| NEW QUESTIONS OVER CORPORATE/GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF SEEDS
Bob and Lynnita Gregory are erecting a number
of greenhouses for Minnora agricultural project
By Bob Weaver
A former Virginia family is making Calhoun their home at Minnora, with plans to continue their long term mission with agriculture.
Bob and Lynnita Gregory's Berea Gardens Agriculture Ministries is entrenching in the Calhoun sod, to train missionary students, but to also to "help anyone that is interested."
They have purchased the old Minnora School property, and are starting to develop the land, including the erection of greenhouses.
Gregory, an agronomist, described the purchase and move to Calhoun as a welcome change after teaching agriculture at Virginia's Hartland Institute of Health and Education for 10 years, calling the move "an act of faith."
"It's been amazing how warmly we've been welcomed," said Gregory.
"The wisdom of gardening has been lost in most of the USA," Gregory said. "It's wonderful to drive up and down the roads in Calhoun and see people growing," with life still connected to the soil.
"We've seen all kinds of new varieties and species of living plants in the hills around here," he said.
"It's scary how far most people are removed from the basics of human life, food production, diet and good nutrition," he said.
 Gregory (shown left) a long-time educator, said the precious practice of local seed holding is rapidly being lost to genetically altered seeds, which he describes as "a scrambled mess of genetic misinformation that can produce a whole set of unintended results."
"The altered seeds carry protein that the human body has never encountered before," he said, expressing concern that ownership of food production by multi-national corporations and governments is not a good idea.
The Berea Gardens project sticks to the propagation of heritage seeds, saying they bring hope to the food supply.
The corporate ownership of seeds brings claims that the engineered seeds will improve food production without the use of herbicides, which Gregory questions.
The seed corporations are requiring customers to sign a license agreement, saying they will use the seeds for a single season. "Some farmers have now been sued by the corporations for non-compliance," Gregory said. "We need to maintain food sovereignty," he said.
Gregory said many of those concerns have been expressed in a best-selling book "Seeds of Deception" by Jeffery Smith, who writes about the lack of safety with genetically engineered foods and its political implications.
"We hope to be really good neighbors in this wonderful place," he concluded.
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