Community | March 08, 2011 | 61 comments

The UN Says Hippies Were Right: GMO's Are Out, Eco-Ag Is In

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Vierotchka
Decades ago, a sizable if motley group of individuals began to reject chemical agriculture arguing that food grown with chemicals was less wholesome, negatively affected the environment and less resilient. Many of these back to-the-land types, long on ideas and short on actual argicultural experience failed in their long-term attempts to implement this counter agricultural movement. However, enough of them stuck around to usher in the modern organic/biodynamic/local food movement.

Yet, even as our scientific knowledge of what conventional chemical and genetically modified agriculture is increasingly doing to humans, the land, and biodiversity, we have continued to hitch our survival wagons to the horses of chemical and gmo agriculture. Case in point: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pump millions of dollars in support of genetically modified technologies such as drought tolerant maize, buoyed by the belief that the future for sustainable development lies in genetically modified technologies.

Organic may be good for some people - most notably guilty yuppies - but to feed a growing world population we need more robust technologies, goes the logic.

Today, however, Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has issued a report stating that the future of sustainable development does not lie in chemical ag, but rather in sustainable agricultural techniques.

(more at link)
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61 comments // The UN Says Hippies Were Right: GMO's Are Out, Eco-Ag Is In

  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  
    • Image
    • "Many people have concerns about food shortages because crops are grown for fuel instead of food. One of the greatest misconceptions about alcohol is that it will use up land that could be used to grow food. This belief is based on the use of corn to produce ethanol, which is very inefficient. According to Blume, there are other crops that can produce 3 times as much ethanol and those crops need not be grown on prime cropland, but can be grown on farmland that is not as level and has more shallow soil. Most of this farmland is arid and mesquite trees could passively grow there. Blume says, "mesquite harvested seedpods would generate 33 billion gallons of alcohol, without irrigation, fertilization or annual planting. That is another 21% of our annual gasoline needs from only 7.45% of our farmland."
      Lowlands, swamps and wetlands can be used to cultivate high yielding plants like cattails, whicn are considered a weed. Blume says that cattails can be used inexpensively to treat sewage and that the "yields of starch and cellulose from cattails can easily top 10,000 gallons per acre. If all the sewage in the US were sent to constructed marshes, the 3141 counties would need only 6360 acres each to fulfill all of our foreseeable transportation fuel needs, both gasoline and diesel, at 200 billion gallons per year. This equals 1.4% of our agricultural land". No irrigation or chemical fertilizers would be needed. Additionally, they provide a profitable way to clean up rivers, streams and oceans by detoxifying chemicals and removing heavy metals like mercury which is evaporated out through the leaves.


      Blume says that cellulose can be used as a fuel source and that the US has 30 million acres of lawn (this is about 40% of the total acreage used for corn), and it isn't counted as cropland or farmland. Grass clippings alone could generate over 11 billion gallons of fuel per year. This doesn't even include green waste from landscaping that could be added to the cellulose totals in each county.
      Ethanol can also be extracted from the ocean while cleaning it! Dead zones are areas near coastlines with decreased concentrations of sea life due to elevated levels of nitrogen, usually caused by chemical fertilizer and industrial waste. The nitrogen causes a population boom in microscopic algae and then it decomposes. During algae decomposition, the oxygen in the water is consumed and kills off the concentrated sea life. There is almost 8000 square miles of dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico and dead zones also exist along the Oregon, Washington, California and and Eastern Sea coasts. Kelp is made up of brown algae; in China and Norway this kelp is dried to produce fertilizer. Blume recommends that the US adopt this strategy to eliminate the need for polluting chemical and petroleum fertilizers. He further advocates fermenting the kelp first to make alcohol and then fermenting the leftover mash a second time for methane. The California coast alone could yield almost 90 billion gallons of fuel. The remaining 2/3 of the energy as methane would provide all the alcohol plant process energy plus a huge surplus of gas/electricity for business and residential use. Combined with the other dead zones, all transportation fuel as well as the majority of natural gas could be replaced without using a square foot of farmland.
      Blume says that the top four US crops are rice, wheat, corn and potatoes which are 75% starch and he suggests that malnutrition is a protein deficiency as opposed to a caloric deficiency. He advocates increasing protein production by cultivating oyster mushrooms that can be grown using just 25% of the grain straw that is annually burned off of fields as the fungi can efficiently extract the protein from the straw. Blume writes, "So if we really wanted to feed everyone, even without using a single animal as a food source, it would not be difficult".
      The US uses 87% of its corn crop as animal feed; when alcohol is made from the corn, which removes the starch, the protein, fat, some of the cellulose, vitamins and minerals along with the yeast from fermentation remains. The remaining substance is called distiller's dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and is about one third of the volume of the original corn after the starch is removed. DDGS is a far superior animal feed that eliminates huge health problems in cattle because they cannot digest the starch in corn. Of course Blume, as an organic farmer, shuns GMO products.

      http://www.permaculture.com/

    • 1 year ago
  • futuregen
    • 0
      futuregen  
    • Image
    • Sustainable food and sustainable fuel.

      http://www.permaculture.com/

      "America is abundant and is still full of opportunity! We must think for ourselves and stop allowing big corporations tell us that the only source of energy is from that which they derive a profit. If we work with nature, we could feed and fuel the world in addition to massively reducing pollution."

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • arigg
    • +2
      arigg  
    • deer won't eat GMO corn
      we are starting this yrs garden, grapes, apples, peaches, cherries, plums, pears, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, watermelon, cukes, asparagus - cherish your kitchen, grow yer own in every way you can

    • 1 year ago
  • Funky
    • Funky [removed]  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • hombre76
  • dreamsenvoy
  • ecoalex
    • +1
      ecoalex  
    • Eco Agriculture is the only true sustainable ag.In Ca organic production equals chemical production.The environmental costs of conventional ag make organic/eco ag the smarter, more cost effective choice.

    • 1 year ago
  • samthesixth
  • BenjaminDover
  • SoCalFramer
    • 0
      SoCalFramer  
    • These bastards want me to believe that sustainability is the key to sustainability. What next? I guess they will expect common sense to rule the future. This is crazy, I want un-sustainability and no common sense, that way we can; I guess that last part is a bad idea, sorry.

    • 1 year ago
  • floydyboy
  • extracrazykiwi2008
  • milojacks
    • +5
      milojacks  
    • Gee, who would have guessed that people who care about the planet would have a better plan than corporations that only care about the profit of filing a patent on every live organism.

    • 1 year ago
  • henrypacker
  • ozoneocean
    • +3
      ozoneocean  
    • The other problem with GMOs that just doesn't get highlighted in the media is that it's completely controlled by truly colossal corporations instead of the farmers, land-users and landowners. They have everyone's balls in a vice.

      When people come out with these infantile arguments about how "we've been doing it for thousands of years" or "hundreds of countries have already approved it" -all that has been spun from those multi-billion dollar companies who have their pathetic little paid scientists who pretend to be impartial and logical.

      -No, we have NOT been doing transgenic or manipulation on a genetic level for thousands of years, selective breeding is NOTHING like GMO!

      -Many THIRD WORLD countries have approved these GMO crops because of unbearable financial pressure, corrupt deals with government officials and exploitation of monopoly power by corrupt companies like Monsanto. In the US it happens because of corrupt politicians and health officials who are always available for bribing, lobbying and incentives.

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • +2
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  
    • When I was 11, I had my organic garden and I wanted to grow up to be an organic farmer. 40 some years later, I still have an organic garden, but now I'll have to wait until I retire to become an organic farmer.

    • 1 year ago
  • samthesixth
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • 0
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  
    • samthesixth:

      lol,,,I hear you, and sense your pain! That's one reason that I will now have to wait until I retire. I'm too old to work it all myself, so I'll have to wait until until I have all of the resources, including time, to hire others to do the hard part.

      What do you produce on your farm?

    • 1 year ago
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  
    • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM:

      My wife and I produce peppers (bells, jalapenos, scotch bonnets, poblanos, habaneros), various lettuces, cabbage, corn, beets, radishes, potatoes, squash, sweat peas, green beans, cukes, melons, pumpkins, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, a variety of fresh herbs, and solar power. We also produced three little troublemakers!

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • 0
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  
    • samthesixth:

      wow!!! you produce the whole salad and dessert too!. that's a lot. but, if there is an issue with one crop, then the others should get you through it, huh?

      I'm sure, the troublemakers are you favorite kind of trouble. Are they old enough to help around the farm yet?

    • 1 year ago
  • samthesixth
    • 0
      samthesixth  
    • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM:

      We try. In organic farming there is always an issue with one crop or another and the pesties that feed on them. The deer are also an issue. The list is what we normally do over the course of a year. In the greenhouse, we have much more control than in the plot. What makes the money are the lettuces (giant pain in the rear to grow), peppers, and herbs. Some of what we grow we consume ourselves or give to neighbors/friends.

      My wife jokes that the troublemakers are the best crop we've grown. They have had their hands in the dirt since they were toddlers. Thank goodness they are of age now to help, particularly when we turn the soil by hand!

    • 1 year ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • NiceN
    • -5
      NiceN  
    • They are right, but the Aztecs manipulated corn from a tiny to golden and gigantic. The only gripe I have with GMO is that they are too prevalent and they claim rights to certain foods. Did the Aztecs sue anyone because they have created the perfect corn? No, they gave that shit to everyone for free. None the less, natural food is better, but GMO is good, as long as it isn't EVIL ASS Monsanto that makes it.

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
    • +13
      Vierotchka  
    • NiceN:

      The Aztecs didn't introduce genes from other species, bacteria or animals into the corn. GMO crops have a significantly lower yield and require much more water than normal crops. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that GMO foods are bad for the health and can be very dangerous, even lethal.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +6
      coolplanet  
    • Vierotchka:

      I wholeheartedly agree.
      Corn, rice and wheat were genetically selected some 8,000 years ago by "modern man" cross- breeding exceptionally large plants. They didn't have the technology to insert genes from, say, pig balls into plants.

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • August_K
    • +2
      August_K  
    • Image
    • NiceN:

      Monsanto make their GMO corn and other crops are resistant to the main chemical in Round-up.

      THAT chemical has shown that it causes health problems' and infertility in lab rats.
      I imagine it's doing the same thing to mankind.
      They have somehow not been forced to do long term studies on the effects of GMO's.
      We already know that Round-up ingredients are toxic so basically they are legally poisoning us.

      One more little tidbit......those Koch Billionaires......they are huge producer of chemical fertilizers.

      http://www.observer.com/2010/slideshow/131739/venezuelan-fertilizer

      "In 1998, Koch Industries entered into a lucrative partnership with two state-owned companies-one Venezuelan, the other Italian-to open a massive $1 billion nitrogen-based fertilizer plant in Venezuela called Fertinitro.

      A business venture with two state-run companies? How did Koch Industries find itself in this libertarian nightmare scenario? After all, Charles Koch's own Cato Institute brain trust has been writing for decades that state-owned enterprises are less efficient and productive than private companies.

      Fertilizer production requires massive amounts of natural gas, and obtaining it can account for 50 percent of operating costs. Luckily for Koch, Fertinitro's semi-state-owned status allowed it to tap into a guaranteed supply of natural gas subsidized by the state. Steven Bodzin, a former Bloomberg journalist, found that "just on the natural gas, never mind the electricity or water subsidies, Koch profits from a direct Venezuelan government subsidy of $1.23 for every thousand cubic feet of gas consumed at Fertinitro."
      For Koch Industries, whose role in the partnership is to unload half of the 6 million tons of fertilizer produced by Fertinitro every year on the American market, that equals up to $123.6 million in subsidies every year."

      (Pictured: Hugo Chavez with his oil minister)

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • cicly
    • +2
      cicly  
    • after four and a half billion years, me thinks the planet knows what's best. as do those of us who listen to it and our own instinct and common sense.

    • 1 year ago
  • crunchynuts
    • -3
      crunchynuts  
    • well to begin, i dont think i saw a part on that article where the UN actually acknowledge that "hippies" were correct at all. Feeding the world takes a lot more than a simple agroecological methods. Those methods might work 500 years ago but at today's climate and under current situation it would fall flat.

      the whole title to this article is misleading...

    • 1 year ago
  • artemis6
  • artemis6
    • +3
      artemis6  
    • What are hippies ? People say i am one , but i consider myself a free thinker . An artist . It is the duty of artists to keep a culture in balance , through collective myths , stories , symbols that harmonize it . So yes . These are the rightful leaders . Archetypally , there is always a shaman and a chief , Arthur and Merlin . And Arthur was chosen by Merlin .

    • 1 year ago
  • crunchynuts
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • dreamsenvoy
  • dreamsenvoy
  • artemis6
  • artemis6
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • Dusty_King
    • +3
      Dusty_King  
    • >>>>Case in point: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pump millions of dollars in support of genetically modified technologies such as drought tolerant maize

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • ReMarker
    • +11
      ReMarker  
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM

      There is no satisfaction for those of us that have always believed 'you shouldn't mess with Mother Nature' to say "I told you so", and that includes polluting our environment with carbon based emissions.

      We babyboomer, peace and love, tree huggers continue to believe 'you shouldn't mess with Mother Nature' and that we are all in this together as we travel through the universe on spaceship earth.

    • 1 year ago
  • cicly
  • coolplanet
    • +4
      coolplanet  
    • ReMarker:

      Joni sure summed it up back in 1969 with this song!
      I heard she's receiving a big environmental award this year for her contribution to ecological awareness. Her 2007 album Shine in particular focuses on our destruction of Earth.
      My favorite line is from This Place:

      You see those lovely hills
      They won't be there for long
      They're gonna tear 'em down
      And sell 'em to California
      Here comes the toxic spills
      Miners pokin' all around
      When this place looks like a moonscape
      Don't say I didn't warn ya
      O money, money, money
      Money makes the trees come down
      It turns mountains into molehills
      Big money kicks the wide, wide world around.

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • coolplanet
    • +4
      coolplanet  
    • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM:

      Heaven on Earth is my goal in life.
      Why should we wait till we die to find paradise?
      It's here now and has always been.
      The only thing preventing it from happening is arrogance and greed.
      As the Church Lady would say
      "Could it be, perhaps, satan???"
      Good is the only thing that survives.

      (Sorry for waxing so profound but my mom died today and I'm in a metaphysical mode)

    • 1 year ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • ReMarker
    • 0
      ReMarker  
    • coolplanet:

      My condolences coolplanet. I'm sure you will miss her. I currently am babysitting my Mom as she advances toward the inevitable. One day I will miss her too.

      BTW, you are correct, paradise is available to us here and now. It's to bad more people don't believe us.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +9
      JanforGore  
    • To feed a growing population we will need healthy soil and biodiversity that brings yield sustainably. That won't happen with monoculture chemical GMO "agriculture."

    • 1 year ago
  • crunchynuts
    • -5
      crunchynuts  
    • JanforGore:

      where can you find enough ideal healthy soil and biodiversity in a world that has a growing population?

      do you think you can find one that is healthy enough, large enough and ideal enough in africa??

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • JanforGore
  • Seauvan
    • +7
      Seauvan  
    • I'd be interested in knowing how the Chinese are planning to feed a population that fast approaching 2 billion. They are going to be the ones forcing world agriculture policy and technology into whatever direction it will take in the future. If the Chinese see potential in Mr. De Schutter's conclusions, then we'll have the happy coincidence of the Chinese, in helping themselves, will actually be doing something that is good for the world as a whole.

    • 1 year ago
  • Incredulous
  • BenjaminDover
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