Daily Mail

Schizophrenic fer sure.  (At least the popular definition.)

Yesterday's mail included a welcome dearth of political ads, and an extremely early edition of my favorite porn mag, the High Mowing Seeds 2013 catalog.  Ahhhh, food heaven!

I also got a fat letter from the Department of Agriculture.  Thinking......hmm, I didn't apply for a job there, did I?  Fat envelope would then be OK, right?  Did I get back on the organic junque mail list?  Perhaps they discovered my stance on prop 37 GMO labeling and they invited me to be on a steering committee to evaluate the initiative in preparation for implementation after it wins next year?

Turns out that a citrus pest has been discovered in my neighborhood and shortly, white-suited and masked exterminators will be "visiting" my backyard to spray quick-kill neurotoxins and endocrine-disruptors on my fruit trees, and then follow up with a known contributor to colony collapse disorder that will effectively poison the surrounding soil and bio-food-web for about 3 years.

Yes, there is going to be a meeting, but not for approval, of course, since they already seem to have obtained the authority to enter my backyard without my permission.  And, it sucks that I have spent lots of time and energy de-disrupting all my endocrines, especially getting rid of all those pesky estrogen-mimicing compounds that they are now going to spray back into my life, and with repeat applications if necessary.  (And, it WILL be necessary, since the horse already got out of the barn.....)

More food fascism, though I am conflicted.  I would like to save and/or rescue local agriculture, even though the authorities won't let me do much local agriculture in my backyard, and now, NO organic agriculture, at least in the vicinity of the fruit trees, and anything downwind or downstream from them.

But Jeez Louise, what about the bees? I don't see how mass-spraying of entire towns will help local agriculture, if the spraying greatly contributes to the collapse of the bee community that the agriculture depends on.  Then again, what if this nasty neurotoxin stuff works against the bagrada bug????

And, it sucks that I am prevented from taking a propagative cutting of basket rush from a local pond per EPA regulations, and yet the department of Agriculture can run around and spray stuff that is extremely toxic to aquatic life all around said pond?

A few years ago, when I read my big permaculture book, I got a bit overwhelmed, until the author said to just start small, so I picked just one square yard to focus my initial permaculture effort, and, unfortunately, that one square yard is right under the lemon tree, and that culture is about to be destroyed.

In a fit of hope, I Googled "pyrethroid bagrada" and came up with absolutely no matches.  I don't know what the word for it is, that thing that they call it when you search two keywords on Google and come up with no matches.  It is rare, and I would Google the term if I knew the name.  Anyway, where was I?  Oh yea, looks like I am sol on the bagrada situation.

One bright spot is that High Mowing has several new varieties of parthenocarpic squash.  That's the fancy name for squash plants that produce decent squash without the need for pollination, which I won't be getting as much since the department of agriculture is killing the bees.

P. S. Turns out I am a Googlewhacker.  And for your weekend entertainment, check out this charming paper.