Can gentically engineered foods help feed the hungry? Are anti-GMO activists and over-zealous environmentalists standing in the way of the hungry being fed? The hope that GMO foods might bring solutions to malnutrition and world hunger was never more dramatically illustrated than when Time magazine ran a cover story titled "Grains of Hope." The article joyfully announced the development of a genetically engineered "golden rice." This new strain of GM rice has genes from viruses and daffodils spliced into its genetic instructions. The result is a form of rice that is a golden-yellow color (much like daffodil flowers), and that produces beta-carotene, which the human body normally converts into Vitamin A. Nearly a million children die every year because they are weakened by Vitamin A deficiencies and an additional 350,000 go blind. Golden rice, said Time, will be a godsend for the half of humanity that depends on rice for its major staple. Merely eating this rice could prevent blindness and death. The development of golden rice was, it seemed, compelling and inspiring evidence that GM crops are the answer to malnutrition and hunger. Time quoted former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: "Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy, starvation is." Shortly after the Time cover story, Monsanto and other biotechnology companies launched a $50 million marketing campaign, including $32 million in TV and print advertising. The ads, complete with soft focus fields and smiling children, said that "biotech foods could help end world hunger." Other ad campaigns have followed. One Monsanto ad tells the public: "Biotechnology is one of tomorrow's tools in our hands today. Slowing its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford." Within a few months, the biotech industry had spent far more on these ads than it had on developing golden rice. Their purpose? "Unless I'm missing something," wrote Michael Pollan in The New York Times Magazine, "the aim of this audacious new advertising campaign is to impale people like me -- well-off first-worlders dubious about genetically engineered food -- on the horns of a moral dilemma ... If we don't get over our queasiness about eating genetically modified food, kids in the third world will go blind." The implication of the ads is that lifesaving food is being held hostage by anti-science activists. In the years since Time proclaimed the promises of golden rice, however, we've learned a few things. For one thing, we've learned that golden rice will not grow in the kinds of soil that it must to be of value to the world's hungry. To grow properly, it requires heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides -- expensive inputs unaffordable to the very people that the variety is supposed to help. And we've also learned that golden rice requires large amounts of water -- water that might not be available in precisely those areas where Vitamin A deficiency is a problem, and where farmers cannot afford costly irrigation projects. And one more thing -- it turns out that golden rice doesn't work, even in theory. Malnourished people are not able to absorb Vitamin A in this form. And even if they could, they'd have to eat an awful lot of the stuff. An 11-year-old boy would have to eat 27 bowls of golden rice a day in order to satisfy his minimum requirement for the vitamin. I'm sure that given enough time and enough money, some viable genetically modified (GM) crops could be developed that contain more nutrients or have higher yields. But I'm not sure that even if that were to happen, it would actually benefit the world's poor. Monsanto and the other biotech companies aren't developing these seeds with the intention of giving them away. If people can't afford to buy GM seeds, or if they can't afford the fertilizers, pesticides and water the seeds require, they'll be left out. Poverty is at the root of the problem of hunger. As Peter Rosset, director of Food First, reminds us, "People do not have Vitamin A deficiency because rice contains too little Vitamin A, but because their diet has been reduced to rice and almost nothing else." And what, pray tell, has reduced these people to such poverty and their diets to such meager fare? In the words of the British writer George Monbiot: The world has a surplus of food, but still people go hungry. They go hungry because they cannot afford to buy it. They cannot afford to buy it because the sources of wealth and the means of production have been captured and in some cases monopolized by landowners and corporations. The purpose of the biotech industry is to capture and monopolize the sources of wealth and the means of production ... GM technology permits companies to ensure that everything we eat is owned by them. They can patent the seeds and the processes which give rise to them. They can make sure that crops can't be grown without their patented chemicals. They can prevent seeds from reproducing themselves. By buying up competing seed companies and closing them down, they can capture the food market, the biggest and most diverse market of all. No one in her right mind would welcome this, so the corporations must persuade us to focus on something else ... We are told that ... by refusing to eat GM products, we are threatening the developing world with starvation, an argument that is, shall we say, imaginative ... With rare exceptions, genetically engineered crops are being created not because they're productive or because they address real human needs, but because they're patentable. The biotech companies have invested billions of dollars because they sense in this technology the potential for enormous profit and the means to gain control over the world's food supply. Their goal is not to help subsistence farmers feed themselves. Their goal is maximum profit. While Monsanto would like us to believe they are seeking to alleviate world hunger, there is actually a very dark side to the company's efforts. For countless centuries farmers have fed humanity by saving the seed from one years crop to plant the following year. But Monsanto, the company that claims its motives are to help feed the hungry, has developed what it calls a "Technology Protection System" that renders seeds sterile. Commonly known as "terminator technology" and developed with taxpayer funding by the USDA and Delta & Pine Land Company (an affiliate of Monsanto), the process genetically alters seeds so that their offspring will be sterile for all time. If employed, this technology would ensure that farmers cannot save their own seeds, but would have to come back to Monsanto year after year to purchase new ones. Critics refer to these genetically engineered seeds as suicide seeds. "By peddling suicide seeds, the biotechnology multinationals will lock the world's poorest farmers into a new form of genetic serfdom," says Emma Must of the World Development Movement. "Currently 80 percent of crops in developing countries are grown using farm-saved seed. Being unable to save seeds from sterile crops could mean the difference between surviving and going under." To Monsanto and other GMO companies, the terminator and other seed sterilizing technologies are simply business ventures that are designed to enhance profits. In this case, there is not even the implication of benefit to consumers. I wish I could speak more highly of GM foods and their potential. But the technology is now held tightly in the hands of corporations whose motives are, I'm afraid, very different from what they would have us believe. Despite the PR, Monsanto's goal is not to make hunger history. It's to control the staple crops that feed the world. Will GMOs help end world hunger? I don't think so. John Robbins is the author of many bestsellers including "The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World," the classic "Diet For A New America" and "The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less." He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson Award, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, the Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award and Green America's Lifetime Achievement Award. To learn more about his work, visit www.johnrobbins.info This Blogger's Books from The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less by John Robbins Food Revolution, The: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World by John Robbins Many supporters of GMO seeds, are Monsanto supporters. Who is in charge of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service ? I believe it was Tom Vilsack,who is now a member of the cabnit our current Secretary.Who is Tom Vilsack?Google him and find out. Our Supreme Court Justice,Clarence Thomas,,,Used to Work for who> Monsanto.and several top positions in the Food and Drug Administration,and the Department of Agriculture,all filled with former Monsanto Lobbyist, do you really want to believe any thing these people say? I can post more articall s,but I will not, enough has been said,if you are interested at all, in what you, your children,and grandchildren are eating, do your research,,make up your own mind,in the mean time,keep saving your seeds.You might want to google, how many seed saving banks are left here in the U.S., compared to how many there used to be, and why. cAROL

Oh My Goodness! I got my BOX today from Miss Wendy!! Holy Cow!! First, lemme tell you...she put my address on a large ORANGEcolor> sheet of paper. With googly eyes!! The kids liked that. :O) Then, as I opened it up...the kids looking over my shoulder...they all screamed..."A BOX FULL OF CANDY! CANDY CANDY CANDY!!" To which I said...with large stick in hand..."DOWN DOWN DOWN, YOU JACKELS!! It's not like you've never gotten candy before!!!" (ok, maybe not with a stick...but I sure needed one!!) So, with kids climbing over me, on me and around me, I *tried* to write everything down as I found it in the box. Please forgive me, Wendy, if I missed anything! ~An orange & black rubber snake (Adora took off with this) ~A multi-colored skeleton light set ~A LARGE LARGE bowl of CANDY, puzzles, pencils, rubber skeletons & bats, halloween jewelry, whoopee cushions...Just TONS of stuff!! ~A bag of spider web (decorative, not real..LOL..) ~Bottles of Pumpkin bubbles ~Iris- "superstition" ~Mini mugs- pumpkins, kitties & ghosts! ~An IV bag of blood (cherry liquid candy...but STILL GROSS!! ICK!!! LOL) ~Ghost & pumpkin tealight candles ~VANILLA BEAN ORCHID!!! Yay!!! :O) ~Seeds!! Tons and tons of SEEDS!!! Some in cute halloween bags! Let me try to list them all..... corn-bloody butcher pansy- black devil eggplant-ghostbuster white cosmos-psycho white blackberry lily bird's eye sunflower-black oil sunflower-autumn beauty night phlox- midnight candy dahlia-black beauty watermelon-white wonder bachelor button-boy midnight scabiosa-black knight chrysanthemum-court jester viola-bowle's black blood flower snapdragon-black prince maltese cross tomato-black prince batwing acorn squash cup plant black peony poppy carrot-atomic red carrot-cosmic purple cauliflower-purple of sicily pink popcorn beetberry strawberry spinach german strawberry tomato bloomsdale long standing spinach majoram watermelon-desert king asparagus-mary washington banana melon huckleberry rhubarb ground cherry dianthus-spooky sunflower=cherry rose hollyhock-red dahlia-early bird mix pure white poppy lion's tail sunflower-dwarf teddy bear apple scented gold pompoms catchfly black eyed susan-goldilocks scarlet flax schizanthus butterfly orchid zinnia- carousel mix clematis-kilian donahue bells of ireland red sun sunflower gloriosa daisy poppy-drama queen soapwort-bouncing bet pink gas plant carnation hollyhocks oriental poppy partridge pea mg-sunspot tartarian honeysuckle coreopsis-early sunrise hollyhock-summer carnival cosmos-ladybird lemon calendula-mixed mexican hat old fashioned lilac WHAT A BOX!!! Oh! I forgot the wind-up chattering teeth! The kids are having so much fun with those!! :O)

Raven, I still have the temporaries. I put off getting the permanent ones, and now I can't remember why. Then I wasn't happy with the perms, and even though I had signed off on them, they are making them over. There were a few little tweaks, and my knee surgery was coming up. I told the girl in the office to make my appointment any time, but I was having surgery around Feb. 10. So she called me the weekend before to say she had an appointment for me on Feb. 10th. I told her, I couldn't do it then....going in hospital. I told her I would get back with her once I got the PT schedules worked out. I have been going to PT twice a week, plus I fractured my arm....seeing one doctor for that, going back to see the knee doctor and my regular doctor and then the last two weeks I have just been absolutely worn out. The knee surgery left me anemic, so I had two units of blood and I haven't been able to bounce back. I understand this is common. Add to that, I have been unable to sleep for the past two weeks. I might get to sleep an hour...if that. So, I have been worn out. I told her yesterday I would call the first of the week and make an appointment. I think the all on four covers everything...including pulling teeth and I doubt if that would diminish the cost. It is pretty much a set price. Although insurance would probably cover that....I don't think it would make a difference in how much Brueggen charges. I could be wrong....but I think that is correct. I don't believe insurance covers any of it, as far as what Brueggen goes. I remember him saying on one of his videos that insurance doesn't cover it, but they have ways of financing it. I couldn't afford to finance it, and wouldn't have been able to have it done, but Jody got an insurance settlement from being hurt on the job, and that is where the money came from. I hate having my picture taken....but here is a picture that shows my teeth a little bit. I bent down to take a pic of me and my dog. Well.....at least I got the teeth in the pic.

No, but that's another fairly common characteristic in this demographic. I had two instructors for most of my major design courses. One said he didn't remember ever designing a bathroom with, or having a client ask for, a bidet in 30-odd years of practice. The other designer said nearly all his clients had one, or wanted to make room for one, and that it was a "must have" for most of his clients at least in their master baths. If you saw their portfolio of work, it was obvious that they were never going to have overlapping clients. If I can say anything about their work, you could tell from what their living room portfolios looked like that one was designing for clients who did not want bidets, and the other one was designing for clients who almost assuredly did have bidets. You didn't have to see the bathroom to just know.