Category Archives: FYI Awareness

800 Scientists Demand Global GMO “Experiment” End

by Elizabeth Renter
May 24th, 2013

gmo scientists 263x164 800 Scientists Demand Global GMO “Experiment” End

Did you hear about the 800 esteemed scientists who came together and demanded the production of genetically modified crops and products be stopped? Scientists who called on world powers to re-evaluate the future of agriculture and seek sustainability rather than corporate profits? Don’t be surprised if you haven’t, as the mainstream media won’t touch this one.

Eight-hundred scientists did make such a demand. They made it first over a decade ago and they have updated it over the years, adding signatures and release dates. Still global powers have all but ignored their calls.

The Institute of Science in Society is a non-profit group of scientists from around the world, dedicated to bringing an end to what they refer to as the “dangerous GMO “experiment. In their open letter to the world, they have highlighted why governments need to stop genetically modified crops now – before there are irreversible effects on the health of the people and the health of the earth at large.

The Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments calls for “the immediate suspension of all environmental releases of GM crops and products, both commercially and in open field trials, for at least 5 years.”

They also want patents on organisms, cell lines, and living things revoked and banned. Such patents (a sort of corporate version of “playing God,”) “threaten food security, sanction biopiracy of indigenous knowledge and genetic resources, violate basic human rights and dignity, compromise healthcare, impede medical and scientific research and are against the welfare of animals.”

And as Anthony Gucciardi recently detailed on NaturalSociety, this would be bad news for Monsanto following the recent Supreme Court decision that they have the ‘right’ to patent life.

Scientists Speaking Out

In the beginning, after its first draft in 1999, the letter had just over 300 signatures. Since then, it’s grown significantly. At the writing of this article, the document has 828 signatures representing 84 different countries.

While we are told by Monsanto and the FDA that GMOs are nothing to worry about and instead safe tools for the future of agriculture, a growing number of esteemed scientists seem to disagree. So, who’s listening?

The letter has been presented to numerous governments and organizations, including the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Trade Organization, and yes, even the U.S. Congress. The letter has been shared at these venues, but it doesn’t seem like anyone was listening.

The populous has to dig for information like this. We have to seek out the news sources willing to cover it, because we won’t hear about this letter on the nightly news or through a governmental agency. No, the U.S. government wants you to fear what they want you to fear (“terror” and crime, for instance), but they certainly don’t want you to fear the information and the food they are putting on your table. Or the GMOs they are funding with your taxpayer dime.

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Rainy day musings

Deva_Pan

While our drought relief continues with some fairly intense rain, this is a perfect time for reflection on what little wonders go on in the garden(s), apart from the major works.  The weeds can wait.  They aren’t going to disappear…

Amidst our fascinating weather, which is occurring worldwide, there has been ample opportunity to tune-in even more closely with the Nature spirits, the devas, the Elementals themselves.  They are my guides for anything going on anywhere in any part of the gardens.  I may be “director” for the CG, but they are my directors and prompters.

While experience and/or formal training can certainly play a valid part in planning and maintaining a garden, for me it is balanced by other promptings and knowings (call it intuition).  Though science and research has educated me in valuable ways about soil and attempting to manage plant diseases in various ways, nothing replaces the listening for advice from other levels of existence that science cannot prove…yet.  This places me in a position of constant learning, and wondering, and respect.

Sure, my back may not appreciate bending, weeding, shoveling like it used to allow…and I always overdo it, but the joy of feeling the other “Invisibles” around always makes it worthwhile.  Science doesn’t teach us that there are energetic caretakers for every plant that we see.  Science only sees the physical structure of a plant, but cannot locate or prove what provides the life force for the plant form, so therefore…it does not exist.  (Hopefully, this will change in the near future.) But, too many of us know this is not the case; too many of us know that life energy exists in myriad forms not yet visible to the eye.  Yet, we sense it, even if we don’t see or hear it.

When asked how I plan a garden, I reply that it is partly by thought and partly by feel.  I know what sort of typical “facts” exist about different plants, taking them into consideration, and then I feel for supportive promptings to guide me as to where to plant and when to plant.  It is like a tapestry, into which is woven the knowledge about what a plant might prefer for sunlight, soil, its size, habit, etc., along with the promptings for choice of color, and when to plant it. Sometimes it all happens at the same time, and sometimes there is a week or two of contemplation, until either weather dictates some action, or something prompts me to “do it now”!  Occasionally I get caught up in time restraints, and in the long run I didn’t listen carefully enough, and a plant might not overwinter as hoped, or not be in the right spot.  But, that becomes part of the magic of gardening…listening, learning, observing, and feeling it!  Really, everything comes down to BALANCE.  And gardening is a perfect way to balance the mind and the heart!

Some gardeners strictly adhere to planting by the moon phases, using particular dates as guidelines for seeding and transplanting above- and below-ground crops.  While I have used and appreciated the expertise of these guidelines, I have found it can be too regimented and a bit unrealistic for one’s available time to work in the garden.  In the spirit of balance, I often check a planting calendar for suggested dates, but am not restricted by it. In our area weather holds more sway in the feasibility for seeding.

We are entering a new cycle of earth and Life, that inspires and requires a huge SHIFT in how we think, feel, and relate to everything in our world.  Every thing and every one is connected!  New ways to power energy (for free or at least inexpensively), have been around for years, but not permitted to be publicly known.  This will change.  Ways to clean up the environment will be quite different than any current technologies.  The solutions to problems that have been created in the world will not come from the 3rd dimensional minds of this world, they will come from seemingly unknown sources, through the human mind…and heart.  Einstein was the first to say this because he knew and recognized during his own research.

Solar activity is high, the new light frequencies coming in are affecting everyone in myriad ways; there is a lot of instability and chaos, as that is a way of that old “stuff” gets shifted.  Weather is not just a scientific “phenomenon” either, it is alive!  It is more affected by solar and galactic activity, than just the oceans, and the patterns of cloud formations, etc.  As much as some of us would like to feel some normalcy with respect to tending our gardens, the fact is that there are no normal patterns anymore, and weather shifts almost day to day.  We must learn to adapt to the rapid changes and hope we can respond to the plants’ needs as well as we can.  And, I always ask the Invisible caretakers and Guardians to help, too.  They appreciate the requests to be of service and to co-create with us!

My plot number is…899,458

Happy Earth Day!  Opening season for our garden is in another day or two…stay tuned!

Just came across info about urban garden plots in Switzerland.  Throughout parts of Europe and Russia these urban community plots (allotments for households-families) have been in existence for some time, sometimes decades, built in the surrounding areas outside city centers, both affluent and otherwise.  The structures are not homes, but shelters and storage. Europeans seem to take ownership of their food quality more seriously than most U.S. citizens.  An impressive picture…

SwissUrbanGardenPlots

Outside Vernier, Switzerland, in the vicinity of Lake Geneva