By John Ubaldo, John Boy’s Farm Newsletter, July 9, 2012
…As early as last week someone came to my stand and asked the age old question. “is it organic?” When I tell them my stuff is better than organic they look at me with a pitiful look like I am a sarcastic teenager and need to grow up. Oh the effect of marketing. I have always slammed commercial organic farming because it is so far from it and always come up against people who think that little green label means it is safe and better. Oooops. The truth is, the only reason, and the only reason organic food is more expensive is the chemicals they use to grow it, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc. are all organic and cost more to make. Oh John, how could you say that?!!! Evil farmer. No that is true.
So when the article came out in the NY Times this weekend….VINDICATION! Although it only exposed the surface of the corruption of the commercial organic industry, it showed how it was controlled by the big companies, completely changes and violates rules for profit and uh oh, allows non organic items, to be used in organic products. This can’t be? Oh yeah folks, it sure is. So all of my ranting is not without vindication and as Barlow put it “corroboration” So when you go to the supermarket, don’t feel so fuzzy about the organic stuff, just be careful and be choosy.
When I set out to farm, not knowing what I was getting in to, I had no idea I would be in the middle of one of the most perilous situations our country has faced. Our food systems. Gmos are destroying our crop land, environment and health. That is a whole other story you can be sure to hear about the end of the week. Love a new audience. I wanted to grow the cleanest food possible. After seeing what gmo’s do to animals and watching some of my friends be put out of business by using gmo corn, I quickly learned we needed to control the feed the animals were eating. We only use non gmo grains in our animal feed. Seed lines that go back to the late 1800′s. No pesticides, no herbicides. Clean grain. I then source the best livestock vitamins and minerals you can buy. Vitamins that blow away the quality of the garbage they sell for humans. A whole other issue. The animals live out on pasture and in the woods all year round. We don’t use any drugs, antibiotics, hormones etc. Just not needed. So the meat you eat is completely clean, contains nothing, zero. On the other hand, every single piece of meat, organic, free range or otherwise you buy in the store, contains 7-26 different chemicals from hormones to antibiotics, mercury, arsenic etc. You wonder why we are one of the most unhealthy countries in the world. It’s not “supersizing” It’s the garbage in the “supersize”
I am going to leave you with one of the most shocking sentences I have read in a long time, “The US is the only developed country in the world that has no regulation, labeling or testing of gmo products.” If that doesn’t scare the S98^& out of you or infuriate you, “welcome to McDonald’s, would you like fries with that?’
Hey thank you all again for coming out and supporting my little farm. We should have sweet corn this weekend at the market so we are very excited. Please remember, this whole gmo thing is just about “choice” We should have the choice whether to eat it or not and not just have it jammed down our throats. Choice is something I think we sacrifice a lot to have…. Have a great day and eat well, John
