78 replies to this topic

[alternativista]

Just do something tangible and immediate to help your fellow man.

That is exactly what I do. I can't watch the video. the sound card is out on my old notebook computer. Besides, odds are good that it isn't relevant.

Right now, cars are a necessity. And strides are being made to make them more eco friendly. The automotive world is actually listening to what people are saying about making cars greener. Right now, cell phones, computers, and clothing ARE what we call a necessary evil, cause there aren't greener/safer options. But if the manufacturers of these products start listening to the public outcry for greener electronics, (just as the automotive industry is doing) then there is hope for a more eco friendly future.

Yeah, but unfortunately that can be temporary. We had more economical cars in the past under Clinton. Then the fuel economy restrictions were removed and the gas guzzlers returned and people bought them. And even now while everyone complains about gas prices, I still see them driving round and round in the parking lot looking for the closest possible parking space. Sitting in cars idling with the AC on. Racing past me as I coast up to the red light. Last year while people were sending me petitions and letters about boycotting BP, I would still be the only one in the supermarket that brought my own bags. Other than at places like Whole Foods.

Unfortunately, most people are exactly what Mayor Quimby said: 'A bunch of fickle mush heads.' That's why you have to keep telling people about the issues. They forget.

You should actually listen and think critically about this and stop being so defensive. Really and truly research this. If you still feel the way you do, then that is your choice, and one that i do not condone, but at least look at this problem objectively

Critical thinking and objectivity seem to be lacking.

Edited by alternativista, 03 April 2012 - 04:16 PM.

[onefatalgoose]

Exactly, our idea of immediate is different than yours. Your immediate solution is going to cause long term damage to health, and does nothing to fight Monsanto's desire for food domination/lack of care for human life.

Our idea of immediate is to get this information to the public so that we can make our voices heard and stop this company before they get out of control. Sometimes immediate action such as yours causes unwanted long term effects, and this is what you are not understanding. Again, it is a nice sentiment that you want to provide food for the hungry. But it's not good enough to hand them food that we know will cause them permanent damage to their health.

Please, please read the articles in this thread and actually think about this constructively

[tritonxiv]

The irony in this thread has reached it's apex.

You all appear to be passionate about this. So I sincerely hope you all get out of the house and do something about these problems other than talk, ponder, and trade online petitions to make yourselves feel better.

I sincerely hope this. But somehow, I doubt any of you will ever step up and prove me wrong.

In the end it dosen't matter. The doers (not you) will make the decisions, and the spectators (you) will worry, complain, and write their congressman. This is how it has always been.

Cheers.

[alternativista]

The irony in this thread has reached it's apex.

This thread has not. Your contributions (and I use that word ironically) to it, however, have. A long time ago. In another thread in fact.

You all appear to be passionate about this. So I sincerely hope you all get out of the house and do something about these problems other than talk, ponder, and trade online petitions to make yourselves feel better.

I sincerely hope this. But somehow, I doubt any of you will ever step up and prove me wrong.

In the end it dosen't matter. The doers (not you) will make the decisions, and the spectators (you) will worry, complain, and write their congressman. This is how it has always been.

Cheers.

I've no idea what gave you the idea that all any of us do is write our congressman. It must be all that jumping to the wrong conclusions and making wrong assumptions that you do.

Still can't help but notice how you never respond to any facts or logic. The facts prove you wrong. That must be why.

But I do agree with one thing. I do hope that everyone pursues careers and make life and purchasing decisions that promote sustainability and limit harm. If you are an entrepreneur type then start a green business. If you are an educator then educate. If you are an inventor, invent real sustainable solutions. Id you want to go into law, go into environmental law.

Renewable energy is the future, not oil and gas. And you better take care of your own health by eating and living right. You don't want to be a victim of our terrible 'health' care system.

Edited by alternativista, 03 April 2012 - 05:21 PM.

[DaftFrost]

War, greed, all that you are supporting that huh? What we have gotten now, the car, the cellphone and all that you speak of, wouldn't have been possible without the sacrifice of our mother nature and the happiness and peaceful of others.

What is life without happiness and health? Material based objects don't make up happiness, thats true in so many levels. People in USA are suffering from a lot of cancers and diseases compared to some asian countries. Some poor and underdeveloped asian countries are perhaps the ones with least diseases and cancers from all the toxicity that has polluted and killed the mother nature.

We don't need Genetic Engineering, that can't be entirely understood if you think in a materialistic way, not spiritual way. I used to think very materialistic too and thought technology was the best but I am now more spirituality aware. I don't want to include spirituality but for the sake of this thread I must.

Nature itself is perfect, perfect in every way. It knows the best, it is always changing for always the best. Look at how evolution even happens, we don't really even know how evolution is so super smart and how it perfectly arranges and changes things for perfect balance. It's already perfect, its suited only for us, we don't need GE for that.
We are trying to improve what is already magnificent and amazing, but we fail because nature itself always knows the best.

Would you rather risk happiness, peace, pure health and nature's balance for technology and money?

[alternativista]

Because it was suggested that I must be a heartless ass or something to suggest that building irrigation systems in Africa wasn't the best thing to do as it increases desertification, here's some info on better ways to harvest rainwater without diverting it from other places and people:

Book and website: Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancasterhttp://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

With this very nice blog post on images of ancient water harvesting techniques

http://www.harvestin...harvesting-art/

With this statement:

What I find consistent in surviving ancient water-harvesting systems is their beauty and the incredible quality of work. What I am most drawn to is the example set by ancient dryland cultures who strove to harvest and enhance their local waters, their local rainwater, and their local runoff, all while living within the limits of their local waters — in a way that enhanced their watershed community without draining and degrading others. We today have much to learn from that.

These ancient water-harvesting systems typically deposit rainwater into the watershed, which in turn tends to feedaquifers, springs, creeks, and rivers. So over time there is more water. More cycles in the hydrologic cycle, with gravitypowering the system.

Modern pumped and piped water systems typically extract water from the watershed, which in turn often drains aquifers, springs, creeks and rivers. So over time there is less water. Fewer cycles in the hydrologic cycle, with fossil fuels powering the system.

Be sure to look into Mulch Basins, something everyone with a home and yard should do. And use your yard to grow food for people and wildlife.

And a permaculture project in Namibia. Now that's a place with a water shortage.
Permaculture Resiliency Project with the San Bushmen in the Kalahari: http://permacultureg....com/posts/2135

Edited by alternativista, 05 April 2012 - 10:38 AM.

[onefatalgoose]

Genetically modified salmon just hit the market today

[uncle buck]

The irony in this thread has reached it's apex.

You all appear to be passionate about this. So I sincerely hope you all get out of the house and do something about these problems other than talk, ponder, and trade online petitions to make yourselves feel better.

I sincerely hope this. But somehow, I doubt any of you will ever step up and prove me wrong.

In the end it dosen't matter. The doers (not you) will make the decisions, and the spectators (you) will worry, complain, and write their congressman. This is how it has always been.

Cheers.

Making the right individual choices is the most powerful thing a person can do. I don't like people downplaying this, it's everything. Despite delusions of grandeur, you only control yourself.

Expecting someone (or yourself) to save the world single-handedly is not going to get anything done and only drive you to insanity and drive others away. Lead by example.

[onefatalgoose]

It seems like Vermont is having success in getting their bill passed, which would make it mandatory to label all GMO's as such

http://vtdigger.org/...-labeling-bill/

[BitterSweet098]

Edited by BitterSweet098, 05 February 2013 - 08:38 PM.

[onefatalgoose]

Bill Gates talks about GMOs referring to them as 'High Tech Agriculture"

The people pushing these modified crops are trying to change the wording so it sounds better. Also, when asked about the relation vaccines have with autism, his response is something like, "those studies are corrupted science" with a big guilty grin on his face, as he knows the very thing he is supporting (monsanto) is absolutely loaded with corrupted/altered/selective studies. Or just corruption in general

Anyway here's a link to the interview



Also if you have the time or interest, you should check out this article which discusses the gates foundation and how it is ultimately hurting more people than it is helping

http://www.latimes.c...0,2533850.story

[irischang]

OMG! To tritonxiv:

It is exactly people like you who are making this world such a lousy place to people to live in. You can’t make a decision for yourself as to whether what is right or what is obviously wrong and just decide settle your butt in to whatever that is happening to the world right now and not do much about it (donations really?). Let me repeat, it’s exactly people like you who don’t or simply refused to understand what is right that have contributed to what is happening to our world right now. And yeah sure continue eating your Agent Orange carrots until one day you realised all is too late. BTW, just curious how old are you? Because you know symptoms of many diseases don’t appear until you have eaten enough of the nasty chemicals or GM foods. I suggest probably you should double the dose of your Agent Orange carrot and wait for what happens?

It’s a shame that I have specially signed up for an account just to response to your utterly selfish comments. Though I apologise for being rather mean… but your attitude is just utterly unacceptable and ridiculous to no extent.

First, when you talk about cellphones, computers, and lap tops and cars, have you had the slightest idea if THAT IS THE LIFE we wanted?!!! NO! Quite frankly, all this stuff is being made mandatory to our life by the very people who are leading the country (you have to get a job huh? How? Go to school? How? Study with laptop? How? Other countries have the money so we should use the technologies to communicate and do BUSINESS with them).

Go ahead, you can take away my laptop and my cell phone and even my house if by doing so means you are going to be able to give back the earth/land/food I used to recognise. Well a matter a fact is you can’t. So excuse my language and just shut the f**k up.

Also, so what if alternativista owns a laptop, cellphone and drives a car? At least she is standing up for what she believes in and is trying to make a change by spreading the word out. AND I’m sure she is doing many other good initiatives as well, just you don’t know about it. and BTW what can we do now? Did I pop out of my mother’s womb and asked for a cell phone or car? No! I didn’t! BUT SINCE all these items are being forced to be recognised as “necessities” in our lives right now, the least we could do is to try to make something good out of it (by spreading GOOD HUMAN VALUES) and consuming the lowest energy as much as possible. IF YOU ARE asking people to give up on all these, well can you? Very well I know that you can’t!!! So don’t preach the heck what you can’t do yourself just trying to make yourself sound intelligent.

And just I thought worth mentioning by my own logic, I am by no means a hypocrite if you would like to suggest… BECAUSE I DON’T believe in hypocrites. I don’t even like the word. However, I see you are a hypocrite because obliviously you believed the word and have used it.

Let me tell you what I believed in. In this world I only believe there are only two kinds of people, contented people (happy) and greedy people (unhappy). And it is always the greedy people that have caused the world more harm than good. And I’ve also realised the so called smart alec are usually the ones who are also bringing more problems to the world trying to solve them. A solution becomes a problem and then they’ll need more solutions to solve more problems when in the first place they could have just eliminate the problem by not creating it altogether! How true to “ the problem with this world is that the wise people are always so full of doubts and the dumbasses are so full of themselves.” Well for now it’s not even the money that Monsanto are after because it can’t even satisfy their need/hunger anymore. They are trying to control people’s lives!!!
And people like are indirectly supporting them!!!!!!

Alright, I honestly feel I shouldn’t be wasting any more time trying to debate or explain things to people like you (although I really really have so much more things I want to say) who will never understand until one day you come to realisation yourself. Because no amount of arguing will ever change the fact that more it is indeed a fact that more people are dying after the introduction of GM foods and seed. Be it farmer’s suicide or illnesses.

Come back to this threat maybe 5 years later and tell us if you are still in excellent health. I dare you.

And who says without money there would be NO PROGRESS?!!! REALLY, you call this (our world now) a PROGRESS?!! Yeah I definitely see that, people becoming more materialistic, smart phones are making people more stupid (reliant) and people dying of illnesses everywhere. Definitely it is a progress. HUH?!

[tritonxiv]

Alright, I honestly feel I shouldn’t be wasting any more time trying to debate or explain things to people like you

You're right about one thing.

Come back to this threat maybe 5 years later and tell us if you are still in excellent health. I dare you.

I will, and I dare you to show me how effective your online petitions were.

Yeah I definitely see that, people becoming more materialistic, smart phones are making people more stupid (reliant) and people dying of illnesses everywhere. Definitely it is a progress. HUH?!

So instead of instead of article swapping and complaining, why don't you get out there and do something about it.

Cheers.

[onefatalgoose]

Go Peru!
http://www.occupymon...gineered-foods/

[alternativista]

That Peru has banned GM crops is such good news. That region is the birthplace of so many of our foods and they have hundreds of varieties, not the one or two that we grow. We need to be turning to those farmers to increase diversity in our crops. Not ruining their crops with our GM'd monocrops.

At least they won't have as hard a time fighting the GM DNA as they are in Mexico where subsidized GM corn is sold in Mexico and since the indenous people by the corn whole to make tortillas, the kernels get dropped in their yards and along roadsides where they grow and contaminate the fields of the hundreds of varieties of corn the natives have been growing for thousands of years.

Edited by alternativista, 27 April 2012 - 08:44 AM.

[onefatalgoose]

Just bringing this up again for anyone who hasn't seen this, or anyone who isn't aware of what GMO's are and how they are destroying people's livelihoods. They affect our health in the production of them, as well as the consumption of them.

The video posted is part 1, but you can find the rest on youtube pretty easily

Also Monsanto=Pure corruption/Morally devoid/Power hungry, to put it lightly
And guilty of altering studies so that they appear to be quite the opposite

Edited by onefatalgoose, 24 September 2012 - 09:15 PM.

[onefatalgoose]

Right around part 06 of the documentary is when they get into how Monsanto falsified studies in regards to dioxins and their affect on humans. If you click the button at the bottom of the video i posted that says watch on youtube, the next parts of the documentary can be seen in the related videos column on the right.

But it's totally worth your time to watch from start to finish. Quite horrifying actually

Edited by onefatalgoose, 25 September 2012 - 12:50 AM.

[onefatalgoose]

Monsanto claims GMO's are great for the small farmers. Part 08 of the documentary shows farms in india where BT cotton is the only cotton left on the market. It's a genetically modified cotton that produces it's own insecticide. These farmers are paying four times as much as they did for non-GMO seed, and non-GMO seed is no longer on the market over there because Monsanto bought everyone out. These farmers are having to take out loans that accumulate tons of interest. The BT cotton is now susceptible to a disease that is killing the crops, and this disease couldn't exist in the cotton plants grown with non-GMO seeds. These farmers are going bankrupt, and 600 people a year are committing suicide because of it.

Monsanto wants to control all food as we know it. This is their goal. They have patents on their crops, and encourage farmers to turn in their neighbors if they suspect them of using the same seed year after year. Monsanto requires you to purchase new seed each year, and have filed more than a hundred lawsuits against farmers.

Monsanto's next goal (if it hasn't already happened) is to use the chemical that was used in Agent Orange, a defoliating agent used in the vietnam war. They are switching to this because weeds are becoming resistant to the round up. So the corn, along with many other GMO's, that you find in grocery stores will now have been sprayed with Agent Orange, and will be Agent Orange resistant.

There are so many people circulating in and out of Monsanto and the FDA, that there really is no regulation on what these people can do. The only regulation will come from an outcry by the public. But most people aren't even aware that this is happening. Please spread the word about this and share this documentary with anyone and everyone you know

Edited by onefatalgoose, 25 September 2012 - 01:22 AM.

[onefatalgoose]

I haven't been paying near as much attention to the latest workings of Monsanto, but this is an email i received today in regards to some shady riders they are trying to sneak in to the Farm Bill



There's a lot of attention lately given to the 'Monsanto Protection Act' or the 'biotech riders' to the Farm Bill - riders that protect the biotech industry interests while putting our food supply, environment and democracy at risk. Now, with the "fiscal cliff" looming, Monsanto and biotech industry lobbyists have set their sites on the new spending time currently being debated in Congress and are desperately working behind the scenes to make it easier for their GMO crops to be approved. If these riders are not removed from the bill before voting, likely by the end of the year, Monsanto will gain a free pass for future GMO crop approvals.
This is because we recently found out that Monsanto lobbyists have succeeded in slipping Section 733, currently included in the Fiscal Year 2013 Agriculture Appropriations, into the latest omnibus appropriations spending bill that Congress must pass in the final days of the lame duck session. We must stop this back door tactic and tell our Congressional leaders that we want them to stand up for the best interests of the People and stop protecting Biotech Bullies.
This is an outrage and a sign of how desperate and maliscious Monsanto and the biotech industry really are.
Today we need you to make a call to your Representative and ask that they support a "Dear Colleague" letter from Congressman DeFazio (D-OR) to request that this "biotech rider" be dropped from any Omnibus Spending Bill.
Click here to make a call to Congress to Stop the Monsanto Protection Act today! Every voice counts!
http://action.foodde...2.417976.v-c9-M
According to reports from Congress:
the "biotech rider" would "weaken the ability of the [USDA] and the judicial branch to protect our nation's agriculture sector."
As Food Democracy Now! reported earlier, Section 733 is specifically intended to:

• Prohibit federal courts from imposing reasonable restrictions when a GE crop approval is deemed unlawful and potentially hazardous;
• Eliminate the critical roles of our most import environmental laws;
• Remove federal agency discretion over GE crop approvals; and
• Establish a backdoor approval mechanism for unlawfully approved GE crops

We need your help today to help stop the latest outrage from Monsanto and the biotech industry from undermining our basic democratic rights and slipping new GMO crops into our food system without proper testing and oversite.
Click here to make a call to Congress to Stop the Monsanto Protection Act today! Every voice counts!
Thanks for participating in food democracy,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team




Here's a link where you can simply send a letter to a representative and leave a short comment if you want. It's super easy to do, and the only things keeping Monsanto anywhere near regulated are our voices. There is so much shady crap that they get away with and they need to be called out by the community.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_the_monsanto_protection_act_today/?akid=692.417976.v-c9-M&rd=1&t=8

And here's a link with info on how to call a representative in your area

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/call/tell_Congress_to_stop_the_monsanto_protection_act/?akid=692.417976.v-c9-M&rd=1&t=2

[onefatalgoose]

Here's one of the single best documentary's i've seen in regards to all the crap that is done to our food, and it's relation to cancer and disease. Starts out a bit slow, but when it gets going it is very compelling. Discusses MSG, Monsanto, food energy (as in detectable energy radiating from raw food), mercury fillings, fluoride, organic vs. non-organic, and a whole host of other issues. Worth your while to take a look at it