Category Archives: Health

South Georgia Growing Local 2014



What has about 300 heads and eats really well?
A local agriculture conference coming to Lowndes County 24 January 2014.

South Georgia Growing Local 2014 is a local food conference for growers, consumers, homesteaders in South Georgia. Farm Tours 1/24 — Conference 1/25



You can like the

facebook page
and join events there

for the conference itself on January 25th
and for

the farm tours on January 24th.
Agritourism has come to Lowndes County!
This is one reason a wide variety of organizations, including two Chambers of Commerce, are supporting this conference:
it will fill hotel rooms.
Even more, it’s about longterm local economy through growing and buying food right here in south Georgia and north Florida.
All that and it tastes good, too!




26 January 2013 in Reidsville Continue reading →

Junk food is engineered to be addictive

This is why there is an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease
in the U.S.:
food deliberately engineered to make people eat until they get fat.
Georgia is not quite one of the fattest states,
but Lowndes County is one of the fattest counties.
There is something we can do, even while Big Food
continues to act like Big Tobacco.

Michael Moss wrote for NYTimes 20 February 2013,


The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,



On the evening of April 8, 1999, a long line of Town Cars and taxis
pulled up to the Minneapolis headquarters of Pillsbury and
discharged 11 men who controlled America’s largest food companies.
Nestlé was in attendance, as were Kraft and Nabisco, General Mills
and Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Mars. Rivals any other day, the
C.E.O.’s and company presidents had come together for a rare,
private meeting. On the agenda was one item: the emerging obesity
epidemic and how to deal with it. While the atmosphere was cordial,
the men assembled were hardly friends. Their stature was defined by
their skill in fighting one another for what they called
“stomach share” — the amount of digestive space
that any one company’s brand can grab from the competition.



James Behnke, a 55-year-old executive at Pillsbury, greeted the men
as they arrived. He was anxious but also hopeful about the plan that
he and a few other food-company executives had devised to engage the
C.E.O.’s on America’s growing weight problem. “We were very
concerned, and rightfully so, that obesity was becoming a major
issue,” Behnke recalled. “People were starting to talk
about sugar taxes, and there was a lot of pressure on food
companies.” Getting the company chiefs in the same room to Continue reading →

99% of U.S. PCBs produced by Monsanto, and MON knew they were toxic

Monsanto knew PCBs were toxic as it manufactured almost all of them,
much like Roundup now.
Monsanto drenched the town of Anniston, Alabama in PCBs and never told them.
Guess where that pipeline through Georgia from Alabama to Florida starts?
That’s right: Anniston, Alabama.



According to CDC

Toxicological Profile for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), November 2000,

“Approximately 99% of the PCBs used by U.S. industry were produced by the Monsanto Chemical Company in Sauget, Illinois, until production was stopped in August 1977.”

By Michael Grunwald in Washington Post Tuesday, January 1, 2002; Page A01,

Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution:
PCBs Drenched Ala. Town, But No One Was Ever Told
(
original URL no longer works), Continue reading →

Monsanto loses French appeal, reconvicted of poisoning

Will we listen to
French farmer Paul François, who sued Monsanto for nerve damage due to inhaling
Lasso weedkiller, and

won last year?
Monsanto appealed, but
François
just won

“Farmers need to understand that those who speak for them are businessmen who defend other interests, very lucrative for the businessmen, who do not care about farmers’ health or the health of those around us.”

the appeal, too.
Now the court is gauging losses to determine penalties for Monsanto.

This after back in 2009
France convicted Monsanto of lying
about its claims that Roundup was “biodegradable” and “left the soil clean”.
And Argentinean tobacco farmers

are suing Monsanto in New Castle County Court, Delaware, saying
Monsanto
“knowingly poisoned them with herbicides and pesticides and subsequently caused ”devastating birth defects” in their children”.
These same Monsanto herbicides and pesticides are sprayed
on most fields around here, and they’re just as much
poisons here as in Argentina or France.

Paul François

answered questions from Pierre Penin for Sud Ouest (southwest France)
8 February 2013,

Continue reading →

March Against Monsanto everywhere, Savannah, 2PM 25 May 2013

On May 25, activists around the world will unite to March Against
Monsanto.


In Savannah, OccupyMonsanto says:

2pm at the Fountain in Forsyth Park at noon, with photo ops,
educational tables, music and more — join us and send a powerful message
to one of the most polluting corporations in the world!

Oher Georgia events include Athens, Brunswick, and Atlanta.

Here’s

how to organize a march.
Why?


David Knowles wrote for New York Daily News 8 May 2013,

VIDEO: Stars align in protest against food giant Monsanto over GMO crops:
Foes of the conglomerate have produced a video shining light on the supposed dangers of genetically modified crops. Bill Maher, Danny Devito and Dave Matthews will be among the celebrities speaking out.

“Here in America you don’t get the right to know whether
you’re eating genetically modified organisms,” Dave Matthews says
in the video that asks viewers to participate in a global day of
protest against the company on May 25.

The
video: Continue reading →

Bee-killing pesticides banned in Europe

How long will it take the U.S. to follow Europe’s ban of
neonicotinoid pesticides, putting health of bees and food crop pollination
ahead of corporate profit?

Damian Carrington wrote for the Guardian today,

Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe:
EU member states vote ushers in continent-wide suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides,

Europe will enforce the world’s first continent-wide ban on widely
used insecticides linked to serious harm in bees, after a European
commission vote on Monday.

The landmark suspension is a victory for millions of environment
campaigners concerned about dramatic declines in bees who were
backed by experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). But
it is a serious defeat for the chemical companies who make billions
a year from the products and also UK ministers—who voted
against the ban. Both had argued the ban will harm food production.

The vote by the 27 member states of the European Union to suspend
the insect nerve agents was supported by 15 nations, but did not
reach the required majority under EU voting rules. The hung vote
hands the final decision to the European commission (EC) who will
implement the ban. “It’s done,” said an EC source.

-jsq

Lowndes County next year: SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference


Janisse Ray starting the conference
This year’s

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference
was a satisfying success, and next year it moves to Lowndes County.

Not only did 260 people sign up, but
all the sessions were well-attended, and
everybody seemed to learn something new, from hoop houses to solar power, from hands-on
workshops to all-hands plenary sessions.
Of course the food was excellent.
You can get a hint from this picture of Janisse Ray opening the conference;
the food in the foreground is on the snack tables (ah, the honeycomb!).
Then there were the meals, potluck by and for a conference-full of foodies.

In 2011 about 50 people came to the first one in Tifton.
In 2012, about 150 people went to Reidsville.
In 2013, about 260 people signed up, also for Reidsville, Tattnall County,
to learn what it takes
to grow local sustainable food here below the gnat line
in this longleaf pine land of tea-colored rivers, acid soil,
and rich gardening traditions.

As Janisse Ray wrote on the

facebook event
for this year’s conference:


Gretchen Quarterman on preserving foods

SoGa Growing Local 2014 will be held in Valdosta, GA. Gretchen
Quarterman will be the lead organizer. We’ll be keeping you posted
on the date so you can put it on your calendars now. (We may do a
mini version in Tattnall in 2014.)

More later on what happened at this year’s conference,
and more as it develops on next year’s conference.
So far, many local farmers, civic and business organizations,
and local governmental bodies have offered to help, and Gretchen is forming an organizational committee.
Stay tuned!

-jsq

SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

I think this is the third year of a fascinating conference
that started when some people in south Georgia realized
nobody else was going to talk about what it takes
to grow local sustainable food here below the gnat line
in this longleaf pine land of tea-colored rivers, acid soil,
and rich gardening traditions. -jsq

Red Earth Farm

Janisse Ray present:


SoGa Growing Local & Sustainable Conference

A day-long, information-rich, action-packed, affordable
conference designed to get you healthier and save you money.



facebook event

When and Where:

9AM to 6PM, Jan. 26, 2013

Tattnall County High School,

Highway 23/57 South,

(1 Battle Creek Warrior Blvd)

Reidsville, GA 30453

Registration:

PDF,
Word

$30 before Jan. 15;

$45 afterwards.

Includes lunch.

Many do-it-yourself workshops in homesteading and country living:
mushroom culture, beekeeping, backyard chickens, soil-building,
small fruit production, economics, gardening for wildlife,
charcuterie, natural cleaning, fermentation, herbs on the menu,
natural cleaning & body care products, making jams & jellies,
vermiculture, weed management, marketing, everything you need to
know about small farming. Ladies Homestead Gathering, seed-saving.
And so much more….

Conference actually starts on Friday with a
potluck, reading & a showing of the film “Grow.”

For more information see Registration on the left here,
or email redearthfarm at yahoo.



Gretchen Quarterman will be giving a workshop at the Growing Local
conference: Beginning lesson on home made jams and jellies. What
you’ll need (not much) to start making delicious sweets from fruits
that are easily available.



Inspirational gardener & naturalist Ellen Corrie of Tifton, Ga. will
be teaching a workshop on Gardening for Wildlife at the Growing Local
conference Jan. 26. This presentation will look at how gardening
for wildlife makes your garden (whatever size) healthier and helps
restore habitat and preserve biodiversity. There’ll be an overview of
factors which need to be considered to attract and keep any wildlife or
beneficial general. I’ll focus on pollinators and specific practices
and plants to attract them. — with Leeann Drabenstott Culbreath
and Dan Corrie.



Albert Kipple Culbreath will be teaching a Mushroom-Growing Workshop
at the conference. Inoculation and care of logs for production of
shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Will include information on where to
obtain supplies, how to handle logs, which type logs to use, care
for the logs, and culinary uses. Sign up now. — with Leeann
Drabenstott Culbreath.

Native plants in your yard for native wildlife



Nature is not something
out there, apart from people.
It never was, and nowadays people have built and farmed and clearcut
so much that wildlife species from insects to birds are in trouble.
In south Georgia people may think that our trees make a lot of wildlife habitat.
Actually, most of those trees are planted pine plantations with
very limited undergrowth, and in town many yards are deserts of grass
plus exotic species that don’t support native birds.
Douglas Tallamy offers one solution:
turn yards into wildlife habitat by growing native species.
Since we are as always remodeling nature, we might as well do it
so as to feed the rest of nature and ourselves,
and by the way get flood prevention and possibly cleaner water as well,
oh, and fewer pesticides to poison ourselves.

Douglas Tallamy makes a clear and compelling case in



Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants

…it is not yet too late to save most of the plants and animals
that sustain the ecosystems on which we ourselves depend.
Second, restoring native plants to most human-dominated landscapes
is relatively easy to do.

Some of you may wonder why native species are so important?
Don’t we have more deer than we can shoot?
Maybe so, but we have far fewer birds of almost every species
than we did decades and only a few years ago.

Some may wonder: aren’t exotic species just as good as native ones,
if deer and birds can eat them?
Actually, no, because many exotic species are poisonous

Japanese climbing fern on native Smilax
to native wildlife, and because invasive exotics crowd out natives
and reduce species diversity.
From kudzu to

Japanese climbing fern, exotic invasives are bad for wildlife
and may also promote erosion and flooding by strangling native vegetation.

All plants are not created equal, particularly in their ability to support wildlife.
Most of our native plant-eaters are not able to eat alien plants,
and we are replacing native plants with alien species at an alarming rate,
especially in the suburban gardens on which our wildlife increasingly depends.
My central message is that unless we restore native plants to our
suburban ecosystems,
the future of biodiversity in the United States is dim.

Tallamy had an epiphany when he and his wife moved to 10 acres
in Pennsylvania in 2000:

Continue reading →

Okravore supper

Pork chop, squash, brocolli, all from within 100 miles,
and corn and sweet potatoes from our field:


Pork chop, corn, squash, brocolli

Sweet potato pie


Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2012-11-15.

-jsq