Organic Connections September-October 2011 by Natural Vitality

Organic

Connections SEPTâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;OCT 2011

The Award-Winning Magazine of Natural Vitality

Chef Tony Geraci Isis Cafeteria Man Greensburg, Kansas Rebuilding the Future GMOs and Pesticides What Concerns Scientists

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Land of the free and home of the brave

ometimes it takes bravery to maintain your freedom. But in everyday life freedom doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. We have a lot of advantages as Americans, and life’s routines seldom bring challenges significant enough to require that type of courage. Unfortunately, while most of us are occupied one way or another with the pursuit of happiness, economic and political forces are stoking the moneymaking machinery of our society without regard for our welfare. Don’t get me wrong ; I’m not talking conspiracy. Instead it’s something more like pragmatic authoritarianism. Whoa, that’s a mouthful! Let’s break it down. The pragmatic part is dealing with practical issues that face corporations, like showing profit in the next quarter. For government, it’s showing economic growth and, of course, not alienating important sources of political contributions. That kind of Washington reality trumps vague notions of citizen well-being every time. The authoritarian part comes about by showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others. By survey, the majority of Americans are concerned about GMO food and support mandatory labeling. According to the Center for Food Safety, up to 40 percent of US corn is genetically engineered, as is 80 percent of soybeans. It has been estimated that upwards of 60 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves—from soda to soup, crackers to condiments— contain genetically engineered ingredients. At least 21 countries and the European Union have established some form of mandatory labeling. Even Pope John Paul II said that using genetically modified organisms to increase production was contrary to God’s will. Yet, in the US, we have no GMO labeling nor a single law intended to responsibly manage the risks of genetically engineered foods. As far as our freedoms protecting us from being the subjects of massive human experimentation are concerned, we’re out of luck. It’s all about the money. Don’t forget that doctor visits, medications, hospitalization and even funerals come out on the positive side of the Gross Domestic Product balance sheet. So, from a strictly economic viewpoint, it’s all good. But isn’t there more to life than a balance sheet? I certainly hope so. And this is where bravery meets the road of freedom. If we’re not given rights, we simply have to insist on them.

Ken Whitman

In this issue

or•gan•ic |ôr ganʹik| denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole: the organic unity of the integral work of art • characterized by continuous or natural development: companies expand as much by acquisition as by organic growth.

4 Chef Tony Geraci A new documentary film, Cafeteria Man, highlights the changes Chef Tony Geraci was able to bring about in the Baltimore school lunch system. OC got the inspiring story from Chef Geraci and the film’s director, Richard Chisolm.

8 Greensburg, Kansas A town literally destroyed by a massive tornado rebuilds its own future as a showcase for green sustainability. We talked with Daniel Wallach, head of Greensburg GreenTown, about this unique story of tragedy and triumph.

Organic Connections™ is published by Natural Vitality Editorial Office 512.222.1740 • e-mail info@organicconnectmag.com Product sales and information 800.446.7462 • www.naturalvitality.com © 2011 Natural Vitality. All rights reserved.

12 GMOs and Pesticides New research has scientists concerned about the pesticides GMO crops are bred to resist. The potentials are alarming and necessitate both further serious scientific study and cautionary labeling to safeguard the health interests of the public.

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Chef Tony Geraci Is

Cafeteria Man

Baltimore. The school lunch issue wasn’t bad and the ugly. But they also got a genuine being talked about nationally. During the sense that this is a moment that people should period of the production it just blossomed, know about, and it’s a tool that my colleagues and Tony became a nationally controver- can use to do their own reform; and that’s sial and positive kind of figure—on ABC why I did it. I thought that if my colleagues News, in big magazines and on radio shows. around the country could get an opportunity At the same time, school food was being to see the land mines that I was stepping on

Three years ago, the name Tony Geraci was known to only a few in the school food industry. Now school systems across the country are begging to see him; top food service companies are courting him; he’s on a first-name basis with food activist legends such as Michael Pollan; and there’s even been a major documentary film, Cafeteria Man, made about him. But back in 2008 when he first arrived in the Baltimore City Schools to take the job of food service director, not many knew of his appointment. He had been a successful chef, food broker, food manufacturer and food service director before he was hired by Dr. Andrés Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Schools, for the express purpose of transforming an extremely distressed food program into something nutritious and good for the students. Upon his arrival, Tony Geraci found he had his work cut out for him. “There was nothing when I first came on board,” Geraci told Organic Connections. “They didn’t purchase anything fresh, anything local; it was all canned USDA commodities and prepackaged food. It was pretty dismal, horrible embraced by Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver stuff, and that’s really why I was brought on and Michael Pollan, as well as by other movies. board: to dismantle that, and then create a So we got incredibly lucky about the emerprogram that focused on healthier options.” gence of an issue from obscurity to being in the forefront of American thought.” From Behind the Camera Concurrent with his taking on a food system in peril, Tony made the decision to allow In an interesting twist of fate, Cafeteria Man himself to be followed around by cameras. director Richard Chisolm and his producer- But there was method to his madness. “When partner Sheila Kinkade happened to hear Richard and Sheila came to me, I saw they about Tony right when he arrived. “We were were brilliant filmmakers in that they wanted really lucky,” Chisolm told Organic Connec- it to be real,” Geraci said. “They didn’t want it tions. “Tony wasn’t known when he came to scripted. They wanted to show the good, the

4 organic connections

so that they could avoid them, then it was all well worth the shoot.” And it was about as real as filmmaking could get. Richard Chisolm began shooting pretty much at the beginning of the story, not having any idea what was to happen. “We chose a kind of filmmaking that I’ve grown incredibly respectful of, but it’s seldom actually applied anymore,” Chisolm said. “We decided to be religiously true to the real chronology of events. The goal was to return to a pure form of filmmaking where the visuals are the main part of the story.”

Multilevel Approach

Tony’s approach to changing the system had several prongs. First, the majority of kids in economically depressed Baltimore didn’t know what fresh food tasted like. It was up to Tony to introduce them. “Unfortunately in big urban school districts, there’s no access to real fresh food,” Geraci said. “So their reference point is based on fast-food offerings because that’s all they get, that’s all that is offered to them. To them, that is food. “So we started doing things like little Solo cup offerings to the kids, containing just a bite or a bite and a half of fresh fruit or vegetable, or an entrée that we were trying. We called them ‘thank-you bites,’ because it was our way of saying thank you to them for trying it. To the students that tried it we gave these little stick-on stars next to their names at the cash register, and then at the end of the month we had a constellation party for all the stars. “As a next step, we created this nonthreatening forum where kids could talk about what was in the cup. What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? How would you make it different? For me it was all about finding out what my clients wanted so that I could go back to my chef-dietician and say, ‘Okay, we need to move the menu in this direction because that seems to be the place where they like it.’” Simultaneously, Tony began slowly but surely introducing to the school administrators the idea of sourcing local fresh food. One example he used in talking to them was regarding peaches. They normally obtained canned peaches packed in corn syrup for 14 cents a serving. He pointed out they could get fresh peaches for around 8 cents each, and not only were they cheaper, but the local children had never had a real peach. On the first day of school, he made sure the students tasted them—and the kids were in a state of electrified wonder at the taste and feel of the peaches.

“I’m a businessman and I’m an entrepre- the community. I think that the right pathway neur; that’s kind of my claim to fame,” Tony is to use a professional business person, a conexplained. “That’s why I was brought there. tract management company—somebody that

The Budget

As anyone who has worked within a school food system will tell you, budgetary con- So I took a very entrepreneurial approach to does this for a living, somebody for whom it’s straints have always been given as a major the management of this business. At the end not their first ride at the rodeo. barrier to serving higher-quality, fresh food of the day this is a $40-million-a-year food “And then I looked at the purchasing to school students. It is still a reason that business, and I think communities often set model differently. I know the economics many accept. Tony, however, did not—and lunch ladies up—putting somebody in a po- are hard in Maryland, so I thought I’d buy it was because he brought considerable food sition to run a multimillion-dollar concern by putting together local purchasing and management experience with him and knew with zero business experience, and they ex- keep the local dollars within the community. how the program should be run. pect miracles. It’s unfair to them; it’s unfair to Rather than building these expressways to organic connections

send money out of the state, you build offramps to keep the money there. That makes it a more solid economic environment. “Then it became stop buying crap that the kids don’t eat—that the kids all agree is crap— and buy something they want to eat. That way you get increased participation. The school lunch program lives, breathes and dies by a thing called ADP, which means ‘average daily participation.’ In a city like Baltimore where you have 88 percent free and reduced-cost meal rates, if the kid doesn’t take the meal, we don’t get paid by the government and we can’t buy product. You can just purchase french fries and hamburgers and pizza because you know they’ll like it, but then the reality is you’re killing your clients. So why not try to introduce something that is also better for them, so that they are better students, so that they’re learning? “Next I cut a lot of waste and fraud out of the system. In the beginning, I was paying around $600,000 a year to move product that I already owned from one side of a warehouse to another side of a warehouse. How do you explain that? You have to look at the thing holistically. To be fair, it was beyond the scope of my predecessor’s understanding.”

this comes along, it’s a very powerful force to embrace.” The Status Quo

As one might imagine, walking into a very fixed bureaucracy would take its toll. There’s a point in the film where Tony is asked by one of the students what the hardest part of his job is. He firmly purses his lips and replies, “The adults.”

“The bureaucracy was really the hardest thing,” said Geraci. “There were moments when I thought, ‘I’m done; I’m out of here.’ There was bruising and permanent scarring, trust me. This was the most difficult project that I’ve ever undertaken in my career, and I’ve been a pretty successful businessman. But a lot of people in the community kept rallying around me and saying, ‘Look, we need to fight through this; we need to get to the other side. So we need to do the right thing for our kids.’” “In making this film, I learned about optimism in the face of severe resistance and Getting Their Hands Dirty seeing that it’s not black and white,” Chisolm As Tony was working to source fresh local continued. “It’s not a person who comes to food, he also wanted the students to fully town and has the magic recipe and everybody understand what they would be getting. To falls in line. When Obama came to Washingthat end he, with the help of a local farmer, ton, he was this new messiah president who created a school farm where the students was going to fix our country from all its horcould participate in growing food. “I think rible situations. A year later, the same people that is one of the single most important tools who voted for him were saying, ‘Why isn’t we can offer our children—the opportunity it fixed? Why is it still a problem?’ The same to plant a pea, to watch it grow, to turn it into thing happened to Tony after about a year. In something that you can harvest and share human nature there is sometimes this ridicuwith your friends,” Geraci said. “It changes lous impatience and this oversimplified outthe way you think about food. It’s no longer look, especially in the United States, where consumption—it’s quite different; it has a we want something to be fixed quickly. different approach.” To watch a man who just is tenacious and In watching the film, seeing the children energetic get clobbered over and over again come alive as they put their hands in the earth by that kind of reality was kind of scary at and touch and taste fresh food in its original times. But to also see him win a lot of those form is a wonder to behold. As it turns out, battles was really fun.” this was done very much on purpose. “To have the emotions in the faces and voices of Improvements Made children, to me that was the most important part,” Chisolm told OC. “I think, really, the At the end of three years, Tony decided to story is about focusing a lens on young peo- pull back to part time and to answer the ple in a new way: thinking of them as being now fervent demands for his help that were end-users of a system instead of just feeding coming from school districts all over the them anything while parents don’t care and country. He left Baltimore City Schools far, nobody is watching. When something like far better than he had found them. In a radio 6 organic connections

interview at the end of the film, he proudly announces that Baltimore Schools now purchase all produce from Maryland farms, that pre-plated meals have been eliminated completely, and that items grown on the school farm are being utilized in educational programs. A central kitchen, which would greatly facilitate locally grown and cooked food, is well underway. Today, Tony still has a voice in the creation of that central kitchen, but he is also lending

his talents to the creation of local farm-toschool food programs in numerous other cities. One of the largest school food service companies in the nation—an establishment that one would think would never want Tony Geraci anywhere near it—after learning what he did in Baltimore, wants him to pilot similar programs for ultimate broad national export. Tony summed it up with the motivation that carried him through his Baltimore adventure and beyond. “I think that people are starting to really wake up and recognize that they can make the change, that it doesn’t have to be the same old stories about ‘Oh, it’s too hard; it costs too much; I can’t afford it.’ We can spend a lot of time saying, ‘You can’t.’ “I grew up in the sixties, when there was this young president who said that in this decade we will put man on the moon. Our rockets blew up on the launch pads; we didn’t have guidance devices; we didn’t have systems that could get us from here to the moon. But in the summer of 1969 in the living room of my grandfather—a man who saw air travel happen in his lifetime—we sat and watched a man walk on the moon. We did that because we as a nation willed that to happen. We decided we were going to do this thing; we were going to do the impossible. I sort of liken it to this child nutrition reform thing—but this is not rocket science; this is not as profound as putting a man on the moon. And it certainly should not take a decade to accomplish. I think we need to embrace that willingness to fix the things that are broken and stop blaming everybody else for it. We are amazing people. Why don’t we embrace our amazingness?” To find out about the release and screenings of Cafeteria Man, visit the film’s website at www.cafeteriaman.com.

Greensburg, Kansas

Rebuilding the Future

towns, Greensburg had seen a steady decline “The average tornado is 75 yards wide, so it in population over the last several decades was much more like a land hurricane than a and was struggling to get by. tornado. It started in the beginning of town At 9:50 p.m. on that fateful day, a record and went all the way through to the end.” EF5* tornado touched down. The behemoth Given a 20-minute warning that likely storm was actually wider than the town, with saved many lives, people were able to find sustained winds of over 200 miles per hour. shelter in basements and huddle down while “It was a 1.7-mile-wide tornado, and the the storm literally shredded the buildings town is only 1.5 miles square,” Daniel Wallach, around them. In mere minutes, Greensburg executive director and founder of Greens- went from a standing community to comThe plants and trees along Main Street— burg GreenTown, told Organic Connections. plete and utter devastation. Climbing back up completely illuminated at night with LED out of their basements and storm cellars, the lighting—are watered from a system that citizens of Greensburg were confronted with captures and filters rainwater. The county nothing but a flattened field of twisted debris courthouse, while retaining its original 1914 where once had been their town. facade, features a geothermal heating and cooling system, a 15,000-gallon rainwater The 5.4.7 Arts Center is named for the date of cistern, and high-efficiency windows. The the tornado. Shortly after the storm, several school has its own on-site wind generator, a University of Kansas graduate architectural ground-source heat pump system, and its students came to town looking to develop a exterior is built of reclaimed wood from trees project that would serve the community. The damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Twenty-eight structure was designed and built at their workstructures in the town are either built to or At 9:50 p.m. on May 4, shop in Lawrence, Kansas, and transported have achieved some of the highest sustainto Greensburg in seven modules. It is the first ability standards attainable. In addition, 100 2007, an LEED Platinum certified project in the state of percent of the town’s power is met with offsets Kansas, and the first LEED Platinum building from a nearby wind farm, consisting of ten laid waste to Greensburg, to be designed and constructed by students. wind turbines, each providing 1.25 megawatts of power. The Greensburg school, serving 425 students Kansas, This is no distant future ideal—it is quite ranging from preschool through high school, real. In a very interesting coincidence the of the town. has been built to LEED Platinum standards. place is named Greensburg, Kansas, and it is It has its own on-site 50-kilowatt wind gennow an international showplace for sustain- The twister—which, at 1.7 erator and a ground-source heat pump system able technologies. Just recently, a journalist drawing energy from the earth through 97 flew in from Japan to see how she might miles wide, was actually wells dug 410 feet deep. The exterior utilizes tell the Greensburg story back home and wood reclaimed from trees damaged in Hurinspire the rebuilding of their earthquake- bigger than the 1.5-square- ricane Katrina, and much of the lighting is afflicted areas for a sustainable future. achieved through natural daylighting.

EF5 tornado

destroying over 90 percent

Tornado Devastation

But Greensburg didn’t start off to be this way. Prior to May 4, 2007, it was a 1.5-square-mile sleepy, tiny town sitting in the middle of the Kansas prairie, with a population of 1,400 that survived mainly by oil, gas and agriculture. As with many small rural American 8 organic connections

mile town—had sustained winds of 205 mph and caused the deaths of eleven people.

As were most buildings in town, Greensburg City Hall was destroyed in the tornado. The new 4,700-square-foot building constructed in its place is projected to achieve more than 35 percent energy savings. It was designed to LEED Platinum standards and will be the first new-construction LEED Platinum city hall in the US.

“Over 90 percent of the structures were stay in town. It was pretty remarkable to have completely demolished,” Wallach said. “We that kind of showing at the first meeting. To lost all utilities, and it was essentially barren that meeting, we took a concept paper on except for all the debris.” rebuilding as a model green community Wallach himself was somewhat new to the and found, when we arrived, that somebody area. In 2003, he and his wife, Catherine Hart, from the governor’s office was already talkbought a farm 35 miles from Greensburg ing about this, and so was the mayor at the in an effort to rebuild their lives. “We had time. It was quite the convergence.” burned ourselves out in our last business venWallach was interacting with a group of ture, which was in Colorado,” Wallach related. “We ended up moving to Kansas, which is a friendly place for folks that fall on financial hardship, and started over on ten acres of land in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t know vocationally what we’d end up doing, but we had begun a natural foods co-op in the area and six families from Greensburg were part of that.”

some cases, beliefs about sustainability, for instance. Sustainable building and living is tough, because what anybody who has been through trauma or deep loss knows is that there’s this almost homing device that moves us in a direction of wanting to get back a sense of familiarity and the status quo. When the difficulty of just rebuilding is met with, in addition, rebuilding differently or better or in new ways, it makes it more challenging.” But the town rose to the challenge. “In the end, people in Greensburg loved the idea of making something out of this mess that would actually have a global impact. At the time it seemed absurd—this tiny town two hours west of Wichita, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, all of a sudden being thrust onto the global stage. Here was an oppeople who were intensely traumatized, and portunity for us to take the lead and give he knew how difficult such an undertaking something to the world with this terrible might be for them. “Losing all your material disaster, and an amazing amount of leaderpossessions, including your shelter, is very ship surfaced within the community. Together traumatic,” Wallach said. “You’re dealing with the community worked for a collective a level of stress that most people aren’t ac- vision and then went about separately doing customed to at all. Emotional upset is a very their pieces, which now end up four years challenging state in which to get things done later being this model community with all and in which to adopt new behaviors and, in these elements of what we call a town for the future as opposed to a town of the future.” Wallach considers part of the reason he Greensburg’s is located just outside of and others were able to sell the idea is that the townspeople were from rural stock. “People town and consists of 10 turbines, each providing 1.25 out here are, in some ways, much more connected to nature than those in urban areas,” megawatts of power. The turbines produce enough he said. “I’ve always found that to be the case with people in rural areas—they are just a . The farm’s location offers little less domesticated and come from stock that was downright wild. The folks out here optimal power capability, with an average wind speed had ancestors that settled and used windmills to bring water up out of the ground, built of 17.5 mph. homes with solar orientation, captured rainwater in cisterns, and used homeopathic and Following the tornado, Daniel and the naturopathic medicine.” rest of the residents reeled in shock. “It was Through this event, Daniel and his wife about digging out of the debris and getting discovered the vocation they were seeking— a sense of where do we go from here,” said the formation of a new nonprofit organizaWallach. “It was obviously very traumatic; tion called Greensburg GreenTown, which eleven people lost their lives and many more became information central for the rebuildwere traumatized by it.” ing effort as it related to green and sustainable technologies. It was to this organization that Sustainable Inspiration businesses and individuals could come and obtain assistance and information on exactly Managing to look forward, Daniel had a flash how to go about implementing these methods. of inspiration about how they might recover Greensburg GreenTown also became the face from this horrid disaster in a positive way. presented to the rest of the world. “Exactly a week after the storm the first “A lot of it has been about public relations town meeting was held in a tent,” Wallach both in the community and without,” Wallach recalled. “Amazingly, 500 people showed up, remarked. “We’ve done a tremendous amount in a town of 1,400 where none of them could of media work, all of it being just responsive

wind farm

power for 4,000 homes

10 o r g a n i c c o n n e c t i o n s

Greensburg is the first city in the US to achieve 100 percent LED street

lighting. The 303 lights are 40 percent more efficient and

odds increase dramatically the easier you make it for them to do it. We partnered with the Natural Renewable Energy Lab, which is a Department of Energy program, and they brought some of the best minds in the business on green energy, green transportation, biofuels—all these topics relating to sustainable living. Now we had the foremost experts in the world at our disposal, and so we helped make that connection in the community, talking to people and saying, ‘This is an amazing resource. Don’t waste it.’ ” Four years later, evidence of the community’s commitment to sustainability is everywhere you look in Greensburg. Visitors to the town will first see GreenTown’s Silo Eco-Home and Green Visitors Center, which showcases unique building techniques, energy-efficient features, and green materials and products. As a home showcase, this center is only the beginning. “Most everything in Greensburg is tourable,” said Wallach. “The school, all the city buildings, all the county buildings, are open to the public, and things like the streetlights and the wind farm are totally accessible. But even though some of the greenest homes in the world are in Greensburg, they’re privately owned and occupants don’t want people traipsing through.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, an internationally recognized green building certification process developed and supervised by the U.S. Green Building Council. Beyond the materials and methods of building, their standards also encompass air quality, facilitating alternate transportation, water-wise landscaping, the distance materials have to travel, and much more. There are four different levels of LEED certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. At this point, five of Greensburg’s projects have received LEED Platinum certification, and many more are in the works. Paying It Forward

It has been a long stretch. But there has also been an incredible transformation with a bright future. “It’s been an interesting thing to longer lasting than their watch,” Wallach concluded. “A lot of people are still very tired; a lot of people worked traditional counterparts very hard in bringing things back. But there are also a lot of good feelings about how this found in other cities. collective vision was realized, and it’s quite exhilarating to see how the town is paying it They have a usable life forward. Representatives of the city of Tuscaloosa came to town to see what Greensburg of 80,000 to 100,000 had done, and I think it’s inspired them to do “So we’re building a chain of what we call their own sustainable rebuilding. We have hours and can save 70 eco-homes. The first is our Green Visitors a reporter coming from Japan soon, from Center, and in the last year we’ve had over the second largest newspaper there, to tell the percent on energy and 5,000 people come through to see what a story and bring some inspiration and ideas state-of-the-art sustainable home looks and back to Japan. Folks from Greensburg went maintenance costs. feels like. We’re working very hard on build- to China after the big earthquake there. The to media. We were, I think, the first to really ing a second home, a very cool state-of-the- impact is just enormous.” paint the picture of a living science museum art house that will be affordable and accessible and help make that happen. So a lot of what and will use 90 percent less energy than a we did was facilitating information to the conventionally built home. It’s being built out *EF5: EF is the Enhanced Fujita Scale, a rating of the people who needed it.” of a wall system that’s barely been outside of strength of tornadoes in the United States based on the damage they cause. EF5 is the highest rating, Europe; the German company that produces indicating winds over 200 mph. Green Greensburg these uses 100 percent biodegradable wood blocks that are kind of like huge Legos.” “We have found that our nature as human be- When Greensburg decided on their green For more on the transformation of ings, like any creature, is to follow the path of goal in 2007, they passed a resolution to Greensburg, Kansas, visit the Greensburg least resistance,” Wallach continued. “In getting build to LEED Platinum standards in all GreenTown website at people to change any kind of behavior, your new construction. LEED is an acronym for www.greensburggreentown.org. organic connections

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) began being released in the early 1990s, with big promises. The idea put forward was that certain traits, including increased nutrition, resistance to drought and faster growth, could be bred into crops such as corn and soybeans so that improved produce could be grown in much higher yields. Genetically engineered crops have been with us now for some 20 years, and it is becoming apparent that the reality of GMOs has fallen far short of business model expectations. A report issued in 2009 by the Union of Concerned Scientists entitled Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops found that GM technology has not increased yields at all through its entire history, despite the millions that have been spent on GM development, much of it from government funding. The public is becoming increasingly concerned about GMOs, as scientific evidence is arguing against the safety of public consumption and the widespread growing of GMO crops. Of greatest concern, however, is new research regarding pesticides developed strictly for GMOs, which may prove to be the tipping point for the entire technology. Pesticide Resistance

One trait that has been successfully bred into GMO crops is resistance to pesticides. When a trait is bred into a crop making it resistant to one particular herbicide, that herbicide can be used with impunity against weeds while not affecting the primary crop. This of course only works when

GMOs and Pesticides

What Concerns Scientists by Bruce Boyers

farmers who plant these crops use that specific herbicide. The vast majority of commodity crops— including corn, soybeans, canola, cotton and now alfalfa—have been bred to resist one best-selling herbicide called glyphosate. Glyphosate is what is known as a broadspectrum herbicide, meaning it is designed to kill a wide variety of weeds. Glyphosate is

garden, commercial and industrial government use, it’s up right around 200 million pounds. It’s probably the most widely used pesticide in history.” As one might imagine, such a sheer volume of poison being applied to millions of acres of farmland might begin to manifest negative effects—and credible scientists are telling us this is the case.

the primary active ingredient in the extensively used Roundup herbicide, and up until the year 2000 Roundup’s manufacturer— Monsanto—had proprietary rights to the compound. Since that time, Monsanto has continued to use it, but now generic glyphosate has appeared from a number of other manufacturers, and even from China. Because of the quantity of GMO crops designed to resist glyphosate, an unnerving amount of this chemical is being employed. “The EPA recently came out with an estimate of glyphosate use,” Bill Freese, Science Policy Analyst with the Center for Food Safety, told Organic Connections. “It is for the year 2007, so it’s actually probably even higher now; but they’re estimating that in agriculture in the US, 180 to 185 million pounds of glyphosate are used yearly. It’s a huge quantity, and it’s coming close to half of all herbicides in use. If you include other applications like home and

Effects on Plant, Soil, Animal and Human Biology

Glyphosate does not function as a normal pesticide might, directly killing the plant with which it comes in contact. Its action is actually far subtler: it acts as a chelating agent, whereby it binds itself to molecules, such as minerals, and holds them tightly, making them unavailable to the plant or weed. In fact, glyphosate was originally patented as a chelating agent and quite accidentally became an herbicide. “Glyphosate belongs to the chemical family of phosphonates, which is a family of chelating agents,” Dr. Arden Andersen, soil scientist, agricultural consultant and physician, explained to Organic Connections. “Glyphosate was originally patented by Stauffer Chemicals in the early 1960s as a descaling agent [used to remove mineral residues inside dishwashers, vents and the like]. organic connections

It was only by serendipity that it got spilled, or something, and it killed the weeds it contacted. It was subsequently purchased by Monsanto, and the rest is history. The key needed understanding to have is that glyphosate is a broad-spectrum chelating agent and was originally designed and patented as such. Its effect and use as an herbicide have been afterthoughts.” This chelating action actually leads to harm for plants, as it removes important trace minerals, a fact observed by Dr. Robert Kremer, microbiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, who conducted a 15-year study on glyphosate’s effects on plants and root microbiology. Dr. Kremer is also an adjunct professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri, where he teaches environmental soil microbiology and advanced weed science. “Glyphosate is a chelator, which will bind with elements such as manganese and calcium, and those sorts of nutrients, and immobilize them,” Dr. Kremer told Organic Connections. “In other words, it will make them unavailable for plant uptake. “As we have studied the microorganisms in root systems over time, we have seen a shift toward more colonization of the roots with some particular fungi that could, under certain circumstances, be a detriment to crop growth,” Dr. Kremer continued. “We also did a small side study in which we demonstrated that the glyphosate molecule is being transported to the roots and released into the soil around the roots. There is a possibility that this chemical being released through the root system interacts with certain microorganisms and maybe selects these at the expense of other microorganisms there that might be beneficial to the plant.” Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus at Purdue University, is a highly respected 55-year 14 o r g a n i c c o n n e c t i o n s

veteran microbiologist and plant pathologist. He too has been carefully researching this issue and has paid special attention to glyphosate’s effects on the trace mineral manganese. “Manganese is an essential micronutrient for photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, as well as for plant defense mechanisms to a series of soil-borne pathogens,” Dr. Huber briefed Organic Connections. “It’s also important in defending against stress such as drought and even excess water. In researching the impact of glyphosate on manganese availability, it became very apparent that the chelating activity of glyphosate had a direct effect on manganese availability for uptake, in addition to being very toxic to the organisms that are responsible for making manganese available to the plant and the soil we started with. There are several mechanisms involved with glyphosate that we generally don’t see with most of the other herbicides, and the research led us to recognize why we’re noticing a general increase in a lot of plant diseases that we used to manage fairly well.” Unnamed Organism

But glyphosate’s fostering of pathogen growth may not only be harmful to plants. In fact, there is recent research suggesting strong evidence that this characteristic could affect animals fed GMO corn and soybean feed— and might potentially affect humans as well. “Veterinarians have been reporting a new, as-yet-unnamed organism that is related to reproductive failure,” Dr. Huber said. “They have identified genetically modified plants as the source—especially soybeans and corn. They’ve established this new organism as the cause of that reproductive failure—infertility, miscarriage and spontaneous abortions. The plant has been tied, as the source, to those situations where you see conditions favorable

for this organism to proliferate. We don’t have the research to document a direct effect of glyphosate in increasing that pathogen, but the evidence is that it changes the environment to make the plant more conducive for that organism to proliferate, and to thus be available and in the grain and feed that the animals receive.” What are the chances that this pathogen could transmit to humans? “It has been found in animal tissues and in products that would be consumed by humans,” Dr. Huber remarked. “This organism infects a broad scope of animals already—horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry. To believe that it wouldn’t infect humans would be kind of naive at this point, I think. There’s a lot of research that needs to be done, but it would certainly not be out of the ordinary to recognize that there’s also a potential safety aspect as far as humans are involved.” Several months ago, prior to the USDA approving GMO alfalfa for planting, Dr. Huber wrote a private letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to study these findings before the approval of yet another glyphosate-resistant crop. “I wrote the letter to bring to Secretary Vilsack’s attention the concerns a number of us have, and to solicit his assistance and resources in getting the information that we really need to thoroughly understand the epidemiology* of this organism. It was written with the hope that it would be forwarded—which it was—to those groups within the USDA who would be responsible for responding to that information, and with the possibility that there might be some resources allocated for really looking at all of the features of glyphosate, GMO organisms and this new organism as they impacted our overall crop and animal production system.”

THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

GMO THE LONG-TERM SAFETY OF CONSUMING GMO PRODUCTS HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED BY FEDERAL REGULATORY AGENCIES

Despite his letter and submission of follow- that herbicide and the weeds develop resisup peer-reviewed scientific data, Dr. Huber tance to the herbicide. It’s totally unsustainhas, as yet, been unsuccessful in efforts urging able agriculture, bad for the environment and the USDA to conduct broad and definitive human health, and it’s where this Roundup studies on this pathogen, its causes and its Ready model is leading.” potential harmful effects. “Dr. Huber has raised some really serious concerns about The Battle Continues potential impacts of glyphosate on plant and animal health,” Bill Freese, Science Policy As Dr. Huber points out, issues such as the Analyst with the Center for Food Safety, stated. newly discovered pathogen fostered by “The USDA should seriously research this is- glyphosate can have far-reaching effects. sue as more data is accumulated.” “This organism could have a tremendously negative impact on our exports,” Dr. Huber Increasing Weed Resistance said. “The organism has been detected in our exported soybean products, and reproductive As with any pesticide, increased use of the failure of increasing severity is also being reagent causes resistance in the pests to which it ported in other countries.” is being applied. “The glyphosate-resistant Because of the lack of long-term studies weed issue is reaching a really serious stage,” and conclusive science showing these biotech said Freese. “One Iowa weed scientist was creations to be safe for human consumption,

Dr. Huber has raised some really serious concerns about potential impacts of glyphosate on plant and animal health. The USDA should seriously research this issue as more data is accumulated. telling me that people are expecting these weeds to explode in Iowa in the next year or two. They’re creeping from the East and the South into the Midwest and people are starting to see them somewhat in the North. Studies out there are already showing that weeds are going to evolve resistance to this and other herbicides too. So probably we’ll have weed populations resistant to multiple herbicides— kind of like an arms race between the crops and the weeds. They engineer a new resistance into a crop, and then you use tons of

alarmed consumers are increasingly speaking out against GMOs and expressing their desire to not have GMO foods available in the marketplace, especially unlabeled. Natural products retailers are taking note—and some, such as Mile High Organics of Colorado, have gone all out to ensure that the products they sell are 100 percent GMO free. “I don’t believe that consumers should be deceived,” Michael Joseph, founder and CEO of Mile High Organics, told Organic Connections. “I don’t consider that the US

government is doing a good job of protecting its citizenry, and some retailers are starting to step up and have done very well at educating their consumers. We really have found a strong and loyal consumer base that believes exactly the same thing, and people have thanked us. I’ve had people tell me that they think I’m essentially doing work that should be done by the government.” Equally vocal are food activists and natural food advocates such as best-selling writer and educator Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It. “Our regulators have allowed genetically modified foods to enter into our food system without taking seriously the concerns, not only about public and animal health, but also about the impact of GMOs on biodiversity, on pest and weed resistance, and other negative externalities—as economists would say— that should have been red flags about this technology from the beginning,” Lappé told Organic Connections. “The real underlying issue is that we don’t even need this technology,” Dr. Arden Andersen concluded. “We already have the wherewithal, the science, the technology and the products to solve every problem that has been proposed to need genetic engineering technology. So when you think about it, if we already have the technology to solve all of those problems, why are certain people wanting to pursue genetic engineering? It is certainly not from a need perspective; it’s not from a science perspective—it’s strictly for want of monopolization and greed. That’s it.” *epidemiology: the study of the incidence, transmission and containment of epidemic disease.

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