Mon$anto vs. Mother Earth
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Permaculture, now you talking.
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Given the basics of perma-culture, I'd be interested in how it works on a small plot. It's more a whole farm system. NVTL: good ideas, though who knows about the veracity of the claims? Need to find ways to perma-culture amongst ourselves as well as we social-network, hopscotching corporate-government controls.
Or does it come down to who controls the means of production--if most of the land (water, air, nutrients) is controlled by corporations and 1% speculators?
French intensive bio-dynamic might help in small scale. Also interesting developments in IMO (indigenous micro-organism culture). Typically I think many, perhaps the majority of, gardeners spend more to grow their head of broccoli than what it costs in the store.
The point about lawns is well taken. What a waste! We may put the little patch we have in the front into garden. I have not done anything with it(mow the weeds) for years. Certainly never dump fertilizer and poison on it like my neighbors. The back lawn is for the dogs to poop on!I recall reading (when I used to read all sorts of alternative farming stuff) about all the fantastic things Soviet scientist or agronomists were coming up with, and meanwhile we were shipping boatloads of grain to them.
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We've worked with several permaculturalists on very intensive projects we have been involved in, and all of them could be considered small in scale.
What amazed me about them was firstly the amount of production out of small spaces, and the variety.
One Victoria (Canada) based permaculturist, raises both the food he eats, and enough surplus that he sells to Victoria restaurants. His garden is quite amazing.
If your interested have a look at the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the guys who started it all. -
Thanks for the links Dale.
I've looked them up and found Geoff Lawton's site. From the few presentations I've viewed I think its something that I will look into more. This guy is very involved in the proper planning of areas to be used as permaculture enterprises.
His site is here, http://www.geofflawton.com/sq/15449-geoff-lawton
and some of his videos are here,
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=geoff%20lawton%20permaculture%26amp;sm=1
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I think most here will agree with the following statement,
'The annual mass migration of 60 million monarchs from Canada to Mexico is one of the most beautiful phenomena in the natural world'
Well, Mon$anto do not seem to agree with this statement. Monsanto says we should balance the butterfly's survival with what it calls "productive agriculture". Why don't they just be honest and say what they really mean and replace "productive agriculture" with profits.
Anyway there is something butterfly loves can do, be it ever so little, but a lot of 'littles' make a 'big. Please put your name to this petition, http://action.sumofus.org/a/monsanto-is-killing-the-monarchs/?akid=3949.1810268.-dvEzc%26amp;rd=1%26amp;sub=fwd%26amp;t=1
Thanks,
Mike
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Roundup alternatives?
Its all well and good bitching about the effects of Roundup on the environment but how do I control unwanted weeds?
Here is one alternative that I imagine is a hell of a lot cheaper than Roundup and more friendly, although there is concern about the salt content!
Biodegradable and safer alternative for commercial herbicide
http://www.instructables.com/id/Biodegradable-and-safer-alternative-for-commercial/ -
I did my homework!
Price of Gallon RoundUp v Biodegradable Herbicide (Home Made)
Home Made Price
Distilled White Vinegar, 1 Gal $2.38
12 ounces Salt $1.25
1 tablespoon, more or less, of dish-washing detergent (biodegradable detergent preferably)
$0.10Total $3.73
Roundup prices look to be x10 times more expensive!
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@mike lucey said:
I did my homework!
Price of Gallon RoundUp v Biodegradable Herbicide (Home Made)
Home Made Price
Distilled White Vinegar, 1 Gal $2.38
12 ounces Salt $1.25
1 tablespoon, more or less, of dish-washing detergent (biodegradable detergent preferably)
$0.10Total $3.73
Roundup prices look to be x10 times more expensive!
Might try that. Thanks. The salt is not that great. Of course it depends on hoe much it takes. The places you would use it would be in the paving. Probably no good for lawns, and hand work and mulch are better in garden. This won't change the use of roundup in farming.
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@pbacot said:
This won't change the use of roundup in farming.
Maybe not but there is promising work going on in India with KKKP (Krimi Kathak Krishi Poshak). Details here,
College's multi-purpose biomixture to favour organic farming
'KKKP is a mixture of animal excreta and some medicinal plants. Researchers claim that it will boost growth and yield, besides acting as a bio-pesticide. The mixture should be sprayed on plants. Field trials, standardization and scientific validation of the product for the past six years attest to our claims, said researchers'
College's multi-purpose biomixture to favour organic farming | Trichy News - Times of India
Farmers are slowly discovering the benefits of organic farming, with crops raised without the use of chemical fertilisers commanding a premium in the
The Times of India (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
Its interesting that India is undertaking this work, then again its claimed that they experienced many farmers committing suicide because of Mon$anto's GM crops.
Indian Farmers Committing Suicide as a Result of Monsanto's GM Crops
Every 30 minutes an Indian farmer commits suicide as result of GM seeds eg. Bt cotton produced by Monsanto. Here are Figures provided by NY University School of Law
(www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com)
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Monsanto just might’ve been given a free pass by European Parliament to peddle its genetically modified crops all over Europe -- including places where it has been banned.
It seems that what Monsanto etc wishes to achieve the ability to sue governments that do not allow the use of GMO crops and as we all know many governments in the EU are next to broke and will not have the resources to fight the likes of Monsanto etc.I just signed the petition asking MEPs to vote against GMO crops. You can join me here: http://action.sumofus.org/a/gm-crops-europe/?sub=mtl
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'Read the leaves'
I came across an interesting article, The Amish Farmers Reinventing Organic Agriculture
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-amish-farmer-replacing-pesticides-with-nutrition/380825/Plants do well with a balanced nutritional diet much the same as humans! It appears that antibiotics are getting into the water systems and this in turn lessens there effectiveness on humans so more powerful antibiotics are needed. The vicious cycle goes on!
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I just had to post this brilliant video, and it seemed most appropriate to this thread.
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There is only one way to protect mother earth and reduce our food/water/overcrowding and that is population control. There are entire housing estates here where there is generational unemployment and families are averaging between five and ten children. The 'men' involved do little apart from contribute to the population problem and drink cheap alcohol. Unless you take the hobbies of crime via b&e and twocing cars into consideration. Not all of these are single colour issues but mentioning race would probably make me a racist so keeping it simple......
Reduce to a manageable population and the planet can recover, but that does not allow big business to keep making profit growth does it, nor does it allow for government wanting to fund our reduced future pensions does it? Ever growing profits and the ability to keep reproducing without check are the biggest two wet dreams out there and they call OTHER people mad.......
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Good rant Mike.
This article, 'Current Population is Three Times the Sustainable Level'
http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/3_times_sustainable makes for dismal reading! It argues that,*"Current global population of over 7 billion is already two to three times higher than the sustainable level. Several recent studies show that Earth’s resources are enough to sustain only about 2 billion people at a European standard of living.
An average European consumes far more resources than any of the poorest two billion people in the world. However, Europeans use only about half the resources of Americans, on average".*
Rather than introducing or enforcing population control it would be far better to encourage population control as a proper thing to do.
At the current rate of population growth we are very quickly running out of non-renewable resources and are placing too much pressure on current sustainable resources to the extent that they will be unsustainable.
Al Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder makes a good case for a 'One Child per Female' with hard facts and figures. His six short lecture videos may be viewed here,
http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy_video1.htmlThis policy would seem practical at first glance and one would imagine that it would be adopted by countries Worldwide. China did have such a policy for the past 30 years but it has now been relaxed. If both parents come from a single child family they are encouraged to have two children. However many parents in cities that could have two children are still opting for one child. The reason offered this choice is that they can provide better housing and education for a single child.
I think far more couples might consider opting for a single child provided they were offered the option of egg / embryo freezing / storage. This technology is in its infancy but I imagine it will grow as western women and men are leaving it later and later before getting into the baby making business.
Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority
Freezing and storing embryos
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/45.html -
Hi Mike, actually it was wide of the mark on one issue and that was due to a bad edit. NONE of the criminal issues we face in society are racially based apart from racial abuse and ignorance of same. People of all colours have the same potential for antisocial and destructive behaviour. I thought about editing the post but reckon it is more honest to fess up to the error as a reminder to myself to use words carefully as they can be taken in more than three ways.
I am about done with hearing the charities cry to arms to send 'just three pounds a month' all the while showing very badly malnourished kids being fed a peanut based nutrition replacement product (which could be dosed with lysine for all I know, or some other monsato product). What they do NOT allow the camera to dwell on is the mother who is perfectly normally fed and watered, cut out by cropping to the sick infant. These mothers deliberately have too many children and then deliberately starve the smallest kids when food is in short supply. These advertisements used to have other well fed kids in the family in shot but no longer. When you take into account the cost of celebrity (another thing that grates my cheese) involvement OR the high salaries of senior management of these charities it really does take the biscuit, smash it into crumbs and sweep it under the carpet.
Never mind me, time of life or just about had it with ignorance syndrome.
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I'm an old man now and can't really change these things (I guess I never could). IMO The world has evolved backwards in many ways before my eyes in the past 60+ years. I don't know how far backward it is going to slide and I won't be here to see it. I can say that the biggest disappointment for me has been "democracy" and "free enterprise". This has unleashed an army or predators willing to do anything legal to make money. Next would be the continued proliferation of strange ideology and religion. If both of these things were eradicated the world would have a chance.
Our redemption appears to be in their self-destruction as is becoming evident. Democracy and free-enterprise are now loosing the race. The largest driving economies on earth are no longer democratic. If you still think this is the case then you better take a fresh look. The most diabolical aspect of this is the term "free enterprise" were the worst of tyranny can be found and were nothing is free. A place where people are enslaved for life.
So I would not worry about Monsanto. The people are coming! I just wish I was here to see Monsanto drawn and quartered.
ps: another disappointment: Tomatoes are not tomatoes anymore. I haven't tasted a good one since I was 10 years old.
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@roland joseph said:
.......... This has unleashed an army or predators willing to do anything legal to make money
And a lot illegal, a case in point. One of the largest USA banks has been fined $30 billion and counting for being naughty. Also it seems that they got off lightly. No one from the bank was reprimanded and the Chief Executive now gets a $7.4 million bonus for his stewardship on top of his $20 million salary. The mind simply boggles!
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@solo said:
http://journal-neo.org/2015/01/26/mit-states-that-half-of-all-children-may-be-autistic-by-2025/
I saw the report on this a couple of weeks ago. In the report the MIT researchers are being criticised for not having enough expertise in the field to make a broadly trusted scientific conclusion. Still, even a hint that these Monsanto chemicals could be a cause of autism deserves a lot more investigation and quickly!
Just as worrying are the behind the scenes trade deals that are, as I write, being set up that (it seems to me) will give power to the big corporations to sue governments that outlaw their products for domestic use.
Check out, Stop negotiating in secret and release the text of the TPP and TTIP immediately!
http://action.sumofus.org/a/trade-transparency/?sub=homepageThe more I read about whats going on around the world the more I become disheartened. I genuinely fear for my children's and grandchild's future.
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