How can, and why should, 2010 become the year of Great Awakening? Who should awaken and what would they awaken to, or from? The Great Awakening is about global warming. It is about genetic manipulation of nature and about seizing ownership of life resources by a select and rich minority. It is about a denial of responsibility for the subsequent consequences of these actions, which could result in the extinction of life as has been known on Earth. Mostly, it is about how these wrongs can be made right through a collective re-commitment.
Regardless if one has faith in a higher power or not, it is difficult to ignore how the environment affects life on Earth. Simply quenching one’s thirst with a glass of pure water, or inhaling a breath of clean air, done with thoughtfulness, reminds one of our body’s reliance on our environment. We expect our environment to be nurturing and not polluted or dangerous. Like all things of value, the environment must be protected. At the very least, environmental responsibility requires awareness and thoughtful care. Ideally, awareness and care would inspire activism on a broader spectrum.
For the millions of years Earth has existed, development and change has occurred slowly and methodically. Species have flourished and perished, due to genetic strengths or weaknesses and their relative biological adaptability. Humans, with brains developed to far greater extents than any other of Earth's creatures, share many characteristics with other species. However, they are, if not the strongest or most agile, the smartest and most successful of all. In synchronization with nature, man has prospered. Nature took great care of man, he reciprocated, and both thrived. The relationship, however, has changed.
In contrast, many of today’s humans, particularly those who believe they control everything within their reach, are reaching for and gathering even more than they need. They do this even at the peril of their own species as well as other creatures; and often contaminating the very food, water and air, their own lives depend upon. By ignoring nature’s rhythms, modern man is writing a new story, one of extinction, framed by denial.
While some are aware of their symbiotic relationship to the environment, others are too greedy for material wealth to realize the harm they do. Material wealth, hidden under a blanket of industrialization and production, is nothing more than the acquisition of food, water and air, the same essential elements needed by the single celled creatures that first inhabited the planet. Some people believe that fortune is something far fancier but in reality, it is not. Without food, water and air life, as we know it, cannot exist. Those three elements control all that lives.
A Great Awakening obliges humankind to be responsible for the protection of food, water, and air from unhealthy molecular manipulations and contaminations. It requires humankind to recognize the sovereignty of the life source, seed or egg, and not strive to patent it for private gain. Most of all, it calls humankind to commit its superior abilities to safeguarding the purity and health of life’s three most important elements so that they may be safely passed to the generations yet unborn. Finally, as a being that expresses belief in a greater power, a Great Awakening would compel humankind to share, and assure access to, safe, healthy food, water and air for all other life on planet Earth.
Happy New Year to all and to all a Great Awakening.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Biologics - Food for thought.
If we are what we eat, as the phrase goes, and we value good health, exercise, and making healthy food choices, would we knowingly ingest bacteria or viruses? Of course not. However, viruses and bacteria are used to genetically modify crop seeds, which are slowly invading America’s food supplies. The science is known as biologics. For the nonprofessional, because bacteria and viruses can effectively penetrate cell walls, they are used as elite limo services to transport foreign DNA, proteins, and other organisms into targeted cells. In the case of genetically engineered foods the target cells are those of corn, beans, tomatoes, cotton and a host of other foods.
Biologics is the science of ‘recombinant’, or artificial DNA. Monsanto controls the genetically engineered seed market as well as the herbicide and pesticide markets. Herbicides and pesticides are required when growing GM seeds. In fact, farmers are required to sign contracts that bind them to exclusively use Monsanto’s Round-up herbicide, when planting “Round-up Ready” GM seeds. It should be noted that Monsanto refuses to make public laboratory results involving glyphosate, the active ingredient in Round-up, and its relationship to abnormalities in rats.
Monsanto purports that genetically modifying seed is harmless, that it increases yield and, therefore, profit and, that it could solve world hunger. They trivialize the affects of such alteration of food, at the cellular level, while actively fighting those who would establish labeling laws that specifically identify foods that include GM ingredients. Without adequate labeling, information about what food contains GM ingredients, tracking health reactions to such foods by public health officials, and avoidance by the public, is almost impossible. Simply put, If genetically modifying food is safe, why the concern about labeling? What is the biotech industry afraid of?
Since World War II, as each revolutionary chemical was introduced to the public insecticides (DDT), fire retardants (PBDEs ) , herbicides (Round-up), Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) , and the myriad of others, repeatedly, failure by the FDA to test and adequately protect the public from their harm has caused suffering and increased pollution of our environment. Environmental pollution has escalated to the extent that newborns, which have been harder and harder to conceive these days, are found to be pre-polluted at birth . They have in their tiny new blood streams, many of the chemicals found in the chemical soup of life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Many consumers believe that biologics should not be involved in food production. Nonetheless, Monsanto remains a driving force to advance genetically modified food. Since they have positioned themselves for the greatest profit, they are at the center of much of the controversy. As revealed in the movie ‘The Future of Food’ Monsanto pressures across multi levels of government agencies, businesses, farming, and the legal systems, both nationally and internationally, with a single goal of controlling the worlds food production from proprietary seeds and herbicides to pesticides. Even the laboratories of many U.S. Land Grant Universities have become extensions of the powerful biotech community. There have been suggestions that their strong financial influence have successfully forced professors, who disagree with their influence, to leave the programs. Former Monsanto executive and board member have infiltrated government agencies, charged with protecting the public interest, from the FDA, EPA, US Chamber of Commerce, even to the US Supreme Court.
An example of Monsanto’s power in congress is Senator Lugar of Indiana, who presents himself as an environmental and energy conscientious leader and has received Monsanto's financial support for most of his career. He works hard for Monsanto, as is evident on his web site that publishes many of his pro-GM speeches. The consistent message is his commitment to Monsanto and GM farming. On July 2, 2008, he addressed the American Enterprise Institute . Monsanto representatives were blatantly present in the audience and were acknowledged by Senator Lugar. It was an instance which exposed the shadowy figure below the surface of Lugar’s career, and exemplified the extent of comfort Monsanto enjoys in its powerful influence.
It has taken but a short time for the biotech industries to accomplish such broad influence through infiltration and they have had help from the exploding big-box grocers, such as Wal-Mart, where the greatest number of GM foods is sold. Consumers are lead to believe that cheap food is, somehow, comparable to quality food and competition for grocers who offer food with integrity and quality is difficult. That said, it does not even speak to the extent of environmental damage and the potential to diminish, if not destroy, the worlds agricultural biodiversity that genetic modification of food represents.
Food is the basic currency of powerful civilizations and ours must be safe, healthful and desired by all nations. We should heed the rest of the world, which has rejected U.S. genetically engineered products .
If we are what we eat, we must demand that our food is safe and healthy, and produced in such ways as to not destroy the environment. We must continually ask that our government agencies, like the FDA, EPA and others, charged with the responsibility of assuring food safety and quality, protect American consumer’s health and the American family farmers, not Monsanto’s, and other biotech corporation’s, bottom lines.
Biologics is the science of ‘recombinant’, or artificial DNA. Monsanto controls the genetically engineered seed market as well as the herbicide and pesticide markets. Herbicides and pesticides are required when growing GM seeds. In fact, farmers are required to sign contracts that bind them to exclusively use Monsanto’s Round-up herbicide, when planting “Round-up Ready” GM seeds. It should be noted that Monsanto refuses to make public laboratory results involving glyphosate, the active ingredient in Round-up, and its relationship to abnormalities in rats.
Monsanto purports that genetically modifying seed is harmless, that it increases yield and, therefore, profit and, that it could solve world hunger. They trivialize the affects of such alteration of food, at the cellular level, while actively fighting those who would establish labeling laws that specifically identify foods that include GM ingredients. Without adequate labeling, information about what food contains GM ingredients, tracking health reactions to such foods by public health officials, and avoidance by the public, is almost impossible. Simply put, If genetically modifying food is safe, why the concern about labeling? What is the biotech industry afraid of?
Since World War II, as each revolutionary chemical was introduced to the public insecticides (DDT), fire retardants (PBDEs ) , herbicides (Round-up), Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) , and the myriad of others, repeatedly, failure by the FDA to test and adequately protect the public from their harm has caused suffering and increased pollution of our environment. Environmental pollution has escalated to the extent that newborns, which have been harder and harder to conceive these days, are found to be pre-polluted at birth . They have in their tiny new blood streams, many of the chemicals found in the chemical soup of life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Many consumers believe that biologics should not be involved in food production. Nonetheless, Monsanto remains a driving force to advance genetically modified food. Since they have positioned themselves for the greatest profit, they are at the center of much of the controversy. As revealed in the movie ‘The Future of Food’ Monsanto pressures across multi levels of government agencies, businesses, farming, and the legal systems, both nationally and internationally, with a single goal of controlling the worlds food production from proprietary seeds and herbicides to pesticides. Even the laboratories of many U.S. Land Grant Universities have become extensions of the powerful biotech community. There have been suggestions that their strong financial influence have successfully forced professors, who disagree with their influence, to leave the programs. Former Monsanto executive and board member have infiltrated government agencies, charged with protecting the public interest, from the FDA, EPA, US Chamber of Commerce, even to the US Supreme Court.
An example of Monsanto’s power in congress is Senator Lugar of Indiana, who presents himself as an environmental and energy conscientious leader and has received Monsanto's financial support for most of his career. He works hard for Monsanto, as is evident on his web site that publishes many of his pro-GM speeches. The consistent message is his commitment to Monsanto and GM farming. On July 2, 2008, he addressed the American Enterprise Institute . Monsanto representatives were blatantly present in the audience and were acknowledged by Senator Lugar. It was an instance which exposed the shadowy figure below the surface of Lugar’s career, and exemplified the extent of comfort Monsanto enjoys in its powerful influence.
It has taken but a short time for the biotech industries to accomplish such broad influence through infiltration and they have had help from the exploding big-box grocers, such as Wal-Mart, where the greatest number of GM foods is sold. Consumers are lead to believe that cheap food is, somehow, comparable to quality food and competition for grocers who offer food with integrity and quality is difficult. That said, it does not even speak to the extent of environmental damage and the potential to diminish, if not destroy, the worlds agricultural biodiversity that genetic modification of food represents.
Food is the basic currency of powerful civilizations and ours must be safe, healthful and desired by all nations. We should heed the rest of the world, which has rejected U.S. genetically engineered products .
If we are what we eat, we must demand that our food is safe and healthy, and produced in such ways as to not destroy the environment. We must continually ask that our government agencies, like the FDA, EPA and others, charged with the responsibility of assuring food safety and quality, protect American consumer’s health and the American family farmers, not Monsanto’s, and other biotech corporation’s, bottom lines.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Fix Food Industry - Fix Healthcare
There is a story about a village near a river. One day, a villager saw a baby floating down the river. He ran to save the baby, only to find another floating down the river. The villagers came to help, when another and yet another baby came. Soon, all the villagers were occupied with saving the babies that were floating down river toward their village. Nobody thought to look upstream to find out where the babies where coming from, or why.
Nobody doubts that healthcare in America needs reform. Medical practice inefficiencies, rising insurance costs, over priced drugs, and a lack of access to quality care for all, are the babies floating toward us. Politics exponentially adds to the problem. Meanwhile, Americans enslaved, if not crushed, by healthcare costs often fail to see the snake in this box of pain, which is a broken food industry.
While everyone wants the system fixed, nobody wants to pay for it. Everyone wants better healthcare; unfortunately, few care enough about how such a broken system affects their neighbors. Politicians fear loss of campaign funding, from corporations potentially affected by healthcare reform legislation, while they attempt to make their constituents believe that they are working for the people’s best interests.
A look upstream would reveal unique funding sources for healthcare reform as well as a remodeling of the broken food industry. Taxing processed foods, laced with corn syrup, salt, and unhealthy fats, could yield new revenue as it forces a change to healthier ingredients in the nation's diet. Concurrently, outdated farm subsudies could be shifted to encourage local production of organic fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products and to also support healthy school lunches.
By taxing corporate farm operations, those using genetically modified seed that rely on excessive use of pesticides and herbicides, healthcare reform would be funded and healthy farming practices encouraged. This could remedy the agricultural disaster perpetrated on America’s farmers when post WWII chemical producers, seeking new markets for the war’s chemical surpluses, fathered post war farming techniques that are destroying the land and life throughout America’s heartlands today.
By taxing feedlot operations, which use inhumane and unhealthy production methods for beef, pork and poultry, additional new revenue could be generated. Such meats, grown with excessive chemicals and drugs, create health issues, which drive the need for more healthcare services. This would be yet another win-win situation.
Such a remodeling of the food industry would cause America’s fast food giants, one of the unhealthiest sectors of the food industry, to raise prices. Thus, choosing unhealthy foods, and creating a drain on the American healthcare system, would be a more obvious and conscious decision. It would also help curb America's addiction to sugar, salt and fat that has caused American's to be the fattest people in the world.
These actions could strike at the heart of our health and healthcare issues if Washington could just stop drowning in politics and look upstream.
Nobody doubts that healthcare in America needs reform. Medical practice inefficiencies, rising insurance costs, over priced drugs, and a lack of access to quality care for all, are the babies floating toward us. Politics exponentially adds to the problem. Meanwhile, Americans enslaved, if not crushed, by healthcare costs often fail to see the snake in this box of pain, which is a broken food industry.
While everyone wants the system fixed, nobody wants to pay for it. Everyone wants better healthcare; unfortunately, few care enough about how such a broken system affects their neighbors. Politicians fear loss of campaign funding, from corporations potentially affected by healthcare reform legislation, while they attempt to make their constituents believe that they are working for the people’s best interests.
A look upstream would reveal unique funding sources for healthcare reform as well as a remodeling of the broken food industry. Taxing processed foods, laced with corn syrup, salt, and unhealthy fats, could yield new revenue as it forces a change to healthier ingredients in the nation's diet. Concurrently, outdated farm subsudies could be shifted to encourage local production of organic fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy products and to also support healthy school lunches.
By taxing corporate farm operations, those using genetically modified seed that rely on excessive use of pesticides and herbicides, healthcare reform would be funded and healthy farming practices encouraged. This could remedy the agricultural disaster perpetrated on America’s farmers when post WWII chemical producers, seeking new markets for the war’s chemical surpluses, fathered post war farming techniques that are destroying the land and life throughout America’s heartlands today.
By taxing feedlot operations, which use inhumane and unhealthy production methods for beef, pork and poultry, additional new revenue could be generated. Such meats, grown with excessive chemicals and drugs, create health issues, which drive the need for more healthcare services. This would be yet another win-win situation.
Such a remodeling of the food industry would cause America’s fast food giants, one of the unhealthiest sectors of the food industry, to raise prices. Thus, choosing unhealthy foods, and creating a drain on the American healthcare system, would be a more obvious and conscious decision. It would also help curb America's addiction to sugar, salt and fat that has caused American's to be the fattest people in the world.
These actions could strike at the heart of our health and healthcare issues if Washington could just stop drowning in politics and look upstream.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Finding SOLE food
Finding and eating SOLE Food (Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethnic food) requires thoughtful planning, searching and gathering. The same hunting and gathering requirements involved in staying alive since the beginning of time.
Those who hunt the local grocery store to supplement purchases from local farmers, and private gardens, must rely on labels to understand the contents of the packages they put into their shopping carts. Trusting information found on those labels, however, is becoming increasing difficult. The first concepts that the hunter and finder of foods accepts are that nourishment is required for life, that we are responsible for finding food and feeding ourselves, and that we must learn what is nurishing and what is dangerous.
There was a time when the U.S. government intended to become the public guardian of our health and well-being by watching over the food industry. That changed when the food industry became larger than the government. When that happened, legislation, rules and governmental processes became vulnerable to industry influence as they sought to protect their increasing profit margins. The public’s safety became an after thought and the food industry grew fat and unhealthy. Today, the laws and regulations, meant to guard the safety of our nutrition, food, farming practices, and delivery methods, are suffering the typical system failures caused by over indulgence. Just as we have witnessed the failure of our financial institutions, the repeated food recalls and contamination warnings are symptoms of a similar institutional collapse occurring in the food industry.
Unable to see past their bloated profits, some food producers have lost their commitment to delivering healthy food. This is not just due to a skewed sense of value and business ethic. In part, some businesses are responding to a public that has lost touch with the value of adequate portions of quality food and seeks, instead, cheap food in excessive amounts. Not to discount that the food industry has learned to manipulate human cravings with salt, sugar and pervasive advertising, people still feed themselves. Thus, the combination of industry manipulation and personal choices has resulted in a society that is becoming fatter and less healthy. It has also fostered the rise of big box stores, which force unreasonable competition, resulting in a degradation of product quality. Any economic shift magnifies these problems, as it does many other interrelated process within any society.
So what can be done to find quality food? Commit to adjusting the standards of intake and quality. Scour the internet for trusted sites of information. Exercise the power of purchasing by sending a clear message that people want non-GM (genetically modified), wholesome food, organic, and locally grown, as much as is possible. Involve the grocery managers and staff. Purchase from local farmers and farmer's markets when possible. Become better educated consumers. For example, Wal-Mart offers organic milk at an unusually low price. However, an article at Organic Consumer's Organization , and the list of organic milk producers at The Cornucopia Institute exposes the fact that the cheap organic labeled milk, at this big box store, is not so organic and, subsequently, not so cheap either.
The axiomatic view here is that since the beginning of time, as successful hunters and gatherers, we educated ourselves, and learned best practices for the finding of nourishment to assure our survival. Nothing and everything has changed. What has changed is that we can no longer look at food and determine that it is, or is not, edible. Today, some foods are advertised as being edible, smell edible and taste edible, however, they may not contribute to our health. In some case, over time, they may even cause illnesses such as, diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Luckily, our technology has advanced with us and we can still search for the needed information to make appropriate choices and assure the survival of our species. As always, it is our choice.
Those who hunt the local grocery store to supplement purchases from local farmers, and private gardens, must rely on labels to understand the contents of the packages they put into their shopping carts. Trusting information found on those labels, however, is becoming increasing difficult. The first concepts that the hunter and finder of foods accepts are that nourishment is required for life, that we are responsible for finding food and feeding ourselves, and that we must learn what is nurishing and what is dangerous.
There was a time when the U.S. government intended to become the public guardian of our health and well-being by watching over the food industry. That changed when the food industry became larger than the government. When that happened, legislation, rules and governmental processes became vulnerable to industry influence as they sought to protect their increasing profit margins. The public’s safety became an after thought and the food industry grew fat and unhealthy. Today, the laws and regulations, meant to guard the safety of our nutrition, food, farming practices, and delivery methods, are suffering the typical system failures caused by over indulgence. Just as we have witnessed the failure of our financial institutions, the repeated food recalls and contamination warnings are symptoms of a similar institutional collapse occurring in the food industry.
Unable to see past their bloated profits, some food producers have lost their commitment to delivering healthy food. This is not just due to a skewed sense of value and business ethic. In part, some businesses are responding to a public that has lost touch with the value of adequate portions of quality food and seeks, instead, cheap food in excessive amounts. Not to discount that the food industry has learned to manipulate human cravings with salt, sugar and pervasive advertising, people still feed themselves. Thus, the combination of industry manipulation and personal choices has resulted in a society that is becoming fatter and less healthy. It has also fostered the rise of big box stores, which force unreasonable competition, resulting in a degradation of product quality. Any economic shift magnifies these problems, as it does many other interrelated process within any society.
So what can be done to find quality food? Commit to adjusting the standards of intake and quality. Scour the internet for trusted sites of information. Exercise the power of purchasing by sending a clear message that people want non-GM (genetically modified), wholesome food, organic, and locally grown, as much as is possible. Involve the grocery managers and staff. Purchase from local farmers and farmer's markets when possible. Become better educated consumers. For example, Wal-Mart offers organic milk at an unusually low price. However, an article at Organic Consumer's Organization , and the list of organic milk producers at The Cornucopia Institute exposes the fact that the cheap organic labeled milk, at this big box store, is not so organic and, subsequently, not so cheap either.
The axiomatic view here is that since the beginning of time, as successful hunters and gatherers, we educated ourselves, and learned best practices for the finding of nourishment to assure our survival. Nothing and everything has changed. What has changed is that we can no longer look at food and determine that it is, or is not, edible. Today, some foods are advertised as being edible, smell edible and taste edible, however, they may not contribute to our health. In some case, over time, they may even cause illnesses such as, diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Luckily, our technology has advanced with us and we can still search for the needed information to make appropriate choices and assure the survival of our species. As always, it is our choice.
Friday, June 5, 2009
“Be the change you want to see in the world,” Gandhi
Reality is dawning regarding environmental and health issues in America and the protections provided by our governmental agencies. Government protection is like fighting a forest fire with a squirt gun. Not quiet as effective as needed.
As broken as our economy is, many government protection agencies, which we have believed are protecting us from harm, are also broken. We were awakened by the recent economic crash and the disaster of New Orleans. Another alarm sounding is the constant barrage of contamination warnings and recalls of food in America.
The axiomatic view here, is that governmental mechanisms, set up to protect citizens from financial collapse, disaster recovery, safe food distribution, safe chemistry in the things we ingest and use, and food processing methods, are failing. Well intended, at their inception, years of successful special interests’ lobbying and corporate infiltration of key agency leadership positions, have defused the objectivity and strength of our government oversight. Like hoping the squirt gun will be effective, we had better find additional answers.
The environmental rules are simple. As stated in Paul Hawken’s commencement address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, “… don’t poison the water, soil, or air and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat….” Each rule broken, affects every aspect of life all over the world. From health and economic issues to international relationships, lest we forget that wars are often fought for land and resources.
While damage has been done to the environment, it is not too late. At some point, however, the planet could be damaged beyond its ability to recover enough to sustain our species. Action, sharing of the message and knowledge, each to the best of our ability is needed. Holding corporations responsible for their methodologies by using our purchasing powers sends an important message. Helping our youth understand the importance of our environment, by our actions, is most important. They will grow to create the new environmental and business methodology, necessary to heal earth and for its inhabitants to prosper.
While we can hope that the current administration can reinvigorate the effectiveness of government oversight, we must take responsibility for making conscientious decisions, acting to protect the environment, promoting healthy eating practices, and for everyone. If we become the change that we want to see happen in the world, change will happen.
Follow the Resource Links and begin the journey.
As broken as our economy is, many government protection agencies, which we have believed are protecting us from harm, are also broken. We were awakened by the recent economic crash and the disaster of New Orleans. Another alarm sounding is the constant barrage of contamination warnings and recalls of food in America.
The axiomatic view here, is that governmental mechanisms, set up to protect citizens from financial collapse, disaster recovery, safe food distribution, safe chemistry in the things we ingest and use, and food processing methods, are failing. Well intended, at their inception, years of successful special interests’ lobbying and corporate infiltration of key agency leadership positions, have defused the objectivity and strength of our government oversight. Like hoping the squirt gun will be effective, we had better find additional answers.
The environmental rules are simple. As stated in Paul Hawken’s commencement address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, “… don’t poison the water, soil, or air and don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat….” Each rule broken, affects every aspect of life all over the world. From health and economic issues to international relationships, lest we forget that wars are often fought for land and resources.
While damage has been done to the environment, it is not too late. At some point, however, the planet could be damaged beyond its ability to recover enough to sustain our species. Action, sharing of the message and knowledge, each to the best of our ability is needed. Holding corporations responsible for their methodologies by using our purchasing powers sends an important message. Helping our youth understand the importance of our environment, by our actions, is most important. They will grow to create the new environmental and business methodology, necessary to heal earth and for its inhabitants to prosper.
While we can hope that the current administration can reinvigorate the effectiveness of government oversight, we must take responsibility for making conscientious decisions, acting to protect the environment, promoting healthy eating practices, and for everyone. If we become the change that we want to see happen in the world, change will happen.
Follow the Resource Links and begin the journey.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Story of Stuff
Humans are but a speck on the earth. This statement might lead one to believe that humans are powerless. In fact, humans are the most powerful species on the planet. Unfortunately, we are not conscious of our impact. We continue habits that could be changed, with little effort, and we wait for “somebody” to do something. We believe that, if we do nothing, there is a “Mother Earth,” like Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny, who will take care of it all. Naturally.
We have used up one-third of our planet’s resources. With ever growing speed, we are burying the earth in garbage. Much of it toxic. How did we get to this point? What can be done to fix it? It all seems so overwhelming.
Annie Leonard, an expert who has studied international sustainability and environmental health issues, all over the world, for more than twenty years has accomplished the impossible. She explains “the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health” in an easy to understand video.
Watch The Story of Stuff and be prepared for an A-ha moment that will not soon be forgotten.
We have used up one-third of our planet’s resources. With ever growing speed, we are burying the earth in garbage. Much of it toxic. How did we get to this point? What can be done to fix it? It all seems so overwhelming.
Annie Leonard, an expert who has studied international sustainability and environmental health issues, all over the world, for more than twenty years has accomplished the impossible. She explains “the impact of consumerism and materialism on global economies and international health” in an easy to understand video.
Watch The Story of Stuff and be prepared for an A-ha moment that will not soon be forgotten.
Ant Wars
When I arrived home to find my spouse pouring gasoline on an ant hill in the flowerbed, it could have been grounds for war. It took many deep breaths, and a strong will, to restrain from engaging in battle. Yes, the gasoline contaminates the soil. Yes, it will probably damage the plants. Yes, it was not an environmentally responsible act. It was, however, an opportunity for learning, for both us. The point is that, change evolves through knowledge.
Remember our mothers saying, “a lesson earned is a lesson learned’? That was after we tested just how hot that burner really was, when she warned us “it’s hot, don’t touch.”
In this case, the love of my life did not intend to contaminate the soil or damage the flowers. The focus was on the ants, in an overwhelming number, and in an undesirable location. A narrow focus, something we all experience, is what causes many environmental contamination issues.
Aquifers, the source of our drinking water, are deep below the land surface. They can become contaminated by traces of medication flushed down the toilet, as pills or in human waste. They can pass through the most sophisticated water purifying processes. Many of the same chemicals found in medications and cosmetics are used to manufacture electronics, the life’s blood of the computers, cell phones, and other gadgets we depend upon. The wastewater output of those production facilities, even when scrubbed, leaches traces of chemical into the water systems. Homeowners want lawns free of weeds. Therefore, the weed killer Roundup remains available at our garden shops. Roundup tops the list of the most toxic compounds in use. In all of these instances the contamination occurs because of narrow focuses.
If we want to change how humans affect the environment, we can take three important actions. We can learn. We can implement what we learn, and then we can share the knowledge. For every three people who remain inconvincible, or who chose to deny the knowledge, one will understand and take responsibility. Therefore, we cannot stop learning, implementing or sharing. One gasoline dousing of an anthill may cause trauma in one spot of the garden, but it will not cause a worldwide catastrophe. Refusing to move outside of our comfort zones, by sharing our knowledge, would be the greater catastrophe.
By the way, there is a natural way to solve ant problems. If they are inviting themselves in, seal cracks with 100 percent silicon caulk. Put up “detour” sign by sprinkling powdered red chili pepper, paprika, dried peppermint or borax on their trails. If they have already breached the perimeters, create a liquid bait by mixing 1 tsp boric acid with 2 ½ ounces of corn syrup or honey. Heat this until the boric acid dissolves, add equal amounts of water to the solution and, with an eyedropper, drop in places ants frequent for two weeks. Address issues in the garden such as mealy-bugs, aphids and whiteflies. They excrete a sugary substance that is gourmet ant food. Finally, attack the anthill with a natural repellent of citrus peelings and water, puree in a blender, and pour on the hill. If you are feeling particularly vindictive, pour 3 gallons of boiling water over the mounds and into the cracks of the bricks.
Protecting the environment means broadening of the focus. The dissimilar organisms that make up the environment of this planet, including humans, have a symbiotic relationship. We have to live, healthy, together, and as peaceably as is possible. After all, getting off the planet is not yet an option.
Research, and as our physicians pledge, “First do no harm.” Both are excellent mottos to remember except, even when at war with ants.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Real Food vs. Chemical Compound
In America, when it comes to eating, its eater beware. For example, a major potato chip brand cannot use the name ‘potato’ on their product, when selling it in some European countries. The reason is that there are no potatoes in the product. The chips are made of starch powder, chemicals, flavor extracts and salt. But they stack well.
Advertisers would have us believe that hot dogs, or wieners, are a healthy food that cute kids, who can sing catchy tunes, just love. However, if you read the package, they are actually chemical compounds made from butcher’s throwaway cuts.
Processed foods, wrapped in plastic, made with additives and chemicals that assure decades of shelf life, are advertised as time savers. They are easy to heat and eat fast. The health value of the fast food is outweighed by purported convenience. Unfortunately, the amount of garbage created by processed food packaging becomes a health problem for the environment, as well.
Some people rail at spending more for perishable, real food. Real food is not laced with chemicals. It uses less fossil fuel intense packaging than processed foods. Most important, eating real food is actually less expensive because much more nutrition is gained from every penny spent. The environment also benefits from the reduction of packaging needed for perishable foods, which reduce garbage output.
Since our environment and we are products of our choices, we can make little changes that make a difference everyday. So which breakfast should I choose for the kids today? Apple slices and a glob of peanut butter to dip them in? Or the toaster breakfast bar? Hmmmm.
Advertisers would have us believe that hot dogs, or wieners, are a healthy food that cute kids, who can sing catchy tunes, just love. However, if you read the package, they are actually chemical compounds made from butcher’s throwaway cuts.
Processed foods, wrapped in plastic, made with additives and chemicals that assure decades of shelf life, are advertised as time savers. They are easy to heat and eat fast. The health value of the fast food is outweighed by purported convenience. Unfortunately, the amount of garbage created by processed food packaging becomes a health problem for the environment, as well.
Some people rail at spending more for perishable, real food. Real food is not laced with chemicals. It uses less fossil fuel intense packaging than processed foods. Most important, eating real food is actually less expensive because much more nutrition is gained from every penny spent. The environment also benefits from the reduction of packaging needed for perishable foods, which reduce garbage output.
Since our environment and we are products of our choices, we can make little changes that make a difference everyday. So which breakfast should I choose for the kids today? Apple slices and a glob of peanut butter to dip them in? Or the toaster breakfast bar? Hmmmm.
The Hidden Cost Of Perfect Turf.
America spends billions of dollars researching cures for diseases our grandparents rarely heard of. We are not just loosing family members to these diseases, but many of us have lost our pets to the growing list of cancers. And, all for the love of a perfect lawn.
Advertisers and community associations that demand uniform weed less turfs skew our sense of beauty. Those perfect lawns are cash cows for chemical companies and the health care industry.
Post World War II chemicals are marketed as ‘safe if used properly.’ They fly under the radar of lax regulatory systems put to sleep by chemical industry lobbies rich enough to influence regulation. In the earliest days of chemical lawn treatment, they provided HAZMAT uniforms to protect their employees. They soon recognized these outfits sent the wrong message. Today, the chemicals arrive in clean white vans with a friendly, puppy face on the side. A much more appealing, if not misleading, message. Employees, no longer protected by HAZMAT suits, believe the products are not harmful to people or pets, at least that is the corporate position given when concerns are raised. Every big box store sells variations of these products for those who rather do it themselves.
Here is a thought to ponder. It is the day after the lawn service was here. There are still tiny pellets, left on the driveway after the kids played basketball and wrestled out there before dinner last night. The brood has left for school. You grab the morning paper from the driveway, pull the wrapper off, and have settled down for a quiet breakfast. As you glance at the headlines, you move that buttery bagel to your lips with the same hand that retrieved the newspaper from the driveway. Tag, you’re it. You have just joined the statistical list of potential cancer cases.
It is time to think. What can each of us do to make a difference in today’s health care issues? Hmmm. What can we do?
Advertisers and community associations that demand uniform weed less turfs skew our sense of beauty. Those perfect lawns are cash cows for chemical companies and the health care industry.
Post World War II chemicals are marketed as ‘safe if used properly.’ They fly under the radar of lax regulatory systems put to sleep by chemical industry lobbies rich enough to influence regulation. In the earliest days of chemical lawn treatment, they provided HAZMAT uniforms to protect their employees. They soon recognized these outfits sent the wrong message. Today, the chemicals arrive in clean white vans with a friendly, puppy face on the side. A much more appealing, if not misleading, message. Employees, no longer protected by HAZMAT suits, believe the products are not harmful to people or pets, at least that is the corporate position given when concerns are raised. Every big box store sells variations of these products for those who rather do it themselves.
Here is a thought to ponder. It is the day after the lawn service was here. There are still tiny pellets, left on the driveway after the kids played basketball and wrestled out there before dinner last night. The brood has left for school. You grab the morning paper from the driveway, pull the wrapper off, and have settled down for a quiet breakfast. As you glance at the headlines, you move that buttery bagel to your lips with the same hand that retrieved the newspaper from the driveway. Tag, you’re it. You have just joined the statistical list of potential cancer cases.
It is time to think. What can each of us do to make a difference in today’s health care issues? Hmmm. What can we do?
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