Son of A Farmer

It’s a full moon. Time to start germinating garden seeds and get them ready for spring. Particularly for those of us in the southwest where it gets hot…quickly. Highly recommend getting them started now to get you ahead of the curve. Keep them indoors, keep them protected past last threats of late freeze/frost. But by all means, start practicing the long, lost art of growing your own food and saving your own seed. Happy gardening in 2013, everyone.

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Coming back from my whirlwind trip in New York City, I had a couple of days to rest, relax and regain some perspective on this food movement, as well as the relationships I continue to build along the way.

It’s amazing how fast this is spreading. For years I was frustrated as it seemed

Image by Anna Brix Thompson

most Americans didn’t or would never care about our food, what has happened and continues to happen to our food and seed supply. But I sense that more and more people are tapping into this awareness on many levels – not only the GMO issue but food in general and how intertwined the health of our body is to the health of the food we eat.

Each trip, each event, I come in contact with so many people who are doing some incredible things in this life. Whether activists, artists, farmers, community organizers, or groups and individuals rethinking and restructuring business models to work in harmony with their own environment, I tend to find many courageous leaders and revolutionaries. It is inspiring.

Was blessed to do an interview with Sean Kaminsky, who is the director/producer of an upcoming documentary called Open Sesame: The Story of Seeds. We had a wonderful conversation in Prospect Park and talked extensively about the importance of a healthy natural seed supply.

Also did an in-depth interview with journalist Helen Zuman of Brooklyn. It was hands-down the most intelligent questions anyone has ever asked me about agriculture/nature/life in general. One carefully constructed and well-thought out question after another, Helen dug deeper into the subject. A talented and deep being, I look forward to reading more of her writing.

The interview on the Leonard Lopate Show went well. It was my second time on Leonard’s show and have really enjoyed discussing topics with him and the folks at WNYC.

A big shout out to Don, Marco and all the cool people with At Home in Brooklyn. It is a beautiful B&B located right on Prospect Park in the Park Slope area.

Also thanks to Theodore with Dreamriver Press for putting on a cool book launch party for me in the West Village. We had a strong turnout and met many incredible people.

I’m glad to be back home now, where we have actual “winter-like” weather for the first time. Temperatures dipped down into the 20s last night, but they are expected to stay there only a couple of days before going back up into the 60s again. Crazy weather.

So, I go back to farmer things: building fence, working on tractors and preparing for next year’s crop. But every time I visit the concrete jungle, I always come back with a slightly altered perspective juiced with a little more inspiration.

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I’m leaving for the Big Apple this week. Will be doing some book promotion stuff in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I really dig Brooklyn, where lots of cool things are happening on the local food level. The Brooklyn Food Coalition is instrumental in that area.

Want to thank Organic Consumers for helping out with this trip. Very cool organization that does lots of wonderful work.

I’ll be on the Leonard Lopate radio show Wednesday, December 5th. Leonard’s show starts at noon EST.

Dreamriver Press is throwing a book launch party for my new book Surviving Ourselves. It’s in Manhattan at the Brecht Forum on 451 West Street. Festivities get started around 7:30 pm.

Have some other cool things happening this week, but I’ll wait until after they happen to tell you about it.

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Dear Californians,
It’s not unusual for all Americans to be lied to from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. This being an election year, the manure is getting piled so high, waders are needed to cover your coveralls.
However, it is unusual for you to be told lies about the food you’re eating, the meals you’re preparing for your children and what we consume daily in our entire food system. But we’re eating more than just lies by the spoon and fork-full. We’re also eating poisonous genes in 90 percent of many meals involving corn, canola, soy, sugar beets and cotton. Soon to join them are alfalfa, wheat and much more.
Prop 37 is perhaps the single most important vote in the entire 2012 election. Forget the empty suits and promises. This is about the stuff that keeps us alive – food. The people of California can get GMOs labeled in this country. For the first time since GMOs starting dominating agriculture (mid-1990s), we could actually have the right to know whether or not we’re eating food with herbicide and pesticide genes imprinted into its DNA, and eventually our own DNA.
You’ve seen some of the ridiculous commercials stating it will run farmers out of business. Lies. You’ve heard in other ads, it will cost everyone more money for their food. More lies. What it will do is inconvenience many billionaire food and seed companies. They’ll actually have to monitor the poisonous ingredients they’re selling us and put a label of truth on their food. As a fourth-generation farmer, I’ve seen the horrific impact GMO crops have on local rural economies, as GMO companies charge farmers 12-15 times the amount of natural seed. I once planted genetically-modified cotton. Once I found it what it was in 2006, I haven’t planted another GM seed since and never will.
Billionaire companies like Monsanto rely on the same trick as most of our politicians: they’re counting on you to be lazy and uninformed. They’re counting on you to continue to ignore the real truths screaming behind the one-dimensional packaging ingredients. They’re counting on you to believe more lies in the form of propaganda.
They want you to believe this manipulation of genes is high-tech, the wave of the future. They want you to believe we have to have these GMO crops to feed our growing populations. In the same breath, they want you to avoid years of research that it causes cancer, liver atrophy, spleen damage, that it weakens the immune system and poisons your digestive system like a slow drip of rattlesnake venom every day. They also don’t want you to believe that GMOs have anything to do with food allergies and the ever increasing rates of neurological disorders in children like autism, ADD, and ADHD. No, not the same company that told us Agent Orange was perfectly safe. Not the same company that told us DDT was harmless. They couldn’t be wrong again…could they?
As long as you believe the lies, they win and will continue to manipulate, dominate and poison your food. And they’ll expect you to thank them for such wonderful technology that weakens your body, mind and spirit. Ignore the lies. Ignore the propaganda. Ignore so-called “experts.” Just think about this issue, think long and hard and use the non-GMO parts of your brain. So on behalf of all living creatures, I ask that all Californians vote YES on Prop 37 this week. When you go into the voting booth, use your own common sense. Vote with your mind, your heart and your stomach.

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In October 2011, I took part in a march from New York City to Washington D.C. to help promote GMO labeling in this country. The folks from Rapunzel Chocolate in Germany put this little flick together from that two-week journey.

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