Category Archives: farming

Vandana Shiva

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More from the organic farmers’s group–this article on Vandana Shiva, an intelligent, feminist activist who is a delight to watch whenever she appears on DN!   She doesn’t back down and she has sound arguments to all the corporate-speak.

From the article:

Why do you refer to the term seed slavery?

In another time, some people thought it was alright to own other people as slaves. In our times some corporations think it is alright to own life on earth through patents and intellectual property rights (IPR). Patents are granted for inventions, and life is not an invention. These IPR monopolies on seeds are also creating a new bondage and dependency for farmers who are getting trapped in debt to pay royalties. This is why 270,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide.

Word.

Be sure to click on the Puztai link.  Wow. This falls under  “if you have nothing to hide…”  then why are you trying to quash this information and silence a scientist who made such a discovery…?

 

List of Heirloom Seeds

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A member of the organic farmers group I belong to posted this website promoting heirloom seeds with lists of companies that provide them.  I thought I’d pass it along to anyone interested.

Here’s the main page and think it’s a pretty cool site on the harm caused by Monsanto, et al.   (As a side note~look at the end of this article–boy, does that hit close to home! <sigh> 1996…pre-9/11…)

Link to their “booklet” on the website–can’t read it all but the first few pages look very good.

Here’s another informative article.

Holy Crap

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Secret Cold War tests in St. Louis…

From the story:

But in 1994, the government said the tests were part of a biological weapons program and St. Louis was chosen because it bore some resemblance to Russian cities that the U.S. might attack. The material being sprayed was zinc cadmium sulfide, a fine fluorescent powder.

Now, new research is raising greater concern about the implications of those tests. St. Louis Community College-Meramec sociology professor Lisa Martino-Taylor’s research has raised the possibility that the Army performed radiation testing by mixing radioactive particles with the zinc cadmium sulfide, though she concedes there is no direct proof.

…makes you wonder what they’re doing now, in unsuspecting neighborhoods, for the war on terrorism?

My thoughts went to the chemtrails and how much they affect me and others.  I’ve definitely noticed a correlation between behavior and continuous (daily) spraying of trails.  When I had this last migraine, they had been spraying five or six trails at a time, all day,  every day, for three weeks.  (And I noticed that just before the elections in 2008, they were spraying the hell out of the skies for the four days prior to election day–keep your eyes on the skies before this election, folks, and see if you see the same phenomenon.)

Here’s a report on a news station:

I’ve read this this website before, but I can’t remember if I posted it.  A little dramatic, but I think there is cause for concern.

I went to the Environmental Working Group website, and could find nothing on the chemtrails.  Nothing on the Union for Concerned Scientists, either.

Joe Marmon has sued California authorities for contaminating the air.

Here’s a European take on the chemtrails phenomenon.

Czech Republic:

Da bees

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Well, it’s refreshing that some countries are paying attention.  And acting on it.

Purdue Research on the problem here: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120111KrupkeBees.html

What bothers me when researchers report that the pesticides are causing the problem, instead of advocating eliminating pesticides and using beneficial (complimentary) methods of insect control, they want t come up with some other scientific method.

It’s like throwing a rock through a window and trying to correct the damage by putting a newspaper over it….doesn’t really address the problem, does it?

To me, it kind of feels like avoiding responsibility–avoiding the harder choice of trying to work with nature instead of against it.  Farmers in Indiana never met a tree they liked–if you look at Indiana on the map, you can pick it out from the other states by the absence of trees.  One of the reasons I admire Michigan and Ohio is they actually seem to like trees and it’s pleasant to drive through the states.  (Well, I could say something about Ohio drivers, but I’ll save that for another time….:)

So…the farmers remove as many trees from the acres as they can because they want to use every inch of space for crops…but the problem is that they remove the habitats of the birds that eat insects.  It also creates more wind erosion by taking away the windbreaks…hence drier soil that is more susceptible during drought.

It takes more work to factor in all of this, and the motivation just isn’t there.  It’s just too easy to apply chemicals to control for insects, weeds, and fertilize.

 

Slooooow Food

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…versus Fast Food.  Here’s a link to the Slow Food website.  As the website states, Slow Food is a way of life–a sustainable way of feeding ourselves without destroying the environment (and ourselves) in the process.

Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement after the first McDonald’s opened its doors in Italy.

The National Heirloom Expo is held annually to draw attention to what’s happening with the GMO seeds and to promote heirloom seeds (non-GMO).

Seed Savers website here.   Another website here.

Finally, here’s Treehugger.com, where those dirty effing hippies must hang out.  🙂

Note that in the comments, the readers state there is a controversy with Seed Savers being stacked with corporate toadies….intrigue among the seeds. <sigh>

A rather depressing article here. 

Bill and Melinda Gates controlling the world food supply along with Monsanto is a scary thought.  It’s apparently not enough for them (Gates)  foisting “education reform” on the children of the United States…

…and his comments on environmentalists being against GMO’s speak of his true intent…

As the Grist article states, organic farming has proven to be effective during times of drought, more so than chemical-based farming.  And it goes on to remark about organic/sustainable farming being ideal for the poor communities.  It’s a no-brainer to me:  you put food scraps in a compost pile that turns into a rich soil that you put back into the ground.  This rich compost returns nutrients and beneficial microbes back to the soil.  One of the problems with chemical farming is that it strips the land of nutrients and the soil deteriorates, requiring more water than compost-rich soil.  Any poor person could do that–returning food scraps back to the soil is free.

An interesting article here.

John Ikerd is a retired professor out of the U of Missouri.  He’s an advocate of sustainable farming and has written extensively about it. Link here.

The problem that most folks are unaware there is a problem.  They go to their grocers, see rows of fresh food and shelves stocked to the hilt, and think everything is great….

…and the only thing left will be GMO food that makes them ill…

Funding for organic research questioned

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commondreams has this up on the questions of who funded this bogus study.  Knowing about how corporations are trying to influence university’s research, I was suspicious of this study from the start.

Links on the subject here. 

And here.

And here.

And here.  This isn’t shocking to me–Monsanto was giving huge amounts to Purdue University.  During a panel on the genetically modified organisms, circa 1998, they asserted there was no problem with GMO’s.  The panel was made up of three scientists–one against GM’s and the other two for them.  The technology was new and had not been tested for adverse affects not only on humans, but nature, as well.

Deer have been known to cross a road to eat organic corn if a choice were given between GMO corn.  Here’s a link to an article.

A thought struck me as I read that last article–these crops are engineered to “drink poison”.  If we put aside the genetic manipulation, and look at the ability for the gene to absorb much more pesticides, etc., wouldn’t that be multiplying the devastating effects of those chemicals on the body?  I mean, we know how devastating chlorinated hydrocarbons (DDT, etc.) are…so it stands to reason that it’s exponentially more so with these GM crops.  And the Celiac thing–how much is being influenced by not only eating GM crops, but breathing in that poison from, say, corn pollen? Article here. Note that this was clear back in 1999–this stuff has been known…and yet the Monsanto monster continues to grow…

When profits come up against morality…

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…it’s rare that profit loses… (Shirley Chisholm, first woman presidential candidate)

commondreams has the story here on the banks’ speculation on food:  corn, soy, and wheat.  Be sure to look at the comments–someone has posted on the Federal Reserve bailing out foreign banks, as well as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase…the list goes on…

I’m a little skeptical, however, of the person who lists the quotes against the Federal Reserve…sounds too civil libertarian, right-wingish for my liking…

If you recall, I wrote about the drought here in Indiana, but how the ag undersecretary was saying that it shouldn’t affect corn because there were record numbers of corn planted this year.  But after that declaration, they suddenly started saying that there was, indeed, a corn crop shortage and prices at stores were going to reflect that.

About six months ago, a resident of the building I’m in said something prophetic—when Social Security gave a cost-of-living increase…she said that grocery prices were going to go up–they always went up after s.s. increased their checks.  I’ve seen more than one single item jump $2.00 in a month’s time…and they weren’t corn, soy, or wheat or anything that depended on those three…

 

GMO monsters; Nanoparticles and Karl Rove…

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Jill Richardson has this up at PR Watch.  Can anyone make sense of this?  The chemical/bioengineering industry is a monster running amok—make more toxic food that makes people, animals sick and poisons the atmosphere…

…so they can grow more food per acre.

I have a question:  if people are dying from the poison food and poison atmosphere, who is this serving?  Not us.

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More from PR Watch on the propaganda of Monsanto, et al…

Good Grief. Nanoparticles are nothing to worry about??  Just a little benzene (one of the most toxic chemicals out there)  isn’t going to hurt…/snark

And the debate on sunscreens also questions their validity and necessity.

CDC link here: http://www.ewg.org/analysis/toxicsunscreen

Natural News has a story here.

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Finally there’s this story on Rove controlling the purse strings…the behind the scenes and under the radar guy.

Doublespeak

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…is a word in Communications for when you’re talking in such a way that it seems you mean something when you really mean something else…

…such as this.

This is why I am upset that people who went to Obama fundraisers didn’t put that money towards a third party candidate–someone who will restore the Constitution, not sign anymore Free Trade agreements, not sign legislation that gives the top 1% tax breaks, push for livable wage, get us out of all conflicts, and will push for re-regulating banks and sustainable farming/regulating environmental polluters.  And what happened to our antitrust laws, again?

That’s the candidate I want…