Slacking off.

Its been a while, too long in fact. I have about 5 drafts of things that have sparked my interest, but nothing was ever cogent enough to deserve posting. I did however come across this item in the news. It would seem the GMO version of rice that got some minor press coverage here is back in the news. They want to label it organic. Now bear in mind as I said this particular case is not the more insidous form of GMO but a sort of GMO lite, but its genetic code has been tampered with.

Now here's my take on the situation. All GMO's should be labeled as such, and if we can't get transgenic GMO's banned entirely, then they need to be clearly labeled, including animals that are raised on transgenic feed. Then let people assemble their priorities like we do for local/conventional, local/organic, nonlocal/organic, and so on. Transgenics in my opinion deserve no place in agriculture because of their tendency to pollute other crops, and the fact that they are geared towards making the ecological and economic trap of conventional fertilizers and pesticides more lucrative. It takes the bad situation of conventional ag and makes it worse.

I am not indifferent to starvation but several things need to be made abundantly clear to the growers that these seeds are marketed too. First is that the person selling you the miracle seed is not always as altruistic as they seem. Second, it may not be that much better than what your already have.

I will of course be watching this one closely. Information is power and if we lose the right to know whats in our food, then we are relying on the benevolence of the least deserving to sustain us.

disturbing trends

One can only pour gasoline on a fire for so long until a random spark sets the whole pile ablaze.

Create a threat and people prepare

Add tension, make incendiary comments, orchestrate an us vs. them mindset

eventually someone does the unthinkable.

self fulfilling prophesy. God help us all, I pray its the end rather than the beginning.

Wow

Jim Cramer, whose prior contribution to society was serving as fodder for the Daily Show appears to think trouble is ahead for Monsanto. Well duh. Anyone in the Justice Dept with half a brain and a shred of ethics is probably eyeballing that beast for antitrust...at least.

I harvested my first tomato yesterday a nice ripe 14 oz brandywine. Cut it up and ate it straight up. Its been almost a year since I have had a real tomato. The pale mealy crap in the stores doesn't even come close. I've got another couple brandywines getting close and a cherokee purple that I think is probably ready too. I cut away all the foliage infected with early blight and so far the last few days have not shown further infection. I can only hope...



The vermont cranberry beans are doing great! Look at those gorgeous pods. My green beans have started flowering now too.

There has to be something to this crazy dream...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/young-agrarians-digging-t_b_186734.html

The second coming of the brief "back to the land" movement of the 60's or a return to a better way of life?

And wadayaknow, GMO doesn't really improve crop yeilds.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/14-6

And finally

Pro-Pesticide Group Criticizes First Lady’s Organic Garden

And First Lady Michelle Obama is coming under criticism from a pro-pesticide industry group for deciding to plant an organic garden at the White House. The Mid America CropLife Association recently wrote to the First Lady to urge her to consider using pesticides, or what they call "crop protection products.” One official with the pro-pesticide group said, “While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder.” Mid America CropLife represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont.

the thought of what your products do to the groundwater makes me shudder.

Everyone has been telling me...

What I already knew...victory gardens are coming back. And despite my best attempt to be cynical, I can't help but jump for joy. Especially when I read this...

...A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will tend two hives for honey.

...Ladybugs and praying mantises will help control harmful bugs.


“First of all,” Mrs. Obama said, “there’s nothing really cooler than coming to the White House and harvesting some of the vegetables and being in the kitchen with Cris and Sam and Bill, and cutting and cooking and actually experiencing the joys of your work.”

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House.”

I couldn't agree more. In fact my new mission for the season is to get 5 friends to start a garden. Also from the looks of the layout that was posted, they are putting in some of my go-to flowers in border areas. Lets hear it for beneficials! Check out the article here. Now to convince the Obamas to join FreedomGardens and start blogging!

and by the way...the first of the lettuce seedlings just popped up to say hi

In other news...

I took a fistfull of pictures of the vacant space left by the bushes, which my wife accurately characterized as "sad and empty." Not for long though, the holes for footers have been dug and the siding pulled away where the sunroom will fit to the outside wall. I'll take more pics tonight and hopefully remember the memory card tomorrow morning.

Groovy Green found an article on what in my opinion is the perfect stimulus package. Being vegetarian I don't normally espouse metaphors that encourage bird killing, no matter how many times the stone gets reused, but it fits.

Sharon Astyk rounds up 25 crops no one should be without. And if the above stimulus plan gets picked up on, I might actually have room to grow them all.

And lastly, sometimes the things that are the hardest to pick up on are the ones right under your nose. Apparently there is a fairly well established greenie group in Syracuse. I might just leave my shell yet.

by the way, holy February heat wave batman, it hit the 50's here in Syracuse!?

Brain Droppings

First of all thank you to those who dropped a quick word or two on the HFCS mercury issue, and thank you to Jennifer for giving us all the "deep breath, calm-down," moment I think everyone needed. I certainly agree that this is not the apocalypse, but its another darn good reason to keep HFSC out of the fridge, pantry, etc. HFCS is ultimately the symptom of the corn overproduction inherent in our current system. If it werent for the broken ag policy in this nation, HFSC would be as expensive, if not more, than cane sugar.

Also important to remember is two failings of the FDA, first the allowance of the term natural, and second, the tacit allowance of mercury to be in HFCS (even in small amounts) without adequate public notification. I am paraphrasing Jules Dervaes: "The corporations won't do it, the government can't do it." Personally I don't believe the thought bomb that government exists to perpetuate its own excess, and government officials are only concerned with appealing to the highest bidder. I think again we are looking at a structural failing where elected officials must raise obscene amounts of money DAILY in order to fund their re-election just to be competitive. This compromises the integrity of the policy making process to the extent we see today. What do these two things have to do with each other?

I'm not really sure but they both have me thinking today.

And just to keep the pattern of ending on a good note: If this doesn't make you smile, nothing will.

Good? Genetic Engineering?

CNN of all places tuned me into this one. It would seem that scientists have developed a flood tolerant variety of rice. But it was apparently not done conventionally, nor does it make any reference to Monsanto's gene gun, or reliance on viral invasion to insert the gene.

The team relied on something called precision breeding, the ability to introduce very specific genes into plants without the associated baggage of other genes that might tag along in conventional breeding.

"This can be a problem for farmers," Ronald said. "The varieties that were developed from conventional breeding were rejected by farmers because they didn't yield well or taste good."

I'm cautiously optimistic which might strike my readers as an about face from my usual luddite tendencies.

First, the flood resistant gene came from another strain of rice. We are not talking about Monsanto's transgenic frankenfoods. Nobody is snatching genes from the animal kingdom and putting them into plant.

Second, their method at first glance appears to be through natural means (though I don't honestly think I know enough about this "precision breeding" to make an absolute judgment. The article does mention that

Because the plants are the product of precision breeding, rather than genetic modification, they are not subject to the same regulatory testing that can delay release of genetically modified crops.

Since the US regulation on GMO seems nonexistent, they must be referring to regulations elsewhere, but the differentiation between GMO and precision breeding in classification puts my mind at ease a bit.

Lastly, the intention of the developer seems largely benevolent. Unlike the ghouls at Monsanto, the developer (Dr. Joyce Ronald at U.C. Davis) seems by and large more concerned with helping farmers adapt to rising sea levels and climatic catastrophe than in protecting "Intellectual Property" (read profit margin).


There remains one question however. Does this plant have the genetic characteristics of a Hybrid? Are subsequent generations inconsistent in their properties, or could this strain be open pollinated? Can seed this particular strain of rice, once planted be regrown the next year without the need for farmers to purchase new seed.

The food crisis is twofold. Clearly science is willing to address environmental factors that contribute to decline in crop yield, but they must also include in the solution a willingness to address economic factors that contribute to a decline in the farming population.

This could turn out to be quite an interesting story, I hope more information will be forthcoming.

worse than you thought...but there is hope

Remember my rant about corn syrup? Maybe I was giving the environmental movement too much credit. It would seem the Corn Refiners Association was not reacting to the hordes of greenies turning up their noses, but pre-empting some bad news. It seems High Fructose Corn syrup often contains mercury. Mmmmmm delicious natural mercury.

The Bright side? Apparently our new pres is a fan of Pollan

cause for optimism?

How do I know they take us greenies seriously?

Backlash.

Two commercials have caught my attention, raised my ire, and therefore annoyed my wife.

The first is from the american chemical lobby, showing all the things that are essential to use that use "chemistry" by necessity, including cosmetics, healthcare, space exploration, and FOOD. Yeah guys thanks, we never actually ate before the 1950's. This food concept is great, thanks chemistry!

The second came from the corn refiners association who was promoting the "truth" about high fructose corn syrup. See their site and find the ad here. As if that isn't enough, they are now proclaiming that the FDA considers corn syrup to be "Natural." since it is derived from a plant source I suppose. By that definition, plastic is natural, since it comes from oil, and oil comes from plants too.

So in lieu of a pledge to be more positive, I am looking for a silver lining. If it were not for the growing strength of the environmental movement, these jokers wouldn't waste their money on this tripe.

There really is nothing as sad as a marginally useful industry that insists on its necessity. As if we couldn't live without it. Corn syrup is used so broadly as a sweeter because it is cheaper. The only reason that it is cheap is because corn is so abundant, the only reason corn is abundant is because we the taxpayers subsidize corn growers. We pay to have cheap sweeters. Make sense?

Another reminder if you haven't seen King Corn yet, do so, it lays bare the entire fiasco of industrial corn production in this country in about the most even handed and honest way possible.

minor developments

In the sunroom project, apparently we either lose 1'2" off the front or wait till february for an opportunity to obtain a variance. The Company has offered to cut a substantial deal if we shrink a tad and proceed now, so we took it. Onward, and more waiting.

It would appear there has been some consolidation of the change.org recommendations. Victory Garden on the whitehouse lawn has now become "Green the Whitehouse" I must confess I both love and hate the green moniker. On the one hand it makes the concept of conservation and such more accessable to the public at large. On the other hand it makes it trendy and thus doomed to be over with, and is a faaar to big a tent, including in the idea of green the ludicrous notion of things like "clean" (lie) coal" and other feel good greenwashing tokenism. Its fine if the heading Green includes specific actions like gardening, modern appliances, conservation practices, and the restoration of solar panels on the roof that were originally implemented by Carter, then torn down by Bonzo.

Its fine to make this a big tent idea, but lets keep the specifics clear.

Monsanto is at it again, and made seed saving a priority this year.

still going

I know Its been quite some time since I updated, in the meantime the beans are definitely flowering and I am showing a few beet leaves, still no hoophouse yet. And I have taken in another 3lbs 12 oz of tomatoes making my total almost 49 lbs, soooo close! oh wait, one last take of yellow squash gave me 1lb 6oz.

drumroll....

51lbs! whoohoo! (yes I know its not the 100 I was hoping for but I'm off to a good start)

heard any good news lately? I haven't. On the one hand its nice to know I was not part of some shared delusion, on the other hand, it looks like being right is going to be painful. I have to balance my participation in discussions and desire to stay informed, with the essential human need to not be completely swept up in a fear soaked paralysis. So if my posting here and commenting on your own sites is a tad sparse, I'm just trying to get a mental handle on everything, and I'm likely doing what has worked for me to get through times like this.

Stay Busy

close to home

cnn reports that on the tug hill plateau here in NY not everyone appreciates the wind farm.

This is eerily similar to a conversation I had with my father not long ago. He lives farther out in the country (albeit 5 minutes from the city I grew up in) but it definitely has a more rural feel. Anyway, aside from always lamenting the arrival of new neighbors and the slow evolution to a more suburban setting he has been an opponent of the windfarm that went up on the ridge some 5 miles away, on the grounds that it spoils the view. I always counter with the notion of acid rain or fallout from nine mile point as being the alternatives. No dice. Anyway, when his neighbor put in a home scale turbine he was furious, the noise being of primary concern. Personally, I live in a more urban/suburban setting, noise unfortunately is a part of my life, and I could just as easily adapt to that, but he has been "in the country" for almost 17 years now, so this is a big change. Like the man in the article he has also grown up with a sense of respect for the land and tried to pass that value on. The part I found ironic was that the son was protesting the windfarm on the grounds that it spoils the natural beauty. Most of my readers are probably thinking "that windfarm might be the only thing that saves it." But we have to understand that no solution is perfect, has absolutely zero impact, and is universally acceptable to everyone, because not everyone places value on the same things. Ask this man if he cares about the health of the land and I'm sure he will say "of course I do" but there may be other factors he values more.

noise is energy, energy that could be put to better use, so as turbines become more efficient, and quieter I imagine this will be less of an issue, but there is still the visual impact, and well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While some see independence and a bright future, others see the spoiling of natural scenery. Progress does not come without cost, the difference now is that the cost is no longer being hidden to society. If we want to dance, we will need to pay the piper, we can't keep letting our children or our mother pay the tab. I suppose it is the same with home gardens. Neighborhood covenants and traditionally minded neighbors concerned with maintaining property value (one of the last remaining legal forms of segregation) will always oppose widescale and visible gardens, chicken coops, etc on the grounds that they are an eyesore. Personally I feel that endless undifferentiated monocultural lawns are an obscenity, and likely no covenant board would ever tolerate my kicking and screaming for change. Is there a compromise? Is there a way to appeal to more traditionally minded folks that what is being introduced in the form of a windfarm over the hill, or a garden in the yard is not the destruction of something dear but an evolution into something more valuable? Will we one day see a time when the annual yield of a home orchard or garden is included in the for sale listing? When smart home shoppers will prefer homes where the soil is well cared for and trees are productive?

The entire "green" movement is not intrinsically a shift in purchasing habits (despite its marketing of such). It is a shift of values, and an accounting of the full cost of our choices. When we make that clear, we will no longer find ourselves swimming against the current.

Call to action

Today is going to be a big posting day, but I thought I should get this out there as soon as possible.

Surprise, the current administration is looking to gut protection for endangered species.

Call your senators, congressmen, media, everyone.

Out with the Hippies, in with the Yawns, and why did you change?

According to CNN living lightly...even if you have the means to do otherwise is a growing phenomenon. Seems almost fitting that its popular emergence is amoung the well to due. I suppose once you realize you can buy almost anything, there is a good chance you realize that buying everything won't make you any happier. I would hardly put myself anywhere near the income bracket of some of the referenced examples, but I can say that my wife and I earn a comfortable amount of income, and I do feel a certain kinship with the people in the article, even though the difference between potential and actual consumption is less pronounced in my case. I imagine that the individuals in the article climbed up to the top of the consumption mountain and said: geeze, I'm no happier than I was at the bottom. I am guessing, but its probably harder for someone halfway up the hill, still intent on reaching the top, to understand the rule of diminishing returns as it applies to materialism.

And then there is the other argument I'm heard that living ethically is expensive. All the green goods and carbon offsets and local foods are more expensive than piling everyone in the car and going to burger king. And who the heck has the time to cook if you're working two jobs to pay off the debts. Its easier to plop the kids in front of the tv and buy them whatever is being pimped this week than to spend time with them after a stressful day. Being an "instant" father I recently have begun to see the seduction of the things I so cheerfully criticized prior.

So what motivates someone like well me and you to stop trying to claw our way up the hill of consumerism. What motivated me? Well read back to my first post, but I'll tell you up front I was not happy. A quarter life crisis so to speak, coupled with an obsessive tendency to dig deeper into the things that caused my anxiety. Eventually I reached a point where one way or another I was not going to keep ending up panicing, and by extention surrendering to defeat.

But life "outside the box" is alien to most, its lonely at times, and often requires the living to separate from the ways of the dead. Not an appealing proposition.

So why did you leave your box?

the horrors of change

How are we ever to grow if people like this get paid to write this crap...an excerpt which is at the heart of the problem.

In "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore preached to us about downsizing our
lifestyles. He wants us to take colder showers, hang our clothes outside to dry,
avoid driving, use less heating and air conditioning and generally reduce our
standard of living.

emphasis mine.



It doesn't matter what the overwhelming evidence says, if a person percieves that there is no problem, then there is no need to change. If a person percieves that to change requires sacrifice, and that ultimately that sacrifice will only result in an intangible change in total, then there will be no change. No one wants to reduce their standard of living, especially when the net gain will be negligable.

What we must first attack is the idea that the change in lifestyle is a reduction at all. Ask Mr. Dervaes if he is happier now, or before. Ask the folks over at elements in time if they are happier now? Everytime anyone consciously makes a decision about where their food, clothes and life's necessities come from, everytime someone realizes that personal responsibility and sovreignty is as much about choosing what you really want, and not what everyone seems to want...they are that much closer to truly being free and fully actualized. It is not so much a reduction in the standard of living as a realization of what living really means.


And for all the talk about the so called sacrifice not having any effect? Every person that stops by Path to Freedom and says, "wow, I never thought about that, I might try a few of those ideas." Every person that stops by the farmer's market "just to check it out" Every person who looks at the news and sees what the monsanto's of the world are doing, and wonders where the food in their fridge actually came from...

is one step closer to the turning the tide. Person by person the tide IS turning, and someday people who think like that WILL be in the minority, but by then, they'll just blindly follow what the rest of us consciously decided to do long ago.

and if its all for naught, at least I can meet my end knowing that I tried.

Why am I in such a mood to rant today? yesterday evening I broke my forked spade. Its not even a year old and snapped right at the tang. Post mortem revealed cheap cast "steel." Buy cheap buy twice. But hey I just caused economic growth, because I will have to buy another spade. Sell cheap, sell twice. Watch the GDP rise! the economy is GROWING! Hurray!

Grrrrr.

Mammon and Mutants

I knew monsanto was the many headed beast, quietly swallowing the genes and livelyhood of real agriculture, but I guess I never knew how downright despicable they really were. I have to credit Groovy green for finding this article in vanity fair.

Notice in the parting shot, my favorite global warming denier Steve Milloy gets a shout out as being one of the underhanded shills trying to move a whisper camaign of support for the devils.

God Says Go Green

Ok, not exactly but a growing number of religious leaders are urging their flocks to lifestyles of more deliberate stewardship. Grist has the top 15. Nice to see a good number of Catholics representin'. Who says all that guilt cant be put to good use!