Gazette Columnist Bee Bea Sharper Describes an Imaginary World Village of 100 People in Exact Proportion to the Current Earth Population

• Precise number of people in the proportional imaginary world village described in the following items: 100.
• Number of these 100 people who would be Asians: 57.
• Number of Europeans: 21
• Number of Americans (North and South): 14.
• Number of Africans: 8.
• Number of females: 51.
• Number of males: 49.
• Number of Christians: 30
• Number of Non-Christians: 70
• Number of people who would own 59% of the world’s total wealth: 6.
• Number of these six very wealthy people who would be U. S. citizens: 6.
• Number of people who would live in sub-standard housing: 80.
• Number of people who would be able to read: 30.
• Number who would be suffering from malnutrition: 50.
• Number who would be near death: 1.
• Number who would be near birth: 1.
• Number who would have a college education: 1.
• Number who would be heterosexual: 89.
• Number who would be homosexual: 11.
• Number who would own a computer: 0.
• Number of reasons we have for being tolerant and understanding of each other: many.

Sharper’s Index

Special Animal Manure Issue

Pure Water Gazette columnist B. Bee Sharper Ferrets out the facts that Harper’s misses.

Introduction

by Gene Franks

The Agriculture Committee of the U. S. Senate, directed by chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), performed an extensive study of the state of our nation’s manure.  Although the findings of Harkin’s committee were called “staggering” by the Associated Press, the story was essentially ignored except for a few page 22 newspaper stories.  Our numbers columnist, Bee Bee Sharper, intrigued by the big numbers that figure into animal manure statistics, decided to turn the committee’s findings into a column.  B. Bea’s numerical facts are taken from an excellent article on the Harkin findings, Pamela Rice’s  “Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Manure,” which appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of Vegetarian Voice. Here are B. Bea’s findings.

• Pounds of waste produced each year by farm animals in the United States: 2.74 trillion.

• If this waste were loaded on the boxcars of a single train (Heaven forbid!), the number of times this train’s length would reach around the earth: 12.5.

• Human population of a city that would create the same amount of excrement as the dairies in California’s Central Valley: 21,000,000.

• Estimated number of manure-generating animal-feeding operations in the United States: 450,000.

• Percentage of rivers that have been identified by the EPA as “impaired” in which agricultural runoff from animal waste is the largest problem: 60%.

• Number of Olympic-size swimming pools that would fit into one of the innumerable large “lagoons” (temporary excrement storage facilities) spread throughout the United States: 200.

• Percentage of the older lagoons in North Carolina that are leaking enough to contaminate groundwater: 50%.

• Number of separate noxious gasses that contribute to the foul odor which emanates from hog barns: 150.

• Number of dead birds that are composted or incinerated by the poultry industry each year: 160,000,000.

• Factor by which U.S. animal excrement exceeds human: 130 times.

BIRTH CONTROL–THE
NATURAL WAY

How to Sow or Not to Sow–The Natural Way

by Barbara Feldman

Today in an age of increasing health and environmental concerns, more people are deliberating about conceiving children, and some are deciding not to have children at all. Whether you plan to have children soon, plan to wait, or have decided not to add to the global city’s already overcrowded sandboxes, you can take charge of your reproductive life in a way that enhances your health and the environment.

Picture the smallest grain of sand that you could possibly see in your garden. Now add to that picture something 2,000 times smaller. Amazingly, each of us began from the union of an egg (barely visible to the naked eye) and one sperm, 2,000 times smaller.

Our earliest ancestors lived within puzzles of myth and instinct combined, but had few real clues as to how pregnancy occurred. For ages it was unknown that males had any role. Throughout history humans used various ceremonies, rites and practices to deal with the awe, fear, and reverence they felt toward the mysteries of fertility. From today’s educated perspective, some of these beliefs and practices may seem quite bizarre. Three hundred years ago, not long ago in human history, “ovists” argued with “spermists” as to whether the tiny model of the parent (we might say the blueprint or pinkprint) was contained in the egg or the sperm. In educational texts of that time, faces are actually drawn on sperm.

Some of today’s misinformation may sound as amusing as the strange beliefs of the past, but unplanned pregnancies are of far more concern now than they were in tribal communities and in times of sparse human population.

Today, even though scientific knowledge of fertility is extensive, the average person is still not privy to the simple basics that can benefit all our lives. Just randomly ask where conception takes place, how long sperm live, or when in the cycle ovulation takes place, and you will discover a major lack of education even among those with letters after their names. In fact, even in these highly scientific, technological times, important life choices are based on beliefs about human reproduction invented out of distorted fragments of scientific facts pieced together by personal imaginations.

Although reproductive knowledge has come a long way since the drawings of sperm with faces, today’s “authorities” often distort and even block widespread dissemination of accurate information. You don’t have to be a professional scientist to gain self-reliance and understanding with reference to your personal “packet of seeds.” It’s never too late to learn the simple, practical basics about our reproductive system. But, how much healthier society would be if we began teaching children early, and gradually added to their knowledge, as with other scientific information.

When it comes to Birth Control–The Natural Way there are a number of details to consider, yet the overall application, once learned, is easy.

Changes in a woman’s fertility signs clearly delineate the fertile time each cycle in present time. This is NOT the unreliable rhythm method. A century of accumulated knowledge and scientific research plus over thirty years of practical application, stand behind this approach. By learning the fascinating facts of reproduction, you can replace the “hand-me-down” myths and take charge. Don’t be surprised to discover that what you’ve considered to be facts turn out to be half-truths or fanciful explanations.

To begin this overview of fertility awareness, here are some basic facts. Girls are born with all their eggs. At puberty (today’s average age is twelve) eggs begin ripening in response to a cyclic process. Within each cycle usually one egg is released. By menopause (average age 50-51) the number of eggs is substantially reduced; remaining eggs no longer ripen nor are released, and menstrual cycling ceases. Boys, however, begin to produce sperm at puberty and continue to do so for the rest of their lives.

After an egg is released from the ovary (ovulation), it is picked up by one of the fallopian tubes and if not fertilized within 24 hours begins to disintegrate. Sperm can survive in the female reproductive tract on the average two to three days (up to five days on the extreme) when fertile cervical mucus is present.

About 8-10 days of each cycle are fertile and can be determined by three primary signs: 1) Changes in the cervical secretion, which can easily be observed on toilet tissue or fingers. The purpose of this normal secretion is to protect and guide sperm toward the egg. 2) Change in the basal body temperature. 3) Changes in the cervix observed by touching the cervix. Observing these fertility signs takes only a few minutes a day.

I was more fortunate than most of my peers. My mother always comfortably and truthfully answered my questions about sex. So, at the age of four in the sandbox, I began my career in sex education by telling my playmates: “Baby sisters and brothers don’t come from the stork–they come from your mommy’s belly.”

Today, through Family Awareness/Birth Control–the Natural Way workshops I share my mother’s legacy with other women and their partners in an educational sandbox. As we sit together in a circle, students ventilate emotions and recite the litany of misleading information about birth control from medical doctors and popular media. Common statements from doctors are: It’s unreliable. You can’t know. You can get pregnant anytime. Here’s your prescription for the Pill.
The fact is: When there’s no egg, you can’t get pregnant. When taught by a qualified teacher and the rules are followed, natural birth control can be just as effective as, if not more effective than, the Pill. Once the medical tyranny and misinformation are set aside, these simple biological facts can be used for self-empowerment. Please do not confuse this approach with the outdated, unreliable rhythm method of the 1930s. The Calendar Rhythm Method used the lengths of a woman’s past cycles to predict the fertile days in each succeeding ng cycle. Birth Control–the Natural Way does not guess. The day-by-day changes in your fertility signs are a direct indication of hormonal changes in present time.

Many common misconceptions are replaced by fad. There is a common belief that the menstrual period is an infertile time. While this may be true for some, it may not be true for others, and it may vary from cycle to cycle. If ever there were shame in the garden, it is that so many women continue to believe mistakenly that their normal secretion is a “discharge” or an infection in need of treatment. Some doctors have actually prescribed vaginal suppositories rather than education. Like chemical merchants who sold our farmers on toxic fertilizers, many doctors do not respect natural cycles and want to fix what is not broken.

Don’t be dissuaded by thoughts that you have to be “regular” to use Birth Control–the Natural Way:: This method is especially helpful to those women whose cycles vary significantly in length, who are just off the Pill, who are breastfeeding, weaning their children, or entering the time of pre-menopause. These women can also gain confidence by knowing when they are potentially fertile.

It’s your choice when it comes to deciding what to do during the 8-10 fertile days each cycle. Most effective is to postpone intercourse during the fertile days. Some couples choose “outercourse.” Others choose to use barrier methods during the fertile days. Realize, though, that the effectiveness statistics of barrier methods are inflated. Statistics are based on using a diaphragm or condom, for example, for each and every act of intercourse throughout the cycle, even though during two-thirds of most women’s cycles they couldn’t possibly conceive. And, as you may have discovered, condoms can break and diaphragms have been known to slip, even when instructions are followed perfectly.

Many enlightened folks are no longer turning themselves over to doctors, drugs, or devices. We’ve learned the hard way that synthetic hormones in the Pill, for example, affect virtually every organ of the body, deplete nutrients, can reduce the sex drive, and produce a long list of other side effects. All this is done to suppress the release of the egg and may be called “the no seed approach.”

The IUD (inter-uterine device) changes the uterine environment by setting up a minor irritation or infection. Conception is still possible with an IUD in place, although the possibility of implantation on the irritated uterine lining is significantly reduced. This is the “unsuitable soil approach.” Cases of serious pelvic inflammatory disease attributed to an IUD have resulted in infertility, hysterectomy, and death.

Methods using spermicides (diaphragm, foam, suppositories, and contraceptive sponge) make up the ‘deadly pesticide approach.” With this approach, invasive substances are used to kill microscopic male seeds.

Whether drug, device, or chemical is used, these high-tech inventions create a warlike attitude of varying degree toward a very intimate and natural aspect of our lives. When fertility awareness is applied to prevent pregnancy, neither partner needs to sacrifice health. Bio-gardeners are at peace making love without weaponry because they know when pregnancy can and cannot occur.

As Birth Control–the Natural Way becomes more widely known and practiced, fewer people will be singing the “Birth Control Blues.” To promote an age of growing peace and environmental consciousness, choosing a birth control method that is personally peaceful and cooperative is another step toward making our global garden-city complex a better place to live.

How Much Does Food Really Cost?

by Hardly Waite, Pure Water Gazette Senior Editor

    There is a pervasive misconception about food prices in the United States because of the way we keep our books. We like to congratulate ourselves for having “cheap” food by world standards and to attribute this low cost to our efficient and highly productive food provision system. This is because most people are not aware that the price we pay for food at the market is only a tiny part of the real, complete price.. The real cost involves hidden dollars as well as non-monetary costs of far greater importance. Viewed in its totality, we pay more for food than any nation on earth.

For example, there are massive taxpayer-funded subsidies for transportation systems, including super highways, bridges, harbors, and airports that allow long-distance shipping of large quantities of food items. This makes food appear artificially cheap. People do not consider that without super highways local growers would be able to compete with multinational corporate farmers. These subsidized transportation systems greatly benefit large corporate food producers and actually work to the disadvantage of small local food producers by flooding their market area with cheap food brought in from great distances. What we pay for roads is part of the cost of food.

Publicly financed global communications systems also greatly aid large corporate food producers at the expense of small growers, and they, too, must be considered as part of the cost of food. One estimate is that U. S. corporations benefit from subsidies and externalized costs to the tune of $2.4 trillion per year. This corporate welfare comes out of our pockets.

Another potent subsidy item is university research, which is rarely if ever aimed at helping small farmers or local markets. Instead, it focuses on high-dollar technologies that benefit corporate agribusiness and do great harm to smaller producers and usually to the environment. For example, The Ecologist reports the case of a mechanical tomato picker that was developed at considerable public expense at the University of California. It greatly reduced labor costs for large tomato farmers, but its purchase price was so high that smaller growers could not afford to use it in their fields. “This one technology,” says The Ecologist, “helped to consolidate California’s 4,000 tomato farms into just 600 in about a decade.” Taxpayers paid a little less for tomatoes at the market, but they also got to pay for some very expensive research. The 600 surviving companies got fatter and richer, but 3,400 smaller tomato farmers, not to mention innumerable laborers who were replaced by the picking machines, would be hard pressed to see the benefits of this publicly financed research..

And then there are the direct subsidies we taxpayers give to “farmers.” When they talk about farm subsidies on the Ten O’ Clock News, people envision the Brown family keeping their little vegetable farm going with the help of an Agriculture Dept. check. Actually, in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, a full 80% of the government’s financial help goes to the richest and largest 20% of the “farmers.” The needy farmers being fed at the public trough, of course, are multinational agribusiness conglomerates who use part of their subsidy checks to gobble up the family farms of the Browns and their neighbors who did not qualify for subsidies. Add the cost of farm subsidies into your food budget.

Perhaps the most intangible of the costs of agribusiness food, however, is the “health tax.” How do you estimate the cost to your health of consuming nutrient-depleted foods, drinking pesticide contaminated water, and breathing polluted air? Perhaps the greatest cost of all is hidden in the impact of corporate agriculture on the environment and the health of citizens. Air pollution, greenhouse gasses, soaring cancer rates, fossil fuel and water depletion–these are all hard items to assign costs to. But pay for them we do, each time we purchase a factory-raised chicken or a loaf of phony bread at the supermarket

The Pure Water Gazette urges its readers to support local growers and to resist the agribusiness effort to globalize food production and destroy small food producers. Buy locally and organically whenever you can. The slightly higher price you pay the local grower is a bargain.