Homestead mailing list

["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

> >As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush 
> >Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save 
> >their seeds. 
> >----- Original Message ----- From: Wendy<mailto:crazygardens AT nationi.net> 
> > Has anybody heard anything about this?   This kind of stuff makes me 
> > sick. Wendy

Yes, Wendy, "somebody" has - I've been screeching,
bitching, griping, moaning, groaning and otherwise
trying to make myself heard for about 10 years now
in this list and others saying *exactly* what has
'come to your attention' ... sigh ... *Again* - if
you're not saving your own seeds, then start, and
so far Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA has
been trying to *do* this on an going basis for
about *26* years since they saw the problem long
before * I * did - there are several other 'small'
seed companies (Johnny's Selected Seeds, Seeds
of Change I *think*) that are doing the same thing.

*Heirloom*/*open-pollinated* varieties are what
people should be growing - and saving what their 
great-grandparents/grandparents grew if they are 
lucky enough to have such ....
>From sgian AT planetc.com  Sat Nov 27 19:25:51 2004
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From: "clanSkeen" <sgian AT planetc.com>
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Globalism - was 'stolen'
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>The problem with these stable economies is that they don't allow for all
>the
>stuff that seems to me to make human life interesting -- advanced science,
>being one thing I'd hate to give up.

Hmmm.  I don't know about that.  If you read the book "The Other Greeks" by
Victor Hanson, he describes a long period on Greek history where the
economic base was not only stable but every aspect of politics, religion,
and even warfare was designed to ensure that the economic base stayed stable
and sustainable.  This is the period in Greek history that produced the
great philosophies, drama, and math.  Around 400 BCE one Archytas of Taretum
(as described by Plato) made a live scale model of a pigeon out of wood that
was powered by steam.  In "Spiritalia" (150 BCE) Heron describes a brass
duck which ran on steam and waddled, swam, and quacked.   Just because a
society isn't using its math and science to wreck the environment and wage
war, it doesn't mean they are disinclined to be advanced in them.


> Are we
>possibly open enough to a new paradigm to pull our potatoes out of the
>coals
>once again? Or not?

Not collectively, I'm afraid.  At least if we are, we will have to be like
the Israelites who had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the
current (unworthy) generation died off before they could enter the promised
land.  A huge paradigm shift would have to take place.  Right now people in
general take pride in what they cannot do, how little they do, how little
they know, and how weak they are.   Right now as we live and breathe most
human deaths before a very advanced age takes its toll could be prevented.
Don't want to get breast cancer?  Eat brocoli and your odds are hugely
improved.  Don't want to have a stroke?   Lose weight and exercise
vigorously and your odds of having one are small.  Prostate cancer?  Make
sure you eat enough soy protein.  Etc. you see where I'm going.  But do
people do these things?  In no wise.  Faced with a clear and visible threat
and a way of greatly improving one's odds, most people ignore it, disregard
it, don't believe it, tune it out.  How much more so with the economy?

>Which play?

"As You Like It"   Act III, Scene III.  I misquoted it, though.  It's "a
great reckoning in a little room".


>I really don't want diseased meat in my
>sausage -- not that I eat much sausage these days -- but I'm sure it would
>be there if we didn't have laws against it.

But that's a "My roof never leaks when it doesn't rain" argument.  If the
government got out of you life except for it's constitutional duties, you
could buy your sausage from half a mile down the road where you could
inspect and get to know the sausage maker yourself.  By inspecting Armor
Meat, the government is again breaking your leg, giving you crutches, and
taking credit for your ability to walk.

>I'd rather have insurance for major surgeries than figure out how to pay
>for
>them otherwise).

If the government got out of medicine entirely and it was encumbent upon the
consumer to check out the reliability of the provider, the cost would be
very, very low.  Again the leg breaking.


James