agrarian grrl's journal

India to charge Monsanto for biopiracy

2012-01-15T19:46:00.004-04:00

An Indian government agency has agreed to sue the developers of genetically modified (GM) eggplant for violating India's Biological Diversity Act of 2002. India's National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is alleging that the developers of India's first GM food crop—Jalna-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) partnered with St. Louis–based seed giant Monsanto and several local universities—used local varieties to develop the transgenic crop, but failed to gain the appropriate licenses for field trials. At the same time, activists in Europe are claiming that patents on conventionally bred plants, including a melon found in India, filed by biotech companies violate farmers' rights to use naturally occurring breeds. Both these pending legal cases could set important precedents for biopiracy in India and Europe.

read more at Nature Biotechnology

Video from France24 on the Biopiracy suit

The People indict Agrochemical corporations

2011-12-15T17:07:00.005-04:00

Tribunal verdict vs. 6 agrochemical TNCs hailed, urgent action on recommendations urged

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) International hailed the verdict of the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) against the world's six largest agrochemical companies Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont and BASF after a historic four-day session that culminated in Bangalore, India yesterday.

Victims and survivors of the pesticide industry from all over the world, represented by PAN International, testified before a distinguished international jury to indict the "Big 6" for human rights violations. Based on evidence presented before it, the Tribunal found the Defendant agrochemical TNCs "responsible for gross, widespread and systematic violations of the right to health and life, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as of civil and political rights, and women and children's rights." see the verdict here

Read the whole Press release

What is the Permanent People's Tribunal?

* The Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) is an international opinion tribunal founded in 1979, in Italy based on a "Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples".
* It looks into complaints of human rights abuses submitted by the communities facing the abuses.
* It uses the rigorous conventional court format.
* It issues indictment, names relevant laws and document findings.
* While its verdicts are not legally binding, these can set precedent for future legal actions against, in this case, agrochemical corporations.

here

fundamentally screwed

2011-12-14T11:43:00.006-04:00

The conservative government who won the last election by a popular vote of 39% has this to say about the democratic process for Canada's wheat farmers.

"Let me be clear, we will never reconsider western wheat and barley farmers' fundamental rights to market their own wheat and barley," Federal Agriculture Minister Ritz said. CBC Winnipeg

Ritz's words (from an Ottawa area farm) followed A Federal Court judge's ruling last week that the Agriculture Minister "breached the Canadian Wheat Board Act by making changes without holding a plebiscite for producers".

Here are some voices of Canada's wheat farmers: You can find more here

North Mountain woods

2011-12-11T21:54:00.005-04:00

The mountain to the north of the farm has lost most of its autumn leaves. The orange clad hunters have abandoned the woods so it is safe to venture in. We go up looking for the fire and orbital agate veins that sudden chunks along leaf choked streams tease up. Or black crystal magnetite that sticks to a magnet and will get you lost as the compass needle swings a jig. The deer are still hiding out, but there are grouse and white rabbits and wild apples rotting in hidden vales. The walks and a few good books by the fire distract me from the work left undone, which can wait till spring; the fields are tucked in with a flush of fall rye, the garlic is rooted and the chickens are in the freezer. It has been my strategy since living in Nova Scotia to leave the farm to enjoy rest and perspective for the winter (while working in some remote camp). This year we will brave the Atlantic storms in this old house that my sweetheart has made into a warm and exciting home, Joy and gratitude spring up every day at the miracle of love in its beautifully unexpected permutations. I found an old lapidary unit, a gem maker of unknown vintage but solid character, and I am learning to cut the magical stones that cross my path, find pleasing patterns and grind out their potential. I have ground out a fingernail or two in the learning curve and have found a strategy for not getting soaked in an icy cold shop. The colours of the north mountain woods are in the stones whose patterns swirl and fuse some ancient stories that I am humbled by and hope to be present for with fingers intact. The stonework is a welcome transition from the laborious and often thankless work of market gardening to a creative process that while a new unexplored medium, feels like a comfortable old friend

Prayer for Snow

2011-12-09T21:07:00.007-04:00

let our weary bodies rest
let it snow deep and long
have the north wind give her best
whirl and sweep an icy song
with us in warm and grateful lifts
reflect upon three fruitful seasons
with bluegrass lullabies in time to drifts
larders full and no laborious reasons
to rise or strain or bend or task
just dance that amber dormant glow
until the earth warms and lifts the wintry mask
oh please just please let it snow

humanizing milk

2011-04-13T07:41:00.009-03:00

felt sculptor Stephanie Metz from the Over bred series

CBC and others reported last week on the Chinese success in engineering and cloning milk cows with human genes to express human milk proteins. Today the Chinese authorities have approved it for testing. Is this not the final straw? Oh its just China. Or is it?

Recent progress in recombinant DNA technology as well as in embryo manipulation and transfer has made the introduction of specific genes into the germline of animals relatively commonplace. With appropriate genetic constructs expression of the inserted genes in transgenic animals can be controlled in a tissue-specific and in a differentiation- specific manner; thus, it is now possible to consider alteration of the composition of milk produced by a lactating animal in any of a variety of ways. There is a growing list of foreign milk proteins that have been expressed, and one can envisage placing almost any protein gene of interest under the control of the cis-acting promoter and enhancer elements of a milk protein gene. Modification of milk composition can be extended not only to the proteins of commodity value but also, by manipulation of key metabolic enzymes, to fat, lactose, and other minerals in milk.
Here from American researchers.

The U.S. and Australia and interestingly, the Netherlands, have been researching transgenic livestock for over 20 years, including mammary gland secretions. But, as this story mentions, after all the hard work, public repudiation has prevented its fruition. That is a lot of research dollars (our money) and profits haven`t been taken. China is one of many places where that is going (to start) being done. The Netherlands food bio is actively involved in Sabre and is a key sponsor of innovative food tweaking and and wish we were all as malleable as our Chinese comrades. The scientist in charge of China's gmo bovines, Ning Li, is the Sabre coordinator for China. Expertise, decades of research and probably funding...who knows what other favours, are visible in those transgenes.

But we can't keep ordering double doubles and make milk mustaches ...can we? When is enough?
My suggestion for humanizing milk?

Lay off our cows; their genes belong first to cows or cow divas and second to farmer's and milk drinkers due to the century old traditions of breeding, nuturing and naming, continuously, said beast: it is common property. Common trust. Common interest.
Imbue milk with human kindness. That way. Not mother's milk coming out of industrial bioreactors. Not that definition of who we are. Mother's didn't give up the name of their milk...its called Mother's Milk and it belongs to women. (God would I love to be in a room with some old feminists farmers right now).

This will only happen (good milk) if there is a tradition and deep cultural acceptance of physical work and discipline to farm on human scales communities around small farms and homesteads cooperating, ecological and numerous.

home and farming

2011-04-13T07:24:00.002-03:00

I have been back on my farm in Nova Scotia for a few weeks now. I am saturated with the work of getting the fields ready, planting, fixin stuff, spring cleaning. I am reunited with my young Border Collie Buddy Macteeth, trick dog extraordinaire. The windrow of manure I laid down the center of my new field is well composted and provides material for 3 adjacent beds. Those beds and a few in my old field are planted to turnip radish salad peas and onions. The greenhouse is up and full of seeded salad and beets with a bench that now has onion starts waving their green luminescence. I transformed the sunroom to my potting house and am doing without copious light stands very effectively. Pictures will come in a couple of weeks when my sweetheart arrives for a visit with camera in tow. Maybe by then I`ll have something sweet under the belly of my new (old) Farmall 100! Until then I expect to post sporadically. Thank you dear readers.

2011-03-08T11:38:00.004-04:00

kathe_kollwitz Sythe

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its 2011 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report this week, just in time for today's International Women's Day. The report illustrates how better investments in female farmers would prevent malnourishment in 100-150 million people, because of the ways women are likely to allocate resources in a food-shortage-threatened world.

"The report shows the hard economic numbers behind a message we've known for a long time, which is that women are crucial for agricultural security,"
here

Poll tells us what we know: we want labels

2011-03-04T21:38:00.003-04:00

An MSNBC poll is asking “Do you believe genetically modified foods should be labeled?”

41,000 people have participated as of today with 96% answering “Yes. It’s an ethical issue — consumers should be informed so they can make a choice.”
You can vote here

One argument used to resist genetically modified organism/genetically engineered (GMO/GE) labeling sounds an awful lot like nanny-state thinking: “We must not allow labeling of GMOs because, given a choice, people would make the wrong choice.”
.... Forbes published a column insisting that we must not have GMO labeling. Why? Because then people would avoid such products.
Take a moment to absorb that interesting proposition, from a magazine which is supposed to be about business and economics. Not merely economics, but free market economics.
Can there be a “free market” when consumers are denied the right to make their own choices?
Can there be a “free market” when taxpayer subsidies are used to shore up a product which consumers don't want to buy?
GMO crops would have no place in an agriculture economy based on sound, free-market principles. As in, cost of production should not exceed market-value of end-product.
Fact: GMO crops cost more to grow than they are worth in the market.

Read more of Deb Baumann's great revelation of the obvious in Let the free market decide, Lake County News

Smoking mirrors will shatter

2011-03-04T12:19:00.002-04:00

Monsanto's press release, Statement About Alleged Plant Pathogen Potentially Associated with Roundup Ready Crops asserts:

"Monsanto is not aware of any reliable studies that demonstrate Roundup Ready® crops are more susceptible to certain diseases or that the application of glyphosate to Roundup Ready crops increases a plant’s susceptibility to diseases".

Yet this statement can be shown as evidently false by following the (reliable) research listed here:

Glyphosate effects on diseases of plants (G.S. Johal�, D.M. Huber)

Some diseases increased in glyphosate weed control programs. (pathogen noted in bold. disease in italics, researcher and date of study)

Apple: Canker Botryosphaeriadothidea; Rosenbergerand Fargione(2004)

Banana: Panamadisease Fusariumoxysporumf. sp. cubense Harper(2007)

Barley: Root rot Magnaporthegrisea Smileyetal. (1992)

Bean: Anthracnose Colletotrichumlindemuthianum; JohalandRahe(1984, 1988, 1990)

Bean: Damping off, Pythiumspp. ; JohalandRahe(1984)

Bean: Root rot Fusariumsolanif. sp. phaseoli; Harper(2007)

Bean: Hypocotylrot Phytophthoramegasperma; Keenetal. (1982)

Canola: Crownrot Fusariumspp. Harper(2007)

Canola: Wilt Fusariumoxysporum ; Harper(2007), LargeandMcLaren(2002)

Citrus: Citrusvariegatedchlorosis Xylellafastidiosa ; Yamada(2006)

Citrus: Crownrot Phytophthoraspp; Yamada(2006)

Cotton: Dampingoff Pythiumspp. Harper(2007)

Cotton: Bunchytop Manganese deficiency ; Harper(2007)

Cotton: Wilt F. oxysporumf. sp. vasinfectum Harper(2007)

Grape: Blackgoo Phaeomoniellachlamydospora; Harper(2007)

Soybeans: Root rot Corynesporacassiicola; Huberetal. (2005)

Soybeans Targetspot Corynesporacassiicola; Huberetal. (2005)

Soybeans: Sudden Death Syndrome Fusariumsolanif. sp. glycines ; Keen et al. (1982)

Soybeans: Root rot Phytophthoramegasperma ; Keen et al. (1982)

Soybeans: Cystnematode Heteroderaglycines Geisleretal; Kremer et al. (2000)

Soybeans: Whitemold Sclerotiniasclerotiorum; Harper(2007)

Sugarbeet: Yellows Fusariumoxysporumf. sp. beta ; Larson et al. (2006)

Sugarbeet: Root rot Rhizoctoniasolani ; Larson et al. (2006)

Tomato: Crownrootrot Fusarium; Bramhall and Higgins(1988)

Tomato: Wilt Fusariumoxysporumf. sp. pisi; Harper(2007)

Various: Canker Phytophthoraspp. Harper(2007)

Wheat: Barepatch Rhizoctoniasolani; Harper(2007)

Wheat: Glumeblotch Septoriaspp. ; Harper(2007)

Wheat: Root rot Fusariumspp. Fernandez et al. (2005, 2007), Harper(2007)

Wheat: Headscab Fusariumgraminearum ; Fernandez et al. (2005)

Wheat: Take-all Gaeumannomycesgraminis; Hornby et al. (1998)

on my snowshoes today

2011-03-04T12:02:00.006-04:00

We've had snowfall for the past few days leaving a new clear pallet for the wildlife to make their presence clear.

These tracks let up at the base of a spruce, in which its branches held this sleeping beauty.

transparency for risk assessment of Trangenic Salmon

2011-03-03T16:12:00.003-04:00

CBAN PRESS RELEASE
Parliament Under Pressure to Stop Genetically Modified Fish: Motion in
the House of Commons requests transparency

Thursday, March 3, 2011.

Ottawa - Today in the House of Commons, New Democratic Party Fisheries
and Oceans Critic Fin Donnelly tabled a motion asking for transparency
and more study before genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon are
approved for human consumption.

US company AquaBounty has genetically modified a faster growing
Atlantic salmon by inserting a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon
and genetic material from ocean pout.

AquaBounty has asked the US Food and Drug Administration to approve
the GM Atlantic salmon for human consumption but the status of any
requests for approvals from the company to the Canadian government are
unknown because our federal departments refuse to disclose this
information.

“Why won’t the government tell us if they are doing a risk
assessment?” asked Leo Broderick of PEI and Vice-Chair of the Council
of Canadians, “AquaBounty wants to supply the market with genetically
modified salmon eggs from PEI but Canadians have no clue if the
company has asked for approval here.”

AquaBounty is not planning to produce GM salmon in the US but is
instead proposing to produce all the GM salmon eggs on Prince Edward
Island and then ship the eggs for grow out and processing in Panama,
for selling into the US consumer market.

Today’s motion asks the government to explain its regulations and to
set up a system to notify Canadians about any requests for approval
and approval decisions. The motion also asks the government to
“prevent the introduction of genetically modified salmon destined for
human consumption into the Canadian food system until further
scientific studies are concluded by the relevant departments to
determine the impact of genetically modified salmon on human health
and on the health of marine species, ecosystems and habitats.”

“We call on all Members of Parliament to support the motion. It is a
request for basic transparency,” said Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian
Biotechnology Action Network. "This cloak of secrecy is unjustifiable
and, frankly, ridiculous."

“DFO’s own scientists have acknowledged that genetically modified
salmon pose a real risk to our wild fish stocks,” said Catherine
Stewart of Living Oceans Society in B.C. “Any debate on this issue,
any scientific research informing the debate, must be made available
to all concerned citizens.”

Sixty fisheries and oceans conservation, environmental and social
justice groups released a joint statement in December 6, 2010,
opposing GM fish.

For more information:
www.cban.ca/fish

New pathogen connected to Glyphosate: "an emergency"

2011-02-27T13:17:00.004-04:00

Reuters

Questions about the safety of a popular herbicide made by Monsanto Co have resurfaced in a warning from a U.S. scientist that claims top-selling Roundup may contribute to plant disease and health problems for farm animals.

Plant pathologist and retired Purdue University professor Don Huber has written a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning that a newly discovered and widespread "electron microscopic pathogen appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings." He said the pathogen appears to be connected to use of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.

Huber coordinates a committee of the American Phytopathological Society as part of the USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System. He is a long-standing critic of biotech crops, such as Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" soybean and corn, which have been genetically altered to withstand treatments of Roundup herbicide.

In his letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Huber said the organism has been found in high concentrations of Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, which are used in livestock feed. He said laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the organism in pigs, cattle and other livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility.

The organism is also prolific in corn and soybean crops stricken by disease, according to Huber.

"I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high risk status," Huber wrote. "In layman's terms, it should be treated as an emergency."

Read the whole Reuter's story

The extensive use of glyphosate, and the rapid adoption of genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant crops such as soybean, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets, and alfalfa; with their greatly increased application of glyphosate for simplified weed control, have intensified deficiencies of numerous essential micronutrients and some macronutrients......Lost yield, reduced quality, and increased disease are the unfortunate consequences of untreated micronutrient deficiency.

Plant pathogens stimulated by glyphosate:

Botryospheara dothidea Gaeumannomyces graminis
Corynespora cassicola Magnaporthe grisea
Fusarium species Marasmius spp.
F. avenaceum Monosporascus cannonbalus
F. graminearum Myrothecium verucaria
F. oxysporum f.sp. cubense Phaeomoniella chlamydospora
F. oxysporum f.sp. (canola) Phytophthora spp.
F. oxysporum f.sp. glycines Pythium spp.
F. oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum Rhizoctonia solani
F. solani f.sp. glycines Septoria nodorum
F. solani f.sp. phaseoli Thielaviopsis bassicola
F. solani f.sp. pisi Xylella fastidiosa

From AG CHEMICAL AND CROP NUTRIENT INTERACTIONS – CURRENT UPDATE
Don M. Huber, Emeritus Professor, Purdue University

Dr. Huber's letter

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn—suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!

This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen’s source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.

We are informing the USDA of our findings at this early stage, specifically due to your pending decision regarding approval of RR alfalfa. Naturally, if either the RR gene or Roundup itself is a promoter or co-factor of this pathogen, then such approval could be a calamity. Based on the current evidence, the only reasonable action at this time would be to delay deregulation at least until sufficient data has exonerated the RR system, if it does.

For the past 40 years, I have been a scientist in the professional and military agencies that evaluate and prepare for natural and manmade biological threats, including germ warfare and disease outbreaks. Based on this experience, I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high risk status. In layman’s terms, it should be treated as an emergency.

................

Sincerely,

COL (Ret.) Don M. Huber
Emeritus Professor, Purdue University

Monsanto's press release, Statement About Alleged Plant Pathogen Potentially Associated with Roundup Ready Crops asserts:

"Monsanto is not aware of any reliable studies that demonstrate Roundup Ready® crops are more susceptible to certain diseases or that the application of glyphosate to Roundup Ready crops increases a plant’s susceptibility to diseases".

Yet this statement can be shown as evidently false by following the research listed here:
Glyphosate effects on diseases of plants (G.S. Johal, D.M. Huber)

the functional ingredient engineered into Enogen corn

2011-02-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

Amylase: Any of a group of enzymes that are present in saliva, pancreatic juice, and parts of plants and catalyze the hydrolysis of starch to sugar to produce carbohydrate derivatives.

ethanol this: enzymes can't be pestulent right?

2011-02-16T13:25:00.012-04:00

The USDA has hurried to approve yet another GM crop — a variety of GM corn called Enogen. That makes three GM crops the USDA has hastily rushed to approve in the last two weeks.

But there is a stunning difference in this particular GM crop: Enogen GM corn is one of the first crops genetically engineered to contain a trait that influences the use of the plant after harvest. Until now, virtually all GM crops possessed insect and herbicide-resistant traits only.

According to the NYTimes, Enogen corn contains a microbial gene that causes it to produce an enzyme that breaks down corn starch into sugar, the first step toward making ethanol.
Read more here includes link to N.Y. times story.

Enogen Corn Amylase Event 3272
from Novel Food Information; Health Canada:

The alpha-amylase enzyme expressed in event 3272 is a chimeric enzyme derived from three wild-type alpha-amylases isolated from the archaeal order Thermococcales. Gene reassembly was performed using the three wild-type genes as a parental sequence to produce chimeric alpha-amylase genes. A screening strategy was designed to identify a chimeric alpha-amylase with increased thermostability and activity during the high temperatures required for starch hydrolysis in dry-grind ethanol production from corn grain. The introduction of the thermostable alpha-amylase gene into corn will replace the need to add supplemental microbially-produced amylase in the production of ethanol derived from corn.

Mary Waters, President of North America Miller's Association says:

Syngenta's 3272 Amylase Corn Trait contains a powerful enzyme that breaks down the starch in corn rapidly, a cost saving function for ethanol production. If it should enter the food processing stream, the same function that benefits ethanol production will damage the quality of food products like breakfast cereals, snack foods, and battered products.

Link to NAMA's petition to the USDA on Enogen 3272 Amylase Corn

Union of Concerned Scientists writes:

Deregulating Genetically Engineered Industrial Corn Will Contaminate Food Supply Corn and Harm U.S. Food Industry

WASHINGTON (February 11, 2011) – Over the objections of scientists, food millers and food processors, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it will deregulate the first genetically engineered industrial corn crop, commonly called ethanol corn. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), allowing farmers to plant engineered ethanol corn will contaminate corn intended for food, which could have serious consequences for the U.S. food industry.

intersecting lives

2011-02-12T18:16:00.019-04:00

I have come down out of the bituminous sands, through the acrid sooty frozen air, the instant camps and the big sad boomtown. I have quit my job and am rejuvenating my soul in the company of a spectacular woman and her small farm in a beautiful lonely valley in central Alberta. The joys and insights are simple and profound. I loll about cooking, walking, staring into space when she goes to town to work. It is the first time in several years where I have done absolutely nothing planned or involving drudgery.

She has a flock of heirloom chickens and an assortment of hounds that keep watch, calling out the presence of moose, coyote or wolves and are a blessed company on the ski trail. The snow is deep, but soft as it has warmed up here and snow shoes break through to a harder layer frozen 2 feet below.

Her beautiful and complex farm, intersected everywhere with pipelines, wellheads and air traffic is a wilderness overlain with the oil industry and scattered here and there with the discarded bones of a farming industry abandoned suddenly for more lucrative pursuits. You can imagine the dinosaurs that once ranged here. Ancient bones and fossils, wildlife trails, native pathways, old settler's ruins...

alfalfa trip

2011-02-04T10:50:00.008-04:00

Alfalfa hay growers targeting organic or export markets needn’t worry that their fields will be contaminated with the Roundup Ready gene, says Mark McCaslin.

Interviewed last Thursday shortly after USDA announced that Roundup Ready alfalfa will be deregulated without restrictions, the president of Forage Genetics International emphasized that “Alfalfa is a forage crop, harvested well before the ripe seed stage. There’s no evidence of gene flow from one hayfield to another. To suggest otherwise is just not accurate. Gene flow in alfalfa is not a hay issue.”

Anyone who has driven a highway, cut hay, walked along country roads or been behind a truck transporting alfalfa hay knows this statement to be the BS that it is. Gene Flow studies not linked with corporate diddlers, like this one perhaps, The Feral nature of Alfalfa are a good resource for those whose powers of observation and experience are muted to "science based" data.

The sheer tonnage of crap coming through regarding transgenic alfalfa has covered the opposition and they are resigned to living under it, finding ways to adapt. But Coexistence is looking like a profitable proposition, and is destined to be besmirched with the compromises that afford.

Perhaps genetically engineered crops should have a fluorescent marker insert or some means of identification, or a tool like this:

To the untrained eye, the false-color images appear a hodge-podge of colors without any apparent purpose. But Thomas is now trained to see yellows where crops are infested, shades of red indicating crop health, black where flooding occurs, and brown where unwanted pesticides land on her chemical-free crops.
here

or perhaps pollinators could additionally be equipped with nanosensors to determine their pathways to our gmo free crops or more realistically our fields and pathways to them could have neonosensors to alert us to their coming. here

People profit from our ignorance at the cost of our innocence and integrity as a people (and yes having the freedom and responsibility to choose our foods and feedstuffs is about integrity of our culture). And we let them:

Thursday, February 10, 2011. Ottawa - Last night, a majority of Liberal MPs joined with Conservatives to vote down an important Private Members Bill on genetic engineering (GE). Bill C-474 would have required that “an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed is permitted.” The Bill was defeated 176 to 97.

CBAN press release

loves comes burgeoning in just before spring

2011-01-31T09:19:00.006-04:00

I am staying on a small farm south of Edmonton for my week off; I return soon and reluctantly for the next three week stint a 6 hr drive up beyond the prairie and through the boreal forest from here. A forest crisscrossed with seismic cuts, oil and gas installations, telecom towers and camps. A world away from this warm fire, its circle of lounging hounds, ski trails past moose prints and dreams of spring. I am putting together a seed order, but the books on the shelf, and the woman who has collected them happily interupt my task: There are hundreds of distractions: Garden Magic, Strange Lives of Familiar Insects, a complete collection of 70s Organic Gardener magazines. They are the books collected by a kindred spirit and reflect the aspirations of a woman farming alone. She goes out to feed her chickens and attend to other farm chores in a furred aviator cap, red insulated coveralls, work jacket, size 10 boots but under it all the lacy bra and a sweet body whose soul I love as much as this dream of spring.

local sweet potatoes from the peanut man

2011-01-22T11:13:00.005-04:00

Under deep hay in the insulated pumphouse in my big barn back home is a treasure of sweet potatoes that I grew last year. They are massive, well coloured and delicious and have been growing in the valley for over 30 years. This is how I found them:

I stopped for smokes at a small store in a town down the valley last spring and an aged man with big dirty hands and a cheeky grin was hanging out the front. He looked me up and down and asked me "do you want to see my peanuts". The word was incongruous and I wasn't sure I heard him right, so I excused myself to hear again that indeed it was "peanuts" he wanted to show me (the "T" was obscured in his valley accent) I wavered a moment and then agreed, because he was ancient I guess, and off we went behind the store to a series of small sheds. He insisted I come in, as there was a double door and he didn't want his "peanuts" to get cold. His cheeky grin became diabolical. It was then I noticed the sweet potato slips in pots under lights through a grimy window and I went in with him. Hundreds of peanuts green and a smaller number of sweet potato slips. He has been growing peanuts in the Annapolis Valley for over 70 years, having started them in a school science project and planting them thereafter faithfully every year. The sweet potatoes he had started from tubers he found at a store 30 years ago and it was these massive beauties that interested me. I left laden with a dozen slips. I hope he is still around, because for sure I will be going to see his peanuts this spring. And if the mice or rot have got my sweet spuds lets hope his dirty hands and cheeky grin are still preserving something special indeed.

cultivating options

2011-01-21T12:21:00.009-04:00

I am almost ready to fork over some hard earned cash for a new equipment regime for the coming season. I sold the big old Massey 165 last fall that has served me well until now; she had done the big bulky work on the new (to me) farm (plowing and disking, ditching, hauling, pounding posts; it is too big and heavy for me and the garden now. I also needed the cash.

I am still mulling over the best of three options but am coming very close to this one:

The metal beast not the item beside her...

The other options: The BCS, which I wrote about here
is tempting as I am experienced with it, but is too expensive (with all the required new implements):

and B) a horse and implements
which is unrealistic for a seasonal, aging and inexperienced horsewoman, even though I pine to work that way and have been secretly collecting equipment to one day farm with the steam of a 4 legged companion. It is, I must conceed, for another sweet day.

The farmall super A I have my eye on is affordable and comes with a parts tractor, a bellymount to weeding equipment I like to use in a vegetable field and has a 3 point kit on the back that may take my tiller. The implements are available and relatively affordable and I am handy with a welder. The other postive is horse equipment can be modified for the farmall and vice versa.

the stupidity of googone

2011-01-19T10:52:00.008-04:00

I have another couple of months work to save for a tractor and blown in insulation before I return home to the farm. I have moved companies and am working in a large camp perched lucratively beside a large black gash in the snowy boreal forest. It is surrounded by frosty poplars, under great plumes of oily steam with beams of lights thrusting skyward. The trailers are perfectly aligned with matching porch lights lit at the same frequencies. My job is to remove all evidence of industrial and human debris from surfaces and appliances: I am a janitor.

There is a large boot room one first enters that is the threshold of this establishment and where the black gooey bitumen encroaches daily carried in on boots, gloves, PPE, etc. The rules for removal of all outside clothing is strict and they are left on hangers, shelves and the floor of this room. The union workers ("boys" as they are called) strip down to sweats, longjohns, moccasin or sneakers and then exit the boot room into the more easily managed neutrality of the halls and diningroom. Apart from a "GetRDone" poster one could then be anywhere.

One of the tools of my trade is a solvent called googone that I am required to use. After the room is assembled in order, scrubbed and vacuumed, I erase every blot of the oilsand that dared enter and interior spaces are as clean as is necessary to forget real consequence.

The joyful sky ballet of the ravens or the butt end of a bobcat sneaking back into the poplars and the full blue moon shining her light over rows of endless trailers is nature intruding in this carefully controlled world. I worry that there may soon be a substance equivalent to googone to rub out moon light or coyote tracks, lest the power of the natural world detract from the business at hand.

The Common Interest vs Big Ag

2010-12-22T23:41:00.007-04:00

Consulting with the people for a roadmap to sustainable development; this is what all the fuss is over.

"We’ve been saying for years that the United States government is joined at the hip with Monsanto and pushing GMOs as part of Monsanto’s agenda on the rest of the world. This lays bare the mechanics of that effort. We have Craig Stapleton, the former ambassador to France, specifically asking the U.S. government to retaliate and cause some harm throughout the European Union."
Jeffery Smith in Democracy Now interview

From the Wikileak cable
Subject: France and the WTO AG BIOTECT CASE

1. (C) Summary: Mission Paris recommends that that the USG reinforce
our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by
publishing a retaliation list when the extend "Reasonable Time
Period" expires. In our view, Europe is moving backwards not
forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with
Austria, Italy and even the Commission. In France, the "Grenelle"
environment process is being implemented to circumvent science-based
decisions in favor of an assessment of the "common interest."
Combined with the precautionary principle, this is a precedent with
implications far beyond MON-810 BT corn cultivation. Moving to
retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to
EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.
In fact, the pro-biotech side in France -- including within the farm
union -- have told us retaliation is the only way to begin to begin
to turn this issue in France. End Summary.

More

The peace prize old white men decide

2010-12-10T16:33:00.010-04:00

It says plenty that empty chair, the one with, apparently, powerful Norwegians coddling its gilded edges. That the empty chair at the nobel peace award was for Chinese dissident and not Saudi woman's rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider or any number of champions of the rights of women, children, farmers, the impoverished and war terrorized in our, and allied, lands is plain expected, unlike the swank chair. That 5 old white Norwegian men with a nod from a moldy old monarchy can still dish up a ceremonial ruckus unnerves me in its hypocrisy.

On Western apathy toward the treatment of Arab women - "I wish I knew why the situation of the women in certain Arab states is not condemned by the countries of the world, and does not enrage their citizens. Why do the human rights activists ignore their suffering as though they do not even exist? Why isn't the cry of these millions of women heard, and why isn't it answered by anyone, anywhere [in the world]? Why? Why? Why? Is it because they are women, while our patriarchal world is ruled by men without an ounce of compassion in their hearts? Maybe that is [indeed the case]."

Wajeha al-Huwaider; quoted in Sand Gets in my Eyes

Can't argue with this apple?

2010-11-30T17:37:00.005-04:00

photo of the cisgenic apple from: Researcher bites into forbidden fruit

Also see here for background story

A central theme of biotech public relations is, in their words to " placate the misinformed public opinion by using clever technologies to circumvent traditional unfounded criticisms of biotechnology."

Enter Cisgenics, where the industry contends that
" most of their (the public's) weak arguments are disabled via these techniques. Unfortunately, the end product is the same, maybe even less effective, than if traditional transgenic approaches were used, and it takes a lot more time and money to make it happen.

This is just one example of how scientists are cleverly working around warped public perception problems to solve real issues, and enhance sustainable production. Cisgenics will be at least a stop-gap solution in the European Union until public education and perception refocus real problems in sustainable agriculture. For now, the practices of cisgenics may be the central means of introducing traits to plants that can benefit the consumer and environment without the lengthy breeding process, and most of all without raising the ire of those that seek to stop transgenic technology.".

quoted from cisgenics-transgenics without the transgene

symbiosis in the garden

2010-11-15T14:17:00.004-04:00

I love growing covercrops, and have experimented with several over the years. I like to interplant clover in tomatoes and peppers, and have grown asparagus in a permaculture system with dutch clover. I have used field peas and austrian winter peas in a mix with oats for a summer green manure, but apart from those examples, I have not been very adventurous with legumous cover crops.

Rhizobium bacteria live in the cells of legume root nodules of and are estimated to carry out 50-70% of the world's biological nitrogen fixation.

"The nodulation process is a series of events in which rhizobia interact with the roots of legume plants to form a specialised structure called a root nodule.
The process involves complicated signals between the bacteria and the roots. In the first stages, the bacteria multiply near the root and then adhere to it. Next, the small hairs on the root's surface curl around the bacteria and they enter the root. Alternatively, the bacteria may enter directly through points on the root surface. The method of entry of the bacteria into the root depends on the type of plant. Once inside the root, the bacteria multiply within thin threads. Signals stimulate cell multiplication of both the plant's cells and the bacteria and this repeated division results in a mass of root cells containing many bacterial cells. Some of these bacteria then change into a form that is able to convert gaseous nitrogen into ammonium nitrogen (that is, they can "fix" nitrogen). These bacteria are then called bacteroids." source

In return, the microbes get high-energy carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis in the host plant. There are different species of rhizobia and they are associated with different plants: the soil bacteria that is a symbiont of clover is different than the species engaged with lupines, for example.

I have many nitrogen fixers growing wild in the pasture, and expect that soil conditions for these are better suited for my soil and climate conditions; there is vetch, red clover, white clovers and lupine for example, but no alfalfa. I expect that because these plants are thriving there is a healthy community of the soil bacteria that each of these plants require to provide the symbiotic relationship necessary to fix nitrogen in the plant. I value these natural precedents and try to take my cue from the pasture ecosystem in my garden.

Blue Lupin is good plant for nitrogen, phosphorus and deep soil
penetration. It is a very good at extracting and concentrating minerals in the soil so when the plant material decomposes it made available for the next generation of plants. Hairy and common vetch are excellent for nitrogen fixation, although they won't produce as much biomass as clover,so seeding with a mix of rye or oats will add this bulk.

White dutch clover, once established provides an excellent hardy cover for paths in the garden and will withstand foot and even tractor traffic down the beds.

Here are some great resources

Organic Ag Center; Green Manure Options
Attra Overview of Cover Crops and Green Manures

traces of the past

2010-11-11T11:10:00.008-04:00

"I haven’t seen that much of the world honestly, but from what I have seen, this area strikes me as being particularly beautiful but also haunted by its history. History that most of us are completely ignorant of – including the expulsion of the Acadians, the Micmac who were pushed out of parts of the Annapolis Valley, and the history of slavery, since the Planters brought slaves with them from New England and Rhode Island and South Carolina and that needs to be thought through or remembered. So, there’s a lot there. That landscape, as beautiful as it may seem to the naked, untrained eye, is also a landscape which hides and shrouds an awful lot of, in some cases, very negative history. And in fact, I find that one of the most compelling aspects of the Valley, in that, here again is this great beautiful landscape, but behind it or beneath it, is this incredible history of sometimes great pain and tragedy"
George Elliott Clarke, from an 2001 interview in the Gaspereau Press

I live on the lower Annapolis River. The oxbows and river inlets are still discernable on the river that was called the Dolphine then, and apart from the odd unfortunate whale nothing gets past the tidal generating station at the mouth of the river at Annapolis Royal. Click on the map from the early 1700s of the Acadian villages on the lower river. The oxbow where my old farm lies is between the names Broussard and Beaulieu, just up river from the Chapel of St. Laurent.

Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil probably grew up near here, learning Mi'kmaq, growing food, hunting, discovering and modifying the lay of a land where battles raged. Bloody creek is just up river. Beau Pre is directly across from this Oxbow. A burial ground exists on the old paper deeds but a road now goes over it, and a subdivision's common area overlays the bones which are unmarked except for marsh grass, wild plum, apple and giant ancient oak.

And then there is Beaulieu! It appears that the only record of the Acadian Beaulieu is Louis Fontaine dit Beaulieu. He was married to Mary Magdelene Roy who was Mi'kmaq and possibly African, her father being La Liberte Roy a free man born in St. Malo, on the Cape Sable census in 1681 (La Liberte la neigre) and later Port Royal.

Who were they? How did they live? Why have they been erased from the cultural and (almost from the) physical landscape on the lower oxbows of the river? Was it their interracial cooperation that threatened? Or the gentle sustainable interaction with the landscape? Or their independence? Cultural genocide is a story told in oaks with ancient limbs, in old stone wells, and pathes past old foundations to citrine laced streams. The story is yet told, waiting to get past the dam of cultural bias.

life in dormancy

2010-11-11T10:20:00.007-04:00

The farm is tucked away for the winter now and battling the elements without her farmer; she has done this before: I like adventure and the farm was stoically solo for years before I bought it. The lambs and vegetables are sold, the buildings shored up, fall rye is a blanket on the gardens and the equipment is locked away. I am in Saskatchewan helping out in a mining camp kitchen and it is snowing.
I miss my wee Buddy Macteeth and I imagine him mourning my absence, but he has a terrific situation for the winter, including some training with sheep and we will reunite in the spring, prepared for a new season or at least not be dead broke.
Now that the world of the soil and the markets are dormant I hope to have time to return to the blog for a final chapter before I move on to new creative projects; there are a few more things I want to express.

small and underreported

2010-10-20T09:13:00.004-03:00

Project Censored top 25 underreported stories includes:

Nanotech Particles Pose Serious DNA Risks to Humans and the Environment

Story links to a number of studies indicating genetic damage caused by atom sized nanoparticles.

Yet another attempt to snuff out local food security

2010-10-16T18:42:00.005-03:00

National Farmers Union Oct 14 Press Release:

Campaign Against Canada–EU Trade Agreement

SASKATOON, Sask.─ “Today, the National Farmers Union is launching a national
campaign against the threat to the democratic rights of farmers and citizens posed
by the proposed Canada – European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and
Trade Agreement (CETA). The NFU’s campaign objective is to inform farmers and
citizens of what is being bargained away, and to have the agreement scrapped”, said
Terry Boehm, President of the National Farmers Union.
The National Farmers Union obtained a draft of the secret text of the agreement this
spring. The fifth round of negotiations will occur in Ottawa next week, and the
Canadian Government has announced that it will ratify the deal in 2011. Canadians
are largely unaware of the agreement and what is being ceded to the demands of
the European Union. Canada has very little to gain in the agreement as European
Union tariffs average only 2%.
Canadian farmers will lose a great deal and be subject to draconian intellectual
property rights enforcement measures. CETA could virtually eliminate the age-old
practice of farmer’s saving, reusing, exchanging, and selling seed from their crops.
“Using farm saved seed could cost you and your farm. The farmer’s land,
equipment, and crops can be seized for an alleged infringement of intellectual
property rights attached to plant varieties owned by global seed corporations
such as Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta”, said Boehm. “Canada’s dairy, poultry,
and egg supply management will also be at risk”, added Boehm.
“The National Farmers Union has joined social justice organizations to raise the
alarm over the inability, under CETA, of our elected governments to favour locally
procured goods and services. All levels of government including municipalities and
our cities will be prohibited from giving preference to local food and locally owned
businesses and services. Product and food safety will be at risk as Canadian
standards cannot exceed international technical standards. Imported products and
food cannot be inspected until after a problem has occurred. Canada must accept
any of the European Union’s 27 member countries’ certificates. If one province or
territory accepts a European Union product, all provinces and territories are banned
from refusing the product”, said Boehm.
One only has to look at the results of Canada’s slavish support of liberalized global
trade over the last twenty years, to see the results. Canada’s farmers have tripled
exports, but farm debt has tripled as well reaching $64 billion. Moreover, realized
net farm income from the markets has been negative since 2002.
“Today, the National Farmers Union calls on all farmers and citizens to stop this
march over the next cliff, by informing their elected officials at all levels, that the
losses under CETA, a global corporate bill of rights, will not be tolerated”, concluded
National Farmers Union President, Terry Boehm.

more

Canadian Constitution Foundation champions food freedom

2010-09-29T12:49:00.007-03:00

Karen Selick litigation director of the CCF

"Michael and I will be asking the court to rule that the Charter right to “life, liberty and security of the person” includes your right to make independent decisions about your health and the food you eat."

read more about this here and at Michael Schmidt's site the Bovine

Is my excitement justified in thinking this could be about a larger issue of food choice freedoms (labeling of cloned meat, transgenics), shall I get out the celebratory beverage?

dairy farmer's drink it

2010-09-29T06:20:00.001-03:00

In a recent survey of 2,185 milk producers published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 88.7 per cent “reported that they or their families consume unpasteurized milk from their bulk milk tanks.”
here

what is this machine?

2010-09-25T15:22:00.008-03:00

Is this machine for real? It looks to me as if it has just planted ready to pick tomatoes!
Gotta get me some of this Urban Ag... LOL

And while we're on this theme I will venture to quote:

"Urban farming is never going to feed us. We don’t have the land or, really, the know-how to be food self-sufficient. We’re not going to be growing wheat in Golden Gate Park or rice on Palo Alto’s Moffett Field anytime soon. Anyway, why should we want to? Cities exist to be centers of art and culture and commerce — not grain fields."
If Urban Farms Can’t Feed Us, What Are They Good For?

More people weigh in on global agriculture

2010-09-24T19:08:00.005-03:00

"I have now been 20 years in a multilateral organisation which tries to develop guidance and codes for good agricultural practice, but the real, true issues are not being addressed by the political process because of the influence of lobbyists, of the true powerful entities," said Dr Samuel Jutzi, a director of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation at a summit in London this week.

Here

Mama comes on a Tractor

2010-09-24T10:46:00.003-03:00

from Gallery of Chinese Propaganda Posters (1925-2006)

200 Highlights from the collections of the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, and Stefan R. Landsberger (University of Amsterdam, Leiden University).

here

nanoworld defined

2010-09-24T10:31:00.003-03:00

If you've been wondering about the new world of nanotechnology which is working behind the scenes to become the next great engine of the capitalist/corportist economy...look
at the dictionary of nanotechnology for stuff about, for example

nanobarcodes
nanosensors
nanorobotics
nanosprays
nanofood
nanoetc

nanodictionary

U.S. getting more 'local" as a response to regulatory gap(ing holes) in nano regulation?

2010-09-24T10:07:00.004-03:00

"the nanotechnology industry played a central role in driving states toward taking on nanotechnology oversight, because industry's principal stance on the issue has been to urge the federal government to "slow-walk" nanotechnology regulation. Denison presents examples of industry blocking or slowing down even modest proposals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to obtain better information about nanomaterials over the last several years, and how it continues to do so, even though no EPA action to date would actually regulate, or place any restriction on the production, or use of, any nanomaterial."

Richard Denison
Environmental Defense Fund.

vegetables and sod

2010-09-07T09:20:00.004-03:00

Around this time of year it is frequently heard that people are contemplating a next season market garden in what is currently a pasture/field/meadow ensconced in a beautiful lively sod - a sod teaming with life, an ecosystem entwined in tissues of interdependent root, debris and millions of organisms supporting the life of, what is really weeds, to the one with carrot in mind. To eradicate that and produce veggies the next spring is a very serious matter that should be considered only in dire economic/survival situations.

Better to ease on over...a planting of buckwheat twice over followed by oats and peas to winter kill and gives generous compost and lime/phospahate rock if necessary gives a more opportune garden for vegetables come springtime.

War Era Food Posters Exhibit

2010-07-23T14:36:00.008-03:00

A fascinating exhibit of posters from the National Agricultural Library:
When Beans Were Bullets is available online with its physical version at the National Agricultural Library, Maryland, June 21 to August 30, 2010.

label genetically engineered food cause we are what we eat

2010-07-08T21:09:00.017-03:00

In May of 2011 Codex meets in Quebec and labeling is still very alive on the table: "The federal policy on labelling foods derived from biotechnology remains under discussion with Canadians and international standards organizations such as Codex Alimentarius", Health Canada states. In fact at the Codex meeting this spring a significant Canadian retreat from the overt backing of the US position that GE food is substantially equivalent, was evident. No wonder ...its become clear that is both incorrect and only a piece of the problematic puzzle. We have 10 months to think about, talk, coalesce our strategies and ensure we get mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods established next year in Canada.

Keep an eye on CBAN to help their ongoing campaign, which targets the pressuring of Health Canada.

But I think plural is best (strategieS) the debate must reach wider than the issues of toxicity and oontamination/transgene pollution to include the freedom of choice to live morally, a conscientious or religious objection.

It is amazing to me that this has never been challenged as a Charter issue, its not as if people aren't writing about it for eg. Could we mount a campaign that encompasses all of us who understand life has deep complexity, mystery, organization to engage in devotion and service to the sanctity of life one should be free to not eat transgenic, engineered food. Could we motivate spiritual communities to proclaim and demand that? the Council of Churches, Buddhist Sangas, Indigenous Councils, Muslim , Jew, Hindu, Pagan Urban dwellers and small lesbian farmers? I think so!

My brain today has been offering up quotes from sunday school lessons a very long time ago:

I am the bread of life

By the fruits shall ye know them

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things were made through it and without it was not any thing made that was made.

Labeling GMOs closer: "Substantial Equivalence" faltering

2010-07-08T12:46:00.006-03:00

From CBAN Press release

Canada & Codex: GM labeling – US Increasingly Isolated
May 12, 2010

Canada at the UN Codex meeting on GM food labeling: Negotiations continue, U.S. increasingly isolated

Your actions worked – again!

Thanks to your letters, the Canadian government delegation to the UN
Codex meeting last week did not boldly ally itself with the U.S.
position against GM food labeling. The U.S. failed in their attempts
to stop the negotiations.

The Canadian government did not speak up to support the nonsensical
position from the U.S. that GM foods are no different from foods
produced through conventional methods. Though not yet actively
supporting a positive position on GM labeling, Canada did not obstruct
the meeting and the U.S. was not able to put an end to the
negotiations. Out of the over 50 countries at the negotiations, the
U.S. was only supported in its position by Mexico, Costa Rica, and
Argentina.

Codex recommendations on GM labeling could protect developing
countries from challenges brought through the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. was trying to put an end to the UN Codex negotiations on GM
labeling but the negotiations will continue. There will be an
important Codex meeting in May 2011 in Quebec City – and we must
continue to pressure the Minister of Health. The Canadian
Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) will continue to take action and
monitor this issue, as well as collaborate with U.S. groups. Please
see below from Consumers Union in the U.S.

For updates and more information: Cban

moral principles of informed consent

2010-07-08T06:54:00.004-03:00

Thus far, the moral debate concerning genetically modified foods (GMF) has focused on extrinsic consequentialist questions about the health effects, environmental impacts, and economic benefits of such foods. This extrinsic approach to the morality of GMF is dependent on unsubstantiated empirical claims and fails to account for the intrinsic moral value of food and food choice and their connection to the agent's concept of the goodlife. I develop a set of objections to GMF grounded in the concept of integrity and maintain that food and food choice can be intimately connected to the agent's personal integrity. I argue that due to the constitution of GMF and the manner in which they are produced, such foods are incompatible with the fundamental values and integrity of certain individual moral agents or groups. I identify three types of integrity that are threatened by GMF: religious, consumer, and integrity based on certain other moral or metaphysical grounds. I maintain that these types of integrity are sufficiently important to provide justification for political and societal actions to protect the interests of those affected. I conclude by proposing specific steps for handling GMF consistent with the moral principles of informed consent, non-maleficence, and respect for the integrity of all members of society. They include mandatory labeling of GMF, the implementation of a system for control and regulations concerning such foods, and guaranteed provision of conventional foods.

Assya Pascalev
You Are What You Eat: Genetically Modified Foods, Integrity, and Society;
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

The EU recognises the consumers' right to information and labelling as a tool for making an informed choice. Since 1997 Community legislation has made labelling of GM food mandatory for foods containing or are derived from GMO.

Canadians should not let up their demands to provide consumers their birthright as Canadians, protected in our charter. We have the right to choose the foods that are morally. spiritually and ethically acceptable to us. It is our responsibility to ensure the unobstructed enjoyment of these rights.

negative results

2010-07-07T14:29:00.003-03:00

Quite the Journal title I tripped into the other day:

Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine. I'll look to see if there is an Agricultural Biotech equivalent. Oughta be

a good market...

2010-07-03T17:32:00.007-03:00

I love a good market. The crowd is full on and happy, the sun is shining and the plump lush piles of vegetables disappear in record time. After the rush I set back up quickly, in those sweet slower intervals, when conversation is possible. Until its inundation again: the pyramid of bagged peas and fluffy basil, the romaine towers, the glistening organized carrots...everything attacked lovingly and whisked away leaving a tablecloth to cover in bounty again. Then that last lonely dill bunch or radicchio hit the road and the wallet is plump. Tuck away the cash box, tidy up all the empty lugs, and go visit with happy people.

EU committee votes to further study nanofood

2010-06-25T11:03:00.001-03:00

"The EU Parliament's Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee
has voted that food produced using nanotechnology should be "excluded from the novel food list, and thus the EU market, until the possible health effects of nano production can be fully assessed." link

Don't give up the good alfalfa fight

2010-06-23T21:27:00.005-03:00

KANSAS CITY, June 23 (Reuters) - More than 50 U.S.
lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Agriculture Department to
keep Monsanto's (MON.N) biotech alfalfa out of farm fields,
despite a Supreme Court ruling this week that cleared the way
for limited planting pending environmental reviews.

The lawmakers said the biotech alfalfa presents too great a
risk to conventional and organic agriculture to ever allow it.

Here

Monsanto vs Haitians

2010-06-18T13:56:00.008-03:00

"On June 4th about ten thousand Haitian peasants marched to protest US-based Monsanto Company’s ‘deadly gift’ of seed to the government of Haiti. The march was seven kilometers from Papaye to Hinche, in a rural area on the central plateau, and was organized by several Haitian rural social movements that are proposing a development model based on food and seed sovereignty instead of industrial agriculture. Slogans for the march included “long live native maize seed” and “Monsanto’s GMO & hybrid seed violate peasant agriculture.”

Haitian peasants march against Monsanto Company for food and seed sovereignty Via Campesina

"On June 4th, 10,000 peasant farmers gathered in protest in Haiti to burn more than 400 tons of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds donated to the country by Monsanto. This was a hugely symbolic gesture and one that the rest of the world needs to listen to. Haiti is asking for our help in establishing a local, sustainable food system from the rubble that the country currently lies in. This is our opportunity to raise our voices in protest against Monsanto's involvement in the fragile beginnings of true food sovereignty in Haiti".

The Fight against Monsanto in Haiti Huffington Post

"Seeds are the center of food sovereignty. Without our seeds we cannot have food sovereignty. We want a system that relies as little as possible on any external products, like seeds or fertilizers. We want to produce something that is good and healthy for everyone. To be sovereign is to have control over seeds and land, techniques and knowledge—everything necessary for food."

Elias Freitas Mesquita, Creole Seed Project

Civil Eats
Five Questions Monsanto Needs to Answer about its Seed Donation to Haiti

Lilbuddy Macteeth gets a flock

2010-06-16T18:36:00.009-03:00

I picked up four orphan lambs day before yesterday, almost weaned but I found an old goat to keep them company and provide a bit of refreshment. When they are done I'll have a bit of milk for my tea and possibly collect up enough to make cheese, which I haven't done for a very long time. Giving the lambs a bit of diluted milk twice a day is building intimacy between the lambs, the goat and I but Lilbuddy was nowhere to be seen this morning for chores. He hit the wire yesterday and I think he associates that pain with those creatures. This evening he joined us, trembling, then barking then whimpering as I milked the goat and fed the lambs. I think he understands we all belong and the little farm is a full circle now that we have some critters again.

Here they are!

remay tales

2010-06-11T16:08:00.007-03:00

I had a tragic comedy here last night on the farm involving remay, or agricultural fabric...for non-gardeners that is a lightweight woven fabric that covers crop to prevent insect from landing and feasting or spreading disease and is an organic farmer's standby for salad greens and other sensitive things (carrots if rust fly is troublesome, for eg). It also speeds growth.

The remay on my old farm came in the long roll of 500 feet and we had these length of beds. One day coming home from market I witnessed a small wind tunnel that had grabbed an end and sucked it high (100 feet) into the air. I had a good view on the road above the valley where the fields lay as the tractor with loader full of rocks raced to the scene and helpers jumped and ran and tugged to get the long white sheet out of the wee tornado and constrained from whipping out the wee seedings.

Wind plays havoc here too, but have yet to see a tornado (just hurricane remnants), and yesterday's show was just my own damn fault: I was in hurry, it was late and I hungry and little Buddy was barking at the birds down in the creek - poised for trouble. It was time for dinner and the evening dog excursion...but I had one last task to do and I was rushing. I had weeded all day and the last task task was to till up the old salad and spinach beds to free up some space to plant. The garden is getting tight now for the tractor, so I eased into position, let down the tiller and set the pto in gear. I was focused on steering my old rig clear of the dill and beets in the beds on either side of the wheels, but I misjudged where the tiller dropped - I caught the remay end of the adjacent bed. I didn't notice for a good 20 feet. It had yanked the fabric off the turnips, lifting the little roots with it and rolled up neat on the shaft of the tiller. Amazing it rolled up clean and even and only tore where the tines ripped it the first few turns.

The turnips (Hakurai japanese salad)were ready to pick and were surprisingly undamaged. Buddy had to wait whilst I cussed and laughed and unrolled remay from the tiller (and then dealt with the turnips). On retrospect designing a tool that winds up a roll could be inspired here. Ditto with harvesting.

farmers are old

2010-06-02T08:24:00.007-03:00

I can no longer think of my self as an exception: the young farmer! I am now part of the depressing statistic - farmers are old
See also The Greying of Farmers

I'm 50 tomorrow; Its neither old nor young but it is a half century.

My get cold quick feet may be the harbinger of a slow accumulation of creaks and complaints. I see the suffering of others I know and love and wonder when and if it will change. Can I slog on until....its sustainable bodily, socially.

Irony is, these pockets of fertility and bounty dotted everywhere in rural Canada seem to be ever more hitting the button of "safe haven" for local communities come some immanent disaster, market collapse, corporate crop failures, etc.
Its the wisdom of the land's perspective that keep these ancients hugged close, hanging on for dear life to these small farms knowing it will inevitably, tragically have to change.

"sheet" compost

2010-05-28T17:57:00.005-03:00

I've got two styles of compost going this year, one of which I've never done and I'm excited by it.

My compost is the heart of the farm, in a lovely interface between the plants and animals and soil organisms; potent elements come together and weave me nostalgic and at ease...perhaps its the beneficial organisms and the atmospheres they create.
Anyway, I pile layers of materials intuiting balances of texture, nitrogen, carbon, moisture and I turn it with the bucket of my tractor every so ofte...it gets hot and turns a lovely black.

This year I decided to use some of my neighbours free horse manure and am sheet composting down the center of a new field that is in buckwheat and oats (not interplanted). I layered manure, sawdust from a woodworking friend's shop and ditch muck which was beside this new field. Let it sit and I confess, ran the rototiller to incorporate the material. I guess its not true sheet composting. I may incorporate it when I disk in the buckwheat( the oats I hope to harvest) but its tempting to plant bush squash in it now and indeed I may do that.

Spring farm photos

2010-05-27T20:31:00.012-03:00

Lil bud shaking dirt off the grass clods, peas in background.

he has lots of sticks to choose from as I have a scrap fence in progress

Notice Bud's skill on path walking, here garlic and onions sets visible, seeds just up. Jumping over beds is still a work in progress as exemplified below (broad beans).

Click the pic to enlarge the spinach, salads, turnip and radish under the row cover.

the early starts are out and transplanted from the hoophouse and its now planted to basil.

A look at the Land Grab

2010-05-06T12:55:00.006-03:00

Found a very valuable surce of information on the corporate octopus's consumption of land in a collection of daily stories from a range of sources. Food Crisis and Global Land Grab is worth checking out.
This week an article from Grain on the World Banks stalling and readying seven principles for “socially responsible” land grabs, and another on the double punch to Africa: From bleeding Africa to grabbing the land.

2010-04-28T17:31:00.000-03:00

"The battle over genetically modified crops is being waged before the U.S. Supreme Court -- the first time the nation’s highest court is specifically weighing in on genetically modified organisms and the federal approval process that allows them to roll out from the laboratory to the nation’s farm fields.

The fight is between seed giant Monsanto Co. and Geertson Seed Farm, a far smaller Idaho-based rival, and the case revolves around whether Monsanto should be prevented from selling its genetically engineered Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds.

The biotech behind the seeds was reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and later approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture prior to the company’s product launch in 2005.

Geertson has argued that such seeds should not be allowed to be sold, because of concerns that they can cross-contaminate nearby fields planted with organically produced alfalfa. They also argue that because these GMO seeds have been engineered to resist a commonly used herbicide that Monsanto makes, killing off such unwanted plants would be extremely difficult.

Monsanto argues that such fears are far-fetched and that such cross-pollination is unlikely. Instead, the company contends that using its seeds helps the environment because farmers don’t have to use as much weed killer on their fields. (Monsanto said in court filings that alfalfa, which is used to feed livestock, is grown on about 22 million acres across the nation.)

In addition, “the plaintiffs in the case have not demonstrated that continued planting of the crop was likely to cause irreparable harm to other alfalfa growers,” the company said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday. (The italics were an emphasis that Monsanto used.)

A lower court sided with Geertson and, since 2007, Monsanto has been barred from selling these seeds nationwide. So the issue now before the Supreme Court is whether the lower court had the authority to order such a far-reaching ruling under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Both sides faced off before the court on Tuesday. A ruling is expected later in the year.

But here’s the real question that farmers and environmentalist are asking: Considering the USDA is slated to wrap up an environmental study on this and other issues next year, and the agency reportedly is expected to approve sales of such seeds, will the court’s ruling matter in the long run?

-- P

Monsanto moves up the food chain claiming meat.

2010-04-28T16:46:00.005-03:00

"The global coalition "No Patents on Seeds" has issued an alert. It pertains to the latest patent filed by Monsanto. In a pending patent application (filed on Jan 29, 2009) from Monsanto even bacon and steaks are claimed: Patent application WO2009097403 is claiming meat stemming from pigs being fed with the patented genetically engineered plants of Monsanto.

I looked at the patent claim, and found it to be simply absurd. The patent is filed for an invention: "Method for Feeding Pigs and Products comprising Beneficial Fatty Acids." To me, this looks to be a simple improvement in the feeding process, but if you read the claims carefully you realise how cleverly Monsanto has drafted it to include almost everything under the sun. Which means, Monsanto (which already has a patent on pig breeding) actually now lays claim over the entire production cycle of pig rearing -- from what goes into the feed, to pig breeding processes and finally to the production of pork."

Read more from Devinder Sharma at Ground Reality; Understanding the politics of food, agriculture and hunger

The "No Patents on Seeds" alert where you can link to the absurd patent.

food inflation

2010-04-26T12:40:00.004-03:00

This is not loaves and fishes inflating:

U.S. Food Inflation Spiraling Out of Control. From here

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today released their Producer Price Index (PPI) report for March 2010 and the latest numbers are shocking. Food prices for the month rose by 2.4%, its sixth consecutive monthly increase and the largest jump in over 26 years. NIA believes that a major breakout in food inflation could be imminent, similar to what is currently being experienced in India.

Some of the startling food price increases on a year-over-year basis include, fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1%, fresh fruits and melons up 28.8%, eggs for fresh use up 33.6%, pork up 19.1%, beef and veal up 10.7% and dairy products up 9.7%. On October 30th, 2009, NIA predicted that inflation would appear next in food and agriculture, but we never anticipated that it would spiral so far out of control this quickly.

The PPI foreshadows price increases that will later occur in the retail sector. With U-6 unemployment rising last month to 16.9%, many retailers are currently reluctant to pass along rising prices to consumers, but they will soon be forced to do so if they want to avoid reporting huge losses to shareholders.

Food stamp usage in the U.S. has now increased for 14 consecutive months. There are now 39.4 million Americans on food stamps, up 22.4% from one year ago. The U.S. government is now paying out more to Americans in benefits than it collects in taxes. As food inflation continues to surge, our country will soon have no choice but to cut back on food stamps and other entitlement programs.

Most financial experts in the mainstream media are proclaiming that the recession is over and inflation is not a problem in the U.S. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that rising food and gasoline prices accounted for 58% of February's year-over-year 3.85% rise in retail sales. NIA believes price inflation is beginning to accelerate in many areas of the economy besides food and energy, and all increases in U.S. retail sales this year will be entirely due to inflation.

too busy to be blogging

2010-04-22T14:55:00.002-03:00

Hi ya'all. No I didn't sail (or motor) off into the horizon...I'm here and full on in the garden, happily ensconced in sprouts, bulbs, tillage, fences, new pups and such.
Found the camera so now I can soon fullfill the promise of photos of this small humble holding. Until then, happy planting.

decisions, decisions

2010-03-26T16:59:00.004-03:00

Hi Ya'll. Couldn't resist this. Of course that would be the Bud (photos below) in the sidecar with some awesome camp gear no doubt. Yes...it is tempting.

2010-03-25T09:54:00.003-03:00

Budley

2010-03-25T09:36:00.001-03:00

The lil Bud won't sit still for an honest pic,,,I'll see if I can improve on these today and capture some visuals of this (after the rain came, now frozen, windy but the sun is out) buddin place.

reduced tillage and dryland farming

2010-03-22T13:58:00.003-03:00

We've had no rain to speak of for a few weeks and word is it'll be a dry year; Eric and Anne Nordell have powerful and well developed tools to produce healthy soil and crops in dry conditions. Here is a good video that, although modeled with horses, could be applied to any power regime. Also worth watching to check out Eric's swell beard.

GE Seed controls

2010-03-19T19:45:00.004-03:00

Time to act!
Because of our voices there is a chance Bill C-474 can pass: Next debate March 29!

Take Action on CBAN

upward, onward... ongoing (as the neighbours say)

2010-03-19T14:36:00.004-03:00

Sunny days freeze hard at night. River is blue and raging with the tide or settled out sleepy. The big tractor is sold soon so fence posts and disking, ditching and moving stuff, is gettin on with a modicum of success. The ground is soft and the post are givin her, or the ground is accepting them (however you look at it) a hand dug start and the bucket whacking them in. The birds are so many and different of species, but I don't have too much time to discern them...the walks with my new pup (a smart loving whip of a welsh line of border collie- 10 weeks old) and Jigs the old bull/boxer rescue give me pause and opportunity to harken to the avian symphony that I just soak in. The garlic survived what the Atlantic winter could send them, and I've got the hoophouse up and planted to salad, just up. Onions surprised me solid and tasty in the barn attic, and its more willow fences, wind breaks, chicken houses, and planting I'm up to. Pics soon.

small men big women: gloves!

2010-03-19T14:31:00.007-03:00

Is it just me or is it pretty hard to find good work gloves for these big woman hands? I expect its a small man's size too. The small brands are minuscule; the medium are ridiculously roomy. The inbetween, the regular, they are hard to come by.

Crop Mob

2010-02-25T13:45:00.007-04:00

"The Crop Mob, a monthly word-of-mouth (and -Web) event in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon, has taken its traveling work party to 15 small, sustainable farms. Together, volunteers have contributed more than 2,000 person-hours, doing tasks like mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields".

Read about this spontainous happening in the New York Times. Great new word: agricurious!
Although the snow is still deep here and the wind biting, I'm always open for a crop mob.

I'm home

2010-02-23T18:27:00.004-04:00

So gratefully home. Its still fantastically and complexly beautiful and not without small tragedy. Oh well, a life is worth living to the full. And it is true to the nature of life. The dust, mouse turd trail and fly cadavers are 4 months old. But I've got the water hooked, the pump primed and I tasted my beef, - my comrades in sod - for the first time last night. The snow is near water and the red silt mixes it up or paints footprints like blood, the compost is a black hummock of glory, the wild cat still around. There is a 2 inch slab of ice under the wet snow where the water collects. But not in the garden where I found the garlic conspiring to grow and some carrots for my stew.

Before I dive back in on the journal I must share a few reflections from the winter that fall outside of my themes. I'll post them below over the next few days as they're all ruminating there.

Welcome home! Welcome home!

Post-humus porker

2010-02-22T20:51:00.007-04:00

The Enviropig, the freakin franken porker that should only be a cartoon character, appears to be close to government approval, a Canwest News Service reported on Friday and confirmed here.

"The technology is simple, if you know how to raise pigs, you know how to raise Enviropigs!"
uh...depends on how ya raise a pig.
I'd compost that phosphorousy manure, feed the crops - let the oinkers have a bit of grass even.
But Enviropig is engineered to shit minimal phosphorous so the waste can get flushed (and not pollute waterways). Factory farming steps out of the circle of the farm.

From a 1999 Globe story on the lab chops: "After they get a handle on phosphorus, the scientists want to take a look at nitrogen, the other major pollutant found in pig manure and the one associated with its rank odour."

This kind of treason to our farm animal genome meets with so little pause, alarm or resistance because there are too many other distractions: wars, earthquakes, famine, olympics. We have no ethical roadmaps drawn out for the designers of our food. We as consumers and farmers need to start excercising our rights to choose what we eat.
The pig might help us do it. Who wants to eat it? 10-30% of Canadians? That isn't enough stakeholder to excite profits to the lifescience pioneers.

artist Nathan Meltz

A perfect factory pig is no surprise and has been talked about for awhile now. Water pollution and stink are the sticky bits in public interfaces and so the genes spliced in Ecopig are logical. But what else are they up to? Monsanto lurks in the wings and has patents on pigs. With declining numbers of small farms and pig breeds fewer and further between, the road ahead could look like porkicide.

Have we lost the right to eat food as god/goddess/motherearth made it, or shall we ride this ugly piggy to the courts before it goes to market?

We need to mobilize and take to the Supreme Court, the right to choose what we eat (labeling) as a matter of conscience and religion.

Sungayka

2010-02-07T14:36:00.011-04:00

When I was 11 or 12, in the early 70s, a dozen kids and I blocked a rough road in the woods, it was our special place. Excavators and dump trucks were pushing up a new subdivision. Although we had found burial mounds in "our woods", the knowledge that this place was the ancient (4,000 year) home of the Samas people (Songhees- Chekonein) wasn't the motivation for our activism. It was an indignity to nature and our sweet experience of it that had us dragging boulders and logs to voice our injury . It is 40 years later, and a narrow forest corridor is all that is left of "our woods". There is no such courtesy for the village of Sungayka, for which this woods was adjacent. The longhouses, the peninsular fortification, the house posts...all obliterated. Whilst a treaty intended a corridor (a means to access culture and place), the agreement was lost in the imperialist moments, a beach hotel was built for the amusement of Victorians, and the place was eviscerated, subdivided and overlain with new cultures. The Hudson Bay put in a large farm above. A people of long sustenance on a piece of land disappeared, no photo exists, no marker reminds.

The new peoples of Cadboro Bay don't seem live with an ecosystem, but on or over it. It is now hundred sailboats, cement playground creatures, a bustling University corner village. A starbucks. The beach and sea, the eroding stones, the middens in the gardens, the sacred pool, the cultural stones in foundations and walls are underfoot everywhere.

The ancient village site at Cadboro Bay will be surveyed as required by the Chekonein treaty, somehow, eventually. Until the treaty (one of the Douglas treaties) is honoured or compensation for its violation is agreed upon, all those occupying territory in Cadboro Bay are advised to note and honour the features a careful walk can reveal.

Sustainable cultures that lived here before

2010-02-07T14:12:00.013-04:00

I've been returning to my roots, family and the ecosystems of my youth and facing the connections and significance my past has to my life right now.

One of my favorite place of old is a remarkable spit with a gary oak and arbutus hook and a grassy trombolo on Saltspring Island called Walker's Hook. It is an ancient Salish sacred village Syuhe'mun, whose significance was trounced 5 years ago with the leasing of the (private) land to a Sablefish (black cod) "farm".

The trombolo drains the effluent from the fish farm above and pushes through an estimated 700 ancestors of Kuper Island Penelakut. The excavation for wells and pipes dug up 13 skeletons.

In my new home, on a lower oxbow of the Annapolis river, the Mi'kmaq, the black loyalists and former slaves, and the Acadians have been almost completely erased from the physical and cultural landscape.

The inhabitants of Africville who were removed from their community received an apology today and the land to rebuild a church and cultural center. This is a good beginning toward reconciliation to the Black loyalist settlers and descendants of Nova Scotia's first slaves. It comes in a week there is some discourse on the racism that surfaces on a regular basis for people of colour (and diversity in general) among some "long" rooted people (ancestors of the British/Scottish, planters and loyalists settlers) In the Black Heritage month it has erupted again with a cross burning on a multiracial couple's lawn in the Windsor area.

I believe it is essential to recognize the history of slavery, expulsion and genocide of this place in Nova Scotia. Without wide eyed open reconciliation, racism has a place to root. I am reflecting on how best to acknowledge, honour and celebrate Acadian and Mi'kmaq and black settler presence in my neighbourhood in the lower Annapolis River. Whether this cultural renewel can be aided by writing, archeology, memorial stones and fences, multi racial immigration , I'm unsure. What can I do to remember the people who lived gently on the land ...is a question I have to ask.

rice politics

2010-01-30T22:11:00.002-04:00

Published on Saturday, January 30, 2010 by The Nation
'New Haiti,' Same Corporate Interests

by Isabel Macdonald

In the wake of the earthquake that has killed more than 100,000 people in Haiti, the foreign ministers of several countries calling themselves the "Friends of Haiti" met on Monday in Montreal to discuss plans for "building a new Haiti." Participants in the Ministerial Preparatory Conference on Haiti, who included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; representatives of international financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive came to what Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, the conference chair, referred to as a "road map towards Haiti's reconstruction and development." However, the Latin American countries of ALBA--the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas--who held a counter-conference, and several grassroots Haiti solidarity organizations, who organized protests outside the conference, expressed skepticism that the "Friends of Haiti" and the international financial institutions would work to further the interests of ordinary Haitians.

keep reading

The West Indies Free Zone "tax-exempt plants assembling for export, which are known as maquiladoras in Spanish. "The investment climate [in Haiti] is much warmer than the temperature in this room," Canadian ambassador Gilles Rivard remarked at a conference, with North American apparel firms—Gap, Levi Strauss and American Eagle Outfitters and from Citibank and Scotiabank. The New York Times correspondent noted that "Haiti's extremely low labor costs, comparable to those in Bangladesh," are what "make it so appealing." (NYT, Oct. 5)"

Interest in Haiti's maquiladora sector seems to have grown after the government turned back efforts earlier this year to raise the minimum wage in the industry to 200 gourdes a day (about $4.97)".

from here

Trails of the Triffid

2010-01-21T22:39:00.009-04:00

"If you're going to play around with [genetically modified] crops, once the genie's out of the bottle, once it's in the environment, you can't control it,"

"Mysteriously, Triffid has reappeared in commercial crops".

Flax is mainly self-pollinated but around five percent of pollination occurs through insects. There are no prolific wild relatives in Canada that cross with flax.
Yet it spreading through the prairies and ending up overweight in the inspector's samples, and in organic fields? Like transgenic corn in Mexico, flax has been prohibited and yet contamination is widespread and significant in both countries, both crops. Is this a covert policy to slip in genes in the genome and win compliance with inevitability of its spread?

Alan McHughen (read about him in Brewster's Kneen's book Farmageddon, which if you cannot find in your library is available here www.ramshorn.ca. McHughen is the designer of the GMO flax and apparently promoted his book with a big mail out of packages of Triffid flax.

And then there is this:

GRAIN COMPANIES EXPLOIT FLAX SITUATION TO
TIGHTEN VISE ON FARMER SEED SAVING
SASKATOON, SK—Grain company Viterra wants to force all farmers wishing to grow flax in 2010 to purchase certified seed. A Viterra spokesman delivered that message in a presentation on January 11 at the Crop Production Show in Saskatoon.
Viterra and others are pushing the requirement for certified seed as a purported solution to the problem of the Triffid contamination in flax shipments to Europe. Triffid is a genetically modified variety not approved in Europe. But the NFU believes that the proposed certified seed cure is the wrong one, and that there will be long-lasting and negative side effects.
“The best solution is to test the seed supply, both farm-saved seed and certified seed,” said NFU President and flax producer Terry Boehm. He continued: “It is false to simply assume that certified seed is safer than farm-saved. For one thing, it is almost certain that the certified seed system is the source of the Triffid contamination farmers are now facing. Furthermore, it has now been determined that two varieties of flax are contaminated with Triffid at the breeder seed level".

More from the NFU

here's to the right to choose raw milk

2010-01-21T22:07:00.005-04:00

Dairy farmer Michael Schmidt walks out of a Newmarket courthouse not guilty of bovine milky mischief.

"The judgment is the culmination of a three-year legal battle that has made Mr. Schmidt a star in a growing international food-rights movement fuelled by mistrust of the industrial food system.
Today's ruling means that raw, or unpasteurized, milk produced by Mr. Schmidt's cows – heritage Canadiennes bred near the town of Durham, Ont. – can legally be distributed to the small network of consumers who have bought “cow shares” in exchange for access to the animals' unprocessed milk". Globe story

And Michael Schmidt’s blog.

Transgenic Organics?

2009-12-10T20:03:00.004-04:00

Watch as the rationalizations for violating the simple ethics of the precautionary principle erodes into the organic industry. Surely we are brighter than this.

http://www.metrofarm.com/mf_Food_Chain_Radio.php

regulating the nanoelephant in the room

2009-12-07T17:57:00.008-04:00

Whether you've transported them up into Pacific Coast glaciers on your moisture wicking nanosilver ski pants, or are unwittingly participating in nanoencapsulation studies on a populous scale...the consequences will be fodder for future thesis and peer review. We are the field trials.

“Nobody Told Me I was a Nano-Consumer:” How Nanotechnologies Might Challenge the Notion of Consumer Rights

"Regarding nanotechnologies and the consumer, a central paradox is the absence of a regulatory framework while more than 1,000 nano-enabled products are already available on the consumer markets. This represents a serious challenge for the consumer interest".

read it here

symbionts and gene transfer

2009-12-06T21:58:00.004-04:00

Symbionts helps in the transfer of genes between organisms.

"Although common among bacteria, lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between distantly related organisms—is thought to occur only rarely between bacteria and multicellular eukaryotes. However, the presence of endosymbionts, such as Wolbachia pipientis, within some eukaryotic germlines may facilitate bacterial gene transfers to eukaryotic host genomes".

Read Widespread Lateral Gene Transfer from Intracellular Bacteria to Multicellular Eukaryotes

transgenic dna persists in the food web.: Guelph research

2009-12-06T20:49:00.008-04:00

This is some more evidence for what others (and here) have been saying for quite some time: gmo dna sequences transfer to other organisms.
In the case of this study, Monsanto's cp4 epsps genes moved on through the soil ecosystem to arthropods, nematodes, and earthworms. I wonder if they are round-up ready (the soil life) and if monsanto owns them now.

Detection of transgenic cp4 epsps genes in the soil food web .
Miranda M. Hart1, Jeff R. Powell1, Robert H. Gulden2, David J.
Levy-Booth3, Kari E. Dunfield4, K. Peter Pauls2, Clarence J. Swanton2,
John N. Klironomos1 and Jack T. Trevors.
University of Guelph

Abstract - The persistence and movement of transgenic DNA in
agricultural and natural systems is largely unknown. This movement poses
a threat of horizontal gene transfer and possible proliferation of
genetically modified DNA into the general environment. To assess the
persistence of transgenic DNA in a field of Roundup Ready
corn, we quantified the presence of the transgene for glyphosate
tolerance within a soil food web. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we
identified the cp4 epsps transgene in bulk soil microarthropods,
nematodes, macroarthropods and earthworms sampled within the corn
cropping system. We found evidence of the transgene at all dates and in
all animal groups. Transgenic DNA concentration in animal was
significantly higher than that of background soil, suggesting the
animals were feeding directly on transgenic plant material. It remains
to be tested whether this DNA was still within the plant residues,
present as free, extracellular DNA or had already undergone genetic
transformation into competent bacterial cells. These results are the
first to demonstrate the persistence of transgenic crop DNA residues
within a food web.

Here

let them eat cottonseed cakes

2009-12-04T18:49:00.006-04:00

Biotech scientists have worked for decades to produce a gossypol-free cotton plant by silencing the gene that produces a toxin, gossypol, throughout the plant and with little success as insects and diseases do not like gossypol either and are ravaged by them..

The breakthrough came as genetic engineers have managed to inhibit gossypol production in the seeds.

why?

So the poor people can eat the fruits of industrial farming.

This as a land grab has been thieving through vast tracts of farmlands in Africa and Asia. Industrial crops for fuel and gadgets, clothes, food.

It is a blessing to have a bit of land to plant our food and not worry about the need to to eat stuff like cottonseed meal.

Genetic engineering turns 'Fabric of Our Lives' into edible cottonseed that may feed millions

they say its a wheat glut

2009-12-02T15:35:00.002-04:00

LONDON: A sharp decline in wheat prices driven by a supply glut is set to lead to more of the grain being turned into motor fuel in the European Union.

according to a Reuter's story

whilst the descendants of the mother of wheat, face famine in Ethiopia due to drought and crop failures.

swine flu lager and nanothermite: good TV on CBC last night

2009-11-28T19:43:00.009-04:00

Thanks Rick Mercer...finally a chance to laugh at Swine Flu vaccines.

Not funny but also noteworthy last night on CBC was The Fifth Estate`s The Unofficial Story, a documentary about the growing number of people unsatisfied with illogical explanations for the events of 911. Its the first mention of nano-thermite I`ve seen in the main media (as well as free-fall buildings, molten metal, iron-rich microspheres, lateral ejections, and pulverized concrete) You can watch it on their website here.

The comments are of interest as well, including this one from Rob Tamaki:

`As one of first Professional Engineers to have signed on to the AE911Truth petition (approx. no. 38 out of 970 presently), I stand firmly behind the science demonstrating that the collapses of WTC 1, 2, and 7 can only be explained by Controlled Demolition.

I only caught the last few minutes of the program this evening, and I am pleased that the issue of the finding of nanothermite was introduced. However, it really needed more time to be able to develop the details behind this research more carefully. It needs to be stressed that this was no ordinary material. It is of a highly processed composition that is capable of being developed only within the most advanced research or military laboratories in the world.

Brent Blanchard tried to argue that because there was no seismic signature, the buildings could not be brought down by controlled demolition. But this is exactly the relevance of nanothermite. Nanothermite does not produce the kind of seismic shock wave that C4 or RDX might. It would not produce a seismic signature. Blanchard's supposed clincher is really completely irrelevant.``

BC Meat Regulations: Our farmers need us to speak

2009-11-13T14:47:00.003-04:00

This is from Robin Wheeler of Roberts Creek and the local Farm Food Freedom folks, taking the initiative to rally support for local sustainable meat processing in BC. and extrication from the current system that is threatening many small farmers in the Province. Take some time to write a letter: the voice of the people is undeniable.

November 12, 2009
Hi, folks -
Some of us are figuring that RIGHT NOW, OVER THE COMING WEEK is a very, very good time to write a letter requesting that our BC government exempt small farmers from the imposed meat regulations. We think a focused push, hopefully with hundreds of letters, might show how we have not gone away, that there are in fact even more of us, and that we want change.
Please ask that farmers be permitted to sell healthy animals from their farm gates, without trauma, fossil fuels, time and extra cost, and without the increased threat of contamination that a visit to a government inspected facility can bring.

Please write to our Premier (who has the power to lift the meat regulations as other provinces have)
Hon. Gordon Campbell premier@gov.bc.ca
or Room 156, Parliament Buildings, Victoria BC V8V 1X4

or Ida Chong, who is holding the meat regulation potato right now -
Hon. Ida Chong
Minister of Healthy Living and Sport
P.O. Box 9062 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
250-387-3504
HLS.Minister@gov.bc.ca
or our Agriculture man,
Hon. Steve Thomson
Minister of Agriculture and Lands
P.O. Box 9043 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
250-387-1023
steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca

please see www.farmfoodfreedomfighters.ca for free downloads of bumper stickers, buttons and more.

oh when do we go back home

2009-11-12T20:21:00.011-04:00

I found some photos of the farm hiding out. They make me miss home. Clicking makes em big.

Red is sussing out the next fun escape which he did the first day I let the calves out of the barn into the world - walking right through the electric fence (which was buggered) Notice Alex content with grass and milk. ,
The rope around the greenhouse is to keep it from flying off on the remnants of Ike and their Ilk; On a good storm (we had three) I was there holding the purloins and praying with the tomatoes and basil. I have yet to hear if my friends have taken down the plastic yet, but trust they have it in hand.

Thats buckwheat up in the new beds I worked up (plowed sod to double buckwheat followed with Rye. Its beside the river where the turtles came up. I'm wondering what kind of things turtles like to eat, and if it was them who helped the pheasants eat the spinach in another low area.

Hunger should not be

2009-11-09T20:44:00.004-04:00

"Hunger would not have to be – this is not a new finding. The World Food Report confirms this statement in spite of the alarming findings it has to make. Not later than after the arousing hunger revolts two years ago, the shameful hunger problem should have disappeared from the globe. Instead the number of hungry people has not shrunk but has drastically increased. At the same time, the report shows a way out of the crisis: Reinforcement of the food supply on a local basis, observing all at once the regional conditions, the ecological handling of the resources and among others the unrestricted access to seeds.
An essential aspect relating to the question of such an unrestricted access is the question of the reusability of the applied seed sorts: People must be able, independently from the industrial producers of seeds like Monsanto or Syngenta, to cultivate its own food. Sovereignty of food is a fundamental right, it must be a fundamental freedom of mankind".

Read more A Crisis-Proof Agriculture for the Fight against Hunger and Poverty
by Reinhard Koradi, Switzerland

wheat goddess

2009-11-04T22:54:00.003-04:00

"There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear
to them except in the form of bread."
Mahatma Ghandi

Or the goddess and a field of wheat.

Van Gogh had some hunger and more than a glimpse of that goddess. here

H1N1 Vaccines: Just the facts

2009-11-01T20:15:00.005-04:00

Until the irregularities are explained, caution regarding the H1N1 vaccine is justified. Here is Benedictine nun and Doctor of Public Health, Teresa Forcades i Vila, with a clear and objective account of those irregularities. Well worth watching and sharing.

BELL TOLLING for the Swine Flu (CAMPANAS por la gripe A) subtitled from ALISH on Vimeo.

really scarey

2009-11-01T01:00:00.007-03:00

I was surprised to see a major swell of traffic coming to my blog from Egypt, all finding their way here with the google search phrase "new elements around us" - hundreds of hits. Perhaps there was an article in an Egyptian journal that sparked an interest in this spooky topic. I'm hoping an Egyptian will write and enlighten us.

What a terrifying concept though: that the spaces between the elements on the periodic table could be tweeked nanotechnologically to make new elements : "isolated crystals of existing elements can be made to turn on or off characteristics of neighboring elements of the periodic table". here.

I hope I'm not alone in feeling goosepimples over that.

Thinking about fencing

2009-10-20T21:34:00.008-03:00

archaeological evidence of ancient woven willow

My garden needs a fence. Its a matter of privacy, wind break and particle block as a major road and a snoopy neighbour invade upon my sense of bucholic. I have planted some trees (pines, poplar) but I have decided to put up a fence as well to hasten my peace of mind.

I built a fence on my last farm in the Kootenays with the curvaceous cedar slabs dripping bark, that the mill was going to burn, and dropped off to the farm for free. I wove them when they were wet between sturdier pieces of cedar that came in the load. It was funky and each panel was different. It was free with the exception of the posts, which in the Kootenays were 4 bucks each.

I built a woven willow fence this spring that really looks beautiful...but the maintenance and weed control needed for a stretch along the road next to my garden is far to long; woven willow there is too much work for me to take on.

I'm going to build a wattlish fence. I was inspired by the Acadian fence I saw at the village in Pubnico to keep in chickens. My friend down the road has a hundred acre wood and is open to trades....there is plenty of wood to thin and I love that work. I daydream about this fence, how I will weave, add windows and sculpt features along the length of her. A tall wattle fence that will become apart of the living shelterbelt as the trees grow in time. It will need to be anchored with substantial posts to carry the weight of the wattle with our winds, and have enough room for the wind to whistle through. It will have plenty of surface for honeysuckle, sweet peas, climbing curcurbit and the likes.

Haitians present Jatropha petition

2009-10-19T21:38:00.003-03:00

Of the many peasant protests world wide on World Food Day this caught my attention:

Peasant Groups Present Petition Against Jatropha to Haitian Parliament

www.Alterpresse.org, 16 October 2009

"A group of several peasant organizations presented a petition to the Haitian Parliament containing 31,198 signatures against the proposed development of plantations of the agro-fuel jatropha on the land of Haitian peasants, noted Alterpresse.org.

“This struggle which came about during the thirty-fifth anniversary in March 2008 of the Peasant Movement of Papaye is about raising awareness of the call to all of society to contribute to a mobilization against this project to exterminate the peasants,” stated Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the group “4 je kontre” (literally, the convergence of two pairs of eyes) several hours before the petition was submitted to the Haitian Parliament.

Several dozen peasants, representing the ten departments of the country, marched from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Turgeau (Port-au-Prince) with slogans and demands. “The little earth that is the country Haiti, that our ancestors left to us, must produce native food to nourish the population; national food production – yes; production of agro-fuels, no; Down with the production of gas for the tanks of foreign cars; Down with all death projects against the peasants,” are among the demands of the peasants who have the support of the international peasant movement Via Campesina."

Read more of the translation from Konbit Pou Ayiti

World Food Day

2009-10-16T19:50:00.010-03:00

“The farming world is dying”, Damien Greffin, president of the “Young Farmers” organization of the Ile-de-France (regrouping Paris and the surrounding departments) told Agence France Presse. “What we’re asking for, it is an increase in the price of raw material” he added, pointing out that a kilogram of wheat is sold 9 centimes these days for a production cost of 14 centimes"

To make their point French farmers burned hay bales and tires along the Champs des Elysees, one young farmer saying farmers cannot alone be responsible for food security.

Watch them here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzyfyKWXG80

This was one of many protests carried out on a global day of action.

"In Brazil, Via Campesina members carried out actions in the headquarters of Monsanto and Syngenta. In Europe, where nine countries have prohibited GMOs, Via Campesina organized an anti-Monsanto brigade traveling throughout the region. In India, thousands of farmers and allies are carrying out hunger strikes and occupying lands. Actions are being carried out in at least 20 countries and all nine regions where La Via Campesina is present".

Read more

a.g. update

2009-10-10T15:25:00.006-03:00

I am still in Edmonton waiting for my job to start on Monday, staying with an elderly woman who grew up on a farm in Scotland and who has laboured since a young woman on ships, trains and camps as a cook for the boys. I am the nextgen female resource cook for the winter, staying with her between postings up North; I have been here 2 winters before. Her home is an oasis of sustenance, laughter and canine furred friends for dispossessed across this country...farmers and natives and "foreign" workers who pound the pavement briefly in this boomtown. She is a toughened survivor on the exterior and a frightened little girl elsewhere as the effects of dementia play mischief. Her life is a miracle.

My garden back home is producing salads galore which my friends are harvesting for market. Its hard at this moment to really miss the frost bitten hands in the early morning fall dew. I've donned a groovy jacket and have burrowed in the library, coffee house or dance floor these days and am having those gloriously serendipitous city adventures- when I'm not homemaking with the darling Scottish lass. I'm hoping she'll come back with me to the farm come springtime, when the energies for such awesome work reinvigorates. Perhaps she will sow some miracles there.

farm in the ring; CERN

2009-10-10T00:11:00.007-03:00

Any one know of a farm with a front row seat in this ring? The Hadron collider is back in the news, not with the story of the resumption of activities geared to a new go at the experiment "27 km-long tunnel in which proton beams will collide at high speed, simulating the creation of the first particulate matter in effect, the creation of the universe itself".

No its this news:
particle collider suspected of terrorist links
Friday, October 9, 2009 CBC News

I figure the story is a distract from the real news which is harder to understand, yet no less gripping:

"In addition to the Higgs boson, other theorized novel particles that might be produced, and for which searches are planned, include strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and supersymmetric particles.

Technical Design

The collider is contained in a circular tunnel with a circumference of 27 kilometres (17 mi) at a depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground. The tunnel, constructed between 1983 and 1988, was formerly used to house the LEP, an electron-positron collider.

The 3.8 metre diameter, concrete-lined tunnel crosses the border between Switzerland and France at four points, although most of its length is inside France. The collider itself is underground, with surface buildings holding ancillary equipment such as compressors, ventilation equipment, control electronics and refrigeration plants.

The collider tunnel contains two pipes, each pipe containing a beam. The two beams travel in opposite directions around the ring. 1232 dipole magnets keep the beams on their circular path, while additional 392 quadrupole magnets are used to keep the beams focused, in order to maximize the chances of interaction between the particles in the four intersection points, where the two beams will cross. In total, over 1600 superconducting magnets are installed, with most weighing over 27 tonnes. 96 tonnes of liquid helium is needed to keep the magnets at the operating temperature.

The protons will each have an energy of 7 TeV, giving a total collision energy of 14 TeV. It will take less than 90 microseconds for an individual proton to travel once around the collider. Rather than continuous beams, the protons will be "bunched" together, into 2,808 bunches, so that interactions between the two beams will take place at discrete intervals never shorter than 25 ns apart. When the collider is first commissioned, it will be operated with fewer bunches, to give a bunch crossing interval of 75 ns. The number of bunches will later be increased to give a final bunch crossing interval of 25 ns.

Prior to being injected into the main accelerator, the particles are prepared through a series of systems that successively increase the particle energy levels. The first system is the linear accelerator Linac 2 generating 50 MeV protons which feeds the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB). Protons are then injected at 1.4 GeV into the Proton Synchrotron (PS) at 26 GeV. Finally the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is used to increase the energy of protons up to 450 GeV.

The LHC will also be used to collide lead (Pb) heavy ions with a collision energy of 1,150 TeV. The ions will be first accelerated by the linear accelerator Linac 3, and the Low-Energy Injector Ring (LEIR) will be used as an ion storage and cooler unit. The ions then will be further accelerated by the Proton Synchrotron (PS) and Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) before being injected into LHC ring, where they will reach an energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon. Six detectors are being constructed at the LHC, located underground in large caverns excavated at the LHC's intersection points. Two of them, ATLAS and CMS, are large, "general purpose" particle detectors.

ALICE is a large detector designed to study the properties of quark-gluon plasma looking at the debris of heavy ion collisions. The other three (LHCb, TOTEM, and LHCf) are relatively smaller and more specialized. A seventh experiment, FP420 (Forward Physics at 420m), has been proposed which would add detectors to four available spaces located 420m on either side of the ATLAS and CMS detectors.

The size of the LHC constitutes an exceptional engineering challenge with unique safety issues. While running, the total energy stored in the magnets is 10 GJ, while each of the two beams carries an overall energy of 362 MJ. For comparison, 362 MJ is the kinetic energy of a TGV running at 157 km/h (98 mph), while 724 MJ, the total energy of the two beams, is equivalent to the detonation energy of approximately 173 kilograms (380 lb) of TNT, and 10 GJ is about 2.4 tons of TNT. Loss of only 10-7 of the beam is sufficient to quench a superconducting magnet, while the beam dump must absorb an energy equivalent to a typical air-dropped bomb.

These immense kinetic energies become far more spectacular when you consider how little matter is carrying it. At its maximum energy rating (2.76TeV per particle with a total of 362MJ), there is just 1.15E-9 grams of hydrogen in the system (or 0.026 of one cubic millimeter)". here

The language that goes with "urging" swineflu jab

2009-10-09T21:32:00.006-03:00

The CDC is "urging" Americans to get the H1N1 Swine flu vaccine. as described in this excerpt (from my "H1N1 vaccine" google news alert) it is clear indication of the slippery deceptive language the CDC and others are using to push the vaccine.

Even though "four Canadian studies involved about 2,000 people, ... found people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in the past more likely to get sick with the H1N1 virus" (CBC story), and given the fact of fast tracked, inadequate trials for a grab bag of recombinant vaccines produced using novel arts (Vero cells, Insect cells), and companies that have made some well documented big mistakes - these words are suspect:

"Schuchat (CDC) addressed concerns she knows exist about the new vaccine."Some people have reservations, they aren't really sure about this vaccine."

She said that vaccination against flu is the best way to protect yourself and those around you. "This isn't a new vaccine," she said. "The vaccine is being manufactured exactly the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine. It is basically a vaccine made against the H1N1 instead of the seasonal viruses [expected to circulate in the upcoming season]. Based on everything we know now, we are expecting a good safety record for H1N1."

Results of H1N1 Trials

Vaccines against both H1N1 and seasonal influenza can be given simultaneously, said Fauci. "We embarked on a study in August with 800 people," he said. The question: if you gave both vaccines at once, would there be any interference with immunity?

Based on early results from 50 of those participants, he said, simultaneous administration does not impact the immune response of either vaccine."

Peddle Bike: The E Rocket

2009-10-06T23:21:00.002-03:00

A generator and lithium batteries. 80 km an hour down the Autobonn. À transport revolution. But why so expensive

old bones

2009-09-30T22:25:00.008-03:00

The mud clam beach below my parents house on Saltspring Island is where I've been recollecting these past couple of days. Lounging on sun soaked Briny logs with seaweed lace, walking beaches and trails of otter shit. Across the harbour, on a small island are the remains of a stone shack built by a whiskey trader who filtered traffic from the Salish canoes portaged across what is now Ganges. I grew up close by here in this ecosystem of Gary Oaks, Arbutus and mossy rock with beaches a riot of sea life. It was a great place for a tomboi.

Tuesday I went down Sinclair hill to Cadboro Bay from my elementary school (and university) and then remembered that this beach site had been a Salish Village for 4,000 years. The bay was full of sailboats and students mobbed on the sand...children everywhere engaged with the cement sea creatures of Gyro park (the Octopus is now red with white features and there are stairs to get up) A sharp line delineates the grass from a wild field adjacent to the park.. I walked in 50 feet on a spongy marsh with low growing weeds and came to an ancient, recently excavated, fire pit...I knew it was there!

Where is the longhouse, a memorial, an elder's sanctuary here on this very old, very central Salish village site? The seamonsters can't hide the talking bones or excuse a genocide which will only last as long as the people agree to walk on the bones of the ancestors without greeting. If they knew, it would be different. I have to believe this.

What I see here on Cadboro Bay Beach is the story I have been unearthing on my own farm 6,000 kms away on the Annapolis River. A buried people. A regional bustle with the economies and households going on day to day over the bones of a previous people, without greeting, without honour. A conquered people. Within a sq km of my farm is an unmarked burial ground of Mi'kmaq/Acadian origin, the underearth remains of a church, several settlements and a 1700s battle field, could the Maritime Archaic have been there too? I arranged for the Mi'kmaq burial association and an Acadian Archaeologist to come over and this spring will see some excitement. The old well (looks Acadian) will be drained and the silt and lower rocks inspected. The burial ground is being reinstated on the records (it was lost but we found an old deed recognizing it). So progress has been made.

Why is it important to remember? To honour those on the land before us?
Because they were so radically better at taking care of the land, and this is the most important step in any sustainable economy.

I fly to Edmonton tomorrow and then on to Saskatchewan. I'll post in a few days.

grateful for good beef and the life they lived

2009-09-21T18:53:00.010-03:00

I went to the slaughterhouse today to pick up the offals from my dear cows, whose carcasses are now hanging in a meat cooler and today I cut up livers and hearts and delivered to those willing and able to eat such essential parts of the animal. I have a big pot of stock from the tails; Jigs the dog is happy this afternoon.

When I went into the office at the slaughterhouse, the receptionist said "the meat inspector wants to talk with you"

"...uh oh", I thought!

When I called him and he proceded to tell me what fine animals they were and what a good job I done on the finishing, how the meat was marbled so nicely. When I told him they were on pasture and finished on pears, carrots and garden "weeds" (plantain, clover) he was a little taken back. "No GE corn that's the secret", I said. I wanted to tell him they had been happy cattle.

It was sad to see them off and there were tears in the truck driving down the road away from the farm, the 2 bulls and their young Moms, my comrades in the circle of the farm. It was their first and last ride in a trailer. It is not my experience to slaughter 2 year old cows, but their ligaments were prone to tearing and I'm leaving for the winter for work, so it is an expedient and lucrative choice - We are going to sell most of the meat in Halifax.

I am making good head way on my TO DO list, but I ran out of garlic and need to locate more to finish my bed. The barn is cleaned out so the truck and tractor can be locked up, and I have rye growing in almost half the garden with more in today.
There is lots of food for my neighbours to pick (they are doing the market) especially salad and cabbage. I'll get some pics up before I fly out on Friday.

by the grace of microorganisms go we

2009-09-20T00:05:00.004-03:00

We're one-tenth human; Rest of the body is a swarm of foreign microbes
Winnipeg Free Press

"Scientists are beginning a large-scale effort to identify and analyze the vast majority of cells in or on your body that aren't of human origin.

Only about 10 per cent of the trillions of cells that make up a person are truly human, researchers say. The other 90 per cent are bacteria, viruses and other microbes swarming in your gut and on your skin.

"We really are a superorganism," Brett Finlay, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said in an email. "From the moment we are born until we die, we live in a symbiotic relationship with our microbes."

More

My last market today

2009-09-12T14:21:00.009-03:00

I have some fabulous salad for the fall markets, carrots, leeks and cabbage too and a mess of this and that. I have passed over the last of the harvests and the market to neighbours in exchange for their attention to the last of the fall jobs: the plastic down, the water off, some more fall rye. I am soon to be unbound from the farm - for the winter. Is it possible?

The TO DO list before I go is daunting but I'm fiesty for it: tuck in a few more beds with fall rye and dare to plant garlic this early, see the first of the cows off and organize delivery into designated freezers. There is also a big hole that water seeps into the basement, and I have the cement mixer out.... and there is a cat to find a home for. Jigs, the boxer bulldog, which was given to me 3 monthes ago (to intimidate the greenhouse thief - she's too cute for that) is going to a friend, and I'll be able to get her back when I return in Febuary. I'm glad for that.

I said goodbye to my great customers today, it was a little sad, to be leaving before thanksgiving, but overall I'm excitement for the adventure. I need to get out, pass on the work like a baton in a endurance race. I need perspective. I don't want to do this alone. I am grateful for folks willing and able to step up to cooperate this fall.

I'll share more of the details later...but my adventure involve a train, dancing, visiting loved ones... and finally (after the feet out and about... a job. Just for the winter mind you because I'm already excited about next year's garden and what can happen there.

CBC reports on Nanotech ignorance

2009-09-12T06:17:00.008-03:00

CBC's Kelly Crowe reports on the Nanotechnology revolution and looks at some of the work done tracking the risks and the toxicology of the nanoscale.

Problem is the tools to observe and measure the particles haven't been invented yet! And although Canadian scientist believe key risks are probable, "Ottawa isn't taking action on the advice of its expert panel".

Watch the video.

labour day

2009-09-07T18:37:00.004-03:00

A verry happy Labour Day everyone, especially those that labour,

mothers, farmers, factory workers
and many others

may the suffering that does arise in the strain of muscle, tendon, nerves be eased by the health and vigor that good labours allows.

May we stand stalwart for fair livlihood for the blessed labourers!

ps.
what a difference a year makes. Compare Obama's last year's labour day speech (video below) where we need a "president who doesn't choke on the word Union" to the speech on the whitehouse blog which doesn't mention the word.

numb meat

2009-09-06T12:01:00.004-03:00

How should we ease the suffering of animals in factory farms? How about genetically engineering them to feel less pain. Yes they have found some genes for it.

Scientists close to taking the pain out of animal suffering

The animals I know and love experience a full range of feelings...who'd want them numb!

I expect its folks who don't fully know how a Mom loves her calf, or triumphs free in a pasture upon excape, that would consider extinguishing feeling.

Feelings are what make us alive.

not proven safe, what will you do.

2009-09-06T07:13:00.009-03:00

Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, head of the WHO's vaccine research initiative, says it best, without having to really say what it means:

"Does it mean that it (adjuvanted vaccine) will be unsafe? No. It means that there is no hard evidence that it will be (safe)."

Canada has purchased the adjuvanted vaccine from GSK and has purchased a limited supply of the unadjuvanted jab for pregnant women otherwise "reluctant" to have the vaccine. These are the (pregnant) women who know that the vaccine is not (proven) safe. Consider please the record of pharmaceutical companies testing their own products - it is troubling; frightening mistakes have been made.

Health Care professional, who may be among the first up for the vaccine, may not be in that line, if recent polls showing less than half believe in the safety or efficacy of the vaccine.

With the vaccine fast tracked and Federal public health officials waiting for the results of clinical trials to be "confident"... the results to be confident? Do they mean confident it is safe (and effective). No wonder most doctors don't want it.

There are ample reasons to not want to take the vaccine, adjuvant present or not.

2009-09-05T17:41:00.016-03:00

I think this is just innocent parody; it is a bit weird, but they have a great website with designs to build that swell tractor..