Evolved

I have thought long and hard about this post. I have put different Blog Action Day posts on all of my blogs in an attempt to reflect their purpose. This is my blog for straight talking, hard truths, strong beliefs and shared solutions . On my other blogs I have tried to provide a means of action for people that are realistic and beneficial to the cause however I believe that stronger and more direct action is required. Whatever forecasts can be made about our planet, the effects of our presence, man made climatic changes, conflict between nations, natural climatic changes aggravated by our actions, or a combination of them all, I believe that our planet will ultimately survive in some form, I do not believe that mankind will . I believe there is a inevitability to our own self destruction. We are capable of change however seem to need a stronger reason than currently exists to globally unite. I believe that necessity is the mother of invention and we do not seem to feel that action is ...

The 15th October 2009 is Blog Action Day , powered by Change.org. In their words: ‘Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.’ I have taken part in Blog Action Day for a couple of years now along with my Sister and Mum and it really is an amazing event. This year’s topic is climate change. I have begun to notice over the past few years while attending seminars and courses that we can be very good at getting together, uniting to a cause and planning action however a period of time elapses, nothing happens and then before you know it we are all sitting there again discussing the same issues and noticing that we didn’t actually take any action . This day to me is a day of communicating the wish for chang...

Following on from my last post I heard back from DEFRA. There was no mention of using animal carcasses in slurry however I gather it is not permitted, they did however reiterate the information I had already found out regarding use of fertilisers and manure adjacent to water courses and such. I am aware though that farmers are also able to purchase human waste from sewer farms to spread on their fields, hence the change in smell for the worse in recent years! Anyway I am continuing to investigate so I can get a comprehensive list of what is legal and what is not. I know the human waste is legal although I don't think it should be! Not wishing to be judgemental if there is anyone visiting here that is involved in agriculture that can give me any additional information I would be very grateful.

One of our dogs recently poisoned themselves after eating something on a dog walk through agricultural land. Dogs being dogs we pay a lot of attention to them during walks however this incident slipped through un-noticed until an hour after being home when she took very ill. I am very happy to report that she is now on the mend following a few very scary days however the vet mentioned that in addition to the poisons that game keepers use, farmers slurry utilised for muck spreading over crops can contain animal carcasses which are rotting and therefore can cause issues. He said it passes down the food chain from the raw product to rabbits and foxes but if ingested by a cow can be strong enough to kill it. I have since contacted DEFRA to ask what is legal for slurry as I found this a little concerning. Manure is one thing but this is another altogether. I look forward to their reponse and will post my findings.