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, in order 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.

If you save your own seeds, make your own compost and recycle and reuse in your garden, many people don’t need to buy anything except some lime if they have acid soil and starting mix in order to start plants indoors.

A lot of people ask me about making your own seed starting mix, so they can avoid buying anything for their garden.  What’s particularly troubling for many is nearly all seed starting mixes are based on either peat, which is often harvested in unsustainable ways, or coir, which is a waste product of the less than ethical coconut industry, and gets transported long distances.  Starting mixes not based on peat or coir need to be sterilized, usually requiring fossil fuels or chemicals such as household bleach.

I don’t know if this is truly a recipe for everyone.  Perhaps not everyone raises bats for guano?  Anyway, Alan just posted a great recipe for starting mix, he makes nearly completely with waste or other products from his farm.  I think this is a great starting point for many people to think about making something similar with sustainable things you may have available locally.

Yakraut

And Owen on Radix4Roots posted this great looking recipe for fermented yacón root!  Something guaranteed to keep your digestive system in motion.

Island Blog

From a working 400 acre farm on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario, this is a blog of someone I know from elsewhere on the Internet.  DirtSunRain

Here’s a video I found on the GRAIN website, a translated French documentary on La Gloria and the associated Smithfield Farms factory pig farm where the latest outbreak of Swine Flu occured.

It’s about 45 minutes long, and contains some disturbing images.

Besides the ruins of a WWII bunker, the main feature of this park were an unusual breed of cows, uniquely suited for the white cliffs of Dover.

Waist high, and only a little larger than a very large dog, they were really kind of interesting cows.

I made this post a year and a half ago.  It seems the EU has quietly put through a directive that may allow the relaxing of seed laws in some cases, but it’s still not very clear what it means.  It does however seem like different countries are free to interpret the directive in different ways.

A few months before this, Association Kokopelli in France was fined for selling unregistered seeds.  I’ve since heard some conflicting information on the size of the fine and don’t know if there were appeals.  What I understand was at issue was a per variety registration fee for the 1000 or so varieties on offer at Kokopelli.

About a year ago, Søren left a comment here and mentioned some seed companies in Denmark were experimenting with selling some unregistered seeds and it was expected Denmark would go in the direction of Sweden, which allows the sale of unregistered varieties in small packets to home gardeners.

I’ve now just had an email exchange with a local friend, who is planning himself to register several hundred varieties here in the Netherlands.  He gave me the impression the organization he is a part of plans to register many more varieties, and he says this can now be done for €25 per variety.  He said money was available to pay for these registrations, so he won’t have to pay it himself.  I don’t know where this money is coming from, but I have the impression it’s a lot, and they are trying to register as many new varieties as possible.

I was also in a food store a few days ago, one that was not likely to be selling unregistered varieties.  I was in the produce section and I had a choice between different kinds of beets; chioggia, yellow mangel, golden and standard red.  As far as I know, other than the normal beet, these are unregistered varieties in Holland, unless they were recently registered.

Further, I had a conversation with someone in the UK this fall, who mentioned an effort was under way to register UK landraces, apparently as part of this EU directive.  I was under the impression it was being done in kind of a stupid way, and in reality the UK has just not decided if and how they want to relax their seed laws.

If, as it seems, this EU directive is so vague it in effect allows countries to relax their seed laws as much as they want, there’s a bit of a chaotic situation going on with seed laws in Europe.  It’s really hard to get any information on this kind of thing, because it tends to be in out of the way places and in local languages.

Does anyone have any idea what’s going on in other places in Europe or have any information I don’t have?  Please, let us all know!

Low Cost Registration No Solution

Just for the record, I don’t consider low cost variety registration to be an acceptable compromise in the debate over EU seed laws.  Any registration needs to meet the so-called DUS standards, meaning breeding materials and genepool mixes would remain illegal no matter what.  In addtion, the profit involved in selling heirloom seeds is too small for independent seed companies to be able to afford these registration costs.  Low cost registrations only ensure large seed companies will control the distribution of these seeds.

The garden is a winter wonderland now.  While we aren’t breaking any records yet, it’s pretty darn cold.  The snow is about a foot (30cm) deep.  The canals are all frozen.

Everything is covered in ice crystals.

Even the cobwebs under the shed roof didn’t escape the ice crystals.

The view in the distance just fades, because the whole area is covered in a winter mist.  No footsteps in the snow, because I’m the only one crazy enough to visit their garden.  Mine were the only human footsteps visible.  Otherwise there were tracks from the hares and birds that live in the area during the winter.

Planning is already underway for a possible Elfstedentocht this year!  We need another few weeks of cold winter to make it possible…

I grew two kinds of yacón this year.  The first you see on the right is an unnamed variety with brown roots, which seems to be the most common kind at the moment.  The other variety, on the left, is called yacón morado and has red roots.  You can see yacón morado also has reddish leaves.

The unnamed variety is significantly more productive, yielding around twice what the yacón morado does, or about 10Kg per plant.

Yacón morado has an abundance of small flowers throughout most of the summer.  While the unnamed variety can bloom from time to time, it usually only does so as a result of some kind of stress.

The flowers also attracted large numbers of bees, but for whatever reason every time I was ready with the camera all the bees went away.

Here are the harvested roots.  Either something changed in the way it grew, or perhaps I was a little rushed during harvest, but it seems like the tubers broke off more readily this year during harvest.  Anyway, the one sure thing about yacón is the harvest is big, so even with a few pieces broken off there’s still lots left.  I’m not sure if the broken off pieces will rot before I have a chance to eat them or not.

I also haven’t had a chance to taste these two varieties side by side, so I’m not sure if the flavors are different.

For me this is the year to start getting into fruit tree grafting.  I’ve purchased a few fruit trees already grafted onto rootstock, but also extra rootstock, a grafting knife and grafting wax.  I hope in the coming years to start trading scion wood with others, and doing my own grafts.

I’ve already had an offer of a trade from Søren!

If any of you have tips, tricks or favorite fruit tree varieties, I’d love to hear.

By the way, I bought my fruit trees from Blackmoor Fruit Nursery in the UK, and so far I’m a very satisfied customer.  Everything arrived in very good condition, and the varieties they offer are interesting ones, and not just commercial ones.  For me it’s very important they were willing to ship to mainland Europe, as not all nurseries in the UK will do that.

I even changed my order in the middle of everything, something not a lot of online companies appreciate.  It didn’t phase them a bit, and my order arrived just as I expected it.  If you live in the UK or mainland Europe, I would recommend them as a place to look for soft fruit and fruit trees.

UN Secretary General Welcome Message for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity from CBD on Vimeo.

Our challenge will be to make sure this applies to the food we eat, as well as the world’s ecosystems.