Permaculture Blog

A chronic wasting disease expert warns allowing infected facilities to continue operating poses a ‘clear, persistent and likely escalating risk’ to wild deer herd

Source: CWD spreads on deer and elk farms as Wisconsin’s control efforts stumble

For many years now this has been going on. The root cause was feeding wild deer in the winter time to benefit the deer hunters. The feed was cattle feed that was contaminated with mad cow disease. I just want to put out there that wild deer and elk meat may not be safe to eat anymore. I don’t know what the answer is but please be careful. The best to everyone.

Jennie-O Turkey Store Sales, LLC, a Barron, Wis. establishment, is recalling approximately 91,388 pounds of raw ground turkey products that may be associated with an illness outbreak of Salmonella Reading.

Source: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2018/recall-112-2018-release

I’m wondering what they do with all this recalled material. And I wonder how many turkeys gave their lives to ultimately be thrown in the trash.

Source: Genome damage from CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing higher than thought

These results create safety implications for gene therapies using CRISPR/Cas9 in the future as the unexpected damage could lead to dangerous changes in some cells.

Oh my, this is significant! So GMOs are a delicate subject. But GMOs as a whole may not be the evil that many people think of them as being.
In some respects they are safer than classical genetic techniques because in theory you know exactly what you want to change and exactly where. One of the classic examples of breeding for a trait is an issue with celery. After careful classic pollination and seed production trying to breed for insect herbivory resistance the plants were unmarketable as they simply increased production of a phototoxin. This would not have happened with an attempt at a GMO. The major problem I have with GMOs is that 90% of them in plants are produced simply to increase pesticide resistance so that more pesticides can be sprayed on the fields. This is not a good outcome. But the main benefit is the idea of knowing exactly what you want to change and exactly what you have ultimately done. And realize this is about more than creating plant GMOs. This is about changing bacteria and pets and human beings. If this paper is correct then that main benefit is untrue.

Learn about your environment learn about what the scientific community is doing to your world. And don’t believe something just because “science says” any more than you would believe “Simon says” — to go jump in a lake.
The best to you all.

Source: Monsanto Roundup Attacks Healthy Gut Bacteria, Lawsuit…

Quote

According to the suit — which names three consumers as plaintiffs seeking unspecified monetary damages and class action status — Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate attacks an enzyme also found in the beneficial intestinal bacteria of humans and some animals.

End quote

Glyphosate was originally described as an antibiotic. It is likely to be a significant part of the obesity epidemic. http://www.puravidaaquatic.com/wordpress/3-reasons-no-4-reasons-why-were-fatter-than-30-years-ago/. If you feed low levels of antibiotic to cattle (a mammal just like we are) they gain weight faster.

Eat organic and grow as much of your own food as you can without putting pesticides on it! Even green pesticides are, in most cases, bad for the environment.

In my opinion this has a lot of real biological value! Her points about biodiversity! Her points about speciation in general I think are some of the best biological thinking I’ve seen in a while (and also apply to viruses) :-) even though of course viruses don’t mate. But they do recombine in your cells. Happy New year to everyone!!! https://youtu.be/L7kClV8j7-k

This is very intriguing!
phys.org/news/2021-12-scientists-minimized-synthetic-carbon-fixation.html

Source: $86M to California couple upheld in Monsanto pesticide case

Bayer, announced that it would stop selling the current version of Roundup for home and garden use in U.S. stores, starting in 2023.

Bayer said it would replace the herbicide’s main ingredient, glyphosate, with an unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval, while continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use.

1 “Unspecified active ingredient” Thank you _so_ much Bayer.
2 “continuing to sell Roundup with glyphosate for farm use”
Thank you _so_ much Bayer.
3 “unspecified active ingredient, subject to federal and state approval”
Wait: isn’t that what got us glyphosate in the first place?
4 “U.S. stores, starting in 2023”
Wow 2 years to _stop_ selling something. Thank you _so_ much Bayer.

Sigh!

But I did just get two new clients that want to get the chlorine out of their backyards. And are really excited about contributing to the habitat for native wetland animals such as dragonflies, damselflies, Pacific chorus frogs, ducks, etc, etc.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and medical training.

Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

I believe that anybody who calls themselves a permaculturist should watch this.:-)

Most of his opinions and interpretations are in my opinion scientifically correct and I understand if you can’t stand to watch it :-)

Why wetland environments are important.

microbiologist Jillian Banfield and her colleagues started combing through samples of mud from wetland environments three years ago

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We are destroying wetland habitats right and left. They are flat, easy to drain, and build on. California has destroyed 98% of its freshwater wetlands. When I was growing up the tropical rainforests were being decimated and there were nightly news broadcasts about the dangers of destroying them when the biodiversity they contained could contribute so much to medicine and science. Where are the nightly news shows about the destruction of our wetland environments.

Microbiologists looking at these organisms from wetland environments

have reported large DNA structures in some archaea that defy easy categorization.

Source: Plasmid, Virus or Other? DNA ‘Borgs’ Blur Boundaries. | Quanta Magazine

other scientists …. agree that even the more mundane interpretations show how little is known about the categories of genetic diversity in nature.

(In this case wetland mud!) The scientists say that

It highlights a need “to start thinking about different genetic entities [on] a continuum,” said Cédric Feschotte, a molecular biologist at Cornell University who was not involved in the new work. This kind of thinking could open up a world of possibilities for what we understand about the nature of the genome, how microbes function, and where to look for potential biotechnological applications.

So if this hasn’t convinced you that wetland environments are important on so many levels, beauty, animal habitat, and if you just want to be selfish then I guess I will just have to keep trying.

A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies is raising troubling questions about a history of regulatory reliance on such research….
….
In a 187-page report released on Friday, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria said a thorough review of 53 safety studies submitted to regulators by large chemical companies showed that most do not comply with modern international standards for scientific rigor….
….
Of the 53 studies submitted to regulators by the companies, only two were acceptable, according to current internationally recognized scientific standards….

Source: Corporate studies asserting herbicide safety show many flaws, new analysis finds

My friends, this article about the pesticide industry illustrates the same problems as the oil industry, and the medical pharmaceutical industry. We need to encourage our governments to stop allowing these mega company groups to write their own laws and submit only the documents they want to submit.

The sentence I find most horrifying in all of this is “A new analysis of more than 50 previously secret, corporate-backed scientific studies”.

Why in the world should a company that wants to spray toxic chemicals over 90% of the Earth, or a company that wants to mine material or use it in a process that is hazardous if it leaks (I’m thinking about Fukushima too), or a company that wants to inject chemicals into over half the human race be allowed to have secret information about those processes?!?!

In my opinion none of those processes should have any secret parts. If you want to have secrets with a consenting partner in your bedroom that’s fine by me. More power to you :-). But not if it affects more than 10% of the human race. In fact thinking about it, it shouldn’t be allowed if it affects more than 5% or even 1%. If it does — _no secrets allowed_.
All the best to you my friends.