Gene Logsdon has a post up on the Christmas gifts that go against the notion that you have to buy the “latest” to make someone happy. I’m all for the practical gift that someone will truly use and appreciate. I would love to get a jar of homemade orange marmalade or a jar of raw honey for Christmas.
Be sure to read the comments–a former Marine bought a farm after leaving the service and he writes about it in the comments. A truly inspiring story. Enjoy.
Wisconsin, bless their little hearts, have drafted a resolution that they are a “TPP-free” zone. The negotiations have been shielded from public scrutiny but the article states that bits have leaked out and…it’s scary as hell–a Monsanto lobbyist is leading the negotiations.
From the article:
Countries, including those in the European Union, could also find it increasingly difficult to ban, or even require the labeling of, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) if biotech companies determine that those countries’ strict policies restrict fair trade and infringe on the companies’ “rights” to profit.
To top it off, corporations would be allowed to resolve trade disputes in special international tribunals, effectively wiping out hundreds of domestic and international food sovereignty laws. Products labeled fair trade, organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, or GMO-free, could all be challenged as “barriers to trade.”
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It’s an attack on local autonomy….the right to decide what is best for your community.Good Grief, these corporations can.not.get.enough.profits. Greed, greed, greed.
Deutsch29 has an excellent blog up on the *cough* Center for Union Facts (CUF) running a full page ad in the NY Times. Upon closer examination, our old friend, Rick Berman, gun for hire, is behind CUF, among other organizations. Note the letter from his son, David. Pretty sad, eh?
AFT has a short video up on the 5 myths about school performance.
….but there’s one little issue–getting four other states to also require GMO labeling. Nice way to get the GMO labeling crowd off your back while appearing to actually do something.
Really beautiful winter scenes in this week’s batch of photos. Number 11 is really striking….nature never very far…but waiting in the wings…
I found this while looking up farmers for the previous blog. I thought it was a great historical piece. He died in 1988….seems like yesterday, but now 25 years past.
Now the only ones with power are Big Ag factory farms. Why is it that we have no enforcement of antitrust laws?? Can someone tell me?
This post by Gene Logsdon is powerful. It’s personal, too, as I thought of losing my home and how devastating that was…
Logsdon mentions the Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith; I couldn’t find the exact author Logsdon mentions for the Highland Clearances, but I found this and this that seem to be the same subject.
It was stunning to read Logsdon’s piece on it and how often this has been used as a tool for the wealthy to grab even more for themselves. I thought back to the years I was growing up and how farmers were portrayed as backwards, slow, less sophisticated…and now I wonder at this being planned..
Feminist scholars made a connection between the Puritan Salem witch hunts and wealth. They stated that the women who were hanged were either poor which means low regard in the community, or they were single wealthy women whom owned land. This was significant then because women could not outright own land–they had to inherit it from their fathers or husbands. So the women owning land were a huge threat to the status quo. Land means power…and it came with rights not afforded to the ones without land.
Also, there was a prejudice against the single status of the wealthy women, because women who were married and wealthy were able to escape the noose….while the single ones were not.
The portrayal of farmers as hayseeds, something to look down upon reminded me of what they did with the women after World War II. (as a side note~ I found this amusing blog on the war propaganda.) It’s really stunning how much public opinion can be swayed against our better instincts and interests. One of the things I have read from the Depression survivors is that they didn’t go hungry because many were still in the country and could raise their own food. Now we’re “citified” and don’t have the resources to raise our own food….thereby more dependent on the food stamp program. Ironic, isn’t it??
In addition, I have to wonder at the web of how much this has contributed to climate change–not only adding more toxins to the environment by industry, but by cutting us off from the land–harder to see how we are destroying the environment when we don’t feel as connected to it, eh?
80,000 acres have been lost.
“While they comprise less than 10 percent of the nation’s land area, they support 75 percent of our migratory birds, nearly 80 percent of fish and shellfish, and almost half of our threatened and endangered species. We can’t sustain native wildlife for future generations without protecting and restoring the coastal wetlands that support them,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.
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A commenter from Florida says 60% of their wetlands have been lost.
A depressing aspect is that some would like to attach a monetary value to the wetlands. In my view, there isn’t any way to adequately do such a thing. It’s priceless. When it’s gone, we are too. And when I say “we” I mean every living thing–the fish, the birds, the no-see-ums…all those things that are connected.
And this article doesn’t even take into account the pollution of plastic, mercury, and other toxins to the remaining wetlands.
…our “kidneys” are failing because of our neglect and lack of proactive life changes. It’s so haaard to make adjustments. /snarky and whiny, for sure.
According to this report, the shrimp season has been canceled due to warmer than normal waters. And then I wonder how many other fish have been affected…especially those that eat shrimp in their diet.
The comments were sobering, of course:
Its like watching a disaster movie in super slow motion.
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Yep.
Eagle 
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