Category Archives: farming

First Impressions

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Utility companies are not known for being friendly towards environmentalists…

…so it was with some amusement this morning at the organic grocery that I noticed a couple of young guys in Carhart’s getting what appeared to be their lunch for the day–hummus and some other healthy stuff.

Obviously they were employed in a profession that required them to be outside. Farmers? Not likely to come all the way in town for just a few things. Street dept. workers?  Possibly.

I got my answer when I left the building and saw a utility company truck parked in the lot.

Yeah, so I’m not sure if these guys supported sustainable agriculture (which means a decrease in toxins in the environment if we’re to survive) or if there is a total disconnect and they’re buying organic/healthy food without a care of how it got there….

I’m left to ponder…

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One of our rightwing radio hosts was talking Friday about the return of the robins to the area soooo early.

He tried to say that these were Canadian robins, therefore they were *south* for the winter….

Um, yeah…

I’ve lived in Indiana all of my life, and it has always been a right of Spring for them to return.  We never saw them the entire winter. Never.  That’s why it didn’t make it for the state bird–because it didn’t stay here all winter.

We were always excited when the first robins returned–we’d “stamp” the first one we saw for *luck*.

Canadian robins….pshaw.

 

A Man’s View

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Continuing along the thoughts on Friday’s blog~~~

I don’t mind telling you that this blog brought tears to my eyes. Really stunning to read such honesty and depth.  And he’s not gay! (meaning that, as Patrick states, most gay guys “get” women and their perspective, but straight guys, especially straight white guys don’t.)

From the interview:

Growing up in my house, feminism was actually a positive word. My mother, who is a strong woman, has always identified as a feminist. Despite this fact, she found herself being mistreated by my father. This just goes to show that even strong women — even feminist-identified women — can find themselves involved with men who treat them badly.

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This was so powerful…because in the finger-pointing department, when blame is being handed out, it’s always the woman’s fault if she is mistreated.

This, too, was powerful:

Seeing the way she was treated, and experiencing mistreatment myself, showed me that boys who grow up in violent households do not have to follow the path of the abuser. Instead, we can follow another path — the path of empathy for our mother, and that we can become allies in the struggle for women’s equality, rather than just another violent enforcer of male supremacy.

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This is the thing that is so hard to understand:  why do some men recognize what was done to them and their mothers, but then go on to abuse others?  Why do some choose that path and others fight against it?

And this reinforces my thoughts on a previous blog on how some folks are abused but do not go on to continue the abuse.  I’m thinking there are more out there than is being acknowledged, because they aren’t the ones being arrested for committing acts of cruelty…they are the ones quietly living their lives without repeating the abuse…

…but that also doesn’t mean that all of those committing acts of cruelty are being dealt with by society…such as men who beat their mates, but the mates refuse to press charges (or never call police to report it.)

Further down the post, Patrick goes into what defines feminism–and how women themselves cannot agree on the definition. I know that I don’t.  As I’ve posted before, I believe in equality, but I don’t think abortions should be performed after six weeks’ gestation.  But feminists don’t see it that way–they feel a woman should be able to have an abortion any time she wants it–right up until birth.  I can’t in good conscience agree with that thinking.  In the feminist world, that automatically excludes me from being called a feminist.  This point of view wasn’t easy to come by, either, as I have seen the photo of the woman dead on a hotel room floor with a hangar protruding from her vagina.  I don’t want to see women in such desperate circumstances that they resort to that–it is much better to have safe, reliable contraceptives available to her. (Yes, men should be responsible for contraception, too, but since she is the one who will be most impacted by a pregnancy, and he could be unreliable, she needs to take responsibility for her own sake.)

Feminists in the 70s were so anti-homemaking that women who chose this route were treated as if they were mindless dummies.

It’s an odd circumstance that things that defined us as women–the home, childbirth and raising children, became so hated.  It’s as if they wanted us to become equal by embracing the stereotyped attributes of men.

In other words, we could only be thought of as valuable and therefore equal….if we became men…

…and the unintended consequences of that is the world tilted even more towards the masculine and diminished the feminine.

What we need to right the world is to once again embrace the feminine as valuable–to recognize that one can be soft as well as strong and that those two attributes don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  That we can prop each other up when one is feeling weak, instead of attacking.  That it’s okay for women to have an opinion different than a man’s and it’s just as valid and valuable. That taking care of the Earth is the feminine that needs to be honored.

There’s more to write, but perhaps for another day.  I’m out of time.

The winter scene

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I was watching TV in our community room, when I see a motion out of the corner of my eye.  I look to see a border collie mix running and jumping in the snow, grabbing at an object and throwing it up in the air with his teeth.  The owner is shoveling snow and throwing the play toy to the dog’s delight.  As the owner walks along, pushing the shovel, the dog puts the toy next to her, but she’s busy and keeps moving.  The dog looks for a second at her, and then picks up the toy and places it even closer to her than before.

I love seeing the simple delight in dogs when they’re at play.  They’re just playing…freely enjoying the moment without thinking about the next moment….

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So, yeah, we have the normal winter weather that’s to be expected in Indiana….

…and I notice that a flock of birds are perched in the tree outside my apartment.  I do a double take when it looks like….no, it can’t be…yes, it is…a robin!  NO!!! They are not supposed to be here for another month!

Nope, there’s no climate change…

As a side note~ back in the day when Indiana was deciding what it’s state bird was going to be, the robin was up for it, but they decided against it because the robin flew away for the winter.  They wanted a bird that stayed here all winter and the beautiful cardinal won out.

If the climate change isn’t arrested, the robin will once again be back in the running for the state bird because it will be so warm that it will just stay here all winter…

…well, that’s if there are any robins or birds once we get done poisoning them in their (and our) environment…

<sigh>

Gluten Free Watchdog

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…because companies will label their products “Gluten-Free” when they’re really not.  It’s either conscious deception so they can get the $$$ gluten free market dollars, or they’re not really testing their product to be sure that it is gluten free.  As I’ve posted before,  even a little gluten for someone who is Celiac can mean a serious reaction. (hat tip to this blog.)

Watchdog mentions this organization that helps certify food.   This makes food shopping sooo much easier–all you have to do is look for the logo and you are reasonably comfortable buying the product.   There is this, too, which also has a logo to help shoppers identify gluten free food.  There is a link to GF recipes on the main page.

Here is a webpage of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.  They, too, help to certify GF foods.  They use a third party to help certify products, which is a bonus. Here is a list of GF manufacturers.  I always want to add a caution that everything can change in a moment’s notice and if a food affects one, whether it’s labeled GF or not, one should be cautious about eating it again.  As they say on the support group–something may be gluten free, but it perhaps is an allergen for a particular person.  Allergies can show up with the typical runny nose, or rash or headache or someone may just feel extra tired after eating a particular food.  Your body will tell you what it needs and doesn’t need–one just has to pay attention.

 

Boycott Kellogg’s

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Organic Consumers posted this a while back (I’m sooo far behind in emails).  Financially supporting the companies that truly have the best interests of their consumers at heart is the best way to go.  Well, that and labeling our food.

Read the note on Kashi’s using genetically engineered soy in their “organic” products.  It is such a cop-out to claim pollination was the reason the soy was GMO–an easy way to escape accountability.  Instead of fighting GMO labeling, they should be fighting against Monsanto and the others involved in genetically modified food.  This food is highly likely involved in leaky gut, as the body cannot recognize the grain anymore, and treats it as a foreign substance and that leads to gut inflammation and eventually leaky gut.

A link here to eye problems and leaky gut and GMO’s.  Very interesting.  My eyes have begun to improve–I was using 1.50 readers and now am able to use the 1.25 magnification.  I’m also able to distinguish fine degrees of color, and I had lost some of my ability to determine colors.  I know this by my embroidery thread that I used for counted cross-stitch–the thread is numbered and has very minute distinctions, and it was difficult for me to separate them by color.  I grew so frustrated at it that I just put them all in one bag, unable to organize them.  This began to change when I started to detox.

Here’s a good opinion on the GMO’s.

More here on the global effort to get GMO’s labeled.

A debate between a professor and a neoliberal. (hat tip to organic consumers).

Lastly, I really wonder about the exposure even if you’re not eating GMO foods (or at least trying not to by buying organic).  I say this because every year, around late July, I begin to have more severe allergy symptoms, culminating in September, when I usually have headaches several days out of the month (this has been after mercury poisoning–at least, that’s when I first noticed it).  I found a link here on the increase in allergies and GMO’s.

Here is a paper that must have been written by a Monsanto toadie, it is so slanted towards GMO’s and gives very little attention or support for research towards health concerns.  This is what I was seeing when I was a student in college and I took a class in science writing:  they had a forum at this strongly agricultural school on GMO’s when they were first being introduced in 1997-98 (only we found out later that they had been unleashed onto the unsuspecting public earlier.)

A good blog here on GMO.

 

 

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Related to this is an stunning affirmation of those in power that amalgams are safe.  Just stunning. Absolutely stunning.  (hat tip to organic consumers).  It just goes to show that Washington is bought by those whose interests don’t include the health and well being of the public, but of who has the $$$ to fund their campaigns.

And my previous blog  with this on how not only mercury affects us, but the animals, as well.  My other blogs on it here and here.

And I’m finished.  So much for catching up on my emails. 😛

 

 

The susceptibility to disease

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I was thinking about my post here over the weekend, and thought I should expand on it.  I write what I know (which is what they tell you), but perhaps I was being myopic.

I did a search on susceptibility and African Americans, but had very few articles to choose from.  I found this. 

Here are some of the issues I have with this article–

One is that pollution stays in one place, so it affects just the nearest geographical area.   It spreads all over.  Articles on it here and here and here.

Air pollution in FW is particularly bad–there were many, many ozone days last summer where I could not go outside for any length of time.  I thought I could at least jog in the morning of an ozone day, but was sadly mistaken when I started wheezing as I climbed the stairs to my apartment afterward.

The lung disease thing I am confused about because in my building, the only folks with oxygen tanks are whites–several of them.  And nearly all the ones in wheelchairs are white.  At one time, there have been seven whites in wheelchairs, several more using walkers  but only one black gentleman in a wheelchair.  Just my own little world….

I suspect that heavy metals are affecting African Americans, but like whites, are not being noticed or investigated.  The information may be out there, but I didn’t see it in my research.  I would love to explore this more.

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And no, I don’t think that nuclear energy is the answer (if one wants to reduce coal production to lessen the impact of lead, arsenic and mercury in the environment).  Nuclear has many, many problems, one of which is thyroid cancer levels go up around nuclear power plants.  I think one of the first things that has to occur is for Americans to stop wasting so much energy and going off grid would be the first step–one has to be more conscious of the energy they use if they are responsible for that energy. Another step would be to build sustainable housing, like earth ships. Gotta love that name.  And I love the design on this page—Isn’t that cool? Who would think such an artsy design is also sustainable?

A paper here by Joseph Mangano on the rising thyroid cancer rates and nuclear energy. (PDF)

A map on disease clusters here.

Yep, the evidence is out there that we are killing ourselves with the toxic environment.  I’d rather sacrifice a little and be able to breathe than have the conveniences of modern life that are killing us, slowly.

Monsanto sneaking through power grab legislation

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(sigh) this just gets sooo monotonous…once again Monsanto is trying to sneak through legislation to grab even more power over what is planted in the land. (hat tip organic consumers)

More from organic consumers here on the boycott of companies that have “natural” brands that sunk Prop  37 in California.  They’re worried about money in political campaigns…I’m worried about the money behind stuff like this.  It’s much harder to get attention directed at these campaigns by the media, therefore, it’s much harder to get the facts out there.

They also have a video posted by Jim Goodman.  I don’t have time to watch it today, but wanted to post it for others.

Feed the soil…

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…and the rest will follow. (hat tip to organic farmers’ group)

Here we are, 2012, and still rediscovering what wisdom has been known forever…nature can do a bang up job when we cooperate with her instead of fighting against her…

The cover crops angle is the missing link that nourishes the soil while preventing erosion.  As the article states, it puts back nutrients that create that rich compost responsible for holding the soil together, holding water when droughts hit, and feeding the worms, which add their own version of rich casings (fertilizer).  (A side story–someone told me of a woman who detested worms and requested a chemical fertilizer be applied to kill all the worms in her yard.  I kid you not.)  Also, the article doesn’t mention the beneficial microbes that eat e.coli –which helps keep it in check.