Ted is also ex-military (12 years in NZ Army Territorials) becoming a peace activist, especially campaigning against depleted uranium, where NZ troops were deployed. NZ Defence personnel today will be suffering health problems because of this. He has also completed a master’s paper in remote sensing (aerial and satellite photo mapping) to compliment his Degree in Geology and Geography.
Ted co-founded Transition Towns Nelson, but with the change of government from Labour to National, they lost their funding for employing a co-ordinator, and with the collapse of the price of oil, lost their impetus, and most members drifted away. The one thing that survives is the Permaculture in Nelson Group (PNG), that he still co-hosts.
Hosting the Nelson Peace Group during after hours - he also lead a book discussion group based on the books by Daniel Quinn: 'Ishmael', 'My Ishmael', 'The Story of B', 'Beyond Civilisation'. This started a process of questioning the foundations of who he was and what culture he was living in.
His main focus now is Permaculture gardening/design during the week. He’s also studying part time as a student on National Certificate in Horticulture, level 4.
He is passionate about his gardening, but especially about building healthy living soil, such as biological farming and especially soil banking, including installing chook runs and small water harvesting projects.
He also follows a lot of writings and speeches by Guy McPherson on abrupt climate change - by Derrick Jensen on bringing down "civilisation", by Carolyn Baker and Andrew Harvey on grief work, and Paul Levy on the Greatest disease of our times: Wetiko = a collective psychosis.
Ted’s pretty sure we have entered a period of great change. He calls it The Great Unravelling. He hopes we can get to The Great Turning idea from Joanna Macy. It’s very late in the game though, collapse of the biosphere is well underway. But he’s here for the natural communities and the rest of life, to make a difference with the time he has left, regardless of how short that is, or isn't!
In this interview, Ted expresses condolences to Bill Mollison who with David Holmgren initiated Permaculture, a system that encompasses not only agriculture, horticulture, architecture, and ecology, but also economic systems, land access strategies, and legal systems for businesses and communities. Bill Mollison, died this last week after initiating a revolution on how humans can survive with living on and with the land,
As an ex territorial soldier – he states that after 12 years of service he realised that even in NZ we live under a government of occupation on behalf of empire, it is about dividing and ruling the communities, it’s about opening the country up to rape, pillage and extraction – and this also includes the so called NZ defence forces.
Is not so much about defence of NZ – but actually an offensive tool of Empire – and NZ armed personnel have been used all around the world and are still being used as offensive weapons for Empire. With that realisation and start of the Gulf War in Iraq - Ted resigned and became a peace activist.
Stating that the modern industrial, intelligence, military, complex is completely insane and out of control – that it has been for sometime, but has been getting a lot worse.
Ted says he is so grateful that he has been given the opportunity to wake up to this and to take a stand even when his voice trembles and his knees quiver and say ‘this is not what we are here for.’ As an ex-soldier he stands and states - we can do this differently.
At a local level Ted has studied and found himself embedding himself in indigenous wisdom and realised that indigenous peoples are ‘an extension of their environment’ and that they are infused with the ecology that surround them. That, they are intimately connected with the seasons and know that the earth is their great sustainer. That the people of the first nations of North America took into the deepest of consideration the term ‘looking seven generations ahead’ to see that the environment could peacefully fulfil their needs whilst they revered and acknowledged the sacredness of life.
Though very, very late in the ‘game’, Ted says this is basically our only way forward, because to carry on the same habits that currently run our paradigm is in essence a race to the bottom.
There is a great unravelling happening all around us today as the biosphere can only absorb so much punishment before the tightly coupled ecological systems that so elegantly overlap and blend both up and down the vastness of the nature kingdom collapse.
Rural Maori that Ted knows have much respect from him, because they know how to live more sustainably and understand living within community most being connected by a marae, or meeting place. This will stem from their original belief systems.
Training as a permaculture, gardener-designer and aware of the radical things happening globally – his focus is very neighbourhood, at grass roots and what can be done locally as a humble yet stirring permaculture gardener. He finds deep satisfaction and huge relief in getting his hands dirty in the garden on a daily basis. Mainly helping out with friends, colleagues and clients to put in an edible landscape to help with biodiversity and raise as much awareness as possible. Maintaining that ‘civilisation’ (a swear word in Ted’s vernacular) is insanely unsustainable – and we could do it differently.
Meanwhile the indigenous methods have been quietly waiting for us to waken up to, as they have a lot of wisdom that could make a difference.
One of the benefits of ‘being’ and doing gardening is that Ted, can download from the web, interviews on organic gardeners and biological farmers telling their story, some interviews even from GreenplanetFM.com - such as Graeme Sait and Dee Pigney that their knowing is so very inspiring. That he fires up and enthusiastically put his whole being into aligning with the garden and helping with the landscape. And on a lovely day it is a joy and a pleasure …
Ted talks about soil bacteria and that the micro-organisms that when our hands are in the soil they somehow communicate across our skin membrane and interact with the micro-organisms within us. And there is a sort of osmosis that occurs that affects our brain chemistry and we feel good.
This helps him deal with the grief of watching our ‘civilisation’ and biosphere unravelling – yet - this connection with the soil and his hands in the earth, helps him deal with the hurt and thus the soil heals him as well as grounds him. By finding joy in this whole process and he states - deep joy it’s so profound and this is what keeps him going – this is his juice - however, he does not know how long he can keep doing this? But he will continue until he is unable.
We talk about the huge change that is coming right now.
The 6TH Mass Extinction and we are in it right now!
200 plus species a day going to extinction – day after day after day – these are our kin – our cousins and we ignore this at great peril. And we do not know which of them at some stage in the radical interdependent interconnectedness of everything- is going to pull apart the web of life and impact us even more … So Ted does what he does - for them – doing his best for all the biota that live within our biosphere.
Asked by numerous people why he does not stand for local government – Ted states that if he did – it would only be for a platform – to rant. That he would state - from Derick Jensen’s book ‘End Game’ –‘that the needs of the natural community come before the needs of the economic system.”
So he is not about to be enter politics where he is up against the continuation of the same economic growth system based on money and export earnings, more housing sub-divisions and we will get more prosperous blah, blah etc. What he is - is an advocate for de-growth and smart decline. He is also an exponent for ‘growth of relationships’ – with each other and growth of relationships with everything within the ‘living community.’
He is for growth of recognising that we need to preserve, regenerate, revive and protect the natural environment – because without it we don’t have an economy!
Having a garden or chickens you can gift your produce to friends and people – it’s a wonderful feeling to do, because you have put so much love and good vibes into growing lovely organic splendour. Ted is an urban chook farmer which he feeds fresh greens to like puha and dandelion and they go crazy over wanting to eat it – same for silver beet and spinach. Listen to this talk by Ted - about his chickens and the win, win, win situations he is involved in.
Globally much more food comes from small farmers. He mentions Vandana Shiva – who in many ways speaks for small farmers on many issues, especially the perils of GE & GMO’s and mentions that Agri business is not only very new but it is not as productive as small farmers globally.
Starting Anew and Being More Heart Centred.
Having academic degrees did not satisfy him s he has switched course and gone off on a different direction .
“A revolution can start in a garden” says Bill Mollison - “and can be disguised as gardening” – so by including local food sovereignty – this is quite revolutionary – but it can’t stop there it has to be a lot more revolutionary – Listen to this interview to Teds response to being engaged in sedition☺
He finds it a fascinating time to be alive – so much in flux With barter, green dollars, times banks – and the GIFT economy.
Transition Neighborhoods seem to be the way forward – cells communicating with cells and clusters of cells …
Are Humans biophobic? Why? We we need instead to be biophiliac’s, floating in biophilia –the love of nature – the joy of nature - the joy of nature with us and around us. We are an integrated part of the entire natural community. That natural community is not what we control – that natural community is our natural kin – is our family … listen for more to Ted on this interview.
Most indigenous peoples are unable to understand why it is taking us so long to work out that we are not separated from nature … they shrug their shoulders in disbelief.
Ted reckons that we will return to a light ecological foot print when our present economic system ‘drops out’ and by us then returning to total immersion in ecological communion with the land we can/may be able to draw from the earth for all our needs.
He ventures the statement that we are actually in a dark ages and that at present humanity is neck deep in a malaise of greed, avarice, consumption and competition. A predicament that the North America First Nation Peoples say - that we are afflicted by Wetico – ‘the disease of the civilised ones’ – better known in some circles as being taken over by a mind parasite – and our urgent need and task is to face this - and climb out of this pit.
Ted calls it “climb-out-ology” - time to climb out to a light ecological footprint.
To also embraces smart decline and de-growth rebuilding our local land bases – a re-naturing of areas of areas.
And it is very, very late in the game! We may not pull it off – so be it - but he will continue unabated to his last breath.
Maori Understanding of Nature.
He is doing a lot for all those creatures and kin who are going extinct every day, by working with the ecology and talking to people of his concerns.
Ted, encourages us to go and listen to local Maori – and their communities as they are less individualistic and more community players. They having a reverence of nature and invoke their gods when cutting a tree down or going fishing.
Plan A – continuance is unsustainable
Plan B - Big Green Party vision - renewable energy – smart cars etc – Ted doesn’t believe it will succeed – being not sustainable. Still based on industrialism and the extractive economy
Plan C - Energy descent and earth stewardship – David Holmgren said that this was the way – but has canned it recently and now says we are going to do plan A (brown tech) until we can’t and then when it crashes we immediately go to .
Plan D - Which is ‘lifeboat communities.’
Ted feel that this is closer to the truth.
NZ is a potential lifeboat community – hence our influx of migrant population, from nearly every country including a vast number of races.
Our economy according to the spin of the National Government is a ‘rock star economy’ however Ted’s says it’s unsustainably on the rocks. As it is immigration that is artificially keeping NZ‘s balance of payments in the black and it’s take their money to pay for housing and infrastructure.
There are many environmental communities still going across the country and they are surviving – Ted posits the idea of a ‘network of resistance’ – that their love of community and nature brings them together.
There are wonderful people living out on the land across the whole country who love their land and their animals and have been doing wonderful work helping to preserve, protect, regenerate and defend it.
The biggest difference between those in the world today says Derek Jensen is ‘those that do something and those who do nothing’ - Find what you like to do your passion – what you love that supports local community and land base and go and do it – because that is the only future that Ted can see.
Plan C is what Ted thinks is best as the political process unravels.
We have to work in community – we cannot do it by oneself – in todays world self sufficiency and self reliance is virtually impossible - it is to hard and lonely Talk to any remnant indigenous peoples who have lived for thousands of years and they will say - “how long has it taken you to work that out?”
Indigenous peoples say that they do everything with the village as their prime consideration - also the tribe – it’s about the community about the neighbourhood- it has always been ‘the collective’ – this is why they have been this sustainable for this long.
In our modern culture which is ‘hyper individuated’ - is narcissistic and is about ‘look at me, look at me, look at me’ … whose got the best toys? Whose got the biggest toys?Whose got the most toys? It’s gone insane - especially when we bother to look up and look around we see we are pulling the whole biosphere down, by pulling the rug out from under it by all - by our unconscious actions of material extraction and consumption.
Now ask the question. Where is your water coming from – where is your food coming from?
The message from the Hopi Elders the 11th hour – we are in it and it is closing on 12 o’clock – It’s come together time, know your community, know your garden. Hopi Prophecy.
Ted is hopeful of the Joanna Macy concept of ‘the great turning’ is going to come – but we cannot have ‘a great turning’ until we have done an unravelling says Ted - in this way of living – this incredible toxic hubris that keeps us trapped into thinking that this is the way humans are supposed to live.
And it is killing us (look at the cancers stats) it’s killing the community and it’s killing our planet at a rate never seen before. So the need to do it differently or we won’t be here.
In 1980 our planet population was 4 billion today it is 7.5 billion – we are locked into a growth fetish.
Hitting limits to growth.
Listen to Ted by downloading.
The change of the ages is happening right here right now!
As an ex military man the interview: Covers the Middle East – Syria, Ukraine & Russia and the proxy wars going on …
Plus NZ’s involvement with the Waihopai ‘Five Eyes’ spy base and satellite download and upload system - we are now a target - and most probably a target of a Russian Intercontinental ballistic missile that has an enormous payload and capacity to obliterate a vast area – not far at all from where Ted lives in Nelson and everyday he lives in a state of grace.
How can we evolve the organism that is ‘the human race’ to break out of the paradigm that we have made a habit of staying in – covering the 100th monkey phenomenon as a metaphor of shaping our evolution on a ‘collective and very rapid scale.’
We humans are it – time has basically run out …
Are you a Shambhala warrior that Joanna Macy talks about – there will be4come a time of great darkness that will then bring forth the emergence from all nations the Rainbow Warriors the Shamballah warriors – and their 2 weapons are … insight and the radical interconnectedness and interdependence of everything – and compassion
Time to talk truth to power to speak from the heart and the soul
That the indigenous people say today to we civilised people today is for us to decolonise our hearts and minds and look around and see that we can do this differently. This is what drives Ted.
This interview continues to cover:
Gaia that our planet is a super organism that we can align with and tune into.
Seeing the sacred in nature.
To all our relations.
Woodwide web – Tree roots connecting with many other trees.
James Camerons Movie Avatar - where on the moon Pandora all the biota can connect into a greater reality - animals, trees and the indigenous Na’vi.
This connection allows a Na'vi to sense the energetic and kinetic signals broadcast by creatures, plants and even the moon itself.
Connection – the dance of life and with nature – being in a state of love and joy and whenever we can - having gratitude and being thankful for nature and that which supports us. This is what Ted exemplifies and surrenders into.
A exceptionally stimulating interview.
Dr Guy Hatchard was formerly the Natural Health Products director at Genetic ID, a global food testing company. He now runs the Natural Food Commission to inform the public about the benefits of traditional natural medicine and the dangers of food regulation. Working with industry and natural health practitioners, he has organised a campaign to oppose the Natural Health Products Bill which is in the queue for its final reading in parliament.
Alliance against this Bill
An alliance of Natural Products companies, doctors, and affected individuals are mounting a legal challenge to the provisions of the Natural Health Products bill.
The government is planning to present the Natural Health Products Bill for its final reading shortly with provisions that resemble the original bill, the Theraputic Goods Act, which was abandoned in the face of huge public opposition. The Ministry of Health has already begun to implement the bill’s anticipated provisions. Analysis of the latest version of the bill released on 15th March shows it will greatly disadvantage traditional medicine affecting the health care choices of tens of thousands of NZers. However as opposition to this bill is mounting, government has pushed it down on the order paper in parliament. This is an opportunity to provide more opposition, which as you listen to the interview and read below, you will see is most necessary!
A Draconian Law
In 2011, the Government and the Green Party promised a law that would encourage the use of Natural Health Products alongside conventional medicine as a precursor to an integrated, science-based approach to health. Instead the law has emerged from the corridors of power as a draconian and restrictive approach which is very different from the integrative approach to medicine which is beginning to flourish overseas.
1) The Bill has adopted a list of 5500 controlled substances from Australia and Canada which means that its provisions are similar to the Trans Tasman Therapeutic Products Agreement proposed in 2006 which was later abandoned after being roundly rejected by the NZ public.
2) Because the permitted natural ingredient list contains approximately 3000 chemicals and synthetics in addition to herbs; it will allow products labelled as natural to contain synthetic additives thereby debasing the meaning of the word natural, which will confuse and disadvantage the public.
3) It enshrines in law the idea that serious illness cannot be benefited by Natural Health Products despite the growing scientific evidence published around the world that nutrition and traditional medicines can have a huge beneficial impact on cancers, heart disease, digestive and respiratory illness, and other chronic illness.
4) It restricts free speech about the health benefits of food and introduces chilling penalties of up to $250,000 for those who communicate the benefits of natural products without first obtaining Government permission.
5) It places pharmaceutical regulators with no interest or expertise in natural health in charge of our food and health choices. These same people will adjudicate on traditional Ayurvedic, Chinese, Maori, and herbal systems of medicines. This is contrary to assurances given by the Hon. Jonathan Coleman to Parliament that Medsafe would not administer the Bill and product suppliers would be able to self-certify compliance.
6) The Government has tried to justify the Bill by saying that it will ensure the safety of the public, but no evidence of risk has been presented. It fact evidence shows it is far more dangerous to go out to eat in a restaurant or consume a bowl of salad at home than it is to take a Natural Health Product. Therefore there is no justification for introducing pharmaceutical style regulations.
7) It is a Henry VIII Bill, containing enabling and regulatory provisions which allow the Ministry of Health to take decisions for any reasons it believes to be relevant. This is poorly written legislation which is open to abuse, misunderstanding and litigation.
8) It contains a clause which prevents unfairly treated individuals and firms from asking a court of law to uphold the safeguards contained in the Bill. The only redress available is to ask the Authority to reconsider its decisions. This will frustrate justice and enable the Authority to ignore matters of fact.
9) Because there has been no credible attempt to rationalise the provisions of the Natural Health Products Bill with the Medicines Act 1981 and the Food Bill, it contains a hidden mechanism to allow pharmaceutical companies to gain effective patents over health giving traditional herbs which has already been exploited in Australia and will now be available here.
10) It wastes money and resources on restricting the natural health choices of the public, while serious and growing problems such as childhood obesity, hypertension, ADHD, and anxiety, which are largely caused or complicated by poor diet and nutrition, are almost completely ignored.
11) It places an additional huge cost on the natural health products industry through onerous regulations and charges which will increase the cost of products and likely ensure small and even medium sized companies have to go out of business as happened in Australia where dozens of firms have been forced to close their doors and traditional medicine suppliers have all but disappeared.
12) It allows unhealthy foods and products including tobacco, sugary drinks, and alcohol to continue to be sold, while restricting healthy choices. How irresponsible is this, and what a complete waste of resources?
Guy has made videos explaining his concerns, including this one, on the new global restrictions on Natural Health products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q5AIzMyMDM&feature=youtu.be
This interview is sponsored by The Awareness Party. www.theawarenessparty.com
Jodie grew up to lose both parents due to cancer and she herself, developed hyperthyroidism and had to take medication that left her lacking in energy.
She didn’t really get her brain and life back until when she saw a herbalist – then her mind started to clear and she started looking at nutrition – which lead to cleaning up her diet.
It was a slow process because she was still fatigued and tired with two young children though getting better all the time. Having a Degree in Agribusiness she has had a keen interest in food production. But realised that industrial factory farming was denaturing food.
That wheat may have two fungicide treatments and insecticide treatments, plus it will have a coating before it sprouts into a plant (see neonicotinoids) http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/karen-wealleans-pat-baskett-dangers-of-neonicotinoids?A=SearchResult&SearchID=3175113&ObjectID=12741231&ObjectType=35 but there is no scientific research on all of this.
Supermarket foods today are problematic as there are so many ‘snack bargains’ available and in many ways we are reluctant or unable to address this addictive behaviour. Mainstream media is basically failing in addressing this due to vested interests and advertising revenue from the ‘food’ industry. Especially in relation to very recent new chemicals being introduced into food, since most of these chemicals were not around 20 years ago and thus we were not eating them way back then.
Michael Moore the documentary maker in the US has put on record how big food researchers, explore ‘crave-ability’ and scan people’s brains to see the dopamine spurt when exposed to certain food, - how it sounds and tastes - as scientists want to know what is going on at deeper levels within our brain using hard science.
The addiction’s are more than sugar, they are carbohydrates – wheat, potatoes and salt in that mix – and we are not addressing the addictive nature of these foods. Because to the snack food industry - with addictive foods, you will always get a repeat purchase.
The other fact of the matter is - that Main Stream Media ‘MSM’ in many cases state that chronic illness that’s in the world today - has a genetic factor – when it could actually be up to 85% plus related to diet and exposures and we know that most exposures comes in through the mouth.
That wheat may have two fungicide treatments and insecticide treatments, plus it will have a coating before it sprouts into a plant (see neonicotinoids) but there is no scientific research on all of this.
Plus, there are chemicals in bread to keep it as fresh as possible. Including the possibility of soy and corn products – as seen on a great amount of supermarket food packaging and many of these may have been derived from GMO sources as well.
Most mum’s will possibly only read one article every few years to warn them of what is in food – but it usually happens only when a child becomes ill, or the parents go down with an ailment, will they then start to look at what they are eating – meanwhile their life becomes very stressful and they suffer a drop in energy – losing momentum for vibrant living and well being.
We need an active and diverse media in NZ but regrettably this it is not happening. That we have to wake up to the fact that we do not have ‘conscious’ media in NZ - especially covering the multiple interrelationships around products and their safety.
Governments are supposedly to be trusted, however we are rapidly noticing that they are not taking the electorate into consideration when once they did. There are fiduciary obligations that should not be breached.
The NZEPA - Environmental Protection Authority
is poorly funded (just like in the USA where it is deliberately underfunded) That the NZ EPA, just can not keep up with the onslaught of chemicals and new products and flora and fauna entering NZ that they just can not research and check out prior to being allowed into our environment or market place.
Plus, with trade and the need for the economic wheels to keep turning – there has become a slow compromise of standards, as overworked EPA can not keep up with their responsibilities and activity that is continuously increasing. This is because the guidelines - the protocols that the scientists have to asses, in this case pesticides are both outdated and have an exceptionally narrow focus.
This has resulted in that ‘we’ are not engaging in the in-depth studies of insecticides, pesticides and fungicides. They are NOT LOOKING at the full formulation. Most farmers know that the full formulation is more toxic. None of these full formulations when sprayed on a crop, are looked at from a combined formulation. They are all only looked at separately. This means that when you mix all the effects of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides together - the accumulative effect of all three - have a knock on effect that has not been researched or studied.
So we have an underfunded Government scientific institution given a contract with very limited scope that they ‘only stay within the parameters of what they have been given to study.’ They are not told to look outside these areas – so they are not really looking out for the public good, for in many ways the perception is they are just ticking the boxes.
Therefore we have children today being exposed to a huge onslaught of chemicals (Remember the slogan Clean Green NZ) – plus the sugar load – no wonder our children are become sicker at a younger age due to this toxic overload - especially from wheat products. So though we seem to live longer (with more drugs to keep us alive) we are having more young becoming ill as a result to all these chemical exposures.
Note, that the biotech corporations give the Government their specs and data and there are definitely limitations with the data offered, solely because they want to get their product onto the market as soon as possible and they are not always forthcoming with data that could compromise them.
Doctors are not able to speak out as ‘big Pharma’ is looking over their every move and doctors risk losing their license if they become critical of the chemicals that are persuasive in the food chain. As a result doctors in NZ are 15 years behind with what is truly going on. They are doing their best, but without Government sanctioning of top quality, honest food education, their task in many ways is like being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
There is a need for honest Government talking about clean food – no junk food advertising – that we are today so far from a responsible Government.
The 2016 NZ Government Health Strategy came out recently but it was more like a communication strategy talking about prevention but they never mentioned what prevention was - they never talked about clean food or the tsunami of sugar addiction.
This interview mentions the challenges to communicate to NZers, especially mothers about ‘good practice’ and safe eating and it is a huge task - as most magazines sell the sizzle - the hype of fancy dishes looking and smelling tempting and delicious. Not their health contents.
Mothers are endeavoring to share and use FaceBook to communicate their needs and it is not helping parents fast enough to find the answers because they are often looking in the wrong place - when the game is to simply clean up your eating act and take in more organic produce that has never been sprayed or been fed chemicals. MSM – just won’t go there. (Just like in the USA)
That Glyphosate is sprayed now on our pastures and it’s on our food crops, on our pathways, it’s in our drains, along our roadsides, around our parks and no Council is testing for ‘Roundup’s - glyphosate in the groundwater – ‘none’ nor are they looking for it in our drains, creeks and river systems – WHY?
Even Monsanto’s studies in Europe have found it in Europe’s groundwater and river systems.
Recently 41 Green MP’s from 14 countries in the European Union were tested for Glyphosate in their urine and all 41 averaged 4 times the allowable amount for the EU and the Green MPs would eat and drink more organic food than the average European, by far.
We are just not looking at the fungicides and insecticides and the run-off from the land into the drains, creeks and rivers – So the question being asked is - where is the hard science testing for all these chemicals and the cumulative effects of them?
Most farmers are not told of the hidden dangers especially of the cumulative effect. Only when insects, bird and marine life become affected will we see that this matches the ill health that children are starting to be impacted by.
There is hidden secret science that is being kept from us because MSM are basically in the hands of big business.
Is Glyphosate in NZ milk products? Evidently no one in NZ is using the ‘latest leading edge technology’ to test for glyphosate in milk that has passed through the mammalian system.
See Monica Kruger – European study http://www.gmoevidence.com/dr-kruger-glyphosate-is-toxic-to-dairy-cows/
Basically science and the systems that the NZ Government have set up are failing people in NZ, and by default overseas buyers of our produce?
Note that Glyphosate can be sprayed on wheat crops – so do some research yourself.
As well as oil seeds – canola and your vegetable oils like soy used in convenience foods most are GMO’s and have been sprayed with Roundup.
Baby formulas and infant formulas, become very problematic when there is no robust testing.
In the NZ dairy industry – we need transparent protocols because Glyphosate is being used on NZ pastures before stock is grazed on it. NZ farmers are being TOLD that it is SAFE – so when one day the newsflashes on at 6PM screaming out that overseas somewhere - tests have found glyphosate in the milk – we can then look to Monsanto’s scientists for accountability.
This could be impacting animal health, sperm and egg levels causing deformities – we have not seen the tests.
Bread – what is it doing to us and our children?
Because of chemicals in our food we can not always see what’s actually happening in our food. Because anti fungicides keep the fungus at bay, same as preservatives in meat - stop it from spoiling early. We have to become far more aware.
Safer regulation makes for safer food – the EU has good regulation
ERPA in NZ is much closer to trade based interests than to Mothers …
Europe has recently made a recommendation in regard to Roundup and Glyphosate based herbicides that it should not be sprayed on food crops anymore and the major adjuvants or ingredients in the formulation – called POEA – should be taken out of Roundup and it should never be used around parks and where children congregate or play.
These recommendations are light years ahead of the NZ EPA and country wide regulations.
Julia Rutledge professor http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/profiles/staff/people/julia_rucklidge.shtmlnzh
How do we get the message out?
Talk with your friends over a cup of tea and coffee, at cafes, at school events, at sports in weekends.
Use FB appropriately plus link to good alternative media and be adroit - put your needs out among your friends.
Web search – put blog in front and after a few pages of commercial posts you get to some very interesting info
Listen to Ted talks or other programs – even GPFM.
When it comes to children eating industrial farmed food we are at present in a global emergency.
It is that developing babies, to infants, to children all the way up through their teens whose health is in balance. This is the critical time in the formation of all of their organs and growing body.
For adults it is different we are in essence fully formed so it is not as critical when compared to growing children.
So the imperative is to get organised to make sure we have a healthy future for all children and grandchildren.
www.rite-demands.org
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/05/03/glyphosate-food.aspx
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115
In this interview, Roger Fowler, leader of two Kiwi humanitarian convoys to Gaza, encourages us to stand for peace and justice for the Palestinians.
The issue of Israel and Palestine is the world’s largest festering sore that is affecting other countries and by implication - wars. Placing displaced people where other people were already living is a massive international failure, and one that must never be repeated.
The result of this failure is shown in the three Israeli military operations over six years, in addition to nine years of economic blockade, that have ravaged the already debilitated infrastructure of Gaza.
The United Nations has said that the Gaza Strip could become unlivable by 2020 without critical access to reconstruction and humanitarian supplies. The U.N. issued similar warnings four years ago, even before the 50-day war, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead and countless others injured or wounded, most of them civilians.
Among many things, the report cited the degradation of basic water, energy, sanitation and education facilities and the region’s intense overcrowding as factors that may render the enclave uninhabitable by 2020.
Donor fatigue has left Gaza’s reconstruction at a standstill, and there is no political solution on the horizon. After three wars in the tiny strip, one of the few certainties in Gaza is another war within a few years.
The current suffering of the people of Gaza is almost unimaginable.
Nearly 80 percent of Gaza’s approximately 1.8 million people rely on aid agencies for daily sustenance. Unemployment is at 40 percent, more than double the level 15 years ago. Before the most recent war, nearly 60 percent of the population was food insecure, 95 percent of Gaza’s water is unfit for drinking and electricity is available for only a few hours a day.
The most recent military operation compounded already dire socioeconomic conditions and accelerated de-development in the occupied Palestinian territory, a process by which development is not merely hindered but reversed.
Divided in two parts, the State of Palestine is not an independent country and therefore the people have no voice in United Nations and do not have full sovereignty and control over their own territory.
Roger Fowler and Kia Ora Gaza have organised the following projects:
Roger Fowler went to Gaza on each of these occasions and in the interview he speaks about his Gaza experience, the occupied territories, and about his activism.
Roger organised the NZ Conference on Palestine 2013 and returned to Gaza on a fact-finding mission last November 2016,
Veteran activist & community organizer, Roger Fowler, played a prominent role in building the local protest movement against the war on Vietnam and Apartheid in the late 1960s & 70s. He was manager of Auckland’s Resistance Bookshop and coordinator of the inner-city People’s Union community organization throughout the 1970s, an active supporter of the protest occupation at Bastion Point, and union delegate in the car assembly industry. Roger is director of the Mangere East Community Centre, and organizer of Kia Ora Gaza which has sponsored NZ involvement in several international solidarity convoys to break Israel’s inhumane siege of Gaza. Roger was awarded a QSM Queens Service Medal in 1999.
Kia Ora Gaza is part of the NZ Palestine Solidarity Network which links up all the pro-Palestine groups throughout NZ. It was established from a series of public meetings to organise Kiwi participation in international efforts to end the siege of Gaza. This followed the Israeli commando raid on the ship the Mavi Mamara, which led the peace flotilla in 2010 which resulted in the deaths of 10 civilian peace activists.
Kia Ora Gaza is currently facilitating the participation of Green Party MP Marama Davidson on the Women’s Boat to Gaza peace flotilla that will leave Italy later this month. (September 2016)
You can DONATE to this and other fundraising for Palestine on the web site:
Kia Ora Gaza: kiaoragaza.net
This interview was sponsored by The Awareness Party.
Knowing the matriarch, the queen bee is the sexual organ of the hive - it is she who lays the foundation for the whole colony - but there are many challenges in a rapidly changing world of the varroa mite and colony collapse. That commercial operations use insecticides to control the varroa disease are likely to cause problems because queens do not survive as long today as in pre-varroa times.
Today, nearly every element within the biosphere,is under pressure and yet honey, is still seen as an elixir especially recently, as NZ manuka honey becomes a premium for its antibacterial qualities especially with the increase of dis-ease and other ailments - so how is it possible to be a pure honey advocate and producer in our world today?
Nine years ago Richard took time off working as an interior designer to take care of his kids instead - and became a hobby bee keeper that has grown into a robust little organic business.
Starting from 2 hives to 4 to 8 now he has 120 hives and a thriving little business. Living on Waiheke Island 7 kilometres off the NZ coast - there are many larger (land) sections with numerous fruit trees, plums, apples and citrus and quite well established too - as well as differing flower gardens including bottle brush, so there is a lot of feed for bees - plus manuka trees - as there has been more reforestation on the island. It was a little over a hundred years ago the island was basically denuded as they used the wood for charcoal in Auckland 17 kilometres by boat across from Waiheke. Native kanuka is now becoming predominant - though there are cabbage trees and flax as well. With very little agricultural and horticultural pressures there are more vineyards, with most of them running organic systems. Other than the use of a little fungicide, which Richard acknowledged is not particularly good for bees, they are not using insecticides that directly affect bees.
Glyphosate is still a challenge though most of the vineyards will not use it and there is not much of it used on Waiheke Island, in a commercial sense.
Bee’s being a matriarchal society the Queen may be the leader, but is actually the egg layer and genetic carrier for the hive as the bees seem to ‘just know' what they need to do - as in anarchy - being a very complex society - no real hierarchy - so the workers can manipulate the Queen as to what they want or ‘think' needs to be done and the Queen can do the same as well. He says it is such a complex society - the more you learn - the more you realise you have yet to learn.
Bees are quite complex - that they can ‘think’ for themselves even when they are connected to a hive mind. That the Bee is an esoteric symbol - especially from ancient Egypt, where they were readily acknowledged.
Nectar for the bees is their carbohydrate and for the flower that is the payment to the bee - for the bee being the sexual organ of the flower.
Honey that is made from nectar when capped off can be stored indefinitely.
Bee researchers overseas are looking at the individual honey properties from differing flowers, some have found anti inflammatory properties which is good for people in their older age.
The strain of varroa mite found in New Zealand in April 2000 was the worst strain of this pest - called Varroa Destructor and is here in NZ to stay. It easily infests hives by jumping from bee to bee within the hive or from flower to bee as bees forage for their food. Prior to that NZ was essentially an organic honey paradise.
Some bees are becoming immune to the chemicals that have been used. Richard listened to Randy Oliver in the USA and decide to go organic and is still successfully doing so. Randy has his own bees which he studies very intently and his relationship with them brings about a deeper intuitive knowing.
http://scientificbeekeeping.com
NZ has the highest number of bees ever at present and growing every year. But, the big producers use synthetic chemicals, which has its drawbacks.
It is very difficult to handle large quantities of hives organically as the extra precautions and checking all the time, is time consuming.
Colony collapse here in NZ has been nowhere as disastrous as it is in the Northern hemisphere. The bee is in some ways the canary in the ecological coal mine.
Bees in the US are a factory system with around 2.74 million colonies and it is huge for almonds in California. This is where they need a million hives to just pollinate the almond flowers. Bees are fed sugar water as well which equals a mono culture - thus shortcuts are taken everywhere and bees may get only one particular pollen, so it can have an effect that stops them becoming robust.
Pollen is what the bees eat and if there is only one flower such as the almond flower - there are problems - because they need a mixed diet.
The thrust of the interview then turns to industrial agriculture and factory farming.
Today’s industrial agriculture is the extractive model that is based on how much profit can be made and we are pushing it to the limits of what the biosphere can provide. We are needing to make some critical decisions as to what is going to be for us to remain as healthy human beings as well as retaining a sustainable environment that will serve future generations and Richard sees that this must apply across the board in all agricultural and horticultural businesses. He says that it is a ‘common sense thing’ and we have to get back to factoring our children into our common future.
Richard also says we have to question why corporations exist and what is their purpose? We have to look at them again, as we have set the whole game up with the wrong goal in mind - it can not be all based on the profit motive or increasing your share portfolio - we need to increase the value of our planet and the biosphere and we are finding this out now.
Manuka honey is big in NZ, but it has become too expensive for the average New Zealander to buy. One of the reasons is that ‘big bee businesses are paying farmers living close to manuka and bush, large amounts of money like $200 a hive for possibly 8 - 10 weeks of honey to place their bees close up, when flowering - driving up the price.
About his bees.
Most bees are Italian and we are not allowed to import any stock into NZ now. We do have Carniolan bees in NZ they are a darker bee plus a little black bee that the early NZ settlers brought with them to NZ - these a somewhat feral - but can be found in hives on Great Barrier Island.
NZ exports 35 tonnes of live bees out of the country. That is bees only, their body weight itself, nothing else - for example have a bee alight on your hand that is how heavy one bee is. Then extrapolate what 35 tonnes of these critters are worth in volume. Mostly exported to the USA and Canada as they cannot produce enough of their own up there. All those live bees are exported with a queen.
When the season finishes in NZ and the flowers stop producing - bees from hives are then harvested and a new queen introduced and they are flown up to the Northern hemisphere where that can start all over again as spring emerges - such is the way the industry has become global.
Worker bees may live 40 to 45 days, depending on how much flying they have to do, but in winter they will stay close to the hive, keeping it warm and can live for a couple of months - easily - eating honey and vibrating warmth keeping the little amount of brood around the Queen in the hive alive .
Bees are seen as not as healthy today as previously, as they eat lots of white sugar in winter - when for thousands of years they stored honey which they ate over winter.
A good organic honey apiarist will leave them more honey in the hive so they don’t have to give them sugar. Agrisea here in NZ http://www.agrisea.co.nz - make a sea weed product that can be added to the sugar water to give the bees minerals etc.
In China many trees are hand pollinated due to the atmospheric pollution and smog making it too difficult for bee or even other flying insects to live or survive.
NZ must down scale from the full on industrial factory system - by doing so we may be able to have a viable localised industry.
Compliance costs are huge in NZ pushing people to become bigger businesses - as they are the only ones who can afford the exorbitant compliance fees - so it is totally weighted against the small producer - as there is no government support - especially to contribute to smaller ‘craft; industries.
Thoughts
Richard states, people want the small craft industries that have their own essence and flavour - they don’t want the big homogenous industrial giant. They want to know the guy and even talk with them, who made their cheese, their wine or their honey or the chair you sit in - people don’t mind paying the extra - when they know who and how it was made …they want that human connection … we need to tell Government that we don’t need farms with 2,000 to 3,000 dairy cows, that we can have a farm of 200 to 300 cows and make a very good living - especially that in NZ organic dairy farmers are getting $9.30 per kilo weight of fat compared to the poor return of $5 that conventional chemical farmers are getting. So by supporting the smaller guys to make a better product that is more beneficial to health and takes care of the ecology is being seen as a wise decision.
Biological agriculture and increasing bacterial levels in the soil is bringing huge results - getting rid of the synthetic chemicals that we have been pumping onto the land.
The Corporate model - all it does is pay the investors and the investors have virtual zero to do with the running of the corporation and they have no responsibility and all they care about is the bottom line and how much that can be extracted out of the environment each year.
Richard says, set some goals and do some research, turn off TV and instead check and see where you milk comes from - or where your grapes get sprayed … or how many times your veggies are sprayed.
Grow your own food - or go to a farmers market. Check your seeds that you buy from the local plant shop - ask what coatings they have on their seed - make sure that they are not covered in neonicotinoids - which are extremely dangerous and need to be taken out of the commercial realm. That we need to be proactive as it is important to know what chemicals are on what and one individual can do that - it just means that we make the effort - as many other people can benefit from your initiative and Richard says that if we have a society doing that - then other good things can happen.
He re emphasises that colony collapse is a result of a whole cocktail of chemicals from many various sources all coming together to cause the collapse - the same is with neonicotinoids - they are all contributors to causing increasing problems within the environment.
Richard questions how did the earth system evolve and create healthy living ecological systems and biota that have made it over a hundred million years? That it has been basically healthy for us up until this last century.
When we embrace more holistic and natural systems this will enhance our future for children of today and tomorrow - without the use of all these chemicals.
He mentions that the TPPA, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, is also not in the best interests for the human race, being corporate centred.
http://www.waihekehoney.co.nz Richards Own Website
http://scientificbeekeeping.com Randy Oliver
http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/karen-wealleans-pat-baskett-dangers-of-neonicotinoids
In finishing I wish to mention that I have interviewed four of the Evatt Family, each with an important viewpoint that relate at a holistic, community, involvement - level.
There is father Christopher and son’s Jonathan, Justin and Richard.
A very unique family.
http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/chris-evatt-entrepreneur-business-mentor-and-assister-of-non-government-organisations
http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/jonathan-evatt-the-columbian-native-kogi-message-for-humanity
http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/jonathan-evatt-author-teacher-mentor-on-the-subtle-aspects-of-life-and-the-true-nature-of-man
http://www.ourplanet.org/greenplanetfm/justin-evatt-jasmax-architectural-firm