A Farm Bill Only Monsanto Could Love

Farmer spraying his crops. (photo: AP)

I felt this article was important to share.More proof that lobbying really does work, and if they have their way we'll not only eat "Frankenstein" foods, but we'll not be free to demand that they be labeled so we at least know what we're putting on the plate.(Thanks to Janie Rezner for this article). 

A Farm Bill Only Monsanto Could Love

By Corey Hill, Yes! Magazine

05 October 12

Three provisions in the bill would make it more difficult to regulate the safety of genetically modified crops. Consumers fight back with a flurry of organizing.

idden among the cluttered news cycle of this election season is a crucial debate about genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

September 30 marked the expiration of the 2007 Farm Bill, and the 2012 replacement is now sitting in the House of Representatives. It is unlikely that Congress will vote on the bill until after the elections, so food-safety advocates are ramping up their outreach efforts around this issue in advance of any decision.

What's the big deal with the new bill? Most importantly, the House version of the 2012 Farm Bill contains three industry-friendly provisions, numbered 10011, 10013, and 10014. Collectively, they have come to be known as the "Monsanto Rider," and the name is entirely appropriate. If passed, this bill would make it more difficult to stem the tide of GMO foods hitting store shelves.

These three provisions in the 2012 Farm Bill would grant regulatory powers solely to the United States Department of Agriculture, preventing other federal agencies from reviewing GMO applications and preventing the USDA from accepting outside money for further study. The bill would also shorten the deadline for approval to one year, with an optional 180-day extension.

And here's the kicker: the approval time bomb. If the USDA misses the truncated review deadline, the GMO in question is granted automatic approval.

Though the average time for approval of GMO applications is now three years, the USDA has never denied a single one. Environmental activists currently have the ability to delay introduction of an iffy crop by keeping approval held up for months at a time pending further review. If the 2012 Farm Bill is approved with the Monsanto Rider, this tool is removed from the arsenal.

Food-safety advocates like the Organic Consumer Association point to polling that shows nine out of ten American consumers want GMO labeling, and to the strength of the organizing in favor of GMO labeling through California's Proposition 37 ballot initiative. The Organic Consumers Association and allied organizations like the Center for Food Safety are calling upon their membership base to let their elected officials know where they stand on this issue, through phone calls, letter writing, and protest.

"People understand that the GMO foods entering our food supply have not been safety tested," said Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director at the Organic Consumers Association. "There isn't enough science backing them, and people want to know when food is genetically engineered. That opinion is very strong, and hopefully members of congress will be paying attention to the widespread opposition, and they'll connect with voters. Hopefully, they'll understand that [voters] matter more than the campaign donors."

ArcheDream Masked Theatre

Here's a feast for the eyes and imagination!   Archedream for Humankind is a black light mask dance  theater company that seeks to evoke “archetypes”.  The Philadelphia-based group has performed in internationally, although I was fortunate to see them perform at Starwood Festival in New York in 2008.

The troupe was founded by South African native Alan Bell. Growing up in the age of apartheid, he resolved to find an art form that would unify the racially divided audience. In the 70's he fled to Amsterdam where he discovered the power of the tradition of mask theater to convey universal truths in a dreamlike way.

"By combining the bold subtleties of mask theatre with the medium of black light, Alan has discovered a method to bridge his African roots and inherited European and American culture to create archetypal theatre that transforms by relieving audiences of suppressed feelings that is at the root of our alienation from one another."








In 2000, Alan and Glenn Weikert, a  multimedia artist, founded ArcheDream For Humankind  in Philadelphia.  UV light accentuates the supernatural aspect of its performance.




"ArcheDream uses archetypal characters that perform allegories, or dreams, to personify vital issues pertaining to our lives. Psychologically speaking, an archetype is a primordial mental image inherited by all. For example, personifications of Anger, Death, Love,War and Peace all play their part in our visions of life. 
 

Day

Night

ArcheDream’s costumes are illuminated with ultra-violet light, which accentuates the supernatural aspect and reveals the dream scape as the action unfolds."

THE GODDESS REMEMBERED - Film by Donna Read

 
THE GODDESS REMEMBERED is a beautifully crafted documentary directed by Donna Read and produced by the Canadian Film Board, an in-depth look at Goddess religions in prehistory, the evolution of contemporary Goddess spirituality, and "The  Burning Times", the witch-hunt hysteria that swept through Europe during the Inquisition. Goddess Remembered features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Charlene Spretnak, and Jean Bolen, who link the loss of goddess-centred societies with today's environmental crisis. They propose a return to the belief in an interconnected life system, with respect for the earth and the female, as fundamental to our survival. Goddess Remembered is the first part of a three part series which includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.  1989.


This excerpt is from "The Burning Times", and talks about the massive torture and burnings that were the ultimate in misogyny and sexual repression represented by the Catholic Church.  If one wonders where the "war on women" going on in Congress right now comes from, here's one of the precedents.   It is estimated that as many as 10 million people, all most all of them  women,  were murdered in this time, ironically, the same period when the Renaissance was flowering in Italy.  As early as 1450, and before,  witch hunts took place in Europe. In some villages virtually all the females, from grandmothers to small girls, were exteminated - an example is the village of  Lagendorf, Germany,  in 1492 (when America was being "discovered") all but two women were accused of witchcraft and destroyed.  Just  imagine that:  an entire village with all of its mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and event female infants destroyed. 

Jesse the Jack Russell

Ok, I can't help myself.  I'm in a UTube kind of full moon mood.

There's a big difference between the intelligent  existentialism of a cat like, say, Henri, and dogs.  I'm a cat person, but I have to admit, this Jack Russell Terrier would come in handy.  



Jesse has the life of a domestic slave.   Henri, on the other hand, is considering running for office:

A Thousand Hands of Quan Yin - Stunning Performance by Deaf & Blind Performers

Thousand Hand Guan Yin-"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva is an astonishing performance in celebration of the Goddess of Compassion, Quan Yin.  It is even more astonishing when one learns that this Chinese production was performed by deaf  and blind performers.  Quan Yin, like Tara, is the embodiment of infinite mercy and assistance to all who call on her.  She is "She who hears the cries of the world".   Avalokitesvara means  "Lord/Lady who looks down", a  Bodhisattva who embodies compassion. Kuan Yin has a thousand arms with which to scatter blessings, a thousand arms with which to bring help to those in need. What an amazing invocation these performers make!

 http://youtu.be/xgHmSdpjEIk



http://youtu.be/Ov_iJQGq6DI

The Martian Chronicles

 Rock Hudson:  "How should we live?"

Martian:  "Anyone with eyes can see the way to live."

Rock Hudson:  "How?"

Martian:  "By watching life, observing nature, and cooperating with it.  By living life for itself, don't your see?  Deriving pleasure from the gift of pure being.  Life is its own answer.  Accept it and enjoy it day by day.  Live as well as possible.  Expect no more.  Destroy nothing, humble nothing, look for fault in nothing, leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful.  Hold that which lives in all reverence, for life is given by the sovereign of our universe, given to be savored, to be respected. But that’s no secret." 

From THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, 1979.

 I miss Ray Bradbury.  I miss when aliens were wise beings more evolved than us.  I've always loved this quote from the movie.  

 

Daniel Dancer's Sky Art

"If we can make a creative crack in the world's deadly abstractions,
the divine will rush up bringing great bounty with it." 

Here's one of my favorite Green artists.  His medium?  People! His canvas?  The Earth!  I take the liberty of copying below from his website.

 Daniel Dancer, who lives in Oregon, became fascinated with sky art while traveling in South America in the 80's  and encountering the  Nazca Lines of Peru. When he returned home, he began working with Kansas field artist, Stan Herd, who creates giant images on the Earth by using a tractor as a paint brush and crops for color. 

One day, Daniel decided to bring an entire elementary school out to perform as beads on the headband of a 25 acre Indian head. . A decade later the parents of one of the "bead kids" told him that the experience taught him that things aren't always as they seem . . . that a Big Picture View of the world is really important!

450 children perform as "beads" on headband of  "The Native American,"
a 20 acre field image  by Stan Herd  (photo © Daniel Dancer 1989)

     

 In an earlier time, art was more than what someone else did for us to collect for the walls and tables of our homes. We were all artists and doing art was a part of life which connected us to the whole of nature.  Daniel Dancer's art, events and residencies are an effort to reclaim this way.  Whether crafted alone in a sacred manner upon the ravaged areas of Earth, or with a community of others, his way of art is medicine for ourselves and the Wild.  His  practice is a deep way to give thanks for the beauty which surrounds us and to seek forgiveness from Earth for the damage inflicted by humankind. Through story, intention and participation with others, each piece becomes a way to activate a healing responsiveness from our culture. Uncollectable, his works have real and intrinsic value...like Earth herself

Dancer's decade long photography work with Stan became the material for a five-year touring show with Exhibits USA called Fields in Focus: Art For the Sky, and a book called Crop Art and Other Earth Works. Daniel's fascination with developing humanity's big picture vision led him to work with Lighthawk (the environmental air force) aerially documenting the human impacts upon the natural world. His interest guided him across the continent in the creation of varied found art works upon the Earth that made the most sense when viewed from above. Believing that "only from the sky can we truly understand our rightful fit in the world," Daniel's mission is to awaken what he calls "sky-sightedness". To awaken this way of seeing the world he founded Art For the Sky in 2000.
 

Daniel's work as a conceptual artist and educator has been shaped by his travels worldwide in search of styles of being that engender happiness and sustainability. His striking images of beauty and destruction have been published in hundreds of publications worldwide and viewed in galleries across America. It is precisely this interface between wild nature and devastation that most greatly informs his work and which led him to try to reach as many people as possible through sky art.  Working with communities from Alaska to Australia Dancer has documented his work in various ways. An Exhibits USA tour called Sacred Ground-Sacred Sky: An Eco-Experience became their second most requested show in its five year tour across the country. This 32 picture educational exhibit is currently seeking a permanent home where it can be on public display. All of Dancer's work to date is documented in his book, DESPERATE PRAYERS: A Quest for Sense in a Senseless Time. Dancer is the founder of Rowena Wilds, a 200 acre, eco-community near Hood River, Oregon where he lives in his Earth-sheltered home built of recycled and Earth friendly materials.  

Peace Dove with Rose, Portland, OR. 2002

Beyond the Sky - Grand Rapids, MI  2011

"This is the first of a 3D series of imagery called "Emergence." Here we see a mysterious "Pool

of Potential" that has opened up in the Earth, made up of children. Two giant albatross

are seen flying these "souls" into the reality of their birth . . . special souls that are visionary

and evolved and will help lead people into harmony with the planet and one another.

This is the first image where people play "themselves" rather than pixels on something else."

 
Polar Bear Sky - Culminating Maryland's Green School Youth Summit, 700 participants
form a polar bear standing on an tiny iceberg floating in the ocean . . . an iconic representataion of global warming. Maryland's Governor O'Malley is the lone man on the ice. The 350 in red is the number climate scientists say is the maximum parts per million of greenhouse gasses we can have in our atmosphere. It is now 390 and going up.

World Oceans Day in Victoria, BC 

 An endangered marbled murrelet made with 1000 students and teachers swims in a sea made of 1500 pairs of blue jeans and icebergs made of sheets. The 350 signifies the maximum parts per million of carbon we can have in our atmosphere to survive global warming.

Sky Whale, NSW Australia, 2007
 
A humpback whale made of bark chips and sand was built for the finale of the 5 Lands Walk. This annual festival is a 10K "walkabout" along a coastal path that knits five communities together in celebration of nature at the height of the humpback whale migration. 

RAVEN'S MESSAGE
Butte College, California sustainability students depict a raven flying over Earth as the polar ice caps are melting. Raven has a message: Achieve a ceiling 350 parts per million of carbon in our atmosphere or risk climate catastrophe. Fall, 2009.

Dancing Crane. Hinkle Middle School 5th graders bow down before the image
of a sandhill crane created out of mulch, in a ceremony to welcome these great
birds to the the soon to be restored Snowden Wetlands near White Salmon, WA.
A collaboration with Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute (2008)

Power to the Peaceful
On February 28th, 2011 in Salt Lake City, Utah, activists took to the streets to sing, march and do sky art in a display of solidarity with Tim DeChristopher, aka "bidder 70", whose trial for civil disobedience in defense of Utah wilderness and climate justice began that day.

Raising the Dove peace mandala during Alliance for Peace Conference

in Vancouver, WA. 2008  (see 90 sec. movie)

 

Daniel Dancer's book shares his travels as he creates healing art in ten endangered ecosystems. He reflects on spirituality, indigenous knowledge, quantum physics, psychology, and ecological principles. The result is a  hopeful gift for apocalyptic times. Entertaining,  and beautifully illustrated.