Philosophical Musings on the Juxtaposition of the Words "Commercial" and "Food"

(NaturalNews) So, how did it happen? How did we all get complacent enough to accept the phrase “commercially produced food” without even blinking an eye? How did Uncle Sam, in WWII public service announcements, go from advising the US public “to garden” to later telling the post-911 US public “to shop”. And, not just to shop, but to shop for food. Food is the hub of the wheel. It’s the one thing that we all have in common: we all have to eat. And, we are what we eat. Recent statistics regarding the number of people with early onset cancer, degenerative disease, diabetes and dementia all point to a decline in the quality of our food. “Commercial” anything is about profit, not quality. So, when food becomes a profit motive, a lot goes out the door. Some of the things that fly out the door are health, money (yours, not theirs), environment and energy. Big Agriculture is unconcerned about the environmental carnage left behind by pesticides, GMO crops, soil depletion or erosion.Big Agriculture is unconcerned about how much fuel it takes to run those mega-machines to produce, harvest and transport crops. And, Big Agriculture doesn’t care how much food costs you and your family. They care about directing profits to already rich corporate interests. Most of the food in your supermarket travels thousands of miles in trucks or planes to get from the farm to the shelves. Think about how much fuel us used to transport those items. What kind of impact does that have on the environment? When you purchase food at the store, you’re also paying for the cost of shipping, packaging and storing that food. What kind of impact does that have on your wallet? While organic foods have grown in popularity, many commercially available foods are still sprayed with pesticides, herbicides and preservative formulas to prevent disease and spoilage. The USDA currently allows “57 trace pesticides” in foods labeled organic. Are you scared (or angry) yet? Not only can these chemicals pose health risks to you, they also impact the environment through air and water pollution. The concept of “commercial food” really gets at the heart of the differential identified by Scott Nearing. Nearing made a clear distinction between “use production” and “market production”. Use production is when you produce something (in this case, food) for your own household’s use. Market production, obviously, is producing for sale on the open market. Nearing argued, and I agree, the “use production” was, in the Big Picture, the most efficient and effective economic model. By growing and preserving your own food, for example, you’ll save money. Food grown from seed costs a lot less than store-bought. By preserving your harvest you can reduce the amount of food you throw away due to spoilage. There is no packaging. There are no middle managers. In addition, you can save the seeds from the fruits of your plants and replant them next year. By following these practices you could feed yourself indefinitely. Food that you grow yourself just tastes better. Food in markets, even health food stores, is often in cold storage for up to a month before being sold. Fresh food is more nutritious and has better flavor than the stuff that comes from the store. I grow my own food. I “get my groceries off the ground”. When I walk through my garden and cut fresh greens for salad–and eat them no more than an hour later–the benefits of Nearing’s “use economy” are evident. Nothing, absolutely nothing, that I can buy at a market (even a Farmer’s Market) comes close to the level of quality that I can produce right outside my window. It’s my vision that more and more people will wave goodbye to “commercial food” and replace it with a “use economy” model. If Uncle Sam won’t tell us to GARDEN anymore, we’ll just do it ourselves!

Many types of organic compost are really packaged human sewage

(NaturalNews) Do you want everything that goes down your drain winding up on your backyard produce? Well that’s what happens to those who use organic compost made with municipal sewage. More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage flushed annually by Americans ends up in a fertilizer product and those products contain everything that goes down the drain from Prozac flushed down toilets to the motor oil rinsed off factory floors (http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/05/sludge-happens). The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t regulate which fertilizers can be labeled as “organic” which means anyone can use the term, including those companies that are packaging what we flush. A 2009 EPA survey of U.S. sludge samples found 12 pharmaceuticals, 10 flame retardants, and high levels of endocrine disruptors such at triclosan, an antibacterial soap ingredient that scientists believe is killing amphibians. In communities where sludge has been used, effects on the community have been reported by ailing residents with complaints ranging from migraines to pneumonia to mysterious deaths. In an often-cited 1994 episode, an 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy died of a staph infection after biking through sludge at an abandoned mine (http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/05/sludge-happens). Marketed with near zero regulation With those kinds of risks associated with the use of sewage sludge, compost consumers should know whether sludge permeates their choice of product. But compost products, such as Kellogg’s Amend, do not list sludge or even “biosolids” on their label and instead just list the vague term “compost” (http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/your-organic-compost-really-sewage-sludge-rosario-dawson-kellogg-amend). Although the USDA banned the use of sludge in organic agriculture, it does not regulate which fertilizers for private use can be labeled as organic. And the nonprofit U.S. Composting Council is no better, using its green image for the Orwellian rebranding of sludge while biosolids companies sit on its board of directors and sponsor the councils Composting Week, according to Mother Jones. (http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/your-organic-compost-really-sewage-sludge-rosario-dawson-kellogg-amend) Dodge the sludge If you want to keep the sludge and its chemical contaminants out of your organic garden, there are many alternative fertilizer choices that will keep your garden green — in both senses of the word. Some mineral-based fertilizers that will work over the long term include Epsom salt, gypsum, limestone and greensand. These rocks add essential minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, sulfur and phosphorus to the soil (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/fertilizing-your-organic-garden.html). For more immediate results, plant and animal-based products will increase soil fertility and soil health. These include alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, kelp/seaweed, blood meal, bone meal, fish products, manure and compost. Do it yourself Compost adds organic matter and helps to make nutrients available in the soil, and, if you want to have control over what goes into your own garden, making your own compost is the way to go. There are many methods for making your own compost: you can make a traditional compost pile; make a composting bin, if you live in the city (http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/composting-101?page=0,1); or, if you are really adventurous, use a composting toilet (http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-gardening/the-straight-scoop-on-composting-human-waste.html). Just remember, if you go the humanure route, whatever you eat will end up in your compost, so if you are eating conventional food with chemical fertilizers or food additives, or if you are taking prescription medicines, it will all end up in the compost and on your plants. So if you want the highest quality food for your garden, make sure you are eating the highest quality food yourself. Commercial products If you don’t have the time to make your own compost but still want to avoid the sludge, there are plenty of commercial products that will work just as well. Look for products like Buffaloam (http://www.buffaloam.com/about-us/), which is made from 100 percent buffalo manure produced and composted on a ranch in the Laramie River Valley of northern Colorado. The company uses no mixed feedstocks, no blends, no added chemicals, no artificial ingredients, and no unknown fillers or waste products. The company makes it by blending buffalo manure with locally produced wood shavings that are composted for over a year. Look for similar claims on other products and make sure that the wood shavings that are used are not chemically treated or those chemicals will end up in your food too. Sources for this article include: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/04/your-organic-compost-really-sewage-sludge-rosario-dawson-kellogg-amend http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/05/sludge-happens http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/fertilizing-your-organic-garden.html http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/composting-101?page=0,1 http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-gardening/how-to-compost-in-the-city.html http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-gardening/the-straight-scoop-on-composting-human-waste.html

The false prophet of Obama and his Ministry of Economic Voodoo

(NaturalNews) A mugger confronts a business man walking down the street, flashing a sharp knife. “Give me all your money. I’ve got kids to feed,” he insists. The business man calmly responds, “Well that’s not fair, I’ve got kids to feed, too.” Momentarily flummoxed, the mugger works out a bit of math and retorts, “Okay, I’m gonna take a balanced approach with you. Just give me HALF of all your money, and we’ll call it even.” Such is the logic of the Obama administration, which now absurdly proposes that spending America into a total debt collapse is somehow a “balanced approach.” Sure, it is balanced in the same way that a man walking a tightrope strung 35 stories above the city street, carrying two suitcases stuffed with hundreds of pounds of T-bills, with strong winds and a forecast of an approaching hail storm is also “balanced.” That Obama could even pretend such a scenario is healthy for the future of America just goes to show you the depth of financial insanity that has gripped the players in Washington D.C. — on both sides of the aisle. Today, President Obama proposed spending cuts of $4 trillion over the next 12 years, but just as we figured, virtually none of those cuts kick in until Obama is out of office. They’re all “back-loaded” cuts that happen at some theoretical time in the future rather than right now. It’s like a heroin addict who says, “I’ll quit my habit tomorrow. Just not right now” as he takes another hit. Notably, Obama’s so-called balanced budget cuts don’t balance the budget . A $4 trillion cut in spending over 12 years is still a complete joke, and here’s why: The U.S. government will likely rack up at least $30 trillion in new debt over those same 12 years, just based on a very conservative estimate of current growth rates in the debt. In other words, under Obama’s new plan, the national debt will grow by $26 trillion over the next 12 years . Obama’s debt spending is accelerating so rapidly that the mathematicians now call it a “blowout phase” of government debt. And what, exactly, is getting blown out? Your future, of course. But according to Obama, that’s a “balanced approach.” He’s going to burden your children and grandchildren with the greatest debt the world has ever seen — a debt so large and growing so quickly that no nation can conceivably escape from under its weight… especially a nation that has lost its manufacturing base, that has dumbed down its education system and that has routinely poisoned its population with fluoride, medications and chemical food additives. The odds of America ever paying off its national debt are approximately the same odds of a Japanese senior citizen surfing a 5-meter-high tsunami wave to the safety of dry land. Enter the realm of economic voodoo (not to be confused with voodoo economics) Debt apologists and deniers, of course, will calmly explain that it’s all no problem. “America can handle a little more debt,” they say. “We can just pay it off down the road, who cares?” History will soon show these people to be fools; and those who follow them cowards. The beautiful thing about the English language is that it offers the breadth of possibilities to express almost any idea you can think of; but words alone don’t make ideas true. The utterance that “We will balance the budget over the next ten years” doesn’t actually make it happen. It is merely a moment of wishful thinking; like a wish upon a star: Star Light Star bright, The first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight. Let the national debt be ZERO! Shazam! Like some sort of modern economic voodoo, we can wish away all our debt. You just have to BELIEVE in it, folks. You have to have faith, you see. Obama’s New Ministry of Economic Voodoo In this way, Obama’s “balanced approach” fiasco has become The New Ministry of Economic Voodoo. It is a non-denominational church where people of all races and national origins are welcome to join. But the most important factor necessary to join Obama’s New Ministry of Economic Voodoo is that you completely abandon any attachments to economic reality and the laws of mathematics. Those things are mere burdens and have no place inside the New Ministry of Economic Voodoo. They will also distract you from the “faith” to be placed in the “savior” of Obama whose angelic powers will soon overcome the laws of economics, we are promised, much like Moses parting the Red Sea. The Heaven’s Gate cult which ended in 1997 with the mass suicide of its 39 members promised eternal life in Heaven if you would only kill yourself on command (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_%28religious_group%29). Obama’s New Ministry of Economic Voodoo promises eternal budget surpluses if you will just kill your rational mind and surrender to the power of scripted verbal rhetoric. Obama is to the U.S. economy what Marshall Applewhite was to the members of Heaven’s Gate: The bringer of destruction, disguised as a savior. They both speak the language of salvation, but they only deliver the outcome of destruction. Both Applewhite and Obama are, by any reasonable reckoning, false prophets who use their powers of persuasive rhetoric to gain power over the very people they are harming the most: their followers. The message of the false prophet A false prophet says, “I am going to save you. Follow me and stop thinking for yourself.” A genuine prophet says, “I am going to show you how to save yourself. Follow your inner wisdom and learn how to think for yourself.” Do you recognize which message Obama is spouting? A false prophet comes to you dressed in a slick business suit, with a P.R. team and a cadre of image specialists who check his makeup, lighting and hair style to make sure the presentation is exactly right. A genuine prophet may be dressed in ragged clothing and have holes in his shoes. His hands may still have soil on them from the garden, and his image is largely based on who he is from the inside out, not what he wants you to see from the outside in. A false prophet needs a teleprompter for every speech because he has no inner wisdom to guide his words. His soul, and his mind, are empty. A genuine prophet can speak from the heart, spontaneously and without rehearsing his words, because his speech comes from a place of authentic truth, not a scripted agenda. A false prophet is obsessed with how the public sees him; he is constantly running polls and surveys to see what people think, and he uses those results to determine his direction. A genuine prophet cares little about what others think; he is driven purely by principle, and his direction stays true to his intention regardless of the changes in public sentiment. A false prophet practices the skills of oratory and persuasion in order to persuade people to close their minds and follow him without question. A genuine prophet develops the skills of oratory and persuasion as a natural extension of the truth in his message, and he uses those skills to persuade people to OPEN their minds and start ASKING questions. Here at NaturalNews, we don’t claim to be prophets, but we do encourage everyone to open their minds and start asking lots of questions about health, freedom, government, environment, money and other topics. If you’re new to NaturalNews, I’m the volunteer editor, and I’ve been writing articles like this for over seven years. Lately, I’ve been unleashed in my writings due to the rapid acceleration of troubling world events and the need to reach people with articles that don’t hold back and don’t try to sugar coat the situation. Subscribe to my free email newsletter to receive a daily email update linking to each day’s breaking news stories: http://www.naturalnews.com/ReaderRegistration.html In the mean time, stay on your toes, folks. We are all being fed a complete load of lies by the members of both political parties in Washington. The future of our nation’s financial solvency is at stake, and these jokers are only making the problem worse with each passing moment. Frankly, I now do not expect a solution to come from within the current system. This system is headed towards inevitable collapse, and we can only hope that what comes out of it in the aftermath will be more sensible and sustainable. The idea that we should all just vote for whichever professional politician tells the best-sounding lies has proven it doesn’t work.

Fresh produce prices to double or triple following freak freezes – is Earth in a magnetic pole shift?

(NaturalNews) In an article posted on January 3 of this year, I predicted a rise in food prices resulting from freak weather events (http://www.naturalnews.com/030903_predictions_2011.html). Here’s what I said in that article: By the end of 2012, I predict significant food supply disruptions in North America, brought about either by radical weather affecting crop yields or perhaps the invasion of disease indirectly caused by the over-use of pesticides or GMOs. The number of people in America struggling to feed themselves and their families will rise along with food prices. …Expect to see food prices climb with alarming speed over the next two years. While food won’t disappear, it will become significantly more expensive, causing more people to shift to subsidized foods (corn, sugar, etc.) which also happen to be some of the worst foods for your health. Now there’s news from Mexico that the fresh produce normally shipped to U.S. grocery stores has been largely destroyed by the freak cold weather snap that struck the continental United States over the past 10 days. As a result, prices on cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and asparagus are set to double or triple starting right now. Even worse, it looks like the supply of many of these items will be completely wiped out . You won’t be able to buy them, in other words, at any price! This is the fallout from the worst freeze event recorded in North America in 60 years. It has affected not just Northern Mexico, but also much of the U.S. Southwest. It also raises the question: Is the food supply further threatened by radical weather events? A theory of what’s happening I’m not going to go into all the details here, but from what I’ve been reading and researching about a number of seemingly-unrelated events, some clues that might explain their commonality begin to emerge. It all seems to lead to the theory that this is all being caused by the weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field . The magnetic field is shifting, you see. It’s in the process of flipping, as it has done many times throughout Earth’s history. As explained on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal): “The Earth’s magnetic north pole is drifting from northern Canada towards Siberia with a presently accelerating rate — 10 km per year at the beginning of the 20th century, up to 40 km per year in 2003, and since then has only accelerated.” I recently wrote about how an airport in Tampa, Florida recently had to renumber its runways to account for the unexpectedly rapid shifts in the Earth’s magnetic poles (http://www.naturalnews.com/030996_bird_deaths_pole_shift.html). That same story discusses the theory of how the weakening magnetosphere may have allowed high altitude sub-zero air carrying toxic space clouds called Noctilucent clouds to invade the lower atmosphere, causing the sudden death of birds that we’ve been seeing reported across the globe. (This theory, however, does not account for the unexplained deaths of fish.) The other side effect of this is the introduction of extremely cold temperatures from high altitude (or low orbit) space clouds that could be reaching into the lower atmosphere and spreading from the North Pole down through areas that would normally never see such low temperatures. This may explain the “freak weather” that’s killing the produce and driving food prices through the roof. How Earth’s magnetosphere impacts your dinner plate Of course, it’s all just a theory so far, but here’s the theory in a nutshell: Weakening Earth’s magnetic field (which is what happens during the magnetic pole shift transition) causes extreme cold to break into Earth’s lower atmosphere, which causes freak cold weather events to spread far and wide, which causes the destruction of food crops. Theoretically, this could even lead to a rapid ice age taking over the planet, almost like something out of a Hollywood movie. Such a scenario would obviously be devastating to the human population across the planet as billions would starve from a lack of food. (That would no doubt fulfill Bill Gates’ mission of reducing the world population, eh? Who needs vaccines when you’ve got sub-zero space clouds?) The Earth’s magnetosphere, you see, is a vital protective force field that protects life on Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere). Without the magnetosphere, we would not only be fried by cosmic radiation; Earth’s atmosphere would also be slowly blown away by the solar wind, leaving Earth looking a whole lot like Mars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind). The magnetosphere is believed to be generated by the Earth’s core. As Wikipedia explains, “The internal field of the Earth (its “main field”) appears to be generated in the Earth’s core by a dynamo process, associated with the circulation of liquid metal in the core, driven by internal heat sources.” We know from studying lava flows of basalt rock that the Earth’s magnetic field has “flipped” many times in the past. Interestingly, a scientific study published in the journal Nature and entitled “New evidence for extraordinarily rapid change of the geomagnetic field during a reversal” reveals that the Earth’s magnetic field has, in the past, shifted by as much as six degrees in just 24 hours . (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v374/n6524/abs/374687a0.html) At that pace, the magnetic poles would be completely reversed in just 30 days. A magnetic flip isn’t pretty This NASA page shows an interesting picture of what happens during a “magnetic flip” (http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/29dec_magneticfield.html). It explains: “Magnetic lines of force near Earth’s surface become twisted and tangled, and magnetic poles pop up in unaccustomed places. A south magnetic pole might emerge over Africa, for instance, or a north pole over Tahiti. Weird. But it’s still a planetary magnetic field, and it still protects us from space radiation and solar storms.” This magnetic pole shift (or “magnetic flip”) could allow extreme cold to abruptly enter the lower atmosphere, perhaps even reaching all the way down to the Earth’s surface. The magnetic field isn’t “clean” and “smooth,” you see. Here’s an image of the current magnetic map of the planet: http://gravmag.ou.edu/mag_earth/mag_field_a_turcotte_small.gif Notice how it has holes in it? It’s not completely smooth and uniform as you might expect. In fact, magnetic “holes” can easily appear and then disappear anywhere on the planet as the flows of metal in the Earth’s core shift around. These holes can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few decades, depending on what’s happening in the planet’s core. During short-lived magnetic turbulence, a particular region on the planet can “lose” its magnetic field (it’s neither North nor South but neutral). This results in a magnetic “gap” that creates a vulnerability. The general consensus is that the greater danger here is exposure to cosmic radiation, but there is also the possibility that freezing cold space clouds may also be influenced by the magnetosphere (or the gaps therein). That may be some of what we just experienced over the last ten days, in fact: A taste of things yet to come if the magnetic field continues to churn and drift. Imagine a winter where even Mexico freezes, and many areas of Canada maintain temperatures of minus 50 Celsius… Again, this is just a theory of what could be happening. A hypothesis. I don’t have any scientific proof that the magnetic pole shift is causing these freak cold weather events. But it’s clearly an area deserving exploration. Because if the cold weather events get worse over the next few years, we could be looking at serious disruptions in the food supply, the climate and Earth’s ecosystems . This isn’t being caused by global warming , either. Unless you believe that global warming causes global cooling, of course. Instead, this is being caused by the movement of Earth’s core. Therein lies the bad news: There’s virtually nothing we can do about it. If the Earth’s core wants to shift, it’s going to shift, regardless of what you or I want it to do. If that’s what’s happening, get out your garden seeds and your cold weather greenhouses. It might be a good time to subscribe to your local CSA and support their farming efforts, too. You’ll need to grow more food to help compensate for the global food failures likely to be brought on by increasingly radical weather. Get ready for some crazy summer monsoons in the months ahead, too. I predict we’re going to see some cataclysmic flooding in Southeast Asia, followed by deadly droughts somewhere else on the planet. Radical weather has a way of reminding humankind that we’re not so clever after all… and that we need the planet for our survival, but the planet can survive just fine without us around.

Discover the health benefits of bananas

(NaturalNews) So often, the humble banana is often overlooked when it comes to providing nutritional and medicinal value. Bananas in fact have a lot to offer us, both nutritionally, as well as in relieving the symptoms of a myriad of physical complaints. Bananas are rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre. They also provide us with a source of energy. They contain a lot of iron, which is extremely helpful to those suffering from anaemia, as it stimulates the growth of haemoglobin in the body. They contain a lot of potassium; this helps to alleviate high blood pressure and prevent bone loss by countering the damage done by a diet high in sodium/salt. Potassium is also excellent for relieving menstrual cramps and is also excellent for fluid retention, making bananas a sure winner for women who suffer with these symptoms. It also helps minimize the risk of kidney stones. Vitamin B6 also helps to balance blood-glucose levels, thereby alleviating mood swings often associated with PMS. Bananas are an excellent food source for those suffering with ulcers, as they lower gastric juice levels and build a protective coating in the stomach. Therefore, they are also excellent for helping to alleviate heartburn symptoms. Simply rubbing the inside of a banana skin on a mosquito bite can help to alleviate the itching and irritation caused by the bite. They are also known to alleviate morning sickness in pregnant women. They also contain pectin, which is known to alleviate constipation naturally. Bananas contain tryptophan, serotonin and norepinephrine, which help alleviate depression and also help one to relax. The B vitamins found in them also help to calm and soothe the nervous system. Vitamin B6 also alleviates the symptoms of irritability and sleeplessness. They are a good first food to introduce to infants, as they are easily digestible and non-allergic. Because of their sweet taste, bananas also help to curb cravings for sugar and other unhealthy sweet snacks. They are also helpful in preventing age-related macular degeneration and strokes. Even the peels serve a few useful purposes. They make an amazing fertilizer in the garden, especially for roses. Simply bury a few peels near the plant or bush, and they will normally cause the roses to thrive. Pimples are able to be dried out naturally by rubbing the inside of the banana peel on the affected spot on the skin. Sources: http://healthmad.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-bananas/ http://www.suite101.com/content/health-benefits-of-bananas-a221367 http://odyb.net/nutrients/19-amazing-health-benefits-of-bananas/ http://thetaoofgoodhealth.com/6-awesome-health-benefits-of-bananas-9/ About the author Shona Botes is a budding blogger, as well as a fabulous frugalist. Her spare time is spent engaged in blogging, cycling, photography, as well as green living and natural healing and remedies. Her blog may be viewed here Some of her photography work may be viewed here Other articles written by her may be viewed here

Feds order farmer to destroy his own wheat crops: The shocking revelations of Wickard vs Filburn

(NaturalNews) In arguing for S.510, the “Food Safety Modernization Act,” there are all sorts of attorneys, legislators and internet commentators who keep claiming, “The government won’t try to control the food production of small farms.” They say, “Your backyard garden is safe” and that the feds won’t come knocking on your door to control your seeds or foods. As usual, these pushers of Big Government are utterly ignorant of the history in their own country. Because as you’ll learn right here, not only CAN the U.S. government control and dictate to single-family farms what they can grow in their own backyards; the government has already blatantly done so! In this article, I’ll share with you the full and true story of how Big Government has already run rampant over the rights of individuals to grow their own food — I’ll even cite the US Supreme Court decision that “legalized” this tyranny. How the tyrants came after a farmer named Roscoe Filburn It all starts with a farmer named Roscoe Filburn, a modest farmer who grew wheat in his own back yard in order to feed his chickens. One day, a U.S. government official showed up at his farm. Noting that Filburn was growing a lot of wheat, this government official determined that Filburn was growing too much wheat and ordered Filburn to destroy his wheat crops and pay a large fine to the federal government. The year was 1940, you see. And through a highly protectionist policy, the federal government had decided to artificially drive up the prices of wheat by limiting the amount of wheat that could be grown on any given acre. This is all part of Big Government’s “infinite wisdom” of trying to somehow improve prosperity by destroying food and impairing economic productivity. (Be wary any time the government says it’s going to “solve problems” for you.) The federal government, of course, claims authority over all commerce (even when such claims are blatantly in violation of the limitations placed upon government by the Constitution). But Roscoe Filburn wasn’t selling his wheat to anyone. Thus, he was not engaged in interstate commerce. He wasn’t growing wheat as something to use for commerce at all, in fact. He was simply growing wheat in his back yard and feeding it to his chickens. That’s not commerce. That’s just growing your own food . But get this: The government insisted he pay a fine and destroy his wheat, so Filburn took the government to court, arguing that the federal government had no right to tell a man to destroy his food crops just because they wanted to protect some sort of artificially high prices in the wheat market. This case eventually went to the US Supreme Court. It’s now known as Wickard v. Filburn , and it is one of the most famous US Supreme Court decisions ever rendered because it represents a gross expansion of the tyranny of the federal government . The US Supreme Court sided with government tyranny The US Supreme Court, you see, ruled that Roscoe Filburn’s wheat could be regulated and destroyed by the federal government simply because Roscoe’s wheat production might reduce the amount of wheat he bought from other wheat producers and therefore could impact interstate trade. Now stay with me on this, because this is a really, really important point to understand. The federal government claimed authority under the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution (Article 1, Section 8), even though the Commerce Clause was originally written primarily to prevent states from erecting tariffs, not to allow the federal government to control interstate trade. But thanks to the twisted interpretation of the government — and believe me, the government will twist every interpretation it can in an effort to assert more power over the population — the feds claimed that Filburn’s growing of his own wheat effectively reduced interstate commerce in wheat. Therefore, they reasoned, they could regulate his backyard wheat production (and order him to destroy his wheat). Because of this US Supreme Court decision in 1942, it now means the federal government can order you to halt food production in your own back yard by arguing that when you grow your own food, the amount of food you purchase from other food providers is reduced, meaning that your food production impacts interstate trade and therefore can be fully controlled by the federal government. In other words, the federal government claims the authority right now — even without the Food Safety Modernization Act — to knock on your door and order you at gunpoint to destroy all the food in your garden, your greenhouse or your farm. They can order you to destroy all seeds in your possession and all food harvested from your own garden. And they can do all this with the full protection of U.S. law by simply citing the precedent set in Wickard v. Filburn in 1942 as ruled by the US Supreme Court. Why the naysayers will probably starve Still think you have the right to grow your own food? I’ve heard all sorts of naysayers claiming that S.510 — the Food Safety Modernization Act — is no threat to small growers and family farms. They say the fears about S.510 are overblown and that the government can’t possibly shut down your backyard gardens or small, local vegetable farms. They say this with the kind of smug certainty you might typically hear from a doctor who thinks he knows everything about human health (but who actually knows nothing about nutrition). These naysayers tend to operate out of an assumption that Big Government will never take away their rights and freedoms and that expanding the reach of agencies such as the TSA, FDA, DEA and FTC with even more power and more armed agents is a good thing because the government always takes care of the people. We need more protection from e.coli, they argue, so let’s unleash 4,000 armed FDA agents instead to protect us from bacteria. (But who will protect us from the FDA?) What these ignorant naysayers don’t understand is that government is constantly trying to expand its power to the point of tyranny. As a current example of this, look at what just happened with Chavez in Venezuela. He has now been granted what are essentially dictatorial powers over the country (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121802933.html). Chavez is now the King of Venezuela, and whatever he says is now law. Venezuelan citizens are now slaves to his tyranny, and they must follow his orders or be executed. The United States is moving in precisely the same direction. First, power gets stripped away from the People little by little. Then it gets concentrated in the hands of a few regulatory agencies who write their own laws and who stay in power year after year because none of their officials are elected. (Think the FDA commissioner is elected by the people? Think again…) And then, over time, a few powerful individuals concentrate power from those agencies into their own hands. Before long, the country is run by a handful of power-crazed tyrants who disregard all freedoms and rights of the People. This is precisely what the FDA is doing with the Food Safety Modernization Act. Backed by yet more funding and a new army of agents, plus the Supreme Court ruling that says the federal government can order you to destroy the food you’re growing in your own back yard, the FDA can now pillage the countryside , going from farm to farm and house to house, burning fields and ordering the citizenry to destroy their plants, seeds and crops. This is exactly what they’ve been doing to raw milk producers and food coops, by the way (http://www.naturalnews.com/030136_Rawesome_foods_raid.html). That is no exaggeration. It is a documented “legal” precedent established in Wickard vs Filburn, and it can be used at any moment to destroy the ability of people to grow their own food, thereby making these people totally dependent on dead processed food (which is always FDA approved if it’s dead, of course) made in food factories that churn out nutritional deficiencies and death. What will you eat when the government destroys your local food supply? You see, under the argument that your backyard garden “impacts interstate commerce,” the federal government can order you to simply spray Roundup on your entire garden in order to kill it. What will you eat then? When the GMO crops suffer a mass catastrophic failure, and the monocultured wheat dies from a global viral infection called ug99 “rust” (http://theemergencyfoodsupply.com/archives/ug99-will-wheat-rust-cause-a-catastrophic-global-famine), what will you eat? If the government has its way, you won’t eat at all. You’ll starve to death under the “protection” of the food safety thugs at the FDA who don’t believe any “live” food is safe in the first place (hence their war against raw milk). Those people who have the foresight to grow their own gardens and protect their food sources from the tyranny of the federal government may actually have a chance at surviving. The rest will simply starve while waiting in government food lines where the feds hand out nutritionally worthless cheese and other depleted processed foods that Sesame Street absurdly thinks are “superfoods” (http://www.naturalnews.com/030626_muppets_Sesame_Street.html). Big Government declares war on the local food movement Make no mistake, folks: the government is attempting to destroy the local food movement . They are trying to wipe out small, organic farms that compete with corporate agribiz in the same way the FDA has long plotted to destroy natural health supplement companies who compete with Big Pharma. It’s all about wiping out the little guys and protecting the monopoly markets of the largest and most influential corporations that are poisoning the earth and destroying your health. As Wickard vs Filburn clearly demonstrated, the government does not believe you have any natural right or Constitutional right to grow your own food . In fact, the government believes it has the right to order you to destroy your food at the time of its choosing. Don’t think this could happen to you? Filburn didn’t either. The idea that his own government would show up at his door and order him to burn his field of wheat was simply unimaginable. Similarly, the idea that the FDA would tear across the countryside wiping out small family farms is unimaginable to many Americans today. But that’s only because they don’t know their own history and they put far too much faith in the flimsy idea that the government somehow, in some way, respects the rights and freedoms of the People. The obvious falsehood of that idea is evident in the way we are all being treated by the TSA. Who would have thought, just two years ago, that we’d be subjected to government-enforced molestation at the hands of airport security screeners? That idea seems unthinkable at the time, much like the idea that the FDA could seize your garden seeds or order you to destroy your greenhouse crops. Yet such actions are already within the claimed power of the federal government… merely waiting to be invoked at the time of their choosing. Traitors to freedom All those who voted for S.510 — which includes the entire U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike — are traitors to the freedoms upon which America was founded. They have thrust our food supply into the hands of tyrants who are just waiting to exercise their control and “authority” over as many people as possible. Five years ago, I joked that people might one day be arrested for smuggling broccoli across state lines. Today, that joke has become a sad reality. The mere act of growing food and selling it to your neighbor without government permission is about to become a criminal act. And no, small farms are not “exempt” from S.510. They must provide financial information and apply to the FDA to be granted exemption status. That sounds a lot like slaves begging for mercy from the king, doesn’t it? Keep the big picture in mind as you consider all this: When teens are poisoned by the aspartame in diet soda, the FDA does nothing. When children are given cancer by the sodium nitrite in hot dogs, the FDA does nothing. When countless thousands of Americans suffer heart attacks and cardiovascular disease each year from the partially-hydrogenated oils used throughout the food supply, the FDA does nothing. But when you grow fresh produce in your own back yard and carry it to your local farmer’s market to sell it without government permission, you will be arrested by the FDA as a criminal . Shame on all those who supported this bill. May history have mercy on their souls for the suffering and injustices they have unleashed upon us all .

Better marketing helps urban agriculture programs keep kids off the streets

(NaturalNews) Urban market gardens are a great way for inner-city neighborhoods to unite around a common cause and improve the social fabric of their local community — all while reaping a delicious harvest in the process. And a new study published in the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education has found that Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that build upon this concept can become highly effective and successful, especially when they are driven with proper marketing. Recently, NaturalNews featured a piece about the growth of local food and how community organizers in Detroit are reviving the city’s dying landscape with urban agriculture programs (http://www.naturalnews.com/030071_good_food_agriculture.html). And as part of the new study, researchers highlighted Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW), a program of Seattle Tilth that has been working for years to help and provide job training for local homeless and troubled youth through urban agriculture. In its early days, the organization had trouble maintaining the program because it lacked proper marketing outlets, but faculty from Washington State University (WSU) helped the group develop a CSA system that would end up helping it to thrive. Poor, inner-city neighborhoods are typically the most undernourished in terms of access to fresh produce. Many grocery stores that once carried such products have since moved out of these areas, leaving locals with little access to any fresh food. But successful CSA programs have been able to fill that gap, as well as provide hope and new opportunities for the people who live in these communities. But making it all happen requires effective marketing to clients. And part of SYGW’s goal is to utilize its passion for helping homeless and misguided youth to attract more customers to CSAs, which in turn brings in more vendors. According to reports, the popularity of CSAs and local agriculture in general has risen dramatically over the past several decades. Direct-to-consumer agriculture sales more than doubled between 1997 and 2007. So integrating them with inner-city social programs like SYGW is a great way to expand the growth of local food, as well as help provide the least among us with new life opportunities. Sources for this story include: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/asoa-gci102510.php

Growing Your Own Natural Remedies

Growing medicinal herbs can be a great and interesting hobby, that can even gradually turn in a business if one starts to grow these natural remedies in somewhat larger quantities. The science and art of the process related to growing medicinal plants has been researched for a long time, so you probably wont have any [...]

How Angela Stokes went from morbid obesity to a fit, thin body with raw foods

(NaturalNews) Angela Stokes once weighed 294 pounds. Seeing her today, it’s hard to imagine that she was once stuck in what she called a “miserable cycle of morbid obesity.” That’s because right now, she’s thin, healthy and downright beautiful. I know because she and her partner Matt Monarch were my neighbors in Ecuador, and I had the privilege of hanging out with them from time to time over the last several months. The question people always ask, though, is “How did Angela get so thin, healthy and vibrant while letting go of all that body fat?” And the answer to that may surprise you because she didn’t do it with some surgical shortcut or chemical intervention. Instead, Angela Stokes turned to raw foods and transformed her diet. That, in turn, transformed her body, and then her mind, and everything about her including her relationships with others. As she writes on her web page, “Within just a month of going raw, I had my first boyfriend in over 5 years – I was thrilled and increasingly inspired and dedicated to my new lifestyle.” A woman with incredibly courage I never knew Angela before she got healthy. I’ve only known her as a super healthy, happy and thoughtful person who celebrates the joys of life. She’ll marvel at the growth of new plants in the garden, and she delights in sharing a new superfood recipe with anyone who wants to learn. She and Matt often harvest omega-3-rich “weeds” from their property near Vilcabamba and blend them together with fresh mangos and other seasonal fruits to make an amazing superfood smoothie beverage like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Angela is not merely that she overcame an extremely difficult situation with morbid obesity, but that she found the courage to write about it and help teach others to venture forward on a similar path of self healing . She has created a series of written materials where she shares her best wisdom (and secrets!) about what works to reform your health from the inside out by turning to raw foods. The collection of her materials is actually called Raw Reform , and you can download it all right now from the NaturalNews Store by clicking here . In her collection, Angela has a how-to guide, an amazing raw foods recipe book, how to overcome “emotional” eating addictions and habits, insights and advice on dealing with the physical changes of serious weight loss (stretched skin, detox experiences, etc.) and much more. That’s what’s so amazing about Angela: She’s been there and done it! She has gone through the transformation and has now helped probably tens of thousands of others navigate a similar path of self healing. I was once nearly obese, too It’s no secret that I was once borderline obese as well. Although I never got up to 300 pounds, I was embarrassingly overweight and nearly diabetic. I used principles of nutrition and exercise to get to a healthy weight, so I also know what it’s like to be a heavy person who needs to unleash some self-healing in order to get to the healthy, fit body we all have inside. I know it seems intimidating at first, because saying “no” to that donut — or pizza, or ice cream — can seem like the hardest thing you’ve ever done at first. But I also know that people who have been through it can be invaluable coaches to help you avoid the pitfalls and achieve lasting results. Angela Stokes is perhaps one of the best coaches you’ll ever find in the world of health-oriented healing and body balancing — meaning you find your correct “balance” rather than just focusing on “losing.” Because, let’s face it, when you get healthy, you’re not “losing” anything — you’re gaining your life back! If you’re like most people who struggle with eating and body image, Angela can help you get your life back. She knows what really works; she knows what emotional and dietary traps to avoid; and she knows all about the personal transformation that takes place along the way. Reading her books may inspire you beyond anything you’ve ever achieved before along the lines of healthy living or weight loss. And the best part is that even while reducing body fat, you’ll be increasing your nutritional density! That’s because Angela eats (and teaches) a superfood-rich diet that’s loaded with healing medicinal foods and superfoods. I know this from personal experience. One time I walked over to their house in Ecuador and saw their kitchen stacked with fresh mangos. “Where did you get all these mangos?” I asked. Matt explained they found someone selling mangos at the local market in Vilcabamba and offered him a price for his entire inventory. The seller agreed, so they brought home maybe a hundred mangos which were now displayed across all the countertops of their kitchen. Over the next day or so, they proceeded to peel and dice all those hundred mangos, then they stored the bits in their freezer. For the following month, they used those frozen mangos to blend up amazing mango smoothies mixed with wild greens, herbs and grasses. And no matter how green their smoothies were, they always tasted delicious! (They would treat me to a taste from time to time, and I was always amazed.) Another time they had my wife and I over for a “raw Mexican food” dinner. They had prepared an unbelievably delicious meal made with raw tortillas, guacamole, salsa and even raw “sour cream” (without using dairy). We enjoyed the most amazing Mexican-style raw food (in Ecuador!) I’ve ever tasted. Some of those recipes are in Angela’s recipe book, too. Click here to see Angela’s books… The real McCoy The thing is, the so-called “weight loss” industry is filled with a lot of people who aren’t the real deal — people hawking gimmicks and shortcuts that don’t work. In great contrast to that, Angela is the real deal — a genuine guru of raw food healing. She’s not a saleswoman, she’s not faking it, and she actually lives what she teaches every single day. Both she and Matt are people who genuinely live the lifestyle they promote, and whether you’re interested in just going partially raw or temporarily raw or fully raw , you’ll save yourself countless hours by learning from someone who has already been through it: Angela Stokes. You can read more about her story right here: http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=100239_97_100142_100198 I think that no matter what your health goal — to lose weight, to increase vitality, to prevent disease or even boost brain function — you’ll learn a wealth of information from Angela. Her approach to things is insightful and seemingly advanced beyond her years. Perhaps because of the young age of her health crisis (she weighed nearly 300 pounds by age 21), she was faced with early challenges that many others never encountered until years or decades later. Out of that, she emerged as a role model who has now inspired countless other women (and men!) to achieve similar health breakthroughs in their own lives. Check out her story at the link above. You’ll be amazed and inspired. And you may just find that Angela Stokes can show you the very path toward healthy body weight and self healing that you’ve been looking for. She’s definitely earned my respect for her courage and her transformation. I consider her a blessing to the entire natural health community, and I hope that her message reaches thousands more who share in these amazing healing principles that Angela Stokes has discovered and shared.

Growing Interest About Organic Vegetables

There are some people that believe that organic vegetables and conventionally-grown food are the same. This is not entirely the truth. In fairness there are some differences that exist between organic vegetables and conventional food. Below you will find some of the differences between both set of food. Organic fruits and vegetables generally look less [...]

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