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THANKS FOR SUPPORTING EARTH DAY TOO!

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One of our vendor tables. About a hundred people (and two lovable alpacas -r.) turned out at a country residence in west-central Manitoba on Sept. 1st to enjoy "Earth Day Too," a celebration of the growing "eat local" movement. The open-air event attracted eight vendors from the Roblin/Inglis/Grandview area. Their "wares" included fresh veggies, organic meat, free-range eggs, preserves, honey and maple syrup. Restoring a connection between food producers and our customers is critical. The wave of fast and processed foods that is sweeping North America today, bringing with it an epidemic of obesity and disease, must be resisted. The situation has grown so grave that experts are now predicting that we are actually raising a generation that will die before their parents do! I believe that buying local, eating local and making fresh, healthy food more readily available are among the ways of combating this alarming state of affairs. As John Ikerd me

Bursting The Ethanol Bubble

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The case against food-based fuel  by Larry Powell Many of us have met interesting people on airplanes. I'm no exception. In 1997, I was returning from Brazil, where, as a freelance reporter, I had covered an environmental conference. Sitting next to me on the flight was Elizabeth May (above), now leader of the federal Green Party . She had been at the same conference, representing the Sierra Club of Canada. Even then, her environmental credentials were impressive As we chatted, I proudly told her how I always burned ethanol gasoline in my car, because it was better for the planet. I felt rather deflated when she informed me that it takes more energy to produce a liter of ethanol (at least the North American kind) than you save when you burn it! Much of the literature I have since read, supports Ms. May's position. David Pimentel(r.). "The most persistent, articulate and scathing critic of the biofuels industry." (columnist) Pimentel, of Cornell Univer

Larry's Submission to the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission

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Factory-farmed sows, like the one above, spend much of their lives in tiny steel cages. (Photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary.)   ___________________________ Hearings have just concluded in Manitoba to determine if this province's hog industry is sustainable. The government instructed the Clean Environment Commission to conduct the hearings after placing a moratorium on new hog barn construction last year. The Commission is expected to make recommendations to the government in several months on whether to continue, or to end that moratorium. The freeze has drawn howls of protest and threats of lawsuits from the hog industry, represented by the Manitoba Pork Council. Larry Powell presented the following views to the Commission on behalf of "Citizens for Family Farms," at a hearing in Dauphin on March 20th. Submission to the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission on the Sustainability of Hog Barn Development. I'd like to thank the Commission for this opportuni

Family Believes it was Poisoned by Crop Spray

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by Larry Powell A west-central Manitoba man says his family got sick from exposure to chemicals from crop dusting planes this summer. Lloyd & Donna Burghart. In the foreground, a sow with several piglets. PinP photo Tens of thousands of acres in the Swan Valley, and around Roblin to the south, were sprayed with crop pesticides from spray planes in July and August, following a serious outbreak of Bertha armyworms, which destroy canola crops. The Swan Valley area is in the far west region of Manitoba, near the Saskatchewan border. Now, Lloyd and Donna Burghart of nearby Bowsman said they believe Lorsban (chlorpyrifos), an insecticide that was being sprayed on a canola crop across the road from them, has made them and their four children ill. "I started shaking and a-sweatin' and I kind of was panicking and I didn't know … how severe the symptoms would be," Lloyd Burghart recalled. "I didn't know if I was going to actually make it to the

LETTER TO THE EDITOR - Fall 2006

Dear Editor, It was a day in late July. A spray plane swooped low, dumping its payload of Lorsban onto a canola field in the Swan Valley, to control an infestation of Bertha army worms. Nearby, the owner of a small acreage and her son were outside doing chores. The woman says her son got a dose of what she calls the “direct drift.” According to the woman, both became “instantly nauseous with burning eyes.” Her husband developed the same symptoms, even ‘though he didn’t arrive home ‘till about 20 minutes after the incident. They’re all are okay now, but she says she suffered from a low-grade headache for about three weeks afterward. (And she doesn’t normally get headaches.) She even noticed one of her miniature horses became unusually listless right after the incident. She says they now wonder whether they should even keep grazing the animals on the grass that has also been sprayed. No one can seem to help them with advice. The woman claims agricultural authorities were wa

Are We in The Dark Ages?

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"Crop-duster" at work in Manitoba. PinP photo.   This plane sprayed the harsh and dangerous pesticide Lorsban this summer, right along a country road where children played moments before, near Roblin, Manitoba. Fear of being shunned for opposing "progress," many concerned people will not speak up about such outrages. Farm papers who count on lucratice advertising from the chemical manufacturers, stay similarly silent.  "When the planes still swoop down to aerial spray a crop, in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually hits the target insect. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful of life." Paul Hawken, "The Ecology of Commerce." 1993