The Weblog
This page contains news, event information, and other items added by Ian and Adam, the resident farmers at Old 99. We send out a message every week, but most are set with a delete date about two weeks later. I archive some of the posts if they have content other than weekly availability of produce and meat.
You can send me questions too, which if they are of a general nature, I can post to this Old99 blog.
Week of Nov 4th, 2012
This post expired on November 05, 2022.
Well,I just blew my whole month’s Rogers web download (pay-per-use contract) on watching David vs Monsanto, a 2009 European documentary on our heroic Sask farmer, Percy Schmeiser’s fight for seed rights and food purity. You should too. Spend an hour and watch. You’ll be appalled and dismayed by the ruthlessness of Monsanto (it could also be Dupont, Syngenta, Dow, BASF) , but also heartened that there are indeed still people like Percy and Louise, who will stand up to corporate malfeasance, no matter the cost.
bq. “This film is reassuring. Reassuring to all who fear that as an individual, no one would have any power to confront policymakers, large corporations or the business world. “David vs. Monsanto” proves the opposite.”
The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X1A31gCeOA4#!
Yes there are vegetables, meats and eggs here this week, all grown organically with no (known) GMO contamination. As of Nov 4th, I can offer the following crops: potatoes, tomatoes (last week) basil, chard, spinach, kale, carrots, onions, baby lettuces, parsley (two types), mizuna, arugula and hot and green peppers. For meats, I have lamb, pork, beef and roasting chicken and geese (just a couple left).
Now the climate is another matter, worthy of your consideration. But a matter with personal consequences for you and your families. We have to get real about fossil fuel based carbon pollution. It has to be a matter of public debate and private choice every time we shop, travel or consume.
I excerpt below from a recent interview with Kevin Anderson, the Deputy Director of the UK Tyndall Centre, an expert on greenhouse-gas emissions trajectories. He will be giving the annual Cabot Institute lecture, ‘Real Clothes for the Emperor’ on 6th November in Bristol, UK, which has already sold out. Read the interview here: http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-11-02/rapid-and-deep-emissions-reductions-may-not-be-easy-but-4-c-to-6-c-will-be-much-worse
“I don’t want to pretend that it’s easy. I do not think that the future, for those of us that are in the very fortunate position of living in the West, is full of win-win opportunities. People who have done well, very well out of our western system, and live very carbon profligate lifestyles are going to face difficult challenges, and we should not pretend otherwise.
Until we actually embrace alternative means of finding value in our lives, I think that transition from where we are today, high-carbon, high-energy lifestyles, to ultimately lower-carbon lifestyles is going to be both difficult and unpopular. But ultimately, I do not see an alternative. Rapid and deep emissions reductions may not be easy- but 4°C to 6°C will be much worse.
But also I find it increasingly difficult not to challenge friends and family, who often appear to have complete disregard for the impacts of their action. I’ve got to the point now where I think that when we’re profligately emitting, we’re knowingly damaging the lives and the prospects of some of the poorest people in our communities, both in the UK, but more significantly globally. Yet we obscenely carry on doing this. We’re happy to put a few pence into a collection pot in the middle of town to help people living in poorer parts of the world but we don’t seem to be prepared to make substantive changes to how we’re living our lives- even when we recognise the impact our emissions are having."