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emilycritchley · 2 years ago

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TOXIC BLOWJOBS

Please sign & share the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618978 In an era of energy insecurity, illegal pollution levels in our cities, climate breakdown and “insect armageddon”, why are we still gardening with fossil fuels? For years I had no idea that my daughter’s school, the park where she plays, the street we live on and every garden in my vicinity, were all “managed” in a way that routinely poisons the air and threatens every living species in proximity. November is the cruellest month. Like so many in this country, I am terrorized at this time of year by the headache-inducing roar of petrol-powered leaf-blowers and the kerosene-laced dust clouds left in their wake. Yet few know the dire effects of these super-polluters on human health – from permanent hearing damage (any sustained sound above 85 decibels; most leaf-blowers reach 90) to exacerbating asthmas and cancers, to serious psychological distress. Or that, in the name of ‘landscape maintenance’, we’re wiping out food and habitats for millions of bugs, birds and mammals, annihilating microorganisms in the soil and damaging the health of our carbon-sequestering trees. I’m aware that, in climate terms, petrol-powered gardening tools seem a comparatively trivial, even parochial, problem. Limiting flying, driving and food waste, avoiding products that contribute to the deforestation of the earth or the denuding of our oceans are vital. These are large-scale examples of the narrative of man + machine vs natural world that is the core of our environmental emergency. But I’ve become convinced that mending our broken relationship with the living earth has to start at home: in an ability to see and think differently about the non-human life struggling to survive in our streets, backyards, towns and cities. It is by now well documented that the climate and biodiversity crises – twin catastrophes to all life – are fundamentally related both to each other and to human health. Let’s expose these gas-guzzling power tools for what they really are: yet another front in our war on nature, and thus on ourselves, and call for them to be banned. Trees have shed their leaves for millennia. These get broken down to form nitrogen-rich humus – a gardener’s best friend – which give both the trees and every living creature that depends on them a nutrition boost through the winter. That is until late twentieth-century America invented a way to crack the confected problems of ‘messy lawns’ and ‘slip risks’ with the highly profitable, highly-polluting petrol leaf-blower. I can’t account for the taste of people who prefer golf-style green deserts to the visual delight of autumn leaves (the history of poetry shows the aesthetes are not on their side), but even if we focus on the safety aspect, the use of these machines cannot be justified. Emitting approx 30% of their petrol / oil fuel mix instantly as a carcinogenic aerosol, petrol leaf-blowers add new pollution to the already illegal levels in our cities. They have been shown to release 50x more brain-damaging particulate pollutants than all the engines in a busy junction at rush hour. They are 300x more polluting than a car for ground level ozone pollution, which kills more people globally each year than died in the entire Covid pandemic. They also stir up and widely distribute existing pollution in a toxic cocktail. Leaf-blowers pulverize whatever they come into contact with into unnaturally fine dust which is then blown far and wide: animal excrement, manure, fertilizer, pesticide residue, moulds, street dust: dust from brake linings, including asbestos, grease, oil and carcinogenic carbon black from tire wear. Because the particles of this dust are so fine (less than 10 microns), they can stay airborne for days, bypassing the protective cilia in our airways and going straight into our lungs and even into our bloodstream. This is especially bad news for children. On contact with their blast, insects and soil microorganisms are annihilated; leaf-blowers can also kill or maim any small animal who happens to be hiding or hibernating in a leaf pile at the time. The 1990s saw an exponential rise in the availability and use of petrol leaf-blowers, along with an exponential fall in formerly common mammals such as the British hedgehog, voles, moles, bats and dormice. So fatal are these machines to wildlife, that Germany recently restricted their use after a disturbing report warned of an ongoing “insect armageddon”. This shouldn’t just be of concern to entomologists. We are literally destroying one of the key chains in the life cycle whereby soils remain healthy and our food pollinated. The shameful truth is that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world with, on average, only about half its biodiversity left – far below the global average of 75% according to the Biodiversity Intactness Index. That puts us in the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity. In spite of this, the practice of hoovering nature’s free fertilizer into plastic bags, only to then have to purchase (in different plastic bags) the artificial fertilizers, composts, pesticides and herbicides required once we rid our ecosystems of the biodiversity that formerly produced nitrogen, shared minerals, pollinated flowers, rationed water, and so on, has become commonplace in this country. And the problem, as well as the trend for immaculate lawns and slip-free public spaces (in case of punishing law suits), seems to be growing. Domestic sales indicate that more and more homeowners are purchasing these power tools, every landscape gardener and grounds management company has a collection of them, schools use them to maintain ‘safe’ playgrounds and councils to clear roads and parks, all regularly poisoning the air we breathe. And, like so many other environmental problems, this practice has an exponentially negative impact when scaled up. For the fact that we’ve ‘unwilded’ almost every square mile of the UK, through industrial farming, destructive building projects and other catastrophic land practices, means that every domestic garden, park, urban and suburban green space now really counts in terms of both its ability to sequester carbon, prevent flooding and provide somewhere for wildlife to go. The organisation Plantlife.org.uk makes this vitally clear through campaigns such as ‘No Mow May’. Bees, butterflies, birds, frogs and hedgehogs all need wild or ‘untidy’ corners of gardens, fields and parks. They rely on fallen leaves and leaf mulch, along with ‘weeds’ like dandelions and daffodils, for food, to nest in, lay eggs on, and hibernate in. And we need them: if lockdown taught us anything it was surely that the physical, mental and emotional succour nature provides humans – as proven recently by science, but documented by artists and writers for centuries – is essential to our health. At the same time – and of course these problems are interconnected – we have serious physical health issues throughout our cities. London “systematically and persistently” exceeds European legal limits for air pollution and has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. Recent research by King’s College London estimates by how much air pollution in English cities stunts lung growth in children. In the capital, that figure is 12.5%. Why wouldn’t we immediately call a halt to any practice that, whilst being unnecessary (we still have brooms and rakes), adds to these damning statistics? As a country we have a choice: business as usual – tens of thousands suffering and even dying from air pollution-related illnesses every year, mass species extinctions, pollinators wiped out, our gardens and green spaces becoming microbial deserts with only artificial fertilizers to keep anything growing – or a collective push to legislate against one of the most harmful and unwarranted practices we have hitherto put up with. In the war on nature, we know which side the current government is on. I urge you to email your council, your MP, your local school and whoever else has a ‘duty of care’ to demand they end this toxic practice. Only people power can save us. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/618978 Sources: https://www.alternet.org/2014/08/modern-pestilence-leaf-blowers-generate-infuriating-noise-toxic-gases-and-hazardous-dust/ https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/Health%20and%20Environmental%20Impacts%20of%20Leaf%20Blowers.pdf https://www.zmescience.com/science/leaf-blowers-health-noise-hazards/ https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-000212_EN.html https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/leaf-blowers-insect-noise-pollution-germany-gardening-a9208366.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7322062/ https://cleanairlawncare.com/doctor-raises-concerns-about-leaf-blowers/ https://canadianaudiologist.ca/leaf-blowers-trying-to-kill-us-feature/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-ear-splitting-leaf-blower-it-also-emits-more-pollution-than-a-car-1513346400 https://www.momscleanairforce.org/leaf-blowers-health/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50431827 https://www.clientearth.org/media/zf2hmbjr/what-impact-does-long-term-exposure-to-air-pollution-in-your-city-have-on-childrens-health-coll-en.pdf https://www.webmd.com/lung/features/outdoor-pollution-and-lung-function-effects and many, many more

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solsarin · 4 years ago

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how to calculate percentage of water absorbed by soil

Hello dear friends, thank you for choosing us. In this post on the solsarin site, we will talk about “ how to calculate percentage of water absorbed by soil“. Stay with us. Thank you for your choice.

Class 7 Biology SoilProperties of soil

Properties of soil

Percolation rate of water in soil

Percolation is the property of absorption of water by soil.

If we pour a bottle of water on the floor and another bottle of water in the soil, the water on the floor will flow down but water in the soil will be absorbed.

The percolation rate is the amount of water absorbed by any soil at any given time.

Formula for calculating percolation rate is,

Percolation rate (ml/min) = amount of water (ml) / percolation time (min).

For example, If 200 ml of water is percolated through the soil sample in 40 min. Calculate the rate of percolation.

Solution – Rate of percolation is = amount of water (ml)/ percolation time (min)

= 200 ml/ 40 min

= 5 ml/ min

Ans- The rate of percolation is 5 ml/ min.

Moisture in soil

Moisture is the amount of water present in soil.

During summer, the water content in the soil evaporates and moves up which reflect the sunlight, thus the air above soil seems to shimmer.

Absorption of water by soil

Different soil samples absorb water in different extent.

The absorption of water by different soil can be find out by taking 50g of different soil samples.

Pour the soil in different funnels placed in different beakers and pour water in the soil with the help of measuring cylinders.

Continue pouring until it starts dripping.

U is the initial volume of

V is the final volume of water (ml).

Objective:

This topic gives an overview of;

Teeming with Life

Types

Percolation Rate of Water in Soil

Moisture in it

Absorption of Water by it

this And Crops

Soil

Soil is one of the most important natural resources. It supports the growth of plants by holding the roots firmly and supplying water and nutrients. It is t he home for many organisms. it is essential for agriculture. Agriculture provides food, clothing and shelter for all. it is thus an in separable part of our life. The earthy fragrance of it after the first rain is always refreshing.

Activity

Collect some soil samples and observe them carefully. You can use a handlens. Examine each sample carefully. Make a list of the uses of soil.

Polythene bags and plastics pollute the soil. They also kill the organisms living in the soil. That is why there is a demand to ban the polythene bags and plastics. Other substances which pollute the soil are a number of waste products, chemicals and pesticides.

Activity

Take a little soil. Break the clumps with your hand to powder it. Now take a glass tumbler, three quarters filled with water, and then add a handful of soil to it. Stir it well with a stick to dissolve the soil. Now let it stand undisturbed for some time. The rotting dead matter in the soil is called humus. You probably know that the soil is formed by the breaking down of rocks by the action of wind, water and climate. This process is called weathering. The nature of any soil depends upon the rocks from which it has been formed and the type of vegetation that grows in it.

A vertical section

A vertical section through different layers of the soil is called the soil profile. Each layer differs in feel (texture), colour, depth and chemical composition. These layers are referred to as horizons.

We usually see the top surface of the soil, not the layers below it. If we look at the sides of a recently dug ditch, we can see the inner layers of the soil, too. Such a view enables us to observe the soil profile at that place.

The best topsoil for growing plants

The best topsoil for growing plants is loam. Loamy soil is a mixture of sand, clay and another type of soil particle known as silt. Silt occurs as a deposit in river beds. The size of the silt particles is between those of sand and clay. The loamy soil also has humus in it. It has the right water holding capacity for the growth of plants.

it is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Earth’s body of soil, called the pedosphere, has four important functions:

Activity

Collect samples of clayey, loamy and sandy soils. Take a fistful of soil from one of the samples. Remove any pebbles, rocks or grass blades from it. Now add water drop by drop and knead the soil. Try to make a ball from this soil. On a flat surface, roll this ball into a cylinder. Try to make a ring from this cylinder. Repeat this activity with other samples also.

Properties of Soil

You have listed some uses of soil. Let us perform some activities to find the characteristics of the soil.

Percolation Rate of Water in Soil

Boojho and Paheli marked two different squares of 50 cm – 50 cm each, one on the floor of their house and the other on the kutcha (unpaved) road. They filled two bottles of the same size with water. They emptied the water from the bottles, one each, at the same time in the two squares.

Soil is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Earth’s body of soil, called the pedosphere, has four important functions:

All of these functions, in their turn, modify the soil and its properties.

earth or dirt

Soil is also commonly referred to as earth or dirt; some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil.

The pedosphere interfaces with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere.[1] The term pedolith, used commonly to refer to the soil, translates to ground stone in the sense fundamental stone, from the ancient Greek πέδον ground, earth. Soil consists of a solid phase of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a porous phase that holds gases (the soil atmosphere) and water (the soil solution).[2][3] Accordingly, soil scientists can envisage soils as a three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases.[4]

Soil is a product of several factors: the influence of climate, relief (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), organisms, and the soil’s parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time.[5] It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, soil ecologists regard soil as an ecosystem.[6]

resource: wikipedia

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tommytedesco · 5 years ago

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Environmental Studies Final

Oceans, the Albatross, and the Food We Eat

The two topics of discussion for this week’s reading were the preservation of ocean biomes, which rely on aquatic biodiversity, and the maintenance of a sustainable food supply for our growing human population. Chapter eleven of the Miller and Spoolman textbook discussed the numerous ill effects human activity on the world’s oceans and what this means for the critical ecological services. Chapter twelve compared and contrasted different modes of food production with regards to their environmental impact in order to further the discussion on sustainable food production. To supplement the reading on aquatic biodiversity, we were introduced to the film Albatross, which highlights a particularly saddening ongoing event in the Pacific’s Midway Island that threatens the lives of the albatross that there inhabit.

Figure 1. Birds with trash in their stomachs. (Albatross Team)

Oceans are responsible for providing 850 million jobs in fishing and tourism, about 20% of protein for nearly half of Earth’s people, more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorbing a quarter of the carbon dioxide we put in the atmosphere, and absorbing an astounding ninety percent of the heat added to the atmosphere each year (255). In short, it is a massive heat and carbon sink with hugely beneficial economic consequences. In 2015, Douglas J. McCauley stated “the oceans are facing a major extinction event” (Miller and Spoolman 267), the scale of which is not unlike that of the extinction event facing the terrestrial world. The reasons for this are numerous.

Habitat destruction occurs mainly as a result of harmful fishing techniques and industrial development on coastlines. A fishing technique known as trawling threatens the seafloor, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the ocean (261), and especially damages sea turtle nesting sites (256). Industrial runoff containing nutrient-rich fertilizers causes algal blooms which deplete the water of oxygen through a process known as eutrophication, creating oxygen “dead zones” in which most aquatic life cannot survive (258-9).

Figure 2. Trawling. (MSC)

Figure 3. Algal bloom. (Encyclopaedia Brittanica)

Invasive species, like the Asian carp in Lake Wingra, Madison, or the sea lamprey in the Great Lakes, threaten native biodiversity (259, 275-76). Continued pollution of the atmosphere leads to ocean warming and ocean acidification from the increased aquatic absorption of carbon dioxide. This takes carbonate out of the water, weakening the shells of corals and mollusks and leading to the well-publicized global disappearance of coral reefs. “The warmest and most acidic oceans waters in 400,000 years” (Miller and Spoolman 255) are also creating the environment for one of the most potent biodiversity emergencies of our time: the jellyfish bloom (254).

Jellyfish are remarkably robust to the lower pH and higher temperatures of modern oceans, but their rapid population growth is the result of a host of factors. Jellyfish can survive in the ballasts of ships transporting goods and invade new waters this way. Their polyps can attach to ship hulls with the same end result. They also benefit from the decline of their greatest predator - the sea turtle.

Figure 4. Jellyfish bloom. (iStock)

To preserve the oceans, their critical habitats like coral reefs, their barriers against erosion and storms like sea-grass beds and mangrove forests (255), and the host of ecological and economic services that they provide humans, international law is critical, but it's in a sorry state as of now.

Since the vast majority of the world’s ocean area is considered international waters and therefore not subject to national laws, I believe international cooperation is key to protecting the oceans from further harm. In fact, it seems that the only time real change is made in this sector, the actor responsible is an international (generally non-profit) organization. The International Whaling Commission, for example, was responsible for the rebound of whale species from commercial and biological endangerment in the 20th century (265). Other organizations work with the UN, like the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which establishes Marine Protected Areas (268) - wildlife refuges for the ocean. I would like to see the UN security council nations take charge to guarantee the protection of ocean biodiversity so that all of the world’s citizens can rest assured that 800 million jobs, a quarter of the world’s oxygen, and our largest atmospheric heatsink can survive for future generations.

Food production and concerns for aquatic wellbeing intersect at fishing. Eighty-seven percent of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited or overfished, and yet about half of Earth’s people rely on fish for a fifth of their protein intake. A commonly-cited solution to this issue is the use of fish farms, or hatcheries, but like all “green” solutions, these must be implemented carefully, lest they pose an environmental threat of their own.

A food desert is an urban area with little grocery access, whether due to underfunding or underdevelopment. Over twenty-three million people, including over six million children, live in food deserts in the US (284). The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) claims that 2015 saw 795 million people worldwide undernourished or malnourished. It is a moral necessity to supply these people with access to high-quality food that satisfies all of their macro and micro nutrient needs, but such an effort has to factor in the sustainability of food operations.

Figure 5. Food desert map of the United States. (USDA, CDC)

The way we get our food now is remarkably unsustainable. Plant agriculture can cause topsoil erosion through overtilling, soil salinization through overirrigation, and decreased plant biodiversity as a result of monoculture farming. Food from livestock requires enormous plant and water inputs, pollutes waterways via wash water runoff, and according to the FAO, produces eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions (302). Overfishing destroys habitats and biodiversity, and fish farming in coastal waters pollutes the ocean and introduces invasive species to coastal zones.

Still, people need to be fed, and they need all of their micronutrients. According to Miller and Spoolman, “Providing children with an adequate amount of vitamin A and zinc could save an estimated 145,000 lives per year” (Miller and Spoolman 286). Will Allen’s Growing Power, Inc. in Milwaukee exemplifies sustainable food production, from aquaponics that use fish wastes to provide nutrients to plants to a natural food compost system utilizing red wiggler worms.

National efforts need to improve. According to Miller and Spoolman “As of 2015, the United States was continuing to use at least five highly toxic pesticides banned in many countries” (307). Examples include paraquat, which is implicated in the development of Parkinson’s, and atrazine, which can be found in eighty-eight percent of all drinking water and correlates with birth defects. There are also numerous FDA loopholes involving exporting and importing of banned substances. Meanwhile, “Sweden has cut its pesticide use in half with almost no decrease in crop yields” (306). Industries that stand to lose from a transition to sustainable food-production will be an obstacle, but we still must fight to demand better from our government.

Figure 6. Albatross photos (Albatross)

Many people are doing their best to fight back against the entrenched practices that harm the environment. Independent filmmakers shot the film Albatross to raise awareness for the effect that ocean trash has on the beautiful birds of Midway Island. Best of all, the film was released for free upon completion. From the website: “I also believe that now is the time for radically creative action by all of us on behalf of life, in whatever big or small ways we each have the power to do. One thing I can do is give my eight-year labor of love as a gift to the world, as a gesture of trust in doing the right thing for its own sake” (Jordan). To achieve the change needed to save the world, lots of good people are going to have to adopt this mantra and get inspired.

Word Count: 1302

Discussion Question: Who benefits from the use of monoculture farming over polyculture farming?

References

“Albatross.” Albatross, www.albatrossthefilm.com.

“Demersal or Bottom Trawls - Marine Stewardship Council: Marine Stewardship Council.” Marine Stewardship Council | Marine Stewardship Council, www.msc.org/what-we-are-doing/our-approach/fishing-methods-and-gear-types/demersal-or-bottom-trawls.

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

Petruzzello, Melissa. “Harmful Algal Blooms.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/story/harmful-algal-blooms.

Modern Agriculture is a Corporate Phenomenon

The two documentaries we watched this week were Symphony of the Soil (2012) by Deborah Koons and Food, Inc. (2008) by Robert Kenner. Symphony of the Soil tells the story of what one voice called the interface between the mineral Earth and the living Earth - a biological crust. This thin layer of sand, silt, clay, and humus supports millions of microorganisms in each handful, as well as all of the terrestrial plant life responsible for all of the food we eat. The documentary explained that the largest responsibility for our impending agricultural crisis is our utter destruction of the soil in the name of high-input monoculture-based farming. The huge amount of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, irrigation, and tilling utilized in farming the big modern cash crops - corn and soybean - kills the biodiversity and scrubs away the mineral content of the soil that has sustained life for so many millions of years before the advent of agriculture. The best solution that the documentary offers to this crisis is not reliance on new technologies or further chemical breakthroughs (many of which actually got us into this mess), but a return to organic farming methods combined with new management techniques that can be used to feed every human being in an ecologically sustainable manner.

Figure 1. Symphony of the Soil, screenshot by NYT.

Food, Inc. follows narrator David Schlosser’s journey to “take a look into the kitchen,” as he often puts it, that feeds the United States. The search for the origin of the food on our table turns out to be a more difficult one than first expected. At every nook and cranny Schlosser had to peel back the veil covering up the nightmarish methods behind our food production. The four major food corporations that control eighty percent of food in the US are well aware of the need to keep their operations from the public eye, and they leverage their enormous financial assets into political power. They maintain on payroll teams of dozens of investigators and corporate lawyers to keep just the right amount of pressure on their competitors and nosey activists - not so much as to start a primetime controversy, but just enough to let them know who is boss. Food, Inc. connects the dots between the ecology and the economy of food production in America, and in doing so exposes the special interests of a small group of very rich men who threaten the livelihood of the organic farmer in Iowa, the obese child in urban America, and the very ecological services on which our entire economy is predicated.

Figure 2. Food, Inc. (IMDb).

I found Food, Inc. much more interesting, as it dealt more directly with the political and economic realities that govern our relationship with the soil, plant life, and animal life. While Symphony of the Soil felt at times like a textbook reading with vague allusions to taking on powerful interests in the last act, Food, Inc. called them out by name: Monsanto, Smithfield, Tyson, to list a few. It made appeals to emotion. The viewer is meant to feel disgust at the conditions of a Tyson chicken coop, to share in the helplessness of the farmers screwed over by Monsanto seed-saving laws, and to shed a tear or two with the mother who lost her son to an E. Coli outbreak brought about by cattle irresponsibly fed corn and subject to unsanitary conditions. I think these are rhetorical tactics that are incredibly effective in enlisting a population to get involved in the fight against Food, Inc.

I used to be an ardent supporter of GMOs because I thought they were the best way to eliminate global hunger and to prepare our agriculture for climate change. The latter point may still be true. It is clear to me now, however, that the current state of GMO technology, as it is dominated by Monsanto, is simply a tool of corporate domination of the agricultural sector. I had not considered the ramifications of intellectual property laws in something like farming, where farmers traditionally save seeds, and where the effect of an organism on the environment can never be fully controlled. Monsanto is a criminal organization, and Hugh Grant, CEO, is a mob boss. They leverage their market dominance and massive profits to fund legal teams that can put farmers out of business with merely the threat of a lawsuit, and they flex this power all the time (Harris). I think that the Supreme Court decision in 2001 (Cornell Law) that allowed companies to patent genetically engineered life is a disgraceful misuse of a technology that should only be used for universal public good. I also think that a scientific forum should prepare a report on the direct effects of the presence of GMOs on native species and the secondary effects of GMOs, like increased pesticide usage and overirrigation. For the time being, the production of new GMOs should be suspended.

Figure 3. Hugh Grant at World Economic Forum 2011. (Flickr)

Just like in the fossil fuel discussion, government subsidies play a huge role. The US government pumps money into corn to the point that it is overproduced, and this gives it an artificially low market value. This sounds good for the consumer, but the effects can be disastrous. Corn is used to make all kinds of unhealthy ingredients in foods, like high fructose corn syrup, which contribute to the obesity epidemic. There are also geopolitical consequences that trickle down to local communities. NAFTA flooded the Mexican food market with cheap corn (Carlsen) and put farmers out of work. These farmers were then deliberately marketed to by meat industries like Smithsfield. As depicted in Food Inc., the farmers crowded out of their domestic market by NAFTA were essentially enlisted to work in the US, where after risking their lives on the journey, they were subject to ICE raids on their own trailer park. One interviewed observer remarked “I don’t see them arresting Smithsfield corporate leaders” (paraphrased).

Towards the middle of the documentary, an organic farmer in Iowa remarked how amazing it was that corporate agriculture has been so good at hitting the wrong target. Dedicated to the singular issue of efficiency, they have all but destroyed our soil, poisoned consumers and waterways, ruined the lives of family farmers, sponsored the obesity epidemic, and caused economic turmoil worldwide. This can be turned around.

Figure 4. Organic farmer in Iowa from Food, Inc. Screenshot by author.

The closing argument in Food, Inc. is that taking on these gigantic monied interests is possible even if it is incredibly difficult. Consumers get to vote on where their food comes from “three times a day,” as one ending caption reads, but lack of information and purchasing power can make this harder. That is why it is also the duty of those who care to organize people in a political movement that can pass key legislation like Kevin’s Law, repeal veggie libel laws, implement new and better labeling laws, and end the perverse subsidizing of Food, Inc. that supplies them with the power to control the very food we eat.

Word Count: 1147

Discussion Question: What would an ethical GMO look like?

References

Carlsen, Laura. “What We've Learned From Nafta.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Nov. 2013, www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suffered-and-the-united-states-felt-its-pain.

Harris, Paul. “Monsanto Has Been Suing Small Farmers To Protect Its Seed Patents.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Feb. 2013, www.businessinsider.com/monsanto-has-been-suing-small-famers-to-protect-its-seed-patents-2013-2.

Koons, Deborah, director. Symphony of the Soil. Youtube, LDD Channel, 24 Nov. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZVKMe2FTg.

Pearce, Richard, director. Food, Inc. Youtube, O Passageiro De Agonia, 22 Nov. 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smk2xq2l3Ig.

Thomas. “J. E. M. AG SUPPLY, INC. V. PIONEER HI-BREDINTERNATIONAL, INC.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 10 Dec. 2001, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-1996.ZO.html.

Environmental Health and Personal Health

There is substantial crossover between environmental issues of all forms, from climate change to waste production, and issues of public health. The most obvious area of overlap is between the long term physical wellbeing of people and their proximity to hazardous wastes, or their exposure to persistent organic pollutants, some of which have not even been produced in over thirty years. Mercury, an element, which cannot be broken down into smaller constituent molecules, is a neurotoxin especially dangerous to pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children (as most toxins are) (442). Two-thirds of the mercury that humans are exposed to was put into the environment by human activity, and like DDT, this mercury is magnified through the food web. Bacteria turn it into methylmercury that spreads through aquatic food webs, and more recently, lichens have spread it to terrestrial food webs. As always, the extent of introducing one extra variable to the environment is impossible to track and universally underestimated.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have not been produced in the US since 1977, but 70% of all manufactured PCBs persist in the environment (452). Perfluorinated chemicals, PFOAs, are still used in nonstick cookware and are linked to thyroid disease, and PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, also play a role in thyroid dysfunction (454). Chemicals that haven’t been banned, like PFOAs, PBDEs, phthalates, and BPAs, are either kept in legal limbo by industry-funded studies (456) that cast doubt on their harmful effects or simply are unregulated by the FDA, as in 99.5% of available industrial chemicals in the US (460). Legislation surrounding these substances is flimsy at best, deadly at worst. The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (461), the major chemical safety legislation in the US, thrusts the burden of proof on underfunded state bodies like the FDA, and multiple experts have testified that there is essentially no power granted to the government to regulate businesses in this regard. Future generations may very well look at our wanton use of cheap industrial chemicals the same way we look at the 20th century consumer industry that lined pipes and paint with lead.

Figure 1. Water bottles are lined with BPA. (NIEHS)

This is not even to mention the harmful effects of inorganic and nonindustrial waste, which can build up in landfills or the ocean and wreak havoc through toxic runoff and ecological disruption. E-waste from computers and cell phones is shipped from industrial countries (illegal under the Basel convention, which the US has not ratified) to less developed countries and cleaned by hand with blunt force and powerful acids to extract trace metals like gold. The runoff from these processes pollutes local waterways with dioxin, an incredibly harmful substance. Deep-well storage of dangerous liquid wastes always poses a risk of leaking into groundwater, and landfills contribute toxic methane gas alongside other harmful chemicals to the atmosphere. The textbook focuses primarily on the effects of hazardous wastes on developing countries, but there is no reason to excuse the effect of such waste on poor communities in the US. Sometimes, it is even relatively wealthy, suburban communities that feel the effect of our broken waste management, and this tends to be when the issue gets the most publicity. This year in Northport, Long Island, leakage from two septic tanks deposited benzene into the soil, which resulted in the closure of Northport Middle School when the harmful chemical was detected in two separate soil samples (Thorne). Even something as simple as a plastic bag has been cited as a contributor to public health issues as serious as malaria: scientists posit that the bags collect groundwater and become breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes (575).

Figure 2. Year 2080 projection of greater dengue risk due to climate change. (NYT)

These are big issues. There is an equally important though less obvious discussion, however, to be had about the connection between global disease, environmental damage, and the great exacerbator: poverty. In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, this connection is especially lucid. Lower respiratory infections are the most deadly diseases in the modern world, contributing to about 3.1 million deaths per year worldwide (444). The extent of all manner of infections is exacerbated by issues like climate change and mismanagement of agriculture. Global warming allows the proliferation of disease-carrying animals, especially mosquitoes, to bring historically tropical diseases to temperate climates. Bacterial antibiotic resistance is being greatly exacerbated by the overuse of antibiotics on CAFOs, where it is reported that 80% of all antibiotics in the US are administered. New strains of multidrug-resistant TB (447) and the rise of MRSA (445) precipitated the World Health Organization’s announcement in 2014 that the “age of antibiotics” (Miller and Spoolman 445) might be ending.

The WHO says that we must increase disease research, tackle poverty and malnutrition, increase clean water access, immunize children, supply oral rehydration for those afflicted with diarrhea, and continue to sponsor a global AIDS campaign to reduce the instance of infectious disease worldwide (452). I think that these principles illustrate the interconnectedness of our society. We operate much in the same way an ecosystem does, where an issue in one link can reverberate and magnify. Put another way: no matter how well the gear spins, a single broken link in the drive chain brings the whole machine to stop. As long as someone is not immunized, does not have access to clean water, is overusing antibiotics, has a weakened immune system through malnutrition, then every single person in the world risks facing a pandemic. The WHO says tackle poverty and increase clean water access, but I would say eliminate poverty - the greatest single predictor of a shortened lifespan (462) - and malnutrition and guarantee clean water as a right to all people. It is not just the empathetic stance, but the pragmatic one.

The importance of preventative measures cannot be understated. Critics in big business will say that too much risk aversion stifles growth, and that zero economic growth kills people, but I disagree with both presumptions. I think clean, safe growth is entirely possible and that zero economic growth is only a killer when the spoils of production are siphoned to the top. When it comes to the chemicals we put in consumer products, we absolutely must put the burden of proof on industry. The European Union’s 2007 REACH legislation does exactly that, and as a result, likely harmful substances like phthalates that are banned in the EU are still in production in the US. Material waste cleanup in the US, managed by the EPA, is going to cost $1.7 trillion dollars before any legal fees. We could cancel student debt with the money we must use to clean the Earth of the poison we fed it.

The key to all of this is bold legislation and restructuring of supply-side cash flow and a perverse tax code. Citizens must push their representatives to advocate these positions. There is plenty of economic incentive to pursue cradle-to-cradle design philosophies - to restructure our supply lines to follow nature’s wasteless example - but there is a political economy that disincentivizes these advancements. We need better RCRA regulations, as the current ones only cover a measly five percent of hazardous wastes in the US (593). We need public funding for research into phytoremediation techniques. As communities, we need to get creative with tool libraries, public composting, and local reuse of so-called waste (583). We can see nature’s wasteless example with our own eyes every day. Anyone who argues it would be impossible to mimic has something to gain from our wasteful economy, its poisoning of the Earth, and the millions of human lives it has degraded.

Word Count: 1274

Discussion Question: Is risk really naturally-occurring as the textbook posits, or is it a result of upper-level mismanagement?

References

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

Thorne, Kristin, and Wabc. “Students at Long Island School Plagued by Health Concerns Officially Relocate.” ABC7 New York, 26 Jan. 2020, abc7ny.com/northport-middle-school-7-on-your-side-investigates-mercury-health-concerns/5873309/.

Water Begets Life on Land

Water is the foundation of all life on Earth. This has been echoed by ecologists from Sandra Postel - “No water, no life” (Miller and Spoolman 323) - to Luna Leopold - “The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on land” (Miller and Spoolman 541). The beginning of all life on Earth, in the form of rudimentary archaea, is often credited to deep sea thermal vents. Water is our beginning and our lifeblood. But somewhere along the way, the saltwater that birthed us became poison, and we developed a reliance on Earth’s scarcest source of water.

So little, only 0.024% of the planet’s water supply, is available to us in the freshwater form that is usable for drinking, irrigation, cleaning, and industrial processing. We obviously obtain much of this water from surface runoff that collects in watersheds like lakes and rivers, but a hidden resource for the majority of our freshwater needs is the aquifer. These porous layers of sand, gravel, and rock hold water that infiltrates the soil and penetrates the Earth’s crust until it reaches a nonpermeable clay layer. These are the planet’s great, slowly-replenishing renewable sources of freshwater, but they are often used unsustainably. The Ogalla Aquifer, located in the center of the continental US, supplies about one-third of all groundwater the country uses, but is used about four times faster than it is replenished according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The deep aquifers, the glacially-deposited aquifers, which we might turn to once the currently-accessible sources run dry, are dubious saviors at best. Recent research suggests that much of this water might be salinated, which would require huge energy inputs to make useful. Additionally, extraction of these deep wells comes at an ecological cost. Perhaps the greatest indictment of deep aquifers become evident in their alias, “fossil aquifers.” These deep aquifers are not replenished on a human timescale. They are not a solution as much as they delay the inevitable.

The simplest solution to this issue is the drastic reduction of our water waste, and it is entirely possible. WRI expert Mohamed El-Ashwry estimates that it is economically and technologically feasible, today, to reduce our water waste from about 66% of extracted freshwater to just 15%. What would this look like? Marginal pricing for water over a certain sustainable usage, a vast public works project to improve the efficiency of our irrigation networks, and household water reclamation systems could make up a lot of the loss. Astoundingly, just fixing the pipe leaks in developing countries could cut their water loss by 30 to 60%. The fact that such massive water losses could be offset with what amounts to a national plumbing day should place these repair projects at the forefront of today’s sustainability projects.

Sadly, an enemy of this sort of solution to the world’s water woes, and a common source of ecological mismanagement, as I have come to discover, is the state of public imagination. People envision technological advancement and smart business saving us from our ecological woes, but a simple truth seems to hold: any deviation from the natural state will cause unforeseen ecological issues. Dams are a great example. It seemed as though erecting giant walls of cement in rivers, fixing them up with a system of pipes and turbines, could at once solve issues of flooding, hydroelectric power, and freshwater access. It was not considered, in the early days, that changes in the natural flow of water would destroy river ecosystems downstream. It was not considered, in those early days, that the sudden cessation of water movement at the dam would deposit large amounts of silt that would render the reservoir unusable in as little as 50 years. Some data points are still to be analyzed, but it might not be too early to say that dams have proven more trouble than they are worth.

Other examples abound. Deep sea drilling for fossil aquifers is only a temporary solution, and could disrupt marine ecosystems - one of the great issues of the age of climate change. Water transport systems, irrigation canals from wet environments to arid climates, can have disastrous effects on the sourced areas. The Aral Sea crossed an ecological tipping point after an irrigation canal was built - one of the longest in Central Asia - and the pictures tell the whole story.

Figure 1. The Aral Sea Disaster. (Columbia)

The real, sustainable solutions (and the easiest to implement) turn out to be the ones that the Earth worked out over billions of years of evolution. The interaction between organisms and their environment produced natural flood barriers like wetlands, which human practices are now destroying. Long distance transport of water invites contamination and encourages plants to be grown in unfavorable environments. Water-intensive crops cannot naturally survive the arid environments where we grow them. For an example, look at the over-subsidized corn of the American midwest. Modern corn requires huge, unsustainable amounts of water to grow, and we make it artificially possible by diverting funds to industrial agriculture. We see an almost identical issue in CAFOs, where huge amounts of water are diverted to artificially sustain unsustainably-concentrated populations of cattle and pigs. Because an ecological problem never comes alone, this wasteful use of water also contaminates waterways when it runs into streams, turning a sustainability crisis into a public health crisis.

Figure 2. My Water Footprint. (Water Footprint Network, screenshot by Author)

Central to any discussion about solutions is the burning question: What can the individual do? The above screenshot summarizes a quick estimation of my water footprint, its components, and how it compares to the global average. I am entirely unsurprised that my average surpasses the global average, living in one of the most affluent countries in the world as I do. It is unclear how much of this I can control, but it is worth mentioning what I can. I can repair leaky faucets the moment I notice them, as a faucet leaking one drop of water per second can waste 10,000 liters per year. I can eat less meat, as more than half of the food component of my water footprint comes from meat products. I can use front-loading washers and toilets that flush at low volumes or create compost. I would be remiss not to mention, however, that these solutions rely on my having the time and money to pursue such projects, and millions of impoverished Americans and people worldwide do not have the same resources. Ultimately, our unsustainable and unhealthy use of water is an aggregate of thousands of policy failures from bottom to top, and the true “individual responsibility” is to make oneself aware and lobby for change.

Word Count: 1116

Discussion Question: How can we make sure everyone gets water in a sustainable way?

References

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

“Personal Water Footprint.” Water Footprint Network, waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/personal-water-footprint/.

The Anthropocene and A New Way of Living

Simon L. Lewis and Mark A. Maslin investigate the fundamental discrepancies between the dominant 21st-century human mode of production and the core of environmental sustainability. They offer a choice between several potential futures: the evolution of our capitalist mode into ever-higher complexity, the collapse of the global community into lower complexity, or a passage into a radically different mode of living. Rather than make bold claims as to the direction and character of progress in the twenty-first century, the authors contend only that such change will be radical. Their evidence is the status quo, the set of destructive contradictions that will force rapid and innovative solutions in the coming years.

The current system is driven by positive feedback loops, and positive feedback loops are very good at driving change. Ironically, the very principles that have perpetuated consumer capitalism - the tendency towards ever greater technological complexity to drive solutions to society’s ills and the “investment of profits into the production of ever more profits, which require ever more energy inputs” (371) - implicate its impermanence. Put into one simple argument, the exponential growth of data, complexity, and most critically profit, which requires greater and greater inputs of energy, is not compatible with the decidedly finite planet on which we live. We are bacteria on a petri dish that is about to experience its last doubling after which there can be no more growth. The success of the global economy is predicated on continuous quarterly growth and returns to investors. This is a contradiction of the kind that causes a total systemic collapse.

To escape collapse, the logical conclusion of a maladapted species, we must employ powers of reason. The traps and pitfalls far up the road must be regarded as real, policy-informing dangers. This does not bode well for societal development. It leaves reformers in the uncomfortable position of making bold requests based on data-starved predictions of worst-case scenarios, but the nature of exponential growth necessitates exactly such a strategy. Low on the upswing, changes are hardly detectable; towards the top, every increment is meteoric. “Everything seems fine for a long time and then, almost immediately, it is not” (376).

This great existential threat is, of course, climate change driven by the fossil fuel “progress trap” (378). Few prominent voices in the international community deny the need to reduce our carbon emissions. Do they accept that “truly Herculean efforts” (379) - cooperation on a scale never before seen, massive resource investment, and the leveraging of our 21st century data collection technology to unprecedented levels - will be required to escape the progress trap? In cases where these postulates are accepted, are leaders taking appropriate steps?

Resounding negatives. Lewis and Maslin note, hilariously just several pages apart, first that “The Paris Agreement is an historic milestone” (391), then that its pledges “go nowhere near far enough to achieve the ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius goal” (393), and finally that “few people understand what the world will look like if the Paris Agreement is implemented successfully, and even fewer would consider it desirable” (394). The Paris Agreement spins a tale of carbon capture technology mediating a peaceful coexistence between ramped-up carbon production and the all-important net-zero-by-2050. Beyond wishful thinking, this outright fairy tale presupposes an amount of land “one to two times the size of India” (396) dedicated to Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage technology.

This kind of storytelling is offensive to the environmentally conscious, but promising for investors. After all, a green economic revolution that allows gross fossil fuel emissions to double over the next century is about the only kind palatable to the fossil fuel lobby. Here stands the economic character of environmental planning issues. It has never been so clear which class is getting served and which class is getting scraps.

It should be noted that, in a discussion of environmental issues, a parallel discussion of economic rights is not a rider, but an integral part of the analysis. In discussing poverty, Lewis and Maslin voice an ultimatum: “The outcome of the Anthropocene conundrum is either environmental breakdown or globally coordinated action towards global equality” (390). Here, poverty is not a partisan ideological issue, but a scientifically-verifiable environmental one. To deny poverty as an issue, in this view, is akin to denying the existential threat of manmade climate change. I’ve observed throughout this course that, across every discussion, in some way or another, poverty reigns the great exacerbator of all ailments. More than exacerbating, I see now, poverty - or more broadly, inequality - entrenches these ailments in society for the long term.

It has become that a small, wealthy group of lobbyists, executives, and investors dictate the course of our development and the impoverished masses, who have little say either way, suffer the greatest losses at each crisis. The world has become so that “one in ten people are underfed” (404) not for lack of resource availability, but because they are barred from access to the fruits of global agriculture. A world with empty houses and homeless people is not a world of scarcity, but a world of class antagonisms exacerbated by murderous policy decisions.

Centuries of human societal development have been marked by a constant: a positive feedback loop of ever greater productivity and ever greater profit. As Lewis and Maslin note, this is coming to a tipping point. Water is about to breach the levee, but in what direction will it flow? A bright, green future is not a guarantee. When the wolves of a forest overfeed on their prey, they exhaust their limiting resource and they die. In the same way, it makes no difference to the stability of the environment if a human society incompatible with its way collapses or evolves so long as the society, in its antagonistic form, ceases to exist.

A positive feedback loop is a powerful thing. It can turn the death of several species into the destruction of thousands, or the logging of a mountainside into a treacherous landslide. It is also, posit Lewis and Maslin (and I tend to agree), the only thing that has ever driven change on the massive scale it is now needed.

It is now up to the reformers, the informed observers - in summary, the activists - to design and construct a new set of positive feedback loops. The task at hand - and it is a monumental one - is to reorganize our society in such a way that the human reward system reflects the environmental reward system. As hard as this may be, it would be infinitely more trying, infinitely more destructive, infinitely more awful to live in a world that has failed at this grand objective. “It will be difficult, but we cannot afford to fail” (414). The battle must be fought.

Word Count: 1122

Discussion Question: What are some strategies for keeping hope in the face of the monumental task before us?

References

“Can Homo Dominatus Become Wise.” The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene, by Simon L. Lewis and Mark Maslin, Pelican, 2018, pp. 367–416.

Statement on My Position as an Environmental Stakeholder

I was born into a loving family, a financially stable household, and a marvelously complex twenty-first century Western society built upon the crust of a planet I can never really know. I grasp only the margins of the great natural world, only the places where I can directly interact with it, or where I can read about it, but in these places it could be said that I know it a bit less than where I can feel it with my own two hands. Of nearly twenty years on this planet, I have spent a few learning about its technical workings through a number of methodologies known as the natural sciences. I have only fairly recently begun to understand how the sciences fit into the great puzzle of human knowledge, but even now I confidently state that, for each new idea a person comes across, there are infinitely many connections that idea makes to other ideas, and from each of these connections can a new meaning be gleaned, and all the separations of these ideas into fields of study are nothing but a function of our humanness: our inability to grasp the whole picture at once and our knack for recognizing patterns. It is because of this sublime complexity, which permeates not only the whole of human knowledge but the whole of the natural world from which all knowledge, energy, matter originate, which cannot be understood in its whole by any one person at any one time, that I can confidently state (and little more than this) that my duty is to live in honest accordance with the observed natural state of affairs. It is my duty, when faced with a choice between human welfare and the continued existence of the natural state, to reconsider the state of things that led me to such an unnatural position as having to choose between the environment and its produce. I owe the environment what I owe my fellow person. It is what I owe all that I struggle to understand. I owe the environment an effort to understand it in the terms in which I understand myself.

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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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MEDICINAL HOPS FOR HEALTH BENEFITS

by Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

While we know it best for the bitter flavour it imparts to beer, we celebrate hops as an increasingly valuable herbal medicine – and as the 2018 International Herb of the Year.

Step into a hop field and you will witness a gorgeous feat of herbal engineering. Whether flourishing in towering lush columns or luxuriously sprawled on garden trellises, Humulus lupulus displays strength and beauty. Pungent and sharp, hops’ unique bouquet creates an impression, while its remarkable medicinal properties have stood the test of centuries. It’s no wonder that The International Herb Association has chosen hops as 2018’s Herb of the Year.

Garden Growth

Many folks are surprised to learn that Humulus lupulus is a member of the Cannabinaceae family, a small group of aromatic flowering plants that includes the cannabis genus. Both share some similar sedative characteristics; however, hops have a much milder effect. Native to Northern Europe, hops was widely cultivated for beer brewing, with England’s southeastern region once the largest exporter. An introduced species to Scotland and Ireland hops now thrives in most countries throughout the northern hemisphere, Asia, and Australia.

Growing from a stout branched root, Humulus is a hardy perennial and vigorous climber, reaching at least 20 feet in a growing season. Its fibrous yet flexible stems contain downward-pointing bristles that facilitate its twining growth, placing hops in the category of “bine” instead of a vine. Rough and stalked, its dark-green serrated leaves are heart-shaped and often lobed. Lower leaves are opposite; upper leaves exhibit single or alternate leaf patterns.

Being dioecious {male or female}, both plants are needed for pollination. Female plants produce catkins or strobiles one-and-a-quarter-inch lovely, yellow-green oblong bracts with papery overlapping scales. Inside these bracts, glands hold powdery, golden pollen containing lupulin, the source of hop’s bitter character. Hops are harvested at summer’s end for brewing and medicine.

Hops prefer partial to full sun and deep rich soil, growing in Zones 5-10. Plant them in rows 7-8 feet apart, training the bines to climb lines or other supported structures. Cut back bines to the ground every fall after harvest. If you’re cultivating it for home use, be careful. Hops are very invasive.

Hops in History

The name Humulus lupulus is believed to originate from humus {rich soil} and lupulus, from the Latin lupus, meaning wolf. Its common name hops derive from the Anglo-Saxon hoppan, meaning “to climb.”

Scientists discovered its distinct yellow pollen in excavated prehistoric sites in Britain, revealing its use by ancient people. Hops grew in popularity over the centuries, in part because of medieval beer brewers, who began using the strobiles in the 19th-century. Before hops, brewers used “gruit,” a mix of bitter aromatic herbs such as mugwort, ground ivy, dandelion, and wormwood to flavor their ale. When brewers discovered that hops preserved the ale while imparting a pleasant flavor, they soon began to replace these other herbs. Rumours also circulated that some gruit contained hallucinogenic, aphrodisiacal herbs {perhaps due to the thujone content found in wormwood}, while hops tended to quell the male libido, making it “safer” to consume. By the 14th-century, brewers used hops almost exclusively. The rest of northern Europe adopted this practice, sparking the large-scale cultivation of hops that still exists today.

Hops were not without its detractors, however. Henry VI and Henry VIII both banned it, calling it a “wicked weed that spoils the taste of the drink and endangers the people.” Hildegard von Bingen wrote that hops were “not very useful in benefiting man because it makes melancholy grow and weighs down his inner organs.”

Despite its critics, hops were well-established for centuries as a medicinal herb, serving as a treatment for a myriad of symptoms. Medicinal beers or “draughts” were brewed with hops and other herbs to ease pain and settle nerves and digestion. In 1653, Nicholas Culpepper recommended hops for the “heat of the liver and stomach” as well as for skin infections and headache. In England, they combined it with bread to make a poultice for stubborn sores and ulcers. Pillows of hops were prescribed to guide some of our most distinguished world leaders off to dreamland, including King George III and Abraham Lincoln.

English and Dutch colonists brought European hops to North America in 1629, where Native American tribes were already using our wild species, Humulus lupulus var. lupuloides in warm poultices for an earache and dental pain, and to ease the discomfort of pneumonia. A tea from the blossoms provided sedation and relief from intestinal pain, fever, and urinary disorders.

The United States Pharmacopoeia {1831-1916} listed hops as a treatment for anxiety, but it was used for almost every ill: as an external poultice to relieve chest colds, internally for bronchitis, and inhaled for sore throats. Mixed with lobelia and thornapple {Datura stramonium or jimsonweed} it remedied constipation. As a tea, it relieved headaches, menstrual pain, indigestion, and cystitis. A hops mouthwash targeted thrush, and flannels dipped in a hot infusion served as a compress for mumps. More strangely, people applied hops in heated bags to the wrists and feet to sweat fevers and sometimes fried it in lard to apply if for breast pain.

Hops Stranger Side

For generations, folk remedies included hops. It was believed that placing a hops-filled pillow under your bed would alleviate rheumatism, and women wore an amulet bag filled with hops around the neck to prevent morning sickness. One interesting custom suggested visiting a hops vine for seven consecutive mornings and biting the end of a shoot to cure epilepsy.

Traditional lore associated hops with sleep, dreams, and protection against bewitchment. Often people blamed malevolent forces and night visitations for their interrupted sleep and nightmares, and hops-filled pillows yet again came to the rescue, sometimes combined with other sedative herbs to promote peaceful sleep and ward off night terrors. Mothers would wash nursery room floors with a strong infusion of hops to help fussy children sleep through the night. Burning the herb at night also served to ward off evil spirits. Mixing hops and calendula flowers in a pillow would grant the sleeper dreams of lucky numbers. Combined with other “dreamy” herbs like mugwort and lavender, hops could stimulate vivid imagery and promote dream recall. In Celtic folklore, hops were connected to the wolf spirit, used to both conjure and tame this wild energy.

Modern Medicine

If beer makes you sleepy, blame it on the hops. Its soporific, nervine effect is a go-to remedy when nothing else works for stubborn insomnia. Hops relax the whole nervous system, calming anxiety, stress, and even nervous digestive disorders, thanks to its components humulone and lupulone, which mimic the active chemical in valium. In 2013, a study from the Indian Journal of Pharmacology found that hops combined with valerian and passionflower had an equal effect on sleep latency {the amount of time it takes to fall asleep}, sleep length, and night-waking as zolpidem [AAmbien}. And it’s considered a safe short-term alternative.

Digestion:

Aromatic and bitter hops is a classic digestive remedy. Because it stimulates gastric juices, it promotes healthy appetite and assimilation, while its antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory properties relax the smooth muscles to ease painful gas and cramping, especially when associated with anxiety. This bitter property also makes it an excellent hepatic, increasing the flow of bile and toning the liver, encouraging optimal function. Traditionally, a cold infusion of hops was taken one hour before a meal to activate absorption, and sherry steeped in hops created a superb vintage digestif.

Hops’ antibacterial and antiseptic properties have been a proven, time-honoured remedy in eradicating intestinal parasites in humans and livestock.

Hormone Balance:

A 2016 study conducted by the midwifery department of Tabriz University in Iran confirmed the traditional use of hops for hormonal difficulties. A randomised placebo control group used to evaluate Humulus extract on menopausal symptoms found that women taking the extract had significantly fewer hot flashes than women in the placebo group. Researchers concluded that hops can be an effective treatment for early menopausal symptoms.

Yet these hormonal virtues aren’t limited to women. Preliminary research in Germany discovered that the flavanoid called xanthohumol found in hops blocks testosterone, thought to be a contributing factor in the onset of prostate cancer, prompting further investigation.

Pain Relief:

Less well known are the anodyne {pain-relieving} qualities of hops. Myrcene, humulene, and caryophyllene, the primary terpine properties in the herb, work together to provide anti-inflammatory and analgesic action. Combined with valerian, hops has made its way into traditional cough syrups to alleviate pain and calm spasmodic coughs that can accompany colds, flu, and allergies. Hops may be used internally and externally as a poultice or compress to soothe the inflammation and discomfort from cramps {including menstrual cramping}, and the pain of arthritis, earaches, and dental issues.

Wound Healing and More:

Topically, a hops poultice effectively alleviates chronic skin inflammations, mild wounds, ringworm, eczema, and painful swelling. In 2014, researchers found that the bracts of the hops strobile contain antioxidants that inhibit the dental bacteria responsible for cavities and gum disease. Recently, hops has become a trendy addition to natural deodorants for eliminating odour-causing microbes.

Essential Oil of Hops:

Sharp, bitter, earthy, and the hints of citrus, essential oil {EO} of hops is intriguing. The terpines concentrated in the oil create a highly antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, sedating, and pain-relieving action. For inhalation, hops EO works best when diffused, calming nerves, insomnia, and respiratory issues. To boost its effectiveness on sleeplessness, apply several drops to your pillowcase. For topical pain relief or to alleviate skin irritations, add a few drops to a soothing salve, carrier oil, or unscented lotion. Because its fragrance may not appeal to everyone, hops blends well with citrus oils, balsams, pines, nutmeg [also excellent for insomnia}, and spicy scents.

Hops Flower Essence:

To those needing a boost of self-esteem, youthful energy, and balance, hops flower essence imparts its exuberance and robust “personality.” Hops renew enthusiasm for living, creativity, new ideas, and travel while keeping one focused and centred. Great for overactive, frenetic minds, the herb helps to corral scattered energy, providing a feeling of control. Hops flower essence is wonderful for adults and adolescents who experience chronic over-stimulation, but also fatigue caused by this long-term, jittery stress.

Cautions:

Pregnant and nursing women, prepubescent children, those with estrogen-sensitive diseases, and those on hormonal medications should avoid hops due to its phytoestrogen content. This herb is contraindicated in people suffering from depression. Hops may interfere with sedative medications and alcohol.

Throughout history, hops has been a venerable staple in home remedies. The next time you’re struggling with sleep, anxiety, or a case of nervous digestion, consider reaching for hops. This time-tested herb may just provide the relief you need.

In this recipe, we temper strong hops and dandelion with chamomile and warming ginger for a vinegar that you can use as a mild digestive bitter or add to vegetables and salads. Use malt vinegar for sweetness [hops and malt are a traditional combination} or apple-cider vinegar for a crisper taste.

1 part hops {to taste}

1 part chamomile {to taste}

1/2 part dandelion leaf

1/4 part dry ginger root

1/8 part dried orange peel

Malt or apple-cider vinegar

In a glass jar combine herbs and cover to top with vinegar. Cap with a plastic or glass cover {vinegar is corrosive}. Store in a warm place for one to five days, shaking often, and testing for desired strength. Starin and bottle. Keep in the refrigerator for up to a year.

In combination, hops and valerian create a powerful sleep remedy. The addition of passionflower and skullcap quiets overactive minds and relaxes the body. Use this during bouts of insomnia to help facilitate peaceful, restorative sleep.

1 part hops

1 part valerian root

1/2 part passionflower

1/2 part skullcap

Combine herbs in a canning jar of your choice and cover with your favourite 80- to 100-proof alcohol to the top and cover. Store in a warm, dark place, shaking often, for four to six weeks. Strain and bottle. Dose: 20-30 drops one hour before bed and again upon retiring. Repeat dosage if you awake during the night. Use for up to two weeks.

Try this for a bittersweet zesty cocktail, aperitif, or with mineral water. For extra zing, add a pinch of freshly grated ginger.

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup honey

2 Tbls dried hops

1 tsp fresh lemon zest

Combine water and honey over low heat until well-mixed. Add hops and lemon zest. Remove from the heat, stir, cover, and steep 30 minutes. Test; if you prefer a stronger flavor, steep longer.

Get creative with this craft pillow, using different fabrics. These pillows also make great gifts for loved ones struggling to find sleep.

2 parts dried hops

2 parts dried lavender

2 parts dried mugwort

1 part dried chamomile

1 part dried roses

1/2 part dried marjoram

1/2 part dried catnip

Combine these aromatic, relaxing herbs and spoon into a 4 x 4-inch pillowcase, muslin bag, or sock. Secure the open side and place next to your pillow at bedtime for calming sleep and pleasant dreams.

https://crookedbearcreekorganicherbs.com/2018/02/17/medicinal-hops-for-health-benefits/

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zl181 · 3 years ago

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Comprehensive Biography of Zhang Miao

Zhang Miao, styled Mengzhuo (張邈字孟卓; d. Spring 196), was a civil official who was the Grand Administrator of Chenliu Commandery. He initially supported Cao Cao, but later rebelled against him. Eventually defeated, he was killed by his own army while fleeing to Yuan Shu.

Biography

Ancestry

He was from Shouzhang County, Dongping Commandery. He had at least one brother named Zhang Chao.[1] Judging from the list of friends he had, he may have come from a high or middle ranking family, but this is speculation.

Early life

He was known for being generous and just. He used his family's property to aid those in need of money, and he was not greedy.[1][2] His generous and just behavior thus led many to describe him as one of the 'Eight Chefs' for giving out money, alongside Du Shang and Humu Ban.[2][3] Scholars that looked up to him and were friendly with him included Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, both of whom shared similar qualities.[1] According to Zang Hong, Yuan Shao himself called Zhang Miao his elder brother, suggesting Zhang Miao was older than Yuan Shao.[4] Zhang Miao also became friends with Lü Bu.[5]

Guandong Coalition

He joined the staff of the Excellencies, then became Commandant of Cavalry.[1] Around 190, he presumably became Grand Administrator of Chenliu because Zhou Bi and Wu Qiong, whom Dong Zhuo held high opinions of, advocated for Zhang Miao to be appointed to office.[6] He left to Chenliu, where he became nominally subordinate to Liu Dai. Despite Dong Zhuo giving him the post, he soon contributed his troops to the Guandong Coalition.[1][5][7] Zang Hong had earlier persuaded Zhang Chao to rebel against Dong Zhuo and had him persuade Zhang Miao to rebel against Dong Zhuo. Zhang Miao asked his brother,

"I heard that you, younger brother, serve as a commandery administrator, but that the [system of] government, education, military, and rewards do not come from yourself, but by Zang Hong's implementation. Who is this Hong person?"

Zhang Chao responded that Zang Hong was a very talented man and that he loved his talent. Zhang Miao later met Zang Hong and was impressed with his talent. He later showed him off to Kong Zhou and Liu Dai, who were also impressed.[6] Zhang Miao provided Cao Cao with one of his generals, Wei Zi, to fight with him. Wei Zi eventually perished at the Battle of Xingyang.[9]

In the second lunar month, Dong Zhuo moved the capital from Luoyang to Chang'an. Zhang Miao and Liu Dai stationed their armies at Suanzao alongside fellow members Yuan Yi and Qiao Mao.[10]

When Yuan Shao was elected Coalition Leader, he became increasingly arrogant and "self-important" from this, so Zhang Miao scolded Yuan Shao for his behavior. Feeling insulted, Yuan Shao sent Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao, but Cao Cao opposed this and said,

"Mengzhuo is a close friend; regardless if he is right or wrong, we must tolerate him. Presently, the world is not stabilized, hence we must not endanger each other."

When Zhang Miao learned that Cao Cao defended him, he was extremely grateful to him.[1][5] Zhang Miao, however, remained uneasy about his safety.[5]

Around 192, the Governor of Ji Province; Han Fu joined Zhang Miao in hopes of evading Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao sent someone to talk with Zhang Miao for unknown purposes despite their past scuffle, and Han Fu thought that they were colluding against him, and so he committed suicide in the latrine.[11] Zhang Miao's reaction to this was never recorded.

Around 193, Liu Dai perished against the Yellow Turbans and Cao Cao replaced him, making him Zhang Miao's new lord. When Cao Cao invaded Tao Qian, he told his family,

"If I do not return, go serve Mengzhuo."

After he returned, he met Zhang Miao again, and almost cried when they talked because they were such close friends.[1]

Zhang Miao's Betrayal

Many thought that Zhang Miao and Cao Cao had an unbreakable bond, but according to traditional history, Gao Rou disagreed on this. He stated,

"...Lord Zhang had earlier achieved his ambitions with Chenliu. I fear changes [like him] seizing opportunities will start [soon]..."

Gao Rou went ignored because everyone really did think Zhang Miao was truly loyal to Cao Cao.[1][12] True to Gao Rou's words, however, Cao Cao's close bond would soon be soured inadvertently by Yuan Shao as well as Zhang Miao's innate ambition.[12] Supposedly, Yuan Shao was furious at Zhang Miao when he heard that after Lü Bu fled from him, he crossed into Chenliu where Zhang Miao sent someone to welcome him and treated him very generously, then making an oath with hin out of friendship when he left Chenliu.[5][13] Zhang Miao feared Cao Cao would betray him for Yuan Shao as there was an informal Yuan-Cao alliance, so he was constantly worried under his rule.[13]

Around 194, Cao Cao left Yan Province to invade Tao Qian again. Zhang Chao, Chen Gong, Xu Si, and Wang Jie plotted to rebel against Cao Cao and invited Zhang Miao into it. Chen Gong told Miao,

"Currently, powerful champions have all risen up, and the world is divided and split apart. Sir, you have a force of 1,000 li and are in a land of constant warfare. Now if we clasp swords and look back, we are enough to be heroes and we can fight back against others; we will not be disrespected! Now that the province's army went east to invade, the province is completely empty. Lü Bu is a mighty warrior, who is good at fighting without fail. If we thus welcome him, together we can govern Yan Province. We can observe the world's power, then wait for the time's events to change, then we can also control our era!"

Zhang Miao agreed and thus rebelled, declaring Lü Bu the new Governor of Yan Province.[13] When Lü Bu was coming to claim his new land, Zhang Miao sent Liu Yi to try and trick one of Cao Cao's men, Xun Yu, into giving the rebellion some food by claiming that,

"General Lü is coming to assist Lord Cao to attack Tao Qian. You must urgently provide him with military provisions."

However, Xun Yu felt this was suspicious and tried to alert Cao Cao's troops to be on guard against Zhang Miao.[14] This wasn't enough, however, and many of commanderies within Yan Province submitted to this new leader, and only Juancheng, Dong'a, and Fan Counties remained loyal to Cao Cao.[13] Zhang Miao also kidnapped the families of some of Cao Cao's officers, such as Bi Chen's, to force them to join him.[15] Cao Cao abandoned his war against Tao Qian and returned with his troops to deal with this major rebellion. He was able to crush it with some difficulty within two years, and he soon reclaimed his old title.[13] Zhang Miao's military actions, in this rebellion, were recorded at a minimal level, suggesting he led from the background, while Lü Bu did the fighting.

Downfall and Death

Zhang Miao sent his brother, Zhang Chao, to lead their family to defend Yongqiu, slowing Cao Cao for four lunar months, but around Spring 196, Cao Cao took over Yongqiu and Zhang Chao committed suicide before Cao Cao could get to him. Cao Cao exterminated Zhang Miao's family to the third degree shortly afterwards. Lü Bu fled to Shanyang, but was defeated by Cao Cao there, and then fled to Liu Bei. Zhang Miao joined him. Zhang Miao then left to try to gain support from Yuan Shu, but was killed by his unhappy army on the way there for unrecorded reasons.[16][17][a]

Personality

Zhang Miao, despite being described as kind and just, soon turned more ruthless and ambitious (Gao Rou implied ambition is one of Zhang Miao's reasons he rebelled) after his rebellion against Cao Cao. He tried to trick Xun Yu into giving him supplies in the name of helping Cao Cao and he was also willing to kidnap whole families to force Cao Cao's officers to join his rebellion.[14][15]

Family

Zhang Miao had at least one younger brother named Zhang Chao, who perished in the Siege of Yongqiu. He also had several relatives that moved to Yongqiu and were killed by Cao Cao.[16][17]

Legacy

Zhang Miao's participation in the major rebellion against Cao Cao disrupted Cao Cao's powerbase initially, but he was eventually defeated though with some cost. Cao Cao might have acted more suspicious after Zhang Miao's rebellion, as they were initially very close.

References

[1] - 【張邈字孟卓，東平壽張人也。少以俠聞，振窮救急，傾家無愛，士多歸之。太祖、袁紹皆與邈友。辟公府，以高第拜騎都尉，遷陳留太守。董卓之亂，太祖與邈首舉義兵。汴水之戰，邈遣衞茲將兵隨太祖。袁紹旣為盟主，有驕矜色，邈正議責紹。紹使太祖殺邈，太祖不聽，責紹曰：「孟卓，親友也，是非當容之。今天下未定，不宜自相危也。」邈知之，益德太祖。太祖之征陶謙，勑家曰；「我若不還，往依孟卓。」後還，見邈，垂泣相對。其親如此。】《三國志注•卷七》

[2] - 【（《漢末名士錄》曰：班字季皮，太山人，少與山陽度尚、東平張邈等八人並輕財赴義，振濟人士，世謂之八廚。）】《三國志注•卷六》

[3] - 【度尚、張邈、王考、劉儒、胡母班、秦周、蕃嚮、王章為「八廚」。廚者，言能以財救人者也。】《後漢書•黨錮列傳》

[4] - 【…洪親見呼張陳留為兄，】《三國志注•卷七》

[5] - 【道經陳留，太守張邈遣使迎之，相待甚厚，臨別把臂言誓。邈字孟卓，東平人，少以俠聞。初辟公府，稍遷陳留太守。董卓之亂，與曹操共舉義兵。及袁紹為盟主，有驕色，邈正義責之。紹既怨邈，且聞與布厚，乃令曹操殺邈。操不聽，然邈心不自安。】《後漢書•劉焉袁術呂布列傳》

[6] - 【初，卓信任尚書周毖、城門校尉伍瓊等，用其所舉韓馥、劉岱、孔伷、張咨、張邈等出宰州郡。】《三國志注•卷六》

[7] - 【陳留太守張邈…同時俱起兵，】《三國志注•卷一》

[8] - 【董卓殺帝，圖危社稷，洪說超曰：「明府歷世受恩，兄弟並據大郡，今王室將危，賊臣未梟，此誠天下義烈報恩効命之秋也。今郡境尚全，吏民殷富，若動枹鼓，可得二萬人，以此誅除國賊，為天下倡先，義之大者也。」超然其言，與洪西至陳留，見兄邈計事。邈亦素有心，會於酸棗，邈謂超曰：「聞弟為郡守，政教威恩不由己出，動任臧洪，洪者何人？」超曰：「洪才略智數優超，超甚愛之，海內奇士也。」邈即引見洪，與語大異之。致之於劉兖州公山、孔豫州公緒，皆與洪親善。】《三國志注•卷七》

[9] - 【從討董卓，戰于熒陽而卒。】《三國志注•卷二十二》

[10] - 【二月，卓聞兵起，乃徙天子都長安。卓留屯洛陽，遂焚宮室。是時紹屯河內，邈、岱、瑁、遺屯酸棗，術屯南陽，伷屯潁川，馥在鄴。】《三國志注•卷一》

[11] - 【馥懷懼，從紹索去，往依張邈。後紹遣使詣邈，有所計議，與邈耳語。馥在坐上，謂見圖構，無何起至溷自殺。】《三國志•卷六》

[12] - 【柔留鄉里，謂邑中曰：「今者英雄並起，陳留四戰之地也。曹將軍雖據兖州，本有四方之圖，未得安坐守也。而張府君先得志於陳留，吾恐變乘間作也，欲與諸君避之。」衆人皆以張邈與太祖善，柔又年少，不然其言。】《三國志•卷二十四》

[13] - 【呂布之捨袁紹從張楊也，過邈臨別，把手共誓。紹聞之，大恨。邈畏太祖終為紹擊己也，心不自安。興平元年，太祖復征謙，邈弟超，與太祖將陳宮、從事中郎許汜、王楷共謀叛太祖。宮說邈曰：「今雄傑並起，天下分崩，君以千里之衆，當四戰之地，撫劒顧眄，亦足以為人豪，而反制於人，不以鄙乎！今州軍東征，其處空虛，呂布壯士，善戰無前，若權迎之，共牧兖州，觀天下形勢，俟時事之變通，此亦縱橫之一時也。」邈從之。太祖初使宮將兵留屯東郡，遂以其衆東迎布為兖州牧，據濮陽。郡縣皆應，唯鄄城、東阿、范為太祖守。太祖引軍還，與布戰於濮陽，太祖軍不利，相持百餘日。是時歲旱、蟲蝗、少穀，百姓相食，布東屯山陽。二年間，太祖乃盡復收諸城，擊破布於鉅野。布東奔劉備。】《三國志注•卷七》

[14] - 【會張邈、陳宮以兖州反，潛迎呂布。布旣至，邈乃使劉翊告彧曰：「呂將軍來助曹使君擊陶謙，宜亟供其軍食。」衆疑惑。彧知邈為亂，即勒兵設備，馳召東郡太守夏侯惇，而兖州諸城皆應布矣。】《三國志注•卷十》

[15] - 【初，公為兖州，以東平畢諶為別駕。張邈之叛也，邈劫諶母弟妻子；公謝遣之，曰：「卿老母在彼，可去。」諶頓首無二心，公嘉之，為之流涕。旣出，遂亡歸。】《三國志注•卷一》

[16] - 【邈從布，留超將家屬屯雍丘。太祖攻圍數月，屠之，斬超及其家。邈詣袁術請救未至，自為其兵所殺。】《三國志•卷七》

[17] - 【布東奔劉備，張邈從布，使其弟超將家屬保雍丘。秋八月，圍雍丘。冬十月，天子拜太祖兖州牧。十二月，雍丘潰，超自殺。夷邈三族。邈詣袁術請救，為其衆所殺，兖州平，遂東略陳地。】《三國志注•卷七》

[a] - The Chronicles of Emperor Xian claimed Zhang Miao opposed Yuan Shu declaring himself Emperor and told him that himself. This is likely false, as the timelines doesn't match up. Pei Songzhi stated that Zhang Miao's Biography asserted Zhang Miao never made it alive to Yuan Shu, and also bemoaned Yuan Wei, the author of The Chronicles of Emperor Xian, as unreliable. For our purposes, I have chosen to agree with Pei Songzhi. 【（《獻帝春秋》曰：袁術議稱尊號，邈謂術曰：「漢據火德，絕而復揚，德澤豐流，誕生明公。公居軸處中，入則享于上席，出則為衆目之所屬，華、霍不能增其高，淵泉不能同其量，可謂巍巍蕩蕩，無與為貳。何為捨此而欲稱制？恐福不盈眥，禍將溢世。莊周之稱郊祭犧牛，養飼經年，衣以文繡，宰執鸞刀，以入廟門，當此之時，求為孤犢不可得也！」案本傳，邈詣術，未至而死。而此云諫稱尊號，未詳孰是。）】《三國志注•卷七》【（袁暐、樂資等諸所記載，穢雜虛謬，若此之類，殆不可勝言也。）】《三國志注•卷三十六》

#zhang miao #cao cao #dong zhuo #yuan shao #han fu #zang hong #kong zhou #liu dai #lu bu #sanguo #chen gong #zhang chao #yuan shu #gao rou

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naturescart · 5 years ago

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14 Reasons Why do Australians buy organic food?

For the preponderance of Australian food customers, the choice to buy organic is a discretionary one. Often – though not as a law – traded at a costlier cost than conventional options, organic produce is still battling for a spot at the table in the mainstream supermarkets.

Encouragingly, however, with yearly retail sales surpassing $1 billion in 2010 and 6/10 Australians reporting purchasing organic on occasion, the strong growth of this division over the prior several years is obvious.

For those customers still choosing whether to get the progress to promote organic agriculture, the following is a list of reasons to buy organic. Given by the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA), the table emphasizes how organic allows an assurance that not only is the meal you’re consuming as fresh and synthetic-free as possible, it more hasn’t cost the planet to get to your plate.

1. Decrease synthetic runoff and residues in drinking water, waterways including coastal areas

Runoff is the central object of reducing marine life, animals, and plants. Over 29,500 tonnes of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, and plant increase regulators are applied each year in Australia (Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 2006)*.

2. Refurbishing soils for fertile cropland also ensures the future of Australian farming.

Roughly 50 million hectares of Australia’s farmland (around half the entire area) have topsoils that are marginally acidic or worse (Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 2006)*. Organic agriculture practices are based on the law of land including soil restoration and safest environmental practices.

3. Enhance the resilience of farms during drought.

In the wake of the 2002/2003 drought, the farming sector saw a loss of over 100,000 jobs over a duration of five years, from 2002 to 2007, that have yet to be completely refurbished (AgriFood Skills Australia, 2008). Organic vineyards have higher resilience in eras of drought. A 21-year trial revealed that organic produce saw a margin of 38–196 percent bigger yield than comparable traditional produce (Rodale Institute, 2011).

4. Improve biodiversity and save vanishing native animal habitats.

For decades scientists globally have carried out investigations with the transparent result that organic farming significantly promotes biodiversity, with up to 50% more plant, bug, and birdlife discovered on organic vineyards (Soil Association, 2011).

5. Reduce the use of growth hormones, antitoxins, and genetically engineered drugs and feeds in livestock.

Resistant bacteria such as vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) are recognized to grow via the food chain from the use of hormone growth promotants (HGPs). A recent ban on the practice of HGPs by the European Union ended in a decrease of VRE in animals and their impacts on the common public. (World Health Organization, 2011). In Australia, nearly 40 percent of cattle are grown utilizing HGPs, with a whole of 6.56 million HGP doses applied on plantations and in the feedlot industry in the years from 2006 to 2007 (Meat & Livestock Australia, 2008).

6. Assure humane therapy of animals.

Scientific proof shows that practices such as battery hen growing, and the use of sow stalls, inflict constant intense suffering on animals during their confinement leading to acute physical and behavioral problems (RSPCA). Organic cattle are raised in a process that adapts to natural means of growth and development.

7. Decrease landfill, which has greenhouse outcomes.

With the trash production improving on a yearly basis, nearly 1.6 tonnes of waste were produced for every Australian in 2002-03. Of the 32.4 million tonnes produced, almost half (47 percent) were food including field waste from the municipal stream (Productivity Commission, 2006). By reusing and embracing organic methods, Australians can help decrease greenhouse gas emissions and preserve valuable ecosystems (Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW), 2006).

8. Safeguard the integrity of the food.

Certified organic gives a guarantee that the product has been raised, managed, packaged and shares dodging risk of contamination of the goods to the point of trade. Full traceability is maintained along the chain. Help to improve weather change. Farming is involved in being responsible for nearly 30 percent of global warming due to CO2 emissions, however, conversion to organic farming can:

9. Capture CO2 back into the clay in the form of humus.

A 23-year analysis project reveals that if only 1000 medium-sized fields turned to organic production, the carbon collected in the soil would be similar to taking 117 440 cars off the street each year (The Rodale Institute®, 2003).

10. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing artificial nitrogen fertilizers.

Agriculture in Australia is the second-highest donor to greenhouse gases (15.2 percent in 2008) and estimates for the largest of the nation’s methane including nitrous oxide emissions, which are affected by fertilizers including crop residuals (Department of Climate Change, 2010). Organic standards prevent the use of nitrogen fertilizers, which reduces emissions and gives both economic and environmental advantages (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 2011).

11. Avoid feeding up to two kilograms of meal additives every year.

Several food additives have been connected with signs such as allergic reactions, asthma, growth retardation, headaches, rashes, and hyperactivity in children (Heaton, 2004).

12. Dodge GMOs.

Independent testing of the long-term well-being outcomes of GMO meals on people has not been carried out. The numerous exemptions from GE labeling rules in Australia make it impracticable to recognize which grocery items apply GMO-derived components. Certified organic foods are an excellent method to bypass GMOs. (BFA 2009)

13. Decrease the risk of cancer.

On average organic foods contain around one-third extra cancer-fighting antioxidants than equivalent traditional products (Benbrook, 2005).

14. Feed the best-tasting meal.

Countless Australians who use organic goods every day do so because they trust that organic tastes great.

Question is Where do we Buy Organic Food?

Because it's hard to find the best organic fruit and vegetables online and off-line for purchasing. Around us, so many stores are there and tell us to provide you the best organic food. But how can we believe them? Those products we buy and eat are real organic or conventional food. So, we try to help you where you can buy organic healthy food at a reasonable piece in Australia? Here are the top 7 sites to buy healthy and organic food online.

And go with my suggestion Nature Cart is a leading grocery e-commerce portal that allows organic fruit and veg boxes and vegan produce in Melbourne Australia. Our aim is to provide a wide range of fresh fruit and veg and premium quality products to our local Australian community. We ensure the quality of products before delivering to your doorstep. We are the best organic and vegan food suppliers in Melbourne, and also we allow convenient organic fruit and veg delivery Melbourne. We welcome all kinds of inquiries related to the order. Please visit our website.

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smt-sambeek-blog · 5 years ago

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Voorbereidingen op het Educatief Park

De tijd tussen de oogst van 2019 en de voorbereidingen voor het nieuwe seizoen 2020 was onrustig te noemen. Nog vers in het geheugen de discussies over CO2-uitstoot, mest en fosfaat en nog niet zolang geleden de stikstofproblematiek. Dit laatste schoot de agrarische sector in het verkeerde keelgat en ook SMT-leden roerden zich actief. Facebookpagina’s en whatsappgroepen stonden bol van de oproep tot acties. Enkele fanatieke (actieve) leden gingen weliswaar niet met hun oud ijzer naar het Malieveld of Koekamp (toepasselijke naam) maar wel met nieuwerwets materiaal.

Tijdens de stikstofdiscusssie kwam Nederland vrijwel tot stilstand vanwege de corona. Heel Nederland werd in de ban gedaan en de bewegingsvrijheid werd beperkt.

Zonder zaaien en poten zal er niet geoogst worden is het adagium van de voedingssector dus ook van de SMT! Deze activiteit kan wel doorgang vinden in het bewaken van de onderlinge afstand van 1.5 meter. Het zaaien en poten gebeurt met tractoren en machines die het werk doen en waar de mens een klein handje helpt. De afstand is dan wel gewaarborgd.

De voorbereidingen

Het land was na de oogst in 2019 ingezaaid met wintertarwe dat in het prille voorjaar gebruikt wordt als groenbemester. Deze tarwe is onderdeel van de humuslaag.

Het land dient een bepaalde gezonde samenstelling te hebben voor de plantjes die er straks gaan groeien. De voedingsstoffen zitten in de mest die geïnjecteerd wordt in de bodem.

Na de geïnjecteerde mest wordt stalmest met stro uitgereden en in zijn totaliteit omgeploegd. Nu zit er in de bovenlaag genoeg humus met voedingsstoffen om de planten te laten groeien. Het bedje is gespreid om zaadjes en knollen te laten ontkiemen.

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benrleeusa · 6 years ago

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[David E. Bernstein] Everything You Wanted to Know about Anti-BDS Laws, Part I

Correcting various misperceptions about the scope and constitutionality of laws barring state contractors from boycotting Israel-related people and companies.

I've perhaps never seen as much misinformation and bad legal analysis regarding a given issue than about state laws that require state contractors to certify that they do not boycott Israel or those who do business with Israel, otherwise known as "anti-BDS laws." This has been a product of two factors: first, a thoroughly dishonest campaign against the laws by the American Civil Liberties Union, exaggerated further by anti-Israel bloggers such as Glenn Greenwald, and second, the near-absence of those who support the laws from the debate.

I have not been involved in promoting anti-BDS laws, I am not sure they are a good idea as currently written, and I think the Supreme Court's key relevant decision, Rumsfeld v. FAIR, should have come out the other way, philosophically-speaking if not based on precedent. And from my personal political interest, I'm in a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose position: either boycotts of Israel get treated the same as other discriminatory acts, or the ACLU succeeds in undermining antidiscrimination laws that grate on my libertarian sensibilities by establishing that refusals to deal are subject to First Amendment scrutiny.

So I don't have a strong dog in the fight, but given that I've been appalled at the misinformation campaign launched by the ACLU, I thought I'd correct the record:

Anti-BDS laws do not require anyone to "pledge loyalty to the state of Israel." This is any easy one. They simply don't. This is a lie (not the first one) that originates with Glenn Greenwald, who claimed, in a headline no less, that a Texas anti-BDS laws required a contractor to sign a "pro-Israel oath." Contractors must simply certify that they are not participating in anti-Israel boycotts. They not only don't have to take a pro-Israel oath but are free to criticize Israel as much as they like, donate to anti-Israel campaigns or candidates, and so on.

Anti-BDS laws do not prohibit individuals in their private capacity from boycotting Israel, even if their company has business with a state that has an anti-BDS law. Anti-BDS laws only apply to companies, not to individuals. This gets a bit confusing when it comes to sole proprietorships, but I think it's clear that, say, a computer technician who signs a contract with the state can't refuse to use Israeli-made software for his contract work, but he can refuse to buy Sabra humus for his family dinner.

Anti-BDS laws do not just protect the State of Israel, as such. Many commentators have stated that they don't understand why a foreign government should be given statutory protection from boycotts. The representative Texas law defines a boycott of Israel as "refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations specifically with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israel or in an Israeli-controlled territory, but does not include an action made for ordinary business purposes." First, and importantly, the leading Israeli universities are all public, so banning boycotts of Israel prevent state contractors from boycotting students and faculty of Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and so on. Secondly, the laws prohibit state contractors from boycotting organizations that merely do business in or with Israel. This is a much broader category, and would include, for example, the 60% or so of American Jews who have visited Israel.

Pending federal legislation only makes the federal government neutral on state anti-BDS laws. The Senate recently passed a bill that has been widely described by opponents as trampling on freedom of speech. In fact, the Senate bill is a response to the possibility that courts will hold state anti-BDS laws as implicitly preempted by federal policy. By explicitly stating that the federal government does not wish to preempt such state laws, the danger of implied preemption goes away. But the bill doesn't impose any restrictions on anybody, so it can't be threatening anyone's free speech rights. If there is a threat to free speech, it comes from state laws. However:

Boycotts are, according to the Suprme Court, economic action, not speech protected by the First Amendment.

(1) The Supreme Court has several times upheld federal labor law's ban on secondary boycotts, ie a boycott of an employer with which a union does not have a dispute that is intended to induce the employer to cease doing business with another employer with which the union does have a dispute. In those cases, the Court has stated that boycotting a business is not protected by the First Amendment.

(2) There is no analytical distinction between a "boycott" and "refusal to deal." Refusal to deal is obviously a form of discrimination. Imagine, for example, that a state government asked its contractors to sign a pledge that they will not refuse to contract with subcontractors owned by members of protected minority groups. This is obviously constitutionally permissible under current doctrine. If a contractor responded, "but I am exercising my freedom of association" to refuse to deal with, say, contractors owned by African Americans, or "I am boycotting contractors owned by homosexuals to protest same-sex marriage" they would be laughed out of court.

(3) NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware is being misinterpreted. Contrary to at least one district court decision on BDS, the Claiborne Hardware case does not state that engaging in a boycott is constitutionally protected speech; rather, it says that urging others to boycott is constitutionally protected speech. So, a state could not ban individuals or groups from urging people to boycott Israel, and probably could not make such a ban a condition of a state contract. However, it can ask a contractor to certify that it is not boycotting Israel.

The closest Supreme Court case on point, Rumsfeld v. FAIR is a unanimous decision rejecting an analogous free speech/compelled speech argument.

Various law schools refused to allow military recruiters to recruit their law students on the same terms as other employers. In other words, the law schools were discriminating against, refusing to deal with, or boycotting military recruiters. In response, Congress passed the Solomon Amendment. This amendment specified that if any part of an institution of higher education denies military recruiters access equal to that provided other recruiters, the entire institution would lose federal funds. Just like those challenging the anti-BDS laws argue that their free speech rights are violated by anti-BDS laws, the law schools in FAIR argued that their free speech rights are violated by the anti-boycott-the-military Solomon Amendment.

The Supreme Court's made short shrift of its argument, in language that is equally applicable to the anti-BDS laws. "Because the First Amendment would not prevent Congress from directly imposing the Solomon Amendment's access requirement, the statute does not place an unconstitutional condition on the receipt of federal funds. The Solomon Amendment neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything. Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military's congressionally mandated employment policy, all the while retaining eligibility for federal funds. ... As a general matter, the Solomon Amendment regulates conduct, not speech. It affects what law schools must do—afford equal access to military recruiters—not what they may or may not say."

As for the claim that requiring the law schools to assist with military recruiting constituted compelled speech, "In this case, accommodating the military's message does not affect the law schools' speech, because the schools are not speaking when they host interviews and recruiting receptions. Unlike a parade organizer's choice of parade contingents, a law school's decision to allow recruiters on campus is not inherently expressive. Law schools facilitate recruiting to assist their students in obtaining jobs. A law school's recruiting services lack the expressive quality of a parade, a newsletter, or the editorial page of a newspaper; its accommodation of a military recruiter's message is not compelled speech because the accommodation does not sufficiently interfere with any message of the school."

As Eugene has reminded us, while the FAIR case dealt with the disposition of federal funds, the Court's opinion suggested that boycotts/refusals to deal are not protected by the First Amendment, period.

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