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THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT SOY

SOY, MUCH LIKE MSG, HAS BECOME A STAPLE IN MOST OF THE AMERICAN DIET. NOT AS TOXIC AS MSG, SOY STILL REMAINS A POTENT SOURCE OF TOXINS IN OUR DIET. LEARN THE TRUTH. SOY IS NOT A FOOD FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION UNLESS FERMENTED IN THE FORM OF TEMPEH, MISO, ETC.

DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT THE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TELLS YOU ABOUT SOY AS A HEALTH FOOD. IT IS NOT!

THIS MESSAGE NEEDS REPEATING UNTIL OTHERWISE GOOD HEALTH STORES LIKE WHOLE FOODS AND TRADER JOE’S STOP SELLING SOY PRODUCTS, AT LEAST NOT WITHOUT A WARNING LABEL. YOU SHOULD READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT DR. MERCOLA’S SITE:

The Evidence Against Soy

“Dow Chemical and DuPont, the same corporations that brought misery and death to millions around the world through Agent Orange, are now the driving forces behind the promotion of soy as a food for humans. They are financing anti-meat and anti-milk campaigns aimed largely at those concerned about animal welfare and the environment, trying to convince them that imitations such as "soymilk" are not only healthier than the real thing, but better for the earth too.”

Dr. Mecola’s comment (extracted):

"What’s So Wrong With Soy?Unlike the Asian culture, where people eat small amounts of whole soybean products, western food processors separate the soybean into two golden commodities--protein and oil. And there is nothing natural or safe about these products.Says Dr. Kaayla Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story,

“Today's high-tech processing methods not only fail to remove the anti-nutrients and toxins that are naturally present in soybeans but leave toxic and carcinogenic residues created by the high temperatures, high pressure, alkali and acid baths and petroleum solvents." Dr. Daniel also points out the findings of numerous studies reviewed by her and other colleagues -- that soy does not reliably lower cholesterol, and in fact raises homocysteine levels in many people, which has been found to increase your risk of stroke, birth defects, and yes: heart disease.

Other common health problems linked to a high-soy diet include:
Thyroid problems, including weight gain, lethargy, malaise, fatigue, hair loss, and loss of libido
Premature puberty and other developmental problems in babies, children and adolescents

Cancer
Brain damage
Reproductive disorders
Kidney stones
Weakened immune system
Severe, potentially fatal food allergies

"Most soy, perhaps about 80 percent or more, is also genetically modified, which adds its own batch of health concerns.
Despite these findings, many people still want to believe the hype, thinking that these studies must somehow be wrong. But the content of soy itself should be a clue. For example, non-fermented soy products contain:

Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) genistein and daidzein, which mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen
Phytates, which block your body's uptake of minerals
Enzyme Inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion
Hemaggluttin, which causes red blood cells to clump together and inhibits oxygen take-up and growth
High amounts of omega-6 fat, which is pro-inflammatory
You’re Consuming Soy Whether You’re Buying “Soy Products” or Not
Even if you know better than to gulp down large amounts of soy milk, slabs of tofu, and other soy snacks, you are still consuming soy if you’re eating processed food, in the form of soybean oil and lecithin. So depending on your dietary habits, your (unfermented) soy consumption could really add up. In fact, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln at the National Institutes of Health told CNN.com he estimates that soybeans, usually in the form of oil, account for 10 percent of the average person’s total calories in the United States! When you consider that 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food goes toward processed food, this amount of “accidental” soy intake is not surprising.

"As a side note, I’d like to make a quick statement here to address some of my readers’ concerns about my reduced CoQ 10 supplement, ubiquinol, which also contain soy bean oil.

"Unfortunately, the reduced CoQ 10 (ubiquinol) – which is the optimal form of CoQ 10 that your body needs, especially if you’re over 25 – is only produced by a multi-billion dollar Japanese pharmaceutical company that holds ALL the world patents on it. Hence, there’s no way to replace the soy, even though that would have been my preference.

However, as in all things, moderation is key. If I thought there were ANY significant health risks from consuming this small amount of soy oil, then I would not personally take two a day – which I do. I do however avoid all processed forms of soy products, and severely limit my intake of other unfermented soy, which is easy to do by simply avoiding processed and “fast” foods."

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/10/07/the-evidence-against-soy.aspx

In his three years since being inaugurated, Pope Benedict XVI has made the environment one of his central issues, proclaiming that "God entrusted man with the responsibility of creation". He has described the need to confront climate change as a “moral obligation” and spoken eloquently on the destruction of arable soil, forests and marine life.

Without wishing to turn my life – and indeed this blog - into a poor, unfunny approximation of Seinfeld, I have to share what happened at the Garden Media Guild awards last week. Now, I’d entered this blog for the digital media award, and I am not quite so sieve-headed as to have forgotten that fact. But the GMG had cunningly divided the award into two categories: one for websites and one for blogs, unbeknownst to me or the person who printed the programme. So once I saw I hadn’t won, I nipped out to the lav, only to come...

The ministers in charge of space activities in the European Space Agency's 18 Member States today concluded a successful two-day council meeting in The Hague, agreeing on a €10 billion (US$ 12.9bn) budget to undertake new initiatives in several fields and endorsing the next phases of a set of ongoing programmes. Many of the approved projects have a high degree of relevance for the study of climate change, the environment and the management of the planet's natural resources.

The deal was reached after two days of intense negotiations, but ministers agreed with ESA's director general Jean-Jacques Dordain on the relevance of investing in space, especially in a time of economic crisis: space is a key sector providing for innovation, economic growth, strategic independence and the preparation of the future. The ambitious budget, which covers the next three to five years, represents a substantial increase in funding over the previous ones.

French research minister Valerie Pecresse, who presided the council, said that her nation's cash would be spent on those programmes that delivered the greatest gains to society. France, currently holding the European Presidency, is ESA's second largest contributor (after Germany), responsible for about a quarter of the organisation's budget. The focus on the public relevance of investments in space was the leading theme throughout the council.

ESA's space activities can be divided into three types of programmes: voluntary, optional and mandatory. The voluntary programmes include the most expensive activities, including Europe's participation in the International Space Station and its Ariane rocket project. France, Germany and Italy are the biggest backers of these programmes, which contribute up to a third of the budget. The UK focuses more on small optional programmes, and remains a marginal contributor to ESA. However, despite remaining the weak link in Europe's space activities, the country has committed more than expected (€356 million), in exchange for ESA opening a research center in the UK.

Programmes
On the programmatic side, ministers today took decisions concerning the full range of ESA's initiatives. Some highlights:

• Subscriptions for the launcher programmes, including further funding of Europe's space port in French Guiana, Ariane 5 and Vega accompaniment technology programmes, Ariane 5 evolution and the future launchers preparatory programme. The Ariane 5, which has come to dominate the commercial launcher market, will be upgraded to allow it to carry heavier payloads than its current nine-tonne limit. Ariane 5 symbolizes Europe's independence in space. Esa wants to study what comes after Ariane; to consider what the launchers of the future will look like. It will also test the technologies required on demonstration spacecraft such as the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV).
• Subscriptions for the Earth Observation activities, including the second segment of the flagship Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Space Component programme (GMES), the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) development programme and a novel Climate Change Initiative on the provision of essential climate variables. GMES is a major new EO program. It will take the "pulse" of the planet and requires a series new satellites to be launched (more below).
• Subscriptions for the human spaceflight, microgravity and human exploration programmes including exploitation and evolution of the International Space Station, on-board research in life and physical sciences and definition studies on the evolution of a returnable transfer vehicle. Europe will thus take the first step in a plan that could eventually lead to a manned spaceship based on its highly successful unmanned, automated space-station cargo-vessel, known as the ATV.
• Subscriptions to robotic exploration programmes (the ExoMars programme and preparatory activities on future Mars robotic exploration).
• Subscriptions for Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES), focusing on technologies, applications and mission demonstrations and including preparatory work for a European Data Relay System (EDRS), an air traffic management satellite system (Iris) and Integrated Application Promotion combining usage of telecommunications, Earth observation and navigation satellite systems with terrestrial information and communications systems.
• Subscriptions for the programme on the evolution of the European Global Navigation Satellite System, to continue the improvement of Galileo.

GMES
The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, also known as Kopernikus, has got earth observation and climate scientists all excited. The €2 billion venture will build a full picture of the state of the planet from new satellites and ground-based data. It will be a key tool for the analysis of climate change and the environmental health of the planet:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: natural resources :: ecology :: climate change :: earth observation :: ESA :: EU ::

The programme can and will evolve into something which will be of major benefit to mankind; I don't think it is too melodramatic to say that. We need a planetary Earth-observing system to gather all the information to take remedial action on climate and environmental change. - Professor Alan O'Neill, the director of the UK's National Centre for Earth Observation.

Through GMES the state of our environment and its short, medium and long-term evolution will be monitored to support policy decisions or investments. GMES will be built up gradually: it starts with a pilot phase which targets the availability of a first set of operational GMES services by 2008 followed by the development of an extended range of services which meet user requirements.

Years of research in the fields of science and technology associated with observation and understanding of the processes and phenomena of the terrestrial environment led in 1998 to the idea to launch GMES. By a combination of measurements at terrestrial level and from space, it rapidly became clear that new operational services could be offered in fields such as oceanography, precise mapping of land use, rapid mapping at times of emergency for the civil protection field or air quality monitoring.

The services provided by GMES can be classified in three major categories:

• Mapping, including topography or road maps but also land-use and harvest, forestry monitoring, mineral and water resources that do contribute to short and long-term management of territories and natural resources. This service generally requires exhaustive coverage of the Earth surface, archiving and periodic updating of data.
• Support for emergency management in case of natural hazards and particularly civil protection institutions responsible for the security of people and property. This service concentrates on the provision of the latest possible data before intervening.
• Forecasting is applied for marine zones, air quality or crop yields. This service systematically provides data on extended areas permitting the prediction of short, medium or long-term events, including their modelling and evolution.

The widespread and regular availability of technical data within GMES will allow a more efficient use of the infrastructures and human resources. It will help the creation of new models for security and risk management, as well as better management of land and resources.

Biomass and bioenergy

BIOMASS measuring concept

GMES will have direct relevance to the bioenergy sector. One of the proposed missions, Earth Explorer BIOMASS, will analyse the world's boreal forests, which cover about 15% of the Earth’s land surface and, being the world's largest terrestrial carbon reservoir, play an important role in the global cycling of energy, carbon and water.

Currently ESA has undertaken the BioSAR 2008 campaign in northern Sweden in order to find out how best to map boreal forest with space borne radar. By answering this question, the campaign addresses one of the key objectives of the candidate BIOMASS mission.

BIOMASS is one of the six candidate Earth Explorer missions that has just completed assessment study and will be presented to the science community at a User Consultation Meeting in January 2009. The next stage of development for the BIOMASS mission, if selected, will be the feasibility study which is expected to greatly improve knowledge of how much and where carbon is being stored, and better quantify carbon fluxes between land and the atmosphere. This knowledge will obviously contribute to the better understanding of the global carbon cycle, climate change, and the bioenergy potential.

To achieve this goal, the BIOMASS mission will exploit the P-band which is the longest radar wavelength available for Earth Observation and is uniquely sensitive to mapping biomass from space. Afterwards highly accurate and robust methods for transforming the P-band radar signals into forest biomass maps are required. Collecting airborne SAR measurements over Boreal Forest and comparing these to extensive ground measurements, will allow a very accurate mapping of the forest biomass.

Given that complete remote sensing dataset and ground data simultaneously acquired are rare for northern forests, the interest of the campaign, beyond the immediate needs of the BIOMASS mission, is expected to be enormous. Finally, once the process has been completed, the dataset will be made available to the wider scientific community through ESA.

EU and ESA convergence
The progressive implementation of GMES is made possible by the activities and investments of European Union and ESA Member States. These and other public and private contributions are jointly supported by the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Together with Galileo, Europe's satellite-navigation system, GMES thus indicates a gradual alignment of ESA and the EU. Currently, these are distinct legal entities which do not share the same membership; ESA counts some non-EU nations among its membership. But space is now of such high political and economic importance that these two entities are expected to "converge" in the future.

References:
ESA: European Ministers inject new impetus to ensure space’s role as a key asset in facing global challenges - November 26, 2008.

ESA: Ministerial Council 2008.

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security homepage.

GMES: BIOMASS Mission - 19 Nov 2008

ESA: ESA leads the way to map boreal forest - October 20, 2008.

The global economic crisis has seen the demise of a lot of 'corporate freedom' and the resurgence of the idea of direct government intervention. This comes at a time when more and more scientists are convinced of the fact that another planetary crisis with more far reaching consequences - namely climate change - needs to be tackled by strong state intervention as well. Especially so when it becomes apparent that corporate responses to this crisis may not be working.

An example comes from the U.K., where the green credentials of British businesses are falling far short of their environmental claims and don't have an effect on mitigating climate change. That is the conclusion of Gareth Dale, a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Brunel University, writing in the International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy. Dale too maintains that only government intervention offers the power and tools required to do what corporations can't or won't.

Dale has investigated how several major UK companies have responded to the threat of climate change. By comparing their public rhetoric with actual corporate adjustments made to address climate change, he has found that their business practices "fall far short of the claims made." This, he says, raises important questions about how far companies can go, particularly as we face impending recession, when confronting climate change. "Bad remedies may be diverting attention from and even driving out good ones," he says.

Big companies including multitasking corporations like Richard Branson's Virgin and Tesco, bankers such as HSBC and Barclaycard, media companies such as BSkyB and the major oil companies like BP, have all embraced the wider trends of the green revolution. Until the economic downturn hijacked the nation's news desks barely a day would pass without a report on how blue-chip companies were investigating climate-change mitigation strategies. But, asks Dale, was this investigating followed up by investment or is the talk of address global warming nothing more than boardroom hot air?

Several companies claim to have achieved carbon neutrality. Others are pumping cash into carbon sinks and surveys. Consumers are even rating the eco credentials of the likes of Virgin, Tesco, and Marks & Spencer, and BP as being in the top twenty of green firms:
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: renewables :: capitalism :: state intervention :: climate change ::

When it comes to biofuels, carbon offsetting, the use of renewables, carbon sequestration, many companies are flying the green flag and rebranding and relabelling themselves as champions of the green movement. Yet, Dale's analysis of the actual energy use and pollution production of many major corporations reveals this in many cases to be nothing more than a cynical attempt to trump their competitors with garbled ecological rationality in the name of profits.

"A more effective and more just strategy would involve concerted state intervention focused upon investment in public transport, housing and renewable energy, coupled with regulatory measures to radically reduce fossil-fuel use," concludes Dale.

References:
Gareth Dale, "Green shift: an analysis of corporate responses to climate change", International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2008, 3, n°2, 134-155, DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2008.021271

Page of Wands – Orion
Orion is one of the most recognisable constellations for those of us in the northern hemisphere, with its characteristic broken-X shape. The Ancient Egyptians named it Sahu, the soul of Osiris. The name Orion comes from Greek mythology – he was a hunter loved by Artemis. Apollo tricked her into killing him and in her grief she placed his body in the heavens (the Greek Gods seemed to be very fond of doing this).
Orion is one of Greek myth’s many action men. His impulsiveness (some might say uncontrolled aggression) is typical of the Page of Wands. Pages represent children and childlike energy, and in Wands this youthful enthusiasm is most directly and physically expressed. This Page turns up to augur new ideas, projects, passions – anything that’s got you all worked up and ready for action.

Page of Cups – Ophiuchus
The constellation Ophiuchus is entwined with another constellation, Serpens, and the mythological Ophiuchus’ name in Greek means “serpent bearer.” He is associated with Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, who was taught healing by a snake. Asclepius was killed by Zeus for daring to raise the dead, then immortalised in the heavens in recognition of his skills. Ophiuchus/Asclepius was receptive to information from the natural world (the snake), and this gave him healing skills that seemed magical. The Page of Cups represents this receptivity and healing ability – at least in potential. Because he is a Page, his skills have not yet been tried, but his open-heartedness and playful delight in learning make him a sponge for soaking up information on an intuitive level.

Page of Swords – Mercury
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and the second smallest after Pluto. Its surface resembles the Moon; full of impact craters and distinctly lacking in atmosphere. Mercury was the messenger of Roman mythology (the equivalent of the Greek Hermes). He ruled all forms of communication, from speech to writing (and today he’d happily preside over radio, TV and the net). The Page of Swords is the ultimate student of communication. He only stops talking long enough to check his email or send a text or IM. His boundless desire for information can become gossipy or shallow, for this Page does not discriminate in terms of quality. He represents the curious child in us who is forever asking “why?”

Page of Pentacles –Bootes, the Herdsman
The constellation of Bootes contains one of the sky’s brightest stars – Arcturus. In Greek mythology Bootes is better known as Arcturus, which means “guardian of the bear.” In one version of the legend, Bootes earned his place in the stars by inventing the plough. This association with earthy practicality is appropriate for the Page of Pentacles, who represents the qualities of the careful and diligent student. Here the flighty enthusiasm of the Pages is grounded, indicating someone who is inexperienced but also dedicated and tenacious. This Page represents the application of a new idea to everyday reality; the creating of real, practical strategies to put our ideas into action.

Landfill sites produce the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, as putrescible waste decays. Growing selected plants and trees on top of a landfill, a process known as 'phytocapping', could reduce the production and release of these gases, according to Australian scientists writing in a forthcoming issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. What is more, the technique allows urban communities to build new green spaces in and around their cities. When phytocapping is carried out well, the former garbage sites can even become biodiversity corridors for species that were previously chased out of the city-scape.

Despite legislative pressures to reduce landfill use, in certain parts of the world it remains the most economical and simplest method of waste disposal. Biodegradation of organic matter in a landfill site occurs most rapidly when water comes into contact with the buried waste, explains Kartik Venkatraman and Nanjappa Ashwath of the Department of Molecular and Life Sciences, at Central Queensland University (CQU), Rockhampton, Australia. They point out that conventional approaches to reducing this effect involve placing compacted clay over the top of a landfill to form a cap that minimizes percolation of water into the landfill.

Some sites do not attempt to prevent water percolation and biodegradation and instead install gas collection systems to trap the methane released. The use of clay capping has generally proved ineffective in trials in the USA, the researchers say. The problem being that in arid regions the clay cap dries out and cracks allowing water to easily percolate into the landfill. Equally problematic, methane gas collection can be an expensive option for many Australian landfills that do not reach the methane production threshold to enable efficiency. For commercial landfill gas collection, a certain scale is required.

Hence, the new technique, known as phytocapping, which involves placing a layer of top soil and growing dense vegetation on top of a landfill, was tested at Rockhampton's Lakes Creek Landfill not far from Central Queensland University. This research was conducted by Kartik Venkatraman and Nanjappa Ashwath (CQU) in conjunction with the Rockhampton Regional Council and Phytolink Pty LTD. The tests proved that the technique is a viable alternative to both clay capping and methane gas collection.

Professor Ashwath was so kind as to answer some of Biopact's questions on the innovative technique, as it may offer some interesting bioenergy applications.

How it works
Selected plant species are established on an unconsolidated soil placed over the waste. The soil acts both as "storage" and "sponge" and the plants as "bio-pumps" and "rainfall interceptors". For an effective site water balance, it is important that appropriate plant species are chosen and the soil depth optimized. As such, the team has investigated the effects of different ranges of species as well as soil depth.

The team's studies of the benefits of a landfill phytocap show that the approach can reduce surface methane emission four to five times more than the adjacent un-vegetated site. They found that a cap of 1400 mm thickness also reduces surface methane emissions 45% more than a cap half as thick.

The team also looked at the effects of nineteen tree species, including acacias, figs, eucalyptus, and other Australian native species, growing in the phytocap to determine which species are most effective at reducing water percolation and methane emissions. The root system acts as a good substrate to methanogens, which oxidizes methane thereby reducing methane emission into the atmosphere:
biomass :: bioenergy :: waste management :: landfill :: methane :: climate change :: phytoremediation :: phytocapping :: biodiversity :: urban planning ::

The benefits of phytocapping include, cutting in half the cost of landfill remediation and providing biodiversity corridors along which wild species can travel. The process also inverts the aesthetic qualities of landfills adjacent to urban communities. In some cases, phytocapping introduces additional economical benefits such as timber and fodder. The authors thus conclude that "the establishment of phytocaps would offer an additional and economical way of reducing methane emission from landfills".

Bioenergy potential?
Professor Ashwath told Biopact that it might be possible to harvest some of the biomass for use as a feedstock for bioenergy production. The team is testing biomass from phytocapped landfills for the production of biochar and green diesel obtained by refining bio-oil.

The bioenergy option might find applications in some of the "mega-cities" of the developing world, where landfill sites are often poorly planned and managed, and where methane gas collection would be too expensive. At the same time, energy is often a scarce good amongst the poor living in and around these cities.

We presented prof Ashwath with the example of Kinshasa, capital of the DRCongo, which was once known as 'Kin la belle' (Kinshasa the beautiful) but is now called 'Kin la poubelle' (Kinshasa the dirt bin) by its inhabitants. A perimeter of more than 30 kilometers in diameter around the city has been deforested to provide wood fuel for the poor in Kinshasa's vast slums. Phytocapping of landfills there could not only give the city some of its charm back, and make life for the slum-dwellers more bearable and healthy, it might actually yield a usable amount of biomass that could generate clean, renewable energy in low-cost bioenergy facilities (e.g. small to medium-scale gasification plants that generate power and heat).

Of the 19 species tested in the Australian phytocapping trials, Ashwath and his colleagues found 10 of the 19 having the potential to grow well and produce large quantities of biomass. One species in particular, Hibiscus tiliaceus, produced twice the amount of biomass than other species. Likewise some acacias, bamboo and eucalypts also grow well and produce usable biomass.

The team now has 8 field trials in various parts of Australia where it has tested over 100 different plant species. In each location up to 5 species are performing well on the landfills. This is a very good result, and in no site have the researchers lost planted native species.

At one site near Pomona (north of Brisbane), one of the hardwood and sought after timber species, Araucaria cunninghamii (hoop pine), is growing extremely well (picture, click to enlarge). Likewise there are other timber species that are very suitable as phytocaps. In a few decades, Australia's hardwood timber could be exhausted, and these sites could help provide that resource in the future.

The scientists are working to get the most out of the elegant synergy presented by phytocapping: they are collaborating with a local city council to convert one of its landfills into parkland with bike tracks and picnic spots. They are also making a case for growing koala fodder so that the site could attract wild life back to the cities.

When all these elements are combined in phytocapping projects, the technique offers a low-cost solution with multiple additional benefits, to a problem that contributes significantly to global warming.


The team is working in the context of the Australian Alternative Covers Assessment Project (A-ACAP), a $3 million program which began in April 2006, completed its construction phase in December 2007 when Lismore City Council’s Wyrallah Rd Landfill came on stream as the 5th and final test pad built during that year. Other sites in order of construction were: SITA’s Taylors Rd Landfill, Melbourne, January; Lucas Waste Management’s Southern Waste Depot, McLaren Vale, April; Townsville City Council’s Vantassel St Landfill, July and Cockburn City Council’s Henderson Landfill, September.

Professor Nanjappa Ashwath has been working as an Associate Professor at CQUniversity. He has a PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra, and has spent more than 25 years in studying Australian native plants. The focus of his research has been on selecting suitable species for degraded sites including landfills, mine sites, disturbed mangrove habits and other sites associated with drought, salinity, waterlogging and heavy metals. He is also involved in testing native species for biodiesel, bush medicine and bush tucker potential, and using the green waste in bioenergy and biodiesel production. Associate Professor Ashwath teaches under graduate courses, supervises post graduate students, and is an active researcher. He currently collaborates with a national research team (A-ACAP) to test suitability of phytocap as an alternative landfill cover. Associate Professor Ashwath is a keen promoter of Australian native plants to landscape architects (see http://cpws.cqu.edu.au) and he also contributes to conservation of rare and threatened plant species. He is a recipient of University Vice Chancellor’s award for research (CQU) and the University Teaching Fellowship from the Rotary Foundation.

Picture: Araucaria cunninghamii, a much sought after hardwood species, growing remarkably well on a landfill near Pomona. The phytocap prevents the release of CH4 and CO2 from the garbage site. The picture shows the preparation of the site in 2004 and the trees in 2008. Credit: Prof. Ashwath.


References:
Kartik Venkatraman and Nanjappa Ashwath, "Can phytocapping technique reduce methane emission from municipal landfills?", International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2009, 10, 4-15, forthcoming.

Australian Alternative Covers Assessment Project (A-ACAP), a project of the Waste Management Association of Australia.

Professor Nanjappa Ashwath, personal page at the CQ University.

PhD Candidate Kartik Venkatraman, personal page at the CQ University.

Center for Plant & Water Science, CQ University: see the summaries on phytocapping in the Conservation & Rehabilitation research section.

“SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17 -- Infections and abdominal wall complications were markedly reduced in trauma patients treated with high doses of vitamins C, E, and selenium, researchers said here.”

Action Points
§ Explain to interested patients that the study found that high doses of antioxidants were associated with reduced pulmonary and infectious complications in trauma patients.
§ Explain that the study was a retrospective review of patient records and hence more prone to confounding than a randomized, placebo-controlled trial and cannot prove causality.
§ Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/EmergencyMedicine/EmergencyMedicine/11363

It is not news to us. But, now it is a sanctioned study by doctors, other people will begin to listen.

This is just a beginning and the tip of the iceberg; but it is significant due to the fact that it is a real clinical study by real M.D.s. This makes it appear more important to people. But, the point is this;

It is verification of what alternative medicine has been saying all these years. Take your vitamins and supplements. Going against the brain washing of most physician training, that is “taking supplements is just having expensive urine,” takes bravery and thinking outside the box of conventional, big pharma sponsored ignorance.

“The antioxidant regimen consisted of 1,000 mg of vitamin C and 1,000 IU of alpha-tocopherol three times a day and 200 mcg/day of intravenous selenium.”

We know that even larger doses of vitamin C can be extremely effective. There are hundreds of studies that prove this. If you want to learn more and how to prevent as well as treat many conditions with vitamin C for example see;

VITAMIN C STORY

The time is fast drawing near when we will again become our own best physicians. Self Reliance is once again rearing its lovely head.

Hey folks,

I've been lugging around a huge box of seeds for years now, adding to
it from time to time, planting some of them, forgetting what's in there and buying more. LOL. Last night I had a big ol' Seed Roundup and dumped them all out on the desk and organized them.

I had seeds in there that I bought back in 1987!!! LOL. I have some unidentified seeds that people gave me or sent me, some seeds that I bought at Monticello on our trip to VA way back in '90, seeds I snatched from public places, etc. etc.

I was going to do research to look up the viability of seeds, how long specific ones last, but decided to sort them first. When I was done, I had three of those plastic shoe boxes filled up and they are sorted by spring veggies, fall veggies, herbs, flowers, grains and natives. I didn't know where to put the gourds. LOL.

Now I'm going through each section, and culling the oldest ones. I did some of them last night, and am dumping those all together in a big plastic bag. I'm going to throw those on the compost and see what comes up. I could NOT make myself throw them in the trash. You never know, there might be ONE seed that sprouts. LOL!

Dig it!

bobbi c.

After years of massive crop losses caused by a devastating virus, farmers are harvesting healthy cassava again - one of Africa's principal foodstuffs - throughout the Great Lakes region, FAO announced, hailing the achievement as a milestone in its ever stronger partnership with the European Union. The successful cassava campaign is good news for the FAO, which is heavily criticized for its incapacity to combat the food crisis and which is undergoing fundamental reform.

By the last planting season, virus-free cassava planting material had been distributed to some 330,000 smallholders in countries struck by the virus: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The improved crop now benefits a total of some 1.65 million people, and its uptake will speed up further.

Having cassava back on the table is of major importance, especially to the region's most vulnerable, who have been hit hard by the recent upsurge in food prices, said Eric Kueneman Chief of FAO's Crop and Grassland Service. He added that boosting the production of local crops like cassava is a pillar of FAO's response to the current crisis, which was caused by commodity speculation.

In the Great Lakes region though, high prices of food and fertilizer are just part of the problem. As the recent violence in eastern DR Congo tragically demonstrates, the region is still grappling with peace. But, especially under circumstances of extreme instability, cassava can make a crucial difference.

Cassava roots can be harvested whenever there is a need, or left in the ground when farmers are driven from their land. Also, cassava is not an easy prey, when land is unattended: thieves will find it very difficult to dig it from the ground.

Disease causes food shortage
"We have come a long way in making this region self-sufficient in cassava again," says Cees Wittebrood of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), FAO's major partner in its regional cassava operations, adding, "One of our priorities is to ensure that every farmer can grow for his own subsistence, and collaboration with FAO is key in achieving that."

Each person in Africa eats around 80 kg of cassava per year. So, when an aggressive strain of a virus called Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) decimated harvests throughout the Great Lakes region, consequences were disastrous.

In Uganda, for instance, where CMD has destroyed 150,000 hectares of cassava since the early nineties - a loss estimated at $US 60 million per annum - food shortages resulting from CMD led to localized famines in 1993 and 1997. CMD appeared in Burundi in 2002. Yield losses attaining ninety percent were record. Prices sky-rocketed. And it came right on top of a devastating civil war. According to FAO’s 2006 State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report, undernourishment affected two-thirds of the population in 2001/3, compared to less than half before hostilities begun ten years earlier.

Tackling the epidemic began with a series of disease-free varieties developed by one of FAO's research partners, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, which were multiplied in nurseries of a multitude of partners, including national research institutions, local governments and civil society, eventually producing enough planting stakes for mass distribution to the population.

Salvator Kaboneka, an FAO agronomist, explains how it all began on “the mother plantation,” as he calls it, a cassava field in Mparambo, not far from Munyika. Here, on 20 hectares, FAO started planting disease free stems in 2005, initially with Belgian and American support.

Every cassava plant provides at least ten usable cuttings. At that rate, it will take only one more year to replant the 84,000 hectares of cassava this country had prior to the arrival of CMD. The mathematics are as simple as they are striking. The original 20 hectares have grown to 1600. Multiplied by ten, that will be 16,000 after the coming season, and 160,000 by the end of 2008.

At the same time, FAO embarked on a campaign to boost the capacity and efforts of individual countries in the region, launching a regional cassava initiative in 2006 with funding of several donors led by ECHO - the European Union's humanitarian aid agency - , which has contributed € 3.3 million to FAO's different cassava operations since:
energy :: sustainability ::biomass :: bioenergy :: ethanol :: cassava :: manioc :: food security :: Africa ::

Diner's ready
Burundi's northern Cibitoke province lies in the epicentre of the CMD epidemic. Its fields, barren until a year ago, now bustle with green from cassava leaves. "It's sweet, not bitter," says Ernest Nduwimana, a young farmer who lost his father during Burundi's civil war, holding up a huge cassava root he has just unearthed.

The crop was good this year, Ernest says. There is enough to feed his family until the next harvest, which he is already preparing to plant with quality cuttings from his own cassava plants. Then, after a long day, he returns home, where his mother has prepared bugari, a local dish based on cassava flour and served with beans and fish.

EU support
The European Union is one of FAO's most steadfast and generous partners in promoting sustainable rural development to improve the lives of the poor, contributing over US$ 100 million to FAO's field programme in 2007.

Working together on the ground in developing countries worldwide, improving food security in emergencies, employing research to foster food safety and quality, stimulating information-gathering to build policy, sharing know-how and involving partners in policy-making, the EU and FAO fight poverty at its root.

Cassava's potential: food and fuel
At a global conference held recently in Gent, Belgium, the FAO together with cassava scientists and food security analysts called for a significant increase in investment in research and development to boost farmers’ yields of cassava and explore promising industrial uses for the crop, including production of biofuels.

The tropical root crop could help protect both the food and energy security of poor countries now threatened by soaring food and oil prices, the congress concluded. The FAO reiterated what many tropical agronomists and development experts have said about cassava in the past (e.g. CIAT thinks cassava ethanol could benefit millions of the world's poorest farmers).

The scientists, who have formed an international network called the Global Cassava Partnership (GCP21), said the world community could not continue to ignore the plight of low-income tropical countries that have been hardest hit by rising oil prices and galloping food price inflation.

According to them, cassava has a very large potential as a food and industrial crop: at present, average yields are barely 20% of what they should be under optimum conditions and with basic inputs. The crop grows well on poor, degraded soils and in a vast agro-ecological zone.

Cassava is also the cheapest known source of starch, and used in more than 300 industrial products. One promising application is fermentation of the starch to produce ethanol used in biofuel, although FAO cautions that policies encouraging a shift to biofuel production should carefully consider its effects on food production and food security.

Cassava field residues and processing waste - such as peels, mill effluent, and the crop's woody stems - could be converted into biogas, biohydrogen or solid biomass for electricity production.


International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(IITA) is an international non-profit R4D organization since 1967 supported primarily by the CGIAR.

The regional campaign to combat CMD was developed with technical support of FAO’s Crop and Grassland Service. The service helps FAO member countries achieve sustainable increases in production of crops and grasslands, through plant improvement, application of plant biotechnology, development of integrated production systems, and rational grassland management.

The Global Cassava Partnership for Genetic Improvement (GCP21) is an international alliance of research institutions dedicated to increase research and funding on cassava, and dedicated to develop several biotechnological tools to permit breakthroughs in the coming years, to double the cassava productivity in a 15 year time frame.

ECHO is the European Commission Humanitarian Aid agency, and one of the FAO's most loyal partners.

References:
FAO: Cassava’s comeback - November 13, 2008.

FAO: Cassava for food and energy security - July 25, 2008.

FAO: Ernest’s dream: Farmers in Burundi are planting cassava again, with EU/FAO support - 2007

Biopact: FAO calls for boost to cassava R&D for biofuels and food - 'enormous' potential - July 26, 2008