To let all of you know that read Mom and Dad's Blog that they were involved in a fairly serious traffic accident on Thursday night. They were hit by a drunk driver in their hometown here.
Luckly they were in the Suburban and were not injured severely. Mom was the worst, breaking 3 ribs and injuring her left leg.
Dad broke his left wrist and was badly shaken up. They are both home and resting and trying to heal.
They wanted everyone to know why they have not blogged of recent days.
Derek
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Empty Nest
Husband and I talked this weekend if we really HAVE empty nest syndrome or not. Number 1 son married 2 years ago and Number 2 son left for college in September. Someone HAD to ask if it was bothering us. We looked at each other and what do you say. "Hell NO we are having the time of our lives and doing things we only thought of doing before?" or do we look sad and say "Yes, it is just terrible and such a loss!"
I will admit the telephone ringing less (much less) and actually being able to USE it and having it be for us without our cell phones ringing is unique. Being able to shower in the morning without having the water go bare assed cold in the middle is also unique. Not having to run here and go there at the slightest whim of Number 2 son because his car broke down again because he insists on having a COOL car he can fix himself is definitely on MY top 10 list of things I don't miss and neither does husband. (we took turns) and the husband and number 2 son's conversations of "While you in our house you WILL adhere to our rules (which husband made up as he went) are not conversations I miss. Or the rushing in the door and leaving it open "were you born in a barn…..jeez" and the rolling of his eyes as he goes back and shuts it with a resounding SLAM! Are also not things we miss.
What DID we used to do before we had kids? Do you remember? Not sure I do.
Ok so does my mother of the year award suffer because I don't miss those things? Did I miss the point of motherhood? We are supposed to be wandering around in a huge house, lost and unable to function? Maybe they haven't been gone long enough? Why did we have so much fun this last weekend at the coast? Hmmmmmmm…………………………..
So when does this empty nest syndrome kick in?
I will admit the telephone ringing less (much less) and actually being able to USE it and having it be for us without our cell phones ringing is unique. Being able to shower in the morning without having the water go bare assed cold in the middle is also unique. Not having to run here and go there at the slightest whim of Number 2 son because his car broke down again because he insists on having a COOL car he can fix himself is definitely on MY top 10 list of things I don't miss and neither does husband. (we took turns) and the husband and number 2 son's conversations of "While you in our house you WILL adhere to our rules (which husband made up as he went) are not conversations I miss. Or the rushing in the door and leaving it open "were you born in a barn…..jeez" and the rolling of his eyes as he goes back and shuts it with a resounding SLAM! Are also not things we miss.
What DID we used to do before we had kids? Do you remember? Not sure I do.
Ok so does my mother of the year award suffer because I don't miss those things? Did I miss the point of motherhood? We are supposed to be wandering around in a huge house, lost and unable to function? Maybe they haven't been gone long enough? Why did we have so much fun this last weekend at the coast? Hmmmmmmm…………………………..
So when does this empty nest syndrome kick in?
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Have You Eaten Your Genetically Modified Food Today?
Monsanto, the real and symbolic leader in genetically modified crops, is a company that environmental groups love to hate. A “Monsanto +antichrist” Google search turns up 53,000 hits. The virtual hate carries over into the real world, too. Last month, Monsanto claimed that activists damaged 65 percent of its test fields in 2006. And yet, in the last 5 years, Monsanto’s stock price is up over 700 percent, and the company’s directors keep snapping up more shares.
But Americans don’t eat GE specialty crops, which include vegetables and fruit. As a 2004 USDA workshop found:
Relatively few GE specialty crop varieties have been submitted to regulatory agencies for clearance, and most of those that have been approved are not available in the marketplace today…The number of products in development… is approaching zero.
In August 2006, the Center for Food Safety released a fact sheet that stated, "the depth of market rejection of GE foods is arguably unparalleled by any other consumer product." It’s hard to square these statements with Monsanto's $689,000,000 in net income during 2006.
There are two parts to the explanation of this seeming paradox. One is that American public opinion is not nearly as hard-edged as the CFS statement suggests. Scores of polls and surveys by both sides can be reduced to three simple ideas. One, American consumers know just about nothing about genetic engineering, more than ten years after its introduction into the market. Two, American consumers intuit that they don't really want their food genetically modified. Three, that belief is not very strong for most people, i.e., one study found that only 2 percent of respondents had done something or "taken action" because of their concerns over biotechnology.
The other part of the explanation is that US consumer attitudes don't actually matter very much to the current GM food business. All Monsanto needs is for you to love Twinkies and Coca-Cola, the food machinery of this country does the rest. Monsanto’s model is business-to-business (B2B), like server sales or logistics. Monsanto is more like Oracle than Apple. To the average consumer, GM crops are invisible, especially because you don’t have to label them in the US. The attitudes towards GMO that matter to Monsanto are those held by big agribusiness seed buyers and corporate farmers, not Joe Six Pack. And the IT managers of the farming world love Monsanto. The chart is of US GE crop adoption of their big three products, corn, soybeans, and cotton, which just happen to compose 75 percent of the revenue generated from non-fruit and vegetable cash crops.
If you’re an opponent of GM foods, here comes the scary punchline. A big chunk of all that genetically modified corn and soy go right into our processed foods and into feed for the animals we eat. So chances are, unless you are a raw or organic foodista, you ate a GM food derivative this very day.
Monsanto, the real and symbolic leader in genetically modified crops, is a company that environmental groups love to hate. A “Monsanto +antichrist” Google search turns up 53,000 hits. The virtual hate carries over into the real world, too. Last month, Monsanto claimed that activists damaged 65 percent of its test fields in 2006. And yet, in the last 5 years, Monsanto’s stock price is up over 700 percent, and the company’s directors keep snapping up more shares.
But Americans don’t eat GE specialty crops, which include vegetables and fruit. As a 2004 USDA workshop found:
Relatively few GE specialty crop varieties have been submitted to regulatory agencies for clearance, and most of those that have been approved are not available in the marketplace today…The number of products in development… is approaching zero.
In August 2006, the Center for Food Safety released a fact sheet that stated, "the depth of market rejection of GE foods is arguably unparalleled by any other consumer product." It’s hard to square these statements with Monsanto's $689,000,000 in net income during 2006.
There are two parts to the explanation of this seeming paradox. One is that American public opinion is not nearly as hard-edged as the CFS statement suggests. Scores of polls and surveys by both sides can be reduced to three simple ideas. One, American consumers know just about nothing about genetic engineering, more than ten years after its introduction into the market. Two, American consumers intuit that they don't really want their food genetically modified. Three, that belief is not very strong for most people, i.e., one study found that only 2 percent of respondents had done something or "taken action" because of their concerns over biotechnology.
The other part of the explanation is that US consumer attitudes don't actually matter very much to the current GM food business. All Monsanto needs is for you to love Twinkies and Coca-Cola, the food machinery of this country does the rest. Monsanto’s model is business-to-business (B2B), like server sales or logistics. Monsanto is more like Oracle than Apple. To the average consumer, GM crops are invisible, especially because you don’t have to label them in the US. The attitudes towards GMO that matter to Monsanto are those held by big agribusiness seed buyers and corporate farmers, not Joe Six Pack. And the IT managers of the farming world love Monsanto. The chart is of US GE crop adoption of their big three products, corn, soybeans, and cotton, which just happen to compose 75 percent of the revenue generated from non-fruit and vegetable cash crops.
If you’re an opponent of GM foods, here comes the scary punchline. A big chunk of all that genetically modified corn and soy go right into our processed foods and into feed for the animals we eat. So chances are, unless you are a raw or organic foodista, you ate a GM food derivative this very day.
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