This Plant Your Dream Blog is dedicated to the future of 3 year old Savannah, a sixth generation member of the Rodriguez local organic farming family of San Diego. I took Savannah on tour a few weeks ago at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. She pointed on foods she liked and did not like. By the time she is five, I would like to have the labeling of GE foods be a non issue because it has happened. By the time she is 10-years old, I want no more GE foods grown anywhere because on this day we all decide to come together from organic stakeholders to grassroots activists and be one movement that stands united. FYI, these same local fresh picked organic strawberries were eaten at the Organic Trade Association banquet in 2005 at the Natural Product Expo West. Joe was given a rousing standing ovation at the Organic Center fundraiser as Walt Robb, Co-Ceo of Whole Foods Market, honored him and his strawberry presence.
HOW COME GE GOODS ARE NOT LABELED
AND HOW DO WE GET THEM LABELED?
It is a fact of life that on June 7, 2011
there are not enough of us working together
to make sure that GE foods are labeled.
This is a state of life.
We eat food. For eons we had natural foods
that were whole, pure, and natural.
These were called organically grown.
By this we mean the foods grew in harmony with
the Wheel of Health. We had seeds.
We planted seeds. Through a labor intensive process
they grew, and we had healthy food
to grow and plant and harvest our dreams.
Then, we gave the remains back to the
garden and the cycle kept going.
Today, we no longer invest in the Bank
of Compost; Some of us are spending
a lot of time picking at each others possible
flaws, rather than working together to make
a more beautiful world.
Somewhere along the way,
economics got involved in the growing of food.
We began to see little genes as real estate.
We started to want to make money off each other
through taking advantage of the fact that we all need
good food to survive and thrive.
We started to think of food as commodities
rather than holy substance.
We started to think of big Ag as the way to go
in an age when more and more people learning
to grow food may again be the solution to our
stomach aches and bottomlines.
THERE ARE NUMBERS OF FOOD THAT ARE
NOW UNHEALTHY TO EAT
There are a growing number of foods that are no
longer fit to eat, including soy, corn, and soon
alfalfa if we do not come
together to make some Shifts.
Jeffrey Smith (Seeds of Deception) and a host of other non profits who want
to regain our balance with nature are all on the same team.
These non profits are highly supported by
funding, including money coming from our organic stakeholders
and companies. Our non profits and the Organic Trade
Association are doing as best they can. They could do
better and with more support of every kind,
including your good will.
THE OPPOSITION
Then we have other people right now who believe
it is O.K. to make money off our genes.
The FDA and our Czar of foods Michael R. Taylor
is among the voices that have the president's ear.
Michael R. Taylor, who is one of the higher ups
who has worked both for Monsanto and the FDA
in a revolving door, is one of the main voices who
over the years has gotten our Presidents to believe
that there is no difference between conventional food
and Genetically Engineered food. He was one of the
folks who got cows injected with hormones.
He is friends with a lot of other internationals
who right now who are busy outlawing
natural medicines in Europe, and
possibly helping to co-create new kinds of E. Coli's
and stuff like that in labs so we can have more reasons
to scare people about foods. Few of us really know
today what real food safety about eating organic alfalfa sprouts.
Today few of us know ou rlocal organic farmers by name, but this number is growing
and our successes are a bit scary to the folks with the big money
money and great PR campaigns.
IF WE WANT TO HAVE GE FOODS LABELED
There are many people in the organic industry
and people in many non profits, and people who eat
food who do not want GE food, in other words foods
with Genetically Modified Organisms.
If you want to see a great list of some of these non profits
to support, check on their names that are links on
Jeffrey Smith's Institute for Responsible Technology
site here: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/
If we all put our energies together right now,
we are reassured of creating a Tipping point
where GE Labeling will be a done deal, and GMO's
will be a has been.
SOME OF THE NON PROFITS LISTED INCLUDE
AND RESOURCES INCLUDE
Non-GMO Shopping Guide
iPhone App: ShopNoGMO
Seeds of Deception
True Food Network
The Non-GMO Project
Organic Comsumers Association
Greenpeace
GM Watch
Food & Water Watch
Food Democracy Now
I add The Organic Trade Association
The Organic Center, and of course,
my own Facebook sites:
The Dialogue on Science, Ethics, Food;
The Enchanted Garden Intentional Community;
and the Beet Keepers, Return!
MANY OF "THE GOOD GUYS"
ARE IN THE ORGANIC INDUSTRY
If you watch this film put out by the Organic Center
the research arm of the Organic Trade Association
who will see some of the problem explained about
GE Foods.
This film by the way is funded by some of the same
businesses and individuals who are now under attack
by that growing in popular little documentary
called Organic Spies Find Lies that you can find
popping up everywhere on the internet.
Among the funders of both Jeffrey Smith's
projects and many of the other non profits you will
find names like White Wave, Horizon Organic, and
RW Knudsen, Stoneyfield Farm, and a host of others.
THE BIG LIES
The biggest lies and upset I find in this documentary
called Organic Spies Find Lies are facts that do not add up:
#1
OTA ACCOMPLISHMENTS
THE OTA, working with a relatively small budget
has had many accomplishments over the years
in their area of focus.
To hold the OTA responsible for our failure
in outlawing GE foods or its labeling is putting
our target in the wrong place. In a world of
massive tasks, OTA does an excellent
job at what they have taken on.
There are numbers of other groups that have
taking on the push to get GE foods labeled
including the Organic Consumer Association,
Food Democracy Now, and Jeffrey Smith's Institute.
The OTA has had their hands full in Washington
upholding organic standards and doing their best
to make friends with a lot of elected reps who have
never visited a farmers' market or had a really good
organically grown meal lately. It is not exactly
as if Washington's head thinks clearly these days.
#2
When all the facts are on the table, through
a just, fair, and honest Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Food
it may become clear that the organizations and people
who are being demeaned in this
Organic Lies Find Lies documentary
are again not the right targets for our frustration
or anger at our sad state of affairs.
Of all the top allies The Organic Movement has
going for us to get the organic agenda across, I would include
Julia Sabin and Kelly Shea, two of the OTA board members
demeaned in the documentary.
They are among the Good Guys
if we want to make this about Good Guys and Bad Guys.
Christine Bushway CEO of The Organic Trade Association
says:
"I have unfortunately grown accustomed to the circular firing squad, but the Organic Spies video took it to a new amazingly low level. It is destructive and cowardly to make conspiratorial accusations without full disclosure of who's behind these allegations.
These tactics will not get us closer to mandatory GE labeling.
The irony is that in my almost three years with OTA and dozen full board meetings, never once has any Board member expressed hesitance to do what is right for organic. Regardless of their business size, type or structure, our Board members make decisions to benefit the trade as a whole, with the integrity and respect you'd hope for from elected representatives."
In March, at the Natural Product Expo West, one of the
largest gatherings of the Organic and Natural Food leaders
in the world in Anaheim, CA, some of the most effective
of the Good Guys got together.
They called for action.
They called for all of us to pull together.
The focus of that meeting was the recent deregulation
of GE alfalfa, and most on the stage were in shock that
little alfalfa--the #4 crop of fodder in the world--was about
to go down to the camp of FDA and USDA thinking
that said it was O.K. to grow the Bad Stuff that, we
the Good Guys, knew was going to make more bad food.
LITTLE ORGANIC ALFALFA ON THE STAGE
AT THE NATURAL PRODUCT EXPO WEST
Two of the Good Guys,
(L) David Bronner of Dr. Bronners Magic Soap
with Andrew Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety
suing for actions to halt deregulation of alfalfa.
Want to put your energy in a good place?
Support Andrew Kimbrell and the Center for Food Safety.
Among the 500 in attendance in that meeting
at the Natural Product Expo West
called GMO Political Challenge 2011 and Beyond,
was a little bowlful of organic alfalfa growing on the stage.
I know it was there because I was told to grow that
little bowlful of organic alfalfa by the seeds! The little alfalfa
was the centerpiece of a possible growing national campaign
called Standing Up for Nature's Original Technology, Each of
us Being an Organic Uprising.
The little alfalfa bowl not only ended up on that stage
placed there by one of the Good Guys, but that same Good Guy
helped get in on the podium of the Organic Center Reunion
fundraiser a few hours later, the most auspicious gathering
of organic good guys I know.
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
So where do we go from here.
I say, we have-- all of us--Good Guys and Bad Guys
lost our beat with nature. We are all of us making really bad
food choices. We do not know better. If we start to grow
a bit of our own food, maybe we can get our beat back.
A FEW GOOD THINGS TO DO NOW
A few good things to do now would be to label genetically
engineered foods. If we get it straight in our heads
who the real targets are, that would help, too.
The real targets for our anger may not be our Organic Trade
Association or its board members. The real target may somehow
be each of us that have lost our beat with nature, and go around
pointing fingers on the internet as we and imagine there are Good Guys and Bad Guys.
Working together, we may all get our food back.
Working together, even the folks who are wanting to make
a buck off genes, may turn into the Good Guys.
Lets all work together now,
have a real Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Food.
Lets do what we can to support the Non Profits
who have been calling for years for us to label GE Foods.
Let's get the GMO lovers and the Organic Lovers talking.
Let's do our best to stop pointing fingers, accept where
we are, and get the job done now to make a more beautiful
World.
Beet Keepers, Return!
Grow a bit of food in a pot,
even a beet and some alfalfa.
This may start to turn your beat around!
RECAP
Support all the Non Profits doing Good!
Help uplift others, and educate, even
those we imagine are the Bad Guys.
Close the Gap!
Love the Japanese and help their kids
who were earthquaked on the same day
that those 500 Organic Activists got together
at the Natural Product Expo West.
Be an Organic Uprising!
If all else fails, love your neighbor as yourself.
Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
June 7, 2011
San Diego, CA
Writing from the Enchanted Garden
Intentional Community.
"In You, I see the flowers
I love so much in the garden.
Nature has smiled on you to make this
world beautiful."
--Leslie Goldman
OTA volunteer photographer at one time,
the one who planted organic seeds with
Robert Fraley, the father of Round Up Ready.
RELATED VIDEOS
THIS WAS MADE BY THE ORGANIC CENTER
A SISTER ORG OF THE ORGANIC TRADE ASSOCIATION
Dave Alexander · University of Denver
As someone that's been in the organic food business for 22+ years, I can say that this piece does have a few points that deserve consideration, though the general approach in focusing on a few board members and bending reality to fit a storyline is disingenuous. It is patently unfair to say the OTA and specifically some members of the board have intentionally obstructed efforts to ban or label GM Foods. Yes, some board members may now work for organic subsidiaries of big food companies, but most have been working for the organic divisions long before they were purchased by the parent companies.
I love the last video of this one.
Me with the kids at the Jewish High Holidays.
Footage with my dad who just had his
93rd birthday. God bless us all
at a time when we need each other so much.
THIS BLOG, SHIFTING THE NATURE
OF OUR WORLD TALKS ABOUT
HOW I PLANTED ORGANIC SEEDS
WITH MONSANTO'S FATHER OF
ROUND UP READY IN FEB 2010
AT THE AAAS SCIENCE CONFERENCE
The people below are all people I care about
about and admire.
Among them are Kelly Shea, VP of
government and industry relations and
head of the Organic Stewardship program
for Horizon Organics. She send me a check
for $300.00 to sponsor my gallery of photos
from the Natural Product Expo West.
I also confess that when I asked her
to send me two boxes of cheese to give away
to the kids in CIty Heights one month later,
she got in the cheese in four days. I also confess
that not all the cheese was eaten by kids.
We ran out of food at some of the grown ups
ate the cheese too.
TO SEE THE PHOTOS THAT KELLY AND OTHERS HELPED SPONSOR
GO HERE AND READ MY VISION FOR
A TIPPING POINT:
DEDICATION IN
THE ULTIMATE GARDENER
CHARLIE NARDOZZI
of the NATIONAL GARDEN ASSOCIATION
COPYRIGHT CLARLIE NARDOZZI
To Leslie Goldman,
The Enchanted Gardener,
for planting dreams and
seeds of inspiration.
To all those who garden
and for those who dream to
have a garden one day.
BIO NOTE FROM
THE ULTIMATE GARDENER
ON LESLIE GOLDMAN
YOUR ENCHANTED GARDENER
Leslie Goldman, AKA Your Enchanted Gardener, plants seeds of
success for super ripe people and their dreams. The Ultimate Gardener morphed from a "Seed Dream" between Leslie and the publisher, Peter Vegso, at the 2008 Book Expo America. Leslie's
companion is Keep The Beet Media Star, The World's First Talking Beet Plant.
Keep The Beet's message is that we can each grow our own food,
starting with growing a local, organic beet in a pot. "Keep the beet.
Eat the beet greens," is Beet's message. Leslie writes daily on the "Plant
Your Dream" blog, and sees photography as a way to show how he
sees the world. You can learn more about Leslie's Enchanted Garden Projects by viewing http://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=92
and http://www.plantyourdream.net
Post include "Plant Your Dream," "Words Men Need to Know and Women Want to Hear," "The Seven Love Cures," "Job's Tears: Grow A Necklace,: "Super Ripe Images" and "Beep Keepers."
This book has six photos by Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
on across from the Title page, Nasturtium flowers, Enchanted Garden;
nectarines, next to the pic of the little boy, after page 10
blueberries, opposite to page before page 11;
Chocolate Peppermint and squash, next to page 34,
two pages after page 82, double truck, my favorite cactus flower,
and yellow flower of Oxalis;
"I’ve been waiting half my life to tell somebody about Leslie Goldman.
Always figured I’d wait for some desperate moment.
Now it’s here."
-- Bob Baker, Los Angeles times Magazine
"Do you remember, a lifetime ago,
when Nat King Cole had a hit song
called "Nature Boy"? It told about
"a strange, enchanted boy"
who wandered far, very far,
and when he met you,
he taught you many things.
I've met that boy,
or someone very much like him,
and he is now a man known as
"The Enchanted Gardener..."
I may never be the same."
--Paul Froemming,
Montecito Journal,
July 16, '99
"A magic day he passed my way and while we spoke
of many things Fools and Kings, this he said to me,
'The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be
loved in return." -- "Nature Boy," written by eden
ahbez, recorded by Nat King Cole in 1947.
CREATING THE TIPPING POINT
FOR A RETURN TO NATURE'S ORIGINAL TECHNOLOGY
EACH OF US BEING AN ORGANIC UPRISING
Thanks to my sponsors for giving me time to write
about these things this summer.
GROW ORGANIC ALFALFA SEEDS
FOR AN ORGANIC UPRISING!
SUPPORT OUR SPRING CAMPAIGN
ORDER COMMEMORATIVE ORGANIC ALFALFA SEEDS
AND THE ART WORK HERE
TO PLANT YOUR DREAM http://plantyourdream.net/?p=1301
LARGER
STANDING UP FOR NATURE's ORIGINAL TECHNOLOGY,
ORGANIC UPRISING!
GROW ORGANIC ALFALFA SEEDS
FOR AN ORGANIC UPRISING!
KELLY SHEA OF WHITE WAVE
STANDING UP FOR NATURE's ORIGINAL TECHNOLOGY,
ORGANIC UPRISING!
KELLY SHEA OF WHITE WAVE
HELPED LAUNCH STANDING UP FOR
NATURE'S ORIGINAL TECHNOLOGY,
ORGANIC UPRISING!
Kelly Shea, VP of Government and Industry Relations
and Organic Stewardship, at White Wave, a company that aspires
to be the Earth's Favorite Food Company,
was a tremendous ally for the launch of
Standing up for Nature's Original Technology,
Organic Uprising!
This is our Spring 2011
campaign here on the Plant Your Dream Blogs.
White Wave, through Kelly's cheerleader,
became a lead sponsor of our photo galleries
from the Natural Product Expo West.
Edmond Bordeaux Szekely Quote
on Adapting to Nature.
PROPS TO THE PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOG
SPONSORS
HELPING THE WORLD TO GET BIOSMART
WINTER 2011
HELPING THE WORLD
GET BIO SMART
through using BioSmart
Sustainable Packaging and Serviceware.
Made From 100% Natural Sugar Cane.
Bagasse is a by-product of sugar cane
production.
ANTHONY RUSSO BIOSMART
100 % SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS
PLEASE VISIT THE NEW BIOSMART SITE.
TELL VENDORS WHO USE STYROFOAM
AND OTHER GREEN PACKAGING PRODUCTD
TO SUPPORT THIS COMPANY THAT
MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE ON THE NET
PLEASE VISIT THE PLANT YOUR DREAM
PUBLIC WEBSITE TO VIEW STORIES
ABOUT THE SEED DREAMS WE SUPPORT
AND THAT SPONSOR BEET KEEPERS, RETURN! Http://www.plantyourdream.net
LESLIE GOLDMAN
YOUR ENCHANTED GARDENER,
Leslie writes daily on his more personal
Plant Your Dream Blog Online Journal http://curezone.com/blogs/f.asp?f=92
Leslie Goldman, Your Enchanted Gardener,
sees and seeds success for super ripe
people and their dreams. His constant companion
is Keep the Beet Media Star, the Worlds Frst Talking beet plant.
Her mission is to help us all turn our beat around
with nature through planting a beet in a pot.
Keep the Beet. Eat the Greens, says Keep the Beet.
THE PLANT TO THE LEFT
IN THE PHOTO ABOVE
is
KEEP THE BEET MEDIA STAR,
THE WORLD's FIRST TALKING BEET PLANTR
KEEP THE BEET SEZ
...Get use to it...yes, I am a talking beet plant
and I often write here through Leslie on this
plant your dream blog...for more about me
go to ..
A record of Leslie's
life process. Serves as a palate
for new creations.
Leslie is in the wounded healer tradition.
he does his best to share his ups and downs
that we might all acknowledge we are
stars in Keep The Beet's Rock Your Soul Opera
called Beet Keepers, Return!
The Shift has happened.
We can no longer ask nature to adapt to us
but more so honor the journey of learning.
We can turn our breakdowns into breakthroughs.
CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE WASHINGTON
ON REAL FOOD SAFETY
VIDEOS ON THE NEW PLANT YOUR DREAM WEBSITE http://plantyourdream.net
THESE ARE OUR AIMS
1-To support mobilization of one Farmers’ Market in our local area, the Hillcrest Farmers’ Market in San Diego. To continue to work with local organic farmers and help them sell more of their produce. To continue to produce
short video's about foods and shoppers at the Hillcrest Farmers' Market.
To continue to educate shoppers about the use of foods sold by local organic farmers.
1A -To See and Seed the success of the New Roots Community
International Rescue Committee Farm. To help in all ways possible
to tell the story and stand with these farmers and local IRC garden
products, including the Aquaponics Center.
2-To continue to develop a 1/3 acre parcel of land near San Diego State College named the Enchanted Garden Intentional Community Growing Grounds where those who live here and those who live around the world may study our process of learning how to keep the beat with nature. Through learning to live together cooperatively as a household we seek to live in harmony with the earth. The motto of the house will be Keep The Beet.
Spring 2011 Outreach:
Through growing a simple beet in a pot,
and grow organic alfalfa in pots, we can regain our beat with nature.
Not all in the house garden. Some like to prepare food. Others help with other jobs, or rent rooms. The land, as of June 2011 has a need to be refinanced. b A Trust to hold the land is one idea that has been suggested. The Seed Dream would be to leave a museum and park for future generations to learn from this experiment in cooperative living. This experiment in cooperative living has been going on since the early 1970′s. What we learn here can help others, and Washington, understand and adapt to some of the shifts being asked of all of us now. The focus summer 2011 is to create more infra-structure and prepare to be a local community resource through these
Shifting times. We need to begin with ourselves, and here in our backyard.
3- To develop relationships with those who influence Washington and government. A vast coalition across all political, religious, and philosophical lines has now formed. Mainstream media needs to be reached through bloggers filling the gap where journalism once told all points of view. Elected leaders need to be encouraged to follow the principles expressed in the song “America The Beautiful.”
4- We see the world as we know it now coming to an end. A Shift has already happened. It is for each of us to adapt to the earth and relearn the laws of nature, rather than attempt to further adapt nature to our ways. The source of our economic and health crisis is that we have lost our beat with nature. We can regain the beet through becoming once again a nation of gardeners who live in a world of gardeners. One Pot+One person=You are a Gardener. Start to grow your own food now.
5- To accept the mandate, that in San Diego we can model a city
growing its own food. To do all we can in our own backyard to
further this Seed Dream. To work with other groups through outreach,
and create events where the community can join in our extended
community here.
CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE
WASHINGTON ON REAL FOOD SAFETY
Read about the goals of the year long campaign here.
Study materials about Real Food Safety.
Watch Videos of Micro-farmer Barry Logan
and much more! http://plantyourdream.net/?page_id=50
THE CAMPAIGN TO EDUCATE WASHINGTON
ON REAL FOOD SAFETY
Our year long Campaign to Educate Washington on
Real Food Safety aims to return the beat of Nature
to Washington. Our campaign begins with
each of us locally regaining our beat through
having a moment of awakening.
We can grow a bit of our own food.
ALL POINTS OF VIEW ARE WELCOME
TO ENTER INTO A NATIONAL CONVERSATION
ON REAL FOOD SAFETY
"My Enchanted Friend,
Heartfelt thanks for another “Enchanted” plant.
I love + bless it & you.
It graces my desk beautifully. Thank you!
I deeply appreciate you ‘seeding our dream’
to sell millions. I wish the same for you."
HEALTH MAGIC THROUGH CHLOROPHYLL
THROUGH LIVING PLANT LIFE
by Dr. Bernard Jensen
I wrote this one from his words.
This book is available from Bernard Jensen International
FEELING ORGANICALLY SPIED UPON?
SPIES LIKE US...
THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND THE
ORGANIC SPIES FIND LIES VIDEO
THAT APPEARS TO BE DOING A CRASH AND BURN
JOB TO DIVIDE THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT
I find it filled with misinformation and disinformation.
Correct me if I am wrong, please...
SOME OF MY FAVORITE COMMENTS
FROM THE ORGANIC SPIES SITE
PRO AND CON
who is behind this movement that
in my opinion is dividing the Organic movement
and taking our focus off the real targets????
I do not know, but I am curious to talk to them
personally.
Alert Webmaster
