A Word About Survival in the 21st Century... by Richard Cleveland
Ask ten people what the word survival means to them, and you're liable to hear ten completely different answers. Some would say survival is you against nature in a desperate, debilitating struggle to make it out of the woods alive. Others would conjure up images of anti-government extremists organizing militias, burying grain and ammunition, waiting for a major catastrophe or global war. The majority would be somewhere in the middle. A few might even define survival as an entertaining show on TV. Maybe one out of ten people would think survival is pretty cool, and that knowing how to live off the land would be a good thing.
My introduction to survival training came 17 years ago when I signed up for a week-long program at Tom Brown Jr's Wilderness Survival School in New Jersey . After reading several of his books, I took the plunge. I went with the intention of learning how to track animals so I could become a better deer hunter. As a child, I was one of those nerdy kids who caught butterflies, and basically everything else that moved, just so I could take a closer look. Nature fascinated me, and I read everything I could get my hands on about animals and insects. In a nutshell, I thought I knew a lot about Nature before I even went to Toms introductory class. Little did I know, my world was about to be turned upside down. In one week this man showed me that I didn't know anything about Nature, and what I had learned was superficial at best. I was missing over 90% of what was there to be seen and experienced, walking right past it all. Emotionally, I was crushed. I thought I knew Nature! "Why had I been missing so much?" ... It was because no one had ever taught me the skills to be "Aware." School certainly hadn't taught me such things. After all, now that we'd become a civilized society, I didn't need to have that knowledge anymore, right?
So many unanswered questions swirled through my head...
In that week, I learned how to make fire by friction, build a shelter (one that would actually work) and purify water. In addition, I learned animal tracking, amazing Nature awareness skills, how to identify wild plants for food and medicine, how to procure fish and game in the wilderness and so much more.
At this point, some of you might be asking. Why in the world would anyone need or want to learn survival skills? After all, everything we need, we can buy.right? Maybe you're right. I would ask all of you however."Why wouldn't you want to learn these skills?" Our ancestors all knew these skills and without that knowledge it's doubtful that we'd be here today. "When did our relationship with Nature and our learning how to be self-reliant go out of style and become so unimportant?" It's obvious to see how this disconnection has impacted the environment and ourselves. With so many people in the world today, perhaps we need these skills now, more than ever. Survival teaches you the difference between your needs and your wants. Nature is a powerful teacher, when you open your heart to it. For me, it's all about learning to live in balance with the Earth.
My journey over the past 15 years has taken me far. What started as a curiosity has changed my life. Learning survival skills has deepened my relationship with Nature and has made me a better person. It has introduced me to a growing network of people who have dedicated their lives to sharing the gifts of Nature with others. Though I teach, I'm still learning, still a student. There is so much to learn and experience in this lifetime. Tom Brown re-introduced me to my child within, which is so full of wonder and curiosity...I will never forget.
So remember, survival need not be a scary word. "Survival is your birthright." Knowing how to take care of yourself and live in balance with the Earth is empowering. Survival skills can change your life and the choices you make on a daily basis. As a result, these choices can have a positive impact on the environment and leave the World a better place for generations yet to come. Isn't that what it's all about?
When you know the skills, "Survival" becomes a word of comfort.
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Dandelion Magic:
"Below is a touching and powerful story about a friend of mine who contracted Cancer several years ago. Because of fate or divine intervention... it really doesn't matter, he is now Cancer free. This is actually three articles, but well worth the read".... ~Richard
Hi, my name is Carl and I have been a musician and friend of Victor Wooten for many years.
Six years ago, I was diagnosed with advanced type-3 throat cancer. Even though it has a lower success rate, I decided to undergo radiation treatment rather than disfiguring surgery or debilitating chemotherapy. One of my neighbors told me about a 85-year-old farmer named George who cured his prostrate cancer with dandelion root powder. George was told by doctors he had maybe six months to live. I met with George and he told me that God inspired him to use the dandelion root powder. In thanks to God for saving his life he makes dandelion root powder to give away for free to all who need help. He helps hundreds of people some who were told they had no chance & were going to die within months, most of them are alive and well today .George is now 90 and its been 11 years since his diagnosis.
He gave me some and I started to take it along with my radiation treatments. The next 12 weeks were the hardest in my life, I lost over 60 lbs; it was very painful to swallow but I continued taking the dandelion root powder.
Now I am cancer free and feeling stronger than I ever have. I continue to take the dandelion root powder and I have told 2 friends about it that had cancer. They are both healthy now. I grow dandelions in my garden without any chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides added. In the fall I dig them up trying to get as deep as possible to obtain the whole root. I brush off some of the dirt but I do not
wash them, George stressed this when he told me how to do prepare the dandelions. I dry them at 95 degrees in a food dehydrator for about 5 days until they are brittle. Then I break them up and put them in a blender to grind to a fine powder and take 1/2 of a teaspoon daily. The powder can be kept for years if stored in an airtight container. I am living proof that nature can help heal cancer. If you have any questions or need more information feel free to contact me.
Carl Waters
peace4now@att.net
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HOW THE LORD TOLD ME TO CURE CANCER: By George Cairns
(Please save this page, as it won't be printed again by me. It may save your life or the life of a loved one or a friend. Anyone may reprint this if they print it word for word.) G.C.
Every week around 10,000 people die of cancer. Government figures show the death rate for cancer deaths has not changed in the last 10 years. Chemo and radiation only save around 10% of the people treated. So this shows our doctors don't have much to work with. As this article goes on, I will explain how God told me how to cure my cancer of prostate and colon cancer. Also, I will explain how to prepare this plant and how much to take. There is nothing to buy. For some reason, the Lord has picked me to carry these words to our. I am only the delivery boy, and none of this is my idea. I do believe every work I writ here and I'm living proof it works. The cost of printing is my thanks to God for giving me back my life and health.
A little over three years ago I was about done in with cancer. One morning as I was waking up and hoping the end would come soon, a voice came to me and said, “You have to do something about your prostate cancer. Take the root of the dandelion. Don't expect a miracle. It took you a long time to get in this condition.” Then the voice was gone, I thought the voice was kidding to use the dandelion. When this voice tells you to do something, you, you do it. You must do it, like writing this article. It is the last thing I ever expected to do. Then I thought he didn't tell me how much to take or how to prepare it. As soon as you could blink an eye, I know how much to take, how to prepare it and it would take 4 to 6 months to cure me. I also knew I wasn't to make a penny on it.
As soon as I got around that morning, I dug some roots and started to prepare it. About a week later I started taking it. Three weeks later the pain in my back and side was gone and my bowels had improved. Five and one half months later they could find no cancer problem in me at all.
I then wanted to find someone else to try it, and that was the biggest problem yet. Nobody seemed to want to help. When I told doctors they just smiled as if I were nuts. Finally I was telling a friend about it and he said he had a friend that was dying of lung cancer. He had it in both lungs and was bed ridden. They were tapping his lungs. He had been given 4 to 6 weeks to live. After he had been on this powder about 6 weeks, he was up and around doing his chores and driving his car. He went to his doctor's office and the doctor couldn't believe it. He took him to the hospital and gave him a CAT scan. He found no cancer lesions in his lungs and said it was a miracle. I then put and ad in The Northwest Herald offering it free and four people said they would try it. Slowly one person told another and it spread. There was a fair amount of people taking it for different kinds of cancer and several for other things. For instance, a man lost the use of his immune system and was told he wouldn't be able to work again for three years. In six months he is now working ½ days and feeling better. I know this is not a cure-all. It won't help everyone or all kinds of cancer. I know it is not a cure for skin cancer and it hasn't had much luck with brain tumors. There is a doctor in Boston , Massachusetts that has developed a vaccine that is doing great things. This has been successful with prostate, colon, breast, liver and best of all with lung cancer. Five people have taken it for lung cancer and all five have been cured once. The immune system controls the cancer cells in your body. As long as the immune is healthy, you don't usually have a cancer problem. When your immune system gets run down, it loses control of the cancer cells, and they start eating live cells and this is what they call cancer. This powder made from the dandelion root has something in it that builds up the blood and the immune system.
When the immune system is built up so far, it gets back control of cancer cells, and they do an about face and start cleaning up the mess they've made. This is why you must have a fair appetite because you body must build itself up and be healthy if your immune system is going to be strong. This will not work for people have lost their appetite are on strong Chemo. Doctors try to blast the cancer out of you body with Chemo or radiation. By doing so, it destroys your immune system and appetite. These are the most important things your body needs to beat cancer. Operations also knock the immune system haywire. That is why so many people that have operations for cancer find a short time later it has spread somewhere else.
Many of the worst diseases that have plagued the world have been cured quite easily. When I was a boy, women dreaded the goiter more than cancer. A little iodine in the diet cured that. For hundreds of years the most dreaded disease was leprosy and lockjaw. A doctor found he could produce penicillin from moldy bread and could cure them and many more things. How long has moldy bread been around? I'm sure scientists will find many uses for the powder made from the root of the dandelions besides cancer; I have already found it builds up the blood so you heal much faster.
To make the powder from the dandelion root you must follow my directions to the letter. Any change and it won't work. Dig a handful of dandelion roots any time of the year – it doesn't matter. Cut the leaves off just below the crown. DO NOT WASH . Then they must be dried around 100 degrees. I do it in an incubator with no water. You can also dry them under a heat light bulb that you raise or lower it so it's 100 degrees. You can also use the sun or in the attic if it's not too hot. It takes about 5 or 6 days in the incubator. I haven't done this all the way under the heat light. When you break a root and it snaps, it is ready to powder. Take an old iron frying pan and a clean hammer. Take one root at a time and place in the frying pan and start tapping. Don't hit it hard or it will fly all over the place. I put my hand around the root to keep most of it in the pan. If it sticks to the hammer and pan and doesn't crumble in your fingers, it isn't dry enough. Keep it up until you have enough to start. It takes about 20 minutes to ½ hour to prepare enough for a week. When you get used to it you can go much faster.
I have an old vessel that druggist used to pound pills, this goes much faster. DO NOT USE AN ELECTRIC GRINDER, it won't work if you do. You lose too much of the good part in the dust. You must do it as I have said or don't do it at all. I've tried shortcuts, but it seemed someone was looking over my shoulder and I know when I make a mistake. I'm just an old farmer and not a scientist, so I wouldn't know the correct amount to take on my own. Now take a little over ½ teaspoon once a day at any time and mix it with water, orange juice, etc. Do not use in soft drinks, liquor, or anything hot. When mixed, use all. Don't let it stand around. Keep the powder in a dry place, after taking it three or four days, you will feel good, but nothing else. That is because your blood is building up. When your blood is happy, you're happy. In most cases, this will build your immune system in from three days to three weeks to the point it takes back control of your cancer cells and thus the cancer stops spreading, in most cases it is going to help. There is no body feeling as it works. You just feel a little better each week. After three weeks most of the pain will be gone in your back and you'll know it's working if you had pain there like I did. If you have bone cancer in the spine, it will take three months to work. This is not an overnight cure. It took a while to get in this condition and it will take a while for your body to heal. The sooner you start, the quicker you will be over cancer. Young people heal faster than old people, but it will help at any age. I know because I'm 80 and have been taking it for over three years. No cancer has come back and no side effects except when my body has had enough, it lets me know by getting heartburn. Then I back off some. Some people get stomachaches when they need less. It also means your cancer is under control and you don't need as much. You will also find you probably won't catch a cold while you are taking it full strength.
The biggest enemy for this root is Chemo. The stronger the Chemo, the less chance the powder has to help you as Chemo tears your immune system and appetite down, two of the most important things you need to cure cancer. There is only a ten percent chance Chemo will cure you. With no Chemo, your chances are from 75 to 80% but you must take it every day. Don't let your doctor give you that old threat if you turn him down that goes ‘If you want to throw your life away, I can't stop you'. Just remember that 90% of the people that take his advice and take Chemo are in the cemetery. Don't blame the doctor, he is doing his best with what he has to work with or you could ask for a written guarantee.
I have only mentioned cancers that I know people have had and used this root. It should help pancreas cancer if taken before the appetite is gone and most body cancer. This is a food, not a drug. It shouldn't interfere with medicine your doctor may be giving you. Only two doctors have told patients to keep taking the powder when they have made a miracle recovery. The rest of the doctors have run the powder down and blasted the people even if the cancer has disappeared. The medical world is not going to accept this easily.
Going back to not washing the roots and leaving a little soil on them. It is for your own good. A good bit of immunity comes from the soil. It starts as soon as you are born. Your fingers touch something and you put them in your mouth. A little dirt at first, and more as your grow older and start crawling. Then everything you touch goes in the mouth. When children go outside to play and when they come in, they are the dirtiest around the mouth and hand. The hands go in their mouths no matter how dirty they are. Many diseases and bacteria live in the ground, but they don't seem to cause any trouble but it does build up the immune system. Some animals can't live if they don't eat a certain amount of soil if you read this article over, you will see it all goes back to common sense. I wish all of you people with cancer or other problems the best.
George Cairns (815) 338-1626
or send self-addressed envelope to: 708 Hughes Road , Woodstock , IL 60098
The dandelion root powder you can buy at a Health Food Store is not made the same way. It is not known to help cancer.
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HOW TO MAKE DANDELION ROOT POWDER: By George Cairns
To make dandelion root powder, let's start at the beginning. This would be collecting the seed. The seed is at the base of the white fluffy crown that appears when the yellow flower matures. Blow on them and they fly away. These little seeds do not grow until the next spring. I collect the seeds in May and June, then I put them in the freezer. This way you fool Mother Nature, as the seeds must freeze before they grow. This way you can grow the seed the same year you collect then. Work up the land where you are going to plant them and spread the seeds on top of the ground and rake them in very lightly and water. I usually plant the seeds in August.
I dig up the seedlings the next April. I try to do all my transplanting in April as by the end of April they start blooming, which takes the energy away from making roots. It's a good thing to pick the buds off for the first couple months. When I did the seedlings up in April, I plant them about 6 inches apart in rows 18 to 20 inches apart. I hoe them when needed and keep the weeds and grass out of them. After about 2 months you won't be able to hoe as they will cover the ground. Then I pull the weeds and grass out of the bed. Water when needed.
I usually start digging them up in October. By this time some of the roots will be 1 inch in diameter. I shake off most of the dirt and slice lengthwise the bigger roots to about ¼ inch so they will dry evenly. To dry them I use a forced-air incubator without any water in it. I set the incubator at 100 degrees or a little less. It takes about 5 days until they are ready to grind. You can use a dehydrator, set around 100 degrees. If it doesn't have setting, don't use it. You can also dry in the sun if you put them in something the wind can blow through, life a small potato or onion sack. Hang them in the sun but take them down in late afternoon and put in a plastic sack and tie it. If you don't they will pick up moisture and you will be back where you started. Then put them out the next day when the sun in up. Once you have heat in the house, it's no trouble, as they will dry OK most anywhere there is heat, like near a register or stove. The excess dirt will pop off as they dry. Mother Nature knows how much to leave. If the roots are very clean, add a little dirt, as this powder won't work without the dirt.
When you make powder, try not to lose anything. Pound the roots flat, then put in an electric coffee grinder for 25 seconds and you have powder. You can also keep pounding and crumbling until you have it the right fineness. What I did for a long time, a friend gave me a cast iron pestle and mortar. With this you can get it down as fine as you wish.
To store, put in an airtight jar and fill as near to the top as possible. I've kept it 10 months this way. Also, keep in a dry place.
If you have any questions, call or write to:
George Cairns
708 South Hughes Road
Woodstock , IL 60098
1-815-338-1626
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Our Decrepit Food Factories:
By Michael Pollan Published: December 16, 2007 The New York Times
The word “sustainability” has gotten such a workout lately that the whole concept is in danger of floating away on a sea of inoffensiveness. Everybody, it seems, is for it whatever “it” means. On a recent visit to a land-grant university's spanking-new sustainability institute, I asked my host how many of the school's faculty members were involved. She beamed: When letters went out asking who on campus was doing research that might fit under that rubric, virtually everyone replied in the affirmative. What a nice surprise, she suggested. But really, what soul working in agricultural science today (or for that matter in any other field of endeavor) would stand up and be counted as against sustainability? When pesticide makers and genetic engineers cloak themselves in the term, you have to wonder if we haven't succeeded in defining sustainability down, to paraphrase the late Senator Moynihan, and if it will soon possess all the conceptual force of a word like “natural” or “green” or “nice.”
Confucius advised that if we hoped to repair what was wrong in the world, we had best start with the “rectification of the names.” The corruption of society begins with the failure to call things by their proper names, he maintained, and its renovation begins with the reattachment of words to real things and precise concepts. So what about this much-abused pair of names, sustainable and unsustainable?
To call a practice or system unsustainable is not just to lodge an objection based on aesthetics, say, or fairness or some ideal of environmental rectitude. What it means is that the practice or process can't go on indefinitely because it is destroying the very conditions on which it depends. It means that, as the Marxists used to say, there are internal contradictions that sooner or later will lead to a breakdown.
For years now, critics have been speaking of modern industrial agriculture as “unsustainable” in precisely these terms, though what form the “breakdown” might take or when it might happen has never been certain. Would the aquifers run dry? The pesticides stop working? The soil lose its fertility? All these breakdowns have been predicted and they may yet come to pass. But if a system is unsustainable — if its workings offend the rules of nature — the cracks and signs of breakdown may show up in the most unexpected times and places. Two stories in the news this year, stories that on their faces would seem to have nothing to do with each other let alone with agriculture, may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we're growing food today.
The first story is about MRSA, the very scary antibiotic -resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS — 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association . For years now, drug-resistant staph infections have been a problem in hospitals , where the heavy use of antibiotics can create resistant strains of bacteria. It's Evolution 101: the drugs kill off all but the tiny handful of microbes that, by dint of a chance mutation, possess genes allowing them to withstand the onslaught; these hardy survivors then get to work building a drug-resistant superrace. The methicillin-resistant staph that first emerged in hospitals as early as the 1960s posed a threat mostly to elderly patients. But a new and even more virulent strain — called “community-acquired MRSA” — is now killing young and otherwise healthy people who have not set foot in a hospital. No one is yet sure how or where this strain evolved, but it is sufficiently different from the hospital-bred strains to have some researchers looking elsewhere for its origin, to another environment where the heavy use of antibiotics is selecting for the evolution of a lethal new microbe: the concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO.
The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that at least 70 percent of the antibiotics used in America are fed to animals living on factory farms. Raising vast numbers of pigs or chickens or cattle in close and filthy confinement simply would not be possible without the routine feeding of antibiotics to keep the animals from dying of infectious diseases . That the antibiotics speed up the animals' growth also commends their use to industrial agriculture, but the crucial fact is that without these pharmaceuticals , meat production practiced on the scale and with the intensity we practice it could not be sustained for months, let alone decades.
Public-health experts have been warning us for years that this situation is a public-health disaster waiting to happen. Sooner or later, the profligate use of these antibiotics — in many cases the very same ones we depend on when we're sick — would lead to the evolution of bacteria that could shake them off like a spring shower. It appears that “sooner or later” may be now. Recent studies in Europe and Canada found that confinement pig operations have become reservoirs of MRSA. A European study found that 60 percent of pig farms that routinely used antibiotics had MRSA-positive pigs (compared with 5 percent of farms that did not feed pigs antibiotics). This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study showing that a strain of “MRSA from an animal reservoir has recently entered the human population and is now responsible for [more than] 20 percent of all MRSA in the Netherlands.” Is this strictly a European problem? Evidently not. According to a study in Veterinary Microbiology, MRSA was found on 45 percent of the 20 pig farms sampled in Ontario, and in 20 percent of the pig farmers. (People can harbor the bacteria without being infected by it.) Thanks to Nafta, pigs move freely between Canada and the United States. So MRSA may be present on American pig farms; we just haven't looked yet.
Scientists have not established that any of the strains of MRSA presently killing Americans originated on factory farms. But given the rising public alarm about MRSA and the widespread use on these farms of precisely the class of antibiotics to which these microbes have acquired resistance, you would think our public-health authorities would be all over it. Apparently not. When, in August, the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition asked the Food and Drug Administration what the agency was doing about the problem of MRSA in livestock, the agency had little to say. Earlier this month, though, the F.D.A. indicated that it may begin a pilot screening program with the C.D.C.
As for independent public-health researchers, they say they can't study the problem without the cooperation of the livestock industry, which, not surprisingly, has not been forthcoming. For what if these researchers should find proof that one of the hidden costs of cheap meat is an epidemic of drug-resistant infection among young people? There would be calls to revolutionize the way we produce meat in this country. This is not something that the meat and the pharmaceutical industries or their respective regulatory “watchdogs” — the Department of Agriculture and F.D.A. — are in any rush to see happen.
he second story is about honeybees, which have endured their own mysterious epidemic this past year. Colony Collapse Disorder was first identified in 2006, when a Pennsylvanian beekeeper noticed that his bees were disappearing — going out on foraging expeditions in the morning never to return. Within months, beekeepers in 24 states were reporting losses of between 20 percent and 80 percent of their bees, in some cases virtually overnight. Entomologists have yet to identify the culprit, but suspects include a virus, agricultural pesticides and a parasitic mite. (Media reports that genetically modified crops or cellphone towers might be responsible have been discounted.) But whatever turns out to be the immediate cause of colony collapse, many entomologists believe some such disaster was waiting to happen: the lifestyle of the modern honeybee leaves the insects so stressed out and their immune systems so compromised that, much like livestock on factory farms, they've become vulnerable to whatever new infectious agent happens to come along.
You need look no farther than a California almond orchard to understand how these bees, which have become indispensable workers in the vast fields of industrial agriculture, could have gotten into such trouble. Like a great many other food crops, like an estimated one out of every three bites you eat, the almond depends on bees for pollination. No bees, no almonds. The problem is that almonds today are grown in such vast monocultures — 80 percent of the world's crop comes from a 600,000-acre swath of orchard in California's Central Valley — that, when the trees come into bloom for three weeks every February, there are simply not enough bees in the valley to pollinate all those flowers. For what bee would hang around an orchard where there's absolutely nothing to eat for the 49 weeks of the year that the almond trees aren't in bloom? So every February the almond growers must import an army of migrant honeybees to the Central Valley — more than a million hives housing as many as 40 billion bees in all.
They come on the backs of tractor-trailers from as far away as New England. These days, more than half of all the beehives in America are on the move to California every February, for what has been called the world's greatest “pollination event.” (Be there!) Bees that have been dormant in the depths of a Minnesota winter are woken up to go to work in the California spring; to get them in shape to travel cross-country and wade into the vast orgy of almond bloom, their keepers ply them with “pollen patties” — which often include ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and flower pollen imported from China. Because the pollination is so critical and the bee population so depleted, almond growers will pay up to $150 to rent a box of bees for three weeks, creating a multimillion-dollar industry of migrant beekeeping that barely existed a few decades ago. Thirty-five years ago you could rent a box of bees for $10. (Pimping bees is the whole of the almond business for these beekeepers since almond honey is so bitter as to be worthless.)
In 2005 the demand for honeybees in California had so far outstripped supply that the U.S.D.A. approved the importation of bees from Australia. These bees get off a 747 at SFO and travel by truck to the Central Valley, where they get to work pollinating almond flowers — and mingling with bees arriving from every corner of America. As one beekeeper put it to Singeli Agnew in The San Francisco Chronicle, California's almond orchards have become “one big brothel” — a place where each February bees swap microbes and parasites from all over the country and the world before returning home bearing whatever pathogens they may have picked up. Add to this their routine exposure to agricultural pesticides and you have a bee population ripe for an epidemic national in scope. In October, the journal Science published a study that implicated a virus (Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus) in Colony Collapse Disorder — a virus that was found in some of the bees from Australia. (The following month, the U.S.D.A. questioned the study, pointing out that the virus was present in North America as early as 2002.)
“We're placing so many demands on bees we're forgetting that they're a living organism and that they have a seasonal life cycle,” Marla Spivak, a honeybee entomologist at the University of Minnesota , told The Chronicle. “We're wanting them to function as a machine. . . . We're expecting them to get off the truck and be fine.”
We're asking a lot of our bees. We're asking a lot of our pigs too. That seems to be a hallmark of industrial agriculture: to maximize production and keep food as cheap as possible, it pushes natural systems and organisms to their limit, asking them to function as efficiently as machines. When the inevitable problems crop up — when bees or pigs remind us they are not machines — the system can be ingenious in finding “solutions,” whether in the form of antibiotics to keep pigs healthy or foreign bees to help pollinate the almonds. But this year's solutions have a way of becoming next year's problems. That is to say, they aren't “sustainable.”
From this perspective, the story of Colony Collapse Disorder and the story of drug-resistant staph are the same story. Both are parables about the precariousness of monocultures. Whenever we try to rearrange natural systems along the lines of a machine or a factory, whether by raising too many pigs in one place or too many almond trees, whatever we may gain in industrial efficiency, we sacrifice in biological resilience. The question is not whether systems this brittle will break down, but when and how, and whether when they do, we'll be prepared to treat the whole idea of sustainability as something more than a nice word.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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Discovering Nature's Balance Within Ourselves
By Richard Cleveland
Not very long ago there were people living close to the Earth, honoring, celebrating and respecting life through prayer and beautiful ceremonies. These people understood nature’s many gifts. All their food, clothing, medicine, tools and materials for their homes came from their immediate surroundings. Understanding the natural world was critical for their survival. The Earth was Sacred to them. Who were these people? Our ancestors…that’s right, all our ancestors knew how to live off the land… or perhaps, to live with the land would be more accurate. There was no air pollution, no water pollution, no litter, and there were no garbage dumps. They lived in balance with the land.
By contrast, in our high-tech fast-paced world today, it’s easy to see how we are gradually distancing ourselves from the natural world. Nature, for the most part, is viewed as merely a commodity to be used and used up anyway we see fit. And, most of our experiences with nature today come in the form of outdoor recreation. Many of us spend that time racing around the woods and waters on various machines doing Mach 3 with our hair on fire. Sadly, going on a nature walk or fishing on a quiet riverbank somewhere is considered boring to most people.
Nature was created perfectly. Our job is to perceive it, not to try to control it. The natural world is amazing and very complex. We are merely a strand in this beautiful web of life. Our ancestors understood this delicate balance and went to great lengths not to upset it. Perhaps the foundation of their wisdom was that, they didn’t consider themselves to be more important than nature. They were grateful just to be a part of it. The result of their knowledge was that they were self-sufficient. In other words… they could take care of themselves! Unfortunately today, most people want to be taken care of. We have much to learn from the relationship our ancestors had with the Earth. There’s an old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day... Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maybe we should be teaching people the skills to take care of themselves, instead of sending them a welfare check every month. (Hmm…interesting thought.)
Most of us punch a time clock, work 50 weeks a year and plan for our retirement…you know that time when were finally going to have some fun and live our lives. Sadly though, as hard as we work, most of us are still only one paycheck away from the poorhouse. We have become dependent on society. There is little or no self-sufficiency in our lives today. Ask a child where food and clothing comes from, and you’re likely to hear, from the Wal-Mart Super Center. Our society, it seems, wants to provide everything for us and we are soon heading toward a cash-less society where all our purchases are taken directly out of our bank accounts, with the convenient scan of a plastic card. It’s all pretty scary if you ask me.
Now don’t get me wrong! I’m not suggesting that we all run away and live in the woods happily ever after. That’s not realistic. It’s clear that technology is here to stay; however, I believe that we need to find a better balance in our lives. In a finite world, resources are not infinite. If we keep the best of “non-polluting sustainable technology” and incorporate some of the self-reliant skills of our ancestors, I believe we can lead fuller, healthier and happier lives. Hopefully, as a result, we will become the true “Stewards of the Earth”, that we were meant to be, and lessen our impact on the environment with the positive choices we make. Through love, education and compassion we can all make a difference on this planet and protect the Earth for future generations.
Here are a few suggestions that can save you money, free up your time to spend with your family and friends, and live a happier healthier life.
- Plant an organic garden this Spring
- Learn to identify and use wild edible and medicinal plants
- Learn to hunt and fish
- Barter goods and services with friends and neighbors
- Eat Organic food and “Recycle everything”
- Read a good book like Back To Basics by Readers Digest
- Learn about animals, birds and insects
- Walk through wet grass with your bare feet
- Smell every flower
- Dance in the rain
- Smile at a stranger for no reason at all
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The Way of the Coyote – Midnight Chorus
Last Sunday evening I awoke to an increasingly familiar sound…the howls of several coyotes echoed through the neighboring woods, piercing the cool night air. I can tell you from experience that waking, from a sound sleep, to the raucous chorus of coyotes can be a bit startling, but I absolutely LOVE IT! In fact, I sleep with the windows open, most of the year, just so I don’t miss such happenings.
I rent a quaint house, here in Tryon, nestled in a sizeable patch of woods. The lower portion of the property contains a small creek, which I love to explore. My creek has minnows, aquatic insects and a few crawfish. Clearly, the creek is the heartbeat of these woods. Deer, turkey, raccoons, hawks, owls, and a multitude of woodland creatures frequent this area…but they are not alone. The coyote keeps a watchful eye on all that happens here. Always observing, calculating and patiently waiting for an opportunity. Make no mistake…this is one savvy wild dog. Perhaps no other wild animal can live in such close proximity to man, and yet be so completely unseen.
 . Eastern Coyote ( Canis latrans )
This past Winter I had an encounter with the local coyote pack I will never forget. One night, around 3 am, I awoke to the same chorus. I could hear the coyotes moving through the woods skirting my house. They were VERY close. The moon was nearly full and illuminated most of my front yard. I crept out of bed and headed, in darkness, to my living room to retrieve a turkey (diaphragm) call I had on my TV. Having “called in” coyotes before with a predator call, I felt confident I might get a response with some high pitched squeals the call would produce. I knelt beside my bedroom window and did my best impersonation of a dying rabbit (with the mouth call of course:)). I called on and off for about 30 seconds, and then listened. They were pretty close so I wanted to be careful. I heard their footsteps, in the dry leaves, coming in my direction. It was working. The moonlight filtering through a dogwood tree, in my front yard, provided reasonable visibility. As I remained motionless listening to a coyote, trotting in my direction through the leaves, something I didn’t expect happened. A coyote, a different one, appeared out of nowhere! He snuck in, from my left, searching for the wounding animal without making a sound. I was shocked and, at the same time, excited. He loped back and forth across my view, a mere 12 feet from my open window. My heart was racing the entire time. After satisfying his curiosity, he eventually disappeared into the darkness. Wow! I felt so blessed to have experienced it. It’s hard to put emotions into words sometimes. For me it wasn’t just the excitement of the moment, but rather the connection I felt to nature that night is something I will always treasure.
Some people fear and even hate coyotes…for what reasons I’m somewhat unclear. Perhaps they’ve lost beloved pets to them…I have too. Or perhaps they fear the unknown. I once read that “Man fears what he doesn’t know, and what man fears he destroys.”
Besides the wolf, the coyote is perhaps one of the most misunderstood animals in North America. Here in the south, they fill a position the Red Wolf once occupied. They serve the important responsibility of checks and balances, a role that we humans may never fully understand. They are numerous, highly adaptable, secretive and difficult to study. For me, the coyote is a blessing. I’m glad they’re here. They embody the very essence of nature… raw, untamed and inspiring. I am grateful for such things. My relationship with the natural world deeply touches my soul. Without it, life would be mundane at best.
Like it or not, the coyote is here to stay. The next time you hear the coyotes howl…howl back!
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Doctors Warn: Avoid Genetically Modified Food
By Jeffrey M. Smith
On May 19th, 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”[1] They called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling. AAEM’s position paper stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. They conclude, “There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation,” as defined by recognized scientific criteria. “The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies.”
More and more doctors are already prescribing GM-free diets. Dr. Amy Dean, a Michigan internal medicine specialist, and board member of AAEM says, “I strongly recommend patients eat strictly non-genetically modified foods.” Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles says “I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.”
Dr. Jennifer Armstrong, President of AAEM, says, “Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions.” World renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava goes one step further. After reviewing more than 600 scientific journals, he concludes that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a major contributor to the sharply deteriorating health of Americans.
Pregnant women and babies at great risk
Among the population, biologist David Schubert of the Salk Institute warns that “children are the most likely to be adversely effected by toxins and other dietary problems” related to GM foods. He says without adequate studies, the children become “the experimental animals.”[2]
The experience of actual GM-fed experimental animals is scary. When GM soy was fed to female rats, most of their babies died within three weeks—compared to a 10% death rate among the control group fed natural soy.[3] The GM-fed babies were also smaller, and later had problems getting pregnant.[4]
When male rats were fed GM soy, their testicles actually changed color—from the normal pink to dark blue.[5] Mice fed GM soy had altered young sperm.[6] Even the embryos of GM fed parent mice had significant changes in their DNA.[7] Mice fed GM corn in an Austrian government study had fewer babies, which were also smaller than normal.[8]
Reproductive problems also plague livestock. Investigations in the state of Haryana, India revealed that most buffalo that ate GM cottonseed had complications such as premature deliveries, abortions, infertility, and prolapsed uteruses. Many calves died. In the US, about two dozen farmers reported thousands of pigs became sterile after consuming certain GM corn varieties. Some had false pregnancies; others gave birth to bags of water. Cows and bulls also became infertile when fed the same corn.[9]
In the US population, the incidence of low birth weight babies, infertility, and infant mortality are all escalating.
Food designed to produce toxin
GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. When bugs bite the plant, the poison splits open their stomach and kills them. Biotech companies claim that the pesticide, called Bt—produced from soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis—has a history of safe use, since organic farmers and others use Bt bacteria spray for natural insect control. Genetic engineers insert Bt genes into corn and cotton, so the plants do the killing.
The Bt-toxin produced in GM plants, however, is thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray, is designed to be more toxic,[10] has properties of an allergen, and unlike the spray, cannot be washed off the plant.
Moreover, studies confirm that even the less toxic natural bacterial spray is harmful. When dispersed by plane to kill gypsy moths in the Pacific Northwest, about 500 people reported allergy or flu-like symptoms. Some had to go to the emergency room.[11],[12]
The exact same symptoms are now being reported by farm workers throughout India, from handling Bt cotton.[13] In 2008, based on medical records, the Sunday India reported, “Victims of itching have increased massively this year . . . related to BT cotton farming.”[14]
GMOs provoke immune reactions
AAEM states, “Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation,” including increase in cytokines, which are “associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation”—all on the rise in the US.
According to GM food safety expert Dr. Arpad Pusztai, changes in the immune status of GM animals are “a consistent feature of all the studies.”[15] Even Monsanto’s own research showed significant immune system changes in rats fed Bt corn.[16] A November 2008 by the Italian government also found that mice have an immune reaction to Bt corn.[17]
GM soy and corn each contain two new proteins with allergenic properties,[18] GM soy has up to seven times more trypsin inhibitor—a known soy allergen,[19] and skin prick tests show some people react to GM, but not to non-GM soy.[20] Soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%. Perhaps the US epidemic of food allergies and asthma is a casualty of genetic manipulation.
Animals dying in large numbers
In India, animals graze on cotton plants after harvest. But when shepherds let sheep graze on Bt cotton plants, thousands died. Post mortems showed severe irritation and black patches in both intestines and liver (as well as enlarged bile ducts). Investigators said preliminary evidence “strongly suggests that the sheep mortality was due to a toxin. . . . most probably Bt-toxin.”[21] In a small follow-up feeding study by the Deccan Development Society, all sheep fed Bt cotton plants died within 30 days; those that grazed on natural cotton plants remained healthy.
In a small village in Andhra Pradesh, buffalo grazed on cotton plants for eight years without incident. On January 3rd, 2008, the buffalo grazed on Bt cotton plants for the first time. All 13 were sick the next day; all died within 3 days.[22]
Bt corn was also implicated in the deaths of cows in Germany, and horses, water buffaloes, and chickens in The Philippines.[23]
In lab studies, twice the number of chickens fed Liberty Link corn died; 7 of 20 rats fed a GM tomato developed bleeding stomachs; another 7 of 40 died within two weeks.[24] Monsanto’s own study showed evidence of poisoning in major organs of rats fed Bt corn, according to top French toxicologist G. E. Seralini.[25]
Worst finding of all—GMOs remain inside of us
The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods. The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function.[26] This means that long after we stop eating GMOs, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us. Put more plainly, eating a corn chip produced from Bt corn might transform our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories, possibly for the rest of our lives.
When evidence of gene transfer is reported at medical conferences around the US, doctors often respond by citing the huge increase of gastrointestinal problems among their patients over the last decade. GM foods might be colonizing the gut flora of North Americans.
Warnings by government scientists ignored and denied
Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had warned about all these problems even in the early 1990s. According to documents released from a lawsuit, the scientific consensus at the agency was that GM foods were inherently dangerous, and might create hard-to-detect allergies, poisons, gene transfer to gut bacteria, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged their superiors to require rigorous long-term tests.[27] But the White House had ordered the agency to promote biotechnology and the FDA responded by recruiting Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney, to head up the formation of GMO policy. That policy, which is in effect today, denies knowledge of scientists’ concerns and declares that no safety studies on GMOs are required. It is up to Monsanto and the other biotech companies to determine if their foods are safe. Mr. Taylor later became Monsanto’s vice president.
Dangerously few studies, untraceable diseases
AAEM states, “GM foods have not been properly tested” and “pose a serious health risk.” Not a single human clinical trial on GMOs has been published. A 2007 review of published scientific literature on the “potential toxic effects/health risks of GM plants” revealed “that experimental data are very scarce.” The author concludes his review by asking, “Where is the scientific evidence showing that GM plants/food are toxicologically safe, as assumed by the biotechnology companies?”[28]
Famed Canadian geneticist David Suzuki answers, “The experiments simply haven’t been done and we now have become the guinea pigs.” He adds, “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.”[29]
Dr. Schubert points out, “If there are problems, we will probably never know because the cause will not be traceable and many diseases take a very long time to develop.” If GMOs happen to cause immediate and acute symptoms with a unique signature, perhaps then we might have a chance to trace the cause.
This is precisely what happened during a US epidemic in the late 1980s. The disease was fast acting, deadly, and caused a unique measurable change in the blood—but it still took more than four years to identify that an epidemic was even occurring. By then it had killed about 100 Americans and caused 5,000-10,000 people to fall sick or become permanently disabled. It was caused by a genetically engineered brand of a food supplement called L-tryptophan.
If other GM foods are contributing to the rise of autism, obesity, diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease, allergies, reproductive problems, or any other common health problem now plaguing Americans, we may never know. In fact, since animals fed GMOs had such a wide variety of problems, susceptible people may react to GM food with multiple symptoms. It is therefore telling that in the first nine years after the large scale introduction of GM crops in 1996, the incidence of people with three or more chronic diseases nearly doubled, from 7% to 13%.[30]
To help identify if GMOs are causing harm, the AAEM asks their “members, the medical community, and the independent scientific community to gather case studies potentially related to GM food consumption and health effects, begin epidemiological research to investigate the role of GM foods on human health, and conduct safe methods of determining the effect of GM foods on human health.”
Citizens need not wait for the results before taking the doctors advice to avoid GM foods. People can stay away from anything with soy or corn derivatives, cottonseed and canola oil, and sugar from GM sugar beets—unless it says organic or “non-GMO.” There is a pocket Non-GMO Shopping Guide, co-produced by the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Center for Food Safety, which is available as a download, as well as in natural food stores and in many doctors’ offices.
If even a small percentage of people choose non-GMO brands, the food industry will likely respond as they did in Europe—by removing all GM ingredients. Thus, AAEM’s non-GMO prescription may be a watershed for the US food supply.
International bestselling author and independent filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of GMOs. His first book, Seeds of Deception is the world’s bestselling book on the subject. His second, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, identifies 65 risks of GMOs and demonstrates how superficial government approvals are not competent to find most of them. He invited the biotech industry to respond in writing with evidence to counter each risk, but correctly predicted that they would refuse, since they don’t have the data to show that their products are safe.
www.ResponsibleTechnology.org,
info@responsibletechnology.org
[1] http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html
[2] David Schubert, personal communication to H. Penfound, Greenpeace Canada, October 25, 2002.
[3] Irina Ermakova, “Genetically modified soy leads to the decrease of weight and high mortality of rat pups of the first generation. Preliminary studies,” Ecosinform 1 (2006): 4–9.
[4] Irina Ermakova, “Experimental Evidence of GMO Hazards,” Presentation at Scientists for a GM Free Europe, EU Parliament, Brussels, June 12, 2007
[5] Irina Ermakova, “Experimental Evidence of GMO Hazards,” Presentation at Scientists for a GM Free Europe, EU Parliament, Brussels, June 12, 2007
[6] L. Vecchio et al, “Ultrastructural Analysis of Testes from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” European Journal of Histochemistry 48, no. 4 (Oct–Dec 2004):449–454.
[7] Oliveri et al., “Temporary Depression of Transcription in Mouse Pre-implantion Embryos from Mice Fed on Genetically Modified Soybean,” 48th Symposium of the Society for Histochemistry, Lake Maggiore (Italy), September 7–10, 2006.
[8] Alberta Velimirov and Claudia Binter, “Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice,” Forschungsberichte der Sektion IV, Band 3/2008
[9] Jerry Rosman, personal communication, 2006
[10] See for example, A. Dutton, H. Klein, J. Romeis, and F. Bigler, “Uptake of Bt-toxin by herbivores feeding on transgenic maize and consequences for the predator Chrysoperia carnea,” Ecological Entomology 27 (2002): 441–7; and J. Romeis, A. Dutton, and F. Bigler, “Bacillus thuringiensis toxin (Cry1Ab) has no direct effect on larvae of the green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae),” Journal of Insect Physiology 50, no. 2–3 (2004): 175–183.
[11] Washington State Department of Health, “Report of health surveillance activities: Asian gypsy moth control program,” (Olympia, WA: Washington State Dept. of Health, 1993).
[12] M. Green, et al., “Public health implications of the microbial pesticide Bacillus thuringiensis: An epidemiological study, Oregon, 1985-86,” Amer. J. Public Health 80, no. 7(1990): 848–852.
[13] Ashish Gupta et. al., “Impact of Bt Cotton on Farmers’ Health (in Barwani and Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh),” Investigation Report, Oct–Dec 2005.
[14] Sunday India, October, 26, 2008
[15] October 24, 2005 correspondence between Arpad Pusztai and Brian John
[16] John M. Burns, “13-Week Dietary Subchronic Comparison Study with MON 863 Corn in Rats Preceded by a 1-Week Baseline Food Consumption Determination with PMI Certified Rodent Diet #5002,” December 17, 2002 http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/sci_tech/prod_safety/fullratstudy.pdf
[17] Alberto Finamore, et al, “Intestinal and Peripheral Immune Response to MON810 Maize Ingestion in Weaning and Old Mice,” J. Agric. Food Chem., 2008, 56 (23), pp 11533–11539, November 14, 2008
[18] See L Zolla, et al, “Proteomics as a complementary tool for identifying unintended side effects occurring in transgenic maize seeds as a result of genetic modifications,” J Proteome Res. 2008 May;7(5):1850-61; Hye-Yung Yum, Soo-Young Lee, Kyung-Eun Lee, Myung-Hyun Sohn, Kyu-Earn Kim, “Genetically Modified and Wild Soybeans: An immunologic comparison,” Allergy and Asthma Proceedings 26, no. 3 (May–June 2005): 210-216(7); and Gendel, “The use of amino acid sequence alignments to assess potential allergenicity of proteins used in genetically modified foods,” Advances in Food and Nutrition Research 42 (1998), 45–62.
[19] A. Pusztai and S. Bardocz, “GMO in animal nutrition: potential benefits and risks,” Chapter 17, Biology of Nutrition in Growing Animals, R. Mosenthin, J. Zentek and T. Zebrowska (Eds.) Elsevier, October 2005
[20] Hye-Yung Yum, Soo-Young Lee, Kyung-Eun Lee, Myung-Hyun Sohn, Kyu-Earn Kim, “Genetically Modified and Wild Soybeans: An immunologic comparison,” Allergy and Asthma Proceedings 26, no. 3 (May–June 2005): 210-216(7).
[21] “Mortality in Sheep Flocks after Grazing on Bt Cotton Fields—Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh” Report of the Preliminary Assessment, April 2006, http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp
[22] Personal communication and visit, January 2009.
[23] Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, Yes! Books, Fairfield, IA USA 2007
[24] Arpad Pusztai, “Can Science Give Us the Tools for Recognizing Possible Health Risks for GM Food?” Nutrition and Health 16 (2002): 73–84.
[25] Stéphane Foucart, “Controversy Surrounds a GMO,” Le Monde, 14 December 2004; referencing, John M. Burns, “13-Week Dietary Subchronic Comparison Study with MON 863 Corn in Rats Preceded by a 1-Week Baseline Food Consumption Determination with PMI Certified Rodent Diet #5002,” December 17, 2002 http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/sci_tech/prod_safety/fullratstudy.pdf
[26] Netherwood et al, “Assessing the survival of transgenic plant DNA in the human gastrointestinal tract,” Nature Biotechnology 22 (2004): 2.
[27] See memos at www.biointegrity.org
[28] José Domingo, “Toxicity Studies of Genetically Modified Plants : A Review of the Published Literature,” Critical reviews in food science and nutrition, 2007, vol. 47, no8, pp. 721-733
[29] Angela Hall, “Suzuki warns against hastily accepting GMOs”, The Leader-Post (Canada), 26 April 2005.
[30] Kathryn Anne Paez, et al, “Rising Out-Of-Pocket Spending For Chronic Conditions: A Ten-Year Trend,” Health Affairs, 28, no. 1 (2009): 15-25
© copyright Institute For Responsible Technology 2009.
Jeffrey M. Smith is the author of publication Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, which presents 65 risks in easy-to-read two-page spreads. His first book, Seeds of Deception, is the top rated and #1 selling book on GM foods in the world. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, www.responsibletechnology.org, which is spearheading the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America. Go to www.seedsofdeception.com to learn more about how to avoid GM foods.
Spilling the Beans is a monthly column available at www.responsibletechnology.org. The website also offers eater-friendly tips for avoiding GMOs at home and in restaurants.
Permission is granted to publishers and webmasters to reproduce issues of Spilling the Beans in whole or in part. Just email us at column@seedsofdeception.com to let us know who you are and what your circulation is, so we can keep track.
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**Disclaimer...."We make no claims whatsoever about the validity of the content of these pages of information. We prescribe nothing. It is up to YOU to find the truth for yourself. We accept no responsibility for YOUR actions."
" Take charge of your Health " – Junebug's Flu Remedy !
By June Ellen Bradley ( Junebug :)
Did you know that most of your winter ailments can be handled by YOU with ingredients from your kitchen? Well, you may have to go shopping first; however, it is in fact true that you can be the instrument of your own healing more often than you might think. A friend who tried my homemade brew was astounded that such a simple recipe helped to remedy a chronic sinus infection that always required antibiotics. “First time ever.” She said, that she didn’t need them.
The reason that this remedy works is that, being plant based, there are innumerable constituents chemically speaking that make up the brew. When you go get an antibiotic, it is generally one “active ingredient” with a few binders and perhaps a preservative or two. Nature, being the advocate of intricacy that she is, constructs all living things with infinite possibilities for variety genetically mixing things up so that organisms can adapt to and survive the greatest number of situations that may pop up. Therefore, it is no surprise that lots of bacteria have mutated so that they are immune to that “one thing” that we call our antibiotic.
What if we could come up with a broad spectrum healing concoction from our kitchens that would not only have the complexity to stump bacterial mutability, it can nix those pesky viral bugs as well. Now I’m not going to tell you that we can cure everything ourselves and never have a need for antibiotics…that is ridiculous. I am placing before you the option of making your own medicine for the winter time “cold season.”
Here, I am assuming that you are going to be sensible and dress properly for the season, get plenty of rest, exercise and stay hydrated as well. Did I mention eating plenty of fresh food preferably organic and in season? These are habits that create health, y’all know that.
That being said, I’m going to give you the basic recipe for a good home brew that can nip some of these big-time ‘bugs’ in the bud. All of these ingredients should be chopped up well to maximize the surface area, this will ensure that everything will be pulled out by the menstrum. A menstrum is something that extracts “active ingredients” or inactive ones for that matter; I think they’re all important. The good thing about this remedy is that even if you happen to take too much, unless you’re allergic to one of the ingredients ( and be sure to leave that one out ) it really won’t harm you. If you use some form of alcohol for the menstrum, it might make you do stupid things upon over-consumption, believe me –you won’t want to drink this recreationally:)
So back to the plan of chopping things up, what do we chop? Every year I make this up it is different. Sometimes the ingredients I want may be unavailable at the time I go to prepare it. Oh well. It still works. You want to try and have a handful of garlic heads and dried cayenne peppers, a big onion, big ginger root, a horseradish root, a beet, a turnip and a lemon which you chop and put in skin and all. I like to include a handful of rosemary too. From there, we can be creative. Sometimes I add turmeric, burdock, dandelion whole plants, this year I included seaweeds for the first time. Basil is good to include and I usually put in lots of Lemon balm for its antiviral qualities. The year I added habenero peppers it had to be watered down in equal parts! These are all food herbs which mean that you can eat ‘em all day long ( if you could take all that heat ). Sometimes I add all kinds of other things I have in my herb garden too. Thyme is on the level with goldenseal as an anti-infective. In a pinch you can add all of these ingredients into your daily diet to blast out the invaders.
As long as you use common food herbs, you can feel free to be creative. Remember, medicine herbs are those that are to be taken at a specific dose for a specific period of time then discontinued…we’re not talking about using these kinds of herbs even though we’re making medicine. Confusing, I know.
An aside is that this will make you sweat like crazy –we’re not done with the recipe yet –I’m a right brain writer, so you’ll just have to wander along with me here. Now if you are good at being aware of your body and can tell when you are beginning to get that “O no” feeling, jump on the juice. You can get rid of things by striking while the iron is hot ( pun intended ) and sweat it out. Sometimes you can exercise to the point of ‘fever’ –a practice that keeps athletes healthy. For non athletes or the exercise allergic, a good sauna can do wonders.
It definitely gets more difficult to deal with something once it sets up camp and starts producing reinforcements. So the number one advice this season is be aware of your energy levels, if they start to dip…pay attention! A little tickle in the throat or some congestion means action on your part! Don’t just hope it will go away escort it out the door yourself.
Back to our brew… so now we’ve gotten all the ingredients chopped; now we put then into a big (gallon) glass jar. Then we add the menstrum…it can be a nice vodka, or brandy –my two personal favorites. If you have alcohol sensitivities you can use apple cider vinegar. Cover up all the ingredients with the menstrum by at least an inch. Put a lid on it and let it sit –shaking daily for at least 2 weeks –maybe 4. Then you decant it. That means you strain out all the solids, keeping the liquid. Don’t drink it in this form it will be incredibly hot and taste horrible. During the entire process, it is important to be in a loving space because your energy goes into the brew you’re making. Infuse it with love. If you’re upset or angry…don’t touch it that day.
The next step is to make a simple syrup or if you are lazy you can just add equal parts maple syrup and grape juice I collected elderberries and blueberries this year and made my syrup from that for the lycopenes, among other things. You can always add fruit juice to get the taste a little sweeter. It should be hot and sweet tasting, but not so good you’d drink it for fun. Just add enough syrup or sweetener to your taste.
The thing to remember is to cut the liquid you’ve decanted at least in half –or maybe even half again depending on how much you can stand of the taste. It has to taste good enough so you don’t mind taking the initial tablespoon and then following it up with a teaspoon every half hour till you are symptom free.
As you can probably discern from all the ingredients listed in this recipe, it makes quite a bit of cold care concoction… another friend of mine named it, the “can of whoopass” for colds (COWA). You can keep the formula for several years if you want, or you can have enough to make some awesome Christmas gifts for your more open minded and health conscious friends! Health and Blessings everyone! ~Junebug
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Wild Edible Plant Recipes...( more to come soon !)
Sumac Kool-aid ! Sumac berries are very abundant this time of year. Have you ever made Sumac Kool-aid ? The berries of this common plant are rich in vitamin C, and can be made into a delicious drink that is actually good for you ! Here's how you make it...
*** Gather 4-6 heads of red berries (smooth or staghorn sumac are best). Poison sumac has white berries !! don't make that mistake:) Wash your hands thoroughly and fill an open container with about a quart of cold water. With your hands submerged, remove the berries from the woody heads. Quite a bit of red sumac resin will stick to your hands, so remove as much as you can from your hands and add that to the water as well. Let the berries sit in the water for 2 to 4 hours and strain into a pitcher. I like to lay some cheesecloth in the strainer to remove the finer particles. AND... Presto !..you have a tart, bright red tangy drink, loaded with vitamin C, that even the kids will enjoy ! I like it just as it is, but you can sweeten it with honey or real maple syrup if you desire. Don't use processed white sugar...YUK ! Kinda defeats the purpose...ya know ?
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