Sound Science is Killing Us

A fabulous piece of reason from Joel Salatin! Sound science dictates what is safe. Only T-bone steaks wrapped in million-dollar, agriculturally prohibited, quintuple-permitted,
government-sanctioned processing facilities are fit for human consumption. Coca-Cola is safe. McDonald's Happy Meals are safe. So is irradiated food. Genetic engineering is the darling of sound science... Science without soul is just as imbalanced and whacky as soul without science. Anything trumpeted as "science" needs to be filtered through the heart. And if it is touted as sound science, you'd better filter it twice. 

Moral Farming

And in a different media outlet Joel Salatin talks about moral farming. What Americans do to pigs, chickens, and cows speaks ill of the nation's moral health, he says. "A culture that views its life from such a manipulative, disrespectful stance will soon view its citizens the same way and other cultures the same way. It's how we respect the least of these that creates a moral-ethical framework." But can this sort of small-scale, environmentally sustainable farming really feed the world? Salatin answers with a resounding yes! [and I'm with him]

A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns tells the story of the Gamo Highlands of the African Rift Valley and the unique worldview held by the people of the region. This isolated area has remained remarkably intact both biologically and culturally. It is one of the most densely populated rural regions of Africa yet its people have been farming sustainably for 10,000 years.

Iowa Turns Organic

In the midst of sprawling corn and soybean fields, industrial animal-processing plants and ethanol refineries, Woodbury County is charting an unusual course. It's trying to go whole-hog into organic agriculture. "Within the next 10 years, we will be known as the organic capital -- of the world."Such a prediction is almost mind-boggling, considering that the county had not one registered acre of organic farmland in the 2007. It's about trying to keep more of the wealth from the $200 million Sioux City food market in the area, and also helping to meet a national demand for organic grains and food - currently largely supplied from outside the United States' heartland.

Forcing Change on Farmers

A plan to relieve the nitrogen burden on one of the world's most polluted rivers in New Zealand will force farmers to change the way they farm. [I can only see this being the debate of the future everywhere. No mention was made on how to reduce nitrogen inputs, except reducing herd numbers...what about replacing synthetic nitrogen with nitrogen-fixers etc. Surely there are some wonderful opportunities out there to make positive change]

Teaming with Microbes

I had a strong sense of deja vu watching this. Nicole Masters of Integrity Soils in New Zealand has put out this sneak peak of the NZ Soil Carbon Conference DVD box set. Like me she started studying to be a marine biologist, but soon discovered the remarkable topic of living soils and its importance to everything, and now lives and breathes soils passionately! 

Grass Hedges

It seems to obvious...US researchers have found that grass hedges can help farmers preserve soil and protect water quality by trapping sediment that would otherwise be washed away by field runoff. They established single-row continuous swaths of miscanthus, a tall perennial grass, across the lower ends of 72-foot-long cotton plots with a five per cent slope. They also comment that sediment from the cropped cotton is finer...[but of course, herbicides and pesticides have decimated any soil life, and hence the soil structure has collapsed back to silt. They also found the grass could be fed to livestock - it might take another 13 years, but pasture cropping might suddenly be discovered too]

Measuring Soil Carbon

One of the biggest questions is how can we measure soil carbon consistently and effectively in order to know whether or not it has increased, and to what degree, to determine how much credit should be given. Must carbon accrual be measured in actual units on the ground, or can it instead be assumed, based on scientifically derived models of soil carbon response to different farming practices? Another issue is determining an appropriate way to measure soil carbon amongst the myriad of options - both in situ and ex situ. The Rodale Institute is in search of technologies and procedures that allow researchers and farmers to measure soil carbon more quickly and inexpensively than is possible with existing technologies. Results from their first year are now available.

Understanding Salt Uptake by Plants

While all grains are under stress from drought and salinity - the buildup of salt in soil and water - rice is under the most pressure because it is grown in irrigated fields where the salt problem, which is exacerbated by fertilization, is serious.  One scientist is probing the inner plumbing of rice plants down to the genome, and his team have discovered how to monitor precisely where salt travels into the plant. They now find themselves debunking the findings of some of the world's leading rice experts. Current theories hold that porous root cells are culpable for salt intake, but the Toronto team learned that the problem lies elsewhere. [Pity the goal is to genetically modify the plant in the end - perhaps going back to the root cause of landscape salinity would be the more sustainable option]

Food Forest

This is exactly how food can be grown naturally in small areas. I have dipped into a few of these Food Forest videos, and they are great. I love Geoff Lawton's video on his kitchen garden, and the other conversations about layering your food vertically. You can only imagine the productivity per hectare using these systems versus monocultured food. Very inspirational.

Disappearing Food

National Starch has launched a new ingredient for spreadable processed cheese that promises to replace expensive protein and fat without compromising texture or flavour ...[our food is being gutted of nutritional substance all in the name of profit. This is also interesting in light of the article below - The Big Fat Lie Unravelled]

Foods Turning to Drugs in Australia

Hippocrates said "let food be thy medicine". This did not mean that our food should be regulated as dangerous drugs that need to be treated as potentially life threatening! The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) wants to class our food as a hazardous medicine similar to dangerous synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. The TGA wants to do this by changing legislation that makes our food in capsule or tablet form a drug. Health products like Chlorella, Wheat grass, Barley grass and Spirulina will be soon classified as a drug if the TGA has its way.

Hormone Treated Fruit

Indian's are injecting their crops with oxytocin - a hormone best known for its role in female reproduction and can prove fatal if consumed through vegetables and fruits for a period of even two months. The experts say that fluctuating temperatures and erratic rainfall were causing abnormalities in crops across India, so as a means of survival farmers are buying and injecting their plants with oxytocin.

The Importance of Honeybees

Dr Reese, author of The Incomparable Honeybee and the Economics of Pollination, outlines (and really brings alive) the topic of honey bees and how important they are to agriculture and life in general. The by-products of bees is extraordinary - honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly, pollen, medicinals. Yet 500 billion bees have died over the last couple of years - are they the 'canary in the mine' indicator of looming environmental disaster. Are humans listening? Will the poisoning and manipulations stop?

Putting Emails into Context

In the case of the apparently scandalous leaked e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit in England, it's all a matter of getting the context right.  That's what Professor Michael E Mann, the fabricator of the celebrated hockey stick graph, told the Washington Post. [It leaves you wondering...]

Mike Hulme, a climate scientist at the University of East Anglia and author of "Why We Disagree About Climate Change," said the disclosures could offer a chance to finally bring the practices of climate researchers and the intergovernmental panel into the modern era, where transparency - enforced legally or illegally - is inevitable and appropriate. [Indeed!]

Global Bullies Want Your Money

You are not being told the whole story. What if governments poured billions of monopolistic funding into one theory but hardly anything into the alternatives: a theory that suited personal ambitions, profits of major players, careers of scientists, and the aims of naïve greens? The Skeptics Handbook II is brilliant - by the way, skeptic = person indisposed to accept popularity or authority as proving the truth of opinions. The world is considering a new financial market larger than any commodity market. We're told it's all "based on science", but if you ask for evidence you are called names - "denier"! [Yes, yes and yes!! A wonderful read]

Who Says There is Consensus?

The Climate Change Science 2009 Compendium is published online, all ready for Copenhagen. It certainly documents a wide range of things seemingly going amiss around the world - all attributed to climate change (not other likely contenders such as pollution, toxins, overuse and depletion, destruction etc etc). The underlying assumption, unsurprisingly, is that it is all being caused by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but I note that they are not bothering to 'prove' that link anymore - its an assumed given.

But straight behind this press release is a just released science paper stating that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic CO2 has remained constant since the 1800s. How much do we really know? Surely we need to investigate all the other activities of man that are overtly destroying our planet...  Knorr Airborne Fraction Co2 2009 29/11/2009,21:57 159.81 Kb

I loved Turnbull's stand earlier in the year about risk managing climate change (which I respect the need for) by doing what you would want to do anyway - e.g start to sequester carbon back into natural resources, like soil. That unfortunately changed after his recent visit that will no doubt be administered by a world bank. Why??? How is it going to curb anything, especially with so many concessions given to exactly those industries accused of causing the most damage. It's surreal. A bit like bailing out the very banks that caused the GFC.

Who Will Govern?

The declaration coming out of the World Food Summit for Food Security in Rome is even worse than the "shameful" document adopted by world leaders in 1996. The only issue really being debated in Rome is whether control of the UN's "Department of Agriculture" will be wrested from the UN's Rome-based agencies and surrendered to an amorphous, G8 conjured, public-private compact called the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition. If the Partnership prevails, national sovereignty fails, and civil society's hopes for Food Sovereignty will suffer.

Monsanto - Sinner or Saint?

To its critics, the agricultural giant is using science to create foods that threaten the health of both people and the planet, and intellectual-property laws to squeeze every last penny out of the world's poor. To its admirers, the innovations in seeds pioneered by Monsanto are the world's best hope of tackling a looming global food crisis. The original company was formed in 1901 to make saccharine. Today most of Monsanto's $11.7 billion of annual sales come from seeds, increasingly of genetically modified (GM), or transgenic, varieties, and from licensing genetic traits.

GM Opponents Emotional

Opponents of GM food are motivated by 'emotion' and 'ideology' rather than a 'reasoned' scientific approach, according to a major report by a government funded quango. The report was based on the findings of a focus group of only 30 people of whom more than a third said at the outset that they thought that the disadvantages of GM technology outweighed the benefits.

Call for Independent GM Information

The same study above found that people want truly independent information to help them make up their minds about GM foods. Shoppers also want a clear labelling system to tell them if the food they buy is genetically modified or if products like milk and meat were produced from animals given GM feed. [I get the impression that this study's ultimate aim is to work out how to convince people GM is OK, or am I overly suspicious?]

Relabelling GM Food

Consumers might be more willing to bite into genetically modified apples if they were labeled differently. For example, participants in a study were more receptive to genetically modified apples when they were labeled "Reduced Environmental Impact." One researcher states: terminology such as "reduced environmental impact" makes G.M.O.'s benefits easier to understand." [Yeah, right!]

France Defines and Labels GM

The French government's advisory council on biotechnology have recommended a 0.1% threshold for genetically modified material in plant products and animal feed, and propose that public authorities should set a minimum distance between apiaries and fields where GM crops are grown. They said that setting "technically achievable and socially acceptable" thresholds would benefit food manufacturers and producers that take steps to avoid GM ingredients by distinguishing them on the market, while giving consumers the information necessary to choose GMO-free products. The labelling was proposed in response to the difficulties raised through the coexistence of GMO-free, conventional and organic production. [Indeed!]

Green Street

A small town in Maryland is setting a precedent in eco-friendly road construction, breaking ground on one of the greenest streets in the US. The blueprint incorporates native tree cover to cool off the streets, wind-powered street lights that use high-efficiency LED bulbs, and pedestrian and bicycle access. But most important is the plan for all that water that rolls down the streets when it rains - it will be naturally filtered. The eco-street project includes using porous bricks in building the road and creating bioretention cells or rain gardens. [For years I pondered exactly this idea for Coronation Drive in Brisbane - it seemed so obvious]

Sustainability Streets

I saw this in an old magazine and had to look it up. The Sustainability Street Approach is a local, social response... a grassroots driven template which has been developed over 20 years and continues to be developed with the input, stories and involvement of Sustainability Street Villages all over Australia. It involves linking up with others in your street and joining together to change habits and become more sustainable. The results speak for themselves (and it looks like fun for many reasons).

Australian Women Are Guineapigs

Some of the world's most prestigious cosmetic houses have been accused by an environmental group of using Australian women as guinea pigs. The cosmetic industry says the controversial use of nanoparticles is not widespread. But an independent analysis by Friends of the Earth found nanomaterials in all 10 randomly selected foundations. Only one product, a Christian Dior foundation, declared the presence of nanoparticles on its label.

What's New...

Nutri-Tech Solutions now has 76 products that are BFA approved giving organic farmers a huge range of inputs to select from.  Attached is the BFA certificate that lists all 76 products. Together there is something for just about every problem likely to crop up, many of which often work better than the conventional option.   BFA Certificate 25/11/2009,02:09 612.99 Kb

Fertile Farm Upgrade

Fertile Farm have upgraded their website which includes a range of links and information, as well as summaries of their products and services. 

Canada's Organic Newsletter

The latest issue has been published online with a range of information including a paper on changes in earthworm populations during conversion from conventional to organic.

Grazing and Farming For Profit

GrazingforProfit provides you with the knowledge and tools to build the management systems that allow you to act positively to current and new situations as they arise. Roma 14th - 20th February 2010. If you run a mixed enterprise rural business, Grazing for Profit's sister program Farming&GrazingforProfit is being held in Dubbo 21st - 27th February.

Central West CMA December Events

The Central West CMA has conveniently put together all their events for December in the one attachment. I notice that they have days on soil life, permaculture and soil carbon, as well as many other great natural resource topics.  Central West CMA December 25/11/2009,02:18 148.02 Kb

Feral Animal Management

A free workshop on feral animal management will be held at Coolongolook 11th December. It will cover wild dogs - neighbourhood approach for effective control, rabbit, fox and pig control methods, trapping demonstration, ecological impacts of feral animals.   Feral Animal Management 25/11/2009,01:41 183.48 Kb

More Farm Soil Carbon Workshops

The Soil Carbon Institute have added more dates and venues around NSW - Wagga Wagga 3rd - 4th February and Young 8th - 9th February.

Soil Carbon is the key to natural farming success. It can reduce your input costs. It can restore your soil structure and reverse the effects of erosion. Put the billions of microbes in the soil to work for you. Join the thousands of land holders who have discovered the excitement of working with a healthy farming system. Learn to use the Soil Carbon Optimising Tool (SCOT) to maximize your carbon uptake so you enjoy the rewards sooner. Developed by the Soil Carbon Institute, SCOT steps you through the decision path, allowing you to mix and match techniques to suit your unique situation. Dubbo 9-10 December and Moree 14-15th December.   Farm Soil Carbon Workshop 23/11/2009,04:13 148.99 Kb

Keyline Design Course

Presented by Darren Doherty and hosted by Milkwood Permaculture. Keyline Design is a complete design system for landscapes. It is applicable to both rural and urban areas. It is a unique combination of water conservation and soil building, with great appeal to both farmers and landholders, as it has the ability to build and regenerate degraded soils rapidly, and sees the use of grazing animals as beneficial to this process. This three day course is jam-packed with examples, techniques. Richmond 14-16th January.

Health

Media Disinformation about Swine Flu

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter.  We are all being led to believe that every case diagnosed as "swine flu" or even as "flu-like illness" is, in fact, swine flu. Of those presumed likely swine flu cases out of approximately every hundred of what was tested, only a small fraction were actually swine flu. Official flu statistics were difficult to obtain, and the CDC expressed that questions about swine flu prevalence were not a matter of widespread media or public interest - yet the President has declared the swine flu a national public health emergency! [Oh boy, something is fishy in all this]

Antioxidants and Flu

A team of Alabama researchers have raised hopes that they have found an Achilles' heel for all strains of the flu -- antioxidants. They might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on our lungs.

The Big Fat Lie Unraveled

What if fat doesn't make you fat? In 2007, Gary Taubes published an expose, called Good Calories, Bad Calories, on the junk science and failed public policy of the nation's low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. It examines thousands of science projects and then states that animal fats are not the problem of our obese and chronically ill society; carbohydrates are. A change to a western diet rich in carbohydrates brought with it the previously unseen incidence of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, high blood pressure, asthma, appendicitis, peptic ulcers, varicose veins, diverticulitis, gallstones, hemorrhoids and constipation. [Yes, yes, yes!!]

Pass the Butter Please

This is an oldie but a goodie.  Are you aware of the differences between margarine and butter? Both have the same amount of calories. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added! Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... [Some great facts in this one]

Melamine Executions

China executed two people for their part in the melamine-tainted milk powder scandal that killed six and sickened around 300,000.

How to Maintain a Healthy Colon

This provides a wonderful explanation of how the colon works, and very importantly what you can do to keep it healthy, such as eating substantial meals, repopulating with bugs, eating healthy fats, obtaining sufficient Vitamin D, finding emotional balance etc.

Swine Flu Made in a Laboratory

Adrian Gibbs, the virologist who said in May that swine flu may have escaped from a laboratory, has just published his findings with other scientists, renewing discussion about the origins of the pandemic virus. Gibbs, and fellow Australian scientists analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus and found its origin could be more simply explained by human involvement than a coincidence of nature.

Scientist Questions Gardasil

Gardasil is a drug that has been promoted to females as a cervical cancer vaccine. In fact it is a Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine. This drug has been promoted incorrectly as a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in females. However trials done prior to it being licensed in 2006 did not observe that this drug would prevent cervical cancer.

Researcher Warns Against Gardasil

One of the lead researchers for the Merck drug, Gardasil, is speaking out about its risks, benefits and aggressive marketing. Dr. Harper joins a number of consumer watchdogs, vaccine safety advocates, and parents who question the vaccine's risk-versus-benefit profile. The number of deaths reported after Gardasil is at least 32, yet Merck and the CDC says it's unclear whether the deaths were related to the vaccine, and that just because patients died after the shots doesn't mean the shots were necessarily to blame.

Vitamin D for Everything

Scientists from the Netherlands, Austria, and the U.S. report that low blood levels of the sunshine vitamin are associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality, and mortality from heart disease, in the elderly. "Apart from the maintenance of muscular and skeletal health, vitamin D may also protect against cancer, infections, autoimmune and vascular diseases, suggesting that vitamin D deficiency might contribute to a reduced life expectancy."

Swine Flu and Miscarriage

Miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine are starting to pour in from all over the nation. The standard comeback is that miscarriages are commonplace or just coincidence. But surely when a number of women have healthy, uneventful pregnancies up until they're injected with a vaccine, and then suddenly miscarry, it most certainly warrants investigation!

Swine Flu History

The timing and subsequent coincidences leading into the call of a flu pandemic is beyond anyone's belief, particularly when confirmation of flu infections has been effectively stopped worldwide. Anyone who thinks they may have the flu are counted in - but only a fraction of those are being found to actually have swine flu. A very worthwhile read.

Using Statins to Fight Flu?

Drug companies are now claiming that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor can be used as a treatment for swine flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) -- is now sponsoring a large study to look further into the use of statin drugs to treat the flu. Money being poured in to drugs with side-effects and future profits. But where is the CDC-sponsored study on vitamin D and the flu? Its effects are causing excitement in the heath industry, it has no side-effects and its free...from the sun.

Forced Medication in South Australia?

Under draft legislation proposed by the South Australian Government, someone with swine flu, measles or meningococcal disease could be forcibly held, examined and treated. The Public Health Bill also would, for the first time, give authorities the power to override parents who refused treatment for their children with infectious conditions. Non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, could also be declared, allowing the Government to introduce codes of practice for certain industries or the community. [Oh my!]

Miscellaneous

What are Rights? Ron Paul certainly sets the record straight, especially in regards to the role of government and corporatism of the healthcare system.

Then there is The Fall of the Republic offering a sobering glimpse behind the curtain of American politics and the international banking system.  The notion of a New World Government is not restricted to the fringe conspiracists anymore. An explanation for Turnbull's determined push for ETS seems to be explained here too - curiously his push for it hit full steam after his visit to London...

Offbeat Request

A subscriber thought there might be a reasonable chance of finding an elusive book through this network. She is chasing "The Creature from Jekyll Island", a book about the creation of the US Reserve Bank (which coincidentally is talked about in The Fall of the Republic above). She has tried getting it ordered in her local library - but after almost a year she has given up. Does someone out there have a copy that she could borrow with the promise of it being looked after and returned, or buy? Contact Louise directly.

Events

The calendar is playing up, so most of the links below are directed back to other websites where possible or to a contact email address. If there are no links, look to the related article above.   

* Farm Soil Carbon Workshop - Dubbo NSW 9th - 10th December 2009.

* Feral Animal Management - Coolongolook NSW 11th December 2009.

* Farm Soil Carbon Workshop - Moree NSW 14th - 15th December 2009.

* Keyline Design Course - Richmond NSW 14th - 16th January 2009.

* Farm Soil Workshop - Wagga Wagga NSW 3rd - 4th February 2009.

* Farm Soil Workshop - Young NSW 8th - 9th February 2009.

* GrazingforProfit - Roma Qld 14th - 20th February 2010.

* Farming&GrazingforProfit - Dubbo NSW 21st - 27th February 2010.

Postscript

Can you trust your eyes? Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see: how your brain works. A fun look at what your own sense of sight reveals. This really scientifically challenges your sense of reality and how context can change everything.

What about using fun to change people's behaviour - this experiment had 66% more people use steps instead of an elevator. And I have to say, it does look like fun!

And what beautiful steps to walk - a list of the world's 10 most amazing staircases with photos.