Vatic Note: Wow, this is an eye opening educational experience. What I didn't expect was the historical and current perspective on today's agriculture practices and impact on us, our food, and on the planet. Is that why the senate bill was offered that forbid growing our own food?
Given the miles that our food travels to get from field to plate, is horrendous and costly in so many ways. This article lays it all out foundationally, in leading up to the objective of this article. I had no idea that we lost so much of our food using the old system, before it ever reached its destination. That was a real eye opener for me.
This shift they are discussing in growing food in urban areas, is incredible and they are proving its doable. Just think of the fuel saved, transportation problems avoided, and the freshness of the products grown, so that their nutrients will actually mean something positive for our health and that of our children.
This is really exciting news and a definite VIABLE SOLUTION to at least one of our problems. If this continues, we won't need any stupid carbon tax. They are growing it all without using pesticides. They aren't needed in an urban setting.... what a great way to solve a major problem in food production and distribution. Now all we need is to get rid of GMO and that will solve our food problem nicely.
I hope you will enjoy this read as much as I did.
Fund raising. Well, we did not get what we needed to meet our deficit, but its small enough that I can put part of what was needed off for another day, so please help us get that last $40 by tomorrow at the latest. Thanks for being there for us so many times and almost making it this time around as well. Just one more day hopefully will do it. We have the balance and that was distributed today, so the small one will hopefully be in the pay pal fund by tomorrow early and we can get it out with an apology for being late. Help us out on this. Thanks again for all that you do.
The current industrial agricultural model has benefited human populations (above all else) over the last century, taking the human population from approximately 1.6 billion people in the early 1900’s to over 7 billion people on 31st of October 2011. The widespread clearance of land across all continents for agriculture, combined with the use of heavy machinery and artificial fertilizers, has contributed to the widespread exploitation of the planet and ecosystems on a scale never seen before.
Vatic Note: In researching I am coming across another reason this may all be happening. It appears, besides the regular reasons of using the environment as a weapon, it may also be to confiscate valuable water front property from the poor working people who have lived there for generations and earn a living by fishing which is not going to make them rich, but this may well have been set up for exploitation and profit for the bankers and their elite customers. This is what was done in Haiti and Katrina. We will be researching this fully and will let you know on a blog what we have discovered. (Dick Eastman has done a great write up on this and it will be up tonight at 6 pm., further research will be later)
When BP drills in Norwegian waters they are required by law to use an acoustic switch. The REAL REASON Behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - 2010 In American waters they don't have to!!!!! Please watch video.
Deregulation is the real (underlying) reason / cause behind the US oil spill by British Petroleum (BP) in 2010 off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Deregulation coupled with lax government oversight (lackies appointed by Dick Cheney at the helm) lead to the omission of key safety features and protocols, a free pass for drilling
licenses, emphasis on profit over safety, and absolutely NO PLAN for containment of blowouts.
For example, George W Bush and Dick Cheney - THE MAN WHO IS REALLY TO BLAME FOR THIS MESS!! - helped block a 2002/03 Bill that would have required the use of acoustic switches to activate the blowout preventer (BOP).
When the rig blew up, they had to MANUALLY activate the switch by sending robotic submersibles. This was all but impossible since the rig was in flames and the priority was putting it out and saving lives; this was easily foreseen. In addition, BP did not want to lose an oil well (by activating the BOP); this would have cost them future profit in addition to the costs for exploration and preparation of the well. Eventually the rig collapsed and sank to the ocean floor. Because the rig was STILL ATTACHED to the well head / BOP, it bent or damaged the BOP making it unusable.
Again, this is something that could have been foreseen; i.e. the need to activate the BOP immediately in the case of catastrophic rig failure, to avoid potential damage to the BOP. Profit wins over safety; BP must avoid activating the BOP at all costs. An acoustic switch would have allowed them to IMMEDIATELY stop the well head (activate the BOP) as soon as the explosion happened.
The BOP would not have been at risk for failure (due to rig collapsing); but, the lack of a remote switch and
need to save the well (for profit and avoidance of loss) meant that they delayed trying to activate it. By that time the damage to the BOP had been done. Lastly, all of the post-blowout efforts have been focused on SAVING the well; i.e. it was only after more than a month before BP attempted the TOPKILL method, which would have sealed the well. Attempts before that were about slowing the flow of oil or collecting it. Why did BP not try the TOPKILL method right away?Drill Baby, Drill! Spill Baby, Spill. Now, clean it the fock up!
5 Facing possible jail time for their roles in the largest oil spill in American history, BP and Halliburton are building high-powered legal teams with "deep Department of Justice and White House ties." But the companies are pursuing other means to defend themselves as well. Halliburton's campaign donations have spiked as it tries to curry favor with key members of Congress investigating the disaster. The company donated $17,000 in May, making it "the busiest donation month for Halliburton's PAC since September 2008," Politico reports. Thirteen of the 14 contributions from May went to Republicans, while seven went to members of Congress who are "on committees with oversight of the oil spill and its aftermath":
(...) Since January of 2008, BP lobbyists have spent $30 million to influence legislation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Some coastal governors have benefited from BP as well. BP and other oil companies gave Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) $1.8 million dollars for his campaign, and since the spill, he's been aggressively downplaying the disaster and encouraging people to visit his state's oily beaches. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) traveled to a BP-funded conference in Houston last month "to lobby aggressively to drill for oil and natural gas without delay." Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) dismissed potential BP negligence by calling the spill an "act of God" at a trade association funded by BP in May.
"Avatar" and "Titanic" director James Cameron on Wednesday evening criticized those responsible for stopping the geyser of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and again offered the assistance of the private team of deep-sea experts with whom which he has worked on several underwater films and exploration efforts. "Over the last few weeks I've watched, as we all have, with growing horror and heartache, watching what's happening in the Gulf and thinking those morons don't know what they're doing,"
Cameron said at the D: All Things Digital conference sponsored by The Wall Street Journal near Los Angeles.Cameron developed expertise in deep sea robotic vehicles and submersibles over a period of 22 years, he said. (...) Cameron said he has not been in touch with anyone from the White House, and that earlier proffers of assistance he had made to BP were rebuffed.
"They could not have been more gracious but they basically said, 'We've got this,'" he said. Cameron said one reason he hoped his offer of access to private film-equipped deep-water vehicles would be taken up was to more accurately convey what was happening under water. "The government really needs to have its own independent ability to go down there and image the site, survey the site and do its own investigation and monitor it," Cameron said. "Because if you're not monitoring it independently, you're asking the perpetrator to give you the video of the crime scene."
Oil clean up workers are getting sick. BP is not providing high quality respirators for everyone. By using the conventions of journalism, the misuse of science, after-the-fact lawyering, appealing to macho vanity of some workers, and plain ol' bs to all workers, BP is getting away with this. But you might be able to do something about it. CLIP
In AL, MS, LA, TX and Mexico, as soon as prevailing weather conditions changes the dew points, the prevailing winds full of Benzenes and other crude oil VOC's will occupy the air spaces, begin condensing, coastal and inland fogs will be relatively toxic....warnings are extreme benzene exposure to respiratory, skin absorption and direct diffusion into the bloodstream if contact with waters are made, containing pools of crude oil sludges. Please pass this information along, especially to those in sates surrounding the Gulf.... and as the underwater sludges creep up the eastern seaboard of the US...Cuba. Inhalation of benzene laden air is dangerous, as benzene vapors inhaled will flow directly into the bloodstream.An 'unknowing' deception will occur, while in these benzene vapors.1. The olfactory nerve is desensitized...meaning, it becomes more and more difficult to discern or detect the smell of the benzene vapors, the longer one is in it...to the point where the olfactory and the taste buds on the back of the tongue can no longer function....the deception is: If you can't detect it or small it, must be non existent! Wrong! Primary stages of Acute Benzene Shock are probable. 2. If you have friends, relatives, loved ones in these areas (even the ones you don't necessarily like) tell them to stay out of the water, the fogs, rains or mists from the Gulf Oceans. They are now all full of benzenes. From this point forward, fatal benzene exposure will result if the life form remains exposed, in whatever manner. Combating Exposure to Oil-spill Toxins - Slowing down and 'Reversing' benzene poisoning CLIP
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Vatic Note: Please read what this environmental Engineer has to say which is what I have been saying all along. BP, KNOWS exactly what that chemical does and it is killing the gulf when it did not have to do so. Here is an article to discuss corexit that supports what he is saying. Scroll down half way and it begins at half way mark on what corexit is. Its a killer. Why then are they doing it? Remember, we learned that this chemical interacts with water to form a gas cloud that can travel anywhere in the US and when it rains it will kill our plants during the prime period of the growing season. It will be too late to replant new crops and the soil will be damaged beyond repair if it comes down to earth which it will. This engineer has been trying to get someone in government to listen to him and of course they can't hear him because they are TOO BUSY WITH LOCKING DOWN "AND CONTROLLING" ALL INFORMATION that goes out to the public and leaving the fascist BP in charge of all things that our elected reps should be dealing with instead of private mercenary contractors. . We must understand that means we do not really know what is going on or the impact of this on us OR THEIR INTENT given this has been known it was going to happen for sometime now. Notice once the public on their own put out all the indicators that BP knew and had this planned in advance, they finally came out over the past couple of days and said they knew, so they traded their stock instead of preventing the problem, IF ITS A REAL PROBLEM. Not necessary if its not a real problem. I said it before and I am going to keep saying it, THIS IS CHEMICAL WARFARE AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY OUR SWORN ENEMY. Just try to remember who owns BP and who owns the toxic chemical company and once you see that you will understand this is a war that they are conducting against us using fear for manipulating us into compliance, in fact they are so scared that I bet they begin to beg to be put into the camps just like those in Katrina. Now no food in the bay and the chemicals are killing the crops growing right now, so that will make those that do not leave without food or decent water.
Environmental Engineer: Dispersants Have to Stop Now
Joe Taylor, an environmental engineer in Daphne, says BP's use of the dispersant Corexit is wrong, and they will kill the Gulf of Mexico. And Taylor has the scientific knowledge to back up his claim. He's been cleaning up petroleum contamination for many years.
He says the sulfur and sulfuric acid based dispersant makes the oil spewing into the gulf sink, where its impossible to clean up--and where it depletes oxygen levels under the water, killing plankton and everything above plankton in the food chain. "Corexit is toxic, petroleum is toxic, and its depleting the oxygen levels," he says.
