Monday 30th June 2003
Our Finest Hour - The Special Olympics - Later
What a Waste! - not Organic Matters magazine again - something completely different - but later
Solar, So far, So Good.
Blight Buster - Slug Buster
The Edge

Friday 27th June 2003 
Bush's declaration of war on Europe would seem to have been inane bluster Early in the week, at a GM meeting in Sacramento, George was laying down the law to us. Our opposition to GM food was "unfounded and unscientific".We were "scaring Africa from investing in biotechnology". Biotechnology was "...safe and effective" he lectured us. "We should end our opposition and win the fight against global poverty." Fighting words. 
It now seems that he was running off at the mouth about GM and Europe. One of his handlers, Zoellick, claims he  was not there to advise (work the glove on?) the president. 
Interestingly, US trade officials say they hold little hope that Europe's staunch  opposition to GM food will change. Instead, the WTO challenge was launched in an effort to prevent other countries from emulating the EU's policy. And they obviously forgot to tell The Chief the game play. 
And there was I polishing up the Lee Enfield! 
The EU trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, returned the accusations Wednesday, charging that US policy was being driven by farmers who feared they would no longer be able to dump surplus food on Africa in the form of food aid. 
In any case, the American President's brainless, bullying bluster was literally laughed at by Europeans - and that's according to Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer! The President got the message - that  he is not taken seriously in Europe on this issue (any issue?) - by the time he arrived at a EU/US summit yesterday. 
Pascal Leamy, used the summit to urge Bush personally to tone down (less polite, STFU!) his rhetoric on the GM issue. "It's one thing disagreeing (about policies), it's another thing to use starvation in Africa for this, I'm sorry to say we don't accept this argument. 
The Greek President, following Leamy's lead of Old World courtesey(in public anyway!) said, there " was a difference in mentality" on the issue. Interpret that for yourselves! 
All George had left to say was, "'Let's go eat some genetically modified food for lunch". "He said it with a big smile and everybody laughed" Fleischman said. What a comedian!  http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename
=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966440194 

Irish farmers and their representatives squealing like stuck pigs at the EU's preposterous suggestion that they should produce food for markets rather than Intervention. Sure that's what the hippy organic farmers do. 
More on this later.

Thursday 26th June 2003
Farmers Markets  Kenmare (Co.Kerry), town square, on a beautiful day yesterday, was the scene of a street market. Whilst strictly not a farmers' market, there were more food stalls than any other kind, with a good sprinkling of local produce.There was Olga with her wonderful Jersey cheeses and yoghurt; Catríona and her All Organic stall; French Olivier, On the Wild Side, with his fish and seaweed specialities; Claire's, Forest Garden edible plants and Fiona's cheese and bread stand. There was also an olive stand and a French dry products' stall. Spencer and I did another test-market with a range of breads and scones. Baking kept us busy through the night in our separate primitive abodes with rudimentary ovens, and the mandatory stops to appreciate the magnificent views going over the Healy Pass made us late, but it was very gratifying to sell out by midday. 
We had four different kinds of organic bread, but the Roman Army Bread (Organic Spelt) was the most popular, beating even S's to-die-for scones! Comfrey concentrate* sold surprisingly well too, and it was interesting to meet so many comfrey-wise people, mostly Irish. We were humbled also to hear that one local family had been using comfrey for growing potatoes for generations!**
Restaurateur, Con Guerin, An Leath Phingin, Main Street, was a baker. He bought some samples of our humble produce. He still makes his own Focaccia for the restaurant.
Guerin was telling me that local organic horticulturalist, Billy Clifford, has such a loyal following from foodies like Con that he, for example, will not sell anything else but Billy's produce and work his seasonal menus around that. If Clifford doen't have it, you, the patron, don't get it. I love it!
After midday we freewheeled for the afternoon, talking organics, Min Joe, solar power (I had one of my panels there with demo bits), comfrey (one youngster used it as toilet paper - not a success!), tomatoes, baking, etc. etc.
Met a huge amount of people and learned a lot. Despite my, as I see it, avid listening powers, I am getting a reputation as a bit of a gabber - utterly unfounded of course!
All my strawberries were given away to customers and stall-holders, as promised Now they are addicts! And next week I shall be selling them. Chuckle!
Also, only bartered or gave away the black spuds, the remarkable Negga Tatties.
All together, an inspiring day (bartering was beautiful too) and a glimpse of how it can be.
Got lots of information too on the Cork area markets which I am including today on the Where to Buy page.

* The concentrate is made by gathering comfrey leaves and pressing them into a barrel, completely dry. "Nothing is added but time" as the syrupy Bulmer's ad has it, and 4 weeks later, a black, almost tarry substance, begins to drip into a sealed container. It should be diluted 25 times or more and added to the base of plants. It  smells much better than comfrey "tea" or "brews". Tomatoes absolutely thrive on it's potassium-richness.
 I am experimenting to see whether slugs can be repelled by a certain concentration of it. Tell you about that soon.
So throw your chemical Phostrogen out. Better still, return it to the shop and let them dispose of it
Cost of Comfrey Concentrate; €6.00 for 75cl. and €4.00 for 50ml. I also have plants, in various stages of growth, and packets of dried leaves. Email me,  jim@planorganic.com or phone 027 70717 for details.
** Not only that, which is remarkable enough, but it may be that the variety is not the non-spreading, Siberian variety, Bocking 14, that I have, but the wild Irish, common comfrey. I am to visit and inspect, and barter spelt bread for it if it is what I think it is. The wild type has better medicinal powers than the Bocking 14. The latter however has stronger, fertiliser characteristics. And of curse it stays in the same place, just going deeper and deeper, mining the sub-soil.
  
Bush War on Euro anti-GM pinkos and American NGOs blazes on as Min Joe emerges mesmerized from over-night session with Fischler, delivering his CAP tablets to a disbelieving faithful. Shoot-out planned by IFA, President, Marshal Dillon - "Min Walsh will feel the heat..." - of his lead? 
Organic jounalist,Storey, hits the national headlines, with story of the miserable Irish propery ladder. 
More on these later.

Tuesday 24th June 2003
Spare the copper  Copper sulphate, commonly known as "Bluestone" here in Ireland, is poisoning the soil according to Australian scientists. Also known as the "Burgundy Mixture" - when mixed with washing soda - it is widely used in organic horticulture, particularly to prevent blight on tomatoes and potatoes. Dr Lukas Van Zwieten from New South Wales, says in a press release announcing new research funding; "Its use (copper sulphate) in both conventional and organic agriculture has led to copper accumulation in the soil, which has a detrimental effect on soil fauna, including bacteria, fungi and earthworms." He goes on,  "A diverse, abundant soil fauna has been shown to outcompete and exclude pathogenic organisms in many trials around the world. Measures should be taken to protect organisms that compete with pathogens."
"Organic producers urgently require alternatives to be identified, and ultimately scientifically evaluated", continues the good Dr.
Organic certifying agencies please note.
Another thing that caught my eye in the document was, the mention of molasses as a soil "feed". 
New one to me. It's claimed to be "friendly to micro organisms and may control some fungal diseases."
Comment anybody?
See the press release in full - Click here
If you have any suggestions as to how to deal organically with blight without copper sulphate, contact the husband and wife team at; melissa.van.zwieten@agric.nsw.gov.au

De boys in Dubai I thought Dubai was famous only for its horse racing and the gooey stuff that America goes to war over, but the filthy-rich little place is about to make an impact on the organic/natural health scene with the full blessing, "ardent support and patronage" of the ruling families. The city will host the Middle East Natural Products Expo - 2003, from November 30th to December 2nd. The venue will be the Grand Hyatt International Convention Center. They expect 150 speakers from 40 countries. 
I wonder if Bush is invited? Or our Noel? I'm putting my name forward, anyway. But only if all expenses are paid and I'm guaranteed immunity if I upset anybody.
I fancy a bit of the old sun, and dunes and luxury, at that time of the year. I'll give you the URL if you promise not to tell them what I'm really like! OK? www.globallinksdubai.com  

Cos it's a good cause John and Bridget O'Brien, Limerick, are going for a walk in the Indian Himilaya to raise money for the Hope Foundation, Cork. This charity does Trojan work for street children in Calcutta. 
The mother and son duo, keen organic gardeners, need to raise sponsorship of €5,000 each to be able to join in. 
So, dig deep all you farmers and bureaucrats and normally tight-wad, free-loading journalists and send donations to; AIB, Newcastlewest, Co.Limerick. Acc. no. 0173 4037, Sort Code 93 52 39. Or, if like me you'd rather avoid the nefarious banking system, send direct to Bridget O'Brien, Cloonroosk, Feenagh, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. 
De Dubai Boys above, if they had any sense of gratitude for the free publicity to my 12,000 regular organic professionals and other visitors, would listen to this appeal and send some of their oily luchre to the doughty O'Briens. 

Very Special Olympics  After the near-fiasco of the gov's actions about SARS, the great event got off to an astonishing good start on Saturday in a ceremony that showed how good we are at organising this sort of thing. 
Our Taoiseach (PM) Bertie Ahearn was the only damb squib in the proceedings as the capacity crowd resented his attempt at stealing the credit. In light of his gov's disgraceful record in dealing with the special needs comunity, it was indeed a transparent cheek!
I was one of the few who didn't witness it all on the box, the overall ceremony that is, and would like to see it if anyone of you recorded it. Anyone, please? 

Bush goes to war again The first presidential shots in the new war against the stubborn resisters of Europe against genetically modified (mostly American) food, were fired by Bush yesterday in Washington. 
We are the totally stupid white men, implies the newly cocky-sounding Bush! (nothing like a won war, to give a not-too-bright guy confidence). 
Our fears about GM food and crops are "unfounded and unscientific"."We must end our opposition to biotechnology (or else?) and win the fight against global poverty." 
I get no pleasure from saying "I told you so" - see previous articles - but the vehemence of the rhetoric and the timing has caught me by surprise. 
It is perhaps time for those of us who have access to pre-WW II  Lee Enfields, Sam Browne belts and bicyles, to start Michael Collins-type actions to resist this new imperial aggression. 
It's pay-back time for Bush's biotech-backers.
Let the games commence.

Man found in pothole in Co. Kildare road.  He is not critical, just a little stiff -  from posing for the cameras, and dusty. 
He had brought his swimming trunks in case of rain, and the Garda Sub-Aqua Club divers had been on stand-by. 
But the weather has been so dry this last week that the only problems he encountered were sliding shale on the slopes of The Great Pot-Hole - and the dust. 
He showed true grit, that man. But, as he confided to me in an in-depth interview in the Hole, the real heroes are the ordinary drivers of Ireland who brave such death-dealing hazards every day of their lives, going about their normal business in their gluaisteains (cars, autos etc).

Monday 23rd June 2003 
St John's Eve*  Now that Hypericum perforatum, St.John's wort, is a banned substance** (largely) what will people collect tonight to ward off the evil spirits? Does anyone, anymore, believe in evil spirits, or even good ones?
I, for one, having spent four years back in the 1970s as a ghost-buster in a haunted castle in Tipperary (today haunted by Phantom man, Lord Webber), am little moved by the other world and its shenanigans. But I will still light a fire tonight, and walk around my holding with a burning brand. Simply, because lighing bonfires on St John's Eve is a grand traditional  custom, still practiced by the older generation here on Beara; I like it; and to mark the zenith of the summer sun with our own show of fire, seems somehow culturally very appropriate.
 Maybe too,  it's in the genes. 
And the clinging smoke may even delay the blight further (still, "so far, so good" - fingers crossed!)
And there's nothing on the telly!
*St John was always pronounced Sin'jin, in my youth in Tipperary. My siblings and I had to take particular note, as our great grandmother was a St John. In more modern times, it was pronounced as above in the British politician, Norman St John Stevans' name.
** The first to go was comfrey - based on a spurious bit of "research"(see http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/faqs/medi-2-15-comfrey.html. Then St John's wort - similar dubious findings. Others soon to follow, possibly, even garlic!! Believe me, it is being considered! You don't, after all ,want people going around healing themselves, now, do you, with something that can be grown in a window box? 

Main update of the week, tomorrow noon - approximately.  I am ,after all, my own boss!
Welcome, Paddy O'Connor. Hope you haven't wasted your time. 

Thursday 19th June 2003
Meacher to the bleachers! Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, from an environmental point of view (TB might, we hoped, have learned something from his experiences with BSE/FMD/CIA-WMD etc! ) we find the only political friend of the environment in the British Isles (with real power anyway) blown out of it. One always felt that the bright and out-spoken Meacher was somewhat out on a limb vis a vis Blair & Co. His pro-organic, anti-GM views were at odds with the PM's and his cabinet's American military and economic pleasuring postures. 
The Environment Minister left a significant swan song, however, in his last week in office. He  announced  generous increases in payments  to converting and existing organic growers in practically all categories, with an especially strong set of  incentives to top-fruit growers (organic cider apples - no). Examples; up to £450 per hectare, converting from existing crops, and up to £1,860 p.h. converting to top fruit organic orchard production!  Both over 5 years. 
And a simplified application and approvals system as well - decoupling et al, mar dhea!
His declared aim was to reduce the proportion of UK-spend on organic fruit and vegetable imports, which currently stands at 70% (Which, bad as it is, is still less than Ireland's disgraceful import-spend). 
Full details of the increases in organic aid on, www.defra.gov.uk 

Tuesday 17th June 2003 
Bloomsday plus one. "Introibo ad altare Dei", intoned Buck Mulligan, raising his shaving bowl to the heavens, yellow dressing gown blown back by the seabreeze, exposing his ephemerals to the sun rising over the Irish Sea. 
The bould Mulligan, modelled by Joyce on Oliver St John Gogarty (a distant relative of mine), and his morning pagan ablutions, are the opening scene of Ulysses, which records a day, 16th June, 1904, in the life of a Dublin Jew, Leopold Bloom. 
The reason that the epoch-changing book was based on this day was because James and Nora had it off for the first time - probably on Dollymount Strand, Jim's first licit, illicit sex, if you get my meaning. His other sexual explorations were all of the sleazy, professional, red-light kind, and the legacy from these encounters, syphilis (according to the latest bioghraphy), was to blight his life and relationships thereafter. But from that miserable body and brain-rot, flowered the Blooms and one of the world's greatest works of literature. "Such.." as Ned Kelly has it just before his leap into eternity, "..is life".

As it is in Art, so also is it in Life  From rot and corruption comes the nutrients to grow our organic - or in my particular case, beyond-organic - fruit and vegetables. I am ashamed to say though, that, apart from one, large-scale attempt some years ago when the tractor and the furze cutter were working well, I have allowed my compost to pile up and decompose willy nilly. Until last week that is. I have now come back into the purist fold and penned and arranged my compost materials properly. I should soon have the much more desirable, aerobic digestion going on in the "Incredible Heap" (there's a book of that name by Chris Catton and James gray, Pelham Books. Sorry, probably now out of print) rather than the nutrient-leaching and non-pathogen-killing anaerobic process. 
I have been remiss, yes, but I have yet to see any successful compost making by any other organic farmer/gardener. What I have seen, especially on larger organic enterprises, is great heaps of imported farmyard manure (allowed by organic rules to come from conventional  farms!) rotting merrily and slimily (if under black plastic) away. I don't like the idea of that stuff near my top vegetables or fruit and of course, when it happens that pathogens are found on organic produce, it gives ammunition to the enemies of organics, the likes of the Averys and Prof. Trewavas. 
Our house, in this composting area, should be put in order - post haste. We should  not be  accomodating to lazy and dubious methods just to make it easier to garner new members to the organic organisations. 
And, whilst we're at it - ban copper sulphate completely, immediately! There is little need for it, and again, it gives further materiel to the anti-organic squad. My spuds are looking glorious at present, and some are ready for digging - without any spraying at all ( touch the timber - but at least I already have a good crop and then there are the Texels, supposedly completely blight-free, and the experimental red ones from Irish Potato Marketing which are expected to be "very blight-resistant").
The road to go for organic outdoor potato producers is, in my experience (that experience includes being the largest conventional potato seller in ireland in 1978/79 - but Sin scéal eile), plant early in lazy-beds, grow varieties that are blight-resistant, protect, if not blessed with our sea-shore climate, and use good compost and nettle and comfrey brews to feed the soil. Bob Allen, whom I mentioned last week, very roughly following the above methods, got 18 tons to the acre one year, which is not far off my top yield of 25 tons of marketable potatoes (Golden Wonders!) growing semi-conventionally back in the '70s.
Remember too, that slugs can do a lot of damage to potatoes, particularly in wet years, and any pest damage lays the crop more open to blight. A family-and-friends crew can pick off thousands of slugs in a large potato crop in a few night-time hours. Then you can slug a few beers, and leave the dregs in saucers to mop up the more secretive of the gastropod molluscs (do captured slugs, alive or dead, have any practical use - other than feed the magpies?). It certainly takes some effort to remove the slime from your hands after an extended picking. Glue? Moisturiser? Fish bait? Ah! Idea). 
Know that the best-selling organic potatoes in Ireland this spring are Sante from Israel! Be ashamed!  Be very ashamed.

Safe Food? No way!  I interviewed the author Marion Nestle yesterday for about 45 minutes. She had earlier been on the Marian Finucane Show (Irish radio). Prof. Nestle has just published, Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, (Univ. of Caliornia Press £19.95). Good book; will be a fine reference tome for the likes of me, especially. Nice person too, but also, some very interesting angles developed out of my otherwise inept interview (at one stage Ms Nestle said, chuckling, DG, "I feel as if I am interviewing you!")  that certainly were not covered in  the short, light-weight Finucane slot and, I bet, will not  be touched on either in the Irish Times interview she told me she gave*. Out of the mouths of babes? 
But later - affairs of state call - the state of the garden and my little contributions to the running of our statelet.

*If any of you good citizens out there should happen to see it, I would appreciate a cutting. Address, bottom of Home page. The Irish Times website is a pay-to-play job. Why? I, for one wouldn't bother paying for it. Does anyone at all pay to go on their site? 

Safe Food - this way --->  I will have comfrey concentrate (undiluted pure plant essence), for sale, and wonderful organic and other bread, pure Beara rainwater, and with my neighbour, Richard Spencer, lots of other healthy, not-to-be-obtained-anywhere-else, comestibles and other goodies at our stand on the Farmers Market, Kenmare, next Wednesday (a week tomorrow). Sure it's only five hours from Dublin. Come on, make the effort and, in the unlikely event that we can't satisfy your every need, there is always Olga's devastatingly good organic Jersey cow-derived yoghurts and cheeses, The Park, and the rest of Kenmare's delights. Spend over €200 on our stand and you get free accomodation for two nights (or one night for two of yez) in luxurious caravan by the sea with organic breakfasts and dollops of good food natter - from mise. 
Shhhh. Keep this to yourselves; we will also have a limited quantity of beyond-organic strawberries. which we will only sell or give away, as the humour takes us, to big spenders and other nice people. From 9 am. Wed. 25th June.

Quote of the week. "Dad, Down Syndrome doesn't mean ' can't', it just means 'it may take a little longer".' from an email The wisdom of a child from Adoissa; 90k22x@juno.com promoting the Special Olympics site, www.soshopping.com 

Saturday 14th June 2003
Eating organics cuts kids' pesticides loads*  See this research from Univ. of Washington, at the Pesticides Action Network site. Bottom line - children eating organic produce had six times less pesticides in their bodies than those consuming conventional food. Published Jan 2003,  www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20030131.dv.html (Thanks to PhD student Ollie Moore for this reference. Ollie is doing research into the origins of the organic movement in Ireland. If you have anything that might help him, particularly in relation to Cork, contact him at, moore.oliver@itssligo.ie )

* Full title and source of research; Organophosphorus pesticide exposure or urban and suburban pre-school children with organic and conventional diets, Cynthia L. Curl, Richard A. Fenske, Kai Elgethun, Environmental Health Perspectives, October 13, 2002, National Institute of Environmental Sciences, EHP Online, http://www.ehponline.org;

Ring-fencing slugs  I have been out the last few, moon-lit nights picking slugs off my strawberries (the day-time pest, the blackbirds, have finally been repelled with beach-salvage, 2" blue netting, kindly donated by D.S. Allihies). I mentioned copper strips before as a deterrent, and my neighbour RS has applied that one, it seems, successfully. But someone has just leapt into the market with proprietary copper rings. The "inventor" Simon Chippendale, has a new take (as opposed to the shock theory) on how it works; "Slugs have taste buds on their feet and hate the taste of copper". See, www.slugrings.co.uk  And just for a few coppers - £13.25 for six. Alternatively, acquire a discarded copper water cylinder and get out the angle grinder. Cut 3" wide strips for our bigger Irish slugs. They may even pole vault!  I thought I was being clever with dried hay around my plants - they wouldn't like the rough, dry climb, I thought. Frget it, they were thick on the hay in the dark, sunning themselves and procreating in the light of the full moon.
Next trick is to train the blackbirds to eat slugs. Perhaps strawberry-flavoured slug slices for starters? Heh, heh, heh, heh heh........(evil chuckle). 

Organic rallying! See my son's revamped site, www.rallyinsite.com  and check why we can call it organic rallying. This weekend he is being trained in a dream job - as a rally school instructor -  at the international class, Rally School Ireland, in Co. Monaghan. www.rallyschoolireland.ie .

Pesticide residues in conventional,  IPM-grown* and organic foods; Insights from three U.S. data sets, by Brian P. Baker, Charles M. Benbrook, Edward Groth III, and Karen Lutz Benbrook. Summary in, www.consumersunion.org/food/organicsumm.htm 
Published in: Food Additives and Contaminants, Volume 19, No. 5, May 2002,
pages 427-446. 10 tables, 39 references.  Full article at;   www.biosciencearena.com/biosciencearena/home/home.htm  I think, without subscription.

*IPM - Integrated Pest Management.

Thursday 12th June 2003 
Decoupling It sounds like something you'd do to a bitch and a dog "stuck" together, but we all know now what it means in terms of reform of the CAP. There's talk by the hour that there will be compromise, and that you will have "partial decoupling" which our lot seems to favour. Ag Min Joe was giving the impression last evening that he is sweating hard over tough negotiations with the doughty Herr Fischler. However, a reporter from RTE 1's, Morning Ireland, found him out for a constitutional yesterday in Brussels "strolling without a care in the world". And indeed, why should he have? These are only the most important changes ever to be proposed in the history of agriculture! And if he gets it wrong, he'll be lynched. Stroll on Mc Walsh. 

Millions of farmers ruined by Neo-liberalism Have a look at this article from Granma, Cuba's official newspaper* about the destruction of farm families worldwide. Peter Rosset, of Food First (remember the TG 4 programme I mentioned recently? The video, by the way, has been returned and is again available to anyone that wants it - within Ireland) is quoted at an organic conference in Havana; "Cuba ...a beacon of organic agriculture at an international level" http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/junio/mier4/22aruin-i.html 

Planorganic to go radical  I'm going to go down the road of a purely, not-for-profit activist site with Planorganic.com. Hopefully, you regard it as, at least partially, an activist site already??
When current commitments are fulfilled, all paid-for advertising will be taken off the site. That should be from the 17th July. Not a big job; there's isn't an awful lot of it, for a start - especially after the bank pulled out (that focused my attention on how important I felt it was not to cringe because of an advertiser). And I've always hated banks! I suspect, many more will by the time the current cheating on the Euro rate cut is fully exposed. "Vampires", a spokesman for ISME, called the banks this week, over their behaviour towards small businesses. No rate cut for the tiddler businesses of course - they're not politically significant enough. 

To my loyal, advertising supporters till now, who never complained, even when I did lay into their industry, or some aspect of it - So long! And thanks for all the fish.  
But don't despair, there will soon be another site, designed to take all your advertising spend and more. Watch this space.  

Friday 6thJune 2003
Growing Awareness is the name of a West Cork group that hosted two ground-breaking conferences back in 1999 and 2000. They were, or I should say are (they are still organising lots of local things - see below), an inspiring group of people. To quite an extent, even this site could be credited (blamed?) on them. I've mentioned GA several times in past articles (search the Archives - Bill's link-making yoke is defunct), but I didn't realise that some of the conference proceedings were available online. So, much belatedly, here is a link to some of the main speakers. www.westcorkweb.ie/growing/leaflet.html 
The Director of  Compassion in World Farming - Ireland, also spoke, and her talk can be seen at; http://www.ciwf.ie/education/news25/251a.htm
There were many fine speakers at both conferences; Dr Mae Wan-Ho, Richard Douthwaite, Judith Hoad, Caoimhe de Barra, Trocaire, Darina Allen, Roz Crowley, Jo Goldsmid, of the feisty Genetic Concern (now inactive) etc. I put in my spoke, The Killing Fields, at the second one (and blew it - public speaking is not my greatest skill). A man gifted in the public rhetoric department, however, is Joe Higgins, Independentt Socialist TD. He gave such a rousing speech - anti-globalisation themed; e.g. "There is a fundamental contradiction between the relentless drive for profits by multinational food-marketing giants and the production and distribution of food that is to the benefit to the health of people around the world etc"- that a guy said to him in the bar afterwards; "Joe. You had us so wound up during that speech that if you'd asked us to burn down Skibbereen, we'd have done it!" 
Growing Awareness has organised a series of farm walks this summer. There is one at Bob Allen's, Kilkilleen Organics, this Sunday, 8th of June, from 4 pm.
I hope to get there myself. So, if anybody would like to take a potshot at me.....! Details, Bob, tel. 028 38320 and madsmckeever@eircom.net.
I will enquire to see if there is anymore around in digital form. 
It could again be said, but in a very different sense from the original - "Remember Skibbereen!"
The recent Dublin conference, though interesting in its own way, didn't have the same passion and spirit about it. I don't think, somehow, we will be rallying around the organic flag (there's an idea! - A flag for the Irish organic movement -  Send your suggestions) for the cry, "Remember Dublin!"
On reflection, burning Dublin would  be a better idea than torching old Skibbereen.

 Tuesday 3rd June 2003 
Free Book! That grabs your attention, I bet. The three-part Special Report, What's wrong with our food?, I told you about 14th and 16th May, below, appeared in The Guardian on consecutive Saturdays from the 10th May. There were difficulties in getting copies here in Ireland and even when you got the paper, the supplement wasn't always with them. I got the first two of them, courtesy of my good  neighbour, RS (would anyone out there send me the third one?). However, all the articles are published on the Guardian Online, free, and if you visit the pages below, clicking on the links there, all should be saved to History in your browser, or Favourites, or whatever system you use to save pages to read offline. There's a lot of stuff there; in all, it amounts to a small book - you can retire to your tree-house or whatever, and read till the cows (or goats!) come home, and it's all well researched, well written and bang up-to-date, much more so than any book could be. Save it and print it out, and bind it, or put it in a file. Voilá - free book! Well, almost.
Part 1 (10th May). The way we eat now, 
www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/part3/0,13354,962482,00.htm
And for even more www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/story/0,13296,951880,00.html 

More Books (but you have to shell out for these ones). Having been a bookseller and publisher in a previous life, I should very much like to spend more time on the Publications page.That it has been neglected and needs a bit of work, there is no doubt. But for the moment, I can only toy with it and keep it reasonably correct. It would be great entirely, if visitors would bring new books to my attention and help to tidy up generally. I thank the correspondent from the UK this morning for putting me right on a few details, and I include the corrections she pointed out, here and on the Books page. Both of the following have emanated from the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), in Devon, UK. Helena Norberg-Hodge, whom I mentioned last week, is a contributing author in both cases. Bringing the Food Economy Home - Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness, published, Zed Books, London, 2002, £9.99.
Also, From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture, published also by Zed Books, London, 1993, £7.95. 
Both can be ordered direct from ISEC, thus leaving a bigger bite of the price for them to continue their good work. Phone UK, 1803 868 650. Post and packing extra. You can also learn  more about them at,  www.isec.org.uk 

Ed. Two more updates later in the week.