..The impact of commercials

Now I Know This is a picture of that awful stuff that Monsanto makes and sells to the general public as a "must have" for anyone wanting to get rid of the most "stubborn" weeds.  I want to make a point with it...  I was watching the news when the most recent commercial for this product appeared on the TV.  It has the "Hit the Road Jack" music for the background sound and a bunch of "weeds" being "kicked to the curb".  The final scene in it is what I think is a plantain climbing on a bus with a bunch of other "weeds" bending over to look at the newcomer.

I wonder if the people that buy this "stuff" every year notice that the product has gotten supposedly "stronger" over the years.. I say "supposedly" as I saw somewhere (and I hope someone points out where it is) that a gardener that had an old bottle looked at the label from then to a more current one and the concentration was lower.  Now  even if that is true... if the chemical cocktail is really so good, so wonderful; why would they need to make as in the picture "extended control"?  Why would they need to make a "Max" version?  Does it make sense to you?

Now as for the commercial... I remember watching it a couple of days ago as my kids remarked at how cute the "weeds" were.  My 15yr old thought the work they did on the animation was great as they looked so real.  After seeing their reactions to the commercial itself, and what it was accociated with; is it a ploy to get the attention of kids too?  What the H_ _ _ does making a commercial about weed killer cute do for it besides making a kid want to use it.   ..and considering it's dangerous for a kid to use it why would you want that?

Hey folks... why make a poison look cute to a child, come on people... what happens when "Jr" wants to do the work in the yard because the commercials say that you should use it to get rid of these "bad" plants.  Monsanto needs to not make their advertisements geared towards kids.

Think about it....

Few Words...

OK folks first thing, due to money issues here we are going to have our internet off for a month or 3 while we get the money for our building projects done. So after the 8^th of this month I won't be online (according to the phone company).

I will be keeping track of what goes on here so I can update when we get it back on. WE are going to be working on our outdoor stove in the next couple of days and provided we don't get rain before tomorrow afternoon we will get more digging done in the root cellar tomorrow. We are down about 2ft now and we need about another 5 ft.

I have made a couple of decisions on some of our “standard” crops at this point. We liked the lemon cucumbers more than standard cucumbers in flavor and how they grow so unless the dragon's egg variety does well and tastes better we will be sticking with only lemon cucumbers. By the way... we had one ripen fully so far and it was so GOOD!

As it stands we will be growing red noodle long beans as the green black seeded one was having a major bug issue. While we picks the same amount of both, all but one of the black seeded were “buggy”.

I seem to be having some major issues with my squashes this year. I still have no female flowers on them. Now I see them starting then they wilt and die. However, the male flowers are flourishing. Anyone know why? I'm wondering if it's been the heat wave causing it troubles.

I have some good news on the GMO front:

http://www.naturalnews.com/033216_GMO_contamination_lawsuits.html

At least in two states a farmer can sue another for contamination by pesticides/herbicides and GMO infection. Read the article please and learn more!

I will be making my first jam/jelly attempt sometime this week as I know have everything I need to make some. Wish me luck and if I get it done before our net goes down I'll post my results.

GM Grass.. now we are getting ridiculous...

Sorry folks but this will be a multi post across the board as this is important.

The Health Ranger over at naturalnews.com is calling for a boycott of Scotts lawn products due to their soon to be newest product. What could this product be? GM grass seed... yes, -GRASS SEED- if it was not bad enough to have GMO's that were food stuffs people are going to be pushed to buy a GM grass seed that is “roundup ready”.

http://www.naturalnews.com/033022_Scotts_Miracle-Gro_GMO_seeds.html

Yippie... so now everyone who wants the “perfect lawn” will be pouring gallons of roundup on their lawns. What will eventually happen to the water tables in these areas? Poison is still poison no matter how you “bottle” it. It will still affect the rest of the environment that you put it in.

How are you going to feel when the lawns at schools are sown with this seed and they start pouring roundup all over the grass that -YOUR- child will be walking/running/playing over?

What happens when it cross pollinates with natural grasses? We'll have GM grass everywhere eventually. Also remember what I said about corn? Corn is a “grass”, it is a distant cousin to what is on the lawns in the cities. However, anyone who is trying to strengthen a “old” variety of corn with crossing it with the wild ancestor. What will happen to that ancestor plant?

With the idea of this going to happen what I see will be happening is that we will have a “new” urban desert a green one. It will be grass and nothing else, of course you could plant the GM trees so that maybe you'll have a tree in your yard too. Trees are hurt by round up just as any other plant is.

Home vegetable gardeners and “urban” homesteaders will have major issues when their neighbors grow this grass, due to the spraying of the chemicals on the GM grass. As the spray -WILL- carry over to your yard.

So protect yourself now.. protest THIS ONE if nothing else in the GM area. Check out the Health Ranger's post on naturalnews.com to see how you can voice your opinion on this subject!

The GMO fight

In the last 2 days I have seen that there is now a lawsuit against Monsanto over their GMO crops read them here:

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_2dcb1a30-5af3-11e0-9cfe-0017a4a78c22.html

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-home-living/farmers-sue-monsanto-over-seed-contamination.aspx

http://www.rodale.com/organic-lawsuit

I say it is about time, this gives the public who MIGHT (NOT A DEFINITE) wind up with their fields being contaminated by the GMO pollen or an "accidental" spillage from a seed truck rumbling down the road. Monsanto won't be able to sue them. The GMO crops are not the same as others otherwise there would be no need for the patent... therefore those seeds should be treated as different, and if they got into someone else's crop totally by no fault of the farmer then the farmer in question should not have problems.

Personally I also think all products with GMO anything in them should be clearly labeled as such so a consumer who wants to make their own choices on it can. aside from the very infrequent times we eat out and the few times I do want a quick meal which might be once a month I make all my foods from scratch. I do know that to some people this is strange, and WOW... when I had some toast in a restaurant about a month ago I was shocked at the flavor of it. After eating only my own homemade sourdough bread commercial bread is not the same.

So I do think this lawsuit is a very good thing, and I do hope the organic farmers win this one for everyone!

Be Well and Blessed Be...

Monsanto Owned Seed companies

Ok I just happened to come across a list of seed companies owned in some form or another by Monsanto here is a link to the yahoo group message about it:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ozark-homestead/message/15467

if it does not work I will copy/paste it below:

"All of these seed companies are owned by Monsanto or buy seed from Seminis or
other seed companies, which are owned by Monsanto.

* Territorial Seeds
* Totally Tomato
* Vermont Bean Seed Co.
* Burpee
* Cook’s Garden
* Johnny’s Seeds
* Earl May Seed
* Gardens Alive
* Lindenberg Seeds
* Mountain Valley Seed
* Park Seed
* T&T Seeds
* Tomato Growers Supply
* Willhite Seed Co.
* Nichol’s
* Rupp
* Osborne
* Snow
* Stokes
* Jungs
* R.H. Shumway
* The Vermont Bean Seed Company
* Seeds for the World
* Seymour’s Selected Seeds
* HPS
* Roots and Rhizomes
* McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
* Spring Hill Nurseries
* Breck’s Bulbs
* Audubon Workshop
* Flower of the Month Club
* Wayside Gardens
* Park Bulbs
* Park’s Countryside Garden