Archive for the ‘CAFO's’ Category
Monday, February 4th, 2008
My mind works in strange ways and so all the things I’m blogging about here go together in my mind. I was watching the Super Bowl and I caught the beginning where everyone was reciting the Declaration of Independence. I thought I just wrote something with the Declaration of Independence in it, and sure enough I did a blog on the 4th of July. I was urging people to be patriotic and contact their reps to support a moratorium on CAFO’s in Michigan. That didn’t happen. As a matter of fact thanks to the MI Farm Bureau and Republican Senate, it’s easier than ever to come to Michigan with a CAFO. Go to the link about CAFO’s below and check out the aerial pictures. Tell me during downpours of rain that those lagoons don’t breach. Groundwater runoff in Michigan ultimately ends up in a lake somewhere. So the opening of the Super Bowl brought up a sore subject for me.
Today, I’m reading an article in the Detroit Free Press about botulism killing Great Lakes birds. It said: “The deaths of hundreds of loons, cormorants, gulls, long-tailed ducks and grebes were scattered across the sand washed up and rotting.” There were 2900 dead birds along a 14-mile stretch of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. That’s ugly. The botulism is being blamed on two foreign, Black Sea area, mussels and round gobies that look like minnows but fatter. Biologists think they are the cause, and it looks like warmer weather, and lower water levels contribute to the problem. The botulism is native to the Great Lakes but hasn’t been around for more than 20 years. The cycle of botulism works like this:
The lakes are warmer and more shallow. The mussels are so numerous they filter the water, which becomes clearer. The sun penetrates to the bottom farther in clear shallow water, and a type of cladophora algae over grows from the sunlight. When the algae dies, it rots and the botulism comes to life. The mussels absorb the botulism, the gobie fish eat the mussels, the birds eat the gobie fish—and ultimately die from botulism.
The article in the Free Press said that the cladophora algae flourished in the 60’s and 70’s because it was nourished by the phosphorus from fertilizer runoff and poor sewage treatment. Bans in Michigan on phosphorus and improved sewage treatment reduced that algae in the 80’s and 90’s. Well, it’s back. 50,000 birds have died from E botulism since 1999.
I remember yesterday’s game, the Declaration of Independence, the CAFOs, and now sewage. I started thinking about a proposal I did for septic systems in Michigan as an assignment for class. Boy was that an eye opener. I found a fairly current article in the Sanitation Journal that said there are over 1.2 million septic systems in Michigan, and up until a few years ago Michigan didn’t have a state sanitary code. Over 40 percent of the new homes in Michigan are in rural areas where septic systems are necessary, and new homes near the water must have above-the-ground engineered septic fields now. But what about older homes like mine?
My husband is a stickler about our septic system, but there are homes along my road that are 40 years old with the original owner in them. Many of Michigan’s septic fields are only inspected when a home sells. Get the picture? The Sanitation Journal said one of the biggest contaminants of our lakes and streams, rivers, springs and such, is failed septic systems, so that’s something the state is really watching.” I don’t know about that, not all of it anyway. I thought we were supposed to be keeping a watchful eye on the ballast water of freighters too, and look at all the mussels.
The Detroit Free Press story link is below. It was an exceptionally poignant story because one of the biologists rounding up the dead birds found one with a band on its leg. It was an old loon he tracked for 14 years or more. A loon that kept a mate for one of the longest pairings ever recorded, and most amount of chicks raised. That would have really got to me.
http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/?p=87.
If you want to see what I mean about CAFO’s: http://www.mythinglinks.org/FactoryFarms_WalmartManureDoc.html
More about CAFO’s: http://www.ccofdc.org/documents/CAFO.pdf
http://www.sanitationjournal.com/mstadavesnyder.html.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802040334
Posted in Animals in Peril, Birds, CAFO's, Clean Water Act, Conservation, Environmental Legislation, Environmentalism, Extreme Weather in U.S., Farm Lobby, Farms/Farming, Federal Government, Global Warming, Great Lakes, Great Lakes Pollution, Great Lakes Water, Legislators, Michigan, Michigan Clean Water, Michigan Environmental Policy, Michigan Pollution, Michigan/Great Lakes, Morality, Nature, Protecting Wetlands, Public Lands, State Gov't., The Detroit Free Press, The Media, Weather, Wetlands, Wildlife | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
I wrote a blog called “Pig Poo Who Knew” about the meatpacking business and CAFO’s when I read Rolling Stone’s incredible expose by Jeff Tietz called “Boss Hog.” It was such an eye opener about the cruelty of industrialized farming that I took a look at the horrid conditions in which chickens are raised too. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/?p=100. We seldom see any documentaries about the plight of farm animals on network television in the U.S. I presume it’s because of the food industry lobby. But in Great Britain it’s another story.
I ran across an article on Reuter’s online that states: “McDonalds sees animal welfare gaining ground in the UK.” McDonalds is anticipating that a British documentary airing on TV over there will really make a difference to farm animals particularly poultry. Admittedly, 91% of all the British know nothing about their food farms. In that case, insight into how the hens are raised should arouse quite a lot of concern. We don’t know all that much over here either and probably don’t know that chicken outsold beef at US McDonalds last year. So much for the Big Mac, and Quarter Pounder. The Reuter’s article stated that: “McDonald’s in Britain has served only free range eggs during the last 10 years,” and that “the company was currently looking at providing canopy cover for chickens to encourage hens to range more.” UK McDonalds is also looking into pig-rearing practices. It seems the poor pigs are confined, and distressed in such close proximity all the time they chew each other’s tails. The tails end up getting docked. There are infection issues I imagine, and all would be unnecessary if the pigs were raised humanely in the first place. Concern for their tails is a start. This is an intelligent animal also remember? McDonalds UK said they don’t mind the added costs of humane farming if it served the public well. Everything comes back to the consumer. It’s our responsibility no matter how hard we try to shrug it off because if we don’t buy, things change. It’s that simple.
The actual UK documentary about the horrific way chickens are raised was highlighted in “The Independent” UK news and showcased on a website called “Chicken Out, Campaign for a Free Range Future.” “Chicken Out” is kind of catchy isn’t it? The covert filming for the documentary was done by an animal welfare group called “Compassion in World Farming” or CIWF. The article said it was about the grim life inside a chicken coop for 25 to 50 THOUSAND chickens. Imagine the ammonia stench? That would knock you down. It also stated: “Britain’s RSPCA called on supermarkets to quit selling the mass produced chickens.” Go RSPCA!
The British documentary will air on mainstream British television and be given a boost by chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver. They want to highlight what food animals go through in order to keep prices down and mass production up, and that free range chickens and organic birds are the way to go if the industry is ever going to change. Imagine some of our stellar chefs hosting a show on NBC or Fox that would air the extremely bad conditions of farm animals perpetuated by one of our big, national food suppliers? Yeah, that’ll happen.
So what’s wrong with our media? Sure I’ve caught many articles in magazines and documentaries on PBS, and subscription TV channels about the horrid conditions for our farm animals, but 20 million Americans don’t have subscription TV. The rest that do aren’t getting-in-your-face documentaries. Let’s face it, our news media is not going to upset a major lobby like big meatpacker, Smithfield Foods, unless it’s Rolling Stone magazine of course. So I have to say kudos to the UK and the spirit of revealing the unnecessary cruelty of the food business to the mainstream public in an effort to change, whether their food industry takes a hit or not.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL0447565920080104
http://www.chickenout.tv/news.html?newsid=67.
Posted in CAFO's, Environmentalism, Farm Animals, Farms/Farming, Food, Great Britain, Green Investments, Meatpacking Industry, Nature, Politics, Poultry, Rolling Stone, Science, Smithfield Foods, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 7th, 2008
Whether or not cloned meat is safe is not an issue. It’s not a good idea based on what the meatpacking business does with real animals on industrialized farms and CAFO’s, the fact that Americans disregarded health warnings and boosted our obesity quotient some 30% last year, and our propensity to waste half of our food supply to begin with. Do we really need to clone animals for food?
It’s highly doubtful looking at these pictures of dead hogs stacked sky high that lived from birth to death confined in a box, chewing on metal bars out of distress, then died for no good purpose whatsoever:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12840743/porks_dirty_secret_the_nations_top_hog_producer_is_also_one_of_americas_worst_polluters.
As you look at this stack of pigs, remember that science has declared them to be highly intelligent animals. If we do this to regular farm animals, what will we do with clones? Our cruelty quotient will go up and it’s not all that good now. We turn our heads to all types of cruelty already.
We don’t need to fuel obesity either. Type II diabetes is on the rise and linked with obesity from pounding down too many burgers, 20 oz. steaks, and slabs of ribs. Producing more food from cloned animals is contrary because we’re already stuffed on only half of what we produce. The average family throws away 14% of all their food. If beer and pop counts, I’m surprised it’s not higher. Rounding up cans and bottles from party aftermath is a little unnerving. There are always a bunch of them half empty and a few completely full.
So the push for cloning for more food doesn’t make sense, but the push for cloned animals for research does. We’ll be off and running in that direction all too quickly and with little recourse because we didn’t protest cloning animals for food in the first place. The FDA stated they wanted to get public opinion about cloned animals for food. So let them know.
Posted in Animals in Peril, CAFO's, Cloned Meat, Conservation, FDA, Farm Animals, Farms/Farming, Federal Government, Food, Health, Hormones in Food, Illegal Use of Animals, Meatpacking Industry, Nature, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, U.S. Food Supply | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
I just got through reading some current worldwide environmental news and have to say, we don’t seem to have a clear-cut view of anything. What we profess, what we say, and what we actually do is all contrary. First, I saw the Pope give his blessing and speak on behalf of peace and the environment over the Christmas season to over one billion Catholics. And the World Council of Churches that represents 560 million Christians worldwide is calling concerns over global warming a matter of faith. The WCC has had a program about climate change since 1992 and books about ecotheology (I’m interested). Dr. Samuel Kobia the Secy. General of the WCC stipulates that Christians are well aware that dominion over all living things was given to us. He said that meant, “We were entrusted with the care of the rest of God’s creation.” The emphasis is on the word “CARE” here.
Care doesn’t come under savagely taking a machete to an orangutan trying to defend it’s young, or hooking a live dolphin in the side and sending it to be stripped of skin before it’s even dead, while the resulting meat is basically poison from ingesting too many pollutants, or shooting 6 elephants dead for stepping into a coffee field that is supposed to be their sanctuary. We should actively try to get this stopped, but our demands for things like lumber and coffee encourage it. Oh and don’t forget about native animals and the latest Internet hunting websites that have yet to be banned in over 20 states.
There was the news about a zoo tiger that got loose and killed one man, and maimed two others before it was shot dead. The media wanted to know and put this question out to the public if it is wise to keep caged and wild animals? 145,000,000 people visit zoos every year without incident. If we didn’t have zoos the likelihood of seeing a live polar bear, tiger, elephant, orangutan, gorilla, condor, panda…etc., would more than likely be nil. I have to wonder about the media here. Do they operate with any type of perspective about things, or just pounce on a bit of fantastic news with so much fervor it gets skewed out of proportion and normalcy? People are maimed in cars every day and no one says: “Gee, should we really be driving?”
We’ve heard about individual states taking their own course of action for the environment with many implementing their own environmental laws especially since the Supreme Court decided that the EPA is supposed to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases according to the Clean Air Act but has not done so. So what do I read? The Bush administration: “Thursday announced that it will block efforts by California, Maryland, and 15 other states to cut emissions of global warming gases from cars and trucks.” Now that is an example of talking out of two sides of one’s mouth isn’t it? Aren’t we supposed to be forging ahead with alternative energy anyway?
This administration got elected based on a big moral majority. Do we or do we not celebrate animals? I hope we understand the world is in our care. We simply can’t keep spreading and demanding, taking up room where other things live. We end up killing the very same animals we ooh and ah over at the zoo. We love cartoon movies with animals, little talking pigs, Flipper, the Lion King. We are supposed to teach our children to be kinds to animals. But when animals act out in their normal manner we talk about dispensing with them right away, like the zoo issue. We sacrifice living breathing creatures in our own species chain over things we need for our big houses or our big lifestyle. And we elect our president/vice president based on morality when this latest threat to block states trying to do right by the environment proves the opposite. So where do we stand between what we believe, what we say, and what we actually do about our world and everything in it because I can’t tell?
By the way, a current gallop poll has President Bush as the number one pick among the most admired men and women of 2007. Is that not the icing on the cookie for contradictions as far as you’ve read them here?
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-24-01.asp.
Posted in Animals and Extinction, Arctic Oil Drilling, CO2 Emissions, Canada's Seal Hunt, Clean Air Act, Climate, Coal Mining, Coalburners, Coffee, Conservation, Diesel Fuel Pollution, Dolphins, EPA, Earth, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environmental Legislation, Environmental Spin, Environmentalism, Farm Animals, Federal Government, Forest Service, Fossil Fuel, Geothermal Power, Global Warming, Global Warming Policy, Global Warming Reports, Illegal Hunting, Illegal Use of Animals, Jet Fuel Pollution, Legislators, Logging, Marine Life, Michigan Environmental News, Michigan Environmental Policy, Monroe Pollution, Morality, National Forest, National Parks and Forests, Ocean Pollution, Oil Drilling, Oil Industry, Oil Lobby, Oil Spills, Polar Bears, Politics, Pollution, Primates, Protecting Wetlands, Protesting Pollution, Rhinos, Supreme Court, The Denial Machine, The Media, Tigers, Urban Sprawl, Weather, Whales, White House Council on Environmental Quality, Wildlife, Wind Power, Wolves, Yellowstone Park | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 24th, 2007
On Christmas Eve I think it’s important to remember where the Christ Child was born, AMONG THE ANIMALS in a manger. Every nativity scene is one with animals. A manger in those days was: “a feed trough found in a stable. In Bible times mangers were made from clay mixed with straw or from stones held together with mud; sometimes they were carved in natural outcroppings of rock,”
http://www.padfield.com/1999/manger.html. There is an actual picture taken of a manger at Megiddo used in the stables of King Ahab on the linked website.
So the King of Kings was placed in the feed trough of the animals of a stable. This is a quite a statement about the beasts of the earth, that they were worthy of such an event. This Christmas take the time to reflect not only on mankind, but peace for the earth and all of the living things that are in jeopardy of extinction. The “beasts” as in animals of the earth are written about in the old and new testament over 200 times. Their importance is undeniable. We weren’t meant to live in a world without animals, especially those that have been here for centuries that are now in danger.
PEACE
Posted in Animals and Extinction, Birds, CAFO's, Climate, Cloned Meat, Conservation, Cosmetic Industry, Dolphins, Drought, Earth, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Farm Animals, Farm Bill, Fishing, Floods, Forest Service, Global Warming, Holidays, Illegal Hunting, Illegal Use of Animals, Jack Hanna, Marine Life, Meatpacking Industry, Morality, National Forest, Nature, Ocean Pollution, Polar Bears, Polar Ice Melt, Politics, Pollution, Primates, Protecting Wetlands, Protesting Pollution, Rhinos, Tigers, Urban Sprawl, Wetlands, Whales, Wildlife, Wolves, Yellowstone Park | 4 Comments »
Monday, December 17th, 2007
A few blogs ago I wrote about setting an example as far as being humane to animals before we point fingers at other countries that dolphin hunt, seal hunt, whale hunt, and kill tigers, elephants, and apes. Someone retorted about other countries, which was exactly what I made a point about NOT doing. After all, isn’t that one of the first things we teach siblings, not to point fingers elsewhere?
Anyway after the same commenter digressed to this being the best country in the world, the idea of being a good example was kind of lost in conversation. But it is important, and I am resurrecting the notion. Being good examples for all types of humanitarian efforts would give us much better leverage for persuading other governments to give up inhumane hunts like the renewed Japanese whale hunt.
An example of what I am talking about jumped off the “Verbatim” page of Time Magazine’s December 3rd issue. This Japanese whale-meat butcher in the whaling port of Shimonoseki, the home of Japan’s largest whaling expedition in decades, remarked about the inhumanity of it all: ‘”How is eating whale different from eating pigs or cows?”‘ See my point?
We’ll never get anywhere asking other countries not to seal, whale, or dolphin hunt when we slaughter and treat animals inhumanely ourselves. It looks like pollution may halt hunts like these before conscience even comes into play. The Japanese plan on hunting 50 endangered pin whales and 50 threatened humpback whales, along with others, totaling 1000. Trouble is, just like the dolphin meat from the barbaric Japanese dolphin hunt, the whale meat is more than likely poison, tainted by chemical toxins. Many of the larger species of fish and mammals in the ocean are contaminated. A current study by: “Norwegian scientists found that killer whales – or orcas, as they are sometimes known – have overtaken polar bears at the head of the toxic table” according to a BBC article. It said: “No other arctic mammals have ingested such a high concentration of hazardous man-made chemicals.” I was a little amazed at what was found in the blubber, traces of pesticide, flame retardant, and PCB’s. The WWF or World Wildlife Foundation says, “The Arctic has become a chemical sink.”
But are the Japanese worried? Why should they be? An opinion poll done last year by the Nippon Research Centre found that 95% percent of Japanese never or rarely ate whale meat. So why the hunt? Like I stated in another blog, this hunt is being done under the guise of research. The odd thing is another study found that, “65% of Japanese students agreed with the view that scientific research on whales should only use non-lethal methods.”
All the bad international press about this whale hunt embarrasses Japan’s leadership. Japanese don’t eat the meat. A majority of Japanese college students do not advocate the killing of a species in order to study it. And the meat is more than likely poisoned. But the hunt goes on? Sounds like other countries have the same problem as we do where a majority of voices go unheard, and unheeded.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4520104.stm
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/fearing-us-reaction-japanese
Posted in Animals and Extinction, CAFO's, Canada's Seal Hunt, Conservation, Dolphins, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environmentalism, Farm Animals, Greenpeace, Illegal Use of Animals, Japan, Marine Life, Meatpacking Industry, Nature, Ocean Pollution, Pollution, Primates, Tigers, Time Magazine, U.S. Food Supply, WWF, Whales, Wildlife, Wolves | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
I was brought up and went to Catholic schools my whole life. While I no longer practice organized religion, I have a firm belief in the Lord, and I might pray for rain privately, but when people are gathering in public governmental places to pray for rain in Atlanta, I think it makes us look like boob tubes to the rest of the world. For Pete’s sake the water commission and/or government there have failed to stop over 400,000 gallons per month or more than 14,000 gallons per day from flowing to just one wealthy resident’s estate because of lack of evidence he is breaking watering laws. Watering laws? Cut the guy off! The guy’s last name is Carlos.
And maybe this is supposed to be a humbling experience for moral America. Alabama prayed for rain and got nothing ever since. We sure remember to pray when something goes wrong, but forget morality and mercy when it comes to our use and abuse of animals in this country between research, industrialized farms, aerial killing of wolves, canned hunts, roadside zoos and carnivals. For that matter, many children don’t fare much better.
And how about the air, earth, water? We just don’t want to own up to being one of the largest polluters on earth. We take the self-righteous path and immediately point to others like China. Our neighbor Canada announced on the news that 25% of all pollution coming out of China is directly due to America and our demand for cheap goods. I would say we have plenty of work to do in our own back yards.
Americans also ignore news that our pollution directly affects poor nations like Africa. They, not Michigan, have the world’s largest freshwater lakes that are drying up due to global warming and the rape of that land and its natives by big oil concerns. We as Christians have literally turned a blind eye to our treatment of the paradise God bestowed on us, and our neighbors, like the Africans, because it doesn’t directly affect us, and the earth has no soul, was given to us as our domain. Animals have no soul. And anyone that is not Christian will not get to heaven. This is some of the credo coming right from our pulpits, and we’re going to pray to God for rain now?
Do we as a moral society pay attention to our prayers at all anyway? When they end with: “World without end, Amen,” and “Heaven on Earth, Amen” do we really believe it? Because an awful lot of people think the world is going to disintegrate somehow after saying those very words in church every Sunday. And if we truly believe we will have heaven on earth, why are we pigging it up so badly? Do you really think God just wants us to keep procreating without being responsible for our waste also? I’ve written plenty of blogs that address these moral issues.
Gore is right about the overall care of the environment being a moral issue. We’ll see when other states dry up, how much we love our brothers. I know I want Michigan’s water to stay in Michigan. I have property all along the waterways. But I’m not going to let a fellow citizen perish from lack of water, that is if those in need have done all they can possibly do for themselves first, and that doesn’t mean simply praying. Remember: “God helps those that help themselves?”
He meant it. He gave us great mental capacity to overcome many obstacles. I doubt he will do anything for a people that not only do not help themselves to their full capacity, but also have created even more obstacles to life that they don’t know how to dismantle. That’s hardly doing all that we can do or being all that we can be. We need a big kick in the rear to wake up. God is our FATHER, and as a parent to let our children make their own way, figure out their own mistakes is sometimes the best wake up call, the best lesson to teach. We should ready ourselves for more lessons unless we begin to change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/us/15water.html?ref=us.
Posted in Al Gore, Animals and Extinction, Arctic Council, CAFO's, Drought, Environmentalism, Extreme Weather in U.S., Global Warming, Great Lakes Water, Nature, U.S. Weather Patterns, Water Shortage, Wildlife | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
I like a good shrimp dinner like anyone else that likes shrimp, big, fat meaty mouthfuls of that sweet seafood, add scallops and lots of other types of seafood for that matter. But now I hear that 80% of the seafood we eat is imported. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the FDA only inspects 1% of that seafood, and what it does inspect will more than likely fail due to unsafe levels of antibiotics, or just plain filth.
Personally, I like to buy fish that says farm-raised in the U.S., even though the fish food contains PCB’s. In Vietnam farm-raised may mean “in sewage.” Eating in restaurants is a little more difficult. There are no labels. It’s a good idea to ask where the seafood comes from. There is a problem with an often used fungicide called Malachite Green found in imported fish. Malachite Green can cause cancer and birth defects over time.
The countries from which we import know what’s legal and what’s not. They do it anyway, and often replace the forbidden material with another that is potentially dangerous. That’s why it’s so important to have better checks on our imports, especially food. President Bush is expected to ask for reforms giving government the power to recall. Who is he kidding? His small government/privatization ideals have fallen flat in the area of imports already. More and more things we rely on as safe through governmental inspections are at risk because there is no government inspecting it. Some states like Alabama run their own inspections, but those states are few.
Be advised. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m going to start to ask where my seafood comes when I dine out. I had no idea that a good shrimp dinner may be the same as getting a big dose of unknown antibiotics. I refuse to eat meat because of CAFO’s. It’s getting very, very vegetarian around here.
Read more about fish inspections: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/Story?id=3825144&page=2.
Posted in Bush Administration, CAFO's, FDA, Federal Government, Food Supply Contamination, Self-regulation, U.S. Food Supply | 7 Comments »
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
I watched a really interesting Nova presentation on PBS last night about Epigenetics. It is another reason for us to really nurture and care for the environment we live in. Our code of life seems to be more interactive with our surroundings than we think. All animals and humans have pretty much the same number of genes in our DNA makeup. Because of this, science is stumped by the individuality among humans and animals, especially health.
Watching animal parents (rats) either nurture or ignore their young led to a study of generational DNA makeup relative to psychological environment. We all pretty much know that children of abusive or neglectful parents suffer more depression and psychological problems as adults, but what scientists found was a marker on the DNA of maybe 3 generations of rats down the line denoting the stress from their great, great, great grandparent due to neglect.
Shortly thereafter, another scientist way up in the Northern part of Sweden was studying a town that maintained great records for hundreds of years not just the genealogy of families but also the weather patterns and harvest records. He found a correspondence in disease and illness with environmental stressors such as drought and famine that affected the harvest. Illness from poor health due to lack of nutrition is a no-brainer. But it wasn’t just the generation affected that had illness and disease; he found it ran in the family as far as 3 or 4 generations down the line whether they ate well or had a much improved lifestyle.
Scientists started looking at the DNA markers for disease in people relative to these new findings. It appears these markers are handed down from the paternal side of the family. Memory of environment appears to stamp sperm. If the individual male suffered stress from death, loss of crops, harsh weather, abusive parents, horrible weather, etc., that stress was transmitted to his sperm and it expressed itself in the form of a markers on their children’s DNA. It is not a genetic mutation. Even though the children are stress free, the markers of their father’s environment were there, passed on.
Environmental stress, both physical and psychological, matters for generations to come no matter how well future generations quality of life improves! The specific markers for individual DNA according to ancestry are what turn on and off the receptors for disease and illness, so lifestyle choices are extremely important for children and grandchildren’s health. This says much about the black community. Blacks suffer from many more diseases than whites. Considering their history of slavery, a horrendous stress for a human being, and this recent revelation, it’s no wonder.
The good thing about all of this is that back in the 70’s there was a form of chemotherapy so toxic it was discontinued. However, it had the ability to erase these DNA stress markers. The chemo has been reduced to like 1/20th of the original and dispensed to patients with diseases that had no cure. The patients had no side effects and their disease went into remission. When their DNA was checked, the markers were gone. This is all experimental at this stage, but I have no doubt the findings. I own an African Grey parrot. Bird people know that stressors of any type show up on new feathers as small bars. We all share almost identical DNA, rats to humans. What sets us apart as individuals health-wise, are the stress markers of our ancestors. What are we sending to our children, and their children, and their children after that by living in a polluted, hectic world? It doesn’t look good right now as breast cancer and all other types of disease seem to be on a rise again.
The average person breathes in air that is questionable. We bathe, drink, and cook with water that isn’t the purest, full of chlorine and other chemicals for purity. And the food we eat lived in horrific environments of stress where pigs and cows chew on metals bars of their cages out of frustration from a life of constant confinement, a living hell in a CAFO, before we eat it. These animals give birth in these crates. The babies are ripped from the mothers and they in turn live a life of hell as foodstuff. I don’t think its fit to eat, and the people that perpetrate the business are evil. So our environment is ailing to begin with, and then we smoke, drink, overeat, and are getting more and more sedentary, as we watch the instance of disease rise worldwide. According to Epigenetics the correlation is right on the money. We simply must become more responsible keepers of our personal and world environment for the healthy future of humanity.
For more about the program on PBS called “The Ghost in Your Genes” goto:
http://www.pbs.org/search/search_results.html?q=The+Ghost+of+Our+Genes&neighborhood=none&btnG.x=4&btnG.y=5.
Posted in CAFO's, DNA, Environmentalism, Epigenetics, Food Supply Contamination, Genetic Markers, Global Warming, PBS, Pollution, Science, Stress, U.S. Food Supply, Weather | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Today is blog action day. And I don’t want to talk about the environment per say, post the latest news, or try to convince anyone man’s part in global warming is real. Today I would simply like to thank the thousands of volunteers of many, many organizations that give their time, energy, and passion to helping the environment and every creature in it, including humans that won’t get off the couch to save their own lives. To these volunteers and spokespeople we owe you our lives, many of us just don’t realize it yet.
Volunteers for the environment are tireless in their efforts. I’ve been to meetings where the person holding that meeting drove an hour at night, leaving family at home, to offer a presentation of information about what is happening and what can be done, only to have 8 people show up. They have to pack it all up and drive an hour to go home to a household already asleep. Yet they are never daunted in their determination to inform possibly one new person. That’s dedication, discipline, and selflessness.
While we sit in our comfortable living rooms there are countless organizations of people like Greenpeace on board ships in the freezing cold to stop whale hunts, or fisherman using nets that trap dolphins, others like Earthjustice, Environmental Defense, and NRDC holding oil drills at bay in some pristine part of our country, or The Sierra Club lobbying in state’s senates against industry pollution, or Waterkeeper Alliance that has joined Sierra Club’s fight against CAFO’s. Their volunteers took 3000 plus photos of CAFO’s and produced DVD’s to expose that industry’s pollution. There are the many, many meteorologists that have ventured to the N. Pole, Greenland, and Iceland in small boats to get photographs and gain first hand knowledge of crashing ice falls from glaciers not 50 ft. in front of them in order to inform the masses about what they’ve seen, and the brave and undeterred efforts of the scientists who testified before congress that they are fed up with being censored by the Bush administration relative to reports of global warming. They’re brave, bold, and forthright while much of the population flounders in a sea of apathy.
Take for instance what is called “junk mail.” It’s tossed without a thought. But in those envelopes are the voices of those that I’ve just described that are trying to get the truth out, trying to stop the insanity of pollution, trying to stop further fossil fuel endeavors, or simply trying to save the lives of animals that have no one to speak for them. It’s valuable information that took research, time, effort and skill to produce with the hope one more person will open and read the contents in lieu of being tossed without conscience or concern. Ditto for the many TV networks like The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, and Sundance that dedicate themselves to saving the environment by showcasing the marvelous inventors, scientists, and engineers from around the globe that have solutions for our ailing earth already.
To all the wonderful, passionate, faithful people that see the Almighty in their surroundings and fight to save and nurture what we were given as a blessing, I want to say thank you heart and soul. The road you travel is new and like any other time in history, your fellow humans are not quick to follow a new revolution. Go with peace and passion in every step because most assuredly you have one Traveler that will remain by your side always. Nature is Earth’s Metaphor for God and you “get it.” Bless you. Keep the faith, keep up the fight.
Posted in Al Gore, Arctic Council, Bush Administration, CAFO's, CO2 Emissions, Discovery Channel, Earthjustice, Eco Tech, Environmental Defense, Environmentalism, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, Global Warming Reports, Greenpeace, NASA, NRDC, Nature, Polar Ice Melt, Protesting Pollution, Science, Sundance, The Denial Machine, The Science Channel, The Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Wildlife | 4 Comments »
