Never mind, after a web search I have decided to chunk them.

I'm not taking chances with peoples lives and health!

Why would they spray them with roundup? And really wondering why they would tell you come and get them after they did?

They spray them with roundup because they didn't expect to pick more and they were getting ready to clear the fields. Roundup will kill off the vegetation making the field easier to till under. Most of the time Roundup will not hurt you unless you have immune deficiencies and you wait long enough after spraying. Make sure that you wash the fruit well before using. Most veggies are exposed to some Roundup sometime during the growing season, but not right before picking.

Glad you decided to toss them. Wise choice.

Dave

I think disposing of them was wise. They may have been OK but given the way Roundup is absorbed by the plant, translocated throughout plant tissues, I couldn't find information that would have made me confident none of it would be in the fruit/vegetables themselves after that many hours. This article addresses drift, chances are the plants you harvested from had higher amounts.

Shame it was wasted, but I think you are doing the right thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting after pesticide/herbicide drift

I thought the only time someone sprayed Roundup on crops was during the growing season when they were trying to keep the weeds down, and had planted RR crops. But to spray perfectly good crops at the end of the season? And then to say OK to pick? Glad they told you (sorry it was after you went to all the trouble picking).

I wouldn't knowingly eat anything sprayed with Roundup - though since I don't buy all organic flour, pasta, cereal, etc. I'm sure we have. Certainly don't want to eat it so soon after it was sprayed.

I agree with everything ajsmama has said.

The story sounds fishy and does not make any sense to me.

If they were going to pull or plow under the eggplants, what was the need to spray them with herbicide THIS LATE AT THE END OF SEASON ?
Another thing is what the heck herbicide will do to eggplant plant, other than killing it ? it would have died of natural causes itself anyway. Or just simple pulling would do.
Another thing is , THOSE PEOPLE MUST BE NUTS first spray the eggplants with herbicide, then donate the fruit THEN come back and say btw WE HAVE SPRAYED THEM WITH HERBICIDE. hahaha

But the most likely scenario could be that they sprayed some area near the eggplants (NOT DIRECTLY ON THE EGGPLANTS)

It is not at all fishy! Ever spent any time around a commercial agriculture operation?

It is a common practice on many commercial ag fields, especially when winter crops are going to be planted in the same fields. You folks in the north apparently have no idea how commercial ag works in the south. Commercial tomato and other summer crop fields are being cleared here right now for planting chickory, garlic, onions, fava beans, winter wheat, turnips, collards, etc.

I agree that they shouldn't have been offered for picking but it was most likely just a mis-communication between the workers..

And Roundup is hardly restricted to RR crop use. Home gardeners are a big chunk of its market and they can't grow RR crops.

Right or wrong some home gardeners use it before, during and after planting and one need only spend a brief time around any large farm or commercial ag operation to recognize that they do things differently at season's end. The entire field gets sprayed and then harrowed and tilled and replanted.

Dave

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This post was edited by digdirt on Wed, Oct 16, 13 at 22:18

I didn't say it was fishy - just couldn't see why they'd spray crops that were still producing. Guess you can't count on a frost to kill them down there though. Still a waste - but if they've got a schedule to keep and another crop to get planted I can see why they do it - easier than pulling all of them.

Just miscommunication between the field and the office about when it was (to be) sprayed, too bad you couldn't haven't gotten there a day earlier, and that you wasted your time picking after they'd sprayed. But at least they notified you (I assume they called you, so they must not think it's safe to eat - have to see what the label says but I doubt it can be used up to day of harvest).

Once they get the amount of their 'contract' and the season is almost done, farmers destroy the crop. Roundup is one of the most safe herbicide to use to burn the green plant off. After that is done, then they can come in and disc or plow it down. With fall/winter rains coming in NOW, you need to get the next crop in before the rains. Our soybeans are already out and the wheat is planted just before the rains, by 1 day. We got lucky.

Miscommunication is what I think might have happened. I would have eaten them after a good washing, but NOT donated. Too many people are becoming allergic to TOO many things.

If Roundup gets rained on within a few hours, it will not work. Over 1 day, and a rain/wash, MOST of it would be GONE.

It's just a big time operation SOP, perfectly normal and happens all the time. People GLEANING is not normal.

since this forum is basically the home-garden type of operation, it not the same when you plant acres and acres of 1 crop. It's not just multiplying your garden, but different techniques.

Oh My!
Sorry if I confused some people!

The whole story:

I work for a sewer company. One of our sewer plants is adjoined by a commercial farm.

When they finish harvesting what they want, they tell the plant operator to pick all that they want and to tell the other employees also.

They don't open it up to the general public due to liability reasons. They don't have a liability problem from the sewer employees since we have full access to the property due to a right of way.

If we need to destroy his whole crop in an emergency we have that right and/or option without notification. Of course the company will compensate him.

I was told to come get the produce last Friday, from the plant operator, relayed from the farmer. I wasn't able to get there until yesterday. Normally they give us a week to harvest before spraying. But due to rain being in the forecast for today they sprayed early.

Since this small sewer plant doesn't have a full time operator, no one was there to let me know that it had been sprayed. I found out later from the plant operator.

They spray to kill off the vegetation quickly for replanting winter crops, as someone has already stated. It is a commercial farm!

Over the years I have harvested a lot of produce from this farm for the soup kitchen! They are doing a good deed by allowing us to do this!

Personally, I wouldn't eat any vegetables sprayed with roundup or pesticides. We grown most of our own fruits and vegetables and follow organic methods. I think it's healthier. In my opinion, I do not believe round up is safe, and I don't believe round-up ready GMO crops are safe either.

Jill

Jill, roundup ready crops are GMO, that's what makes them roundup ready. Almost all field corn is GMO, and even if you would find some, it has been cross-pollinated with GMO. Beans are almost as bad and wheat will be next. So many of the foods that you buy at the grocery store has been near and probably crossed with GMO crops. This is life today.

Your farmer is doing a good deed, shame you didn't get to the fields before they did.

I think that's what I said, Round-up ready gmo crops. I don't care if that may seem slightly redundant. I avoid as much as possible in the store that is gmo...including things with soybeans, corn, corn syrup (including soft drinks), beet sugar, etc.. I 'm beginning to buy non-gmo certified products as much as possible. I know there is still a lot I haven't been able to eliminate, but every place I can improve, I do. We are working towards growing only heirloom or open-pollinated varieties. We are not in an industrialized agricultural area to increase the risk of cross-pollination. We have just under four acres in town. We haven't always been organic here...but since eliminating the processed convenience foods in the grocery store, most fast food, soft drinks, and grocery store fruits and vegetables, we are feeling wonderfully healthy. I know that not everyone holds the same opinion about organic gardening, but it's important to us and I feel like we are good stewards of our land. Pesticides kill the good bugs as well as the bad bugs. Numbers of bees are declining all over the country. Here, on our little place, we have a good healthy soil and environment, as evidenced by increasing numbers of earthworms, frogs, toads, lizards, bees, etc.

I didn't mean to hijack the thread, but to get back on track, I think tossing the round-up contaminated vegetables was definitely the right thing to do.

Jill

Oh, a real downer was when I found out that the ascorbic acid and citric acid I've been using when canning and preserving color in our foods is likely synthesized from gmo corn products. :-(

I don't know how much citric acid or ascorbic acid you use, I'd be more worried about the vinegar since you use more of it.

Yes, GMO corn is everywhere. I just found out it's in Splenda, which I've been using in my coffee for 10 years thinking it was made from (cane) sugar. I'm going back to sugar.

Marla - do you mean BEETS or BEANS? We don't buy much produce, but we do go through a lot of frozen green beans and canned pinto/black/cannelini etc. beans.

Sugar beets are GMO and there has been cross pollination - Fedco is now testing its beet and chard seeds as well as corn.

Here is a link that might be useful: Corn is in...

To cut out GMO's, one would have to not buy/eat anything non-organic with corn meal, corn syrup, corn flour, anything else made with/from corn, soybean oil, soy lecithin (it's in a lot more things than people realize), hydrolyzed soy protein (sounds good, doesn't it?), modified soy proteins, other soy products, canola oil, papayas, and vegetable oil as it's most likely soybean and/or canola oil (I'm missing a lot of things too). It's a crapshoot whether or not you're eating a GMO if you buy something non-organic that just says "sugar" in the ingredients since it's unkown if it came from sugar cane or sugar beets (GMO). Plus in addition to these things, you'd also have to watch what type of meat you eat. Most animals are fed corn, soybeans, and/or alfalfa (another GMO) at some point in their lives. However, I'd read that GMO wheat had been axed.

For most people (including myself) it would be impractical to eat entirely non-GMO because of the higher price of organic foods. The only way around this would be for them to grow their own veggies and eat only meals prepared in their own homes, which again is impractical for most people. Also as myfamilysfarm pointed out, there is just no way of knowing (without genetic testing) if a non-GMO crop has been pollinated by a GMO crop.

Even if a garden is isolated, if we grow something like corn from seed and we purchased that seed from a company that doesn't sell GMO's (which is almost all of them), how would we know if that original seed hasn't been accidentally pollinated by a GMO crop that was nearby? The truth is, we don't. We are putting our trust in the seed company and it's growers/suppliers.

I'm against GMO's and I don't like the fact that I'm eating them but I also realize that it's nearly impossible to avoid them. Anyway, my rant is over.

Round-up, is there any real advantage to spraying it? Wouldn't the crops die equally as fast just by plowing them under? I could understand if the field was full of weeds but why do it with vegetables? I admit that I'm oblivious to the operations of big farms.

Rodney

Rodney, I agree with everything you said. I’ve become a lot more conscientious about reading labels. Slowly cutting out products that have the items you mentioned. I bake from scratch, cook from scratch. We rarely eat out, and when we do, are more careful than we’ve been in the past, partly because of the meat and how the meat animals are kept and what they are fed. We don’t have our own chickens yet, so we know we are consuming poultry that has been fed gmo feed, and according to a recent article, some feed has some arsenic in it (not the natural kind found in some foods). Same for beef. We do plan on having our own chickens, for meat and eggs. Maybe rabbits at some point, and perhaps fish.

I avoid as much as possible with corn syrup, artificial sweetners and all those "sugars" with the chemical sounding names. I look for cane sugar. Toying around with the idea of planting a patch of sugar cane or sorghum the way my great grandfather did.

Maybe growing organic grain crops, not sure which ones would grow here, haven't really investigated that yet. I am beginning to look for sources of beef that have not been fed GM feed. I have started baking my own bread, probably gmo in the flours, but no preservatives or additives. Starting buy organic cornmeal from Bob’s Red Mill (no gmo products whatsoever go through their mill). Will start looking for organic flour soon, but it is expensive based on what I've seen so far.

You are correct about the price of organic. If we didn’t grow so much and eat out so little, the grocery bill would be much higher--organic or not. As it is, we are fortunate that we are raising so much. I have pressed my own pecan oil from our home grown pecans. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to devote more time to our homestead activities to be able to produce enough to eliminate buying any oil. I still have a jug of corn oil in the pantry, still using it.

Little steps, reading labels, deciding what changes to make. Gosh, even our vitamins are GMO. I recently went on vitamin d and had a hard time finding Vitamin d capsules that weren’t using soybean oil as the carrier.

I know that my father used sevin dust and fertilizers and other things--we did too, in the past, including roundup. I just think there is so much wrong with the the mega-industrialized food industry/international corporate greed that I just can’t, in good conscience, continue to support them, for additional reasons other than the feeling that organic is better.

My apologies to everyone about my soapbox presentation tonight. It’s just a subject close to my heart as we continue to find lower food quality in the stores, more contaminated foods, food recalls, etc. I think most of us on the forum are already eating healthier because of the very subject of our forum. If you aren’t (or can’t) raise your own food, many of you are shopping farmers’ markets, buying local and in season, and preserving the harvest. Just keep in mind, these are my personal views, and your mileage may vary. :-)

Jill

I am against feeding cows , chicken hormones. That is in addition to beef being so expensive, we rarely eat beef.

But about vegetables, I am not a purist and do not like to pay high prices for the so-called organic fruits and vegetables. The most important aspect of organic fruits and vegetables, to me, is the pesticides they use. I care less what kinds fertilizers they use, organic or inorganic synthesized. As far as the plants are concerned , it doe not mater where the "N" atom comes from the cow(after eating grass) or synthesized chemically.
The bio plant science has done a wonder by increasing yield if many grains and other crops, providing more food for the starving people around the globe. I dont care about beef, milk, butter. We need bread first, fruits and vegetables next.

I meant BEANS, as soybeans which makes SOY, not green beans. I don't know about BEETS or everyones fear of the sugar beet. I knowingly been sugar beet sugar, I buy Domino and it's pure cane. Sugar beets were cow food as far as I knew.

When we were raising the cows, they were fed grass, produce (watch which veggie) and barley squeezings (leftovers from beer producing, small brewery). Our chickens did get commercial feed during the winter months, but grass, bugs (found in grass) and excess produce. We were lucky that they didn't try to pick their own, we gave them plenty so they never went looking.

Oh, soybeans. Yes, those are GMO. Green beans used to be on the "Dirty Dozen" but they took them off.

Yes, they make sugar from beets, which are GMO and easily cross - chard is in the same family, which is why Fedco is also testing chard seed.

If it doesn't say "pure cane sugar" it most likely has beet sugar in it.

Boy, this thread got really OT!

Per research, GMO beets were restricted from use in the USA in 2010. In 2007 they tried some, and the government shut them down.

Domino is pure cane sugar, I had to research it, and I only use Domino. It's cheaper for me, also.

Crossing does not make anything GMO, it makes them hybrids, like most all other seeds, except beans.

You can still get some non-GMO bean seeds, but it's very very rare. Beans, including soy, don't cross like most plants. Legumes are different.

Ah, I didn't know approval for GMO sugar beets had been revoked. Unfortunately, they do cross-pollinate so any resulting hybrid has the GMO genes.

Edamame is not GMO, so far they haven't engineered that type of soybean.

I use Domino too - buy it in 10 lb bags at BJ's (for some reason cheaper per lb than 25 lb bag). The zipper on the bags don't close well though so I just stick the opened bag in a Ziploc Big Bag (bought a pack b/c DS needed a big waterproof bag for camping).

Oops, apparently GMO beets are back on the table - literally. Just OK'd last summer.

Not found to "pose a plant pest risk" - but FDA hasn't determined whether GMOs (or actually GE foods, since they include traditional hybrids in GMO category) pose a risk to human health.

Here is a link that might be useful: APHIS deregulates sugar beets

Yep, GMO sugar beets are being cultivated in the US. Their approval was revoked in 2010 but that has since been overturned in 2012. Via wikipedia:

"On August 13, 2010, Judge White revoked the deregulation of glyphosate-resistant sugar beets and declared it unlawful for growers to plant glyphosate-resistant sugar beets in the spring of 2011. As a result of this ruling, growers were permitted to harvest and process their crop at the end of the 2010 growing season, yet a ban on new plantings was enacted...On February 4, 2011, the USDA-APHIS announced glyphosate-resistant sugar beets had been partially deregulated and growers would be allowed to plant seed from spring 2011 until an EIS (environmental impact statement) is completed...In July 2012, after completing an environmental impact assessment and a plant pest risk assessment the USDA deregulated Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beets."

Jill- At the risk of taking this thread further off topic, if you're wanting to grow grains I suggest reading Small-Scale Grain Raising by Gene Logsdon. It's a very interesting book. I could hardly put it down even though I haven't got the space to grow grains.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Sugar Beet- Genetic Modification

We feel that if it's not marked non-GMO, then there is GMO in it. May not be right, but it will evidently get there.

I buy Domino sugar at Sams Club for less than $10/25#, and 10# is almost $5. 4 cents versus almost 5 cents per # and when I'm buying almost 300# in less than 5 months, every penny counts.

I sure hope wertach - the original poster - doesn't mind getting all these waaayyy-off-topic emails.

Dave

No problem Dave.

There are other food sprayed with Roundup/glyphosate, not just GMOs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Other foods contaminated by glyphosate