Hawaii Aspartame Bill Deferred

From Stephen Fox regarding Hawaii Aspartame Ban.

Hawaii Lawmakers’ Plan to Ban Aspartame: Update
Dr. Josh Green and his Health Committee ‘Defer’ the Bill, Thus Killing the Bill for this Session
By Stephen Fox

Rather than bring this House bill to ban aspartame to a vote in his Health Committee in the Hawaii House, which is what he said he would do only last Friday in the prior meeting of his committee, Chairman Josh Green M.D. today, Wednesday, “deferred at the discretion of the Chair” the bill carried by Rep. Mele Carroll to ban Aspartame. This shoots that particular bill down for this session. There still is a Senate Bill, but with more than 3,000 bills to consider, the Senate Bill to ban aspartame has yet to be scheduled for its hearing.

So much for consumer protection in Hawaii House. It didn’t even come to a vote in the committee, but a few members spoke seriously of putting together a Resolution for this session in Honolulu. Resolutions have no legal “teeth” in them, but they could be strong, as strong as the legislators themselves, like directly asking the FDA Commissioner to rescind the approval of Aspartame immediately, or at least to improve the accuracy of the labeling, and even to ask the Department of Health in Hawaii to take in complaints of patients and families of those who have actually died from aspartame/methanol/diketopiperazine poisoning, and then report back to the Legislature next year.

By then, of course, President Obama will have appointed a new FDA Commissioner, so those who feel strongly should be writing to him and the chap from Arizona, Mr.McCain. Consumer protection should be part of the agenda and choices in the 2008 Presidential Debates.

If the Resolution crafted by the Hawaii Representatives only asks the usual kind of thing, for the Department of Health to “review the literature,” or some other such pusillanimous mousey feeble intention, this would be a waste of Legislative time and paper, since the Department of Health Director, Dr. Fukino, has already indicated that she is completely in accordance with the phoney FDA approval for aspartame.

Besides, the medical testimony and letters sent to the House Health Committee members include all but tone of the top medical experts in the world on the subject of aspartame’s neurodegenerative effects. To me, it seems that the Hawaii DOH is not willing nor capable of doing much more than pulling down corporate-sponsored aspartame information from their corporate websites, which will tell you that this deadly poison is as “harmless as mother’s milk” or “just like salt and pepper,” the kind of jive the corporate lobbyists spout to legislators when their boards of directors begin to get a little worried.

All that will happen really is that more people in Hawaii will drink or consume aspartame and get migraines, brain tumors, Multiple Sclerosis, worse cases of diabetes than were ever imaginable, etc., and Hawaii will just observe an increase the death-by- aspartame body count; a real resolution would set up a repository for victim testimony all year round.

So far, only a few legislators in Hawaii or New Mexico or even Washington D.C. have given these neurotoxic carcinogenic poison manufacturers anything to worry about at all, since most of the legislators don’t seem too worried about anything either (what’s a little neurotoxic carcinogen too worry about, anyway?) or very ambitious about consumer protection ideals in the first place.

I had respectful and sincere high hopes for Dr. Green’s abilities for recognizing the medical realities of this neurotoxin’s effects, since it is found in 7000 food products and even in hundreds of children’s medications, despite it turning into methanol and formaldehyde in the child’s or the adult’s stomach and liver.

Thus, my faith in his medical degree and the fact that he is the only physician in the Legislature were perhaps misplaced. We will see what the Resolution has to say. In the meantime, my advice to Hawaiians: please protect yourself and your family and quit drinking and consuming products that contain aspartame, even though the manufacturers in Japan, the Board of Directors of Ajinomoto (world’s largest manufacturer of both Aspartame and another neurotoxic food additive, MSG), the Coca Cola distributors, the Wrigley’s Gum Board of Directors, and the people poisoning themselves with more diet sodas, are most certainly very happy and grateful with the work today by Josh Green, M.D., Chairman of the Hawaii House Health Committee.

Maybe someday this will dawn on him and the rest of the committee, but for the past, present and near future victims of aspartame poisoning in Hawaii, it will be too late.

Mahalo for sharing so many victims’ stories and physicians’ letters; I particularly appreciate New Mexico Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino writing to the legislators to ask them to move this bill forward, and to not capitulate to corporate lobbyists from Ajinomoto and Coca Cola; I appreciate your help immensely.

All of our efforts will save lives in Hawaii, and, like leaded gas, DDT, and asbestos, the grim truth about aspartame will someday be known by all!

Stephen Fox
Managing Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News
Founder of New Millennium Fine Art
505 983-2002

The Moat

The Moat

Here’s what my garden looks like from a distance. Canals on three sides keep it dry. Around the corner to the right is also a canal. The canals also function as a security barrier, keeping out unwanted visitors.

The water level is only 30-45cm (1-1.5 feet) below the surface of the garden, keeping the ground at least a little wet almost all the time.

Sometimes the ground is too wet. Over the weekend I was digging in the greenhouse. Even though the weather was clear and warm (just like this picture), when I came back on Monday I found it raining inside the greenhouse because the water was evaporating from the freshly dug earth and condensing on the inside of the glass. I think it may be a challenge to keep the inside of the greenhouse dry enough throughout the summer.

In case you are all wondering why I posted pictures of the rain water collection containers a few days ago, when I have all of this lovely water right next to the garden, let me assure you it is not suitable for use in the garden. There is too much dumping, legal and otherwise, and the water is very dirty. We had to dredge some of the canals a few weeks ago, and what came out smelled like a mixture of motor oil and sewage. There is enough flow through the canals that the water is exchanged about once a day with fresh water that comes from the ground together with rain water, and this flow is enough to keep our gardens clean.

In theory at least I could dig a hole, a pond if you like, that I could use to grow water plants or as a source of water for the garden. I think with this I might have the problem of mosquitoes or other insects. I don’t know of anyone else in the garden complex who has tried this. Perhaps with a little work I could create a balanced ecosystem with fish and so on. Anyway, this is a project for another year, first a garden!

Decision on Aspartame Bill Delayed Until Wednesday

Stephen Fox made a post here with updated information on the Hawaii Aspartame bill.

The Hawaii House Health Committee decided last week not enough evidence had been presented to prove aspartame was unsafe, and has given a few more days for this to be gathered and presented.

It’s not to late to send emails or call.  In the post above Stephen Fox gives some more information on the best way to do this.  Even if you have emailed or called before, consider doing it again for this hearing.

Seed List

For some time now I’ve had a list of seeds I was offering to readers of this blog. Since last year I mostly only grew garlic, this list from two years ago is starting to get very out of date and so I’m going to take it down. Perhaps in the fall I will put another list together.

If there is anything you see on this blog and you would like to have some seeds, please send me an email and we’ll see if we can arrange something. If we have never traded seeds before, and you have nothing to offer in return in the way of seeds I usually ask that you pay a little bit to cover the cost of postage and packing materials. This is usually the equivalent of a couple of US dollars in cash sent in a letter, and I accept several different currencies.

In August or September I will probably have some garlic bulbs to share. I will post details then. If you don’t have anything to trade, shipping costs will be a little higher for this.

Sending anything like this to the US is always a bit of a problem. Most seeds can be sent to the US, but require you apply for a permit in advance, this is called the ‘Small Lots of Seed Permit’. Since I am not a US resident, I cannot apply for this permit, you must do this yourself. Imports of garlic are generally not allowed into the US. If you want to go to the trouble of getting a permit, I will try to cooperate with you on sending some seeds. Please send me an email for more details.

Indicator Plants

What started out as a post on garlic rust a few days ago, has turned into a fascinating discussion on soil deficiencies and indicator plants.

Søren just made a great post on determining things about your soil health by looking at the weeds in your garden.  This is based on the idea that some weeds prefer nutrient imbalances or other conditions, so by looking at what’s growing in your garden you can get clues as to what problems you may have.

While Søren’s post focuses on weeds commonly found in Denmark, Chris pointed out a book on ‘weed reading’ that’s probably more general in scope.