Welcome to Judy Barrett's Homegrown: Good Sense Organic Gardening for Texas

January / February 2001

Amaryllis
Soil
Butterfly Gardening
It's The Berries!
Desert Willow

News of Note
Veggie - Potatoes
Herb - Winter Chores
Portfolio
Product Profile
Native Texan - Columbine
Kids
Goings On Around the State
Pests!
Gardeners on the Go
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Editor's Gleanings
Beck on Nature
Notes from the Brazos

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Gleanings from the Editor

Every year right after Thanksgiving I serve as a judge at the Williamson County 4-H Youth Fair. It is fun and an opportunity to see what local kids are doing. I judge the science and exhibits category and we usually have a lot of wildflower collections (done for school but they still count), some science projects, and a couple of computer-generated pictures. This year, however, I was brought up short by a huge and elaborate display. It was beautiful and professionally done, complete with photographs of the young woman at work on her project. It was very impressive — and to me, very scary.

You see, the project was a comparison of Roundup Ready corn with corn grown with another herbicide. There was also the control corn grown without herbicides at all. Can you guess the results? The Roundup Ready corn ear was fit and full. The other herbicide ear was smaller and the control ear was a pitiful sight to see.

All of the corn was grown in worn-out soil that has been farmed with chemical fertilizer for decades. No method of weed control was tried except for chemicals. It was the perfect situation for Monsanto to prove its superiority in agriculture.

What scared me was not the Roundup so much as the fact that Monsanto was deeply involved in educating the youngsters. Although the girl obviously did the experiment, she also obviously had a lot of help. As a professional in publishing and graphics, I could not have made the display she entered in the Fair. Her work was meticulous and she won a blue ribbon. There was no other choice, but I felt as if I’d had a bonk on the head.

Of course Monsanto gets to them early. These are their future customers. The question is why are we not doing the same? Organic gardeners need to be involved in 4-H and other youth organizations. We need to be offering free classes and workshops for kids to learn how to grow things without toxic chemicals. We need to be educating those kids and their parents about the dangers involved in those agricultural chemicals.

I know there are programs in some schools that teach kids about organic gardening, but I’m sure we can do more. Particularly in the area of 4-H. These are the kids who are going to be professional farmers. They are the ones who will be growing our food. Let’s help them learn the right way early. Maybe we can even learn how to make those snazzy displays!

Have a wonderful 2001 - a happy new year and new century and a new millenium!