Pedigree dogs are suffering from genetic diseases following years of inbreeding, an investigation has found.

A BBC documentary says they are suffering acute problems because looks are emphasised over health when breeding dogs for shows.

The programme shows spaniels with brains too big for their skulls and boxers suffering from epilepsy.

The Kennel Club says it works tirelessly to improve the health of pedigree dogs.

Pedigree animals make up 75% of the seven million dogs in the UK and cost their owners over £10m in vets' fees each week.

Poor health

The programme, Pedigree Dogs Exposed, says dogs suffering from genetic illness are not prevented from competing in dog shows and have gone on to win "best in breed", despite their poor health.

It says physical traits required by the Kennel Club's breed standards, such as short faces, wrinkling, screw-tails and dwarfism, have inherent health problems.

Other problems occur because of exaggerations bred into dogs by breeders trying to win rosettes, it adds.

The end of our little rock...?

Be a bit of a pain if it did, wouldn't it? And the most frustrating thing is that we won't know for sure either way until the European laboratory for particle physics (Cern) in Geneva switches on its Large Hadron Collider the day after tomorrow.

If you think it's unlikely that we will all be sucked into a giant black hole that will swallow the world, as German chemistry professor Otto Rössler of the University of Tübingen posits, and so carry on with your life as normal, only to find out that it's true, you'll be a bit miffed, won't you?

If, on the other hand, you disagree with theoretical physicist Prof Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, who argues that fears of possible global self-ingestion have been exaggerated, and decide to live the next two days as if they were your last, and then nothing whatsoever happens, you'd feel a bit of a fool too.

Rössler apparently thinks it "quite plausible" that the "mini black holes" the Cern atom-smasher creates "will survive and grow exponentially and eat the planet from the inside". So convinced is he that he has lodged an EU court lawsuit alleging that the project violates the right to life guaranteed under the European Convention of Human Rights

---------------

When Oppenheimer blew up the first atom bomb in the Nevada desert, there was a similar fear. Would the nuclear reaction stop at the fissile material or spread through the fabric of other matters beyond human control? Lucky, although it is possible to destroy the core nucleus of non-fissile material, there is not enough energy in an atom bomb to crack anything beyond our stupidity. But we'll give it a good try... We might be lucky with the new nut cracker, no black hole will form. Or black holes may have a critical size before they start becoming the relentless sewer of light and matter. We think we know they have a critical large (small pin head) size at which they start spewing their breakfast on the sideral pavement...

I don't think we should try to find out by smashing something, without insurance.

Warning sounded on web's future
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

The internet needs a way to help people separate rumour from real science, says the creator of the World Wide Web.

Talking to BBC News Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was increasingly worried about the way the web has been used to spread disinformation.

Sir Tim was speaking in advance of an announcement about a Foundation he has helped create that he hopes will improve the World Wide Web.

Future proof

Sir Tim talked to the BBC in the week in which Cern, where he did his pioneering work on the web, turned on the Large Hadron Collider for the first time.

The use of the web to spread fears that flicking the switch on the LHC could create a Black Hole that could swallow up the Earth particularly concerned him, he said. In a similar vein was the spread of rumours that the MMR vaccine given to children in Britain was harmful.

Sir Tim told BBC News that there needed to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources.

"On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable," he said. "A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."

-----------------------

No... we would not do that? 

------------------------

Though the Large Hadron Collider's infiltration by hackers did not disrupt the $6 billion project, experts warn that its computer systems are vulnerable -- though at least their exploitation won't destroy Earth.

Shortly after physicists activated the Collider on Wednesday, hackers identifying themselves as Group 2600 of the Greek Security Team accessed computers connected to the Compact Muon Solenoid detector, one of four key subsystems responsible for monitoring the collisions of protons speeding around the 18-mile track near Geneva, Switzerland.

A few scientists had worried that the experiment could inadvertently create a planet-swallowing black hole. Physicists called this impossible, or at least extraordinarily unlikely. But the hack raises a different sort of worst-case scenario: the largest and most complicated science experiment in history, intended to reveal basic information about the composition of matter, derailed by malevolent intruders.

-------------------------

As long as we don't have to live in net-rooms, like some people do in Japan, all's fine in the finest of the worlds... But then we're told there is a zillion piece of information out there that we should know about, doubling every week or so... In fact, there may be only one ugly bit useful and half a piece close to the relative truth...

Sure there is plenty of blogs and sites about the "absolute truth" of god, thus see my drift... At least some science is still investigating...

 

Some special entities still on the net might have to rely in the future on private networks supplying special cables or bandwidths that are not connected to the WWW. Thus outsiders can have no part in hacking from the comfort of their armchairs. They would need to find buried entry points beyond their reach. I believe such non-aligned parallel networks already exist but are not listed or known.

Actually they might have existed for a very long time... In the sixties, spies used some various bandwidth to transmit crude data at high speed. For example a machine would send a few minute-long recording in ten seconds. Then, it was hard for other spies agencies to detect as bandwidths would be changed daily or hourly and transmission would appear like unformatted "industrial noise" should they be intercepted.

These days, despite the encryption of data on the WWW, a computer hacker with proper programming skills can unravel most stuff within a hour. Of course a lot of serious data is encrypted in various format every thirty seconds, but the safest way in delicate or secret operations is not to be connected to the WWW.

Most likely some financial institutions, the CIA and some governments around the world have their own communication networks with super-encryption to boot, separate from the rudimentary WWW.

WWW is for clods like us... WWW is for the proletariat, for the masses, more entertaining slosh than real clout...

Still WWW is worth it's weight in megabytes despite its idiosyncrasies and weaknesses.  It allows us to communicate beyond our villages to the rest of the world. And stuff the secret bizos!!!.... They will never surpass the devious ingenuity of the common human.

Hopefully we still be able to collect real information away from the entertaining fodder sloshing on the WWW...

Rules on Bioengineered Animals

FDA to Release Guidelines for Stages of Genetic Modification

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 18, 2008; A02

The Food and Drug Administration will release today long-awaited regulatory guidelines governing genetic engineering of animals for food, drugs or medical devices.

Although none of the provisions is likely to surprise the biotech industry, their formal appearance after years of discussion is expected to energize a field whose commercial potential is huge but so far unrealized.

The agency's regulatory control of animals will be considerably stronger than its oversight of genetically engineered plants and microorganisms. The latter -- or substances derived from them -- are on the market and, in some cases, have proved controversial.

The guidelines tell companies what the FDA wants to know about their work at virtually every stage of creating an engineered animal.

For example, biotech firms will be asked to provide the molecular identity of snippets of DNA inserted in an animal's genome, as well as where the genetic message lands and whether it descends unaltered through subsequent generations. The FDA also wants to be told how the genetic alterations might change an animal's health, behavior and nutritional value.

The companies also should inform the agency how they will keep track of animals, prevent them from mingling with their non-engineered cousins and dispose of them when they die.

Genetically engineered animals -- salmon, pigs, cows and goats are in development -- are expected to have two main uses. Some will be food animals whose new genetic endowment makes them disease-resistant, faster-growing or more nutritious. Others will be genetically engineered to produce medically useful substances, such as hormones or antibodies, in their organs or body fluids.

Pigs that are able to more easily absorb phosphorus, and therefore need less feed supplementation, are being developed in Ontario. Goats that produce spider silk in their milk are being made in Wyoming.

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As mentioned below the toon at top, disaster beckons...

Celtic revolt against Westminster over GM crops

Scottish ministers plan to link up with Wales and Northern Ireland to head off attempts to grow modified food on home soil

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Scotland has vowed to remain GM-free

Ministers are facing an unprecedented Celtic revolt from their Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts as they launch a new campaign to plant GM crops in Britain.

All three devolved governments have declared themselves implacably opposed to any modified crops in their territory, setting the scene for one of their sharpest-ever confrontations with Westminster. And their opposition is likely to have an impact throughout Europe, sapping the UK's hitherto obdurate support for the introduction of the technology throughout the Continent.

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Good one... Praise these governments and see the toon at top.

October 13, 2008 Letters

The F.D.A. and Engineered Food

To the Editor:

Re “Coming to a Plate Near You” (editorial, Oct. 4):

We agree with you that the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed regulation of genetically engineered animals is more rigorous than its regulation of genetically engineered crops or cloned animals. Unfortunately, however, the F.D.A. will not be as rigorous as it needs to be.

The agency may assess environmental impact, but it is not required to prohibit an animal that causes environmental damage.

Although the F.D.A. says it will protect the animal’s health, we note that it approved the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals even though the data show that more than 50 percent of cow clones are born with an abnormality known as large offspring syndrome, which adversely affects their health.

Perhaps more important, the F.D.A. proposal has one glaring defect: there is no requirement to label food that comes from genetically engineered animals. Surveys clearly show that the vast majority of Americans want genetically engineered animals to be labeled as such. By not requiring labeling, the F.D.A. will take away a consumer’s right to know and right to choose what she eats.

Michael Hansen
Senior Scientist, Consumers Union
Yonkers, Oct. 6, 2008

•

The Kennel Club this month announced a review of breeding standards aimed at rearing healthier dogs.

Europe's secret plan to boost GM crop production

Gordon Brown and other EU leaders in campaign to promote modified foods

By Geoffrey Lean
Sunday, 26 October 2008
GM corn growing in France, which has since suspended cultivation of modified crops

Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.

And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists.

News of the secret plans is bound to create a storm of protest at a time when popular concern about GM technology is increasing, even in countries that have so far accepted it.

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Gus: on this site we have exposed the many problems associated with GM crops, including the fact that — unlike GM animals (another abomination) — once in the open fields, their corrupted genes will enter the entire food chain rapidly. Corn, cotton (cotton seed oil).

Independent tests have show there is no advantage with GM crops, except on the yeild which can be 100 per cent harvested "clear of weed and pests" as strong insecticides and herbicides can be used to grow then. Meanwhile the planet is loosing its insects, its birds and being poisoned with Roundup — and other nasty substances in the millions of tonnes.

As well, independent studies have shown that GM food may not be as healthy as tooted by the manufacturers. Some degeneration of liver and kidneys have been noted in mice when feed GM food

Other studies have shown that home grown "organic crops" could easily feed Africa without resorting to food donations or industrialisation of monoculture on this continent, should there be no wars. 

The major purpose of GM crops is for multinationals to hijack the production of food worldwide by providing "designer" seeds that are copyrighted for centuries to come — and new "minute modifications" can extend the value of patents beyond time we can imagine. The same applies to GM and cloned animals, except breeding can be more controlled, unlike seeds and pollen that can contaminate "clean organic crops" — this "accidental" contamination being a big part on the wish list of multinationals... Should your crop be "contaminated", they can then claim infringement of copyright... You're screwed...

So, are we going to let multinationals destroy nature from the genes upwards, eventually? The end game?: Money. Control.Denaturisation

Meanwhile some artitsts push our buttons...

Yes! We need to wake up from our comfort zone... and stop exploiting the convenience of being fat and lazy bums... or overdoing the calorie burning... NO TO GM CROPS!!!

Toughen up GM food labelling, say scientists
KELLY BURKE

State and Federal governments have promised an independent review of food labelling laws, which will revisit the "traffic light" system of labelling for salt, sugar and fat content.

The review was agreed to in principle at the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council in Adelaide on Friday and will also examine the issue of labelling all food sourced from genetically modified crops.

The decision coincided with an open letter signed by 15 internationally recognised scientists protesting over Australia's comparatively lax labelling laws for GE [genetically engineered] food, sent to the federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, last week.

The letter calls for an urgent independent review of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, noting that the authority is one of only a few regulators in the world to have approved every single application it has received for GE products.

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NO TO GM (or GE) CROPS!!! 

Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.  

The documents - minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments - disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.  

And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" - presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto - to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists.

News of the secret plans is bound to create a storm of protest at a time when popular concern about GM technology is increasing, even in countries that have so far accepted it.  

Public opposition has prevented any modified crops from being grown in Britain. France, one of only three countries in Europe to have grown them in any amounts, has suspended their cultivation, and resistance to them is rising rapidly in the other two, Spain and Portugal.  

Europe's Secret Plan To Boost GM Crop Production

the revolution against chemical crops is coming... be part of it... for the sake of the future

Macadamia farmers on Queensland's Sunshine Coast are at the centre of a controversy over two-headed fish hatchlings.

The Department of Primary Industries in Queensland is investigating the discovery of two-headed Australian bass hatchlings on the Noosa River.

The find has sparked concerns about chemical run-off from macadamia farms that drain into the river's feeder creeks.

Gwen Gilson, who runs a Boreen Point fish hatchery, says she has observed deformities on her farm for the past few years.

When she was advised last year to dispose of her own fish stocks and instead get fresh bass eggs from the Noosa River, she was shocked to discover that they were also contaminated.

University of Sydney researcher Dr Matt Landos says the deformed bass died within 48 hours of being hatched.

"It's quite extraordinary. In fact it was several groups of brood fish, all which came from the Noosa River, had batches of larvae which were severely deformed with the primary deformity being two heads," he said.

"It's the first time it's been observed anywhere in Australia in association with bass. The hatchery is fringed by a macadamia plantation."

Ms Gilson wants to know if the commonly used pesticide Carbendazim has been responsible for deformities in fish as well as other animals.

She believes the chemicals cause fish embryos to convulse in their eggs.

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see ton on top and blogs below it...

GM crops have a role to play in preventing mass starvation across the world caused by a combination of climate change and rapid population growth, a senior government scientist said yesterday.

Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), called for UK trials of GM foods, arguing that the Government needs to be more open with the public about the risks and benefits of genetically modified foods.

"Over the next 20 to 50 years, the population is going to increase from 6.5 to 9 billion. There will be more extreme weather, more demand for food, meat, and water, a changing climate: it is a very challenging situation, which, if we don't deal with it, could become a nightmare scenario," said Professor Watson. "We have to look at all the technologies, policies and practices, all forms of bio-tech, including GM."

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GM crops are part of the problems, in managment of the dynamics of world economy, changing weather and world population. They distract from the other problems and add possible heath shortcomings into the equation... It's only because there are huge amounts of money to be made from controlling food sources that some people are promoting GM crops. Small independent natural crops can actually feed and EMPLOY more people where it matters... But multinationals would not be able to take their cut, would they? See toon at top...

The introduction of a genetically modified potato in Europe risks the development of human diseases that fail to respond to antibiotics, it was claimed last night.

German chemical giant BASF this week won approval from the European Commission for commercial growing of a starchy potato with a gene that could resist antibiotics – useful in the fight against illnesses such as tuberculosis.

Farms in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic may plant the potato for industrial use, with part of the tuber fed to cattle, according to BASF, which fought a 13-year battle to win approval for Amflora. But other EU member states, including Italy and Austria and anti-GM campaigners angrily attacked the move, claiming it could result in a health disaster.

During the regulatory tussle over the potato, the EU's pharmaceutical regulator had expressed concern about its potential to interfere with the efficacy of antibiotics on infections that develop multiple resistance to other antibiotics, a growing problem in human and veterinary medicine. Amflora contains a gene that produces an enzyme which generally confers resistance to several antibiotics, including kanamycin, neomycin, butirosin, and gentamicin.

The antibiotics could become "extremely important" to treat otherwise multi-resistant infections and tuberculosis, the European Medicines Authority (EMA) warned. Drug resistance is part of the explanation for the resurgence of TB, which infects eight million people worldwide every year.

---------------------------

Gus: GM crops are crap.

Australian researchers believe they may have solved one of the most pressing food supply problems of the 21st century by breeding canola containing the same omega 3 oils found in fish.

As genetic modification goes it is a simple marriage of oil-rich marine algae and the easily grown canola seed crop, but its implications for global aquaculture are immense.

Most farmed fish species such as salmon, barramundi and kingfish need to eat fish to contain the sort of long-chain fatty acids which make them essential for a healthy human diet.

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing protein production sector in the food industry and already accounts for half of the fish consumed globally. By 2050 an additional 70 million tonnes will be required at the same time as wild caught stocks are predicted to be in severe decline.

The so-called Omega 3 Project is part of the CSIRO's Food Futures Flagship, which aims to add up to $3 billion to Australia's agrifood sector through frontier technology such as plant science.

Team member James Petrie says the next phase of its work will be to replicate its success with canola in a large-scale on-farm trial.

"We've got proof of concept, so what that means is we have proven a canola plant or a flax plant - an oil plant - is actually capable of making these long-chain omega 3 oils in the seed and building them up to relatively good levels," he said.

"What we've got to do now is take it out of the lab and onto the farm."

Mr Petrie says successfully growing genetically modified (GM) canola with the long-chain fatty acids, which boost brain development and cardiovascular health in humans, will have huge commercial implications.

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Remind me not to eat farmed fish...

Rapid Rise in Seed Prices Draws U.S. Scrutiny

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

During the depths of the economic crisis last year, the prices for many goods held steady or even dropped. But on American farms, the picture was far different, as farmers watched the price they paid for seeds skyrocket. Corn seed prices rose 32 percent; soybean seeds were up 24 percent.

Such price increases for seeds — the most important purchase a farmer makes each year — are part of an unprecedented climb that began more than a decade ago, stemming from the advent of genetically engineered crops and the rapid concentration in the seed industry that accompanied it.

The price increases have not only irritated many farmers, they have caught the attention of the Obama administration. The Justice Department began an antitrust investigation of the seed industry last year, with an apparent focus on Monsanto, which controls much of the market for the expensive bioengineered traits that make crops resistant to insect pests and herbicides.

The investigation is just one facet of a push by the Obama administration to take a closer look at competition — or the lack thereof — in agriculture, from the dairy industry to livestock to commodity crops, like corn and soybeans.

On Friday, as the spring planting season approaches, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, and Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, will speak at the first of a series of public meetings aimed at letting farmers and industry executives voice their ideas. The meeting, in Ankeny, Iowa, will include a session on the seed industry.

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NO to GM CROPS! see toon at top...

more seeds of discontent

The race to find and own all the drought resistant plant genes on the planet: A risk to universal access to food and the end of biodiversity or a solution to the predicted global food crisis?

This special report by the ABC News Online Investigative Unit and ABC Lateline program looks into the future of food production here in Australia and around the world. We talk to the major players in agriculture and science, experts in intellectual property and farmers.

Eleanor Bell and Suzanne Smith reveal a new inquiry is to be launched in the Australian Parliament into the role of patents on plant genes and what it means for Australian agriculture.

Explore this story through the text, video, multimedia, and interactive features of this extensive special.

Meet farmers John and Jan Baxter, see inside the work of the CSIRO, and peek into the future with the Generation Food Challenge - a philanthropic project by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Discover the innovations of the world's largest seed company, Monsanto and watch Australia's intellectual property adversaries debate the merits of the current patent system.

ABC Lateline's Ticky Fullerton takes up the story tonight on ABC1 at 10:30pm.

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Gus: Lucky me, my lettuces are self-seeding... see toon at top..

Rise of the Superweeds

By WILLIAM NEUMAN and ANDREW POLLACK

DYERSBURG, Tenn. — For 15 years, Eddie Anderson, a farmer, has been a strict adherent of no-till agriculture, an environmentally friendly technique that all but eliminates plowing to curb erosion and the harmful runoff of fertilizers and pesticides.

But not this year.

On a recent afternoon here, Mr. Anderson watched as tractors crisscrossed a rolling field — plowing and mixing herbicides into the soil to kill weeds where soybeans will soon be planted.

Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.

To fight them, Mr. Anderson and farmers throughout the East, Midwest and South are being forced to spray fields with more toxic herbicides, pull weeds by hand and return to more labor-intensive methods like regular plowing.

“We’re back to where we were 20 years ago,” said Mr. Anderson, who will plow about one-third of his 3,000 acres of soybean fields this spring, more than he has in years. “We’re trying to find out what works.”

Farm experts say that such efforts could lead to higher food prices, lower crop yields, rising farm costs and more pollution of land and water.

“It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,” said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts.

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Gus: "nature" has a way to escape some of human's misdemeanours, but not all natural escapes are beneficial to humans nor to that of some other species...

New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

The President’s Cancer Panel is the Mount Everest of the medical mainstream, so it is astonishing to learn that it is poised to join ranks with the organic food movement and declare: chemicals threaten our bodies.

The cancer panel is releasing a landmark 200-page report on Thursday, warning that our lackadaisical approach to regulation may have far-reaching consequences for our health.

I’ve read an advance copy of the report, and it’s an extraordinary document. It calls on America to rethink the way we confront cancer, including much more rigorous regulation of chemicals.

Traditionally, we reduce cancer risks through regular doctor visits, self-examinations and screenings such as mammograms. The President’s Cancer Panel suggests other eye-opening steps as well, such as giving preference to organic food, checking radon levels in the home and microwaving food in glass containers rather than plastic.

In particular, the report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’ ”

It’s striking that this report emerges not from the fringe but from the mission control of mainstream scientific and medical thinking, the President’s Cancer Panel. Established in 1971, this is a group of three distinguished experts who review America’s cancer program and report directly to the president.

One of the seats is now vacant, but the panel members who joined in this report are Dr. LaSalle Leffall Jr., an oncologist and professor of surgery at Howard University, and Dr. Margaret Kripke, an immunologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Both were originally appointed to the panel by former President George W. Bush.

“We wanted to let people know that we’re concerned, and that they should be concerned,” Professor Leffall told me.

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I believe that we, Gus, Ernest and John are growing our own organic vegies.. see toon at top...

G'day Gus,

As a matter of fact, I seem to remember a Court Case in Australia where Monsanto (a foreign company) sued one of our farmers for breach of copywright and won easily.

The reason - Monsanto had planted its GM seed in an adjoining property and, with winds and rain etc, some had taken root in the Farmer's land.  Like most democratic lawyers, the rich had too many guns for the farmer and he lost the case.

What amazes me is that, after perhaps centuries of natural farming, an imposter with un-natural chemically modified seed, plants these unproven "heathier" foods and then the natural weather transplants them into another person's property. That's not an act of God, like a hurricane - the farmer should have known better!  Struth.

Perhaps the explanation for this is that Monsanto didn't want an supervised test run or, they wanted to prove a point to the upstart Australians.

The acceptance that chemicals have quite an adverse effect on health has been confirmed as valid for many many years.  In fact, the Navy, who almost used exclusively Blue Asbestos has reported large numbers of lung cancer cases including Admiral Martin - a good sailor.

In Tuross Head where we live, there is a mostly "senior" population and hence the love of garening.  One such Lady, a friend of ours proudly exhibited her gardens with justifiable reason.  She did explain to my wife how and what chemicals to use on our garden but, we left it to nature.  After knowing her for some ten years, she died of cancer.

There has been many such cases in Tuross alone which is arguably due to the age of the citizens but, not when the killer is cancer.  I believe in the Darwin theory of evolution and as such I believe that, since we and the strongest animals have survived those millions of years, then logic tells me that either nature has adjusted to us or we have adjusted to nature.  Of course the latter must be true.

Now, instead of living as our ancestors had found to be in sinc with nature, and where any "nature" desease has probably got its own "natural" cure - like the monkeys - we have taken over with the industrial revolution and are completely stuffing everything up.

We spend zillions on ways of making the planet less livable-friendly and millions on research trying to find cures for deseases unheard of centuries ago - and like a dog chasing its tale - science is losing the chase.

How about NASA and their expensive excuse that their technology to get us to Mars is beneficial to the normal living of humans.  Perhaps they realize that we are destroying this planet with added gusto and they had better arrange other accomodation?  And yet they do not want to save the planet - they would rather throw the baby out with the bathwater.

IMHO the commonsense and logic of this forum makes me disgusted with the "profit is all" attitude of the powers that be.  Over the years, the industrial fraternity and its associated wars, has probably killed more people than any naturally inherited disease.  America seems to be consistently at war for profit.

So, I completely support the campaign on this website for less pollution of land and sky and the return to the foods that we have become accustomed to for centuries.  They apparently suit us and we should return the favor.

COMMENT: Yes Gus and John, my wife and I have our vegie garden but Rosie would like to know what lettuce you have that re-seeds itself.  We find that "Icebergs" are hard to grow - and I would love to know how to organicly garden.

God Bless Australia and Your Democracy's defence of climate and vegies.  NE OUBLIE.

Good question Ernest...

It's quite complicated as the process of self seeding requires the soil to be moist, soft enough but undisturbed. As soon as we dig to loosen the soil, the seeds have a tendency to get lost. Thus I keep some undisturbed soil patches and make new beds somewhere else where I transplant the new comers that would struggle a bit like wild weeds where they fell. I do the trial and error method (that's the story of my life).

The very young lettuces in my pictures above are the eleventh or twelfth crop of "self-seeded" lettuces (3 varieties). This year though I have planted new ones as well — as in self-seeding there is a 3-4 months window of "no crop". Re "iceberg", I have not had much luck with self-seeding, but got them to grow to about half the size of the waterlogged-inflated-variety one buys in the fruit shops.

One has to realise that for example a self-seeding "mignonette" will grow to about 2 metres high. In reality we only eat "young" plants (even the ones at the fruit shop)  but I usually pluck the leaves on demand as they grow. When they are mature, the leaves are thick, hardy and bitter.

In regard to the "organic" side of things, I don't use pesticides, herbicides nor fertilisers... The soil was poor, thick and dirty clayish, but eventually after a few years of composting, recycling of dead leaves from trees, mulching and kitchen scraps, and turning the soil over to loosen it, it seems to work reasonably well. The compost, unlike that in the plant shops, is not treated. So whatever other seeds have survived in it have a change to grow, by accident. Tomatoes and pumpkins included. I have used some "heritage" seeds for a few plants and will do more of them as time goes by. But it's hard work and it keeps me fit. And the results are tastier fresher...etc. Plants that self see easy are parsley and rocket. Cabbage from heritage seeds grow well and self seed easy. But they become too big and take over. Fennel and chilli self-seed like wild-fire... I have radishes too.

For a while I could not grow basil until one lonely seed, from a shrivelled dying plant, found its feet so to speak. The numerous seeds from this plant now grow readily. I may be wrong but I will say that not all seeds are equal, in their own intrinsic potential as well as where they fall... That's why farmers make sure the soil is uniform, the seeds are uniform and the processes are going according to a maximisation plan... Organic farmers and bio-dynamic farmers do the same as well, except they don't use any nasty chemicals nor fertilisers.

Good growing. Peace.

And did I mention all the weeding is done by hand...

GM lobby helped draw up crucial report on Britain's food supplies
Email trail shows how biotech group helped watchdog to draw up analysis of GM crops ... and prompted two advisers to quit

A powerful lobbying organisation representing agribusiness interests helped draft a key government report that has been attacked by environmentalists for heavily favouring the arguments of the genetically modified food industry.

The revelation comes after the resignation of two government advisers who have criticised the close relationship between the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the body that oversees the UK's food industry, and the GM lobby.

Emails between the FSA and the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) show the council inserted key sentences strengthening the case for GM food that ended up in the final report.

The report, "Food Standards Agency work on changes in the market and the GM regulatory system", examines how GM products are entering the UK, where the growing of GM products is banned, through the animal feed system. It acknowledges food prices could go up if GM products continue to be excluded.

Emails from the council – which represents leading GM food companies such as Monsanto and Bayer – to Dr Clair Baynton, the then head of novel foods at the FSA, show a close dialogue between both sides between 2008 and August 2009, when the report was published.

On 19 November 2008, Baynton sent the council a draft of the report, saying: "I am happy to discuss… if that would be helpful."

In response, the council suggested a series of changes that emphasised how GM food was playing an increasingly important role in global agriculture and helping bring down food prices. Some of the amendments were rejected by the FSA, but others were accepted.

One accepted alteration acknowledged the GM lobby's argument that GM food is inevitable in the European Union because of its ubiquity elsewhere. It stated that "retailers were concerned they may not be able to maintain their current non-GM sources of supply as producers increasingly adopt GM technology around the world".

read more at the Guardian. see toon at top...

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An investigation has been launched into claims that the offspring of a cloned cow entered the food chain, it was confirmed today.

The Food Standards Agency said two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow had been slaughtered, one of which "will have been eaten", while the other was stopped from entering the food chain.

You might think that this would mean that Prince Charles will have to pull in his belt like the rest of us and cease his habit of having up to half a dozen boiled eggs served to him at breakfast until he finds, in the manner of Goldilocks, one which is cooked to his liking. "If the Prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven," Jeremy Paxman wrote in his book On Royalty. Happily, he is the proud owner of his own flock of more than a dozen hens who live in a £10,000 hen house modelled on a Saxon steeple and made of environment-friendly green oak.

Still, I hope the recession-hit Brit won't be looking for sympathy from the farmer Prince, as cheap food has always been one of his pet hates. As he pronounced back in 2002: "The consumer needs to be made more aware that the seemingly endless desire for convenience and the lowest price has a direct impact, like it or not, on the producer. There is a real cost involved in cheap food to the countryside, to those who live and work there and to animal welfare. So let us not sacrifice long-term security for short-term convenience."

Don't you love it when a princely plan comes together, shoppers? And you'll have even more chances to pay more for basket basics over the coming months, as the price of bread and pasta seems set to rise even further after Russia announced a ban on the export of wheat in order to protect itself from shortages; another thing the Prince will approve of, seeming as he does in his crazed green way to believe that every country should be completely self-sufficient when it comes to food and only be allowed to eat whatever is "seasonal". No more flying in fruit from those foreigner farmer johnnies in Africa, what! Only eat strawberries in a month with a 'Z' in it and you'll appreciate them all the more!

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Gus: it's difficult to eat strawberries with plums on a silver spoon in one's mouth, any month of the year... But the prince charming with the L plates is doing all he can to downsize his boots and ours too... May we come to our senses and live from the fruits of our gardens... Long life to the month of Zeptember and may our happy geese lay golden eggs in their silver baskets... see toon at top...

US authorities today began the process to approve the first GM animal for human consumption.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a 60-day period of consultation and public meetings over whether to permit a GM strain of salmon to be eaten by humans, even though it has been called a "frankenfish" by critics. The approval process could take less than a year, and if it gets the green light the fish could be on the market in 18 months.

Environmentalists and scientists see the decision as marking a threshold. If it is approved it is likely to open the door to a large range of GM animals being raised for consumption. If not, scientists say that will have a negative effect on research, in part because there will be no money to be made from it.

Among the considerations by the FDA is whether, if the fish is approved for consumption, it must be labelled as genetically engineered.

The AquAdvantage salmon – a modified North Atlantic salmon – has been created by AquaBounty Technologies in Boston, Massachusetts, over 14 years at a cost of $50m. The company says the salmon grows at twice the speed of similar fish, cutting costs for farmers and greatly increasing production.

On its website the company says: "This advancement provides a compelling economic benefit to farmers (reduced growing cycle) as well as enhancing the economic viability of inland operations, thereby diminishing the need for ocean pens." The fish are also sterile, which the company says would prevent interbreeding with wild salmon.

The genetic modification involves taking a growth hormone gene from a chinook salmon and joining it with a control DNA sequence (called a promoter) from an ocean pout – an eel-like creature from a different family of marine organisms. The growth hormone gene is almost identical to the equivalent gene in the North Atlantic salmon – the sequence differs by just 1% – but it operates differently because of the new control sequence. Unlike in North Atlantic salmon, which produced growth hormone only in the summer, ocean pout control sequence directs the gene to produce hormone all year round.

The genetic mash-up is then injected into the eggs of North Atlantic salmon. Here, it is taken up by the fish's genome and ultimately the DNA is present in cells throughout the body of the fish. The company uses a different genetic trick to make the fish it proposes to sell to customers sterile to prevent them interbreeding.

The explanation of the genetic modification on the company's publicity literature, aimed at reassuring the public, makes no mention of the ocean pout gene. "The chinook growth hormone is the same as the Atlantic salmon growth hormone; it is simply regulated differently. Their ability to grow faster does not change the biological make-up of the fish," the company says.

That appears to contradict the explanation of the technology from AquaBounty's chief scientific officer, Dr John Buchanan, who said the fish do incorporate DNA from the ocean pout. But he said there was no intention to mislead. "I don't think it is intentionally hidden. It has been disclosed many times and published in papers," he said, adding that the description on the website had been simplified to make it less confusing.

Because it is new ground for the FDA there are no regulations about genetically engineered animals and so it is being evaluated as if it were an animal treated with drugs.

The tide has turned globally against the introduction of genetically modified crops, Lord Melchett, the former director of Greenpeace and campaigner for organic farming and food, said yesterday.

Fifteen years ago, many governments thought GM crops and food would become the norm, but it has not happened because of rising public resistance around the world, and it will not happen, he said.

"This is a redundant technology and many people in Europe may be unaware of the extent of the resistance to GM in places like India and China, because they swallow the GM industry line that it is supported all across the world," he said. "I have to say that where we are now with GM leaves me feeling very optimistic."

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/public-opinion-stopped-gm-says-campaigner-2089974.html

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Gus: no time to relax though and keep the pressure on...

 

Federal Parliament is being asked to clarify who, if anyone, owns the rights to human genes.

Several companies own patents to genes linked to illnesses, such as breast cancer and epilepsy.

The companies say the gene patents give them the right to say what kind of medical research can use the genes.

But a Labor backbencher from Western Australia wants to stop the practice.

Melissa Parke will move a motion in Parliament calling for amendments to the Patents Act so gene patents would no longer be recognised.

"It's a bedrock principle of patent law that patents can be granted only for inventions," she said.

"And the question is: why are patents being granted over human genes when genes are not inventions or new processes, but natural phenomena?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/30/3026275.htm?section=justin

AUSTRALIA'S first trial of genetically modified wheat and barley has begun near Narrabri in NSW, with the ultimate goal of producing more nutritious bread.

But details of how exactly the genes were altered remain secret. The CSIRO, which is running the three-year experiment, said the various gene combinations in the trial were subject to commercial-in-confidence agreements to protect the interests of various government research agencies and a US company, Arcadia Biosciences.

The trial has been criticised by environment groups and some organic farmers, who say there is no known way to stop the altered wheat and barley from mixing with natural strains and ''contaminating'' a swathe of Australia's wheat crop.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gm-wheat-trial-begins-amid-secrecy-20110527-1f8hl.html#ixzz1NdIxm8KG

see toon at top...

A report has found no definitive link between farm chemicals and fish deformities at a Noosa River hatchery on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The State Government ordered a scientific review in 2009 after two-headed bass hatchlings were discovered at the Sunland fish hatchery.

There were claims that chemical spray from a neighbouring macadamia farm had caused the deformities.

But Queensland Agriculture Minister Tim Mulherin says the panel could not find definite proof that chemicals were the cause.

Mr Mulherin says not everyone on the panel agreed on the findings, but independent toxicologists also backed its conclusions.

Dr Jim Thompson, from Biosecurity Queensland, chaired the panel and says other factors were also investigated, but no specific cause was found.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/08/3238708.htm?section=justin

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It is a simple fact in science, especially physics, that if one pushes button A , action B will follow and give result C....But science is often far more complex than this...

Even global warming is simple in theory (much simpler than Einstein's theory of relativity, on which every one is an expert). The addition of carbon dioxide will raise the temperature via a reasonably simple mechanism which in turns influences the said mechanism in a variety of very complex ways. Increase the heat, and the water content (humidity) is likely to increase, mostly from evaporation — itself a cooling mechanism — from the sea. The increase of humidity will increase the cloud cover in certain conditions and this will induce dimming, restricting the heat from the sun but itself containing the heat below.

In some situations/experiments, it is short-sighted to account for one factor being the only cause of a specific result — especially in the field of genetics. It has been my observation that, for example, one serious factor may stress a species, but not make it extinct, nor endangered. But add another factor, sometimes small and innocuous, and the species begins to decline rapidly... Thus when laboratory tests are done, rather than testing for one chemical alone, a set of chemicals have to be tested in various sequences or simultaneously.... This of course increases the lab time for observation...

For example, I know that a combination of certain "heart" pills can lead people to become very cranky... but one or the other will not.

Thus I would say that new experiments need to be done, recreating the environmental circumstances as close as possible at the time of the genetic defects appearing in the fish... unless such experimentation was done.

Tens of thousands of British families are to be asked if they are victims of a drug given to pregnant women which can cause fatal illness in the second, and possibly even third, generations. Some women given the drug in this country have already obtained compensation in America.

Diethylstilboestrol (DES), a drug given to women for 30 years up to 1973, has been found to cause a rare form of vaginal and cervical cancer in some of the daughters of the women who took it, as well as fertility problems. Compensation of an estimated $1.5bn has been paid out in the US. There is even a suspicion that DES – known as the "silent Thalidomide" – can affect the grandchildren of those who took it.

Legal action against the 14 different drug companies that sold and promoted DES from the early 1940s to 1970s is being brought by at least 80 women in the US, who all believe that the synthetic form of oestrogen, given to their mothers in an effort to reduce miscarriages, caused them to develop breast cancer years later. Their lawyer, Aaron Levine, will travel to the UK in two weeks' time to co-ordinate a hunt for the "DES daughters" in this country who have been unable to get compensation in British courts.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/thousands-of-women-could-be-at-risk-from-silent-thalidomide-6292889.html

 

Landholders on Yorke Peninsula are bracing for a bad snail season, as the molluscs breed and spread.

Four types of snails cause headaches for grain farmers on southern Yorke Peninsula and some cool, wet autumns have made the problem worse than ever, says Warooka farmer Graham Hayes.

"All my life there's been snails on the property, but it wasn't until 1998 when we had a significant problem," he said.

"We had grain rejected at the silo and that's usually when people sit up and take notice they've got a problem."

Mr Hayes spent $48,000 on metaldahyde bait last year.

He baited some crop areas three times but still lost out to the snails.

The farmer is spending tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours over time running cables through harvested crop stubble, crushing snails between giant steel rollers and cleaning and screening his grain.

He says some farmers in the region have given up the fight and put their properties on the market.

"There are thousands of acres of property down here that is for sale currently and has been for two or three years," he said.

"I have been around long enough to know that the land that's for sale, a significant reason is because of the snails.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-04/snails-farmers-pests-yorke-peninsula/3991336

Before that, the farmers used to be called the "cockatoo farmers" because of course monoculture of grain attracted birds such as galahs, cockatoos and the corellas... Now they are the "hermaphrodite pharmers"...

Not funny really, but we need to be smarter than the snails...

Our anthropomorpic ways has disturbed nature. For example, the ancient practice of rotating crops in Europe, minimised the advent of pests and weeds — and helped the soil retain its nutrients. With the fourth year being a non-crop year, rotating three crops was enough to deal with most problems then. 

 

There’s a clear scientific consensus that heavy use of glyphosate — the active ingredient in Roundup and other brands of herbicide — has sped up the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds. And it’s reasonable to assume that crops genetically engineered to work hand in glove with glyphosate (like Roundup-resistant soy) are part of the problem, contributing to the popularity of the weed killer.

Now crops genetically engineered to work with other herbicides — such as dicamba and 2,4-D — look like they will soon come on line. The seed companies’ answer to the Roundup-resistance problem is: let’s just fall back on older herbicides. An editorial published by the journal Nature recently criticized this plan. If we do the same thing with dicamba and 2,4-D that we did with glyphosate, the editorial argued, history is likely to repeat itself.

This got me wondering what we should do, then, so I started calling weed scientists. I ended up talking with three from around the country. They all agreed on the basic premise.

The increase in glyphosate use resulted in “way more glyphosate-resistant weeds, that’s indisputable,” said Andrew Kniss, an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming.

“Glyphosate was so effective, and so cheap, and so easy, so that’s what we did. People thought it was a miracle,” said Larry Steckel, a weed specialist at the University of Tennessee, a state where farmers have had serious problems with herbicide-resistant weeds.

They cautioned that the main problem was glyphosate itself, not the GMOs: The first glyphosate-resistant weeds popped up in Malaysia and Australia where — at the time — there were no glyphosate-tolerant GMOs, Kniss said. But they also agree that the main boom in glyphosate use really did have something to do with GE crops.

http://grist.org/food/weed-wisdom-what-to-do-when-nature-outfoxes-herbicides/