“The Seeds of Hope” (17 July)

7 July

Buds,

Have not picked up the book for a couple weeks, but I’m just going to list a couple of talking point for discussing the seeds of hope:

1. was surprise in the documentation that communication between trees in forest warn each other about “invading” insects
2. Talk about seeds (3) pods that were replanted that was from Jesus time
3. Seeds have been regrown dated to be 30,000 years old
4. The Millennium Seed Bank
5. Seed bank was started back in 1920
6. Seed vault in Norway
7. Are flowers for the elite?
8. Orchid hunters-over 4 million seeds per orchid
9. 44 billion dollars a year in orchids
10. importing anew orchid (flowers)  For medical reasons too (sexual reasons)
11. Orchid is trouble because  of climate change
12. Gardens in the ancient world.  Human love back to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar.
13. Gardens has been in society for thousands of years
14. Gardening is good for mental health, raise your spirit
15. Gardening for prisons   (30% done)
16. small test garden for rehab people
    1. less violence
    2. drop in crime rate
17. Inspectional gift you can control  (garden)
18. make a vegetable garden & native plants & medicine
19. Gorilla gardening inspiration
    1. can’t plant  seeds by hand
    2. to keep grass green
20. People were using herbicides, us of chemicals frowned at
21. small difference
    1. try no fertilizers
    2. use native plant
22.   use of pond or wetland, woodland. Wildlife.
23. Need to save native plants
24. Gardening is like a fuel stop for wildlife
25. Make butterfly gardens  (don’t separate with other living things)
26. Healing plants:
    1. herbal  medicine is $$$$$
    2. habitat destruction was/is happening
    3. cure for snake bites
    4. ask plant for permission to use it as a medicine
27. Have heard of positive for HIV, but no documented evidence
28. Caterpillar  only lay eggs on certain milk weed
29. many animals eat plants for medicine
30. Indians and the neem tree.   (for medical purpose)
31. 7/8  drink to stop malaria in tropic Cimchona trees (from the bark)
32. Cimchona   was side effects become stone deaf and blurry vision
33. Madagascar periwinkle, used as a remedy for several.    For  minor illness  bad side effects.
34. How is intellectual property related to native plant existence.
35. Love of herbal medicine
36. There are government procedures in harvesting some native plants
37. Plants that harm  five plants re:
    1. tobacco
    2. poppy
    3. cannabis
    4. opium poppy
    5. coca
38. when used positively can be really good.  Regulation
39. The war on drugs
40. marijuana for recon  purposes
41. big cash crop
42. TCH is for rec. marijuana
43. opium 5500 BC used for infants
44. Addiction vs. Laws
45. takes about 3 years for the coca leaves
46. Mescaline testing a pschyrdlic (from a cactus)
47. 7/9  tobacco growing as destroyed vast areas of open forest (cleaning properties)
    1. paste for tooth whitening
    2. takes smoke and prayers to heaven
    3. offering to a spirit
48. 1892 tobacco came to Europe
49. became fashionable   (cancer sticks)
50. CDC death rate due to tobacco is the highest
51. For alcohol its medicinal purpose
52. studies have shown a little drink is good for you
53. hops are from the cannabis family
    1. from china
    2. first documentation of use was in the 11th century
54. pipe a sign of manliness
55. poor innocent plants like tobacco
56. Look out for imports and costly  tariffs
    1. start of slave trade
    2. lack of biodiversity  (lack of water)
57. Tobacco was a cash crop….planted everywhere
58. Tobacco took up the nutrients from the soul  (it was know as green gold)
    1. child labor
    2. pesticides
    3. herbicides
    4. deforestation
    5. depletes soils of nutrients
59. Tobacco in the colonial economy was used for cash crop status
60. Along with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer was used which hurts the wates
61. 6000 BC was when cotton was found and documented
62. cotton embargos happened in the civil war on cotton.
63. 2.5 slaves living in America by 1850.
64. Child labor in Uzbekistan. (45%)
65. 7/10  do you feel bad about wearing cotton
    1. support sustainable production
66. Some soil is modified to produce two yields per year
67. Food crops
    1. wheat (back to 9000 BC)
       1. Egyptians
       2. hoe and scythe
       3. fertilizer started
       4. hand pump wells
       5. type of grass
       6. first to be cultivated for a longer time
    2. Maize
       1. for biofuel
       2. roasted corn cobs
       3. produce more food and  meat
       4. gasoline substitute
    3. corn
       1. sweet corn
       2. introduced in 1779
       3. then popcorn  (unhealthy)
    4. potato’s
       1. sort in three buckets
       2. talk of seed potato’s
    5. The “lumper” potato in Ireland 1845 famine)
       1. major food source
68. Feeding the world using maize and destroying the small farms
69. Talk of the GMO (Monsanto)
70. tinkering with the plants DNA (science fiction become reality)
71. Stop spraying all the chemicals…….good
72. This was a pipe dream!
73. The superbugs (insect resistant)  a biodegradable protein
74. Superbugs are very difficult to control….it’s outsmarting the chemical
75. chemicals are making us more dependent on herbicide
76. Their patent expired in 2000 (Monsanto)
77. 24D was used in Vietnam (agent orange)
78. The backlash for speaking out on GMOs witch brings up the safety status and the government turns against thought.  It’s all economical!
79. It’s an irreversible process,  (50%)
80. 7/11  Need  more reliable data  for state of GMO rate test
81. poor experimental  study
82. Journal of GMO was retracted because it was well found
83. GM  foods show there is some  link to health problems
84. Problems with organic food because pollen can come from bees or by the wind
85. The true maker of climate resilient crops…drought resistant.
86. gm  cross pollination leads to the seed modifying to the climate.
87. GM  is subject to greed
88. Do we need GM labels?
89. 70% of food at market has some GM inserts
90. The future looks grim with the economic powers of GM  products
91. The evidence is HUGE from destructive gardening
92. We are harming the natural world:
    1. Monsanto
       1. harm on earth
       2. poisoning soil  and food
    2. Industrial farming
    3. Now organic farming
93. Coffee  originally came from south Africa
94. coffee growing  area is Tanzania
95. Birds are now coming back to coffee farms
96. Cup of tea is good medicine
97. An organic tea standard was made
98. Cacao is the plant that makes chocolate (matures after 3 years)
99. grow Cacao without any chemicals….grow organic
100. teaching sustainable growing
101. 55% 7/13
102. sustainable farming practice is the way  to feed all the  worlds people.   Do we need to grow food to feed all the people (using GMOs)
103. use organic   or agroecology  (soil & water, right to food)
104. lets look at all the billions of people who are  not eating well
105. Farmers markets is  like  gathering place for those wanting good food
106. creating a victory garden during WWII
107. produce your own food (the fastest growing trend
108. we would be GMO free when you grow your own food
109. standing up against big brother
110. Spiritual healing
111. food gardens are helpful for communities
     1. decrease  crime
112. Talk about the problems of Detroit.  Top interest
     1. people growing vegetables
     2. all types of people are gardening
113. urban gardening benefits the community
114. Saving your seeds (like heirloom seeds)
115. Introduction of hybrid seeds
116. Do we need to give thanks for our foods, plants, & gardeners
117. the worlds plants are in danger, we have a wake up call
118. Baker had planted 26 trillion trees
119. Nature can not provide human greed.  From Gandhi said.
120. we  must not give up with the destruction of the forest
121. think of the creator creating all these plants  and insects that   are going to be retired forever.
122. Do well with less
123. Canada and the tar sands.
124. 7/14  60% China likes forest for timber to build things
125. China is much larger, then the tar sand for getting oil
126. Also for pulp and paper  (world uses much) big damage for trees.
127. led to faster growing trees that requires much more water
128. Our thirst for oil….now in Africa
129. Even talk about bio-fuels
130. Also destroy field for a grazing pasture
131. large areas of rain forest was protected by activists.  Thoughts about climate change.
132. economic interest usually leads the worlds concerns
133. We need to save ol’ growth forest
134. sustainable logging  (does it work?)
135. Use natural source to treat tree diseases.
136. Some forests are now on common land
137. Forests are the “lungs” of the world
138. Cheapest way to stop climate change is to restore our forests (CO2)
139. About 10% of the C02 is from forest destruction
140. RED plus is to conserve biodiversity
141. Spiritual value of a forest
     1. witnessed a tree from a forest fire
     2. the inspirational symbol
     3. initiated a prayer for the forest
142. Environmentally  destruction is hard to understand (economic growth)
143. We need to fight back against this destruction.   People who know that nature “knows”
144. It’s possible for one type of restoration
145. People are using plant to help clean water and soil pollution….the soil then is clean  “MopCrops”    Clean up our filth
146. Some of the most endanger plants in the world
     1. North American Grassland
        1. pumps water for irrigation
        2. chemical sprayed on the ground
        3. In Illinois   (only  1% does remain)  thus dust bowl
           1. long roots
     2. Prairie reconstruction  (restore what was damaged)
     3. need controlled fires to eliminate invasive species
     4. Prairie ecotourism and getting popular??
147. 67%  page 319
148. Wildlife corridors are mainly for private owners
149. In  U.K. is mandatory for the State to have wildlife structures
150. We  are stealing the environment from our kids.
151. Yes, we have compromised the earth
152. Beware of trampled dirt.
153. Do we just want to make money?
154. live in harmony with nature
155. Nature is resilient
156. NGO: Non government organization.
157. Survivor recovered from the 9/11 attack
158. Strength of the will to win

past writings

gratitude

It’s all about activism

ref:  Google Earth to monitor forests

the plants eye view of situation

done 7/14

from the MG group:

p.24    6 genera of carnivorous plants with 3  kinds of traps:     pitfall, flypaper, snap, bladder, lobster traps and pitcher plants.  Who knew!  Sounds like a good plot for horror movie.

p. 78    The discovery of Jeanne Baret – a story of science, the high seas, and the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by Glynis Ridley

p.84  David Douglas: a Scotsman 1799-1834 where on two separate occasions he ate his pack horse

p.93    I could relate to Jane writing to neet the gardener when touring botanical gardens, because they care about the plants – it’s why I can’t work in retail anymore.

Another view:

The author offer tantalizing sections of orchids, cotton, cacao, trees that survived the atomic bomb of Japan and the attacks of 9/11, and even the orchid and rose that have been named after herself.  Goodall details stories of plants with medical and hallucinogenic properties (she never tried these).  She also included a fascinating passage about how humans have learned healing practices from watching animals consume particular plants.  She recounts plant crazes, such as Empress Josephine and dahlias, and the story of a 2,000 date palm seed found at the Masada fortress on the Dead Sea that recently sprouted and grew into a tree dubbed  Methuselah.  When Goodall moves to environmental crises, there are so many she must sketch them rather than fill in the details: habitat loss, industrial agriculture, toxic pesticides and herbicides, monoculture farming, and unknown  consequences of genetic modification and global climate change.

Ranking of the book:

Based on an average of 8 MGbuds book clubers we give the book a positive 4 smiley faces out of  5.