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Afghan Women\’s Writing Project | Awakened

Don’t put me in a cage againLet me fly again to my world

Where I can find peace, happiness, and love

Don’t put me in a cage againI have a hope, I have a dream

Let me reach my goalDon’t make my life useless

Don’t put me in a cage againI am silent, not weak

Let me speakI am the voice of my land, I am the dream of my land

Let me change my futureLet me live my life

Don’t put me in a cage again

Give me my pen and my book

I will write my pain and read it to the world

And tell them that I hunger for peace, happiness, and love in my land

Don’t put me in a cage again!

By Shogofa

via Afghan Women\’s Writing Project | Awakened.

Do Plants Think?: Scientific American

Do Plants Think?: Scientific American.

Do plants communicate with each other?
At a basic level, yes.  But I guess it centers around how you define communication. There is no doubt that plants respond to cues from other plants. For example, if a maple tree is attacked by bugs, it releases a pheromone into the air that is picked up by the neighboring trees. This induces the receiving trees to start making chemicals that will help it fight off the impending bug attack. So on the face of it, this is definitely communication.

Rural Women in Peru Key to Adaptation of Seeds to Climate Change – IPS ipsnews.net

Rural Women in Peru Key to Adaptation of Seeds to Climate Change – IPS ipsnews.net.

Peruvian women may save world agriculture! At 3,100 metres above sea level, in the highlands community of Tiomayo near the city of Cuzco, 1,150 km southeast of Lima, Isabel García Champa, 42, works hard on her small farm. 


In workshops at the Flora Tristán Agroecological School, she has built on what she learned about preserving and saving seeds since she was a young girl. And she is all too aware of the impact that climate change can have. 

“On my land I grow potatoes, maize, beans, apples, peas and wheat,” she told IPS. “Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. It’s not like it was before; everything is changing with the rise in temperatures, the heat. The rains don’t come when they’re supposed to, and often we can’t even grow anything.” 

García, whose mother tongue is Quechua but who also speaks Spanish fluently, is a married mother of four and divides her long days between working on the nearly one-hectare farm and taking care of her family. 

Her children also help out on the farm, although only the two youngest – a 16-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy – still live there. 

She sees herself as an inquisitive, enterprising woman who wants to continue learning and to help encourage other women farmers. 

In late 2011, she won the first contest for Women Caring for Seeds and Preserving Identity and Life. 

The prize is granted by the Flora Tristán Centre and Peru’s Network of Rural Municipalities, and García is especially proud of the farm tools that she was awarded, worth around 300 dollars. 





She said the women presented seeds of more than 30 native varieties of potato, maize, beans, wheat, barley, peas, oca (Oxalis tuborosa – a tuber), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa – a grain-like crop native to the Andes) and tarwi or Andean lupine (Lupinus mutabilis – a protein- rich native legume). 

She won the prize with the six kinds of maize she grows, some of which are exclusive to the Peruvian highlands: chullpi, janka, sacse, cheqche, estaquilado and blanco. 

“I have gradually improved my knowledge,” she said. “I shell the corn and choose the healthiest kernels, the ones that are the same size and colour. The kernels have to be whole; broken ones aren’t any good. 

“When everything is ready, I put the kernels in cloth sacks and store them in my house, in my bedroom. The kernels are safe there from dust or worms, and they last at least a year, for when I’m ready to plant again,” she said. 

But information and technical resources are scarce and difficult to access for rural women, and the efforts of NGOs cannot fill the gaps left by the state, which does not take advantage of this valuable human capital. 

Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?: Scientific American Yes!

Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?: Scientific American.

A landmark study on the topic by Donald Davis and his team of researchers from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in theJournal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition.

“Efforts to breed new varieties of crops that provide greater yield, pest resistance and climate adaptability have allowed crops to grow bigger and more rapidly,” reported Davis, “but their ability to manufacture or uptake nutrients has not kept pace with their rapid growth.” There have likely been declines in other nutrients, too, he said, such as magnesium, zinc and vitamins B-6 and E, but they were not studied in 1950 and more research is needed to find out how much less we are getting of these key vitamins and minerals.

The Organic Consumers Association cites several other studies with similar findings: A Kushi Institute analysis of nutrient data from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent. A similar study of British nutrient data from 1930 to 1980, published in the British Food Journal,found that in 20 vegetables the average calcium content had declined 19 percent; iron 22 percent; and potassium 14 percent. Yet another study concluded that one would have to eat eight oranges today to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Awakened

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Awakened.

Awakened

Don’t put me in a cage again

Let me fly again to my world
Where I can find peace, happiness, and love

Don’t put me in a cage again

I have a hope, I have a dream
Let me reach my goal
Don’t make my life useless

Don’t put me in a cage again

I am silent, not weak
Let me speak
I am the voice of my land, I am the dream of my land
Let me change my future
Let me live my life

Don’t put me in a cage again

Give me my pen and my book
I will write my pain and read it to the world
And tell them that I hunger for peace, happiness, and love in my land

Don’t put me in a cage again!

By Shogofa

Germans Try Integrating with Turkish Migrant Population – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Germans Try Integrating with Turkish Migrant Population – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Olaf Zimmermann, managing director of the Arts Council of Germany, believes that the debate about the integration of guest workers is outdated. “That issue is a thing of the past. Historically, Germany and Turkey have a lot in common,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Turkey is the most important bridge we have to the Islamic world and we should have the courage to cross it.”

For Zimmerman, culture and language are the most direct ways for Germans to connect with the Turkish migrant population. “Germans should learn Turkish,” he says. “The very best way to lessen a divide is to learn about the culture of others, and that includes their language.” He adds: “In my opinion, educators should have a basic knowledge of Turkish.”

A 30,000-Square-Foot Community Garden, on a Seattle Parking Garage — City Farmer News

A 30,000-Square-Foot Community Garden, on a Seattle Parking Garage — City Farmer News.

“As far as we can tell it’s the first community-managed food production garden on a rooftop” in the country, says Eric Higbee, a landscape architect working on the project. This project, dubbed the UpGarden, will have space for about 120 gardeners. There are a few rooftop farms, such as Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn. But a commercial operation like that runs around $10 per square foot to construct, while the UpGarden has shoestring budget of $4 per square foot—and it’s designed to be built and maintained almost entirely by volunteers.