On my last property my wife and I planted 80,000 trees and plants. Since my illness we have downsized from 20 acres to 5.

I was the first to grow olives and truffles in my area and one of the first to grow grapes. I am the older guy.

I haven’t got Jamie Oliver’s book although we have over 5,000 books in our libraries. I just used that as an example.

Your arrogance and ignorance is what turns so many people off the “greens”. Live your life as you see fit but do not presume to lecture me on how to live mine.

I realise now you are probably a teenager who naturally knows everything.
Both states will soon pass.
And Monsanto does not force Indian farmers, or any farmers for that matter, to buy Terminator seeds. They have no power to do so.

Just as knowone forces me to buy a Mac or to buy a Susuki or to subscribe to Sky.
I pay my money and make my choices.

Civilisation is based on the specialisation of labour.

I am not on a nursery treadmill. I buy trees and plants from nurseries because it is the best use of my time.
I have moved onto this property only a year ago and want to eat some fruit from the trees before I die.
So I buy reasonably sized trees.
And my time is too valuable to spend saving grass seed.

And I am not an Indian farmer so why should I ask the question.

If someone is on a benefit and has no earning power then maybe these labour intensive activities make sense. But although I am officially an old age pensioner I cannot afford to grossly waste my time.

And anyhow, who are the police that force Indian farmers to grow terminator seeds? Of course they are not allowed to steal them but then who has the right to steal private property anywhere. IF I want a copy of Jamie Oliver’s gardening book I have to buy it.

How many vegetable gardeners grow all their plants from recycled seed stock?
I guess half my tomatoes are reqrowth and some of my potatoes and pumpkins (from the compost)
but we still buy seeds from the store for beans, carrots, and of course I buy my olive trees and fruit trees.

And I buy grass seed. How does this affect my independence or self reliance.
Do you really want to put all the seeds stores and nurseries out of business?

Simple answer. Just as soon as there are enough dumb arses out there in voter land to elect a Greens/Labour Government.

I strongly disagree that, as you allude, biotechnology horticulture returns substandard profits without terminator seed stock. Terminator seed stock may provide some interesting developments but overall horticulture based on terminator stock is designed to gain market share and remove the self perpetuating opposition from the market place with a monoculture with all of its inherent weaknesses. Not a good thing for biodiversity.

Patents expire. And GM seeds take many millions to develop. The inventors have about fifteen years to get their return for their risk investment. Terminator seeds are a means of promoting the research in the first place.
But what is the problem? Hybrids are normally “terminator” plants. You cannot breed from them or cannot breed true.
Mules are sterile hybrids. Should they be banned?
Plant breeders have been breeding sterile hybrids for decades – otherwise it is not worth their while.
And finally no one forces you to buy terminator seeds. You will do so only if they provide a superior return compared to the competition.
The problem with “the free rider theory” is that without patents which give monopoly rights for a short term there is no incentive for the innovator to do the costly research because as soon as they put it on the market the copiers move in and an sell at a lower price because they have not put up the cash to finance the research.

Loved your comment to Harpoon, Mr Farrar,
“[DPF: Don’t be idiotic. “

Now, I fancy myself as an environmentally conscious guy, but I also have to survive and feed my family so I feel like my paper bag solution is a pretty good one that’ll make everybody happy.

- It solves my dust problem.
- It mitigates plastic bags “clogging up” the landfills (Whatever that means).
- It heats my house without using gas, heating oil, or electricity.
- It uses the whole tree which reminds me of how we romanticize the American Indians…er..uh..Native Americans for using up the whole buffalo.

This will make everybody happy..right?

I doubt it. See this Green Movement is the New World Religion and everybody is a sinner and the change agent priests of this religion can never be made happy because the more you acquiesce to their demands, the more they will demand. If you don’t believe it, your sustainability police are already going through peoples trash in Hartford Connecticut and levying fines for not getting the recycling right.

I am the epitome of evil because my trade is one that uses trees.

Most folks’ hands are several steps removed from carbon output from heating their homes because they use electric, gas, or oil which requires third parties to handle the offensive fossil fuel. My hands not only handle the fuel, they manufacture the fuel, and you can actually see the smoke coming from my chimney instead of the smoke stack at the electric company which makes my carbon footprint more anecdotal than everybody else’s carbon foot print.

I work hard in my little shop which causes me to breath hard. This means that I am using more oxygen and emitting more CO2. Therefore I am more a scourge to the earth than the average person.

To help me in the shop, I have three kids which is more than the prescribed two kids that the Green Priesthood would allow us to have.

I try to finish everything with Shellac which is made from excretions of dead bugs, and I feel pretty good about it being an all natural product and all, but I’m sure the Greenies can find something wrong with that too.

Anyway, it’s 7 degrees Fahrenheit outside and I have to wrap this up because there is about six inches of global warming to clean off of the windshield of my fossil fuel guzzling pick up truck.

If you would like to see my evil wooden product, visit http://jcscarpentry.com.

- why don´t you read it in the context it was written? In the same sentence I was comparing here to countries in SE Asia.
While we are not litter free, compared to countries in that region we effectively are!

(He forgets they may have won a small battle, but lost the war)

Lest you be confused, I’m referring to this: “The kind of movement I see has been happening over a number of years and won’t be ‘whipped up’ the moment ’something ugly happens’ – it is already well developed and is not at all ‘revolutionary’.”

D4J — do you know why NZ exports coal to China? (Clue: it’s to do with the sort of coal we have)

>> Its the type of coal the chinese pay hard cash for.

Not at all greenfly, as you’d know if you’d been following this blog for more than 5 mins. Your faith in the ability of private citizens to operate against the tide of corporate activity when these are combined with govt regulation bought about by specific donations made by said corporates, astounds me.

Don’t you know how things work? Do you just imagine that (sh)eople will “rise up” the minute something ugly rears its head? They haven’t yet, have they? What makes you think they will? More info? Don’t be fucking stupid.