Tag Archives: Genetically Modified Organisms

The Road to 65, Mile 296: Where I Stand, Part 2

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Hiking and Nature, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities

September 19, 2015, Prescott-  For the next several posts, I will be centering my comments on 16 principles, developed by Four Worlds International Institute, in Surrey, BC.  It is led by a man for whom I have a lot of respect:  Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr., of the Blackfoot Nation.  All quotes herein are from the document, The Fourth Way:  An Indigenous Contribution to Building Sustainable and  Harmonious Prosperity in the Americas, Update, October 2008.

Nobody asked me to do this, but I share both genetic memories and spiritual values with the Aboriginal Peoples of the Americas, specifically with the Penobscot Nation, of central Maine.  There is no barrier between us, except those that people choose to put between each other.  So, let me begin.

Principle 1: “Human Beings Can Transform Their Worlds. The web of our relationships with others and the natural world, which has given rise to the problems we face as a human family, can be changed.” –  

The author, savant and change agent, Star Hawk, has written that, for Man to regard himself as divorced from nature, is an arrogant mindset.  In fact, we in our physical state are very much connected to the rest of Nature.  It’s pretty much a given, to me, that each and every thing we do in this life is a matter of choice.  Some choices are more difficult than others, but they still need to be made.  So, with regard to relationships with others, we can choose to respond to people, or to ignore them.  I have found that I can only ignore those who irritate or are disagreeable to me for just so long, before one or the other of us presses for a resolution. The converse is also true.

How much more is this true, with regard to nature.  One can, in the name of stockholder profits, order the spewing of poisons into the atmosphere, water and soil, for just so long, before the toxins find their way into the Web of Life- with cancer, dementia and neurological ills becoming pandemic.  One may, in the name of Science, release Genetically-Modified Organisms into the food chain, while demanding that the rest of the planet toe your line, or face crippling litigation.  Then, because living things are just not ready to digest your products and therefore, in the case of humans, RESIST purchasing them or, in the case of scavenging rodents, birds and insects, just IGNORE the stuff, you redouble your efforts, getting shills to write articles that ridicule those who won’t buy GMO’s, and prodding normally thoughtful, even-minded people to jump in the fray and try to analyze the case against your products, with a view towards “talking some sense into those who would starve humanity, for the sake of romanticism.”  Still, the illnesses, and the wreckage, pile up.

My plans, with regard to relationships, are these:

  1.  Accept all offers of friendship, unless and until such offers prove to be based on ulterior motives.
  2. Respect those, online and in real time, who indicate they wish me to not contact them, either for a time, or permanently.
  3. Be a trustworthy person, more than I have been towards some people in the past.
  4. Listen, listen, and listen some more.
  5. Own the mistakes I have made with people, and do better by them , and others.

My plans, with respect to Nature, are these:

1. Tend the seeds I have planted, in my back yard.

2.  Honour animal and plant life, wherever I encounter them.

3.  By all means, continue hiking and other acts of personal exploration, both in my home area and          further afield.

4.  Carry a trash bag in my pack, so that the unwarranted intrusion of the thoughtless may be mitigated.

5.  Recycle, as much as possible, while recognizing that not everyone regards this practice as truly beneficial to the Planet.

I have gone on longer than usual, but these matters are very basic to my human and natural states of being.

The Road to 65, Mile 86: Heirlooms

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

February 22, 2015, Prescott- My paternal grandmother would have turned 116 today, a rather sobering thought.  Her cooking, for a family of thirteen, depended almost entirely on organically-grown fruits, vegetables and animals.  After World War II, as my father and his siblings grew up and the nest became empty, my widowed Nana went to the market and bought the freshest foods she could, paying little mind to the processed and packaged foods that were increasingly on the shelves and in the freezers.  She liked the unsalted flat crackers that came in a long box, but everything else had to be frais.

We’ve slid a long ways downhill since those days.  I encountered a lot of unhealthy offerings, in my recent travel across  Texas and the Gulf Region.  There were also several glimmers of hope, in the small artisan and organic cafes of the Panama City area, in New Orleans and in the West Texas desert.  Heirloom seeds and the Ark of Taste represent sincere, concerted efforts to turn these glimmers of hope into a shining sun, with respect to diet.

The most recent issue of National Geographic Magazine makes note of the controversy over Genetically Modified Organisms, including it as one of the “War on Science” concerns, on its cover.  Inside, the actual article barely mentions GMO’s, saying only that “We are asked to eat” them, and “There is no evidence that they are harmful”.  This last conclusion may be true, with regard to some people, much as it’s true that not everyone dies after smoking cigarettes for five or ten years.  Longitudinally, though, no one knows.  Does that mean we should shuck it all, and make such foods our staples?  In my opinion, no.

This evening, I helped serve a dinner, comprised of Ark of Taste food items, including Navajo Churro Lamb, wheat berries, chilipati and okra.  There are over 100 items, worldwide, which have qualified for Ark of Taste.  The Ark is an international effort to preserve foods and beverages whose ingredients have become endangered.  It is a culinary version of the International Seed Bank, Longyearbyen, Norway.  The Ark exists mainly through the efforts of growers, ranchers and culinary workers, in the areas of production.  Its list of ingredients is growing, through a careful evaluation process, that emphasizes strict organic farming and animal husbandry.

Slow Food Prescott, of which I am a member, puts on this dinner every January or February.  Other Slow Food groups, in several communities around the world, offer a similar meal.  I believe educating oneself on the Ark of Taste is another step in overcoming the mindset of false convenience, in one’s daily diet.