We Are All Seeds
This is Your Brain on Beer
If you grew up in America in the ’70s or ’80s, you certainly know this ad that was played on TV. Even then it was very controversial, and no one really took it seriously, but it was an important part of the mindset that led to the war on drugs. It was part of this vague, pseudo-science, that in effect was to make young people believe cigarettes were the only safe drug to use.
We’ve just had a similar ‘education campaign’ in Europe, that led to the drinking age being raised in several places, including Holland. This happened even over the objections of parents of young people, the majority of whom wanted their children to continue to be able to buy alcohol. Drinking damages the brains of young people, was the rallying call. Isn’t it time we grew up, and stopped this kind of nonsense?
A recent study now shows no statistical correlation between alcohol use in young people and brain development. How is this study different from all those other studies in the past that showed young brains were damaged? Well, previous studies concentrated on young people who had signs of dependence on alcohol, and who often had other psychiatric problems. This latest study focused on a typical cross section of the population, and compared young but otherwise normal drinkers with their non-drinking counterparts.
Spam, Salt, Sugar, Spam, Spam, Fat and Spam
The Netherlands is a tiny country, but even still is the worlds second largest exporter of food. Chances are, if you eat a tasteless tomato, cucumber or gouda cheese, that’s been imported, it’s probably from here.
When the WRR issues a report [in Dutch], a think tank which advises the government on food policy, the chances are good the consequences of this will be heard around the world.
The report goes into some detail on how production of meat and dairy are bad for the environment. Basically the problem is the animal feed here is based largely on GMO soy imported from Latin America, at great expense to the environment and livelihoods of people there. It’s then fed to the farm animals here, which live in factory farms and poop it out. It’s then spread all over the country, which contaminates pretty much everything.
Many farmers are extremely unhappy, because there are actually EU rules on how much animal waste can be disposed of in this way, and they are regularly at or over these limits in the Netherlands. These rules make it much more expensive for the farmers, because they have to export the waste to other countries.
As well as polluting the environment, diets based on this food are making people fat and causing health problems all over the world. This type of food production is also one of the major contributors to global warming.
After a reasonably good general analysis of the problem, the report advises the Dutch government to use their influence around the world to oblige people to eat less dairy, meat, sugar, salt and ‘bad’ fats.
Where did the sugar, salt and fat come from? As far as this report is concerned, it seems to have come out of the blue. The report has a number of citations for different things, but nothing that seems to lead to any credible justification for this. It just is, because, well they are a think tank and so must be awesome.
Of course trying to eat less salt, sugar and ‘bad’ fat, can only lead you to more industrial processed foods. It’s no problem to make processed foods without these ingredients. It may really taste bad, but when you make foods in a laboratory or factory, you can make it any way you want. Small farmers on the other hand, depend on these ingredients.
Nothing in this report suggests people should eat more locally or naturally produced food. Could it be that the people’s message, demanding higher quality and sustainable food, is being spammed by governments and the food industry?
Kokopelli Wins Baumaux Civil Case, But EU Seed Law Upheld
In a case that’s now been going on for 10 years, a French appeals court finally decided for Kokopelli in the matter of civil damages. This is according to a mail sent to Kokopelli’s newsletter mail list. Please check the Kokopelli website for more information.
In short, Baumaux claimed that Kokopelli was violating the law by by failing to register their seeds, at the cost of 150 euros for each of their 14,500 varieties. This according to Baumaux gave Kokopelli a larger number of varieties than Baumaux, and an unfair business advantage. The judge decided there was no obstacle to Baumaux offering the same varieties if they choose, and the 150 euro registration fee was small in comparison to the damages claimed.
The judge did however reaffirm the legality of the EU seed law, and that Kokopelli was in violation of this. This could have consequences for other court cases.
Alert: Fraudulent AVAAZ Campaign
For a while now AVAAZ has been running a campaign about a ‘Global Seed Exchange’. Emails promoting the exchange have claimed to have the support of over 20 organizations, including some located in Europe, and Vandana Shiva. It’s all very vague.
Vandana Shiva has issued a statement denying any involvement.
There are now discussions involving a large number of European organizations, and it’s very unlikely any are involved. We are all well connected by now.
At best AVAAZ has always been a very dubious organization, but donating to this campaign is throwing your money away. Please help spread the word.
