On Kashi’s and Kellogg’s part, greater transparency about their business relationship and practices. And on the customers’ part, due diligence and a more critical approach toward the products they choose to consume.

Image: New Hope 360, Mayce Hodges

The post Behind The Label: The Kashi Controversy appeared first on EcoSalon.

The good, the bad, and the downright delicious.

Food. For some people, it’s a simple necessity. For others, it’s a reason for living. Regardless of where you fall on the foodie spectrum, you’re sure to enjoy this selection of food infographics, which explore everything from seasonable eating to food waste to the optimum temperature for enjoying a (not ice) cold beer.

Eat Seasonably: an interactive look at what’s in season (click for interaction).

Understanding Artisan Gelato: and why it tastes better than regular gelato.

Bring Food Education Back: an infographic from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution that makes an argument for teaching kids about good food.

The Case for Beer: so it’s not technically food, but this infographic takes such a good look at beer that we’ll leave it in anyway.

Summertime American Eats: thanks, Pepto-Bismol, we now have heartburn just from looking at this

Food Waste: a reminder to finish your plate.

The Splendiferous Array of Culinary Tools: we sense our Foodie Underground fans drooling.

Kings of Fast Food: a look at how fast food advertisers lure us in.

Vegetarianism: for National Vegetarian Month, RetailMeNot breaks down the world of vegetarianism.

America Wants GMOs Labeled: so “just label it” already, FDA.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

10 Earth Day Infographics

Image: Selma Broeder

The post 10 Food Infographics That Have Us Consciously Consuming appeared first on EcoSalon.

VideoHow to get the right seeds from the right companies.

We’ve gone through the apartment gardening basics to help get you started with your urban garden.

Then we determined how much light your space gets to determine what vegetables you can grow.

Now it’s time to start getting your seeds.

When it comes to buying seeds for your garden, there a lot of choices out there and it might not seem like there is a difference between any of them. Since you are an EcoSalon reader, you want to support a company that respects the environment just as much as you. You also want to support a seed company that has the same values as you.

That’s why I want to share some trusted seed companies with you that you can get your seeds from. Check out the video below to see who some of those companies are.

After watching the video, let me know in the comments below, what seeds you are planning to buy.

Image: Kanu Hawaii

The post Buying from Vegetable Seed Companies You Can Trust appeared first on EcoSalon.

The GMO industry is like an out-of-control forest fire. Just when you think one section is tamped down, another spark is fanned into flames.

Just like a forest fire, there are many fronts in this fight, making it difficult to keep track of current developments.

Then there are the weapons at the fighters’ disposal. On one side of the battle, we have the equivalent of 5 gallon water buckets in the form of activist group petitions, email newsletters, and calls to Congressional representatives. On the other side, there are air tankers in the form of money and the influence it can buy (even to the point of influencing foreign governments). Increasingly, there’s something much more insidious than that on the side of GMOs – I’m going to go ahead and call it espionage.

Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that recently released WikiLeaks cables documented how diplomats in the Bush Administration had attempted to influence The Vatican to voice its support for biotech crops. Other leaks showed how embassy officials in France had urged the U.S government to retaliate, through unfavorable trade policies, against countries in the EU that refused to approve GMO crops.

Equally shocking, an article in The Nation last fall about Blackwater (the private security firm that has come under fire for its role in Iraq regarding massacres of innocent civilians, and has since rebranded) detailed how Monsanto hired Total Intelligence Solutions (a firm owned by Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince) to infiltrate and spy on anti-GMO groups. The article states that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008-09 to act as an intelligence arm of Monsanto to survey the Internet activity of activist groups and protect the Monsanto brand. Internal emails obtained by The Nation talked about how individuals from Total Intelligence could join activist groups (especially animal rights activists) and report back on group activities.

Now that we know what we’re up against weapon-wise, here’s a rundown of current hot spots in GMOs:

GE Alfalfa: The most urgent issue right now is the imminent approval of GE alfalfa by the USDA. Read about how GE alfalfa will jeopardize organic food and farmers here. Take Action here. You have until February 16^th.

GE Salmon: The FDA decision on GE salmon is stalled so the fight has moved to California. With the feds unwilling to listen to consumer groups, these issues are increasingly up to the states. In the event that GE salmon is approved, California has a bill that would require any GE salmon sold in California to be labeled. Take action here.

GE Sugar Beets: In early December, Judge Jeffrey White, a Federal Judge in Northern California ordered genetically modified sugar beets to be pulled from the ground and destroyed after determining that the beets were approved by the Agriculture Department and planted illegally without proper environmental review. Now the USDA and the sugar industry are predicting a shortage of sugar, but it’s a shortage they manufactured. When Judge White originally ruled that the USDA had violated environmental laws by not conducting a full review before approving the crop in 2005 he warned that future beet harvests would likely need to rely on conventional seed. According to the New York Times, the judge expressed irritation that the USDA and Monsanto waited almost a year after his ruling to enact interim measures to ensure farmers would have enough conventional seed. No action to take on this one right now, but definitely an issue to watch.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: Olibac

The post The Green Plate: Flare-Ups In Frankenfood appeared first on EcoSalon.