OSGATA President Jim Gerritsen released this statement, March 29th, 2011, the day Southern Exposure joined 60 other plaintiffs in filing suit against the Monsanto Company:
Today is Independence Day for America. Today we are seeking protection from the Court and putting Monsanto on notice. Monsanto’s threats and abuse of family farmers stops here. Monsanto’s genetic contamination of organic seed and organic crops ends now. Americans have the right to choice in the marketplace – to decide what kind of food they will feed their families – and we are taking this action on their behalf to protect that right to choose. Organic farmers have the right to raise our organic crops for our families and our customers on our farms without the threat of invasion by Monsanto’s genetic contamination and without harassment by a reckless polluter. Beginning today, America asserts her
right to justice and pure food.
Read the Press Release and follow developments
at Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association: OSGATA.org
The Organic Consumers Association has started a campaign that could do some good in checking some of the egregious abuses of the public good coming from the GMO industry. They have drafted an open letter to Natural Food Stores and Coops calling upon them to label all food not certified organic or certified non-GMO as possibly containing GMOs and all meats not certified organic or humanely raised as likely coming from a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation, the worst of the factory farms).
Buyer beware as saying is very powerful, and yet to some it goes ignored. You can only place so much trust in the product, whatever it may be, as it is offered to you. Sometimes further research can reveal you could be making a better decision, and there might not be any way to tell other than you figuring it out on your own. Take home insurance and open peril insurance options for example. Who you decide to work with to get your property insured is extremely important. Some houses do not come with fire suppression systems, and for this, a Fire Watch service must be hired to protect oneself from uncertainty till the system is in place. You can be looking at spending more than you have to for years, or even worse, you could be looking at an insurance company that will not help you out of a bind should tragedy strike. Perhaps it would be too far-fetched to assume these companies are out to take advantage of you, but it would be wise to make the best informed decision possible with so many options available to you. If you need auto insurance, homeowners insurance, renter’s insurance, boat insurance, motorcycle insurance, liability insurance, life insurance, health insurance, or business insurance, then we’re the insurance agents for you. Then this Rockwall insurance company suggests for your home insurance.
Life insurance is something that consumers hear about all the time, but it is important to know the real differences between the different types of insurance. Insurance can be a significant investment and expense, so it is important to use your money wisely and figure out what type of policy will meet your needs. One of the first questions that life insurance customers must decide upon is if they want to be insured for a limited duration of time or for their entire life. One of the biggest distinction between life insuranc agreements is the duration of the coverage. There are two basic options for these policies. A policy may either have a term or cover a person for his or her entire life. Term life policies can be purchased for a specific length of time to protect your family from financial woes in the event of your tragic passing. Whole life insurance policies are applicable for the entire life of a person without ever changing their premium.
Whole life policies will protect a person for their entire life, so that if they were to pass on at any time, their beneficiary would receive the financial support that they need. This type of policy will be active as long as a person pays their monthly premium. This premium will often be a fixed amount so that a policy holder is always aware of exactly how much they are paying for this security. Insurance policies that operate in this way can provide you with the security of knowing your love ones will be protected at any time. The lack of adequate labeling of potentially dangerous, or in some cases demonstrably dangerous, GMO ingredients is criminal. GMOs have been proven time and again to carry a set of risks to consumer health, not to mention environmental health, that is not shared by conventionally bred plants and animals. If they are going to be allowed on the market then consumers should at the very least know whether or not they are buying and eating them. While it is estimated that 60% of the food on grocery stores shelves in America contain GMOs only 20% of American consumers believe they have eaten food containing GMOs. An informed citizenry is something we should all be able to get behind, regardless of our feelings about whether GMOs are something we personally want to eat or not.
Customer appeals to natural food stores and coops sounds like an easy way to start a market led effort to label GMO foods, raise awareness about their ubiquity in America, and raise awareness of what the certified organic label stands for. A recent New York Times poll suggests that nearly 90% of US consumers want GMO foods labeled. Hopefully the many groups fighting for a regulatory fix find success but in the meantime a little bit of market based pressure from below can only help.
It seems like this year’s gardening season flew by. Once again, we’re cleaning off the last bean seeds and running germination tests. Already everyone at Southern Exposure is getting ready for next year; we are starting to draw garden maps to figure out which plots will be fallow and which ones will grow Abe Lincoln tomatoes and Chinese Five Color peppers.
The cover of our 2011 catalog
We figure that you, too, are ready to start thinking about something besides hard frosts and bare trees. I am thrilled to announce that our organic and heirloom seed catalogs 2011 will be dropping into mailboxes in the next few weeks!
On behalf of the whole crew at Southern Exposure, I hope that you have fun flipping through our catalog full of heirloom vegetable seeds, organic flower seeds, herbs and native plants. We strive to offer the best seeds possible. Many of our seeds are organic, or sustainable farmed by dedicated seed growers.
Some of the new varieties in our seed catalog include:
Lipstick Pepper This pepper is a great option if your growing season is on the short side since the plant starts fruiting three or four weeks before most other pepper plants. The peppers are chunky and triangular, and ripen from green to red. They are flavorful and sweet.
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Nootka Rose Garlic
The Nootka Rose garlic variety is an heirloom that originally comes from Washington state. This is a great Silverskin option as it’s long storing and produces large bulbs 15-25 cloves. The cloves have a rich flavor and medium heat. Nootka Rose is almost too pretty to eat, with its white outer skin and pink clove wrapper! A must for garlic braids.
Broken Colors Four O’Clock Flower
The Broken Colors Four O’Clock is an heirloom variety that was recently all but lost. The plant grows about thirty inches tall and is a prolific producer of small flowers that open and close early in the morning and again in late afternoon. The speckled petals range in color from dark purple and pale pink to vibrant yellow and snow white.
Easter Egg Radish
The Easter Egg radish is a great way to add some color to your late spring salads since these radishes range in color from a deeply saturated purple to bright pink and white skins and uniform white flesh. The radishes have a light peppery taste behind their crispy texture.
Frances’s Choice Marigold Flower
A cutting garden must-have. These marigolds are well suited to grow in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. The plant produces abundant flowers that have dark red petals with golden edges. The flowers are great for using in bouquets and vases since the stems average eight inches long.
Kebarika Snap Bean
This heirloom bush bean originated in Kenya. The dry shell bean plants have excellent tolerance for heat and drought. Kebarika plants are sturdy and upright, and grow loads of six-inch pods holding about five black and white mottled beans each. Be sure to pay close attention to these plants as the harvest window is pretty short.
Of course, you’ll also find that our 2011 Catalog & Garden Guide is chock-full of our tried-and-true varieties. To us–and hopefully to you–these veteran seeds are trusted friends.
Enjoy!
Sierra Lettuce (left), Brenda Jordan's Heirloom Celosia (center), and Dragon's Claw Millet (right) are returning varieties in our 2011 catalog.
