Field tested by thousands of entrepreneurs

“MetroFarm is full of information!  The business information alone is more informative and helpful than most books that specialize in business.  Get this book – you will not be disappointed!” S.M. Smith, Engineer, Shanghai, China

——————————————-

“Few how-to books could be more appropriate for our times than Michael Olson’s MetroFarm. With humor and passion, Olson makes the whole imbedded food system doable. A must read.”

Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

•••••

MetroFarm tells how to convert an opportunity into a real going concern. Each process is laid out with impressive thoroughness, every chapter organized

around the logic of practicality. Charles Walters, ACRES USA

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]]> http://metrofarm.com/michael-olson-news/529/feed 0 http://metrofarm.com/michael-olson-news/527 http://metrofarm.com/michael-olson-news/527#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:46:01 +0000 Michael http://metrofarm.com/?p=527

Artichoke Flowers in Blue Vase by Marlene Olson 800-624-2665

Listen Live on Saturdays 9:00am-10:00am Pacific or Delayed on Demand

Tune in for the most important issues of our times!

Every week– as he has for over 700 weeks– Michael Olson brings the most important issues of our lives to the table for an hour of what’s eating what radio that will feed your curiosity and make you hunger for more.

••••••••••••

How will the price of gas affect the price of food? Is it safe to eat genetically engineered corn?  Why do they irradiate meat? Are we running short of water? What will happen if China drives our farmers out of business? How secure is this food chain?

••••••••••••••••

Award winning broadcaster, author, and speaker Michael Olson has appeared on, or hosted, more than 1,000 TV and radio shows, written award winning books, and has been published and quoted in hundreds of magazines, newspapers and websites.

••••••••••••••••

Food Chain Radio is syndicated on commercial radio stations throughout the U. S. (radio station affiliates) and streamed live and on demand everywhere via the internet.

GREEN PLANTS AND BLUE BABIES

Food Chain Radio Show #766 • March 17, 2012

••••••

Can we grow crops and have a clean environment?

From MetroFarm, by Michael Olson…

••••

“In 1840, the German chemist Justus von Liebig proved plants could be nourished rapidly by applying mineral salts in solution directly to plant roots. This breakthrough allowed for tremendous increases in crop production. By 1954, mineral salts accounted for more than 97 percent of fertilizers used in the United States.

•••••

Synthetically-derived fertilizers, like anhydrous ammonia (NH₃), have been relatively inexpensive when compared to organic fertilizers because fossil fuels and money required to make them have been relatively inexpensive. But there is another cost to synthetic fertilizers and that cost has been deferred.

•••••

Nitrogen, in certain forms, is a toxic substance. Nitrates (NO₂), for example, can impair circulation of oxygen in blood (“blue-baby syndrome”) and cause vitamin deficiencies. The National Science Foundation estimates plants use only 30 percent of a farmer’s application of nitrogen fertilizer; the remaining 70 percent escapes into soil, rivers, aquifers and air. To date, nobody has paid to clean up the mess. This deferred cost, however, may come due.”

••••••

This leads us to ask…

••••••

Can we grow crops and have a clean environment? (Food Chain Radio & Forums #766)

_____________________________________

BUGS BY THE BILLIONS?

Food Chain Radio Show #763 • February 25, 2012

••••••

Why fear genetically-modified foods?

A difference of opinion exists as to whether foods that have been modified to contain foreign genes should be labeled as such.

••••

Some see the vibrant populations of micro-organisms that populate all living foods and ask, “Why the fuss?”  There can be, after all, 100 million microbial cells on every square centimeter of plant surface.  When we routinely consume billions of bugs with every meal of living food, why should we be concerned about taking the genes of a few of those bugs and using them to re-engineer how a plant goes about living its life?

••••••

Nevertheless, those who do not, for one reason or another, trust in the efficacy of foods that have been re-engineered with foreign genes by commercial interests to perform in unnatural ways, want modified foods to be labeled as such.  As a consequence, some 50 nations around the world now require genetically modified organisms to be labeled.

••••••••••

The difference of opinion leads us to ask…

••••••

Why fear genetically-modified foods? (Food Chain Radio & Forums #763)

With so much distance between our food and ourselves, we no longer know, nor have any control over what’s in our food. We do get news about our food, which leads us to ask…

How will the price of fuel affect the price of food?  Is it safe to eat genetically engineered corn?  Why do they want to irradiate meat?  Are we running short of water? What will happen if China drives our farmers out of business? How secure is this food chain?

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Join us on the MetroFarm Forums

AMERICA’S

FAMILY-LESS FARMS

Food Chain Radio Show #772 • April 28, 2012

••••••

Can the family farm survive without the family?

The administration of the federal government has ordered its Labor Department to apply child labor laws to America’s family farms.

•••••••••••

Under these child labor laws, children under 18 will be prevented from working “in the storing, marketing, and transporting of farm product raw materials.”

•••••••••••

Children will be prevented from working in “country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges, and livestock auctions.”

•••••••••••••

Furthermore, the government will revoke approval of safety training and certification courses taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA and replace them with a federal government training courses.

••••••••••••••••••••

This move by the federal government leads us to ask…

••••••••

Why is the government applying child labor laws to the family farm?

••••

What impact will child labor laws have on the ability of children to work on their family’s farm?

•••

Can the family farm survive without the family?

•••

(Food Chain Radio & Forums #772)

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FREE GOVERNMENT LUNCH

Should parents be allowed to feed their children?

As a hunter growing up in Montana, I was taught to recognize signs of prey, to read the signs, and then to use the information obtained from the signs to project where that prey might be headed.

Later, as a journalist working out of California, I was taught to recognize the signs of a story, to read the signs, and then to use information obtained from the signs to project where that story might be headed.

••••

Here are some signs of a story currently in the news:  (1) First Lady demands a healthier school lunch for children.  (2) Government inspector confiscates a pre-schooler’s turkey and cheese sandwich and forces that child to eat government-approved chicken nuggets. (3) California politician seeks to ban private food vendors from school grounds.  (4) Government funds 5 meals per day for children at local elementary schools.

••••

Obviously, these signs point to a crisis that will not be allowed to go to waste, and so we look down the road to where the signs point and ask…

••••

Should parents be allowed to feed their children? (Food Chain Radio & Forums #767)

___________________________________________________________

BUGS BY THE BILLIONS?

Food Chain Radio Show #763 • February 25, 2012

••••••

Why fear genetically-modified foods?

A difference of opinion exists as to whether foods that have been modified to contain foreign genes should be labeled as such.

••••

Some see the vibrant populations of micro-organisms that populate all living foods and ask, “Why the fuss?”  There can be, after all, 100 million microbial cells on every square centimeter of plant surface.  When we routinely consume billions of bugs with every meal of living food, why should we be concerned about taking the genes of a few of those bugs and using them to re-engineer how a plant goes about living its life?

••••••

Nevertheless, those who do not, for one reason or another, trust in the efficacy of foods that have been re-engineered with foreign genes by commercial interests to perform in unnatural ways, want modified foods to be labeled as such.  As a consequence, some 50 nations around the world now require genetically modified organisms to be labeled.

••••••••••

The difference of opinion leads us to ask…

••••••

Why fear genetically-modified foods? (Food Chain Radio & Forums #763)

OUT OF THE KNOW ON GMO

by Michael Keith Olson

Copyright  2011

“Are genetically modified organisms safe?”

•••

With the introduction of their genetically-engineered crops, the Monsanto Corporation, DuPont, and other “crop science” companies have, in a few short years, changed how we grow food.  Today, 87 to 90 percent of soybeans, and 75 percent of our corn contain re-engineered genes, and those genes are spreading rapidly throughout the food chain and may soon be contained in just about everything we eat!  The rapid acceptance of the re-engineered genes poses an interesting question:  Are genetically modified organisms (GMOs) safe to eat?

••••

Before we discuss the safety of GMOs, let’s take a look at why they have been so readily accepted by those who grow and process our food.  Let’s start with me, because like many others, I was a teenage herbicide!  I spent many of the summer days of my youth hoeing weeds for farmers in Montana’s Yellowstone River Valley.  It was hot, sweaty work, but vitally important.  Left unchecked, those weeds I hoed out of existence would have taken the farmers’ sunshine, water, and nutrients, and left the farmers with no crops for their winter.

••••

But for a young teen with big dreams, hoeing weeds is never much fun.   I remember looking up from that hot sticky work to the passenger jets flying over at 35,000 feet, and calling out to them, “Take me away!”  Finally, one did.

••••

The Monsanto Corporation has freed millions from the toil of hoeing weeds in the hot summer sunshine.  Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide, which is sold under the tradename “Roundup,” and its “Roundup-Ready” genetically-engineered crops, make it possible for one farmer to kill millions of weeds in the cool of an air-conditioned tractor.  Consequently, Monsanto’s Roundup technologies are used in the production of an overwhelming percentage of the nation’s corn and soybean crops, and as its Roundup-Ready genes spread across the land, America’s youth are freed to pursue more productive interests, like hanging around street corners in hooded sweatshirts.

••••

There is a lot of money in this new way of growing crops:  There is the money saved by not having to hire human herbicides, like me.  There is the money paid to purchase millions of tons of chemicals.  There is the money paid to rent the patented genes from the Monsanto Corporation, Dupont, and others.  This money soon adds up to billions, if not trillions, and maybe even zillions.  Simply put, a lot of money wants GMOs to be safe, and that money finds a way to be heard, and respected.

••••

Though GMOs were rapidly accepted by many producers, many consumers still wonder if they are safe.  Let’s begin our search for efficacy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration where, in 1991, Monsanto attorney Michael R. Taylor became the FDA’s first Deputy Commissioner for Policy.  During his tenure as FDA’s Policy chief, Taylor instituted– some say invented– a doctrine called Substantial Equivalence, which says, in effect, that GMOs are safe because they are substantially equivalent to non-GMOs, and thus may be accepted into the nation’s food chain with no studies as to their efficacy.  Taylor then left FDA to become Vice President of Monsanto, and then left Monsanto to become the FDA’s Food Safety Czar, where he resides today.   The FDA seems to be telling us that GMOs are safe because the Monsanto Corporation says they are safe.  And that tells us a lot, does it not?

••••

Next let’s visit the halls of academia, where we hear many voices being raised in support of GMOs.  But wait!   What are we to make of Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, who is standing up in the back of the room saying, “Excuse me, but something is not right here!”  Huber is saying his research, and that of others, has identified a new microscopic pathogen spawned in Roundup-drenched soils that is causing spontaneous abortion rates of 25 to 45 percent in the animal populations eating the Roundup-Ready GMO crops.   You and I look into the eyes of this grandfatherly retired professor at the back of the room and wonder, ‘Is he telling the truth?’  And if he is telling the truth, ‘What will his Monsanto Bug do to us?’

••••

To be certain, Professor Huber’s assertion of a Monsanto Bug is being met with howls of derision from other academics in the room, many of which also have advanced degrees and impressive credentials in the fields of plant pathology and human physiology.  No doubt some of these academics came from Iowa State, which boasts a Monsanto Auditorium and Monsanto-funded graduate fellowships.  And some came from Kansas State, where they helped spin off Wildcat Genetics, a side company that sells Roundup-Ready soybean seeds.  And so we scratch our heads and wonder which academics to believe.

••••

I do not know about you, but I want GMOs to be safe.  I want everybody to make billions and trillions and zillions of dollars, and I don’t want to spend my summers hoeing weeds in the hot sunshine.  I don’t want to believe in Dr. Huber’s Monsanto Bug, and I don’t want to think about what that bug could be doing to the animals that eat GMOs, or to the people who eat the animals that eat the GMOs.  However, I just can’t quite get to where I want to be, and must face the fact that I do not know who to believe with respect to the efficacy of GMOs.

••••

Furthermore, I am reluctant to commit to either side out of fear I will be wrong:  If GMOs are accepted as safe, and planted sea to shining sea, Dr. Huber’s microscopic Monsanto Bug might eat us all into extinction.  But if GMOs are rejected as dangerous, we might not be able to get rich by growing a lot more food for a lot less money.

••••

Are GMOs safe?  I do not know, but I am as skeptical as a deer in the woods during hunting season.

Michael Olson is the author of MetroFarm: The Guide to Growing for Profit In or Near the City, and host of the nationally-syndicated Food Chain Radio program, both of which can be seen and heard at www.metrofarm.com.  (Food Chain Show #739, The Monsanto Bug with Dr. Don Huber, may be accessed on demand.)

••••••••

••••••••

________________________________________________

GOVERNMENT-SAFE FOOD

by Michael Olson

Copyright February 26, 2011

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste!”

Rahm Emanuel – Chief of Staff to the President of the United States

•••

In response to the mass food poisonings caused by Salmonella contaminated eggs from Wright County, Iowa and peanuts the Peanut Corporation of America, as well as E. Coli contaminated spinach from California’s Salad Bowl of the World, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.

•••

The Food Safety Modernization Act grants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) absolute authority to recall any foods it deems unsafe and to inspect all the nation’s food processing facilities.  Congress has, in other words, established an army of food regulators and vested it with total control over the nation’s Food Chain.

•••

Given how poorly large, industrial-scaled processors like Peanut Corporation of America and Wright County Egg have been inspected by the government– which is to say, not at all– many have applauded the takeover.  But questions linger about the future of our food chain for those who are curious about what’s eating what:

•••

Which foods make people sick?

According to the National Institute of Health, 76 million Americans get sick each year from eating contaminated food.  There are three possible sources of food poisoning:  (1) personal neglect, as in the eating of a spoiled potato salad; (2) local neglect, as in the selling of contaminated greens at a farmers market; and (3) industrial neglect, as in the processing of food in filthy facilities like those of Wright County Egg and Peanut Corporation of America.

•••

With respect to personal neglect, no government can prevent people from naively, ignorantly, or stupidly eating bad food.  The only prevention is to teach individuals how to protect themselves from bad food, and this education must begin at a very early age.  Government might teach protection, but government cannot prevent individuals from poisoning themselves.  That leaves the FDA’s army to police the local and industrial food sectors for sources of bad food.

•••

Interestingly enough, the local food sector does not appear to be a problem.  In Food Chain Radio #631, I asked attorney Bill Marler of Marler-Clark, a law firm specializing in food safety cases, how many times in his 30-year career of bringing the purveyors of bad food to justice he found local food to be a problem. “None!” he replied, “Local food regulates itself.”  Easy to understand:  If Farmer Joe sells contaminated spinach to Neighbor Sue, the entire neighborhood will find out about the bad food in ten minutes, and Farmer Joe will be forced out of business.

•••

When first put forth, the Food Safety Modernization Act contained elaborate safety protocols that would have to be adopted by all food producers and processors.   These protocols favored large-scale industrial producers over local producers, as only industrial producers have the economies-of-scale sufficient to spread costs.  For example, a $10,000 food safety protocol would cost a 1,000-acre tomato farmer $10 per acre, whereas it would cost a 10-acre tomato farm $1,000 per acre.   Quite naturally, the Food Safety Modernization Act became a big hit with industrial-scale producers, who lobbied mightily for its passage because it would drive smaller competitors out of business.  However, those in the local food movement fought back by sending millions of missives to representatives in Congress, who responded with Montana Senator Jon Testor’s amendment to exempt local producers with sales of less than $500,000 per year.

•••

With local producers on one side of Testor’s line-in-the-sand saying they could regulate themselves, and all other producers on the other side of the line saying the law should be applied equally to all, the Food Safety Modernization Act was not an easy bill to pass. In fact, it took the Senate two votes and the House three votes before the amended bill finally squeaked through in the waning hours of Christmas Eve 2010.

•••

For whom will government make food safe?

Though small producers of local foods have temporarily escaped the grasp of the FDA’s new army of regulators, their fight to survive is certainly not over.

•••

Government, by its very nature, will go for the money, and the money will always come from producers who have economies-of-scale sufficient to spread costs.   A $10,000 political donation, for example, would cost a 1,000-acre tomato farmer $10 per acre, whereas the same donation would cost a 10-acre tomato farmer $1,000 per acre.   The bigger the producer, the less it will cost to influence government.

•••

Nothing in the Food Safety Moderization Act ensures the FDA will act responsibly with its power to inspect and recall.  Nor does the Act address the root causes of large-scale contaminations, which appear to be the mass production and processing systems of industrial agriculture.  The agency is free, in other words, to enforce its will at will.  Which sector, then, will the FDA scrutinize for unsafe food?  We can rule out, for the moment at least, those farmers whose scale permits them a Testor exemption.  That leaves the very big, who have the economies-of-scale sufficient to donate liberally to politicians, and those in the middle, who are too big to be protected by Testor and too small to donate liberally to politicians.  As if to answer the question, Monsanto Corporation’s often-hired gun, Michael Taylor, has been appointed Food Safety Czar by President Obama, and despite there being no study proving the safety of Monsanto’s genetically-engineered alfalfa, the administration recently approved its release into the American food chain.

•••

Who will be left to provide us with safe food?

If agriculture is like most other industries, and it is, there will soon be only two sources of safe food– the very big and the very small.   Medium-sized producers will be inspected and regulated out of business.   Competition for our food dollars will then become intense, with the very big contending with their economies-of-scale and government-safe food, and the very small with their Testor-exemption and garden-fresh quality.  Which safe food will get your dollars?

•••

Michael Olson is author of MetroFarm and Tales from a Tin Can, Host of the nationally-syndicated Food Chain Radio, Board Member of Think Local First, and General Manager of AM 1080 KSCO (www.metrofarm.com / www.talesfromatincan.com)

•••••• Buy $2 of locally grown food every day.

•••••• Then convince 2 others to do the same!

•••••••••••••••••••

Yes, we can! We can eat our way to economic security and personal freedom, and we can do so without spending an extra dime on food or an extra dollar on taxes.

From Food to Freedom: “The 2X2 Pledge”

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Michael has appeared on and/or hosted more than 1,000 TV and radio shows, written award winning books, and has been published and quoted in hundreds of articles in magazines, newspapers and websites. His subjects include business, marketing, farm and food, and World War II in the Pacific.

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