Non-Monsanto Affiliated Seed Companies

By Jami Scholl | February 17, 2012 | 4:37 pm | Comments (3) | Share

(A few companies have Simini- Monsanto affiliated seeds, but they are being phased out and you can ask the company if they are not marked.)

Abundant Life Seeds
Amishland Seeds
Annapolis Valley Heritage Seed Company canada
Baker Creek Seed Co.
Berlin Seeds – no website.
Botanical Interests
Bountiful Gardens
Diane’s Flower Seeds (veggie seed, too)
Fedco Seed Co. – phasing out seminis seeds.
Fisher’s Seeds – 406-388-6052; no website, will send a catalog if you give them your address
PO Box 236, Belgrade, MT 59714
Garden City Seeds
Heirlooms Evermore Seeds
Heirloom Seeds
High Mowing Seeds
Horizon Herbs
Irish-Eyes
Kitchen Garden Seeds
Lake Valley Seeds
Livingston Seeds
Local Harvest
Mountain Rose Herbs
Native Seeds for the Arid Southwest
Natural Gardening Company
New Hope Seed Company
Organica Seed
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Renee’s Garden
Richters Herbs
Sand Hill Preservation Center
Seed Saver’s Exchange
Seeds of Change
Southern Exposure
Sow True
Territorial Seed Company *See note from Tom Johns, President of Territorial Seed Company, below
Tiny Seeds
Tomato Fest – ask for bubble pack when ordering from them for seed viability
Trees of Antiquity
Underwood Garden Seeds
Uprising Seeds
Victory Seeds
Wildseed Farms
Wood Prairie Farm

Thank you Farmer Cathy for this list posted in the Mothering.com community.

Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Community Food Security,Garden the City 2012,Gardens,Planting List,Plants,Urban Agriculture | Tags: Monsanto, non-gmo, seeds

Interested in Social Media Marketing?

By Jami Scholl | January 31, 2012 | 4:06 pm | Comments (0) | Share

Planting seeds...

Garden the City 2012 Now Has a Social Media Intern!

Thanks to everyone who contacted me with interest in the project. Please keep an eye on here on this blog and through twitter, and Facebook for other opportunities for involvement. Don’t see what you’d like to do? Send an email to gardenBtown@gmail.com with your suggestion!

NOTICE!

Garden the City 2012 is looking for a savvy person who is interested in learning and leading the way in social media marketing at the intersection of the new trend of for-profit/non-profits working together for large scale social change! If you are interested send an email to gardenBtown@gmail.com

Garden the City 2012 will promote sustainability by demonstrating the ease by which individuals can create beautiful gardens to grow their own food, flowers and herbs. GtC 2012 will provide classroom and hands-on education through the installation of ecological gardens and wildlife habitat. Examples to be installed in the Bloomington Entertainment and Arts District will include a Formal Garden, an Eastern Woodland Garden, and wildlife habitat in addition to other themed gardens.

Garden the City 2012: Painting with Edibles is a project of the Center for Sustainable Living.

Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Business,Community Food Security,Food Traditions,Garden the City 2012,Gardens,Plants,Urban Agriculture

Alert! Contamination of Rice

By Jami Scholl | January 29, 2012 | 10:53 pm | Comments (0) | Share

Now here is a punch in the gut of the nation – nearly every baby in the United States has been, and continues to be, exposed to arsenic. And not just babies – you and I are exposed, too. During this past year of 2011 inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen (cancer causing substance) has been in the news. It has been found in rice, in chicken feed and chicken meat, in apple and other fruit juices. Unlike the classic movie “Arsenic and Old Lace,” this story is not a comedy.

This is what is so important for pregnant women and nursing mothers to know – ingested inorganic arsenic can cross the human placenta from mother to infant, and in very high doses can cause birth defects. Arsenic is also found in breast milk. According to researchers at Consumer Reports, exposure to the unborn child is a public health concern and has been linked to problems such as:

1)   low birth weight

2)   infant mortality

3)   hampered immune function

4)    increased death rates from lung cancer later in life

5)   birth defects

“Arsenic is rather unusual in that the evidence for it causing cancer is actually stronger in human studies than it is in studies done in the lab.”  - Environmental Protection Agency

Children exposed to arsenic may exhibit the same symptoms as adults:

1)   long-term exposure possibly lowers IQ scores

2)   an increased risk of these cancers: skin, lung, bladder, kidney, liver and prostate

3)   skin changes of small wart-like outbreaks on the palms, soles and torso

4)   it may also affect the peripheral nervous system and blood count

5)   some studies suggest that it MAY contribute to: poor circulation, high blood pressure, heart disease, liver toxicity, diabetes and reproductive affects

6)   may cause damage to whole chromosomes

7)   higher risk for leukemia

Adults and children both process inorganic arsenic in the liver. This will then be passed out of the body in the urine. For children, they cannot convert the same amount of inorganic arsenic to the organic form like adults, leaving more cancer causing inorganic arsenic to do harm to their little bodies.  This is especially important when you think about the first food we usually feed our baby is rice cereal. I have attempted to contact Gerber, a large manufacturer of baby food. I asked them two questions: where is the rice for their baby food grown, and if the rice tested for levels of arsenic. I received an email reply that stated I should contact a person in PR and gave me a phone number. I called the number. Wrong number. “Did I dial the wrong number?” I redialed a few more times. The name on the other end of the call was not Gerber’s PR. I sent an email days ago asking for another contact. I’ve had no response.  Avoidance is a good technique to not answer difficult questions. But this also begs the question:

How is Arsenic getting into the food supply?!?

Inorganic arsenic is used in all types of agricultural production. For fruits and veggies arsenic is added in the pesticides, herbicides and non-organic fertilizers. The production of rice is a bit different than other foods since it is grown in flooded ground.  Being a natural element, arsenic does not go away, it only changes form. Rice grown in some locations have a higher amount of arsenic, because varieties have been developed to tolerate the excessive amounts of found in the soil from the previous crop: cotton. Add to this the fact that of all foods grown, rice more readily uptakes arsenic than any other.

There are two types of testing for arsenic, one is best for a longer term exposure, the other for exposure within a few days. Neither of these tests are routine. There are options to test for arsenic, and likely the most reliable one sends samples of your blood, urine, hair and fingernails to a lab for analysis. This test will not detect lower amounts of exposure, and will only measure for the previous 6-12 months. Other options include a urine sample, but this will only be valid if the exposure was within a few days. Since fish and shellfish contain organic arsenic (non-cancer causing), a more complex test may be needed to differentiate these different forms of arsenic from the blood, urine, hair and fingernails mentioned earlier.

Rice and rice products derived from the grain grown in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas are usually grown in fields that had once been heavily sprayed and fertilized cotton fields. Rice grown in Asia may also have high levels of arsenic. As I research this information, I become more and more convinced that gardens and edible landscaping have the potential to save the world.

Here is your Call to Action!

Let your representatives know you want to ban all use of inorganic arsenic in the production of agricultural products.  (Or label with skull and crossbones!) Until these production practices have changed, it is safest to eat local and organic.

We can change the world! As individuals acting collectively we have a force for good – come join in the effort to take cancer-causing arsenic out of our lives and the lives of our children! If you are interested in growing your own, My Edible Eden can show you the way to grow healthful safe food close to home.

References include: Consumer Reports, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland Department of the Environment, and the American Cancer Society.

Other information can be found: International Agency for Research on Cancer, and The National Toxicology Program.

Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Community Food Security,Food Traditions,Gardens,Plants

Climate Zones & A Gardeners Planting Calendar

By Jami Scholl | November 29, 2011 | 6:48 pm | Comments (0) | Share

Arbor Day Foundation map of climate zones.

Greetings! As you begin to think about planting, a topic that will eventually arise regards climate zones. Unbeknownst to much of the population, the climate zone maps have been a political hot topic. A new one had been released by the USDA but then retracted almost immediately by the Bush administration. The Arbor Day Foundation put out their own in 2006, which is the one that I reference here. Thank you goes to the Arbor Foundation for allowing me the use of this map in the production of the Gardeners Planting Calendar!

The USDA map has been updated, but not before many avid gardeners caught on to the fact that something was amiss with growing conditions changing and the USDA map remaining the same. My short brush with fame, meeting Michael Pollan in Indianapolis included him asking me if I was on the committee which was addressing this issue. I had to graciously say that I was not, but was very aware through my own experiences  how important is the recognition of climate change for our food supply. During World War II home gardens produced approximately 40% of all food grown for our nation. Home gardens and the blooming of the urban agriculture movement can accomplish this, and more, again.

I hope that this calendar provides you with the beginning steps into the world of beautiful and healthful food!

Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Community Food Security,Food Traditions,Garden the City 2012,Gardens,Permaculture,Planting List,Plants,Urban Agriculture

Tomfoodery @ 3rd Street Park Saturday!

By Jami Scholl | September 16, 2011 | 3:51 am | Comments (0) | Share

Sierra with freshly gathered eggs.

I have just returned home after listening and speaking with Mark Winne, and many other friends and fellow foodie activists… it was a lovely evening!

Lifelong Learning Week: Food for Thought is wrapping up. I am tired from all the planning and promotion, but enthusiastic about the event My Edible Eden is co-sponsoring this Saturday with Bloomington Parks and Rec at 3rd Street Park. The details are below.

This is a family friendly FUN hands-on event!

September 17^th, 2011

“Tomfoodery @ 3^rd St. Park”

1pm-3pm

Games: Egg on a Spoon Race, Sack Race, Egg Toss, Team Build Competition

1p           sign-up (sign-up continues throughout event if spaces are available)

115p      Team Build Competition begins!

130p      Egg on a Spoon Race

145p      Sack Race round #1

2p           Sack Race round #2

215p      Egg Toss Round #1

230p      Egg Toss Round #2

245p      Team Build Competition review

3pm       Compost Clean-up

Looking forward to seeing you ALL there if you are in the Bloomington area on Saturday. Oh, I should remind you to dress appropriately!

Smiles,

jami

Categories: Alert! News on the Move. | Tags: Food for Thought

13 Year Periodical Cicadas!

By Jami Scholl | May 26, 2011 | 12:44 am | Comments (3) | Share

13 Year Periodic Cicada

Be on the lookout for the 13 year periodical cicadas! They are to emerge any time here in the midwest.

What does this mean to you? Get ear covering! Millions of these insects are predicted to emerge very soon. And if you have planted fruit trees, protection is needed. One way to protect your investment in future food production is to cover each tree with netting, making sure the edges are secure to the ground. Be sure to monitor the trees daily in order to pluck off any new insects so that they do not harm your trees. And if you have chickens, they’ll love this abundant food source!

For more information about the 13 year periodical cicada, this article in Scientific American provides a good overview:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=buzzing-13-year-periodic-cicadas-em-2011-05-04

Happy gardening!

Categories: Alert! News on the Move.