After spending the first weekend of summer out of the city in an indoor water-park, my mind has turned to how to get my concrete bound kids back in the nature!  Trips to the lake and forest preserves are on my mind as I type from my office window. Berry picking scheduled for the weekend and camping the next. With all of the planning we have to do to get out the door - is there any room left for spontaneity? For enjoying what the city lays out for us in the summer months? For hanging out at parks and picnics? 

What do you all do?

Torn up about GMO

The last weekend of April the Illinois Corn Growers Association sent me and about 20 other moms to Monsanto in St. Louis. It was a crazy day packed with a lot of information. 

Here our guide explains one of the many grow rooms - rooms with recreated environments from all over the world.

And the totally not weird or scary inside

 I wrote about it before the trip and had several questions I wanted answers for by the time I left. I was not disappointed.

1. What are we doing about cross-pollination with other crops?

The best answer I got about this one was actually from one of the farm moms I toured with.  Katie Pratt told me that on her farm, when planting happens, the farmers who neighbor each other get together to talk about planting plans and schedules. This ensures that if a field of GMO corn is pollinating, the field next door is a different variety which pollinates at a different time. They also talk about wind direction, weather predictions, and then plan for a buffer of soy between the different varieties of corn.

I said to her, so you aren’t like me and may have lived next to your neighbor for seven years and not even really know their names? She sort of gave me the eyebrow and remarked that farming communities always work together.

On this issue I am no longer torn. I don’t think that Monsanto, or other seed companies, are punishing farmers for cross pollination and I believe the farmers are doing their best to make sure that it does not happen.

2. What are we doing about allergies?

This was a top concern of mine. People I love have allergies and I worry that all of the fidgeting around with DNA will create a problem for them. The scientist at the panel discussion informed me of a database of known allergen DNA. They compare this to the modified DNA and if there is a match – they go back to the drawing board. It seems to me that they are being very responsible about known allergens.

Here is where I am torn. What if they are creating new allergens that we won’t know about until someone or a lot of someone’s have a reaction to it? To be fair, I didn’t ask this question of the panel. It is still concerning to me.

3.  Why aren’t we labeling – and not just that the food is GMO but with information available by the food’s code on what has been modified and why.

I did not get an answer from the panel about this, but at the airport I talked to another farm mom, Deb, and she said that this was something that would have to be addressed on a Federal level and couldn’t really be assigned to a seed company. Ok. I will buy that.

4. Why aren’t we letting farmers keep seed?

Now Katie told me that they don’t want to keep the seed and reuse it – the genetics of any seed may deteriorate over generations. Farmers in her community are not crying out to keep seed.

Here is another place I am torn. If they cannot keep the seed – won’t the seed companies ultimately have control of the distribution of food? Now they say that it is because of the patent on the biotechnology. That because the seed company owns the technology then the only way for them to be profitable is for them to also own the product of that technology. It is the most American of ideas.

5.  How long do patents last? Can they expire like copyrights and the food is returned to the public domain? 

So here is where I really run into trouble.  I don’t believe that anyone should own a patent on a living organism. A seed is the beginning of life. It is a fundamental difference in my personal philosophy. It is at the crux of the GMO-hating among most of my community.

           

In the end, I am for the science. I am for increasing the food supply and making things grow better.

 But in the end I am against owning a patent on life. 

That is where I stand. 

That is where I am torn. 

Travel expenses within St. Louis and lunch provided by Monsanto

I am Going to Monsanto

I am about to open up another chapter in the adventure that has been afforded me by the Illinois Farm Families Program. I am about to head over onto “enemy” lines.  

 I am going to Monsanto.

Just say Monsanto out loud and people will give you a thousand different options for how awful they are and must be. I have read the Facebook articles and the passed along information and been convinced that something is amiss. One of the reasons I wanted to join the program was to hear the other side of the story – to get to know the people using the seeds and see what their opinion was.

I met some Farmers last year, all of whom, if they grew corn or soy, were growing some GMO crops. Some of them bought from Monsanto. As I recall all of us moms in the program, I think about 25 of us, were sort of horrified. What came out of it for me is this – who are we to judge?

Now, don’t get all excited. I am not saying that I am pro-GMO, pro-Monsanto etc. But I do think that Neil deGrasse Tyson is tons smarter than me and HE is not worried about them.  Here is a sample of what he had to say on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/neildegrassetyson/posts/10152652892786613

For thousands of years Farmers have been modifying plants and animals through breeding choices. Today, the pigs in the gestation stalls could not survive in the wild. You will not find a wild seedless watermelon. For thousands of years human beings have sacrificed biodiversity on the altar of quantity. Now, because we are doing it in a lab, we are paying attention.

First – we’ve been doing it in a lab for something like 30 years. The crops have been in our fields for 20 years.

Second – I don’t believe the problem is in the modification. I am not a scientist. I am just a mom, a writer, a Girl Scout leader.


But what I think the problem is and what I think in my own humble opinion is the following:

1. What are we doing about cross-pollination with other crops?
2. What are we doing about allergies?
3.  Why aren’t we labeling – and not just that the food is GMO but with information available by the food’s code on what has been modified and why.
4. Why aren’t we letting farmers keep seed?
5.  How long do patents last? Can they expire like copyrights and the food is returned to the public domain? 

These are my top concerns and what I will be taking with me to Monsanto. Hopefully, I will get some clarification and answers.  I am open to discovering that the hype I hear is wrong. I am also wary that I am just hearing the other side of the coin and that somewhere in the middle we can find the truth.  

Wish me luck.

Winter Is Coming or How to Survive the Polar Vortex 2.0

The short autumn has given way to crisp December days. And while visions of sugarplums may dance in the heads of those around me, I am pretty sure my kids will turn their noses up at minced dried fruit and nuts, even if it is rolled together in a ball and sprinkled with sugar.

So! What is an urban momma to do to get fresh fruits and veg in the Midwest? Well, since we live in the modern era I can get just about anything at my local grocery. From Watermelon to Mango – there is a bounty to have and to buy. Lately though, we have tried to maintain a diet that is seasonable and sustainable. What the heck can I feed my kids in December?

Locally, we have a lot of good options. There are still Michigan apples in the stores, and should be for some time as they store well and can ship from the local orchards. Also, remember there is a reason oranges are traditional stocking stuffers, citrus is prime in the winter months and will keep your vitamins up too!

Winter squashes are still coming in and will continue to be good from local sources through the winter as they keep well. If your kids are like mine, they probably turn their noses up a bit on squash, but I found a GREAT minestrone recipe that I will share that will help get you through it.

First you have to have a dinner of roasted chicken. It’s the best way to get stock.  At True Nature Foods, my local store, I can get chickens from a farm in Illinois. The good news is that a lot of our meat is local to the region, even the stuff you buy in stores. For example when I was with the City Moms program this year (http://www.watchusgrow.org/about-us/meet-the-moms/) we toured a hog farm, the Gould’s http://gouldfarm.com/,  whose meat goes to Hormel. 

That’s getting us sidetracked from soup.

After you have your roast chicken dinner, put all the bones, left over skin, meat you aren’t going to eat, together with a chopped onion, carrot and celery, and any herbs you may have stuffed inside the chicken for flavor into a large stock pot. Cover with water and boil for an hour or two. You can do this process at least twice and get a couple of gallons of stock. I freeze mine in gallon sized bags for later use in soup.

Make your soup! Make lots of soup with root vegetables and stock.  You will survive and so will I!

Here is my latest favorite soup, it is a lot of ingredients, but it is well worth it.

Autumn Minestrone

1 onion, diced

4-5 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 tbs herbs

2 tbs butter

2 tbs oil

3 carrots, roughly chopped, peeled if desired

3 stalks of celery, chopped

½ butternut squash, cubed

4 potatoes, peeled cubed

4-5 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 pound kale, stems removed, chopped

1-2 quarts of chicken or vegetable stock

1 can of cannellini beans

1 cup of pearled barley

1 5oz can of tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion, garlic and herbs in the butter and oil. When soft, add the carrots and celery. Saute 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and as much of the stock as you can get in your pot. Boil until the potatoes and squash are fork-tender. Voila. Soup. Serve with bread and butter for an extra treat. This makes a TON of soup, you can freeze the leftovers or have jealous coworkers for lunch.

I survive the winter by making the best of the local, sustainable ingredients available to me and filling my stomach with hearty, warming soups. How do you survive?