When will it End?

When I first heard that Monsanto at one time was trying to put a patent on pigs I thought it was a joke. Apparently, it wasn't a joke at all. This video brings the plan to patent the pig or at least pigs with certain genes to light. I would highly encourage people to watch the video and learn more about the corporations that control much of the food people eat.

Monsanto who apparently gets so much bad press and criticism they have an entire section of their website called "for the record" dedicated to slippery explanations for their policies and actions (such as their lawsuits against farmers, but that is another can of worms which they would probably try to patent in some way...if there was money in worms that is.) have this statement about their pig patent on their website. It says that Monsanto sold all their swine related patents, patent applications and other related intellectual property to Newsham Genetics LC of West Des Moines, Iowa in November of 2007.

According to a 2007 article on the Porkmag.com website "as part of the agreement, the two companies have established a three-year research alliance. It will focus on technology and the genomics platform to maximize the value created in the industry from these tools".

“We’re pleased Newsham Genetics is acquiring this business and will continue to advance the genomic and marker technology platform for the swine industry,” says Kevin Holloway, president of Monsanto’s animal agriculture unit. “The research alliance illustrates that Newsham is committed to continuing genomic research and harvesting the rich pipeline that Monsanto Choice Genetics has developed.”

I am no expert, fact is I never owned a pig in my life. I am just a concerned goat farmer who thinks we should all be aware and concerned about these sort of things. It sounds to me like different owner, same problem. That problem is that when powerful corporations try to patent living animals for big profits and even more control over the food that we eat, they only ask if they can... never if they should. What will be next, sheep...goats? So we all should be asking; when will it end and what are we going to do about it?

Contact Elected Officials
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Organic Consumers Association
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

This is my personal blog...and its written words are my opinions.

Smile! - Farm Photo of the Week

Smile, it makes people wonder what you’ve been up to.

Cold Frosty Morning

Some pictures from a frosty morning on the farm. I have never seen frost quite like this before. How kind of this black goat to stand there so the frost would show up so much better!

Naked, grey winter trees are made beautiful.

Winter beauty.

Frosty fence and the goats just want their morning feed.

An old falling down eyesore gets a moment of beauty before she is torn down in the spring. Hopefully we will be able to salvage some barn lumber and she can continue to live on through birdhouses and picture frames.
Pictures can be made larger by clicking on them.

Don't forget to go HERE and enter our blog giveaway for a chance to win a magazine subscription to Mother Earth News.

200 Posts and a Giveaway!

Hello and welcome to my 200th blog post! It sure does not seem like I have been writing on this blog for just a couple months shy of two years! It feels like just yesterday that I wrote the very first post to this blog. Time sure does seem to fly by in a blink of an eye doesn't it?

The last two years has had its ups and downs. In some ways life has been tough and sad the last couple years. The hay was short and I said goodbye to an old friend and guardian angel. I also got to be an aunt, seen lots of beautiful new baby goats born, met wonderful people, made new friends, helped family, learned new things thanks in part to the great blogs that I follow, harvested our own garden vegetables and I have been blessed to wake up every day on this farm and living the dream I have always dreamed of the beauty and peace of country life with my wonderful husband.

My goals for the next two years is to live a more frugal life. To get back to basics, save and be more self-sufficient on the farm and in my life. I know that the last few years has been tough for a lot of people so I bet this is a common goal for many families right now. So I have decided to do something you can get big, open mouth, puppy dog smiles happy about.

I am going to give away a free one year gift subscription of Mother Earth News magazine to a lucky reader of my blog. It is six issues of a magazine that has articles and information that would be helpful to any person, especially anyone interested in homesteading, DIY projects, raising their own vegetables or just living a more sustainable life.

Now pay attention because the important instructions on how to enter for a chance to win are below.

In order to enter the Giveaway just leave a comment on this post saying you want to be entered in the contest for a chance to win for one entry.

If you don't have a blogger or other account you can still enter. Just leave a comment under "anonymous" and leave your email in your comment so I can reach you if you win.

You can also get extra entries by doing the following:

• Blog about this contest on your blog or site for an extra entry. Please leave a link to it here.
  
• Or/And tell about it on Facebook for one more entry.
• Or/And Twitter it for one more entry.
• Or/And Stumble it for one more entry.

So it is possible to have up to 5 entries in this contest by doing the above listed things but to get those extra entries, you MUST leave a comment on this post with a link to your post on your blog about this giveaway to get your extra entry. You must also let me know if you did any of the other things listed above so I will know how many entries to give you credit for. Otherwise I won't know to give them to you. I don't want anyone to miss an extra entry that they should have gotten because I never knew about it.

You might notice that I am not giving an extra entry for following my blog using the followers widget on the side over there. It isn't because I don't care about followers, I do and I greatly appreciate every single person that does take the time to follow my corny, little caprine corner of the blogosphere here but I want people to follow my blog because they find it interesting or funny or they just can't get enough of Peeps the lap goat and the rest of the goaty gang here on our farm, if that makes sense. I want to say thank you to every person that does follow this blog or takes the time to leave a comment, it really does make my day.

This contest is open to any reader with a US or Canadian address. The giveaway starts Tuesday February 2, 2010 and will be open until Tuesday February 23, 2010 at 11:59 PM. Central time. My impartial husband who doesn't read his wife's blog (terrible isn't it?) will draw one name and the winner will be announced on February 24th.

In other unrelated news, Pepper the goat that broke his leg a couple weeks ago while trying to jump a fence is doing well. He had a follow-up appointment with the vet and the doctor said things look good so far and he should heal well. Thank you to every person that left comments and asked about him. Things are looking good for him!