Tillamook Cheese maker defies Monsanto

Being a Swiss miss and cheese fiend...I read some good news on Saturday.

"The Oregon-based No. 2 maker of chunk cheese in the nation has banned a genetically engineered growth hormone made by Monsanto Co. for dairy cows, despite what it says is escalating pressure from the chemical giant.

The Tillamook County Creamery Association said Friday that it asked all of its 147 member farmers to halt use of the recombinant bovine somatotropin hormone, or rBST, because of customer requests to do so.

In a news release, the association assailed Monsanto for seeking to block the move with efforts ranging from a letter-writing campaign to hiring a lawyer.

"Tillamook County Creamery Association is facing an aggressive intrusion by Monsanto in the association's decision making process," the association said."

Sound like the typical way Monsanto does business. They've done similar things to farmers who won't use their genetically modified seeds. They even used these tactics with a Fox news piece in Florida about the ill effects of their rBST on humans, eventually watering down the language and thus the effects of the piece. (For more on that watch "The Corporation"...a great documentary about the history and actions of corporations.)

Tillamook's got my business for life! Go Tillamook!!!!

Too late to sweat global warming

Bush can deny global warming all he wants but the UN, Tony Blair and even the US Pentagon acknowledge that global warming is real and happening now.

As I was reading Truthout.org today, I happened upon this article by Mark Hertsgaard of the San Francisco Chronicle.

"...Since 1988, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of more than 2,000 scientific and technical experts from around the world, has conducted the most extensive peer-reviewed scientific inquiry in history.

    In its 2001 report, the panel said that human-caused global warming had already begun, and much sooner than expected. What's more, the problem is bound to get worse, perhaps a lot worse, before it gets better.

    Last month, the climate change panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, upped the ante. Although Pachauri was installed after the Bush administration forced out his predecessor, Robert Watson, for pushing too hard for action, the accumulation of evidence led Pachauri to embrace apocalyptic language: "We are risking the ability of the human race to survive," he said.

    Until now, most public discussion about global warming has focused on how to prevent it - for example, by implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which comes into force internationally (but without U.S. participation) on Wednesday. But prevention is no longer a sufficient option. No matter how many "green" cars and solar panels Kyoto eventually calls into existence, the hard fact is that a certain amount of global warming is inevitable."

Prevention won't stop global warming because it's already happening. Maybe all the extraordinary hurricanes we had this year and other massive natural disasters are a clue.

This should freak me out. Unfortunately, I'd read a similar article, about the Pentagon's report on global warming. I spent the rest of that day freaked out because of that. You know the Pentagon's pretty conservative and yet they are saying that Global Warming will cause serious damage. The Guardian article says:

"Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

Being a typical "I Must Fix This" do-something American...I did note that there a some ways we as inviduals can prepare for the coming warming. According to Hertsgaard's article...

 "The world community therefore must make a strategic shift. It must expand its response to global warming to emphasize both long-term and short-term protection. Rising sea levels and more weather-related disasters will be a fact of life on this planet for decades to come, and we have to get ready for them.

    Among the steps needed to defend ourselves is quick action to fortify emergency response capabilities worldwide, to shield or relocate vulnerable coastal communities and to prepare for increased migration flows by environmental refugees.

    We must also play offense. We must retroactively shrink the amount of warming facing us by redoubling efforts to remove existing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and sequester them where they are no longer dangerous. One way is to plant trees, which absorb carbon dioxide via photosynthesis."

Beauty springs from tragedy

I was reading the paper today and saw an article about the death a 10-year-old in Crothersville, Indiana, who was killed by a meth-addict. This is the thing that really strikes me....

"As dime and dollar donations poured in from around the corner and around the country for the little girl's burial, Neace (the girls father), whose $14.75-an-hour factory job barely covers the monthly rent on his trailer, had a thought: What if he could buy the hated buildings, bulldoze them and build a playground on their place.

Katie may be gone, but she's going to live forever in this town," Neace, 35 said of his daughter Katklyn Collman. "We're taking down one meth house - you probably can't take them all down, but it's sending a message. We're taking our town back."" (Feb. 10, 2005, Oregonian, p. A10)

This is a great example of how individuals working together can get something done more effectively than any government!

They've already got pledges of $100,000 of the $400,000 needed to buy the Penn Villa apartments and build the park.

If you're interested in donating. Here's the link with information: http://crothersville.net/Katie/

Sing a Simple Song of Freedom

What a better way to start my first post than by posting the lyrics to one of my favorite songs, "Sing a Simple Song of Freedom", a subject that's been on my mind a lot recently. Written by the immortal Bobby Darin (Go see "Beyond the Sea"!!)

Come and sing a simple song of freedom
      Sing it like you've never sung before
      Let it fill the air
      Tell the people everywhere
      We, the people here, don't want a war.
 
      Hey, there, mister black man, can you hear me? 
      I don't want your diamonds or your game
      I just want to be someone known to you as me
      And I will bet my life you want the same.
 
      Come and sing a simple song of freedom
      Sing it like you’ve never sung before
      Let it fill the air
      Tell the people everywhere
      We, the people here, don’t want a war.
 
      Seven hundred million are ya list'nin’?
      Most of what you read is made of lies
      But, speakin’ one to one ain't it everybody's sun
      To wake to in the mornin’ when we rise?
 
      Come and sing a simple song of freedom
      Sing it like you’ve never sung before
      Let it fill the air
      Tell the people everywhere
      We, the people here, don’t want a war.
 
      Brother Solzhenitsyn, are you busy?
      If not, won't you drop this friend a line
      Tell me if the man who is plowin' up your land
      Has got the war machine upon his mind?
 
      Come and sing a simple song of freedom
      Sing it like you’ve never sung before
      Let it fill the air
      Tell the people everywhere
      We, the people here, don’t want a war.
 
      Now, no doubt some folks enjoy doin' battle
      Like presidents, prime ministers and kings
      So, let's all build them shelves
      Where they can fight among themselves
      Leave the people be who love to sing.
 
      Come and sing a simple song of freedom
      Sing it like you’ve never sung before
      Let it fill the air
      Tell the people everywhere
      We, the people here, don’t want a war.
 
      I say … let it fill the air …
      Tellin’ people everywhere …
      We, the people, here don't want a war.
 

That's all for now. Keep checking back. I won't be posting every day but I will as I find things that I want to comment on. Also, feel free to comment on my posts at any time.