Category: Archive

Organic produce booms in China

admin /28 May, 2006

by Antoaneta Bezlova
 
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0527-03.htm
Published on Saturday, May 27, 2006 by the Inter Press Service

BEIJING – For a country so enamoured of biotechnology and a recognized leader in genetically modified crops research, China is experiencing an organic farming boom.

While the surge is mainly fueled by increased overseas demand, the domestic market is playing a role too. Chinese urbanities have developed a genuine fondness for fresh organic produce– grown particularly in reclaimed wastelands like the ‘Great Northern Wilderness’ in the northeast and believed to be uniquely free of fertilizers and pesticides.

Iraqi massacre worse than Abu Ghraib

admin /28 May, 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2200170,00.html
The Sunday Times May 28, 2006

Sarah Baxter, Washington
Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, Baghdad

PHOTOGRAPHS taken by American military intelligence have provided crucial evidence that up to 24 Iraqis were massacred by marines in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold on the banks of the Euphrates.

One portrays an Iraqi mother and young child, kneeling on the floor, as if in prayer. They have been shot dead at close range.

The pictures show other victims, shot execution-style in the head and chest in their homes. An American government official said they revealed that the marines involved had “suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership”.

The killings are emerging as the worst known American atrocity of the Iraq war. At least seven women and three children were among those killed. Witness accounts obtained by The Sunday Times suggest the toll of children may be as high as six. “This one is ugly,” a US military official said.

Consumption is 50% of the equation

admin /28 May, 2006

I suspect that many of us believe we will be able to transition to new forms of energy without reducing our onsumption or making significant changes in how we live. This is going to be one of the biggest hurdles for us. For those who are trying to promote a gentler, slower, simpler way of Continue Reading →

Teenagers prescribed psycho-drugs

admin /25 May, 2006

TeenScreen is a very controversial so-called "diagnostic psychiatric service" aka suicide survey; done on children who are then referred to psychiatric treatment. The evidence suggests that the objective of the psychiatrists who designed TeenScreen is to place children so selected on psychotropic drugs. "It’s just a way to put more people on prescription drugs," said Continue Reading →

Water exchanges take shape

admin /25 May, 2006

In a scenario outlined in The Australian (19 May 2006 p.7) a typical dairy farm would hold water rights to more than 400 megalitres – worth about $480,000 with water priced at about $1200/ML. Constraints on water allocation and saleability: But under market rules only 4 per cent of the total water in any irrigation Continue Reading →

The Great Iraq Oil Grab

admin /25 May, 2006

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet http://www.alternet.org/story/36463/ There’s a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Pentagon planners wanted to name the invasion of Iraq, "Operation Iraqi Liberation." Only when someone realized that the acronym — O.I.L. — might raise some uncomfortable questions, was "Operation Iraqi Freedom" born. Supporters of the Iraq war airily dismiss chants of "no blood for Continue Reading →