On Jun 11, 10:54 am, dr-s...@wi.rr.com wrote:
> spring semesterhttp://weloveteaching.com/spring/syllabus.html
> fall semesterhttp://weloveteaching.com/fall2006/syllfall2006.htm
> It is an interdisciplinary science course for non science majors.
> I pick various topics each semester. these topics change, altho some
> I have them do on a rather consistent basis including monoculture and
> GMO (altho my minor is genetics mostly molecular and I think
> recombinant DNA rocks when used for the right purpose)
> Ingrid
Thanx; informative
cheers
oz, who picks and sings each month at Baker Creek ( rareseeds.com )
> On Jun 8, 10:49 am, dr-s...@wi.rr.com wrote:
> > every year I teach my college students about the threat of GMOs, of
> > monoculture and monogenetics. I hit on the inbuilt pitfalls of the
> > "green revolution", I use the Harvest of Fear tape by Frontline to
> > teach them about GMOs. And then I give them the background on why
> > "better and more starch" does not make for healthy humans.
> > they used that "poor washing" to push GMO yams or sweet potatoes or
> > something like that onto African farmers. yeah, right, what Africans
> > need is a cheap source of high quality protein, not starches. Protein
> > builds brains and keeps the immune system humming. So they want to
> > institute a GMO yam and now the whole crop of entire parts of Africa
> > will all be susceptible to the next mutation and the whole crop will
> > crash and people starve. The Irish potato famine all over.
> >
> > There is plenty of milk in the US, but Monsanto knew if they could
> > push GMO milk down the throats of American kids, we would buy ANYTHING
> > GMO. and they were right.
> >
> > There is plenty of food in the world. people starve because there are
> > wars, transportation problems and greed.
> > Ingrid
>
> Interesting
>
> What is the listing of the class(es) you teach?
>
> cheers
>
> oz, who taught undergrad and grad classes in ecology in the 70's and
> 80's
YOU TAUGHT CLASSES? Then you know how this is supposed to work. Suck it
up and be professional. You want to screw around? It would be nice to
see your bone fides.
- Billy
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)
<Charlie> wrote in message
> http://countercurrents.org/dixon070607.htm
> Is Bill Gates Trying To Hijack
> Africa's Food Supply?
> By Bruce Dixon
> 07 June, 2007
> Black Agenda Report
> Genetically altered crops will rescue Africa from endemic shortfalls in
> food production, claim corporate foundations that have announced a $150
> million "gift" to spark a "Green Revolution" in agriculture on the
> continent.
> Of course, U.S.-based agribusiness holds the patents to these
> wondercrops, and can exercise their proprietary "rights" at will. Are
> corporate foundations really out to feed the hungry, or are they
> hypocritical Trojan Horses on a mission to hijack the world's food
> supply --- to create the most complete and ultimate state of
> dependency.
> "Poor-washing" is the common public relations tactic of concealing
> bitterly unfair and predatory trade policies that create and deepen
> hunger and poverty with clouds of hypocritical noise about feeding the
> hungry and alleviating poverty. It's hard to imagine a better case of
> media poor-washing than the hype around the recently announced $150
> million "gifts" of the Gates and Rockerfeller Foundations to the cause
> of reforming African agriculture, feeding that continent's impoverished
> millions and sparking an African "Green Revolution."
> For ADM, Cargill, Monsanto and other agribusiness giants farming as
> humans have practiced it the last ten thousand years is a big problem.
> The problem is that when farmers plant and harvest crops, setting a
> little aside for next year's seed, people eat, but corporations don't
> get paid. That problem has been so thoroughly solved in U.S. food
> production that chemical fertilizers and pesticides create a biological
> dead zone of hundreds of square miles in the Gulf of Mexico where the
> Mississippi, draining much of the continent's richest farmland, empties
> into it. U.S. law requires the registration all crop varieties, and
> makes it extraordinarily difficult for farmers to save and plant their
> own seed year to year without paying royalties to corporations who
> "own" the genetic code of those crops.
Fn csers. I was thinking down a similar track last week around the news
stories about G8 aide to Africa & how much of it was aimed not as food aid
but infrastructure aid. I wondered how much of it got delivered to African
farmers via the likes of permaculture education. From time to time I come
across stories of the likes of Bill Mollison doing small scale permy
agriculture work in africa and the americas. Bunging a lot of the money
through similar ventures seems money well spent to me. Grass roots, small
scale, local cash cropping farmers using sustainable and indigienous
prctices.
As for the multinationals trying to trade mark centuries old food stocks, fn
csers.
I have started to harvest some of my seeds (along with a guy @ work), only
the very early stages mind, as well as looking at heirloom fruit trees. If I
can keep some money out of the pockets of the bastard multinats then thats
great. So far I have propogated some second generation lettuce seeds,
broccoli and potatos. A woman down the road has a small orchard in her
(sizeable) back garden with trees dating back 40, 60 maybe 70 years. Maybe
even older. I am doing a bit of work with her and others to make them
available for grafting. That'll be fun stuff for the end of winter.
rob
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> fall semesterhttp://weloveteaching.com/fall2006/syllfall2006.htm
> It is an interdisciplinary science course for non science majors.
> I pick various topics each semester. these topics change, altho some
> I have them do on a rather consistent basis including monoculture and
> GMO (altho my minor is genetics mostly molecular and I think
> recombinant DNA rocks when used for the right purpose)
> Ingrid