animal odd couples

This is an amazing episode of Nature:

Despite the odds, there are countless stories of the most unlikely cross-species relationships imaginable: a goat guiding a blind horse; a doe who regularly visits her Great Dane surrogate mother; a juvenile gibbon choosing to live with a family of capuchins, and so on. Instincts gone awry? The subject has mystified scientists for years. Now, NATURE investigates why animals form these special bonds. Informed by the observations of caregivers and noted scientists Temple Grandin and Marc Bekoff, the film explores what these relationships suggest about the nature of animal emotions.

Watch Animal Odd Couples on PBS. See more from Nature.


 

raising kids with religion

There is a post over at the Gaelic Folkway blog that inspired me to write a wee bit on this topic. The post is entitled Should Your Raise Your Kids in Your Religion? and is authored by Éireann. I have some pretty strong opinions on this {there is a theme here, eh?}, but I am probably not the most qualified to talk about this as I do not have any children myself. Although the better half and I did discuss this at great length when we were trying to have kids and I was raised for a time in a household of rigid religious dogma that was damaging. 

I suppose it would be fair to say that the way I view raising kids with religion would match what Éireann would describe as "liberal"; I do think that children should be given the freedom to decide for themselves what they believe, and this is probably best achieved by exposure to different belief systems and open dialogue. I also think that they should be able to decide if they wish to participate in any religious or spiritual activities and traditions. Probably the most important thing is that children should definitely be taught to respect other faiths and exposed to science and secularism. This would of course include respecting the rights of those who decide to be atheist and base their worldviews strictly on science.

The point of their post was to critique this liberal approach to the subject, and while there are quite a few things that I fundamentally disagree with, I do think that the critiques were thoughtfully delivered. And perhaps because we do share a similar faith, there are many things I also agree with.

No doubt parents/guardians will influence the children under their care, so certainly they have a responsibility to not only their kids, but to society in general. Wouldn't it be wonderful if more parents & guardians were instilling critical thinking, respect, and acceptance in the people who will be running things in the near future? Unfortunately I don't see that to be the case for many people who are raising kids in many of the more popular religions, and I certainly can relate to this from when I was growing up.

We owe it to kids to have a healthy view of themselves and their fellow humans, as well as the environment and all the other creatures who dwell on this planet.

Anyhow, please do feel free to add your own two cents if you like and if interested, you should give not only the post by Éireann a read, but the whole blog as well. Some great stuff over there!

Sláinte!

Laurel

Edit: Éireann has expanded on her position in regards to this topic which I wanted to add part of it here {it can be seen in full in the comment section} so there are no misconceptions on her position. 

"I noticed you wrote that you feel that kids should be free to choose what they believe. I wanted to clarify that I in no way feel anyone can -dictate- to another -what to believe-; -belief- is internal and personal and cannot be put upon another; it is impossible. So I want to be clear that I am not advocating for that." 

vandana shiva on "violent agriculture"

A pretty great presentation by Vandana Shiva on "violent agriculture". Enjoy!

Part One:
  Part Two:
Part Three:

Sláinte!

Laurel

corporations & rock stars to the rescue!

It is pretty old news now that Bono has hopped into bed with Monsanto and friends for one big GMO fuckfest, all in the name of "saving Africa". Here is a video of a rant that I think has summed up everything that is wrong with this, straight from Bealtaine Cottage.

Sláinte!

Laurel

the gmo film project

It looks like another interesting film is coming out!

GMO Film Project Sizzler from Compeller Pictures on Vimeo.

A little bit about the project {from the video page}:

The GMO Film Project (Untitled) tells the story of a father’s discovery of GMO’s through the symbolic act of poor Haitian farmers burning seeds in defiance of Monsanto’s gift of 475 tons of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds to Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake. After a journey to Haiti to learn why hungry farmers would burn seeds, the real awakening of what has happened to our food, what we are feeding our families, and what is at stake for the global food supply unfolds in a trip across the United States in search of answers.

Go to the film's website to find out more information.

Sláinte!

Laurel

seeds of freedom

Some of our blog readers might find this film interesting:

A landmark film narrated by Jeremy Irons. Find out more at seedsoffreedom.info

The story of seed has become one of loss, control, dependence and debt.
It’s been written by those who want to make vast profit from our food system, no matter what the true cost.
It’s time to change the story.

Produced by The Gaia Foundation and the African Biodiversity Network, in collaboration with MELCA Ethiopia, Navdanya International and GRAIN.

a peek into the farmer's field through the briar patch

Yesterday a friend gave me a copy of a Briarpatch Magazine issue focusing on food politics {from September/October 2011}. She knows me too well. ;)

Some of this stuff I knew already and other articles made me look at issues in a whole different way. All of the articles can be read online for free, and I especially recommend the following:

Fair trade and empire: An anti-capitalist critique of the fair trade movement by Ian Hussey

Selling the farm: Canadian-European Trade Agreement threatens food sovereignty by Colleen Kimmett

Recipe for disaster: Biotechnology, industrialization and Canadian culpability in rural Vietnam by Hayley Goodchild

Food for all! Food justice needs migrant justice by Maryam Adrangi & Laura Lepper

Sláinte!

Laurel

more damn gmos, this time it's apples

If you're in Canada, you might want to have a look at this:

The small BC company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits has just submitted their request to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for approval of their GM “non-browning” apple. Contamination from GM apples threatens the future of our apples, and the farmers who grow them.

Take Action

(New Deadline!) Before July 3, 2012: Send your comments to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at http://active.inspection.gc.ca/eng/plaveg/bio/subs/biocome.asp

• Tell the government that you don’t want to eat a GM apple!
• GM apples are not wanted by consumers
• BC apple growers have already rejected the GM apple
• Contamination from GM apples is a risk to Canadian apple producers
• The CFIA and Health Canada should not be wasting public funds reviewing a GM apple that no one wants
• The government should consult with farmers and consumers before it approves any new GM crop

You can see the summary of information the company has submitted to the CFIA to request approval of the GM apple. The submission remains secret and is not available to the public.

More Actions

Send the action alert by email - Click here for the text.

Join the campaign! If you are in BC contact the Okanagan Greens to join the campaign.

Elsewhere in Canada, contact CBAN.

CBAN is working with Bee SAFE, GE Free BC, Okanagan Greens Society, True Food Foundation, and Vigilance OGM to stop the GM apple.

Background

The GM “non-browning” apple is engineered to keep from going brown after being cut. This apple is designed for fast food companies and other companies that use pre-cut apples. The technology was developed in Australia and licensed by the small BC company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits.

Okanagan Specialty Fruits asked for approval in the US in March 2010 and has just asked for approval in Canada. The GM apple has not yet been approved anywhere in the world.

What do apple growers think about the GM apple?

Read the comments to the CFIA from Similkameen Okanagan Organic Treefruit Growers Association, BC.

In 2001, BC apple growers stopped the GM apple from being field tested in Canada. The federal government agricultural station in Summerland in the Okanagan valley, an important fruit growing area, was preparing to start field trials but BC growers who were concerned about contamination stopped these field trials from happening.

In September 2011 CBAN and organizations from across BC organized a series of public events to discuss genetic engineering. At an event in Keremeos, Lee McFadyen of Mariposa Organic Farm and the Live Earth Organic Growers Association pointed out that there are already several varieties of apple that don’t brown. Orchardist Andrea Turner of the Similkameen Okanagan Organic Producers Association said, “The tree fruit industry cannot afford anything silly like that”.

More info can be found at the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network {CBAN} website

Sláinte!

Laurel

sad news, good news, gmos & asshats

Some good news first!

Funding for research of test tube pigs has finally been cut off here in Ontario:

After more than10 years, active research into the genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) pig called “Enviropig” is being abandoned. In late March, the hog industry group Ontario Pork decided to stop funding GM pig research at the University of Guelph and the university is now closing down its active research and ending its breeding program of GM pigs.

You can read the rest of the article over at Common Ground's website.

Some more GMO news, this time not so good:

Biotechnology's promise to feed the world did not anticipate "Trojan corn," "super weeds" and the disappearance of monarch butterflies.

But in the Midwest and South - blanketed by more than 170 million acres of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton - an experiment begun in 1996 with approval of the first commercial genetically modified organisms is producing questionable results.

Those results include vast increases in herbicide use that have created impervious weeds now infesting millions of acres of cropland, while decimating other plants, such as milkweeds that sustain the monarch butterflies. Food manufacturers are worried that a new corn made for ethanol could damage an array of packaged food on supermarket shelves.

You can read the full article here.

Some fucking asshole decided to kill and desecrate an animal that is sacred to the Lakota people:

According to a Fox News report, the extremely rare and sacred white buffalo born last year has been found dead and skinned along with its mother.

Lightning Medicine Cloud, born May 12, 2011 on a stormy night at the Lakota Ranch in Greenville Texas, was a natural white buffalo—an extremely rare occurrence, happening an estimated once per ten million births. In June, a naming ceremony attracted over 2,000 visitors to the ranch, and a report on the proceedings cited beliefs held by some Lakota that the calf was the third white buffalo ever, and the first male in 150 years. Such a white buffalo is tied to the story of White Buffalo Calf Woman, and is the most sacred animal, perhaps the most sacred thing on the planet, to the Lakota people.

In March, the discovery that a ranch in Hunt, Texas offered the chance to kill a white buffalo for $13,500 sparked outrage in Indian country. A day after the news broke, the owner of the ranch told Indian Country Today Media Network that he would cease offering the white buffalo hunt. The buffalo being killed at that ranch and others, like those being born on a ranch in Bend, Oregon, are not natural white buffalo—as an expert told ICTMN in March, knowledge of genetics has allowed modern breeders to engineer white bison.

The rest of the story, along with updates can be read here.

And sadly MCA/Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys passed away last week:

Adam Yauch, a founding member of pioneering hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, died Friday at age 47.

He died in New York after three years of treatment for cancer, his representatives said. He had been diagnosed with a cancerous salivary gland in 2009.

The rest of the article can be read here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Luverly of the Week: ThePlantEncyclopedia.Org

The Plant Encyclopedia is a website with a treasure trove of information of over 300,000 plants, which are neatly categorized:


I have just began to explore the website, and I can see myself spending a lot of time on there. It is quickly becoming one of my favourite online resources! :D

Sláinte!

Laurel

Smarty Plants

Love plants half as much as I do? Check out episode of The Nature of Things, Smarty Plants. Below is a short video preview:

and you can watch the episode in whole here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Media Mix

This is just a quick post to share some awesomeness that I came across recently in my webby travels.

1. A great article from Mother Earth News on small space gardening.
2. A neat and interactive virtual tour of Acy-Romance, a Gaulish Iron Age village. {thanks Seren for the heads up}
3. A pretty good interview with Paul Huson, author of Mastering Herbalism and Mastering Witchcraft.
4. And below is an interview with Andy Letcher of Telling the Bees. {I don't know what I love more, the 'stache or the beautiful music! ;) }
   
   
   
   
   *********
   
   Sláinte!
   
   Laurel
   

Some More News About Monsanto...

Monsanto gives up on French GM maize

Biotech giant Monsanto has announced it is giving up on plans to sell genetically modified (GM) maize in France, despite winning a key court ruling last year.

In November, France’s highest court overturned the 2008 ban on cultivating Monsanto’s MON810, an insect-resistant strain of maize which is grown in several European countries. The court ruled that the Government had not produced enough evidence to back its claims that the GM crop posed a significant risk to health or the environment.

That ruling was prompted by a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in September, in a case brought by Monsanto.

But earlier this month French environment and agriculture ministers revealed that, despite the ruling, they were planning to reintroduce the moratorium on MON810 maize before spring sowings start.

This has proved to be the final straw for Monsanto, which said this week that it had no longer had any plans to market its GM maize in France.

Read the rest of the article here. :D

Now if only the fuckers would go belly up!

Sláinte!

Laurel

A Few Nifty Field Guides {& Happy Belated Earth Day Too!}

I hope all you folks had a wonderful Earth Day and had a chance to get out to the great outdoors. :)

I was inspired by our friends over at Plant Trees, It's Self Defense to dig out the field guides that the hubby and I like to use on our outdoor travels and share them with our readers.

Flora

Edible & Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tilford

The Wild, Wild Cookbook by Jean Craighead George

Trees in Canada by John Laird Farrar

National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Mushrooms

Old Man's Garden by Annora Brown

Poisonous Mushrooms of Canada: Including Other Inedible Fungi

Ontario Wildflowers: 101 Wayside Flowers by Linda Kershaw

The Forest Trees of Ontario by J.H. White

The Book of Swamp and Bog by John Eastman

Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada by George Barron

Native Trees of Canada

Ontario Weeds: Descriptions, Illustrations and Keys to Their Identification

Fauna

Birds of Algonquin Park

Mammals of Algonquin Park

Animal Tracks of the Great Lakes by Ian Sheldon

Bird Feathers: a Guide to North American Bird Species by David Scott & Casey McFarland

Mammals of Ontario by Tamara Eder

Birds of North America

{And an honourable mention goes to The Robin Hood Hand Book by Bill Kaysing for few identifications it has in it. It is more of an overall bushcraft book.}

Sláinte!

Laurel

Seed Saving vs. Agribusiness Monopoly {with Dan Jason}

This is a clip of an interesting talk with Dan Jason about GMOs and seeds.

NO Monsanto

Hehe, I just came across this and I thought that at least a couple of our readers would appreciate this too! ;)

Sláinte!

Laurel

Fuck Monsanto.

Original photo can be found here.

So apparently I have been living under a rock the last little while, because I just heard about the USDA's FULL deregulation of Monsanto's GE alfalfa.

The Center for Food Safety criticized the announcement today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will once again allow unlimited, nation-wide commercial planting of Monsanto’s genetically-engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). On a call today with stakeholders, Secretary Vilsack reiterated the concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GE seed, yet the Agency’s decision still places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.

“We’re disappointed with USDA’s decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. “USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment.”

The rest of the article can be read here.

Business-as-fucking-usual.

Not only that though, there are roomers abound that Wholefoods and other big organic companies are selling out on the issue.

Ugh. There is a petition targeting the US President and Secretary of Agriculture that you can sign here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

News on Bees & Global Crop Biodiversity

I thought that these articles might be of interest to some of our readers:

Photo from Gustavo (lu7frb)

Bee pollination decline has scientist buzzing

TORONTO - Scientists have been buzzing for years about the dwindling number of bees and linking that to less pollination, but a new Canadian study suggests the decline could also be blamed on climate change.

James Thomson, a scientist with the University of Toronto, has spent 17 years studying the wild lily from his log cabin in a remote plot of land in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. He's discovered that the flowers have been blooming earlier.

"Everyone tends to jump to the conclusion that if my lilies are having a decline in their pollination rate, it must be that the bee populations are dying off, but ... I'm not at all sure that that's happening," said Thomson.

"The plants are now blooming earlier than they used to and I don't think the bees are very active in the early spring," he explained.

He has called the discovery a "climate-driven" mismatch between when flowers bloom and when bees emerge from hibernation.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Photo from Caffinara

Global Crop Diversity Threatened: Pavlovsk Experimental Station Facing Closure

In the early part of the twentieth century, an adventurous Russian agricultural scientist set out on an expedition to Iran. His goal: to begin a collection of seeds from across the world to better feed the people of his own country. Hundreds of trips and many years later, Nikolai Vavilov had not only succeeded in establishing a world-renowned seed collection, he had also revolutionized global understanding of plant and agricultural diversity and origins. The N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry, located in Petersburg, Russia, serves as the home for the hundreds of thousands of seed and plant varieties Vavilov collected.

This seed bank’s holdings have survived trial after tribulation, even outlasting the siege of Leningrad thanks to the dedicated commitment of scientists willing to starve to death to protect the invaluable collection. A recent ruling by the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court, however, threatens to result in the destruction of the Pavlovsk Experimental Station — home to Vavilov’s rare berry and fruit tree collection. Will all, then, have been for naught?

Read the rest of the article here.

Sláinte!

Laurel

Luverly of the Week: Donna Haraway

Photo from Rusten Hogness

Donna Haraway, writer, feminist, and professor. The author behind A Cyborg Manifesto.

DIRT! {the movie}

The movie DIRT! has been out for a while, but I have not seen it yet. From the trailer it looks pretty interesting...

Have any of you seen it? And if so, how did you like it?

Sláinte!

Laurel