Ramblings

Please consider signing this online petition regarding Apple, a visionary and innovative company. Let's pressure them to make changes and take a leadership role to be an "ethical and conflict-free" producer of products that many of us love. Many social change-makers use Apple products to do their work. Apple's profit margin is high and they can easily change with your support! Let's encourage them to be true innovators.

Join us in asking Apple to create conflict-free products that include conflict-free minerals from eastern Congo that helps Congolese communities by the 2013 holiday season. They can pave the way for all companies and consumers to make conflict-free phones and computers that help people in eastern Congo.

http://www.change.org/petitions/ceo-of-apple-inc-make-a-conflict-free-product-that-includes-minerals-from-eastern-congo

The well informed are not easily misled. A loading accident last month in Nigeria caused the biggest oil spill by Africa's top producer in more than 13 years. Local authorities together with that West African nation's citizenry accuse petro giant Royal Dutch Shell of spilling 40,000 barrels of crude off their coast.

Detailed information may be obtained by engaging the following link:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oil-spill?before=1325991979.
This includes a complete list of oil spills worldwide between 1907 to the present.

Equally valuable supporting information may also be accessed through Google by entering the following title:
World News - Coastal villages in Nigeria protest as crude oil washes ashore.

Together we are stronger.

Contributed by Inner Light (83123) on January 21, 2012.

This link may be temporarly on hold for 24hrs for SOPA, but it will be up soon. It is a rally against GMO's at Monsanto's share holders meeting january 24, 2012, in case anyone wants to go.

http://rtr.org/blogs/20670/13924/monsanto-protest-jan-24th-rsvp

FARMING FOR THE FUTURE CONFERENCE
Frebruary 1-4, 2012
Penn Statler Conference Center Hotel

Details: http://www.pasafarming.org/conference2012/index.cfm

Christmas Peace
by
Gerard E. Thomas

Each Christmas we raise our glasses to Peace
as we are sitting ready to feast;
And tho we lament for those who have not
Have we given thanks for all that we've got?
Clean air to breath, clean water to drink and healthy soil beneath our feet...
For these give us life and bring us the food that we eat;
So with our glasses still raised in Mirth
Let us give thanks for our Dear Mother Earth;
Pray now for Peace not only for Man
But so too for the Air, Water, and Land

Dear Folks,

A Canadian mining company has decided to mine the desert mountains of the land of the Huichol people in Mexico. The Huicholes were never conquered by the Spaniards. They maintain their connection to their ancestral roots since forever.

Here's an Al-Jazeera story about it and then the Huicholes actual web site to see what is going on from their perspective. I've included the web site address both for reference and as verification. The last part was composed by a friend.

With respect--Andy

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/10/20111027125212764306.html

A follow up to this issue is located at the following web site:

http://frenteendefensadewirikuta.org/wirikuta-en-bk/

In the upper right-hand corner is a place to click for "How to participate", i.e., what we can do to help, even from a distance.

(Note: This tragedy occured about 50 miles from the GreenSingles office.)

Zanesville, Ohio: Sheriff's deputies armed with assault rifles opened fire on dozens of "mature, very big, aggressive" lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, and bears who had escaped from a private menagerie in Ohio after the farm's owner was found dead and the animals' cage doors were left open and fences unsecured. Chimpanzees and orangutans were found locked in cages inside the house. The dead animals included 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Six black bears, two grizzlies, a baboon, a wolf and three mountain lions were also killed. Authorities said the slain animals would be buried on Thompson's farm.

Ohio has no regulations governing the ownership of exotic and dangerous animals. Exotic animals all over the state languish without adequate food, water, and veterinary care. They eat rotten scraps, drink algae-laden water, and spend their days pacing on feces- and urine-encrusted dirt. Just last April, Ohio Gov. John Kasich refused to extend an emergency ban on exotic animals in the state, which was put in place by his predecessor. PETA has campaigned for an outright ban for many years.

Please join PETA in asking the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to exercise its authority to declare emergency regulations to prohibit the keeping of exotic animals and also seize the animals over whom the agency has jurisdiction and see that they are placed in reputable sanctuaries.

You Don't Have to Stand Alone Against Genetically Engineered Food (GMOs)!
Together Let's Demand GMO Labeling Now!
Join the GMO Right2Know March Oct 1-16, 2011

Most Americans agree we have a right to know what's in our food, and a right to choose safe, healthy food for our families and ourselves. And yet 80% of the packaged foods in America contain Genetically Engineered ingredients that have not been proven safe, and are not labeled!

Between October 1st and October 16th of this year, marchers from all across the country will be walking from New York City to the White House, in Washington DC, demanding labeling of all Genetically Engineered Foods, in what has come to be called the GMO Right2Know march. Come walk with us - step-by-step we will take back our Right to Know!

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) endanger our health, the environment, and our farmer's livelihoods. For too long, biotechnology companies like Monsanto have lobbied against labeling products containing their patented plants - plants which are specially designed to be sprayed with cancer-causing weed-killers, and plants which produce pesticides in every one of their cells.

The GMO Right2Know March is the first of it's kind in America, and will have daily events between its kickoff in New York City and its finale at the White House, in Washington, DC. Come for the knowledgeable speakers, fun presentations, camping, and much, much more! Now is your chance to make your voice heard. We will win back our Right to Know what's in our food - one step at a time!

Sign up, bring a group, and join the Right2Know community! We are looking for walkers, bikers, drivers, volunteers, cheerleaders, hosts, and any other supporters out there!
Join us as we march from New York City to the White House in Washington DC from October 1 - October 16, 2011 for this historic march.

Why Get Involved?

These recent actions have created momentum to rally for the right to know about GMOs:

The decisions by the USDA to approve genetically modified Round-Up Ready^TMalfalfa seeds to be grown without restrictions.
The court decision to hold Bayer responsible for the LibertyLink contamination of rice.
The pre-emptive action by organic farmers and seed sellers to sue Monsanto for protection from patents on genetically
modified seed.
The growth of the U.S. organic industry to $28.6 billion in 2010
The participation of hundreds of companies in the Non-GMO Project Grassroots organizing of the March 26th Right to Know Rallies and the response of 68,478 letters to Congress asking for GMO Labeling.

ACTION ALERT
USDA Proposed Rule for "Animal Disease Traceability"
Your comments needed today!
http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/10/action-alert-usda-proposed-rule-for-%E2%80%9Canimal-disease-traceability%E2%80%9D/

Having dropped the plans for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), USDA is back again for Round Two. The agency has proposed a rule that would require livestock producers, related businesses, and state livestock agencies to incur significant expense tracking animals that cross state lines-with few tangible benefits to farmers or their American customers.
Though less sweeping than the NAIS, the proposed animal traceability rule is still burdensome and a solution in search of a problem.

The USDA has again failed to identify the specific problem or disease of concern, and the real focus of the program is helping the export market-benefiting a handful of large agribusinesses, the costs and burdens will fall on individual farmers and ranchers, vets, sale barns and weigh stations, and already financially strapped states.
These new regulations will harm rural businesses while wasting taxpayer dollars that could be better spent on the real problems we face in controlling animal disease, food security, and food safety.
At a time when farmers and ranchers are facing significant economic problems, the last thing we need is additional burdensome rules hindering the economic viability of the small businesses of the nation.

TAKE ACTION
Please submit comments to USDA today! You can submit comments either online or by mail.
ONLINE:
http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=APHIS-2009-0091-0001
BY MAIL:
Docket No.APHIS-2009-0091
Regulatory Analysis and Development
PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8
4700 River Road Unit 118
Riverdale, MD 20737-1238

The deadline for comments is FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2011.
(Talking points and a sample letter can be found below.)
Please also send a copy of your comments to your Congressman and Senators. If you don't know who represents you, you can find out at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov
Here are talking points you can use for your comments. A sample letter, which you can customize is at the end of this alert.

TALKING POINTS:
1) The agency should withdraw the proposed rule.
2) If the export market would benefit from the proposed rule, as the agency claims, then the agribusinesses that export meat should pay the costs and offer economic premiums to livestock producers to encourage them to participate in a voluntary system.
3) The agency needs to identify the specific diseases of concern and analyze how to best address those diseases, rather than continuing to push a one-size-fits-all generalized tracking program.
4) The agency's analysis does not address the full costs of the program- this is a waste of money at a time when both private and government resources are already stretched thin. This is an unfunded mandate on both state governments and private businesses.
5) At the very least, significant changes need to be made:
• Apply the requirements to breeding-age cattle only and exempt feeder cattle from all new requirements.
• Exempt all direct-to-slaughter cattle, both for custom and for retail sales. The proposed rule provides for a temporary exemption, but then phases these animals into the program except for personal use.
• Recognize livestock brands as "official identification" among and between all states that currently have official state brand programs and "official supplementary identification" for all other states.
• Do not impose any new requirement for identifying poultry. There has simply been no evidence that imposing new requirements on small-scale poultry operations is warranted, while they definitely will cause significant economic harm.
• Provide that a physical description qualifies as an official identification method for horses without having to be approved by the health officials in the receiving State or Tribe.

MORE INFORMATION:
The program is fundamentally flawed because it is not designed to address the real problems we face, and it imposes burdens on producers for the benefit of Big Agribusiness' export markets.
Some of the specific requirements for cattle pose particular problems. Along with new identification requirements imposed on all breeding-age cattle, the proposed rule would require identification and paperwork on non-breeding feeder cattle, despite the lack of evidence that such requirements will help disease control. In addition, anyone issuing official ID tags will have to keep records of the tags for five years, and sales barns will have to keep copies of paperwork for five years, even though many of these cattle will have been consumed years earlier.

State agencies will have to build compliant programs, database storage, and management and retrieval systems in order to handle all of the data, creating problems for many states' budgets. The proposed rule doesn't address what will be the consequences if states' systems don't meet the federal government's goals. The sending and receiving states can agree to use alternative identification methods, such as brands and tattoos, but otherwise the brand and tattoo will no longer qualify as an official identification method.

Small-scale, pastured, and backyard poultry will be particularly hard hit by the proposed rule. While the large confinement operations will be able to use "group identification," the definition of the term does not cover most independent operations. Since thousands of people order baby chicks from hatcheries in other states, these birds cross state lines the first day of their lives. Even if the farmer or backyard owner never takes the bird across state lines again, they will have to use individually sealed and numbered leg bands on each chicken, turkey, goose, or duck to comply with the language of the proposed rule.

Under the proposed rule, horses will have to be identified when they cross state lines. Official identification includes a physical description, digital photograph, or electronic identification. Although most, if not all, horses that are shipped across state lines are already identified in one of these ways, the language of the proposed rule creates a new complication. Whether or not a physical description is sufficient identification will be determined by the health officials in the receiving state, leaving vets and horse owners struggling with significant uncertainty as they have to anticipate what will be allowed.
The draft rule also covers sheep, goats, and hogs that cross state lines, essentially federalizing the existing programs which have been adopted state-by-state until now.

READ USDA'S DOCUMENTS:
You can read the proposed rule at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/traceability/downloads/2011/Proposed%20Rule.pdf
You can read the USDA's regulatory analysis, which includes its analysis of the costs of the program and the alleged benefits to the export market, at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/traceability/downloads/2011/Regulatory%20Impact%20Analysis.pdf

SAMPLE LETTER:
Please personalize these comments! Include a personal story at the beginning of your comments so that it is less likely to be viewed as a form letter. The personalization can be just a few sentences, but it does make a significant difference.
Dear USDA Secretary Vilsack:
I am a __________________ (farmer, local foods consumer, backyard poultry owner, horse owner, etc.). I am very concerned that the proposed animal traceability rule will __________ (not be workable for my farm; impose costs on my farmers that will then be passed on to me; make it prohibitively expensive for me to order baby chicks from out-of-state hatcheries; etc.)
I urge the USDA to withdraw the proposed rule.
If the export market would benefit from the proposed rule, as the agency claims, then the meat packing companies that export meat should pay the costs and offer economic premiums to livestock producers to encourage them to participate in a voluntary system.

The agency's analysis does not address the full costs of the program, and this is a waste of money at a time when both private and government resources are already stretched thin. The proposed rule is an unfunded mandate on state agencies, private businesses, and individuals.

At the very least, significant changes need to be made:
• Apply the requirements to breeding-age cattle only and exempt feeder cattle from all new requirements.
• Exempt all direct-to-slaughter cattle, both for custom and for retail sales.
• Recognize the brand as "official identification" among and between all states that currently have official state brand programs and "official supplementary identification" for all other states.
• Do not impose any new requirements for identifying poultry. There has simply been no showing that imposing new requirements on small-scale poultry operations is needed, while it will definitely cause significant harm.
• Provide that a physical description qualifies as an official identification method for horses without having to be approved by the health officials in the receiving State or Tribe.

Sincerely,

Name
Address
City, State Zip

The Cornucopia Institute P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia.org

We are all interconnected and part of something far greater than ourselves.

BP has paid out more than $5 billion to 204,434 victims of last year's massive Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill per fund administrator Kenneth Feinburg.

The payments amount to roughly 25% of the $20 billion fund, known as the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which was set up a year ago following the April 2010 spill.

So far, 947,892 claims have been filed from all 50 states and residents of 36 countries. Nearly all of the successful claimants come from four states: Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Ongoing comprehensive coverage may be viewed at the following website:

http://www.restorethegulf.gov

Contributed by: Inner Light (#83123) on August 30, 2011

It's kind of an old cliche but it's true - those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

When war broke out between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914 because of "some damn fool thing in the Balkans" as the Kaiser had predicted, which turned out to be the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, the world was at war in a matter of weeks, helped along by a huge network of interlocking alliances. Russia got involved because they were an ally of Serbia, Germany got involved because of their alliance with Austria-Hungary, France followed because they were an ally of Russia, Germany got the Ottoman Empire involved, Britain got into it and brought along the commonwealth countries like Canada, India and Australia, then there were the French colonies in Africa, German colonies, etc. Italy took a year to decide which side they were on, the US took three years, but then one of the major participants in the war pulled out because their government was toppled by people who had never approved of getting involved in the first place. Lenin described it as "a struggle between two bandits to determine which one of them will make off with the greater share of the booty".

Now my question is, how similar is all of that to what would happen if war breaks out any time soon between Israel and Iran? How long would it take for the US to decide they're on the side of Israel and Britain to decide they're on the side of the US? And since Iran is a major source of oil and gas to Russia and China which side would they be on at a time when China's appetite for energy is skyrocketing? Some Islamic countries might decide they're on the side of Iran but most of them would only have public opinion in that direction while the governments are bought off somehow by Uncle Sam, which might result in some Arab governments being toppled by popular uprisings by their own citizens who never approved in the first place. I'm sure this would be the result desired by anyone who can benefit from another "cold war", whether it's the weapons purveyors or just anyone who would prefer to have the public focusing on some external threat so they don't look as closely at corruption in their own country.

Not many people in this country have ever been told about the early support that the Bolsheviks got from the business interests in the Western world who were so outspokenly opposed to them. Or about the portrait of Henry Ford that Hitler had hanging on the wall behind his desk in his personal office because he thought Ford was "one great man" who could be counted on as a sympathizer and ally of his cause. It's also worth mentioning that Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Manuel Noriega were all funded and supported by Uncle Sam before they landed on the list of bad guys. How long has this country been going into battle against it's own weapons?

Big economic recessions tend to be followed by wars. It gives the public something to focus on and be angry about other than the causes of the recession. In situations like that scapegoats are also useful whether it's Jews, gays, Mexicans, welfare beneficiaries, etc. Or in the Islamic world - Jews, gays, women who don't dress appropriately or have brains of their own, and political cartoonists who draw Mohammad. In karate and other martial arts a "hidden hand technique" is a way of moving your hand that causes the opponent to watch your hand and focus on it so they don't see where your other hand is going until it's too late. I sort of know how to do that but those who run this world and the mainstream media are the real masters.

Rob W.,
Phoenix AZ
"Moderate Extremist"

http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/03/a-perfect-storm-of-gmos-chemicals-and-cancer

by Rady Ananda / March 12th, 2011

Saturday May 21st, 2011 : 11am - 5pm
In the San Jacinto Mountains, Eastern Riverside County, Idyllwild, California
http://www.earthfair.com/index.html

Admission is Free - music, dancing, song too!

The Idyllwild Earth Fair was created in 1990 by a group of volunteers who wanted to contribute to the life of our local community by presenting an annual event focusing on environmental concerns that effect us locally and globally. The Committee seeks to balance festivity and education as we celebrate the diversity and abundance of the natural world and learn to care more adequately for its optimal survival and preservation. We hope to inspire and motivate Earth Fair participants to become actively involved in this pursuit through interaction with those providing information and expertise in such areas as solar energy, multi-species preservation, recycling, earth-friendly products, fire safety, composting, water conservation, and more.

Each year the Earth Fair Committee sponsors a letter writing booth where several letters about environmental issues requiring urgent action are available to sign and mail. Performers donate their time and talents to provide entertainment throughout the day, and a variety of enticing food items are available for participant's enjoyment. Also on the agenda is the presentation of the Richard Greenwood Environmental Award, presented annually to an individual for exemplary action in service of the regional environment. Organic cotton Earth Fair T-shirts are available for purchase as a commemoration of the day's events.
The Idyllwild Earth Fair Committee feels that a healthy environment begins in ones own community. We are committed to providing an opportunity to become educated and take action on an array of significant and compelling environmental issues in our regional area, and beyond. The

Idyllwild Earth Fair promises an enhancing and meaningful experience to all involved

http://www.earthfair.com/index.html

Organized by Green Columbus, Columbus, Ohio's Earth Day celebration has quickly grown to become the largest volunteer-driven event of it's type in the country.

Updated info on the plans for Lighten Up 2011. www.LightenUp2011.org

This year's Earth Day cleanup event takes place on Saturday and Sunday, April 16th and 17th.
To register sites or choose one to volunteer: http://www.lightenup2011.org/worksites/

The following Saturday, April 23rd will be host to the art and music festival portion of the event, taking place in Franklin Park, on the Scotts Miracle Grow Community Garden campus.

Connect with the people you want to meet! The Earth Day 2011: Lighten Up celebration is a fun, family-friendly and convenient way for people to learn about the latest and greatest in environmental products, services, and organizations. Your presence at the celebration provides you with a fantastic opportunity for face-to-face education, promotion, and sales with thousands of people. We are expecting about 10,000 people. Booth exhibits are from 11am to 7:30pm on Saturday, April 23.

If you're interested please visit www.LightenUp2011.org
or email me at lynn.stan [at] gmail [dot] com
or a call 614-218-5613.

LightenUp in 2011 !

Lynn Stan
Volunteer

Creator, protect our planet, because we live here, and here we dwell with our daily tragedies.

May our daily reconstruction be the result of the very best that we carry within us.
Give us the courage
to be able to reconstruct what was destroyed
to be able to recover what was lost
to be able to accept what was gone forever.
May you give us courage to look ahead,
may we never look back nor allow our soul to be discouraged.

Creator, give us enthusiasm, because enthusiasm reaffirms to us that everything is possible, as long as we are totally committed to what we are doing.

Creator, may the Earth continue to transform seeds into wheat, may we continue to transmute wheat into bread. Do not leave us in solitude.

Have compassion on us Creator. For we often think we are dressed when we are naked.

Do not forget, in your mercy, our friends in Japan, who are now teaching us the meaning of Courage, Reconstruction, Solidarity and Enthusiasm.

(Paulo Coelho's Blog - Facebook - March 14, 2011 - http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/03/13/we-pray-for-japan/

"This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body."
- Walt Whitman http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1438.Walt_Whitman

February 22, 2011 - 5:30 - 7:30pm
Café Green, Dupont Circle, Washington DC

Event site: https://greenbacks.livegreen.net/offer/single_green_mingle

Whether you're looking for your soul-mate or just some green minded networking, Live Green has the singles event for you! Come out and meet new people who share your passion for sustainable living while enjoying a hearty organic brew or delicious fresh cocktail from Café Green. Tickets include entry to the event on February 22nd and two free drinks at Café Green's all-natural, organic bar. Join us for the good time you expect from Live Green without the intimidation of speed dating. And the fun doesn't have to end at 7:30, so stay and grab a tasty vegan dinner after the event!

Tickets are available via the event site.

"Gandhi is the other person. I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy - not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based."     - Vandana Shiva

Enjoy that which you love and defend it with all your life. -Vandana Shiva

For many years I lived in tents, tipis, school busses, pickup trucks and vans, or, I had nothing at all and slept on the ground. Now, for the last five months, I have no house, no car, no phone, no computer and I live super simply down here in Mexico. Walking, walking, walking, but sometimes I do use an internal combustion engine.

When we see that Americans have and own more stuff and have such super large, energy consuming houses, while most of the people on the planet don't come anywhere near what we have, its just a plain crying shame that more people don't live more simply, like we were trying to tell and show everyone in the sixties. The handwriting was already on the wall back then, and we tried to abide by the advanced warning. Alas, more and more people continued their consuming habits and even increased them. Now, even the so-called politically correct lefties are consuming way over their heads.

There will NEVER be any changes of significance on this planet until more of us put into practice a substantial reduction in our collective carbon footprint outputs. We can talk all we want about the political, economic and philisophical and religious wisdom, but, if we don't put our money where our mouths are, its just more clanging of symbols and empty rhetoric. Meanwhile, the advanced stages of the perfect planetary collission of armies, fighting over dwindling recources, looms ever closer. Do I want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Yes, consuming should be at the top of the list of addictions we all need to rein in. So, how bout it. Drive a little less, don't use so much toilet paper, eat less, live in smaller energy lean homes... and MUCH more.

Peace and quiet, Terry

Without a name; an unseen face,
and knowing not your time or place,
Tomorrow's Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shining point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
A day for you, but not for me.
Knowing you has changed my thinking,
for I had never had an inkling
that perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.
Tomorrow's Child, my daughter-son,
I'm afraid I've just begun
to think of you and your good
though knowing always I should.
Begin I will to weigh the cost
of what I squander, what is lost.
If I ever forget that you
will someday come to live here, too.

By: Glenn Thomas

Submitted by Malibutuff

By Amy Worthington
Idaho Observer

Prior to 1996, the wireless age was not coming online fast enough, primarily because communities had the authority to block the siting of cell towers. But the Federal Communications Act of 1996 made it nearly impossible for communities to stop construction of cell towers "even if they pose threats to public health and the environment. Since the decision to enter the age of wireless convenience was politically determined for us, we have forgotten well-documented safety and environmental concerns and, with a devil-may-care zeal that is lethally short-sighted, we have incorporated into our lives every wireless toy that comes on the market. We behave as if we are addicted to radiation. Our addiction to cell phones has led to harder "drugs" like wireless Internet. And now we are bathing in the radiation that our wireless enthusiasm has unleashed. Those who are addicted, uninformed, corporately biased and politically-influenced may dismiss our scientifically-sound concerns about the apocalyptic hazards of wireless radiation. But we must not. Instead, we must sound the alarm.

Read complete article: http://proliberty.com/observer/20070910.htm

Time: Tuesday, December 14 · 9:30am - 12:00pm
Location: Ohio Department of Agriculture
Created By Ohio Mercy For Animals

Please join us in silently "speaking up" for egg-laying hens abused on factory farms, as we converge at the public hearing for the proposed Hi-Q Egg Farm on Tuesday, December 14th at the Ohio Department of Agriculture building in Reynoldsburg. While the hearing is open to the public, no public comments will be allowed. Accordingly, activists will attend the hearing, wearing t-shirts that declare, "Ohioans Against Hi-Q Egg Farm,"... featuring an image of a hen in a cage. Mercy For Animals will provide the shirts, free of charge, to all participants immediately before the event.

Hi-Q Egg Products, LLC proposes to construct 15 layer (chicken) houses with 400,000 layers each, for a total capacity of six million chickens in Union County - less than 50 miles north of Columbus. If constructed, this could be the largest egg-laying facility in the state! In addition to potentially cramming millions of chickens in tiny, filthy battery cages where they cannot even turn around, stretch their wings or lie down comfortably for their entire miserable lives, the Hi-Q factory farm would produce at least 74,157 tons of chicken manure and 23.5 million gallons of manure-contaminated egg-wash water each year, creating an environmental and public food safety risk.

Meet Tuesday, December 14th at 9:30 a.m. in the Kroger Supermarket's parking lot located at 8460 E. Main Street, Reynoldsburg. (Meet at the farthest end of the parking lot, to the left side if you are facing the store entrance. Look for a black Toyota Corolla.) I'll be there, distributing "Ohioans Against Hi-Q Egg Farm" t-shirts to wear at the hearing. We will then drive to the hearing site at the Ohio Department of Agriculture, about .7 miles away and enter the meeting together.

The hearing will take place at ODA building, 8995 E. Main St., Reynoldsburg. Please RSVP by email to Corey Roscoe, Ohio Campaign Coordinator, or call 614-377-0232.

By Kurt Dahl

Read it all here:
http://www.populationelephant.com/

This is the land where sharks and honey drip into our minds through flat-screens.
Reading, launches vivid imagination, evokes both sides of gifted brains.
Unfledged, hooked-into mind-numbing video games.
Schools feed outdated menus to the already indifferent.
Obstinate keepers of the flame,
refuse to teach with modernistic voices.
The pupils close to distant ways of thought,
from a society the no longer exists.

Cars, like cupcakes, unnecessary, indulgent,
lacking consciousness.
Individuals, in malignant machinery, transcending time;
speeding over cement, guided by yellow and white lines.
Bodies barely feet above the gorund, each mile killing whales.
Trains would be too sane for this dissembled generation.
Foresight blinded by the impassiveness that never exhausts;
extinction of single-unit vessels inevitable.

Poorest hold the ground down,
while the rest of us walk.
Aggregation of consumers will soon be domed in protected unifiers.

Too much sun will hit individual materialism;
melting stringy divides, merging flailing societies.
Pandemics and paranoid gun mongrels will diminish
bedazed human breed.

Palpable happenings percieved by few.
Some of the aware attempt tp purchase enlightenment,
to ease their guilt, while focusing on reputations after meditations.

Cognizant few, it is up to you to subdue yourself;
teach the sleeping-moving-mass.
Urgent and fragile times;
whispers of the weakness rarely rise above the din.

Wake-up!

We are dreaming the doomed generation into nightmares.

Submitted by "Wave"

Recently (Fall, 2010) I became aware that commercial corn has been genetically modified to tolerate weed controls such as Roundup and Liberty Link and is being grown and harvested in great quantities. Subsequently this corn is being processed finding its way into our food stream as animal feed and ingredients in many processed foods. I find this very unsettling. I believe that the use of pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones and antibiotics, while used with good intentions, has led to many of today's health problems. Now grain plants are being genetically modified to do what these chemicals had done.

Because of my concern I wrote to two large corporations asking them if they used genetically modified corn in their products and if they did not, how did they insure that it didn't enter their supply stream.

Here are the responses that I received:

"Thank you for recent inquiry regarding [company name] position on the use of ingredients that have been modified through biotechnology.
First and foremost, all food must be safe. It is not only the law, but also an issue of ultimate importance to all food manufacturers. Second, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency have all concluded that food using ingredients from biotechnologically-improved crops is completely safe and no different in any meaningful way from other food. For that reason, the FDA does not require special labeling for it. However, if food has been significantly altered in composition or nutrient content, or if biotechnology introduces allergens into food, special labeling is required. None of our products requires special labeling. Accordingly, we do not test them for the presence of this material.

"Because of the growing use of biotechnology by farmers and the way that grain gets commingled in storage and shipment, it′s certainly possible that some of our products may contain ingredients that have been improved through biotechnology. We can assure you, though, that every major regulatory agency, as well as independent scientific groups like the American Medical Association, has concluded that these ingredients are safe. For more information, you may wish to visit The Alliance for Better Foods website at www.betterfoods.org.
[Company name] also believes in providing consumers with a variety of food options. Toward that end, we do offer organic products that, by definition, do not use ingredients that have been improved through biotechnology. Please look for organic [brand name] flour and a wide range of products from our [farm name] and [brand name] brands. To get more information about our organic products, please visit us at [web address]"

And the second:

"Thank you for your comments regarding the use of biotechnology ingredients. Like you, we want only the best ingredients to go into our products. Please be assured we will forward your comments to our food development and nutrition teams.

Biotech ingredients are safe and have become common in consumer goods. Like most other food makers in the nation, we buy the ingredients for our foods on the open market. In addition about 81% of all corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. Sixty to seventy percent of packaged foods in the U.S. include some form of biotechnology crops. Even organic ingredients can contain biotech ingredients due to cross-pollination.

We use biotech ingredients based on the backing of groups including the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the American Medical Association that confirm there are no safety concerns.

You have placed trust in us to provide healthy, nutritious, and safe food. We will continue to evaluate our ingredients, suppliers and product formulas to give you the best products possible."

I consider these to be reasonable corporate responses.

Unfortunately, because problems caused by such practices require decades and 2-3 generations to appear, the causal effects cannot be readily established. The link is supposition. When there is doubt, the benefit of doubt is given to those who have influence. It has been clearly shown that the Federal bureaucracy is highly influenced by corporations and organization with their self-interests. Competent people who have strong economic ties-past, present and future--to these corporations and organizations are appointed to key executive positions in the decision-making bodies of the Federal bureaucracy. With regard to food, it is very difficult to argue against a change that will clearly decrease the cost to produce food versus a supposition of the long-term health impact.

My first knee-jerk reaction was to buy only organic foods and grass-fed, free ranging meat products. But I think that does not address the underlying problem which I feel lies with the inherent nature of large corporate food operations.

Some claim that corporations do "things" driven by profit. Obviously that is true. What is the primary purpose of a profit driven corporation? Why should one expect any different behavior? I think that all corporate executives are reasonable, responsible and aware people. I also think that all profit driven corporations have as their goal to provide to its customers products and services that offer reasonable quality at a fair price. Some corporations strive to be a least cost provider, others, a top quality provider. And others look for a niche position somewhere in between.

All viable profit driven corporations strive continuously to lower internal operational costs and the costs of the basic resources that are used in making or providing their products and services, whether it be for materials or labor. Profits driven corporations do not do anything that is not perceived in their best long-term (4-5 years) interest.

Corporations are motivated to get larger in order to realize economies of scale. The larger the quantity of materials that are purchased, the lower is the per unit cost. The more product produced, the lower is the per unit share of the fixed cost allocation. The greater the volume of production, the more worthwhile it becomes to seek out ways to lower the per unit manufacturing or processing cost. The cost of additional overhead to do so is more than offset by the reoccurring savings. For example, saving $50 per vehicle on a vehicle that costs $10,000 to build, that's 1/2 of 1%, realizes a $10 million dollar savings on every 200,000 vehicle production run. It is estimated that McDonald's has about 12,000 restaurants in the US. Assuming they each sell on average 20 hamburgers an hour, for 10 hours a day, 360 days a year, that represent 72,000 hamburgers sold a year for each outlet. For all 12,000, that is 864,000,000 million hamburgers. If McDonald's can save 1 cent per hamburger, they realize savings of $8+ million dollars a year.

Large corporations tend to buy their product ingredients/components from large corporations. It is administratively and logistically simpler and, thus, less costly, to do so. Thus, large corporations beget large corporations.

As stated above, large corporations look for ways to reduce costs. It becomes a driving mantra. When it is applied to durable goods, that is generally perceived as being good although it is drawn into question when one hears of an automobile safety recall. When it is applied to food, it becomes worrisome. Consider the large cattle stockyards where cattle stand shoulder to shoulder usually deep in their own feces, being fattened up on processed commercial corn until they are fat enough to slaughter. Consider chickens crowded in tunnel enclosures standing in their own feces being fattened on processed commercial corn until they are fat enough to slaughter. Fish farms, if not already, are moving in the same direction.

I've come to feel that I should not be buying my food-vegetables, fruit, and dairy and meat products--from the grocery chain food stores but from small, local farmers or from farmer cooperatives. There are community supported agriculture programs and local farmers' markets. There are butcher shops in which the butchers personally contract for the meat. There are bakeries in which the bakers personally contract for the ingredients. In general, small food operations do not purchase from large suppliers.

Another consideration for where to buy food is the time that the food product is in transit between the source and the selling store. There is a cost associated with distribution that the local supplier doesn't incur, thereby, offsetting somewhat the advantage that the larger supplier realizes from economy of scale.

Whether buying organically or traditionally farmed food products, I think that buying from smaller, local sources provide a better quality and healthier food product.

My thinking has brought me to question the quality of the food served by the national restaurant chains, neighborhood ones as well as fast food and of the nationally branded packaged foods on supermarket shelves. I suspect that the large national supermarkets buy their privately labeled packaged products from the large packaging corporations.

I realize that I cannot change the system or the operation of large corporations. All I have is a vote-by my ballot, by how I spend my money and for whom and what I support. Having done so, I must get on with my life. The challenge is to pursue a life's path in which I am buffered as much as is practical from the vagaries and indifferences of those things over which I don't have any control or even marginal influence. I have to change what I eat and where I buy my food. I started doing so yesterday.

I would like to hear your views. Please email me: PASunshine. I realize that many feel that large corporations have a responsibility to "society". I would like to understand how such folks see that responsibility being met.

At present I have been busy trying to protect the community environment here in Clyde, OH. It seems impossible. The Ohio EPA held a hearing 09-28-2010 for an Air Pollution permit for Phase 1 of a 2 Phase process for a BIOMASS Gassification Plant.

NOW if anyone does any kind of research at all they would find that these plants produce environmental toxins, at the rate of 18 % per ton. We have a Children's Cancer Crisis already for which the EPA was supposed to find answers of where and what is causing this high rate BUT they seem to have come up empty handed.

OUR deadline to submit formal comments to the OHIO EPA is today: Oct. 4th, 2010 otherwise they will issue the permit for construction. FIND IT FUNNY THAT THE NORMAL TIME FRAME FOR SAID COMMENTS IS 15 OR 30 DAYS.

If anyone can help please send comments to jan.tredway@epa.ohio.gov or to the head of Ohio EPA chris.korleski@epa.ohio.gov or to darla.peelle@epa.ohio.gov

Do you recall the massive egg recall a few weeks ago. That was the recall that left Wal-Mart and all the large grocery store chains without eggs. Think about it because the story below will make you wake up.

I am the only certified organic egg farmer in Oklahoma. I have at times 400 girls in open pastures that sleep at night in open barns or anywhere they want. The day of the recall I received over 50 phone calls from supermarkets in Oklahoma looking for safe eggs. I sell everything I produce so I had none to spare.

All of a sudden there are large farms with 80,000 to one million chickens producing "organic eggs". These industrial farms are now trying to get the federal standard changed to meet their desired regulations which will make the eggs all unsafe like theirs are now. To have organic eggs a farm must be certified organic before a single chicken moves in. You then have to move in certified organic chickens or hatch new chicks on the farm and have them on the ground on the second day of their life. The rule says "on the ground". That does not mean a cage in a big barn but on the ground. If you have not seen Food Inc. yet here is where you want to watch it. These industrial farmers put thousands of chickens in a closed hoop house with manure up to three feet deep and call the eggs lain in that crap organic. The industrial farmer has a small patio attached to these hoop houses so the birds have access to the outside. You have a 40,000 square foot hoop house with a 10 square foot patio so chickens can see the sun.

How many of the 80,000 chickens inside do you think see the sun each month? Now in order to try and get the rules changed the industrial farms are offering to give each chicken 2 square feet to live in. No pastures, just a patio.
In the federal rules on chickens and eggs a few very defined rules stick out.

First: the rules on terms of how the birds are kept. Cage Free means the birds live in large barns or hoop houses all walking on the floor and crap, never seeing outdoors. Free Range is defined as a 16 square foot area that chickens are allowed to visit a few hours a day so they can mingle with other birds. Pasture Raised is just that and that is the only true organic way. The birds live in pastures and have free access to acres not square feet.

Second: The feed is to be organic from day one. There are only a few producers of organic chicken feed in the world. These producers are going out of business because no one buys their organic feed in great quantities. I buy it by the pallets from Medesto Milling in California. They are the closest and best controlled mill. That means my feed travels 1600 miles to my farm. I can go down and buy regular chicken feed for $6.99 a bag at the local coop. But to be true organic I have to ship it in and that delivered cost is $27 a bag. There is no way you can buy eggs that say organic in a supermarket for $3-4 a dozen. The feed cost almost rivals that sale price.

Now the illnesses that cause the recall of the eggs was from the feed the birds ate. All the non organic grains are genetically modified for the animals to be able to break down the grain in their stomach. The primary feed in to chickens and cattle is corn. 99% of the corn in this country is modified corn. The primary modification is so that animals that do not eat corn as their natural food can digest the corn. So cattle and chicken have to have a corn that starts to break down with stomach acid. The modified gene in all corn is a strain of botulism. In other grains e-coli strains and salmonella strains are genetically infused into the gene pool.

A chicken has a remarkable natural immune system. Everything a chicken eats that is bad for a chicken is passed out of the bird in the egg. Now you know how the eggs make you sick.

Third: Egg expiration dates. Did you ever wonder what those numbers on the end of the carton mean? The producers' egg license is one like 446-000. The packing date is on the carton or the expiration date, producers' choice. Now the federal standards say the eggs can only be on the shelf for 45 days. So at the end of the 45 days unsold eggs go back to the producer. There are no rules on how long the eggs can sit in a refer before being packed so a producer can, and some do, hold the eggs for months before they get into the carton. Once the eggs come back they can be repacked and get a new 45 days. So you can have eggs that are 9 months to one year old in the store for $2 a dozen. Eggs that come back to the producer again end up at places that sell frozen or canned baked or mix goods on the grocery shelves. The producers never waste an egg.

Last: Egg grading. Did you know that eggs with cracks, holes, and partially developed chicks can be sold in the stores, as long as they are of the proper grade. Grade AA eggs have no cracks, no holes, no development, are candled and have the proper air pocket in the egg. Grade A eggs can have a crack. Grade B eggs have a hole.
So this week, I got from Cornucopia a request for me to testify as Oklahoma's organic egg producer to the USDA hearing on organic egg standards. This hearing was set up by the industrial growers wanting rule changes to meet their current growing practices. They want the American exception to the rules.

Cornucopia has just completed its latest investigation and report detailing the great divide in organic egg production between a dozen or so giant industrial-scale egg producers and the hundreds of family farmers who are following the spirit and intent of the organic regulations. The report is available for free download at http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/09/organic-egg-report-and-scorecard/.

I would ask that all the real Green people on this site go to the Cornucopia website and see for yourself what is at stake. Then if you are feed up with the wool being pulled over your eyes download a form on the site and send in your suggestions to the USDA through Cornucopia. Without Cornucopia and the Rodale Institute there would be no organic standards in this country. Your support is greatly needed.

As an Organic Farmer I thank you for your support. As an American I am tired of the government and big business sticking it to us just to satisfy their greed.

Rezdoc

Louie McAlpine, Daddy Mac's Farm

What isn't being discussed in Congress, during the ongoing debate on the broken federal food safety system, is the root cause of the most serious pathogenic outbreaks in our food-the elephant (poop) in the room.

The relatively new phenomena of nationwide pathogenic outbreaks, be they from salmonella or E. coli variants, are intimately tied to the fecal contamination of our food supply and the intermingling of millions of unhealthy animals. It's one of the best kept secrets in the modern livestock industry.

Mountains of manure are piling up at our nation's mammoth industrial-scale "factory farms." Thousands of dairy cows and tens of thousands of beef cattle are concentrated on feedlots; hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of chickens are confined in henhouses at one location for the production of eggs and meat.

Livestock producing manure is nothing new. But the epic scale of animal numbers at single locations and the incredible volumes of animal waste is a recipe for disaster. It eclipses anything that was happening on old McDonald's farm.

Feces carrying infectious bacteria transfer to the environment and into our food supply. Feeding heavily subsidized corn and soybeans to cattle, instead of grazing the ruminants on grass, as they were genetically designed to do, changes the pH in their digestive tracts, creating a hospitable environment for pathogenic E. coli to breed. The new phenomenon of feeding "distillers grains" (a byproduct of the ethanol refining industry) is making this risk even more grave.

The current near-nationwide contamination in the egg supply can be directly linked to industrial producers that confine millions of birds, a product of massive, centralized breeding, in manure-rich henhouses, and feeding the birds a ration spiked with antibiotics. These are chickens that the McDonald family would likely have slaughtered on the farm because they were "sickly."

Thirteen corporations each have more than 5 million laying hens, and 192 companies have flocks of more than 75,000 birds. According to the industry lobby group, United Egg Producers (UEP), this represents 95% of all the laying hens in the United States. UEP also says that "eggs on commercial egg-laying farms are never touched until they are handled by the food service operator or consumer." Obviously, their approach been ineffective and their smokescreen is not the straight poop.

In addition to our national dependence on factory farms, the meatpacking industry, like egg production, has consolidated as well to more easily service the vast numbers of animals sent to slaughter from fewer locations. Just four companies now control over 80% of the country's beef slaughter. Production line speed-ups have made it even harder to keep intestinal contents from landing in hamburger and meat on cutting tables.

All of these problems are further amplified by the scope of the industrial-scale food system. Now, a single contamination problem at a single national processing facility, be it meat, eggs, spinach or peanut butter, can virtually infect the entire country through their national distribution model.

As an antidote, consumers are voting with their pocketbooks by purchasing food they can trust. They are encouraging a shift back towards a more decentralized, local and organic livestock production model. Witnessing the exponential growth of farmers markets, community supported farms, direct marketing and supermarket organics, a percentage of our population is not waiting for government regulation to protect their families.

The irony of the current debate on improving our federal food safety regulatory infrastructure, now centered in the Senate, is that at the same time the erosion of FDA/USDA oversight justifies aggressive legislation, the safest farmers in this country, local and organic, might be snared in the dragnet-the proposed rules could disproportionally escalate their costs and drive some out of business.

While many in the good food movement have voiced strong concerns about the pending legislation-it's sorely needed-corporate agribusiness, in pursuit of profit, is poisoning our children!

When Congress returns to Washington, we have no doubt that food safety legislation, which has languished for months, will get fast-tracked. In an election-year our politicians don't want to be left with egg on their face.

We only hope that Senators will seriously consider not just passing comprehensive reform but incorporating an amendment sponsored by John Tester (D-MT), a certified organic farmer himself, that will exempt the safest farms in our country-small, local direct marketers. We need to allocate our scarce, limited resources based on greatest risk.

Farmers and ranchers milking 60 cows, raising a few hundred head of beef, or free ranging laying hens (many times these animals have names not numbers), offer the only true competition to corporate agribusinesses that dominate our food production system.
**************************************************************************************************

Mark Kastel and Will Fantle are codirectors of The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group.
P.O. Box 126,
Cornucopia, Wisconsin 54827
www.cornucopia.org

Never before in the history of our planet have we done so much damage in so little time as what BP did with that well in the Gulf of Mexico. The truth about the end is somewhere in the knowledge hidden away from public scrutiny by the ones that decided money was more important than public safety and the environment. It will end and unfortunately it doesn't bode well for any life form along the coast or any place less than a hundred feet in elevation. The Gulf is a cauldron systematically reducing the salts in the water by evaporation to a density that settles out and forms salt domes under the soft sediments that filter down from above. As depth increases so does pressure. For every 30 feet, you add one more atmosphere of pressure. Anyone with a calculator can do the math. At 5000 feet, everything is compressed and held stable by the lack of seismic forces such as witnessed in California. Because it is so 'stable', people forget this is the most seismically active part of the earth.

Anybody who has driven over a highway in and around Houston, Texas can attest to the movement of the ground. They are growth faults and the Gulf coast is defined by them. Because the sediments are soft they slide over each other without a whisper (unless you pave over them as the highways are apt to be then you notice one side of the road is higher than the other). It surprises a lot of first-timers to the Gulf coast that the roads are so 'stepped'. Little variations in the pressure and the salt moves up and around through the sediments. Oil is created and retained by the impermeable barrier of the compressed clays and diatom carcasses that filter down forming shale and limestone seals.

Now along come the arrogant leaders of BP who know that this is a huge reservoir and they have the money to drill to whatever depth they want. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead! Ignoring the geologists and geophysicists that they hired to keep the well safe and profitable, they cut corners and now we, the people of the US will bear the cross of their folly. No one knows what is happening down there except it’s not working the way it was supposed to. The well can't be capped and it sure as hell doesn't need to be drained because all that salt will move and the oil will gasify in the chamber left behind increasing the risk of a tumultuous blowout of horrific proportions. I just hope that if they are drilling a sideways well to get to the broken pipe that it’s an injection well. Pumping water into the chamber to keep the oil from turning to gas will, I hope, delay the inevitable. I'm sure that there are geologists with far greater knowledge than mine that will have a different perspective. All I have to go on is the well logs I read while working for Gulf Oil in International Exploration. A gas bubble will bring anything sitting above it to the ocean floor. I believe that's why BP hasn't moved a super tanker onto the site. Losing one of those ships would be really hard to replace.

I dove some of the salt ridges formed in the Gulf. They are the only variation in an otherwise invariable seascape of sand and silt.  One is called Stetson Banks and it lies approximately 85 miles from Galveston. It’s one of the few places to dive that you can get down to the bottom and still not violate the dive tables.

If you have friends or relatives living or working along the coast, I would suggest you tell them to make other arrangements for a living. The toxic gases being released right now are causing problems for those working to clean the shores. No one is wearing respirators that I have seen. I just hope they have better insurance than the first responders at WTC on 9/11/01. I have never been a doomsday person but this looks like I may have to change my perspective.

Jumperl
Hot Springs AR

ps: I don't know how to be optimistic at this point in time.

Audubon is inspired by the many people who have contacted us to find out how they can help the birds and other wildlife threatened by the Gulf oil spill. Your commitment to their health and safety during this crisis is greatly appreciated – and it underscores how much you value the natural world.

Donate Your donation will support Audubon as we address the oil spill disaster affecting birds and other wildlife in the Gulf Coast's already-fragile ecosystem. Your gift of any amount helps provide important resources for our volunteers and for the vital work being done on the ground. Thank you for your support!

Take Action Here's another way you can help. Urge Congress to fully fund restoration efforts in Coastal Louisiana. Restoring habitat is key to the survival of that region and the people and wildlife that depend upon it.

Stay Informed Sign up to receive updates about Audubon's work to respond to the oil spill.

Volunteer Audubon is working with many other public and private conservation organizations to  coordinate volunteers and connect them with oiled-wildlife response leaders to help in the recovery effort. Hands-on work to protect and save birds and other wildlife will be a complex and potentially dangerous process, and first and foremost it is important that only trained volunteers participate on the front lines. Untrained volunteers can pose a risk not only to themselves, but to the birds and wildlife they are trying to save. If you would like to receive updates on Audubon's response efforts and be notified when volunteer opportunities arise, please fill out our volunteer registration form.

Attention, Gulf Coast Birders! Your help is needed to help document bird distribution at Gulf coast sites, and the effects of the oil spill. Learn more.

Kids Are Already Helping! The spreading Gulf oil spill threatens birds and wildlife on Louisiana's coast. Save Them!  Help Audubon rebuild the healthy habitat they need.

Other Ways to Help
To report oiled wildlife, call 1-866-557-1401 and leave a message. Messages will be checked hourly.

Even if you don’t live in the Gulf coast region, you can provide healthy habitat for birds, especially migrants, by taking some of these simple steps from Audubon At Home.

What do you think of what is happening on our planet? Is your world safe? Are you confident that our future is bright and we have the resources to clean up our planet? Yeah, I'm concerned too. Now more than ever, we are in a state of emergency. Our planet is dying and so are the beings that inhabit the earth. June 5th is UN World Environment Day. Are you doing your part? Did you hear about the whale found in the ocean with plastic and dirty debris in its belly? Are you aware of how fatal the ocean life is? The ocean was created to heal itself, but because of oil drilling in its core, and people who throw trash in the streets and the ocean, it can no longer do that. Our dirty, dying ocean is full of garbage and I doubt you want to spend another summer frolicking in it. Global warming continues to threaten our environment and our lifestyles. The dense and rich land of the Amazon Rain Forest is being raped of its resources for selfish gain. Greed has overtaken need. Disrespect of our planet has overtaken nurturing. Coal burning has polluted and destroyed our atmosphere.

Our so-called leaders are more concerned with gaining profit than protecting the earth. They are making decisions for us right now. That means that our youth are being influenced and motivated to seek selfish desires for the almighty dollar instead of searching for ways and opportunities to heal our land. When you are old and gray, teenagers today will be making decisions for you. Are you confident that your needs will be met, that you will have a planet to thrive on? If we don't take a stand today and clean up our planet and demand that others do the same, we will forfeit a rich and flourishing planet tomorrow. Our little ones today will be our leaders tomorrow. What will you do to make sure their decisions will take care of you? This is an urgent call to action. It is time that we take a stand and protect the planet we live on. Let's do something. NOW!

A few ideas to get you started:
1 - First and foremost, we need to wake up. Miley Cyrus has a great song on her Breakout album called "Wake up America". Unfortunately, this song has not received the props like it should; because we are asleep. Listen to this song on my home page under the Audio/Video section.
2 - Recycle, Recycle, Recycle! If you are not doing it, start today!
3 - Stay informed about what is really going on in your world. Listen to 89.3 KPCC FM talk radio or go to their website at www.scpr.org. Find out who the culprits are that are destroying our land and ocean life. Find out what environmental issues the politicians you are voting for are supporting. You might change your mind. Primary Election is June 8th - let your voice be heard.
4 - Get involved and join environmental groups like Green Peace, Treepeople Inc., Sierra Club, Eco-Home Network, The Environmental Protection Agency, etc.
5 - Take some time to pick up the trash around you. If you see plastic, please pick it up and take to the nearest recycling center. Plastic ends up in our ocean and finds it way into the bellies of sea animals and kills them. Keep them and our ocean alive.
6 - Teach your children and youth about the importance of recycling. Take them on a volunteer weekend field trip and tell them the reasons why we all need to take care of our planet.
7 - If you are a smoker pay attention to where the fumes of your cigarettes are going; into our atmosphere; that's pollution. If that doesn't encourage you to make an effort to quit I don't know what will. Let it be the beginning of your quest to take care of your body and your planet. Find a way to quit. Today.
8 - If you work for a restaurant or frequent one, or you're just a concerned steward of this earth, ask restaurants to donate their edible leftovers instead of throwing them away. Donate to a homeless shelter or Meals on Wheels. If you have leftovers, take a walk sometime and find a homeless person that will take your food; they should not be eating out of the trash.
9 - If you can afford and have the choice choose a hybrid car to drive. Our air quality depends on the cars we drive as well. Or go green with gasoline.
10 - Those of you that have pets, especially dogs, please clean up after them. I can't tell you how many times I walk my dog and see other dog feces because their owners don't care. You have to care. It's your dog, your planet. Pick up the poop.

"Heal the world. Make it a better place. For you and for me and the entire human race."
- Michael Jackson, "Heal the World" song

Remember, we are stewards of this planet. Let's show it more love and take care of it. Now.

Join us for an upcoming casual social event:
Cages 2 Wings needs competent, concerned citizens like you to volunteer your time and help teach our youth the things that really matter: Love of self, love of others and love of our planet. Join us for a casual social gathering and sign up for an opportunity that interests you. Cages 2 Wings youth need you, your insight and your encouragement. Will you be there? Come meet Cicely, some of our Board members and concerned volunteers to find out what we are all about and get involved!

2 ways to RSVP:
1 - Call Chira Martin, Secretary of the Board at 323-682-3308 or email mothershyra@live.com
2 - Just show up and enjoy some delicious fruity drinks
(casual attire)

Hope to see you on Sunday, June 6th at Boba Loca's in Westwood!

Where: Bobaloca's in Westwood
Address: 10946 Weyburn Ave, Los Angeles, 90024 - 310-443-8911
When: Sunday, June 6, 2010 - 2-4pm
Check them out here: http://www.bobaloca.com/

With 200,000 gallons of oil gushing every day into an already fragile and vulnerable ecosystem, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is shaping up to be one of the worst environmental disasters in our nation's history. It is a direct threat to more than 400 species of wildlife - many still in recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is on the frontlines: President and CEO Larry Schweiger has been working with local and regional partners, surveying the impacts, keeping the story as headline news, and consulting with officials on the ground.NWF is calling on the public to help save wildlife during this unprecedented environmental crisis. With the help of their partners at Merkle, Inc. and Mobile Giving Foundation, NWF launched the second-fastest mobile giving campaign in history.

NWF is especially grateful to all of its wireless carriers who moved so quickly to address the urgent need.The Text2Give campaign allows the public to simply text the word WILDLIFE to 20222 on any mobile device through any carrier to donate $10 to NWF. Every dollar will go directly to help save wildlife affected by the oil spill and to conserve and restore these vital wetlands.

The speed and efficiency of the NWF Text2Give campaign only underscores the severity of the situation."Our treasured wildlife are innocent victims in this terrible crisis," said Schweiger. "They cannot save themselves - it's up to us to save them. That's why I'm asking everyone to give what they can today." NWF is also asking that people with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to post a message asking friends and family to help out, too."The more people we can get to spread our message, the more impact we can have for wildlife affected by this senseless tragedy," said Jaime Matyas, executive vice president & chief operating officer of National Wildlife Federation.

"So please tweet, post a Facebook link, send out e-mails and text messages. Get the word out however you can and ask everyone to text WILDLIFE to 20222 right now! We need immediate support."For more information about the spill, wildlife impacts, and how to get engaged (including coordinated volunteer efforts), please visit: www.nwf.org/oilspill.

Immediate Release: May 5, 2010
Contact: Aileo Weinmann, 202-797-6801, weinmanna@nwf.org

Trees don't walk . . ., don't locomote
Growing vertically
Certain of their pathless path
They assume the history attributed to them
with no more concern than the breeze rustling their leaves.
As we transgress this earth in mindless horizontal motion
plowing down beings
jealous of the ascent of birds, trees, the heavens.
Our collective/individual illusion: possession of space.
Trees don't locomote.
Still after eons
their ancient mass can power
our frenetic flights.
we murder green beings and ourselves
as we rush to our economic activies,
pleasure giving rites and obligatory visits to unloved kin.
Jealous of those beings rooted deeply in the earth
we've become the anti-trees.

By Judith

It was mentioned that we are no longer being taught to be stewards of the land but pillagers. It was longer than that but essentially that was the thought. Capitalism by its very nature demands that we 'consume' in order to continue making a profit. What is left is just waste. And a lot of crap in the landfills that just will not go away.

Since the '50s, we have inundated the planet with a layer of plastic that will never go away. It is only getting thicker. How nature learns to deal with it will be observed by future generations long past any of us ever hoping to be there to see. I only hope that there will be future generations to enjoy this world and all of its magnificence. Mother Nature will survive and maybe we will too but at the rate we're going it looks more doubtful every day.

I look at the things going on in the US today, the conflict and anger, with talk show nincompoops arguing over ratings by riling up the disenchanted and disenfranchised with fiery rhetoric, using the language of anger and vitriol to coerce people into their clutches, convincing them that this is the way to solve the world's problems- get mad.

You can see that most of their supporters have no idea what they are talking about by the signs they carry and the nonsense coming out of their mouths. I'm just hoping they are too pissed off to vote. The positive side of it may be that they at least aren't driving all over the country wasting fuel and polluting the air if they are stuck in a mob. At least that's my dream.

On another aside- local milk. I grow my own eggs (actually my hens do it for me) and I sell my excess to friends and neighbors. They are willing to pay the extra I charge so that they get eggs that are not full of hormones and antibiotics laid by pressure cooker hens in abysmal surroundings. I break even on the cost so I can eat something not 'corporately manufactured' solely for profit.

I told my son that I found that kale was #6 on the list of vegetables not to eat due to the high concentration of insecticides and chemicals. I figure this summer I won't be needing bug spray because I eat/ ate a lot of kale. Any mosquito that decides to bite me will take his own life in his 'hands'. Maybe its my 'nature' fighting back.

submitted by "jumperl"

Not for long. We’re losing our dairy farms by the handful on a daily basis because our farmers are being paid prices that are catastrophically below the price of production for their milk. 

Want local? Get vocal. Please sign our petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/local-milk-now---country-of-origin-labeling

"...if we pollute the air, we can not have healthy lungs; if we pollute the rivers, we can not have healthy blood..."
-excerpt from ancient Asian medical poem

In these modern times of miraculous technologies and scientific insight, humanity is still significantly challenged with the unbearable grief of social and ecological crises. In searching for solutions to these challenges, the wisdom of the ancients may help us to steward our planet back to health. This same wisdom may provide a roadmap of not only how to heal the Earth, but offer healing wisdom for our body and consciousness as well.

Ancient Ownership

In the ancient indigenous First Nations culture of the the west coast rainforests, there exists the concept called hahuulhi. The word hahuulhi simply equates land ownership with resource stewardship. For example, if a patch of the wild edible roots is owned, to retain this ownership, the area must be regularly cultivated and "weeded" to increase the size and quality of the roots. Hahuulhi also includes responsibility of sharing the resource with the community and the sacred rituals for honoring the spirits of the resource. If hahuulhi was violated in any way, ownership of the land or resource was lost. Ownership was then up for grabs for another family more capable of hahuulhi ownership. The hahuulhi concept of land and resource ownership is not unique to western North America, it is found in most indigenous cultures, most probably including those tribes found here in Indiana. The inter-dependent relationship of stewardship and ownership is exemplary of an ancient sustainable interconnection of humanity with the Earth found in most all societies that live(d) in harmony with the natural world.

Earth Grief and Illness

The direct opposite example of hahuulhi is the modern title and deed ownership of land. Stewardship is ordinarily excluded from the modern title and deed concept, permitting degradation and exploitation of land and resources. Living in the modern corporate disconnected world, we are subconsciously trained it is ok to pillage resources from the Earth with no thought of promoting stewardship. Many suggest this reflects in our sociological and spiritual disconnect with not only the Earth but also our bodies and health. Chellis Glendinning describes the spiritual illness of "Earth Grief" and how to reconnect with our Earth consciousness in her book, "My Name is Chellis, and I Am In Recovery from Western Civilization". She suggests the only property that we truly are gifted and own on this Earth is our body. If we subconsciously stay disconnected, then we can continue to not steward our body, conveniently perpetuating denial of loving ourselves and the Earth into healthy change. In this way to pollute the Earth is to disown our connection to the body. Self-love may become understood as a responsibility of body ownership and Earth stewardship. This new understanding begins the sacred beauty of transitioning our choices towards loving and respecting the miracle of life.

Although making improvements, our modern health system often fails to include stewardship as well, in the form of nutritional healing and lifestyle change. Allopathic "western" medicine primarily relies on pharmaceutical drugs to cure symptoms of underlying diseases. This medical faliure to include body stewardship in disease treatment parallels the modern failure to include planetary stewardship with land ownership. By giving the stewardship of our bodies to the pharmaceutical industry, we subconsciously usurp ownership of our health. This is evident in the abnormally high occurence of addiction and chronic degerative diseases in modern society. Embracing the hahuulhi ancient wisdom is not congruous with staying stuck in old "comfortable" unhealthy and negative self-limiting patterns of belief. If we let go of our modern disconnect with the Earth, we are able to let in a new unlimited open-mindedness to stewarding our spirit and health.

Healing Our Inner Garden

The direct physical interface of inter-connectedness between humanity and the Earth is food. Growing our own food promotes stewarding the land and helps our physical and emotional health as well. Our choices of food, not only the quality of the food itself, but also the quality of the agricultural practices to raise that food, connect our bodies and the planet to our responsibility of stewardship. Our dietary choices have magnificent potential positive or negative influence on the health of our bodies and the planet. If we accept the ownership of our body involves the responsibility of wholistic planetary stewardship, we then naturally see every food choice and the source of that food as helping or hurting the health of the Earth as well.

The authors John Robbins in "Diet for a New America", Frances Moore Lappe in "Diet for a Small Planet", and countless other books exemplify the connection of our dietary choices with our quality and integrity of life on Earth. These authors also show the direct links to how ecosystem health, world hunger and global food security can be greatly affected by individual dietary choice. Many advocates of eating organic, vegan, raw, and other healthy diets do so not only for personal health, but also ensure there is plenty of food and healthy habitat for All life on Earth. Consider making your diet a gift to the future.

Healing the Earth and Body

The concept of hahuulhi involves sustainability because it is self-limiting to natural laws of life. In our modern world, we have broken ties to the self-correcting checks and balances of our miraculous Earth. Fossil fuels and combustion engines have allowed change to occur at an unprecedented rate, disrupting resilient yet fragile natural ecosystems. By understanding the relationship of stewarding our bodies and the planet with our dietary choices, we can begin to connect the dots between our food choices, the agricultural practices we support as consumers, our consumption of energy, our modes of transportation, and our overall polluting footprint on the planet. Modern science has brought us the theory of the Earth as Gaia, a meta-biological entity. In the theory of Earth as Gaia, individual organisms are likened to individual cells of the Earth's body. Ask yourself the question, is your Gaia cell-body cancerous or healthy in its overall stewardship of the planet?

Myself and many others propose we energetically are entering a period of consciousness where applying hahuulhi to our body and personal lives is necessary for our collective survival on Earth. The dire nature of our present ecological crises is representative of the core human disconnect of Earth consciousness. I promote you to embrace your health of body, mind, spirit, and Earth. Consider your diet as an important place to re-embrace hahuulhi in your life. Empower ownership of your health by embracing stewardship of the Earth.

Tips on re-connecting with the Earth and becoming a "wise-user":
  1. Meditate. Open up to your spiritual connection to the Earth. Give your self permission to be healthy. Surrender to your inner voice which may be speaking to you about your relationship with the Earth. Take a front seat to the global change in consciousness!
  2. Exercise. If blessed with health, bike, walk, or take the bus. If not possible, 1) modify your life so it is possible, or 2)self-examine what you are accomplishing by driving, is it truly a worthwhile gift for future generations?
  3. Nourish. Support locally-grown organic foods, the birds and frogs will thank you with song! Consider dietary transition towards a more Gaia-friendly diet.
  4. Garden and Live Off the Grid. Grow your own food and take steps to reduce your global planetary footprint.

from Andy, Member #86847

Health, Justice and Sustainability News
from the Organic Consumers Association

This bill would repeal key sections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which guarantees consumers the right to purchase dietary supplements.

Please contact your senators now to tell them not to so-sponsor this Anti-Consumer, Anti-Health Freedom Bill.

McCain's so-called Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) would repeal key sections of the popular Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). It would give the FDA unilateral power, with little or no scientific justification, to ban vitamin supplements except for those produced by Big Pharma corporations.

If McCain's bill passes, we can look to Europe for a snapshot of what we may be in for: EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, has sharply reduced the list of available supplements and is in process of reducing potencies to ridiculous levels, such as less beta carotene than can be found in half of a large carrot. Europeans already look to the US to obtain their dietary supplements. If this bill passes, where will we obtain ours?

Please take action immediately. Tell your senators NOT to co-sponsor the McCain's anti-consumer legislation and to do everything in their power to defeat it. Then forward this to your friends and family and ask them to do the same!

Take action

By Bethany Cortale
1/9/10

Yet another Valentine's Day is upon us, and while we are forced to think about our relationship status every 14th of February, I find myself thinking about what it really means to love another.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even vegans do it - that is, fall in love. Thankfully, vegans are growing in numbers every day, making it easier to find other vegans to love. While it is still difficult meeting that special someone - despite the Internet and its various dating sites - it seems to be even harder finding a good man who is also vegan, vegetarian or, at the very least, open to the many benefits of becoming either one.

While some may think veganism is simply a dietary choice, it is actually a manner of living incorporating a value system that promotes a healthy body, a sustainable planet and compassion for all animals - both human and non-human alike. It is also a social justice movement that involves everyone and stands to benefit everyone. Vegans not only abstain from eating animals or animal by-products, but they also avoid doing anything that harms animals or exploits them, like wearing animals, buying products that have been tested on animals, or attending "entertainment" events that manipulate animals.

Sadly, too much of our culture - concocted by big agribusiness and spread by the media - dupes many people into believing that they have to eat animals and their by-products, like milk and eggs, to be healthy or considered patriotic. Men are especially pressured into believing that they have to eat meat in order to be considered "real" men. (Does anyone remember the fast food commercial that had men picketing in the street for hamburgers while singing an "I am Man" rendition of Helen Reddy's "I am Woman"?) No human needs to eat animals. In fact, Rory Freeman, who brought veganism to the mainstream with her best-selling book Skinny Bitch, has written another book titled Skinny Bastard in which she and co-author Kim Barnouin prove that eating well and looking good is not a "girlie" thing.

There are many good men and women out there who love and care for animals, but whose love ends at the dining table. All too often we forget about those who suffer to end up on our plates, on our designer clothing or on our laboratory benches. For those men who think eating animals validates their masculinity; keep in mind that most women seek out men who are compassionate, thoughtful and considerate; men who are independent-minded, who don't think only of themselves and don't feel compelled to compete with the Jones'. The essence of a "real" man is in his capacity to love and have compassion for others...which brings me back to Valentine's Day.

I'd like to think that Saint Valentine would not object to changing the name of his feast holiday to Vegan Day. What better way to spread love than by choosing not to do harm to ourselves or others. Anyone who elects to eliminate cruelty from his life and diet, who opens his heart to the sentience of all creatures, is the embodiment of love. Just like love, veganism is about honoring all beings and working towards something greater than ourselves. If we open ourselves to this love - not just on Valentine's Day - I am convinced that we will receive love in return each and every day.

http://www.veganvine.blogspot.com

Hello Dear members of The Green Singles, my name is Lubomir Stoyanov, i am studying Bioinformatics in Germany (i have also studied Nutrition Science). I had the honor to do a speech about the compassionate veggie-way of life, on the Frankfurt Book Fair - the world's largest trade fair for books, on 18.10.2009. Since the doubts about the nutritional adequacy of the veggie diets (with their positive impact on our nature, health and ethics) are a reason for the smaller distribution of the veggie diets, i think such information should be more mainstream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eHoIzXxwUw Maybe you would use this little speech (with different subtitles) for your acitivities. Sincerely yours, L. Stoyanov

During the State of the Union speech President Obama mentioned clean energy over twelve times. In just three weeks a coalition of 100 national organizations have come together to declare Feb. 1-5, 2010 as Clean Energy Week with over 15 events scheduled throughout Washington, DC and the Nation. CEW kicks off with a press conference at 9:30 AM EST featuring nationally recognized clean energy thought leaders promoting clean energy policy as basis for solid economic development for the nation and future generations.

Clean Energy Week activities will emphasize the shared concept that climate solutions, renewable energy and energy efficiency policies are essential engines of job creation and economic growth. For more information and a list of events, please go to: http://www.cleanenergyweek.org

The news conference will be webcast live in streaming video with an opportunity for questions for those who are not in the Washington, D.C., area or who cannot attend in person. Preregistration for webcast is required and is now available at www.visualwebcaster.com/CleanEnergy.

WHO:
Michael Eckhart, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Kateri Callahan, Alliance to Save Energy
Jeff Anderson, Clean Economy Network
Reed Hundt, Coalition for the Green Bank
Christopher Van Atten, American Businesses for Clean Energy

WHEN:
Monday, February 1, 2010; 9:30 am

WHERE:
National Press Club; Holeman Lounge; 14th & F Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20045

Thank you for supporting a Clean Energy Future!

Chip Comins
National Coordinator
Clean Energy Week
President
American Renewable Energy Day
(202) 777 7586 direct
(970) 948 9929 cell
www.areday.net
www.cleanenergyweek.org

We’ve been pressuring Trader Joe's to adopt sustainable seafood purchasing policies throughout all of their stores for months. Store managers and corporate big-wigs have felt the heat from Greenpeace’s mock website, relentless phone calls from supporters, poignant karaoke songs from shoppers and in-store demonstrations across the country.

But, they still haven’t changed their ways. Have they been ignoring the public’s cries for ocean protection? Or are they simply unwilling to tell the truth about their actions to their consumers?

Take action and tell their Merchandising V.P., Matt Sloan, to clear up the story for Trader Joe’s with this simple message: "We’re still waiting for Trader Joe’s sustainable seafood policy!"

Ocean conservation is important to all of us. Please take action today!

Friends,

This morning, five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system.

They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so.

Now, we have to fight.

You can sign Rep. Alan Grayson's petition to support his "Save Our Democracy" platform, because we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Click this link to sign the petition:
http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4&tag=corporatespeech_taf

• Renegade Pictures are looking to speak to people who are engaged and planning their big day!

• Whether you've only just got engaged or your wedding is already meticulously planned... we'd love to hear from you.

• We're also keen to hear from anyone who is thinking about proposing!

Please contact Jennifer at marriage@renegadepictures.co.uk
0207 449 3264 with your name, age, phone number and details about your plans.

No age restrictions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/marriage.shtml

(what I know about quantum physics)

All around yet unseen
Struck once, forever rubbed
Infused by One, felt by many
The vibration pure of white light
Filling our soul, expanding our heart
The sound touches us with life and Love
Like the ring of a bell, but just a small part
Reaching beyond the horizon, echoing between each of us

The field is that part of the ring that is everywhere but no longer heard.

Hano Wiliki

Who: group of people who are eating less meat as a way to curb carbon emissions and do their part to solve the climate crisis

What: peaceful, positive rally to send a message to President Obama and world leaders in Copenhagen, showing a viable, cost-efficient way to solve the climate crisis problem

When: 4:30pm on Thursday, Dec. 17th (just one day before President Obama travels to the COP15) a press release has been sent to reporters, inviting them to come at 5pm, so please arrive at 4:30

Where: Corner of Marietta St and Centennial Olympic Park Drive, across from CNN Center
How to get there: Take MARTA to the CNN center station.

View our banner: http://bp0.blogger.com/_JXvXNsy6Fxo/RpKS7wNJYAI/AAAAAAAAACg/hTep2je-cLw/s1600-h/CIMG0669.JPG

Other posters you can make: "less meat=less heat" "We're willing to do our part for the Planet" (must be less than 3 feet by 2 feet)

Dress for sunny, chilly weather. "Mainstream" clothing preferred.

Please RSVP to one of the organizers:
Melissa Martin at melisma13 at mindspring dot com, Steve Won at swon88 at gmail dot com, or Eric Kremer at eric.wildone at gmail dot com

A recent report published by the World Watch institute concluded that over 51% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions come from Livestock.

With the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit on December 10, 2009, it is vital this information be shared the public and our political leaders.

A 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 18 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to livestock . . . however recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang co-authors of "Livestock and Climate Change" in the latest issue of World Watch magazine found that livestock and their byproducts may actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions!

Please make the truly environmental conscious, healthy and compassionate choice to reduce the amount of meat you eat or simply go vegetarian. Meatless Mondays is a great start.

We have the opportunity to save ourselves and this planet for our children by simply choosing plant based meals. This is the single most powerful action for preventing global climate change.

Please go to the link below to send a letter to the EPA's & Environment Ministers Worldwide to ask them to share this information at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit:

http://51percent.org/?page_id=75

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Greetings from the staff and volunteers of the Organic Consumers Association. As I write this letter, the papers, TV, and the internet are. all broadcasting non-stop bad news about the climate crisis, war, deteriorating public health, and what is now called the Great Recession. On World Food Day, global hunger organizations reminded us that a billion people across the globe are malnourished or starving, while two billion more, mainly small farmers and rural villagers, are living in extreme poverty. Meanwhile, public health advocates continue to decry the fact that . a full two-thirds of the residents in our Fast Food Nation are either obese or overweight. Agronomists warn of impending crop failures and a serious decrease in global grain reserves. With a destabilized climate and weird weather now routine, it seems almost normal that Minnesota's autumn fall colors have been cut short by an early snow. Our Via Organica staff in Mexico tell us that the region's, farmers are going through the worst drought in 50 years, with corn and bean crops seriously stunted.

Mother Nature and our billions of brothers arid sisters down the block and around the world are obviously trying to tell us something: it's time for a change, big change. The "change" that the new administration promised us in January, opposed every step of the way by powerful special interests and lobbyists, has turned out to be, at least so far, small change. Out-of-control corporations, indentured scientists, Wall Street banksters, and politicians seem perfectly content to maintain business as usual, no matter the cost- even if the cost is human survival.

It's time for a change. We are the organic grassroots force that can save the planet. We are the antidote to hopelessness and fatalism. We are the messengers of hope. We are fortunate to have a practical organic solution to offer for the climate crisis, a solution which has the power to resolve our, public health and economic crisis as well. But let us not talk falsely now. There is no time to lose. The hour is getting late.

We need your help more than ever to broadcast our message and mobilize the grassroots around OCA'S life-affirming, positive message: organic food and farming and ethical green'living are the practical solution to our crisis. 85 percent of our funds come from individuals like you, our grassroots supporters. Please use the enclosed reply envelope to send us a tax-deductible donation. Thank you so much for your support.

Regards & Solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins, OCA National Director

We are the organic grassroots force that can save the planet. We are the antidote to hopelessness and fatalism.
www.organicconsumers.org

A thought for your consideration -

It's not "the environment,"

It's "our environment."

Using "the environment"
gives the impression
we are apart from it,

While, "our environment"
properly reminds us
we are part of it.

with best wishes,
-=David Dilworth

Robin Chappell
====================
It's the Ecology, Stupid.

Despite all of the hot and heavy issues of the day pouring off of Capitol Hill, (and there are many -- The "Patriot Act" re-authorization being to me among one of the most pressing [aside from the Economy, of course]), the primary issue of concern to All should be... Yes, The Ecology of Our Planet. Without which, all those other issues become a moot point (a soot point?).

We as a Nation still seem Hell bent on doing whatever we want, despite the consequences. Even with reducing the national carbon footprint, going a long way towards capping the pollution that has been an integral part of our heavy industrial process (go see the documentary "Fuel" if you have any doubts whatsoever as to this monumental damage done), we are still far far away from being able to survive beyond 2020.

We need to take drastic national steps toward creating a sustainable environment now, including but not limited to actually enforcing the environmental laws we currently have on the books.

We can no longer afford to hide our collective heads in the shifting sands of our desires for more and more without seeing the huge costs those 'luxuries' entail. To do so will ensure our collective destruction.

And it's hard to see the damage and the toll on the soil, air, and water on a day such as I am experiencing right now in Los Angeles (where I currently live -- subject to change any day due to That Economy). I see absolutely gorgeous blue skies out side. If I walk over to Venice Boulevard, I can actually see the San Gabriel Mountains off in the distance. And the Hollywood Sign is clear as a bell not too many miles to the north of me.

And I bring this up why? Because these 'new found vistas' would not have been possible to see (except on days when the Santa Anna winds were blowing) back when I first moved her in 1996. And this is all due to the much more stringent air quality enforced via LA's favorite past time (and lifestyle), The Car. The environmental strides made back in the last years of the last century cleaned up what had been the Industrial Age Nightmare. Our 'needs' at great cost.

It's Time for a Real Change. Now. Or else.

Become better informed and active.
Find sources of sound environmental and natural resource information and access them regularly. Attend local public meetings and become active in your community. Understand your local environmental challenges and accomplishments. Protect your local open spaces. Learn about local watershed initiatives. Volunteer.

Participate in a local environmental education.
Visit a new or nearby nature center, science center, park, cooperative extension office, museum or conservation district office. Ask questions.

Get your hands dirty!
Participate in a river cleanup, pick up litter or plant a flower garden.

Enjoy nature!
Sit and rest in the woods or along a stream. Take a hike, go biking, try camping, have a picnic, go fishing, look for hawks, rent a canoe, investigate a cave, look for fossils, fly a kite, take photographs, paint some scenery - enjoy the outdoors!

Protect water quality!
Clean up after pets. Test wells annually for bacteria and nutrients. Don't dump used oil, paint, coolants or other chemicals into the ground, stormdrains or garage drains. Participate in stream bank and wetlands restoration projects and local watershed management planning.

Use products that produce less waste and pollution.
Substitute water-based products whenever possible when buying paints and household cleaners. Or, switch from chemical-type cleaners to natural products like soap and water. Use fertilizers and pesticides properly and reduce use by implementing biological and mechanical controls. Read and follow instructions and precautions for all such products and dispose of them properly (and not into storm drains or the ground). Buy products in bulk or with minimal packaging materials.

Recycle!
Purchase products that contain recycled-content materials as often as possible.

Save energy!
Turn off unneeded lights and appliances. Replace standard light bulbs with energy efficient fluorescents to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Buy energy efficient household appliances and yard tools. Consider energy efficient construction and building design when building, buying, or adding on to a home or office.

Use your car less and take good care of it.
Keep the car tuned and leak-free, and get it inspected regularly. Keep tires properly inflated and dispose of used motor oil and cooling fluids at designated recycling centers. Try using mass transit, carpooling, walking or riding a bike as often as possible. When shopping for a new car, look for the most fuel-efficient and investigate models that accommodate use of other fuels besides gasoline.

Conserve water!
Install flow restrictors on all faucets and use low-flow shower devices. Do not let the water run wastefully when washing anything. Water the lawn in the early morning or late afternoon. Run washing machines and dish washers only when full. Repair leaky pipes, faucets and toilets.

Tell Congress: "Organic Is the Answer to Climate Change!"
Watch this new video from the Rodale Institute's Demand Organic Project and learn how, if the world's 3.5 billion tillable acres were transitioned to organic agriculture, organic farms could sequester 40% of yearly carbon emissions. Then, tell Congress "Organic Is the Answer to Climate Change!"

WATCH VIDEO: http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=14110646

If you look into my eyes you will see
a bitter loving mystery
If you dig into my mind you will find
not a trace of eternity
but if you reach into my heart that's a start
to coming closer to knowing me
and that's the way it aught to be

   I don't know what you would hope to find
   I don't know which words are true
   for they are shells in which your meaning lies.
   My different meanings go there too

So look into my eyes and you will see
a lot of love with the misery
and dig into my mind you will find
as many shells as are by the sea
then reach into my heart that you'll reveal
beneath my Mask of Eternity
and you'll have solved our mystery.

If you look into my eyes you will see
a bitter loving mystery
If you dig into my mind you will find
not a trace of eternity
but if you reach into my heart that's a start
to coming closer to knowing me
and that's the way it aught to be

   I don't know what you would hope to find
   I don't know which words are true
   for they are shells in which your meaning lies.
   My different meanings go there too

So look into my eyes and you will see
a lot of love with the misery
and dig into my mind you will find
as many shells as are by the sea
then reach into my heart that you'll reveal
beneath my Mask of Eternity
and you'll have solved our mystery.

As you gaze from the pane,
those are blue fields above,
an expanse you have claim to.

Claim sky, that heraldic shield.

Whatever this season, agree then
to be amazed
that sky follows on a leash,
you,

as it did when you were a child,
climbing sentinel blues to the ridge,
safe-guarding the child
whimsical tracery
against elongated blues.

Somewhere more expansive,
pistil and stamen tremble
as each cloud reveals its blue-tinge
as each bird in its rising heartens the child,
as ticking of unseens in the grasses,
green fields at dusk,
meadows and quadrants,
blue plums dropping violet
to banks of smalled streams,
stand-ins for river a child is wading in,
amazed.

Remember amazement.

This is the ground on which you have run.
Hope for harmony in what you have now
in your sights,
rich, fleet, grace-given.

Amaze yourself with your charity
for the perishable,
the mute, the immutable.

Inhale. Breathe deep.

And why not the rising up of a vein
like sun at dawn,
the impervious single hair
an August blade, green-glistered,
eroticizing the wrist?

I know there are creatures
that traverse by their lumber,
that suggest something alongside us
is plundering
in a slow-breathed shuffle,
that the arpeggio of wings, and crying sounds,
crude rush
are universal memo,
migratory patterns, a kind of
green tendering,

as is the love thump,
portaging of the young,
foraging to stay alive,
we humankind lofting the illusion
we are not alone, we who laugh, who
humanly
weep for our ineptitude

who cannot produce
the melancholy note of the loon,
who stutter for annealing
who crave music for anodyne-
less rampage, less farrago,
more carnival,

Who dreamed the idea and envisioned roads
As paths of life?
They had once been dirt,
Trod and soiled only by dray horse or mule.
Now hard, unforgiving concrete and macadam.
We parade them noisily
In our trucks, SUV's, sedans, convertibles And motorcycles.
All fuel gluttons, some more than others,
But all clouding our atmosphere
As we indulge ourselves in our goings
To and from somewhere or nowhere,
Ignoring the sounds Of polar ice caps, glaciers and children
Crying.

As much a part of us as life itself,
Yet more ethereal;
Never seen nor heard,
It may be high or about.
We cherish spending it together,
Pass it, bide it, take it out,
Or we let it lapse, waste or kill it,
Always saying we need more.
Such contradictions!
Though measurable, it is fleeting
Yet with us all our days
Until they close, when it leaves us to go on
With those and theirs remaining,
And on and on and on Ad infinitum, we think.
It is time.
With so little left and so much awry,
Isn't it?

I am writing to let you know that your website is mentioned in fresh new writer Vanessa Farquharson's debut memoir, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car, and found love in 366 days.

The synopsis of the book:
"No one likes listening to smug hippies bragging about how they don't use toilet paper, or worse yet, lecturing about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprint. With this in mind, Vanessa Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.
Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement."
Because Vanessa has written at length about your website and her experiences with it, we thought you may be interested in mentioning the book to your customers, or linking to it on your website to let them know that Vanessa is a fan.
If you would like more information, or to buy copies online, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Naked-Green-Eco-Cynic Unplugged/dp/0547073283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244148418&sr=8-1

Reviews of SLEEPING NAKED IS GREEN:
While the details of her environmental crusade can weary, her griping about the efficacy of chemical-free shampoos and deodorants and the ugliness of sustainable footwear is fresh and funny; in these moments, Farquharson's appealing candor and non-sanctimonious attitude make other ecowarriors seem dour by comparison.
-- Publishers Weekly

One step a day doesn't seem like much, but over the course of a whole year it adds up to a world of difference. This isn't just a well-written and fun book about going green, it is about watching a personal transformation. Being inspired was never so entertaining.
-- Lloyd Alter - TreeHugger.com

I giggled up a storm while reading it.
-- Shala Kerrigan, Amazon.ca

I started reading it and found that I could not put it down. It took me about two days to finish it, and about three weeks to stop talking about it (sorta). For some reason I find myself talking to everyone I know about this book.
-- Maira Black, Amazon.com

"The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, even with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew a mammoth farm to sustain itself; much less to return a profit upon the outlay. I have more than once known a man to spend a respectable fortune upon one; fail and leave it; and then some man of more modest aims, get a small fraction of the ground, and make a good living upon it. Mammoth farms are like tools or weapons, which are too heavy to be handled. Ere long they are thrown aside, at a great loss."

Wintercount
Life gets simpler the moment
you round the corner, take the bend
around towering spruce
and the road tips toward the ravine,
rides a lip of small precipice
where ocean meets shore
and gnaws its patient bones.
Simpler and rarefied the other side
of that curve, suddenly no more
suburbia. The trees don names,
the grass grows exuberantly
to its own design, or whispers
names of missing felines, and the few
emissaries of the outside world are more
themselves-punctual, but
relaxed: the schoolbus driver,
every morning ten after eight,
on rounds for neighborhood
children, never minds stopping
midstream to show off the herons
fishing in shallows, the postman
parks his rig, view toward islands
in noontide sun and has his quiet
lunch.

Step through a door
to feel knots in your heart open like
fists as it spreads in unaccustomed
space and heaves a perceptible sigh,
earthen arms spread wide
and gardens implode
to rival buoys that line the fence,
washed-up blue ribbon flowers
on wooden stems. Salt-air-charged
abundance and bees ride currents
in communion with blossoms,
store dark harvests to remedy any
darkness.

0, to live aloft in a treehouse here with the squirrels
and sky, in the path of honeybees, their traffic rattling
teacups in tiny wooden cupboards.

Could I have known my own life
took a turn, not the same since I first
navigated that corner, the last
to arrive for a drive up the coast
to celebrate celestial return
(and our long coast back to light)
with a bonfire on the beach.
I carried embers away
under starlight, spoke in constellations,
felt in the dark for openings,
warmed by a thousand collisions
as all I held down sought the
surface (and beyond), launched
small fleets across forgiveness,
waters that warned:
Everything impermeable will
bar you and is no one's
fault but your own. Undress.
Count yourself among
the luckiest alive. 

Richard Garrigus 2002

Sick and Green Over Earth Day, By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | April 22, 2008
(Excerpted. View full article here)

Here is some promotional material from the website Take Part on how to "green up" my sex life. They are hawking Fair Trade Aphrodisiacs, a bondage starter kit made from 100 percent organic hemp rope, and the inevitable vegan condoms. These might prove quite useful for assignations on greensingles.com, a dating website that features "personal ads for progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian, and animal rights community."

GS has a spinoff website, veggielove.com, "a place where single vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists, and others who seek and value a plant-based diet can meet and network for friendship, dating, marriage and the exchange of information and ideas." A member using the log-on "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" writes: "Lately I've found myself in my Prius in the middle of a multi-fast-lane freeway surrounded by Hummers, wondering what happened to the environmental idealism of the sixties?"

Good question. Maybe it took a wrong turn around the time that the Red Sox started issuing press releases about their solar-powered trash compactors. I was recently alerted to the comic possibilities of an Oregon company called Eco-Luxury Fur, which purports to sell "the world's most eco-friendly fur." Among people who oppose slaughtering animals for their pelts, there is a lively trade in faux, or synthetic fur sometimes made from cotton, wool, or acrylic blends.

But that's not what Eco-Luxury is about. Their suppliers slaughter brushtail possums in Australia, and greenwash the whole venture by explaining that the possums pose a threat to Australia's "unique biodiversity." But as they would be happy to explain to you over at the greensingles.com website, "green" killing feels pretty much the same as plain old killing, if you are the ox being gored. As The Wall Street Journal explained, succinctly: "The Problem With Eco-Fur? It's Still Fur."