Pollinator Day

I came across this post through Donna of Gardens Eye View. The post says that Monsanto bought one of the leading Bee Research Firm. If you have had enough of juicy Monsanto, and can't take any more bite, then please do not leave the table and hang out a little bit for the cake. And here it is: 

EPA has sided with industry lobbyists over public health in approving a highly dangerous pesticide that the European Union recently decided to ban over fears of environmental devastation.Not only have neonicotinoid pesticides been linked repeatedly to mass bee deaths, also known as Colony Collapse Disorder, but the continued use of such pesticides threatens other aspects of nature (and humans) as well.

You can read the full article here. I talked about the effect of the neonicotinoid pesticide in my blog post located here.

Top up the cake with rich nice icing: For the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are expected to pass 400 parts per million across much of the Northern Hemisphere in May, according to scientists who study data from the Mauna Loa Observatory, the world's longest-running CO2 . The whole article can be found at this address.

So, on one hand we are already experiencing the devastating effects of climate change with drought, Sandy, tornadoes, heavy monsoon, freezing winter or warm winter; and, then on the other hand we are destroying our pollinators. This might sound as conspiracy theory, but I am sure that Monsanto is developing seeds and crops of all sorts of fruits and vegetables which does not need pollinators. When no more pollinators will be left on earth, we-the-gardeners will be forced to buy such Monsanto seeds. In history, we learned about about Genghis Khan, Caesar, Alexander the Great and other such domination by kings and queens. 21st century and beyond will see the domination of companies like Monsanto unless we civilians do something.

So, I was thinking of adopting a pollinator day. All of us gardeners and garden-bloggers will pledge to do something for our pollinators on that day. Perhaps, we can plant some native pollinator-loving plants; or we can swap plants and seeds with our friends/neighbors/bloggers; or discuss about some issue related to pollinators. Again Donna of Gardens Eye View
and her friend Susan of Life Change Compost gave away seeds, that attracts pollinators, to bloggers. We can adopt one such day for northern hemisphere and one such day for southern hemisphere. It should be a weekend and sometime in summer when planting activities are in full swing. What do you all think? Interested? Then, which day shall we choose? May be first Saturday of June when it is not too hot to stress the plants, neither too cold? Also, if you are interested, please spread the word around through your blog and any other related means. We desperately need to do something for mother earth, nature, climate, environment, our friendly pollinators and send a message that when we unite for a good cause, nothing can stand against our way.

On Saturday (May 18, 2013), I bought many native plants from one of the certified, authentic native plants grower and steward of New Jersey, the Wilde Ridge Plants:

Virginia Waterleaf; liatris spicata and monarda didyma. He and his wife has the permission to collect seeds from the wild and propagate. Thus, these are true wild flowers of New Jersey.

I also got from them tall coneflower (Rudbeckia Laciniata), wild strawberry (Fragiria Virginiana) and wild sunflowers. These are all summer bloomers. So, I will post pictures as they bloom.

STOP MONSANTO

Monsanto is trying to infiltrate Vietnam. It already did once because Monsanto was the creator of the agent "Orange," used by the US Military during the Vietnam War which is "estimated to have killed 400,000, deformed 500,000 and sickened another 2 million." Still Vietnamese children are born with birth defects from the exposure to this agent. More details can be found here.

Monsanto has already infiltrated India which has lead to thousands and thousands of farmers committing suicide. Monsanto promises genetically modified crops with higher yields; it also promises farmers that they do not have to use insecticide/pesticide/etc because of the GM crops. The exact opposite is true. Those GM crops, being non-native, fail miserably, especially to pests and insects. For that farmers need to use not only huge quantities of pesticide/insecticide chemicals, but they need to use those that are produced by Monsanto; other chemicals do not work. Also, use of such huge quantities of chemicals lead to more watering of the plants. All these lead to not only huge economic burden for the farmers but also the land and soil become dry and plants fail because of lack of enough water. Result: huge number of suicides by farmers. More details here


Monsanto has created a wave of terror for the small farmers and organic farmers in both the USA and Canada, "In 1996, when Monsanto sold its first patented genetically modified (GMO) seed to farmers, this radically changed the idea of how farmers planted and saved seed. Less than two decades later, Monsanto's aggressive patent infringement lawsuits have created a climate of fear in rural America among farmers." 300,000 (THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND -- that should give you some ideas about how bad Monsanto is; otherwise not so many groups were going to come together) plaintiff groups that include organic farms, farmers, ordinary citizens have come together to pre-emptively sue Monsanto from patenting every seeds on earth and creating a reign of terror. The case has been filed in NY's Federal Court in Manhattan. The preliminary hearing took place on January 31st, 2012. More details can be found here.

We the ordinary people CAN STOP these giant corporations like Monsanto who are trying to rule the world by infringing and patenting the world's natural resources. All we have to do is make some promises:
1. Educate public and especially the farmers of third world countries
2. Do not buy any seeds from companies like Monsanto
3. Do not buy anything from any companies that do business with Monsanto
4. Do not buy any products that are made with genetically modified crops
5. Help and Support the local small-farmers and the organic farmers.
6. Grow one's own at least some vegetables and fruits, in whatever small scale possible.

If the mass population does not buy, then obviously these corporations will not make any profit and will fail.

THE WORLD WITH ALL ITS MYSTERIES AND BEAUTIES AND NATURAL RESOURCES BELONGS TO ALL OF US.