Comments Mary Gilbert has made

I've just read a book called "The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health" by T. Colin Campbell and (his son) Thomas M. Campbell.  The cover also calls it "The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever conducted.," which is probably correct. 

The book is based on decades of scrupulous scientifc research in both nutrition (a lot of rats bit the dust) and biological studies of proteins, etc., capped by an enormous analysis of dietary habits in various counties in China, "...the culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine."

The biggest surprise was a strong positive correlation between consumption of animal protein and cancer.  Other "diseases of affluence" such as heart attacks, diabetes, etc. are also found to correlate with animal protein intake.  "Diseases of poverty" are no fun either, but very low consumption of animal protein among the poor seems practically to guarantee that cancer will not be what takes you out. 

Campbell writes very clearly about how the results of his and other studies are kept from the public to preserve the myth (and profits) of the meat and dairy industries.

Don't take my word for it.   Read the book (for free! libraries have it) and consider whether you find it convincing.  No two ways bout it, animal protein is identified as a major carcinogen.

In some Third World (or more correctly, Majority World) countries --- and maybe here too, I don't know --- there are water - free toilets that immediately separate the urine from the solid material and use the urine for fertilizer. The solid waste is dried and can be used to generate methane for lighting and other uses.  Or it can be interlayered with sawdust or other such materials and allowed to dry to become compost too.

These technologies are very important to publicize and otherwise make available in arid places, especially with the increase of drought and spread of outright desertification associated with climate change. 

Human urine is definitely good for plants.  Even food plants.  Dilute 10-15 parts water to 1 part urine, more diluted for potted plants,and use it before 24 hours go by so it hasn't turned to amonia.

A commentor above mentioned that Monsanto pulled out of the IAASDT process shortly before the report was finalized, because they didn't like the (correct) data indicating their GMO Roundup-Ready products didn't look good.

I just attended the meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development at the UN in NY earlier this month.  Most of you will be surprised and disheartened to hear that the IAASDT report was not even referred to in any negotiating sessions, although its head spoke on the next to the last day.  By that time negotiations were almost completed and no material was being added. 

There was, however, lots of discussion on the New Green Revolution, which is being promoted by UNEP (The UN Environmental Programme) and had GMO crops at its heart.  One idea is to bring in GMO food crops that will be successful in dryland areas.  There is also a GMO variety of corn that can be grown using no-till agriculture, now being touted as a way to keep carbon in the soil.  First you lay down a heavy dose of herbicide/pesticide and wait until all the weeds are dead.  Then you plant.  One woman from Third World Network, a very esteemed Asian NGO, said she has seen this corn in terraced plantings where corn could not have been grown before. 

One funny thing was that the US and Canada were insisting that the phrase "sustainable agriculture" be inserted everywhere possible in the Outcome Document.  And the "Group of 77," which is composed of 138 (not 77) smaller and less powerful countries, was insisting that that phrase be replaced in ever instance with "agriculture for sustainable development."  Many of us were confused.

It turned out that Monsanto and the rest of the club had had a meeting in Colorado in February where they devised a definition of "sustainable agriculture" that they could live with, as it included everything they planned to do.  With this in place the US was able to insist on the phrase, and UNEP was able to say that the New Green Revolution is based on sustainable agriculture.

Please, in whatever ways you can, use the IAASDT report as the basis of your opinions, not the Monsanto-developed phrase "sustainable agriculture," which no longer means what we thought it meant.  The head of IAASDT (not remembering his name at the moment - tired-looking Englishman) said. "Can we feed Africa with the knowledge and technology we have now?  Absolutely!  Will we need GMO crops in the future?  That could be possible, but we really don't need them now."

Mary

Polling and persuading

This is to NickieC.

I've recently run up against the fact that many if not most people feel threatened by the idea of  making their ecological imprint known. There is a fear of being judged, there is a certain amount of guilt that gets stimulated, there is resentment at being forced to go public with what feels like a private matter.  (Consider it analogous to asking both skinny and overweight persons to keep food logs and let everybody see them)

If you can come up with any way to make the polling anonymous, use it.  Or at least don't plan to go public with any individual results.  

As for getting people to green up, I like Umbra's suggestion of getting a baseline, making it public within the company, translate it into tons of carbon or something else that can be visualized, and get the whole company to lower the footprint. That will get people involved in peer pressure in a positive way, rather than a competition that will lead to gloating on the one hand and cringing on the other.  The success of the company as a whole can then be celebrated (party! party!), and new ideas for beating the new record can be generated by the group.  I can see people really getting into it, expecially if it's a techie crowd.

For the audit you'll want to get the company's electric and heating bills.  Make a count of how many "disposable" cups, dishes, whatever, are used in a month, and see how much it can be reduced.  

For travel, there can be privileged parking places set aside for carpoolers with 3 or more riders, some kind of bonus for bikers and/or walkers.  A company I once worked for paid for (half the cost of?) monthly bus passes for employees who would use them rather than drive.  

The main thing, if you want people to get on board, is not to create a judgmental atmosphere.  The resentment, etc. can take you all where none of you wants to go.  

Mary GOn Umbra on Earth Day office parties posted 1 year, 7 months ago 9 Responses

The true tapwater tale

     I've just read Maude Barlow's new book, Blue Covenant, which continues her exploration of the commodification (new jargon, no exclamation points) of water as well as addressing the fact that the Earth is running more than a bit low on freshwater. "Water mining," is lowering water tables around the world, including here in the USA. The freshwater problem goes hand in hand with the climate problem and will be just as severe as its effects are recognized. The Darfur conflict is just the first of what are already termed the "water wars."
     Large multinational corporations are securing their control of access to freshwater, as a strategic move. There are profits to be made. In addition to the bottled water thing there is the takeover by multinationals of public water systems, under a variety of corporate names.  I can't explain it all here. Read the book. Learn who owns/controls your water sources. Become an informed lover of your watershed. People - and other plants and animals - over profit.On Umbra on tap water posted 1 year, 8 months ago 5 Responses

Another CSA permutation

   In Lexington, MA there is a CSA connected with a local, 3-generation family farm where produce is not made available in boxes.  What you get when you buy in for the season is coupons called "Busa Bucks"...the family is named Busa... and you can get your produce either at their farmstand or at any of the 3 farmers' markets where they participate, just like a cash shopper. This suits people who have smaller households and don't want a carton-full, or who find it hard to schedule their lives around a pick-up day.  
   I think it's different when a group of eaters makes a deal with a farmer who has an on-going commercial enterprise, rather than when a group comes together to grow their own food, or signs onto the latter kind of group.  We tried pick-up-your-produce for the first 2 years but it interrupted the functioning of the farm. This way is working better, although we members don't have the face-to-face contact we had before, which did make it nicer.
   On Umbra on community-supported agriculture posted 2 years, 3 months ago 9 Responses