Tinkering With Our Food: Perdue Professor Don Huber to speak at Family Farm Field Day
Summary: Is Roundup® nothing more than a harmless, biodegradable weed preventative, or is it slowly killing more than unwanted foliage? Perdue professor Emeritus Don Huber will present his startling findings on Roundup® at this year's Family Farm Field Day, to be held on Saturday, July 21st on the Sugarcreek farm of Henry and Susie Hershberger.Story: Glyphosate (commonly known as Roundup®), has been marketed to consumers since 1974 as a safe, environmentally-friendly and completely biodegradable weed control. But some studies suggest it could actually be silently lurking in our plants and soils, wreaking havoc that, according to Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University Don Huber and his 20 years of research, could have devastating effects on our commerce, food supply, and, most troubling, our health.
Huber will present his findings during his keynote address, Tinkering with Our Food: Where Is Genetic Engineering Taking Us? during this year's Family Farm Field Day (FFFD) on Saturday, July 21 at the Sugarcreek farm of Henry and Susie Hershberger.
In January 2011, Huber wrote an alarming letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announcing his "discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings." He warned that this pathogen threatened the U.S.' food and feed supply as well as corn and soy export markets.
So what is it about glyphosate (Roundup®), a product consumers and farmers have been using for years, that Huber believes makes it so dangerous?
Glyphosate, Huber says, is not only a biocide but is also a strong chelator, meaning it acts like a magnet in the soil, bonding with minerals--zinc, copper, potassium, calcium, manganese, and iron--immobilizing them, making them unusable to plants, animals and humans. And, Huber says, the toxins and pathogens glyphosate introduces can remain in the soil for years, causing toxicity in future plantings. For home gardeners and farmers, this could cause soil depletion of much-needed minerals, thereby creating a less nutritious plant for humans and animals. For commercial growers, this could also mean increased plant disease, loss of crops, decreased yield and increased water consumption, since, according to Huber, Roundup Ready® crops treated with glyphosate require twice the water as their non-Roundup Ready®, non-genetically engineered counterparts need.
"So, when there are extreme drought conditions like we have now, similar to what we experienced in 1988," Huber says, "the drought is greatly intensified in Roundup Ready® crops due to their inefficient water usage."
Huber's claims do not come without controversy. In February 2011, Monsanto, who manufactures and markets Roundup® and Roundup Ready® systems, released a statement saying "the allegation that some mysterious pathogen is damaging U.S. corn and soybean production is contrary to extensive data documenting improved yield and economic performance for GM crops." Even some of Huber's fellow scientists at Purdue released a statement in February 2011 refuting Huber's claims, stating that "despite the potential for herbicides to increase disease levels in certain plants, plant pathologists have not observed a widespread increase in susceptibility to plant diseases in glyphosate-resistant corn and soybean."
Yet Huber insists there's a growing evidence showing long-term glyphostate-related health damage, linking its use to everything from Alzheimers and Parkinson's Disease to autism and allergies.
"It can be extremely damaging and toxic to hormone systems, kidney cells, cervical cells, testicular cells," Huber says. "In Argentina, there was a 440 percent increase in birth defects in an area adjacent to soybean fields using glyphosate."
But area residents can listen to Huber's keynote on this subject, as well as his views and research regarding genetically-modified crops in general, and determine the truth for themselves, as Huber offers just one of the many presentations at this year's Family Farm Field Day (FFFD), an event designed eight years ago by a group of area Amish farmers to provide an educational format for grass-based agriculture that supports low energy and a non-industrial way of farming, encourages family lifestyles that promote cohesive, economical, and healthy rural living skills, and seeks to build morale and enthusiasm in the farming community.
"A few farmers got together and started with demonstrations on dogs and sheep herding," says one of FFFD's founders, Jerry Miller of Berlin. "Back then, we just threw a few things together, and it bloomed from there."
Bloom it did. The first year, Miller says, they were hoping to draw 500 people.
"We ended up with 2,000," Miller says. "Last year, we had between 4,500 and 5,000."
The event will not only offer educationally-intense presentations like Huber's, but other informative talks, hands-on activities, and more. During Saturday's activities, FFFD will once again offer a demonstration on sheep-herding using Border Collies and another on shearing. The day also aims to promote homesteading, cheese making, and cooking, outdoor bake oven and butter churning classes. As in years past, Millers says, the event continues to cater to grass management and grazing for dairy herds as well as presentations on solar power, timber management, bird and nature walks, beekeeping, composting and soil management.
This year, the event's vendor show will open on Friday, July 20. at 4 p.m. Food will be provided by and benefit the Holmes, Wayne, and Tuscarawas Amish parochial school special education system. A variety of vendors will display everything from fencing and homesteading supplies to health and holistic products. That same evening, at 7 p.m. the Sugarcreek Fire Department and Swiss Valley EMS will present a pond rescue demonstration at the Hershberger Pond, to be repeated on Saturday, July 20 at 11 a.m. Food and vendors will be available all day Saturday as well. There's no charge to participate in either day, but on-site donations help to fund future events.
As for the "family" part of the event, FFFD provides a children's tent giving kids a chance to find their way through a hay-bale maze, peer into an incubator to see tiny peeps hatching, or marvel at the inner-workings of a glass-cased beehive, plus studying indian artifacts or visiting the traveling bug zoo.
Jerry Miller says the dozen or so founders who first dreamed up FFFD, including the families of Lloyd Miller, Matt Schlabach, Rob Schlabach and Daniel Yoder, with the help of Leah Miller of the Small Farm Institute, felt there needed to be more in-depth education and enthusiasm instilled in the farming community.
"To be involved in food production is an honorable and very satisfying way of making a living," Miller says. "We wanted to promote the idea that a lot of responsibility goes with food production, that we're producing food for the masses and are responsible for providing something healthy which will sustain long-term growth while maintaining our small, plain communities."
With that vision in mind, Professor Don Huber's views on soil and crop management will be of particular interest to those concerned with healthy, sustainable farming and living practices. He sends out a serious wake-up call, a warning that's difficult to ignore.
"I really believe that unless we make some rather significant changes in what we're doing," Huber says, "future historians will look back on our time and not write about how many pounds of pesticides we're applying or not applying, but how we're willing to sacrifice our children and future generations to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise."
Huber says he's honored to be invited to the event and eager to share his knowledge in order to facilitate change.
"If we keep going down the same route, the effects we're seeing now are just the tip of the iceberg," Huber says. "It's important that we recognize the symptoms and make the changes required to continue growing on a sustainable basis."
For more information, call Lloyd Miller at 330-674-4267, Henry Hershberger at 330-852-9331, Jerry Miller at 330-893-1470, or the Small Farm Institute at 740-545-6349 or write to the Small Farm Institute at 28850 SR 621, Fresno, Ohio 43824.