| Newsletter Winter 2007 | page 3 of 4 | |
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Book review:
A new book on the risks associated with GM foods has recently been published. It is authored by Jeffrey M Smith, and is written in an easy format which can be dipped into for information at any time, or read through for a good overview on the topic. The book has received great reviews from many, and I highlight just a few:
“The ability to introduce alien genes into a genome is an impressive technological manipulation but we remain too ignorant of how the genome works to anticipate all of the consequences, subtle or obvious, immediate or long-term, of those manipulations. This book validates the concerns of biotech critics who warned that our knowledge is too primitive to avoid unexpected and deleterious consequences.”
—David Suzuki, geneticist, author of more than 30 books, awarded UNESCO prize for science.
“The most comprehensive, well-documented, and highly readable exposé on the serious health dangers of GM foods.”
—Samuel S. Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition.
“The process by which crops are currently genetically engineered is a mutagenic process. Scientists still have much to learn regarding the ramifications of putting bacterial, viral or any other genes into the foreign context of a plant’s DNA. For these and other reasons he describes in his book, Jeffrey Smith believes the products of this mutagenic genetic engineering process should be more thoroughly studied scientifically and more thoroughly regulated—especially by the FDA—before they are ever released into commerce. He’s absolutely right.”
—Belinda Martineau, PhD, molecular geneticist, co-developer of the first commercialized genetically engineered food crop and author of First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr SavrTM Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Food.
I have purchased a few copies of this book in hardcover format, and they are available from the farm for €27.95. I can also send a copy with an internet juice order.
Apple Tree Pruning:
I have often been asked about how to prune apple trees, and I thought that a little advice might be of use.
I would suggest that the person doing the pruning bears the following in mind.
1. Remove dead and diseased wood.
2. Remove suckers (shoots coming up from the soil)
3. Try to keep the tree in a pyramidal shape; i.e. narrower at the top and broader at the bottom, like a Christmas tree.
4. If possible, make the tree into three tiers; one wide at the bottom, one less wide in the middle, and one narrow tier at the top.
5. Regulate the number of fruit buds . Remember, one of these buds can give up to five apples.
Do not leave stubs when pruning.
To reduce tree height (if desired) cut whole limbs out from the top.
Remove branches that make narrow angles with the main trunk.
Prune so that the top of the tree is narrower than the bottom.
Make thinning rather than heading cuts: i.e. cut back to the next branch; do not cut branches in half.
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