yesterday i talked with my mom. while at work and waiting on other people to do their thing, i decided to call. after asking about how she was a got an inspiringly greatful rundown on my younger siblings latest endevors. Esther is back from the permaculture workshop she attended in Indiana near her school, i think. although i talked with her briefly about her experience immediatly after her return, i not no where near the impression of impact it had on her that i got from my mom. she told me that Esther had decided to change her major from geology, which she has interest in but i think she found it was too far removed from her passions for life, creativity, etc to a self designed major that will include study of permaculture. that is so cool to me.
next she told me about samuel’s lacross endevors. recently he has taken to the game and has really jumped on board. he’ll be a junior in high school this fall and so it is considerably late for him to join the team according to most people. he has internalized that and it doesn’t seem to bother him. he is really determined, as far as i can see, to succeed. he decided in order to catch himself up to his peers technically, he would join a camp. After researching it, he found that there were two. the first in Notre Dame was intended for non beginners. they were told about a “beginner’s” day workshop in the village that was for 5th-9th graders. according to my mom she said to him you can swollow your pride and go to this workshop en route to Notre Dame or… he decided to go for it. the ND camp had a 21 person waiting list on boarded members, so my mom supported him by tapping her friends’ ‘menonite across america’ – housing network. now our family is not menonite, nor have any of us been to church, with the exception of Joy, for years. but he went on. by this point, i think would have given up a week ago. they got down there and he got setup in this man’s house across town, got to camp and then was told that there was an opening in the boarding. they partook. last update he was enjoying himself and learning a lot. that is determination.
after the end of the story from my mom i started to share my amazment. so often, i feel like i lack that determination which i admire so much. i love to get excited about stuff, but it is rare that something grabs me by the collar and inspires me to keep my shirt on so to speak. here my mom turned it around on me. your siblings admire you so much. not seeing what she was talking about i naturally refuted. your passion for your environmental stuff, sure it can be annoying when you are so gung-ho about it, but they look up to you a lot. after this i was sitting in my office, in the big pink, in sw portland, in tears. on another note, i got the link below in an email today, maybe it is something to do before/en route to the costa rica progam, if i actually end up doing that. WTO… boo http://www.organicconsumers.org/wto_cancun.htm more from O2’s bio-plastic discussion:
PLA has never been a GMO because PLA is an end product (made from corn or other plants), not engineered into a single seed or plant. PLA did though contain GMO traces at one point because of corn sourcing issues – buying corn starch made from general corn supplies. About 30% of US – regular corn – is GMO. As part of the regular grain supply. Recently Cargill/Dow started to work directly with farmers to get corn free of GMOs, and help farmers wishing to convert to organic farming.
As Europe has taken a very strong stand against GMO content, and much of the PLA used for packaging is sold to Europe, it made sense to work to eliminate GMO contamination by – NORMAL – US grain sources. Thus the direct to farmer partnership.
It’s a pretty common mistake to assume ALL bio-plastics are GMOs. Many ARE. THIS one’s not. And moreover, PLA is not really reliant on corn either. Cargill/Dow is looking to use other bio raw material sources, as well, such as residues from wheat and sugar beet production. Both of the below URL’s give a very interesting overview of PLA.
http://www.senate.gov/~agriculture/Hearings/Hearings_2001/March_29__2001/0329gru.htm
http://www.senate.gov/~agriculture/Hearings/Hearings_2001/March_29__2001/0329gru.htm
I’ve talked about this before, but as a reminder, for those of you interested in understanding the current state of bio-plastics, and before you act on any past assumptions, take some time with -
http://www.biopolymer.net.
They really break-out what’s what, and help point out the difference between end-products made from existing plants (like PLA, starch foam, or natural rubber), products made IN the plant (a GMO), and enzymes added to petroleum products to help them break down.
Not to sound like an ad for Cargill/Dow, but you have to admit, making plastics from agricultural waste is a pretty big deal. Had there been better leveraging of farm products – including waste as a valuable product – we might have eliminated the need for the HUGE farm bail-out we’re now paying for. Thinking of all the forests being cut down for paper, when agripulp (another use of farm waste) is just LAYING around – at the same time we’re subsidizing both farmers AND the wood products industry – is really irksome.
Granted, plastics make up only a tiny part of our total petroleum consumption, but coupled with bio-diesels and other bio energy technologies in use right now (plus adding other alternative energy techs) we could nearly eliminate our need for crude oil.
http://www.eco-foam.com/
http://www.starchtech.com/