Behind, but Catching Up..., Effective Microbe Synergies, New Microbe Formulation, Ruining Soils with Chemical Fertilisers, Land Clearing Triggers Hotter Droughts, Innovative Farmers Ahead of Government Researchers, Purifying Water with Sunlight, Giant Deodorant Guns, Justifying Factory Raised Meat, Confined Animal Feeding Operations, Food Fraud, We Are What We Eat, How I Fell in Love With A Fish, New Flame Retardants Accumulating in Environment, Doctors Warn Against GM Food, Goodman Fielders Non-GE Stand Threatened, GE Labelling Correction, GM Pollen and Bee Deaths, First Superweeds Now Superbugs, Continuing GM Court Action, Who Gets to Save the World?, Climate Scientists vs Meteorologists, Unsavory Recycling, Insect Resistant Packaging, Plastic Nanoparticles Move Through Placenta, New Fish Farms to Help the Environment, Cleaning Up Storm Water, Inspired by Nature, Mass Delusion, What's New..., Ecological Agriculture Australia Association, Kiva Loans, Vedic Mathematics for Teens and Juniors, All The Dirt Newsletter, Soils Health Day, Health (the flu shot and Alzheimer's, magnesium for life, the flu and sunshine, the type of fat makes the difference,  agave worst than fructose, vitamin K alternatives for newborns, our skin mops up ozone, microchips and cancer, flu shots useless, vaccination guru fraud, the truth about gardasil, engineered swine flu pandemic, tamanu oil), Quote, Cartoon, Miscellaneous, Events, Postscript

Behind, but Catching Up...

After a 3-day workshop last week, then Good Friday and Easter Monday I am way behind in the newsletters. I will endeavour to catch up by sending out all the news up to Wednesday last week in this posting, then the rest soon afterwards. I just hope I do not miss any events during the time lag.

Effective Microbe Synergies

A long-term field experiment was conducted in Pakistan to determine the agronomic and economic merits of EM in a rice-wheat cropping system. When fertiliser and organic amendments were combined with EM, higher grain and straw yields were obtained for each crop. With few exceptions, EM applied in combination with NPK, green manure and farm yard manure caused a significant increase in nutrient uptake by the grain and straw of each crop. In addition, there was a significantly higher net return due to EM. [Contact Julian White of Fertile Farm for more information on EM products]

New Microbe Formulation

Nutri-Tech Solutions have reformulated and improved their well-known Nutri-Life 4/20 task specific freeze-dried blend of bacterial strains and beneficial fungi which can be boom sprayed, fertigated or foliar sprayed. It is a BFA (Biological Farmers of Australia) registered product and is ideal for nitrogen-fixation, rapid humus production, increasing phosphorus availability and improving nutrient uptake. It's success over many years is a testament to its performance and has actually reduced in price!

Ruining Soils with Chemical Fertilisers

There has been a significant decline in soil pH since the 1980s in China’s major croplands, mainly from the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers. In the three major Chinese double-cropping systems – wheat-maize, rice-wheat, and rice-rice – annual N fertilizer application rates are usually above 500 kg N/ha, with nitrogen efficiencies of only 30 to 50%. The overuse of chemical fertilizers is a major source of environmental pollution from agriculture, which China’s recent national pollution census identified to be greater than industry.

Land Clearing Triggers Hotter Droughts

A University of Queensland scientist has led groundbreaking research which shows that clearing of native vegetation has made recent Australian droughts hotter. “Our work shows that the 2002-03 El Nino drought in eastern Australia was on average two degrees Centigrade hotter because of vegetation clearing.” [What, vegetation clearing, not CO2?! I wonder if Climate Change research models factor this in?] “Protection and restoration of Australia's native vegetation needs to be a critical consideration in mitigating climate change.” [Beautifully put, though does it have to be native? - I would argue that it simply needs to be functional] This is the actual scientific paper.

Innovative Farmers Ahead of Government Researchers

Many innovative Australian farmers are "way ahead" of government researchers when it comes to developing new technology and farming practices to deal with climate change, according to Independent MP, Tony Windsor. Mr Windsor was part of the standing committee on primary industries and said it was clear during the committee's inquiries that "innovate farmers were in front of the researchers". He singled out efforts by farmers in the area of bio-dynamic and biological farming practices generally, where many farmers were experimenting way ahead of the research currently available. [Yet where are the big dollars being spent on these sorts of projects?]

Purifying Water with Sunlight

A company whose technology taps sunlight to purify drinking water for communities besieged by wars and natural disasters is looking to widen the market for its treatment systems. The company has broadened its scope and developed units that can process salt water, brackish water or freshwater, and by late this year or next, have technology that could be used by municipal water suppliers. But there are obstacles to being totally chemical-free unfortunately.

Giant Deodorant Guns

Beijing is to install 100 deodorant guns at a stinking landfill site on the edge of the city in a bid to dampen complaints about the capital's rubbish crisis. The high-pressure guns, which can spray dozens of litres of fragrance per minute over a distance of up to 50m, are produced by several Chinese firms and based on German and Italian technology.

Justifying Factory Raised Meat

Three years ago the American novelist Jonathon Safran Foer, a new father, set out to research the ethics of what we eat to see if he would ever be able to justify eating meat to his son. As a result he became a vegetarian and he wrote Eating Animals, a passionate polemic against factory farming. [This is a well reasoned interview on ABC's Lateline which does separate farm raised meat from factory raised meat]

Confined Animal Feeding Opeations

Food Fraud

"Food fraud" has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA. The recent development of high-tech tools -- including DNA testing -- has made it easier to detect fraud that might have gone unnoticed a decade ago. [It's interesting reading some of the frauds that have been caught]

We Are What We Eat

Wow, you will not believe the line-up of interviewees in this 15 minute short of this future film project - We Are What We Eat - Graeme Sait, Charles Walter, Elaine Ingham, Gary Zimmer, Allan Savory, Joel Salatin, Malcolm Beck, Mike Amaranthus, Wes Jackson, Arden Anderson, Jeffery Smith, Dr Mae Wan Ho, and so many more! What a great start to what can only be a fantastic movie. I look forward to that.

How I Fell in Love With A Fish

Chef Dan Barber squares off with a dilemma facing many chefs today: how to keep fish on the menu. With impeccable research and deadpan humor, he chronicles his pursuit of a sustainable fish he could love, and the foodie's honeymoon he's enjoyed since discovering an outrageously delicious fish raised using a revolutionary farming method in Spain.

He is then interviewed about whether organic farming can feed the world. He admits "Yield is a tricky topic, especially if you have an agenda. I know this from our own farming: You can look at yield a lot of different ways. When a study says that conventional farms produce more per acre than organic farms, they're talking about yield, not total output...The TOTAL CALORIC yield on an organic farm far surpasses a conventional farm. That's on every credible study out there. That's not even an issue."

New Flame Retardants Accumulating in Environment

Two chemicals that are becoming widely used replacements for potentially toxic flame retardants in household products such as televisions and furniture have shown up in peregrine falcon eggs in California. The discovery, part of a larger study monitoring contaminants in wildlife, adds to evidence that these new flame retardants escape into and persist in the environment, as the original ones do.

Doctors Warn Against GM Food

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has called on all physicians to prescribe diets without genetically modified (GM) foods to all patients. They called for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), long-term independent studies, and labeling.

Goodman Fielders Non-GE Stand Threatened

The non-GE policy of one of Australia's biggest food companies, Goodman Fielders, is under threat, as they prepare to sell part of their business to the pro-GE multinational, Cargill. Goodman Fielder has assured Greenpeace that they will maintain a non-GE policy for their retail brands like Meadow Lea and Crisco Canola Oil. But to make sure this actually happens, they need to make it legal - by putting a non-GE declaration in their contract with Cargill that requires Cargill to supply them with clean, green, non-GE canola oil. Let Goodman Fielder know that you want them to maintain their current non-GE policy.

GE Labelling Correction

The official Government paper for this year's review of food labelling laws incorrectly states that GE food in Australia has to be labelled. In reality, massive loopholes mean most GE foods on the shelf aren't labelled. Take action by registering to attend the public consultations on food labelling.

GM Pollen and Bee Deaths

Bees that take pollen from genetically modified crops are ingesting significant quantities of Bt insecticide. Many scientists have assured the public that Bt is safe, because Bt is not directly lethal to Bees. However alcohol is also not directly lethal to a car driver, yet many car drivers have died from alcohol. Memory impairment and learning impairment is lethal to honeybees which BT pollen and some insecticides cause - the difference between a neonicotinoid insecticide spray and the Bt insecticide in a genetically modified crop, is that the former is very easy to restrict or recall, whereas the latter may prove impossible to recall. [Some interesting thoughts are put forward]

First Superweeds, Now Superbugs

The current crop of superweeds plaguing farmers who rely on Monsanto's RoundUp pesticide represents by now a well documented crisis. But watch out, world! Here come the superbugs. Monsanto’s other flagship product, its "Bt" line of genetically modified seeds which emit their own pesticide in the form of a naturally occurring toxin, is now under threat from resistant insects, but curiously Monsanto are seemingly nonchalent about the announcement...guess why?

Continuing GM Court Action

Lawyers for Bayer CropScience are in an Arkansas courtroom, fighting the latest of several lawsuits claiming the company hurt rice farmers rather than helping them. Bayer has already lost three suits over the past five months, with more trials to come.

Who Gets to Save the World?

An international group of scientists, ethicists, and governance experts has agreed that research into large-scale modification of the planet is "indispensable" given the "threats" posed by climate change. Participants noted that the public's regard for climate scientists has dropped in recent months following a release of e-mails between prominent researchers and the discovery of a handful of errors in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "If they're not believing our ideas about climate, they're definitely not going to trust us when we are talking about managing the planet." [Too right!]

Climate Scientists vs Meteorologists

Tensions are growing between two groups that might be expected to agree on global warming: climate scientists and meteorologists, especially those who serve as television weather forecasters. Climatologists, who study weather patterns over time, almost universally endorse the view that the earth is warming and that humans have contributed to climate change. There is less of a consensus among meteorologists, who predict short-term weather patterns. It was found that 56% of Americans trusted weathercasters to tell them about global warming far more than they trusted other news media or public figures like former Vice President Al Gore or Sarah Palin, the former vice-presidential candidate. [Fancy that!]

Unsavory Recycling

Insect Resistant Packaging

Propionic acid is effective to reduce insect immigration into cereal packaging when formulated in biodegradable PCL and zein coatings. This could be of great interest by the bakery and cereals sector since it is a natural compound even emitted by cereal grains and it is already used as a food preservative, due to its inhibitory effects towards bacteria, moulds and fungi.

Plastic Nanoparticles Move Through Placenta

Research shows for the first time that plastic nanoparticles can cross the human placenta, possibly exposing the developing fetus to the tiny materials that are increasingly used in medicines, vaccines and personal care products.

New Fish Farms to Help the Environment

New designs for fish farms could keep them in the ocean and help restore damaged marine environments at the same time. Marine biologists in New Brunswick and in B.C. are employing mussels, oysters, sea cucumbers, urchins and seaweed to dramatically increase the amount of food created by salmon farms, and they believe they can extract excess carbon and nitrogen pollution from the sea in the process. The goal is to create a fish farm that functions like a complete ecosystem and that converts the industry's highest cost — feed — into food products, not just salmon, but shellfish and edible seaweeds.

Cleaning up Storm Water

Inspired By Nature

The architect, author, social commentator and philosopher Frank Lloyd Wright had a lifelong passion for nature. Wright believed that buildings should fit into their natural environment and be a product of their place, purpose and time by interpreting the principles of nature. [It's so interesting to read about how he built houses into the environment - very inspiring]

Mass Delusion

This 60 Minutes report goes into the unfolding subprime mortgage business and investigates those that saw the writing on the wall, the mass delusion going on within, and how a few aware people managed to hedge their way through it to make their massive fortunes. A fascinating tale of the dangers of following the herd. And believe it or not, absolutely nothing has changed!

What's New...

Welcome back Ylad Living Soils to FTSU's Featured Sponsors gallery! They have been busy being filmed with their 'Super Humus' on SBS's Costa's Garden Odyssey Episode 3, responding to new research claiming excess nitrogen reduces soil carbon where they offer natural alternatives; and pulling together trial data collected by Dr Maarten Stapper comparing biological inoculants with conventional fertilisers (contact me for the graphed report - the file size is too large to attach). The track record for biological farming continues to improve and grow! Thank you Rhonda and Bill for your enthusiasm - I look forward to reporting more of your adventures. 

Ecological Agriculture Australia Association

It's not quite 'live' yet, but their website is coming together with their logo now on display. The vision is to develop bio-diverse landscapes, biologically enriched soil, healthy food, and vibrant communities through ecologically, holistic and ethically driven processes. The Association is made up of five pillars (represented by each colour) - Ecology: natural and social; ethics; education; farming and food. Further details and membership options are attached on a previous article under 'Ecological Agriculture Australia Assocation'.

Kiva Loans

What a lovely find. I've read and listened to the wonderful stories about microloans - loaning money to women (and now men) in developing countries to set up enterprises, but was not sure how you got involved without a lot of research and investigating. Well Kiva is a website where loaner and loanee met, money transacted, and projects initiated. So simple but powerful and empowering. As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans!

Vedic Mathematics for Teens and Juniors

You are invited to attend a 3 hour Introductory Lecture with Jain Mathematics at the Eco Village Currumbin Valley on April the 17th, 10am to 1pm. Empower your child with this supreme Art of Rapid Mental Calculation. No more Electronic Calculators! Contact: Sara Nadin phone: 0466 630 389  or 07 5535 9753.            

All the Dirt Newsletter

What an information packed newsletter on soils from the Northern Rivers CMA. This Autumn issue includes: stemming soil loss under macadamia trees; rehabilitating an acid soil scald; effectiveness of grass hedges [note in this story the hedges are not as effective with no-till soils - I would suggest the small soil particles are due to chemicals killing the soil biology which leads to destruction of soil structure]; biochar updates; and some book reviews.

Soils Health Day

What is soil health? Learn how to conduct soil tests with inexpensive tools and visit 3 farms with diverse soil types. Also bring along your own soil and soil test results. Inverell 15th April.

Health

The Flu Shot and Alzheimers

According to Hugh Fudenberg, MD, the world's leading immunogeneticist and 13th most quoted biologist of our times (nearly 850 papers in peer review journals), if an individual has had five consecutive flu shots between 1970 and 1980 (the years studied) his/her chances of getting Alzheimer's Disease is ten times higher than if they had one, two or no shots. Apparently its due to the mercury and aluminum that is in every flu shot (and most childhood shots). The gradual mercury and aluminum buildup in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction.

Magnesium for Life

Magnesium deficiency seems to be carcinogenic, and in case of solid tumors, a high level of supplemented magnesium inhibits carcinogenesis. Magnesium also protects cells from aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel. In fact magnesium pretty much has a role in most life functions [Note that Nutri-Tech's Magsorb is a transdermal magnesium product, as mentioned in this article, which is readily available in Australia - contact me for more information]

The Flu and Sunshine

A new study has confirmed that vitamin D plays an important role in activating your immune defenses against infectious diseases like the flu. [which helps explain why flu is so prevalent when there is less sunshine!] Flu shots do absolutely nothing to address the underlying problem of vitamin D deficiency. In fact, flu vaccines deteriorate your immune system even further, and their side effects can be potentially lethal. Yet another study published this month found that school children who received supplemental vitamin D had far fewer incidents of both flu and asthma attacks.

The Type of Fat Makes the Difference

Increased intakes of trans fats may increase a woman’s risk of endometriosis by almost 50%, but omega-3s may slash the risk. Trans fats are attractive for the food industry due to their extended shelf life and flavour stability, and have displaced natural solid fats and liquid oils in many areas of food processing. [It's a pity more 'fat' studies don't differentiate which type of fat they are looking at - often reaching useless conclusions]

Agave Worst than Fructose

Many people interested in staying healthy have switched to agave as a safer "natural" sweetener. They want to avoid well documented dangerous sweeteners like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) but are unaware that agave is actually WORSE than HFCS.

Vitamin K Alternatives for Newborns

It has been standard practice in the U.S., and most western countries, since 1944 to welcome babies into the world by subjecting them to a variety of medical interventions, one of which is a painful jab with a syringe full of vitamin K. This injection is routinely done to almost all newborns, unless you, as a parent, refuse to consent. But there is a safer alternative. [I refused this injection for my two girls, but was frowned upon and in one case pleaded with - I thought this might be useful for new mums-to-be]

Our Skin Mops up Ozone

While the removal of ozone from the air in homes and offices is good, what takes its place may not be. Indeed, some byproducts created when ozone hits skin oils are probably more toxic than the starting ozone. The average person sheds 30 to 90 milligrams of oil-bearing skin flakes per hour. Over time, these skin shards end up coating surfaces throughout a room — every room that people enter, creating large surface areas for these chemical reactions to take place.

Microchips and Cancer

Do implanted microchips cause cancer in dogs and cats? That's the question owners are asking after highly aggressive tumors developed around the microchip implants of two dogs, killing one and leaving the other terminally ill. The owners – and pathology and autopsy reports – suggest a link between the chips and formation of fast-growing cancers. [This is interesting when linked together with a recent article 'Verichip found in Tumour']

Flu Shots Useless

Vaccination Guru Fraud

Dr. Poul Thorsen, a central figure behind the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) claims disputing the link between vaccines and autism and other neurological disorders has disappeared after officials discovered massive fraud involving the theft of millions in taxpayer dollars. One of his studies has long been criticized as fraudulent which the CDC has long touted as the principal proof that mercury-laced vaccines are safe for infants and young children.

The Truth About Gardasil

As of Jan. 31, 2010, 49 unexplained deaths following Gardasil injections have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. By contrast, 52 deaths are attributed to unintended acceleration in Toyotas, which triggered a $2 billion recall. [Leaves you wondering about the equality of deaths...]

Engineered Swine Flu Pandemic

Tamanu Oil

After last week's article on Tamanu Oil a subscriber living in Fiji emailed this story:

'The tamanu oil that has featured in your recent newsletters, we call this dilo (dee-low) in Fiji. I have been making a small quantity from wild-harvest nuts purchased from coastal villagers. My greatest success with its use has been in healing a sheep that had her throat (and a hind leg) badly torn by wild dogs just after Xmas. In the absence of vet help I was hesitant to try and stitch it as the trachea & spinal column was exposed. Our efforts to keep a dressing of some sort on it to keep the dirt/flies out were unsuccessful and it became infected. After the fly maggots got in & cleaned it up I picked & washed them out with dilo/tamanu oil & continued to douse it twice daily. It has healed beautifully (the gaping throat wound was some 14 cm long) & much to my surprise given her injuries she still produced two healthy lambs last week. There is no visible sign of the wound area/scar."

Quote

"Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths."
-Goethe

Cartoon

Miscellaneous

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona certainly has a unique way of treating prisoners. He has organised jail cells to be painted pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb, and created the ‘Tent City Jail’ commenting to complainers ‘It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!’. His recent project has been to staff animal shelters with prisoners. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. [Gosh, do you love him or hate him?]

Events

* Soils Health Day - Inverell NSW 15th April 2010.

* Vedic Mathematics for Teens and Juniors - Currumbin Valley Qld 17th April 2010. 

Postscript

There, I fixed it! You won't believe some of these quick fixes. This is just a sample!