Indigo Society, a forum for Indigo Children and Adults - The Living Earth http://indigosociety.com/ Simply everything about our beautiful Earth. en Mon, 20 May 2013 05:04:47 GMT vBulletin 60 http://indigosociety.com/images/misc/rss.png Indigo Society, a forum for Indigo Children and Adults - The Living Earth http://indigosociety.com/ My little green friend http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70285-My-little-green-friend&goto=newpost Sun, 19 May 2013 10:31:45 GMT I've been sick all week from a nasty upper respiratory infection. And I awakened myself coughing at about 4am this morning. I awoke from a funny dream too, I was eating something that looked like a marshmallow and said to myself, “hmm.. that what time tastes like.” I snickered to myself after I stopped coughing. Remembering my dream.

Anyway you never know what kind of encounters you are going to have during the twilight hours and that's what this little story is about.

I got out of bed and made a cup of hot tea, I made sure to put some honey and lemon in it. I turned on the light in the kitchen and made my tea. I decided to sit in the recliner chair in the family room but didn't feel like turning on the lights there. I did however open the drapes so I could see outside.


I sat in my chair and leaned back carefully holding a very hot cup of tea. I took a couple sips and closed my eyes. When I opened them I watched some dust floating down toward my cup. It was kind of strange seeing a speck of dust so large I thought. I took a breath and blew it away. I again took a sip of tea and relaxed. I stared outside into the darkness I could just about see the sun starting to lighten the sky. I smiled and turned back to my cup of tea, Then I saw it again, that same speck of dust floating over my cup.


This time however it was closer to me then before and I realized what it was. The light wafting in from the kitchen finally allowed me a glimpse of what I thought was dust. It was a little green spider. Maybe no bigger then a ball point pen tip. It had made a line right from the ceiling to just over my cup.


I watched as this little spider moved its way down toward my cup. It was within an inch or so before I decided to do something.


First I said, “Dude I don't think you want to go in there. That pool is pretty hot.”


Then I reached up grabbing it's web and gently moved it to the plants I had near the window. I didn't see the spider so I figured it grabbed onto one of the plant leaves. I kept looking but decided to lean back again and finish enjoying my tea.



A few minutes passed and I felt something tickle the hair on my arm. I looked but didn't see anything. I'm still run down from this cold or whatever it is that I have.

I was enjoying my tea and went to take another sip and then I noticed it. The little spider was climbing up a web right under my cup. I didn't freak out but I did watch as it was climbing up toward my hand. And at 4am I don't know about anyone else but sometimes you just get curious about things. And I decided to have a conversation with my little guest. It kind of went like this and was pretty one sided.



I asked what do you want with my tea?
Didn't you like the plants?
I cant believe you made a web from the ceiling trying to reach my cup.
Do you want some tea? I can make you a cup if you like. But this ones mine.


I laughed a little and reached out to grab the web again, but this time the little green guy moved really fast and I almost didn't get its web in time. And it was close to my finger. I sat there holding the web again between my fingers and watch as the little spider climbed onto my finger nail.


I was thinking to myself should I just fling him/her off or perhaps squash it on my nail or maybe take it over to the plants again but put it on a different one.


I decided to ask my little friend instead of making the decision. And choose it's own fate.


So I did.


I asked my questions looking for any kind of response after each one but didn't see any, not even any movement. That was until I asked if it wanted a different plant, at that question it turned away or toward me. I really couldn't tell. So I figured that's what it wanted. So I got out my my chair and carried my little friend to a new perch. And I watched as I moved over one plant, a little citrus tree. It started making a web down so I gently placed it down on a leaf.



“OK if that's the one you want, have fun. ” I said and watched as it walked under a leaf and disappeared.


That was it. I took my last sip of tea and headed back to bed. Can't wait to be rid of this cold. ]]> The Living Earth DragonSpark http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70285-My-little-green-friend <![CDATA[Aquabounty's GMO Salmon]]> http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70121-Aquabounty-s-GMO-Salmon&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 11:39:04 GMT Article copied from: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/05/184874/activists-fight-fda-approval-of.html#.UZIcD9uF_Ss Posted on Tuesday, March 5,... Article copied from: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/05/184874/activists-fight-fda-approval-of.html#.UZIcD9uF_Ss

Posted on Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Activists fight FDA approval of AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon

Salmon fishermen mend their nets. | Philip A Dwyer/MCT

By Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Every summer since 1979, Kim Hubert has fished for sockeye salmon in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. It’s a family business in tiny Togiak that has, from time to time, also employed his wife and three children.
Hubert and his 21-year-old daughter work the nets now. They’re small permit holders who may catch and sell thousands of salmon in their nets each year, depending on the success of the run.
"We’ve got a fish camp out there, we enjoy the people and the bay and the work," said Hubert, 58, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Eagle River. "Some years we lose a few bucks, and some years we make a few."
They and other fishermen have been casting a wary eye on Washington, where the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based company with a lab on Prince Edward Island in Canada and growing facilities in Panama, may sell genetically engineered salmon to consumers in the United States.
More than 33,000 fishermen, environmentalists, food safety advocates and others have written to the FDA with concerns about the agency’s preliminary findings. Among the worries is that the genetically engineered fish might escape and mix with wild salmon. The company says that’s unlikely, not only because the fish are sterile but also because of its production process.
But there’s a reason that Alaska bans salmon fish farms in the state, the Sitka Conservation Society, an environmental group in southeast Alaska, said in its letter to the FDA. They fear that the company will expand to the U.S., where the fish would be closer to native salmon populations.
"These farms pollute water with concentrated fish waste and feed, spread sea lice and ultimately lead to escapement and interbreeding," the organization said. "If genetically modified salmon are permitted, it will be only a matter of time before they are muddling the pure wild population in Alaska."
Mostly, though, fishermen in Alaska fear that the new, faster-growing farmed fish would threaten their livelihood eventually by flooding the market with cheap fish. They’re also pressing for the AquaBounty salmon to be labeled as genetically engineered because they think that their wild-caught, more expensive product is superior. They want no confusion in the marketplace.
"In some ways I felt threatened," Hubert said. "The threat may not be immediate, but I think down the line there could be some repercussions. We’ve had a lot of issues with labeling, and the ability (of consumers) to choose and know where the fish come from: what kind of stocks, whether they’re farmed or wild fish."
The AquaBounty fish are Atlantic salmon that have been genetically altered with growth genes from a Chinook salmon and a sea eel. That makes them grow faster than other farmed Atlantic salmon, although they don’t get any bigger than regular salmon.
The FDA issued a preliminary finding in late December that the fish, known as the AquAdvantage Salmon, is as safe as eating conventional Atlantic salmon and that there’s a reasonable certainty of no harm in consuming it. The agency also issued a draft environmental assessment that there’s little chance of environmental harm from farming the fish.
However, after pressure from Congress – especially from Alaska lawmakers – the FDA in February extended the public comment period on its findings by 60 days. People have until April 26 to weigh in, and after that the agency will decide whether to issue a final report or pursue a more comprehensive environmental impact statement.
AquaBounty executives aren’t currently granting interviews. The company’s last public statement came in mid-February, when the FDA announced that it would extend the comment period. AquaBounty Chief Executive Officer Ron Stotish said at the time that they weren’t pleased with the delay.
Some food safety advocates are pushing for the FDA to do a full environmental review. They’re also petitioning the agency to consider the AquaBounty fish as a food additive rather than as an animal drug. The FDA uses its animal drug process to consider the safety of all potential genetically modified animals sold as food.
That change would make the approval process more transparent, as well as focus on the safety of the salmon as food, said Patty Lovera, the assistant director of Food & Water Watch. It joined Consumers Union, which is the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, and the nonprofit Center for Food Safety to petition the FDA.
“We just think it’s really deficient on the food front,” Lovera said. “What do we really know about allergies? What do we know about nutrition profile? That stuff’s really sketchy in that application that they put in. And we’d like to see a lot more of that, considering you’re going to eat the whole thing.”
People and animals already consume plenty of genetically modified grains, which aren’t required to be labeled in the U.S. A ballot measure requiring such labeling failed recently in California.
But the fish are the first genetically engineered animals being considered for human consumption in the U.S., and the approval process is being closely watched in the biotech field.
There’s a huge market for heart-healthy fish: Salmon is the second most popular seafood consumed in the U.S., behind tuna. And an estimated 91 percent of the seafood consumed in this country is imported; about half of that is from aquaculture.
Even if the AquaBounty fish is approved, however, supermarkets won’t be flooded with genetically engineered fish anytime soon, said Gregory Jaffe, the director of biotechnology at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy organization. Jaffe was on the FDA advisory panel that reviewed the safety of the salmon in 2010 and found no cause for alarm.
AquaBounty would have to reapply to the FDA to expand operations.
“They talked about hundreds of tons of salmon a year. We import hundreds of thousands of tons of salmon a year,” Jaffe said. “So maybe it’ll be slightly easier to eat one of these salmon steaks than to win the lottery. But if someone wanted to find one of these salmon steaks out there to eat, it’s going to take a little effort.”
That hasn’t stopped lawmakers from Western states from fighting the FDA findings – or at a minimum, seeking a requirement that genetically engineered salmon be labeled. Consumer groups are making the same push.
“Any fish that is labeled as wild-caught, or Alaskan, might see some of its market actually go up,” said Michael Hansen, a senior scientist for Consumers Union. “Since this will not be labeled, people would not know whether the regular salmon they’re buying is engineered or not.”
In his mid-February statement, AquaBounty’s Stotish noted that no new facts had been introduced since the FDA’s findings late last year and that the company doesn’t think the additional comment period “materially affects our chances for approval.”
“There has been neither new information nor a clear legal or regulatory issue raised by the FDA since that time,” he said in the statement.
AquaBounty says in its press materials that it wants its fish to be labeled “Atlantic salmon.” The company says the nutritional and biological composition of its AquAdvantage Salmon is identical to Atlantic salmon, and therefore doesn’t require additional labeling based on its method of production.
The company notes that it supports voluntary branding by the farmers who grow its salmon, to identify what it calls "the environmentally friendly benefits of this product."
An FDA spokeswoman, Theresa Eisenman, said a decision hadn’t yet been made regarding labeling AquAdvantage Salmon.
The FDA since 1992 has considered bioengineered foods to be no different from other foods “in any meaningful or uniform way.” The agency supports voluntary labeling that provides consumers with such information, however.



Email: ebolstad@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @ErikaBolstad ]]> The Living Earth Patricia1970 http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70121-Aquabounty-s-GMO-Salmon The Latest Buzz on Disappearing Honeybees http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70039-The-Latest-Buzz-on-Disappearing-Honeybees&goto=newpost Sat, 11 May 2013 17:29:52 GMT Yet another reason to go organic and say no to GMO's.

"One of every three bites of food eaten worldwide depends on pollinators, especially bees, for a successful harvest. And in the past several months, a scramble in California’s almond groves has given the world a taste of what may lie in store for food production if the widespread — and still puzzling — decimation of bee colonies continues.

For much of the past 10 years, beekeepers, primarily in the United States and Europe, have been reporting annual hive losses of 30 percent or higher, substantially more than is considered normal or sustainable. But this winter, many U.S. beekeepers experienced losses of 40 to 50 percent or more, just as commercial bee operations prepared to transport their hives for the country’s largest pollinator event: the fertilizing of California’s almond trees"... the full article can be accessed through the link.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/declini...iculture/2645/ ]]> The Living Earth puravida http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70039-The-Latest-Buzz-on-Disappearing-Honeybees March against Monsanto http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70012-March-against-Monsanto&goto=newpost Fri, 10 May 2013 19:45:20 GMT On the 25th of May, there will apparently be a worldwide protest against the biotech giant Monsanto. ... On the 25th of May, there will apparently be a worldwide protest against the biotech giant Monsanto.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mar...30507-848.html

This definitely looks promising. Thoughts? ]]> The Living Earth Energyflux2012 http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?70012-March-against-Monsanto The Ancient, Pharaohonic City of Heracleion Discovered Beneath The Waves http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?69488-The-Ancient-Pharaohonic-City-of-Heracleion-Discovered-Beneath-The-Waves&goto=newpost Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:35:47 GMT "For centuries it was thought to be a legend, a city of extraordinary wealth mentioned in Homer, visited by Helen of Troy and Paris, her lover, but apparently buried under the sea.

In fact, Heracleion was true, and a decade after divers began uncovering its treasures, archaeologists have produced a picture of what life was like in the city in the era of the pharaohs.

The city, also called Thonis, disappeared beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago and was found during a survey of the Egyptian shore at the beginning of the last decade."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/env...s-secrets.html ]]> The Living Earth drakke1 http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?69488-The-Ancient-Pharaohonic-City-of-Heracleion-Discovered-Beneath-The-Waves Feeling the pain of trees http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?69196-Feeling-the-pain-of-trees&goto=newpost Wed, 24 Apr 2013 05:01:03 GMT Listen to our dear star sister, feeling the utter pain of the trees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJFYwRtrH4 Listen to our dear star sister, feeling the utter pain of the trees.

]]> The Living Earth MiamiSound http://indigosociety.com/showthread.php?69196-Feeling-the-pain-of-trees