A UK group called “Take The Flour Back” comprising bakers, farmers, growers, scientists, beekeepers and allotment holders are protesting against an aphid resistant GM wheat trial underway at Rothamsted Research Station in Herfordshire [1]. The wheat called Cadenza has been engineered to produce a smell similar to mint, which is meant to keep aphids at bay, while attracting their natural predator, the wasp.
DEFRA has spent £1 million of public money on eight small plots of wheat, which are under tight security, costing a further £120,000. Last week the ‘Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’, and the ‘Real Bread Campaign’ submitted a pledge to DEFRA refusing to use GM wheat, signed by over 350 bakers, millers, farmers and consumers.
Take the Flour Back is inviting people to meet at midday on Sunday 27th May outside Rothamsted to try to halt the trial, which is open to the surrounding environment. They say that Cadenza contains a synthetic gene similar to one commonly found in cows. There will be a picnic, music and a decontamination. They have also issued an open letter to Rothamsted scientists who they hope will discuss the wheat trial with protestors ahead of the the day [2].
GM wheat has already been rejected in the USA and in Canada where there is no longer any organic oilseed rape because of cross contamination with GM rapeseed. It was 50 years ago this year that American scientist Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published. Her book was controversial for evaluating the disasterous impacts of chemical pesticides on birds and the environment, and sparked reprisals by chemical companies against Carson (pictured) and her character.
GM Battlefields
The battle to keep pollution out of our fields and rivers continues. The trouble is that scientific papers suggesting that GM might harm the environment and the scientists writing them are vilified. Emma Rosi-Marshall is another in the long line of scientists, which includes Arpad Pusztai, Maewan Ho, Ignacio Chapela, Judy Carmen, Christian Velot, Giles Eric Seralini, Irina Ermakova and Andres Carrasco, whose research work has come in for unecessarily harsh criticism.
Rosi-Marshall’s troubles began [3] after the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) published her paper that concluded that a bt (bacillus thuringiensis) toxin engineered into corn plants “may have a negative effect on the biota of streams in agricultural areas,” and that, “the widespread planting of bt crops has unexpected ecosystem scale consequences.” This was after studying twelve streams in Indiana for two years. She also observed that water dwelling caddis flies feeding on high concentrations of bt corn died at twice the rate of caddis flies fed non-bt pollen.
Monsanto, a maker of bt corn, responded by writing a six page critical letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency calling Rosi-Marshall’s work dubious, which was posted online. However, the paper was passed by peer review and scientists not involved in the GM debate said that overall the data was valuable, the science was fine and the criticism was inappropriate. Millions Against Monsanto
A crop of studies that confirm that pesticides are responsible for killing bees have come to light this year [4],[5]. Particularly harmful are neonicotinoids [6] used on GM crops. So it’s encouraging that BASF has decided to withdraw their GM crops operations from Europe, citing consumer hostility. This leaves just Monsanto hanging on to its GM corn crops in the EU. Monsanto has recently bought Beelogics, one of the world’s largest bee research centres, stating an ominous mission, “To become the guardian of bee health worldwide.”
In America, the Millions against Monsanto and Occupy Monsanto Movements comprising food, health, and environmental activists and supported by consumers and farmers across the nation, are boldly moving to implement labelling of GM foods in California through a grassroots-powered citizens ballot “initiative process” to bypass the agribusiness-dominated state legislature.
If passed, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act will require mandatory labelling of GM foods and food ingredients. Alexis Baden-Mayer, Political Director for the Organic Consumers Association explained at an Occupy Wall Street demo that the ballot initiative is a perfect example of how the grassroots 99% can mobilize to take back American democracy from the corporate bullies, the 1%. He said, “We can bypass corrupt politicians, make our own laws, and force corporations like Monsanto to bend to the will of the people, in this case granting us our fundamental right to know what's in our food." Mother Wins Environment Prize
Sofia Gatica is a mother living in Ituzaingó, Argentina, who lost her newborn baby thirteen years ago as a result of Monsanto’s Roundup herbecide sprayed on GM soy near her home. Roundup’s principle ingredient is glyphosate, an endocrine disruptor (see Is Glyphosate Worse that DDT and Thalidomide?). This year, she won the Goldman Environment Prize for her Stop Spraying campaign. Gatica conducted her own epidemiological survey of Ituzaingó, which found that cancer rates were 41 times the national average. Her findings were confirmed by the University of Beunos Aires Department of Medicine and the Supreme Court ruled that the government and soy producers must prove the chemicals are safe.
Every year fifty million tonnes of glyphosate and endolsulfan are aerially sprayed on farmlands in Argentina. The ban on endosulfan is going into effect July 2013. Gatica endured threats from individuals, police officers, local business owners, and the intruder who entered her house and demanded that she give up the campaign while pointing a gun at her, is also pushing for a nationwide ban on glyphosate. But Monsanto says when the patent on glyphosate runs out in 2014, it will engineer another herbicide-resistant GM soybean to replace Roundup-Ready soy.
For more on the health hazards of GM soy, see my article Is Glyphosate Worse the DDT and Thalidomide?
[1] http://taketheflourback.org/spread-the-word/
[2] An open letter by Take The Flour Back to Rothamsted can be found here: http://taketheflourback.org/open-letter-to-rothamsted/
[3] Emily Waltz, Nature 461, 27-32 (2009) doi:10.1038/461027a, 2 September 2009 http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html?s=news_rss
[4] Goulson D. et al, Neonicotinoid Pesticide Reduces Bumble Bee Colony Growth and Queen Production and
[5] Mickaël Henry et al, A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees, Science, 29 March 2012 http://tinyurl.com/bn38y66
[6] LeBlanc et al. Formation of Hydroxymethylfurfural in Domestic High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2009; 57 (16): 7369 DOI: 10.1021/jf9014526
In Denmark, pig farmer Ib Borup Pedersen has revealed that GM soy was causing major health problems and finanical losses on his farm in Pilegaarden. He told the Danish farming newspaper Effektivt Landbrug in April this year that the effects from glyphosate-laced GM soy are worse than DDT or Thalidomide. It was only when he replaced the GM soy feed with non-GM soy that he noticed positive changes in his 460 strong sow herd’s health.
GM free Cymru, a watchdog group in Wales, has put together a detailed "Denmark Dossier" of Pedersen’s case [1], which says that within two days of switching the feed diarrhea in the herd stopped completely. Furthermore, no sows died from bloat or ulcers. A minimum of one sow per month was dying, a total of thirty six in the previous two years. As a result, his piglet average went up from 10.5 to between 12-14 piglets per sow with more live births. Dead and deformed piglets are the norm when GM soy is used in the diet.
Pedersen is convinced that the problem is connected with the glyphosate levels permitted in EU animal feed – 20ppm in corn and soybean – moreorless set by the GM industry. GM soy is sprayed twice with Monsanto’s Roundup glyphosate during growing season, the second time two weeks before harvest.
The scientific evidence has shown that malformations in animal species start at 0.2ppm and in humans endocrine disruptions start at 0.5ppm after exposure to glyphosate. Total cell death in humans occurs at 10ppm. Pedersen had 13 malformed piglets in the last nine months of feeding before the switch (pictured). Some 1.7 million tonnes of Argentinian GM soy was imported into Denmark during 2011. He said, “I am sure that Danish farmers would stop using GM soy in their feed for their animals if they knew the harmful effects it is having on animals and humans.”
Restoring his herds’ health has improved Perdersen’s profitability. His use of antibiotics is below half the national average and the savings he has made on drugs to treat diarrhea translates to 30,000DKr. Non-GM soy costs more, but because he has more piglets, his profits are increased 550DKr per sow.
Another Danish farmer, Sigurd Christensen said when he gave GM soy to his milking herd in 2007, the death rate rose by 10%. As soon as he switched to non-GM soy there were no deaths in his cows and his pig production rate rose from 27 piglets to 33.7 per sow, per year.
The Danish Centre Pig Research has decided to conduct a feeding trial to determine whether stomach lesions and other effects might be determined from feeding GM soy. The trial will begin in the second half of 2012; 100 animals will be fed with GM soy and 100 animals fed with non-GM soy.
GM Free Cymru has concerns about this trial and will be monitoring it closely. Their spokesperson Dr Brian John said, "We have been involved in GM issues for more than a decade, and we know the score. We can take it as read that there are large sections of the GM industry, and maybe large parts of the farming community, especially in the United States, who will move heaven and earth to prevent anything damaging to the GM cause from seeing the light of day. We suspect that huge pressure has already been put on the Danish journalist and her newspaper by certain interested parties, including farming unions, agrichemical companies and so forth. That is plain stupid of them; their interests are served least of all if real animal welfare and food safety issues are brushed under the carpet."
In the USA, Professor Don Huber has tirelessly warned of the dangers of glyphosate and Roundup Ready crops to human, animal and soil health. He highlights the devastating effects on the stomachs of ruminents; their stomach linings were leaking and yellow, which is characteristic of an allergy response compared with the cattle fed non-GM feed (see Top Scientist Warns Against GM and Glyphosate). A high numbers of animals have experienced reproductive failure. A virus-like pathogen was discovered by vets, which has so far not been named.
(Pictures of deformed pigs: 1. Piglet with spinal deformity, 2. Siamese twin piglets, and 3. Piglet with cranial deformity. Top picture of Pedersen with his healthy herd. All photos courtesy of Ib Borup Pedersen).
Taggert Siegel and Jon Betz Collective Eye Collection DVD and (eds) Clairview 2011 ISBN 9781905570348 144pages
The Queen of the Sun documentary film is a beautifully shot travelogue of the best and the worst habitats for bees survival [1]. The best habitats are the seamless tracts of wildflower meadows and the sanctuary gardens specifically created for bees that provide food all year round. The worst habitats are the endless rows of monocultures that provide food for only three weeks of the year during flowering season.
On this soulful jouney we meet the biodynamic, organic, urban garden and rooftop beekeepers intent on pulling the honey bee back from the brink of disaster. We see the wonder of the snow white wax that brings the light of the bee and the sun in the winter. We see the patient and hopeful beekeepers with their hives reflecting on what was, until the emergence of CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder in 2006, 10,000 years of productive co-operation between humans and bees.
Its’ starting point for explaining CCD is the prediction made by Rudolf Steiner in 1923 during a series of lectures to beekeepers in Switzerland, that bees would die out within 80-100 years if they were reproduced by using artificial methods only. Since Steiner’s warning, industrialised and mechanised beekeeping practices have become standard, along with an increase in the use of toxic pesticides, and now genetic engineering. The result is that over the last 15 years 70-90% of bee colonies have been lost worldwide.
Gunter Hawk has set up Spikenard Farm, a biodynamic bee santuary in Virginia. He believes that the loss of our primary food pollinators is an even more pressing concern than climate change. Scott Black of the Xerces Society, an international organization that protects wildlife agrees. He says of bees that, “They are doing all the hard work for us and without them we would be in big trouble.” This film is a gentle, but persuasive reminder of the essential and eternal relationship between pollinators, plants and people.
In California’s Central Valley, there are 6000,0000 acres of almond crops that need bees to pollinate them. Every year, three quarters of the USA’s bees are trucked to and stored in holding yards where they are fed high fructose corn syrup to ‘strengthen’ them, before being released into the heavily sprayed orchards doused with synthetic pheromones to increase foraging. So many of these migrant bees have succumbed to CCD that Australian bees are imported to help pollinate. This mix of bees creates a sort of bee bordello, leading to the spread of viruses.
The Queen of the Sun book, which accompanies this film, is a spellbinding anthology comprising the contributions of beekeepers, scientists, artists and activists, all critical of these exploitative processes. The bees have attracted a powerful lyrical advocate in Britain’s Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, whose poem Virgil's Bees interweaves with thirteen essays and three interviews lamenting the loss of bees while deeply celebrating their bonds with humanity.
Scientist Vandana Shiva says that in India the toxins in failed GM cotton and sunflower crops have devasted pollinators and farmers alike. GM activist Jeffrey Smith warns that the US Government (like the British Government) refuses to act on Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides, and unlike the corporations, the bees are not protected by the law.
Two recent studies confirm that neonicotinoid pesticides are harmful to bees. Neonicotinoids are neurotoxins and bumblebees exposed to tiny doses weighed less and produced 85% fewer queens [2]. Foraging honeybees exposed to low doses are 2-3 times more likely to die while away from the hive, and their ability to navigate impaired [3] And, the high fructose corn syrup containing HMF, hydroxymethylfurfural, a chemical that forms when the syrup is heated is known to damage honey bees by causing ulceration of the gut [4].
Worse still is the artificial breeding of queen bees. Queens are the progenitors of the colony, which is suffused with her life affirming signal. Normally, she lives between 4-6 years, but in commercial hives is replaced every six months to a year to maximise egg production. However, by introducing artificially inseminated “foreign” queens, the biological integrity of the hive begins to break down. When coupled with staggering amounts of artificial chemicals, antibiotics and mitocides used by commerical beekeepers against mites, which has bred supermites, it’s no wonder that the bees immune system is compromised.
In contrast, biodynamic apiculture and agriculture espoused by Rudolf Steiner uses no pesticides. It treats the hive as a superorganism where the trinity of queen, females and drones is honoured in the comb as an organic, collective body. The recognition of "the bien" or the integrity of the hive has led biodynamic beekeepers to campaign for the recent decision by the European Court of Justice to ban imports of GM-contaminated honey into the EU.
However, it’s not just agricultural toxins, it’s what we spray on our gardens that affects bees. Reasurringly, this book and DVD sees the bee crisis as a challenge we can all learn from. The tragedy is that by bringing bees down into a world of toxic crops, mobile phone masts and microwaves, ours is the civilization spelling the end of the 150 million year old bee, which has blessed us with many gifts, including golden honey rich in hexagonal forces, enzymes, trace elements and silica. The message is clear, reconnect and work with nature and nature will reconnect with us.
1. Queen of the Sun http://www.queenofthesun.com/
2. Goulson D. et al Neonicotinoid Pesticide Reduces Bumble Bee Colony Growth and Queen Production and
3. Mickaël Henry et al, A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees, Science, 29 March 2012 http://tinyurl.com/bn38y66
4. LeBlanc et al. Formation of Hydroxymethylfurfural in Domestic High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2009; 57 (16): 7369
Rudolf Kirst was an extraordinary man who cared for and helped many people in his lifetime. Firstly, as a music and German teacher at the Rudolf Steiner school in Leeds, and then as Headmaster of Whittlesea School in Harrow, for kids with multiple learning difficulties.
Rudolf was the son of two musicians and Anthroposophists. As a teenager growing up in Cologne during World War II , he was called up by the Youth Division. He refused saying, “Hitler is an evil man and I will not volunteer.”
Standing up for what he believed in became a hallmark of Rudolf's life. He expressed his opinions as clearly as the bells he is holding. Rudolf always stood up for the underdog, and in his later years, campaigned against the genetic modification of food, the mass medication of drinking water with fluoride, and for the care and treatment of the elderly; starting with good food and good sleep in hospitals. The bells also represent the 'small' person against the big corporations.
Rudolf’s strong convictions and determination meant that he never gave up on people or causes. He thanked everyone that he came into contact with and remembered everyone in his greetings and thoughts.
We became great friends and had some wonderful discussions on our trips to the EU Parliament and as members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology. Rudolf was also a member of the All Party Environment Group, a Friend of the Earth, and part of the GM Freeze campaign. He supported the Camphill movement and was a keen biodynamic gardener. In 2002, he successfully launched the Ways to Quality symposia in the UK, which is now a recognised course.
Rudolf was an early proponent of the DIY culture, getting things done in the face of apathetic governance, and was an advocate of life-long learning. He is greatly missed.
The Pesticide Action
Network (PAN) is stepping up its campaign to protect bees. Last year it hosted
the 2010 London Bee Summitt.This year,
PAN is sending scientists, lawyers, doctors andbeekeepers to testify at the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) in
Bangalore starting on 3rd December. The PPT will hear cases brought against
six multinational agrochemical companies, which stand accused of violating
human rights to health, livlihood and life.
Cases from the UK and
Europe will focus on the loss of bees and other pollinators due to
neonicotinoid pesticides developed and sold by Bayer. Other concerns are the
suffering of families from organophosate pesticides (OPs) and the wilful
suppression, corruption, manipulation and distortion of science.
Bees play a crucial
role in the production of 80 million tonnes of food per year, that’s around
160kg of food per EU citizen. Germany lost 60% of bees in 2008 and France lost
a third of bees in 1999 when neonicotinoids were introduced.
Graham White, a
beekeeper said, “Bee losses in Britain have been catastrophic, with over a
million colony deaths since 1993.There
is a massive body of peer reviewed scientific evidence from European universities,
which indicate that neonicotinoids are having a lethal impact on bees and other
pollinating insects.It is high time that
the companies that manufacture these toxic pesticides are held to acount for
the damage they have done.”
Taking the
multinationals to the PPT is giving voice to the unheard victims of pesticide
poisonings around the globe. An estimated 355 000 people die
unintentionally each year because of the relentless promotion of toxins by the
six largest companies; Monsanto, Syngenta, International, Bayer Crop Sciences,
Dow Chemicals, Dupont and BASF.
Also under indictment
are the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO, which are specifically geared to support
massive corporate profits rather than human and environmental well-being.The governments of Germany, Switzerland and
the USA are also indicted for colluding with, and failing to regulate corporate
power. The defendants have been summonsed to give their perspectives and
responses.
The PPT was started
in 1979 by Italian senator Lelio Basso. So far it has held 35 international
sessions exploring various human rights abuses. Unlike existing legal
mechanisms that only benefit the powerful and wealthy, the PPT provides
alternative judgments and legal articulations that are essential to serve
justice for both historic and continuing crimes against humankind.
On the 1st
November 2011, Professor Don Huber, an eminent American plant pathologist, who has raised the alarm
about a new pathogen caused by GM feed and a broad spectrum pesticide called glyphosate,
addressed an invited audience in Committe Room One at the House of Commons [1].
Don Huber explained that glyphosate
changes soil biology and the organisms that normally provide natural biological
control or disease suppressive activity are very susceptible to damage by glyphosate
causing an increase in crop disease.He
warned that in the US entire groups of organisms do not exist in the soil
anymore. This renders glyphosate useless because “you can’t kill off plants in
sterile soil”.And, could explain why
pesticide application rates have trebled in the US in the last few years and why
the FDA has increased the level of glyphosate permitted in foods.
Glyphosate also has a
devastating affect on micro-nutrients.Manganese and zinc levels in the US have
gone from excess manganese in crops, feed and food fifteen years ago to a
defecit today. The levels of micro-nutrients are dropping even more
dramatically in GM crops.Don Huber reported
a third less manganese available in GM alfalfa animal feed and severe
deficiencies in zinc compared to non-GM alfalfa. Human inflammatory bowel disease,which is strongly linked to GM feed, has increased 40-fold since 1992 in the US.American vets say
they universally find managese deficiency as a cause of disease in swine and cattle, which is forcing producers out of business.
Glyphosate has now
been linked to human birth defects. This has prompted the recent Earth Open
Source report, Roundup and Birth Defects,
Are The Public Being Kept in the Dark?EU offficials have delayed a 2012 review on glyphosate
until 2015. Even more worryingly,
the Livestock of America Cattlemans Association gave testimony before the US
Senate AgriculturalCommmitte in 2002.They were concerned that cattle fed GM feed
were prematurely ageing.Their stomach
linings were yellow, which is characteristic of an allergy response, compared with
the cattle fed non-GMO (pictured, Carmen et al, 2010). Their guts were
leaking and high numbers of animals were experiencing reproductive failure. A virus-like pathogen was discovered by vets, which
has so far not been named.
Don Huber wrote to the US
Secretary of Agriculture last November asking for some help in doing the
research and getting the resources that were needed to identify this unamed entity.
The Secretary of
Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, did not follow up his findings.ButProfessor Huber has had an opportunity
to meet directly with USDA top officials. He said,“I hoped that we would get a response so that
the Secretary could release his personnel to help and co-operate with us.That didn’t come and also, as you’re aware,
Roundup Ready GM alfalfa was de-regulated ten days after I had asked him for help with this critical research.”
[1] See my full transcript here: http://agroecologygroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Professor_Huber_transcript.pdf
On the 30th September 2011, the CEO’s of two British oil companies were found guilty of Ecocide at the Supreme Court in Westminster. However, the trial was a mock one, organised by environmental rights lawyer, barrister and author Polly Higgins, in which she could test the robustness of her concept called Ecocide, a proposed legal mechanism to halt the destruction of the planet.
But this facinating event took a bold new step towards making the individuals responsible for crimes against humanity, nature and future generations accountable for their actions.
The prosecution, the defence, the judge, the jury, and the expert witnessess were made up of real people giving their time for free. Only the defendants, played by actors, and the oil companies were fictional. The indictments were based on recent real-life environmental events.
If properly enshrined into International Law under the Rome Statute (2002), Ecocide would become the fifth crime against the peace of the planet. The four existing international crimes against peace are; Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression.
The indictment against the first defendant was in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where 250 million gallons of crude oil poured into the deep ocean creating a “dead zone” some 200 square km, killing and oiling birds, and damaging the pristine mangrove swamps in the Mississippi Delta. The leak was not capped for four months.
Two further counts against both defendents relating to the destruction of Canada’s ancient Boreal Forests, specifically in Alberta, where a by-product of extracting oil from bitumen in the Athabasca Tar Sands has created a large number of toxic tailing ponds, some 12 square km (pictured (c) Greenpeace).
As part of its extended £750,000 Plan Bee campaign, the Co-Op is helping to identify and connect corridors of land to create and secure habitats for pollinators.
The Bee Roads pilot project, in conjunction with Buglife, the UK’s leading invertebrate charity, will engage local people in restoring flower rich meadows with the native plants that bumblebees, honey bees and butterflies love: red clover, lesser knapweed, field scabious and birdsfoot trefoil.
The
UK has lost a whopping 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930’s.
Over the past twenty five years over half of our honey bees have gone,
along with three quarters of our butterfly species, and two thirds of
moths, all of which are the primary pollinators of vital food and flower
crops. The first Bee Roads start in Yorkshire, where
farmers and other land owners will sow wildflowers in two long strips,
eventually stretching north to south, and east to west across the entire
county.
By
linking wildlife sites with farms, forests, urban and national parks
and gardens, Bee Roads hope to provide better access to food sources for
pollinators and reverse their alarming decline. Bee Roads is a
practical response to the recent Government White Paper on the Natural
Environment, the first for 20 years, which places the value of nature at
the centre of conservation choices. In 2010, an independent review
concluded that England’s ecological networks and wildlife areas are
fragmented due to human activity and not capable of responding to
species loss and climate change.
Buglife,the
Co-Op, the Wildlife Trust and the Butterfly Trust want to roll out Bee
Roads right across Britain. This will provide some degree of
connectivity for pollinators in isolated areas. The Co-Op is giving away
300,000 packets of wildflower seeds this year to support the campaign.
Writer, poet and film
producer Sam Edwards, co-founded the independent film production company
Ragged Crow in 2008 with director and writer husband Ed Edwards.
Their short films;
Solstice, Dogboy, Bad Obsession, and Insomnia have all been well received and
their debut feature film, Stealing Elvis, was chosen to open this year’s London
Independent Film Festival.
Their latest short, Wardance was nominated for
The Newcomer Award at Soho’s Rushes Festival in July, and screened at London’s ICA.
Sodium is Sam’s
collection of Rock ‘n’ Roll poetry about madness and bad behaviour, and is her
first volume of poems. She has also recently completed her first novel,
Narcosis.
Sam’s favourite poets are Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, and
she loves their ‘call and response’ poems, Lady
Lazarus and Lovesong. Charles
Bukowski’s Invasion is another
favourite. She is inspired by the way that these poets have changed the nature
of language to write poetry in ways that it had never been written before.
“By using language in a new way, they described the world
differently. When art and poetry really speaks to us, it provides a conduit
directly to the soul; we see something that we identify with, and it comforts
us because it lets us know that we are not alone,” she explained.
This is the 243rd Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy on Piccadilly, which means that it started in 1768. The Summer Exhibition heralds the start of important summer events, such as the Henley Regatta, and is the largest open submission art exhibition in the world.
It attracts some 11,000 entries, from which 1, 117 pictures, sculptures and other artefacts are chosen. The selection process is a tough one, with a human conveyer belt handing on works of art to be put in front of the selection panel for acceptance or rejection. The selection process works like this; a submission is either marked with an X as rejected or with a D as doubtful. What is left is whittled down by a panel of anonymous judges to a tiny selection.
There are three ways in which works of art can be submitted to the Academy. Members of the public can submit two works and members of the Academy can submit six works. Or existing Academicians and international artists can be invited to exhibit.
It takes two weeks to hang the complete exhibition. This year, the ten galleries were a pleasure to navigate, simply flowing from one eye catching piece to another.
The stand out picture, and focus of the Academy’s Spotlight Talk is Deep Impact, mixed media on aluminium by Keith Tyson, Turner Prize winner (2002) (pictured).
This is a huge, glowing, apocalyptic inferno of orange red, yellow, white and black, bubbling together to produce a fiery transcendence of the contemporary painting.
Deep Impact's strange lustre is not produced by lacquers or enamels. Keith Tyson never went near a paint brush to produce it, at all. Instead, he pays homage to Jackson Pollack’s drip, pour method using ten to fifteen different substances, such as stain glass paint and resin.
But by using hot aluminium as a base, the result is not rhythmical or staccato applications of paint on canvas. Instead, the paints and resins become molten, burning bright in their own viscosity, as the aluminium cools.
Tyson discovered this method after his studio was broken into and ransacked. As he cleaned up the mess, the melding of spilled paints and pigments on the floor got Tyson thinking and experimenting with painting in a whole new way.
Deep Impact is part of a continuing series called the Nature Paintings, which is not a reference to the great outdoors, but to the way that randomness, chance, probability and gambling all play a part in Keith Tyson's world. In fact, pure chance suits his work, he says.
Simon Astaire’s third book is tighter and more textural than his two previous
novels. However, Mr Coles shares similarities with Private Privilege and And
You Are, in that once you start reading it; it is un-put-downable, and
darkly entertaining.
Mr Coles is an original novel exploring the nature of child abuse from
inside the confines of a boys prep school. We are drawn into the covert
practice of teachers using the children in their care for their own
gratification.
The titular character is a drunken soak sexually obsessed with several of his
pre-pubescent pupils, one boy in particular, and starts the rotten process
of grooming them. The poison pedagogy handed down by Mr Coles to his
victims seeps into the school like a creeping sickness.
This intriguing story illustrates that the perpetrators of sexual abuse
are often victims too. Mr Coles is, in turn, harassed by the Headmasters
wife in ways that are repugnant to him. Yet, he is powerless over
her repeated advances, just as his students are powerless over him.
Mr Coles takes you on a multi-layered journey of the mind, body and
soul. We learn through the novel’s first person narrative the ways of
an alcoholic as we share his queasy daily rituals and denials infused
with blood, sweat, tears, spit, piss and vomit. He is a seething mass
of obsessions; irascible, rude, and driven by a naked ambition to be
the Headmaster of all the boys he surveys. His sordid reality is constrained
by the routine of the academic day.
We live with Mr Coles in the wilds of Norfolk where he is the lone wolf
staying on in the school holidays to sniff the sheets of little boys
gone to their parental homes for Christmas. Prowling the
neighbourhood, he lyrically attunes to his solitude. “A nun passed as I walked to
the school. I touched her with my eyes and believed she blushed.
Avalanches of melting snow fell from the rooftop and released a thud.
No other sounds, no one to be seen, the only sound was the thawing
snow.”
In Denmark, pig farmer Ib Borup Pedersen has revealed that GM soy was causing major health problems and finanical losses on his farm in Pilegaarden. He told the Danish farming newspaper Effektivt Landbrug in April this year that the effects from glyphosate-laced GM soy are worse than DDT or Thalidomide. It was only when he replaced the GM soy feed with non-GM soy that he noticed positive changes in his 460 strong sow herd’s health.
