Romney finally pulled one out. And, did anyone else watch the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, last night? If you did, leave comments about how you felt about it. At times I thought I was going to be sick, everyone was being so nice and sweet and agreeable to show unity in the Democratic Party. If all the candidates are the same and believe the same things, then just put every one's name in a hat and draw the nominee. Can you imagine how much money in campaigning would be saved that could go to the homeless, end hunger or combat global warming issues? Just a thought. A debate is just that, a debate. The people involved are supposed to have differing view points and are supposed to have facts to back up their point of view. If everyone involved is supposed to have the same opinion, you are having and educational conference, where the panelists are adding their own personal knowledge to a topic.

On the Green Front I got a plastic bag yesterday and I did not even realize it until way late at night. My dear son and I went to the book store and I walked out with our purchases in a plastic bag. I had been doing so good, this is my first one this year. Last week I even carried out a whole basket load of stuff from Targets in the basket and put the purchases in my car loose because I forgot my shopping bags and realized this as I was checking out. You talk about strange looks, I thought the cashier was going to call someone to take me to the Funny Farm, but I got no plastic bags. And then to be foiled by two books. Well that's one down and I have only 24 left for the year. I can do this. Remember to start purchasing you reusable ChicoBags from Favorites-Green.

On the Healthy Eating Front On Monday I did a great Vinyasa Yoga practice. It was from a CD titled Tribal Yoga , by Misty Tripoli, I purchased it off of ITUNES. She has several and this was the Beginner version.

Rant Warning

Yesterday the FDA approved cloned animals for our food supply. Our food supply is moving closer to the movie Soylent Green everyday. (If you have not seen Soylent Green , find it and watch it. I have added a link to the movie under Favorites-Green) Our food animals are already produced in such a way that they have to be given massive doses of antibiotics and hormones in their feed, which is causing drug resistant bacteria, super strains of EColi and girls going into puberty earlier and earlier. Now, the FDA is going to allow animals that were not produced the way God intended them to be. The food industry says that the animals will never find their way into the supermarket because they will be too expensive, but they will be used for breeding purposes . And the FDA has decided that if someone does send a cloned cow, sheep, chicken, or pig to slaughter, we, the public, will never know because there is no requirement to label the meat as coming from a cloned animal. I see so many problems with this that I can not even write them all down, but two of the major problems I see are; no data on how cloned food products will affect the person eating them, and the halt of natural genetic changes from one generation to the next.

In the drug approval process, it takes years of clinical studies on lab animals and humans before a drug can be sold, but with our food, which everyone eats, no such process is followed. The FDA just says OK, and its on our supermarket shelf. It may be years before the real effect of such food is discovered, like with the effects of BGH (Bovine Growth Hormone) on adolescent girls. It is now common for young girls to start their period when they are nine years old. Marion Jones is going to jail for using steroids and Roger Clements is fighting to have his name disassociated with steroids, but it is perfectly alright to give dairy cows steroids so that they can produce more milk. Not to mention the fact that humans are the only species that, not only drinks another mammals milk, but continues to drink milk passed the age of weaning. (a side rant, sorry.) What will always eating genetically identical animals do to us?

The other major problem I see is that our food supply will be in danger because it will not be as genetically diverse. Organisms are smart and their genetic makeup changes with each generation to survive whatever potential threat there is from their environment, survival of the fittest. (Not evolution. I do not believe I came from a monkey, but I do believe in the survival of the fittest principal, where a species can adapt, over time, to fit its surroundings better.) If man is cloning each animal from a few prize animals of a certain period of time, then the genetic material is static to that period in time, and natural selection cannot occur. As a result of this halt in genetic change, if the right strain of disease comes through, all animals would be wiped out because they had not been allowed to develop natural resistance to such diseases. This principal also holds true for genetically mortified foods, which Europe bans, but the FDA says is just fine for us on this side of the pond. If plants are not allowed to develop and pollinate as nature intended, a wrong disease can wipe out an entire crop. This is what happened during the potato famine in Ireland, which ruined the food supply and caused the death of many people.

On one hand, we hear everyday in the media that doctors should not prescribe antibiotics as much to stop the threat of drug resistant strains of bacteria, yet the FDA allows all types of stuff into the feed of our food animals, and now they are going to allow them to be cloned. Man should never fool with God or Mother Nature and, personally, I know God will win.

Peace,
Laura