Thursday 29th May 2003
Quote of the week. "It isn't cool to get legless".  Irish Justice Minister Michael Mc Dowell, PD, TD, in an interview on Irish radio today. The comment was in relation to his new "draconian" measures to curb alcohol abuse. A tabloid today, with a particular knife out for the A.G. and his family, depicted him as "Mad Mullah Micky". Another minister - for "something or other" -  Willy O'Dea, TD, FF, got a similarly, sexual epithet cast at him yesterday in the Dáil (parliament) - Comical Willyl  The caster was Pet - sorry, Pat Rabbitte, TD, Lab. Scrap Saturday, wherefore art thou?

US loses Egyptian ally in war on Europe  In a brave volte-face, Egypt torpedoes the ABC*/Bush trade war effort in Europe. Attempts by the United States Administration to force Europe to accept GM food and crops received a serious blow after Egypt announced yesterday that it would not be part of a WTO challenge to the European Union's de facto moratorium on approving new GM licenses.
The Egyptian Government says that it has taken its decision because it recognises "the need to preserve adequate and effective consumer and environmental protection."
 www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/egypt_withdraws_from_wto_g.html 

Ed. The outcome of this conflict will determine whether we will have an organic industry in Europe or not.
* AgBiotech Corps.

Blackbirds threaten organic strawberry crop The sinister, below-radar, flying machines are poised to pounce on a small target on the Beara Peninsula in southwest Ireland.
The sleek, black predators are nearing missile-lock on the remote hideout of "eco-terrorist" Jim O'Connor (mé féin) who, they calim, has been waging cyber war through his website against the international coalition of ABCs and the Bush Admin.
It's a race to the finish now, as O'Connor figures out a low-tech, low-cost defence system from this threat from the skies (and the bushes!). There is nothing for it, he maintains, except camouflage netting - the anti-aircraft shotgun is ruled out due to atmospheric pollution - noise, the whiffs of cordite, and, not least, the amount of toxic lead pellets strewn about the war zone. Collateral damage would be unacceptable too, he says as he really quite likes the cheeky little beggars. 
OK. So I'm not talking about the billion dollar US warplane but the imminent assault on my much-cared for, beyond-organic strawberry patch by the blackbirds of the feathered kind. 
Getting cockier by the day, the voracious fiends are about to switch from carnivorous to vegetarian mode as the blossom of my strawberry plants give way to swelling fruits.  But they can be endearing too. One of the most tame has a priestly white collar and watches robin-like from my spade handle as I do my morning, alfresco ablutions. 
Suggestions of wildlife-friendly, decoy methods would be gratefuly received. I'm considering kid/birdnapping using a hazel cage with a briar trip-wire. I used a beautiful example of one of these in my short-pants days in Tipperary. It was made by a neighbour, Pakie Ryan, one of those great handymen that almost every townland had in those BC (Before Contamination) days. He could do anything from cutting your hair, to fixing a watch or clock, to making the best sugáns** and haggard cocks** in the parish. Nonie, his gentle but sociable wife had great skills too. Her white soda bread with currants, was baked in a bastible** covered in spríos** and was often queued for by us voracious neighbours. The Ryans, including their three children, were good musicians too, and their accordion playing was quintessential to all our country celebrations - including funerals! 
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha**.

** Non-Irish visitors, wondering what the hell these are, are welcome, if Google doesn't provide (in some cases, I guarantee even the puissant search engine will not enlighten) to email me; jim@planorganic.com 
For the moment though, I will at least tell you what a "bastible" is. The bastible was a flat-bottomed, dish-lidded (to hold hot turves**), cast iron pot, that largely took over from the ubiquitous, round-bottomed, three leg pot (of witches' brew fame) during the early part of the 20th C. It was particularly suitable for baking on open fires, sometimes suspended, often on a trivet. The name is said to be derived from Barnstable in Devon, UK, where they were first made. Barnstable, incidentally, was a port that traded a lot with southern Ireland and, for example, received large amounts of potatoes during the Great Famine. The returning boats often hadn't enough cargo and took on ballast of flintstones which often show up incongruously on Irish beaches and small harbours.
If we had our wits about us we would become selfsufficient in organic potaoes again and be opening up exports of same to places like Barnstable and further afield. We are currently importing organic old potatoes from Israel - there not being an Irish organic spud between Clonakilty and Coleraine.

Sun Eclipses, and blight, and rude suggestions  I had computer down-time this week due to grey-out weather in these parts. My solar setup is not yet fully operational and the batteries were not topped up by the meagre light of these last few muggy, blight-prone days* However, today is a sparkling, spring day and the juice is flowing again. Later today, I will be connecting up a new control console, built from car bits and recycled furniture - looks like a prototype for a Martian lander - and, thanks to my son's tuition at the weekend, I can now solder, with an electric iron. Bye, bye, to the lump of a copper soldering iron (of Bronze Age vintage). And bye to twisted wires and tape. Hello, efficient, piped solar power.
All will be revealed soon on my Solar page. 
And, no thanks to the emailer that suggested I should connect to the solar power coming out of my rear-end - something to do with my self-congratulatory comments last week. The cheek!

*I don't ever remember blight warnings as early as this before. Do you? And what are you organic spud merchants using to prevent blight now that, finally, TBG (Gaiai) copper sulphate mixtures have been curbed?
Like to hear of my blight control measures? 

Lung damage from swimming pool chlorine Shocking stuff from the UK, British Medical Journal, who claim in an article yesterday that exposure to pool chlorine can cause lung damage. Even relatively short pool-side exposure can be equivalent to damage caused to regular smokers, and children with asthma may be particularly at risk, they say. 
And all that's just from standing by or swimming in chlorinated water.
What about drinking the blasted stuff? 
Application of chlorine powder and gas to water supplies is less expertly applied than in swimming pools! 
I've watched it being done! Be afraid!
The best water available in Ireland falls from the sky - when it comes from the west (maybe the odd bit of pollution from the Gulf of Mexico but a good chance that most is scrubbed out in its long journey to our isle). Catch it cleanly, and you have a free source of pure water better than anything bought in a plastic bottle. Try it, you'll taste and feel the difference.

Tuesday 27th May 2003
One little piggy went to the market ... See updated Farmers Markets section on Products page with many new entries. Revised extensively, with lots of new information - and the latest, in this area, from the organic conference in Dublin last week is there too. Click here.

Organic Farming - for the Fairies  Although someone at the recent Dublin conference said something about the Irish organic certifying bodies being full of "little people" (and full of other less-mentionable stuff that this fine family publication would not print) this headline refers to something completely different - an English farm, setting up an unusual farm enterprise. 
Stonehouse Organic Farm near Thetford, Norfolk is to be the venue for a "Fairy Fair" on Sun 15th June. Visitors are invited "to dress up as elves, fairies, wizards - even trolls( I once frightened the shite out of a little boy, the son of my best friend; he thought I was a troll - and I wasn't even dressed up!) are acceptable. Contact Lisa Meek or Sarah Wise - I'm serious - that's what it says on the press release! - at 01 263862881 and mylisa@yahoo.com (serious again!).

Scientific benefits of organic food and farming  A month ago I set up a page (Scientific evidence of the benefits of organic food and farming) attempting to gather together peer-reviewed articles on the subject. It needed to be done; I couldn't find anyone else doing it. The budget was nil, support ditto, and time and energy available, miniscule. Even so, although very much work-in-(slow!) progress, the page is heavily visited and commented on.
But now, thanks to the Americans, I can pack up me shovel, and link to someone able to do a better job of it (it has always been my wee mission not to duplicate what others already do well - see About/Contact page). The mission of the independent, not-for-profit, Center for Organic Education and Promotion, COEP, is to focus on proving and communicating credible, peer-reviewed, organic benefits to society. One of the reasons why I think they will make a better fist of it is, that they will be raising $1 million dollars by next year to implement it! The Yanks certainly know how to do it ship-shape and Bristol-fashion. 
Therese Marquez, President of COEP, announced this new drive at the recent annual educational conferece All Things Organic.
She also declared that a Scientific Advisory Board is being formed, comprising experts from the US and internationally, to "assist and counsel" in the development of the Center's new goals. More later.

Monday 26th May 2003 (Main News update tomorrow)
The Organic College, Dromcollogher, Co. Limerick is having a bash on Friday next that sounds interesting. Environmentalist, Dick Warner, will give a talk at the Courthouse at 8 pm. Preceding it will be the launch of a Community Herb Garden, the result of years' of work and cooperation between college staff, students and locals. The annual awards to students of the college will follow the main speaker. Go along at 6.30 to join a tour of the college gardens and Enterprise Acre. Formal stuff will finish about 9 pm and then there are the local pubs! I remember them only too well from last year's Festival of Potatoes. It should be a good evening - Jim McNamara and staff know how to put on a decent organic event. Shame they are not having the organic barbecue that was such a sensation at the last few events. Hopefully in the autumn??? 

Thursday 22nd May 2003
Ed. Monday afternoon I decided, at extremely short notice, that I should attend the organic conference in Dublin (see below, Monday). So, having girded my loins - mostly with good food and salads and a tank of my favourite rain/stream water - against the anticipated rigours and deprivations of the urban jungle - I headed for the capital. The whole experience - including the conference! -  had many surprises; I will try to do it justice in print before the end of the week.  
If for nothing else, it was a privilege to hear again, and finally meet, Helena Norberg-Hodge, of whom I have been a fan for many years. It is incredibly heartening to know that there are such people out there beavering away with great talent, energy (and effectiveness!) against the juggernauts of globalisation and the Ag. Biotech Corporations (ABCs).
It was also very refreshing to meet politicians with attitude, Trevor Sargent and John Gormley (Greens). I was almost glad that the Fianna Fail Ag.Mins hadn't the balls or the brains to attend, as my gorge was up from the 360 degree stimulation and I was feeling the need for a little 'bereserker' activity (this could have been a psychic effect of the venue, close to Wood Quay and formerly (recently) a Viking visitor centre). 
Returning in the early hours of this morning, my head was bursting with ideas. My  swag-bag too was bulging with books bought and donated, leaflets, contact cards and the scores of pages of notes overflowing from my regular pads onto every and any blank paper space. 
You can guess from the foregoing that the conference was stimulating.  But, on all that - Spater.
I didn't bring the laptop with me;  not for fear of being Dublin-mugged;  I just wanted a clear run at all the personal contact opportunities I could avail of. And it was good, it was very, very good! Sleep? Wha' dat?
I was mugged however, by an effing jackeen taxi driver on Tuesday night who tried to take me for a ride and, even in the end when I'd straighteened him out, neither his combined 1 cc. of grey matter nor his handlers' could find a simple, correct address in Inchicore.  
And now,  I must  pay the price for my little unscheduled jaunt. I have a forest of emails and telephone calls to attend to, and, of course, a bit of catching up to do on this news column.
As I was settling into the work this morning, I was gobsmacked when looking more closely at the books I'd acquired  to find a personal inscription in Ms Nordberg-Hodge's book; "For Jim - With best wishes for your important work! - Helena." That, together with the comments of a  new visitor (a business consultant researching an exciting organic enterprise), who had left a phone message praising the site to the  nines, gave  my already heady spirits a lift into the stratosphere. Let's hope the landing, when it inevitably comes, will not be last Shuttle-like!

An evironment minister with attitude Sadly I can't say  that this description applies to the Irish, Junior Env. Min. 'Pat the Cope' Gallagher who spoke at the Convergence Festival in Dublin on Tuesday night, and was barely listenable to - the only speaker in a few intensive days that threatened to reintroduce me to the world of sleep! 
No, I apply it to the UK environment minister, Michael Meacher, who, increasingly, is taking a strong pro-organic, anti-GM stance in defiance of his party leader, TB, and others in the UK goverment. Last Monday he said; "The coexistence of organic and GM crops is a very real problem," and; "The government favoured (!) organic production: it used less energy, caused less pollution to air and water, and less nitrate loss from soil." See The Guardian article; Meacher admits GM crops threaten organic output www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,959586,00.html  

The sun now shines on Planorganic With all the praise and encouragement being heaped about, the heading  would be an appropriate metaphor, but it is now true in a literal sense too.
I am now solar-powered! 
And it's absolute magic!
Thanks to all those who answered my appeal for help. Some are contactable through the Products page, Alternative Technology section, but I will soon give full credit to all, together with details of my low-cost, photo-voltaic system in a special page I am developing - there may even be pictures! I'm learning.

Will update again tomorrow and over the weekend. 

Monday 19th May 2003
Irish Organic Conference Tomorrow!  The Convergence Sustainable Living Conference 2003 has been going on in Dublin over the last week. It started last Wednesday and finishes Sunday 25th. There are over 70 different events with some of the best still to come. See the full programme on www.convergence.sustainable.ie.  I will have more on the festival later in the week.
But tomorrow is the day most of you would be interested in. An ambitious one-day conference, The Revitalisation of Irish Agriculture, starts at 9.30 in the morning. Speakers will include Helena Norberg Hodge, international activist and author of Bringing the Food Economy Home (Zed Books 2002), Bernard Geier, a director of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Michael Hickey, Irish pioneer organic farmer, Nuala Ahern MEP, Trevor Sargent TD, Green Party, and several others. Not included are, Ag.Min.Joe Walsh - he delegated his Jun.Ag.Min.Noel Treacy to take his stead. But Min Noel backed out too; apparently, according to the organisers, "Bertie had given him something more important to do". God-speed Min.Noel - and don't get caught this time! 
Geier's talk is titled What would it take for Ireland to become an EU organic leader? ( Ed. A miracle!).
Sean McArdle's (Leopardstown Farmers Market and others) speech is on the Growth of local farmers' markets. 
Trevor Sargent will speak on Integrating organic farming and sustainability. 
The afternoon will be taken up with seminars and workshops.
The organisers, Irish Organic Network, are new to the Irish organic scene and seem to have got up some of the more established organic noses because of their ambition, drive and idealism. The day should be all the more interesting because of that. 
See full details on their website, www.irish-organic.com. Michael O'Callaghan, is the thinker and shaper behind the event. Tel.0404 43885. Again, more later in the week.

Friday 16th May 2003 
I will soon have the facility for visitors to vote, simply and anonymously, on the site. In the meantime, I'm going to put a question to you anyway: 
Do you think there should be display advertising on the site - as on the Home page? Email me at jim@planorganic.com 

Get The Guardian tomorrow The second part of the special Saturday supplements  will examine the global forces that now control our food and farming. They will "..put the corporations that exert unprecedented power over its (food) production and distribution under the microscope." 
Again it will be available on their website. I'll have the address in the next update. 

Ireland not-so-green  At an environment conference in Dublin yesterday, there were two suggestions as to how to cut our enormous methane contribution to global warming; feed the biggest fart-producing culprits, cattle, with coconut oil and rush them to slaughter as quickly as possible. Methods not to be sniffed at, according to Dr Mary Kelly of the Environmental Protection Agency, who estimates that there could be a saving of 20% from the oily feeding regime, and beef slaughtered at 18 months as opposed to 24 would reduce the gas clouds by a further 25%. (Hey! What about hay?) 
Dr Eoin Carthy of Teagasc also reported that he is doing his bit for the environment in digging deep for signs of nitrate poisoning in our ground-water. The good doctor is, I hope, also looking for other agric-s-h-One-t down there. The Danes, for example, have just found Round Up in surprising concentrations in their water. Round Up is supposed to disappear magically and naturally, according to its advertising, and so safe that, according to some, "You could drink it". Don't - 2/3rds of a cup will kill you! That's official!

Ireland Green On the other hand one of the most interesting initiatives in recent times is the creation of the Leitrim/Fermanagh eco-tourism, "Green Box", promoted by the Western Development Tourist Board. Visitors are being encouraged to visit the area to enjoy its special green facilities like organic food, relatively unspoilt countryside, the Organic Centre at Rossinver and local fairs, food markets and festivals. Early days yet - but it looks very interesting and may be a model that could be applied to a few other areas of the country. I will keep an eye on it and tell you more later.

Ireland of the not-so-many-welcomes  Yeats once said, to an Abbey audience rioting over Synge's "Playboy", that "we are disgracing ourselves amongst the nations of the world".
Well, although we no longer disgrace ourselves demonstrating over plays or any other entertainment medium( we had a close shave in the ''70s in Clonmel when the film society, my ex and I had founded, was about to be prorogued by the local Legion of Mary over the showing of The Life of Brian) we have been doing it in food and  farming and environmental terms all along.
But we are now doing it again in another special way.
SARS-paranoid, we are banning athletes from southeast Asia from attending the Special Olympics in June. Up to yesterday, Clonmel, in Tipperary, my home area had outrightly stopped the young visitors coming to stay in the town. 
But now our Minister of Health, advised by an "Expert Group", has decided, in his wisdom, to effectively stop all the young athletes from Singapore, Hong Kong and China from travelling to the Games 
Special measures for the special Olympians, it would seem - all other visitors from Asia are welcome. The debate rages.

Wednesday 14th May 2003
Organic farmers of Europe, put your heads between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye - if Fischler isn't reined in  Irish farmers, their political representaives and organisations focus only on Herr Fischler's Mid-Term Review and whether or not Ireland will get an extra bob or two out of it (Teagasc and the ICSA say we will - Min Joe and IFA Pres. Dillon say we won't - although U-turn by the latter two seems to be in process as I go to press). But despite the Irish sniping and the ten other EU member states' antagonism, Comm. Fischler is confident that his reform package will be agreed at the June Farm Council. CAP reform is a biggie but Fiscler has even bigger fish to fry. He is preparing the ground for the round of WTO talks in September where the Americans are expected to deliver an ultimatum on GM crops and food - "Accept our GM exports or there will be war (gulp! trade-war only, we hope)." 
The Americans seem to be getting extra cocky at the moment (I wonder why?)* and through force majeure or something else, it looks as if Fischler is going to be only too eager to come out with his hands up and deliver the whole European organic movement as a sacrifice on the altar of transnational corporate profits. 
For a good, concise summary of GM developments in Europe to date, Fischler, his stance on GMOs, and the future, see Susan George, Europe's harvest of contamination - growing GM crops is an irreversible act of ecological folly in Le Monde Diplomatique  http://mondediplo.com/2003/04/14gmo  George quotes Fischler saying to his US partners: "We will do all that we can to demonstrate it is true when we say we are in favour of biotechnology. Georges' reaction: "Such determination to defend US transnationals, by what is supposed to be the European Commission, is staggering." 

*Last night, the US announced it was officially complaining  to the WTO about the  EU's 5-year moratorium on planting new GM crops. US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick (see www.ngin.org.uk ) says; "The EU's moratorium violates WTO rules. People around the world have been eating biotech food for years. Biotech food helps nourish the world's hungry population, offers tremendous opportunities for better health and nutrition and protects the environment by reducing soil erosion and pesticide use." -  Robert B. Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative Hear the whole speech and find all the US documents in support of its complaint to the WTO here: www.ustr.gov/new/biotech.htm. And see the Friends of the Earth press release yesterday about its implications and the process that the complaint will follow  www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/gm_trade_war_who_decides_w.html   

"Tie me kangaroo down, sport..." Athough we haven't seen kangaroo meat in Irish supermarkets, apparently it is common in many countries and regions, but especially in Australia and southeast Asia. It was widely available in British supermarkets until recently and was jumping off (oops) the shelves until the animal welfare rights group Viva! persuaded 1,500 of them to take it off. Viva! estimates that, annually, 10 million adult kangaroos and their joeys (the young masupials don't even warrant a bullet - they're usually stamped on and left to die) are slaughtered, most often or not in the cruellest fashion by night-time hunters in their SUVs. Although there is a substantial kangaroo meat industry and associated leather products, and a generally anti-kangaroo-pest attitude in political circles, some politicians are speaking out. "(Kangaroo) Families are destroyed and scattered through the blood lust of an indescribably cruel industry" says Richard Jones, Member of the Legislative Council, Sydney. See www.savethekangaroos.com 

Blackening Spuds  No. Not an early dose of the phythophthora infestans - just my way of referring to the case of the GM potatoes that sparked off a whole furore a few years ago. The GM industry and its pet white-coats attempted to blacken the reputation of a leading biologist, Dr Arpad Pusztai, when he (tentatively at first, in a few sentences in a TV programme in 1998) suggested that rats fed on GM potatoes developed gut lesions and other problems.
Pusztai, was subsequently fired from his job at the prestigious Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen. However, he's not been idle in the meantime, speaking all over the world, and continuing to do research on GM food on his own bat. 
That research has now been published in a new book, Food Safety. In it he warns that the work carried out by biotechnology companies into the human health hazards from GM food is inadequate and unsafe. He also points to technical defects in the way GM plants are created. The book is a compilation of scientific papers which describes the contaminants and toxins contained in modern foods. In his section, Pusztai brings together all the scientific studies carried out into the safety of GM foods and subjects them to rigorous statistical and scientific scrutiny. Recently, he said: "We found that there are only a few such studies and they show many problems. In particular, they illustrate that GM foods have never been publicly tested for their safety and  wholesomeness. There is increasing research to show they may actually be very unsafe."
At a conferenceon on GM issues  in London last weekend a new group of scientists have formed an alliance, the Independent Science Panel, against the pro-GM "pet white-coats" and their cohorts in government agencies. This amounts to open scientific rebellion, possibly unprecedented in history," says Dr Mae-Wan Ho, Director of the Institute of Science in Society, who initiated the conference and the new society.
Lim Li Ching, researcher at I-sis and the Third World Network, says, in opposition to GM crops, "Farmers around the world already have the knowledge, experience and innovative spirit that enable them to farm sustainably, through approaches such as agroecology, sustainable agriculture and organic farming. Learning from them means rethinking agriculture and associated policy making, and exploring how traditional knowledge and science can work together."
More on this later in the week.

More blight stuff  Melissa Van Zwieten of Australia wants to hear of any alternatives  to Bluestone (copper sulphate) in treating blight on organic potatoes. I'm sure that some of you wiseguys and gals out there have information you would like to share with our Antipodean friends. Contact melissa.van.zwieten@agric.nsw.gov.au

Guardian of the people The Guardian newspaper had an astonishingly good supplement in last Saturday's edition, Food - The way we eat now. I've checked it on their website (not always an easy site to navigate), and it's all there - and free. My favourite section is Sausage Factory by the always-incisive Felicity Lawrence. Read about the "arse end" of pig processing, "flare fat" and how an Irish company Cara (how friendly!) was responsible for a lot of European piggies illegally getting hormone replacement therapy on their way to the market! www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/story/0,13296,951880,00.html  All the other articles in the supplement are listed and linked on the left side-bar.

Friday May 9th 2003 
Organics fighting for its very existence Franz Fischler will herald in the introduction of GM crops in Europe before this year is out, according to members of the Green/EFA (European Free Alliance) in the European Parliament. A round table conference was hosted by Herr Fischler this week to discuss the implications. Welsh MEP Jill Evans and her colleagues in Green/EFA said: "As with so many other previous meetings organized by the European Commission, this round table seems primarily geared towards paving the way for genetic engineering in European agriculture. It is well established, especially for maize and oilseed rape that if GM crops are grown on a large scale and without any precautionary measures, then gene flow will occur between fields, farms and across landscapes."

If the current proposals are introduced as they stand,  then it will be all over for organics - bar the shouting.  Imagine trying to claim to consumers in the not-too-distant-future,  "Our produce, at least this month's batch, is only 10% contaminated by GMOs". Or, "Buy Organic now before the GM content goes up". Or, "Organic GM food really changes hearts and minds" (But into what?)
What are you going to do about it?

Top marks to TG4 The programme I mentioned two weeks ago was, Fíorscéal: The Global Banquet. It was repeated on Sunday 27th and may be scheduled again sometime during the summer. Courtesy of TG4, I now have a video copy of it. You can borrow it, if you wish (within Ireland only, I'm afraid). And don't ask me to stream it on the Internet - I wouldn't know where to start!
TG4 were a pleasure to deal with.

Coming  Pusztai (potatoes, rats, GM, cancer, etc) publishes - Blackening tea - Resurgence review  - Comfort from comfrey etc. - Tie me kangaroo down, sport.

Wednesday May 7th 2003
Slugging it out  At this time of the year, every publication worth its salt (and I must earn it too. Salt's a slug-blocker too) is suggesting remedies for the elimination of the slug, perennial resident and, almost to all, king pest of the garden. Everything from gentle dissuasion to wholesale flaming is proposed in the war against the wee beastie. I have seen normally sane and gentle gardeners practically froth at the mouth at the mention of the nocturn visitors that can fell whole stands of freshly planted-out vegetables in one visit. But what do you expect? If you put out succulent new plants in bare soil, isn't nature going to have a go at them? Even organic farmers are usually only a little less murderous and some, in frustration, just stop short of using toxic solutions. Permaculture? Nature abhors bare soil etc. 
Michael Viney, in the now decades-old column Another Life (Irish Times, Saturday, Weekend Review, May 3rd) after his usually interesting naturalist preamble (and an attempted organic remedy) falls despairingly back on the ubiquitous slug pellets, albeit under cover to protect birds and hedgehogs. Slug phobia and paranoia abounds, particularly with conventional farmers and gardeners. But there's no need to get too fascist about them. Balance in all things and all that... 
The latest I've heard from our side of the fence, "the alternative world", as Mr Viney bedaubs us, is that copper strips around your vulnerable seedlings does the job - apparently the slippery molluscs get an electric shock crossing copper! Oak-bark mulch deters too, as does wormwood tea (my garlic spray, recommended, of course, in my commercial garlic-growing days, has now been discredited as friends describe seeing slugs lapping it up). Watering in your tunnels or greenhouses in the mornings can apparently reduce damage to lettuces by a huge factor. If that doesn't scupper the little darlings, introduce snakes! Believe it - or believe it not - check www.gardenguides.com/TipsandTechniques/slugs.htm (But it is California!). Of course they have a proprietary "natural" product to recommend as well - wait for it - Escar-Go! The punning brand name is supposed to be the best ever slug slaughterer. Based on iron phosphate it costs about $20 for 500 square metres! For the even more "natural" creature-assassin option you can use nematodes - but this'll cost you almost €400 (Irish prices) to cover a similar area.

New York calling It's always pleasing to hear that my Where to Buy and Products pages are visited and contacts made with sellers of organic produce. Christine and Paul O'Sullivan, organic farmers down our way, were surprised to get a call from New York recently. The gentleman caller was giving a dinner party and wanted some of the couple's best, succulent, new season organic lamb as the piéce de résistance main course. Chuffed though they were to hear from so far away, and that their lamb was drooled over by Big Apple gourmands, they nevertheless had to decline the offer to supply as the slight problems of time and delivery cost, not to mention the probably-required Departmental export license, could not be overcome. Local delivery, for the O'Sullivans is, of course, no problem. For lamb, eggs and soon-to-come pork (from gilts, Rosie and Sophie) they can be contacted at Clover Farm, Kealogue, Allihies, Co. Cork. Tel. 027 73295 - or from New York and places, 00 353 27 73295. 

Eating man's best friend I get so much literature nowadays in the post to do with the website that I have to apply triage. One leaflet which displayed a supermarket-type tray, labelled, STEWING MEAT,* was heading towards the dead bin. But then, as it left my hand, the price leapt out at me (my ever-alert, frugal eagle eye) - Price per Kg  £1.80. Quickly retrieving it, I looked at the rest of the product description to suss the bargain. It read, MAN'S BEST FRIEND BECOMES MAN'S NEXT MEAL. It was from the WSPA -  a charity, apparently a big one, with over 400 member societies in 100 countries, that campaign against the trade in dogs for food in East Asia. But it's not just the anathema of dog meat to us Westerners that is appalling so much as the horrificically cruel treatment they get before and during slaughter. One correspondent describes how a dog was tied by the neck and partially strangled, then torn apart by the legs whilst still alive. See www.wspa.org.uk/donate . 
Some weeks ago there was a programme on TG 4 about both dogs and cats and their abysmal fates in backstreet butcheries in South East Asia. Filthy and terrified cats were held in cages and strangled from the top bars. Strangulation was the preferred killing method because the fear-adrenalin gave the meat a desired taint and the skins were also preserved undamaged for the fashion fur trade. Strange creature - man (Apologies to Richard and 42).
* The meat portrayed was not dogmeat.

Vegetarian food  I think, after the above stories of animals and meat, it might be appropriate to point you in the direction of non-flesh food - not only vegetarian but prize-winning, organic, vegetarian food. The small and friendly Organic Delivery Company will supply a good-value vegetabe box for £ 9.95 - with generous dollops of fruit, £11.95, but only in London and its immediate environs. www.organicdelivery.co.uk. 
Closer to home you will find box schemes in Ireland on the Products page. And, extremely close to home, in Castletownbere on next market day, Thursday, 5th June, some of us will have a stand there with local organic produce and goods - and a few interesting exhibits. I'll have my comfrey in various forms, including concentrate. We are each doing our own things for the stall - some are being highly secretive about theirs. I shall be more open and let you know that I am working on recipes for wild sea-beet/spinach, one of my favourite vegetables. A book, lent to me yesterday, has the most eulogic description and recipe I've yet seen for this much-neglected, nutritious and delicious seashore plant. The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; The recipe includes butter, mussels, garlic, white wine and parmesan cheese. I won't give the full recipe (unless you beg!) -  it's on page 343 of the book, with a full description of beta vulgaris maritima on pages 382 -385. But you will be able to taste it in CTB at the stall on the 5th. Come early and eat with organic soda bread and a glass of something or other - if you're good.

Tuesday May 6th 2003
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone - J.M.Keynes (thanks to Dave Spathaky, Allihies).

Update late Regulars to the site expect, and normally get, the main weekly update on Tuesday afternoons. Sorry to disappoint today - lots going on. The potato ridges needed earthing, or "baling" as they say here on Beara; the comfry concentrate, automatic condenser (very high-tech stuff!) had to be built and am trying to reinvent the wheel, or rather the sphere - a poly-dome strong enough to withstand the worst of Atlantic blasts. Many site changes in the offing too. 
Update, hopefully, no later than midday tomorrow.
Anyone got a fix on a recent RTE radio interview with the buckos from the Hudson Institute? Any responses, from our organic orgs re this most recent spate of organic bad-mouthing?