One Maui farmer’s journey from organics to GMOs

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GMO Skepti-Forum has been featuring essays by readers on the GMO controversy. We’re going to be featuring some of them on the GLP. Rhonda Stoltzfus describes her journey from organic farming in Iowa to being a proponent for GM crops in Maui:

I’ve become an activist. I started out as an organic farmer, and somewhere along the line, in the last 20 years, I became a pro-Monsanto activist. I went from growing organic strawberries in Iowa to battling an anti-science group in Maui. It was a bit of a journey.

The first year on my farm I had one rule: No Pesticides. This lasted until the thistles showed up in my fields. I spent several days hoeing before calling my farming father-in-law to come up with the sprayer. My journey from organic to conventional had begun.

The more I learned about organic vs. conventional production methods, the more disgusted I became with the label ‘organic’. What my father-in-law was using in his fields was nothing more than a synthetic version of what I was allowed to spray under organic guidelines. A few semesters of chemistry came seeping back through the fog of my memory and I realized there was no difference in how any of these chemicals – synthetic vs. ‘natural‘ – would effect my body if I chose to eat food produced with one over the other.

All facets of agriculture need to become far more vocal about the benefits of GE before a petition like the one in Maui shows up on your local ballot. Everyone needs to become an activist for modern ag.

Read the full, original article: Becoming an activist for modern ag

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