This week I received a book from an old friend of mine, Julia Sich which she has written and called ‘Julia’s Guide to Edible weeds and Wild Green Smoothies’.
Many of you will know the ‘Weed Lady’ through her previous book and workshops.
In your gardens you will likely have a number of plants we call ‘weeds’ which are of benefit to your diet and health.
The definition of a ‘weed’ is simply ‘a plant that is growing where we do not want it to grow’.
Many of the plants we grow for food or for their flowers; when allowed to self seed they become weeds.
I recommend that you obtain a copy of Julia’s book and learn to your benefit, many of the plants you pull out, kill and compost which could be better off been cultivated and consumed.
The book is available in two formats as a down load E Book or as a printed publication.
and the book is available for NZ$19.95 for the Ebook OR $34.95 plus postage for the printed version.
The book gives you both the common names and the Botanical names as well as coloured pictures to assist in identification.
Each weed has a written description along with its nutritional values and how to use them for your benefit.
Mind you if the Government had its way it would ban the use of these natural plants and their ancient uses if favour of Big Pharma’s bottom line. (Therapeutic Products Bill)
Pharmaceutical companies hate natural remedies even though many of their concoctions were originally derived from plant’s properties.
If you have the knowledge such as given in Julia’s book then you can look after your own well being as our fore fathers did from all races on the planet. (And at no expense if out of the weeds in your gardens)
We have to read and learn about the advantages of these plants but in Nature animals know what is best for them as far as their well being is concerned.
For instance if you place cattle into a paddock that has a wide range of plants including weeds, the cattle will consume the ones that they need for better health beside eating a lot of grass.
Which is an interesting point in so much as grass is also very good for your health and in particular, wheat grass and barley grass.
That is if you apply all the known minerals and element to the growing medium.
Reason is that grasses will take up all the minerals available where other plants such as tomatoes only require 56 of the known 114 mineral and elements.
That is why some farmers will apply what we sell as Ocean Solids to their paddocks to the great benefit of their stock’s health.
I remember a farmer telling me one time about his practice of spraying diluted sea water over his paddocks which was much to the annoyance of his farming neighbour,
because a certain amount of the sea spray would fall onto the neighbors side of the fence and when the neighbour let his stock into that paddock they would rush over to the area by the fence line and demolish the mineral rich grasses growing there.
Julia mentions ‘your’s truly’ in her book and in particular in regards to ‘Smoothies’
I presume many of you have or still do on occasions, if not regularly, go out and pick a range of greens and put them into a high speed blender with a banana and wizz up a very beneficial brew.
The banana addition takes away some of the unpleasant taste of some plants and makes your drink very palatable.
Julia tells the story of how smoothies solved health issues that she once had as I found the same many years ago when I first started making smoothies from as many different plants as I could get my hands on.
Some plants are nice to eat raw and have flavors that make them appealing such as salad crops.
The rest including grasses are better taken raw in a smoothie.
Besides being of great benefit to your health another very good reason to find out what weeds you can eat is the unusual weather that has affected New Zealand recently.
Here is a update from a Food Producer in the Hawke’s Bay: ‘Hi everyone, food producer here. Just wanted to write an easily digestible post so people can understand how severe the destruction in H.B is for the whole of N.Z
The media aren’t really discussing it fully and people I speak to can’t seem to wrap their heads around how serious this is for us as a country.
What’s been lost: It’s called the fruit bowl for a reason, not just grapes and apples but also pears, onions, corn, carrots, blueberries, strawberries, honey, dairy, beef, sheep products including wool and also apiaries, nurseries and seed banks.
Wineries and orchards have had heritage trees and vines utterly wiped out. We’re talking 30-40-year-old plants gone. Countless bee hives and fields of crops buried under a metre of silt.
These aren’t just for fresh produce but also wine, vinegar, honey, bread and processed fruit and vegetables for things from muesli bars to ice cream and condiments.
The layer of silt now covering the once fertile land has been completely smothered. There’s so much cleaning up to be done before people can replant and fertilize it will take years to get back even close to normal.
In that time we’ll see massive shortages of all the above, affecting almost all food items you can think of.
A very apt warning and not only in NZ but also in many major food producing areas of the world, either through Floods or Droughts millions of acres of crops have been lost..
Think about that. You might want to start cultivating a few weeds for a ‘Rainy Day’.
Of course as we have seen this spring and summer a lack of blue skies with nice fluffy white clouds which has also greatly affected us home gardens as well as commercial growers.
Direct sun shine is what all plants use to create carbohydrates which is the energy that makes them grow, flower and produce seeds.
Hazy skies and cloud cover that prevents direct sunlight being available for plants and solar panels is a very big concern.
In 2006 this matter was brought up at the United Nations and the speech about it can be heard here
Well worth 18 minuets of your time to be better informed. (Now days they talk about ‘Planet Shading’ which would be a bit like a ‘Nuclear Winter’ no sun plants don’t grow.
Playing with weather or the ability to produce or prevent weather patterns is a fact and now days it is harder to determine what is natural and what is man made.
If severe weather events we have experienced are not natural then a lot of people that have been badly affected would not be very happy for sure.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
“Reseachers at the University of Leeds are demanding that governments re-introduce rationing schemes on goods like meat, clothing, and fuel in order to fight of climate change.
In a study published this week, the academics called for a return to World War II-style government rationing, arguing that it has been neglected as a policy option for mitigating so called climate change. They believe rationing could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and fairly…..” Newspunch.com
So how dumb do they think we are? We already know that farmers in certain parts of the world have been paid to plow under their crops. Governments world wide have been systematically destroying our food supplies for some time now.
We also know that dozens of food production plants have mysteriously burned to the ground (and yes they’ve ‘fact checked‘ that… nothing to see here). That for years the greedy monopolizing seed plunderers have been tweaking seeds so they don’t reproduce and you have to buy more. They’ve also been doing their darnedest to take eggs off the menu (and chickens so you can’t produce your own. See here also). Remember the GM golden rice fiasco never worked but they still push it? They want us to eat bugs, lab grown meat and milk and own nothing. Seriously.
For years we’ve pushed back on the climate ruse whilst they continue to peddle the lie.
If these criminals really cared about us all they would be encouraging us to grow food and keep chickens and livestock. They would also stop corporate profiteering and lower the taxes on lower income earners.
Our heart felt sympathy to all those that have suffered from the adverse weather events of recent.
It is already past the time that we needed to future proof ourselves and homes against adverse events be it weather, earthquakes or volcanoes.
Comments I saw this week were; ‘Our Government giving away tax payer money to Paris climate aid fund $1.3 billion over next 4 years. Utter stupidity, spend this on nz Infrastructure and recovery.’
A comment from a South Island group was ‘11.5 million dollars from the government for storm relief is AN INSULT…. They gave much more to Ukraine…SHAME on THEM…’
I see ’12/08/2022 Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said New Zealand had provided more than $33m in direct funding towards supporting Ukraine.’
Its nice to help people in other countries but there is an old saying, ‘Charity begins at home’
The meaning is ‘You should take care of your family and other people who live close to you before helping people who are living further away or in another country.’
The extensive damage to commercial food crops should be a wake up call for all of us.
Unfortunately we see the same overseas that major food growing areas in places such as Australia and California have been severely affected by either droughts or flooding.
Combine this with what is happening in Ukraine/Russia with grain and fertiliser exports then you don’t need a crystal ball to see the millions of people world wide that already have food shortages and are starving which is only getting worse by the day.
Crop losses from Pukekohe and Hawkes Bay are going to impact us this coming winter.
Already we see fresh produce is several times more expensive than this time last year.
About $5.00 for a lettuce, $9.00 for a Cauliflower and $9.00 for a kilo of tomatoes.
People on a tight budget cant afford those prices which means their health will suffer.
It is February and still not too late to get a winter garden going for when prices of produce such as a cabbage may no longer be $5.00 but well over $10 a head.
So time to reduce the size of your lawns, plant some vegetables into flower gardens, grab some containers and compost and get growing before it is too late.
If you want to convert a part of your lawn to vegetable growing then mow the chosen area (a sunny area is best by far) as short as possible (called scalping).
Around the lawn edge of this area dig a small trench about half a spade depth. The soil and grass from this trench can be stacked some where for future use.
The trench will assist with drainage and as a mowing strip between the vegetable garden and the existing lawn. Place the lawn clippings caught in the catcher over the scalped area. (Extra food for your vegetable crops).
Now cover the scalped lawn area that has the lawn clippings with a layer of cardboard or alternatively several layers of news paper. You can find cardboard from recycling places, super markets etc.
Sprinkle any animal manure you can get hold of or blood & bone with sheep manure pellets.
A sprinkling of Wallys BioPhos and Wally Ocean solids will complete the nutrient requirements.
Then over this place a layer of purchased compost which I prefer Daltons as it does not contain green waste and thus herbicide problems.
This layer need only be about 5cm thick just deep enough to plant seeds or seedlings in.
I suggest winter varieties of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, leeks, silverbeet, spring onions and spinach plant now as seedlings.
Sow seeds of carrots, parsnips, celery, bok choi, kohlrabi, onions, radish, swede and broad beans.
Any of the above you don’t normally eat then don’t bother growing them or only grow a few to try them.
Ones that you eat a lot of, then plant a good number of them.
There is no point at this time of the year to grow for succession as later plantings will not fare well with shorter day light hours and are likely to go to seed in the spring.
There is one more product you need and that is Wallys Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) which you will mix up with water and spray your seedlings weekly and your sown seeds before they are covered with compost.
When your seeds germinate spray their foliage also with MBL.
Your biggest decision will be how much lawn do you want to mow in the future as the bigger the area converted into growing vegetables will be invaluable to your wallet and health.
If you have a lot of lawn area then you could make a number of vegetable plots each about a meter wide with a strip of lawn in between each as a walk way.
One word of caution is try to keep your vegetable plots away from trees or larger shrubs as they will rob the nutrients from the beds. It will be ok for this season but likely not good for the next season.
For those with no lawns but having areas of concrete or cobbles then low raised gardens work a treat.
I have several of these which are Strong and durable hot dip galvanised steel construction and just ordered another two. Forget using wood it is expensive.
Best place on a concrete pad if there are trees or shrubs around.
You fill them about half full of compost and the other goodies as explained previously.
When a crop is harvested then your apply more goodies and cover with fresh compost and plant again.
Money well spent on getting new or existing vegetable plants going will be a big saving when you are struggling to be able to buy supermarket produce.
The health benefits to you and your family are enormous.
The catch word these days is ‘Food Security’, having a good supply of fresh vegetables, the surplus frozen or pickled along with ample non perishable foods in store for a rainy day.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
Did you hear about a NZ chicken farm burning recently? These people mean business … well documented now that our food supplies are being deliberately destroyed. Okay the NZ one may have been accidental but quite a coincidence when you see how many food production sources have been burned. Watch the Ice Age Farmer at his site of the same name. Farmers paid to plow under their crops. Still think it is conspiracy? EWR
From thecovidblog.com
Either this blogger has Nostradamus-like premonition, or the powers-that-be (“TPTB”) are so hubristically arrogant that their agendas are obvious to any critical thinker.
Eggs, particularly chicken eggs, may be some sort of superfood that TPTB do not want humans eating because it keeps them healthy. Food for thought (pun intended).
There now appears to be some truth to the foregoing premise – truth that goes a lot deeper than just eating omelettes and Eggs Benedict for good health.
We reported last week how numerous farmers are blaming commercial chicken feed for their hens suddenly not laying eggs. The brands Dumors, Producers Pride, and Purina, sold via retail chain Tractor Supply Company, are reportedly the culprits causing the problem. Mike Adams at Natural News, announced that he will be testing those brands for heavy metals and other toxins that may be causing the hens to cease egg production.
TPTB want all of humanity eating bugs on a regular basis by the year 2030. The strategy entails both classical conditioning and vilifying real food in favor of bugs and “frankenfoods.”
All of the coincidences with food processing plants and farm animals being destroyed since 2020 are dismissed as “conspiracy theory” by mainstream and social media. But whenever the tentacles of Bill Gates touch anything, it means sinister, evil motives.
NOTE: Due to censorship Dr Mercola’s articles are archived to paid sub soon after publication, in which case the source link may no longer work. The article however is republished here in its entirety. EWR
Story at-a-glance
Egg prices have more than doubled compared to what they were a year ago, with a median cost of $4.25 for a dozen
As of January 2023, more than 58 million birds in 47 states have been killed due to avian flu outbreaks
The egg shortage began amidst a series of mysterious fires and other disasters at U.S. food processors
Some farmers have stated chicken feed made by Purina may have been altered to contain lower amounts of protein and minerals, leaving chickens unable to lay eggs
A report from the Rockefeller Foundation, released in July 2020 and predicting a coming food crisis, calls for the creation of a centralized “nutrition security system”
If the price of eggs has you seriously considering starting your own backyard flock, you’re not alone. Egg prices have more than doubled compared to what they were a year ago, with a median cost of $4.25 for a dozen.1
Many assume rising inflation is to blame, but the official narrative states avian flu, affecting up to 58 million birds, is the more likely cause.2 Another theory has surfaced from chicken farmers who have linked problems with egg laying to a certain brand of chicken feed.3 It’s also curious timing, as the egg shortage began amidst a series of mysterious fires and other disasters at U.S. food processors.
US Pledged to ‘Increase and Disseminate Food Shortages’
It’s relevant to note that in March 2022, President Biden openly stated food shortages are “going to be real.”4 He also said he spoke with European allies about “how we could increase, and disseminate more rapidly, food shortages.”5 Although it’s now been largely scrubbed from the internet, the statement wasn’t corrected by the White House. It circulated on social media, prompting Facebook to immediately flag it as fake news.
Whether the statement was the result of jumbling words or the revelation of something much more sinister is up for debate — as is the series of strange accidents at U.S. food processors that occurred in its wake. Here’s just a sampling:
March 13, 2022 — A Hot Pockets plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was shut down after a fire started inside a production line cooler.6
March 16, 2022 — A massive fire at a Walmart fulfillment center in Plainfield, Indiana, caused the closure of the facility. In April, the company announced it would not be reopening the facility, affecting the jobs of 1,132 employees.7
March 28, 2022 — A fire at Maricopa Food Pantry in Maricopa, Arizona, led to the destruction of more than 50,000 pounds of food.8
March 31, 2022 — Rio Fresh, an onion warehouse facility in south Texas, was damaged by a structure fire.9
April 11, 2022 — A fire broke out at East Conway Beef & Pork in Conway, New Hampshire, destroying the building and killing two cows.10
April 13, 2022 — A plane crashed into the Gem State processing facility in Heyburn, Idaho.11
April 13, 2022 — A four-alarm fire occurred at Taylor Farms in Salinas, California, drawing nearly 100 firefighters from 22 fire units. The facility was in the process of restarting operations after being closed for the winter.12
April 18, 2022 — The headquarters of Azure Standard in Dufur, Oregon, was destroyed in a fire. Azure Standard the largest independent distributor of organic and health foods in the U.S.13
February 4, 2023 — A fire at Hillandale Farms in Connecticut, which is owned by one of the largest egg producers in the U.S., killed an estimated 100,000 hens.14
Official Narrative Blames ‘Record’ Levels of Avian Flu
If you’re curious about why egg prices are rising — and egg shortages are occurring in some areas — you need look no further than the record number of chickens killed due to avian flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.15
Previously, the largest avian flu outbreak recorded occurred in 2015, when 50.5 million birds in 21 states were affected. However, 2022 marked a new record for dead birds in one year, when the number hit 52.7 million.16 By January 2023, more than 58 million birds in 47 states had been impacted in this outbreak.17
“I’m hopeful that this is not the new normal for us,” Richard Webby, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals, told NPR.18
While some of the chickens died from the disease, most were culled to prevent further spread of the virus. Webby blamed the outbreak on wild birds, not those raised on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs):19
“We don’t know exactly what it is about it, but it does seem just to be able to grow and transmit better in wild birds. Wild birds are the perfect mechanism to spread a virus because they, of course, fly everywhere.”
It does seem strange to describe wild birds as the “perfect mechanism to spread a virus,” without also pointing out that quick viral spread is virtually guaranteed on every CAFO, where birds are literally on top of each other. Still, it’s plausible that widespread avian flu could have led to chicken shortages and, therefore, egg shortages, which led to increased prices.
Anecdotal reports vary, however, about how severe egg shortages are in different areas. While some have experienced eggs disappearing from grocery store shelves, others haven’t noticed a decrease in supply at their local stores. The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that culling of chickens due to avian flu has led to a 7.5% drop in domestic egg supply each month since the outbreak began in 2022.20
Is Altered Chicken Feed to Blame?
Another theory is also circulating online — and it’s quickly been “fact-checked” and dubbed a conspiracy by the powers that be.21 It comes straight from the farmers’ mouths, however, with many noticing their hens producing significantly fewer eggs than normal.
It was suggested that chicken feed made by Purina may have been altered to contain lower amounts of protein and minerals, leaving chickens unable to lay eggs. Some farmers even stated that their hens began laying again after they switched from commercial feed to locally produced feed.
A spokesperson for Land O’Lakes, parent company of Purina Animal Nutrition, stated there have been no formulation changes to Purina chicken feed products,22 while others have called for an investigation into what could represent a potential public health and national security crisis.
Rockefeller Foundation Predicted Food Crisis
If you gain control of the food supply, you gain control of the people. This is why any threat to food freedom and security should prompt immediate alarm and calls for the protection of localized, regenerative agriculture.
It’s curious that a report from the Rockefeller Foundation, released in July 2020 and predicting a coming food crisis, hasn’t received more attention, however — especially since its solution centered on the creation of a centralized “nutrition security system.”23
A centralized food system benefits no one but those who control it, and puts consumers at risk. Will Harris, a regenerative farming pioneer who runs White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, explained:24
“The centralization of food production impoverishes our rural communities as it creates an oligopoly. This centralization of food production is also bad for consumers. This system lacks resilience.
When mega-production facilities that are focused on efficiency break down, consumers’ access to food can become limited, which causes panic. This state of panic allows multinational companies to increase their profits exponentially. When the driving goal of our food production system is efficiency, as opposed to resiliency, consumers suffer.”
Their report, “Reset the Table,”25 was published just one month after the World Economic Forum (WEF) officially announced its plans for a “Great Reset,” and many of the contributors to the Foundation’s paper are WEF members.26 They intend for the current food system to fall apart, so they can then “solve” the problem by introducing a new system based on patented lab-grown synthetic and genetically engineered foods, along with massive insect farms.
‘Resetting the Table’ Puts Food Security at Risk
The Rockefeller Foundation states, “America faces a hunger and nutrition crisis unlike any this country has seen in generations.”27 The Foundation’s “Reset the Table” report calls for “meeting the moment to transform the U.S. food system”28 in order to solve the food crisis. But as The Corbett Report put it:29
“And their proposed solution to this crisis? Subsidies for small farmers? Development of community gardens? A new food sovereignty campaign encouraging people to get their hands dirty and start growing more food themselves?
Of course not. On the contrary, the Rockefeller Foundation wants a further centralization of control over the food supply, including ‘a new, integrated nutrition security system.’ Yes, you read that right, folks: feeding the hungry is now a ‘nutrition security’ problem that can only be solved by massive federal intervention in the food sector.”
If the Rockefeller Foundation having its hands in your ability to purchase the food you need to feed your family doesn’t sit well with you, you’re in good company. A look back at the Rockefeller Foundation’s forays into agriculture reveal why we don’t want history to repeat itself. As Corbett reported:30
“They created the Mexican Agricultural Program, which was criticized from its very inception for trying to standardize and commercialize traditional Mexican farming practices in order to benefit of the Rockefellers and their corporate cronies.
They created the International Basic Economy Corporation in Brazil to industrialize that nation’s agricultural sector, with the explicit aim of hooking its farmers on expensive machinery and Rockefeller petroleum products and finding a sustainable business model in the process.
It was John D. Rockefeller III who, when sitting on the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, convinced his fellow oligarchs to join the ‘Green Revolution’ by founding the Intensive Agriculture District Programme in India, which exacerbated the disparity between rich feudal landowners and poor farming peasants.
And then of course there’s the Rockefeller’s work in Africa, which today takes the form of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. AGRA’s stated goal is to “elevate the single African voice” on the world stage.
It all sounds nice and fuzzy until you learn that 200 organizations have come together to denounce the alliance and its activities. They claim that the group has not only ‘unequivocally failed in its mission’ but has actually ‘harmed broader efforts to support African farmers.'”
Who and What Else Are Angling to Control Food?
Egg prices reaching unprecedented highs presents a hardship for many working households — but is irrelevant to the likes of Bill Gates — another major player in the quest to control the food supply.
Gates owns more farmland than anyone else in the U.S.31 and was an early backer of fake foods like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat.32 The acreage seems earmarked for GE corn and soy crops — the base foods for what will become an increasingly synthetic, ultraprocessed food supply make up of imitation meat and dairy.
The strong recommendation to replace beef with fake meat is also made in Gates’ book,33 a recommendation that stems from an overreaching theme of arrogance and the desire for recolonization and a global empire.
The EAT Forum, co-founded by the Wellcome Trust, also developed a Planetary Health Diet that’s designed to be applied to the global population and entails cutting meat and dairy intake by up to 90%, replacing it largely with foods made in laboratories, along with cereals and plant oils.34
In the U.S., the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), an advisory board to USAID, is also on board, calling for a global transformation of agriculture and the food supply to include, among other things, “the promotion of insects as sustainable sources of proteins.” Referring to a BIFAD working paper, Corbett explains:35
“USAID’s ‘leverage’ over developing countries — specifically referenced no less than 125 times — gives an insight into the Kissingerian food-as-a-weapon mentality that is the very basis of USAID and its mission. The entire enterprise reeks of a neocolonial landgrab masquerading as ‘philanthropy’ — the kind of territorial taking that people in Africa and elsewhere have been warning about for decades.”
Get Prepared for Survival
At some point in time, the globalist cabal will start using food to control people’s behavior. So, it’s always best to have the resources on hand to survive, including becoming more self-sufficient in the short-term. By creating alternative parallel food systems locally, outside of the globalists’ control, it builds long-term independence. Basic suggestions to build your own food security safety net include:
Secure a potable water source and the means to purify less-than-ideal water sources
Buy shelf-stable and nonperishable foods in bulk
Buy energy backups, such as gas-powered generators and/or solar generator kits like Jackery or Inergy
Get cooking backups such as solar cookers, small rocket stoves, propane-powered camping stoves and 12-volt pots and pans that you can plug into a backup battery
Start a garden and learn some basic food production skills; in terms of fighting back against high egg prices and egg shortages, raising your own flock is by far your best option
Even better, consider joining a community of like-minded individuals who share your concerns about food security and have already developed the skills of growing food. You can contribute your skills to make the community even stronger
While everyone has been distracted by the CV-fraud, many other aspects of the globalists’ agenda have been cooking in the background. One of them is the removal of poultry and eggs from the food supply.
The so-called Avian Flu is being used as the excuse to cull hundreds of millions of birds. It may be a surprise to some people that this is essentially a reboot of a narrative that was first tested two decades ago.
In 2005, a publication blew apart the fraudulent science used to invent a non-existent pandemic. Let’s have a look at the paper they don’t want you to know about as they attempt to take away your chickens.
Hammering the eggs again. I heard the other day also that tying your shoelaces can have a detrimental effect on your heart. Seriously. It was in mainstream news. Here is one article, if you search for yourself plenty more can be found. I’m wondering why they didn’t warn us of this long ago? Mysterious isn’t it? Anyway, according to the davos boys eggs (& keeping chickensparticularly roosters) should be off the menu. EWR
Remember to make a submission … sure they don’t listen anyway, however, why roll over & give them free reign? Big Pharma is coming for all that is useful, healthful and free in your life. EWR
The sweet and spicy aroma of cinnamon makes it one of the world’s top spices. It’s been valued for its flavor and powerful health properties since at least 2800 BC.
Modern research has confirmed many important health benefits of cinnamon. Studies show that it contains powerful plant compounds that have an anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic effect. Consuming cinnamon regularly can also help your heart and brain health.
Here’s more about what makes this everyday spice so powerful and the proven benefits for your health.
The Fascinating History of Cinnamon
Cinnamon comes from the bark of Cinnamomum trees. These trees are native to regions of Southeast Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Vietnam are the four top exporters of cinnamon today.
To make the rolled up cinnamon quills you buy in the store, the outer bark of the trees has to be stripped to reveal the inner bark. The inner bark is then shaved and allowed to dry. As it dries, it rolls up into the familiar shape of cinnamon sticks.
To say that cinnamon has been valued since ancient times would be an understatement. It’s mentioned several times in the Bible as part of a sacred anointing oil and was used in ancient Egypt for embalming.
Cinnamon also used to be extremely expensive, even to the point of being an acceptable gift to give royalty. Celyon, the island “homeland” of the most valuable type of cinnamon, passed through many different hands as several countries fought to control the trade for this in-demand spice.
Readers that have followed my weekly columns and books will be well aware of how I have combined gardening with health.
I know that naturally grown vegetables and fruit will be very beneficial to your health and well being and when you add all the 114 known minerals to the growing media then the same food plants will be super healthy and taste so good.
The minerals can be obtained from using Wallys Unlocking your soil (minerals from rocks) Wallys Ocean Solids (Minerals from the blue waters of the ocean) and Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL which is minerals from prehistoric times).
The most benefit from your produce is obtained by eating raw or only lightly cooked.
The fast way to obtain maximum goodness is by converting healthy foliage into a drink we call ‘smoothies’
This is achieved with a very high speed blender which smashes the molecules of the plant material used allowing for easy assimilation into your body when you drink the green liquid.
Take the leaves of edible plants such as lettuce, carrot tops, celery, wheat or barley grass, silverbeet etc.
There are also a number of weeds that are edible such as Puha or Rauriki, dandelion and Stinging nettles.
Every plant has some beneficial properties even ones that are not normally eaten.
For instance there are about 3 or 4 different coloured carrots you can grow and each one has their own health benefits.
I always add a banana to my smoothies as it gives a nice palatable flavour.
We know that for thousands of years people in different areas of the planet learnt about plants growing in their area which they could use for their health and medical purposes.
I read one time that there is a plant or plants some where on the planet that will cure any ills of humans; in some cases we just have not found that plant yet or have the knowledge of how to use it.
Much of the pharmaceutical medicines was originally found through the old remedies of various plants people had used for generations.
The original chemists had jars of all sorts of dried plants and minerals which they would use to make up the concoctions that added recovery from sickness.
We hear about Chinese medicines, Indian medicines and even Maori medicines most of which were derived from locally grown plants and herbs.
A problem arises as Big Pharma cannot make money out of natural remedies as they cannot be patient. So if you know your herbs and herbal lore the poor pharmaceutical companies are not able to take your money with their concoctions.
Recently we saw during the holiday break our beloved Govt once again trying to implement a bill to ban the traditional use of herbs and plants for your well being. This is their third attempt at doing so and again removing another of your rights to be able to treat yourself and look after your own heath.
The Therapeutic Products Bill replaces the Medicines Act 1981 and Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985 with a comprehensive regulatory regime that is (said to be) fit for the future.
Labour having failed twice in the past to pass legislation because of public outcry are using a different tact to make it happen..’The Bill establishes a new regulator within Manat Hauora – Ministry of Health, headed by an independent statutory officer,
with a wider remit than the medicines regulator Medsafe.’
This person can deem any plant, herb, fruit and vegetable as beneficial to your health and thus ban the use of it, the growing of it and the import of it.
The only benefit of this has to be for the pharmaceutical companies and removes our freedom of choice to take what is traditionally safe natural remedies to what are often not safe pharmaceutical medicines.
In 2017 Labour opted for a prohibited list of 300 common herbal ingredients.
More well know on these included Aloe Vera, Comfrey, Belladonna, Hibiscus, Jasmine, Snowdrop, Juniper, Mustard, Worm wood, Cinnamon, Almond, Grapeseed, Ipomoea, Neem, Eggplant, senna and Valerian.
Many of these plants, herbs and spices like Cinnamon, Mustard are currently sold in shops. So how on earth did they get onto a prohibited list?
The answer lies in attempts to gain control of our food supply.
Natural products that are beneficial to health cannot be patented, but synthetic copies can be.
To make this work, the products that grow in gardens need to be banned.
Already I see Senna which is a natural aid for constipation is not easily obtainable in NZ.
Labour and the Ministry of Health did not make this list up, the list was supplied by the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA) of which Medsafe is a member.
ICMRA is largely funded by the pharmaceutical industry whose interests they serve.
If we wish to be able to continue to freely chose herbal medicines and supplements without government interference, we will need to speak up.
Write to your MP and complain that the appointment of a regulator amounts to an open ended blank cheque to control the use of products used by more than 50% of our population without fully specifying the principles he should use.
Many of us do not realise what uses there are for many plants we grow in our gardens and while researching for this article I discovered https://medicinalseedkit.com/kit/
Have a look, I was amazed the wealth of information that is there.
For instance Chicory : This is the wild plant that Native Americans used to look for more than any other.
They’d harvest and use chicory to make a natural painkilling extract for a wide range of physical discomforts, especially stiff and achy joints. And so can you!
The root is rich in chicoric acid (CA), a plant compound with potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties but no risk of addiction.
If our pharmacies ever run dry, having even a small patch of chicory growing in your own backyard will provide relief. There are many more such as:
Chamomile – The Natural Antibiotic
Evening Primrose – A Natural Remedy for Skin and Nerves
California Poppy – Better Than Sleeping Pills
Feverfew– Nature’s Aspirin for Fevers and Migraines
Knowledge is power over your destiny and well being and it should never be taken away from you by Government regulations not in our interest.
I have on both counts and if you would like a copy of the email I sent to most of the Labour MP’s just ask and I will send you the copy.
You can alter it to suit and use it in your words to the MP’s.
If enough people complain then you maybe we will be still able to still grow your lemon tree (good for colds).
No more broccoli (Some kids will be happy) as it is a great source of antioxidants and may enhance your health by reducing inflammation, improving blood sugar control, boosting immunity, and promoting heart health.
Why Is Broccoli a Superfood? fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, and potassium.
The list goes on.
Phone 0800 466464 Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
Really, this is what we already learned from our grandmothers who lived by ‘waste not want not’. I always smile when I see these ‘revolutionary’ ideas that are really recycled ideas our forbears practiced centuries ago. Recycled now as ‘sustainable’ which also happens to be the globalists’ catch word… a good reminder nevertheless, all that aside … to waste not and want not. Especially right now that the said globalists are paying farmers to plow under their crops. EWR
From foodrevolutionnetwork.org
Summary
There’s a new environmental trend in the food industry, with a funny name: upcycling. Basically, it means taking ingredients that would otherwise have been thrown out, and turning them into or using them in new food products. But are upcycled foods safe? Are they healthy? Can you actually make good food out of those scraps and byproducts? And can it really help save the planet?
Have you ever made bread crumbs out of stale bread, and used them for stuffing? If so, congratulations: You’re an upcycler! Ditto if you’ve turned overripe bananas into banana bread, or vegetable scraps into soup stock.
Your stuffing, banana bread, and soup may have been delicious, but did you also pat yourself on the back for being environmentally conscious and helping fight climate change? By keeping those items in your food supply, you didn’t have to buy more, and you kept them out of landfills.
While many environmental organizations focus on transportation and energy consumption as the main contributors to climate change, the US food system is actually one of the most significant drivers of greenhouse gas emissions. So anything you can do to reduce the carbon footprint of your diet (like eating less or no meat) is a win for the planet.
Upcycling can be simple if you’re doing it in your own kitchen, but it’s also happening at scale, in more and more industrial food settings. Many companies are releasing upcycled food products carrying environmental claims to address growing consumer concerns about planetary health. But upcycling is a fairly new term when applied to food, first gaining popularity in 2021, in the wake of increased concern for the planet that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic.
So if you see an upcycled certification on a food item, does that mean you should buy it? Is upcycled food good for you or the planet, or just corporate greenwashing? And what are some ways to increase upcycling within your own home economics?
What Does Upcycled Food Mean?
Let’s start by defining the term. Upcycling basically means finding new, higher-value uses for items that would otherwise go to waste. It is distinct from recycling, which is when something is broken down into base materials and then turned into new products (like aluminum cans that are melted and go on to become new aluminum cans, or plastic bottles that become fleece fabric).
Examples of ingredients that can be upcycled include sub-grade produce (i.e., bruised apples, carrots that look like horror movie monsters, and misshapen tomatoes); scraps from food preparation (like onion skins and potato peels); and byproducts from food processing.
The first two categories are pretty straightforward. A tomato that’s too ugly to sell in a grocery store can still taste delicious in a sauce or on a frozen pizza. The Ugly Company turns misshapen fruit into “Hello, I’m Ugly” dried fruit snacks. And discarded scraps can be used as-is in formulations for soup and sauces. But what about byproducts? What do they consist of?
Think of food products that contain ingredients that come from plants — but aren’t the whole plant. For example, fruit juice comes from fruit but leaves behind fiber. Tofu is made from soybeans but consists of just curds. If you’ve ever made tofu at home, you’ve had to deal with (toss or repurpose) the remaining fiber-rich pulp, also known as okara.
So what happens to the parts of those raw ingredients that don’t make it into the product that ends up on the supermarket shelf? At worst, they become garbage in a landfill. At best, until recently, maybe they became compost for farms, ingredients for industrial processes, or feed for livestock.
But these remnants of food production can also live again as ingredients in upcycled foods. The pulp that remains when juice is pressed can add fiber to other foods. The okara left over from making tofu can be turned into veggie patties and other types of faux meat. Upcycling these byproducts can be a way to reduce food waste and help fight climate change by keeping food out of landfills.
Two of the most harmful ingredients in processed foods are high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil, whether partially hydrogenated, organic, or made from newer soybean varieties modified in such a way as to not require hydrogenation
Completely unnatural man-made fats created through the partial hydrogenation process cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and studies have linked trans-fats to health problems ranging from obesity and diabetes to reproductive problems and heart disease
Besides the health hazards related to the trans fats created by the partial hydrogenation process, soybean oil is, in and of itself, NOT a healthy oil
Add to that the fact that the majority of soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered, and as a result saturated with dangerous levels of the herbicide glyphosate, which may have additional health consequences as there are no long term safety studies
When taken together, partially hydrogenated GE soybean oil becomes one of the absolute worst types of oils you can consume
The genetically engineered (GE) variety planted on over 90% of U.S. soy acres is Roundup Ready engineered to survive being doused with otherwise lethal amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (glyphosate). GE soybeans have been found to contain residue levels as high as 17 mg/kg, and malformations in frog and chicken embryos have occurred at just over 2 mg/kg
Processed food is perhaps the most damaging aspect of most people’s diets, contributing to poor health and chronic disease. One of the primary culprits is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the dangers of which I touch on in virtually every article I write on diets. The second culprit is partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
These two ingredients, either alone or in combination, can be found in virtually all processed foods, and one can make a compelling argument that the reliance on these two foods is a primary contributing factor for most of the degenerative diseases attacking Americans today.
Part of the problem with partially hydrogenated soybean oil is the trans fat it contains. The other part relates to the health hazards of soy itself. An added hazard factor is the fact that the majority of both corn and soybeans are genetically engineered.
As the negative health effects from trans fats have been identified and recognized, the agricultural and food industry have scrambled to come up with new alternatives. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil has been identified as the main culprit, and for good reason.
Unfortunately, saturated fats are still mistakenly considered unhealthy by many health “experts,” so, rather than embracing truly healthful tropical fats like coconut oil, which is mostly grown outside the U.S., the food industry has instead turned to domestic U.S. alternatives offered by companies like Monsanto, now Bayer (which bought out Monsanto in 2018), which has developed modified soybeans that don’t require hydrogenation.
Why Hydrogenate?
Americans consume more than 16 million metric tons of edible oils annually, and soybean oil accounts for about 11,339 metric tons of it.1 Until Monsanto genetically engineered its seeds to produce plants lower in linolenic acid, about half of it was hydrogenated, as regular soybean oil is too unstable otherwise to be used in food manufacturing.
One of the primary reasons for hydrogenating oil is to prolong its shelf life. Raw butter, for example, is likely to go rancid far quicker than margarine. The process also makes the oil more stable and raises its melting point, which allows it to be used in various types of food processing that uses high temperatures.
Hydrogenated oil2 is made by forcing hydrogen gas into the oil at high pressure. Virtually any oil can be hydrogenated. Margarine is a good example, in which nearly half of the fat content is trans fat.
The process that creates partially hydrogenated oil alters the chemical composition of essential fatty acids, such as reducing or removing linolenic acid, a highly reactive triunsaturated fatty acid, transforming it into the far less reactive linoleic acid, thereby greatly preventing oxidative rancidity when used in cooking.
In the late 1990s, researchers began realizing this chemical alteration might actually have adverse health effects. Since then, scientists have verified this to the point of no dispute.
Be aware that there’s a difference between “fully hydrogenated” and “partially hydrogenated” oils. Whereas partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fat, fully hydrogenated oil does not, as taking the hydrogenation process “all the way” continues the molecular transformation of the fatty acids from trans fat into saturated fatty acids.
Fully hydrogenated soybean oil is still not a healthy choice, however, for reasons I’ll explain below. The following slide presentation explains the technical aspects relating to the hydrogenation process.
The Health Hazards of Trans Fats
The completely unnatural man-made fats created through the partial hydrogenation process cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and studies have linked trans-fats to:
Cancer, by interfering with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer
Chronic health problems such as obesity, asthma, auto-immune disease, cancer and bone degeneration
Diabetes, by interfering with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes
Heart disease, by clogging your arteries (Among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans-fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!)
Decreased immune function, by reducing your immune response
Increased blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol
Reproductive problems by interfering with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones
Interfering with your body’s use of beneficial omega-3 fats
As usual, it took many years before conventional health recommendations caught up and began warning about the use of trans fats. Not surprisingly, as soon as the FDA notified them that it planned to require food manufacturers to list trans fat content on the label — which ultimately took effect January 1, 2006 — the industry began searching for viable alternatives to appeal to consumers who increasingly began looking for the “no trans fat” designation.
It didn’t take long before Monsanto had tinkered forth a genetically engineered soybean that is low in linolenic acid, which we’ll get to in a moment.
Be aware that some food manufacturers have opted to simply fool buyers — a tactic allowed by the FDA, as any product containing up to half a gram of trans fat per serving can still legally claim to have zero trans fat.3 The trick is to reduce the serving size to bring it below this threshold. At times, this will result in unreasonably tiny serving sizes, so any time you check a label and a serving is something like 10 chips or one cookie, it probably contains trans fats.
The Health Hazards of Soybeans
Besides the health hazards related to the trans fats created by the partial hydrogenation process, soybean oil is, in and of itself, NOT a healthy oil. Add to that the fact that the majority of soy grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered, which may have additional health consequences. When taken together, partially hydrogenated GE soybean oil becomes one of the absolute worst types of oils you can consume.
Years ago, tropical oils, such as palm and coconut oil, were commonly used in American food production. However, these are obviously not grown in the U.S., as with the exception of Hawaii, our climate isn’t tropical enough. Spurred by financial incentives, the industry devised a plan to shift the market from tropical oils to something more “home grown.”
As a result, a movement was created to demonize and vilify tropical oils in order to replace them with domestically grown oils such as corn and soy.
The fat in soybean oil is primarily omega-6 fat. And while we do need some omega-6, it is rare for anyone to be deficient in it, as it is pervasive in our diet. Americans in general consume FAR too much omega-6 in relation to omega-3 fat, primarily due to the excessive amount of omega-6 found in processed foods.
Omega-6 fats are in nearly every animal food and many plants, so deficiencies are very rare. This omega-6 fat is also highly processed and therefore damaged, which compounds the problem of getting so much of it in your diet. The omega-6 found in soybean oil promotes chronic inflammation in your body, which is an underlying issue for virtually all chronic diseases.
What About Organic Soybean Oil?
Even if you were fortunate enough to find organic soybean oil, there are still several significant concerns that make it far from attractive from a health standpoint. Soy in and of itself, organically grown or not, contains a number of problematic components that can wreak havoc with your health, such as:
• Goitrogens — Goitrogens, found in all unfermented soy whether it’s organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism, thereby interfering with your thyroid function.
• Isoflavones: genistein and daidzein — Isoflavones are a type of phytoestrogen, which is a plant compound resembling human estrogen, which is why some recommend using soy therapeutically to treat symptoms of menopause. I believe the evidence is highly controversial and doubt it works.
Typically, most of us are exposed to too many estrogen compounds and have a lower testosterone level than ideal, so it really is important to limit exposure to feminizing phytoestrogens. Even more importantly, there’s evidence it may disturb endocrine function, cause infertility and promote breast cancer, which is definitely a significant concern.
• Phytic acid — Phytates (phytic acid) bind to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc — all of which are co-factors for optimal biochemistry in your body. This is particularly problematic for vegetarians, because eating meat reduces the mineral-blocking effects of these phytates.
Sometimes it can be beneficial, especially in postmenopausal women and in most adult men because we tend to have levels of iron that are too high, which can be a very potent oxidant and cause biological stress. However, phytic acid does not necessarily selectively inhibit just iron absorption; it inhibits all minerals. This is very important to remember, as many already suffer from mineral deficiencies from inadequate diets.
The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.
• Natural toxins known as “anti-nutrients” — Soy also contains other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, protease inhibitors, and oxalates. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein. While a small amount of anti-nutrients would not likely cause a problem, the amount of soy that many Americans are now eating is extremely high.
• Hemagglutinin — Hemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together. These clumped cells are unable to properly absorb and distribute oxygen to your tissues.
Worst of All — Genetically Engineered Soybean Oil
The genetically engineered (GE) variety planted on over 90% of US soy acres is Roundup Ready — engineered to survive being doused with otherwise lethal amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. The logic behind Roundup Ready crops such as soy is that you can decrease the cost of production by killing off everything except the actual soy plant.
However, animal studies reveal there may be significant adverse health effects from these GE soybeans, including progressively increased rates of infertility with each passing generation. By the third generation, virtually all the hamsters in one feeding study were found to be infertile. Second-generation hamsters raised on GE soy also had a fivefold higher infant mortality rate.
Are Low-Linolenic Soybeans the Answer?
We now also have other Monsanto-made soy crops to contend with. Responding to the growing demand for healthier diets, Monsanto launched Vistive low-linolenic soybeans in 2005. Most soybeans contain roughly 7% linolenic acid. The new varieties contain 1% to 3%, which reduces the need for hydrogenation.4 As explained by Monsanto:5
“Farmers are not the only beneficiaries of Monsanto’s efforts … Consumers will also benefit from the healthier crops that could result, such as soybeans that are low in linolenic acid. Linolenic acid, a precursor to trans fats, may contribute to cardiovascular disease … Low-linolenic soybeans reduce the need for hydrogenation in food processing, helping to reduce the amount of trans fats in processed foods.”
Yet another soybean variety created by Monsanto is the high stearate soybean, which also has the properties of margarine and shortening without hydrogenation. But are these soybeans any better or safer than either conventional soybeans or Roundup Ready soybeans, even though they don’t have to go through partial hydrogenation, and therefore do not contain trans fat? No one knows.
Another Hazard of GE Soybeans: Glyphosate
I keep stacking health risks upon health risks, and here’s another one: Research has shown that soybean oil from Roundup Ready soy is loaded with glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup — the broad-spectrum herbicide created by Monsanto.
According to a report in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the highest MRL for glyphosate in food and feed products in the EU is 20 mg/kg. GE soybeans have been found to contain residue levels as high as 17 mg/kg, and malformations in frog and chicken embryos occurred at 2.03 mg/kg.6 That’s 10 times lower than the MRL.
This is an alarming finding because glyphosate is easily one of the world’s most overlooked poisons. Research published in 2010 showed that the chemical, which works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase that is necessary for plants to grow, causes birth defects in frogs and chicken embryos at far lower levels than used in agricultural and garden applications.7 The malformations primarily affected the:
Skull
Face
Midline and developing brain
Spinal cord
When applied to crops, glyphosate becomes systemic throughout the plant, so it cannot be washed off. And, once you eat this crop, the glyphosate ends up in your gut where it can decimate your beneficial bacteria. This can wreak havoc with your health, as 80% of your immune system resides in your gut (GALT, or Gut Associated Lymph Tissue) and is dependent on a healthy ratio of good and bad bacteria. Separate research has also uncovered the following effects from glyphosate:
Endocrine disruption
DNA damage
Developmental toxicity
Neurotoxicity
Reproductive toxicity
Cancer
To Avoid Harmful Fats, Ditch Processed Foods
If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. From there, use these tips to make sure you’re eating the right fats for your health:
Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.
Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.
Be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, olive oil, olives, organic pastured eggs and raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts which are relatively low in protein. Also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.
Following my comprehensive nutrition plan will automatically reduce your trans-fat intake, as it will give you a guide to focus on healthy whole foods instead of processed junk food.
Remember, virtually all processed foods will contain either HFCS (probably made from genetically engineered corn) and/or soybean oil — either in the form of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is likely made from GE soybeans, loaded with glyphosate, or from one of the newer soybean varieties that were created such that the y do not need to be hydrogenated. They’re ALL bad news, if you value your health.
Below is an article also on topic. If you go to this link also you will see multiple other articles to read, each digging deeper into specific health benefits … heart, memory, longevity and more. EWR
Here it is Christmas day and I am writing this short weekly article today because I was too busy yesterday mowing lawns and tidying up gardens for Christmas.
So I hope you are having a pleasant day and a chance to hopefully forget the woes of the past year.
As the Chinese say, ‘Have an Interesting Life’ which some take as a curse because an interesting life is not an easy one.
It is full of problems as well as good times which in comparison a life without the ups and downs is very boring.
As us gardeners know, problems are just challenges in the garden, things to resolve and sort out.
Having successes against the odds is wonderful and very satisfying.
I always get a thrill when seeds I have sown burst forth as young seedlings out of the growing media.
Life has been born anew.
As I wrote a week or two ago this summer so far has been dismal with too many cloudy skies and too few blue skies.
I see today in Marton we have some blue in between the clouds so that means some direct sunlight.
That will make the farmers & commercial growers happy as they are looking for growth.
I am happy to say that my first vine ripened tomatoes were picked this week and were delicious.
That’s a lot better than paying between $7.99 and $8.49 a kilo from Supermarkets.
I have been eating and giving away cucumbers both telegraph and green types which I see are selling for $2.00 to $2.90 each.
Lettuce at this time of the year should be about a dollar each but no they are closer to $4.00 each.
So hopefully if you have been following my articles over the last period of time you will also be enjoying your own salad crops. More possibly so if you have a glasshouse.
This now is my third year of growing garlic and no garlic rust thanks to the cell strengthening products.
I scoured seed/cloves from about 3-4 places for planting and the best certainly was the big fat cloves which I can feel in the soil have produced good size bulbs.
A few have started to flower so cut the flower spike off so all the goodness will go into the bulbs.
No hurry to lift them yet so will leave until the tops show signs of dying back.
Sprays weekly with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) with Mycorrcin added will help produce better crops on all vegetables.
I smiled the other night about the shortage of strawberries this time of the year that I saw on the News.
I have big beautiful strawberries rich in flavour available as a dessert every couple of nights of the week.
That’s thanks to regular sprays of Mycorrcin and MBL along with an occasional feed of My Secret Strawberry food.
I have to go harvest a few shortly to put on the pavlova.
When we purchased this place in Marton a few years ago I was so surprised that an old 1920 house on a quarter acre section did not have one fruit tree, not even a standard (must have) lemon tree.
Well on last count I have now 36 fruit trees and two brambles.
(Some were in 100 litre drums from Palmerston North) moved here and are still sitting happily in their drums which makes them easy to move around. In the open ground I added more varieties of fruit trees and ones in their third season are now producing nice small crops.
I will have to keep them under control in time to come; so there is not a jungle of fruit trees.
On the back by the rear fence is a giant macrocarpa, must be many years old and along the same fence line on the other side are some ornamental deciduous trees which send up suckers all over the place.
This means that no open ground vegetable gardens as they would be robbed of goodness during first season.
Instead all vegetable gardens are raised and on concrete to prevent robber roots.
My challenge this year is to have as much vegetables growing all year round to ensure food safety as much as possible, plus far better taste and healthier to eat than the chemically grown expensive vegetables from the supermarket.
Also I will once again try to establish a passion fruit vine, this time in a lean to glasshouse I have.
It has been about 50 years since I last had a successful passion fruit vine growing in a place I lived.
Not that I don’t try every so often.
Mind you 50 years ago in Palmerston North it was a different world with hot blue sky summers and frosty cold winters.
I saw on social media this week a picture of young children in the middle of the road somewhere in suburbia on trikes, bikes and on foot playing from back in 1950’s and the caption said : “We had no idea how good we had it and no clue that we were the last ones.”
Never a truer Analogy of then and now.
It is hard to believe how much things have changed and obviously to us that have lived in the best times that the now is like a different planet and people.
Where did this thing called Woke come from?
I remember back when people used to dance such as foxtrots and rock and Roll now the dancing looks like semaphore signaling?
I suppose they might have seen a clip of young people doing what was called ‘Hand Jive’ while sitting around a dance hall. I was thinking back recently to a house in Domain Street where I grew up in, it was a little cottage house on a very small section with only enough room for me to have a small vegetable garden.
But in the house there was a coal range which supplied hot water, heating with cooking top and oven.
All of that for most of the day from a shovel full of clean burning cheap coal.
The best scones ever came out of that oven and a kettle or soup would be kept hot on the steel top.
The house has long gone and along with neighboring homes for a motel complex now.
Enough reminiscing instead keep gardening and hoping that the year ahead will be an improvement on recent past.
“Where there’s life there’s hope” is attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien whose character Samwise Gamgee declared it in The Lord of the Rings. In another of Tolkien’s famous quotes, “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
Merry Christmas and I will catch up with you before the New Year.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
Note: Due to censorship of Dr Mercola’s articles he archives them to paid sub soon after publishing. I’ve therefore published this in its entirety however you may find the source link will no longer work. EWR
From Dr Mercola
Story at-a-glance
The globalist technocrats are intent on monopolizing the entire food supply. They already have a monopoly on grains and have made headway in genetically engineered (GE) seafood. The next targets include lab-grown meats and dairy substitutes
Biomilq, made from cultured breast tissue, will be marketed as a breast milk substitute
The company Helaina is working on creating glycoproteins “identical to those found in breast milk.” Those proteins can then be added to a variety of infant formulas, seniors’ nutrition and, eventually, all sorts of foods
The justification for creating synthetic milk substitutes is, of course, preventing and reversing “climate change.” That’s the justification used to sell virtually all fake foods. In reality, however, they will perpetuate and worsen adverse effects on the environment
Lab-created foods are ultraprocessed and therefore qualify as junk food. Fake meat and dairy cannot replace the complex mix of nutrients found in grass fed beef and dairy, and it’s likely that consuming ultraprocessed meat and milk alternatives may lead to many of the same health issues that are caused by a processed food diet
The starting ingredients in fermented synthetic biology products are cheap sugars derived from GE corn and soy. All GE crops are grown in environmentally destructive monocultures, and use loads of herbicides such as glyphosate, pesticides like neonicotinoids and synthetic fertilizers. As a result, they’re loaded with chemical residues that end up in the final product
The globalist technocrats are intent on monopolizing the entire food supply. They already have a monopoly on genetically engineered (GE) grains and have made headway in GE seafood. The next targets are lab-grown meats and dairy substitutes. There’s even a lab-made breast milk alternative on the way called Biomilq, which is made from cultured breast tissue.1
Another company, Helaina, aims to create glycoproteins “identical to those found in breast milk,”2 which can then be added to a variety of infant formulas. They may also be used in seniors’ nutrition and eventually, all sorts of foods.
Many familiar globalists are invested in these faux dairy ventures. Biomilq investors, for example, include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Masayoshi Son, Jack Ma, Michael Bloomberg and Marc Benioff.3
The first Biomilq product is expected to be ready for the market within the next three to five years.4 Other animal-free milk products are expected to hit the shelves sometime between 2023 and 2024.5,6 That includes ice cream made with lab-grown diary, which will go into Ben & Jerry’s product line.7
In the Environmental Health Symposium video above, Alan Lewis reviews what goes into the making of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology goes by many names, including “gene edited fermentation” and “precision fermentation products.”
While that sounds fairly innocuous, synthetic biology manufacturers rarely ever discuss what goes into the feed they use to grow the target organism, or what happens to the waste at the end of the fermentation process. That’s understandable, as both raise a number of serious questions.
What Are the Base Ingredients?
As explained by Lewis, the starting ingredients in fermented synthetic biology products are cheap sugars derived from GE corn and soy. All GE crops are grown in environmentally destructive monocultures with taxpayer subsidies, and use loads of herbicides such as glyphosate, pesticides like neonicotinoids and synthetic fertilizers. As a result, they’re loaded with chemical residues that end up in the final product.
In addition to a base of sugars, hundreds of other ingredients may be added to the ferment in order to produce the desired end product, such as a certain protein, color, flavor or scent.
Aside from the desired target metabolite, these gene-edited organisms may also be spitting out any number of non-target metabolites that have completely unknown environmental consequences and health effects.
As explained by Lewis, the most-often used microorganism in the fermentation process is E.coli. The E.coli is gene-edited to produce the desired compound through its digestive process. It also needs to be antibiotic-resistant, since it needs to survive the antibiotics used to kill off other undesirable organisms in the vat.
Aside from the desired target metabolite, these gene-edited organisms may also be spitting out any number of non-target metabolites that have completely unknown environmental consequences and health effects.
How Are Synthetic Biology Ferments Created?
As explained by Lewis, the various “feed” ingredients are placed in a fermentation bioreactor set at 87 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit for anywhere from 24 to hundreds of hours to grow the target microorganism. The target organisms in the ferment consume the nutrients they need, and what’s left over after those organisms are extracted is hazardous biowaste.
Importantly, while traditional fermentation processes, such as the making of beer, produces waste products that are edible by animals, compostable and pose no biohazard, the same cannot be said for these GMO synthetic biology ferments. The biowaste must first be deactivated, and then it must be securely disposed of. It cannot go into a landfill.
It’s important to realize that they are creating GMO organisms that have never existed on earth before, and these organisms and their waste are neither edible nor compostable, and there are unknown risks involved with unintentional or intentional release of these organisms into the environment.
They may also result in novel foodborne illnesses. And, since antibiotics are used to prevent the growth of undesirable organisms in the ferment, antibiotic-resistant organisms are automatically integrated into the final product. The types of foodborne illness that might be caused by gene-edited E.coli and its metabolites are anyone’s guess at this point. Nobody knows what such illness might look like.
The Fake Justification for Fake Foods
The justification for creating synthetic biology for food, including milk substitutes, is to prevent and reverse “climate change.” As reported by CNBC in June 2020:8
“Biomilq co-founder and CEO Michelle Egger … and her co-founder, CSO Leila Strickland, hope that the breast milk produced by Biomilq from culturing mammary epithelial cells will help reduce the carbon footprint from the global infant formula market …
‘Right now, by the estimations we have been able to make, at least 10% of the dairy market globally ends up in infant formula,’ Eggers said. ‘That means per-infant-fed formula in the U.S., 5,700 metric tons of CO2 are produced, and 4,300 gallons of freshwater are consumed each year to feed a child. Parents want to do what’s best for their kids but shouldn’t have to decide between feeding their children and protecting the planet.'”
While the push for synthetic biology is built on the idea that it will somehow save the environment from the ravages of factory farming, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and monocultures, it’s incredibly misleading, because it doesn’t address the fact that there are environmentally beneficial ways to farm, and we really should switch to those instead of transitioning into factory laboratories where everything that comes out of it is a biohazard.
In February 2021, the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit group behind the alternative protein industry, released a techno-economic analysis of cultivated meat, which was prepared by consulting firm CE Delft.9 In it, they developed a model to reduce the current costs of cultured meat production down to a point that would make it economically feasible in full-scale plants by 2030, a model they said is “feasible.”
In attempting to create cultured meat on the scale that would be necessary to feed the world, logistical problems are numerous and, possibly, insurmountable. There are waste products — catabolites — to deal with, as even cultured cells excrete waste that is toxic.
Oxygen and nutrients must also be adequately distributed to all the cells, something that’s difficult in a large reactor. Stirring the cells faster or adding more oxygen may help, but this can cause fatal stress to the cells.10
The environmental “benefits” are also on shaky ground when you factor in soy production as well as the use of conventional energy sources. When this is factored in, GFI’s life-cycle analysis found that cultured meat may actually be worse for the environment than conventionally produced chicken and pork.11,12
Repeat of a Failed System
Yet, the push for the creation of synthetic biology continues. In the foreword to Navdanya International’s report “False Solutions That Endanger Our Health and Damage the Planet,” Vandana Shiva details how lab-grown foods are catastrophic for human health and the environment, as they are repeating the mistakes already made with industrial agriculture:13
“In response to the crises in our food system, we are witnessing the rise of technological solutions that aim to replace animal products and other food staples with lab-grown alternatives. Artificial food advocates are reiterating the old and failed rhetoric that industrial agriculture is essential to feed the world.
Real, nutrient-rich food is gradually disappearing, while the dominant industrial agricultural model is causing an increase in chronic diseases and exacerbating climate change.
The notion that high-tech, ‘farm free’ lab food is a viable solution to the food crisis is simply a continuation of the same mechanistic mindset which has brought us to where we are today — the idea that we are separate from and outside of nature.
Industrial food systems have reduced food to a commodity, to ‘stuff’ that can then be constituted in the lab. In the process, both the planet’s health and our health have been nearly destroyed.”
Lab-Made Foods Are Junk Foods
It’s important to realize that all lab-created “foods” are ultraprocessed, and will likely impart the same kind of ill health effects as other ultraprocessed foods. In 2018, Friends of the Earth (FOE), a grassroots environmental group, released a report that posed critical questions about the trend toward synthetic biology. In it, they stressed the highly-processed nature of these products:14
“Various ‘processing aids’ are employed to make some of these products, including organisms (like genetically engineered bacteria, yeast and algae) that produce proteins, and chemicals to extract proteins.
For example, chemicals like hexane are used to extract components of a food, like proteins (from peas, soy, corn etc.) or compounds (from genetically engineered bacteria) to make xanthan gum … disclosure of these ingredients is not required.
Other processing aids (e.g. bacteria, yeast, algae), including those that are genetically engineered to produce proteins, are also not currently required to be disclosed on package labeling. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the inputs and impact of their use.”
Basically, what the globalist cabal is attempting to do is to eliminate conventional farming methods like raising cattle for beef and dairy products, and replace them with synthetic, patented reproductions. In short, they’re taking whole foods and turning them into ultraprocessed junk foods, all while trying to convince you the junk food is healthier for you.
Synthetic Biology Is Part of a Control Scheme
Aside from the potential health hazards, lab-grown foods rely on monocultured crops that destroy the soil, resulting in carbon release. So, right there, the climate change justification falls apart. Since synthetic biology relies on GMO monoculture, it creates the very things they claim to counteract: environmental degradation that results in climate change.
As noted by Lewis, synthetic biology, which is the latest addition to the patented, genetically modified organism (GMO) food system, also results in a “massive shift in ownership and concentration of wealth … and control over our food supply.”
In short, synthetic biology creates reliance on industry that can then be used to manipulate and control the population in any number of ways. In the long term, people will eventually lose the know-how of producing their own food using traditional methods, and this may well be part of the plan.
The globalist cabal intends to create a one world government, and what better control tool than having everyone completely dependent on the state for all of its food?
Protect Your Health by Avoiding Frankenfoods
The drive for plant-based alternatives to real animal food, be it meat or dairy, isn’t due to health, or even to support vegan or vegetarian diets. Those truly interested in eating a plant-based diet can do so by eating real plants, after all, and in so doing can enjoy the many health benefits that eating plant foods provides. No, it’s about creating a system of control through food. It’s also a way to control people’s health.
It’s already known that the consumption of ultraprocessed food contributes to disease,15 but manufactured fake meat and dairy may also pose additional unknown risks.16 The benefactor of ill health, of course, is Big Pharma.
The processed food industry has spent many decades driving chronic illness that is then treated with drugs rather than a better diet. Synthetic foods will likely be an even bigger driver or chronic ill health and early death.
The fact is, fake meat and dairy cannot replace the complex mix of nutrients found in grass fed beef and dairy, and it’s likely that consuming ultraprocessed meat and milk alternatives may lead to many of the same health issues that are caused by a processed food diet. So, if you want to really protect your health and the environment, skip pseudofoods that require patents and stick to those found in nature instead.
I was forwarded an email recently appealing for help for these farmers. Those who buy real milk aka by the newbies as ‘raw’ (ie non-treated to the extent all the goodness has gone) will be aware of the tough time these farmers have had in recent years as the system imposes more and more costs to stay afloat. Not difficult to see the agenda in light of the push toward fake food world wide. I’m copying their letter below (or see info at the link). If you are able to help I know that will be gratefully appreciated. EWR
The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industry (MPI) has brought criminal charges against as many as 16 farmers for violations of that country’s Raw Milk for Sale to Consumers Regulations 2015 (the “2015 regulations”). As far as is known, none of the cases have actually gone to trial. At least five farmers have settled their cases by pleading guilty to a reduced number of charges and agreed to pay fines of as much as $50,000; in two other court actions where the farmers had plead guilty to violations of the raw milk laws, judges discharged the cases without convictions. Most of these farmers, whether or not they had to pay fines, owe tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. Of these seven farmers, only one remains in the business of selling raw milk for human consumption. An attorney representing one of the farmers has been unable to find evidence that any of the charged farmers made anyone ill with the milk they produced.
ACTION TO TAKE
A GiveSendGo fund has been set up to help pay legal expenses for five of the prosecuted farmers (listed on the fund page). None of these farmers became rich selling raw milk—they were dedicated to producing healthy food for their customers and community. Please be there for them and help the farmers recover some of the losses they have suffered due to the unjust government enforcement actions.
The 2015 regulations were the catalyst for the prosecution against the dairies. The farmers are being prosecuted for a violation of laws designed to put them out of business. In addition to having to register with MPI, dairy farmers under the new regulations are required to:
The 2015 regulations had little to do with science and protecting the public health. Many farmers, believing that they would not be able to afford the cost of compliance with the new rules, distributed milk through contractual arrangements such as limited partnerships and herdshare agreements—arrangements they thought would exempt them from the new rules. When MPI saw that not many farms were registering, it launched a sting operation, “Operation Caravan”, against the unregistered raw milk farmers, leading to the ongoing criminal prosecutions.
The 2015 regulations have been a big success for MPI in driving raw milk farmers out of business. Shortly before the ministry issued the new regulations, there were upwards of 200 dairies selling raw milk; today there are around 25.
Please help the Weston A. Price Foundation restore nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. westonaprice.org
From gmwatch.org Dr Ray Seidler explains why caution is needed
Recently the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the commercial production and sale of a new purple coloured genetically modified (GM) tomato, known as the “purple tomato”. The US Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for food safety, has yet to approve it.[1] Here, once again, we have an unnecessary food product, genetically engineered for patent protection – a financially motivated concept – and without human safety testing.
Anthocyanins are a group of water-soluble phenolic pigments that give the tomato its purple colour. It is not a dominant group of compounds in red tomatoes. The purple tomato is genetically engineered to cause over-expression of this particular group of polyphenolic anthocyanin pigments.
There are already numerous (heritage) varieties of natural purple tomatoes, so why would we need another one that is genetically engineered? The heritage varieties have anthocyanins mostly concentrated in their skin, whereas the GM variety has them all the way through the fruit – hence the unusually high levels.
The producers of the purple tomato are quoted as saying, “The tomatoes may… mark a turning point for genetically modified foods nationwide. The engineered trait is meant to entice the shopper, not the farmer.” The inventors, Professors Cathie Martin and Jonathan Jones, have formed a private spinout company, Norfolk Plant Sciences, to sell the GM tomato seeds.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), “has determined that Norfolk Plant Sciences’ “modified tomato is unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk relative to its [non-GM] comparator”. Increased risk of being a plant pest is the wrong issue to evaluate risk assessments of GM foods and doesn’t come close to representing the whole spectrum of risks from cultivated GM crops, but that is what the USDA regulation requires. If they are not a plant pest, the USDA thinks they must be OK for environmental release and can be grown commercially.
When consumed in moderation, anti-inflammatory compounds like anthocyanins can have health benefits. But too much of a good thing may not be good. It has been demonstrated that over-consumption of anthocyanins (e.g. when taken as pill supplements) may cause kidney, liver, and thyroid hormone health effects. Anthocyanins are part of a group of compounds called polyphenols, which may also limit or interfere with iron absorption.
The average American consumes around 12.5 milligrams of these antioxidants per day. The anthocyanin content from the GM tomato averages about 500mg/100gm of fresh fruit, some 40 times more than the daily average consumption. One hundred grams of tomato is less than half a cup. Other naturally purple coloured fruits (sweet cherries, blackberries, strawberries, red raspberries, black grapes) contain anthocyanins in the range of 3-143mg/100gm, up to 160-fold less than the GM purple tomato.
A mini-review from Harvard University and University of Melbourne scientists asserts the need for increased regulation and guidelines for polyphenol consumption and supplementation in order to ensure that consumers remain safe and informed about polyphenols (like anthocyanins). When taken in pill form it may be easily possible to exceed safe levels, potentially causing serious ailments. For example, one commercial pill formulation prepared from sour cherries recommends two pills, with a resulting daily dose of 40mg of anthocyanins. This 40mg per day might be a concern to the Harvard scientists, but it represents only 8% of the 500mg level found in 0.4 cups of the fresh GM tomato.
The US Food and Drug Administration allows health claims for antioxidant nutrients with an established Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) – for example, vitamins A and C. But polyphenols are not a vitamin and nor do they have an RDI. Polyphenols are often sold as nutritional supplements (pills), which are minimally regulated in the US, meaning a greater number of functional claims can be made. There are currently no regulatory recommendations for the quantity of consumption of polyphenols in foods.
The potential for the consumption of deleterious levels of polyphenols is especially of concern with supplements (pills) and may happen through over-indulgence in certain foods. Some manufacturers recommend pill intakes over 100-fold higher than those currently associated with a Western diet. In some cases, supplementation trials of antioxidants have been associated with adverse effects, including increased mortality or stroke. The current lack of “nutritional supplement” regulations in the US may contribute to overhyped claims, potentially resulting in over consumption of pills or overconsumption of a fad food like the new GM purple tomato at potentially harmful levels.
In the US, stickers are placed on many foods, especially fresh vegetables and fruits, indicating how they were produced. If it is labelled with 5 digits beginning with an 8, it ain’t great: It’s genetically engineered and likely contains pesticides. If it is labelled with 4 digits beginning with a 3 or 4, close the door and walk away (it’s conventionally grown and probably contains pesticides). If it is labelled with 5 digits beginning with a 9, it should be fine (it’s organic).[2] A non-GMO label means it’s been tested and found not to contain genetically engineered genes.
Lastly, we should not forget that Jackson County, Oregon, where I live, is one of eight GMO-free counties in the United States. Despite a challenge to the original 2014 ordinance that prohibits the planting of GM seeds and passed by County voters by a margin of 2:1, subsequent legal challenges failed and the ordinance stands. This means no GM purple tomato seeds can be legally planted in Jackson County, Oregon. However, we should also not forget that the purple tomato can be sold in local stores. Limited distribution in the US is expected in 2023.
I advise shoppers to treat GM purple tomatoes with caution.
GMWatch editor’s notes
1. In the FDA’s mind, it does “approve” foods for sale. However, with GM foods, the FDA doesn’t approve these foods as safe in its own estimation. It only undertakes a voluntary (voluntary to the company applicant) review of a GM food and sends a “no questions” letter to the company applying to sell the GM food if it has no further questions. In the letter, it reminds the company that it is the company’s responsibility, not that of the FDA, to only to put safe foods on the market.
2. According to US-based Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology, the numbers system is “a voluntary system created by a produce marketing association to help with inventory control, in case any company wants to label products as GMOs. It hasn’t ever been used, to my knowledge. In an interview with the association, they said it was never designed for consumer identification.” CBAN also notes on their website: “There is no code for GMOs. The code number ‘8’ is NO LONGER USED FOR GMOS: The International Federation for Produce Standards set aside a number (8) for identifying GM foods but it was not being used and was changed in 2015 to identify conventionally produce (not organic) food. The code number ‘9’ denotes organic produce: This code distinguish between organic and conventionally produced fresh fruits and vegetables. Organic food is produced without the use of any genetically modified organisms. Organic produce is identified with a number that begins with ‘9’: for example, 4011 identifies a conventionally grown papaya and 94011 identifies an organically grown papaya. But organic food is already identified with the national Canada Organic standard logo.”
Dr Ray Seidler has taught and conducted research at five major US universities. He spent half his career as a professor of microbiology at Oregon State University and another 16 years as a senior research scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While at the EPA he headed the US’s first genetically engineered organism risk assessment program. He has published over 150 peer reviewed articles on various aspects of environmental microbiology. He is currently retired.
Comment: Note, those that wield the weather weaponry, that also are paying farmers world wide to plow in their crops … would not want the herd to be successfully growing their own food. Saving the planet? I don’t think so …I received recently a fruit and veg update from one of the local supermarkets (who incidentally are on the pig’s back so to speak with the plandemic and lockdowns – recording ‘excess profits’). Here’s an excerpt:
Kia ora,
A couple of weeks ago, we got in touch to let you know what was happening on our growers’ farms, orchards and paddocks, and what that means for you. As we all gear up for holiday shopping, we thought we’d share another update on how we’re working directly with Kiwi growers to get the very best fresh fruit and veg into our stores.
A rainy December:
With rainy weather and limited sunshine across the country, particularly in the upper North Island, many of our local growers are facing challenges with crops ripening up, and with getting the right conditions for harvesting.
We have direct relationships with our growers, and we’re talking to them every day to help find solutions to these challenges. But you might notice supply looking a little lighter in your local Countdown. Thanks in advance for your understanding.
It goes on with other dismal statements and predictions … watch this space.
EWR
Here is Wally’s article anyway … and do keep gardening with that Kiwi can-do attitude! Same applies to anywhere on the planet of course 🙂
For most of the country it was a dismal spring and now we are into the first month of summer things have not improved much.Weather and conditions do vary across New Zealand depending on your region and even your own property if you have a micro-climate, but overall there is thread of similar.
I spoke this week to an agriculture/farm supplier representative and he said that growers and farmers were complaining about growth of plants and pasture. So lets look at the facts, we are only about 10 days away from the longest day which means we are hitting 16 plus hours of day light which should mean maximum growth of plants with blue skies.
But we are not getting nice blue skies, lots of cloudy or overcast days and a fair bit of rain as well.
Temperatures for this time of the year are not great either and not our more normal warm temperatures day and night.
So lack of direct sun light and fluctuating temperatures do not bode well for plant growth.
Wet feet and lower soil temperatures is another plant growth factor.
Plants need adequate moisture, adequate nutrition, suitable temperatures, long hours of direct sunlight and CO2 to grow.
Currently the planet’s CO2 levels are about 416 ppm.
You may not be aware of this but some commercial growers have in their glasshouses CO2 generators to increase the growth of their crops.
Most experts agree that 1,500 ppm is the maximum CO2 level for maximum plant growth, although any CO2 level between 1,000ppm and 1,500ppm will be very good. So a low amount of 416ppm is only half of what gives good growth.
Here is an interesting fact…The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was reduced by about 90% during the last 150 million years. If this trend continues CO2 will inevitably fall to levels that threaten the survival of plants, which require a minimum of 150 ppm to survive.
Does that ring any bells?
Half of the world’s oxygen is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis. The other half is produced via photosynthesis on land by trees, shrubs, grasses, and other plants.
You know the old saying? ‘Breath out and make a plant happy’
I am surprised at the slow growth of vegetable plants in my gardens at this time of the year.
In my glasshouses growth is better as they offer better protection from the environment so tomatoes are doing great, cucumbers and good but chili plants are slow.
Chili love hot temperatures to really grow well.
Seeds sown in raised gardens are slow to germinate or rot out because of lower soil temperatures.
Outside seedlings of lettuce, carrots and pak choy are slow and that is how it is in my part of Marton.
Home gardeners will keep on growing their plants no matter what the conditions are like and do what we can to improve the results.
I would suggest a weekly spray of molasses and Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) to help improve vegetable growth. About a table spoon of molasses dissolved in a litre of hot water then 10mils of MBL added.
Give a small side dressing of Wallys BioPhos once a month.
If you have access to manure make up a compost tea by placing any animal manures into a plastic rubbish tin and filling two thirds full with non-chlorinated water.
Place about 50mils of Bio Magnus Fish fertiliser into the brew (This has live beneficial microbes which will increase their populations in the brew) You can further increase their population growth by adding Mycorrcin or molasses to the brew.
Stir and airate regularly, get a paddle to stir and a jug to fill and lift up high over the barrel then pour contents back into the brew. This gets oxygen into the brew.
Every so often take out some of the brew and water into the soil by where your plants are growing.
Add more manure and other components with more non-chlorinated water and you have a neat home made fertiliser for your crops.
Here is a interesting thing to do, take a plastic 2 litre cordial bottle, half fill with non chlorinated water, add to this about 10mil of Bio Magnus Fish fertiliser and a teaspoon of molasses, place cap on and give contents a shake.
Place outside some where in sun light and check often.
The populations of microbes will rapidly grow and the bottle will balloon and if left will explode when the plastic fractures.
When the bottle has expanded a bit then release pressure by removing cap.
Pour contents of bottle into your gardens for great benefit to the plants.
You as a home gardener can do things to help increase the growth of your crops which is not available for commercial growers to do.
Their answer is to apply dressings of nitrogen to the soil to force growth which is a problem for them currently as Nitrogen fertilisers are in short supply and what is available is much more expensive than normal.
So if you think $10 a cabbage is bad worry about it more when its $20 or $30.
There is currently a world shortage of food which as the months go by appears to be getting worse.
I have read calls for people overseas that have lawns to dig them up and plant vegetables.
Of course in many places and even here in NZ having a lawn is not a thing when the sections are small and the house takes most of the land you own anyway.
Woe is the loss of the good old quarter acre section which with a few chickens you could supply about 50% plus of your food chain for a small family.
Even though currently the growing conditions are not as good as normal for this time of the year at least they are better than they will be in a few months time.
For those that have room now is the time to start planting winter crops of brassicas, cabbage etc, if you like leeks they should already be in.
About every 2-3 weeks plant another small planting of the crops such as two or three of each so you have succession to harvest in winter.
If you are looking for a gift for Christmas then a copy of my Down to Earth Gardening Guide or my Glasshouse Gardening for New Zealand might be an idea.
I will autograph and place a message with the persons name/names in the book.
A gardener recently during a phone conversation told me of an old Chinese Saying:
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
Quinoa is a highly valuable nutrient-rich food that is gluten-free and a rich source of protein. Its benefits include weight loss, improved heart health, detoxification of the body, and improved digestive health. It also helps in regulating diabetes and reducing gallstones.
It can be used like many common grains or ground into a powder or flour. It has a very low content of fat and can be added to diets around the world as a healthy alternative to many other similar foods.
Quinoa is an interesting form of pseudocereal that is not technically a grain or a traditional cereal. It is a crop that has been grown for thousands of years and is grown mainly for its edible seeds. Related to spinach and beetroots, it is becoming a major food in America, Europe, China, and Canada, despite the fact that it has to be imported in these parts.
It is an ancient cereal that was cultivated in the Andes for the last 7,000 years. The scientific name is Chenopodium quinoa, and it is a species of goosefoot. It generally grows to a height between 1m to 3m in length, producing grains every year that can grow in various colors such as white, yellow, pink, orange, red, brown, and black. The grains can be consumed whole as well as in the form of flour. It is primarily grown in South America, in the Andean region, including countries like Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. [1]
For most of the country it has been a poor spring and slow start of the growing season.
We have the daylight hours, in fact we are now only about 7 weeks away to the longest day of the year.
It is the temperatures that are the problem, we are not getting the constant warm temperatures during the day and night.
That does not matter to hardy plants and vegetables that can be grown outdoors all year around such as cabbages. (On line shopping today New World whole cabbage $9.99 at Countdown $7.69)
Lettuce between $3.00 to $4.00 each?
Wow, I currently have so many lettuces that I give then to my chickens.
Not only that as a result of letting one lettuce (Drunken Woman my favorite) go to seed, it self seed giving hundreds of seedlings.
Some of which I have transplanted and currently have lettuce from small seedlings to mature plants going to seed.
I don’t bother growing much cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower as they take longer to mature and we seldom use them anyway in preference to Bok Choy which is much quicker to mature and takes less room.
Silverbeet is an excellent vegetable to grow as it has high nutritional value and you harvest only the outer leaves for use as it will keep producing till it goes to seed.
Whether you grow in open ground, raised gardens or in containers you can produce hardy vegetables that will not only be inexpensive compared to current cost of purchased vegetables but will also have great flavour be free of chemical poisons.
The stuff you buy from Supermarket is not only bloody expensive but are chemically grown and sprayed with chemicals thus having little goodness and a bland flavour.
If it tastes good without having to use condiments then it is good for your health.
Basically no matter how you grow you apply natural products to the soil/growing medium such as any animal or chicken manures, blood & bone, sheep manure pellets at the base.
Garden Lime such as Wallys Calcium & Health, minerals from Ocean Solids and Wallys Unlocking your soil.
Then over this a layer of Daltons Compost. (Most others I do not trust because they can contain recycled green waste which maybe full of herbicides).
Then into this you plant seeds or seedlings and spray them every week with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) they will grow twice as fast and twice as big and be very advantageous for your health and budget.
I expect that vegetables in the supermarket are only going to get dearer because of high cost of imported fertilisers, cost of chemical sprays to keep the plants looking perfect on the shelves and the cost of diesel.
Because of the milder temperatures heat loving plants are not fairing very well.
My tomato plants grown in a plastic house in the Auto-pot system are doing ok but plants that like much more heat such as cucumbers, capsicum and chili are sitting and sulking even with the high quality nutrient they have to grow with.
I hate to think how poorly these plants wound do in open gardens along with pumpkin and other cubits.
They would really sulk until the temperatures became better which is most unusual for weather after Labour Weekend in NZ.
If, as some predict, we are heading into a solar minimum which reduces the global temperatures to the extent of a mini-ice age or worse then that would be far worse for food growing than a global warming.
Most of you will have planted or are planting tomato plants currently, if in a glasshouse you will have better results than out doors. Outdoors you need a very sunny, sheltered spot for best results.
Treat the soil with the products mention but don’t use Calcium & Health instead buy some Dolomite.
Tomatoes and Potatoes like a slightly acidic soil pH.
Now this is important to get the best results out of a tomato plant; you make a deep hole and plant it deep, up to the bottom leaves or even deeper.
The reason is that a tomato plant will produce roots all the way up the trunk and often on a more mature plant you will see knobs near the base of the trunk which are beginnings of roots.
If that is seen then mould up growing medium so the root system is increased.
The bigger the roots to feed, the better the plant.
You can place a little of Wallys Neem Tree Powder in the planting hole and sprinkle some of Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem Granules on the soil.
That will assist in deterring whitefly especially in a glasshouse as well as feed the plants.
The Secret tomato food contains a good amount of potash which I have noticed lacking in other brands, likely because potash is expensive.
If your tomato, capsicum, chili do not have ample potash then your fruit will lack flavour.
Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem Granules was created on the request of a specialist tomato grower who wanted the very best tomatoes.
He told me many years ago that he had tried all the brands but none of them produced really great flavored fruit.
So along with fertiliser experts we created the product, Wallys Secret Tomato Food which over the last 15 plus years has been well sort after by people that love to grow the best tomatoes possible.
There are two types of tomato plants; Indeterminate and Determinate the first is tall growing and is actually a climber the later is a bush type which is short with a wide spread such as dwarf types.
In the Indeterminate type there are very large fruiting ones such as Boy o Boy which can produce fruit weighing 500 grams. Some you need only one slice to cover sliced bread!
To do that you need to not only remove the laterals but also reduce down the amount fruit per truss to get a monster tomato.
Laterals form between the trunk and the leaf branch and in Indeterminate tomato plants it is best to remove them otherwise you get a plant that requires lots of staking and support.
On a determinate plant the laterals are often left on to make the plant bushier and produce a lot more trusses and thus a lot of smaller fruit.
If you allow a lateral to grow about 8cm long you can strike it as a cutting and get free extra tomato plants.
If last season your tomatoes were affected by the tomato psyllid that we wrote about recently then you need to use Wallys Cell Strengthening Kit to protect your plants and be able to harvest tomatoes like you did in the past.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
WATCH THE LONGER VERSION AT DR SHIVA’S WEBSITE, AND READ HIS ARTICLE … LINK BELOW:
“In this discussion, Dr. SHIVA Ayyadurai, MIT PhD, through a LIVE interview with leadership of the Farmers Defense Force – leading the protests on the ground in the Netherland – educates us on the history and current events of WHY the Dutch Farmers are protesting.”
When we buy plant foods or fertilisers for our gardens we see on them the letters N:P:K followed by numbers which indicate the amounts of each of these elements. The NPK stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
Nitrogen provides growing power and helps make plant leaves and stems green.
Nitrogen is used to form basic proteins, chlorophyll, and enzymes for the plant cells. In short, a plant can’t grow without it.
Phosphorus stimulates budding and blooming. Plants need phosphorus to produce fruits, flowers, and seeds.
It also helps make your plants more resistant to disease. Phosphorus doesn’t dissolve like nitrogen. The soil will hang onto phosphorus, not releasing it into water.
Potassium promotes strong vigorous roots and resistance to disease.
Potassium is a nutrient your plants need for good internal chemistry.
Plants use potassium to produce the sugars, starches, proteins and enzymes they need to grow and thrive. Potassium also helps your plants regulate their water usage, and better withstand the cold.
I believe of the three elements its the phosphorus that is least understood by some gardeners.
In the distant past phosphorus was obtain from manures especially bird or bat droppings called guano. Phosphorus was also obtained from Reactive Rock Phosphate which is a hard phosphatic rock.
In most soils it dissolves very slowly.
To make the rock phosphate more readily available to plants it was discovered that a process using sulfuric acid, early in the 1900’s,
would breakdown the reactive rock phosphate so a new agricultural fertiliser was created called Super or Super Phosphate.
It became a boon to agriculture and farming with tons of Super been spread to cause fast growth in fields and crops.
Unfortunately like a number of discoveries such as DDT and Asbestos, there was a hidden price to pay.
Super phosphate kills soil life and with their demise leads to unhealthy plants/grasses.
Not only that, it is now known that Super laden plants and grasses can cause health problems in stock including cancers.
(Chlorine and acidic products also destroy soil life including earth worms. Overt time through continued use soil becomes inert or lifeless)
I read a very interesting book some years ago called ‘Cancer, Cause and Cure’ written by an Australian farmer, Percy Weston.
Percy observed the results of the introduction of Super on his farm and the changes that occurred.
If you are interested the book can be obtained by mail order. The book made me reconsider the use of Super phosphate in garden fertilisers.
Interestingly I have never been an advocate of Super phoshate and to the best of my knowledge have never purchased it as a stand alone fertiliser for my gardens.
Though I have on odd occasions in the past used General Garden Fertilisers.
Fortunately I have always preferred sheep manure pellets, animal manures and natural products as my general plant food.
Now days I avoid using chemical fertilisers or chemical sprays including any herbicides anywhere on my property.
But I have noticed in the past, that even though I have obtained good healthy crops and plants, there is some factor that appears to be missing and the crops are not as lush as I feel they could be.
I have often thought that I am not getting sufficient phosphorus in my composts and mulches.
This caused me to do a bit of research on the Internet and found to my delight a company in New Zealand who make a product called BioPhos.
They take the rock phosphate and break it down naturally with micro organisms making it as readily available to plants as Super phosphate is.
The company sent me a email booklet and it showed trials that proved that not only did BioPhos work as well as Super, but actually better as it did not have a ‘peak’ growth on application and gave a much longer sustained release of phosphorus to plants.
Instead of killing soil life it actually supplies new micro organisms to the soil which carry on breaking the natural phosphorus down, meaning that only one application is needed per year unless you are cropping during the winter as well.
Some rose growers and rose societies recommend using BioPhos for better, healthier roses. BioPhos contains phosphate, potassium, sulphur and calcium at the rates of P10:K8:S7:Ca28.
It is pH neutral and used at the following rates; New beds work in 100 grams per square metre, the same with lawns but water in to settle.
Side dressing plants; seedlings 8 grams (a teaspoon full) around base of the plant or in the planting hole.
Same for potatoes (which do well with phosphorus) Sowing beans peas etc sprinkle down row with seeds.
Roses and similar sized plants 18 grams or a tablespoon full around plant or in planting hole.
Established fruit trees etc, spread at the rate of 100 grams per square metre around drip line or where feeder roots are.
Apply to vegetable gardens in spring and a further application in autumn if growing winter crops. Can be applied to container plants also.
Gardeners that use Biophos for the first time around their gardens often contact me tell how much their gardens have improved within a few weeks of using the product.
Maybe because the gardens are missing phosphate and a sprinkling gives the plants what they have been wanting.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
Plants, just like ourselves, have built in protection against diseases though their immunity systems.
We build up our immunity naturally over the years by surviving disease attacks and by having a healthy nutritionally rich diet.
That is not to say that we are immune to disease attacks but under normal situations we can fend off most health problems when we have very good health.
If we get into stress then our metabolism does not have the same stamina and we catch a cold or worse.
It is said the leading cause of heart disease and cancer is stress. I think its the stress that is the straw that breaks the camels back, after unhealthy living and insufficient nutrient rich food.
The same applies to plants, place them into stress and they will more likely catch a disease.
I have written a lot in the past on how to build the health of plants by building the health of the soil; having soil that is rich in humus, minerals, earth worms and soil life.
Even when we have the best soil on earth, plants can still catch a cold when they are placed into stress and our current spring weather is very stressful to our plants and to us keen gardeners.
Chilly winds, too wet, too dry, only the occasional nice day does not make for great gardening and our plants don’t do so well either.
We can however increase the immune systems of plants by a few monthly sprays of Perkfection Supa for roses and other plants.
The active ingredient of Perkfection is ‘Phosphite ion’ or Phosphonic Acid. (Potassium ions are also present).
Perkfection is very safe to handle and spray and when used on food crops there is no withholding period other than your normal washing of produce before eating.
Perkfection is used extensively by commercial growers of produce and fruit as its safe, effective, in prevention and control while not restrictive on exports of produce.
We have suggested Perkfection Supa for Roses and Other Plants as an alternative to more toxic sprays, for the assistance in recovery from/or prevention of, the following problems:
Black spot, Downy Mildew, Phytophthora Root rot, botrytis, Canker, heart rot, damping off, crown rot, leaf blight, silver leaf, late blight, collar rot, pink rot, brown rot, Armillaria, and gummy stem rot.
Now that’s a big list of common plant diseases which means that many of your disease related problems can be overcome with applications of this product.
Besides using Perkfection over your roses for the likes of Black spot and Downy mildew you can also use it as a spray over all your fruiting plants and trees including your strawberries.
It can be used also over your potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, cubits (cucumbers etc) lawns, onions, passion fruit, Cauliflowers, cybidium orchids and ornamental plants and vines.. In fact there is no where you cannot use Perkfection to advantage.
Being ‘Synthetic Organic Phosphates’ what you are doing, is placing this valuable material, onto the foliage of your plants, where it is very readily absorbed and transferred through the whole of the plant.
This fortifies the plant’s cells, increases the plant’s immune system and makes your plants less susceptible to invading pathogens.
There is however a down side, as with any good thing, you can use too much and the recommendation is to use Perkfection at 4 ml per litre of spray once a month for about 6 times in a season.
(Note a season is the normal period of time for that crop or plant. Roses are from Spring till Autumn. Most annuals 5-6 months.)
The reason is that, you can over load your plant with organic phosphates causing a clogging of the cells and halting growth until the system clears.
If a plant has a problem spray the first month with Perkfection at 7 mls per litre.
For plants you wish to fortify use at 4ml per litre for 2 to 3 months.
Prevention is better than cure and by spraying your plants in the spring you give the greatest protection to leaves and fruit, autumn spray will give greatest protection to roots and tubers.
I have suggested that on the 1st of the month to spray your roses and other preferred plants with Perkfection, MBL (Magic Botanic Liquid) and Mycorrcin. Then 14 days later (15th) spray with Mycorrcin and MBL.
What we are doing is boosting the plant’s immune system, supplying a large range of minerals and elements, feeding the beneficial microbes to increase their populations which also work to eliminate diseases.
If insects problems occur then include Wallys Super Pyrethrum as it is a quick knock down control.
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
We’ve all heard about the importance of including iron in our diets. However, it can be hard to know how to up your iron intake without eating tons of meat.
Dialing back your meat intake, even if you don’t completely cut it out, has been shown to reduce your risk of cancer and other chronic diseases. But lowering your meat intake doesn’t mean sacrificing iron. Several powerful plant foods rich in iron can help ensure you’re giving your body what it needs.
Iron maintains optimum health in MULTIPLE ways
Iron is a vital mineral that plays a role in good health. One significant function of iron is that it helps your body make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is pivotal for transporting oxygen throughout your bloodstream.
But that’s not all. Iron is vital for the immune system and cell function. Without iron, you could be at risk of anemia, a condition where you don’t have enough red blood cells or hemoglobin to transport oxygen to your cells very well.
Pregnant women are especially at risk for anemia. While the required iron intake varies from person to person, typically, men need about 8 milligrams a day, women 18 milligrams, and growing infants need 11 milligrams.
Eat these plant foods to boost your iron intake
So the question is, how can you maximize your dietary intake of iron? Several animal foods are rich in iron, such as meat, wild game, poultry, and seafood. There are two types of iron – heme and non-heme. The difference between them is that it’s easier for your body to absorb heme iron. So if you’re not getting dietary iron from meat, it’s a good idea to get plenty of vitamin C, which helps you absorb non-heme iron.
Minimizing your toxic (factory produced) meat intake can benefit your overall health and lower your risk of certain chronic diseases. Luckily, several tasty plant-based foods provide essential iron.
Nuts and legumes are good sources of iron for plant-eaters.
Green leafy vegetables are also ideal sources of the mineral. For example, spinach contains 4 milligrams of iron in just one cup. It can be used in soups, salads, and more. You might even make it in a smoothie or use it as a pizza topping. What’s even better is that it also contains many other beneficial nutrients.
Our eyes are one of those things we all take for granted. They allow us to see the beauty in the world, read books, and carry out everyday tasks. So it’s important to step back and make an effort to take care of our precious eyes now and for the future.
Especially because vision loss is becoming an increasingly common problem. Rates of blindness and low vision in America are estimated to double, affecting more than 8 million people by 2050.
This trend is thought to be caused by the rising rates of chronic disease and an aging population. But there’s also another reason: very few of us give our eyes the nutrients they need.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 87% of people don’t get the recommended amount of vegetables in their diet and 76% of people don’t meet the minimum fruit recommendations.
That’s an issue because fruits and veggies contain nutrients essential for healthy eyes. Check out these eye-healthy foods and see how you can nourish your vision.
1. Orange Veggies
While carrots are, by far, the most well-known food that can boost your eye health, several orange veggies support vision. That includes sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and orange peppers.
These foods are abundant in carotenoids, the compounds that give the veggies their orange hue. One of the most recognized is beta carotene. It’s a precursor of vitamin A which means your body converts it into vitamin A on an as-needed basis.
Vitamin A is essential for good vision. Among many other things, it helps protect the surface of the eye (cornea).
Studies have shown that beta carotene, in combination with other antioxidants, can also decrease the risk of vision loss from macular degeneration or age-related vision loss.
Most importantly, seek out beta carotene from food sources. That’s because synthetic beta carotene is linked to a higher risk of some types of cancer.
A YT channel I came upon recently … preparing for things most of us know are coming fast. I’ve watched two of these videos so far …. great advice, very practical and also healthy choices about what is added to or sprayed on your purchases. Worth a watch. Will post more of them going forwards … EWR
Today we take you to the store and show you how to prepare on a Budget Subscribe to OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY: http://bit.ly/2nrYf24
About OFF GRID with DOUG and Stacy (from their channel)
“In 2010 we decided to sell everything and build a log cabin on 11 acres. We have lived in the log cabin for a decade now with no solar power or wind power plus zero public utilities. We live like the pioneers except in the 21st century. We post videos on social media to encourage people to return to the land and make a living with your family. We teach folks: *Off grid living *Rain water catchment *Cooking with wood *Food growing *Cooking from scratch *Raised bed gardening *Food harvesting *fermenting the harvest *food preservation *Holistic Remedies like Grandma made *How to make money and live this life *storing food in a root cellar *DIY Build projects *Animal Husbandry *Raising Chickens, Guinea, Turkeys and Ducks All of our videos are made to empower you to break free and LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE! “
If you are like me, your fingers are itching to get the new seasons tomato plants under way.
The earlier you start the sooner you will have ripe tomatoes to eat.
I think most garden centres will have a few early varieties already to buy and grow on.
This last week after the cold spell the weather has been fairly warm in most areas.
This is likely because of the rain brought down from the tropics which caused so much damage also brought with it, warm air.
As I write this in Marton at 10am on Saturday the temperature outside is 18 degrees and starting to feel a bit more like some spring weather.
If you have a glasshouse or similar then no problem in getting your first tomato plants started either in the ground or in containers.
If you do not have a glasshouse there is no reason not to plant one or more tomato plants into 20cm containers to grow on for planting out into your garden later on as a well established plant.
You just need to have the containers in a sunny sheltered spot and if the weather turns to custard or looks like a frost then bring them inside (porch, carport, shed, kitchen) they will be ok then till weather improves and back to their spot outside so they get ample sun light.
Firstly lets look at planting your purchased tomato plants, whether in the ground or into a container: make a hole that will be deep enough to bury the plant up to the first leaves.
The reason for this is that the plant will produce roots all the up the trunk making a bigger root system compared planted shallow where the original roots are.
More roots, bigger plant and better results.
Place about half a teaspoon of Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem Powder at the base of the hole and just cover with a little of the growing medium.
Also sprinkle Wallys Secret Tomato Food onto the growing medium surface but not against the trunk of the plant.
Not only are you giving your tomato a great food but also the Neem Powder helps prevent insect problems.
In a glasshouse also sprinkle Wallys Neem Tree Granules as the smell of the granules will further disguise the smell of your tomato plants so whitefly will not know they are there.
Hang Wallys White Fly Sticky Traps in the glasshouse near the door and vets as well as above your tomato plants.
These will catch any adult insects pests that find there way into the glasshouse.
The biggest problem that many gardeners had over the last season or longer is the dreaded psyllid.
These little pests lay their eggs on to tomato plants, potatoes, Tamarrilo (these three are the worst affected) but they will also attack chili, capsicum okra and pippino.
The nymphs when they hatch out are very small and you need a magnifying glass to see them.
They are sucking the goodness out of your tomato plant and even worse injecting a toxin into the plant.
The results seen are the plants lower leaves may turn yellow prematurely, be distorted, fruit will become progressively smaller and the end result will be a fungus mold up and down the trunk before the plant dies.
Eggs hatch 3-9 days after being laid and nymphs pass through five scale-like stages in 12-21 days, depending on temperature.
In greenhouses, tomato-potato psyllid development proceeds rapidly between 15-32 C, and the lower temperature threshold for development is about 7 C.
It is the mid range temperatures that are best for the psyllids and for breeding.
Lower and very high temperatures reduce their activity and that is why very early and late in the season, while temperatures are mild they are not much of a problem in open air gardens.
Late self sown tomato plants will do well till winter knocks them out.
From personal experience I found that once you have a psyllid population in your back yard that each season it will be far worse than previous up until growing of tomatoes, potatoes and Tamarrilo is a waste of money and time.
For instance Opiki (between Palmerston North and Levin) was a great commercial potato growing area a few years ago. Now there are none grown as the chemicals needed to control had to be applied so frequently and the costs too high to be economical.
Sprays such as Neem Oil or chemical ones will help control a bit but the populations become so great that they just don’t control sufficiently to be any thing than a waste of money.
Confidor (the bee killer) would be the best to work as a chemical spray but of course now no longer available to the home gardener as it is a bee killer which we do not want that.
About two years ago the psyllid problem in my big glasshouse had got so bad that I went out looking for a safe means of control.
I found the answer in silicon which if used to treat the tomato plants from seedlings to maturity not
only prevented psyllid damage but actually got rid of them completely from my glasshouse and gardens.
So for other gardeners I bottled 3 products the first is Wallys Silicon and Boron Soil Drench which is watered into the soil where your tomato plant is to grow either before planting or after planting.
Another drench is applied 2 weeks later.
Then you mix Wallys Cell Strengthening Spray and Wallys Silicon Super Spreader together.
The Super Spreader forces the Cell Strengthening spray into the plants.
This spray can be started once your tomato plant has foliage and repeated every week as it grows.
Once it gets to flowering and about a metre tall then spray every two weeks.
Once you start harvesting fruit spray once a month.
Add Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) to the cell strengthening spray.
I make up the spray into a one litre Trigger sprayer and leave by the plants out of direct sunlight to used again till all contents finished as it keeps ok. Just shake the bottle in case of settling.
You will not only have lots of tomatoes as it used to be but also the fruit will be bigger and tastier as the leaves of the plant will love the silicon spray and grow to about double their normal size.
The plant will get more energy from the sun having larger leaves and the plants will be the best tomatoes you have ever grown using the Wallys Secret Tomato Food and the Silicon cell strengthening products. Even if you do not think you have a psyllid problem it is worthwhile to use the cell strengthening products as you will have better tomatoes as a result.
These products also work well on preventing or reducing the damage to garlic from the garlic rust problem.
You could try the cell strengthening spray with MBL added on your favorite plants such as roses and see what happens.
Problems ring me at 0800 466464 Email wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz Web site www.gardenews.co.nz
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:
1 The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2 The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3 The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4 The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)
“Forever chemicals are synthetic chemicals commonly used in consumer and industrial products. There are many types of these chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Perfluooctane sulfate (PFOS) is just one type of PFAS…Researchers found that study participants with high levels of PFOS in their blood were four and a half times as likely to develop liver cancer“
(NaturalHealth365) Your liver is a vital organ with hundreds of important functions. For instance, your liver works hard to cleanse your blood of poisons and toxins.
Now, a recent study published in JHEP Reports shows a disturbing link between a synthetic “forever chemical” and deadly liver cancer. The report suggests that the higher the exposure to forever chemicals, the higher the chance of developing liver cancer.
Man-made forever chemicals linked to deadly form of liver cancer
Forever chemicals are synthetic chemicals commonly used in consumer and industrial products. There are many types of these chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Perfluooctane sulfate (PFOS) is just one type of PFAS.
For the JHEP study, researchers analyzed human blood and tissue samples previously collected for an epidemiological study. Researchers looked at the samples of people who did or did not develop liver cancer.
They evaluated samples taken before cancer diagnosis, comparing them to samples from those who didn’t develop cancer. Researchers found that study participants with high levels of PFOS in their blood were four and a half times as likely to develop liver cancer.
The participants who developed cancer all had high levels of multiple types of PFAS in their blood. But the strongest link was between PFOS and liver cancer. Although other studies involving animals have suggested correlations between PFAS and cancer, this is the first human study to prove it.
Here is why PFAS are bad news for your health
Forever chemicals earned their nickname because they are extremely long-lasting. They take a long time to break down, accumulating in our environment and our bodily tissues over time. Unfortunately, the use of these dangerous chemicals is still widespread, although some manufacturers have stopped using them altogether amid growing health concerns.
PFAS are present in drinking water, food, food packaging, and even cosmetics. This is bad news for your health. Besides being carcinogenic, PFAS are associated with liver damage, kidney disease, neurological damage, and autoimmune problems. And once these toxic chemicals get into your bloodstream, they’re there for the long haul.
How does PFOS lead to liver cancer?
Researchers speculate that forever chemicals impede natural liver function. For instance, PFOS may interfere with glucose metabolism, bile acid metabolism, and amino acid metabolism. When the liver can’t function normally because of metabolic disruption, fat buildup can occur within the liver. This results in a condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Those with NAFLD have a much higher risk of liver cancer. Shockingly, there has been a global uptick in the number of people diagnosed with NAFLD – with scientists estimating that a whopping 30% of the global population will have NAFLD by the year 2030.
How to minimize intake of PFAS
What can you do to keep your liver healthy and reduce your PFAS exposure? It may be hard to avoid PFAS altogether. But you may be able to minimize exposure by minimizing packaged and processed foods.
Choose organic, whole, or locally grown foods whenever possible. This will ensure you’re avoiding as many harmful chemicals as possible and help you feel your best.
Recently I have been asked why some plants (and in particular citrus trees) are loosing leaves and look like dying?
The problem is root roots and any plants, shrubs or trees that can not have their roots wet for any length of time will likely die unless some remedial action is taken during wet times..
In a few cases I have been told that a citrus tree has been happy where it is for several years and now suddenly it is suffering.
The reason is likely a change in the flow of rain water which has made the root zone much wetter than in the past.
Maybe a shed was build nearby, maybe a concrete path or drive was laid which has changed the course of water and made an area wetter that in the past.
We will talk about citrus though there are a number of other plants which are not happy with wet feet.
Citrus need to be planted on very free draining soil and one way to ensure this is to make a mound of soil about 30cm tall and plant into the mound.
One of the locations I used to live at was so wet in winter that it was a lake a foot deep .
Initially I planted in the back yard some specimens that would take up the excessive water one of which was a twisted willow.
To grow my citrus trees I cut 200 litre plastic drums in half and made some large drainage holes in the base and on the sides near the base.
I then partly buried the container into the soil.
This was to help stabilize the tree in wind so they did not blow over.
Well what happened is the roots found their way out through the holes in the bottom/sides and the citrus really took off.
In winter they were sitting in a lake of water happy as Larry with a good part of their root system above the water.
This could be a method you could use if you have a very wet section.
There is another advantage to this and that is if you move house you can with a bit of effort dig the drums out of the soil cut the extended roots and take them with you to the next location.
I have citrus than have now lived in three different locations.
With the amount of rain in many locations there could be a chance your citrus are suffering so best to check.
Yellow leaves and leaf drop are a good indication it might be wet under foot.
There is an easy way to help over come the wet and allow the soil to dry out quicker.
Take a spade and just beyond the drip line and dig a trench about one and a half spades deep.
This allows the water to flow into the ditch and quickly evaporate with sun and wind.
A big problem this time of the year is mulches over gardens and around plants.
Mulches are for keeping moisture trapped in the dry times.
In wet times they are deadly.
So if you have bark gardens, weedmat or other covers over the soil for moisture retention you need to keep an eye on the plants growing there.
If they are starting to look poorly then you may be best to remove the mulch and let the soil breathe.
You can help speed up the recovery of any plants suffering from wet feet by spraying the foliage with Perkfection at the 7 mil rate.
A month later at the 5 mil rate this will help the plant generate new roots and overcome root rots.
Winter time is also a hard time for indoor plants and losses can occur if the growing medium is too wet.
House plants do not need much water at this time and if they are sitting in a saucer that is full of water you may have a problem.
There is a simple test you can use to determine how wet or dry a container plant is.
Lift the container and if it feels very light then it needs a small drink.
If heavy forget it and check a week later.
There can be a problem also where the mix has become so dry that when you water it does not wet the mix but flows out the drainage holes.
The plant gets only a little drink but not enough.
To overcome this add some dish washing liquid to a container of warm water and water the soapy mix over the growing medium.
This breaks the surface tension and allows the soapy water to penetrate.
Next time you water the water will stay there and not run out.
Another way of doing this in summer (not now) is to plunge the container into a tub of water and watch it bubble.
When it stops bubbling it is soaked thoroughly and you lift to drain.
Watering is an art which takes a lot of thought to get it right all the time.
EARLY BIRD LAST DAYS
Problems ring me at 0800 466464 Email wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz Web site www.gardenews.co.nz
Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch 
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