Seedlings

Some of the seeds I planted a few weeks ago are sprouting! It's always so exciting when something you planted starts to grow. Here are some of my Tomato seedlings

And some of the Snapdragon seedlings. (that's right they are flowers, you need bees to come so that all of your plants get pollinated)

I am a little worried about the herbs I planted only two of the 27 pots have anything growing, I am trying to let them dry out maybe that will help.

Also I used last weekend to plant some garlic cloves.
Here they are in their new homes. Garlic likes the cold so I planted them early with the hope that I will have my own garlic cloves come fall.

Scared and Outraged

You should be too!
Have you heard about this new bill right now its called H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Here's the full text.
Two of the clauses that stand out the most to me when I read the bill were the definition of "food production Facility" and of Adulterated. It also calls for allowing government officials to MANDATE the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers, specific types of nutrients, packaging, and temperature controls.

"(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation."
To me this is far too loosely defined, any one growing veggies or raising animals to eat could be subject to this law, even if they are only growing and producing for themselves, such as the backyard gardener. Even if you have a few tomato plants and maybe a few chickens for egg suddenly you are a "Food Production Facility."

"(3) ADULTERATED
(A)IN GENERAL- The term ‘adulterated’ has the meaning given that term in section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 342).
(B) INCLUSION- The term adulterated includes bearing or containing a contaminant that causes illness or death among sensitive live populations."
I looked up section 402 of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The most pertinent line classifies adulterated as "Poisonous, insanitary, or deleterious ingredients" (deleterious for those who don't know (I didn't) means harmful; injurious.) Shouldn't we be more worried about FDA approved GMO's, antibiotics, hormones, endocrine disruptors, artificial colors and flavors, and mineral-deficiencies.

Neither act mentions anything about this stuff, but these are the things that make people sick and harm the environment. The majority of antibiotics used in this country are for animals in CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), this leads to more drug resistant bacteria and more harm for anyone eating factory-farmed meat. Does this new bill do anything to prevent this from happening? NO! because it would have "regulatory jurisdiction over the safety and labeling of 80 percent of the American food supply, encompassing all foods except meat, poultry, and egg products, as well as drugs, medical devices, and biologics." So this bill is only aimed at "saving" us from adulterated produce, which doesn't usually happen on small organic farms and only happens once a farm becomes industrialized.

"Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall… include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water..." This means federal regulators could tell the growers to use chemicals and fertilizer even if they don't want to.

These are some of the reasons I find this bill to be outrageous and kind of scary. This is why I am going to write an angry letter to Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry (my congressman and 2 senators). If you care at all about the future of this planet or about growing good non-genetically modified foods then you should also write to your congressperson and senators and let them know this is an awful law that they should not pass!
In case you don't know who your Congressperson or Senators are you can find it here. That website has their D.C. addresses and a link to their web pages where you can find their home town address and their D.C. address

Exciting Weekend!

Wow! What an exciting weekend. Yesterday I went on a seal watch, right out of New Bedford harbor and then today I finally got to plant some of my seeds. Not only was it time to start planting some of my seeds but it was a beautiful day (it was in the 60's) so I decided to start the seeds outside.




Today I started Marjoram, Thyme, and Rosemary. I want to end up with about 3 plants each so I planted 9 of each. I choose to start the seeds in recycled newspaper pots. Here is a really great video on how to make newspaper pots.





The pots seem to work really well, plus its recycling! After I had filled the pots with soil I put 2 or 3 seeds in each pot and then added water to the bottom of the tray. Now the pots are in my basement for the next 8-10 weeks, I have a light with a timer so they will get both light and heat while they are down there.

Here are my pots and seeds waiting to grow all big and strong.


Right now the light is only on for 5 hours a day (its just for heat). When the seedling start to grow I will increase the time that the light light is on for.



Next step (which isn't for a while) is to harden them but I will talk more about that when the time comes.