ALBERTA FLOODING - Canmore Bragg Creek High River Floods Calgary 2013 Flood News BY THE PUBLIC Video

ALBERTA FLOODING - Canmore Bragg Creek High River Floods Calgary 2013 Flood News BY THE PUBLIC Video
June 20, 2013 | BizBOXTV

Editor's note: Cities have nothing to do with nature, they were not built with nature in mind, they have long been built with something else in mind, that being capitalism which nature has no use for. This may be why cities and cemeteries are bound together in concept to hide the kinetics solicited which soon resides.

Nutrition 101: How Processed Foods Make Us Fat, Malnourished, and Sick

Nutrition 101: How Processed Foods Make Us Fat, Malnourished, and Sick
June 22, 2013 | Activist Post | Daisy Luther

Did you ever wonder how people who exist on a diet of mainly processed foods can be both overweight and malnourished at the same time? Despite overly abundant calories, people who live off of boxed macaroni and cheese, frozen dinners, Ramen noodles, and other packaged foods aren’t getting the nutrients that people who eat a whole foods diet are getting. Deadly GMO ingredients aside, the sheer amount of chemicals in processed foods can lead to disease, obesity, and malnutrition.

If you aren’t entirely familiar with the way processed foods can affect your health, read on. This is an introduction to how processed foods differ from whole foods, based on frequently asked questions about the subject.

What happens in your body when you eat processed foods?

When you eat heavily preserved foods, your body can’t break them down to use the nutrients in them (if there are nutrients left in the first place after all that processing). The video below compares how homemade noodles from fresh, wholesome ingredients and Ramen noodles travel through your digestive system.

This video is an excellent illustration of what happens in your body after consuming two different types of food:



Do you see how it is impossible for the digestive acids in the body to break down the processed food? The Ramen noodles remain recognizable most of the way through the system until they are ready to be excreted. This means that the few nutrients that may still be present are not made available for the body’s use. The accessibility of nutrients for your body’s use is called “bio-availability”.

This is the reason that North America is full of malnourished fat people – those who rely on processed food must consume far more of it in a vain effort to get the nutrients they need. They crave food because their bodies are crying out for the vitamins and minerals that are needed to function.

Mood disorders and mental illness can also be directly related to the consumption of processed foods. They are lacking in the Omega 3s and other nutrients that are vital in proper brain function and good mental health. (You can learn more about nutrition for mental health HERE). This is not to oversimplify the seriousness of mental illness – it is a crushing, debilitating experience. But the symptoms can be lessened, if not cured altogether, with excellent nutrition and the avoidance of trigger chemicals.

 It’s not just about malnutrition, it’s about consuming poison.

Additives like high fructose corn syrup, sugar and MSG are linked to obesity, not just because of the excess useless calories and lack of nutritional bio-availability mentioned above, but because of their “addictive” qualities. When you consume them, they actually trigger the release of dopamine in your brain, the same hormone that is released when an addict takes a needle full of heroin. Over time, it takes more and more of the same substance to achieve the same feeling, that of pleasure and euphoria. Foods containing these ingredients are actually engineered to create cravings and addiction. It gives a whole new meaning to the old Lay’s Potato Chip commercial, “Bet you can’t eat just one.”

The problems don’t end with malnutrition and associated illnesses. The chemicals added to these foods are directly linked with cancer, diabetes, infertility, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease.

Make over your diet

Changing your eating habits will be one of the most important things your ever do for yourself and your family. While processed foods are cheap, quick, and abundant, whole foods require a little more effort. Your health is worth it!

• The first thing to do is to rid your kitchen of all of the toxins. If it’s there, you’ll eat it. Spend one week eating only what you cook completely from scratch. Just one week will highlight for you the places where you are using “food” instead of “ingredients” to make your meals. Use only single ingredients for one week: flour, rice, oats, organic milk and yogurt, grass-fed meat, organic fruits and vegetables, and basic pantry supplies (yeast, baking soda, etc.) Include your kids in the process of making homemade pretzels, baking cookies and creating gourmet oatmeal flavors like maple syrup apple pecan. (If they’re included in the preparations, it helps to lessen the complaining if they are craving foods that are more familiar.) Even if your diet is already pretty clean, you may be surprised to discover that you have more of a reliance on packaged items than you thought.
• Many people are put off by the high price of eating healthy. And they are right, to a certain extent. If you go to the health food store and buy packages of organic crackers, fancy breads from the bakery, and other gourmet items, you will spend a fortune. But keep in mind that an organic processed food is still a processed food. It’s better then something from Kellogg’s or General Mills, but it isn’t ideal. There are a lot of ways to clean up your diet without breaking the bank. Click HERE to read about “20 Ways to Build a Whole Foods Kitchen on a Half Price Budget.” All of the suggestions won’t work in every location, but you should be able to cobble together enough of them to create a healthful, non-processed diet at a fraction of the price you expected to pay. Be sure to check our your local farmers’ market to find a local, nutritious bounty at a great price.
• Another of the major complaints about a whole foods lifestyle is that it is too time-consuming. Here’s a list of 40 Quick and Clean Snacks that require little to no prep time. Being sick and unhealthy is far more time-consuming than taking a moment to prepare a non-processed meal or snack.

Once you cut the processed foods from the majority of your diet, you will begin to notice how awful you feel when you go off-plan and eat a bag of chips or a fast food meal. The interesting (and horrifying) thing about this is – you felt that way ALL THE TIME before cutting that food from your diet, but you didn’t realize it because feeling unwell was your normal baseline.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, where this article first appeared, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

EPA refuses to finalize study blaming fracking for water pollution

Denise Truong, 21, (L) and Elizabeth Lerer, 51,
protest against fracking in California, in
Los Angeles May 30, 2013. (Reuters)

EPA refuses to finalize study blaming fracking for water pollution
June 21, 2013 | RT

The US Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its plans to further investigate whether or not fracking led to the contamination of a Wyoming aquifer, and the agency no longer plans to write a report on the matter.

The EPA in 2011 released a draft report, which revealed that hydraulic fracturing fluids used at a shale gas drilling site had likely contaminated groundwater in Pavillion, Wyoming. Oil and gas companies have long argued that fracking poses no water contamination risks, but the EPA’s results demonstrated otherwise.

Critics of the findings, including Wyoming state officials and drilling advocates, argued that the EPA conducted a poor and inaccurate study, which could ultimately harm the industry. Despite the initial wave of criticism in 2011, EPA officials planned to resume the study and continue making assessments regarding the influence of fracking on groundwater. But the EPA on Thursday abandoned those plans, announcing that state officials will instead take over the investigation into Pavillion’s water pollution and draw up a conclusion in 2014.

"We think this is the most pragmatic, quickest way to help the residents of Pavillion. We're going to work hand in hand with the state to make sure this investigation moves forward," EPA spokesman Tom Reynolds announced in Washington, D.C.

Wyoming will receive a $1.5 million grant from Encana Corp.’s US oil and gas subsidiary, which owns the Pavillion gas field in question. The state plans to issue a final report about its findings in late 2014. Industry officials and drilling proponents have praised the decision to hand over responsibility of the study to Wyoming state officials.

"EPA has to do a better job, because another fatally flawed water study could have a big impact on how the nation develops its massive energy resources," Erik Milito, from the Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute, said in a news release.

“The EPA has been on a witch hunt to shut down hydraulic fracturing,” Sen. David Vitter, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, told Reuters.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said in a news release that letting state officials run the investigation is “in everyone’s best interest”, since it would lead to “an unbiased, scientifically supportable conclusion.”

But Mead, a known advocate of drilling, has made no attempt to hide his own biases. Last September, Mead asked the Interior Department to abandon fracking rules, claiming that it was unnecessary to request companies to disclose the chemicals they inject down well bores. He has long opposed having any federal fracking rules, and urges lawmakers to let states make their own decisions.

And the Native Americans who live around the fracking site may not even take part in the study, despite the fact that contaminated groundwater has the greatest impact on their tribe. The Northern Arapaho Tribe, which lives on a reservation surrounding Pavillion, has long sought to maintain a role in the investigation. But a tribal official told AP that the EPA has stopped consulting with the community.

"They have a legal duty to consult with the tribe and that didn't happen as part of their dialogue with the governor," Ronald Oldman, co-chairman of the tribe's business council, said in a statement.

It is unclear why the EPA abandoned the study, but with state officials – many of which are fracking proponents – leading the investigation, the results could look very different from the 2011 draft report that linked fracking chemicals to groundwater contamination.

Genetically-modified eggplant found to be unsafe for human consumption, environment

© Natural News

Genetically-modified eggplant found to be unsafe for human consumption, environment
June 21, 2013 | Natural News | Jonathan Benson

Field trials of genetically-modified (GM) Bt eggplant, also known as Bt talong, have officially ceased in the Philippines following a major ruling by the nation's Court of Appeals. Representing a massive victory for food sovereignty, the Court found that Bt talong is a monumental threat to both environmental and human health, and has subsequently ordered that all existing plantings of Bt talong in test fields be immediately destroyed and blocked from further propagation.

Like in many other nations across the globe, the biotechnology industry has been craftily trying to sneak its genetic poisons into the Philippines under the guise of improving crop yields, reducing chemical use, and yada yada ad nauseum - all the typical industry propaganda and lies used to convince the more gullible among us that GMOs are some kind of food production miracle. But the Philippines is not buying all the hype. And unlike the U.S., the southeast Asian country is taking a bold stand against a technology that has never been proven safe or beneficial in any way.

According to the non-profit advocacy group Greenpeace, which has been working on behalf of humanity to stem the tide of GMO onslaught all around the world, the Court recently issued a "Write of Kalikasan," which basically means that all field trials of Bt eggplant in the Philippines must stop. The Court also ordered that the biotechnology aggressors "permanently cease and desist" from conducting further trials, as well as "protect, preserve, rehabilitate and restore" all the land they have destroyed in the process.

"The field trials of Bt talong involve the willful and deliberate alteration of the genetic traits of a living element of the ecosystem and the relationship of living organisms that depend on each other for their survival," states the ruling. "Consequently, the field trials ... could not be declared by this Court as safe [for] human health and our ecology, [since they are] an alteration of an otherwise natural state of affairs in our ecology."

Philippines light years ahead of US in adopting precautionary principle, protecting its people and food supply from corporate takeover 

Everything about this common-sense decision by the Filipino justice system makes perfect sense - GMOs definitively spread their poisonous traits throughout the entire ecosystem, contaminating other crops along the way, and thus have no place in agriculture, period. But sadly, such common sense no longer exists in the U.S., where corporate greed and fundamental corruption have essentially placed profits before people in every aspect of life.

"We commend the Court of Appeals for living up to its constitutionally-mandated role as protector of constitutional rights," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner Daniel Ocampo about the Philippines rejecting GMOs. "This landmark decision reflects that there are indeed flaws and lapses in the current regulatory process for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) such as Bt eggplant which exposes our environment and health to unknown long-term consequences and does not establish their safety in any way."

Meanwhile, millions of acres of uncontested GMO crops in the U.S. continue to ravage both human and environmental health while the hordes of mindless puppets in the U.S. Congress ignore the issue or even pretend that GMOs are not an issue. But this new American pastime of greed and denial about reality will not last forever, as nature will eventually catch up and extinguish this agricultural scourge with "superweeds," "superbugs," and disease - that is if the American people do not take action first to forcibly cleanse their nation of GMOs. The question is, what will it take for the people to wake up and take action?

Sources for this article include:

http://www.greenpeace.org

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph

http://www.greenpeace.org

Video: Ground crumbles underfoot as apocalyptic floods sweep India

Video: Ground crumbles underfoot as apocalyptic floods sweep India
June 20, 2013 | RT


Thousands of people are still stranded by flash floods in India, where the death toll has risen to 182. Over 10,000 army personnel, 18 helicopters and an Air Force transport plane have been deployed for relief and rescue operations, as residents are stranded at tourist spots and pilgrim centers. With the weather set to improve, the government is moving to supply additional emergency food to the flood-stricken region.

Bigfoot: more than a definition?

© Unknown

Bigfoot: more than a definition?
June 19, 2013 | Christine Bruun | Sasquatch Watch©

It is easy to explain to you what Bigfoot is. It is what we don't know that is troubling. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary definition, the name Bigfoot is derived "from the size of the footprints ascribed to it." It is known by many other names such as Sasquatch, Swamp Ape, as well as a variety of names used by the Indian tribes of the North American continent.

The Encyclopedia Britannica describes it as "a large, hairy human-like creature believed by some persons to exist in the northwestern United States and western Canada. It seems to represent the North American counterpart of the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti."

The Britannica goes on to say that a "British explorer David Thompson is sometimes credited with the first discovery (I 1811) of a set of Sasquatch footprints, and hundreds of alleged prints have been adduced since then." It continues by mentioning the Patterson photographs taken at Bluff Creek, California in 19667, referring to it as a legend.

The Britannica explains that "Sasquatch is described as a primate ranging from six to fifteen feet tall, standing erect on two feet, often giving off a foul smell, and either moving silently or emitting a high-pitched cry." It also states that "footprints have measured up to twenty-four inches in length and eight inches in width." It further explains that "a Soviet scientist, Boris Porshnev, suggested that Sasquatch and his Siberian counterpart, the Almas, could be a remnant of Neanderthal man, but most scientists do not recognize the creature's existence." Fortunately, this concept is changing!

While you might think this is Bigfoot in a nutshell, there is much more to the creature than meets the eye. Indian Nations across the North American continent have legends and folklore featuring Bigfoot that go back to the beginning of recorded history. Since much of the history has been handed down from father to son, mother to daughter, and retold by the storytellers of the Indian People, there is a lot of confusion.

According to Living Myths, authored by Kyle Thompson, "Native American myths could equally be called folktales: They seem to be about ordinary people, not gods. However, the Native American attitude is that everything is animated by divinity. Hence ordinary people, animals and places are divine...Universal principles are held to be more important than individual traits."

According to the livingmyths.com website, "Claude Levi-Strauss, a structuralist anthropologist, saw myths as stemming from a human need to make sense of the world and to resolve cultural dilemmas."

The Ojibwa call him Ragaru and many feel that he appears to warn of danger-- a disruption in the harmony. The increasingly frequent sightings seem to bring dire warnings for the Indian People. Perhaps this powerful entity, who many believe can change form, is trying to get our attention. Is it bringing the message that we have been charged with caring for and protecting the earth and we are not honoring this sacred trust?

Many of the Indian Peoples believe that Bigfoot is more than flesh and blood. He seems to represent a spiritual concept. His role I the Indian People's society is complicated, for his hold on them is more spiritual than physical. They allude to the elusive nature of the creature by explaining that those who seek him out, no matter what their motives, will not be able to see him.

Continue reading..

Thousands of Radio Stations Up for Grabs—One Could Be Yours

Thousands of Radio Stations Up for Grabs—One Could Be Yours
June 19, 2013 | Yes Magazine | Jeff Rousset

This is the largest expansion of community radio in U.S. history. It’s also the biggest—and maybe the last—chance for grassroots groups to get on air. 



Nonprofits, labor unions, and community groups have a one-time-only chance this year to own the broadcast airwaves. The FCC has just released free applications for thousands of new noncommercial FM radio licenses. These community radio stations can reach listeners in a radius of 2 to 10 miles, and generate their broadcast signal on just 100 watts—the amount of power consumed by a light bulb.

In some cities—like Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia—a single low power FM station could reach more than 100,000 listeners. Across the country, millions of people will be tuning into these new stations as they go on air over the next few years. Integrating new technology like video and web streaming could give these local radio stations global multimedia reach.

This is the largest expansion of community radio in United States history. It’s also the biggest chance, and probably the final major opportunity, for grassroots groups to get on air.

FCC Applications Available Now!

Prometheus Radio Project, a Philly-based nonprofit where I serve as national organizer, has led a 15-year campaign to challenge corporate control of the media and open up this space on the dial. If you’re potentially interested in starting a station or supporting others to get on air, we want you to sign up for updates. We'll help you navigate the FCC process, and connect you with resources, training materials, and others in your area who you could collaborate with.

We are supporting hundreds of groups to build community radio stations across the country. We’re working with some big partners—like the NAACP, Greenpeace, the National Council of La Raza, and the Communications Workers of America—to get the word out to their constituencies. Prometheus has already helped hundreds of groups, including the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to build stations as tools for social justice organizing and community expression. We're ready to help more groups get on air.

As the billionaire Koch brothers plan to buy up more of the nation’s media to push their right-wing agenda, now is the time to build progressive media. And with the Internet dominated by large corporations working with government spy agencies like the NSA, radio is a strategic tool for movements and advocates to add to their communications toolbox.

Jeff Roussette wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. He's the national organizer for Prometheus Radio Project.

When Drones Guard the Pipeline: The Militarization of Our Fossil Fuels

When Drones Guard the Pipeline: The Militarization of Our Fossil Fuels
June 17, 2013 | Alternet | Winona LaDuke with Frank Molley

The militarization of the energy fields is not new. It’s just more apparent when it’s in a first world country.

Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn’t make a corporation a terrorist.

I’m in South Dakota today, sort of a ground zero for the XL Keystone Pipeline, that pipeline, owned by a Canadian Corporation which will export tar sands oil to the rest of the world. This is the heart of the North American continent here. Bwaan Akiing is what we call this land-Land of the Lakota. There are no pipelines across it, and beneath it is the Oglalla Aquifer wherein lies the vast majority of the water for this region. The Lakota understand that water is life, and that there is no new water. It turns out, tar sands carrying pipelines (otherwise called “dilbit”) are sixteen times more likely to break than a conventional pipeline, and it seems that some ranchers and Native people, in a new Cowboy and Indian Alliance, are intent upon protecting that water.

This community understands the price of protecting land. And, the use of military force upon a civilian community- carrying an acute memory of the over 133,000 rounds of ammunition fired by the National Guard upon Lakota people forty years ago in the Wounded Knee standoff. That experience is coming home again, this time in Mi’gmaq territory.

Militarization of North American Oil Fields

This past week in New Brunswick, the Canadian military came out to protect oil companies. In this case, seismic testing for potential natural gas reserves by Southwestern Energy Company(SWN), a Texas based company working in the province. It’s an image of extreme energy, and perhaps the times.

SWN exercised it’s permit to conduct preliminary testing to assess resource potential for shale gas exploitation. Canadian constitutional law requires the consultation with First Nations, and this has not occurred. That’s when Elsipogtog Mi’gmaq warrior chief, John Levi, seized a vehicle containing seismic testing equipment owned by SWN. Their claim is that fracking is illegal without their permission on their traditional territory. About 65 protesters, including women and children, seized the truck at a gas station and surrounded the vehicle so that it couldn’t be removed from the parking lot. Levi says that SWN broke the law when they first started fracking “in our traditional hunting grounds, medicine grounds, contaminating our waters.” according to reporter Jane Mundy in on line Lawyers and Settlements publication. This may be just the beginning.

On June 9, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) came out en masse, seemingly to protect SWN seismic exploration crews against peaceful protesters – both native and non-Native, blocking route 126 from seismic thumper trucks. Armed with guns, paddy wagons and twist tie restraints, peaceful protestors were arrested. Four days later the protesting continued, and this time drew the attention of local military personnel. As one Mi’gmag said, “Just who is calling the shots in New Brunswick when the value of the land and water take a backseat to the risks associated with shale gas development?”

The militarization of the energy fields is not new. It’s just more apparent when it’s in a first world country, albeit New Brunswick. New Brunswick is sort of the El Salvador of Canadian provinces, if one looks at the economy, run akin to an oligarchy. New Brunswick’s Irving family empire stretches from oil and gas to media, they are the largest employer in New Brunswick and the primary proponents of the Trans Canada West to East pipeline which will bring tar sands oil to the St. Johns refinery owned by the same family. Irving is the fourth wealthiest family in Canada, the largest employer, land holder and amasses that wealth in the relatively poor province. The Saint John refinery would be a beneficiary of any natural gas fracked in the province. In general, press coverage of Aboriginal issues is sparse there at best.

Fracking proposals have come to their territory with a vengeance, and the perfect political storm has emerged- immense material poverty (seven of the ten poorest postal codes in Canada), a set of starve or sell federal agreements pushed by the Harper administration (on first nations), and extreme energy drives.

Each fracking well will take up to two-million-gallons of pristine water and transform the water into a toxic soup, full of carcinogens. The subsistence economy has been central to the Wabanaki confederacy since time immemorial, and concerns over SWN’s water contamination have come to the province. A recent Arkansas lawsuit against SWN charges the company with widespread toxic contamination of drinking water from their hydro-fracking.

Canada is the home to 75% of the worlds mining corporations, and they have tended to have relative impunity in the Canadian courts. Canadian corporations and their international subsidiaries are being protected by military forces elsewhere, and this concerns many. According to a U.K. Guardian story, a Québec Court of Appeal rejected a suit by citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo against Montreal-based Anvil Mining Limited for allegedly providing logistical support to the DRC army as it carried out a massacre, killing as many as 100 people in the town of Kilwa near the company's silver and copper mine. The Supreme Court of Canada later confirmed that Canadian courts had no jurisdiction over the company's actions in the DRC when it rejected the plaintiffs' request to appeal. Kairos Canada, a faith-based organization, concluded that the Supreme Court's ruling would "have broader implications for other victims of human rights abuses committed by Canadian companies and their chances of bringing similar cases to our courts".

In the meantime, back in New Brunswick, a heavily militarized RCMP came out to protect the exploration crews. Opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline has many faces, from ranchers in Nebraska and Texas who reject eminent domain takings of their land for a pipeline right of way, to the Lakota nation which walked out of State Department meetings in May in a show of firm opposition to the pipeline. All of them are facing a pipeline owned by TransCanada, a Canadian Corporation.

On a worldwide scale communities are concerned about their water. In El Salvador, more than 60% of the population relies on a single source of water. In 2009, this came down to choosing between drinking water and mining. In 2009, after immense public pressure, the country chose water. It established a moratorium on metal mining permits. Polls show that a strong majority of Salvadorans would now like a permanent ban. A testament to how things can change even in a politically challenged environment.

Up in Canada’s version of El Salvador, twelve people, both native and non were arrested, some detained and interrogated by investigators by the RCMP forces on June l4, and after a day of the federal military “making their presence” felt, the people of the region have concerns about how far Canada will go to protect fossil fuels.

Here in Bwaan Akiing, I am hoping that people who want to protect the water are treated with respect. And, I also have to hope that those 7,000 plus American owned drones aren’t coming home, omaa akiing, from elsewhere to our territories in the name of Canadian oil interests.



Video by Charles LeBlanc

Winona LaDuke is the Executive Director of Honor the Earth in White Earth Reservation, MN.

How The Solar System is Changing

How The Solar System is Changing
June 18, 2013 | Suspicious0bservers

Farmers' Market Sues City over 'Pave or Vacate' Mandate

© Activist Post

Farmers' Market Sues City over 'Pave or Vacate' Mandate
June 18, 2013 | Activist Post | Heather Callaghan

A farmers' market in Mount Jackson, Virginia is causing an uproar by saying, "Yes, we're suing the town."

This little market bought an unoccupied former business building in Mount Jackson in an effort to improve the town and provide a fun place for all kinds of vendors. The market performs every year at a financial and emotional loss because they believe it's so important and rewarding to provide a market and a place for local fare. Otherwise, people have to go to the next town over for organic and the town remains more abandoned. They wanted downtown Mount Jackson to be like it was historically - where it's at!

For years, a gravel lot was effectively used for parking and by the owners for activities in and around the building. Plans were made by the market to improve the lot and building but extensions were needed to finish in order to continue the summer market - and because of economic hardship on the facilitators, namely, Gerald Forsburg. See a short news vid here.

Town council required them to have a paved asphalt or concrete lot at great expense - $15,000 - $20,000 - to the market, but the owners asked for an extension and to be able to continue the pending summer market. Council shot that down because of "ordinance" which apparently stems from "aesthetics." So, it was pave or get out.

Oh, where have we heard that gem before? Look up our articles on front yard garden shut-downs.

The market had to cancel summer events and the produce orders because of the requirements, cancel vendor agreements, and are at a loss for a whole year. So how can they ever get ahead at this point to even think about paving? Who runs this town - Mr. Potter of Bedford Falls? I mean just kick them down so they can't ever operate again! Suffocating people with permits, requirements, codes and ordinances is one way to kill fresh food access - and kill your town. The leaders of Mt Jackson are paid to run the town into a barren ground.

 And how can this claim be made with any conscience? It gets even crazier...

Mt Jackson city council was caught cherry-picking which businesses to hold to this ordinance for paving and which businesses they'd look away from with unpaved lots. Mt Jackson Farmers' Market reports:

Furthermore, there are businesses in the community that have NOT been required to pave their lots. The Council would likely state that those businesses have "on street" parking. Well, SO DO WE!

The market saw a bigger drop in funds when the council banned them from using sandwich board signs in 2011 to advertise the times and place even though other businesses were allowed.

 There's more - this is about the councilman who voted them down:

Yet, earlier this year, Mr. Holtzman demanded a bench decision from the very same Town Council to permit him to operate a newly purchased single family home as two units stating that "after purchasing the property, he found it not feasible to rent out to a single family. The Council was smart enough to send the request to the Planning Commission, who then was able to find a way "legally" to permit Mr. Holtzman's request. The new code implemented an "Overlay District" whereby the Town Council can permit, by special use, the conversion of a single family dwelling into a multi-unit occupancy. Of course, such a request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Thus, exempting businesses is not permissible, nor is permitting extensions of time to meet requirements, but re-writing codes to benefit select businesses is?

So like Orwell's Animal Farm, some are more equal than others... Clearly, there's a bias here.

Why don't they just pave?

There are those in the community who say "Just pave the parking lot - we had to." To be sure, many have been required to pave their lots. However, many of those businesses were either in operation at the time the code was enforced, or given ample time to get their doors open and make a profit before being required to do so.

Check out the declaratory judgment and permanent injunction filed against the town and acting manager Charles Moore. It's not a suit for monetary means, it's to stop the town from prohibiting the market when there's a perfectly good hard surface that's been in use for years. Also read their Letter to the Editor. But the suit also calls for legal fees and this year's losses if the town continues to keep them out over freaking asphalt.

Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.