Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Add sugar to the list...


Sugar. I love my sugar. I will admit it. People who say they don't like it, have to be lieing in my mind.
I use organic cane in my coffee and day to day uses, but come Christmas time, jelly time, and other high sugar use times I buy it in bulk. Costco sells 10 and 25 pound bags of beet sugar from Michigan. I figure it's local for sugar, and I buy it.

Those days may be about to end and with them the pints of jelly given out like water and the hundreds and hundreds of cookies I use as standard Christmas fare (my cookie boxes this year each held 4-6 dozen cookies and I did 12, even before I had any for all the Christmas events and my husbands cookie habit.)

Am I getting lazy? Figuring that it is easier to buy a $15 dollar gift then give a box of laborious cookies (which have $10 in ingredients anyway?) No. Nothing that easy...

After a preemptive strike from the EPA of changing the allowable Glyphosate residue (Round-up) in sugar beets by 5000 percent (you read that right five THOUSAND percent) the stage is cleared for GMO sugar beets.


One of the problems with this is that beets are wind pollinated. Organic beet growers will need to be more then 3 miles (MILES) away from GMO sugar beets to ensure that their beets are not contaminated. Because containing any GMO genes (even accidental) means no organic certification. Plus Monsanto has a habit of suing people whose crops are contaminated by their genes, for usurping their intellectual property!
Then what about all the items I buy now looking for "sugar" instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup in the ingredient list. Breads, pasta sauces, jellies, sodas! ICE CREAM! Will I be forced to organic for all of these to avoid GMO, as now I buy organic corn products...

Then there is the issue of my bees. My poor bees. We feed them sugar water spring and fall to make up for the honey we rob from them. And WOW can bees eat sugar water, gallons a week. Natural beekeepers feed their bees sugar water instead of high fructose corn syrup (partially to avoid the GMO in HFCS) that the commerical beekeepers use. But now what? Feed the bees organic sugar? I guarantee you will not be able to afford the resulting honey. And some people have suggested that colony collapse disorder might be exacerbated by GMO foods, not to mention the increased herbicide (Glyphosate) load in the sugar which my delicate bees are now eating...

This is a brave new world we live in. One where most people seem to be keeping their eyes closed!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couln't have said it better myself. As for spring feeding of the bees....what to do...what to do???

Some years ago, we were able to buy sugar in 50# bags...if we bought a pallet...i will look at the remaining bags to see if they divulge any info on its origin.

Anonymous said...

Hello! Love your blog. I live in Shaker Heights but I grew up in Brimfield Ohio. We always had a garden. I've gardened in my small backyard for the past 24 years. You are living my dream.
Melanie

Anonymous said...

Probably we will buy a few hundred pounds of Michigan Beet sugar and it will last us a couple years. After that...?

It's not like feeding imported honey works, because with that you have issues of transmitting bee deiseces and who knows what else.

Anonymous said...

It is so great to be able to live a dream! Now the trick is to be able to live off that dream...

:)

Anonymous said...

Such a challenge. You may also want to read "The Omnivores Dilemma" That will really start a discussion! Please post info on the food co-op that you joined. Thanks!
Heather

Anonymous said...

"The Omnivores Dilemma" is an amazing book, if anyone has not read it, they should.

Please email me at basketoflifefarm.yahoo.com and I will send you details of the co-op.