Eat More Organic! Four Corners TV programme .. on Dioxins, dangerous chemical crop spraying, in Australia ...

Am watching a vitally important programme on 4 Corners about chemical 2,4-D and its effects on health, our crops and the astounding fact that this well-known dioxin is still being sprayed as a herbicide and I believe as a pesticide in Australia.  Many of us were wrongly of the belief that dioxins had been banned long ago, in this country. Not so, it seems.

The point of the programme is that unsafe chemicals are still being used within our environment without our realising and that we are continuing to imbibe them whether through breathing the air, eating produce grown near where they've been distributed, drinking water seeping through from contaminated groundwater or directly by the people spraying the chemicals and their families who are then exposed to the chemicals as well.

Ten kilometres of chemical drift are occurring on to market gardening properties affecting the sex of the crops, causing two cobs to form and other types of plant deformities. When flowers and fruit form this is a particularly volatile time of impact.

One company had announced it was going to review the use of the chemical back in 1995 but as still taking action on the matter 11 years later.  The stories of Australian men back in the 1970s spraying  both 2,4-D and agent orange (that was banned) on to crops and weeds without protective masks, footwear and clothing who are deceased or dying from dioxin poisoning still all theses decades later are horribly shocking but must be seen, to convince us of the power of the chemicals industry and how we are still today so compliant in their every day administration.

Am watching this programme whilst typing, therefore some details need to be verified by watching the programme back on I View (given that I'm typing this in somewhat of a hurry).

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/?series=2303988#/series/2303988.

One really insidious aspect is the lack of information about the source of 2,4-D and insufficient testing and regulation abut the presence of dioxin, and the fact that toxicity can be minimised with enough care and attention.  What is astonishing is that the substances supplied by China, and being tested by 4 Corners representatives are allegedly of higher toxicity levels than were being used 20 years ago!

Go to the ABC - 4 Corners link above to watch back this compelling and shocking story.

If this is not sufficient food for thought to get more of us growing our own, or eating organic food, I don't know what is.

At CERES making sustainability fun

T'was a gorgeous mid winter day at CERES today, (for those who don't know it's the local centre for energy research and environmental studies) having lunch with some people.  I learned it's possible to get sun-burnt even in the winter. My friend was clever enough to remember the sunscreen but not I. Was reminded that I must post another blog on to my bloomingandbold blogspot, as it's been a while!

Learning welsh, work,  plus house maintenance (an 80 year old house does keep you occupied keeping everything opening and shutting) plus family commitments mean that one has to scratch a few extra minutes to write on my Converse Conserve.com website and of course here.  Having a firm interest in the ways we share our green messages, I was reading the Age and discovered a band who are off to the Glastonbury festival, who refer to themselves as Eco Minstrels.

They are called the Formidable Vegetable Sound System  (see You tube video) and theirs is a very unique way of promoting permaculture in the form of vegie growing antics, swing, acid jazz and funk.  They speak about their sound and presentation as yet another way of making sustainability fun.  And I think it works! Speaking of home grown produce, tried some persimmons today from a friend's garden - they are very tasty but leave a strange sensation in the mouth.