The Truth About Farming

What seems like a more natural cycle than farming? For centuries farmers have sown in the spring and reaped in the fall. It appears as an endless cycle of growth and harvest that creates a world of abundance. In many cultures this is true, for example Japan has used the same growing space for centuries and has become an expert at returning essential nutrients to the soil.

However, the farmers in our own country are not masters of this cycle. In our country it takes 10 calories worth of oil to create 1 calorie worth of food (Biomimicry, Janine Benyus). What that means is that for every calorie of corn we have we have sprayed, fertilized, and used herbicides that equate to 10 calories worth of oil. (many of these chemicals are petroleum products that have been engineered into other products.)

The problem is that more and more the farmer is not the one who is calling the shots. After all if the farmer is just 1 input and the chemicals are 10 who do you think is going to want to be invested in our food? That is right, oil companies. I think that we all know their reputation. We are left with a sick cycle in which farmers are being forced to buy more and more oil products to grow food. Small farms are going out of business and in 1992 85 percent of our food was coming from 15 percent of farmers. This is a terrifying cycle that will leave big oil in charge of your dinner. Do you really want that?

Lighting Update

So I have been paying quite a bit of attention as I drive around Colorado Springs as of late. The mayor had decided to turn off 1/3 of all the lights to help with the budget crisis. I feared that the majority of lights would be turned off in south Colorado Springs. However, I have noticed a number of lights turned off in my own neighborhood. It would seem that equality was taken into account by Colorado Springs for once.

Bombs or food?

Over 30,000 people die from starvation everyday. That is a very disturbing figure. Imagine if a state college worth of people just disappeared. Imagine if everyone you know died. Luckily for most of us in the good old USA starvation is not a major concern. However, for a lot of people in a lot of places it is. This is a problem that could be solved. For most of history starvation was not a major issue, yes there were poor people but even during the middle ages the majority of people were getting enough to eat. What has changed since the middle or "dark ages" that now has so many people starving?

Consider that an F-16 costs somewhere between 50-80 million dollars, depending on how many spare parts and bombs you want to buy it with. That is a lot of money. Enough money that is could go a long way towards solving world hunger, especially when you consider that the United States has hundreds of these. I wonder what would be a better threat deterrent? Owning all the planes and bombs? Or feeding and supporting the hungry so that they come to love and respect your nation?

Fast Food

We all know that fast food is not the most healthy choice for dinner. Well here is a link to a few other reasons to hit up your local deli, find a sit down restaurant, or just plain stay home.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/45380/4-shocking-secrets-about-fast-food/

Illegal Freedom of Speech?

I had the pleasure of visiting Australia for 3 weeks a couple of summers ago. While there I asked numerous questions about the culture and the political system. They seemed to have a lot figured out. They provided for their people with a well worked healthcare and welfare system. The people seemed very happy, the cities were clean, and the standard of living was on the rise. However, they were missing what we would consider uncompramisable rights. For example, their goverment had decided it was dangerous to have gun owners, so they outlawed the right to own a firearm unless you needed it as a farmer. There was no vote about it, they just created the law. This might not seem like the biggest deal. However, they did not have freedom of speech either. They could not say whatever they wanted to like we can. Right?

Well, in actuality there are some limits on our freedom of speech. You can not stand in a theater and yell "FIRE!!!" Which seems to be a good caveat to the law. If this was allowed panic would be caused, people could get hurt, it seems like an excellent exception to the law.

Well here is one that is not. In the lovely state of Colorado it is illegal to "slander" food. Meaning that unless you have scientific proof that the food you are eating is bad for you you can not say a word about it. So if you visit the slaughter house, and see how the meat is being killed, and know that more likely than not that food is not being treated to a standard that you would want to eat, and you say something about it, you are now breaking the law. Or if you look at what meat filler is (a meat like compound that is treated with numerous chemicals in order to render it sterile which is then put into hamburgers that you eat) and say "hey, this is terrible stuff to eat!" you could end up in prison or sued.

So far for freedom of speech right?

Check out if you live in a state where food "slander" is a crime.

http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2009/11/burger-bashing-and-sirloin-slander-food-disparagement-laws-in-the-united-states/
http://www.rense.com/health/milk.htm

Climate Change

The recent flurry of storms in the east has sparked controversy about "global warming" or as scientists have re-coined the term "climate change". It would seem that if the world is getting warmer than snow should be a thing of the past, right?

Wrong.

No one really knows what is going to happen as the earth warms. We do know that the oceans are going to get warmer, which will most likely cause greater rain/snow fall in some areas. Others will be left with almost no precipitation. The problem is that no one knows what will happen where. Either way it is not something that you want to go messing with.

Lights out for Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs has made an interesting choice. In order to attempt to close the giant gap in the budget they will begin turning off 1/3 of the streetlights in Colorado Springs. I noticed last night that not one of the lights in my neighborhood was off. I am going to go down south tonight to the poor neighborhoods and see how many lights are off down there.

I will keep you posted...