Tuesday, March 31, 2009

MACA asks Michelle Obama to Reconsider her Organic Garden

I find this article extremely funny. The MidAmerica CropLife Association sent a letter to Michelle Obama asking her to please reconsider her organic garden. You see, it's bad for the pesticide community to have the First Lady walking around promoting healthy lettuce (using no pesticides).

It seems that Michelle Obama’s White House organic garden has alarmed the Mid America CropLife Association (MACA), so they took immediate action by sending the First Lady an email, Thursday, March 26th, 2009, defending chemical based agriculture, and urging her to use “crop protection products,” (i.e. pesticides) in the name of recognizing the importance of agriculture to the economy.

This is the BEST example of lobbyists in Washington. What they fail to address is the difference between raising hundreds of thousands of acres of food vs raising a little side garden in your back yard. It's much easier to use organic methods to keep the bugs off in your back yard because it's such a small plot of land. Of course when you're raising thousands of tons of lettuce - pesticides are currently necessary (because - God forbid we raise smaller, local batches of food - that wouldn't bring in as much money!).

Keep in mind I'm a grandaughter of a farmer so their plight is near & dear to me. The fact that MACA sent a letter to Michelle Obama to try to "talk her into" using pesticides on the White House garden is beyond ridiculous but it is a good example of someone trying to earn their paycheck.

I guess even lobbyists in DC are worried about losing their jobs these days.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Royal Family


I found a very interesting article recently published about the DNA evidence regarding the murders of Tzar Nicholas' family in 1918. DNA evidence has confirmed that ALL of the family members were killed. No roaming Anastasia's or Alexei's. All of the souls perished in the early morning hours of July 17, 1918.

The journal publication is fantastic. In the original grave 9 bodies were found (5 royals and 4 servants) - which fueled the flames of the modern press - what happened to the other two children? In 2007 a separate grave was found to contain two bodies, that of Alexei and one of his sisters. That sister turned out to be Maria and all of the occupants of the graves have been identified via DNA evidence obtained from members of the living Romanov family.

It is a very sad thing to realize that none of the family survived. I believe that the speculation that one of the sisters lived helped the modern public surround this tragedy in a bubble of hope - that out of this horrendous deed some spark of hope still survived.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004838