Please check out the video on YouTube by “Survive and Thrive” about S.510 – the Senate “Food Safety and Modernization Act”:
We need to replace everyone that is cosponsoring, backing or has voted for this bill to come out of committee, before we have no rights.
This bill puts “food safety” under the control of the homeland Security Department.
I love the cool, crisp mornings of Fall.
It reminds me of my teenage years and deer hunting along the Mogollon Rim near Payson, AZ. – or in the Kaibab forest around Flagstaff, AZ. I can still recall breaking the ice off of the wash basin so I could wash my face in ice-cold water to wake me up (before the sun came up).
More recent memories are those of a nice cup of coffee in the hand, sitting on the porch swing and watching the sun come up. Or snuggling under covers with my darling wife to keep her warm… until it’s time to pop up and start a fire in the wood stove for her! You see, we use wood heat in our home here in Verona, and starting a fire in the wood burning stove in the early evening and sitting around sipping tea, hot cocoa or coffee while we watch the flames dance in the stove and slowly get groggy from the warmth of the fire is something that has to be experienced.
Forget about the “mood DVD’s” that show video clips of a fireplace burning – they just can’t compare. There is a certain ambiance that comes with the real thing. The smell of wood burning, the flames, the warmth, the company – all are relaxing and rejuvenating – at the same time!
But the cool, crisp Fall evenings remind me that there are garden beds to start shutting down, more wood to split for the 2 wood burning stoves and less light after I get home to get all of that work done.
You may not have caught it, but, I said stoves, as in plural… Which reminds me that I have to close in the porch so my lovely wife can use her new wood burning cook stove that sits on that very porch. I intend to start tearing apart, framing and closing in the West wall of the porch this weekend.
My hopes are to get the entire thing framed, windows installed and siding up on the outside, along with the insulation and a good start on the inside wall coverings before the end of October. I won’t have much time to work on it in November, considering we have a craft show every weekend. But, if I can get the outside walls sided and painted, and get the insulation done, we can have it pretty warm out there come winter, with a wood burning stove fired up!
Of course, I will need 5 – 6 cords of wood instead of the 3 – 4 cords I usually need. But there is still the greater part of a huge walnut tree to cut up and split, not to mention 2 dead locust trees that need to be cut down, cut up and split.
I still need to get the cow bred. I couldn’t take her down this weekend because the uy with the bull had some health issues. We’ll try again in about three weeks.
I still have to finish the barn stalls and gates, which also need to be done before winter. I think I’ll have that wrapped up this weekend, though.
For now, the FDA has tabled approval of the genetically altered salmon as a human food item. They are saying that more time to investigate the GMO salmon is needed before it can be approved.
For those of you unaware that the FDA had planned to meet on this, see my precious post for information about the salmon, the company that has “engineered” it, and what is still at stake:
http://weber-farms.com/blog/2010/09/20/fda-to-consider-ok-of-genetically-engineered-salmon-cnn-com/
According to Gregory Jaffe, a panel member who is the biotechnology director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that the FDA would eventually approve it. “I think the agency is going to take its time with this, but I anticipate at some point this will be approved by the FDA”, said Jaffe.
The advisory panel did not vote on the matter, but individual members offered a range of comments – sometimes conflicting – after two days of testimony from AquaBounty, the FDA and the public.ad_iconGregory Jaffe, a panel member who is the biotechnology director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the committee did not find any fatal flaws in the application.”In some areas, we said we need more information to do the analysis,” Jaffe said. A separate panel will meet Tuesday to discuss whether the FDA should require labeling on the modified salmon. The FDA commissioner will decide both matters, but it is unclear when.
The FDA is considering the acceptance into the food chain of the genetically engineered salmon.
The salmon, “engineered” by a company called “AquAdvantage” is modified by the injection of growth hormones to increase the rate of growth. Evidently, the GM salmon can reach maturity in half the normal growth cycle. So, instead of 30 months for a full-grown salmon, it is reduced to 16 to 18 months.
Now to do to the salmon what the chicken breeders have done to the meat chicken. There is a commercial “broiler” that, basically, is an eating and pooping machine. Instead of taking 12 – 16 weeks to reach full-size, it only takes 6 – 8. And if you let them go more than eight weeks, their legs break because they were developed to have a HUGE breast, which the legs cannot support. The weight of these chickens (which we have raised for our own freezer) at 7 – 8 weeks, is 6 pounds. At the 8 week stage, they can hardly walk on their legs, but they will continue to eat – and if their legs don’t break under their weight, then they will have heart attacks or respiratory failure (especially in the heat).
And research has shown that the growth hormones used in the dairy industry has caused early maturity in girls. So, what can we expect from GMO salmon? More of the same health issues…
Read it, then call your senators, representatives and tell them NO! to GMO Salmon:
FDA to consider OK of genetically engineered salmon – CNN.com.
–Pat
Nathan is 13. But this weekend, he proved he could hang with the big boys.
Not only can he handle the milk cow effortlessly, along with the goats, chickens, turkeys, etc., but he can handle the tractor.
We were putting metal siding on a barn addition, and re-siding the rest of the existing barn front. While I was measuring the barn addition for the siding I would have to cut, I noticed that part of the existing barn was covered half-way up the walls with the old, rotted hay and manure we had “mucked out” of the barn recently.
We had put the rest over the fence, but had thrown this over the wall, and had not yet moved it.
I told Nathan to get my keys and bring the tractor into the goat yard and move that stuff off of the wall and out of the way. I wanted to keep moving and not have to stop.
Well, he maneuvered the tractor through the 7 ft gate, and with very little instruction, used the front-loader to remove about 90% of the “muck” – he piled it neatly over the side fence for us to put into the compost later – and he did it without incident!
If I didn’t have a Kubota, I’d buy him a John Deere hat. But, of course, he already has a Carhartt coat and overalls – and he earned them!!!
–Pat
With the food industry killing all nutrients and the good baccteria long with the bad, we have some real issues with “superbugs” coming our way.
1. Our immune systems are compromised because we are eating foods that do not supply our bodies with the much-needed nutrient base they need. Our bodies are literally “Starving” for healthful foods.
2. We live in a society where all germs are killed off – our immune system’s “muscles” (what little we have left) are never “flexed” or tested. They are weak and our under-exposure to bacteria and germs will make the fight against really bad viruses and infections an uphill battle that some will not be able to contend with.
3. The antibiotics available no longer really work, since the germs/bacteria are gaining a resistance to the drugs. All the while, our immune systems are attacked from within, as the antibiotics that are constantly administered weaken us even further, or cause such wonderful conditions such as yeast infections, stomach problems and other maladies.
It is time for us to take a stand and fight for real foods that will not only feed our bodies, but will strengthen our immune systems so that we can ward off diseases.
–Pat
Read the article here:
We came out of winter with 55 hens a – laying. We purchased another 75 hens, to accommodate the demand we knew we would have, come early summer.
Well, Mr. Fox, Mrs. Skunk and other various varmits had something else in mind… DINNER!!!
We now have 36 hens laying and have had to purchase more chicks to raise for the coming new year.
I think we finally stopped the pest patrol. We have had to confine the hens to large “chicken tractors” (movable pens that help prevent the pilfering of our poultry), and making sure there were no large objects near the electric poultry fencing that the criminal critters could use to jump over the electric fencing. We haven’t lost any chickens in about 1 week.
Our long-range plan is to put fencing around a larger area and put a poultry wire “tent top” over the top. We will make a hinged opening large enough to put the compost inside. The chickens love all of the stuff we put in the compost, and, they love to root through the decomposing hay and such that we pull out of the goat stalls and cow paddock.. As they root through it, they turn the compost and help the microbes to break i down. No more manual turning of the compost and they add their own “ammenities” to the compost area. They will have lots of bugs and worms, as well as left over greens, veggies, egg shells, and grass/grass seeds. It should drastically reduce my feed bill for the chickens and, at the same time, reduce (hopefully eliminate) the loss of laying hens.
Our thanks go out to Vermont Compost, where our plan originated from…
–Pat
According to an article at the Institute For Responsible Technology website, On May19th of the year, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”
It seems that the GMO foods remain in our bodies. And sine these foods are developed to make pesticides to ward off pests, research indicates that the GM foods like soy beans and corn will alter the gut flora and might even turn our intestinal bacteria into “pesticide factories”.
I quote from the article:
“Famed Canadian geneticist David Suzuki answers, “The experiments simply haven’t been done and we now have become the guinea pigs.” He adds, “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.” ”
It seems that the increadse in gastro-intestinal issues in patients has risen tremendously in the past several years, along with allergies, reproductive issues, autism, and many other maladies.
You may read the article in its entirety here:
ShowArticle – Seeds of Deception.
To your health,
–Pat
While I was visiting with one of the member of our CSA this morning, I couldn’t help noticing the all of the leaves falling off of the trees around me. I pointed this out to Nathan (my 13 year old) and he said that all of the leaves seemed to be changing color right before our eyes.
Whether that was the case or not, it seems that the color of the leaves has, at the very least, has snuck up on us -I guess I was too busy to see the changes in the leaves, but most arte now yellow-green, yellow, gold, and a bit of brown.
Nathan thinks we’ll have a very short Fall and a long, harsh winter…
Based on recent actions by the FDA, it is becoming quite clear that people no longer have the “right” to choose the foods that they eat, and that farmers cannot grow or produce healthful foods to sell directly to consumers.
The FDA, in conjunction with state and local authorities, are stepping up raids on small farms, food buying clubs and private food co-ops.
All this being said, it is simply a foretaste of things to come, should the senate bill, S.510 be passed (the food safety and modernization Act).
I will refer you to the following article, part 1 in a series of 3 parts, which documents the trials of families in Missouri that were farming according to the state laws, only to have a judge state that “this could not have been what the legislators meant when they wrote this law”:
http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/farming-without-a-license-is-a-criminal-enterprise/
Please, please, please. If you want to be able to choose where you get your food from, and would like to help out the local farmers (you know, the ones that have eggs without Salmonella and also sell meats and greens without E. Coli), call and write your senators and tell them to vote against the Food Safety and Modernization act (Bill S.501).
–Pat