Who Will Grow Your Food?

    Sharon Astyk writes about the coming demographic crisis in agriculture in the US. The same applies to Canada.

Is life without plastic possible?

Find out at: 

Dispatch from Germany: Visiting three farm-to-table enterprises

   Since birds can get sick from moldy bird seed, it is a good idea to keep bird food in your feeder always dry in the snowy or rainy weather. Usually the roof of the birdfeeder doesn't provide sufficient protection.
    I protect my birdfeeder from rain and snow with an additional little "roof", which I've made of cardboard covered with plastic and fixed above the roof of the birdfeeder. It works beautifully.
    Last year I had at least six different species of birds visiting my birdfeeder during winter. It is a great pleasure to watch those little sparks of life happily feeding on the organic sunflower seeds, crushed peanuts and cracked corn. It is difficult for them to find another food sources now, when everything is covered with a thick layer of snow.
   I feed them only during winter and do not overfeed them, so they have to look for the natural food sources as well. In summer they, in turn, will help me to keep my plants healthy by picking insects. During summer months most of smaller wild birds live almost entirely on insects and their larvae. They also feed their young on insect food.

Links of interest:

Birds of North America - What Bird

   Identify your bird by location, shape, size, habitat, colour, bill shape, bill length, wing shape or family.

Did you know?

    More than 260 regions, over 4500 municipalities and other local entities and tens of thousands of farmers and food producers in Europe have declared themselves "GMO-free" expressing their commitment not to allow the use of genetically modified organisms in the agriculture and food in their territories.

    Producing and growing GE foods represents tampering with nature on an unprecedented scale.
    GE foods were first introduced in the early 1990s. During eight year period between 1997 and 2005 the land occupied by GE crops has increased 50 times from 4.2 million acres to 222 million acres.
    Lack of mandatory labeling of GE products not only prevents the consumer from making informed choice whether to consume genetically modified food but also makes it practically impossible to monitor the impact of such controversial food products on the health of the population.
    Now, a new genetically engineered crop, transgenic Bt Brinjal (Eggplant) is being promoted by Mahyco seed company in India. Brinjal is a traditional Indian vegetable. During 4000 years Indian farmers developed hundreds of Brinjal varieties. The introduction of Bt Brinjal could contaminate traditional varieties and endanger the Brinjal genetic diversity.

    Support your local farmers, buy local, buy organic, grow what you can yourself, save and share your seeds, buy seeds from seed companies and nurseries that sell heirloom and rare or endangered varieties, demand mandatory labeling of GE foods, join gefreebc.org .

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Garden Humor

10. Your favorite poem is "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue".
9.   Your kids are named Rose, Violet, Daisy and Zucchini.
8.   You have 8 X 10 family pictures of your Tomatoes and Peppers on your office shelf.
7.   Your idea of Saturday Date Night is going out in the garden and hand pollinating the plants.
6.   You think a cocktail is liquid fertilizer.
5.   You rush home from work and go straight to the garden and hug your roses. (Ouch!) Then, you go in to your house and see you family.
4.   On Christmas Eve, visions of "Sugar Peas" dance in your head.
3.   After the first frost, you are seen holding funeral services in your garden.
2.  You take your kids multiple vitamins from them to use as a supplement to your plants fertilizer.
1.  Every Spring your family files a "Missing Person's" report. You remain missing all summer, and mysteriously re-appear in the fall.

    The Kootenays region of British Columbia, Canada, marked white