I came across a kind of manifesto for the food revolution today, when an online search for information related to the topic led me to the Bioneers.org site.

It’s an excerpt from a plenary talk by Michael Pollan at the Bioneers 2006 Conference. The title is Beyond the Bar Code: The Local Food Revolution, and it makes sense of what has happened to our farm and food industry, and where we need to head with local food production in order to have a food secure, energy efficient, and healthy future for our country.

EPA Chief Under Fire for Ignoring Scientists

“Johnson has faced mounting criticism from within his own agency and a Congressional investigatory panel for allegedly ignoring scientific findings when they have contradicted the Bush administration’s political aims.” (read article)

I guess it really is an inconvenient truth. . . .

In an interview at Alternet titled Michael Pollan Debunks Food Myths, author Michael Pollan discusses his new book, In Defense of Food. He talks about why news of the latest scientific nutritional studies is probably not the best source for nutrition information, and how the best eating advice given to Americans in the past five decades is probably the simplest — that fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are good for us. According to him, we’re likely best off getting back to basics.

Pollan says:

“I’m not a Luddite; I’m not anti-science. I’m fascinated by nutritional science. But I’ve also acquired a healthy skepticism about how much and how little they know. It has only been around for about 175 years. Its history is of one overlooked nutrient after another. As I see it, nutrition science is kind of where surgery was in the year 1650, which is to say very interesting and promising, but do you really want to get on the table yet?” (read article)

Further on, Pollan mentions how the “imitation rule” was eliminated by the FDA, without going through Congress, and how what we eat has in some sense become a political statement. According to Pollan, cooking our own food from scratch may now be a subversive act:

“It’s funny to think of something as domestic as cooking and gardening as subversive, but it is. It is the beginning of taking back control from a system that would much rather do everything for you.” (read article)

Though I’m still following the election process, now that the choices have narrowed down considerably, and I’m not nearly as enthused about the remaining candidates, the blog won’t focus so much on the election.

I’m sure this news will relieve some of you no end, if you’re even still following the blog. But be warned, I will now and then post some politics, just as I have in the past. It’s too important to ignore completely.

I moved the dates forward on the previous two posts to help redirect the blog again to a primary focus on poetry, art, creativity, and alternative spirituality. I know, cheating. She’s too lazy to even write a new post.

Update 02-15-2008:

A belated

HAPPY LOSAR

to everyone. Februrary 7th was the Tibetan New Year, the start of year 2135 Male Earth Mouse. For more information about Losar, visit Wikipedia’s Losar page or this site.

For more information about Tibet and China, you might want to read TWELVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TIBET AND CHINA.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont writes in OpEdNews about The State of the Union Bush Forgot to Talk About.

According to Sen. Sanders, since Bush has been in office the true state of the Union has changed dramatically in conrast to Bush’s SOTU: (more…)

If you’re having trouble with mainstream media coverage in keeping up with the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, as far as where they stand in the primaries and caucuses and the number of convention delegates allotted to them so far, try these sources, which cut out all the hype:

Real Clear Politics: 2008 Democratic Delegates

Real Clear Politics: 2008 Republican Delegates

Wikipedia: Results of the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries

Wikipedia: Results of the 2008 Republican presidential primaries (more…)

Who I’ll Vote For Now

I still plan to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the primaries, regardless of his withdrawal from his presidential campaign, since there’s no other candidate who fills the bill for me, and his name is on my primary ballot in California. Even if it wasn’t, I think at this point I’d write him in. (more…)

Video: Kucinich withdraws from Presidential race 01 25 08 (YouTube video)

Text format: Kucinich withdraws from Presidential race (more…)

Yesterday Dennis Kucinich stood on the House floor and called the Bush administration what it is, basing his charge on this report by the Center for Public Integrity:

False Pretenses
Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
(read report)

Others objected to his wording and Kucinich retracted his “offending” speech, since that’s just not done in Congress, calling a liar a liar. (more…)

Two articles posted yesterday about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his vision stood out for me, as a voter who plans to vote for Dennis Kucinich. (more…)

An interview by Chris Hedges, posted at AfterDowningStreet.org explores Dennis Kucinich’s Fight to Bring Credibility to the Democratic Party.

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Kucinich’s appeal, and that means that although he’s fulfilled all other requirements besides signing an oath to “fully support” the party’s nominee, his name still won’t appear on the Texas primary ballot. OpEdNews has more to say about the shutout from the ballot in Texas.

Elizabeth Kucinich has begun a campaign tour of California, and Dennis Kucinich has gained an endorsement from the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA). (more…)

on Tuesday, January 15, when NBC/General Electric shut him out of its MSNBC debate in Las Vegas?

A couple of days ago I thought we’d never know. Then I found this interview at truthout.org by Amy Goodman, in which she presents the debate questions and the answers from his Democratic opponents, and allows Rep. Kucinich to respond: (more…)

See how your candidate is faring in the blogosphere by checking the candidates’ stats at 2008 Presidential Candidates - Blog Buzz. If you look at this drilled-in page for Dennis Kucinich, you’ll see that Dennis Kucinich is getting more blog exposure than ever. It’s important to keep the buzz going!

The statistics are derived from a count of Technorati tags in blog posts. For more information about Technorati tags, go to the Technorati Tools Page.

Posts that contain Dennis Kucinich per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Technorati Profile

The Race for the White House

It’s kind of surreal, watching the drama unfold for Dennis Kucinich in the 2008 Presidential primaries and caucuses, and difficult to know what will happen next.

Rep. Kucinich enjoyed what some are calling his “15 minutes of fame” as he spent the past few days as the only Democrat campaigning in Michigan, the state that has been abandoned by the rest of the Democratic Party just because it moved up the date of its primary election. Now Kucinich heads to Nevada, where he’s won his lawsuit, but everyone is uncertain whether he’ll be allowed to debate. Meanwhile his appeal to appear on the Texas ballot remains in question. (more…)

How do you get real information about a candidate, the kind that helps you decide how to vote, reliable information about what the candidate stands for? (more…)

The NBC Debate —

NBC has decided, after earlier inviting him to participate, to change their own rules and exclude Dennis Kucinich from yet another major debate. I think every American should be angry about it: NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich. (more…)

This is all very confusing. Let me see if I get this straight: In protesting a move by the state of Michigan to change the date of its primary election to January 15th, closer than the Democratic Party-approved cutoff date of February 5th, both John Edwards and Barack Obama wound up with their names off the primary ballot there, and aren’t campaigning in the state. I’ve read that they also didn’t turn in the necessary paperwork to allow write-in votes for them.

Isn’t that a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water? (more…)

A video posted at afterdowningstreet.org shows Dennis Kucinich in an interview, discussing what someone is voting for when they vote for him:

Kucinich on What You Win With Your Vote
(more…)

Most people close to me are well aware that I hate politics. I also hate how events and policies, and terrorists, have so far in this millennium forced me to think about politics more and more. Though political matters naturally interest me, as a human being who cares about my world, and although I’ve always voted, focus on political matters gets my blood pressure up and ruins my inner peace and ability to focus on what’s really important to me in my life. That’s certainly not the role I want government to have in my country. I worked for the government long enough, and by law had virtually no political voice during that time, and I now want the government to be simply a solid, secure structure that does its job efficiently and sits in the background of my life, taking care of us all as it should. Low maintenance. We pay enough for it, after all. (more…)

Kriss Perras Running Waters of Malibu Arts Reviews Magazine reports that Lord of the Rings Star Viggo Mortensen Joins Forum on Impeachment This Evening Online and in New Hampshire.

Excerpt: “Online participants can watch the panelists and email questions at http://www.kucinichtv.com from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m ET.” (read article)

* * *

Update 7:25 PM
Unfortunately it appeared the Kucinich team had technical difficulties, so the video wasn’t available.

The article linked above mentioned this piece by George McGovern today in The Washington Post: Why I Believe Bush Must Go, in support of impeachment. (more…)