The U.S. Farm Bill directly impacts your life at least three times per day — at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It affects everyone who grows, buys or eats food in America because it determines how America produces food.
The Non-GMO Project joins Regenerate America and a coalition of farmers, businesses, nonprofits and individuals to demand that the 2023 Farm Bill shifts resources and support toward regenerative agriculture.
If you're still looking for a reason to add your name to Regenerate America's petition for a regenerative future, here are six great ones:
- The Farm Bill governs most of our food and agriculture systems, a huge cross-section of programs and systems that touches everyone in the country.
- The current bill will expire on September 30, and the reauthorized version will be in effect for the next 5-7 years. That means the new bill could control how we produce food for the remainder of this decade — a critical window of time to take action on the climate crisis.
- The Farm Bill influences what farmers grow and how they grow it through crop insurance, conservation and commodity programs. It is our most significant opportunity to mindfully create a regenerative, abundant and secure food system for future generations.
- In the past, the Farm Bill has upheld industrial-style agriculture, encouraging consolidation and farming practices that degrade our single greatest asset — healthy, carbon-rich soil. We're currently losing topsoil ten times faster than it can be replenished. But changing how we farm can change that, providing nutritious crops and abundant topsoil.
- Regenerative and organic farms are already outperforming conventional farms under extreme weather conditions, producing greater yields and increasing farm operators' incomes. Healthy and abundant topsoil is better at filtering and storing water, helping to preserve another precious commodity.
- Prioritizing regenerative agriculture energizes rural economies and communities. Regenerative investment increases the profitability of farming, supporting young and underserved farmers from diverse backgrounds.
If you share our belief that our food systems should regenerate critical natural resources, provide nutrient-dense foods and contribute to a vibrant rural economy, add your voice today.
To read more about the Farm Bill and the benefits of regenerative agriculture, visit Regenerate America's website here.
To take action now, you can sign the petition here.
Question: What do animal-free dairy proteins, vegan collagen and the blood-like compound found in some plant-based burgers have in common?
Answer: They're all ingredients featured in our new GMO awareness campaigns during the past year — and they all come from GMOs!
If you've been following along with us, you probably know that new GMOs are entering the supply chain at an alarming rate. New GMOs (sometimes called "GMO 2.0") are created using emerging techniques such as gene editing and synthetic biology. They can appear as crops with unique traits, genetically modified animals, novel compounds brewed in vats in warehouses — and much more.
New GMOs threaten the natural products industry and the movement toward regenerative agriculture in part because they are often marketed as "natural" or given dubious sustainability claims. For us folks at the Non-GMO Project, new GMOs inspire an eerie sense of déja vu. Nearly 30 years ago, traditional GMOs entered the market with some of the same promises.
Clearly, this is not our first rodeo — and experience is a powerful tool. Today's new GMOs are emerging when the Non-GMO Project is established as North America's most trusted certification for GMO avoidance. With expert researchers on staff and allies across the natural products industry, we're well-positioned to shine a spotlight on the potential downsides of new GMOs.
And that is excellent news because there isn't a moment to waste.
The decade that changed the food system
When the first GMO seeds were planted on U.S. farmland in the late 1990s, no one knew what the impacts would be. In the following decades, GMOs would cause a spike in pesticide use and contribute to the rise of superweeds and superbugs. Powerful corporate interests drove the spread of genetically modified corn, cotton and soy without long-term, independent safety studies.
By the time the Non-GMO Project was established in 2007 — ten years after the first genetically modified seeds were planted — GMOs had a firm foothold in the market. GMO corn had grown from 10% of the U.S. supply in 1996 to 73% in 2007. GMO soy went from 7.4% to 91% during the same time.
Traditional GMOs came of age just as the Butterfly was testing its wings. But we've come a long way since then.
New and old, same but different
Traditional GMOs and new GMOs have both key differences and commonalities.
In traditional GMOs, foreign DNA is inserted into the target organism. New GMOs don't necessarily contain foreign DNA in the finished product, which eases regulations and helps new GMOs to enter the supply chain more quickly. The techniques used to create new GMOs are themselves new, including the gene editing technique, CRISPR.
Most traditional GMOs were created by one of just a few major agrichemical corporations. By comparison, new GMO technology is cheaper and more accessible. With generous venture capital funding driving experimentation, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of companies acting in this space.
However, new GMOs are still GMOs. Whenever biotechnology is applied to an organism, the result is a GMO. The biotech industry might try to claim otherwise, saying new GMOs are more like the crops humans have been cross-breeding for thousands of years, but this is false. Traditional GMOs and their more recent counterparts are both modified through biotechnology, so they are both GMOs.
A GMO is a GMO
A huge part of our ongoing work involves raising awareness about new GMOs. We want to ensure everyone knows that a GMO by any other name — including popular marketing terms such as bioengineered, bio-identical and non-transgenic — is still a GMO. We work hard every day to protect your right to choose whether or not to participate in the GMO experiment.
Back in 2007, we used our growing sense of alarm to do something that had never been done before: create a market-driven, third-party certification to help shoppers and eaters avoid GMOs. With your support, we're using that same platform to raise awareness of the new generation of GMOs and prevent them from taking over the supply chain.
We hope you'll join us in June as we explore the biotechnology behind non-animal dairy proteins, unpack synthetic biology's false sustainability claims and highlight the regenerative and non-GMO brands offering real dairy solutions.
Have you ever heard the saying, "If you're gonna talk the talk, you better walk the walk"?
The saying is both an invitation and a challenge. It's "put your money where your mouth is," but with less gambling and more rhyming. "Walking the talk" is how you back your words up with meaningful actions. It means authenticity and integrity.
For Women’s History Month, we're highlighting women-led brands that walk their talk, sharing what they love to eat and staying true to what they know is essential. These Non-GMO Project Verified products go above and beyond to help build an equitable and nourishing food system.
In the words of Nancy Sinatra, “Are you ready? Start walking.”
Daily Harvest creates nourishing frozen meals and food items with fruits, vegetables and other ingredients gathered from the road less traveled. Your selections are delivered directly to your door. Founder Rachel Dory turns the produce from small-scale organic and regenerative farmers into easy-to-prepare foods for a hungry populace. Daily Harvest's wide range of options satisfies nearly every craving from dawn to dinner — and beyond. How they walk the talk: Daily Harvest uses a portion of sales to provide grants to help underrepresented farmers transition their operations to organic. Their website also features farmer stories, introducing you to the folks who grow your food.
Darë (pronounced "dairy") vegan cheese was founded by expert cheese-maker and dedicated punster Gwendolyn Dare Hageman. Headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, Darë's central mission is to make things better — a better life for their employees and a better outlook for the planet by minimizing animal-derived agriculture. They're doing that by creating mouth-watering, highly photogenic non-dairy wedges and spreads (check out their Instagram for proof). How they walk the talk: Darë pushes back against food industry norms of exploitation with their status as a certified living wage employer. That means this ambitious small business is committed to paying staff fairly to build security and prosperity in the local economy.
GoNanas banana bread mix is the brainchild of co-founders Annie Slabotsky and Morgan Lerner. Annie and Morgan bonded as University of Michigan students when they noticed the lack of healthful snacks on campus. They shared family recipes and a love of experimentation and created a vegan, gluten-free and allergen-friendly banana bread mix. Since then, they've been building out the banana-verse by adding new flavors. How they walk the talk: Because dreams aren't fed by banana bread alone, Annie and Morgan started the Bite Into Business podcast to inspire entrepreneurship and empower small businesses. The founders share their experience and hard-won wisdom, tackling a range of issues in the workplace, including how best to manage a side hustle, start your own business, build relationships through your work, and more.
Spicewell founder Raina Kumra Gardiner used the Ayurvedic wisdom her mother and grandmother passed down to bring the adage "food is medicine" to life. Raina reimagines innocuous staples such as salt and pepper as opportunities to get more of the nutrients we need — and too often don't find in today's nutrient-poor foods. How they walk the talk: Spicewell works with Desai Foundation to donate a portion of profits to small farms in South Asia, where many ingredients are sourced.
Frankie & Jo's vegan ice cream is a PNW powerhouse that eschews the pursuit of "fast and more" in favor of mindfulness and meaning (though, with three new vegan ice cream flavors every month, we'd argue they tick all of those boxes). Founder Autumn Martin and co-conspirator Kari Brunson help reduce our dependence on animal products with Frankie & Jo's coconut- and oat milk-based ice cream in popular flavors such as Mint Brownie and Chocolate Tahini Supercookie. How they walk the talk: Frankie & Jo's is a Certified B Corp that donates a portion of sales to nonprofit organizations that empower women and minorities and care for the earth. They also donate delicious vegan ice cream to support food-insecure and at-risk people in their community through local food banks and shelters. Raise your cone way, way up to vote for a better world!
The Non-GMO Project is lucky enough to work with a cornucopia of delicious products from great brands working to build a better food system. These five are just the tip of the awesome-berg. Follow our social media channels for more profiles of powerful women entrepreneurs in the coming weeks!
February is Black History Month, when the U.S. celebrates Black Americans' contributions.
February is also when the Non-GMO Project explores how new GMOs made with emerging and experimental techniques show up in personal care products.
Wellness, personal care and Black people's experiences share more than calendar space. The importance of self-care for Black women, in particular, has gained visibility in recent years, emerging as a tool of empowerment.
In this article, we'll look at how wellness — or its conspicuous absence — shows up in Black women's lives.
Isn't wellness for everyone?
Absolutely!
However, in the U.S., the wellness baseline differs for Black women. Because they are both Black and women they face forms of discrimination that Black men or white women may not.
The cumulative impact of racial and gender-based discrimination (also known as "misogynoir') is profound. Black women experience higher rates of severe and chronic disease than other groups. According to ProPublica, "a black woman is 22 percent more likely to die from heart disease than a white woman, 71 percent more likely to perish from cervical cancer, but 243 percent more likely to die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes." A recent study reveals wealth and education don't protect Black mothers or their children — even the poorest white women have statistically safer pregnancy outcomes than the wealthiest Black women.
Wellbeing and weathering
Health disparities between Black and white Americans have been well-documented for decades. During that time, policymakers have pointed fingers at a various culprits, such as lifestyle choices, education levels, poverty or crime — all of which can be manifestations of systemic racism.
The story could be a simpler.
Since the 1970s, researcher Arline Geronimus has worked to understand some truly bizarre data that underscored young Black women's health issues. She found that expectant mothers who become pregnant in their teens fared better than Black women in their twenties. In theory, the twenty-something mothers should have had better pregnancies. Their slightly more mature bodies would be better able to bear the challenges of carrying and delivering a child, and more education and economic security generally help young families. However, as Geronimus told NPR:
"The data spoke for themselves — the risks were higher in black young women the later they waited to have children, and that was not true for whites. Whites, by comparison, had the lowest risks around their mid-twenties and the highest risk in their teens."
Over time, Geronimus developed a theory known as "weathering," which refers to chronic stress's impact on essential bodily functions. Between racism and sexism, Black women face discrimination in many forms — wage disparities, environmental pollution, food insecurity and crime, as well as daily aggressions and microaggressions. Unsurprisingly, it wears them down, causing chronic illness, premature aging and reproductive risks. And because the impact is cumulative, the teens who first caught the researcher's eye had less exposure, and less harm done, by the time they became pregnant.
Giving and taking care
The pressures placed on Black women can also change what they expect of themselves. According to author Oludara Adeeyo, "For so long, racism and sexism (a.k.a. misogynoir) told Black women that we cannot sit down and rest, because we must work twice as hard to be respected and rewarded." The internalized pressure to show strength, to suppress one's own needs while caring for others adds to the weight on Black women's shoulders. It's part of what makes self-care elusive, crucial and revolutionary. "For Black women, self-care isn’t just manicures and massages — though it can include them. It is about activities that aid our self-preservation in a world that is structured to oppress us. It is preventive care."
When self-care is preventative care, its instruments are even more important. This raises the question: In an "notoriously under regulated" field like wellness, are all personal care and beauty products created equally?
Personal care products can contain toxic chemicals, and systemic racism tilts the scales against Black women. According to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC), products marketed to Black women (think products specifically designed to style Black hair, for example) tend to contain more toxic chemicals than other products, and, influenced by Eurocentric beauty standards, Black women use more of them. "Black women are over-exposed to and under-protected from toxic chemicals in the beauty and personal care products they use every day." The CSC also notes that Black women have a higher mortality rate for breast cancer than any other group, and can experience a host of reproductive disorders.
In 2022, the CSC launched the Non-Toxic Black Beauty Project to address the environmental injustice in the beauty industry. The campaign website offers a database of non-toxic beauty products made by Black-owned companies designed to reduce Black women's and girls' exposure to unsafe ingredients.
Personal care is not a luxury. It's a tool with which we show that we value ourselves. And as Oludara Adeeyo points out, for Black women, self-care is preventative care. To celebrate Black History Month, we hope to move just a little bit closer to a world that shows Black women as much genuine care as they give to others.
"There are forms of inequality that exist both within the United States and globally but also forms of resilience that come out of this past."
— Dr. Alondra Nelson, Dean of Social Science, Columbia University, on the legacy of slavery
February is Black History Month, a time to pause and consider the contributions and losses of Black Americans. Black American history is inextricably linked with food and agriculture, punctuated with violence and tragedy, resilience and skill, perseverance and the tireless pursuit of equality.
Today, the federal government continues to wrestle with the ongoing work of reconciliation. Financial assistance programs for farmers who have experienced discrimination — predominantly farmers of color — are finally, hopefully, taking shape.
Injustice and resilience
Slavery generated tremendous prosperity during America's first century, transforming America from an agricultural colony to an industrialized world power. As activist Kimberly Jones passionately explains, Black labor powered agricultural work in the South and textile work in the North, producing wealth and keeping it out of Black hands. After the official abolition of slavery in 1865, bigotry persisted and evolved into new forms of oppression.
During this time, there were also indisputable innovations and critical victories, and to speak of the tragedies without acknowledging the accomplishments is to tell an incomplete story. From George Washington Carver's revolutionary regenerative practices to the co-operatives behind the civil rights movement, Black ingenuity inspires food security and social justice advocates today.
"We as Black people are bombarded with messages that our only place of belonging on land is as slaves,” writes Leah Penniman in her book Farming While Black. “To learn of our true and noble history as farmers and ecological stewards is deeply healing,"
No acres, no mule
The pendulum of social justice and oppression swings back and forth throughout history.
After the Civil War, the government promised some formerly enslaved people 40 acres of land to work as their own, a pledge known as "40 acres and a mule." But the promise was rescinded after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Slavery's formal abolishment was then followed by a century of racial discrimination, severely limiting Black farmers' opportunities to become landowners.
The high point of Black farming and land ownership was in 1920 when Black farmers made up 14% of all farm operators in the U.S. That share has been falling ever since. Black farmers lost an estimated $326 billion of land during the 20th century due to the USDA's discriminatory lending policies. Since the 1990s, the share of Black farmers has hovered around 1%.
While remedying this injustice is still controversial, the discrimination itself is well-documented. In 1965, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that while the USDA was "instrumental in raising the economic, educational and social levels of thousands of farm and rural and families … [a] quarter of a million Negro families stand as a glaring exception to this picture of progress." Discriminatory lending practices left Black farmers without the means to diversify and invest in their operations. As a result, Black-operated farms are less resilient, and the economic and social gaps between white and Black farmers continue to widen.
How to right a wrong
Frustrations abound as we continue to negotiate how to address the past.
In 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which included a program to provide debt relief to Black farmers. The ARPA was challenged in court as discriminatory due to the exclusion of white farmers. It has been replaced by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — a much smaller financial commitment that avoids language explicitly identifying racial groups. Last fall, the USDA invited public comments on the assistance programs' implementation, generating submissions which, if heeded, offer a first step to rebuilding farmers of color's trust in the USDA.
However, some activists are critical of the new offering. One advocate for Black farmers told Reuters the IRA proposal "does not even approach a racial equity model that this administration and the USDA has been speaking about since the beginning of its term." Dollar for dollar, the relief programs offer only a sliver of what Black farmers have lost.
And there is the softened language. The ARPA clearly called out racial discrimination, validating the lived experience of Black farmers and their descendants. While the IRA proposal offers some relief for Black farmers, its compromises hamstring true equality by glossing over the reason it's necessary in the first place.
In 2015, genetically modified AquaAdvantage salmon became the first GMO animal approved for human consumption in the U.S. and Canada. It was created through combining genetic material from a Chinook salmon and an eel-like ocean pout to the Atlantic salmon. The result is a fast-growing, entirely new fish that has since been raised in inland farms in Canada's Prince Edward Island and Indiana— and served to untold numbers of unsuspecting consumers (GMO labeling was not required in the U.S. until 2022, and restaurants are still exempt from labeling laws).
Unsurprisingly, GMO salmon has faced a lot of backlash, including a growing campaign by Indigenous, environmental and grassroots activists under the banner #BlockCorporateSalmon. Here are three compelling reasons why you should join the boycott.
Reason #1 — Wild salmon is healthier
Salmon is widely considered a nutrient-dense superfood, abundant in crucial vitamins and minerals. It's a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids, one of the healthy fats that supports heart functioning, reduces inflammation and lowers blood pressure. Salmon is also high in B vitamins, potassium and iron, and can even help keep your mind sharp as you age.
However, farmed GMO salmon lack many of those health benefits. Genetically modified AquaAdvantage salmon contain less protein, less healthy fats, fewer vitamins, nutrients and healthy acids per ounce than wild-caught salmon. Aquaculture can also contribute to water pollution and increased diseases, making it unhealthy for the environment, too.
Reason #2 — GMOs threaten wild fish populations
Wild salmon populations have been struggling for decades, largely due to overfishing and habitat destruction. They are already extinct in 40% of their historical range. With the pressures facing salmon increasing, preserving and building salmon stocks is more important than ever.
Genetically modified salmon pose an existential threat to wild salmon populations. In the event of an escape (and farmed salmon are infamous for escaping), the GMOs could outperform wild salmon in their competition for crucial resources, gobbling up food to support their abnormal growth. While the majority of GMO salmon are infertile, a small but statistically significant number of them could conceivably breed with native fish populations, causing irreparable genetic contamination in the threatened species.
It's worth noting, too, that salmon are considered a keystone species, occupying a crucial niche within complex ecosystems. From orcas to old growth forests, diverse and majestic species rely on wild salmon. In a very literal sense, both the east coast and Pacific Northwest wouldn't be the same without them.
Reason #3 — Salmon is essential to Indigenous knowledge and culture
The Pacific Northwest is home to Indigenous peoples who have cared for and lived with salmon for millennia. They are the Salmon People — their history, prosperity and survival are inextricably linked to the health of salmon. The connection goes beyond fishing expertise — salmon are part of their cultural and spiritual identity.
The stewardship of biodiversity and resources by Indigenous peoples isn't unique to salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Globally, Indigenous peoples make up only 6% of the human population, but they are responsible for preserving 85% of the earth's crucial biodiversity. Such heavy work is critical to human survival, impacting food security, the emergence of zoonotic diseases and the fates of countless threatened and endangered species.
Choosing wild fish to eat might seem counterintuitive to conservation efforts, but traditional food systems are built on the principle of mutual sustainability — the foods people eat come from plants and animals they are responsible for. Indigenous expertise in healthy and sustainable salmon fishing is unparalleled. Natural, wild-caught salmon are worth investing in and protecting, and there are no better leaders for this movement than the Salmon People.
"Our current food system places a higher value on profits and corporate control than on human health, dignity, and the right to be nourished by and connected to land, culture, and community." — Uprooted & Rising, #BoycottCorporateSalmon
If you're anything like us, you frequently shop your values at the grocery store — including looking for products that are Non-GMO Project Verified, more sustainably produced and provide fair wages to the people who make them. We're delighted to see Verified products meeting and exceeding sustainability and social impact goals more than ever before, proving that innovation and non-GMO go hand-in-hand.
Here's a collection of newly Verified products representing some of the latest and greatest trends.
Turning waste into taste
Did you know an estimated 30-40% of food in the U.S. goes to waste? That's a shocking amount of growing, harvesting and processing to end up in a landfill instead of a lunch bag or soup pot. Statistics like this have inspired the "upcycling" movement, driven by innovators who see that 30-40% as raw materials for nourishing products.
Inspired by the motto "let nothing go to waste," women-led Matriark Foods is a leader in this field and a founding member of the Upcycled Food Association. By reclaiming perfectly useful ingredients that would otherwise end up in a landfill and creating nutritious and delicious vegetarian broths, soups, sauces and stews, Matriark averts greenhouse gas emissions, reduces water use and offers handy and tasty products.
Food and medicine
Mushrooms are having a moment. These delectable fungi's unique tastes and textures have long made them invaluable in the kitchen. Now, cutting-edge research explores the therapeutic uses of some mushrooms' unique psychedelic compounds. Alternative snack innovator Popadelics supports mushrooms' uses in both food and medicine, offering their crunchy mushroom treats as a tasty alternative to traditional snack foods while donating a portion of sales revenue to support research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.
Popdelics crunchy mushroom snacks are made from decidedly delicious and definitely non-psychedelic shiitake mushrooms. The shiitakes undergo low-temperature "vacuum" frying that protects their natural flavors and nutrients and offers a lower oil content than traditional deep-fried snack foods. All Popadelics products are vegan and Non-GMO Project Verified, and their purchase supports crucial research into treatment options for mental health. What's not to love?
Reimagining a kitchen staple
The cooking oil aisle at the grocery store offers the bewildered shopper a dizzying range of packaging and price points. To remove the guesswork, olive oil innovator Graza offers a 2-pack of high-quality olive oil: one for cooking and one for drizzling, dipping and generally enjoying raw.
"Drizzle" is made from olives that haven't fully matured, resulting in an oil higher in antioxidants with a bolder flavor that lends itself to dressings, dipping or drizzling. "Sizzle" is a cooking oil with a higher smoke point and more mellow flavor. The simple, chef-inspired squeeze bottles take your kitchen game to the next level.
Vanilla that gives back
Vanilla is like nothing else. It's more of an aroma than a food, but it makes an unmistakable impact on the deliciousness of daily life. New Zealand-based company Heilala partners with Tonga's skilled farmers to sustainably and ethically produce high-quality vanilla.
Heilala is the only vanilla producer with B Corporation certification, having met and exceeded B Corp's rigorous standards. The company continually looks for new ways to invest in the communities where its farmers live. In early 2022, Heilala used its reach and supply chain for fundraising and delivering supplies to locals recovering from the volcano eruption and tsunami that devastated the islands.
Vanilla is just one of the crops facing the incursion of biotechnology (a synthetic biology version of vanilla produced with GMOs poses a unique threat to the natural vanilla market). Heilala vanilla's product, mission and high social impact standards confirm that natural vanilla is worth protecting.
Is Synbio Vanilla "Natural"? Heck, No!
Sowing the seeds of peace
Seeds of Collaboration, or SoCo, was inspired by two observations: The belief that food has the power to bring people together, and the fact that good tahini was hard to come by outside of the Middle East. The women-owned company donates a portion of sales of their high-quality tahini to a nonprofit that supports social and economic ties between Israeli and Palestinian youth.
SoCo's benefits are personal as well as social. Tahini is a good non-dairy calcium source that is high in antioxidants and heart-healthy fats.
These products represent the tip of the innovation iceberg.
Of course, we love seeing brand and industry leaders prioritize all the best ambitions, putting regeneration and equity over profits. It reminds us just how much is possible and hints at how much potential resides outside the world of biotechnology. We'll take non-GMO social justice, conflict resolution and climate solutions over the false promises of biotech corporations any day.
It's been a big year for food, agriculture and biotechnology news — the month of September alone contained a year's worth of stories. Here is the Non-GMO Project's overview of the biggest and most impactful new stories from the world of food, 2022 edition.
New year, new labeling law
The federal Bioengineered food labeling law (also known as NBFDS) went into full effect on January 1, making BE disclosures mandatory on some (but not all) products made with GMOs. The Non-GMO Project had consistently expressed disappointment with the law, noting it does not do enough to protect consumers or offer the transparency Americans deserve.
However, the Center for Food Safety later won an important victory for your right to know, when their lawsuit prompted a U.S. district court to declare that BE disclosures with QR codes alone were unlawful and discriminatory.
Inflation reduction and debt relief
In August, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law. While many observers hailed the IRA for its climate provisions, the Center for Food Safety (yes, the same one) noted its failure to meaningfully address the problems of industrialized agriculture. The IRA's funding for so-called "climate smart initiatives" act essentially as subsidies for GMO crops.
On a positive note, the IRA does include a provision to provide assistance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA’s farm lending programs. The issue of compensation for farmers who have faced discrimination is both long overdue and highly contentious, with an earlier attempt, the American Rescue Plan, reversed by the courts. In October, the USDA sought public comments on how to implement the provision.
Biden's big biotech bid
In September, President Biden signed the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative, an Executive Order promoting biotechnology across all government sectors, including GMOs in the food system. The Order unfairly favors GMOs and the companies behind them at the expense of food security, environmental resilience, public health and social equality.
Later that month, the U.S. government selected the first round of grant recipients under the “Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities." The program earmarked $3 billion of the federal budget to reduce GHG emissions and increase carbon sequestration in major food crops and commodity production. However, the focus on commodity crops effectively props up a destructive industrial and GMO-based agriculture system, failing to address the monocultures and lack of biodiversity that contribute to environmental degradation.
Food sovereignty — and the news story that wasn't
Also in September, the Gates' Foundation-led Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) underwent a rebranding effort, announcing that it will keep the acronym "AGRA" while striking the term "Green Revolution" from its name and related events. Strangely, the renaming was accomplished with no explanation or context. Critics wonder if the quiet rebranding is AGRA's attempt to distance itself from its dismal track record on food scarcity or farmer incomes. Farmers, civil society and faith leaders of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa quickly denounced the rebranding, calling instead for a "Green Restoration."
Food sovereignty is also at the core of the ongoing dispute over Mexico's looming ban on GMO corn. Throughout the year, U.S. corn producers condemned the ban (the vast majority of corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified and the ban would strike a blow to GMO farmers). The latest news indicates Washington might try to challenge the ban as a violation of the USMCA trade partnership and Mexico could seek a compromise. The Non-GMO Project supports Mexico's right to food sovereignty and self-determination, and welcomes the opportunity for more U.S. acreage to transition to non-GMO crops to meet the demand.
Wheat's winding path
Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine in March has been broadly condemned for its impacts inside Ukrainian borders and around the globe. In addition to the toll on the Ukrainian people, the war has devastated farming in "the breadbasket of Europe," causing supply chain disruptions, impacting commodity and fuel prices and compromising aid packages to millions of people facing food scarcity.
The conflict might even have helped a new GMO cross the finish line of regulatory approval. In May, Argentina approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified HB4 Wheat for the 2022/23 planting season. Historic attempts to produce genetically modified wheat were abandoned more than 20 years ago, in part because of consumer unease around eating GMOs (wheat is the most widely consumed grain in the world). Ukraine is one of the world's main wheat producers, and concern over the war's impact on grain production possibly played a role in GMO wheat gaining a foothold.
The year ended with a welcome development, in the form of non-GMO wheat news. In December, a new variety of drought-tolerant wheat created through traditional cross-breeding methods was announced. Non-GMO "Jabal" wheat was produced by farmers and crop scientists working together as part of an international breeding program that incorporates wild relatives of food crops. According to one agricultural expert, "This shows what can be accomplished with multilateral cooperation where farmers are at the center of decision-making."
On that hopeful note, we move together into the new year. We'll keep following developing stories such as Mexico's ban on GMO corn, and keep you posted on current events as they happen. Here's to a happy and healthy 2023!
In the Northern hemisphere, winter is nature's time for slowness and rest. Farms and gardens sink into a period of dormancy, inactive but protected from the harsh elements.
Many plants have natural cycles of growth and rest that match the climate of their region. For some species, the cold is as necessary as the sun. For example, aptly named winter wheat won't flower in the spring unless it is exposed to winter cold. An uncharacteristically balmy winter can lead to shorter tulips and hyacinths with smaller blooms.
People often fight against this annual slowdown. There is a social pressure to remain productive, to go go go — even on the coldest, darkest, shortest days of the year. In fact, humans are such busybodies that some scientists are even using genetic engineering to apply this human need for constant production to plants by reducing dormancy in rice and barley crops.
Before we impose such ceaseless high-performance onto common food crops, perhaps we should consider the benefits of moving with the seasons. Maybe slowness has its own gifts. Maybe the sloth is no less miraculous than the cheetah.
Silent seeds
Seeds are truly amazing things, bundling critical information and nutrients in a deceptively modest package. Seeds are miraculously resourceful, with the ability to lie dormant in soil only to sprout years later (as anyone who has tried to stay ahead of the weeds in their garden is painfully aware). This talent for biding their time helps to improve species' resilience, allowing seeds to pass through periods of unfavorable conditions and still produce a new generation.
Not only do seeds persist despite winter's cold, some thrive because of it. Many seeds rely on the freeze-thaw cycle to crack their hard shell so it can sprout come spring. Some seeds fail to germinate at all if they don't experience the cold they need. Because of nature's inherent interconnection, there's more at stake than beautiful blooms. Failure to germinate could impact soil nutrients, pollinators, invertebrates and the larger organisms that depend on them (including us!).
Make like a fruit tree and chill
Fruit and nut trees need periods of cold weather to produce fruit the following year. For example, apple varieties require cold exposure and won't produce blossoms or apples without it. The stress of insufficient cold exposure is so acute that, over time, it can actually kill an apple tree.
Apple trees begin their transition from growth to dormancy after the summer solstice. Bud dormancy begins with the shortened days of late summer and fall. The tree produces hormones that prevent growth during the winter, keeping tender buds safe from freezing temperatures.
When winter arrives in earnest, the time spent in the cold (known as "chill hours") causes those growth-inhibiting hormones to break down, allowing the tree to come out of dormancy when the conditions are right. Winter's cold also protects fruit trees by limiting the reproduction of pests such as insects and disease.
Winter on (and under) the ground
Winter temperatures also spark changes below the soil line. The billions of soil-dwelling microorganisms that live there break down organic matter and recycle nutrients, acting as the foundation of our food system and, during winter, their frenetic pace slows down.
Herbaceous plants die back to the ground, where their leaves and stalks protect bare soil and add organic matter. The leaves that fell to the ground in October decay, and the bold colors of fall are replaced by the lace-like webbing of winter. Its beauty is quieter, but just as profound.
The root system of long-living perennials have their own tricks to make the most of the cold. Some plants reach deeper into the ground, establishing tap roots that pull nutrients up and create pathways for air and water. Surface roots might expel moisture, making them less vulnerable to the expansion and contraction of freezing cycles. Or, plants can concentrate sugars and salts in their roots, creating a natural antifreeze.
While we march towards the coldest and shortest days of the year, it might be impractical for us humans to limit our activity or commit to a strategic period of dormancy. However, there is a standing invitation to amend our activities, reflecting what we see around us. To let the darkness stand, uninterrupted by phones, tablets and blue light. To sleep fully and deeply, even if we measure our rest in hours rather than months. To match our ambitions to the climate we inhabit instead of constructing ways to defy it.
Winter is the time to use energy strategically, so that we can go deeper, endure longer and appreciate the ingenuity of nature's many speeds.