Maine farmers have limited options for health insurance
Kennebec Journal - 1/20/2012.By Dennis Thoet – I am a victim of socialized medicine. When I was younger, I was especially abused by a special form of socialized medicine that few people know about: The Jones Act. In 1980, when I was 36, I broke my forearm working on a fishing boat off the Merrimack River. The break required surgery, a couple of months of recovery time, a second surgery and more recovery time. All of the medical expenses were picked up by the federal government, thanks to the Jones Act, which pays for injuries caused at sea. Not only were all expenses paid, but the Jones Act also paid me for lost work at the same rate as my fellow crewmen. Socialism at its worst. |
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Lexicon of sustainability: food sovereignty
Grist - 1/20/2012. By Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton – After Xuyen Pham lost her New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina, she turned the property into a farm to feed her community. She fled Vietnam with her husband and children at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. After months in Southeast Asian refugee camps they were moved to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. The family eventually settled in the “Mary Queen of Vietnam” community in East New Orleans. |
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Meet the new boss: You
Shareable - 1/19/2012. By Jessica Reeder – What do coffee growers in Ethiopia, hardware store owners in America, and Basque entrepreneurs have in common? For one thing, many of them belong to cooperatives. By pooling their money and resources, and voting democratically on how those resources will be used, they can compete in business and reinvest the benefits in their communities. |
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Are genetically-engineered herbicide-resistant crops undermining sustainable weed control?
Union of Concerned Scientists - 1/19/2012. By Doug Gurian-Sherman – A new article in the respected journal BioScience raises important concerns about the harmful influence of genetically engineered herbicide resistant crops on sustainable weed control. As many others have also noted, the excessive reliance on glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, has resulted in the emergence and spread of many harmful weeds that can no longer be controlled by glyphosate. |
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