The story of how I came to be touring Monsanto starts back in late April and a blog post where I questioned the current tenor of the GMO debate. It caught the attention of Janice Person, a Social Media Director for Monsanto, who commented, “if you ever want to see what we do at Monsanto, I would love […]
November 19, 2013
Time to be truthful – which do you find more appetizing, the tossed salad pictured to the left, or the vegetable smoothie featured below? They both likely contain similar levels of vitamins and nutrients, probably many of the same ingredients (although it’s impossible to tell exactly what’s in that smoothie, apart from it being predominantly […]
October 31, 2013
Recently, I’ve been engaging in a lot of Twitter discussions and sharing some blog posts about attitudes in agriculture, the future of farming, and overcoming the divisions that seem to exist between organic and conventional farmers. I could go into a long discussion here about the causes of this problem, apportioning blame to farmers and […]
October 16, 2013
As we gathered squash from the field one evening, my 5 year-old son paused to ask me this question.
September 21, 2013
Shortly after I published my last blog post on GM Alfalfa Coexistence, a couple of people contacted me, wanting to know my reaction to the specifics of the Best Management Practices that were included as part of the plan. Of course, shortly after the post went up, it was also confirmed that the hay exported by […]
September 14, 2013
This week, the Canadian Seed Trade Association (an industry lobby group composed of seed and seed treatment suppliers), published “Planning for Choice: A Coexistence Plan for Alfalfa Hay Production in Eastern Canada.” Judging by the “Facilitating Choice Through Coexistence” webpage, this publication appears to be positioned as a “flagship” plan for a larger “coexistence project.” […]
August 20, 2013
Originally posted on Carolyn CAREs:
My Twitter feed is increasingly making me crabby. I follow a pretty diverse group, both conventional and organic farmers, a variety of agriculture businesses, and a wide range of bloggers. Why is it that every morning, my twitter feed is clogged with more conventional farmers putting down organic agriculture? The…
August 14, 2013
Dairy products have featured prominently in my Twitter feed today, so I wanted to share this series of videos featuring the farmers of the Organic Meadow Co-operative. In my opinion, this is an ideal way to promote a food product: the producers telling their own stories, sharing their own thoughts and experiences, communicating their pride […]
August 13, 2013
Hi all, I’ve been pretty quiet on this blog for the past couple of months: the demands of the farm, kids on summer vacation, and other projects have taken their toll on my writing time. Nevertheless, I’ve been compiling ideas for future posts, and I have even been invited to author guest posts on other […]
June 7, 2013
Recently, I’ve been part of some discussions relating to the use of enzymes derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in organic cheese production. The concern, or the assumption, is that they are employing the same GMO-derived chymosin (known less precisely as “rennet”) as about 70% of the cheese on the market today. That didn’t sound […]
December 13, 2013
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