Archive for the ‘community’ Category

Women’s Day Proclaimation by Julia Howe Ward

Posted in community on May 9, 2010| 2 Comments »

Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

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I Smell Gas

Posted in community, diy, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle, tagged fix a gas leak, gas leaks, gas smell, shut off valve, stinky neighbors on May 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I smell gas

I have been smelling gas in the house. Not all the time just occasionally and just faintly. No it’s not Major. Or the cabbage. I was not really worried but it was annoying. I decided to call the gas company and have them check for leaks. I needed the telephone number to call. I thought it would be on the bill. Couldn’t find the bill just had the receipt marked paid. The receipt did not have the telephone number on it. All the utilities are in Cassie’s name. I just give her some money and then she pays them usually online. We don’t have contact information anywhere for stuff she pays online. Just so happens though we pay the gas bill in person because it is local.

I found a bill that said PG&E. Pacific Gas and Electric. Cassie said that’s not the gas bill. Really? What is it? That’s the electric bill. Of course it is, how silly of me. O.k. I said what is the gas company called? We had to find the receipt to found out that the name of the gas company is The Gas Company. Brilliant. I think that’s weird but still looking for a telephone number. Got the phone book out. Looked in the business section for Gas Company. Nothing. Looked under county and city of San Luis for Gas Company. Nothing. Looked in the yellow pages under utilities. Nothing. What the hell? Why can’t I find the telephone for the Gas Company? And there you have it. It was listed under T for The not under G for Gas.

O.K. that is just wrong. You always dropped the The and the A in a company’s name when you listed it in the phone book. Oh well, I will just let them know when I get in touch with them that there number was hard to find and should be listed under G not T in the phone book and the part you keep for your records, not the part you throw away should have the contact numbers on it.

Anyway, called and went through a 20 question and answer menu before I talked to a real person to explain it was not an emergency but did need to make an appointment to have the gas checked for leaks. It was 3pm. The appointment was made for between 3 and 8pm that day. Would I be home? Sure. I waited until 7pm and Major had to go for a run. It was misting lightly outside so I put my raincoat on got his leash on him and knock, knock the gas (wo)man is here. I wish I would have done that 2 hours ago.

What a dirty trick. Major was all primed and ready to go and holding it since noon and now it’s a no go. He is not happy.

Tied him up to a tree

so if he had to pee he could and then I headed inside. He barked just to let me know he was getting a little wet, he wanted his run and I was now on his shit list.

Inside the little meter they use to detect a gas leak is going a mile a minute. Yikes. Maybe it was worst then I thought. I was thinking brain damage from escaped gas. She assured me it was not that bad. It was beeping in the whole area behind the stove where all the connections are. Had to pull it away from the wall. It would take both of us to pull it out.

I was giving her a hand pulling it when there was a rapid loud knock on the door. Who could that be? Went over to see and just caught a glimpse of my crazy neighbor shutting and locking her door. I can only guess that Major’s occasional bark was ticking her off so this was her way of getting even. Bang on my door. What a fruitcake. There was enough time for Major to pee if he was desperate so I brought him inside, more for safety from the crazy neighbor then anything else.

A lot of gas had concentrated behind the stove and this made zeroing in on the leak a little harder. One connection that was enclosed in a screwed on box on the back needed an allen wrench to check it out. Lucky, I had an allen wrench. Doesn’t every one? When she put the detector on the connection the lights were going off as well as beeps. She turned off the gas to the stove. She loosened the nut that was leaking put some oil on it and tighten it down. I learned that you put oil on fitted pipes and tape on unfitted pipes. The reason is the oil allows a little extra purchase area on the threads so you can tighten it down more and that seals it off. Tape would not have done anything. Good to know. I love learning stuff.

Retrieved a nutmeg grate and a pair of tongs that had fallen behind the stove before we pushed it back. Major only had to wait about an hour for his run and boy did he have to go.

Now the moral of this little story is if it was an emergency gas leak call 911. Second I dare you to find your contact number on your bill right now. When you find it post it on the frig or wherever you keep important info. I put the number in my cell phone under G. Your gas company is listed under Y in the telephone book.

Then after you find the number I want you to go outside and find the shut off valve on the gas meter. You really need to know were this is in case there is an earthquake or something shakes the pipes or connections lose and you have a BIG gas leak. You need to know how to shut the gas off at the source. In a major catastrophe 911 will not be able to help everyone at the same time. Take a vice grip or an adjustable wrench with you and leave it there. Attach it to the meter with a string or something so it doesn’t get lost.

Find the valve and give it a quarter turn to the right. That shuts off the gas flow.

Gas turn off valve.

Here is a cool site that explains everything you need to know. http://tinyurl.com/2b2nrm9
Red Cross course in emergency preparedness advises you to only turn the gas off if there is a strong gas smell or sound of gas escaping.

My meter is over behind the crazy neighbor’s house so I am not leaving my wrench there. Instead I have it sitting in a toolbox right outside the back door. Also, when I see the two new neighbor kids that live in back I am going to show them how to turn the gas off. It’s a good thing to know and that means pass it on.

1) So, today you found and posted the contact number for your gas company.

2) Found your gas meter and attached a wench or vice grips to it.

3) Learned I have a fruitcake neighbor and a dog that has great bladder control.

Ah life is good .

I have more crazy neighbor stories.

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OMG Look What My Earthworms Did!

Posted in community, sustainable lifestyle, tagged comfrey, compost bins, compost pile, composting, earthworms, nettle, organic compost, temperature of compost, worm composting on April 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

They saved me $9. Or made me $9 worth of organic compost. That’s what this 5 pound bucket of organic compost would cost me at Home Depot. I just harvested this in less than an hour. It cost me nothing to make. Labor was free. The earthworms did it for nothing.

I didn’t do anything except put clippings from the garden on a pile and the occasional kitchen scraps.

The paper is from the bottom of the birdcage. This is my version of ‘add manure’. I used a loosely applied facsimile of the lasagna method to compost. The lasagna method is a layer of green stuff, grass clippings, lettuce, kitchen scrapes, then a layer of brown stuff, dried leaves, coffee grounds, parakeet droppings and one time one pound of earth worms. I hadn’t done anything to it for about 3 years. I mean I never turned it or tossed it. I just piled stuff on it.

This is all the doings of hungry little earthworms. They work for scrapes. Earthworms are different from the red wigglers, Eisenia fetida that we use in our worm bin a.k.a. red worm, manure worm or fish worm. Red wigglers love being confined. Earthworms on the other hand, cousins to red wigglers, Lumbricus (genus) terrestris (species), nicknamed Lumber Jacks, would rather live outdoors footloose and fancy free in your garden or compost pile. Earth Worms: Have the power to move stones that weigh 50 times their own weight. They also ingest soil and organic matter equal to the amount of their body weight each day.

A friend of mine recently broke her ankle hiking and was not able to get to her usual spring time chores. So she put out an APB to anyone that could lend a hand in the garden until she got back on her feet. I volunteered and my first assignment was to sift and turn her compost pile(s). Something I had never done before. I could compost piles like a champ but what is this sifting thing all about?

She has 4 huge compost bins about 5 feet by 5 feet in varying stages of decomposition.

“First, Sift this pile into the bucket,” she said.” Right”, I said and got to sifting. I lifted up the little door and started pulling compost out and onto the sifter that sat on top of a 5 gallon bucket.

After about an hour of this we had a bucket full of compost. Nice beautiful rich and sweet smelling compost.

“Next,” she said “we are going to put all the stuff from this compost bin,” she pointed to the next bin in line,

into the compost bin you just emptied.” “Right” I said and started shoveling all the semi-composted stuff into the last stage composter. There were twigs and cut up tree trunks, and avocado seeds. It was all brown and all decomposing. This bin was different. It was open. I had to lift from the top. Using a different set of muscles here.

“Next,” she said, O.k. by now I am thinking this is a lot of dang work. What do you mean next? Does Mother Nature really go through all this? I don’ t think so. Anyway, next meant layering all the green stuff just collected which was about half a ton of nasturtiums from her river bank, with all the left over sifted parts from the first bin. I needed a pitchfork for this job. And oh yes she had the pitchfork so I got to work. Green stuff is lighter so this only took about 30 minutes. Now, it was layered and it was beautiful.

This is the layered look and what we were going for. Not quite pretty as a picture but close enough. Composting is not rocket science. However, it is a science and the University of Illinois Extension can tell you all about it. http://tinyurl.com/268ub52

There is something for everyone when it comes to composting. Die hard scientific types that have nothing but time and money to spend on composting. Then there are those like Donna who have the science down but tweak it to make it work for them. Then there are people like me who just more or less let nature take its course. I play around and learn some things just by accident.

1) A cup of java or at least a cup or two of the coffee grounds added to the compost every now and then and those little worms will work their little hoofies to the quick. Now, don’t be reporting me to the humane society. It is not really the caffeine. It is the organic makeup of a coffee bean that they love to munch on. It’s dessert. It keeps them happy and regular.

2) The PH in coffee grounds is around 7.0, that’s neutral and all the caffeine was pressed out the first go around. Starbucks or most coffee shops give away their coffee grounds. Just ask. While you are at it give your roses a shot too. Mulch with it and it will keep the snails at bay.

3) Comfrey leaves and stinging nettle can do things to the compost pile no other plants can. Check it out.

Donna finally announced that we were done for now. “Right,” I said only slightly wondering how long ‘for now’ was. Donna confessed, “Jeanne,” she said, “I am a really lazy composter.” Lazy? I queried. “Yup, I don’t do half the stuff the books tell you to do.” Yikes. If Donna considers herself lazy then I must be catatonic.

I don’t know what you call what I am doing, maybe just slave driving cause the worms were doing all the work.

I bought potting soil last fall to repot my bamboo. Now it’s spring and time for another round of planting. I looked at my compost pile and decided it’s time to get the dirt out.

I borrowed Donna’s sifter and finally worked my pile. There were a lot of Lumber Jack earthworms in there doing their thing. Good sign that they like the accommodations. Not only do the worms like it every seed I throw in there was sprouting. I had Avocado seeds, apricot, bamboo, comfrey, and a cherry forest growing in the compost pile. I had created a breeding ground. Good temp for sprouting but not hot enough to cook the pile down. I potted everything up that was sprouting.

Forest of cherry trees

Apricot and cherry tree

This time around I put in an oven thermometer I picked up at Goodwill for a buck, gave everything a big drink of worm tea to start the microorganisms working and covered it with some black plastic to warm it up.

The Kahala Hilton Worm resort

Some like it hot

If it gets too hot for the worms they can just mosey on over to a cooler area. They will be back when the microbes are done doing their hot number.

A compost pile that is really cooking should get to about 135-160 degrees. Maybe it will get hot and maybe it won’t. Either way hot or not I am fine with it. I get dirt no matter what I do. And I do as little as possible and that works for me.

Dirt cheap and loving it.

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How to start a Movement. Just Do It.

Posted in community, diy, GE, Genetically Modified Organism, GM, gmo, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle, tagged starting movements on April 14, 2010| 6 Comments »

Ring-a-ling, Ring-a- ling, Hello?

Just Pick up the phone and dial the number. Send that email. Just do it. The rest will happen. Had my 3-way conference call Friday with Shannon Biggs co-author of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots. Shannon Biggs directs the Local Economy project at Global Exchange. As a former senior staffer at the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) she wrote for and edited IFG publications, and was a lecturer on International Relations at San Francisco State University. She holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics in economics, empire and post-colonialism.

Building the Green Economy shows how community groups, families, and individual citizens have taken action to protect their food and water, clean up their neighborhoods, and strengthen their local economies. Their unlikely victories—over polluters, unresponsive bureaucracies, and unexamined routines—dramatize the opportunities and challenges facing the local green economy movement.

Drawing on their extensive experience at Global Exchange and elsewhere, the authors also:

* Lay out strategies for a more successful green movement

Describe how communities have protected their victories from legal and political challenges

Provide key resources for local activists

Ben Price, Projects Director for Community Environmental Defense Fund. Ben leads organizing across Pennsylvania where over 100 communities have adopted Legal Defense Fund-drafted laws. Mission Statement:

“Building sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.”

“We believe that we are in the midst of an escalating ecological crisis, and that the crisis is the result of decisions made by a relatively few people who run corporations and government. We believe that sustainability will never be achieved by leaving those decisions in the hands of a few – both because of their belief in limitless economic production and because their decisions are made at a distance from the communities experiencing the impact of those decisions. Therefore, we believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies set by state and federal governments, and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government, including the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights, preemption, and limitations on local legislative authority. Inseparable from the right to local self-government – and its sole limitation – are the rights of human and natural communities; they are the implicit and enumerated premises on which local self-government must be built.”

Me: I am just an ordinary person in an ordinary community that has for the past 10 years or so been fostering a growing disdain and dislike for GMO’s and their intrusive, invasive, insidious presence in our food chain. As far as I know I am the only person who feels this way. All that is about to change.

I have spearheaded petition drives, writing and calling campaigns, to our State and Federal government to get GMO’s labeled. These were national campaigns. Zero results. Apparently, State and Fed officials have their own agenda. Imagine my surprise. Lesson learned.

Time for a change. After 10 years I get it.

I want results. My son was reading Growing a Green Economy. “Read this.” He said. O.K. I said. Couldn’t put it down. This is a story about changing the way you do things and getting results. It is empowering. It hit a nerve.

Once our Supreme court decided to give Monsanto, AT&T, Blackwater, Walmart, Chevron, Freddie Mac, Wall Street and other such corporations personhood status I got a little worried.

That’s when I contacted Ben and he contacted Shannon and here we are having this three-way conversation. Shannon asked me questions. Are there GMO’s grown in your community? What do the local farmers think of GMO’s? What does the community think about GMO’s? Heck, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions.

So. “Let’s have a meet’ng” with the local farmers, and community members that have a vested interest in a green economy and community and find out what they think and what they need. O.k. I said. O.k. Shannon said, Ben said, fine.

Shannon said she will come and speak to the group. Cover her gas money and a place to stay and she will come and talk. Wow. That’s generous. And that was that. I said I will work on getting the group together and keep in touch by email. She is off to Bolivia this week I believe working on a rice project.

So, that is how the conversation went. I knew nothing going in and learned a lot. Maybe labeling GMO’s is not the way to go. Maybe, banning the production of GMO’s in this community is something we need to look at. I really am not sure where all this is going but I do know the worst of it is over. Getting started is the hardest part.

I have a list of people I am going to contact to get feedback and organizational help from. I am going to contact Melanie Blankenship of Nature’s Touch, Bob Banner of Hope Dance, Elizabeth Johnson of our little seed exchange group, Farmer Bill of Windrose Farms, Hunter Francis, Eric V. pres of a new group of local farmers called CCAN, Kevin Stephen of Huasna Valley Farm and Linnaea and Peter of STEYNBERG gallery.

I am in very good company here. I just contacted Melanie and asked her advise on the idea. We met once. I don’t know if she even really knows who I am. She does a local talk radio show every Saturday. I will wait for an answer. This is how things get started. We are off and running. Thank you both, Shannon and Ben, for your time. Bye for now.

This is good. Made the call, got started and nobody died.

p.s. This just in 04/15/10

Bayer admits GMO contamination is out of Control. ( and yes this is the same company that makes the baby aspirin.)

http://www.naturalnews.com/028585_GMOs_Bayer.html

04/19/10

Mainstream Scientists Finally Admit that GMOs are Environmentally Destructive

By Keith Good, ed.
FarmPolicy.com, April 14, 2010
Straight to the Source

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20631.cfm

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How to Get GMO’s Labeled. One for All. All for One Flash Movement.

Posted in community, diy, filmmaking, Genetically Modified Organism, GM, gmo, politics, worm bins, tagged flash movement, how to make worm tea., label GMO's, labeling GMO's, worm bins on March 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

My last 6 blogs were about GMO’s. It was a very one sided point of view, mine and about 200 million other people who view GMO’s as a man-made scourge upon the earth not unlike the biblical plague of locust described in Exodus.

I didn’t realize until I looked up the biblical reference to locust how similar the plagues of the bible correspond to the our modern day ‘curses.’ The biblical locust “descended upon the land and ate every living plant and tree.” Humm. Terminator seeds, Frankentrees and Roundup Ready crops created by Monsanto does the same thing. Kills everything it comes in contact with. Geez who needs gods to cast plagues upon the earth when we have man-made curses like Monsanto to do it for us? So, where is our modern day Moses to get us out of this mess? I wish I knew. I am not a particularly religious person but this has me wondering. All this plague stuff has to do with nature and living organisms.

The plagues as they appear in the Bible are:^[4]

(exodus 7 :14–25 ˄) water turned to blood killing all fish and other water life. (Dam)
(exodus 8 :1–8:15 ˄) frogs (Tsifardeah)
(exodus 8 :16–19 ˄) lice or gnats (Kinim)
(exodus 8 :20–30 ˄) beasts or flies^[5] (Arov)
(exodus 9 :1–7 ˄) disease on livestock (Dever) Mad cow?
(exodus 9 :8–12 ˄) unhealable boils (Shkhin)
(exodus 9 :13–35 ˄) hail mixed with fire (Barad)
(exodus 10 :1–20 ˄) locusts (Arbeh)
(exodus 10 :21–29 ˄) darkness (Choshech)
(exodus 11 ˄,12 ˄) death of the first-born of all Egyptian families. (Makat b’chorot)

These references are from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt

It just seems to me the key here is nature. If you want to get someone’s attention just threaten and change the natural order of things. GMO’s have changed the natural order of things. The Egyptian pharaoh was a pretty hard nut to crack. He didn’t ‘get it’ until after the all the fishes in the Nile died all the cows, donkeys and horses died and the scourge of flies, frogs, locust, lice and unhealable boils happened. Not until the death of his own first born did he finally get it.

Our government is a pretty hard nut to crack too. They don’t get it. I mean we are the only country that has not labeled these cursed GMO’S. We have made it a law to Not label GMO’s. That is just crazy talk. I mean really. What is it going to take to get things turned around before someone or something ends up dead? I think having 80% of all our food contaminated with GMO’s is enough of an indicator of where things are going. Cracking the nut in this case is just not worth the effort. By all indications the nut is rotten anyway so why even bother trying to crack it? Our government has had numerous opportunities to do the right thing by at least labeling GMO’s and has ignored every request to do so. So, I think now it’s time to ignore the rotten nuts and get on with picking something better.

Better Nuts worth Cracking

Rather than try to take on the rotten State or Federal government I am going to start this nut cracking business in my own backyard. I can do that by getting an ordinance written here in SLO that requires all GMO’s to be identified on the signage with a red dot at the Point of Purchase. I have talked about the organization Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund who helps people write ordinances. I also told you I would keep you posted as to the process. So far we are off to a bit of a bumpy start. I have been in contact with Ben Price and Shannon Biggs. Ben is working out of headquarters in Pennsylvania and Shannon is the Rep for California.

We have made our introductions. I have made my intentions known and the offer to have a 3 way phone conversation was extended by Ben. That was 3 weeks ago. I have since sent a follow-up email last week to Ben and Shannon indicating I am ready to get started. I am still waiting for a response. In the mean time I have learned we are a charter city, which is a good thing. Also am lining up local organizations I belong to as well as networking with farm organizations I think would be so inclined to back this ordinance.

Community involvement is key to this effort. The more the merrier. I am approaching this as a one for all all for one flash movement. If we could All join forces for just one big push or effort our chances of success are greatly increased.

After we succeed in passing this ordinance as a community we disband and go back to our regularly scheduled events. We can each be doing our own thing but when the need arises we can ban together as One in a Flash. Get the job done and then go back to what we were doing. One thing that really impressed me about CELDF was how they were able to organize at the local level. This local level stuff is very powerful. In fact, in many cases as they have proven, local laws and ordinances trump State and Federal laws .

Maine Town Passes Ordinance Asserting Local Self-Governance and Stripping Corporate Personhood | Press Release

“We do not recognize corporate personhood.” That trumps the Supreme Court ruling. Cities have successfully done this thereby disarming corporate mercenaries and rendering them helpless. Oh Yea that’s the ticket.

There are a lot of issues right now. Had to pick my battles. Getting GMO’s labeled is one. Growing timber bamboo in San Luis Obispo on the Dalidio property another and learning to edit iMovie the last one. I just told you about how I am working on the first one. Timber Bamboo is in the works. Learning to edit is well, it is a learning process. Want to see what I have learned so far? It will leave you laughing….. (so hard for me to post. It is so not perfect. But if I didn’t get it posted today on the full worm moon it was never going to get done.)

Precursor to viewing the video: Please apply the Japanese principle of Wabi-sabi. (侘寂^?) The Japanese characters are for you Samson just for fun.

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GMO’s: End of the Line part 5 of 5 by Mom

Posted in community, tagged GE, GM, GMO.Monsanto on March 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

Am re-posting this one. It was only up for 2 days. And here is the latest news from Huffington Post on the status of GMO Alfalfa. http://tinyurl.com/ylxbtuy

This is from Natural News.com as of March 17, 2010 http://www.NaturalNews.com/028388_GM_crops_kidney_damage.html GMO’s cause liver and kidney damage.

This is the last in a series on GMO’s and the First in a series on what to do about them.

I had a dream last night. I was in an old wooden warehouse. It was very spacious and dimly lit with only natural light though I did not see any windows. It had recessed worn down pathways for walking and a few people were strolling along it unhurried. Then rather suddenly it became a very congested crowded marketplace, hectic. People everywhere shoulder to shoulder. I felt trapped.

Someone friendly but unfamiliar approached with a tall white paper cup with a black lid on it. She said it was tea and asked me to deliver it to someone whose name I did not recognize. She began to explain where this person could be found. I listened trying to hear what she was saying but I only caught every other word. And the words I did catch didn’t make any sense. One word sounded like LEAD I think it was spelled LED in my dream and was particularly confusing. It sounded like a word I knew but it was not in any context.

Muffled sounds in the background and masses of out-of-focus people with very colorful clothing barely registered as I listened intently trying to make sense out of what she was saying. It seemed like a reasonable request and she seemed very calm amid all the confusion, in asking it. I agreed to do what she asked but explained I could not understand anything she was saying. She didn’t attempt any further explanation but just smiled confidently, pointed in the direction I was to go and handed me the paper cup. As I turned around to head in the direction she was pointing I was instantaneously engulfed in the crowd but not feeling trapped. I didn’t know how I was going to find the person I was to deliver the tea to but that did not seem to bother me.

The warehouse was now overflowing with people. The pathways disappeared. I headed for an open space that looked to be in an outdoor courtyard.

In the center of the courtyard was a huge object. Strange looking, different, interesting, nothing I had ever seen before. I was curious and approached the area. Standing near the object were 3 small children and a women, I took to be their mother. The children were light skinned, rosy cheeked, meek and mild yet very curiously studying the huge object that was doing nothing. The mother dressed in heavy dark clothing and wearing a brimmed hat pulled down over her ears was closest to the oldest of the three who appeared to be about 7 years old.

With a rather cautious but steadied hand the oldest boy reached out to touch a section of the object. The object was a ball encased in a case. It reminded me of how a ball bearing fits inside of a case and moves effortlessly within the casing. Such a curiosity. It was begging to be touched. I could feel the excitement and anticipation in the young boy’s outreached hand. Eyes twinkling with wonder. Then without warning, the woman strikes the child with great force across his head knocking him off balance while shouting. “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING.” The mild mannered rosy-cheeked child grabs the impact point on his face and looks at his mother in absolute confused, stunned, disbelief. The innocent, wondrous, magical curiosity that filled his whole being was gone replaced with a shattered vacant tearful stare.

My angry and rage was instantaneous but before I could do anything they evaporated into the crowd. At this point I woke up still feeling the angry . I started to recall the dream. I remembered this one. I remembered the feelings. It meant something. It made me think. To me dreams are about feelings. When we are awake, I think we rely more on our thinking brain to get things done. Which is a good thing especially when our brain says that is a stop sign. This usual means, however, we have very strong feeling about things that happen during the day but are not able to deal with them at the time. Grave injustices that are happening before our eyes, a child dies from hungry and we can do nothing but drive on. So we push these feelings down where they wait and wait sometimes for a very long time before we allow ourselves to feel them. Dreaming, I think is a way of allowing these feelings to happen without the hurt that goes with it. We don’t have to make sense out of our dreams or explain to our ego why we felt the way we did in the dream. It’s o.k. to dream. No guilt.

I went to sleep thinking about this blog. I was looking for an image to post that would depict the title I was wrestling with. Titles I had “GMO’s: the Beginning of the End.” “GMO’s End of the Line.” I am wondering if the answer I was wrestling with in my awake state wasn’t somehow tied up with the feelings I was having in this dream. I am now trying to get my head to listen to my heart to figure out what it all means. My logical, practical brain is saying never mind it is not important, DON’T GO THERE. My heart is saying this is very important stop thinking and listen to me.

I am listening. I am just not understanding. OMG. There it is. The part of the dream where I was not understanding the words. It all makes sense now. Well, just a little. I ran this dream by Cassie. I liked her interpretation best. There is a real conflict within me where I need to let go of some old feelings to make room for the fresh new ideas yet to be felt.

As you can tell from this series on GMO’s I feel very strongly about the subject. Using my dream as a guide I am going to venture into unchartered territory. I have contacted the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund http://www.celdf.org/ They help ordinary people write local ordinances. I want to introduce a local ordinance that would require all GMO products be identified with a single red dot on the Point of Purchase signage. This is a labeling strategy. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing or how to do it. That doesn’t seem to make a difference. All I know for sure is that I feel this is important and needs to be done. I may get slapped aside the head just as a reminder to keep touching things I have never touched before. So if you would like to follow along on this next adventure I will be posting the step by step process on how to write a city ordinance. You are going to get the ups the downs and everything in between. This is the Beginning of the End for GMO’s. Yea right. In my dreams.

Part 1 of the GMO story: Do Trees Sneeze?

https://holeinthefence.net/2009/12/18/what-is-a-gmo-do-trees-sneeze-1-of-6/

Part 2 of the GMO Story: The Big Bang.

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/01/gmo-part-2-of-6-the-big-bang/

Part 3 of the GMO Story- They Kingdom Come Thy will be Done

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/16/gmo-story-continued-thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done-on-earth-part-3-of-6/

Part 4 of the GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomato

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/02/02/gmo-story-part-4-attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes/

Part 5 of the GMO Story: End of the Line for GMO’s

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/03/07/gmos-end-of-the-line-part-5-of-5/

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A Short Intermission from the GMO Story with an Update on Samson & Fam

Posted in announcement, community, health & beauty, local businesses, money, nature, organic, organic gardening, politics, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle on February 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Busy as a bee

Samson was scheduled to do this week’s blog but he is up to his eyeballs in moving and getting settled. So, this is kind of an intermission. The intermission is a trailer for the award winning documentary Food, Inc. This comes with a warning. If you can’t stand the truth or you are not ready for the truth then do not watch this. “You will never look at your dinner in the same way again.”

I wondered about the old adage, “The truth hurts” and asked myself what does that mean? How can the truth be a bad thing? I pretty much decided that facts are about as close to the truth as you are going to get. Or perhaps the certainty of numbers are very close to an indisputable truth. I mean 1+1 for all intent and purposes is always going to = 2. So, who is hurt by the truth? I think honest persons can not be hurt by the truth.

Tell an honest person the truth and they will appreciate knowing it. However, tell a person who knows the truth and covers it up with an intent to deceive and you have someone who would be exposed for lying about the truth and that would hurt.

What is the truth? The truth is. What is a lie? A lie is a cover-up of the truth. The truth be told would expose a lie. So, only a liar could be hurt by the truth. And if that is the case then the old adage should really say, “The truth only hurts liars and that’s a good thing.”

I don’t have any idea of where all that came from. All I know is, that is what you get when someone says, We need something up and we need it up quick. So there’s quick.

Watch the trailer and tell me who you think is telling the truth and who you think is lying? And why.

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Also if you want the latest GMO news this is it.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20188.cfm

The Good News

http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/press/releases/us-court-ruling-on-gmo-rice-af

Even better news. How to Fight the Good Fight and win.

http://www.celdf.org/

http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=61

http://www.soyinfo.com/haz/gehaz.shtml great resource page for groups, blogs, organizations, political action groups

P.S. Added Feb. 10,2010: Huffington Post publishes the 12 most unethical companies in the WORLD. The worst of the worst. Too delicious. I am not an I told you so type person but I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!

http://tinyurl.com/yhy36hc

P.S.S. Studies link GMOs with toxins, allergies, infertility, infant mortality, immune dysfunction, stunted growth, accelerated aging, and death. Whistleblowers were fired, threatened, and gagged. Warnings by FDA scientists were ignored. Expert Jeffrey M. Smith, author of the #1 GMO bestseller Seeds of Deception, and Genetic Roulette, presents SHOCKING evidence why these gene-spliced crops may lead to health and environmental catastrophes. Learn how to protect yourself and discover the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America—a brilliant plan to quickly end the genetic engineering of our food supply.

Gotta see it.

http://vimeo.com/6575475

We will continue our regularly scheduled blog next week. Ciao for now.

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GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes part 4 of 5

Posted in community, tagged agriculture, Dow, FDA, Fictitious person, GE, GM, gmo, GMO Corn, GMO rice, GMO soy, jeffrey smith, killer tomato, Monsanto, Roundup, Roundup ready, US Supreme Court on February 2, 2010| 8 Comments »

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a 1978 cult comedy science fiction horror B movie about a high-level government experiment gone terribly awry when a group of giant, mutated tomatoes roll through suburbia on a spree of mayhem and murder. The movie was full of satire and irony. The title was just perfect for this subject. Everyone has at least heard of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes which always seems to get some sort of reaction, usual a head shake and smile as if to say, “that is so ridiculous it is funny.” Now that I have your attention I will show you the irony.

The plot thickens and a twist develops. Fourteen years after the Sci Fi movie in 1992 the Flavr Savr tomato was the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. It was produced by the Californian company Calgene, and submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992. It was first sold in 1994, and was only available for a few years before production ceased. Calgene made history but mounting costs prevented it from becoming profitable, and it was eventually acquired by the profit-making Monsanto Company. Pig genes were first used in tomatoes in 1992. Do you eat or slaughter a Genetically Engineered Tomato? With a genetically engineered tomato pumped full of pig genes you would have a ready-made bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich if you had some lettuce. They are working on the lettuce. That will be the sequel. Attack of the Killer BLT.

Here is the twisted bit. Fictitious persons (an oxymoron) have taken little bits and pieces of real live people and plants and created a real live killing machine (living machine is another oxymoron). The name of the Fictitious person is Monsanto. I am going to cast this character as the F’en-men. The F’en-men are terrorizing Mom’s Plant and Animal kingdoms. By using rape and lethal injection the F’en-men have screwed Mother Nature and devised a Third Kingdom. I am calling this Third Kingdom the F’en Kingdom. F is for Fictitious and ironically Frankenstein which is another science fiction horror story which lends itself very nicely to the F theme.

The F’en-men Modified Mother Nature’s creation by co-mingling Her 2 separate and distinct Kingdoms which if you read the earlier post was hell-bent on procreation and propagating life. Diabolic in nature, the F’en men proceeded in taking parts of a pig and putting it in a tomato or parts of human being into a cow or grain of rice or a bull to make it produce human milk. Mom is not happy with these new development. It defies all the laws of Nature. And we all know for a fact if Mom ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy. Mom will get even. That is Her Nature.

Keeping this simple is getting a little harder and to add another twist to this already twisted saga on January 21, 2010, the United States Supreme Court granted the F’en-men personhood. Yea, lets hear it for the Supreme Court.It would seem everyone even our Supreme Court who is made up of real persons, well maybe, is wanting to give life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to inanimate things like rocks, money and crap. So, we will use this latest development and ask the question

WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS MONSANTO?

This is Monsanto’s character references. Monsanto created, PCB’s, Agent Orange, DDT, Roundup, rBGH, Terminator seed and bought the rights to the killer tomato. Do you see a pattern here? Everything that Monsanto creates or lays claim to creating KILLS. Monsanto is a now a real live certifiable killing machine as so ordered by our US Supreme Court. This is wonderful news right?

Plants with human genes. Cannabilism?

Wonderful if you condone Rape, incest and lethal injections. Monsanto is mating human beings with plants and animals by forcible entry. In Mom’s world this is rape. In Mom’s world rape is the worst offense you can commit. This behavior is strictly against the laws of Nature and there is no doubt whatsoever that there will be consequences. Mating an animal gene with a plant gene is horrific enough but to mate a human gene with a plant is beyond belief. The gene pool is swimming in a toxic soup we have not seen since the beginning of time.

Now if you eat that tomato or bowl of rice injected with a human gene you could be eating a human embryo. I am not making this stuff up folks. This is happening as we speak. This new F’en mating process is called GMO. A Genetically Modified Organism. It is unnatural and we are consuming it everyday in every way and there will be consequences.

Our EPA and FDA are also key characters in this game of life. They are the crooked Referees that look the other way when someone on their team commits a foul. They didn’t insist on any long-term testing on GMO’s so 80% of our produce now in the grocery stores is GE. Europe has placed a ban on all GMO products because they don’t know what it is doing to the gene pool. No body knows. In Europe they are much more civilized and do not believe in using the general public as lab rats like we do here in America. Everything a GMO in Europe is labeled by law. Everything a GMO in America is not labeled by law. People in Europe look for the GMO label and avoid it. Europe will not buy our corn or soy products. They are all GMO’s. Japan will not buy our rice. GMO’s.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE GMO’S GONE?

They have gone to US corn flakes, corn syrup, pop corn, tortillas, soy milk and soy burgers, rice krispies, rice cakes,tomatoes, potatoes, baby food, dog food, bread. GMO Corn is feed to the cows that produce the dairy and meat products we eat and our kids eat. Milk, cheese, ice cream, hamburgers from MacDonald, Burger King and Tahoe Joes. GMO corn is feed to the chickens we roast and the eggs we eat. We have no labeling ban on GMO’s. GMO’s are everywhere and in everything. Potatoes have fish genes in them to keep them from freezing. Hersey uses GMO sugar beets to make Kisses. The Kiss of death only in America. Drugs, medicine, and vaccines for our kids all untested, unnatural, totally foreign red flag inducing genes running helter skelter through our blood streams making pig fat, fish scales, frog skin, boobs on boys, sterilizing sperm, and there is more.

GMO’s are Rape. No miracle or magic here like in the pollination and procreation process Mother Nature was so meticulous about. Just a cheap shot.

Cheap shot

FDA approved Corn Porn

And our friends at the FDA has legalized Rape and told Monsanto, the F’en-man now F has another meaning, go for it. It’s all good.

The animal gene injected into a plant that had strict orders from Mom to stay out of the plant’s room is now up to it’s eyeballs in uncharted territory. The plants may be a little confused as well. Something is growing inside of it that has never been there before. Normally under these circumstances there are guard cells that attack foreign or alien objects, beat them up and toss them out. The battle between the invading cells manifests itself as diseases, like cancer, autism, fibromyalgia, etc. It is natures way of defending itself. But there are no guard cells yet programmed to stop this F’en Kingdom invader. Nature will evolve and will create a counter attack to these invaders. What will then occur are new diseases to fight the foreign invaders.

F'en manporpoise

The next time you are driving through the bread basket of America and see Amber waves of grain,fruited plains and corn as high as an elephant’s eye beware. Chances are that these are the killing fields making toxic pollen killing all the pollinators the birds, bees and butterflies. The wind is carrying the Terminator seed pollen to contaminate and enter the gene pool of that organic red corn that once kept an entire culture healthy, wealthy and wise. Roundup kills everything it comes in contact with.

Roundup is Monsanto’s Pride and Joy, Cream of the Crop.

Roundup is sprayed in school yards where your kids play, Monsanto’s Roundup linked to deadly diseases and birth defects,

Posted at Hawthorn elementary School

and it runs off into the storm drains where fishes drink it and it ends up in our drinking water.

storm drain runoff @ Hawthorn elementary

I run my dog on this grass. My grand babies played soccer on this grass. Little league baseball is played here. There is a children’s garden with lettuce and tomatoes right next to the posted warning sign. City, county, state agency’s use deadly Roundup on all public lands to kill stuff. Landscaping services for shopping malls, open spaces, houses and apartment complexes spray Roundup regularly to kill stuff. I am starting to take this killing thing personally. We have devised a million and one ways to kill something and yet we do not know how to bring one single thing back to life.

I was wondering how I was going to end this. I read the last sentence to Cassie. This was her response. “That is really stupid. Everybody always tells you to make a copy on an external hard drive so if your computer crashes, you get the blue screen, error, abort, this file will self destruct in 10 seconds message then you can rest assured you have a copy. You will not lose everything. You can start over. Make a copy of your work, always backup is key.” This is perfect example. Monsanto has no backup. It kills stuff and its dead and there is no bringing it back ever, no how.

We have all experienced the absolutely devastating feeling of losing a file, records, pictures, reports, that cannot be duplicated. There is no command z in nature where you can undo the last action when you contaminate the gene pool, kill a species. Terminator seeds are the delete button in nature and there is no backup. Last night I feel asleep trying to finish this blog. Yup, I unconsciously hit the delete key. I have spent all day collecting the information from the original rough draft I saved. Thank you god. I am done. It is dark. I am hitting save and backing this up.

UPDATE ON ROUNDUP CAUSES BIRTH DEFECTS. JUNE 14, 2011 http://www.panna.org/blog/chemical-trespass-roundingup-birth-defects

Part 1 of the GMO story: Do Trees Sneeze?

Part 2 of the GMO Story: The Big Bang.

Part 3 of the GMO Story- They Kingdom Come Thy will be Done

Part 4 of the GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomato

Part 5 of the GMO Story: End of the Line for GMO’s

Update: June 18, 2010 on Monsanto’s Roundup.

Scientist warns of dire consequences with widespread use of glyphosate
By Ken Roseboro, ed.
The Organic and Non-GMO Report, Posted June 14, 2010

LATEST NEWS ON GMO’S FEBRUARY 28,2011

The following links are the latest very disturbing plans put into effect by our Food Czars.

Genetically modified corn for fuel production and that makes 3 GMO’s approved in one week. The other two were alfalfa and sugar beets – January 31, 2011

Yet another blow to organics: USDA approves Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets – February 6, 2011

Honey story out of Germany about GMO proteins in Honey, natures most perfect food –February 10,2011

World’s First Genetically Engineered Biofuels Corn Threatens Contamination Of Food-Grade Corn – February 11, 2011

Monsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers –February 21,2011

Roundup, GMOs linked to emergence of deadly new pathogen causing spontaneous abortions among animals February 23, 2011

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GMO Story Continued: Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will be done on earth… part 3 of 5

Posted in community, health & beauty, site updates, sustainability, sustainable lifestyle, tagged animal kingdom, genes, genetics, GMO's., plant kingdom on January 16, 2010| 3 Comments »

A plant cell is different from an animal cell. Different because the genes in a plant cell are programmed to make roots, stems and leaves

not bones, tissues, organs. KISs.

Keeping it Simple simon. Simply, plant cells will separate just like the animal cells. That’s the organism part, but with very different results because of the genetic makeup.

What is the difference and Who cares?

The plant cells are coded differently than animal cells.

Plant cells have a cell wall for support and protection, and an animal cell does not. Plants make their own food by turning sunlight into energy. Don’t we wish we could do that? As it is animals, birds, people, lizards, snakes and fish consume food made by plants then break it down into usable parts in the body. Without plants we can’t make energy. Without energy we die.

There is not one single gene in a plant cell that would or could produce a nose, a molar or pinkie toe. There was genius in this creation. Mom, The Master Scientist, had a very good reason for keeping these two living organisms separate and distinct.

Can animals have sex with plants?

Co-mingling of kingdoms would be catastrophic of atomic proportions.

Remember how all this got started in the first place. Lots of atoms flying all over the place until they found their soul mates and stayed put.

Plants and animals have two separate and distinct operating systems that produce 2 separate and distinct kingdoms here on earth. Mom gave each kingdom their own room on Planet Earth. The Plant Kingdom in one room and the Animal Kingdom in another room. There are several serfdoms within the 2 kingdoms. They are mosses, bacteria, protista and mushrooms. They are living so they are organisms. Their reproduction is a little more complicated so we are not going to get into that here. GMO’s are all about the sex lives of plants and animals so we are sticking with these two for now.

The 2 kingdoms lived in harmony with each under the same roof and never once in a hundred, never in a million, never in a billion years did those little bundles of plant and animal genes ever sleep together.

I mean they never ever had sex where the genes from the plant family mated with the genes from the animal family. Because of their genetic makeup mating would be impossible anyway. That was the whole idea. They were never even attracted to each other. No chemistry going on here between the plant and animals genes.

Ever notice how close the words organism and orgasm are?

This is what plants genes do when they start carrying on with one another. They pollinate. Reproduce. Plant genes make trees, bushes, flowers, pine trees, and grasses.

This is what animal cells do when they procreate. They make jellyfish, starfish, sharks, whales, snakes, birds, cats, dogs and people.

So, in Her wonderfully whimsical fashion Mom patented these genes right at the atomic level where the cell difference between the 2 kingdoms occurred. This allowed each kingdom to evolve into many diverse and different families, genus, and species.

When we eat broccoli we are not eating broccoli genes. We are eating the sum and substance of the finished product after all the genes have finished the job.

When we eat pork chops we are not eating pork genes. We are eating the muscles and tissue of the pig after the genes have turned it into pig parts. A gene is an embryo.

The whole purpose plants turn into plants and animals turn into animals is to get to a point where reproduction can take place. Growing roots, leaves and stems is all about getting to the reproduction parts that is the seed to insure survival of the species. Monsanto has created a terminator seed. The plant makes a seed that can’t reproduce. What is the point here? This is not what nature intended.

The same holds true in the animal kingdom. We are all about making seeds for procreation. Then when you get to my age it is all about going to seed. But lets not go there just yet.

I don’t have room here to talk about all the sex and pollinating that goes on in plant kingdom. Just know this they self-pollinate, cross-pollinate, hybridize,lure and tease insects and animals like the bees, butterflies, and birds into transporting their sperm and depositing it within the clutches of some horny little females plants. Plants clump and run to stay alive as in bamboo and crabgrass. They go underground and come with potatoes, yams, daffodils and onions. Coconuts, dates and rose hips are all seeds. Plants are dead set on surviving. We are now at a very critical point in this story. It is key to understanding the difference between a man made GMO/GE/GM and Mom’s hybridizing and cross-breeding.

hybridizing – (genetics) the act of mixing different plant species or different animals species thus to produce hybrids. A grapefruit is a hybrid. It is a cross between a Jamaican sweet orange (Citrus sinensis);and the Indonesian pomelo (Citrus maxima). A cockapoo is a hybrid. It is a cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle. Where the heck did a poodle come from? All dogs belong to the Canine Family. Chart upper left explains the order of things. Pay attention there will be a test.

Hybridizing is a matter of breeding. Dogs breed, horses breed, but not with each other. Hybridizing is a survival thing and Mother Nature has been doing it for eons. This is a very important fact to remember. Breeding and hybridizing are a natural thing. Breeding and hybridizing is not the same as modifing. Modifing genes is a man-made thing. Not natural.

The animal kingdom is the largest kingdom on earth. I think it is the largest because of those damn ants.

Animals adapted and evolved for exactly the same reasons the plants did, survival. This relationship between Mom and her kids has worked very well for the last 100 billion years or so.

Enter Man. Not just any man a Fictitious man. Fictitious man means; like a person but not really a person. Are Fictitious persons alive? Oh, these F-Men are something all together different and they changed Mom’s Master plan.

The F-Men created an F’en Kingdom

Mom is pissed. And we know when Mom ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy.

part 4 of the GMO story Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Part 1 of the GMO Story: Do trees Sneeze?

https://holeinthefence.net/2009/12/18/what-is-a-gmo-do-trees-sneeze-1-of-6/

Part 2 of the GMO Story: The Big Bang.

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/01/gmo-part-2-of-6-the-big-bang/

Part 3 of the GMO Story- They Kingdom Come Thy will be Done

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/16/gmo-story-continued-thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done-on-earth-part-3-of-6/

Part 4 of the GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomato

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/02/02/gmo-story-part-4-attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes/

Part 5 of the GMO Story: End of the Line for GMO’s

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/03/07/gmos-end-of-the-line-part-5-of-5/

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GMO part 2 of 5 The Big Bang

Posted in community, tagged ATP, Big Bang, cells, DNA, genetics, gmo, molecules on January 1, 2010| 4 Comments »

The Big Bang

ATP is the Big Bang that happens every single time and a cell is born.

The group that was hell-bent on taking over the world is the living group. Anything living is an Organism. Organisms are very special and unique in every way. They are Special because since that first group of atoms got together and made up the elements which formed a molecule which started life on this planet everything living now came from that single magic spark billions of years ago.

That spark created energy, E=mc2, and we can’t do it. Only Mom knows the secret ingredients and she isn’t telling anyone yet. It all started with an atom. We can split atoms. Join atoms. But we can’t create one from scratch. http://www.wimp.com/bigbang/ Every single time a cell reproduces the entire creation of life from the beginning of time happens in a split second. Now that is what you call a big bang.

We can collect seeds, exchange seeds, cross-pollinate mix and match them. We can freeze sperm but if something were to happen and all the trees and plants stopped producing seeds or the body stopped producing sperm and eggs we could not go into our laboratories or GSI super accelerators, nuclear power plants or mile long quasar tunnels and recreate that secret recipe Mom cooked up way back when those first molecules formed a cell and split in two and life began. You see we have devised a million and one ways to kill something but not one way to bring something back to life.

The population of the world is at 6,692,030,277. There are 350,000 extant species of plants. Zoologists have recorded 20,000 species of fish, 6,000 species of reptiles, 9,000 birds, 1,000 amphibians, and 15,000 species of mammals. And, although there are a million named species of insects, scientists estimate that there could be another million waiting to be discovered and named! About 1.8 Million have been given scientific names. The National Science Foundation’s “Tree of Life” project estimates that there could be anywhere from 5 million to 100 million species on the planet, but science has only identified about 2 million.

Currently we are destroying habitat and environments in the rain forests and Amazon faster than we can discover and ID species. So again we can kill something and once it is dead it is dead. We can not bring plants, animals, people or a single cell back to life. And it all started with a atom that formed the elements that formed the first molecule. This is a molecule. It consists of two or more atoms.

Amazing Molecule.

Molecules stick together. Not wanting to have to reinvent the wheel every time they got together Mom hardwired each molecule with the exact DNA sequences of its makeup. You know about this DNA stuff Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Mom is all about being practical so hard wiring each molecule will save a lot of time and energy in the future. Some molecules joined up with other molecules and now they are living under the same roof called a cell.

All those hardwired molecules or encoded genes that make up cells is called genetics. That’s the G in GMO’s. Each of those genes has a little piece of something from the beginning of time like oxygen, sodium, magnesium, don’t forget the starlight, and carbon. Carbon is a biggie, it is in all living things and some non-living things like water but we are not going to talk about water here because that is astrophysics and I promised to keep it simple. Just know that we need carbon and it is part of the makeup of all living things. And remember also, too much of a good thing is too much. It is all about balance.

Because of their atomic makeup those little molecules had so much energy they were bouncing off the walls inside a cell. And before you knew it there was a big bang and that little bundle of energy split in two. And miracle of miracles it created more energy when it split. Now it is making more cells. The splitting caused a chain reaction making more energy, more splitting happening at lightning speed and it couldn’t stop splitting, making new cells, until you have every living, breathing thing here on earth. That’s an Organism and it is life. That is the O in GMO. Look around you. Everything living and breathing that started billions of years ago is still dividing, and multiplying and trying to take over the world.

For something to be alive it has to do these 6 things.

Reproduce, Grow, Breath, Change with the environment, Make energy, Die

Rocks, gold, silver, diamonds and the like don’t eat, breath, die or excrete, or get together and make more rocks, gold and silver or diamonds. That would be nice but these are non-living things. These have nothing to do with Organisms.

Life is just one continuous Bang after another.

This is a Single human cell. This was you and me a nanosecond before the big bang occurs and a little atomic reaction called nuclear fission goes off, bang, and the cell divides. Got a clone. Mother like daughter.

Mother=Daughter

Now you have two totally self-sufficient cells with encoded molecules that have everything they need to divide again. They work creating energy and divide again, bang, bang and in a blink of an eye a hundred trillion little bangs traveling at the speed of light form cells that form a person with ears, blue eyes, a nose, pinkie toes, left handed, brown hair, Nervous system, Circulatory system, Endocrine system, Muscular system, Reproductive system, Respiratory system, Skeletal system, Excretory system. It’s a freaking miracle don’t you know.

The original cell is mom and the split cell an exact duplicate is the daughter. This is genetics and eventually after all the banging is over you get born. This is the end result of a single cell with noses in its DNA.

Just a little side note here. The question may arise. Why don’t we all look exactly alike if we all start out as a clone of the original cell? Now we are getting into astrophysics. But it is suffice to say that the odds of every atom hooking up with exactly the same encoded molecules that determine hair and eye color, size, shape, etc is astronomical. In lay terms, the odds are a little greater than winning the lottery. And because we can not recreate time, ah ha, there’s the rub that time thing, duplication at the time of creation is, lets just say for all intensive purposes impossible. And that is the reason why every single living thing on earth is absolutely unique. That is to say also, you are an original.

Plants cells do the Big Bang too.

Now we get to the part that explains why trees don’t have noses. This is a plant cell.

It is different from an animal cell. Different because the genes in the plant cell are programmed to make roots, stems and leaves, not bones, tissues and organs. It is a wonder. And this concludes part 2.

Part three is about two extraordinary developments. The Plant and Animal Kingdoms and the beginning of the F’en Wars. Stay tune.

Part 1 of the GMO story: Do Trees Sneeze?

https://holeinthefence.net/2009/12/18/what-is-a-gmo-do-trees-sneeze-1-of-6/

Part 2 of the GMO Story: The Big Bang.

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/01/gmo-part-2-of-6-the-big-bang/

Part 3 of the GMO Story- They Kingdom Come Thy will be Done

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/01/16/gmo-story-continued-thy-kingdom-come-thy-will-be-done-on-earth-part-3-of-6/

Part 4 of the GMO Story: Attack of the Killer Tomato

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/02/02/gmo-story-part-4-attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes/

Part 5 of the GMO Story: End of the Line for GMO’s

https://holeinthefence.net/2010/03/07/gmos-end-of-the-line-part-5-of-5/

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