Organic Seed Alliance Turns Ten

Back in the 1970s a network of farmers from the north Olympic Peninsula formed a non-profit to serve as a marketing platform for the organic vegetable seed they were growing and saving. They called their enterprise the Abundant Life Seed Foundation, and worked in close collaboration to develop new varieties of vegetables that were well-adapted to local conditions and then sold them through a catalogue until, about ten years ago, their store house burned to the ground, destroying their inventory.

But a phoenix rose from the ashes in the form of the Organic Seed Alliance, which this week is celebrating its tenth anniversary.  The OSA no longer sells seed, but the continuing work to develop better local varietals, to train farmers to save seed, to monitor the spread and diversity of organic seed, and to advocate for open sourcing of plant genetics has brought the organization to national prominence.

Organic Seed Alliance Turns Ten
16:45

Are GMOs Dangerous?

Jeffrey Smith is the author of two self-published international best-sellers, and as a result is also one of the most vilified authors on the planet.   His books, Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, detail the dangers of genetically-engineered food to both human health and planetary ecology, a journalistic endeavor that has earned him both acclaim and the kind of smear tactics the biotech industry has usually reserved for scientists who dare to investigate the effects of a technology that has the potential  to either save or doom the world.

In this edition of KPTZ Compass, the radio news magazine for the northeast Olympic Peninsula, I talk to Smith and to a scientist who helps to interpret his claims.

Are GMOs Dangerous?
30 minutes