Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #43
January 2, 2007
Contents
Business
First A
Resolution Revolution
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
National Security—Safe
or Sorry: Food Security
(Part II)
Write Thinking Punctuation
– the Marks of Professionals (the Semicolon)
Business
First (Editorial)
A
Resolution Revolution
by Phil Hanson
It
happens the same way every year. At the stroke of midnight on
December 31st, the calendar rolls over onto a new day, a new
month, and a new year, ushering out in a heartbeat broken promises
and impossible dreams once held in high esteem, ushering in
reborn hope and new promises and fresh dreams with potential
yet untested.
Even
as the old year flees into the past, taking with it the memories
of things too painful to be remembered, the New Year appears
before us as an empty slate waiting to be writ upon. At the
moment of transition, the optimists among us resolve to effect
behavioral changes in themselves that might somehow be life
affirming or life enhancing, of benefit to themselves and their
loved ones.
Pessimists,
on the other hand, rarely make New Years resolutions; they've
already convinced themselves that resolutions never work, that
they always fail, that it's pointless to make a resolution because
it can never be kept. Why bother doing something if it's not
going to stick?
What
unsuccessful resolution makers don't understand is that making
a resolution is not a one-time thing. Begin making a New Year
resolution well in advance of New Years Eve, repeat it often,
then reaffirm your resolution every day afterward. The key to
a successful resolution is not to forget you made the commitment.
Happy
New Year, and best wishes for good health, great fortune, long
life and much success.
Copyright
© 2007 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
• • •
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Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
National
Security—Safe or Sorry: Food
Security (Part II)
by Phil Hanson
Food
Processing
In
the same way that the factory farms of Big Ag absorb or destroy
their competition, major players in the food processing industry
rise to prominence and dominance. But a larger share of food
processing capability concentrated in fewer hands poses some
serious threats to food security by limiting consumer choices,
wasting energy, creating health risks, and raising costs.
The
processes involved in making food ready for market threaten
food security in several ways. Commercial food processing often
removes vital nutrients, and food preservation introduces undesirable
chemicals into the food supply. Either of these have a direct
negative impact on human health.
Excess
chemicals and food additives create health hazards; excess packaging
leads to wasted resources and waste disposal problems; cold
storage, production machinery, transportation and waste disposal
use vast amounts of energy; and all of these lead to environmental
damage and toxic waste, which ultimately lead to decreased food
security.
And
let us not forget how much easier it is for would-be terrorists
to disrupt the food supply by targeting a few centralized food
processors rather than many scattered smaller ones.
Truth
in Labeling
Today,
it's increasingly difficult to know where your food comes from,
how it was grown or processed, and what unsafe chemicals might
be in it. The lack of accurate labeling limits consumers' choices
by obscuring important facts that consumers might use to make
informed buying decisions.
It's
common practice that when the FDA and EPA ban certain dangerous
pesticides and herbicides from being used on American farms,
those same chemicals are exported to countries that do not ban
them, where they are then used on food crops that are exported
back to the US. How's that for getting around a loophole in
the law?
To
meet minimum requirements, all food products labeling should
include the following information:
•
Country and/or state of origin
• Identity of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides used
in growing
• Identity of chemicals and artificial additives used in
processing
• Comprehensive list of ingredients
• Organic or non-organic status of product and/or product
components.
• Presence of genetically modified materials or components
• Known or suspected health risks associated with or attributed
to human consumption
• Product code and batch number
• Safe handling and preparation instructions
• Shelf life and/or expiration date
At
present, government regulations favor corporations and do too
little to conserve resources, protect the environment, or safeguard
public health. Government policy and corporate greed pose direct
threats to national food security.
Related
article:
Global
Climate Changes
Changing
weather patterns, attributed to global
warming, bring too much rain to areas that previously had
little and too little rain to areas that previously had a lot,
turning prime cropland into deserts or quagmires. Because of
altered precipitation patterns, mountain glaciers retreat; streams
that feed rivers dry up; reduced river volume deprives farmers
of water needed for crop irrigation. Floods, droughts, wildfires
and temperature extremes will all take a toll on farmers' ability
to grow food.
Ocean
warming inhibits the growth of phytoplankton, the most elemental
food source of marine life. The collapse starts at the bottom
of the food chain and works its way toward the top. Little fish
that big fish feed on starve, and soon the big fish starve,
too.
Climate
scientists estimate that if the current rate of global warming
continues, the polar ice caps will be gone by 2040, as well
as mountain glaciers worldwide. Rising sea levels, predicted
at more than 20 meters, will inundate many coastal cities and
disrupt shipping operations at crucial ports around the globe.
Of
the potential disasters on tap to interrupt or destabilize the
food supply, global warming is probably the worst.
Related
articles:
Family
Farms
Our
continued (and increasing) reliance on imported food spells
trouble for national food security, too. Not only do we have
little or no control over how food is grown and processed in
other countries, but the practice also drives domestic food
producers out of business. There's nothing like low prices to
ruin the competition.
Importing
cheap foodstuffs threatens the livelihoods of American farmers,
who have a tendency to go out of business when they can't compete,
price wise, with low-cost foreign imports. The result is that
farmers often sell their farmland to developers, whose interests
are not in growing food crops. Once farmland is taken out of
production, it's unlikely that it will ever again be used to
grow food.
Today,
more than 300 family farmers give up farming every week, leaving
corporate factory farms and food imports to take up the slack.
Local farmland, once a source of nutritious food, is being used
for housing developments and for warehouses and shopping centers
that will one day sit empty. Food security is as endangered
as the independent farmers who make food security possible.
Related articles:
Natural
Disasters
Aside
from global warming, what other natural disasters might pose
serious risks to food security? Depending on season and location,
massive earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, high winds,
floods, droughts, invasive species and contagious diseases all
have the potential to interfere with normal food production,
processing and distribution channels.
The
farther people are from the farms where food is grown and from
the factories where food is processed, the more susceptible
they are to disruptions of the food supply. The greater the
area involved, the greater the potential for multiple disasters
to occur within that area. Localization and diversity are key
elements of food security.
Political Upheavals
For
any nation dependent on other nations for much of its food supply,
the effects of war, political unrest and civil strife are devastating.
When resources are co-opted and normal distribution channels
shut down, moving goods between countries becomes difficult
or even impossible. If yours is the conflicted nation, food
for civilian populations moves down a few notches on the government's
list of priorities.
Once
again, those who are farthest removed from the center of food
production are likely to be the hardest hit when catastrophic
natural or man-made disasters strike.
Related
article:
Coming
in issue #44: Part III of Food Security.
Copyright
© 2007 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Punctuation – the Marks of Professionals
Getting
punctuation right is critical to making your writing intelligible
and coherent. As with misspelled and misused words, misused
or missing punctuation takes your message off track and confuses
your readers. To help you avoid the avoidable, the next few
installments of Write Thinking deal with punctuation
marks, in all their many forms, with example sentences provided
for clarification.
The
Semicolon (;)
A
semicolon gives better separation between sentence elements
than does a comma. Avoid overusing semicolons.
•
When a coordinate conjunction isn't used, a semicolon separates
meaning-related independent coordinate clauses.
John
wanted to leave immediately; Maria thought it better
to wait until the storm was over.
•
When the coordinate clauses of a compound sentence are united
by transitional words, use a semicolon between the clauses.
John
agreed to wait; consequently, they didn't get on the
road until late in the afternoon.
•
When two independent clauses have internal punctuation, a semicolon
precedes a coordinate conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor) to
separate the clauses.
The
trip, which took five hours, was uneventful; but they
had plenty of time to discuss some unresolved issues.
•
Use a semicolon before transitional words that introduce an
enumeration, example, or series of items.
They
found that the hearings were attended by prominent members of
four diverse groups; namely, political leaders, corporate
CEOs, community activists, and members of the press.
Note:
When typing material, no space precedes a semicolon, and only
one space follows it.
Copyright
© 2007 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer
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articles appearing in Petey's Pipeline E-zine are based on information
believed to be true at the time of publication.
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