This is worth the read.

China's All-Seeing Eye

With the help of U.S. defense contractors, China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state. It is ready for export.

by NAOMI KLEIN in Rollingstone Magazine

the link:
www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye

(always the odd one out or perhaps there is another word!)

US Defeat at Clusters Parley

By MWC NEWS

US efforts to undermine a new treaty banning cluster munitions met with significant defeat today at the final negotiations in Dublin, Human Rights Watch said.

Preliminary agreement on a draft treaty text on the afternoon of May 28 indicated that virtually all of the 110 countries gathered in Dublin favor a more comprehensive ban of cluster munitions than the US itself can tolerate.

News on the morning of May 28 that the British government was willing to give up cluster munitions that it had used in recent years in Iraq left Washington further isolated in the endgame in Dublin.

American officials are not attending the treaty talks but have lobbied hard in world capitals to undermine the treaty. Diplomats in Dublin say US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice and even President George W. Bush have been telephoning their counterparts around the world to promote US positions.

"In the end, the Americans had very little support in Dublin," said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. "It's a big defeat for the Bush administration. This conference is going to produce a strong treaty banning cluster munitions, and there's nothing the White House can do to stop it."

Expert analysts of the treaty say it will require the United States to remove its stockpiles of cluster munitions at several military bases around the world, a measure that Washington had firmly opposed.

The US won some concessions on the issue of "interoperability." The draft treaty text contains a loophole in Article 21, allowing treaty signatories to "engage in military cooperation and operations with States not parties to this Convention that might engage in activities prohibited to a State party." The negotiating states have insisted that the provision is needed for situations where the US might use cluster munitions against the wishes of its allies. But the wording is vague enough so as to allow states to assist the United States in operations where it uses cluster munitions.

The US government has argued that prohibiting such assistance would have hindered humanitarian operations around the world. But identical provisions in the landmines treaty have had no such effect in the 11 years since the treaty went into effect.

Human Rights Watch, as well as the Cluster Munition Coalition representing hundreds of nongovernmental organizations from around the world, and a significant proportion of the 110 countries represented at the conference, opposes such a loophole. But in the end, the conference president insisted that delegations vote on the draft text without amendments. The final text will be formally voted on this Friday, May 30.

The treaty text released today represents a significant victory on key provisions such as the definition of cluster munitions, assistance for victims, and the treaty's quick entry into force.

"The treaty is going to stigmatize cluster munitions in the same way that the landmines treaty did," said Goose. "This is a weapon headed for obsolescence, fast."

Kadira here..hello to all...
It is a warm summer evening and the front porch swing calls perhaps these two fine musicians might lighten the cares of the day for a brief time at least..
I will save the fiery speeches, helping hands, gruesome truths and kind hearts till tomorrow. I will at least try to find something of interest to hold you over till Ty returns to the blog-a-sphere.
Enjoy

DEAR READERS.

I am moving from Montana to Texas tomorrow and will be unable to post for three days or so. In my absence a friend blogger, Kadira, will be posting some entries to keep your minds fresh with information. Keep in tune and enjoy your weekend!

Paz

TY

Is Spain's Drought a Glimpse of Our Future?
By Elizabeth Nash, Independent UK.

Barcelona is a dry city. It is dry in a way that two days of showers can do nothing to alleviate. The Catalan capital's weather can change from one day to the next, but its climate, like that of the whole Mediterranean region, is inexorably warming up and drying out. And in the process this most modern of cities is living through a crisis that offers a disturbing glimpse of metropolitan futures everywhere.

Its fountains and beach showers are dry, its ornamental lakes and private swimming pools drained and hosepipes banned. Children are now being taught how to save water as part of their school day. This iconic, avant-garde city is in the grip of the worst drought since records began and is bringing the climate crisis that has blighted cities in Australia and throughout the Third World to Europe. A resource that most Europeans have grown up taking for granted now dominates conversation. Nearly half of Catalans say water is the region's main problem, more worrying than terrorism, economic slowdown or even the populists' favourite -- immigration.

The political battles now breaking out here could be a foretaste of the water wars that scientists and policymakers have warned us will be commonplace in the coming decades. The emergency water-saving measures Barcelona adopted after winter rains failed for a second year running have not been enough. The city has had to set up a "water bridge" and is shipping in water for the first time in the history of this great maritime city.

A tanker from Marseilles with 36 million litres of drinking water unloaded its first cargo this week, one of a mini-fleet contracted to bring water from the Rhone every few days for at least the next three months. So humbled was Barcelona when prolonged drought forced it to ship in domestic water from Tarragona, 50 miles south along the Catalan coast, 12 days ago, that city hall almost delayed shipment and considered an upbeat publicity campaign to lift morale and international prestige.

CLICK TO CON.

Vandana Shiva: Why We Face Both Food and Water Crises
By Maria Armoudian and Ankine Aghassian

Policy-makers are finally grappling with the growing global food and water crises that are upon us. While they grope for answers, Vandana Shiva reminds them that it was their wild economic schemes that created these crises in the first place.

The globalized economic structure is simply incompatible with the basic physics of the planet and the principles of democratic governance, she says. And until we align the economic system with those of the ecological system, the problems will only get worse. While many of Shiva's books address some aspect of this fundamental problem, one title captures it most succinctly, Earth Democracy, Justice, Sustainability and Peace.

Shiva is a physicist, author, director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology and Ecology and the founder of Navdanya.

CLICK HERE FOR INTERVIEW

The Band of Heathens: Self Titled
2008 BOH Records
Produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard

1. Don’t Call on Me
2. Jackson Station
3. Maple Tears
4. Heart on my Sleeve
5. Second Line
6. 40 Days
7. This I Know
8. Unsleeping Eye
9. Cornbread
10. Nine Steps Down
11. Hallelujah

Another band emerging from the Austin music scene bringing Alt-Country or Americana released their third album recently. The self-titled third album has the backing of Americana legend Ray Wylie Hubbard as its producer. Three of the band members write all the lyrics. Additionally, the album is printed on recycled or post consumed materials, which unimportant to the music is a nice thing to see. The album opens with Don’t Call on Me, an Alt-Country opening track that sounded too familiar to related bands. Jackson Station adds an additional vocalist and introduces a blues mix into the sound (Second Line is similar but adds the pump organ and mandolin). Maple Tears is a pretty ballad song with a female vocalist (Patty Griffin) backing. Heart on my sleeve is a rock love song that sounds too familiar to other Texas Country I have heard but still nice. 40 Days is a beautiful love ballad with the addition of a piano to the forte. Unsleeping Eye is a great bluesy rock song. Cornbread, features Ray Wylie on vocals and slide guitar, and is a good Americana track. Nine Steps Down may not be my favorite on the CD but I think it may be the catchiest and a good radio play song. The final track Hallelujah wraps up a solid album. Overall, I think The Band of Heathens is a wonderful addition to the Americana scene and this album has a nice variety of the different sounds and vocal variety. And from what I have read of their performances at Antone’s in Austin, a great band to see live.

(Why I would not swim or fish near Missoula in the Clark Fork at least a few years!)
Montana Dam Is Breached, Slowly, to Restore a Superfund Site
By JIM ROBBINS
MILLTOWN, Mont. — Milltown Dam, a symbol of industrial progress that became a symbol of destruction, was recently breached, and two parts of the Clark Fork River were joined again.
There was no dynamite, no wrecking balls, no “blow and go” removal. Instead, an earthen dam blocking a specially built channel was removed to allow a small trickle of water to flow through and gradually grow larger. The main part of the dam will be demolished over two years.

When the project is complete, it will cost $120 million.

Taking out the 1908 structure is the thorniest part of one of the largest toxic waste cleanups in the country, in what is known as the Clark Fork Basin Superfund Complex. The slow-motion breach at the end of March was intended to minimize the effects of releasing of sediment contaminated with heavy metals captured behind the dam.“The slower it goes, the better,” said Sandy Olsen, head of the remediation division in the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “It’s not as dramatic. But there are fewer and less intense impacts on the fish.”

LINK TO CON.

Jolly "Gene Giants" Build Harmful Monopoly over Climate-Proof Crops
by Teresa Herrmann
Super crops that can weather environmental extremes brought on by climate changes may be able to cure short-term food shortages.But can they really create an entirely healthy, sustainable system for future food supplies? It's too early to make that call. Better data is needed. Too bad the world may never get it.How come?

Because there's a handful of biotech multinationals that are racing to build a corporate monopoly over the market for climate-resistant crops. And that would kill bias-free, independent research.So concludes this recent report (pdf) by the Ottawa-based ETC Group. It found that three companies -- Germany’s BASF, Switzerland’s Syngenta and the St. Louis-based Monsanto -- are engaged in a vast and worrisome patent grab for power.

The three "Gene Giants" -- as ETC calls them -- have filed applications to control two-thirds of all the climate-ready genes at patent offices across the world.

ETC Research Director Hope Shand explains why that spells bad news for the world:

LINK TO CON.

CARNIVORES, CAPITALISTS, AND THE MEAT WE READ

THERE’S A GROWING DISSONANCE BETWEEN HOW MUCH WE KNOW ABOUT OUR FOOD AND HOW MUCH WE CONTINUE TO EAT IT.
By JON MOOALLEM

1. NATURAL HUNGER

This is the meal equally set—this the meat for natural hunger;
It is for the wicked just the same as the righteous—I make appointments with all...
—Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”

In January 2001, the news from Europe read like a low-budget horror movie, and it worsened with the same implausible rapidity and reach. Human brains infected with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease, were literally turning into sponge. And mad cow had spread because, in an abysmal twist, we’d been feeding cows to cows—and maybe also because, when that was outlawed, we went on feeding cows to chickens and chicken poop to cows. The media stunned us with lists of surreptitious beef-industry by-products: cow blood in fire extinguisher foam and plywood adhesive; tallow in waterproofing agents, acne medication, lubricants for jet engines, and wiring insulation for electronic appliances. Beef suddenly terrorized us, its menacing ubiquity enforced by the slogan “It’s what’s for dinner.”

The following month, the fields were aflame! To quash a second epidemic, hoof-and-mouth, European ranchers rounded up, shot, incinerated, and/or buried the carcasses of more than ten million animals. In Great Britain, the fat rendered from this mass slaughter, added to that of the hundreds of thousand of cattle culled to beat the first mad cow outbreak five years earlier, left the country with a storehouse of nearly half a million pounds of tallow. Entire herds lay stacked in mass graves, discarded like pallets of defective merchandise. To put it mildly, all things concerning the meat industry suddenly seemed a little bit suspicious and a little bit out of control. We watched the apocalyptic footage of smoldering cattle pyres on the nightly news and wondered how the flab of a living, 1,200-pound quadruped wound up coating the wires inside the television.

LINK TO CON.

Is the world about to be running on empty?
TS Admin

In France, fishermen are blockading oil refineries. In Britain, lorry drivers are planning a day of action. In the US, the car maker Ford is to cut production of gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles and airlines are jacking up ticket prices. Global concerns about fuel prices are reaching fever pitch and the world’s leading energy monitor has issued a disturbing downward revision of the oil industry’s ability to keep pace with soaring demand. Yesterday’s warning from the International Energy Agency sent the price of a barrel of oil to a new record for the 13th day in a row. The latest high - $135 for a barrel of light sweet crude - was reached in New York barely five months after the price hit $100. Experts in London and on Wall Street predict that prices will rise to $200, regardless of the protests of consumers and the complaints of politicians. It is simple economics, they say: supply and demand. The former is short, the latter growing.

Consumers are feeling the pinch in almost every area of their daily lives. The pain is felt most obviously at the pumps. In Britain, the price of petrol has risen to an average of 114p for a litre of unleaded - £5.15 per gallon. In the US, where drivers pay much lower prices, gasoline is more than $4 (£2) a gallon. Beyond that, energy bills are rising for households across the globe, hitting the poorest the hardest. British Gas, the nation’s biggest gas and electricity supplier, is mulling further price rises, on top of the 15 per cent average increase it introduced in January.

LINK TO CON.

Check out this video:
A day with the environmentally conscious students living in the sustainability house at Oberlin College.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=7e8b04d484923da2a67c3a55bc8fb6d6e51ced0d

Aging farmer nurtures younger generation with lease, lessons
By ELIZABETH LEE
Skip Glover ignored the backache at first. Farmers work through aches and pains, and spring was no season to shirk.
As the months passed, things got so bad he could barely move. At 64, Glover realized he couldn't keep farming forever. Yet letting his carefully tended soil fall into disuse was unthinkable.

Four years have passed since Glover confronted the realities of aging, years of searching for a way to preserve his dream of growing food sustainably on the outskirts of Atlanta. It's a dilemma many older farmers face.
The average age of American farmers is 55, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Georgia, 35 percent of farmers are 65 or older. Fewer than 5 percent of the state's farmers are younger than 35.

The future of his land constantly gnaws at Glover, an only child who gave up plans to resettle his family in Australia three decades ago and returned to the farm after his father's death. The Douglas County farm has been in the family since 1823, but his three children all have thriving careers that don't involve farming. It's too early to tell what the six grandchildren will take an interest in.

LINK TO CON.

Under Byen "Af Samme Stof Som Stof"

Part 1/2: Vidal on McCain, Obama, Clinton 5.22.2008



PART II

Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster.
By James Howard Kunstler

Everywhere I go these days, talking about the global energy predicament on the college lecture circuit or at environmental conferences, I hear an increasingly shrill cry for "solutions." This is just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned.

I say this because I detect in this strident plea the desperate wish to keep our "Happy Motoring" utopia running by means other than oil and its byproducts. But the truth is that no combination of solar, wind and nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, tar sands and used French-fry oil will allow us to power Wal-Mart, Disney World and the interstate highway system -- or even a fraction of these things -- in the future. We have to make other arrangements.

The public, and especially the mainstream media, misunderstands the "peak oil" story. It's not about running out of oil. It's about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply. These systems can be listed concisely:

LINK TO CON.

Living Large in America

Cars and Cows
By GEORGE WUERTHNER

The family of a friend of mine used to say they were “living large” whenever they were enjoying something that was a bit decadent like having two desserts after dinner or buying something frivolous that they really didn’t need like another TV set for the bathroom so they wouldn’t miss a single moment of their favorite sit-com even when Nature called.

Living large could easily be a term that applies to Americans—not only to the increasing girth of our stomachs, but also our excessive consumption of global energy resources. Yet no one in America’s political system--not Republican, not Democrat--appears willing to say that living large by excessive consumption of fossil fuels is killing the nation’s economy, killing our people, destroying our national security, and increasingly cooking the planet.

This morning oil futures reached $135 a barrel. Across America people are complaining about high gasoline prices at the pump—but high pump prices are just a symptom of a major policy failure and lack of leadership. Americans are suffering a much deeper cost in economic and social security as more of our dollars are exported to pay for expensive fuel, reducing the buying power of the dollar, and helping to give greater political power to authoritarian producing nations like Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia which in turn gives them greater influence over America’s economic and national security.

LINK TO CON.

Radiohead - All I Need (Official MTV Video)



Radiohead "All I Need"
Edited with footage from the 1996 French film "Microcosmos". The sensual pace and delicate melody of the song reminded me of a world much smaller than ours, with all the love and violence we experience. All credits go to the film and Radiohead. Hope you like.

The Thrills - Midnight Choir
Dir. Jake Schrier

Solving the Food, Health, & Energy Crisis: Local & Organic Production on Smaller Farms
Change We Can Stomach
By DAN BARBER
The New York Times
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. - COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is essentially a solitary craft. But lately it's feeling more like a lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our menus - food that's clean, green and humane - is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we're suddenly paying more - 75 percent more in the last six years - to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It's enough to make you want to toss in the toque.

But here's the good news: if you're a chef, or an eater who cares about where your food comes from (and there are a lot of you out there), we can have a hand in making food for the future downright delicious.

Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval since the Green Revolution, bringing harvests that are more healthful, sustainable and, yes, even more flavorful. The change is being pushed along by market forces that influence how our farmers farm.

Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, with its macho fixation on "average tonnage" and "record harvests." But there's a cost to its breadbasket-to-the-world bragging rights. Like those big Industrial Age factories that once billowed black smoke, American agriculture is mired in a mind-set that relies on capital, chemistry and machines. Food production is dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and pesticides, in the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy it takes to process it.

LINK TO CON.

Daggers - The Coydogs
The Coydogs debut video for their song, "Daggers" directed by Danielle Brown. check em out at www.thecoydogs.com

Lewis and Clark Brewing (LCB) is located in Helena, Montana. Just a quick disclaimer: I was unaware that the taproom was located downstairs (where they offer free tasters), so instead I tried beer and ate food upstairs in the restaurant/bar. If you skip the marginal food and full beer and wine bar above and go straight to the downstairs taproom, you will be in better shape. The beer was ok; the award winning IPA had been changed because of the hop shortage. From what I saw I give them two toes and a stub out of five, but I feel like that would have gone up would I have gone downstairs.
Blackfoot River Brewing (BRB) is in Helena, Montana. Blackfoot is a small taproom offering four beers on tap. The BRB Single Malt IPA is the best IPA I have had so far in Montana with Hop Juice second. The brewery has a local feel, friendly staff, and cheap pints. Four out of five toes.
Great Northern Brewery (GNB) is in Whitefish, Montana. GNB was pretty basic both beer wise and atmosphere wise. The IPA was average at best and the ESB was quite poor. I give them two toes.
Lang Creek Brewery (LCB) is located on a large ranch in a green valley surrounded by national forest and Plum Creek forestry land. The closest city would be Marion, although Marion its self is hardly a town. I must say that all good things come to those who wait, are final stop Lang was the best. Once off the paved road, you make your way down a washboard gravel road, wandering if you are being tricked into some Montana deliverance scene when whala! a beautiful green valley with a brewery! The quality control manager (gets to taste beer to make sure it is ok) gave us an informative tour of the small facility and then went through all the beer they had on tap (history and all the info you could want) and a few they did not (in bottles). All the beer were great, even some of the kinds I do not normally like. The IPA was out, but for the "hop heads”, they have an Imperial Pilsner Ale. I give them my award as best (that I have been to) brewery in Montana and five out of five toes.

Rocky Mountain Brewing (RMB) in Anaconda, Montana. The theme of this brewery was America and fortunately, American beer is not as bad as RMB. The stout, porter, and honey brown were quite sour and some of worst brewery beer I have had. The atmosphere reminded me of a Chiles or Applebees that brewed beer. The American theme was taken a little too far and I was somewhat surprised not to find freedom fries on the menu (although the French dip was called an American dip). I give them one toe out of five.
Quarry Brewing LLC (QB) is in Butte, Montana. Quarry is located in Uptown Butte in a fantastic old warehouse building that is only marked by white lettering on red bricks. The atmosphere inside was nice and we had the pleasure to be served by the brewer who was more than informative and hospitable. The brewer had a great ideology on providing quality micro beer to a local community and seemed (at least for now) to be uninterested in expanding nation or even statewide. The beer was decent and I think that this place has a lot of potential. I give them three out of five toes.
Madison River Brewing (MRB) or Mad River is in Belgrade, Montana and eight miles from Bozeman. MRB had a surprisingly small taproom located in a warehouse where they brew beer. With Bob Marley pumping from the speakers, dogs’ roaming around, free popcorn, and a local feel, MRB’s atmosphere is a top in atmosphere. The beer mug club had hand blown glass mugs, which was a nice change to the generic glass mug. The Hop juice IPA and Hopper Pale Ale were both fantastic and the Oatmeal stout was ok. And for asking nice the bartender gave me a free sticker. I give MRB four toes and a stub toe out of five.
Bozone Brewing (BB) is in Bozeman, Montana. Bozone had a nice atmosphere, two very friendly and eager to inform servers, and free popcorn with flavoring powders. The beer at Bozone was ok, the amber was easy to drink but a bit plain for me, the porter was smooth and the best of what I tried, while the other beers were not that impressive. Unfortunately, they did not have their award winning IPA, which could have changed my opinion on their beer. BB did provide a free taster tray without us asking, which was nice. I give them three out of five toes.
Lone Peak Brewing (LPB) is located in the Meadows of Big Sky, Montana. LPB offers a small menu with ok, basic pub fare. Shuffleboard adds to the atmosphere. The beer was pretty tasty and generally solid but prices were all a bit more pricier then others, because of its location in Big Sky. I give them three toes and a stub out of five.

U.S. Military Bases in South America
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF

Despite his record unpopularity, it would appear that President Bush wants to go out of office with a bang. Having failed to overthrow Hugo Chávez through an attempted coup, the White House now hopes to escalate pressure on Venezuela’s President by other means.

On Saturday, a U.S. navy plane strayed into Venezuelan airspace. Venezuelan Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel said that the aircraft "practically flew over" the island of La Orchila - where Venezuela has a military base and President Hugo Chávez has a residence - and another island before turning back. U.S. officials claimed the plane had “navigational problems.”

"This is just the latest step in a series of provocations," Rangel said.

From Orchila to the Fourth Fleet

LINK TO CON.

Rising price of rice keeps U.N. scrambling to feed world's hungry
From Kenya to Cambodia, the World Food Program's offices are struggling to meet their budgets in the face of price increases, sometimes having to suspend vital programs.
By Danna Harman

Thomas Keusters bought several tons of rice in January, as he has done every year for the past three that he has been at the helm of the World Food Program (WFP) office in Cambodia. He thought he was set.

The United Nations' WFP helps feed 1.8 million Cambodians (out of a population of 13 million) by providing rice to the ill, orphans, poor farmers, and hungry children.

Mr. Keusters, a Belgian who has worked for the WFP in Indonesia, Mozambique, Angola, and Sudan, has been through his share of crises. But he wasn't prepared for what came next. In March, panic buying – and hoarding – hit global rice markets.

Five of his suppliers – with a combined outstanding contract for 4,000 tons of rice – abruptly defaulted, unable to secure the rice at the prices ($390 a ton) they had promised the WFP.

LINK TO CON.

New Trend in Biofuels Has New Risks
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
ROME — In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so-called second-generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy. These, made from non-food crops like reeds and wild grasses, would offer fuel without the risk of taking food off the table, they said.

But now, biologists and botanists are warning that they, too, may bring serious unintended consequences. Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species — that is, weeds — that have an extraordinarily high potential to escape biofuel plantations, overrun adjacent farms and natural land, and create economic and ecological havoc in the process, they now say.

At a United Nations meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Tuesday, scientists from the Global Invasive Species Program, the Nature Conservancy and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as well as other groups, presented a paper with a warning about invasive species.

LINK TO CON.

No farmers? No food
Much depends on finding a new generation to put dinner on the table
Posted by Zoe Bradbury

Every time I come in from my farm fields and tune into the news these days, the headline is about food: food prices, food scares, food shortages, food riots. Food has America's attention these days, but folks are overlooking a critical piece of the brewing crisis: a national shortage of farmers.

We farmers make up a mere 1.6 percent of the U.S. population right now. Picture an inverted pyramid balanced precariously on its nose: that's our national food supply, with about 3 million of us feeding three hundred million of you. In food terms, our nation resembles an elephant perched on a pair of stiletto heels.

With the average age of farmers approaching 60, young farmers like me in short supply (a scant 5.8 percent of us are under the age of 35), and three quarters of the country living the city life, you'd be wise to wonder who's going to milk the cows and grow the grain for your morning bowl of cornflakes down the road. More and more, our collective knowledge about growing food is housed in nursing homes, and in another twenty years, today's average-aged farmer will be dead.

Proponents of modern industrial agriculture will argue that there's nothing to worry about -- that we don't need more farmers to feed ourselves; we just need bigger tractors, bigger farms, and biotechnology. Except for one big problem: oil.

LINK TO CON.

The Band Of Heathens - "Jackson Station"
The Band Of Heathens performing "Jackson Station" live from their new DVD/CD release, Live At Antones

Top Ten Reasons To Go Vegetarian
By Bruce Friedrich, AlterNet.
Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux-meats like bacon and sausages and an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants, vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Week here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

LINK TO CON.

The List: The World’s Most Dangerous Gangs

Their darkest dealings often go unreported and unnoticed. But from Nairobi to São Paulo, many urban gangs are becoming more sophisticated, more brutal, and more powerful than ever.

LINK TO LIST

Your Meat Is Green: Tips for responsible carnivores
By Roxanne Webber

There is no getting around it: Meat production has a huge impact on the earth. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and that it affects water quality and biodiversity. Here are some ways to help you make decisions about meat that take into account both the welfare of the animals and the health of the environment.

1. Learn to Cook. You’ll be able to efficiently use the meat you do buy, and avoid processed food and takeout. You can get a good start with The Silver Palate Cookbook, Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, and The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

2. Buy Humanely Raised Meat. The recent investigation by the Humane Society of the United States showed the brutal conditions still in place at some factory slaughterhouses. A report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that raising animals on a pasture instead of a feedlot decreased soil erosion and water pollution, reduced the use of antibiotics, and improved animal health and welfare.

3. Purchase Meat with Less Packaging. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that for most of the developed world, “packaging constitutes as much as one-third” of nonindustrial solid waste. Meat packaging contributes Styrofoam trays, plastic wrap, and paper products. Choose to purchase from places—like a farmers’ market or a butcher—that wrap meat just in paper.

LINK TO CON. THE LIST

A Chain That Pigs Would Die For
Can food be fast—and fastidious? Chipotle Mexican Grill insists on humanely raised meat.
By Anna Kuchment

Russ Kremer still chuckles when he remembers the day Steve Ells, CEO of the fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, called to ask if he could land his corporate jet at the Frankenstein, Mo., "airport." Kremer's hometown, a picturesque farming village in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, has a population of 30, and more rolling hills, creeks and pastures than paved roads. "You couldn't find a level spot bigger than a dining-room table," he says.

Less than one week later, Ells and a small entourage of Chipotle executives touched down in nearby Jefferson City and drove to Kremer's 150-acre farm. They had come to ask about buying naturally raised pork from Kremer and a group of local farmers who had banded together to form a cooperative. Under the Heritage Acres label, the farmers dedicated themselves to raising hogs humanely, layering the floors of their pens with hay, giving them access to fresh air and eschewing such practices as clipping their tails and plying them with antibiotics. The co-op's approach jibed with what Ells was trying to do at Chipotle: in 2000 the classically trained chef and company founder committed to serving humanely raised, sustainably grown food at his restaurants, including meat and dairy products that are free of antibiotics and hormones. A few days later, Chipotle handed Heritage Acres its first major contract, for 5,000 pounds of pork per week, which it has since raised to 10,000 pounds —about 7 percent of Chipotle's total take. "They ensured our survivability," says Kremer, who's since been able to add 15 new farms to his co-op.

LINK TO CON.

Bush's food crisis aid package now promotes genetically modified crops
Controversial language is added to the proposal. Opponents of bioengineered food say the White House wants U.S. agribusiness to reap rewards.
By Stephen J. Hedges, Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has added a controversial ingredient to the $770-million aid package it recently proposed to ease the world food crisis: language that would promote the use of genetically modified crops in food-deprived countries.

The value or detriment of genetically modified, or bioengineered, food is an intensely disputed issue in the U.S. and in Europe, where many countries have banned foods made from genetically modified organisms.

Proponents say that genetically modified crops can result in higher yields from plants that are hardier in harsh climates.

"We certainly think that it is established fact that a number of bioengineered crops have shown themselves to increase yields through their drought resistance and pest resistance," said Dan Price, a food aid expert on the National Security Council.

Opponents of such crops allege that they can cause allergies, illnesses and unforeseen medical problems in those who consume them.

LINK TO CON.

(A series of articles from the latest Wired. I think that there arguments are flawed and not what we need to hear, but, they are still interesting arguments.)
Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green
The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals. Preserving wild spaces, cleaning up the oceans, protecting watersheds, neutralizing acid rain, saving endangered species — all laudable. But today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming. Restoring the Everglades, protecting the Headwaters redwoods, or saving the Illinois mud turtle won't matter if climate change plunges the planet into chaos. It's high time for greens to unite around the urgent need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism's sacred cows. We can afford to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear energy nor the transformational potential of genetic engineering. We need to take advantage of the energy efficiencies offered by urban density. We must accept that the world's fastest-growing economies won't forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science — and that, on the way up, countries like India and China might actually help devise the solutions the planet so desperately needs.

LINK TO LIST OF ARTICLES

Where the Wild Things Grow
Got weeds? Reach for the food processor, not the lawnmower
By Kurt Michael Friese
Around this time of year, all the foodies in my neck of the woods are, well, in the woods. Spring and fall are the best wild food foraging times around here, and as if ol' Mother Nature knew our food prices were going through the roof and transportation costs skyrocketing, she's brought us a cornucopia of wild edibles out there, free for the taking.

Besides the morels I spoke of recently (did I mention my son found some 10 feet from our back door?), we find oyster and velvet foot and puffball mushrooms around here, and soon the goat's beard and hen o' the woods will be popping out. There are ramps and fiddleheads to be had in the forest as well, but the two wild foods of the week are a weed and an invader -- stinging nettles and garlic mustard.

LINK TO CON.

Ice Cube-Today Was A Good Day (One of my favorite HipHop Songs!)

WARNING THIS IS VERY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING! Industrial Egg House!

New crop of gardeners in plush London suburbs
Food prices and concerns about commercially grown produce are prompting a 'grow your own' culture.
By Mark Rice-Oxley
Kingston, England - Hosing down a row of perky-looking onion tops, Catherine Chu confesses she came late to gardening.

"I never even picked up a spade," she chuckles. "Now I'm completely obsessed."

But it's more than a hobby: Ms. Chu goes through the whole summer without having to buy vegetables from stores. Her allotment – a 50-by-20 foot public plot rented from the council – feeds her, her husband, and their daughter. She smiles at the thought: subsistence farming on the edge of Europe's biggest city.

Such green-fingered industry is becoming more and more common in Britain, where concerns over food prices and provenance is driving the "grow-your-own" (GYO) culture.

LINK TO CON.

What Michael Pollan Hasn't Told You About Food
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet.
TV dinners were launched at a time when only a small percentage of Americans actually owned TVs. Thus, the meals, writes Raj Patel, "were what people ate while they dreamed of affording one." In the American dream, we imagine a bucolic Midwest, a place of bounty, yet the reality is that the breadbasket of America is rife with poverty and a declining life expectancy. The idyllic vision of quaint American farmland doesn't work like that "except in fiction," says Patel, and there is perhaps no greater fiction than the comforting hand of the free market -- particularly as it pertains to food.

Patel's new book Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System makes visible the people behind the abstraction and reveals a global food system that, with our complicity, continues to alienate farmers and consumers alike, all while fattening the pocketbooks of a few middlemen.

To read Patel is to understand the logic behind the sweets company, Nestle, acquiring the weight loss magnate Jenny Craig or why WalMart is free to raise prices in areas where they have already killed off the competition. In the language of markets, these problems are not "self-correcting." Only the profound failure of the prevailing metaphor of the Invisible Hand hampers us from seeing what Patel has spent years of research making visible. In an interview with AlterNet, Patel explains how, "the way we choose food today comes from distinctly abnormal roots," how these roots connect us to farmers and consumers around the world, and why we should get angry, not feel guilty.

LINK TO INTERVIEW

Drought forces Barcelona to ship in water
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Spain's worst drought in decades forced the city of Barcelona to begin shipping in drinking water Tuesday in an unprecedented effort to avoid water restrictions before the start of vacation season.
A ship carrying 19,000 cubic meters (5 million gallons) of water from nearby Tarragona docked in Barcelona's port Tuesday morning.

A second vessel from Marseille, France, is scheduled to arrive in the coming days.

The bustling port city on Spain's Mediterranean coast is among the areas hardest hit by the worst springtime drought in the country since records began 60 years ago. With reservoirs at dramatically low levels and no substantial rainfall in sight, regional authorities are hoping to hang on until a desalination plant is completed in May next year.

The regional government of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital, said six ships a month will bring in a total of 1.66 million cubic meters (438 million gallons) of water. That is roughly enough to satisfy 6 percent of the monthly needs of the region's 5.5 million inhabitants. The shipments are scheduled to last at least three months.

LINK TO CON.

Firms Seek Patents on 'Climate Ready' Altered Crops
By Rick Weiss
A handful of the world's largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming, according to a report being released today.

Three companies -- BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis -- have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide, according to the report by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, an activist organization that advocates for subsistence farmers.

The applications say that the new "climate ready" genes will help crops survive drought, flooding, saltwater incursions, high temperatures and increased ultraviolet radiation -- all of which are predicted to undermine food security in coming decades.

Company officials dismissed the report's contention that the applications amount to an intellectual-property "grab," countering that gene-altered plants will be crucial to solving world hunger but will never be developed without patent protections.

LINK TO CON.

Flathead Brewery Tour, Bigfork, Lakeside, and Polson, Montana
Flathead brewery is located near Bigwork, MT with a great view of Flathead Lake. Although there cost per pint was the highest of the three breweries visited, it by far had the best beer. A nice atmosphere and a great sun deck are nice additions to good beer. The killer Imperial IPA is worth at least a taste, the porter was quite tasty as well, and finally my favorite was the Pale Ale.
Tamarack brewery is located in Lakeside near the entrance to Blacktail Mountain Ski Mountain. Tamarack comes across more as a bar that happens to brew beer, then an actual "brewery." The bathrooms come furnished with copper waterfall sinks and the brewery walls are plastered with monster LCD TV's. They were out of the two beers I was interested in tasting, but the porter and ESP (Extra Special Pale) were nice beers, but nothing to write home about. The full bar and non-Tamarack beers on tap takes some away from the allure of the place as a "brewery", but I think its a nice addition to the Flathead riverbank breweries.
The final stop was Glacier Brewery in Polson. By far the best atmosphere of the three breweries but also my least favorite beer. The only beers I found worth drinking, the Cherry Ale and Stout, were mediocre at least for a fan of IPA's and Porters. The best drinks there might be the root beer and Cherry cream soda. However, a free taster tray, friendly bar guy, and generally positive atmosphere give the Glacier brewery a nice feel.

+My vote for best Flathead Lake Brewery goes to...Flathead Lake Brewery in Bigfork!

Pepper - Sitting On A Curb

How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes from and Why We Need to Get It Back
By Ann Vileisis, excerpt from her book

Has it ever occurred to you just how odd it is that we know so little about what we eat? Each day we feast on cereal, bread, salad, soup, chicken, cheese, apples, ice cream, and more. Over the course of our lives, each of us has eaten thousands of different foods. We have tasted their saltiness and sweetness, crunched their crispness, chewed their fleshiness, swallowed them, and incorporated their nutriment into our bones.Yet despite this biologically intimate and everyday physical connection, most of us have little idea where our foods come from, who raised them, and what went into making them.

The absurdity of this situation struck me about ten years ago. The news was rife with stories about how large-scale food production harmed health and the environment:pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli had become more prevalent in meat and eggs raised under crowded factory-farm conditions; pesticides used to grow foods were contaminating drinking water and harming the health of farmworkers and their children; agricultural chemicals were causing declines in amphibian and bird populations; the cod fishery was collapsing; and the fungicide methyl bromide, used in growing strawberries, was even linked to the erosion of the earth's ozone layer.

I began to wonder, were these the berries and eggs that I bought? As I pushed my shopping cart through the supermarket aisles, questions rose insistently in my mind: How were my eggs raised? Who grew my tomatoes? Where did my fish come from? What about the milk? The colorful boxes, cans, and jars that had long appeared familiar and comforting now looked cryptic.

LINK TO CON.

Tina Dico - On The Run
This is a little video for On The Run which was the first single in Denmark. I was in L.A. in June with an afternoon to kill and me, my manager and his girlfriend drove into the Joshua Tree National Park to play around with her new camera. It was 45 degrees on this particular day and with all the running I was starting to hallucinate strange things towards the end. What do you think?

Figuring Out What's In Your Food
Consumers Are Left To Wonder Which Genetically-Modified Foods They Might Be Eating

CBS) According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of Americans say they won't buy food that has been genetically modified. But CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports that it's not that easy to avoid. While most packaged and processed foods do contain genetically modified ingredients, the labels don't have to say so.

Robyn O'Brien teaches her kids to keep a close eye on the labels of the foods they eat.

"In terms of labeling," she says, "they're not always comprehensive and thorough."

What concerns parents like O'Brien is not what's listed, but what is not. Particularly foods made with genetically modified organisms - or GMOs.

"My concern as a mother is, are these kids part of a human trial that I didn't know that I had signed them up for," O'Brien says.

LINK TO CON. and to Video

Trevor Hall "Under the Blanket"

In tense Bolivia, a push to bridge political divides
As four provinces press for more autonomy, one group teaches how to heal racial and political tensions.
By Sara Miller Llana
Santa Cruz, Bolivia - In a country where the president calls his political foes in the east an oligarchy, and graffiti in opposition strongholds calls for his death, Chiaki Kinjo's job is daunting.

As a conflict resolution facilitator in Santa Cruz – the epicenter of dissent against Bolivian President Evo Morales – it is her job to get union members, neighborhood representatives, and parent association leaders to see eye to eye.

"Divisions in Bolivia have created so much violence," says Ms. Kinjo, who heads the Santa Cruz branch of Fundacion Unir Bolivia, a group that aims to bridge racial and political divides.

From the outside, it often looks as if Bolivia is on the brink of civil war.

Last week, Santa Cruz voters overwhelmingly approved statutes giving the province more autonomy from the central government. It's the first of four provinces planning to do so in coming weeks. But Mr. Morales dismisses the autonomy votes as illegal and hopes to counter them and revive his presidency by holding a referendum on his rule within the next three months.

LINK TO CON.

(Scary and makes it seem even more unlikely that a or the revolution would ever be possible)
Americans Are Living (And Dying) In A Militarized Police State
By Dave Gibson

It would seem that our police officers are being readied for war, with the American public as the enemy. In the last several years, there has been a transformation from community policing to pre-emptive assaults.

Today, police departments across the United States more closely resemble an occupying army than they do public servants responding to calls for help. Police officers can now be seen wearing helmets and body armor and carrying AR-15’s, just to deliver simple warrants. The militarization of our police departments not only gives the appearance of a military dictatorship but places the public at great risk.

No less than 70 percent of U.S. cities now have SWAT teams. In cities with a population of 50,000 or more, 90 percent have SWAT teams.

Eastern Kentucky University professor Peter Kraska told the Washington Post that SWAT teams are currently sent out 40,000 times a year in the U.S. During the 1980’s, SWAT teams were only used 3,000 times a year.

LINK TO CON.

"The Military-Corporate Complex"
Pepsi, Apple, Krispy Kreme and other consumer firms profit from Iraq too.

Last month, a review of 2006 congressional financial disclosure statements by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics found that lawmakers have as much as $196 million "invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the start of the Iraq war."

An Associated Press article on the report, however, offered a caveat: "Not all the companies invested in by lawmakers are typical defense contractors. Corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson have at one point received defense-related contracts."

But the Associated Press is wrong. The fact is that corporations such as PepsiCo, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson are, indeed, typical defense contractors.
To suggest that such firms, and tens of thousands like them, only receive defense-related contracts at the odd, aberrant moment is specious at best.

LINK TO CON.

Craft Brewers Reformulate Beer to Cope With Hop Shortage
By David Kravets
OAKLAND, California -- At Pacific Coast Brewing here, brewer Donald Gortemiller is reworking his recipes and altering his brewing styles like never before.

Gortemiller isn't acting on a spurt of creativity. He's coping with a worldwide shortage of hops -- the spice of beer. The dry cones of a particular flowering vine, hops are what give your favorite brew its flavor and aroma. Prices of the commodity are skyrocketing as hop supplies have plummeted, forcing smaller brewmasters around the United States to begin quietly tweaking their recipes, in ways that are easily discerned by serious imbibers.

The shortage -- caused by a dwindling number of hop growers worldwide, and exacerbated by a Yakima, Washington, warehouse fire -- has forced Gortemiller to use fewer and different hops than before, changing the flavor of his beer. He's also resorted to beer hacks, like "dry hopping," in which the hops are added late to the mix, consuming fewer hops and yielding a more consistent flavor.

LINK TO CON.

Defending Bolivia
Morales and the Red Ponchos
By PATRICK IRELAN

The Bolivian oligarchy has initiated its plan to balkanize the country. Traditionally, the oligarchy controlled the oil, natural gas, and the best farmland in Bolivia; and, for the most part, it has never indicated a desire to share the wealth with the nation’s indigenous majority. That majority, 60 percent of the population, lives primarily in the Andean highlands of western Bolivia, although in recent decades, the Indians of those areas have begun moving down to the cities in search of jobs.

With their diseases, their firepower, and their greed, the Euro-Americans have enjoyed their country’s wealth since the founding of Bolivia, and the Indians think it’s about time for a more-equitable division of the proceeds. They’ve been waiting half a millennium, and their patience has begun to drift off somewhere over the Andes, from whence it is unlikely to return.

Evo Morales is an Aymara Indian. In 2005, he became the first indigenous president in Bolivia’s history, collecting 54 percent of the vote. He inherited a land-locked and underdeveloped country, the poorest in South America. But the provinces of the eastern lowlands are blessed with large reserves of oil and natural gas. They also possess good farmland, although much of it lies unused by its wealthy owners.

LINK TO CON.

Music transforms kids and towns in remote area of Bolivia
Inspired by a biannual baroque festival and the legacy of missionaries, young people join choirs and take up the violin and Vivaldi in parishes across the country's eastern lowlands.
By Sara Miller Llana
San Ignacio de Velasco, Bolivia - Life moves slowly in this town deep in the jungle of Bolivia, 280 miles from the nearest city, where most streets are swaths of red earth, money is made off the land, and TV, for those who own one, is not an after-dinner ritual.

It is not the kind of place one would normally seek out high culture.

But on a recent evening, off the neatly manicured central plaza, the sonatas of Vivaldi and Haydn pour from the town's imposing cathedral. Even more unusual is who is crowding many of the pews: sneaker-clad youths. They are not here under the duress of some imperious teacher. They're eagerly absorbing the sounds of string and wind instruments redounding through the wood-beamed church.

LINK TO CON.

The World at 350
A Last Chance for Civilization
By Bill McKibben
Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start—even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now.

It’s not just the economy. We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it sends the price of a loaf of bread shooting upwards and starts food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so inextricably tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem… how best to put it, right.

All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth.

There’s a number—a new number—that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA’s Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued—and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper—“if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.” Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points—massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them—that we’ll pass if we don’t get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer’s insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.

LINK TO CON.

Swati performs at the Red Room on March 13, 2007, at the SA Indie Festival in San Antonio, Texas.

Burger King Locked in Dispute with Farm Workers
The Bryant Park Project, May 8, 2008 · Burger King is embroiled in a labor dispute with tomato pickers in Florida, and now a Burger King executive has been tied to e-mail spreading misinformation about the workers' cause, says Amy Bennett Williams of the Fort Myers News-Press.

At issue is a one-cent-a-pound increase in the rate paid to Florida tomato-pickers, which could amount to as much as $20 extra daily for the workers, Williams says. She says that would be a big deal for laborers who typically earn about $60 a day, and that it could cost as little as $250,000 extra a year for Burger King.

"When you consider that Burger King has about $11 billion in annual sales and $2.2 billion in corporate earnings last year, the numbers don't seem like a huge challenge," Williams says

Critics of the rate increase suggest that the extra money will go to growers, not workers. In addition, Williams says, Burger King is concerned that if the increase goes through, it could violate anti-trust rules — an argument that she says legal scholars have repudiated.

LINK TO CON.

Rockin' the Casbah
By STEVE DOUGHERTY
FROM his perch on a rooftop terrace near the crenelated western ramparts of the walled city, a visitor from England watched the sun set in spectacular display over the Atlantic Ocean. As it disappeared on the cloudless horizon, the sun’s rays cast a golden glow on a rising crescent moon decorated on the eve of the summer solstice by a silvery alignment of planets and stars.

“Nice touch, that,” quipped Bill Corbett, a 39-year-old London photographer, D.J. and music fanatic whose visit to Essaouira, an exotic, wind- and sun-swept Moroccan city on the northwest coast of Africa, for the 10th-annual Gnawa and World Music Festival, would prove a transforming experience. “This really is a midsummer night’s dream.”

And one with an exhilarating soundtrack — courtesy of 25 Moroccan Gnawa musical brotherhoods, whose exuberant, hypnotically rhythmic and joy-infused music drew an estimated 400,000 fans from Morocco and across North Africa, Europe and North America to Essaouira (pronounced ess-ah-WEER-ah) last June for the five-day festival. Midsummer revelers heard more than 30 other jazz fusion, rock, reggae, African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and hip-hop acts from more than a dozen countries — as well as Hoba Hoba Spirit, a crowd-wowing multilingual “Moroc ’n roll!” band from Casablanca — performing on nine festival stages scattered in and around Essaouira’s walled, maze-like medina.

LINK TO CON.

An Indie Scene That Comes With a Texas Twang in Denton
By LIONEL BEEHNER
WITH its Piggly Wiggly markets and dusty pawnshops, the Texas college town of Denton does not look the part of a Woodstock in waiting. A Romanesque courthouse juts out of the central square, as in that fictional town in “Back to the Future.” And whenever the local college football team plays at Fouts Field, the entire town seems to put on Mean Green T-shirts.

But wander into the Panhandle House, a barnlike recording studio on North Locust Street, and you’ll find Midlake, a five-person band whose music the British newspaper The Guardian has called “a dreamy concoction of Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and the Yardbirds.” Actually, the band is ensconced in the dingy storage room next door, which they have turned into a makeshift shrine to the 1970s — patchouli incense, wood paneling and vintage vinyl — that befits their retro three-guitar sound.

“We really wanted to create this warmth and ascetic vibe that matched our music, right down to the curtains,” said Eric Pulido, Midlake’s lanky guitarist.

LINK TO CON.

Permaculture 101
Permaculture expert Penny Livingston-Stark shows how natural systems can teach us better design practices. Learning to work with the earth not only creates a healthier environment, it also nourishes the people who live in it.

The People's Grocery
In West Oakland, California, where liquor stores have replaced markets, People’s Grocery is creating a healthy alternative, offering access to organic produce. Through urban gardens and local farms, People's Grocery supports a culture based on connection to the land, sustainable agricultural practices, and regenerating community.

Congress (almost) passes a farm bill; Bush vows to veto
How should sustainable-food advocates respond to the latest farm bill proposal?
Posted by Tom Philpott
For months now, the 2007 farm bill has been in limbo, tied up in reconciliation negotiations between the House and the Senate.

On Thursday, the bicameral Farm Bill Conference Report agreed on a final proposal. The latest version will go to the larger House and Senate next week for approval; if all goes well, it will finally go to President Bush's desk.

But since this wouldn't be the 2007 farm bill without a final dose of drama, negotiations seem far from over. "The President will veto this bill," USDA chair Ed Schafer bluntly declared in a Thursday afternoon communique.

The sticking point is subsidy reform, or lack thereof. "This legislation lacks meaningful farm program reform and expands the size and scope of government," Schafer stated.

Many sustainable-ag and rural advocates would cheer a Bush veto. On the Center for Rural Affairs blog, Dan Owens recently laid out their case:

LINK TO CON.

American Rancher Resists Land Reform Plans in Bolivia
By SIMON ROMERO
CARAPARICITO, Bolivia — From the time Ronald Larsen drove his pickup truck here from his native Montana in 1969 and bought a sprawling cattle ranch for a song, he lived a quiet life in remote southeastern Bolivia, farming corn, herding cattle and amassing vast land holdings.

But now Mr. Larsen, 63, has suddenly been thrust into the public eye in Bolivia, finding himself in the middle of a battle between President Evo Morales, who plans to break up large rural estates, and the wealthy light-skinned elite in eastern Bolivia, which is chafing at Mr. Morales’s land reform project to the point of discussing secession.

After armed standoffs with land-reform officials at his ranch this year, Mr. Larsen made it clear which side he was on, emerging as a figure celebrated in rebellious Santa Cruz Province and loathed by Mr. Morales’s government, which wants to reduce ties to the United States.

LINK TO CON.

Salmon Gone, Fishermen Try to Adapt on a Changing Coast
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
CHARLESTON, Ore. — So long, salmon. Steve Wilson is refitting his 51-foot troller to fish for the future. No longer will he cast for the conflicted symbol of Northwest abundance and bitterness. No more fishing for a myth.
His new pursuit?

“Prawns,” said Mr. Wilson, nearly bursting out laughing because, here in Salmon Nation, he could not quite believe things had come to this. “It’s what you call a ‘developmental fishery.’ We don’t know if we’ll make any money in it, but we figured we could either go broke sitting still or we could go broke working.”

With most of Oregon and California’s commercial salmon fishery shut down because of sharp declines in the number of the fish returning to the Sacramento River to spawn, Mr. Wilson and many other fishermen are looking for almost any alternative, trying to diversify along with the rest of the regional economy. In some cases, they are investing money they received from the federal government because of a partial shutdown of salmon fishing in 2006.

LINK TO CON.

Comparing companies on their commitment to tackling global warming

You can use the Climate Counts Company Scorecard to see how serious companies are about stopping climate change - and how they compare to their sector competitors. The annually updated scorecard reflects the self-reported efforts of companies to address climate change - or avoid it altogether.

The higher the score, the greater the company's commitment to fighting global warming.

LINK TO COMPARISONS
or
LINK TO SUMMARY

Reality
By Mark A. Goldman
07/05/08 "ICH" -- - These are interesting times. With oil trading above $100/barrel, a larger portion of our national wealth is being spent on the cost of energy.

We are very near or already at what geologists call peak oil. Peak oil is the point at which the maximum rate that oil can be extracted from the earth’s crust can only relentlessly decline from that point forward, due to geological and technological realities. Prior to peak oil it was usually possible to extract as much oil as we needed to meet growing demand while keeping prices relatively low. After peak oil it will be impossible to do that. From now on, oil will become increasingly scarce. The black gold will still be allocated according to price, but as supplies dwindle and prices increase, more and more people will become less affluent, i.e., poorer than they used to be. The age of cheap energy is over. Unfortunately, soon this will be true for all non-renewable resources as well.

This means that our economy, which runs on oil, will not be able to sustain past levels of growth indefinitely, if at all. Pundits on TV are discussing how long it’s going to take before the current recession will turn around and we come out the other side ready for the next round of growth. In my view, this recession is not going to end any time soon and without appropriate leadership it might not end in our lifetimes. The result might easily look like an economy in the middle of a very long slow motion train wreck

LINK TO CON.

New Food Safety Rules May Do More Harm Than Good
By Jason Mark, Earth Island Journal.
Dale Coke has been farming in California's San Benito County for nearly 30 years, and the thousands of days of wind and sun are etched in the deep lines of his long, lean face. His hands are tough, with fingers that are as adept at fixing a broken water pump as they are at handling a freshly cut head of lettuce. Coke, 54 with salt-and-pepper hair, was one of the pioneers of the organic farming industry. In 1980, he started growing salad mix in the valleys of California's Central Coast, and by the end of the 1990s he had nearly 500 acres under cultivation. But then the salad mix market "got too complicated," he says, and so he downsized to 250 acres, and today focuses on specialty crops such as fennel, dinosaur kale, and beets, which he sells to Whole Foods and restaurants.

When talking about the economics of organic farming, a joker's grin flirts with the edges of Coke's mouth, as if he knows the punch line to some inside joke about a business he has seen transform from a mom-and-pop enterprise to a multibillion dollar industry that is the fastest growing segment of the food market. But for Coke, recent changes in the fresh produce industry are nothing to laugh about. A year and a half after an E. coli outbreak traced to bagged spinach killed three people, hospitalized 100, and sickened dozens more, farmers and processors are still struggling with how best to ensure food safety. According to Coke and other farmers, some of the new practices intended to improve food safety are misguided and misinformed, and risk undermining environmentally sound farming practices in the area surrounding California's Salinas Valley. The region produces more than half of the country's lettuce, and is affectionately referred to by locals as "The Nation's Salad Bowl."

LINK TO CON.

A City Committed to Recycling Is Ready for More
By FELICITY BARRINGER
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates.
But the city wants more.

So Mr. Newsom will soon be sending the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal that would make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended.

“Without that, we don’t think we can get to 75 percent,” the mayor said of the proposal. His aides said it stood a good chance of passing.

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Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market
By TRACIE McMILLAN
IN the shadows of the elevated tracks toward the end of the No. 3 line in East New York, Brooklyn, with an April chill still in the air, Denniston and Marlene Wilks gently pulled clusters of slender green shoots from the earth, revealing a blush of tiny red shallots at the base.

“Dennis used to keep them big, and people didn’t buy them,” Mrs. Wilks said. “They love to buy scallions.”

Growing up in rural Jamaica, the Wilkses helped their families raise crops like sugar cane, coffee and yams, and take them to market. Now, in Brooklyn, they are farmers once again, catering to their neighbors’ tastes: for scallions, for bitter melons like those from the West Indies and East Asia and for cilantro for Latin-American dinner tables.

“We never dreamed of it,” said Mr. Wilks, nor did his relatives in Jamaica. “They are totally astonished when you tell them that you farm and go to the market.”

For years, New Yorkers have grown basil, tomatoes and greens in window boxes, backyard plots and community gardens. But more and more New Yorkers like the Wilkses are raising fruits and vegetables, and not just to feed their families but to sell to people on their block.

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The Tallest Man on Earth - It will Follow the Rain



The Tallest Man on Earth - Moonshiner (Live)

(Not many videos available but this was the best of them)
Silje Nes - Giant Disguise
Silje Nes performing at The Mink in Houston, TX on March 23, 2008.

Proposed Global Warming Solution Would Kill Ozone
by Teresa Herrmann
A proposed geoengineering solution to global warming would deplete the ozone layer and have "perilous effects" on the whole planet, according to a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The plan, put forth by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, is one of the most discussed geoengineering proposals around. It would distribute sulfate particles into the atmosphere much like volcanic eruptions, and then scatter light back to space to cool the Earth.

But here's the problem. According to NCAR's research, sulphates launched into the stratosphere provide a surface on which chlorine gases in polar clouds can become activated. And that triggers chemical reactions that lead to the death of ozone molecules.

The predictions are startling.
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Spearing, Beheadings Reported in Ecuador National Park
Kelly Hearn for National Geographic News
An illegal logger has been speared to death by Amazon natives in Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, officials say.

The killing, which occurred March 4, reflects mounting tensions between natives and illegal loggers working in one of South America's most prized parks.
It also follows allegations made in February that as many as 15 Amazonian tribal members were beheaded by timber poachers in the region.

The death of the logger was confirmed by a spokesperson at the Orellana provincial police headquarters in Coca, Ecuador (see Ecuador map).

The Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio published a photograph of the scene, showing the body of the logger, Luis Mariano Castellano Espinosa, riddled with wooden spears protruding from his chest and legs

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CSAs can transform Iowa's farm economy -- and take its sandwiches to the next level
By Kurt Michael Friese
Here in Iowa, the farmers markets are just emerging from hibernation, and with them the CSAs. Community-supported agriculture is not a new idea, but it certainly has been gaining ground over the past few years as ideas such as "local" and "sustainable" migrate from the fringes to the center.

For the uninitiated, CSAs operate a lot like magazine subscriptions. You find one whose content you like, pay your money up front, and receive weekly allotments of fresh local produce, dairy, eggs, flowers, and sometimes meat. CSAs offer a great way to "go local," and they present you with new surprises each week throughout the growing season (which around here is about 20 weeks long).

At least as important is the mutual assumption of risk. The farmer gets a cash infusion before the season starts when s/he really needs it, and if there's a flood or a drought or a swarm of locusts, the farmer and the CSA members share the loss the same way they would share the bounty if it were all to go a better way.

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U.S. is Promoting Secession in Bolivia
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
Having avoided any meaningful coverage of Bolivia since the election of Evo Morales in December, 2005, the international media is now obliged to play catch up. Yesterday, the Andean nation of 9.1 million held a crucial vote which could pave the way for secession of the resource-rich Santa Cruz region.

In a challenge to Morales’ authority, more than 80% of voters approved a referendum which would allow more powers for Santa Cruz, an area which is responsible for about 30 percent of Bolivia's gross domestic product while making up about a quarter of the country's population. Morales, who rejected the autonomy vote as illegal, called on the opposition to engage in a dialogue with his government.

Fundamentally, the Santa Cruz imbroglio is a struggle over oil and gas.

The mixed race elite in the lowlands wants more local control over the resources while Morales, who has the support of indigenous peoples in the highlands, wants the wealthier eastern regions to contribute more to the poorer west.

Affluent leaders in Santa Cruz are particularly incensed by a new draft constitution which would limit large land holdings. In a repudiation of the constitutional reforms, the people of Santa Cruz voted yesterday to give their region more control over land distribution, as well as rich oil and gas reserves.

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Profiteers Squeeze Billions Out of Growing Global Food Crisis
By Geoffrey Lean, Independent UK.
Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor -- who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food -- into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12 billion. Its profits increased from $1.44 billion to $2.22 billion.

Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030 billion over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

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(A little R&B for Sunday)
"I'm Beautiful" - Aloe Blacc [Shine Through]

Jolly gene giant
A review of Claire Hope Cummings' Uncertain Peril
Posted by (Grist)Guest author
In October 1996, a spokesman for Monsanto told Farm Journal why his company was buying up seed companies left and right: "What you're seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain."

Today, Monsanto is the world's largest seed company -- and makes more money selling seeds than chemicals. The company's biotech seeds and traits accounted for 88 percent of the worldwide area devoted to genetically modified seeds in 2006 -- and Monsanto earns royalties on every single one. No one needed to tell Monsanto: Whoever controls the first link in the food chain -- the seeds -- controls the food supply.

What better way to understand the perilous state of industrial food and farming than by starting with the seed? Claire Hope Cummings' new book, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds is a sharp and elegant analysis of the biotech seed debate.

Beginning with the tragic story of how the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq led to the destruction of Iraq's seed bank, and the subsequent dependence of Iraqi farmers on U.S. aid and multinational agribusiness, Cummings explains what's at stake when farming communities lose the crop diversity that they've nurtured and managed for thousands of years.

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