The inconvenient truth

The inconvenient truth about GM

Genetic modification has so far mainly been confined to developing crops that tolerate herbicides and resist pests. 

It has done little to increase yields

Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Middle East’s fertile crescent, happenstance sowed the seeds of much of modern agriculture. 

Pollen from a wild goat grass landed on primitive wheat, creating a natural – but stronger and more productive – hybrid. 

Alert early farmers saved its seeds for growing their next harvests, starting a long process of development that has led to all the modern varieties of wheat that feed a third of the world’s people.

Now scientists at Britain’s National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) have deliberately duplicated that ancient accident, with a different goat grass, in an attempt to restart – and enormously accelerate – the process with new genes. 

Early indications are that this could increase wheat yields by a dramatic 30 per cent.

The National Farmers’ Union president, Peter Kendall, describes the potential as “just enormous”. 

And it is indeed the sort of breakthrough we desperately need, since – in little more than 35 years – the world will have to increase food production by a challenging 70 per cent if it is to feed its growing population. In the next half century, adds the NIAB, we will have to grow as much wheat as has been harvested since that original hybridisation occurred at the dawn of agriculture.

Hunger is rapidly rising up the agenda. 

David Cameron missed the crucial vote on the Europe referendum because he was in New York to co-chair a UN panel setting new targets for tackling it, and will host a special hunger summit next month. 

And two important new books outlining solutions will feature at a session on “feeding the world” at the Telegraph Hay Festival, opening next week.

One is by Prof Sir Gordon Conway, formerly both President of the Rockefeller Foundation and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for International Development, who is one of the most thoughtful supporters of genetic modification. 

But what emerges from his book, One Billion Hungry, from this week’s breakthrough, and from a host of other evidence, is how little – so far, at least – GM technology is contributing to beating hunger.

It was not involved in the NIAB’s quantum leap, which was due to conventional breeding techniques. 

Nor was it involved, to give an example from Prof Conway’s book, in developing new varieties of African rice, called Nerica, which are up to four times as productive as traditional varieties, contain more protein, need a much shorter growing season, resist pests and diseases, thrive on poor soils and withstand drought.

The same is true of another of his superstars, Scuba Rice, which beats flooding by surviving 17 days underwater and still achieving enhanced yields – and, within three years, had been taken up by 3.5 million Asian farmers.

CGIAR – the international consortium of research centres that developed this miracle rice (and kicked off the Green Revolution more than half a century ago) – has also used non-GM techniques to produce more than 30 varieties of drought-tolerant maize, which have increased farmers’ yields by 20 to 30 per cent across 13 African countries; climbing beans that have trebled production in Central Africa; and wheats that thrive on salty soils. 

A host of other successes include blight-resistant potatoes and crops enriched with vitamin A, iron and other essential nutrients.

Genetic modification, by contrast, has so far mainly been confined to developing crops that tolerate herbicides (often manufactured by the same company, thus encouraging their use) and resist pests. 

They have done little to increase yields per se – though they have helped by controlling weeds and insects – while varieties designed to withstand drought and floods, and improve nutrition, are only now beginning to emerge.

GM may be able to do jobs that more conventional techniques cannot manage: conferring heat resistance to cope with global warming is one candidate. 

But the impression often given by its proponents that it is the main source of new crops, and thus essential to feed the world, could hardly be further from the truth.

Nor is biotechnology all GM. 

The Nerica rices, for example, owe their existence to cell tissue culture. 

Scuba rice was produced through the technique of marker-assisted selection, which identifies and enables the use of a whole sequence of genes.

But in the end new crops can only do so much. 

Most of the hungry, in a bitter irony, are themselves farmers who cannot produce, or afford, enough of it – and the new seeds are often beyond their reach. 

Prof Conway stresses the importance of helping such small, subsistence farmers grow more but it is the second book The Last Hunger Season – whose author, Roger Thurow, will be at Hay – that goes into detail on how to get them the help they need. 

Just as 10,000 years ago, the future rests on them.

Geoffrey Lean

For the record

Nothing has a higher output and productivity than a permaculture plot.   

That is the antithesis of GM and prairie mono-cultures.

Changing your karma

The following is old and is as true today as the day it was written.

And while it might not be today's flavour of the month it is worth thinking about

So here it is:

The means through which the effects of Karma can be changed are clear. 

A person can have no attachment for a thing he does not think about

Therefore the first step must be to fix the thought on the highest ideal. 

In this connection one remark may be made on the subject of repentance. 

Repentance is a form of thought in which the mind is constantly recurring to a sin. 

It has therefore to be avoided if one would set the mind free from sin and its Karmic results.

All sin has its origin in the mind. 

The more the mind dwells on any course of conduct.

Whether with pleasure or pain.

The less chance is there for it to become detached from such action. 

The manas (or mind) is the knot of the heart.

When that is untied from any object.

In other words when the mind loses its interest in any object.

There will no longer be a link between the Karma connected with that object and the individual.

It is the attitude of the mind which draws the Karmic cords tightly round the soul. 

It imprisons the aspirations and binds them with chains of difficulty and obstruction. 

It is desire that causes the past Karma to take form and shape and build the house of clay. 

It must be through non-attachment that the soul will burst through the walls of pain.

It will be only through a change of mind that the Karmic burden will be lifted.

It will appear, therefore, that although absolutely true that action brings its own result, "there is no destruction here of actions good or not good. 

Coming to one body after another they become ripened in their respective ways.

Yet this ripening is the act of the individual. 

Free will of man asserts itself and he becomes his own saviour. 

To the worldly man Karma is a stern Nemesis

To the spiritual man Karma unfolds itself in harmony with his highest aspirations. 

He will look with tranquillity alike on past and future.

Neither dwelling with remorse on past sin.

Nor living in expectation of reward for present action.

Just soft lead

Not only the talent but the patience this person has is really something.

I hope you enjoy the ‘show’ and get something out of it like I did.  (How did he keep from breaking the lead all the time?)

When I saw the alphabet I thought that was about it, but no –

it was just the beginning. JUST OLD PENCILS ! ?         A PENCIL MAKER TOLD THE PENCIL 5 IMPORTANT LESSONS JUST BEFORE PUTTING IT IN THE BOX: 1.) EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL ALWAYS LEAVE A MARK. 2.) YOU CAN ALWAYS CORRECT THE MISTAKES YOU MAKE. 3.) WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS WHAT IS INSIDE OF YOU. 4.) IN LIFE , YOU WILL UNDERGO PAINFUL SHARPENING S, WHICH WILL ONLY MAKE YOU BETTER. 5.) TO BE THE BEST PENCIL, YOU MUST ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE HELD AND GUIDED BY THE HAND THAT HOLDS YOU.

We all need to be constantly sharpened.

This parable may encourage you to know that you are a special person, with unique God-given talents and abilities.

Only you can fulfill the purpose which you were born to accomplish.

Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot be changed and, like the pencil,

Always remember that the most important part of who you are, is what's inside of you.

Initiation

You look and wait for some great and astounding occurrence, to show you that you are going to be permitted to enter behind the veil; that you are to be Initiated. 

It will never come. 

He only who studies all things and learns from them, as he finds them, will be permitted to enter, and for him there are no flashing lightnings or rolling thunder. 

He who enters the door, does so as gently and imperceptibly, as the tide rises in the night time.

Live well your life. 

Seek to realize the meaning of every event. 

Strive to find the Ever Living and wait for more light. 

The True Initiate does not fully realize what he is passing through, until his degree is received. 

If you are striving for light and Initiation, remember this, that your cares will increase, your trials thicken, your family make new demands upon you. 

He who can understand and pass through these patiently, wisely, placidly -- may hope.

WQJ

Helping the world

If you desire to labour for the good of the world, it will be unwise for you to strive to include it all at once in your efforts. 

If you can help elevate or teach but one soul -- that is a good beginning, and more than is given to many.

Fear nothing that is in Nature and visible. 

Dread no influence exerted by sect, faith, or society. 

Each and every one of them originated upon the same basis.

Truth, or a portion of it at least. 

You may not assume that you have a greater share than they.

It being needful only that you find all the truth each one possesses. 

You are at war with none. 

It is peace you are seeking.

Therefore it is best that the good in everything is found. 

For this brings peace.

It has been written that he who lives the Life shall know the doctrine. 

Few there be who realize the significance of The Life.

WQJ

Men 'n Women

 Men Are Just Happier People -- 

What do you expect from such simple creatures? 

Your last name stays put.

The garage is all yours. 

Wedding plans take care of themselves. 

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can be President. 

You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. 

You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car mechanics tell you the truth

The world is your urinal. 

You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky. 

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. 

Same work, more pay. 

Wrinkles add character. 

Wedding dress $5000. 

Tux rental-$100. 

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. 

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
One mood all the time. 

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. 

You know stuff about tanks. 

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.

You can open all your own jars. 

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. 

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. 

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.. 

You almost never have strap problems in public. 

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes..

Everything on your face stays its original color.. 

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. 

You only have to shave your face and neck. 

You can play with toys all your life. 

One wallet and one pair of shoes -- one color for all seasons. 

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.. 

You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache. 

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives On December
24 in 25 minutes. 

No wonder men are happier.

NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other
Laura, Kate and Sarah.
If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to

each other as Fat Boy, Bubba and Wildman.

EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20,
even though it's only for $32.50. 

None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.


BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste,
shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the
trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.

Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
Ah, children. 

A woman knows all about her children. 

She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods,
secret fears and hopes and dreams.

A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
A married man should forget his mistakes. 

There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!

Comfort

So we all like comfortable lives

Don't we?

Trouble is nature does not send us here for our comfort

Whatever we might like to think we are here to learn

To learn one or two major lessons in every life

And yes we all have many lives

So while comfort might be enjoyable, it is not what we are here for.

Notice how we usually learn most through pain and our difficult experiences

Often those experiences which are not comfortable.

So enjoy your comfort where and while you can.

And accept that much of life is uncomfortable.

Designed this way to help us learn the most.

Be accepting of this and life becomes more comfortable.

Be angry or irritated by discomfort and more discomfort will come your way.

Simply put as we learn any given lesson nature moves us along

Other different lessons appear.

Want proof?

Look at some men who keep marrying the same (type) woman.

They have learnt nothing. 

So nature gives them the same lesson over and over.

Nature has time and patience.

She is in no hurry.

If you do not feel comfortable with the word nature then try karma.

Whatever the word we use to describe what happens to us the lesson is that life is hard.

Life does present us with difficulties and challenges.

No one avoids their lessons

Rich or poor it does not matter who or what we are.

It might appear that some do not however it is merely that we do not see them receiving just reward for their behaviour

The quicker we learn our lessons the sooner some comfort appears.

Your choice.

British folly in the making

The environmental consequences of Britain leaving the EU would be huge

Membership of the European Union has been a boon to the UK's wildlife and habitats – and human health is better as a result

The UK's membership of the European Union has rocketed up the political agenda in recent weeks, but if Lord Lawson and Nigel Farage get their way, a go-it-alone Britain would be far from green and pleasant.

An analysis for Friends of the Earth, published today by the EU policy expert Dr Charlotte Burns from the University of York, provides a damning critique of UK environmental performance over decades, and highlights the huge risks of EU withdrawal.

The UK really was once the dirty man of Europe. 

We had the highest level of sulphur dioxide emissions in Europe, resulting in acid rain that devastated Scandinavian forests. 

Our seas were akin to open sewers as we pumped human effluent in them as part of a "dilute and disperse" approach to pollution – the result of which I vividly recall from family holidays. 

And our drinking water was contaminated with a cocktail of chemicals.

British politicians consistently used the mantra of "sound science" as an excuse to dither and delay, often only taking action when incontrovertible damage could be proved – and sadly, in many cases, already done. 

This backward, discredited approach to policy making.

Which proved so damaging in the case of BSE – is still favoured by many UK politicians and civil servants.

As demonstrated by the government's refusal to back recent EU restrictions on neonicotinoid pesticides linked to bee decline.

The EU's approach to policy making is fundamentally different. 

Informed by the precautionary principle, and institutionalised within the environmental provisions of the Lisbon treaty, it requires that laws be introduced if there's a potential risk to human health or the environment.

At least until evidence demonstrates otherwise. 

This is an approach – largely due to the efforts of our more progressive continental cousins in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands.

That is still not properly understood by many UK politicians and civil servants.

As a result we enjoy cleaner drinking water, cleaner bathing beaches, and cleaner air. 

The laws that gave those benefits to us were strongly resisted by the UK government.

British wildlife has also benefited from EU membership. 

Wildlife habitats are highly valued by UK citizens, as the forests sell-off fiasco testifies. 

Furthermore, they also provide important "environmental services" in the form of flood defences, carbon sequestration, pollination, food, water and materials.

However, yet again, successive UK governments have consistently been forced to play catch-up on wildlife protection, when compared with the EU approach. 

It's European legislation such as the habitats directive and the birds directive that safeguard our finest habitats.

And some of our very best sites have only been protected after the European commission brought proceedings against Westminster.

The painful truth is that the UK has a poor track-record on supporting progressive environmental policy and continues to do so. 

From bees to energy efficiency to resource efficiency targets to green farming, this self-proclaimed "greenest government ever" continues to say no, no, no. 

Fortunately much of the rest of Europe says yes, yes, yes.

Cameron will say he wants to renegotiate our relationship with Europe, not leave it. 

According to a YouGov poll earlier this month, the most favoured option among voters is for the UK to be part of the EU free trade area.

What if this is the new accommodation that Cameron achieves?

Burns's analysis tells us that while the UK would still be covered by the majority of EU environmental laws we would no longer be covered by the bathing beaches directive, the birds directive, and the habitats directive. 

Nature lovers – and anyone with small children that like to play on the beach – beware.

Membership of the European Union has been a boon to the UK's environment, and our health is better as a result. 

Leaving the EU – fully or partially – would in the words of Burns be an "astounding piece of political folly".

We can't ignore the evidence of the environmental consequences of abandoning EU membership. 

But the climate-sceptic stance of many of those pushing to leave Europe shows that evidence-based policy making is not always their strong point.

Little laws of nature

Forget Newton and Galileo. 

Here are the real laws of nature:

1.Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

2. Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

3. Law of Probability -The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

4. Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

5.Supermarket Law- As soon as you get in the smallest line, the cashier will have to call for help.

6. Variation Law - If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.

 7.Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

8. Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

9. Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

10. Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

11.. Law of the Theater & Hockey Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. 

They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. 

The people in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. 

The aisle people also are very surly folk.

12. The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, someone will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

13. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

14. Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jam sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

15. Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

16. Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

17. Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.

18. Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

19. Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. 

But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick. 

This has been proven over and over with taking children to the pediatrician.

Killing off cash

Cash has been taking a beating lately.

Recently, Canada minted its last penny. 

Eurozone countries are working to restrict cash payments. 

Bitcoin is all the rage or was until a short time ago.

Payments start-ups such as Square and iZettle are on a cash-killing mission, while non-profit organisations, governments, the World Bank, small businesses, multinational corporations, app developers, hippies, libertarians, liberals, right-wingers all have agendas that can be advanced by alternatives to cash, and they're all pushing to bring them about.

But like forecasts of flying cars, predictions of a cashless future have a history of failure.

This is in part because progress is incremental, and in part because physical money is a time-tested technology.

It's fast, widely accepted, anonymous and useful for old-school budgeting and when the power goes out.

Yet powerful forces are aligning against cash.

Together, they provide a glimpse of what a cashless or mostly cashless future might look like, and illuminate the promise of digital money.

Irrespective of whether cash is ever kaput or just increasingly marginalised.

Faster and cheaper

The battery against cash is coming from three fronts - new technologies, scepticism about the stewardship of sovereign currencies and increased enthusiasm for alternative currencies, and greater scrutiny about cash's myriad costs.

Think anti-counterfeiting cops and armoured trucks.

Bank security.

Tax evasion.

Terrorists using 200-euro or $100 notes to buy explosives.

And every cash-related crime ever conceived.

Digital money innovations, particularly tools anchored to mobile phones, offer faster and cheaper ways to pay bills, buy and sell goods, send and receive money and make bank transactions.

Alternative currencies, meanwhile, are moving from the fringe to the centre, as more and more people worry about the long-term value of coin of the realm.

Angst about government currencies has traditionally sent people flocking to gold.

And for many devotees of the shiny stuff, gold remains the one and forever answer.

But gold is not value incarnate. 

It's just another commodity, albeit a historically pivotal and impressively hefty one.

Those who grasp that fact, yet still distrust central bank-issued currencies, are turning to local and online options, barter exchanges, and the crypto-currency Bitcoin.

But the most consequential aspect of this monetary revolution is growing recognition that the costs of cash fall disproportionately on the poor.

When was the last time you saw a wealthy person patronise a cheque-cashing service?

Or saw him use Western Union or visit a payday lender (for an above-board transaction, I mean)?

Cash is expensive not merely because of the risk of being robbed at the cash machine or losing your savings to a fire, flood or abusive spouse.

It's also expensive because of steep prices paid in time, fees and opportunity costs. 

For you and me, those costs are, by and large, not nominal.

But for the billions of people who subsist on $2 (£1.28) a day, they are anything but.

Digital tools are already providing millions of people worldwide with the opportunity to avoid cash. 

And avoid it they do.

They are storing value and transacting by way of electronic accounts "on" their mobile phones.

For the first time, people who were trapped in the informal economy can steer clear of usurious local moneylenders, save precious time and money, and benefit from the basic financial services that you and I take for granted.

And no, looping people into the formal economy isn't a clandestine Valentine to banks and bankers.

The fact is that a bank account, online bill, person-to-person payment, access to credit, insurance - all of these tools for building economic stability depend on money in electronic form.

If you don't have that, it's far more difficult to climb permanently out of poverty.

The truth is that it doesn't matter all that much whether cash's further marginalisation ever leads to extinction.

What matters far more is the potential for digital money innovations to improve the welfare of so many.

David Wolman