New Economics

You can download the full report here: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/other-worlds-are-possible 

The paper by Max-Neef perhaps best articulates the thrust of the arguments presented in the report. In it, he argues for a new economy based on five postulates and one fundamental value principle.

Postulate 1: The economy is to serve the people; the people are not to serve the economy.

Postulate 2: Development is about people and not about objects.

Postulate 3: Growth is not the same as development; development does not necessarily require growth.

Postulate 4: No economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.

Postulate 5: The economy is a subsystem of a larger and finite system, the biosphere; hence permanent growth is impossible.

Value principle: No economic interest, under any circumstance, can be above the reverence for life.



You can download the full report here: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/other-worlds-are-possible

Old Farming Books Free To Download

For instance this on the the Clifton Park System

see http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/elliot/cliftonToC.html#contents

Pasture resources

Ley Farming by Sir R. George Stapledon and William Davies, 1948, Faber & Faber, London. Sow a piece of land with a good pasture mixture and then divide it in two with a fence. Graze one half heavily and repeatedly with cattle, mow the other half as necessary and leave the mowings there in place to decay back into the soil. On the grazed half, you've removed the crop (several times) and taken away a large yield of milk and beef. On the other half you've removed nothing. Plough up both halves and plant a grain crop, or any crop. Which half has the bigger and better yield? The grazed half, by far. "Ley Farming" explains why "grass is the most important crop" and how to manage grass leys. Leys are temporary pastures in a rotation, and provide more than enough fertility for the succeeding crops: working together, grass and grazing animals turn the land into a huge living compost pile. Stapledon draws on the work of Robert H. Elliot of Clifton Park, whose work with deep-rooting leys was the culmination of hundreds of years of development in grass rotation farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.

The Clifton Park System of Farming, and laying down land to grass -- a guide to landlords, tenants and land legislators by Robert H. Elliot, introduction by Sir R. George Stapledon, 1898, 1943, Faber and Faber. The master-work of the ley farming rotational grazing system of laying down cropland to grass -- actually a complex mixture of grasses, legumes and deep-rooting herbs (aka weeds). The grass ley provided beef and dairy produce, as well as enough high-grade soil fertility for a succession of grain and root crops after the grass was ploughed up -- truly sustainable farming. Full-text online at the Small Farms Library.

Citizens Renaissance

Excellent and interesting site for instance

"Far from being the greenest part of the population, middle-class voters are actually more sceptical than most about the need for action, perhaps because they fear they have more to lose from increased bills and taxes. Voters in the richest AB group are the only ones to place the economy ahead of the environment as a government priority: 50% say the economy and 47% the environment."

See more at http://www.citizenrenaissance.com/

UPdates from Church Farm

51 facts from the last month at Church Farm

1)     Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from breakfast, cream teas, Moroccan to spicy curries

2)     Feedback from 1 of the new co-farmer’s social worker was “ we are thrilled with the service that is being offered to our client”

3)     5 Co-farmers have helped out in the kitchen, and serving in the café. 2 help out every week.

4)     Recent compliments about our enterprise from visitors such as Sir Patrick Holden http://www.soilassociation.org/Aboutus/Whoweare/Director/tabid/68/Default.aspx, Sir Julian Rose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Rose and Tony Juniper Prince of Wales Rainforest, http://tonyjuniper.com/?q=node/1

5)     Become market trader with a weekly slot at the Sunday Cambridge market

6)     Updated and refreshed the website www.churchfarmardeley.co.uk

7)     Launched our own ready meal range

8)     Rural Care have cut wood for sale, prepared furniture for café, collected and boxed up eggs, bagged animal feed so it is always available for public  to buy, helping prepare vegetables for use in café, helping to harvest vegetables for sale, clean out chicken sheds and put in new  straw.

9)      Launched gift vouchers – the perfect presents available in denominations of £5, £10, £20 & £50

10)  Run our first bee hive course

11)  Sold a chicken coop

12)  Distributed 29,000 leaflets (another 80,000 going out this week)

13)  Opened our Garden Tea Room and The Snug as overflows for the café using other people’s cast offs

14)  Started selling Church Farm meat at Luscious Organics on Kensington High Street

15)  Been educated on potatoes, cattle hooves, ladybirds and more in a series of seminars, hand outs and tutorials

16)  Arranged another partnership with London based venue to deliver our Christmas turkeys

17)  Shadow Agricultural Minister calls Church Farm an impressive project

18)  Attended numerous Christmas fairs, food festivals and sold zillions of pies

19)  Stock our own liver pate, dripping and suet

20)  Have our very own Christmas Pudding Range courtesy of Cathryn’s – her cakes are a sell out

21)  Commissioned Church Farm jute bag for life – watch this space

22)  Started a mobile shop, a few teething problem, lessons learnt

23)  Sold wreaths, made bird boxes, wild flower seeds, planted bulbs

24)  Offer soft, snowy white fleece for sale in the shop

25)  Cooked and entertained over a 1000 people with a diverse mix of culinary treats from cream teas, Moroccan, Italian, spicy curries

26)  Had over 750 visitor to our website in the last two weeks

27)  Helped Brownies achieve a badge with an accompanied walk in the dark

28)  Bought two moose costumes (there are till space available on the Moose Rota – make a child happy this Christmas)

29)  Delivered 269 veg boxes – this week we are delivering 44 boxes

30)  Launched a meat box scheme, 7 boxes ordered in 2^nd week

31)  Said farewell to some good people, hello and welcome to new adventurers joining the farm intern programme and farm store/ office team

32)  Sold 91 turkey, geese & ducks to date, still a lot to sell – PLEASE ask everyone you meet have they have ordered their turkey

33)  Sold laying hens

34)  Had piglets

35)  Run a forest garden course

36)  Weighed, priced and moved from container to store (and back again) around 60 chickens, 12 lambs, 2-3 beef cattle, and more sausages than Anne and Edina care to remember

37)  Battled on in foul weather, floods, power cuts, broken down vans, winds, sickness and health

38)  Painted chairs and tables (a few more if you can spare a bit more time please tell Euan – special thanks must go to rural care, Ruth and Lucy for perseverance)

39)  Commenced building of church farm poultry slaughter operation

40)  Moved the egg processing area to a new home

41)  RC has a new partnership with North Herts College working well. 3 students regularly attending and a 4th person interested in starting soon. Carrying out work and learning skills not possible to do within a college environment.

42)  750 hit to Church Farm website in 2 weeks

43)  2 new co-farmers started within the last months and 2 existing co-farmers have requested a second day to attend the farm.

44)  Profile of the Agrarian Renaissance project has been raised through Transition Farm in Exeter, International Soil Association Conference

45)  3 interns helping RC on weekly basis, adding to their learning experience and greatly assisting Rural Care staff.

46)  6 regular volunteers contributing to the work that Rural Care helps to complete

47)  Second round of appraisals have just started to monitor co-farmer’s progress at Rural Care and to help them set achievable goals

48)  Planted 1000’s of strawberry plants

49) 22 bird species spotted in 20 minute walk by expert bird watcher

50)  Been complimented on the condition of the cattle from the Red Poll members events

51)  Have a waiting list of people wanting to join the intern programme

The State of UK Farming

The State of UK Farming

In 1973 Agricultural income – profits of all farms was £8 Billion; in 2007 it was £2.5 Billion. This year TESCO plc made £2 Billion in UK Profits.....

Meanwhile the cost of clearing up nitrate pollution and “negative externalities” of UK farming i.e. costs being paid by public are … £1.8 Billion.

There has been a huge transfer of wealth, facilitated by effective monopoly buying from farmers to supermarket and specifically their shareholders. (Only offset by the other huge transfers through the CAP from taxpayers to landowners in proportion to acres owned - currently £100ish per acre - meaning the poorest pay a 1000 acre farmer a 6 figure cheque. EVERY YEAR!!)

While some farmers buy Ferrari's with their subsidies many go out of business and are forced off the land.

The big are kept drunk on subsidies whilst the small, medium and family farms have been driven out of business. But now event the big are tumbling.....Once you were a big farmer with 200 acres - now 2000 are not enough in the commodity trap....

Meanwhile supermarkets argue they should be able to retrospectively change contracts in order to "keep food cheap" they routinely ride roughshod over contract law and have spent years delaying and fighting even a "voluntary ombudsman" of some sort. These organisations are only acting according to law - the maximisation of shareholder wealth. This has NOTHING to do with the public interest.

Over half of farmers have been squeezed out of farm, house and land by monopoly buying and the structure of the industry over the past 30 years.

Our agriculture is now completely reliant on oil and gas to make nitrates and pesticides. We are literally eating fossil fuels. We have destroyed great swathes of the countryside, impoverished the soil, and destroyed much of what was England’s Green and PLEASANT land.... through SUBSIDY AND DELIBERATE POLICY.

We have now have a population suffering from obesity, people totally disconnected from land and food with even people in the countryside are generally totally divorced from food and farming, let alone in the towns... and only 10% of London children even visiting the countryside last year.....

But it can change.

The average age of British farmers is 60 now, those that are left are getting old ...... many are sick from chemicals they have handled..... Most are sick of the marketing lies, half truths and perverted science SOLD to them by companies, politicians, and so called experts.

But there is still time to rebuild and regain our culture, our agri-culture, there is a groundswell of people who realise this, now estimated as 8-10% of the population who are actively seeking our sustainable and fair trade produce.

The country needs great farmers to face the twin challenges of Climate Change and Peak Oil.

People on the ground, policy makers and independent scientists have answers and solutions but all depend on farmers to do it. Currently there are 10 people talking for everyone doing. Soon there will be 1000 doing.....

We need to transition to sustainable, ecological and complex food systems, relocalised and this means disintermediarating the current food chain.

We can do this ..... It means moving to free and fair trade with negative externalities properly costed into the system as well as public goods that farmers produce (from biodiversity to beautiful countryside).

It means moving from the mono-culture and chemical paradigm to complex systems harnessing nature not fighting it, it means moving to biological and ecological farming... from

This is resisted at every turn by the most powerful entrenched interests, including successful companies and individuals that profit from the existing situation.
There are customers by the million that want local food of great provenance. Let’s connect these people with farmers and growers, re-invigorate existing farms and develop new enterprises.

This has to be done by ourselves, farmers and people.

Colin Tudge describes how to proceed.....

"...... the way to go about this is neither to have a fight -- which is
revolution -- nor to persuade the powers-that-be to change their ways step by step -- which is reform. Revolutions are too messy and dangerous. Reform cannot succeed because it is too slow. Besides, the powers-that-be are not listening. .........

....Instead we need Renaissance, the principle of which was beautifully
encapsulated by the American architect and visionary polymath
Buckminster Fuller:
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

Therefore we need and are recruiting like minded people to create an anti-brand, a genuine alternative to corporations and supermarkets. Farm based, people owned creating great farming, great food and a great life…

Tim@churchfarmardeley.co.uk

Tesco - Dispatches Programme

Revolving Doors in the USA Agriculture Department (2)

Obama Nominates Pesticide Executive to Be Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the US Trade Representative

President Obama’s nominee for the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the office of the US Trade Representative, Islam Siddiqui is currently a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto, and Dow Chemical. He was previously a lobbyist for CropLife and also served in the US Department of Agriculture under President Clinton and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations have sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging them to reject his nomination. [includes rush transcript]

About Tim Waybad

For Latest on Farm Prototype See www.churchfarmardeley.co.uk 

Short biog
Family were all small mixed farmers so had a practical farming upbringing. Church farm ceased farming in 1988. The 175 acres in East Hertfordshire was set aside while studied BSC Agriculture at Reading University from 1985.

While at university started MotivAction plc with a £10 advert placed in a local newspaper. Since then it has grown into £15 million turnover business delivering a wide range of products and services including events, communications, motivation and team building, and it still runs from Church Farm. Over the years, have become an Alumnus of the Harvard Business School OPM course, has got various entrepreneurial awards and has invented human-table-football.

In 2008 re-started Church Farm as a prototype, mixed farm, producing food, and acting as multi service centre. The intention was to farm the family land again, to make it work by feeding people, and in doing so to create systems and enterprise models which could transform farming and how we feed ourselves in an uncertain and dangerous world. Together with others am forming the Agrarian Renaissance – a movement to connect people, land and food and devise replicable systems and social franchises for an ecologically based farming future.

Whats a new Agrarian - from http://www.newagrarian.com

What’s a New Agrarian?

Every piece of farm work is also an attempt to solve a problem, and therefore it should have its intellectual interest. It needs but the informing of the mind and the quickening of the imagination to raise any constructive and creative work above the level of drudgery.

— Liberty Hyde Bailey, 1905

A New Agrarian is someone who believes that there is and must be a future for rural places as rural places and as a fully integrated part of the 21st-century world. A future, that is, in which rural places neither wither away nor become so urbanized that they lose their rural character—yet one that is truly a future, not a hidebound extension of the past for its own sake.

What would that future look like? It would mean people taking charge of their lives from the ground up—literally. People taking a hand in raising their own food, an active role in building and leading their communities, responsibility for their own lives and livelihoods. Meaningful exchange between cities and rural communities without the intervening mishmash of suburbia. Respect for creation, community, a sense of place.

Beyond that, a rural future is an open question, waiting for anyone willing to take up the challenge of answering it. The answers will not be easy. But if we’re willing to ask difficult questions, face the answers honestly, and put into practice what we learn, it will be a good start.

Vanity Fair on Monsanto

Investigation
Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
May 2008
An anti-Monsanto crop circle in the Philippines

No thanks: An anti-Monsanto crop circle made by farmers and volunteers in the Philippines. By Melvyn Calderon/Greenpeace HO/A.P. Images.

Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.

The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.

Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name.

“Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.

As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences.

Rinehart was incredulous, listening to the words as puzzled customers and employees looked on. Like many others in rural America, Rinehart knew of Monsanto’s fierce reputation for enforcing its patents and suing anyone who allegedly violated them. But Rinehart wasn’t a farmer. He wasn’t a seed dealer. He hadn’t planted any seeds or sold any seeds. He owned a small—a really small—country store in a town of 350 people. He was angry that somebody could just barge into the store and embarrass him in front of everyone. “It made me and my business look bad,” he says. Rinehart says he told the intruder, “You got the wrong guy.”

When the stranger persisted, Rinehart showed him the door. On the way out the man kept making threats. Rinehart says he can’t remember the exact words, but they were to the effect of: “Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. You will pay.”

Scenes like this are playing out in many parts of rural America these days as Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers—anyone it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.

When asked about these practices, Monsanto declined to comment specifically, other than to say that the company is simply protecting its patents. “Monsanto spends more than $2 million a day in research to identify, test, develop and bring to market innovative new seeds and technologies that benefit farmers,” Monsanto spokesman Darren Wallis wrote in an e-mailed letter to Vanity Fair. “One tool in protecting this investment is patenting our discoveries and, if necessary, legally defending those patents against those who might choose to infringe upon them.” Wallis said that, while the vast majority of farmers and seed dealers follow the licensing agreements, “a tiny fraction” do not, and that Monsanto is obligated to those who do abide by its rules to enforce its patent rights on those who “reap the benefits of the technology without paying for its use.” He said only a small number of cases ever go to trial.

Some compare Monsanto’s hard-line approach to Microsoft’s zealous efforts to protect its software from pirates. At least with Microsoft the buyer of a program can use it over and over again. But farmers who buy Monsanto’s seeds can’t even do that.
The Control of Nature

For centuries—millennia—farmers have saved seeds from season to season: they planted in the spring, harvested in the fall, then reclaimed and cleaned the seeds over the winter for re-planting the next spring. Monsanto has turned this ancient practice on its head.

Monsanto developed G.M. seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, offering farmers a convenient way to spray fields with weed killer without affecting crops. Monsanto then patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office had refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. “It’s not like describing a widget,” says Joseph Mendelson III, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, which has tracked Monsanto’s activities in rural America for years.

Indeed not. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, turned seeds into widgets, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply. In its decision, the court extended patent law to cover “a live human-made microorganism.” In this case, the organism wasn’t even a seed. Rather, it was a Pseudomonas bacterium developed by a General Electric scientist to clean up oil spills. But the precedent was set, and Monsanto took advantage of it. Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year. Those increased sales, coupled with ballooning sales of its Roundup weed killer, have been a bonanza for Monsanto.

This radical departure from age-old practice has created turmoil in farm country. Some farmers don’t fully understand that they aren’t supposed to save Monsanto’s seeds for next year’s planting. Others do, but ignore the stipulation rather than throw away a perfectly usable product. Still others say that they don’t use Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds, but seeds have been blown into their fields by wind or deposited by birds. It’s certainly easy for G.M. seeds to get mixed in with traditional varieties when seeds are cleaned by commercial dealers for re-planting. The seeds look identical; only a laboratory analysis can show the difference. Even if a farmer doesn’t buy G.M. seeds and doesn’t want them on his land, it’s a safe bet he’ll get a visit from Monsanto’s seed police if crops grown from G.M. seeds are discovered in his fields.

Most Americans know Monsanto because of what it sells to put on our lawns— the ubiquitous weed killer Roundup. What they may not know is that the company now profoundly influences—and one day may virtually control—what we put on our tables. For most of its history Monsanto was a chemical giant, producing some of the most toxic substances ever created, residues from which have left us with some of the most polluted sites on earth. Yet in a little more than a decade, the company has sought to shed its polluted past and morph into something much different and more far-reaching—an “agricultural company” dedicated to making the world “a better place for future generations.” Still, more than one Web log claims to see similarities between Monsanto and the fictional company “U-North” in the movie Michael Clayton, an agribusiness giant accused in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit of selling an herbicide that causes cancer.

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Archive Links

Noam Chomsky: Philosophies of Language & Politics

New film on why bees are dying

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 10:17

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail
See also on bees:
GM crops and honey bee research
Bee learning affected by Bt Cry1Ab toxin
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Honeybees are dying and our food supply is in danger
Is Nicotine Bees the new Silent Spring?
Sierra Club, November 11 20009

Sierra Club welcomes the release of Nicotine Bees, a new documentary that provides an excellent synopsis of the loss of honeybees. Producers Kevin Hansen and Krista Keenan did a superb job researching, interviewing and splicing together an extraordinary story.

One out of every three bites of food that we consume is due to the work of honeybees, serving as crucial pollinators. Yet the honeybee population has been significantly dwindling over the past few years, a phenomena known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

At issue are the nicotinyl insecticides (also known as neonicotinoids) being used in a new way - as seed coatings. For years, farmers have been spraying neonicotinoids onto their crops to stop insect infestation. Now agribusiness corporations have acquired patents to coat their proprietary corn seeds with these neonicotinoids.

Neil Carman, Ph.D., scientific advisor for the Sierra Club explains, "These neonicotinoid coatings are extremely persistent. They enter the plant and are present in pollen and on droplets of water on leaves."

In light of this mounting evidence, the Sierra Club has been urging the EPA to suspend approvals of these chemical treatments to protect our bees and crops, until independent scientists verify safety. Yet the EPA has refused action.

David Hackenberg, former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, has also been urging the U.S. regulatory agencies to suspend these seed treatments. "Look at what's time based. The massive bee decimation started when regulatory agencies rubber stamped the use of neonicotinoid spraying and coating," he said.

"Sierra Club joins the concern of beekeepers," said Laurel Hopwood, chairperson for Sierra Club's Genetic Engineering Action Team. "It's unfortunate that regulatory agencies are using double speak. They claim to protect our food supply - yet they continue to approve seed coatings without the proper studies."

Hopwood calls on every family to view Nicotine Bees and to take action. "The loss of honeybees will leave a huge void in the kitchens of the American people and an estimated loss of 14 billion dollars to farmers," said Hopwood. "We expect the EPA to do their job."

###

To view our action, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2009-11-10.asp

To purchase the video or request a screening, see http://NicotineBees.com

Contact:
Laurel Hopwood, Sierra Club 216-371-9779
Neil Carman, Ph.D. 512-472-1767

Taking on the mainstream media - motorway blogging

The Clash - Armagideon Time

From Adam Smith Institute

Time to transform drug policy

Written by Tom Clougherty

Saturday, 14 November 2009 06:02

1 Comment and 5 Reactions A heavyweight new report from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation (released this week) has called for the regulated legalization of all narcotic drugs. Under their plans, cannabis and opium would become freely available from licensed, membership-based coffee shops, while cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines would be available to licensed users from pharmacies. This is an eminently sensible idea. The Home Office, however, has reacted with a predictable display of willful stupidity. A spokesman told the BBC: “[We have] no intention of either decriminalising or legalising currently controlled drugs… Drugs are controlled for good reason — they are harmful to health. Their control protects individuals and the public from the harms caused by their misuse.” What they clearly don’t realize is that prohibition is not ‘drug control’. In fact, it almost the complete opposite: prohibition means putting drugs in the hands of gangsters and forfeiting any control whatsoever. It means huge profits for criminals, who turn inner city areas into gang-warfare zones. It means the destabilization of drug-producing countries like Columbia. And it means no reliable information on strength or quality for drug users, leading to overdoses and poisoning. Of course, it also means thousands of drug addicts turning to crime to fund their habit. The government’s own figures suggest that 80 percent of UK crime is drug related, at a cost of some £15-20bn a year. This, again, is directly related to prohibition – around 90 percent of the street price of drugs represents an ‘illegality premium’. Few alcoholics, by contrast, are driven to a life of crime. Ultimately, the fact that even high security prisons are awash with illegal drugs should make it pretty obvious – even to politicians – that prohibition can never succeed in its stated aims in a free society, and that the only way to minimize the harm associated with drugs is to take them away from the gangs and bring them into the legitimate marketplace. Transform’s report is a welcome contribution to this debate.

Agrarian Renaissance / Transition Farming / Church Farm Discussion Forum

See

http://www.forum.churchfarmardeley.co.uk/index.php

Vaccines causing Autism??

COlin Tudge

Peak Oil Links

Whistleblower Claims IEA Is Downplaying Peak Oil Slashdot - Politics 20:43 10-Nov-09

IEA says global energy path unsustainable: Peak oil may be closer than... San Francisco Examiner - Politics 18:36 10-Nov-09

IEA Whistleblower: Governments Underplaying Peak Oil SeekingAlpha 17:41 10-Nov-09

Peak oil closer than thought, says Guardian Agra-Net.com 17:34 10-Nov-09 

IEA Whistleblowers Say World Oil Stats Deliberately Inflated to Avoid Financial Panic, Appease the US TreeHugger 16:26 10-Nov-09

Peak Oil: Still Headed for a Train Wreck SeekingAlpha - Energy 15:33 10-Nov-09

Too fearful to publicise peak oil reality | Madeleine Bunting guardian.co.uk - Business 14:34 10-Nov-09

Peak Oil Closer Than IEA Forecasts Show: Report CNBC.com 08:10 10-Nov-09

‘Peak oil’ closer than we think, says IEA mole The First Post - News & Politics 06:48 10-Nov-09

The Backside of Peak Oil - Energy and Capital (blog) OilOnline International 04:07 10-Nov-09

IEA 'whistleblower' says peak oil nearing-Guardian interactive investor 02:06 10-Nov-09

IEA ‘whistleblower’ says peak oil nearing upstreamonline.com 00:57 10-Nov-09

Trip to Tesco's

Julian Rose on Religion

"Who, if he/she shareth an ounce of feeling, could not fail to respond with awe to the spirit that shines with dazzling expressions of human creativity, compassion and brilliance through the medium of the Word, Art, Architecture, Music and moral rectitude - inspired - as all this has been (in Europe) by the Judeo Christian tradition and its eternal devotion to the words and deeds of the prophets and enlightened ones who have steadfastly held up the flame of hope and love when all else is black.

But who could fail to see the hypocrisy, cowardice and down right arrogance that issues forth in the name of 'Religion' since this word became associated and ensnarled with 'the Church' whether the Church of England, the Vatican, the Synagogue or any other formalised attempts to capture and possess 'the true mystery of life'? Who, if he/she shareth an ounce of feeling, coud fail to respond with horror at the blood letting vengeance of the Crusades, the Inquisition and the Northern Irish debacle. The terrible self rightiousness of 'missionary colonialism' and the indefensible double standards of the tarnished priesthood.

No, we would do well to look beyond these contradictory manifestations by recognising and drawing upon what's best in the great teachings of all genuine prophets - and these should include the great near and far Eastern spiritual teachers of the past three or four millenia. They all point to the same immutable truths, and it is towards those truths that we all need to move. It is those truths that we need to become. This is the New Renaissance and Resurrection (of mankind)."

Aswad Live and Direct

How Corporations Make U Feel - 1980

Revolving Doors in the USA Agriculture Department

Environmental, Consumer, Family Farmer and Farmworker Groups Decry White House Defense of Pesticide Lobbyist Nomination

• Press Release
  Weak Defense of Siddiqui Contrasts with Clear Pro-GMO, Anti-Organic Record
  Pesticide Action Network, National Family Farm Coalition, Organic Consumers Association, Center for Food Safety, Farmworker Association of Florida, Oct 27, 2009
  Straight to the Source
  
  

Sustainable agriculture advocates from around the country today expressed deep disappointment with the Obama Administration's defense of nominating Islam Siddiqui, a former pesticide lobbyist as our chief agriculture trade representative at the office of the United States Trade Representative. An article in yesterday's Politico ["Ag Nomination Steams Greens"] noted the controversy surrounding his nomination by environmental and family farm groups.

Siddiqui is currently a vice-president at Croplife America. Croplife is an agrochemical industry trade group representing Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow Chemical, among others. Croplife America's regional partner, Mid America CropLife Association, notoriously "shuddered" at Michelle Obama's organic garden and launched a letter writing campaign in protest. Katherine Ozer, Executive Director for the National Family Farm Coalition, said, "We are still baffled by the White House nominating a pesticide lobbyist for this key position, severely undermining their credibility and rhetoric about the need for Americans to have access to local, healthy, sustainable food."

The White House issued a defense of Siddiqui that unravels under scruitiny, "During his time at USDA, Dr. Siddiqui led the first phase of development for national organic natural food standards in the United States." Organic Consumers Association was formed in the wake of this controversial first phase, and expressed surprise and shock that the White House would use this to bolster the case for Siddiqui. Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director for OCA, said, "Our organization was formed in 1998 due to the massive backlash consumers had against USDA's initial controversial proposed regulations for organic food that would have outrageously allowed for toxic sludge, irradiated foods and genetically modified organisms to be labeled 'organic.' Only after an unprecedented 230,000 consumers wrote USDA to protest the rules were they strengthened. This only confirms to us why Siddiqui is the wrong choice for this position."

Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network, noted the double standard of ostensibly advocating for more sustainable food at home while Siddiqui's appointment in fact advances an agenda that undermines developing countries' capacity to feed themselves: "Putting a CropLife official and former paid lobbyist in charge of U.S. agricultural trade policy sends the worst kind of message to the world. This appointment tells the world that the U.S. will continue to value the interests of our massive chemical pesticide and biotech industry over any serious concern for public health, the environment or the well-being of farmworkers and communities around the world. We will be calling on the Senate Finance Committee to reject this nomination." Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety, added, "An Administration that nominates the top salesman of the pesticide/biotech industry to represent U.S. agricultural interests overseas cannot be taken seriously as an advocate of sustainable agriculture. The U.S. should promote organic and sustainable farming, not pesticides and GM crops."

Farmworker groups fighting for years to regulate pesticide use were also disappointed by the White House's defense of Siddiqui. The Farmworker Association of Florida, which represents 6,700 farm worker families working in the tomato and citrus industries, remains disturbed by the appointment. "Siddiqui's role at USTR will not be about promoting organic products, but eliminating trade barriers for developing countries to accept toxic chemicals and pesticides," said Tirso Moreno, general coordinator for FWAF. "That is CropLife America's agenda. They continue to try to stop any international attempts to help us regulate pesticide uses. Farmworkers have the highest rate of chemical-related illnesses of any occupational group. Our community suffers from nausea, liver damage, birth defects, and cancer as a result of exposure to these poisons. For the health of farmworkers around the world, we urge that his nomination be rejected."

The War Criminal and Tesco - From the Daily Mail

Tony Blair's talks with Tesco over £1million Middle East supermarket deal

Tony Blair has been in talks with Tesco about helping them open supermarkets in the Middle East - allegedly in return for up to £1m. It is believed the discussions between the supermarket chain and the former PM - now a peace envoy in the Middle East - ended after the two sides failed to agree terms.

Farming Links - Sexy Farmers

Over 100 photos in Britain's Sexiest Farmer gallery
Farmers Weekly Interactive - Agriculture - Special Reports 16:48 30-Oct-09


Muck & Class: Elizabeth Hurley, the world's most glamorous farmer
The Daily Mail - Femail 21:54 31-O

Blair War Crimes Petition

To:  President of the United Nations General Assembly and the UK Attorney General
BWCF - THE BLAIR WAR CRIMES FOUNDATION

To The President of The United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, and The Attorney General of the United Kingdom, and their successors in office.

RE ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR

We, the citizens of the United Kingdom and other countries listed, wish to uphold The United Nations Charter, The 1998 Rome Statute of The International Criminal Court, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Rule of International Law, especially in respect of:-

1: 1949 Geneva Convention IV: Article 146
The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention.

2: 1907 Hague Convention IV: Article 3
A belligerent party which violates the provisions of the said regulations shall, if the case demands, be liable to pay compensation. It shall be responsible for all the acts committed by persons forming part of its armed forces.

We therefore call on you to indict Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his capacity as recent Prime Minister of the UK, so long as he is able to answer for his actions and however long it takes, in respect of our sample complaints relating to the 2003 Iraq War waged by the UK as ally to the United States of America.

We are concerned that without justice and respect for the rule of law, the future for us and our progeny in a lawless world is bleak, as revealed by recent US declarations about the use of torture and the events of December 2008 in Gaza show.


The following are our sample complaints relating to the Iraq War 2003-2009:

1: Deceit and conspiracy for war, and providing false news to incite passions for war, causing in the order of one million deaths, 4 million refugees, countless maimings and traumas.

2: Employing radioactive ammunition causing long-term destruction of the planetary habitat.

3: Causing the breakdown of civil administration, with consequent lawlessness, especially looting, kidnapping, and violence, and consequent breakdown of womens’ rights, of religious freedom, and child and adult education.

4: Failing to maintain the medical needs of the populace.

5: Despoliation of the cultural heritage of the country.

6: Supporting an ally that employs ‘waterboarding’ and other tortures.

7: Seizing the assets of Iraq.

8: Using inhumane restraints on prisoners, including dogs, hoods, and cable ties.

9: Using Aggressive Patrolling indiscriminately, traumatising women and children and wrecking homes and property.

10: Marking bodies of prisoners with numbers, writing, faeces and other degrading treatment.

11: The use of cluster bombs and other indiscriminate weapons including white phosphorous on “shake and bake” missions.

12: Supporting indiscriminate rocket attacks from F16 fighter planes on women and children in Fallujah in Nov 2004

13: Supporting the shooting up of ambulances and medical personnel in Fallujah in Nov 2004

14: Supporting the expulsion of the entire population of Fallujah save for young men of military age, for a reprisal attack on that city in Nov 2004.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

Here's how i see it...

Corporation - large thing, private , public, big...


If you want to be free....
Never work for a corporation....
Never buy from a corporation....
Never watch the stories adverts and corporate "art"....
Then you will have the time, free of memes and mind viruses

TO have the chance to BE FREE

Pre-teen yoga

William Waygood aged 10.. Thoughts on Supermarkets

Why don't you do what henry 8th did...

you know....

the dissollution of the monastrys...

A place for All Faiths....and none

Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hard-headed realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, & county commissioners."

— Edward Abbey


"Many people say that
government is necessary
because some men cannot
be trusted to look after
themselves, but anarchists
say that government is
harmful because no men
can be trusted to look after
anyone else." -- Nicolas Walter (1924-2000)
British journalist, philosopher, atheist, anarchist.

"It is the people who will deliver us from the men who have been corrupting us, & the people themselves will win their liberty."
— Louise Michel

-- Anarchy is the expression of the liberation of man
from the idols of the state, the church, & capital;
socialism is the expression of the true & genuine
community among men, genuine because it grows
out of the individual spirit.

— Gustav Landauer

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience & through rebellion.

— Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism,
in "Fortnightly Review" (London, Feb. 1891; reprinted. 1895)

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at.

— Oscar Wilde

From CIWF

Pig Business on More4 WEBSITE

Tracy Worcester’s documentary on intensive pig farming can still be seen here on the More4 website.
Please do watch it if you haven't yet seen it yet and tell your friends and family.
Former actress, Tracy Worcester has campaigned for years for quality food, animal welfare and environmental protection. Pig Business is her four year exploration of intensive pig farming.

>Teaser trailer from YouTube

Pig Business

The documentary reveals the global impact of intensive pig farming on the welfare of animals, local communities and the environment.
Compassion in World Farming has worked with her, providing footage from an undercover investigation into pig farming in Poland.

Pig Business was televised on More 4, Tuesday 30th June 2009.
In the film, Tracy shows how intensive production systems can harm human health and the environment, and how these systems push traditional farmers out of business. She travels from the UK to the US and Poland to meet local residents who demonstrate how they have been adversely affected by the new industrial pig production methods, as well as leading politicians. Tracy also confronts industrial farming executives with her findings and argues that supermarket labelling is a unreliable guide to where pork is actually sourced from.
Lasse Bruun, Compassion in World Farming's Head of Campaigns, comments: "What you see in Tracy's Pig Business is the shocking reality of intensive farming for the animals, the people and the planet. Animals are treated like factory units and suffer under the appalling welfare standards. Compassion in World Farming believes all animals should be reared under the best conditions, and for pigs this means outdoor bred and reared."

Read More

• Find out more about the welfare of pigs here
• Shop compassionately - what to look for when you're shopping for pork products
• Find out more about Pig Business: www.pigbusiness.org