The Pee and Poo Show **edited

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The title is funny, but the subject is serious — flushing human waste into clean drinking water just doesn’t make sense.  I was thinking that you could only utilize a composting toilet in the country, where you could have room to separate compost piles by year.  But I was wrong, as this  brilliant couple illustrates.

I love how they have utilized their space to raise vegetables and fruit and bees and collecting rainwater.  Absolutely sustainable.

Who knew we could save the world through poop? 😛

If you look at the comments, someone has added a link to the humanure website.  They also question separating the pee and poop–I think this gal wanted to use the urine right away for the nitrogen to fertilize her vegetables and such, but everyone has different goals, so separating it may not be a big to-do for them.

From Joe Jenkins, author of the Humanure Handbook:

Of course, there are those who question this without reading it.  If they did, they would know that the pathogens are broken down by microbes that eat them — that’s why on organic farms, e.coli is not a problem, but on factory farms, e.coli is rampant–too much in a small space for the ecological system to do its natural work of breaking them down.  **edited to add:  the chemicals on non-organic farms also interfere with microbes.  What kills the insects also kills the microbes.

Saving the local farm

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This posted from the organic farmers group:

From: “Lindsey Lusher Shute, National Young Farmers Coalition” <info@youngfarmers. org>
  Date: September 24, 2013 12:51:34 PM CDT
  Subject: National Day of Action to Save Local Farms
  Help us mobilize to change FDA food safety rules.
 
 
  Dear Supporter,
 
  The FDA’s proposed food safety rules—written for large, corporate farms—threaten to shut down small farms and cut off America’s access to local food. Think: waiting nine months to harvest after manure application or grazing; water testing once a week; spending $5k-35k extra to comply. The list goes on and on.
 
  We have only a little over a month to submit comments to the FDA and win new rules that will protect food safety, local farms and organic agriculture.
 
  On Sunday, October 20th, we ask you to join a National Day of Action to Save Local Farms. To make it a success, we need you to sign up to host a letter writing party, tell us how the new rules will affect your farm and help us spread the word! Get started now:
 
  The FDA will only consider personal responses to their draft rules – no form letters or petitions – so we need you to help us deliver a huge stack of hand written letters to DC.
 
  Sign up now to host a letter writing party! All you have to do is gather your friends and neighbors to sit down and write to the FDA on or around October 20th. When you sign up to host we’ll mail you posters, plain language summaries of the rules for reference, ideas about how to respond, and some party planning advice. We’re also available to help you troubleshoot, reach NYFC’s network and talk through the details on two upcoming Google Hangouts.
 
  Visit the Food Safety action page or contact Tracy at tracy@youngfarmers. org to get more info and to sign up.
 
  To help NYFC respond to the FDA as a network and to help everyone understand how the rules will affect real farms, we need your input.
 
  Please take a few minutes now to take our farmer survey.
 
  Let’s work together to ensure the Food Safety rules protect a healthy food system, not compromise it.
 
  Events
 
  PROVIDENCE, RI: Young Farmer Nights Farm Tour – September 24th
  Join other young farmers for a tour of City Farm in Providence, RI. Contact youngfarmernight@ gmail.com for details.
 
  ARUNDEL, ME: Southern Maine Young Farmers Coalition Kick-off Mixer! – September 28th
  Come learn how to build a high tunnel at Frinklepod Farm at 12pm and join us for a potluck celebration with Allagash beer, Green Bee Soda, live music, a bonfire and fellow young farmers! 5pm at Neverdun Farm in Arundel. Click here for more info.
 
 ATLANTA, GA: Southeast Young And Beginning Farmer Alliance Lunch Mixer – September 28th
  Join us for a series of monthly post-market lunches on Saturdays. The first one is at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Atlanta, GA.
 
  FRANKFORT, KY – Kentucky Beginning Farmers Conference- October 5th
  A one-day statewide event for beginning farmers, including workshops, great food, and networking opportunities. Stay tuned for more details!
 
  OKANOGAN, WA: Washington Young Farmers Mixer – October 6th
 Fourth annual WAYFC Mixer, to be held at Filaree Farm, in Okanogan, WA. Details to be released soon. Visit the Washington Young Farmers Coalition website for more information.
 
  BURLINGTON, VT Vermont Young Farmers Coalition Tractor Maintenance Workshop and Mixer at the Intervale Center – October 6th
  Join VYFC in gathering for a tractor maintenance workshop and mixer. Starts at 3pm. Email Brittany at bdooling@uvm. edu to get involved.
 
  SEBASTOPOL, CA: North Coast Young Farmers Guild Meeting – October 8th
  Join other farmers from the North Coast for the monthly Guild meeting at GrowKitchen, 245 Ferguson Rd. Sebastopol, CA.
 
  JOHNSTON, RI: Young Farmer Nights Farm Tour – October 10th
  Join other young farmers for a tour of Tour of Freedom Food Farm in Johnston, RI. Contact youngfarmernight@ gmail.com for details.
 
  PALISADE, CO: Beginning Farmers and Ranchers of Mesa County Hoe Down and Harvest Party – October 13th
  An end of season celebration with the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers of Mesa County! Food donated by Field to Fork CSA and Roan Creek Ranch. Wine provided by Mesa Park Vineyards. Apples for bobbing, pumpkins for picking. Live music, fun and games. Contact Brooke at pricebrooker@ aol.com for more info.
 
  WILLITS, CA: Mendocino County Young Farmers Guild Meeting – October 15th
  Get together with other young farmers in Mendocino County for this inaugural guild meeting! At the Willits Grange Hall.
 
  AUSTIN, TX: Texas Young Farmers Coalition Meetup – October 16th
  Blackstar Coop. Come join us for our monthly- 3rd Wednesday farmer meetup! Beers and conversations abound. Contact info@texasyoungfarm ers.org for more info.
 
  AUSTIN, TX: Texas Young Farmers Coalition Farm Tour – October 19th
  Join us as we head to A+S Farm and Ranch for a skill building workshop on sheep. Sean will cover grazing,processing and shearing topics among others. Contact info@texasyoungfarm ers.org for more info.
 
  JAMESTOWN, RI: Young Farmer Nights Farm Tour – October 22nd
  Join other young farmers for a chicken processing training with Pat’s Pastured at Windmist Farm, Jamestown, RI. Contact youngfarmernight@ gmail.com for details.
  CONNECTICUT: Farmland Access and Affordability Forum – October 25th
  The purpose of the forum is to brainstorm strategies to address farmland access and affordability in Connecticut and to engage an expanded coalition of key individuals, businesses, organizations and agencies in developing a common agenda around these issues. For more information contact Susan Mitchell, New Connecticut Farmers Alliance, at smitchell123@ yahoo.com.
 
  SOUTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA: Young Farmers Mixer – October 26th
  In the Harrisburg area, details TBA. Contact Emily at emilycgb@gmail. com to get involved!
 
  SONOMA COUNTY, CA: Sonoma County Young Farmers Guild Meeting – October 27th
  Get together with other young farmers in Sonoma County for this inaugural guild meeting!
 
  FALKVILLE, AL: Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network Young and Beginning Farmer Potluck – October 27th
  Join other young and beginning farmers for ASAN’s potluck! Click here for more info.
 
  AUSTIN, TX: First Annual Moontower Agricultural Coop Harvest Party – November 9th
  Grab your ticket and join farmers and farmer friends alike for a dinner and homebrew beer feast. Other events include Farmer Olympics and a panel discussion involving inspiring people in the Texas farming and food community. Contact info@texasyoungfarm ers.org for more info on tickets.
 
  In Solidarity,
 
  Lindsey, Wes, Sophie, Kate, Eleanor, Tracy & Debbie
 
 
  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | follow on Google Plus
 
  Copyright © 2013 National Young Farmers Coalition. All rights reserved.
 
NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION
  PO BOX 292, Tivoli, New York 12583

Teachers Stand up for their right to be heard

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…much as they are being silenced in the national discussion, the teachers and parents of Montclair, New Jersey, were going to be heard..

Look— everyone knows you don’t mess with New Jersey.  tough birds…we need some of you here in Indiana…..

 

Pregnant mothers, mercury, and toxins

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Well, this   sounded refreshing by the title.  But I’ll hold my applause until they actually put their money where their mouths are and get off their duffs.

This sentence is why I have my doubts:

“What we’re trying to get is the balance between awareness and alarmist,” said Dr. Jeanne Conry, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

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We are waaaay past alarm.  If you’re not alarmed, you haven’t been paying attention.  This is decades past due!  They knew this back in the sixties, so spare me the tender steps and get on it already.  And don’t act all concerned with women’s health when you’re willing to poison them with vaccination….and of course, you’re not willing to treat poor women with whatever they can pay you.

I cannot believe they are recommending fish, especially catfish, tuna and salmon.  This report states catfish are okay, but I have read in other reports that they are high in mercury.   Fish can be high not only in mercury but toxins from pesticides [PDF} and other farm run off.  I don’t go along with the statement that this is good news in regards to standards for drinking water.  I cannot drink tap water because of the contaminants. Note that they are STILL finding DDT decades after being banned.   And because of “budgetary restraints” glyphosate (Monsanto’s RoundUP)  was not measured.   This should alarm everyone.

…and they’re asking the American Chemical Society for its input? A group that makes its living off of chemicals that are toxic to us and destroy our immune systems?  Seriously??

And in the we-are-our-own-worst-enemy category–the report states there are high concentrations of chemicals from home lawn and garden use in streams, etc. in the urban setting.  I’ve told the story before, but it bears repeating–there was a couple who had the perfect yard–grass was unnaturally green and not a “weed” in sight.  They sprayed for weeds frequently, I’m told.  They had not one but two dogs die of cancer.  Yep.

So…yeah, we have our own culpability for contributing to the toxic soup in pursuit of a perfect yard.  And perfect looking vegetables and fruits…who cares if they’re nutritious or not….kind of like our state of society right now, eh?  We judge more by the outside packaging than by what is on the inside….

Okay, I’m off my soapbox.  For now.

 

 

More dolphins beached **edited

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It’s in Brazil this time.

I wonder if it has anything to do with this spill in 2011…

From the link to the story of Chevron in Ecuador:

Such sentiment holds strong appeal to those who claim that people here, like Ms. Ruíz’s 16-year-old son, are dying from the pollution that Texaco spawned. Citing scientific studies, the plaintiffs claim that toxic chemicals from Texaco’s waste pits, including benzene, which is known to induce leukemia, have leached for decades into soil, groundwater and streams. A report last year by Richard Cabrera, a geologist and court-appointed expert, estimated that 1,400 people in this jungle region — perhaps more — had died of cancer because of oil contamination.

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Note that even Chevron agreed that they had spoiled what once was a pristine jungle.  Even worse is Petroecuador has dirtied its hands with contributing to the mess.  Despite their protests, they cannot pass off their own responsibilities.  <sigh>

I found this update to the above story.

You might recall the story of the proposed mining operation in an untouched part of Wisconsin.

I’m thoroughly convinced that these people are not going to be happy until they’ve destroyed every natural habitat and ecosystem.

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Another reason the dolphins might be beaching themselves is mercury.  A report here on gold mining operations and the threat of mercury….a compelling story.

After being poisoned with mercury, Jose Atehortua suffered terribly:

In the ensuing weeks, Atehortua’s molars fell out; he was besieged by ringing in his ears, loss of hearing and appetite, impaired vision and balance, and damaged kidneys — ailments common to acute mercury vapor intoxication. But somehow kidney dialysis worked, and, slowly, movement returned to his arms and legs. Four months later, Atehortua returned to the entable, famous among Segovia’s miners as the azogado who had miraculously recovered from paralysis.

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The above symptoms are common with us on the mercury poisoning group.   I personally had ringing in the ears, diminished hearing and appetite, darkened vision, balance issues, kidney impairment, liver impairment, and dental issues including loose teeth.   The alarming thing of this article is that they are thinking it was just a one time deal, instead of him probably suffering from long term poisoning until one night his body had had enough and gave out.  It took me a year after amalgam placement to start having monthly migraines.  Another year to start showing low thyroid symptoms, another year to start with memory loss and weight gain (even though I was still exercising)….and so it’s not as easily dismissed.  I wonder now if this guy, if he continued to work there, is still alive or if he is, whether he is seriously disabled–mentally or physically.

Now expand all of this out to how it must be affecting dolphins and other sea mammals….one can understand why they are losing their senses and beaching themselves.   Moving the entable to another location, while continuing to enable mercury exposure, is not going to help anyone–human nor animal.  And as in the previous story, why pollute a rural area?  Just stop, already.  Just stop.  Gold is not worth it.  All the gold in the world will not buy back your health….this paragraph attests to that:

Meanwhile, evidence is accumulating that more chronic varieties of the acute symptoms endured by Atehortua are affecting the most vulnerable segment of the population. In neurological tests administered to 196 children in Segovia, aged 7 to 13, 96 percent failed at least one measure of intoxication, whose indicators include attention, memory, language, and executive functions. These data are included in a UN health report, published in January, which describes the mercury situation in Antioquia as “dramatic.”

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**edited to fix goof on above paragraph.

Monsanto bulldozer keeps on rollin’

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While we’re looking the other way at issues that should be non-issues….another sneaky thing in the House version of the Ag part of the funding of the government is to continue the Monsanto Protection Act.  Yep.

From Organic Consumers:

URGENT: House Passes Monsanto Protection Act. Ask Your Senators to Stop It!

Dear Supporter,

On Friday, September 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Continuing Resolution (H.J.RES.59), a bill to keep the government running through December 15. The bill will force a showdown with the Senate because it includes a provision to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

But the Continuing Resolution is controversial for another reason. It extends the Monsanto Protection Act, officially referred to as the Farmers Assurance Provision, a law that gives biotech firms immunity from federal prosecution for illegally growing GMO crops.

Please call your Senators today and ask them to pass a clean version of the Continuing Resolution, one that doesn’t extend the Monsanto Protection Act.

You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your Senator. Or find individual senators’ phone numbers here.

You can say:

“I’m calling to ask the Senator to oppose the Farmers Assurance Provision, sometimes referred to as the Monsanto Protection Act, and to vote no on any bill, including the Continuing Resolution, which includes the provision.”

If you want to go into more detail, you can add:

“New GMOs aren’t regulated enough as it is. Even the American Medical Association complains that the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t safety test new GMOs for human health risks before allowing them on the market for human consumption. The AMA last year recommended that GMOs undergo mandatory premarket safety testing.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture does conduct a mandatory review of new GMOs, but not for human health risks.

“The USDA is notorious for ignoring the impact new GMOs will have on organic and non-GMO farmers who experience serious economic losses when their crops are contaminated.

“In recent years, the courts have had to step in and stop the planting of new GMOs. The courts did this by requiring that the USDA complete a thorough Environmental Impact Statement before approving a controversial crop. The Monsanto Protection Act strips the court of its constitutional power to review executive branch decisions, which means the courts can no longer intervene in order to protect the public. Now, the USDA can rubber-stamp new GMOs and, even if serious harm could result, the court can’t stop them from being planted.

“I hope the Senator will work to stop the Monsanto Protection Act from being extended past September 30 and vote against any bill that includes it.”

Background
The Monsanto Protection Act was first passed in March, when it was quietly and without debate slipped into the earlier version of the Continuing Resolution, a bill to fund the government through September 30. As Politico reporter David Rogers explained in his Monsanto Protection Act exposé, “Big Agriculture Flexes its Muscle,” the Monsanto-friendly rider was never voted on. Rogers, a seasoned political reporter, described how the Monsanto Protection Act became law “with little or no floor debate and in a period of turmoil.”

The backroom deal that made the Monsanto Protection Act law generated a public backlash. It was the subject of a Daily Show episode. And it helped spawn a worldwide March against Monsanto, reported on by the New York Times.

Because the Senate never voted on the Monsanto Protection Act, we don’t know where all of the senators stand on the issue. But here’s what we do know:

•    Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) conspired with Monsanto lobbyists to write the law.

•    Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the full Senate Appropriations Committee, publicly apologized for letting the Monsanto Protection Act slip through. But, she said, she had a responsibility to avoid a government shutdown.

•    Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), tried for a vote to repeal the Monsanto Protection Act during the Senate Farm Bill debate.

•    Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) blocked Merkley’s amendment.

•    Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D- Mich.) promised Merkley that the amendment wouldn’t be renewed without a vote.

Can Sen. Stabenow keep her promise? We’ll find out this week when the Senate debates the new Continuing Resolution. While the focus will be on the House’s provision to defund Obamacare, we need every senator to know that it is not acceptable to include the Monsanto Protection Act in the new bill.

Please call your senators today. Ask them to reject extending the Monsanto Protection Act and vote no on the Continuing Resolution unless this blatant giveaway to the biotech industry is removed.

Thank you!

— Alexis and the team at OCA

Organic Consumers Association

6771 South Silver Hill Drive – Finland, MN 55603 – Phone: 218-226-4164 – Fax: 218-353-7652

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Blog

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(PERSONAL BLOG)

I haven’t been blogging the past few days (writing, but not publishing) because the utter depravity of the food stamp fight was more than I could bear.  I was truly wondering whether to stop publishing….

Being poor doesn’t usually bother me to the point where I don’t want to blog–but this hit a little too close to home.  I resent being characterized as a no-good bum by people who are no good bums who get free haircuts, free parking, and coffee and complain because someone asks for food on the table….

More here.

And here.

Being poor has taught me so much,  which I know was the intent.  I have let go of the chains of thinking that my self-worth was wrapped up in what clothing I wore, the kind of car I drove, the house I had, or how much money I made.   Those, I discovered, were empty “calories” for want of a better word…that led to an emptiness of life.  Friends who like you because of your status will desert you when that status is lowered.   This was the second time I had gone through it (my first after my parents’ divorce).

It hit me the other day how badly I was treated after my parents’ divorce and the subsequent poverty I found myself in.  It hit me about the kids in school who may not have known their self-worth because they had not obtained the same status that I had previous to the poverty.  Before the divorce, I had people exclaim with delight, “Oh, you’re [popular doctor’s] daughter!”  After the divorce, these same people would treat me coldly.  Had I not known my previous life of self-worth (even if it was false)…had I not known that their treatment of me had nothing to do with me as a human being, but everything to do with my financial and social status….I perhaps would have felt as I imagine people who are poor their entire childhood (and perhaps life) feel when they don’t realize that they are not dirt because some idiot treats them that way–rather the person who treats them like dirt is the one with the problem.  And I’m not in any way trying to diminish how being treated that way affects one, as my opening statement attests to, but you can feel bad for awhile, but then get your second wind, hold your head up, and take a step forward.

It’s a hard lesson to learn–took me until my forties to realize all of that.  I let others define who I was and what worth I had.  Nobody gets to define who I am, what I am about, or what my soul’s worth is……which is really what you’re left when all the material things are stripped away…

 

 

The reality that you don’t hear about…

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…that the folks on food stamps can also be adjunct professors.  This has got to be one of the most sobering stories I’ve heard yet.  What the mainstream media won’t tell you is that college educated WORKING people are also in dire straits because the top 1% are taking it all for themselves, as we see in this case.

Note the comment where some administrator in a hospital gave herself a 90k bonus while paying low wages.

And other comments are blasting the university for her extremely low un-livable wages.   Good God.

Many ask why she didn’t have Medicare/Soc. Security at her age?  The article doesn’t tell us, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say she was probably making too much money as a professor for Social Security.  I don’t know about Medicare, but assuming they also have limits on how much they will pay for certain conditions, and if this was the second time that Margaret Mary had cancer, she had probably reached those limits.

They also ask the question of her being on assistance (food stamps, I presume?) .  Ooookay.  Um, let me explain something to those who think that food stamps are some sort of panacea–they’re NOT.  Even if she got food stamps, which we don’t know by this article, it still would not be enough.   Jaysus H., $10,000 a year?  That is less than a $1,000 per month, before taxes.    Who can survive on that??

Here’s the op-ed from Daniel Kovalik, who may have been the last person to talk to her.  What huge indignity for her (and anyone else who has to beg for food or medical care).

And here again we have the fight against unions for teachers…and a glaring point of why we need unionized teachers, because the administrators have their priorities in the wrong places (themselves and athletics):

While adjuncts at Duquesne overwhelmingly voted to join the United Steelworkers union a year ago, Duquesne has fought unionization, claiming that it should have a religious exemption. Duquesne has claimed that the unionization of adjuncts like Margaret Mary would somehow interfere with its mission to inculcate Catholic values among its students.

This would be news to Georgetown University — one of only two Catholic universities to make U.S. News & World Report’s list of top 25 universities — which just recognized its adjunct professors’ union, citing the Catholic Church’s social justice teachings, which favor labor unions.

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What is truly, truly, incredible was the heartless act of the university in calling the police after it was discovered she was sleeping in her office because her electricity was shut off.  Yeah, because Jesus would have tossed her out on her ass, too. /very snarky.
Lastly, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that Margaret Mary was a woman….women are more likely to be in poverty than men.

Statistically, women in America are more likely to be poor than men in all racial and ethnic backgrounds. With over 37 million people living in poverty, over half of them are adult single women. Surprisingly so, women in the U.S. are further behind in comparison to women in other areas of the world. This could be all connected to the gender wage gap, with women earning less money than their male counterparts, and the often expensive responsibility of raising children.

In a report entitled Living Below the Line: Economic Insecurity and America’s Families, lead authors Shawn McMahon and Jessica Horning found that 45 percent of American families live on incomes that fail to provide the basic economic security required to support their basic needs. In just four years, the overall financial insecurity rate rose from 38 percent to 45 percent with an increase in poverty of White children and unmarried couples. Children of color were also found at risk of economic security with more than three-quarters of Black children and three-quarters of Hispanic children facing poverty in their households.

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