PREVENTION

PREVENTION – Grandma said an ounce of it is worth a pound of cure, right? It’s what we preach for all other diseases, isn’t it?  Condoms, eating well, exercising and stopping smoking, etc. 

Dallas County, I really think you can do a better job of helping the public do a better job of prevention, so summer doesn’t have to come to what you all call an epidemic again. (Although I still say 40 precious lost lives is not an epidemic - especially compared to the 10's of thousands that die from preventable chronic disease like diabetes and it's related complications caused, mostly, from eating fast and processed food which we rarely see any ad campaigns against because the food industry would scream.)

But it is July, and as a resident of a city who contracts with the County of Dallas to provide Health and Human Services, again this year, I’ve not seen ONE single piece of information regarding what I’m to do in order to protect myself and help prevent mosquito outbreaks. Now in all fairness, my city hasn't done anything either. But we PAY the county to help us, from what I understand, and I think you might need to do a better job of helping.

They may not be your typical resident, but they live here, too and need to be reached; 

They do not watch television. So please don’t tell me, you’ve been running commercials. The billboards in my area have not been changed, and even if they had been, they're homebound, and don’t get to the highway to see them.  They may not read very well, and don’t get the paper delivered. And they may not have internet service.

They do, however, get a water bill, a gas bill, an electric bill and perhaps a Social Services check every month. We all get plenty of daily junk mail with pictures of coupons for things many will never be able to afford, too. It seems to me that within this budget allowing for the wasteful expense of spraying risky adulticide chemicals from airplanes over my neighborhood, (that as you may have conveniently forgotten wasn't even effective according to the later CDC report), there would be a line item for public outreach campaign that could include simply designed brochures explaining NOT the symptoms of this rarely contracted disease, which could mimic the symptoms of eating a greasy fast food meal or the flu; potentially causing unnecessary panic in individuals who fear they’ve contracted the illness; but instead, explaining what to look for around my home and neighborhood and what to do when I find it – to help my community and myself PREVENT it.

The 4 “d’s”; Drain, Deet, Dusk/Dawn & Dress – which, by the way, is 5 D’s for those of you counting - isn’t working very well to educate people on how they can help prevent a mosquito problem as well as it could or we’d see better evidence its effects - namely, less mosquitoes, more sales of BT products, less standing water, etc.  

What about those who are allergic to Deet? Those who HAVE to be out at dusk and/or dawn for work? Who can’t drain an area of their property that floods and remains swampy? 

What if, the 4 D’s looked something like this;

DEFEND – instead of Deet – since the list now (finally and thankfully) includes other options for protecting oneself as outlined on the EPA’s page. Deet isn’t the only game in town. And in all honesty, this category can include the DRESS options….

(This could make the campaign the 3D’s, and let your marketing department take it from there and have fun. I see “3D” glasses sent out to read the brochures, pics of mosquito larvae swimming in water just jumping off of the page – loose fitting funky clothes and spray coming out of a bottle, etc, all in 3D! Time to hire an ad agency to do your brochures and jazz it up a bit.

DRAIN – Areas of standing water, and pick up trash, toys and other objects where water accumulates.

DUNK – those areas you can’t Drain – with larvaecide – namely, BTi. I KNOW you all have heard of this option dozens of times at least. Bits and dunks available through your local municipality – for free. Last up to 30 days. Wow, send one with each water bill?

And if you insist on having that 4^th D – keep this one broken out and on its own.

DRESS - wear loose fitting long, sleeved shirts and pants at Dusk and Dawn when mosquitoes are most hungry and when around ponds, creeks and other places mosquitoes are most likely to congregate. 

 

There’s your 4-D’s that can be conveyed in diagrams or cartoon images.

Picture examples of where water accumulates, such as rain gutters, bottoms of trash cans, kids’ toys, trash, ahem, neighbors’ abandonedswimming pools and litter. (Like dammed up bar ditches in front of brand new elementary schools in SE Dallas County - image to follow once I find it again.) 

How about a picture of a koala bear eating eucalyptus leaves along with the DEET on the bottles. An image of someone wearing long sleeves against a sunset/sunrise. And by all means, pictures of Dunks and Bits being tossed into standing water -  for those who’ve never heard of them or don’t know how to use them.

How about using some of those funds for grants to help people replace screens and add screen doors or gutter guards to help keep mosquitoes out of their homes and from providing out of reach breeding places?

And perhaps most important of all – how about sending out one of these brightly colored, easy to read brochures monthly, starting say in March in a utility bill or door to door flyer? It's JULY. Nothing. 

 

Mother Nature, she’s going to win. She’s not going to go away forever, although we have done a good job of setting her back by way of hurting the beneficials and continue to do a good job making it a slower recovery rate for her as we continue to think we can win by spraying toxins everywhere. But WE’ll end up killing OURselves and our kids with the effects of the poisons we use to try to make her go away - long before we kill her totally. She’ll have the last laugh and once we're gone, the planet will survive just fine without our interference. 

Mosquitoes and various vector carried illnesses will always be around – no matter how many times you pay someone to fog or aerial spray, day or night – so we need to learn to live among them in a more preventative way. And do a better job of making it so easy for them to procreate and eat.

.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Is Anybody Listening?

This past week, the inaugural “listening session” of a newly formed, bi-partisan caucus of state representatives was held in Dallas. How effective this caucus will be and how well attended future sessions will be, remains to be seen. There were I’d guess, about 50 or so farmers, ranchers, market managers, and others from the local food scene in attendance at the meeting, which followed an upscale, high dollar ticket dinner the evening before. (Thank goodness many farmers and ranchers have friends in places with an extra ticket so some of us could attend it.) The monies raised from the dinner's ticket sales were said to be earmarked as funds for this caucus’ purposes. (Personally, I think they need to use some of those funds to hire someone or additional some ones, to organize/keep coordinated the information put out to the press and on their web site - for starters. The time as well as dinner ticket price was different depending on the source from where you sought the information, and the listening session wasn’t even listed on their events page.)

All said, the purpose for the caucus seems to be admirable, and the four men and one woman at the head of the room on Friday, appeared to be receptive to the concerns and suggestions brought forward by those of us who came to be heard. How far will any of it go from that room to Austin? Who knows? Even if this caucus convinced the rest of the House to sign on and pass something, without any support and representation from the Senate in this caucus, the bills, no matter how well written or needed, will end up dropped if it hits any opposition - and they all do. 

This lack of representation by both bodies of our state congress, was a point well brought up by long-time local farm owner and operator Robert Hutchins. (Who, by the way, had humbly mentioned the night before that enough money had been raised by private means to rebuild from the damages done to his farm last month by a tornado that ripped through the family’s home, took out small livestock and damaged much of the farm’s infrastructure. Kudos to you, the public, for your help!)

So a couple of questions pop into my mind that I didn’t really have time to even form before this all started;

• Why not any Senators in this group? Bi-partisan is a good start, but let’s cross over further so we have both bodies of our state’s lawmakers working together. You know, so all of the time spent by everyone working on the issues might actually be, you know, effective?

• What is the money raised from the $150 dinner tickets going towards? Specifically. I hope there is some major transparency in the budget, because if local food supporters who paid to go to that dinner where all of the food and labor was donated, find out the funds are primarily used to put people up in fancy hotels and rent fancy cars while out of town and feed them meals from places that don’t even use local food; I don’t think they’ll be very convinced this caucus is serious about walking the walk their talking.

This is a group that is supposed to be about educating the rest of the House on our issues, so I wanted to make sure the first lesson was clear. I mean I got the distinct impression some of these folks aren’t even aware of, much less directly affected by, the issues themselves as consumers, much less how they affect us at farm level.

For starters, they scheduled this farmer interactive meeting on only the second possible worse day of the week for those they invited – a Friday. You know, harvest and market prep day – at the start of peak summer season no less. (I guess they could have held it on a Saturday so none of us could have come. Be grateful, right?) We asked them to swear they’d never hold one of these meetings on a Friday again. Ever.

As for the concerns brought up by those of us fortunate enough to have experienced and loyal coverage back at our farms in order to be in attendance at the meeting, they were pretty much the same issues we’ve been talking about for many years and a few new ones, too.

(Food, Inc Logo)

• Raw Milk – why is it not legal for the producer of the product to safely transport it to his/her customers? If you’ve not heard some of the reasons, you’ll get a real grin out of a few of them.
• It’s better for each individual to go to the dairy farm where the milk is produced to pick it up themselves and drive it home, (often an hour or more). Why yes, because we all have ice machines to fill (and re-fill) coolers or refrigerator trucks in which to safely transport perishable dairy products back home, after we stopped for lunch or pick up kids and drop off Grandma who wanted to visit the cows, etc…. 
• We want the consumer to inspect the dairy and see if it's a place they want to get their product from. Because we all have time to re-inspect state and or federally graded and already inspected food production places? When was the last time you were asked to visit the places where mainstream food is produced to be sure the inspector did his or her job? 

However, when calling a spade a shovel needs to be done, leave it to a farmer who has spoken countless times in front of government committees, media and individuals to help get this (and many other issues) passed. Hutchins again brought up an important point in that it was in large part due to the lobbyists paid for by the Texas Dairymen’s Association, and others, that this bill was killed - again. Not due to matters of so called “logic" that would defy even Mr. Spock. 

• Organic Certification Inconsistencies – It seems that our local certification office, while currently staffed with some of the most helpful and friendly folks you could ask for, is seriously understaffed and in danger of not being staffed at all. Turn around time for applications, questions, and basic inquiries is apparently quite non-conducive to anyone’s needs and it’s the only game in town for Texas farmers to get certified in-state at a lower rate than out of state certifying agencies. Why is this important? Well, for those who choose to get certified, it is quite an expense. It seems our state’s TDA offices, also understaffed, haven’t re-applied for the federal funds that will help reimburse some of those federal expenses charged to farmers in the way of inspections and fees. No one seemed to know why or actually, that this was the case. The Collin County farmer who brought up the issue knows for sure though, because it’s the reason Kari Gates of Spring Creek Organic Farm was unable to renew her certification. Who has money to pay the government for farming safely, the way it has been done for generations before? It’s helpful for branding, for trading with 3^rd parties and I imagine certifying one’s operation may have other benefits I’m unaware of presently. But at what cost? 

Dallas' March Against Monsanto Oct. 2012

•  GMO labeling – We need and want it in our state.

• This issue, we were informed, is surely a bi-partisan issue and we should do what we can to rally support from both sides of the aisle publicly. As in, it was up to us to rally support at a grass roots level.
• Where the heck have they been? Did they miss the last 2 MAM world wide events – and those locally and statewide?  We have been doing our part at the grass roots level. And we're doing it by and while we are trying to save honeybees, farm land, educate the public on eating well, hold down other types of mainstream full time jobs and raise families buying healthy, local food, no less. Isn't organic food demand increasing by leaps and bounds? What more do they want us to do? It is their leadership we need down in Austin and assurance that they’ll not be swayed by paid lobbyists who have more time and money than the general public to spend convincing our elected representatives of issues we gather en masse to bring attention to.

• Protection or exemptions from local legislation and actions that offend the integrity of growing food without the use of synthetic chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. I specifically brought up this issue as it related, in large part, to being crop dusted and fogged every time a single mosquito is caught in a trap carrying the illness our media and medical association makes out to be like the next black plague.
• We all know by now that this disease in it’s most severe form, affects a minute percentage of the population, who are usually predisposed to catching many illnesses due to a compromised immune system to start with; and that the products used to try to combat the adult insect are under attack by many medical doctors and scientists worldwide, those who have been harmed by them, as well as the CDC’s very own efficacy report following Dallas’ aerial spraying a few years ago. (I know, run on sentence I suppose. But you get the point.) 
• And a compromised immune system, incidentally, doesn’t necessarily mean you are old or very young. It could mean at the time you got bit by the infected bug, your body was busy fighting off something else you were exposed to. Perhaps a cold virus, allergies, a surplus of bacteria you picked up on some food when you ate out, or the onslaught of synthetic chemicals, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics it is exposed to from your regular intake of the SAD (Standard American Diet). The human body can only fight off so many things at once.
• But when you are trying to provide clean food for those who can not consume the SAD, due to medical reasons, it’s a bit of a conundrum to be told by the city’s emergency services director, a handful of hours beforehand, that your farm is about to be fogged, (In the presence, no less, of an armed police officer who then basically issues you a verbal warning if you try to protect yourself or property from the spraying by interfering in any way, shape or form.). Fogged of course, with a product that is a known neurotoxin and under attack for being an endocrine disruptor as well as a known killer of small vertebrae and all insects that it comes into contact with; and could therefore contaminate not only the air I breath while inside my drafty old house, but the flowers on my plants and trees (which of course, become the nectar for honey and the vegetables and fruits we eat, from which I make a living.

Ah, but you’ve all heard my rant on this many times before, haven’t you? Apparently, though, our county judge needed a reminder. It had come to my attention that he thought perhaps we’d forgotten about the issue or thought less of its critical nature to our lives and livelihoods. Really? Looks like Tuesday mornings will be on the agenda for attendance at county meetings again soon. Sigh.

Other issues included, eminent domain abuses - farms being cut in half by water ways, gas pipelines, etc., with little to no recourse for the property owner vs private companies; what is "local"; what constitutes a "farmers" market; watering restrictions in urban areas, water shortages in rural areas and sewer water fees in both ; grants for useful things like infrastructure and equipment, not enlarging the already under supplied market, pickling vegetables - other than cucumbers; and the general feeling that we're not fully represented when it counts - and we should be.

THE REAL POINT

The really important point about this post I hope you take away, comes in here when I tell you it is imperative that we regularly keep getting in front of local, county, state and federal government officials, in whatever legal and peaceful means we have available to us about the issues that affect us. Judith McGreary of FARFA said to me once that we can’t ever match the monies raised by those on the other side of the issues that most of us stand for. But we can hit politicians where they would feel it – elections. If they feel that their re-election could be at risk because enough of the voters were rising up against them based on issues they didn’t take to task for us, it can sway their decision; if staying in politics is their goal. (As opposed to taking a cushy job with one of the companies likely to benefit from voting the other way.)And the way to show those numbers is to show up in large ones at meetings, marches, petitions, phone calls, faxes and personal meetings with representatives.

I took a young WWOOFer to this meeting with me in order to hopefully instill in him the level of importance in being abreast of the issues affecting his potential livelihood and life as an eater, and more importantly, the critical nature of being directly involved and helping to rally support among your customers, peers and colleagues.

I wish I had given the upcoming meeting more thought and better planned a massive public invitation myself, given the way it seems “out of sight, out of mind” works when it comes to politicians and issues. I hadn't sent out notice of the meeting to my CSA or farm "followers" until the day before the event. But, in all due respect to myself, it was in the heart of spring season when I found out about the meeting and for some reason, I initially thought it was by invitation only, and I wasn't sure I'd have coverage on a Friday to attend myself. Not to mention that I have quite a few plates I’m spinning that require my attention to stay pretty focused on planning, ideas and problem solving of the day to day activities in order to stay afloat here at this farm. 

But next time there’s an event that involves getting the attention of politicians who we elect and expect to represent our views, you can betcha you’ll hear from me and I’ll be asking for your participation. And I’ll do it well enough in advance that you can plan to take a few hours off from your 9-5 job or incorporate it into your kids’ home-school day and be present with us so we can show these folks what we do have, in lieu of promises of lobbyists’ perks; numbers of concerned voting people – potential votes against them in upcoming elections.

Sadly, we can’t always count on a person’s integrity in the face of temptation. No matter how warm and fuzzy they seem to be when you meet and talk to them, they’re just like everyone else; broken, flawed and in some way scared of something. And we are all susceptible to making decisions out of our fears. It’s not easy to be courageous. But as the late Maya Angelou said;

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Marie

It Bites!

Yesterday at the farmer’s market on my farm in Balch Springs, several farmers and home gardeners were standing around talking about how the lack of pollination on the vegetable plants this year was really hurting production. The wildflowers and sunflowers in my pasture are missing usual pollinators except for a few native bees from time to time. The edges of the pond are not filled with thirsty honeybees or dozens of frogs and toads as in years past. The squash, melons and cucumber blossoms at my farm and in yards across Mesquite, Balch Springs and Dallas are not producing fruits as they normally should. Instead, blossoms are falling off, un-pollinated, in areas where an excessive amount of fogging and aerial spraying took place last summer - and around my farm where we lost 90% of our hives this past winter. The immune systems of the bees compromised from the intake of tainted pollen the summer before.

On tables of at least 2 vendors were handouts and flyers, mosquito dunks and bits and lots of information about the fatal plight of the honeybees, especially in light of the unnecessary spraying. Requiem for a bee. You’ve seen the story by now about the Texas Honeybee Guild’s crushing past year in the Dallas Advocate, countless other magazines, television news programs and full length feature films. Or have you been tuned out or tuned in only to the sensational media coverage of how we’ve had or first human case of WNv and they were still alive – oh, no, wait, it wasn’t really WNv after all. But too late, out come the trucks. Do you see how this all works? 

And yet, in the professionally printed full color brochure put out by the County of Dallas – no where in it does mention even once about honeybees or how ordinary citizens can help the county eliminate the habitat for mosquito breeding by using a simple, cheap, extremely effective and readily available material.

BTi folks – dump it or dunk it! Do we let standing water than can’t be dumped or drained just stand there and breed mosquitoes? Do we call code compliance on our neighbors who can’t afford to have their gutters cleaned out because they are struggling to buy food and use a walker to stand? Do we complain to our city about how bad the mosquitoes are in our neighborhood - where there are endless abandoned horse troughs, swimming pools or creek areas that don’t have enough moving water to keep them flushed out?

How about empowering the people to do something more effective than douse themselves with DEET? (The CDC even mentions other FDA approved ingredients to use on ones’ self and kids.)  We have stood up in county and city meetings time and again freely sharing hundreds of hours of research so officials don’t have to look for it themselves. And what have they DONE with this information? What has been done with the monies received for increasing the mosquito abatement budget? Testing you say? Great – and what is being done more this year than in past years to educate individuals about their role and then telling those at-risk neighborhoods they need to step it up even more when those test results start to climb?  How about a grading system so neighborhoods know how they rate when the test results come in – and sharing those results with city departments so they can be on the look out for potential breeding grounds?

How is it we can go from ground zero to ground spraying before we even hit the 4^th of July – and I’ve not received ONE SINGLE piece of information in my mailbox or on my door, or seen any mention at any cross street in my neighborhood about what we can do to prevent being doused with harmful chemicals in our homes and yards? The word is out about the dangers of the toxic chemicals. People are waking up to the fact that the media likes to scare people with inflated headlines and shocking news teasers. Children are asking questions. We are all asking more questions. Like how effective is spraying – really?

I would like to commend Scott, Zach and their outside contractor Ron, for working with me last week to improve a buffer zone around my farm’s perimeter – instead of taking a direct fogging on the north border as on the original spray map, and for dropping off literature for me to hand out at my farmers market. But what the heck new is being done this year? Where is the gambusia fish program for individuals’ ponds? Where are the new backpack sprayers or truck mounted sprayers that are capable of accepting the less toxic materials that Mr. Howard Garret and others have told officials about? What happened to all of the funding and how is it being spent in cities that pay the county to perform this daunting task of abating mosquitoes for them?

It’s time for new action folks. Our county can move faster than this. It’s time we start looking around the country and even within our own state, and adopt newer, safer and more effective ways to empower ourselves against the archaic and dangerous ways of the old days. We have the technology, information and manpower.

No one wants anyone to get sick, much less lose their life, to a mosquito bite. But we’re doing a pretty dismal job at taking the bite out of anything if we can’t move forward and empower the people and businesses to be more proactive in their role, too, without risking millions of people to the long term effects of spraying toxic chemicals on them. Let’s encourage retail counter top displays of BTi dunks and bits and coupons from the manufacturer on literature going to the public. I can’t tell you how many people at my market don’t know that BTi dunks even exist, much less that it is a safe and effective way to help them kill mosquito larvae in their yards – or tossed into neighbor’s abandoned pool.

How about a few billboards saying DUMP IT or DUNK IT! around town? Town hall meetings with neighborhoods in high-risk areas to educate people about what they can do in their own yards to eliminate the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. 

No one expects our government to be the silver bullet and answer all of our life’s problems. But shouldn’t we expect them to be a source of current information for the people and to effectively use funds to spread the word about empowering citizens to help them take care of this problem? What do you think? We can gather together for sporting events and other rallies. We need more of you to gather around city council meetings, county meetings, health department meetings – and any other open meeting that has anything to do with mosquitoes, health of citizens and accountability. There are over 6 million of us living in DFW. The 15 or 20 of us who have led the way, can’t be the whole march. Step up and do your part – please. Get informed. Get armed with the tools you need to protect your neighborhood and to eliminate the breeding and feeding ground for this pest. Protect your home. Maybe because I started this farm from the scratch more or less, I'm a bit vigilant about it, but none of us wants our homes to be prey to toxic chemical attacks.

And tell the media you’re sick of scare tactics and misleading news stories. Isn’t it time we took things back to reality? The severe form of West Nile fever occurs in 1 in 150 people showing symptoms. You’d think it was as widespread as heart attacks from eating fast food and smoking. Neither of which we do much of anything about to prevent.

Marie Eat Your Food - Naturally!