The Daily Blog Open Mic Monday 14th December 2015

1. here is another reason NOT to sign and to OPPOSE the TPP

   …another merger multinational corporation which New Zealand land and farmers and legislators will have no protection from( Labour Party where are you?)

   ‘$130b mega-merger: Dow, Dupont to form world’s largest agrochemical entity’

   https://www.rt.com/usa/325668-dow-dupont-merger-chemical/

   ….”The Pesticide Action Network calls Dow, Dupont, BASF, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bayer the ‘Big 6’ of the seed, pesticide, and biotechnology industries. The companies “have historically unprecedented power over world agriculture, enabling them to control the agricultural research agenda, heavily influence trade and agricultural agreements and subvert market competition,” the organization says…

   “Dow and Dupont have a combined annual revenue of around $83 billion, with operating profit of about $15 billion.

   Dupont and Dow Chemical have long been criticized for their track records regarding environmental stewardship. For decades, Dupont refused to take responsibility for toxic pollutants spilled into the Ohio River, it has been alleged in federal court. In October, a West Virginia woman was awarded $1.6 million after it was determined that Dupont chemicals contaminated water supply, contributing to her kidney cancer. The company has also received scrutiny of its release of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used to make non-stick products like Teflon cookware. The American Cancer Society said the chemical causes higher risks of bladder and kidney cancers in those with workplace exposure to it.

   READ MORE: 25,000 killed, 500,000 poisoned: Bhopal demands justice 30 yrs after world’s worst chem disaster

   Dow was responsible for producing napalm, the chemical used by the US military to devastate populations in Vietnam. Its subsidiary, Union Carbide, was responsible for the deaths of thousands in Bhopal, India, in 1984 following a massive leak of a chemical used to make pesticide. Dow continues to refuse to clean the site or to fund medical initiatives to address the spill’s ongoing aftermath, the company’s critics say.”

   • Good one Chooky.

     And let’s not forget also that Dupont was responsible for supplying the gas to the Nazis, used to commit mass genocide!

     Every time I hear or read the name of that obscene company, it sends shivers down my spine for the evil it profited from!

2. Russia certainly sees the importance of and the marketing advantage of organic foods

   ‘Putin wants Russia to become world’s organic food superpower but first hopes to clip Turkey’s wings’ by Bryan MacDonald

   “Vladimir Putin’s annual parliamentary address, roughly equivalent to America’s ‘State of the Union,’ was heavy on talk of fighting terror. However, his proposals for organic agriculture reform may prove a lasting legacy…

   An organic dawn
   As the Kremlin has rejected the idea of GMO food production, now a mainstay of American agriculture, Russia could become the world’s principal supplier of high-quality organic food. Meaning there is potential to dominate the “high-end” market in both the West and in other wealthy countries – like China and the Middle Eastern states.

   “We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing,” said Putin….

   • Maori Go Organic and Self -Sufficient … Back to their roots

     Dr Jessica Hutchings

     http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201782628/dr-jessica-hutchings

     “Dr Jessica Hutchings is a kaupapa Maori researcher who says that growing food for one’s community is a political act. She is promoting Maori food sovereignty and the system called hua parakore – Maori organic growing, which involves organic practices grounded in a Maori world view.”

3. (This article caught my eye before I even realised that Chris Perley stands for the Green Party. He has a background in strategy, policy , research and operational management in provincial economies and land use. In my opinion, he would make a great Minister of Agriculture)

   To summarise, in ‘The NZ Farmers Weekly’ ‘Money root of industrial cruelty’ Perley argues:

   “Most family-run farms do not make a practice of cruelty and undignified death.( This is my experience also)

   But there are operations where such things happen. And the first question to ask is why, identify that deeper cause and deal with that.

   It is the changing values underpinning how we look at land, community, people, animals and land use that are the deeper roots to this debacle.

   And it is the systems that proclaim and reinforce the soulless and mechanical view: produce more , cheaper, never mind downstream, people are cogs, animals aren’t even that

   …Our target ought to be to remove the beast. And that monster is the pervasive industrial corporate thinking and its narrow and short-term money lens, which makes us leass , not more, wealthy in the long-term…

   New Zealand’s love affair with industrial commoditisation is a race to a Third World bottom, digging ever deeper…family farmers have to stand up against this rising tide of the commoditisation of life and land and to all the associated advocacy of genetically modified organisms, intensification, pollution and ever more commodities.

   There is another path: go value, not volume.”

4. JK is raving on about his flag again.

   If the silver fern is so important why does the chosen flag have a white feather?

   Is it just because silver is a difficult colour to find in a fabric, or some more complicated reason?

   • @ Groucho Marxist –

     As the silver fern is also a protected corporate logo, should FJK’s flag become that of NZ, it makes me wonder how much in ongoing copyright/intellectual property right fees the nation would have to pay for its use for ever more!

5. @chooky – food in the future ( probably sooner than we think ) is going to be a huge issue. Not sure NZ is heading in quite the ‘right’ direction.

6. The poll on this page to the right is crazy, dodgy and stupidly unrealistic!
   Pretty worthless as a reasonable poll of any significance!

   Q : Who would you vote for if an election was announced tomorrow?

   A: Labour (29%, 462 Votes)
   Greens (29%, 462 Votes)

   – See more at: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/12/14/tdb-political-caption-competition-90/#sthash.PsITQQvN.dpuf

   • it is a reflection of the readership here surely?

     • Yes, it is.
       It could also be the liars lying for whatever reason.

7. The demise of #D plays out tonight. Some might see the episode as indulgent and self-flagellation.
   Look behind what is at stake however. There goes a few decent journalists into something I hope isn’t oblivion.
   Stay staunch/ There will be a resurrection.
   It amazes me at times how much we’ve undervalued some of the people involved *not the least of whom is a Michael Morrah for example – who’d be the current generation of a Michael Field in terms of Pacific issues expertise).

   When (WHEN not IF) public service broadcasting is resurrected, there are a few people who have an understanding of what it all means, what is required, and how to begin again – the rest we might have to poach from overseas, or call back the many that have already left in disgust.

   The first thing I personally would like to see is some sort of analysis of those responsible for public service broadcasting’s demise.
   (It won;t happen ovenight, but it WILL happen – as the Panteen lady used to say)

   • +100…”The first thing I personally would like to see is some sort of analysis of those responsible for public service broadcasting’s demise.”

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