Pro-GMO or No-GMO? The Search For Animal Feed

"How much feed do you go through?"
"About 100 pounds every two weeks..."

     Yikes!  You can see why this conversation from a few days ago is prompting a post...  A 50lb bag of feed would cost us about $25 every week.  Of course for the individuals we talked to, it was a mere $7 to $12 later, and they're on their way for the week.  The substantial difference in costs becomes a difference by choice, but as we're finding out, one that bears higher and higher price tags.  Thus, we are stuck, once again, in the search for a "cheap" GMO-free feed option in our area that won't cost us an arm and a leg.

     You see, we're stuck with these prices because of the fact, scratch that, the belief we have that GMO-free feed is better for our animals.  We can't prove that it's better for them, but we can't prove "regular feed" is better either, and it seems the argument on both sides of the spectrum is balanced with untested truths that in the end could really go either way.  (And, by "regular feed," I mean the feed you can easily pick up at every feed store between here and eternity that is assuredly laced with who knows what.  Sad that "organic" and "GMO-free" has to bear a title and "chemical-enhanced" feed is left to be the new norm.) 

     We're not married to GMO-free or organic in our own lives, but our opinions are slowly evolving, all due to a bumblebee.  You see, a few months ago I was outside just as the sprayer came down the fields behind the pine trees.  Our tree block appears to block us from most of the spray of the neighboring fields (whoever put it in, may have planted it for that very reason, or as a wind break, which works pretty darn well too!).  That's when I saw the bumblebee come flying in, well more like kamikaze dive bombing from the field to the sidewalk.  On the sidewalk, it buzzed around in a break-dance fashion, unable to regain itself, but trying desperately to fly, then it was still.  It died on that sidewalk, and so did my realization that GMOs don't truly effect us.  

     If GMOs are modified to have the same effect on "pests" as pesticides do, then that little bumblebee was the first of many that are effected in our area.  (And so is the farm cat that ate it off the sidewalk before I could stop him.)  We are actually so effected by the use of GMOs and pesticides in our area that for two years now, I have not seen a single honey bee in the approximately 4 acres we maintain.  Yes, there are a beautiful variety of butterflies, bumblebees, carpenter bees and mud dauber wasps, but not a single honey bee.  I hate to even spray the carpenter bees that hole up in the barn and shed because if I eliminate the "bad insects," I'm seemingly eliminating the only pollinators that are still hanging around the garden.  So they stay, and we continue to have produce in the garden.  

     (Side note: For those of you who are on the "well the cat ate the bee and he didn't die so obviously GMOs didn't effect him" stance, here's my theory.  The cat is not the same size as the bee, so therefore the same amount of poison wouldn't kill him that killed the bee, but if he eats enough bees, and mice, and birds that have all had that same poison in them, wouldn't it build up over time in the cat and therefore kill him?  Now transfer that to a human model:  The first GMO, the Flavr Savr tomato, to hit grocery store shelves in the United States was in 1994.  Since then, there has been a battle over whether or not GMOs effect livestock and humans because of the built-in pesticides in them.  We are the guinea pig generation.) 

     Also, if you subscribe to the belief that "we are what we eat" and "don't feed anything to an animal that you, yourself wouldn't eat," you can see the boat we are now in, and sinking slowly...

The above video, The Organic Effect, shows a family of five who were tested on a "normal diet" and an organic diet for pesticides in their bodies.  Disclaimer: The video was produced by Coop, a Swedish supermarket chain, that is pro-organic diet.  

     We currently drive an hour, one-way, to a feed store that offers GMO-free feed, passing by well over two dozen other feed stores that are closer to us that offer only "regular feed."  I've contacted feed mills, only to find that most of them in our area only have GMO-based supplies because that's what the farmers are growing, and others that won't mix amounts in small enough batches for us.  (We currently don't have a rodent-free location to store bags of feed that is not the house, so behind the recliner in the living room they sit.  I'd say about 200lbs worth is the maximum I can jam back there without it being blatantly obvious that there's feed bags in the living room to everyone that walks through our door.)

     We're researched how to feed a variety of animals on pasture or home-grown crops, but both of these lend two more problems - space and season - into the equation.  As we gear up for winter, I know our feed bills will rise as we don't have the surplus garden crops to feed the animals.  Yes, we have two deep freezes, both of which contain buckets of frozen surplus garden crops specifically for the animals over winter, but no matter how much space we'll allot for the surplus garden crops in the freezers, it will never truly be enough to provide them a well-rounded diet year 'round.

     So, I write this to introduce those of you who don't subscribe to the belief that GMO-free is better for animals the difficulties we have in attempting to search and pay for it.  Keep in mind some basic conversions for smaller animals on an all-feed diet that we've found as you make the choice that is right for you:

For those of you who feed a GMO-free and/or organic diet to your livestock, how do you keep the costs down?  We'd love to hear from you!