Hi Tula, Yes, things here are okay...same as they ever were, been net working and researching and hanging on when the wind blows.
Here are a few things I"ve been working on......Prairy
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I am still investigating this Virulent wheat rust (fungus) and how this rust had been eradicated and no longer posed a threat to the worlds wheat crops. However, in the 1960's the U S Army hired bio engineers to "improve and weaponize" the wheat rust to use as a weapon, "just in case," against rogue nations. Somehow it escaped (?) and showed up in Uganda's wheat fields, then jumped big waters (?) to Yemen and eventually Iran. Hmmmm.
Now, there is not much we can do to fight this UG99 wheat rust, enter scientists who say they are making a little progress in genetically creating UG99 wheat rust resistant seed. On the one hand this sounds promising that help is forthcoming in the future, on the other hand, I wonder who will hold the patents and price structure of such seed as it becomes available.
In the mean while, UG99 is such a killer, it remains a threat to cause widespread famine among many nations and populations of our world.....Prairy
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'Stem rust' fungus threatens global wheat harvest
New variety of an old crop disease called "stem rust" can infect crops in just a few hours and vast clouds of invisible spores can be carried by the wind for hundreds of miles
The world's leading crop scientists issued a stark warning that a deadly airborne fungus could devastate wheat harvests in poor countries and lead to famines and civil unrest over significant regions of central Asia and Africa.
Ug99 — so called because it was first seen in Uganda in 1999 — is a new variety of an old crop disease called "stem rust", which has already spread on the wind from Africa to Iran. It is particularly alarming because it can infect crops in just a few hours and vast clouds of invisible spores can be carried by the wind for hundreds of miles.
Scientists meeting in Mexico this week at a summit on Ug99 worry it will continue travelling east and infect major wheat growing centres in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, which produce nearly 15% of the world's wheat and feed more than a billion of the world's poorest people. Plant breeders are now racing against time to develop new resistant wheat strains and distribute the seeds around the world.
The fungus was thought to have largely disappeared since the 1960s when original disease-resistant varieties were developed and planted. But Ug99 has evolved to take advantage of those varieties, and it is now believed that 80-90% of all wheat varieties grown in developing countries are susceptible to the new fungus.
The Nobel prize-winner Norman Borlaug, who is credited with helping India and other countries avoid famines in the 1960s by developing high yielding crop strains, said: "This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction. It is capable of severely damaging virtually all of the world's commercial bread wheat. It is a problem that goes far beyond wheat production in developing countries. Sooner or later it will be found throughout the world, including North America, Europe, Australia and South America."
The new version of what scientists believe was one of the Biblical plagues has spread from Uganda to Kenya, and then to Ethiopia and southern Sudan. Where the spores attack, a wheat crop can be turned into a tangle of blackened and broken stems in a few days. Up to 80% yield losses were recently recorded in Kenya and Uganda, though fortunately neither of these countries wholly depends on wheat as a staple crop .
But in 2007, it jumped the Red Sea, possibly as a result of Cyclone Gonu, and is now widespread in Yemen and Iran. Wheat is a major crop in Iran, but its progress has been slowed by a long-term drought that has inhibited its growth.
"Kenya is having recurring epidemics, the situation is getting worse in southern Sudan and it is now widespread in Ethiopia," said Rick Ward, co-ordinator of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, based at Cornell university. "The likelihood is that it has already spread beyond Iran. We would be foolish to believe that other countries in central Asia, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, are not already at risk. Places like Kazakhstan, Turkey, Ukraine are all susceptible."
Ward predicted that Ug99 would inevitably spread much further, potentially into regions where wheat is a staple crop for hundreds of millions of people. "It is a certainty that it will expand its area," he said. "It will continue to move and wherever it is present and the crops are susceptible it will potentially lead to a disaster of catastrophic proportions, which will translate into widespread food insecurity and civil unrest." Global wind models suggest the crop disease may next spread into Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
Large wheat farmers in developed countries can buy expensive fungicides, which they must apply several times to protect their crops, but very few of the small farmers in Asia can afford the chemicals.
However, scientists at the meeting reported rapid progress in developing newly disease-resistant wheat varieties. According to plant geneticist Ravi Singh, a project leader at the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Centre in Mexico, 60 disease-resistant varieties have been developed via conventional breeding, some of which are thought to be not only resistant to Ug99, but higher-yielding than today's most popular varieties. Countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan are already being helped to multiply resistant seeds for future harvests, he said.
But it usually takes at least five years to cross disease-resistant lines with wheat varieties adapted to local conditions and then grow enough seed to plant fields. "We are making rapid progress but it will take years to distribute enough new varieties" said Ward.
Ug99 "stem-rust" fungus
• Ug99 is resistant to the three major anti-rust genes used to protect nearly all the world's wheat.
• The fungus reproduces to release billions of identical spores, which can blow hundreds of miles in the wind
• It attacks the above-ground part of plants and unlike other strains, can cause 100% crop loss
• The US army produced wheat rust as part of its biological weapons programme in the 1960s
The above article from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009...bal-wheat-crops+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
and
LBAM Crop Quarantine, Sonoma County - The Huge Lie
It is with regret and sorrow that I must continue to post these horrific goings on in our world. I dream that one day we will focus on all the healing and goodness going on. Until that time, and as long as there are those few "Dr. Strangelove" scientists teamed up with and paid for by big government, I feel a responsibility to inform those who are willing to read and help stop this negative behavior. Prairy
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From the Vegan Reader
http://www.veganreader.com/2009/03/16/lbam...y-the-huge-lie/ comes the following:
LBAM Crop Quarantine, Sonoma County - The Huge Lie
Monday 16 Mar 2009 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
If you’ve come here looking for further information regarding the Sonoma County Crop Quarantine and the light brown apple moth, this article aims to serve as your crash course in understanding the issue.
In reading the following articles and watching the following videos, you may find it hard to believe that so much chaos, corruption and suffering could possibly center on a harmless insect which has done zero damage in the state of California, despite living here for decades.
The LBAM story includes a California governor on the take from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and major pesticide manufacturers. It involves hundreds of families falling ill and rushing children to ERs after being sprayed as part of the so-called LBAM ‘eradication’ program. It involves doctors, scientists and conscientious politicians stepping forward to demand that CDFA stop deceiving the public and poisoning human beings. It involves beaches covered with dead birds and whole towns devoid of birdsong. All because of a little moth, a moth that has harmed nothing.
Because both the CDFA and farmers threatened with quarantine will undoubtedly be approaching the presence of a couple of light brown apple moths in Sonoma County with a barrage of pesticides, it is very important for you to understand what you are up against. Over the past year, Vegan Reader has written and linked to hundreds of pieces regarding the LBAM issue and we have created the following list of links to must-read and must-watch documentation of the LBAM story in California:
LBAM Science
Dr. Daniel Harder’s Report On The Harmlessness of LBAM in New Zealand
U.C. Davis Scientists Ask USDA To Halt Eradication Program
Video: Entomologist James Cary explains that LBAM Eradication is Not Possible
Video: Pheromone-Pesticide Creator Says, ‘Don’t Spray Me.’
CBS Interview: Scientists Explain Deadly PM10 in Moth Spray
Health and People
Doctors Accuse State of Experimentation, Fatal Damage
Dr. Rose’s Complete Toxicity and Health Effects of LBAM Spray Report
Dr. Ann. M. Haiden’s Report On Checkmate Health Harms
What Does Pesticide Poisoning Feel Like? LBAM Spray Preparedness.
LBAM Checkmate Spray, Agent Orange and Women’s Health
Agricultural Chemicals and Chronic Illness
Environment and Human Rights Advisory Document
Video: Documentary Film on LBAM Spraying of Central California
Video: Citizen Account of Human Health Damages From LBAM Spray
Video: Wilcox Family Account of Damage to their Infant Son from LBAM Spray
Video: Following the money behind LBAM Spray Program
Video: Extensive Account of Health Damages in Central Coast Region of California
LBAM - The International Connection
In Memoriam: LBAM Spray Victims
Wildlife and Pets
Roy Upton’s final report on the deaths of wildlife and pets
Roy Upton’s final report on damage to honeybees
Twist Ties and Your Cat
Twist Ties in Sonoma County
Roy Upton’s Permethrin Report
Facts about permethrin and wildlife
8 Important Facts You Need to Know
1. In 2007, CDFA sprayed Central California with pheromone-pesticides from airplanes, causing hundreds of families to fall ill, cutting school attendance in half, killing hundreds of birds, wild animals, honeybees and pets.
2. CDFA then intended to increase their aerial spraying area to include all of the SF Bay Area. This action was stopped as a result of outraged citizen protest. CDFA announced that it would no longer spray cities, but would spray so-called ‘rural’ areas. This distinction has never been made clear to the public, and many of us live in rural areas.
3. CDFA’s quarantine of Sonoma County is simply their latest tactic to give their ‘eradication’ efforts a legitimate appearance. As independent scientists have repeatedly proved, the light brown apple moth has done zero damage in California and is considered a minor pest everywhere else in the world. Because CDFA wishes to continue to receive millions of dollars of funding for their ‘eradication’ program, they have stooped to spraying human beings with pesticides and quarantining innocent farmers, thereby depriving them of their livelihoods.
4. The types of pesticide products which may be used in Sonoma County because of the presence of the harmless light brown apple moth may include toxic twist ties, chemical splats, sprays, and the dispersal of millions of pesticide-coated moths. Do not be fooled by the industry double talk you will hear about ‘pheromones’. The synthetic products used in agriculture, which are termed ‘pheromones’, are not naturally-occurring substances. They are lab chemicals, and the product sprayed on the families of Central California in 2007 was a registered pesticide, despite being called a ‘pheromone product’. Pheromone-pesticides are pesticides. All products being used by CDFA surrounding LBAM are frighteningly toxic to human beings.
5. Because of the quarantine being enforced on them, Sonoma County’s farmers and alcohol growers may decide to further drench their fields in pesticides. We are already living in the most pesticide-ridden state in the country, and to have the toxic burden increased in Sonoma County because of the presence of a harmless insect is not acceptable.
6. Do not expect accurate or truthful coverage of the LBAM issue in your local news. Unfortunately, recent history has demonstrated that most of our news sources do not understand the importance of investigative reporting, and are happy to simply reprint the statements given to them by agricultural officials. To find accurate news, we would suggest that you Google the issues and make up your own mind from independently-written and thoroughly researched sources. YouTube.com is another excellent resource for citizen documentation of local issues. Too often, Sonoma County’s news sources merely serve as lap dogs to the local alcohol industry, which is so heavily tied to the pesticide industry that it is frequently impossible to get to the truth about agricultural matters and human and environmental health damages.
7. Expect agricultural officials to lie. Their jobs hinge upon finding opportunities to get federal and state funding for projects like the LBAM ‘eradication’ program. California Ag Secretary A.G. Kawamura has been caught on film lying to everyone from CBS reporters to frantic mothers. It is important to understand that CDFA has been engaged in scores of so-called ‘eradication’ programs during the past half century, and that, in all of this time, they have succeeded in eradicating only one single pest. Despite aerial spraying, despite ground spraying, despite twist ties and countless other toxic tools employed, plus billions and billions of dollars spent, all but one of the insects on CDFA’s list remain very much alive in California.
8. Don’t take our word for it. We are just one publication. Because of our study of this issue, and the acquaintances we have formed with citizens who have been abused by CDFA, we are firmly convinced that the LBAM program is nothing more than a fraud. But, our main hope is that you will research this issue for yourself so that you can understand how state and federal agencies are acting in your corner of the world and the effect this is having on your family’s health. Here are some suggested resources for further reading:
LbamSpray.com
StoptheSpray.org
DontSprayCalifornia.org
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LBAM Spray - Doctors Accuse State of Experimentation, Fatal Damage
Saturday 26 Apr 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
I am documenting here the accusations that have been made against the State by some of California’s most eminent doctors and scientists. These words must reach the ears of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Department of Agriculture, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and all other parties complicit in the attempted poisoning of millions of innocent Californians with the LBAM pesticide product, Checkmate.
Dr James Carey, Professor of Entomology, UC Davis and former CDFA panelist
This is an experiment.
Dr. Dennis Knepp, PhD engineering physics, radar communications, statistician
CDFA will double the PM10 in the air each time they spray. Half the particles in this concoction are smaller than 9.8 microns. There was no CDFA testing for inhalation (of the PM10 particles). They have to measure the amount that’s deposited in the air we breathe. There were no inhalation tests. I think that’s what you call an experiment.
Particulate matter is of greatest concern to the elderly and children and people who are the most vulnerable. It gets into the lungs and can cause cardiovascular problems and pneumonia. Let’s say they’re going to spray 5 million people and the spray is going to stay in the air for 270 days each year.
That’s a lot of exposure to PM10. They (CDFA) are going to double the amount of PM10 in the air. Given 9 months of exposure for 5 million people, 141 to 210 people will die due to the 9 months’ exposure. That’s a solid number based on years of scientific studies published in peer review papers from Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard School of Medicine.
If someone were actually murdering that number of people, we would get very concerned and I do believe that’s what the State and Governor Schwarzenegger and planning to do. They would like to do this.
Dr. Larry Rose, Retired Senior Public Medical Officer for Cal-OSHA, Occupational Environmental Medicine Practitioner, UCSF
I reviewed the inerts (ingredients in Checkmate). They’re not just irritants. They’re also a real concern for hormone disruption - estrogenic activity which would affect the risk for many diseases. They also are mutagens which would attack your chromosomes, are genotoxic, and would affect your immune system and risk for cancer, and two of them are suspected carcinogens and cause cancer.
When these microparticles lodge in your lungs and go deep and stay there, you are going to have what we call systemic circulation to all of your vital organs.
The microcapsules are designed to persist for 30 days and I’ve never seen that before in a pesticide. I did research on persistence when I was getting my masters degree in toxicology. One of the first things you look at in pesticides is ‘when can you allow people to go back into the fields after they’ve been sprayed?’ Now, in this case, they are spraying it right on top of people!
I read the 643 reports that Mike Lynberg put together in Monterey. The reactions weren’t just upper-respiratory; they were eye, nose, throat, skin, gastrointestinal and neurological reactions and none of it was adequately followed up on by the Department of Public Health Services and OEHHA. They did no systematic interviews of the people or their primary health providers.
They (the State) use terms like ‘this is stress or people are overly-upset’ and that’s ridiculous. This is no way to treat people who are having serious health reactions. To say they’re going to do some toxicology studies and then it will be okay is ridiculous. They have to, they must, if they take any degree of responsibility at all, they must do follow-ups on all of the people who had reactions and it must be done in a systematic, formal epidemiologic fashion. All plans should be stopped until this is done. I don’t know who is making these decisions and why, but they are very suspect.
The above experts have stepped forward, voluntarily, in an attempt to combat the incorrect and deceitful information that has been authored by the State and promulgated by Governor Schwarzenegger. The pesticide and its poly-urea microcapsule are not safe, and are likely to cause hundreds of deaths. The State must take the 643 health complaints seriously and authorize a real, systematic study of the families who have been damaged by the 2007 spraying. Schwarzenegger’s 6-pack toxicology test is being cited as ridiculous and ineffective.
Vegan Reader joins the people of California in demanding that an independent (non-governmental) board of experts like Knepp, Carey and Rose be part of the review process. The CDFA and OEHHA have lost all credibility and the public has no reason to be confident in any findings they might publish. We insist upon independent, third-party review. As our doctors say, lives are at stake.
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Update
I’m going to keep adding testimony from doctors here.
Dr. Elisa Song, Pediatrician, SF Bay Area
Several illnesses can be linked to exposure to environmental toxins, including asthma, autoimmune illness and autism. And the rates of chronic illnesses in children are disturbingly on the rise. We know children got sick during the spraying last fall, and one 12-month-old boy who nearly died from respiratory arrest and suffered a subsequent attack some weeks later. That boy was fortunate to receive prompt, excellent medical care. Children without health insurance in poor areas of our cities may not be so lucky. A public health system which is already severely strained in most counties will suffer from this increased burden. And the children in my practice, already suffering from asthma and chronic illnesses. will be even more vulnerable to the effects of the airborne spray.
If there is even a plausible doubt that Checkmate could have neurodevelopmental and health effects on our most vulnerable populations, then why would we even consider that risk to our children’s future?
Read Dr. Song’s Complete Testimony Here
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Update:
Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., Neurosurgeon, Author
There’s a couple of tricks, as I look through some of the material that was put out by the health and ag. departments of California. Number one, they only talk about acute toxicity. This is one the great fallacies - talking only about acute toxicity. They study it for a few days to a week or two and then cut off the study. You’re going to miss a lot of chronic and sub-acute reactions.
The real damaging effect occurs months or years later - not acutely. And, of course, they can write these people off because the longer from the time of your exposure, then they can blame it on other things. The second trick they use is that they say they inform physicians to be on the lookout for effects of this product. All they’re going to have them looking out for is skin reactions and eye reactions. Then, if a doctor sees someone coming in with severe pulmonary problems or sinusitis or neurological problems such as seizures or difficulty thinking, that’s not on the list to look for, so they’ll discount it. So all of those people will be excluded from the final tally of who was affected by this spraying. They do that frequently.
EPA does not permit long term human studies of any type of pestide, which relieves them of any obligation to hear complaints of people who say, “Well a month later, my health has deteriorated.” And they say, “Well, we don’t do long term studies, so we’re not going to record it.”
Once these (health) complications begin to arise, you can expect a litany of lies. They will bring forth their experts to assure you that this has nothing to do with their spraying technique or the chemical they used. The lies will begin to flow like lava out of a volcano. Prepare yourself for that.
They’re essentially medicating and exposing people to toxins against their will.
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it is quite a sad state of affairs,really. I hope that I am wrong and there will be change,but as I said, it is good you and others here are fighting the good fight!