Brummet's Conscious Blog

Explaining Garden Terms Have you ever noticed how happy gardeners tend to be? Perhaps this comes from communing with nature, sharing nutrient-rich harvests with others, or knowing that every increased amount of food-producing greenery helps battle the environmental problems our world faces. For Dave and I, gardening– a.k.a. playing in the dirt - is just that. Play time, time for meditation and to listen to the birds. Yet, gardening can mean so much more. About 25 years ago our family became members of Canada's Heritage Seed Program - now known as Seeds of Diversity Canada - and have never looked back. This organization works with hundreds of seed-saving groups, government departments, individual gardeners and farmers all over the world to preserve a vast global seed bank. We have been proud to help save several varieties from extinction, forever, through our donations and activities for this organization.  In various discussions over the years we have noticed that there is a lot ...

Biotechnology Biotechnology holds the very real promise to feed more people on less land using less water - producing foods that are genetically enriched with vaccines, antibiotics, nutrients, flavours and chemicals. Some of these alterations are for the purpose of harvesting fruits while they are green and hard but will ripen during shipping or storage. They also aim for a uniform size, colour and appearance. Producers also prefer foods with tougher skins that will prevent damage during shipping, reduce moisture loss and prolong shelf life. While potentially reducing food waste, there is the possibility of altered nutritional values and flavours. These foods could give the illusion that they are fresher than they are, but because foods continually lose nutrients upon harvest, the consumer could be fooled into buying a nutritionally compromised product. Genetically modified (GM) plants can also contain foreign genes from animals, like fish and pigs, (bad news for the vegetari...