Here are some steps you can take against genetic modification:

Boycott GMO crops – don’t buy products containing corn, soy, canola, cotton, sugar or alfalfa, unless you know these ingredients are non-GMO. This is a huge step! It means boycotting most non-organic, mass-produced, processed foods. If that’s too daunting, try taking small steps. For example, eliminate foods that are high in GMO oils, such as cottonseed and vegetable oils. Boycotting GMOs will likely lead you to buy fresher food and eat a healthier diet.

Call food manufacturers and ask if ingredients in their products are GMO. Let them know you care! Some large chains’ phone numbers are listed on http://www.nwrage.org/content/contact-company

Bring the GMO issue up in supermarkets, cafeterias, and restaurants. When an employee you talk to in person can’t answer your questions, you can write them down and request that they be passed on to management.

Many of the organizations we link to have political action updates related to various GMO battles. Check these websites for the latest campaigns – write to your politicians and spread the word.

Tell your friends, co-workers, and family about the lawsuit against Monsanto, the risks of GMOs, and what you’re doing to avoid GMOs.

Write a letter to the editor or an op-ed for your local paper or an agricultural publication.

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You might also be able to contribute in one or more of the following ways.

If you work in a food co-op, restaurant, school, or any institution that has a cafeteria, see what you can do to reduce or eliminate GMOs from the food that is sold there. Then tell your customers what progress you’ve made, and why you chose to do this.

If you teach on a related subject, let your classes know about the risks of GMOs and the current lawsuit, Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association vs. Monsanto.

If you are a farmer or a market gardener, tell your customers, extension agents, and other farmers and gardeners why you don’t grow GMOs.

Offer to volunteer with an organization addressing GMO concerns. You might be able to contribute to with research, website development, community organizing and outreach, or events. The possibilities are endless.

If GMO crops have made your life harder, we want to know! Your story could be useful in showing that GMOs are harmful to society. Write to Don Patterson at paedc@aol.com with your experiences.

If you or an organization you work for has information relevant to this case, look into the possibility of filing an Amicus brief, a.k.a. a “Friend of the Court” brief. We don’t want to inundate the court with them, but quality points in Amicus briefs can be very valuable. You can contact Sabrina Hassan at Hassan@PubPat.org for further information.

If you know of an event where a speaker on the topic of this suit would be welcomed, pass the information on to Don Patterson at paedc@aol.com

We all know biodiversity is a good thing. But how does gardening with heirlooms promote biodiversity? And how can you garden with biodiversity in mind?

We think of biodiversity on three levels: genetic, species, and ecosystem. All three apply to your garden or farm, no matter its scale.

• Heirlooms may carry genes that provide disease resistance or other useful traits we don’t even know we need.  Preserving heirloom varieties maintains this “gene bank” as insurance against future plant diseases or other threats.
• Genetic variation within a planting gives that crop resiliency to cope with the unexpected – we may lose some plants, but we can build stronger varieties by saving seed from those that survive. To maintain diversity within a variety, we save seed from a large number of plants.
• Traditional plant breeding with open-pollinated (OP) varieties builds biodiversity by creating new genetic profiles with each generation.  It also allows us to explore unexpected mutations – with plants, mutations often aren’t bad.  A mutation is simply a shift in the genetic code, sometimes with unexpectedly good results.

Just growing a lot of different kinds of plants creates species diversity in your garden.  But you may not be aware of all the benefits you’re getting. Ecologists correlate species biodiversity with productivity. That means more diverse systems produce more biomass.  And that means more veggies for your table!

Many modern varieties are bred for monoculture conditions.  Heirlooms are already adapted to gloriously biodiverse, ecologically grown gardens, like those of our ancestors.

And biodiversity of one type, like the plants in your garden, tends to come along with increased biodiversity of other species, like beneficial insects and micro-organisms in your soil – which compete with or prey upon garden pests and help control their populations.

Your garden is unlike anyone else’s.  Celebrate it!  Instead of trying to grow things that aren’t suitable for your garden, seek out what is uniquely adapted to where you live.  You may find that you don’t miss growing Buttercup winter squash – which may not handle pests in the Southeast – because you can grow sweet, long-storing Seminole pumpkins – which don’t produce well in areas with cool nights.

Rather than bemoaning a garden that doesn’t fit the commercial “ideal,” seek out the heirlooms that have been developed over generations, right where you live.  Ecosystem diversity creates what foodies call “terroir” – the food grown where you live is unlike food grown anywhere else.