On the End of Days, GMOs, and Small-Scale Grain

After we made the decision to try to become farmers, it took months of planning to figure out how we were going to make this transition. Because we knew we had so much to learn, we would spend a lot of time reading books written by small farmers and watching every documentary about farming that we came across. This helped keep us excited about our decision, but, in a way, it also served as a reminder of how far we were from our goal of farming. Reading a book about cows as the apartment shakes from traffic on the nearby expressway has a way of doing that.

Yesterday, we attended the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA) Winter conference, our first ever conference where we were rubbing shoulders with actual farmers who make an actual living from the land. Even though we’re still a long way off from that, it still felt good to walk around knowing that we’ve started our journey.

There were over forty different workshops throughout the day as well as a keynote address by Jeffrey Smith, who is an expert on the health and environmental dangers of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). If you are wondering what, exactly, a GMO is, you are not alone. Smith started his presentation by surveying the audience’s understanding of the topic. Even in an auditorium packed with organic food enthusiasts, very few people seemed to know much about GMOs.

A GMO is born when a scientist takes genes from one species and artificially forces them into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. For example, inserting genes from a fish into a plant to make it more resistant to cold. That probably doesn’t capture the horror of the consequences of eating a diet containing GMOs: organ damage, gastrointestinal disorders, accelerated aging, infertility, and other delightful ailments.

Damn, Jeffrey! I haven’t been so afraid since Sunday school, when every other week we were treated to videos about the rapture!

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. He was excited about a bill currently being considered by the Connecticut General Assembly that would require all products containing GMOs to be labeled. If the bill passes, it could completely transform the food industry because, all of a sudden, Kraft Foods, among others, would be looking to buy massive amounts of non-GMO crops.

Jeffrey has created a shopping guide to help people avoid GMO foods. If you are interested in learning more about it, go to www.nongmoshoppingguide.com.

The best part of the day, though, had to be the workshops. We heard from farmers, scientists, and doctors on a wide range of topics including: growing nuts in the northeast, root cellaring, naturopathic remedies, small-scale grain production, and a history of the Connecticut forest.

Rodger Phillips, who runs Grow Hartford, an urban farm that also has youth internships in the summer, gave the small-scale grain production talk. He concluded the talk by giving everyone in attendance some seeds for spring wheat. 

There has been a lot of talk on the farm of growing some feed for the pigs and chickens this year to create more of a closed-loop system, so it’s possible these seeds will come in handy!