Why it Matters to Buy Heirloom Plants and Seeds
posted by Annie B. Bond Nov 28, 1999 12:19 pm
filed under: Garden & Nature, Lawns & Gardens

The loss of genetic seed diversity facing us today may lead to a catastrophe far beyond our imagining. The Irish potato famine, which led to the death or displacement of two and a half million people in the 1840s, is an example of what can happen when farmers rely on only a few plant species as crop cornerstones.

One blight wiped out the single potato type that came from deep in the Andes mountains; it did not have the necessary resistance. If the Irish had planted different varieties of potatoes, one type would have most likely resisted the blight.

We can help save heirloom seeds by learning how to buy and save these genetically diverse jewels ourselves.

ABOUT SEEDS
One kind of seed, called First generation hybrids (F1 hybrids), have been hand-pollinated, and are patented, often sterile, genetically identical within food types, and sold from multinational seed companies.

A second kind of seeds are genetically engineered. Bioengineered seeds are fast contaminating the global seed supply on a wholesale level, and threatening the purity of seeds everywhere. The DNA of the plant has been changed. A cold water fish gene could be spliced into a tomato to make the plant more resistant to frost, for example.

A third kind of seeds are called heirloom or open-pollinated, genetically diverse jewels that have been passed on from generation to generation.

With heirloom seeds there are 10,000 varieties of apples, compared to the very few F1 hyprid apple types.

The Mayan word “gene” means “spiral of life.” The genes in heirloom seeds give life to our future. Unless the 100 million backyard gardeners and organic farmers keep these seeds alive, they will disappear altogether. This is truly an instance where one person–a lone gardener in a backyard vegetable garden–can potentially make all the difference in the world.

Read more:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-buy-heirloom-plants-seeds.html#ixzz16ZA6lIqD

By Sam Gustin November 18, 2010 | 2:50pm

Who says Congress never gets anything done?

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”
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Report: China's largest automaker preparing
to buy about $500 million in GM stock
Published: Saturday, November 13, 2010, 2:20 AM   Updated: Saturday, November 13, 2010, 8:19 AM


DETROIT -- SAIC Motor Corp., China's largest automaker and a joint-venture partner with General Motors, is preparing to buy about $500 million worth of stock in the Detroit automaker, according to a newspaper website.The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that SAIC is one of several foreign investors who could buy GM shares worth more than $1 billion as part of an initial public stock offering scheduled for Nov. 18. GM and SAIC wouldn't comment on the report when contacted by The Associated Press.

The U.S. government, which now owns 61 percent of GM but is looking to reduce its stake to around 40 percent in the IPO, has said the company would seek foreign investment as well as investment from the U.S.

Foreign investment in U.S. automakers and other companies is common.

Investment from sovereign wealth funds is considered good for a company because the funds tend to hold stakes for a long time, providing stability, the newspaper said. But it's also a touchy issue for the Obama administration, especially if some individual investors in the U.S. are unable to buy shares in the IPO.

U.S. taxpayers gave GM $50 billion to get it through bankruptcy protection last year. The automaker has repaid or plans to repay $9.5 billion, and the government hopes to get the remaining $40 billion back through the IPO and several follow-up sales.

A final decision by SAIC could come in the next few days, according to the newspaper, which cited people familiar with the situation that it did not identify.

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Multiple violations of law by Obama and his Chicago Democrat thugs
Taking back our government 

By Michael Oberndorf, RPA  Sunday, November 7, 2010

The 2010 elections are over, more or less. Work still needs to be done, though. Investigations and prosecutions must be carried out in Nevada and California, regarding massive, blatant fraud. It is virtually impossible that the “results” claimed could have occurred without rigged voting machines and tens of thousands of fraudulent voters, i.e. illegal aliens. Moreover, military voters who were disenfranchised by Democrats not sending them their ballots in time, need to be allowed to vote. In addition, the laughable “write-in victory” in Alaska needs to be looked at the way California and Nevada need to be. The American people do not need to tolerate the seating of any more fraudulently elected senators, as we did the drunken leftist buffoon, Al Franken. Oh, and one last thing;  We need to impeach Barak Hussein Obama.

Let us leave aside, for the present, the fact that regardless of where Obama was born, his father was a citizen of Kenya, a British Colony at the time, and since his mother was not of legal age, he automatically took his father’s citizenship; and the fact that he was legally adopted by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro, a citizen of Indonesia, and thus, became one too; and the fact that every record that might prove these facts to be otherwise, has been sealed by Obama from the prying eyes of the American citizens he supposedly serves.

Instead, look to the approximately 35-page report from Rep. Darryl Issa’s congressional committee, that found multiple violations of law by Obama and his Chicago Democrat thugs, that rise to the level of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors. These arrogant hoodlums have, on a regular basis, ignored our laws and in the process, trampled on the Constitution that they swore to preserve and protect, safe in the knowledge that they controlled the “Justice” Department that must investigate and prosecute them, and have George Soros’ internationalist billions to pay off the mainstream media to hush it all up. Republicans need to envisage Obama, Rahm Emanuel, et al., in high-fashion International Orange jumpsuits (and, one would like to hope, platform wedgies), sharing federal prison cells, preferably in the same block housing Eric Holder, et al.

Impeaching Obama is not a new idea. Floyd Brown has been hard at it for some time now, with his Impeach Obama Campaign (impeachobamacampaign.com). I have been actively calling for this since last summer. And now, as Ben Johnson points out (FloydReports.com), this has become a hot topic in the lesser liberal “mainstream” media such as The Hill, Politico, The Daily Caller, and The New Republic, and newspapers like the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times. It is an idea whose time appears to have come.

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