The Death of Ted Kennedy

The death of Ted Kennedy made me stop and take a deep breath. His passing made me stop and think. Not because of his Kennedy name. Not because of his liberal stands. Not because of his longevity in the Senate. It was because of the cause of death - glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) IV. GBM has been around my family for quite some time. My sister, father and father-in-law all passed away because of it. So when Ted died, I stopped and looked around. The issue of GBM always is in the background, only coming to the present mind when it hits the news as it did today.

Hereditary? Environmental causes? Should I worry for myself and my children? Who really knows?

But sitting back and taking a deep breath and thinking about my own mortality makes me realize that GBM is one of the "causes" of my search for toxic-free (as toxic free as possible) living arrangements. It is what is in the back of my mind when I grow my garden without chemicals, herbicides or pesticides. It is in the background when I choose green products to clean the house. The possibility that GBM and other diseases/cancers are caused by environmental factors is one of the driving forces in my decisions.

Selfish? Sure, but that is just one of the many reasons I choose to have a greener life. But today it is the foremost reason because GBM has come out of my memory files to remind me of the past.

How To Plant A Fall Garden

How To Plant A Fall Garden:

In most areas of the U.S, August is a great time to get going with pumpkins so that they'll be ready for harvest by Halloween. You can plant your winter greens, collards, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and mustard greens.

Just finished putting in kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts. Previously put in parsnips, jarradale squash, sweet meat squash, butternut squash, rutabagas, purple top turnips, lettuce, beets and carrots. Not one inch of the garden is empty at this moment.

Willie Nelson, Wilco, Neil Young...

Farm Aid's Farm Fresh Pics Photo Contest - Win Front Row Seats :

Farm Aid is running Farm Fresh Pics -- an online photo contest -- that could put you front row and center to performances by Willie Nelson, Jason Mraz, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Wilco, Jamey Johnson, and Phosporescent, at Farm Aid 2009 Presented by Horizon Organic. They're looking for photos that show the beauty of the American farm and family, click through for details. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Of course, if you win you can always give them to me. I will gladly accept them with gratitude.

Building Slug-Proof Planting Barrels

Building Slug-Proof Planting Barrels:

Living under redwood trees is fantastic, with a few minor exceptions, for die-hard gardeners. My greatest curse-provoker is slug eaten plants. My seedlings hardly have a chance to get started before our slimy natives mow them down. So this project is great to protect food and flower crops from chomp...

Copper tape. This way you can drink the beer instead of wasting the brew on pesky slugs.

How to increase consumer responsibility

How to increase consumer responsibility:

According to Time author Brian Walsh, more than simply a case of penny-wise/pound foolish, the dangerous game of cheap food production is costing us--big time--both morally and from the standpoint of the health and the well being of the planet.

The farming practices employed for growing animals and food crops for the sake of affordable crispy, salty, fatty goodness are becoming hard to reconcile. As a society of consumers we may have lost touch with the great cost of what we consume. Here are some common-sense practices that we can all employ:

1. The first step is becoming informed about what we eat, no, I don’t mean simply reading the nutritional information on the side of a package. Research the food sources that you consume and the companies that produce and package them. Becoming informed about their cruelty free, fair wage and environmental protection practices--if any--and voting with your dollars.
2. Deciding that we can and should delay gratification before we impulse buy. We should employ the courage of our convictions to supply our pantry in a thoughtful healthy-minded way. It is also a good example to set when raising a new generation of consumers that we care about our health and environment.
3. I am not preaching but I practice and suggest practicing being grateful about what and whom we consume. Realizing that some form of life is ending so that we can be nourished and paying tribute to that life is key. Some acknowledgment of this as a daily practice, can be very grounding and liberating.
4. Supporting local organic, sustainable farmers is a key factor in toppling the industrial farming machine. Keeping our eyes fixed on achieving the goals of permaculture and sustainability and not being swayed by or tempted to give in to lethargy, despair and worst of all inaction.
5. Cutting down on our consumption of meat is so important if we care about ourselves and this world, people like Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Mark Bittman and a growing collective of world scientists are not kidding when they say that what we are consuming is killing us and the planet.

Take two or three or even five and call me in the morning! Have a beautiful, sustainable day!

Killer consumption doesn't end with food - it also includes all the products we desire, all the items we use to clean our house, the very clothes we wear...Know the true costr of everything in your home, everything you buy and everything you are thinking of buying.

Is Farming the New American Dream?

Is Farming the New American Dream?:

In this economic climate, why is farming becoming a desirable life for young people who have the luxury of choice?
...here is a growing number of young people opting out of school altogether, or on the flip side, actually up and leaving the corporate world after years to start farms, collectives, co-operatives, and even communes. There are kids quitting their high-level jobs in the city, moving to small-scale farms or homesteads in Vermont, and haying their butts off for no pay other than a roof and food (like my friend who worked at the #1 restaurant in NYC, and now picks squash blossoms in South Royalton, VT). And there are a number of flush youths who are cashing in their trust funds--in some cases--for cows.
Some might say it's a passing trend, like flannel shirts in Williamsburg. Some might say it's because there's a dearth of "real" jobs, and farming is a good interim experience until the economy perks up. But perhaps it's something more profound: you know, a deeper desire to get back to the agrarian life. Or, a more emotional reaction--a re-establishment of home values, a switch in the long-term goals of the entitled, and a deepening need for connection to one's food, and work ethic. Perhaps we're looking at a new world of homesteading, manual labor, and life on the land. A life of farming, in other words.

Digging in the dirt and eating a freshly pulled carrot - a perfect way to connect with the natural world.

Let's hope Cramer is right

Jim Cramer Thinks Food, Inc. Could Inflame The Justice Dept To Take On Monsanto

Last week, Jim Cramer did a fascinating segment on the seed giant and Roundup herbicide producer, Monsanto. He posits that Monsanto could be a prime target for a Justice Department antitrust action for their monopoly on seeds.

Tom Brennan writes on Cramer's segment:
A series of competition-crushing acquisitions made this biotech disguised as an agriculture outfit the market leader in genetically modified US corn, soybean and cotton seeds. And Monsanto maintains strict agreements with its farmer clients that leave them virtually no choice but to feed at the corporate trough. Plus, the company plans to push through a 42% price increase on its new seeds, and there's nothing these farmers can do about it.

Cramer states he thinks "the government is worried about about the family farmer being destroyed by Monsanto's practices" and Monsanto's action of raising seed prices is "begging the Justice Department to go after them [.....] They are tempting the wrath of Obama."

Cramer also says, Monsanto "better hope the guys at [The] Justice [Department] don't go to the movies" and see the documentary Food, Inc. which takes on Monsanto's practices, along with many other aspects of our industrialized food system.

I think we should send DVDes of "Food" to everyone in Congress, Justice and...

Farmer Obama

Setting Up A Farmers Market Outside The White House

One of the things that we're trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers' market -- outside of the White House -- I'm not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside -- (laughter) -- but right outside the White House -- (laughter) -- so that -- so that we can -- and -- and -- and that is a win-win situation.

It gives suddenly D.C. more access to good, fresh food, but it also is this enormous potential revenue-maker for local farmers in the area. And -- and that -- those kinds of connections can be made all throughout the country, and -- and has to be part of how we think about health.

Farmer's markets in every town - veggie gardens in every yard.

Big Oil Companies Behind "Citizen" Protests Of Climate Bill

Big Oil Companies Behind "Citizen" Protests Of Climate Bill: "

HOUSTON -- Hard on the heels of the health care protests, another citizen movement seems to have sprung up, this one to oppose Washington's attempts to tackle climate change. But behind the scenes, an industry with much at stake -- Big Oil -- is pulling the strings.

More on Energy

It is time for the rest of us to pressure our officials for a sane change to our policies - clean up our planet and start with home!

McKibben and Colbert

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bill McKibben
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

"We're past the point where you can make the math work one lightbulb at a time."

FDA Might Crack Down on Bisphenol A

FDA Might Crack Down on Bisphenol A

The lumbering Food and Drug Administration is finally showing signs of taking action on bisphenol A, better known as BPA..

Finally. How many have been jeopardized by their slow response?

A Civilizational Tipping Point

A Civilizational Tipping Point

By Lester R. Brown

In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds or tipping points in nature. In my latest book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, I state that scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger the collapse of a fishery.

We know there were social tipping points in earlier civilizations, points at which they were overwhelmed by the forces threatening them. For instance, at some point the irrigation-related salt buildup in their soil overwhelmed the capacity of the Sumerians to deal with it. With the Mayans, there came a time when the effects of cutting too many trees and the associated loss of topsoil were simply more than they could manage.

The social tipping points that lead to decline and collapse when societies are overwhelmed by a single threat or by simultaneous multiple threats are not always easily anticipated. As a general matter, more economically advanced countries can deal with new threats more effectively than developing countries can. For example, while governments of industrial countries have been able to hold HIV infection rates among adults under 1 percent, many developing-country governments have failed to do so and are now struggling with much higher infection rates. This is most evident in some southern African countries, where up to 20 percent or more of adults are infected.

A similar situation exists with population growth. While populations in nearly all industrial countries except the United States have stopped growing, rapid growth continues in nearly all the countries of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Nearly all of the 80 million people being added to world population each year are born in countries where natural support systems are already deteriorating in the face of excessive population pressure, in the countries least able to support them. In these countries, the risk of state failure is growing.

Read more of this story »

"

Tipping points reached? I think so.

Word of the day: Kombucha

From Wikipedia:

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is quaffed for medicinal purposes. Kombucha is generally fermented using a visible solid mass of microorganisms called a "kombucha culture".

Kombucha proponents[9] claim many advantages such as better experience with foods that 'stick' going down such as rice or pasta, increased energy, sharper eyesight, and better skin condition.

I have been drinking GT's Kombucha for over two yaers now and love it. Now, thanks to Anais who posted a link to Love Your Mother, I have the recipe to create my own "shroom" from my bottle of GT's Kombucha. "Production" started today. Let's see, we'll have to try: straight. ginger, grape, orange, ginger-mint....

Word of the day: Consumerism

From Wikipedia:

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism.
Veblen's subject of examination, the newly emergent middle class arising at the turn of the twentieth century, comes to full fruition by the end of the twentieth century through the process of globalization.[1]
In economics, consumerism refers to economic policies placing emphasis on consumption.

Can we achieve a balance with nature when the want for the latest drives so many? Can our land survive the amount of "throw-aways" because of our lust? Do we really need that 200 inch plasma/LED/nuetron-activated TV that has voice activated controls? Do we really need the latest to see the drivel that is on TV today?