TangerGreen

Roundup is toxic - Stop spraying today!

October 15th, 2007 at 05:43pm Under Organic Gardening

“As safe as table salt!” said Monsanto, makers of the world’s most widely used herbicide - Roundup. Unfortunately, people bought this pitch, and continue to buy it today, despite the 1990’s ruling of a New York court forbidding Monsanto to describe their product as safe, non-toxic and as harmless as salt.

We are posting this as part of the Internet’s very first International Blog Action Day. If Tangergreen.com could give people one quick planet-saving, species-saving tip, it would be to stop using the herbicide, Roundup, created by Monsanto.

What is Monsanto?
Monsanto is considered by many to be Environmental Enemy Number 1. During the course of this corporation’s history, they have engineered and inflicted the following on the world and its people:

• Agent Orange
• Bovine Growth Hormones
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Carcinogenic Herbicides
• PCBs
• DDT

Monsanto’s documented history of lying to the public, suing small farmers and unleashing Frankenstein-like monster chemicals and organisms into our food chain, water supply and air is what has caused them to be considered the least ethical and most environmentally unconscious corporation in the world. Visit the Millions Against Monsanto website for further documentation of this corporation’s activities in our world.

What is Roundup?
Roundup has been aggressively marketed to homeowners, gardeners, landscapers and farmers since its unfortunate invention in 1976. It is a highly toxic herbicide, detrimental to the environment, plant life, animal life and the human species. Non-Monsanto-conducted studies have shown us that Roundup causes the following serious harms:

• Liver damage
• 50% increase of miscarriage in pregnant women exposed to Roundup
• 90% decrease in production of the male sexual hormones in men exposed to Roundup
• Poisoning of our vital groundwater
• 70% decrease in amphibian biodiversity and 90% decrease in the numbers of tadpoles

If survival of our species is important to us, we need to take it very seriously that exposure to Roundup drastically destroys male hormone production at the same time as causing miscarriages in women. This assault on the human reproductive system is clearly a deadly combination in terms of our ability to regenerate the human species. The man at the local nursery may eagerly be recommending Roundup to you as the answer to the dandelions in your lawn, but is it worth it if the young couple next door to you discovers they cannot conceive or bare children because of your need for a weed-free yard? Certainly not.

Global warming and fungus are currently decimating our planet’s frog population. By pouring Roundup into the groundwater which then forms the pond and stream environments that are the homes of amphibians, we are literally dooming frogs and toads to extinction. The conclusive studies that have been conducted regarding Roundup’s lethal effect on frogs have been public knowledge for some years now, but the world power of Monsanto and the lack of concern of the American government are keeping it on the shelves. Roundup has been banned by the Danish government because of its documented harms to the environment, animals and humans.

Roundup effects everyone and everything that comes into contact with it, from bugs, to songbirds, to your children. Monsanto’s marketing efforts mean that one of your neighbors, someone next door, down the street, downtown, is likely spraying Roundup while you read this. This year, you and your children and pets will walk through Roundup-infected areas at school, the store, outside the mall, on public trails. New mothers will be pushing baby strollers through the invisible poison. The elderly and auto-immune deficient citizens will walk through Round-up while they are attempting to get exercise and fresh air. Roundup is the #1 cause of annual pesticide/herbicide-induced illnesses and injuries, according to the California Pesticide Illness Surveillance Programme. It needs to be pulled from shelves, out of our homes, out of our environment.

A Roundup-free World

In the 1940’s Monsanto began marketing their infamous product, DDT, to the world. Marketed as a wonder cure for all manners of things, and of course, perfectly safe, it was soon being sprayed on crops and humans all over the globe. It became the world’s most commonly applied chemical, as Roundup is today. Monsanto, typically, attempted to deny all reports of this deadly chemical
causing toxic residue buildup in the fatty tissues and milk of human beings, and damage to the liver, kidneys and central nervous system. They attempted to deny that DDT caused a songbird holocaust from which many bird populations have yet to recover. Public outrage, happily, won the day and DDT was banned in the 1970’s. Every time I see a Western Bluebird in my yard, I thank my stars that some few of them were left alive from the DDT genocide and that populations are only now beginning to become stable again.

DDT was marketed as a blessing to homeowners, gardeners and farmers. Roundup has been marketed to your community in the same way, and the same lies and denials are being used to keep it legal and profitable for the manufacturer. Roundup, ’safe as table salt’, is destroying our health and the vital biodiversity of our planet. Just like DDT, it needs to be banned.

Before DDT, before Roundup, before the onslaught of products created by the makers of chemical warfare were invented, farmers and homeowners maintained their lands and properties with manual labor. Crop rotation, the small farm, and the seasonal growing calendar enabled humans to grow enough food to feed everyone with no lasting damage to humans, genetics or the environment. Agribusiness, solely reliant on chemicals to produce chemical-laden ‘foods’, has changed the world in so many negative ways, has disenfranchised the small farmer, brought us dozens of new illnesses and created trillions of dollars of profits for unethical corporations like Monsanto. The price our planet is paying to keep Monsanto wealthy is simply too high.

Hand labor, the tool of our forefathers, is the answer to growing food or keeping your garden tidy. Keep your neighborhood safe for your neighbors, your planet safe for life - please, don’t use Roundup.

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Eat With The Seasons For Optimum Health

October 11th, 2007 at 09:25pm Under Green Body

You’d never know it from a walk around the produce section of any U.S. grocery store, but tomatoes don’t grow in winter and June is an odd time to be eating an apple. International shipping is what is responsible for off-season fruits and vegetables appearing on supermarket shelves, usually with a hefty price tag attached. You may have been raised to think that such foods are a lovely luxury, but if you are treating them as a staple, you are forcing your body to work against the natural cycle of the farming year.

In addition to confusing your stomach, purchasing off-season produce represents a tremendous waste of fuel as foods are either intensively cultured in greenhouses, or are shipped incredible distances to us from other countries. Learning to eat with the seasons reduces pollution of the planet and aligns your body with the life-giving rhythm of the earth.

Eating with the Warm Season

When the hot months of late spring, summer and early fall are with us in North America, the local organic farm abounds with fabulous, mouthwatering vegetables like these:

• summer squash
• string beans
• cucumbers
• peppers
• avocados
• mesclun lettuces and greens
• eggplant

Warm weather fruits include these gorgeous choices:

• strawberries
• blueberries
• raspberries
• melons
• peaches
• plums
• nectarines
• tomatoes

Looking over this brief list, it becomes immediately apparent that the majority of the produce listed here has one major factor in common - water content. Think about the juiciness of berries, of watermelon, of tomatoes and lemon cucumbers. No doubt, this is Nature’s way of helping us to stay properly hydrated when the sun is at its hottest. Additionally, many of the foods here require minimal cooking or no cooking at all, which is just perfect when the last thing you want to do is turn on your oven on a sweltering afternoon. Essential vitamins are present in these foods for good summer health and the antioxidants found in blueberries and tomatoes may even be protecting your skin from the sun’s strongest rays and your body from various cancers. By growing your own summer produce, or buying from a local, organic farmer, you are doing the smart thing for your health, for the local economy and for the environment.

Eating with the Cold Season

The organic farm changes when fall turns cold and moves into winter and early spring. Your selection of seasonal vegetables includes:

• pumpkins
• winter squash
• chard
• spinach
• broccoli
• potatoes
• dried beans
• peas
• carrots
• onions
• lettuce

Appetizing, flavor-packed fruits for the cold months include:

• apples
• pears
• oranges
• lemons
• grapefruit
• limes

If the list above of vegetables looks like an awesome recipe for a winter soup, that’s because it
is! These heartier foods, packed with iron, are just what your body is craving to keep strong during the cold season of the year. Many varieties of apples and pears are meant to be stored throughout the winter, and when the citrus fruits ripen, we have an invaluable source of the vitamin C that keeps us bright on short, dark days. This wealth of cold season produce will keep us in good health until North America heats up again, bringing us back to the first summer foods. That’s how the cycle works, ensuring that there is always something delicious for your family to eat.

Getting Americans Back in the Seasonal Food Cycle

International food shipping and factory farming has resulted in a completely un-natural selection of produce at the grocery store. The apples you find in June were either shipped all the way from a country like Argentina or have been kept too long in storage, their flavor and nutrition dissipated, their skins waxed to look appealing. The tomatoes you buy in December are from as far away as New Zealand, or were grown in a greenhouse. You already know how bland they taste! They simply aren’t a good buy, from either an environmental or nutritional standpoint. Factory food producers pick their produce when it is unripe and then gas it to add color or hope it ‘ripens’ in the back of a truck on its way from South America.The result is in every way inferior to the produce your local organic farmer has ripening on the branch or vine in his garden. Ripe, fresh, on-season foods are where the vitamins and flavor are!

If you can’t grow your own, or find a local farmer, your town may have a small, independent organic grocery store or a chain store like Whole Foods. Americans can easily eat with the seasons by shopping at such stores, and if saving energy strikes you as important, you can ask the grocer where various fruits and vegetables came from. At the very least, you can attempt to buy produce primarily from in-state farmers. The nearer the farmer is to your house, the fresher, tastier and more nutritious your food will be, and the less energy will have been expended to bring the produce to your table.

The one challenge I find people having with seasonal eating is that one can get a little tired of
their diet as the cold season draws near its end. In such cases, it’s just fine to use a modest amount of prepared foods like jams, apple sauces, pickles or other relishes as a condiment to liven up your family’s appetite. If 90% of your diet is on-season, then organic canned fruits, vegetables and seasonings can be used to perk up meals that have become a little too familiar. Yet, the anticipation of the next season is actually part of the fun of seasonal eating. How we look forward to that first summer tomato or luscious plum!

All other North American animals eat with the seasons by necessity. Nature ensures that they are given the right foods at the right times for optimum health. This same loving care is present in Nature for we humans. We have only to tap into it to connect with an older, better way of eating.

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