Now's the time to be thinking about starting seeds for your summer garden. Here's a page from Gardening: An Ecological Approach to get you started.
Fox Sense II: Upside-Down Worldview
I am working on a new series of environmental mini-posters and plan to publish them in a hand-bound book later this year. Fox Sense II will pick up where the original Fox Sense left off.
I will share some of these pages as I complete them. Here’s one I’m working on now. All people have worldviews—notions about how the world works, what’s “right” and “wrong,” and what their role in the world should be. We seldom question the assumptions that underlie our own perspectives.
Sometimes a simple “why?” can turn your world upside down.
For updates on the progress of the book and on release information, please subscribe to Fred's Mountainbearink newsletter.
Labeling Genetically Modified Foods
Senate Bill 2609 is the latest proposed U. S. legislation designed to limit the information that consumers have in the marketplace. This bill prohibits states from labeling genetically modified foods. It allows for voluntary labeling through obscure and time-consuming devices such as QR codes rather than physical, on-the-label information. It also mandates government education of the public to accept biotech food products.
The agricultural biotech corporations strongly oppose labeling GMOs and have spent large sums of money, not to promote their products to consumers, but rather to hide their occurrence in the foods they purchase.
Transgenic crops (GMOs) are another aspect of corporate control of agriculture. To maintain and extend this control, corporations must have public acceptance of their profit-generating products.
In Gardening: An Ecological Approach I offer an argument, with references, for promoting small-scale sustainable farming and organic gardening. I also outline the serious hidden costs of the industrial agriculture model, which now include genetically modified crops..
With respect to genetically modified crops, I have added below the text of an article I wrote for Edible Wasatch magazine. It lists some questions about GMOs.
If you feel strongly about your right to know about the foods you purchase, please inform yourself about this issue and contact your senator. Simply call the senator’s office, and a friendly staff member will respectfully take your message for the senator. Identify yourself and give your address, state the number of the bill, and give one or two reasons why you are opposing it. Phone numbers are listed below.
For more information see the text of the bill.
In Utah: Senator Orin Hatch Washington, D. C. office: 202-224-5251
Sen. Mike Lee Washington, D. C. office: 202-224-5444
For other states: The Capitol switchboard (information): 202-224-3121
EXCERPT: Chapter 13 from Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology and Sustainability (Fred Montague, 2016). This essay first appeared in Edible Wasatch magazine.
13 GMOs: Food, Profit, and Risk
We have a long history tinkering with things. Through domestication and artificial selection, humans have bred many familiar and useful food organisms-- beef cattle, chickens, hybrid corn, large-fruited tomatoes, and hundreds of others. This artificial selection by managing natural reproductive processes takes time, and the appropriateness of the cross-breeding and the resulting hybrids is typically judged both by their viability and by their benign usefulness.
In recent decades, hard-won cleverness in genetics and gene manipulation have enabled technicians to bypass the natural breeding process and change organisms by direct micro-manipulation. By inserting a specific heritable gene into an organism's DNA, researchers can create a genetically modified organism (GMO) with a novel trait.
There are two prominent examples in current industrial agriculture. One is the insertion of a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into crops like corn. The corn plant then produces a Bt protein that is toxic to butterfly and moth larvae, of which a few species are pests of corn grown in monocultures. The stated objective is to reduce the amount of other forms of insecticide necessary to protect the crop.
The second example is the insertion of a specific bacterial gene into corn, soybeans, canola (rape seed), wheat, and others that enables them to tolerate applications of glyphosate (Monsanto's "Roundup"). The spraying of glyphosate onto fields of these genetically modified (GM) crops doesn't kill the GMOs but does kill all other actively growing plants (weeds). The objective is to reduce mechanical cultivation and thereby reduce fossil fuel consumption and soil erosion. There is a trend to combine two or more traits into the same patented plant. Herbicide tolerance and insect toxicity comprise most of these stacked-trait varieties.
From an agribusiness perspective, GMOs anchor an ingenious business plan. For instance, Monsanto's creation of its patented glyphosate herbicide (Roundup) and its patented "roundup ready" GM soybean seeds forces farmers to purchase a package of inputs available nowhere else.
However, from other perspectives, there are troublesome issues with GMO-based industrial agriculture. First, it is industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture fosters corporate efficiency, corporate control, and corporate profit. For this type of food-growing to work, farms must be large, crops must be uniform (monocultures), and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides must be applied. This is a capital-intensive, fossil fuel-based, high input, and largely unsustainable approach to feeding people.
Second, there is the demonstrated occurrence of "gene flow" from fields of GM crops to nearby non-GMO farms with similar crops. The novel traits are typically dispersed in the pollen of the GMO plants, and since our most important crops are grains (corn, wheat, oats, rice, etc.), and since all of these grasses are wind-pollinated, the patented trait is easily dispersed. This has two ramifications: 1) once the gene appears in an organically grown food product, the food product is no longer "organic," and 2) the corporation can take legal action against the victim farmer for having stolen the patented GM crop. Equally ominous is the research into genetic-use restriction technologies (GURTs). One example is the "terminator gene" which prevents a grower from saving some his harvested seeds for next spring's planting.
Third, there is inadequate understanding of the health effects of genetically-altered food plants, especially those that introduce systemic toxins into foods and those that increase the ability of food plants to tolerate increased amounts of certain herbicides. Exotic proteins in foods created by genetic engineering have the potential to be allergenic and to challenge the human immune system. The Bt toxin does cause allergic reactions in some people (1), and there are anecdotal accounts suggesting its adverse effect on beneficial human intestinal microorganisms-- just as it affects caterpillars. While there has been significant corporate research and development into the technology to create GMOs, there is less-than-adequate research, public or private, to unmask their long-term effects. In this sense, GMOs are similar to other industrial miracles whose widespread use eventually caused them to be severely restricted or banned outright (2).
Fourth, widespread use of GMOs will significantly reduce the crop plant diversity needed in a world of changing climate and altered growing conditions. With the widespread adoption of GM crops, more and more locally adapted crop varieties are being abandoned. In the U. S. in 2004 for example, patented GM plants occupied 85% of soybean acreage and more than 50% of corn acreage (3).
Fifth, we know the disruption that "natural" invasive exotic species can cause when they move beyond their native ranges. GMOs are novel, exotic, synthetic organisms that Nature has no experience with. Their potential effects are unknown. There is a significant risk of GM crop plants hybridizing with related wild relatives, especially as more and more secondary GM crops reach the market. Their impacts on ecosystems and biological communities are potentially disruptive, and once GMOs become feral, they will be difficult or impossible to control.
Sixth, there are sobering examples of unrealized claims for GM crops. There is no evidence for increased nutritive value in GM plants. There is no evidence for reduced pesticide use. According to WorldWatch's Vital Signs 2009, pesticide use actually increased 4% from 1996 through 2004 in U.S. GM crop fields (4). There is, however, evidence for the ecologically inevitable phenomenon of insect crop pests and weeds developing resistance to the Bt toxin and to the glyphosate herbicide, respectively (5). With the successful marketing and adoption of GM crops, the one claim that did materialize was that of corporate profitability.
Seventh, the aggressive and abundantly funded efforts by corporations and trade organizations to prevent labeling food products containing GMOs is puzzling. In an open culture and free market, consumers have the right to information about the products they buy. One would believe that if GMOs are better than traditional food plants and livestock feed, then a business would insist on having its product identified.
The GMO controversy is at the center of our global food challenge. There are many who are concerned by the ecological and social impacts of corporate control of the world's food. The public benefits of GM food have not yet been established, and the risks range from being overstated to being understated. Nevertheless, some risks are real, many risks are not completely understood, and some risks are increasing. This is a multifaceted issue that affects all aspects of society-- from Wall Street to food banks, from rich countries to developing countries, from small farms to industrial agriculture operations, from crop fields to wilderness. The public must decide this issue, but the public needs information that is largely unavailable. Until it is, prudence suggests exercising caution. Otherwise, as with other industrial experiments on human health and the environment, the final report (and restrictive legislation) is likely to be written by our grandchildren.
Temporary Food
Modern, corporate-based industrial agriculture has many critics. They range from scientists to some politicians, from citizens to some farmers. Their main concern is that the very tenets that make the operation feasible from the agribusiness point-of-view create conditions that undermine its long-term prospects. These tenets include 1) corporate efficiency (standardization, economy of scale, large cropping units, fewer farmers, more machines, etc.), 2) maximization of production and profit (intensification, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, etc.), and 3) corporate control of farm inputs (proprietary seeds, genetically modified crop plants, mandatory customized packages of agrichemical inputs, etc.).
Some of the serious problems that arise from this approach to farming include soil erosion, water pollution, groundwater depletion, freshwater diversions, loss of crop plant diversity, depletion of fossil fuels, loss of local farming knowledge, carbon emissions, loss of natural habitats, and loss of biological diversity. Please refer to the introduction in my book, Gardening: An Ecological Approach. (especially page 13).
Humanity faces many challenges. The “environmental fact sheet” below is offered to provide a sense of perspective about how the current human population of more than seven billion people is seven hundred times the size that could be supported without modern agriculture’s ruthless, profit-driven assault on the planet.
By the late 2050s, about 43 years from now, some demographers estimate a human population of ten billion, more than a thousand times the size that Nature could have sustainably supported.
What to do: Learn about the issues. Share what you know. Rethink the ways we grow our food and reform agriculture. Support small sustainable farms. Get to know one local grower. Protect environmental quality. Restore degraded land. Conserve critical resources. Grow a garden. Share what you grow.
Human Population (Current size & growth rate)
As a wildlife biologist I am interested in many large and small populations of large and small organisms. Among the large animals none is so well known and so important as the population of humans. I am told that among all of the so-called large animals (body size greater than 50 kilograms or 110 pounds), humans are currently more numerous than any other—past or present. We are important in large numbers because of our impact on our environment.
The “environmental fact sheet” below summarizes our current size and rate of growth. The population size, birth rate and death rate statistics are from the Population Reference Bureau’s 2015 “World Population Data Sheet.” This useful summary is published every September and reflects the mid-year (July) world population information for all countries and regions of the world.
Gardening: The 3' x 6' Garden Bed Plans
Those of you who have my book Gardening: An Ecological Approach know that I favor 3' x 6' garden beds for many garden plants. Reproduced below is an article from Catalyst magazine, April 2011, and an additional illustration from my book.
Now is a good time to be building these beds so that they may be installed as soon as the garden soil can be worked this Spring.
Here's a larger version of the 3' by 6' bed schematic, also found on page 168 of Gardening: An Ecological Approach.
Where to purchase Fred's Artists' Books
Of course you can always purchase Fred’s books from this website. Click on the “Books and Cards” tab.
If you are in the Salt Lake City area, the following retail shops regularly stock the books. Please call ahead to make sure they have the one you are looking for.
Ken Sanders Rare Books
268 South 200 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
801-521-3819
Gardening: An Ecological Approach, Garden Notes, Fox Sense
King’s English Bookshop
1511 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
801-484-9100
Gardening: An Ecological Approach, Garden Notes
Mountain Valley Seed Company
175 East 2700 South (#150), Salt Lake City
801-486-0480
Gardening: An Ecological Approach
Red Butte Garden and Arboretum (Gift Shop)
300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, Utah
801-585-7843
Gardening: An Ecological Approach
Traces Garden Store
1432 South 1100 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
801-467-9544
Gardening: An Ecological Approach
University of Utah Campus Store (textbook division)
270 South 1500 East, Salt Lake City, Utah
801-581-6326
Gardening: An Ecological Approach
About Artists' Books
Artists' Books: An introduction
Artists’ books represent a unique genre of art that combines an emphasis on visual information (words and/or images) and a three-dimensional format—a book, folder, box, or sculpture..
There are few rules—only that the creator of the object executes all (or most) of the operations required to produce the “book.” The author/artist may design, write, illustrate, construct, and market the object. With this fundamental distinction, artist’ books differ from commercial books.
Conventional authors contribute words and then turn their projects over to the publisher who designs, manufactures and sells the book. Ulisis Carrion, in "The New Art of Making Books" (from Joan Lyons, 1985, Artists' Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook, Gibbs Smith, publisher), points out:
A writer, contrary to the popular opinion, does not write books. A writer writes texts.
Artist’s books are typically “one-person” projects, and the books may be issued singularly or in small editions. They are vestiges of creative, democratic, independent, and unrestrained communication.
Fred Montague’s Artists’ Books (issued under the Mountain Bear Ink imprint)
Fred’s books represent true artists’ books and “hybrid” artists’ books. His works include a one-of-a-kind book/sculpture piece (a true artist’s book) that consists of a hand-bound volume titled Wildness: Complete Works, Last Edition that is sewn closed and mounted as a sculpture.
His most ambitious project, Rambling, is an 88-page hard-cover book that he wrote, illustrated, designed, printed on his 1913 letterpress, and hand-bound (hard cover) in a limited edition. Two of his books, Leaves and Garden Grace, consist of hand-bound limited edition collections of illustrations-- each page hand-drawn.
His “hybrid” artists’ books appear in larger editions that he writes, illustrates, and designs. Gardening: An Ecological Approach is an example, and he hand-lettered the pages of the original text. Others he hand-binds in limited, signed and numbered, first editions of 88 to 8,800 books. These include Garden Notes, Fox Sense I, and A Small Book of Winter Animals. The larger edition sizes reflect Fred’s desire to offer his conservation and environmental commentary to as many people as possible in a collectable book at an affordable price.
To purchase Fred's available artists' books, please see Mountain Bear Ink's Books and Cards section.
Upcoming Events in February 2016
In February, Fred will be participating in two upcoming events: a gardening talk and an art exhibit. Stop by one or both events; at the Seed Swap, browse Fred's garden books and learn how to maximize garden space with 3' x 6' beds, and at the art exhibit, see Fred's new woodcuts as well as other artwork. Details below.
1. SEED SWAP IN SLC: Saturday, February 6 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Sorenson Community Center (1383 S. 900 W., Salt Lake City, 84104). A free event. Fred will be presenting a talk on 3' x 6’ raised bed gardening and why it matters. He will also be selling his books: Gardening: An Ecological Approach and Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology, and Sustainability.
2. EXHIBIT: Fred and 11 other Park City artists will have an exhibition and sale of their workon February 12 (Friday 3 – 6 p.m.), Feb. 13 (Saturday 9 a.m. – 6. P.m.) and February 14 (Sunday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.) at the Visitor Information Center in Kimball Junction (Park City).
Plan Next Year's Cold Frame Now
If you are lucky enough to have a cold frame already built for your garden, you may be enjoying fresh, organic greens, kale, and broccoli this winter.
If not, now is the time to plan a location for a cold frame that you can build and plant next autumn. This project is simple, fun, and worthwhile.
Here’s what you can do now (in the dead of winter)
1. Survey your property. Identify areas where the sun shines most of the day. In North America’s mid-latitudes this will be on the south side of something—a wall, garage, shed, or house. If your yard is full of deciduous trees, there will be more sunny spots in the winter than in the summer. The most sunny spot may be on a driveway, patio, or walk. Since you can make a raised-bed cold frame, this may not be a problem.
2. Pay attention to these places during the rest of the winter. Are they snow-free when other areas have snow? Do they feel warmer than other places when you walk by? Do you sense heat radiating from the wall of the garage? Is the ground frost-free in the morning when frost occurs only a few feet away? These simple observations can help you identify naturally warmer places. Keep in mind that you will be adding some sort of low-cost (or no-cost) structure that admits sunlight and traps some of its transformed heat energy. The point is that the whole enterprise works best if you place the cold frame where the free energy source can be amplified by adjacent structures. Remember, you could always build a wall where none currently exists. Use straw bales or stacked concrete blocks.
Other than keeping your eyes open for materials that you can re-cycle, or scavenge, or beg, or re-purpose, all you have to do is pay attention to possible locations.
By doing these simple things now, in wintertime, you will have the best chance of building your cold frame in the best spot.
In the Fall 2013 issue of Edible Wasatch magazine, I wrote a short essay titled “Harvest After the Frost.” Here I outlined various aspects of siting, constructing, and planting a small, economical, homemade cold frame. The illustration from this essay appears below, and it may be helpful for you to visualize the project. The essay also appears as one of my 13 Edible Wasatch articles that I have subsequently collected into a hand-bound artist’s book titled Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology and Sustainability.
Have fun!
An updated “moon phase” page for your garden book
If you own a copy of Fred’s Gardening: An Ecological Approach, the page with the moon phase table (p. 72) is nearly out of date. The original page covered 2009-2014. A revision in 2011 provided tables for 2011 – 2016. The updated page (below) covers 2016 – 2021.
Feel free to download the page (right-click or control-click the image to save) and paste it over the old one to make the only time-sensitive aspect of the book useful for another six years.
Artist's Book: Foxsense I, 24th Anniversary Edition
Fred is offering a 24th Anniversary Edition of his 1992 classic collection of environmental mini-poster/editorial cartoons. This hand-bound book, Fox Sense I, features Fred’s illustrations accompanied by the insightful (and sometimes cynical) commentary of a watchful fox.
This book has been popular among environmentalists and teachers, conservationists and environmental education specialists, social critics and book collectors—anyone concerned with the current trajectory of human impacts on the Earth. The interesting thing about the book’s topics is that each one that was outlined in 1992 is just as relevant today, or more so.
This 2016 edition consists of the original 50 poster pages with a preface to the 24th Anniversary Edition. It is hand-bound in the Oriental style and measures 8 inches by 9.5 inches. Each book in this unlimited edition is signed by the author.
Here is the back cover . . .
New Woodcut: Wood Duck Pair
In November, Fred carved and printed a new woodcut print titled “Wood Duck Pair.” It is 8 inches by 5.5 inches (image) and is offered in an 14-inch by 11-inch white mat. Each is signed and numbered. $48.
New Hand-Bound Book
Beginning with the Winter 2010-11 issue of the print version of Edible Wasatch magazine, the editors commissioned Fred to write a series of essays. These were based on the ecology and sustainability themes he presented in Gardening: An Ecological Approach.
This collection of succinct, readable accounts is now available in a limited first edition hand-bound book. The title is Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology, and Sustainability. The 13 essays have been updated; Fred added “notes’; and then he hand-bound the 100-page text for this special edition of artist’s books.
The essays comprise a coherent and timely discussion of the important issues of our time, ranging from soil and biodiversity to energy and genetically modified food. Of course, they all circle back to the garden and the role that individuals can play in being part of the solution.
Here is the information from the back cover page of the book . . .
_________________________________________________________________________
Garden Notes:
Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology, and Sustainability
Collectively, these thirteen essays offer a comprehensive and easy-to-understand account of the critical ecological processes that support life on Earth. They link the role of gardening with these processes and with an easily accessible and immediate approach to living more sustainably.
Contents
Diversity, Stability, Sustainability
Ecologically Competent People
Soil Matters
Solar-Powered People
The Intimacy of Global Nutrient Cycles
Global Conservation, Backyard Style
There Are Limits
Backyards and Biodiversity
Nature's Lessons and the Backyard Garden
A Safe and Natural Garden
The Robust, Reliable Garden
Harvest after the Frost
GMOs: Food, Profit, Risk
Fred Montague is a wildlife biologist, gardener, teacher, artist and author. He is Professor (Lecturer) Emeritus of Biology at the University of Utah.
$32.00 U.S.
__________________________________________________________________________
The book is soft-cover, bound in the Oriental style, and measures 7 inches by 8.5 inches. It consists of 99 numbered pages of text (with two full-page illustrations). The book is printed on Howard linen, and the text is Bookman 10-point. Each book in the first edition is signed and numbered.
Nature Notecards
In a small effort to help you perpetuate the endangered tradition of the hand-written note, Fred has created several series of notecards. These feature miniature reproductions of his original woodcuts. Cards measure 5.5" x 4.25". Each pack contains 8 cards and 8 envelopes, 2 cards each of 4 different images. $12 per pack.
New Woodcut Print: Mountain Goat
Fred printed two new woodcut editions in November. One, “Mountain Goat,” is shown below and is now available for purchase. In the format of most of his woodcut prints, this one is 8.0 inches by 5.5 inches (image size) and is matted in white (14 inches by 11 inches). The price is $48.
Artist's Book: A Small Book of Winter Animals
Fred has just completed A Small Book of Winter Animals—a hand-bound artist’s book featuring seven reproductions of his original woodcut prints.
The book’s dimensions are 5.50 inches by 2.75 inches. The binding is in the Oriental style and is finished off in such a way that the tails of the threads provide a convenient hanger if the book is to adorn a holiday tree or wreath.
This is a great little collectible for the season or for throughout the year: an affordable artist’s book gift for $15.
Fred's Winter 2015 Holiday Art Exhibits and Sales Events
Fred will be exhibiting and selling his drawings, prints, and artist's books at the following shows in December.
1. In the Salt Lake City area--
Red Butte Garden Holiday Open House and Art Exhibit
Red Butte Garden & Arboretum, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City/University of Utah
Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. both days
Open to the public. Free admission. Light refreshments. A portion of the proceeds supports Red Butte Garden and Arboretum
2. In the Park City/Kimball Junction area--
Swaner EcoCenter Holiday Art Exhibit
In the Newpark area at Kimball Junction
Exhibit Opening Celebration: Friday, December 4 from 6:30 to 8:30.
Exhibit : Saturday (5 December) and Sunday (6 December) from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
and then Wednesday through Sunday (December 9-13) from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday (December 7 & 8).
Open to the public. Free admission. A portion of the proceeds supports Swaner EcoCenter
Fred will be introducing the following new work at these events.
• New limited-edition woodcut prints: Mountain Goat, Woodduck Pair, Sycamore Leaf.
• A new artist's book: Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology and Sustainability. This hand-bound book features a collection of 13 essays commissioned by, and first published in, Edible Wasatch magazine. The limited-edition, signed and numbered first edition consists of 880 books and currently sells for $32.
• A new series of Nature notecards (with envelopes): There are four different packs (a bird series, a leaf series, a big game series, and an anthropology series). Each pack contains 2 each of 4 different images. Each 8-card pack sells for $10.00. Great gift!
• A new little book that is also a unique ornament for your holiday tree or wreath. This wee small (4.75" x 2.75") hand-bound artist's book features 6 miniature reproductions of Fred's woodcut prints. This collector's item is titled A Small Book of Winter Animals and sells for $10.00.
Events in May 2015
I will be making presentations at two events in May 2015 for those of you in the Salt Lake area.
1. Saturday, May 2 from 3 to 5 p.m. at King's English Bookshop in the 15th E 15th S neighborhood of Salt Lake City. As part of the shop's "Independent Bookseller's Celebration" I will present a gardening talk and booksigning. I'll have a full-size garden bed and cover to show their construction and use. I have just completed the 10th printing of Gardening: An Ecological Approach and will also be introducing a collection of essays titled Garden Notes: Thoughts on Gardening, Ecology, and Sustainability.
2. Tuesday, May 19 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. I will be giving a presentation at the Great Salt Lake Audubon's monthly meeting at the Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park. The topic deals with gardening, birds (and other biodiversity), and environmental issues. The event is free and open to the public.
I hope to see you at these events.
Fred
Bull Moose: A New Woodcut for Winter 2015
The "Bull Moose" woodcut depicts one of three new woodcuts featuring North America's big game species. Watch for the other two new woodcuts in the next few weeks.
The signed and numbered print is matted 14" x 12" inches and the image is 8" x 5.5." The edition size is 88 and the price is $48.
Remember: For our special friends who visit and shop from the website, when you purchase any three woodcuts, you may select a fourth one for free. To take advantage of this offer, purchase three woodcuts through the website shopping cart. Then please email us with the name of the woodcut you'd like as your free gift.
