The Food Crisis: “A Perfect Storm” - and How to Turn the Tide
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Craig Mackintosh
A recently released study, the largest of its kind, examines the root causes of, and solutions for, a food crisis that will likely get much worse before it gets better — and that will never get better if we continue with business as usual
I’m hungry.
No, not because I don’t have enough food to eat, but because I’m too busy typing and too lazy to walk to the refrigerator. How I wish it were this simple for the people I keep reading about.
Comments (3)Posted on: November 14, 2008
Chemical Based Farming Systems Robbing Us of Nutrients
Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Craig Mackintosh
 Full Report (5mb PDF) Executive Summary (PDF) 2-Page Consumer Summary (PDF) Press Release (PDF) |
Nutrient levels in food supply eroded by pursuit of high yields
When we sit down to a meal of supermarket-bought produce, we like to think we’re getting a reasonable cross-section of the body’s nutrient requirements, but studies are showing that our chemical intensive monocrop farming systems are not delivering the vital ’secondary nutrients’ that our ancestors enjoyed. Plants ‘flourishing’ on fast, soluble chemical fertilisers get ‘lazy’ and do not develop the deep, healthy root systems that pull additional elements out of the soil. In addition, the soil micro-organisms that break down organic matter and minerals to feed to plant roots are being slaughtered through chemical bombardment and violent mechanised manipulation of their environment.
Essentially, we’re getting robbed, and having to pay for it in reduced health/vitality/longevity and increased medical bills.
Comments (1)Posted on: November 13, 2008
The Failures of Genetically Modified Crops Continue
GMOs, Health & Disease — by GM Watch
The GM industry has been ailing at least as far back as 2005, but kept alive by an aggressive campaign of disinformation. GM Watch brings you the latest GM failures 2007-2008
GM cotton debacle in India
GM cotton has been failing in India and elsewhere for years [1] (Broken Promises, SiS 22), escalating the epidemic of farmers’ suicides [2] (Stem Farmers’ Suicides with Organic Farming, SiS 32). Unfortunately, the Indian government has allowed the commercial planting to continue with drastic consequences.
BT cotton failed in Vidarbha
A study on the introduction of Bt cotton in India’s cotton-growing belt of Vidarbha revealed that it failed in the region. Suman Sahai, director of Gene Campaign, which conducted the study, said that despite knowing that Bt cotton would not work in rainfed areas, the state government introduced it. The high input costs of Bt cotton increased indebtedness, and the study showed that 70 per cent of small farmers lost their landholdings as collateral for loans that they could never repay.
Comments (1)Posted on: October 28, 2008
A Pattern Revolution
Eco-Villages, Health & Disease, People Systems, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush
by Warren Brush, Quail Springs
All over the world, an ancient way of being has combined its elemental forces with the truths gained in the modern age to spark the fires of a new and imperative revolution. It is a subtle revolution of knowing the story of where all that sustains us comes from, and of honoring those things deeply. This revolution’s power draws from an ancient well of knowing that we as humans, with our opposing thumbs, expansive brains, and the capacity for empathy, are destined to draw from as we become stewards and caretakers of the land, and one another. Weaving our story with that of which sustains us not only empowers us to be revolutionaries in an age of rampant capitalism and its resource and culture eating syndromes, but also allows us to take true responsibility for the impacts of our lives. In its sheer humility, this revolution may be the very humus that is formed under the footsteps of the soldiers of capitalism and imperialism. As they pass unaware of us, our way of being becomes the nutrient from which new life will grow in a time beyond our own.
Posted on: October 1, 2008
Synthetic Sea
Consumerism, Health & Disease, Water Contaminaton — by Craig Mackintosh
We are turning our oceans into a chemical soup -
the result being misery and death
for billions of organisms, and serious health implications for ourselves.
When
we throw things away, we must ask ourselves “where is away?” The clip
below, one of the most frightening I have ever seen, will give you an idea
of where at least one of these ‘away’ locations is. Much of our oil-based plastic
products end up in our oceans, where they slowly break down into smaller and
smaller pieces. Although this may sound like a good thing, in reality all it
means is that they are more readily taken up by fish, dolphins, whales, turtles,
birds and a myriad other organisms. The plastic molecules never actually disappear.
Plastic diminishes in size until in appearance it almost perfectly imitates
plankton - resulting in a situation where creatures actually compete with each
other to eat it. And, worse, in some parts of the ocean the ratio of plastic
to plankton is 6:1, and rising.
The following clip, put together by the Algalita
Marine Research Foundation,
projects a vision of human stupidity that defies comprehension.
Posted on: September 29, 2008
Get Behind the Raw Milk Campaign
Health & Disease, Markets & Outlets — by Cathe Fish
by Cathé Fish of Practical Permaculture
Help Raw Milk Diary Producers in Australia!
As you probably know, many small dairy farmers have been forced out of business by big corporate Ag laws, especially those laws that outlaw sales of health-giving raw milk, raw butter, raw cream and other raw milk products. My grandparents had this happen to them. These pasteurization laws take what should be a healthy value added cottage industry product (raw milk and raw cheese, etc.) and force small dairy farmers to sell at wholesale at 1975 prices.
Dairy farmers who sell wholesale go out of business here in the US at a rate of 16 per day, as they are squeezed by the giant corporate milk companies. Study after study shows that compulsory pasteurization laws (that protect the inferior pasteurized unhealthy product of Big Ag) have been largely responsible for the decline of small diverse mixed farms, and small American towns and rural life. I believe this is true also in Australia and around the world.
Comments (1)Posted on: September 11, 2008
Strange Fruit
Consumerism, Food Plants - Perennial, Health & Disease, Processing & Food Preservation, Trees — by George Monbiot
A hard commercial logic dictates that the only way to get good fruit today is to grow your own.
by George Monbiot - journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist
I feel almost shy about writing this column. It contains no revelations, no call to arms. No one gets savaged: well, only mildly. The subject is almost inconsequential. Yet it has become an obsession which, at this time of year, forbids me to concentrate for long on anything else.
Posted on: September 5, 2008
Calling Five Percent of US Residents to Action on GMOs
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh
Pinky, who is fast becoming my favourite cat, has conducted the following excellent interview with Jeffrey Smith, founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology and author of Seeds of Deception.
The 43 minute interview covers a lot of ground, including the latest incarnation of life patenting — the patenting of human genes. Did you know that many of the genes in your body are owned by corporations? Absurd, but true. This has worrying implications.
As well as all the depressing reasons why genetic tinkering is not a good thing, Smith concludes the interview with a message of hope — that you as a consumer have the power to topple the multi-billion dollar industry that’s threatening our health and our planet. Using the historical example of how consumer demands in Europe incentivised supermarkets to stop stocking GM products, Jeffrey Smith believes if only five percent of the U.S. population were to determine not to purchase GM products, supermarkets would be motivated to source GM-free stock for their shelves, and we would see a domino effect that could bring an end to this industry.
Comments (2)Posted on: August 22, 2008
Pesticides, and You
Health & Disease, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Craig Mackintosh
I promised to follow up on our recent Which Came First - Pests, or Pesticides? story with some info on how these nasties can affect your environment, and you. We’ll do so, specifically, by looking at the meaning of the term bio-magnification.
How many have heard the term? Hmm…, a few raised hands. How many of you can explain its meaning to others in the class? Okay, not so many.
It’s actually a pretty simple concept to understand, and it’s a little frightening to realise the implications once you have.
Clear Lake, California
A classic story of bio-magnification was observed at Clear Lake in California, and well illustrates the deadly process.
In 1949 they sprayed DDD, a form of DDT, to kill a non-biting gnat. They met with success, initially…. Two years later the gnat was back, so they repeated the treatment (readers of our previous pesticide story will understand the term ‘pesticide treadmill’ in this context). Sprays continued at more frequent intervals until 1954. Over the course of these seasons, however, the carcasses of increasingly large numbers of grebes began to accumulate in the lake - hundreds of them….
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