Bayer?

[Mini Horses]

I believe the "many people" who feel GMO is good are those who buy & sell for volume....i.e feed, export, etc. (the financials). Much of the population is NOT aware of there even being a change -- they just buy "food".

While some of the genetics superficially appear to make sense -- more growth, less disease & bug impact, greater volume -- the facts are that MUCH of the nutrition is/has been affected. Of course, soil has an impact as well. Overall, the groceries we buy for family & animals has less nutrition than the old fashioned, open pollenated varieties of past years. In some cases, the manipulated varieties are less productive long term, less root base, etc, and do not pull from deeper soils. AND many plants/seeds were developed (not knowingly but, by seed saving) to grow in certain climes that are a survival process for the plants. Those, once lost, are hard to get into that status again.

Somewhat like having organic pastures, managed by intensive graze, manure applications, etc. Mother Nature is good.

 

[baymule]

I will be fertilizing my garden and pastures with Azomite. It is ancient lava rock dust. It has 70+ trace minerals in it. I bought ten 44 pound bags and while that won't be enough to do the whole place, it is a start. yesterday we weeded around the fruit trees, spread a cup of Azomite, sheep dung compost and today we'll top it off with 4 year old wood chips, then encircle each tree with wire to keep the sheep off. We fenced off the fruit tree area, to keep the sheep away, but it all grew up in weeds. Not so bright an idea.....so now we'll fence off each tree and take the other fence down. I love having sheep to "mow" the yard!

The food we buy is fertilized with commercial, petroleum derived nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Three nutrients from an array of over 90? And they are artificially created. Then the fields are drenched with herbicides and pesticides, the plants are sick from the chemicals used on them, they are nutritionally deficient and produce beautiful to look at, sick, deficient foods. We are a sick population, beset with illness and disease. The average person would recoil with disgust at a "bug bite" on an imperfect vegetable or fruit. Me? My thinking is that if the bug didn't die from eating it-neither will I.

 

[MoonShadows]

I have a hard time going grocery shopping anymore. When particular fruits and vegetables are not in season here, I try to always buy organic, but the price is so much higher...the same with pastured meat products. So many products I used to buy, I won't even look at now. I can't help but to look at shopper's carts as I pass by them. I am alarmed at so many who have nothing but processed and junk foods in their carts, especially when I see they have kids tagging along behind them. We are poisoning ourselves, and most people are unaware or choose to stay in denial. Over the years we have worked to change our eating habits to be more healthy, but it is hard when all that food we were raised on and our taste buds just can't forget is all around us.

 

[Britesea]

Roundup works by locking the nutrients in the soil so that the weeds can't access them, thus, the plant dies. Only problem is, that nutrient-blocking ability stays in the soil a lot longer than people knew; crops grown now on soil that has been impregnated with Roundup for years have difficulty getting enough nutrients to grow, let alone thrive. I can't even imagine what it's doing to us inside our bodies, and make no mistake, it's present in almost every human, domestic animal, and probably wildlife as well.

 

[baymule]

Roundup works by locking the nutrients in the soil so that the weeds can't access them, thus, the plant dies. Only problem is, that nutrient-blocking ability stays in the soil a lot longer than people knew; crops grown now on soil that has been impregnated with Roundup for years have difficulty getting enough nutrients to grow, let alone thrive. I can't even imagine what it's doing to us inside our bodies, and make no mistake, it's present in almost every human, domestic animal, and probably wildlife as well.

So true, so true. The GMO's that supposedly reduce herbicides, simply don't. Using the herbicides has resulted in supper weeds that are resistant to Roundup. 2-4-D has been approved, just what we needed-a component to Agent Orange. My brother died a horrible death as a result of exposure to Agent Orange in Viet Nam. But it's SAFE for us!!! I like to see the CEO's CFO's, and others at the top of the heap of GMO's, herbicides, and pesticides, drink a gallon of the stuff they foist off on the rest of us.

Wanna know something funny? We buy a non-GMO chicken layer pellet. Mice bypassed the horse feed and sheep feed to tear into the non-GMO chicken feed. We had to put the chicken feed in a metal trash can. Not even the $(&&%%# mice want the other stuff.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I'm sorry about your brother @baymule . That is so awful. Could you tell me what 2-4-D is?

I had a bear break into my grain shed. They took my organic alfalfa pellets (really? Alfalfa?) and dumped my cruddy cheap feed and left it there haha.

 

[Mini Horses]

2-4-D is a herbicide sold to spray on grasses to kill broad leaf weeds but not grasses. So, you fields are weed free but your animals are eating the treated grass. It stays in the soil and also is found within the manure passed by the animals. In fact, some people had failing gardens and discovered the chemicals were in the manures and thus actually killing their crops -- veggies, etc.

Sometimes the people had gotten free manure from farms and never considered this. Yep....the "chain" moves along from a farmer to an innocent back yard garden.

Was your hay from treated fields? And so on.

I have weeds & that's ok. I have goats who love them. Plus, simply cutting your fields will help kill out &/or control many weeds. Some do require more, disc, dig, burn, keep from re-seeding, watch "life cycle" of that weed.

I am not sure the exact chemical makeup(Bay probably does), just many of the results of use.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ah OK I read a blog post a while back about someone who lost their tomato garden due to this. She didn't elaborate on the source though. Well all the hay around here is weedy so I highly doubt it's been treated, but I will be asking nonetheless. And not getting manure from unknown sources!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I learned to ask whether the hay I'm buying is from a field sprayed with herbicide. Most hay farmers are glad to say "YES" there are no weeds in our hay - I bypass that hay and usually buy some 'prairie' hay at a cheaper price that my goats like even more!

And, the reason I learned to ask was because I used some hay to mulch my garden with a few years back - had a beautiful garden until I put that hay down as mulch....killed my tomatoes and a whole bunch more than that. ugh...

 

[Mini Horses]

You "almost" don't have to ask -- no weeds? 99% sure it was sprayed. I've traveled 2-300 miles for some weedy, great hay, not sprayed. IF they apologize for some weeds, hug them.