"It's in the soil" What is carbon sequestration? The key to that is carbon. ...the most abundant element on earth after oxygen. ...It's in the soil. ... The dark, rich soil that's in your garden - that's mostly carbon. I found that carbon is the link between grazing management, and land health, and food and water, and then ultimately climate and oxygen - carbon dioxide up in the atmosphere. … We can pull carbon dioxide down from the atmosphere through plants – through photosynthesis – and into the soil – to the roots where it is stored. – Courtney White, archeologist and Sierra Club activist
See 2014 YouTube Interview with Courtney White
Learn how to easily grow veggies at home, with less time spent watering.
A 20-page fully-illustrated DIY eBooklet: Detailed information, including exact measurements and lists of materials needed for constructing
timber-framed Wicking Worm Beds, plus, everything you need to know about adding compost worms to the wicking beds.
The scientists whose garden unlocked the secret to good health
Lucy Rock The Guardian, 29 November 2015
Excerpt
When Anne Biklé and David Montgomery fed their failing soil with organic matter, they were astonished by the results. Stimulating the microbes that live beneath the surface led the garden to flourish. Then, when Biklé was diagnosed with cancer, the couple had an idea… There are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are people on the planet and they are everywhere, in water, air, earth, as well as inside our bodies and on our skin. Without them we couldn’t digest food, plants wouldn’t grow and there wouldn’t be enough oxygen for us to breathe. There are thought to be 2-3bn microbial species, divided into six groups: bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, algae and archaea…
Our overuse of antibiotics and highly processed foods are destroying these vital microbes,... just as soil microbiota is being wrecked through overuse of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides... “It was amazing to learn the ways in which our microbiome tees up our immune cells.” >>> more
"We need to feed the world." "When people in industrial agriculture talk about feeding the world they are talking about increasing production of grain. And nobody is stopping and saying: Well, what are you using that grain for? Are you growing food? No, they are not growing food. Those are seeds for cattle feed–for a very unsustainable system of fattening cattle on feedlots. But guess what? Cattle shouldn't be eating grain. They are evolved to eat grass." – Michael Pollan, 2009, Fresh, the movie
"So, if we went to a grass-based herbivore agriculture for our cattle, suddenly 70% of that currently assaulted land could return to a mob-stocked herbivorous, solar conversion, lignified carbon sequestration fertilization program and all the negatives in agriculture would come to a screeching halt. ...row-crops account for the genetic engineering, the petroleum use, the tillage, the erosion and all negative things in agriculture–70% of that is grown for multi-stomach herbivores that aren't supposed to eat that anyway." – Joel Salatin, 2009, Fresh the movie
The Future is Rural:
Food System Adaptations to the Great Simplification Jason Bradford
February 19, 2019
Biologist, farmer, Dr. Jason Bradford has written a report challenging the common view that the future will predominantly be urban. He imagines instead that we’re at the very beginning of the Great Simplification—a time when we’ll see a return to an agrarian way of life and a complete reversal in the trend of human migration from rural areas to urban centers.
Excerpt:
The Future is Rural challenges the conventional wisdom about the future of food in our modern, globalized world. It is a much-needed reality check that explains why certain trends we take for granted–like the decline of rural areas and the dependence of farming and the food system on fossil fuels–are historical anomalies that will reverse over the coming decades. Renewable sources of energy must replace fossil fuels, but they will not power economies at the same scale as today. Priorities will profoundly shift, and food will become a central concern. Lessons learned from resilience science and alternatives to industrial agriculture provide a foundation for people to transition to more rural and locally focused lives.
Published a week after research revealed a steep decline in global insect populations linked to pesticide use, the ‘Ten Years for Agroecology’ study from European think tank IDDRi shows that pesticides can be phased out and greenhouse gas emissions radically reduced in Europe through agroecological farming, which would still produce enough healthy food for a growing population.
With new agricultural and dietary modelling, the report’s authors examine the reduction in yields that would result from a transition to agroecological farming. >>> more
World Economic Forum
Business Insider writer, Tanza Loudenback's report: Agrihoods:
the urban communities built around their own farms
Millennials are saying "so long" to the country club
and "hello" to the farm. Many so-called agrihoods-
short for "agricultural neighborhoods" -
are cropping up around the US, and they're aimed at farm-to-table-loving millennials.
Loosely defined by the Urban Land Institute as master-planned housing communities with working farms as their focus, agrihoods have ample green space, barns, and outdoor community kitchens.
Some boast greenhouses and rows and rows of fruit trees.
The homes are typically built to high environmental standards —
think solar panels and composting.
Agrihoods are designed to appeal to young, active families
who love to eat healthy and spend time outdoors — and they're not off the grid.>>> more
Landmanship: Natural ecology should become the highest discipline in a farmer‘s mind. Much like the disciplines of medicine facilitate healing of the body...
Why the Food Movement is Unstoppable by Jonathan Latham, PhD – September 2016 Excerpt: … over the long run of history, the most effective opponents of excessive wealth and privilege have not normally been city dwellers, workers or unions. Instead, they have usually been those with close links to food and the land, what we would now identify as the food movement. Even today, in more than a few countries, food is the organising principle behind the main challengers of existing power structures. ...
Miguel Ramirez recently explained: We say that every square meter of land that is worked with agro-ecology is a liberated square meter. We see it as a tool to transform farmers’ social and economic conditions. We see it as a tool of liberation from the unsustainable capitalist agricultural model that oppresses farmers.
>>> more
"That's what you're seeing with the organic movement and the local movement, and all these extraordinary things that are happening. We're voting with our dollar." – Andrew Kimbrell, Centre for Food Safety
What is Bio-Dynamic Agriculture? See extensive references and links HERE –– Back to top
Biodynamic agriculture was the first ecological farming system to arise in response to commercial fertilizers and specialized agriculture after the turn of the 20th century. "“BioDynamics: Builder of Health and not Healer of Sickness. Leaves are the sole organs on Earth able to create new material substance; in contrast, everything else on Earth is a recycling of materials." – Alex Podolinsky, Living Knowledge, 2002 (pdf)
Australian Permaculture founder Bill Mollison (1928-2016) co-developed with David Holmgren (b. 1955-) the integrated system of ecological and environmental design based on a perennial and sustainable form of agriculture known as "Permaculture". In 1974, Mollison was age 46 when he began his collaboration with 19 year old David Holmgren. In 1978 they introduced their system to the world with their co-written book Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements
Permaculture Research Institute:Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms. The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.>>>more
Worldwide Permaculture Network Go to the MAP to see the growing list of permaculture projects worldwide We cannot, however, do much for nature if we do not govern our greed, and if we do not supply our needs from our existing settlements. If we can achieve this aim, we can withdraw from much of the agricultural landscape, and allow natural systems to flourish. >>> more
In 1978, Australian Bill Mollison, the legendary Permaculture teacher, promoter and designer, founded The Permaculture Institute, the first and longest running Permaculture Institute in existence. Over 26 years of non-stop travelling, designing, teaching and writing, he personally planted the seeds of Permaculture in over 120 countries.
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Tropical Permaculture Guidebook has just completed a new chapter!! CH 6 - FAMILY GARDENS is now LIVE on line and ready to download!!! Its a biggie! And its yours, just go to the website. Beautifully illustrated by Timorese artists, this wonderful and very practical permaculture book for the tropics is published by Permatil in East Timor as a gift to the world.
What Permaculture can teach us about The Commons
by David Bollier
Feb. 7, 2017
Excerpt:
As a developed set of social practices, techniques and ethical norms, permaculture has a lot to say to the world of the commons. This is immediately clear from reading the twelve design principles of permaculture that David Holmgren enumerated in his 2002 book Permaculture: Principles and Practices Beyond Sustainability. It mentions such principles as “catch and store energy,” “apply self-regulation and accept feedback,” “produce no waste,” and “design from patterns to details. . . . My friendship and work with ecological design expert Dave Jacke have only intensified my conviction that permaculturists and commoners need to connect more and learn from each other."
>>> more
2.
ATTRA: What's ahead for Sustainable Agriculture? The future of sustainable agriculture has never looked more promising or more challenging. On the one hand, the number of acres in organic production continues to rise, and sales of organic foods are growing at 20 to 25 percent a year. ...
On the other hand, crop subsidies to factory farms continue to grow. Large seed and chemical companies are lobbying hard for genetically modified plants and other organisms that are resistant to (and, therefore, require) agricultural chemicals. More crop producers are shifting toward more sustainable practices each year, and more beef and dairy producers moving toward pasture-based production. >>> more
3. Permaculture College Australia Nimbin, Northern NSW.
A non-profit Permaculture Education Centre offering PDCs and short courses, founded by Robyn Francis"director of Permaculture International Ltd (PIL) in 1987, designer and creator of Djanbung Gardens, Australia's leading permaculture centre."
4. The Permaculture Student 1
by Matt Powers, from New York to California to Texas, "the first permaculture book designed for young adults" - a true story of resilience!
Originally published in 2015 as the first middle school textbook on Permaculture for youth - everyone can now download Download The Permaculture Student 1 FREE!
Get a thorough & professional introduction to Permaculture Design with a reviewed and endorsed 'PDC on Paper' + a FREE Video Series.>>>more
The Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) is located on a
Permaculture demonstration site in The Channon, NSW, Australia. Managing Director of of Permaculture News"Geoff Lawton is a world renowned permaculture consultant, designer and teacher. He took his PDC in 1983 with Bill Mollison, widely considered the “father of permaculture.
Geoff has specialised in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development since 1985. Working in over 50 countries, Geoff has taught more than 15,000 students, he established the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia and Zaytuna Farm which is Geoff and Nadia’s family home. As an award winning Permaculture Designer, Geoff’s main aim is to drive the establishment of self-replicating educational demonstration sites across the globe." ... >>> more
Do You Create Biochar? Geoff Lawson's Permaculture Masterclasses - Watch a Four-part video series HERE
What is Biochar?
by Stefanie Spears
Regeneration International
May 2018
Excerpt:
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance that's made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (also called biomass) in a controlled process called pyrolysis. Although it looks a lot like common charcoal, biochar is produced using a specific process to reduce contamination and safely store carbon.>>>more
Biochar International FAQ:
Biochar
reduces soil acidity which decreases liming needs, but in most cases does not actually add nutrients in any appreciable amount. ... In most agricultural situations worldwide, soil pH (a measure of acidity) is low (a pH below 7 means more acidic soil) and needs to be increased. >>>more
Australian Government
Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Biochar
Excerpt:
The Australian Government funded research to understand biochar’s ability to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Through the National Biochar Initiative researchers determined how biochar could be used in Australian conditions.
Key Points
Biochar is a stable, carbon–rich form of charcoal that is applied to soil.
Some biochars can increase soil fertility, water holding capacity and crop productivity.
Adding biochar to soil increases its carbon content and could help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Research shows that biochars derived from grasses or crops appear to have the best balance of agricultural benefit and carbon stability.
Biochars derived from grass, wood, and biosolids have been shown to raise wheat germination rates by about five per cent.
Biochar is produced from heating organic materials like crop waste, grass, woodchips and manure in a high temperature, low oxygen process known as pyrolysis.
It has the potential to increase soil carbon content, which can help reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate future climate change. Producing biochar and applying it to soils could create carbon offsets under the Carbon Farming Initiative. Biochar may also provide additional agricultural benefits such as increased soil fertility and crop productivity. >>>more
Founded on more than 50 years’ worth of data from a unique field experiment, researchers have demonstrated that common farming practices drain the soil of carbon, altering the structure of soils’ microscopic habitat and, remarkably, the genetics of microbes living within it.
The team of microbiologists and physicists, led by Rothamsted Research, considered almost 9,000 genes, and used X-ray imaging to look at soil pores smaller than the width of a human hair, and in concert with previous work, have started forming what they envisage will be a universal ‘Theory of Soil’.
In healthy soils, relatively low nitrogen levels limit microbes’ ability to utilise carbon compounds, so they excrete them as polymers which act as a kind of ‘glue’ - creating a porous, interconnected structure in the soil which allows water, air, and nutrients to circulate.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers reveal that the Victorian-era switch from manure to ammonia and phosphorous based fertilizers has caused microbes to metabolise more carbon, excrete less polymers and fundamentally alter the properties of farmland soils when compared to their original grassland state.>>>more
Abstract:
We use a unique set of terrestrial experiments to demonstrate how soil management practises result in emergence of distinct associations between physical structure and biological functions. These associations have a significant effect on the flux, resilience and efficiency of nutrient delivery to plants (including water). Physical structure, determining the air–water balance in soil as well as transport rates, is influenced by nutrient and physical interventions. Contrasting emergent soil structures exert selective pressures upon the microbiome metagenome. These selective pressures are associated with the quality of organic carbon inputs, the prevalence of anaerobic microsites and delivery of nutrients to microorganisms attached to soil surfaces. This variety results in distinctive gene assemblages characterising each state. The nature of the interactions provide evidence that soil behaves as an extended composite phenotype of the resident microbiome, responsive to the input and turnover of plant-derived organic carbon. We provide new evidence supporting the theory that soil-microbe systems are self-organising states with organic carbon acting as a critical determining parameter. This perspective leads us to propose carbon flux, rather than soil organic carbon content as the critical factor in soil systems, and we present evidence to support this view.
"Regenerative land design"- advice from Canada Back to top
"It’s not climate change. It’s climate changed." by Javan Kerby Bernakevitch, Calgary, Canada
November 19, 2021
Owner Operator at All Points Design, Rock Creek, British Columbia
All Points Land Design works with clients to develop food, water, energy, community, landscape and infrastructure systems to generate a higher quality of life. We work domestically in Canada and Internationally.
Years ago I visited a farm with a friend.
The owners were ranging bison on the land and heard I worked in regenerative land design.
They asked if I would consider a problem:
There was a creek that ran through their property and pasture. They had a question, "how do we turn this creek into pasture?”
While I had immediate reservations about their question I put a pause on my emotional reaction and instead asked for a little time to walk the land and give their request my full attention.
After walking the part of the watershed their property was on I came back to the house. They asked, “Do you have a solution?”
I replied I had come to a positive negative. Positive as it was potentially a bigger perspective that would help them manage their site towards the goal of raising better animals, and negative because my answer didn't fulfill their specific request.
I said: "Before the first animals, let alone the first peoples on this land were here, this was a wetland. When animals and first peoples came it was a wetland and both worked with what this ecology provided... as a wetland. The ecological disruption that's happened since then hasn't changed the fact that the drainage that runs through this landscape is fed by kilometres of headwaters or that this water has for millennia created riparian soils and wetland ecology.
In short, this was a wetland before people came here and it will be a wetland after we're long gone. I suggest you accentuate the wetland feature, planting fodder and perennial species to use the water as a resource instead of forcing your views on the landscape. I know it's not what you wanted to hear but I'm an advocate for the land first, your money second and your wants third. This land has always been and will always be a wetland. I suggest working with instead of against it.”
The land owner was somber for a moment and said, "That's the first piece of good advice we've received in 5 years. We've paid thousands of dollars to consultants of which the last suggestion was to take the soil down 6 feet and regrade everything. But what you're saying actually makes sense.”
In the modern world we have placed our infrastructure with complete disregard to the ecology that keeps us alive. We’ve sized our culverts and drainages thinking that major events could never happen and then denuded the landscape of the vegetative sponge (and added to wildfire’s intensity and frequency through a policy of exclusion and suppression) that slows, spreads and sinks water for times of scarcity and drought, only to have violent, powerful and destructive events like we’ve experienced this past week in British Columbia, Canada.
We’ve removed the animals that have kept water in the landscape like beavers. We’ve put more water into the atmosphere and by doing so changed the climate to a state that hasn’t been experienced before (see Walter Jehne’s work on this for more info); And according to some scientists is more dangerous for climate chaos than carbon.
There’s amazing posts about how Roman roads have withstood the test of time. The real reason? They were placed in places that were out of water cycles.
After mentoring with Sepp Holzer years ago there’s a point he made that came to me when the Calgary floods were at their peak in 2013 and has recently been on my mind.
“People put their roads in the valleys. It’s stupid. They're dummkopfs (German for idiot or block head). They never learn. Valleys are for water, not roads.”
We’re in, as Brad Landcaster (amazing practitioner and teacher of Rainwater Harvesting in Tucson, Arizona, USA) calls it, the DRAIN age and we need to move into the RETAIN age.
– In the Scottish moorlands, experimental areas planted with native trees actually stored less carbon after several decades than untouched plots covered in heather.
– These results are of direct relevance to current policies that promote tree planting under the logic that trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and lock it in their biomass as they grow. This is true, but disregards the role of soil.
– Globally, more carbon is stored in soil than in all the Earth’s plants and the atmosphere combined.
– Planting trees in areas that have never been forested, a practice known as afforestation, can release these carbon stores, resulting in a net loss of carbon from the ecosystem. >>>more
"It is not even a major problem... we could be carbon negative in 2 years
and back to pre-industrial atmospheric levels in 10 years."
– Peter Andrews
AUSTRALIA: Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) is a rural landscape management technique developed by Australian grazier and race horse breeder Peter Andrews, aimed at restoring natural water cycles that allow the land to flourish despite drought conditions. According to Peter Andrews OAM, we can reverse our current impacts on the environment and our climate. Bringing large areas back from environmental ruin are key to stabilising the earth's climate, and making sustainable agriculture possible. Industry needs to adapt but individuals are essential in this turnabout.
ABC-Radio National - Late Night Live:
Phillip Adams talks to Peter Andrews Monday 19 August, 2013
Download the interview podcast
Full interview transcript, and more here
Excerpt:
Peter Andrews ... a simple example: You've got a glass with a quantity of water in it, and another glass with the same quantity of sand, and if you tip the sand into the water, the level rises. We're pouring trillions of tons of our landscape asset into the sea, yet no one is saying that will cause the sea to rise. And, if you let ice melt and it goes into the sea, it actually shrinks. We know the two, but we are ignoring one of the most obvious issues. We just leave so many of the obvious things out. ... We've just got to have it recognised. In this landscape, from the days of the Aborigines and their knowledge, to the processes that were clearly able to be downloaded from the landscape of the megafauna prior to Aborigines, and then to the capacity for us to reinstate those processes for all forms of agriculture.
It's all happening in small scale at the present time and it could go off at a massive scale.>>> more.
Connecting the Dots
Between Pollution, Global Hunger and Water Scarcity Industrial agriculture has removed massive amounts of valuable carbon from land, transferring it into air and water. Courtney White, a former archaeologist and a Sierra Club activist, connects the dots for us in his book Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country (2014). One of the keys to land restoration is carbon sequestration. Carbon is the most abundant element on Earth after oxygen. Dark, rich soils contain high amounts of carbon. This element is the tie that binds grazing management, land health, food, water, and rising pollution levels together.
"We have too much of it right now. Through plants, through photosynthesis, and into the soils through the roots, we can actually store the carbon in the soils. I didn't know that. We had been involved in land management practices for about 10 years up to that point. All the practices these ranchers, gardeners, restorationists, and farmers were doing all have a positive impact potentially on the climate. They also could produce more food and more water." – Courtney White
Soils can hold vast amounts of carbon, and it can sequester it for long periods of time. In the soil, carbon contributes to improved soil and plant health.
One of the easiest ways to improve soil health and help sequester carbon in your soil.
Challenges to implementing carbon sequestration on a more widespread scale include policy and corporate challenges, as there are big companies that profit from practices that don’t improve land health.
Returning to more sustainable organic farming methods is also necessary in order to support the regeneration of soils, which, ultimately, dictates how nutritious the food grown in it will be.>>> more
- a prehistoric method of securing food in tropical areas. Robert Hart pioneered a system based on the observation that the natural forest can be divided into distinct levels. He used intercropping to develop an existing small orchard of apples and pears into an edible polyculture landscape consisting of the following layers:In the 1980s, Robert Hart coined the term "forest gardening" after adapting the principles and applying them to temperate climates. See comprehensive information here
‘Canopy layer’ consisting of the original mature fruit trees.
‘Low-tree layer’ of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarfing root stocks.
‘Shrub layer’ of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
A key component of the seven-layer system was the plants he selected. Most of the traditional vegetable crops grown today, such as carrots, are sun loving plants not well selected for the more shady forest garden system. Hart favoured shade tolerant perennial vegetables.>>> more
Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WOOF) aka "Willing Workers On Organic Farms" – a loose network of organisations that facilitate placement of volunteers on organic farms around the world. While there is no single international WWOOF association, as of 2010, 50 countries have a national WWOOF organisation. WWOOF Independents list hosts located in 49 other countries, of which 20 countries have only one registered host farm.
Slow Food movement The Slow Food movement is an international movement founded in Italy by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. Slow Food expanded to become the Slow movement, which has expanded world-wide to over 100,000 members in 150 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products.
Leave the tourist trail! See the real world and learn first-hand about ecologically sound Organic, BioDynamic, and Permaculture food growing methods.
While supporting the organic movement, Volunteer WWOOFers have an opportunity to experience rural life in many countries.
WWOOFers generally do not receive financial payment. In exchange for 4 to 6 hours a day working on general farming or gardening activities, in private gardens, co-operatives, community gardens, and commercial farms, WWOOFing hosts provide food, accommodation, first-hand experience in growing food, and opportunities to network with WWOOFers from other countries, These 'working holidays' can range from a few days to years. Farms become WWOOF hosts by enlisting with their national organisation. In countries with no WWOOF organisation, farms enlist through WWOOF UK and WWOOF Australia.
What is bamboo? by Robyn Francis As the world’s largest grass and fastest growing plant, bamboo has earned reputations ranging from severe animosity to zealous passion. The animosity has been largely driven by the invasive and rampant nature of running bamboo species, which hold no regard for property boundaries and have thwarted many creative strategies for containment. Running bamboos tend to be more temperate to sub-tropical species and usually shoot in spring.
There are many excellent clumping species of bamboo that won’t take over your (and your neighbours) yard. I generally recommend planting only clumping bamboos. Clumping bamboos range in size from the smaller 2-4m high ‘multiplex’ hedge bamboo species, through to giants that grow up to 40 meters high with culm diameters of 20cm. Clumping bamboos tend to be tropical and subtropical species. Some, like Bambusa oldhamii, can handle frosts down to -8 deg, whereas others are exceptionally frost sensitive. Clumping bamboos usually shoot with the onset of the wet season in summer.>>> more
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals - 2012
World Health Organization Report Download the
pdf
Page 1.
State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals - 2012
Edited by Åke Bergman, Jerrold J. Heindel, Susan Jobling.
Introduction In 2002, the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), a joint programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Labour Organization, published a document entitled Global Assessment of the State-of-the-Science of Endocrine Disruptors (IPCS, 2002). This work concluded that scientific knowledge at that time provided evidence that certain effects observed in wildlife can be attributed to chemicals that function as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs); that the evidence of a causal link was weak in most cases and that most effects had been observed in areas where chemical contamination was high; and that experimental data supported this conclusion. The document further concluded that there was only weak evidence for endocrine-related effects in humans. Uncertainties regarding global endocrine disrupting effects were put forward; simultaneously, concern was expressed that endocrine disruption may affect developmental processes if exposure occurs during early life stages. Almost no data regarding endocrine-related effects were available for chemicals other than those defined as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) according to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants: polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). Even for these chemicals, the data gaps were obvious for parts of the world other than western Europe, North America and Japan. The IPCS (2002) document finally concluded that there was a need for broad, collaborative and international research initiatives and presented a list of research needs.
Since the start of this century, intensive scientific work has improved our understanding of the impacts of EDCs on human and wildlife health. Scientific reviews published by, for example, the Endocrine Society (Diamanti-Kandarakis et al., 2009), the European Commission (Kortenkamp et al., 2011) and the European Environment Agency (2012) show the scientific complexity of this issue. These documents implicate EDCs as a concern to public and wildlife health. In addition, the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and the Pediatric Endocrine Society have put forward a consensus statement calling for action regarding endocrine disruptors and their effects (Skakkebaek et al., 2011).
Now, in 2012, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WHO present an update of the IPCS (2002) document, entitled State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals—2012. This document provides the global status of scientific knowledge on exposure to and effects of EDCs. It explains, in the first chapter, what endocrine disruption is all about, and then it discusses in detail, in 12 sections in the second chapter, endocrine disrupting effects in humans and wildlife. The work is based on the fact that endocrine systems are very similar across vertebrate species and that endocrine effects manifest themselves independently of species. The effects are endocrine system related and not necessarily species dependent. Effects shown in wildlife or experimental animals may also occur in humans if they are exposed to EDCs at a vulnerable time and at concentrations leading to alterations of endocrine regulation.
Of special concern are effects on early development of both humans and wildlife, as these effects are often irreversible and may not become evident until later in life. The third and final chapter of this document discusses exposure of humans and wildlife to EDCs and potential EDCs.
A report titled “too big to feed”, published in October 2017 by the international panel of experts on sustainable food systems (IPES), stated that recent mergers between agro-chemical companies will deliver 70% of the sector in the hands of three giant merged companies: the Dow-Dupont conglomerate, Bayer’s $66 billion buyout of Monsanto, and ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta for $43 billion and planned SinoChem merger in 2018. “Mergers are increasingly allowing firms to control information flows along the chain and exercise huge power over the trajectory of food systems”, said Pat Mooney, lead author of the report.>>>more
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, stated, “We have approved Bayer’s plans to take over Monsanto because the parties’ remedies, worth well over €6 billion, meet our competition concerns in full. Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger”.
“In particular, we have made sure that the number of global players actively competing in these markets stays the same. That is important because we need competition to ensure farmers have a choice of different seed varieties and pesticides at affordable prices”, she added. “We need competition to push companies to innovate in digital agriculture and to continue to develop new products that meet the high regulatory standards in Europe, to the benefit of all Europeans and the environment.”. >>>more
In late March, 2015, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's weed killer Roundup, was reclassified "probable carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO).
DOWNLOAD free GMO shopping guide (PDF format)
According to Monsanto's website: "There is no need to test the safety of DNA introduced into GM crops. DNA (and resulting RNA) is present in almost all foods. DNA is non-toxic and the presence of DNA, in and of itself, presents no hazard."
This viewpoint, while good for business, is built on an understanding of genetics circa 1960. Given what we know now, that stance is arrogant. Time will tell if it's reckless. Take a look at this comprehensive archive of reports re. Monsanto's efforts to dominate food production.
The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) brings together a diversity of expert voices to shape policy debates on how to reform food systems around the world.
... an independent panel of experts with a mission to promote transition to sustainable food systems around the world. Since 2015, IPES-Food has shaped the debate on global food system reform through scientific reports & detailed policy recommendations. >>>more
European Study:2015 First Commercialized GM Crop Was Toxic to Farm Animals over Long-Term A unique new study led by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini has shown that the first genetically-modified GM crop commercialized for animal feed, Bt176 from Novartis (now Syngenta), was toxic to cows over the long-term.
Context:
The first GM maize to be commercialized for animal feed, Bt176 from Novartis (subsequently Syngenta), caused various controversies, beginning in 1996. Grown on a few thousand hectares, it was quickly withdrawn from the market. >>>more
On an independent modern farm followed by certified veterinarians, dairy cows (mean of 62 per year) were maintained in optimized milk production for 3 years each. From 1997 to 2002, just after the commercial release of the first GMO (genetically modified organism) in Europe, genetically modified (GM) Bt176 maize grown on the farm was progressively introduced in controlled diets. The results are described in the following account, which has an historical value as it is the longest and first on-farm observation of mammals, performed by an experienced farmer and veterinarians, during a period of unusual pathological problems in cows receiving a GMO-rich diet. Thus it was not designed as a scientific experiment. Over the years, and coinciding with regular increases in GMO content of the diet (0–40%), the proportion of healthy cows with high milk yield diminished from 70% (normal rate) to only 40%. At the peak of mortalities in 2002, 10% of the cows died, preceded by a long-lasting paresis syndrome without hypocalcemia or fever, but with kidney biochemical failure and mucosa or epithelial problems. No microbial origin was identified, though intensively investigated. The GM maize, subsequently withdrawn from the market, was at the time the only intended managerial change for the cows. It is proposed that it provoked long-term toxic effects on mammals, which are not observable in most common conditions of intensive farming with high and rapid animal turnover and with no specific labels on GM feed (identifying amount and precise identity of GMO content). More long-term assessments during GMO feeding trials should be performed.>>> more
Pesticide Treadmill Jeopardizes Food Safety In 2013, in the midst of mounting questions about glyphosate’s safety, the Environmental Protection Agency doubled allowable limits of glyphosate in flax, soybean, and canola from 20 to 40 ppm
Researchers found Roundup causes necrosis and apoptosis in human cells starting at 50 ppm, which the researchers noted is “far below agricultural dilutions”
The IARC is one of the research agencies from which the California agency of environmental hazards gets its data to declare carcinogens under Prop 65 and, as predicted, environment officials have now issued a notice of intent to put a cancer warning on Roundup. Source: AgInfo.net Sept. 10, 2015
New research shows that when we eat we're consuming more than just vitamins and protein. Our bodies are absorbing information, or microRNA.
The type of RNA in question is called microRNA (abbreviated to miRNA) due to its small size. MiRNAs have been studied extensively since their discovery ten years ago, and have been implicated as players in several human diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. They usually function by turning down or shutting down certain genes. The Chinese research provides the first in vivo example of ingested plant miRNA surviving digestion and influencing human cell function in this way.
Should the research survive scientific scrutiny -- a serious hurdle -- it could prove a game changer in many fields. It would mean that we're eating not just vitamins, protein, and fuel, but gene regulators as well.
That knowledge could deepen our understanding of many fields, including cross-species communication, co-evolution, and predator-prey relationships. It could illuminate new mechanisms for some metabolic disorders and perhaps explain how some herbal and modern medicines function.
This study had nothing to do with genetically modified (GM) food, but it could have implications on that front. The work shows a pathway by which new food products, such as GM foods, could influence human health in previously unanticipated ways. ...
In 1999, a group of scientists wrote a letter titled "Beyond Substantial Equivalence" to the prestigious journal Nature. In the letter, Erik Millstone et. al. called substantial equivalence "a pseudo-scientific concept" that is "inherently anti-scientific because it was created primarily to provide an excuse for not requiring biochemical or toxicological tests."
To these charges, Monsanto responded: "The concept of substantial equivalence was elaborated by international scientific and regulatory experts convened by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1991, well before any biotechnology products were ready for market."
This response is less a rebuttal than a testimonial to Monsanto's prowess at handling regulatory affairs. Of course the term was established before any products were ready for the market. Doing so was a prerequisite to the global commercialization of GM crops. It created a legal framework for selling GM foods anywhere in the world that substantial equivalence was accepted. By the time substantial equivalence was adopted, Monsanto had already developed numerous GM crops and was actively grooming them for market.>>> more
What’s driving this cycle is the consumer’s desire for more information about their food,... I don’t think that’s going away. Why some farmers are deciding to go GMO-free "Conventional seeds certainly cost less, lacking the need to recoup the large research and development costs behind their genetically altered counterparts. A bag of non-GMO soybeans — which covers roughly one acre — costs about $20 less than a similar bag of seeds designed to work with glyphosate" Millwood said. ... But those non-GMO crops also are more valuable when it’s time to sell. …ongoing debates over GMO labeling suggest there could soon be greater domestic demand for non-GMO grains. “What’s driving this cycle is the consumer’s desire for more information about their food,” James said. “I don’t think that’s going away.”>>> more
Redesigning Civilization -- with Permaculture Modern agriculture, industry and finance all extract more than they give back, and the Earth is starting to show the strain. How did we get in this mess and what can we do to help our culture get back on track? The ecological design approach known as permaculture offers powerful tools for the design of regenerative, fair ways to provide food, energy, livelihood, and other needs while letting humans share the planet with the rest of nature. This presentation will give you insight into why our culture has become fundamentally unsustainable, and offers ecologically based solutions that can help create a just and sustainable society.
Robyn O'Brien:
Real food, is that too much to ask; Big industry, I take to task; It's time that we reclaim our plates; from food forced into altered states.
Robyn shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a "Real Food" evangelist. Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a "typical" breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring.
About this speaker
Robyn authored "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It." A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of "20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter." The New York Times has passionately described her as "Food's Erin Brockovich.">>> more
CONSUMED, the 2015 film CONSUMED is a dramatic thriller that explores the complex world of genetically modified food. The story is anchored by a working-class, single Mother on a hunt to uncover the cause of her son's mysterious illness. Interwoven are the stories of an Organic farmer, the CEO of a biotechnology corporation, two Scientists on the verge of a major discovery, and an ex-Cop caught in the middle of it all.
A Global Experiment Gone Awry No long-term human trials have ever been done to evaluate the health effects of GE ingredients, and no one knows what the effects of a lifetime's worth of GMO consumption might be.
But food is foundational for health, so when people suddenly suffer ill health in great numbers, it makes sense to look at the basics, starting with food.
The problem with GMOs is not restricted to novel proteins. GE foods also introduce greater amounts of pesticides into your diet, and such chemicals have also been linked to a long list of health problems, including infertility, birth defects, endocrine disruption, neurological disorders and cancer.
More generally:
• Insecticides primarily produce neurological symptoms
• Fungicides tend to produce skin-related symptoms
• Herbicides are associated with digestive and skin problems, including nutritional deficiencies, systemic toxicity and gut dysbiosis.
"Why are we all being fed by a poison expert?" How are we in a situation where the provider of a huge slice of the world's food bowl is synonymous with adverse health effects?... Using vast reserves of cash and influence to distract us all from the key question: Why are we all being fed by a poison expert?"We are the lab rats." Kevin O'Leary, The Lang & O'Leary show.
2013 interview with 14 year old Rachel Parent
Debating Kevin O'Leary on the issue of Genetically Modified Food.
Kids Right To Know: “GMO Just Label It! Campaign”
Founded on the belief that we have the “Right to Know” what’s in our food, helping to create mass awareness about the risks of GMOs and to push for their mandatory labeling.
ABOUT RACHEL PARENT: From a very young age Rachel showed true compassion for the protection of animals, she also attended a small school that nurtured and encouraged caring for others by performing for the less fortunate, and elderly, including singing and playing guitar with the York Region Police choir.
When Rachel was 12 years old, she had to do a speech for all the students at her School in Aurora, on a topic that would be of interest to her. Rachel struggled trying to decide among topics such as GMOs, Animal Cruelty, Poverty in Canada and Global Deforestation. She decided on GMOs because of the opportunity to change so many lives, to better everyone’s health, and help improve our overburdened health care system. Rachel understood that GMOs are affecting the entire planet, from humans to bees, the earth, and kids’ futures. The topic of GMOs was a natural choice, as the situation was urgent and needed immediate attention. She won a medal for her speech. >>> more
Common sense from FRESH, the movie FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. ... to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participants in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement.
Selected quotes:
Professor John Ikerd, Agricultural Economist: "It's all about maximum short run productive efficiency. A factory process. You find something that works well and then we continue to use it, because it works so well. Then, as we say, we begin to ply that same kind of paradigm. The paradigm of industrialization, specialization, standardization. economies of scale. we begin to apply it to everything --and it doesn't work on everything. ... If we go to a local food system, you gain about 3 people, in terms of employment within the local community, for every person you displace. You'd see more people employed in a sustainable system, because it is more dependent upon the imagination and creativity of people. That's what makes these alternative systems work." – John Ikerd
Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director, The Centre for Food Safety One of the complaints that we often hear about organic is: It's wonderful! Sure! It's better for the land, better for the farmer, better for you. But, you can't feed the world with it. We now know that is just wrong. We have the science. We know the answer. And, that is that medium sized organic is far more productive than any sized industrial agriculture.
For the first time, in the last two or three years, we actually have the studies, the data, that definitely shows, if you want to feed the world, don't be industrial agriculture. It turns out that all those inputs; all the expensive machinery, all the pesticides, herbicides, not to mention the fertilizers, make it unsustainable.
In the last ten years we have had more than a hundred million more tons of herbicides poured on our crops, in our crop lands, polluting our streams, polluting our air, in our foods.
Industrial agriculture has caused us to loose over 90% of our diversity.
We've seen our soil depleting at thirteen times the rate that can be replaced. ... Every decision we make at the supermarket, what we grow, what we eat, is creating a different future, for the land, the farmers, for diversity, for the health of our own bodies and communities. That's what you're seeing with the organic movement and the local movement, and all these extraordinary things that are happening. We're voting with our dollar.
That is what is so empowering about the food issue. That's the one place where there is a new vision for the future that we don't have to wait for. It is a decision you and I can make tomorrow —right now! That will change the world. It's not an impossible dream.
Daphne Miller - Farmacology
Notes:
Dr. Miller long suspected that farming and medicine were intimately linked. Increasingly disillusioned by mainstream medicine's mechanistic approach to healing and fascinated by the farming revolution that is changing the way we think about our relationship to the Earth, Daphne Miller left her medical office and traveled to seven innovative family farms around the country, on a quest to discover the hidden connections between how we care for our bodies and how we grow our food.
Violent Ways Plants Release Their Seeds Do you talk to your plants? Think of the stories they could tell if only they could talk back. The seemingly peaceful world of plants is actually a battlefield and a constant struggle for survival.
See how some predatory plants use trapdoors and enticing, beautiful flowers to trap their prey, while others shrivel up or emit odors to fend off their enemy. Experts uncover the most fascinating secrets of the world of plants-roots and all. >>> more
How “virtually-sliced” Fruits and Vegetables Look in an MRI Professor Alexandr Khrapichev, at the University of Oxford, put together this selection of what he calls “virtually-sliced” fruit and vegetables by running them through an MRI machine and putting the slices into chronological order to create these deconstructed fruit and vegetable portraits.>>> more
