What do you think?  Is the fact that 92% of America’s soybeans and 85% of corn are being grown with Monsanto’s seeds a problem?  Is it just as Monsanto claims that they have a superior product so it’s natural for farmers to want to grow their seeds?

Is it normal that in 2000 enough seeds to plant an acre of Round Up ready soybeans cost $17 and now ten years later as much $50?  I guess this is just inflation.

I set a batch of peas out a few days ago, and I’ve just started another indoors.

These past two years I’ve been using a method I found on the Real Seeds website, in the archives of their newsletters I think.

The basic problem in our area is if you direct sow pea seeds, they often just don’t come up.  I guess there are a few reasons for this, rotting in cold ground and getting eaten by mice, perhaps others.  Anyway the solution is to start them indoors.

I used to start them in individual pots, but this was really time consuming as well as needing a lot of potting soil.  The secret I learned from Real seeds is to just sprout them in paper towels (called kitchen roll in some places)!  That’s all you need is for the seeds to have sprouted, and they won’t rot in the ground and the mice won’t eat them!  This really saves a lot of trouble.

When you plant them, instead of sowing heavily in expectation of germination that’s less than 100% and thinning later, you can sow the distance apart you want the plants to be, because most will grow.

This has worked really well for me so far!  Does anyone else grow peas this way?

As you can see the rest of the plant is doing great, but the grafts I posted about several weeks ago didn’t make it.

So the lessons for me seem to be the following:

• Citrus bud grafting is normally best done in summer or fall
• I should have taped the graft tighter, and SHOULD HAVE USED PARAFILM TAPE.
• I probably should have done something more to keep the scion wood from drying out.  For some time I had a plastic bag covering the entire plant, and Christina has a good way to do this with parafilm tape.

Well in a few weeks I plan to have another go with some apple trees…  Maybe this summer I’ll try something again with citrus.

While browsing Anne’s blog, I came across this great video of Jamie Oliver. I guess by now he’s someone pretty well known on both sides of the Atlantic. While I like Jamie a lot, there are clearly some points I disagree with him on, so I’m going to say something about these too.

To be honest, I have a problem with his strong imagery regarding sugar.

When it comes to processed foods containing sugar, and children especially consuming large quantities of this, there’s little to disagree with. Children don’t need sugar added to their milk to make it taste better, nor do they need artificial flavors and colors. In addition, there’s reason to be concerned about salt and fats in processed foods. While I say concerned, I want to be clear that moderation is key here, and those that have the most to worry about are people that eat only processed foods and little else.

There’s also little doubt that the healthiest food for anyone to eat is fresh, home cooked, locally produced and free of chemicals and pesticides. The healthiest diet is also one that emphasises fruits, vegetables and simple starches over animal products and other processed foods. This is particularly important for children.

On the other hand, sugar, salt and fats/oils are also perfectly normal cooking ingredients, that nearly all of us have in our kitchens. These are perfectly fine to use in cooking or to season your food. It’s absolutely crazy that some people think it’s unhealthy for the average person to add a spoonful of sugar to their tea or salt to their meal. If you’re diabetic, have high blood pressure or otherwise under doctors care, there may be some specific reason why you personally cannot eat certain things, but there’s no evidence to suggest it’s in any way unhealthy for the average person.

Many of us also eat modest amounts of processed foods containing these ingredients, like dairy, soft drinks, meats, and even things like soy sauce, catsup and so on. There’s little evidence to suggest there’s anything wrong with this. In fact there’s evidence to suggest that not only are these normal things to consume, they can also be healthy. There can however be many reasons for concern regarding how these foods are produced, and in general it’s becoming increasingly clear how important it is to think about this.

Food companies make huge profits by making people afraid of normal foods, and selling them supposedly healthy alternatives or by substituting something cheaper for these common ingredients.

Sugar is one of the most clear examples. In relative terms, sugar is expensive to add to processed foods. It’s price fluctuates on world markets, and supplies are not reliable. Soft drink companies have long sought alternatives to common sugars for their products. By using a sugar substitute, for example aspartame that’s commonly used in sugar free soft drinks, manufactures save an estimated 1.5 cents (US dollars) per can of beverage. This is a huge savings when considering how many cans of sugar free drinks are made each year. A similar savings can be had by using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) instead of normal sugar, which is common in the US.

The problem is these sugar alternatives are linked to obesity, diabetes and other health problems. Statistically, people who drink soft drinks containing aspartame instead of sugar are heavier. In addition, the current obesity epidemic in the US corresponds almost exactly to the introduction of HFCS into processed foods and soft drinks.

There’s little evidence to show a connection between consuming modest amounts of ordinary sugar and weight gain. In fact, sugar is known to suppress appetite and many people who switch to sugar alternatives find themselves coping with a significant increase in hunger. Aspartame is a known appetite stimulant.

In simple terms, there’s little evidence to suggest an average adult without specific medical concerns is doing anything unhealthy by consuming modest amounts of fats, sugar or salt, as long as these come from natural sources. Specifically, there is no benefit in looking for alternatives to these foods. Certainly, no one should be afraid of these ingredients for use in home cooking.

Paquebot recently asked me to update the list of tomatoes he’s offering from what I posted here for him last year.

Paquebot lives in Wisconsin, USA.  He’s offering more than 200 tomatoes, organized into the year grown, giving an indication of the age of the seeds. Tomato seed are normally good for about 5-10+ years, so age isn’t an issue if you plant them within the next couple of years.

He’s offering them as part of the Seed Network, and in particular he said they are available to anyone, anywhere in the world. You have to discuss payment or trading terms with him yourself.

If you’re interested in anything here, send me an email and I’ll forward it to him.

2009 seeds
Aker’s West Virginia Black
Albany Georgia Heirloom
Amish Paste
Anna Hermann
Apelsin
Apricot Brandywine
Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Banjan Roomii
Belgian Heart
Big White Pink Stripes
Black Sea Man
Bosu
Buckeye Yellow
Carbon
Caro Rich
Chico III
Chocolate Cherry
Cour de Bou
Cow’s Tit
Eagle’s Beak
Endless Summer
Ernesto
Fantome de Laos
Giraffe
Guido
Guernsey Island
Hawaiian Orange Cherry
Hawaiian Pineapple
Hazelfield Farm Red
Heinz 1439
Japanese Black Triffle
Kardinal
Lagidny
Limmony
Marizol Purple
Mirabell, Red
Mirabell, Yellow
Monkey Ass
Moya
Northern Crown
Northern Lights
Pantano Romanesco
Paquebot Roma
Persimmon
Pink Ruffled
Portugal Monster
Principe Borghese
Riesentraube
Rozovii Giant
Sainte Lucie
Siberian
Silvery Fir Tree
Snowberry
Super Snow White
Ten Fingers of Naples
Tennessee Britches
The Orange
Tiny Tim
Togo Trefele
Turks Muts
Volgogradskij 5/95
Vorlon
West Virginia Pink Slicer
Willamette
Wisconsin 55
Wisconsin 55 Gold
Yellow 1884 Pinkheart

2008 seeds
Amish Red
Belarusan Heart
Besser
Black From Tula
Black Plum
Black Prince
Bloody Butcher
Boondocks
Borgio Cellano
Brianna
Cherokee Purple (PL)
Chianti Rose
Chocolate Stripes
Dinner Plate
Dr. Lyle
Dorothy’s Mennonite Beefsteak
Dorothy’s Mennonite Bicolor
Dorothy’s Mennonite Big Heart
Douce de Picardie (PL)
German Head
Giant Belgium
Giant Oxheart
Giant Roma
Giant Tree
Gigante Liscio
Golden Dwarf Champion
Hungarian Italian Paste
Japanese Oxheart
King Pineapple
Lancaster Pink
Large Pink Bulgarian
Legend
Long Keeper
Marglobe
Market Miracle
Mexico
Noire Russie
Old German
Preacher
Red Heart Yellow
Red Penna
Red Zebra
Russian Annie
Sandul Moldovan
Spoon
Super Beefsteak
Super Choice
Tater Kin
Taxi
Teton de Venus
Thessaloniki Oxheart
Valencia Pink
Watermelon Beefsteak
White Tomesol
Woodle Orange
Wuhib
Yamal

2007 seeds
Ace 55
Amana Orange
Ananas Noir
Aunt Madge’s
Aussie
Bear Claw
Beauty King
Berkeley Tie Dyed
Black Oxheart
Blue Beech
Boyarsky
Boy Boy
Brown Berry
Bull’s Heart
Burracker’s Favorite
Carmelo
Chateau Rose
Clover Trefle
Costoluto Fiorentino
Crimson Cushion
Crnkovic Jugoslavian
Danish Export
Des Andes Jaune
German Queen
Gogosha
Greater Baltimore
Gregori Altai
Grosse Cotelee
Hartman’s Yellow Gooseberry
Hog Heart
Howard German
Japanese Golden Pear
Julia Child
Kalman’s Hungarian
Korney’s Jelly Bean
Kosovo
Lemon Giant
Lumpy Red
Mandarine
Matt’s Wild Cherry
Mennonite Orange
Merveilles des Marches
Minibel
Nelson’s Golden Giant
Novikov Giant
Oaxacan Jewel
Olive Doree
Orange Giant
Paul Robeson
Peacevine Cherry
Pigmeo
Pipo
Pomodoro Palla di Fuoco
Pomodoro Red Pear
Raspberry Giant
Sausage
Scatalone
Selandia
Super Marmande
Tiger Tom
Tumbling Tom
UC82B
Ukrainian Pear
Wanda’s PT
Wes
Zebra
Zorica’s Croatian Bull Eye

2006 Seeds
Abraham Lincoln
Amish Salad
Amish Yellow
Aunt Gertie’s Gold
Aztec
Balkon Star
Black Cherry
Bradley
Cherry Roma
Cherokee Green
Cosmonaut Volkov
Croatian Heart
Douce de Picardie (RL)
Emeraude
Gardeners Delight
Garden Peach, Red
Garden Peach, Yellow
German Pink
Giant Syrian
Goose Creek
Greenbush Italian
Green Cherry
Green Giant
Green Zebra
Harvard Square
John Baer
Kristina Vatcheva
Leatha’s
Lemon Drop
Lithuanian
Long Tom
Marianna’s Conflict
Marianna’s Peace
Medford
Moby Grape
Mr. Fumo
Novogogoshary
Nyagous, Red
Oregon Spring
Perito Italian
Roman Candle
Segler
Sheyenne
Striped Cavern
Surender’s Indian Curry
Tigerella
Tommy Toes, Red
Tommy Toes, Yellow
Ugly Ripe
Voyage
West Virginia 63
Yellow Pear
Yoder’s German Yellow

I’ve also gone through and just done a general clean up of old links and removed links to people who don’t seem to be publishing a current list of seeds.

If I’m missing anything, or if you would like to be added or removed from the list, please let me know.  If I’ve deleted you in error, please accept my apologies and let me know so I can put you back.

If you’re looking for seeds to grow in 2010, please have a look at the current list!

Maybe it’s not something everyone would admit to, but I read this blog from time to time and find it very interesting.  With as many as 5-10 posts per day, many of them very long, I certainly don’t keep up with them all.  I do however come across some real gems from time to time, like this recent one entitled Newt Gingrich Gets It Wrong.

Okay, I’m biased.  In general I like Obama and the direction he’s trying to go in.  I’m also no fan of Newt Gingrich.  More than anything however, I think this is just a very well written piece and the White House really understands the concept of a blog and what to use it for.

A blog is really a personal expression of who you are and what you want to say.  When you read someone else’s blog, you really gain a very personal insight into who they are and what they’re thinking.  Of course Obama doesn’t write any of the posts himself, but instead has people close to him who are experts write for him, and it really offers an insight into the White House that’s never existed before.  You can see exatly what’s got their attention and what they are working on at the moment, in near real time.

One of the most valuable things about a blog is the lack of rules.  For example, I’ve been criticized in the past for identifying foods you should not eat or eat less of, in particular meat and other processed foods.  This of course violates the idea you should only promote healthy foods, like the 5 servings of fruit and vegetables we are all supposed to care about.  I’ve been criticized for not being a good journalist or scientist.  Of course I’ve said many things that have upset people in general.

The truth of course is that I don’t represent the interests of the food industry, and I’m not writing as a journalist or scientist.  Therefore, I’m simply not bound by the corresponding rules, and you end up seeing a more personal side of me than you might otherwise.  Having said this, I do put some effort into not intentionally saying things that aren’t true, and don’t intentionally upset people just for the sake of doing it.

When President Obama makes a speech, or the White House gives a press conference, there are rules and protocols that go with this.  Beyond that, it’s up to the various TV networks and news publications to further filter and condense what was said.  Something like the post I linked to above about Newt Gingrich would never survive this sort of condensing and processing, and the average person is unlikely to ever get that message.

The White House blog is not bound by the rules of traditional media.  I really like that I can go there directly, see the information they want me to see, presented in the way they want me to see it.  I think it reflects well on the Obama administration that they can do this so effectively.  I think this kind of communication is changing Democracy the way we know it.

Years ago now, I posted the advice that if you save beans from your garden, you should freeze them before storing them.  This year, I’m paying the price of not following my own advice.

In addition, these probably have something to do with it:

These are sacks I buy my coffee in.  I’ve posted about this before too.  I buy green coffee beans, that come from many exotic tropical places in the world, then roast them myself.

The holes in my beans are from Bean Weevils, more specifically I suspect Coffee Bean Weevils.

Of course I thought I was being clever by reusing my coffee sacks to store my garden beans!

In my case, I think I caught it pretty fast.  I first noticed them in November, and quickly froze my bean seeds.  Weevils are hardy enough to survive a day or two in the freezer, but are usually killed after several days.  Occasionally you have to thaw and refreeze the seeds, in order to mimic the weather cycles that cause them to hatch, in order to kill remaining eggs.  In my case, freezing them once seems to have taken care of it.

I’ve had a couple of reinfestations over the last few weeks, and by now all of my bean seeds are a little suspect.  I don’t think I lost any important varieties, but did throw some unimportant ones away.  The most irritating thing of course is now my beans aren’t appetizing to eat, because there are dead larvae hidden away in many of them.  I’m not sure how this will impact the germination rates of my seeds, but I’m sure it will be reduced for many of them.

For those of you hoping to trade bean seeds with me, I’m sure you’ll understand why I’m not sending them out this year.

Seed storage is an all too often neglected topic, and one that’s very important.  I’ve heard it said loosing seeds in storage is more common than crop failures.

You often have to balance risks like this.  It’s very possible for example to lose seeds in the process of freezing them, or storing them in an airtight container.  It’s also possible to lose them to pests like this.  Sometimes there aren’t any right or wrong answers…

In fact this is something I’ve known for a while, and coincidentally sent Matt an email about the other day, but I’ve never posted here on the subject.

It’s just a fact, the science of genetic engineering (GE) is quickly moving out of the laboratory and into the home.  Not just in our ability to buy products that are themselves a result of GE, but also in our own ability to make GE organisms.

Already, if you have a well equiped home, it’s possible to do an awful lot.  The cost of this equipment is within the budgets of many people, it’s only getting cheaper and it’s accuracy increasing.

The amount of publicly available data that can assist GE is also increasing at a dramatic rate; including things like decoded genomes and cataloges of marker genes (a fancy term that just means genes with a known trait).  All of this applies to plants, microorganisms, animals and even humans.

So while the debate now often centers on the latest Roundup ready gene Monsanto inserted into our soybeans, tomorrow it could be the latest accident caused by a teenager or the mess intentionally caused by someone knowledgeable.

I often compare GE to abortions.  I don’t really think it makes sense for anyone to be for or against abortions.  An abortion is just a medical procedure.  You can argue if it’s immoral, talk about it in terms of legal or illegal, safe or unsafe, early or late, but you can never deny the existence of the procedure itself.

This is really where we are now with GE.  It doesn’t make sense to call it good or bad.  The genie is out of the bottle.  Now it’s time to start learning as much as possible as quickly as possible about the science, and to focus honestly and diligently on what the real risks are.

In the meantime, this crap doesn’t belong in our food or the environment, until we’ve had a chance to honestly research and learn more about it!

Matt of The Scientist Gardener is studying the unintended side-effects and safety of plant genetic engineering. Now here’s a field that’s going to be in the spotlight! Even if he and I may not choose to grow the same things in our gardens, I’m really looking forward to following his blog and staying in touch.

Raymondo of New from Old is someone I know from elsewhere on the Internet, and he has a new blog.  An amateur plant breeder in Australia, getting started on some really interesting looking projects.

This all started when I read Christina’s post here, about some mandarins in the garden of a friend.  She mentioned a variety named Shirokolistvennyi, a Russian variety believed to be very cold hardy.  That started me thinking, if there was a cold hardy mandarin that grows in Russia, why couldn’t I grow it here in Amsterdam?

I asked Christina if her friend might be able to send me a cutting to make a graft with, only to find out she lives in an area under citrus quarantine, and scion wood is not even allowed to be transported locally.  This is to prevent the spread of disease.

After some looking, I found some scion budwood was available from the USDA GRIN germplasm collection.  I agreed with the curator he would send me some — if I would first send him a copy of the ‘letter of authorization’ he said was required for European import of citrus.  So I set off on the great paper chase.

I called customs, the plant disease control people, the people who perform inspections on plant imports (this has all been privatized, outsourced and just a real mess in general).

Everyone I talked to said the same thing.  There are no restrictions on importing citrus budwood into the Netherlands (I don’t know about the rest of the EU), so there was no ‘letter of authorization’ to issue, in fact no one I spoke to had ever heard of a letter of authorization.

The USDA GRIN curator said he couldn’t issue a phytosanitary certificate or any other paperwork, until I could give him the letter of authorization.

Finally we agreed he would just skip all the paperwork, and send it!

So there it is, in the middle, in the plastic bag.

While waiting for GRIN to process my budwood request, I set out to find rootstock for grafting.  Those are the two plants, Poncirus trifoliata, also called Trifolate orange, a citrus relative, said to be very cold hardy and good for use as grafting rootstock.  They are really thorny!

I found the plants at a local nursery De Groene Prins.  It turns out the guy that runs the nursery has been looking for cold hardy citrus to grow locally for some time now, so we had a walk through his garden and he showed me some of the plants he’s experimenting with!  He was very knowledgeable and helpful, and certainly worth a visit for anyone looking for exotic cold hardy plants in the Netherlands.

Above is a grafting knife I bought a few months ago on a visit to San Diego California.  They sell it there in part because it’s used by the citrus industry.  It’s made by Victorinox, and in fact pretty widely available.

I had two plants, so I decided I would make two different kinds of grafts.  First a standard graft, then a bud graft.

For the standard graft, I cut a piece of the budwood and the top of the plant at roughly the same angle.  The budwood is on the left here.  I also cut a further notch in it, that was too small to really show up in the picture, but it is right below the tips of each of these cuts in the down direction.  The intention is to make a bit of a notch, so the two pieces will interlock a bit.

Here they are slotted into one another.  The budwood is on top.  This stayed in place long enough by itself to take this picture.

Next I put some grafting wax on it.  I read different places on the Internet that you should either put the wax on first or tape if first, not knowing for sure which I should do, I started with the wax.

Actually while looking at the pictures I took to make this post I see maybe if I used tape first, I could have taped the graft closed a bit.  None of the surfing around on the subject I’ve done had suggested this might be a good idea.

The wax was purchased locally and called grafting wax, but I’m not really sure it’s the right product.  I needed to melt it over a flame first, and it wasn’t very easy to apply.  None of the wax really penetrated the graft at all, it’s just sort of stuck to the outside.

In the absence of an actual product called grafting tape, I used masking tape.  I had read somewhere that it was okay to do this, but I’m not sure…

Above is the bud graft I made.  The process of doing this was far less picturesque.  In fact it was very difficult, and I hope not too much blood is showing in this picture.  Cutting a bud off the scion wood was no problem, together with some surrounding plant tissue.

You are supposed to slot this into a T-shaped cut on the stem of the root stock.  This is really a lot harder to make than it might seem.  It’s very woody, and when you make a cut with a knife that’s so sharp, the cut disappears right away.  When you try to cut it again with the knife, you make a second parallel cut, that just damages the plant and isn’t very good for slotting the bud into.

Anyway, next time I will approach it more like using the knife to sort of gouge the cut up from below.

The graft is held in place with a rubber band, as an alternative to grafting rubber.

This was sort of a difficult first grafting attempt to make, but then again I guess I’m never for doing anything the easy way.

Actually, in the process of ordering the budwood and buying the rootstock, a Russian friend of mine searched the Internet in Russian for this variety of mandarin.  It turns out it’s more commonly known by the name Gruzinskiy Shirokolistnyi, which means Georgian Wide Leaved Mandarin.  There isn’t any specific information available in Russian about it being cold hardy, but it is supposed to be good for low light conditions (at the possible expense of fewer fruits).  This is promising for me, because low light in the winter can be a problem.  Georgia however has a much warmer climate than me, so I’m a little worried it really is cold hardy.

What my Russian friend said she read, in general, mandarins are hardy down to -5C with no damage, and at -10C may be killed.  It’s pretty unusual the temperature gets down to -10C here, but it does happen.  This winter it got to about -12C.

At the same time, the rootstock I’m using is supposed to make the tree more cold hardy, so this may help.  I understand the rootstock is good down to -20C by itself.

Anyway, I guess I first have to worry about the graft working, then worry about the cold hardiness.

The last part of this story is that I had extra budwood left over after making these two grafts.  I traded them with the guy who runs the nursery where I got the Trifolate orange for these above!  Three seeds from his Yuzu lemon tree, also known to be very cold hardy.  He had two of these plants, one outdoors and one in his polytunnel.  The outdoor plant didn’t have any fruits yet, perhaps still too young, but it survived this past very cold winter with flying colors.  His indoor plant had some fruit on it, and it looked and smelled like a very nice quality lemon.

If anyone out there who has ever done grafting before has any comments, I’d love to hear them.  Especially if this doesn’t work, I’d love to know why…

A number of posts have been made in recent weeks on different blogs about Monsanto buying nearly all commercial seed companies, everywhere.  There was a particularly good one on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.

It’s pretty clear in the aftermath of all this consolidation, the next frontier for Monsanto is the Internet.

This blog has received quite a number of requests for Monsanto seed companies to be added to my list of recommended sources of seeds in recent weeks, and comments challenging old posts I’ve made critical of Monsanto are also starting to come in.  Note the one here dated Jan 26th from ‘Rick’.

A discussion forum I frequently participate on also just had some visitors from Monsanto.  At least one of these visitors had actually been around for months, and out of the blue just started spewing nonsense about how good Monsanto’s seed companies were.  He did this together with someone else, so it sort of looked somehow like a legitimate conversation was taking place.

He started by giving a list of his favorite seed companies, including some many well known and trusted places like Baker Creek, Sandhill and Seed Savers Exchange, then went on to include some relatively unknown Monsanto seed companies and started promoting them.

Common Theme

Until now, all of these visits have had a common theme.  Monsanto is ‘normal’.  Each one has in some way tried to promote Monsanto as a normal seed company, and people who don’t want to grow seeds from Monsanto are somehow extreme.

These visits have included marketing slogans like ‘Most experienced gardeners trust Johnny’s.’  In particular, the theme that Johnny’s is somehow a trusted place to buy seeds seems to reoccur.  Any blog or other place on the Internet that recommends Johnny’s Seeds is suspect as advertising for Monsanto.

The Truth

The real truth is that us bloggers have been tremendously successful at proving commercial seeds, in particular from Monsanto, have very little legitimacy in a home garden.

When you grow commercial seeds, you can’t re-save them for sharing or replanting.  In general your chance of success is often lower, and you usually don’t end up with something worth taking a picture of and posting on your blog.  There are very few serious and successful blogs out there about gardens growing commercial seeds, because they just aren’t interesting.

Of course I don’t mean to suggest gardeners who grow a few commercial hybrid seeds are doing something wrong, but these plants don’t usually end up being the ones they post and rave about.

What to Do

I’m afraid more is likely to come!  Even if we have a wave of this nonsense and it passes, it’s reasonable to assume Monsanto will keep trying.

In the short run, keep an eye out for it on your blogs and discussion forums.  I don’t do Facebook or Twitter, but those of you who do or visit similar places on the Internet, keep an eye on it there too.

If you see someone who seems to be promoting commercial seed companies in the wrong place, be sure to say something.  Be sure to mention Monsanto, and don’t accept being told that growing seeds from Monsanto is somehow normal!  If they persist, ask them about who they are and what they are doing there.  Make sure you are very clear that you think what they are saying is wrong and just nonsense.

Be sure and talk about your experiences other places on the Internet, so the rest of us can be prepared to cope with the same thing.  By all means, please use this post as a place to leave comments on this.

There’s little doubt, I wasn’t the only one who noticed this.  Friends and family noticed too, and when I was back last November it was clear there was increasing demand for products that didn’t contain HFCS.  Soft drinks are becoming available, and more and more other products, that are just made with normal sugar.  This almost certainly was connected with the world wide shortages of cane and beet sugar over the last year or so.

Where did it go?

If Americans aren’t eating HFCS anymore, it must have gone somewhere.

It’s pretty clear Europe is at least one of the recipients of the surplus.  They don’t call it by the same name here.  It’s usually called something like ‘glucose syrup’ or ‘glucose-fructose syrup’.  It seems to go under a number of names.  These are in a lot of foods and beverages here by now.  I especially notice it in a lot of beers and sweet alcoholic drinks marketed towards young people.  It’s also in many processed foods.

It does not seem to have any so-called European E-numbers associated with it, I guess because it’s not an additive but rather a foodstuff.  For those of you reading this who aren’t in Europe, because of the number of different languages here, and because it helps the food industry hide what they add to food, they have created a special coding system for food additives.  I would have to think about the the politics of it not having an E number a little more, but I guess consumers are more reluctant to buy E-numbers now, and perhaps it was an issue to get HFCS certified as a safe food additive.

What’s wrong with it?

Besides many people disliking the taste, HFCS is associated with many health problems.  It’s use as a food additive in the US corresponds almost exactly to the increase of obesity and related health problems we’ve seen in recent decades.  It’s associated with diabetes, gout and many other health problems.

If you’re trying to avoid eating GM foods, you should avoid this too.  It’s not necessarily made with GM corn, but often is.  According to Monsanto and other large food companies, processing will remove GMOs from this product.  That means, even though it may be made from GM corn, it is legal for sale as a food in Europe.  There hasn’t been any independent confirmation of food industry claims that GMOs are removed, and many people dispute it.  Nevertheless, it is legal for sale in Europe, GM or not.  There is also no requirement to label it as a GM food.

I think we really need something like that in Europe, because there are so many loopholes by now that let in GMO foods.

Kokopelli Seeds of France, who last year was fined more than €17.000 for selling ‘illegal’ seeds, is involved in a new legal conflict.  Baumaux, the same company that instigated the previous legal action against Kokopelli Seeds has now registered the ownership of the name Kokopelli and is selling a new variety of tomato with it.

Baumaux is not stopping there however, they are also demanding Kokopelli Seed cease and desist in their use of the name Kokopelli and all business activities associated with it.  They are also demanding a payment of €100.000 in compensation for use of the name to date.

The original French language story is here, and a Google translated version here.