If it is healthy

I just watched a disturbing movie about the Monsanto, which was a couple of years old. The company sells genetically modified seeds and suitable herbicides and pesticides. You basically get the package or nothing and the crops also have a "terminator"-gene, which makes sure that that the F1-generation (the seed you harvest) is useless for further planting. It will not germinate again so farmers will not be able to use part of the harvest for next years crop and have to by again. Well, someone with a clear understanding mind would think: why bother, don´t buy the crap!? But as you may know plants have the odd habit of spreading around unwanted. You may have a look in your garden and count the plants you have actually planted and the once who appeared out of nowhere. You might also come to the conclusion, even if not being a Dr. in Nature Science this seems pretty normal for plants, thats how they do it! The problem with gm-crops is, that is what they do too and the next problem is they are all patented and therefore they aren´t allowed to do so if the owner of the land hasn´t paid first. Unfortunately no one has yet thought putting also a conscience into the plant, that tells them which soil is right or wrong (well, we will not accuse Monsanto of any evil meanings here) . In the case of Percy Schmeiser the canadian Farmer who received an alternative Nobel Prize for his fight against Monsanto the plants did what they were doing... they spread out and appeared on his farm. So Monsanto suit him but he fought and won in the end. Very interesting story on how to stand up and do something. But what I am concerned and more interested about is the fact that I have doubts about the whole approach to food lately. I mean BT-corn is registered as a pesticide! It is a gene from a bacteria carried into the corn-cells by other viruses bacteria or "gene-guns", including an antibiotic marker-gene ... Does that make you any nervous at all? You have non researched consequences of the bacteria gene that produces a toxin which kills organic cells in other creatures and you have a prescription free antibiotic on your plate! Yummy! I honestly do not know what the effects are and we may need some sort of green biotech but with common sense and a bit of background knowledge in nature science this cannot be healthy. And if health is what people want, there has to be another way to obtain it. And I am not talking about the environmental impacts although if thought threw they of course also contribute to our health. We are screwed. Food in the western world has become an industrial product. Since we grind wheat to its snow-white we lost nutrients and gain calories to the point were we add artificial nutrients to the products again and became even sicker and so much other effects occurred. But I guess, if that is what most consider healthy and happy... Way to go! But you may want to excuse me. I like tasty, real & worry-free food that doesn´t grow in boxes! It is just hard to find, sadly. And I am very allergic at times ... 

We used to know more about nature than we know today. We used to know we are creatures living in a biological habitat with all its consequences.

On Beauty

Well, I guess spring is on it´s way slowly but surely. One of the first flowers to appear is Helleborus. I love this little flower... somehow I think it is very sensual but it might be just the fact that they are a promise of upcomming warmer days filled with sunshine and the hopes of coffee outside....

Helleborus orientalis is the botanical name of the very popular, early blooming shade perennial more commonly known as the Lenten Rose. It grows hardy around the world in temperate zones 4-7. In the English speaking world they are known as the Lenten Rose but are not roses at all. They are actually of the Butter Cup family. Their flowers bloom during the Easter celebration of Lent, leading the vernal precession of color in the shady areas of thoughtful perennial gardens. When they are not in bloom they remain as lush ground cover throughout the year; and they are deer proof. This lush, hardy shade perennial is grown and prized by master gardeners throughout the world. The selection I grow here at my nursery produce a mixed symphony of colors ranging from white to pink to purple with many suprise variations in between - I referred to them as a traditional cottage variety. 

I have to tell you about the book I am reading right now. It is Michael Pollan's "In Defence of Food":

GO an GET it! It is a very good holistic approach to what to eat! I really enjoy his rather nature scientific approach to what we need as biological organsims:

"Looking at eating and food, through this ecological lens opens a whole new perspective on exactly what the western diet is: a radical and, at least in evolutionary terms, abrupt set of changes over the course of the last 150 years, not just to our foodstuffs but also to our food relationships [ecological not social relationships], all the way from the soil to the meal."

Talking about food, we tend to separate ourselves from our habitat. Our brain made it possible to be more or less independent from the daily hunt and gathering but nevertheless or system might not be made for boxed and stored food. At the bottom I kind of have the feeling we might still be as biological as any other animal and they don´t eat processed food to often. I guess so should we. So keep in mind: there ain´t cereal-trees out there. And fruits already have vitamins when harvested ripe, so there juice doesn´t need extra vitamins. 

Eat food, not too much and mostly plants! And read the book.