Blog - Running The Country

My dad dug 700 pounds of potatoes from his garden in the fall of 2012. He was 81 years old at the time. The following summer he suffered a major heart event and a few months later he passed on.

One of my dad’s gifts to me was the gift of garden fresh fruits and vegetables. It was the type of gift I didn’t fully appreciate until I grew up, moved away, and realized that many people live their entire lives never tasting a tomato hot and fresh from the vine, never savoring a peach under the shade of the peach tree, never enjoying French prunes or Elephant Heart plums, or grapes from the vine.

We enjoyed all of it fresh in season and bottled throughout the following winter.

Not many people have that kind of connection with the land anymore. And THAT is a big problem. We’ve given up our farms and gardens, and by doing so, we’ve allowed Agribusiness, Big Food, and Junk Food to take over our food supply. Agribusiness and the monocultures they promote have virtually wiped out crop biodiversity and we now think it’s normal to eat poison saturated stuff that’s long on shelf life and short on human lives.

I had the opportunity to help care for Dad in his final months. Part of caring for Dad included caring for his garden. When the plums on the Elephant Heart plum tree ripened, I picked and dried them. I knew that Dad’s time on Earth was coming to an end and the dried plums would remain after he was gone. Among all the other items we gathered for our run across the U.S.A., I made sure we had had Dad’s dried plums in the trailer freezer. David and I ate and enjoyed them for the first few states on our transcontinental run. As we ate the plums, I’d tell David stories about Dad and years gone by.

Last year’s plums are gone now, but this year’s blossoms will soon yield another harvest. And from what Mom tells me, my sibs and their spouses have been busy planting and working Dad’s garden.

Life goes on. Our oldest daughter and her hubby are expecting their first baby. I hope and pray that their child and their yet-to-be-born cousins will have the opportunity to grow up in a world rich and abundant in healthy foods, gardens, and family traditions.

I look forward to walking our grandchildren through Dad’s garden. We’ll feast on the fruits and veggies as we feast on the family stories that have shaped our lives.

Thanks for the garden, Dad, and thanks for enriching the lives of so many people.

Happy Father’s Day.

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Brett Wilcox is the author of We’re Monsanto: Feeding the World, Lie After Lie. Brett and his 15-year old son, David, are currently running from coast to America coast promoting a GMO-Free USA. Brett and David blog at RunningTheCountry.com. Brett wrote this blog in Dunreith, Indiana. Support their run and mission at RunningTheCountry.com/donate.

David and I ran past several empty GMO corn and soy bags along the side of the road in Illinois. As a non-farming Alaskan, I found the text on the bags to be fascinating. Fascinating, I suppose, because I still hold the quaint idea that seeds and life belong to God or Nature, and that we humans have the sacred opportunity to care for seeds and life as part of our stewardship on the Earth.

Silly me! Corporate overlords and attorneys own, bastardize, and license seeds for farmers’ one time use. Just make sure you don’t touch the seeds. They’re covered in poison. Later, they’ll be poisoned again with Roundup. Hello sterile fields. Good-bye bees, good-bye monarchs, good-bye seed freedom and seed sovereignty.

Others have already noted that GMOs are worse than chemical pollution. Chemical pollution dissipates over time. GMOs propagate and contaminate. They contaminate other crops, they contaminate weeds, they contaminate soil organisms, and they contaminate your gut bacteria and health. The potential to pollute and contaminate spreads every time the wind blows and every time an insect plays in their pollen. They are the gift that keeps on giving . . . long after you and everyone else has said no their presence on the Earth.

Of course, GMOs and their attendant poisons are both: the GMOs are biological trash and their attendant poisons are chemical trash. Two for one. What a deal!

Labeling GMOs is a fine first step, but it’s only a first step. As brilliant as Mother Nature is, She can’t read labels. Bees can’t read labels. Contamination is inevitable. Co-existence is a lie.

How many more years will pass before we rid the Earth of GMO trash? How many more years will pass before we no longer have the option?

Say no to GMOs in the grocery store. Say no to GMO fed meat and dairy, say no to GMO processed foods, say no to GMO junk foods and desserts. If that’s hard for you, just think of it the way many free animals think of it: Eat food. GMOs aren’t food. Period.

Organic blessings to you!

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Category: Blog

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Say No To GMO Trash