Eat, Drink, and Be Wary! Meeting Nov. 19

Who’s growing our food?  What’s in it?

Why it isn’t safe!

 

These are the issues that will be discussed at the following place and time:

Venice Center for Peace and Justice (at the Venice United Methodist Church) 2210 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, CA 90291 (1 blk. north of Venice Blvd)

Thursday, November 19 7 PM – Q&A after the presentations

Speakers:

Jules Dervaes, Katherine Green, Nicole Johnson

Dorothy Reik: phone 818-226-6100 Julie Levine: phone 310-455-9389

*Sponsored by the West LA Democratic Club, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Westwood- Westside, New Frontiers, 4-Star and Culver City Democratic Clubs, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, and Westside Progressives

Jules Dervaes is the founder of Path to Freedom, a family-operated, viable urban homestead project established in 2001 to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and to sow a “homegrown revolution” against the corporate powers that control the food supply. Since the mid-1980s, Mr. Dervaes and his three adult children have worked at transforming their city lot in Pasadena into a thriving organic garden that supplies them with food all year round. Through the family’s outreach efforts at PathtoFreedom.com and via their popular, award-winning documentary short, Homegrown Revolution, millions of people worldwide have been educated and inspired to pursue a more sustainable way of life.

Katherine Green is, by profession, a television writer and producer. But most recently she’s been involved with researching the state of the food industry in this country. She has edited together a short DVD which helps break down in a provocative and entertaining way what we’re up against in the supermarket–nutritionism, gmo crops, labeling laws, silenced scientists– and how Monsanto fits into the picture.

Nicole Johnson is a researcher, writer and activist living in Ventura County, CA. Her recent work has focused on the sustainable production of wholesome food, agribusiness and the globalized food supply chain, the impact of the industrial food supply on health, and safe drinking water issues. She has published critical articles on the new food safety legislation. As a mother she has the most compelling reasons of all for working to ensure our food and water supply is clean, safe, and toxin-free.

 

Monsanto Pulls GM Corn Amid Food Safety Concerns

Source: GM Free Cymru

Applicant’s Dossiers Contained Wide-Ranging Fraudulent Research

Press Notice from GM Free Cymru 9 November 2009

For the first time, a GM multinational has pulled two GM corn varieties from the regulatory and assessment process at the eleventh hour (1), after planning for a future income of several billion dollars per year from global sales (2). Monsanto has abandoned its ambitious plans for a so-called “second generation GM crop” rather than accede to a request from European regulators for additional research and safety data (3).

 

Straw Bale House made by Single Mom for $50,000

Welcome to my Walden: This load-bearing straw bale house was built by me, Carolyn Roberts, consultant Jon Ruez, and many friends on evenings and weekends, using natural (straw bale walls, earthen plasters, earthen floor) and recycled materials wherever possible. We passed 23 county inspections. It’s an incredibly sturdy, beautiful and well-insulated house that will last for many years and only cost $50,000 to build (land not included). The straw walls offer insulation from the summer heat, while the earthen plasters and floor give thermal mass to maintain an even interior temperature. A well-insulated ceiling helps, too. The south-facing sunroom heats my home in the winter. I can collect 500 gallons of rainwater in a 1/2 inch rain. A hand-made solar water heater with a small tankless heater as backup provides all my hot water. My electric bills average $35 per month year-round, with no solar panels. Many people thought I was crazy, but this is by far the wisest thing I have ever done, though possibly the most difficult.  (A House of Straw)

 

Actions and Words…

I once thought I had a friend. That friend turned out to be not a friend at all, but someone I didn’t really know, just thought I did. I found this out through that person’s actions towards one of the horses I raised from a baby.

I saw hunger in that horse’s eyes when I brought him home from that person’s care. Not just a “hungry for the next meal” look, but the look of starvation.  I spent two days crying after I brought him home. It’s been five days now, and he is on the road to recovery. He is starting to perk up when he sees me, but I still get tears in my eyes when I think about what he must have endured.

A person can have all of the knowledge in the world, and be the smartest person in the world, but unless that person has compassion and really cares about what happens to others, I will not listen to anything he/she has to say. In other words,  if you are abusive, nothing you say means anything to me. I think this is the way most people are. We want to know that the people we associate with care. My horses are my children, and I love them dearly. Starve them and you starve me.

So here is my message to anyone who feels that what they say takes precedence over what they do:

I don’t need your knowledge. Knowledge comes and goes, and what one person knows, another will know. Therefore, I can choose my sources for things I need or want to know. Don’t expect me to forget your actions and listen to your words. Don’t try to talk to me about “important things” when you’ve just committed an act of extreme callousness and cruelty. In fact, don’t talk to me at all. When you can prove that you have grown a heart and care, then I might begin to listen. But I will always remember your actions with every word you speak. And actions speak much louder than words.

Barb

 

Stop Horse Abuse

 

Fake Cow Ears and Defibrillators

PPJ Gazette

By: Lynn Swearingen

Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved

“The potential for RFID tagging of livestock is billions yearly and the potential for radio tagging of food is in trillions a year…”

U.S. Vs Canada Smack Down in October?

Not exactly how you expected to start your day is it? A little background might be in order.

In 1990 the creation of the National Advisory Board on Animal Identification was created to begin offering livestock traceability initiatives in Canada. Not content to use the systems in place that had proven effect in cost, labor and common sense, the Advisory Board determined that streamlining through Rfid tagging and individual reporting of livestock was the way to go.

Determining the total cost for this voluntary program over the past 19 years is impossible. I’d like to say names have been changed to protect the innocent, but it is more likely the “Program” and    Canadian Government simply don’t want the public to know the tax burden they bear. One can find the most recent funding totals $20 million over the next 3 years from The Canadian Industry Traceability Infrastructure Program.

However, in order to ensure that farmers, feedlots and others affected will be able to participate by the January 1, 2011 deadline, the Canadian Government announced a 70% rebate on handheld or panel readers (see fake cow ear below). The costs for CAN ID are considerable as stated by their own numbers   “Livestock producers, feedlots, veterinary clinics, meat processors, fairs and exhibitions are eligible for a maximum rebate of $50,000 per facility. Auction marts can get a maximum rebate of $100,000.”  That translates to a possible  investment of $71,429 to $142,857 per facility. Ouch.

 

Defining genetically modified organisms as invasive and alien species

PJ Gazette

Copyright 2009 © Marti Oakley All rights reserved without exception.

Official U.S. definitions regarding invasive species were clearly provided in Executive Order 13112 signed by President William J. Clinton on February 3, 1999.

“Invasive species” means an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

“Alien species” means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, any species, including its seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to that ecosystem.

“Species” means a group of organisms all of which have a high degree of physical and genetic similarity, generally interbreed only among themselves, and show persistent differences from members of allied groups of organisms.

“Ecosystem” means the complex of a community of organisms and its environment.

_________________

Alien plant species, also known as genetically modified organisms, were engineered and introduced into natural environments specifically designed to spread rapidly. Because they are so uncontrollable and engineered to be aggressive, these aberrations of science gone mad rapidly overtake naturally occurring ecosystems and destroy the biodiversity needed to sustain not only the land, but the life on it. Alien GMO species are an unwelcome interruption, displacing natural plants and crops and all animal species dependent upon them for survival.  Continue reading

 

Fall of the Republic HQ full length version

 

Economic Apocalypse – Gerald Celente

 

Look what 1.5 million can buy you in Wisconsin

PPJ Gazette

by: Paul Griepentrog

Tom & Melissa Monchilovich CONVICTED!

Today, October 21, 2009 in Wisconsin Circuit Court, Polk County, Judge Molly E. Galewyrick found the Monchilovich couple guilty of failure to register premises.

The only organization present supporting Tom and Melissa was the Wisconsin Independent Consumer and Farmers Association n/a. (WICFA n/a)

No other groups or associations sent representatives to support Monchilovich or provided pre-trial support or resources.

More to follow, soon.