GMO Alfalfa – A War of Attrition
Barbara H. Peterson
Farm Wars
Sep 16, 2013
And so it begins…
GMO alfalfa is contaminating conventional crops in the state of Washington, and who knows elsewhere. We can safely assume that anywhere this crop is planted, contamination will occur. We can also safely assume that our seed supply is being irreversibly contaminated also, and the longer this is allowed to go on, the worse the contamination will be. Thank you USDA and Monsanto for bringing this scourge on the planet.
Alfalfa is a crop that when planted, lasts for around 6 years without having to replant. In fact, you cannot reseed bare spots because the roots are so deep and pervasive that they choke out new seeds of anything, including weeds. No one here that I know of sprays alfalfa with herbicides because it doesn’t need it. So, Land O’ Lakes’ Forage Genetics and Monsanto genetically engineer a perfectly good seed that requires no herbicides into a crop that now requires herbicides, and for what? Profit and control. Anyone who farms alfalfa knows this. Why on earth would they switch?
Glyphosate Toxicity
According to Charlotte VanGenechten of Millbrook, Ont. Canada, the farmers around her are eagerly awaiting GMO alfalfa seeds. Why? Because they say that they cannot grow anything else on their soil. Canada is the third largest producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the world. If they cannot plant any new fields with normal seed because they have been regularly using Roundup Ready seeds, then that means that they are poisoning the soil and making it unusable through constant application of Glyphosate, the herbicide designed to kill everything but genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops such as the GM alfalfa currently contaminating the state of Washington.
To understand why these farmers cannot grow conventional seed adequately in soil that has been polluted with Glyphosate, one has to understand that it is not the conventional seed that is the problem but the poisons used on the soil that is making it inhospitable to anything but crops that are genetically engineered to withstand it. So, instead of cleaning up their soil, they are going to continue the poisoning by planting GMO alfalfa. A quick fix built on a false premise.
The Rest…HERE
