permaculture

[Avalon Bruce <avalonb@nwol.net>]

i seldom read the 'wall st. journal', but last week, while waiting at
our tiny town's library for an 80 y.o. man to finish his early voting so
i could cast mine, i 'killed time' by scanning the wsj front page story
-- about cotton farmers in India committing suicide at higher than
'average' (whatever THAT means!) rates because their cotton crops were
being eaten by caterpillers, immune to insecticides.

the farmers there, on 4 ACRE 'plots' were being lured away from food
crops, e.g. lentils, in favor of 'white gold' by nefarious seed/chemical
salesmen, given credit at usurous rates, and then when el nino and bugs
caused crop failures, men would rather die -- and leave their wives to
fend for themselves and sell their 6 year old sons into 'slavery' for
$80.00 u.s./year

what goes round comes round, and when karma kicks back, it can be a
bitch!

not to start a war here, but it comes to mind that 'bout the only
promise the 'white man' ever kept to us indians over here (i'm l/4
Choctaw, 3/4 import) was that he'd take our land -- and he did -- and
lookie what he's done with it!  my maternal grandparent's people farmed
in what is now called mississippi for CENTURIES before columbus got lost
-- even he, with NO formal education, knew the difference between 'dead'
soil and 'live' soil -- he TASTED it to see what it would grow!

so much for my early morning venting of the spleen toward 'roundup' and
monsanto!  FIE upon them and their heirs for 7 generations!

avalon bruce aka Brings Together Woman




Jack Rowe wrote:
> 
> In accordance with a general trend of the last 10 - 15 years, Monsanto
> Chemical Co. (maker of Roundup herbicide) is a major owner of seed
> companies and breeding programs.
> 
> Monsanto came out in the last year or so with a cotton variety which is
> designed to work in conjunction with Roundup. Weeds are becoming immune to
> herbicides at current application rates, just as pests are becoming immune
> to pesticides. Roundup proudly advertises that its new cotton can be dosed
> with twice the previously-tolerated levels of Roundup, so that instead of
> using your head to deal with herbicide-tolerant weeds, you can just use
> twice as much Roundup!
> 
> Jack

-- 
The Earth is not given to us by our parents.
It is loaned to us by our children.