.Is Wheat Toxic?

Not only did researchers find that those who ate the ancient wheat had fewer symptoms of IBS, but, to their surprise, they found that several inflammatory markers also showed significant change for the better in this group. Those who ate only the modern wheat retained higher levels of inflammation throughout the body. Inflammatory markers that are associated with cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other chronic diseases were significantly lower after six weeks of eating ancient wheat...

Is Wheat Toxic?

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

(excerpted)

...Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

~Wendell Berry

"The Green Revolution"

When Borlaug was doing his groundbreaking work in the 60s, he didn’t have the advanced tools that breeders have today. He used something called “mutation breeding.” That method uses radiation or mutagenic chemicals to increase the number of gene mutations in a population of seeds and then a search is made for the extremely rare cases where the mutation is beneficial. Compared to modern biotechnology this is a pretty crude approach, but that was the only method Borlaug had to speed up the process of trait selection. Most crops consumed by the public-at-large in industrialized nations are Green revolution crops. Since improved crop yield was produced mostly through the use of heavy fossil fuel inputs, the increased efficiency of Green revolution strains is geared towards these inputs; that is, the strains are more efficient at exploiting the chemical fertilizers used, and also are designed to be easier to harvest mechanically. The Green revolution allowed a drastic reduction in the input of human labor to agriculture by extending the use of machinery to automate every possible agricultural process. The development of chemical pesticides and herbicides (including organochlorine and organophosphate compounds) allowed further improvements in crop yields by allowing for efficient weed control and eradication of insect pests.
Thus...I will stick with organic ancient wheats...emmer, einkorn, kamut, spelt. And continue to ferment my doughs. I also ferment many other foods. It is my belief that fermentation is important for our continued health.
If you have any interest, Bill Mollison's book on fermentation and human nutrition is being offered at a discounted rate...although it may still be prohibitively expensive for some folks. I was gifted this book in the 90s.

http://www.wildfermentation.com/the-permaculture-book-of-ferment-and-human-nutrition/

thoughts

As a student of cultural anthropology, I loathe the loss of cultures and their being subsumed...assimilated. We don't even realize the detriment we do to our humanity as languages and cultures are lost. Abhorrent. I certainly do not celebrate or encourage it.

Species are being lost at an alarming rate because they can't "adapt" to massive deforestation, loss of habitat, pollution of waterways, acidification of oceans, Human caused changes in climate, extraction and exploitation of resources. Nothing to be proud of. Actually I am ashamed of my own species.

I've been off grid for over 3 decades. Fairly agrarian and simple. I, too, appreciate some technology. Our problem, as I see it, is our sheer numbers and our belief in geometric growth economies.

“Happiness is like a butterfly:
the more you chase it, the more it will elude you,
but if you turn your attention to other things,
it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…”
~Thoreau

May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house. May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there. May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows, and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.

East meets West on the stream/wetlands which bisect our forested lands. These were taken within 30 seconds of each other this evening. Happy New Year.