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POPSDisappearance of Bees Finally Solved ? I really hope that this will start to clear up the mystery of the disappearing honeybees. They are an integral part of our harvest cycle and its really important we find out why the colonies are collapsing.
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POPSNoah's Ark flood spurred European farming "When the Black Sea flooded at end of last ice age some people have suggested it was the origins of the Noah's Ark myth If you lived in that basin it would have seemed like the whole world had flooded."
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POPSRare words 'mutate' faster than common ones. I suppose if people don't use a word it is forgotten, or badly remembered. There was a great shift in language in Britain after the Black Plague. Labor became expensive and people who once were 'common folk' acquired money, land, and assumed positions of power. French that was spoken in the royal court, and was considered the 'official' language. This gave us many words describing end products, like beef, veal, and bacon, while words like calf,cow,and pig, which were in common use and concerned things that involved everyday farmers, and workers, The two dialects combining were a significant element in the evolution of the English language, because of the way it changed the frequency of word use.
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POPS Hunger Due to Injustice, Not Lack of Food Worth noting:: "In addition, the offspring of some GM plants are sterile, which means they cannot be stored to grow future crops. Poor farmers thus become dependent on transnational companies, and are forced to buy new seeds every year."
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POPSThe coming famine "In light of all these hurdles, as I see it, the challenge is to double world food output by 2050 using less land, far less water and fewer nutrients – all in the teeth of increasing rates of drought. And we need to do it sustainably." "I believe we are quite capable of solving these issues through good science and good policy. In the first instance, we need to massively increase global public investment in agricultural research and development. Then we need to make sure the fruits of that research reach farmers everywhere. I also think that commercial wild harvests, such as fishing and forestry, should be phased out in favour of sustainable farming that dovetails with the local environment."
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POPSIt's Time for Spime An ultra interesting concept of merging the physical and virtual aspects of our future existence. A Spime is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that flings off data about itself and its environment in great quantities. A universe of Spimes is an informational universe, and it is the use of this information that informs the most exciting part of Sterling's argument.
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POPSMonsanto sues small farmers again (and again) Monsanto is suing a canola farmer because bees pollinated his crops with "trademarked" pollen from a GM farm. Nice way to do business. Soon all canola crops will be owned by Monsanto, if it doesn't kill the bees first. Monsanto also sued a dairy farmer to prevent him from labelling his milk rBGH-free. Monsanto is the number one producer of rBGH.
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POPSFather of India's Green Revolution Prepares for Evergreen Revolution
“In every crisis is an opportunity” Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one. In the early ‘60s, India grew 12 million tons of wheat every year. Starvation was rampant and the country imported much of its food. Swaminathan, an agricultural geneticist, developed new strains of high-yield wheat for his country and the programs that led to an India that exports food. Today, India grows some 70 million tons of wheat and has become the world's second-largest wheat producer. He says that today India has reached a plateau in production and productivity because a problem of under investment in rural infrastructure. His M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development follows a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development.
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POPSWhy is fast food so cheap? "Many consumers would like to support skilled farmers who produce healthy products, are good stewards of their land, work to preserve clean water and open spaces around our communities, and are contributing to a secure food system. Our representatives need to know this is the kind of farming we want to support with our tax dollars in the new 2007 Farm Bill. " See source for links, information and opportunities for change. Get educated and get involved!
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POPSIzzy Lane and the Unique Sheep Sanctuary of Scotland Isobel Davies loves sheep - she created a Sheep Sanctuary in Scotland after she found that many sheep were sent to slaughter for various reasons from being male to being lame. She also discovered that farmers were burning the wool sheared from their sheep rather than selling it to manufacturers in other industries. Because 80 percent of the wool used in Britain’s clothing industry was imported, the native farmers couldn’t compete with the low prices—it would actually cost them more to properly shear and sell the wool than it would to just hack it off and burn it. Davies decided to create an economic model that would preserve the sheep AND support the British clothing industry. She created Izzy Lane Sheep-Friendly Clothing!
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POPSDead Sea Scrolls: New Remarkable Discovery in Qumran A remarkable find in Qumran supports the traditional view that says Essenes were the authors of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the very essence of the "Messianic" sect who practised an ascetic life and considered the founders of the Christian escatology, before BCE.
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POPSThe feng shui of cows :) "What the benefit could be for cows, however, remains a mystery. Experts acknowledged that the research almost certain- ly has no practical applications." Cool though ;-)
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POPSUS Farmers: "Adios USA, Viva Mexico" Precise statistics are not readily available on American farming in Mexico, because growers seek to maintain a low profile for their operations abroad. But Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, displayed a map on the Senate floor in July locating more than 46,000 acres that American growers were cultivating in just two Mexican states, Guanajuato and Baja California. “Farmers are renting land in Mexico,” Ms. Feinstein said. “They don’t want us to know that.” She predicted that more American farmers would move to Mexico for the ready work force and lower wages. Ms. Feinstein favored a measure in the failed immigration bill that would have created a new guest worker program for agriculture and a special legal status for illegal immigrant farm workers.
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