A new weapon for the 'War on Terror' arsenal?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=485506&in_page_id=1770

Finally (and just in time, really) ...

Just got some (Inchellium) garlic and (Ed's Red) shallots ordered for planting this fall. Thought I had ordered them (plus a few other things) from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange a month or so ago, but for some reason my order didn't go through and I just finally realized it. So, needless to say, I couldn't remember who I attempted to order them through originally, and ordered them through Seeds of Change this time.

So, my fall garden is now complete; I have greens, lettuce, carrots, turnips, broccoli, beets, radishes (which aren't planted yet), and now I'll have garlic and shallots. Plus, I still have okra and tomatoes going (but barely).

I guess it's time to start thinking about what I want to plant next spring! Oh boy, here we go again ...

Moo-ving right along ...

I just read an interesting article on why cattle in the United Kingdom come down with so many diseases. This excerpt particularly caught my eye:

But the country does have the distinction of being Europe's primary landing spot for global travel, and that could put livestock at risk. Travelers from every continent pass through London Heathrow Airport (the busiest airport in the world for international traffic), and with them comes food waste from airplanes. Pathology researchers consider airline food waste, which is sometimes processed into food for livestock, the greatest danger to animal health in the world. Airline garbage that's contaminated with foreign diseases can end up in livestock troughs ...

Wow ... that doesn't sound very good, and that as a problem never crossed my mind. Cattle eating animal byproducts is not a very good thing (cows are herbivores, after all, and shouldn't even be forced to eat corn for instance), but feeding them with people food that may be contaminated from an uncontrolled international source sounds very baaad too.

As a side note, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, wrote an interesting Op-Ed article in 2004 about the USDA and Mad Cow Disease.

I seem to recall a court case against McDonald's in the late 1970s, where they were forced to quit feeding their cattle rendered byproducts from euthanised animals (mainly cats and dogs) collected from animal shelters in the U.S. And, you may never again eat any beef-filled items from Taco Bell after reading these postings.

Ok, that's all for now.

Corn causing problems again

When will outdated monoculture corn farmers come to their senses and give up on growing thousands of acres of corn each season? And when will the government quit giving our tax money away (via subsidies) that really only benefit the big processing companies (like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midlands, Monsanto, et al)?

Well, hopefully the bubble will burst soon. A recent article in the New York Times seems to point to another wrench in their gears. (Unfortunately farmers are going to take the biggest hit when the bubble bursts; but again, time to adapt and move on.)

Here's an update.

[On the flip side, here's an article on cellulosic ethanol that sounds promising.]