Dictatorship , Global spying. Unacceptable.

There has been several events over the last few months which to us are totally unacceptable.
 The US spying on whoever they choose is Unacceptable, to be spying on the EU offices is totally Unacceptable, why would they do this? Are the EU not supposed to be allies of the US? Or is this tied up with the trade agreements which the US is keen to foster?
 Is this a back door admittance of GMO's into our food chain, spying on Ministers to see who can be bought to further the cause of Monsanto and other GM companies. What ever the reason, it is Unacceptable.
 Clearly Owen Patterson, Minister of the Environment in the UK has received his instructions and anyone who has read his recent speech must have wondered who he works for and just who he represents.
 His speech was full of total inaccuracies and lies, and read like a publicity statement for Monsanto, yet he  got away with it.
Recently we contacted the major supermarkets following their announcement that their own brands would no longer be produced from GM free ingredients, only one supermarket is continuing to be GM free, Waitrose. The replies that we received from the other supermarkets were stock answers, taken largely from Patterson's speech, Tesco did actually engage with us, but then gave up, stating that 'clearly they would not be able to change our minds' on the subject.
 Around 80% of people in the UK still do not want GM's yet they are being ignored. This is Unacceptable.
Here in Ireland many people are suffering from the Ostrich syndrome, so few people question what is in their food, even worse, so few people care. Our water is dosed with Fluoride and Chlorine without our consent. This is unacceptable.
Also up for discussion at these trade talks is the importation of American animal products.
 US animal welfare standards hardly exist, the EU on the other hand do have standards, not brilliant ones but they do allow for no animal being treated the way they are in the US animal feed lots, they have some sort of life. If these cheaply produced products are allowed to enter the EU they will undercut the EU farmers, forcing them to either lower their standards or give up farming. This is unacceptable.

Feverfew, it's use is banned in Ireland but not in the EU!

A couple of years ago a great many herbal remedies were banned from sale, this was to protect  public health, so we were told, despite the fact that herbs have been used for healing for thousands of years and are the basis for many conventional drugs, yet a pharmaceutical company can produce a drug, Diclofenac, know for over twenty five years that it increases the risk of stokes by 40% and still be allowed to continue selling it, even though there has now been a public heath warning issued on this drug. This is unacceptable.
In the Western world we are told that we live in Democratic states, our governments invade countries to bring 'Democracy' to these other countries yet many of these places are countries that are largely self sufficient in both food and power, they may or may not have the freedoms that we are told we have, but just how much freedom do we have? Whether we like it or not we are controlled, if we are silly enough to read or listen to mainstream news we are manipulated, we are told what to think. If we shop in supermarkets we are persuaded what to buy, we might think we are making choices but it's an illusion. And it is not acceptable.
I will continue to buy what we don't produce from the Farmers Market in Boyle, high quality and fresh organic produce and good conversation, meeting up with like minded people who still have the ability to make their choices of what is important in life, to talk to people who know that things are so wrong in the world now but are doing their bit to make things better.

Rosa Rugosa, grown from a seed swap.

I will grow what I chose, I will save and swap seed and plants, I will not be dictated to.
I will continue to grow herbs for their medicinal uses, if I want to grow and use Feverfew who is going to stop me, if I wish to go out and gather St. Johns Wort, no one can stop me.
 If I have too much of something I will swap it with someone. This week we have had three barters, firstly a sack of wool shoddy to use as slug protection, in exchange we swapped eggs, then we were given a leg of venison, which we swapped for a whole sea trout , and today, we gave cuttings of old fashioned roses plus a doz eggs in exchange for two pots of lovely home made jam and chutney. Many thanks Bridget, we will enjoy! 

Who needs supermarkets if you have a garden, this is the first of our Calabrese.