By supporting local, small family-operated farms, you become part of the solution to global food contamination, industrial agriculture and runaway energy and transportation costs. The food doesn't take two weeks to leave the field and arrive on your table, so nutrition is preserved. Locally grown food, much of it organic or naturally grown without petrochemical pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics or modified genes can be found in various communities in the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks.

We read and hear a lot about eating locally these days, and many of us assume the phenomenon is of recent origin, and of course we are delighted to be part of the movement to finally be eating "sensibly."

What: Green Highways Partnership Meeting

When: Wednesday, October 22nd, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: MDC's Twin Pines Education Center, Winona

Please note we'll be starting the meeting at 10 a.m. to accomodate participants who will be arriving from out of the area. We should be able to conclude by 12 or 12:30.

The tentative agenda is as follows:

10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Introduction to Green Highways/Environmental Stewardship trends & potential for partnership in the ONSR area.

10:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. Discussion of current roadside management practices

In the event you Missouri fisherpersons out there have not read the 2008 "Missouri Fishing Regulations", it might be wise to do so, in particular if you partake of any of your catch.

These regulations read, in part, "Because all fish have various levels of mercury, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends sensitive populations consume no more than one meal per week when no other advisory is present."

Sensitive populations are in essence, any female of childbearing age, whether pregnant or not, and children under age 13.

Numerous electric service providers throughout the Ozarks are presently using a combination of herbicides to kill the native plants, trees, and shrubs that grow beneath the power lines throughout our region. Countless numbers of plants and animal communities are being sprayed, causing extensive harm to a wide range of species. Studies from around the world show that the toxic chemical residues from pesticides and herbicides can and do wash into area creeks, ponds, and groundwater.

HERBICIDE ALERT
A number of electric utilities throughout the Ozarks are presently using a combination of herbicides to kill the native plants, trees, and shrubs that grow beneath the power lines throughout our region. Countless numbers of plants and animal communities are being sprayed, causing harm to a wide range of species. Chemical residues from herbicides eventually wash into area creeks, ponds, springs, wells, and groundwater.

Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why

By TINA KELLEY
Published: March 25, 2008

Al Hicks was standing outside an old mine in the Adirondacks, the largest bat hibernaculum, or winter resting place, in New York State.

It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance.

March 24, 2008
The Ouachita and Ozark National Forest "Hotline" (1-888-243-1042)
announced cumulative burning of 13,456 acres for Monday, March 24, 2008.
The burning was to take place over numerous districts in both forests.
Seven of the nine burns were over 1000 acres in size, and three of the
burns were over 2000 acres.

CALLING B.S. ON THE IDEA OF 'MARIJUANA ADDICTION'

The U.S. government believes that America is going to pot --
literally. Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug
Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation's
first-ever "Center on Cannabis Addiction," which will be based in La
Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA's press
release, is to "develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of marijuana addiction."

Not familiar with the notion of "marijuana addiction"? You're not

The following is an excerpt from my recently published globe-spanning philosophical novel, “Changing History”. “Changing History” is the story of seven international travelers who meet by happenstance in a snowstorm in the wild mountains of Tibet, stumble upon a teahouse and spend the night with a traveling Buddhist monk and nun. During the night, in Chaucerian style, the seven tell life stories about events and circumstances that led to their travels to Tibet and forced each to question fundamental aspects of her/his life, society and the world.