Our goal at Sprouting Off is to not only teach you about gardening, but to bring to light the truth about the food system in America.  In a nutshell it is flawed.  Very very flawed.

It has been since the end of WWII when the government had an over abundance of things like nerve gas that they needed to dispose of.  What a better disposal method than to spray it on food crops.  Turning DDT into a pesticide led the US down a dark road.

But that was the 1940s.  People like organic stuff now.  It has to be better now… doesn’t it?

No.  It is becoming worse.

An article published in the NY Times on May 3rd illustrates just how bad things have gotten.  Seed companies have been genetically modifying corn, soybean and cotton seeds for years to be Round Up resistant.  This means farmers can spray Round Up on their crops to kill the weeds, but not the crop.  Trouble is, weeds are smarter than farmers and companies like Monsanto.  Weeds have now evolved to be resistant to Round Up.  This means more chemicals and more genetic modification.

To get a better idea of what is so wrong with the food system in America you could read books like Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food.  You could watch movies like Food Inc. or King Corn (which I highly recommend).  However, one of the best films out there on this particular subject is a little known documentary, The Future of Food.  You can watch it for free on Hulu.

It isn’t a secret as to what our opinion of GMO food is.  We don’t like it and are quite angry about it.  What can we do about it?  We are very conscience about our food choices.  We do our best to purchase food from reputable organic farmers.  We plant heirloom variety seeds.  We educate ourselves about the state of the food system.  We vote with our wallets.  It makes a difference.