5.21.10

20 seconds of your time

I just sent the below email to my Senators urging them to get GMO’s out of the Global Food Security Act. Will you send an email to your Senator too? Let’s all of us help to put an end to genetically modified crops. Especially, since organic agriculture is far more environmentally and ECONOMICALLY sound in the grand scheme. All of your voices are precious! Click here to send the below email.

The UN recently released a report saying that Africa’s best hope for the future is organic agriculture. Yet the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has passed S.384, the Global Food Security Act, that would require “research on biotechnological advances appropriate to local ecological conditions, including genetically modified technology” as a condition of US aid.

Instead of cynically cloaking corporate welfare for chemical companies like Monsanto in agriculture aid packages, why not support the United Nations Environment Program’s Green Economy Initiative?

A new survey by the UN Conference on Trade and the Environment and UNEP in East Africa found that over 90 per cent of studies show that organic or near organic agriculture had benefits for soil fertility; water control; improved water tables, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

This allows farmers to extend the growing season in marginal areas. The research in East Africa was among 1.6 million organic or near organic farmers from seven countries working on 1.4 million hectares.

Other findings include an increase in crop yields of 128 per cent since switching.

Higher incomes too are a result of not having to buy fertilizers and pesticides; as is more food availability; higher prices are paid through certification schemes for both export and domestic markets – which addresses poverty in environmentally friendly way.

Close to 90 percent of cases showed an increase in farm and household incomes and because organic agriculture is more knowledge intensive it has led to improvements in education, community bonds and cooperation on market access.

The report concludes: “Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress.”

9.15.09

new leaf

I feel like these trees this morning – bright, green and grounded. Just back from a 10 day ‘living food’ detox retreat. Lots of meditation, contemplation, long walks, yoga, learning about body ecology and quality time spent with my (very cool) dad who came with me. It was a remarkable experience to eat only raw, living food for 10 days straight. Quite literally, I feel like a different person. I’m definitely on some other plane of consciousness right now. Wonder how long this will last (?)

*These pics are not from the retreat, but from a recent walk in the divine Henry Cowell State Park in Felton, CA. The retreat was near Ithaca, NY, but I decided not to take my camera with me as an exercise in just being and seeing without the distracting need to capture. No computer for 10 days as well. It was a detox on many levels :)

9.25.07

Inhaling 9/11

Anybody living and breathing within 20 miles of the WTC on 9/11 should read this article on BLDBLOG.

As my doctor put it: “You are a living lab experiment. The entire island and surrounding areas are a living lab experiment.” We were living near Houston Street when the buildings fell. The windows of our apartment were covered in dust, and the stench was unbearable. Reading the above, I’m grateful that I was paranoid enough about air quality to immediately rent a car, and leave the following morning. I’m also grateful that we’d been planning our move to California at the end of Oct (despite living in NYC for another month after 9/11.) HOWEVER, if it had not been for the trusty EPA declaring that air and water quality were “safe,” we probably would not have gone back to NYC. I would’ve holed up at my parents’ and not spent our last month breathing NYC air and drinking the water.

I don’t know who to be angry with – it’s not like they were going to evacuate the entire island of Manhattan – but they should have been honest with the public. No matter the outcome. People had a right to get the hell out of Dodge. No matter what that meant for NYC’s economy or whatever fueled their decision to *keep the peace.*

What boils my blood more than anything is that the EPA did not enforce MANDATORY gas masks for all rescue workers. I can understand that with the initial chaos it was difficult to dole out, and fit gas masks properly, but by day three, gas masks should’ve been nonnegotiable. Pure common sense dictated the air was swimming with carcinogens, i.e. the twin towers were a well-known asbestos hazard. It’s unpardonable. But, what to do? Who to blame? The damage is done. I hope a lesson has been learned. If there’s ever an environmental disaster in your neck of the woods, use common sense, follow your instincts and take your health into your own hands.

9.18.07

bioelectrography

Since learning about Dr. Konstantin Korotkov’s detailed GDV bioelectric imaging technology, I’ve been wanting some pics of my “aura.” I have no idea how this works, but Constant State Of Flux’s experience with the GDV is an interesting read.

This from Dr. Korotkov’s website:

“When we observe the play of light around human body, drop of water or crystal, we understand that everything in the world has interrelationship and any object – biological or inorganic – has its own inner energy. Understanding the fact that our life is not only material body and material existence but, first of all, it is energy, and therefore – Spirit, makes us have new attitude towards our everyday reality. When on real time we observe change of human biological field under influence of therapy, meditation, prayer, love, it makes us see the world round us with different eyes.”

8.22.07

GLAM

An overdue congratulations to my friend Becky for her new gig as the Wellness Editor over at GLAM (the largest women’s website in the US!) When it comes to health and healing, Becky is one of the most progressive and experimental people I’ve ever met. I HIGHLY recommend stopping by GlamSpirit where she shares knowledge and discoveries about wellness, wholeness and general goodness! (Today, I was inspired to try Thai Message, aka Lazy Yoga.)

*Be sure to check out her post, Sound and Healing, The Power of Kiai, detailing her Sound Healing training in Hawaii at Chozen-ji Zen dojo. Watch the video!