Blog 7 March 19, 2014 Stewardship – Current and Future

Blog 7 March 19, 2014 Stewardship – Current and Future

The Christian faith in the western world has become captive through the assumptions of modern culture which sever God from the creation, and subject the creation to humanity’s arrogant and unrestrained power.  The materialism which has developed has constricted the arena for truth to be known and for certainty to be established.  Now, reality can only be proved rather than accepted by faith.  In other words, the true nature of the world can only be known through the scientific method.  This severs God’s relationship to the creation and the understanding of the modern mind.  In short, nature is commonly understood today as an object on to itself, apart from its relationship to God.  Hence, modern agriculture subdues nature, not works with nature.

In the first chapter of Genesis, the account is related to God’s creation of man in his own image.  God blessed man and gave him dominion over the earth.  The biblical term ‘dominion’ does not mean domination of nature by man, the biblical concept of ‘dominion’ is connected with two other ideas of covenant and stewardship.  

The word ‘dominion’ comes from the Latin word dominari and thus we have in English a phrase “Lord of the Manor has dominion over his estates”.  By this he has to look after all life, and people, in the estate as his duty.

The concept of ‘covenant ‘ deals with God’s covenant with man.  This covenant began in the Garden of Eden and was renewed with Noah, Abraham and Moses.  The covenant specifically states that God will remain faithful to us and will provide everything we need to live.  For our part of the covenant, we are expected to be faithful to God an to live in a loving relationship with him and our fellow creatures.  In this God expects us to take care of the land.  But do we ?

The biblical idea of ‘stewardship’ has become identified with the concept of wide management.  I know understand it to mean much more than just wise management.  To me it is a process of learning from nature and learning to work in harmony with all the natural ecosystems, including, of course, the ecosystem found in the soil.  I have to understand my specific response for stewardship in terms of renewable farming, thus economics cannot be the only criteria.

When I evaluate a specific practice in my farming operation, that practice, hopefully, must be profitable, and it must be practical if it is to be implemented.  I also know that the practice must contribute to the integrity, beauty and harmony of the bionic community. If it does not, it is wrong of me to implement it.  Wendall Berry (see link to his wonderful books below)has written “A family farm is failing because it belongs to an order of values and a kind of life that is fading.”  According to Berry the failure of the rural way of life is at the root of our failure to grasp the complexity of life on earth and the simple truth that our existence depends on how well we take care of the soil.  Christian Stewardship is care keeping of the earth that works to preserve and restore the integrity of the created order.  Doing the will of the Creator and seeking the Creator’s kingdom of integrity and peace… the kingdom devoid of human arrogance, ignorance and greed.  Christian stewardship is till living on earth but heaven will be a shock to us. 

As I consider the future of agriculture, it is my prayer that I will be given renewed ears and renewed eyes for the presence of God in all life and that my farming practices will all be more and more in harmony with the Creator.

I give my belated thanks to fellow farmer Dave Larsen who encouraged me to think these ways.

http://www.wendellberrybooks.com/books.html

Blog #6  March 14, 2014  - Alternative Futures for Agriculture

Quoting from the Presidents US Council of Environmental Quality – source:

Intro

One man’s journey can move from believing what he is told to believing what he sees for himself… this has certainly been Charles’ journey, and that of a fellow commercial farmer that Charles reflects on here David Larsen, who grew corn then grew to understand.  This is another example of how one transforms one’s life, food and journey through mindful observation, experimentation and opening the mind. ~Malki’el

============================================================================================================

These are some observation of the late David Larsen from 1988 who was a commercial corn farmer that I heard of some years ago. Since the time of David’s observations, I think things have become worse, but I think realization of the seriousness has improved.

US Council reports: We are losing a plant or animal species to extinction every 16 minutes.  We may lose in the next 14 years 20% of the remaining species of plants and animals.  The activities of one species, man, are totally responsible for the ecosystem changes causing this devastation.  Further, our water, air and soil are being degraded and depleted.  Soil erosion caused by mineral extraction, reforestation and modern agri-business practices will within the next three decades create the loss of one third of the world’s top soil.

Comment: I personally never hear of a problem of the loss of organic matter in our soils which makes it harder and harder to grow more crops.  David use to hear similar statements of the soil’s depletion, and totally disbelieved their truth at the time, figuring it was a wild outlandish story created by hippies, or those predicting doom and gloom.  His understanding changed. In fact, his position completely reversed after four years of experimenting on his  own soil with his irrigation system attempting to build a non-limiting environment for growing corn.  This experiment helped him understand the error of his thinking. The changes of the eco systems in the soil astounded him.

I wonder how many people would know what to look for in the soil, how many would know what healthy soil looks and smells like?

During his first years as a farmer, David applied extremely high amounts of anhydrous ammonia (400 pound per acre per year), muriate potash (960 pounds per acre per year) and triazine herbicides at one and half times the normal rate in an attempt to raise 300 per bushel  per acre corn with no cultivation. When you obtain yields of this magnitude, the corn is deficient of nutrients and unbalanced. 

Years ago when I was farming commercially, a new hybrid corn was produced by farmers in Ontario with great yields in due course.  This corn was shipped here to Nova Scotia and I fed it to the animals in December.  The corn may have had good yields, and gave more money for the farmer producing it, but the quality of the product was not understood.  The heads on this new hybrid corn  did not drop down as is necessary in order to lose their moisture and dry out properly.  Instead, they retained their moisture and this created aflatoxins in the corn which contaminated the animal feed causing prolapses and abortions in our sows.  

We did not know the impact on our livestock of using this hybrid corn.  David experienced speeding up the process of growing corn which he believed takes place on every conventionally operated farm in the world.  The result of his experiments: he destroyed virtually all of the biological life in the soil.  He could not even find an earth worm in his fields, and the soil’s aerobic zone diminished to 1 ½ inches.  The soil became more difficult to work.  Yes, he sped up the process of trying to enrich the soil that by nature takes 25-100 years to 3 to 4 years, but at an extreme cost.

I saw another example of this when I visited a sugar plantation in Columbia, South America.  I saw 150 hp (or better) tractors standing in the fields with four 14”ploughs.  These tractors were needed to pull the plough through the hard cracked soil that had been treated chemically.  As in David’s observations, the soil had lost its pliancy and flexibility.  Here I use a 60 hp tractor to pull a 14” plough through my fields.  I did see a few organic sugar fields in Columbia, and the soil was beautifully soft and vegetation had a wonderful green hue about it.  Quelle difference!

David had first taken the common approach in his farming that to succeed in growing food it is ‘Man against nature – that’s what life is all about’.  He admitted that he had developed a militaristic attitude of being at war with nature.  He realized in retrospect that he was a product of the thinking of Bacon and Newton, and others, who set forth a view of nature as raw material existing for the sole purpose of being exploited.  He was further influenced by political and economic theorists, such as John Locke and Adam Smith, who suggested that nature only had value when it was turned into something useful.  It had become easy for him to justify the use of the earth in any way at all, as long as individual knowledge, freedom and prosperity were the results.

I feel there is no respect for stewardship in the common approach that the sole criteria for farming is that it be a business.  Farming is not a business, it is a way of life, hence stewardship, but you must be businesslike.  If we can start thinking that way, there is hope for us all. 

Next blog: Stewardship

Blog #5 Further thoughts on genetic engineered (GE) or genetically modified organism (GMOs) – Golden Rice

Blog #5 Part 4 - March 14, 2014

Further thoughts on genetic engineered (GE) or genetically modified organism (GMOs) – Golden Rice 

Food control system specifically referring to Canadian Federal Bill C -18 as reported by National Farmers Union.  As with the last blog in this month please refer to this link and Bill C-18.  Please take the time to read this and refer back to it.

http://www.nfu.ca/story/op-ed-bill-c-18-agricultural-growth-act-growth-whom.

Golden Rice has the potential to boost dietary Vitamin A.  This rice is still not available because of food security and quality are the concerns.  Vitamin A deficiency causes child blindness and death.  In 1997 there was a possible solution – a rice containing a precursal Vitamin A. However, environmental groups were opposed to this rice, they said it was ‘fools gold’ because children who only eat 300 – 400 grams of food per day would need to eat several kilos of it to get their daily requirement of Vitamin A.  It worked out that the rice contained enough Vitamin A to meet a child’s needs but was not proven because the data from the trial was not available.  In 2005, a biotech firm replaced one of the original genes from the narcissus flower with one from maze that produced 20-30 times more beta carotene, a molecule that is split once inside our bodies to make Vitamin A. 

Charities under the World Health Organization have program that provide Vitamin A capsules that have been running for 15 years at a cost of millions of dollars.  The expense of a delivery infrastructure to distribute the capsules in remote areas is also an issue. This does not benefit the poor.

You can obtain Vitamin A from liver, leafy greens, and eggs, but the poor cannot afford these foods. Six thousand children die everyday from Vitamin A deficiency. 

Though the rice would be an answer with increasing the level of Vitamin A, it can only be achieved by genetic engineering, but they say No.  The group from a university in China did experiments the outcome of which was as good as it could be with every 2.3 grams of beta carotene eaten in the rice producing 1 gram of Vitamin A in the blood.

Unfortunately, the research did not fully inform the participants in the trial that their children would be eating something that had been genetically modified.  The problem is still ongoing.  It is sad that the greed of a few vested interested have created so much distress.  Perhaps there is another answer not involving millions of dollars and genetic engineering. 

An alternate solution to genetically modified food...

Here at home, we study the problem as energy deficiency in the food.  Raise the energy of the garden field and the crops will react.  This we have done here and the energy levels have increased ten times plus over ordinary non-organic food.  In part, Vitamin A energy has increased even more.  More testing is needed and I don’t have the facilities nor time for this research.  One needs to consider both the garden and global situations.  But it won’t cost much unlike conventional systems and genetic engineering.  You can energize the soil, seeds and crops and help those who are very poor to restore Vitamin A and other deficiencies. For more information visit www.sacredstewardship.net. 

Why are they poor? Because of the system.  So, as we do here accessing the free cosmic and electromagnetic energies, well known naturally in the past, further experiments and research, while not making money for vested interests, it will save many, many lives.  This is an alternative, so please encourage feedback and experiments encompassing this thinking to take place in Canada and elsewhere. 

For further and current information on the Golden Rice Project (which has been recently revived), and to come to your own conclusions,  please visit the website http://www.goldenrice.org. Another interesting website to review is http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/grocery_shopping/crops/24.genetically_modified_rice.html - you can also check the news and global approach to GM food on this site – again to come to your own conclusions.

Enough for now about GE food, next blog is about Alternative Futures for Agriculture!

Blog #4 Part 3 March 3, 2014

Further thoughts on genetic engineered (GE) food or genetically modified organism (GMOs). 

Food control system specifically referring to Canadian Federal Bill C -18 as reported by National Farmers Union.  As with the last blog in this month please refer to this link and Bill C-18.  Please take the time to read this and refer back to it.

http://www.nfu.ca/story/op-ed-bill-c-18-agricultural-growth-act-growth-whom.

Continuing on with the myths from the last blog…

These myths are important to rationalize who expects to gain what for money or common decency. 

Myth #6 One can always choose not to eat GE (genetically engineered) food. Fact: At present most foods on supermarket shelves containing GE ingredients are not labeled, therefore, there is no way of knowing whether we are eating them or not.  GE products are likely to be found in foods containing the following ingredients: soya flour and oil, (in many common foods such as breads, sausages etc.), lecithin (in chocolate and ice cream), canola oil corn extracts.

Myth #7 Farmers benefit from growing GE crops.  Facts:  Seeds of GE crops are more expensive than those of conventional crops.  Farmers in the UK and USA report that yields are generally no better, the crops are less reliable, and overall have not improved profitability. Non-GE crops now receive a premium from the buyer and as more countries reject GE foods the opportunities to sell GE produce overseas are diminishing.  Because of risks associated with GE crops, insurance companies in the USA and UK are now reluctant to insure them. Farmers growing GE crops have to sign binding contracts with the biotechnology producers.  These commit them to using only the herbicides produced by that company and prohibit them from the traditional practice of saving seed for the next season. Most third world farmers will not benefit.

Myth #8 GE crops will reduce use of herbicides, fungicides and pesticides. Fact: Crops engineered to be resistant to specific herbicides may encourage more liberal use of the herbicides.  This has been anticipated by one manufacturer who has applied to ANZFA (Australian New Zealand Food Authority) to have the allowable residue of the herbicide glythosate (Roundup) in foods sold in New Zealand increased by 200 times. In areas of the USA, where crops engineered to produce their own insecticide are grown, pesticide has not decreased.

Myth #9 There is no evidence that GE crops are harmful to the environment. Fact: Insects, birds and the wind carry genetically altered pollen and seeds into neighbouring fields and far beyond. Cross pollination occurs between GE crops and non-GE crops and their wild relatives. In this way resistant to weed killer, for example, might be transmitted to weeds making them more difficult to control.  There is evidence that crops engineered to produce their own insecticide can kill beneficial insects.

Myth #10 GE crops will save the world from famine. Fact: A major cause of famine is the unequal global distribution of food.  Food mountains exist in much of the western world and food is regularly dumped (wasted).  Poor people have limited ability to buy either GE or non-GE food.  There is no evidence that GE crops produce higher yields than conventional crops, or that GE products will be cheaper.

Myth #11 You can trust the scientists that GE is good for you and the world.  Fact: money for scientific research on GE here and overseas comes from either the biotechnology companies or the government.  Both are committed to the promises of biotechnology, this means even when scientists have concerns about the safety or the commercial application of the technology, it is often hard for them to risk their careers by being openly critical. When a respected scientist in the UK spoke up about his experimental results during damaging effects of feeding rats on a type of genetically engineered potato, he was immediately fired from his job.

Myth #12 You can’t stop progress.  Fact: No, of course we can’t, why would we want to. Progress implies change for the better, change for the worse is a regression.  We must be sure that GE products have benefits for the consumer and are safe if they are to be introduced into our foods.  We must not commit ourselves to the dubious technology that cannot be reversed.

Myth #13 There are more important things to worry about than GE foods.  Fact: Many scientists don’t think so, for example, Joseph Rotblat (of Pugwash, NS fame), British Physicist who won the 1995 Nobel Prize, says “My worry is that other advances in science may result in other means of mass destruction, may be more readily available even than nuclear weapons, genetic engineering is quite a possible area, because of these dreadful developments that are taking place there.”

The next blog with be discussing Golden Rice…

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and educate yourself further on GE foods.