Free Republic

Daniel Skotnick agriculture advisor, and Abdullah Al Asoum, economic bi-lingual, bi-cultural advisor with embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad-5, speak with a farmer in Abernisha Village, northwest of Baghdad, July 13. Two tons of hybrid maize seed were donated to help rebuild Iraq’s agriculture and infrastructure. Photo by Pfc. Lyndsey Dransfield. CAMP TAJI — The Fertile Crescent portion of Iraq is notorious for its strong agricultural heritage throughout history. It has long blessed residents and their livestock with a plethora food.Unfortunately, in recent history investments and resources were diverted away from farming and food production, leaving Iraq's agricultural resources in utter...

Seed swapping Q. I have a backyard vegetable/fruit/herb garden, and every year I wind up with lots of leftover seeds, more than I can possibly plant next time around, yet throwing them away seems like an awful waste. Is there any established way to share, trade, or recycle seeds? - Jacey, WY A. Absolutely. Seed-sharing has been an officially time-honored tradition since at least 1989, when Canada and Britain founded their respective “Seedy Saturday” and “Seedy Sunday” swaps. And in the US, the last Saturday in January is “National Seed Swap Day,” so start saving your seeds up for January...

On a windswept Arctic island 1000 kms from the North Pole, a group of Norwegian engineers and scientists have been constructing a gigantic seed bank inside a frozen mountain. To be managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, a group dedicated to the ongoing diversity of plants through a variety of genetic strains, the International Seed Bank will open this week. Known as the Doomsday vault, the seed bank has the capacity to hold 4.5 million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet's main food crops -- more than "...twice as many varieties of agricultural crops as...

Not many birds or critters around right now, I have to go looking for new things to shoot at. These are seed cones on a Southern Magnolia tree.

Zatta Melon

10/5/2006 - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AFPN) -- Retired Lt. Col. James and Ellie Spatafora possess a unique answer to a common question couples are quizzed about. When asked where they met, they answer that the seeds of their 56-year marriage were planted during the historic Berlin Airlift. The couple was able to catch up on old times with friends during a Berlin Airlift plaque dedication at Veterans Memorial Park here Oct. 4. More than 150 people attended the dedication, which was one of numerous events held during the weeklong reunion of the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association. The Berlin Airlift was a...

Seeds 200 years old breathe again By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website The unknown acacia species is now half a metre tall Seeds which have been stored away since the time of George III have been persuaded into new life. Scientists from the Millennium Seed Bank, operated by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, have induced seeds from three species to germinate. They had been brought to Britain from South Africa by a Dutch merchant in 1803, and were found in a notebook stored in the National Archives. Given this history, the team said it was surprised by...

U.S. Army Capt. Michael Baka, from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, speaks with a local man about his concerns during a patrol in Adhamiyah, Aug. 28. Baka is conducting an operation in Adhamiyah jointly with Iraqi Army Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division and 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. Department of Defense photo by Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Keith W. DeVinney. In July, the news editor’s old axiom “If it bleeds it leads” was tragically justified by record-setting violence in the streets of Baghdad. The increase in daily attacks and civilian deaths led...

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- It sounds like something from a science fiction film -- a doomsday vault carved into a frozen mountainside on a secluded Arctic island ready to serve as a Noah's Ark for seeds in case of a global catastrophe....

April 28, 2006Cornell study of ancient volcano, seeds and tree rings, suggests rewriting Late Bronze Age Mediterranean history By Alex Kwan Separated in history by 100 years, the seafaring Minoans of Crete and the mercantile Canaanites of northern Egypt and the Levant (a large area of the Middle East) at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were never considered trading partners at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Until now. Trenchmaster Vronwy Hankey and foreman Antonis Zidianakis excavate storage jars from the Minoan settlement Myrtos-Pyrgos. The jars were analyzed in the Cornell study using radiocarbon analyses. Cultural links between...

Post-Katrina trip brings 8 jobs after 'bad seeds' act up Thursday, October 27, 2005 By SUSAN DAKER Staff Reporter The bus trip that took more than 50 people from Mobile to New Orleans to seek jobs resulted in about eight deciding to work there, according to state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures. Figures, D-Mobile, said this week that she would not be helping send anyone else to New Orleans since most jobs are being reserved for people from Louisiana. Also, some of the people on the Oct. 11 Mobile bus trip were responsible for a disturbance that caused the Mobile contingent...

I want to do an article about B-17, in it I want to cover both apricot trees and seeds and grape seeds, two high sources of B-17, from what I have learned so far. I'm pretty well set on the Apricot part, but need info on where to get organic grape plants and how do you plant and care for them in the foothills of the White Mountains in Maine. temp ranges of 100 above zero to 45 below zero.Any help would be greatly appreciated.ThanksJakeChristian-news-in-maine.com

EAST HADDAM -- Around town - and as far away as Tennessee - people are wondering why federal agents seized datashak plants and seeds and 19 computer discs from a Muslim campground in Moodus. First Selectman Brad Parker said Friday's raid on the 18-acre Town Street campground, owned by Darul Uloom Shady Brook Inc., has the town abuzz. FBI agents and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted the raid. "Out on the street, people don't think that [the federal government] would go to that effort for a spinach plant," Parker said. A Tennessee-based blog called "Ginny's Thoughts and...

The Seeds of Civilization Why did humans first turn from nomadic wandering to villages and togetherness? The answer may lie in a 9,500-year-old settlement in central Turkey Since researchers first began digging at Catalhoyuk (pronounced "Chah-tahl-hew-yook") in the 1960s, they've found more than 400 skeletons under the houses, which are clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Burying the dead under houses was common at early agricultural villages in the Near East-at Catalhoyuk, one dwelling alone had 64 skeletons. Archaeologist Ian Hodder and his colleagues are also working to decipher paintings and sculptures found at Catalhoyuk. The surfaces of many houses are...

What?" says Los Angeles Angels equipment manager Ken Higdon. "There's always enough of those." Correction: There always was enough of those. This summer, producers are squeezing together all of their resources -- and still plan to ration what they have to make it through the season. There is a chance some players and coaches actually will be forced to play the game this summer with no seeds at all in their mouths. "It's a possibility," says John Sandbakken, director of international marketing at the National Sunflower Assn. in Bismarck, N.D. "Our farmers didn't have a very good crop last year,...

An Austrian driver has lost his license because he failed a drug test after eating a dish containing poppyseeds. Wolfgang L, 39, had his license withdrawn when a test showed traces of morphine in his urine. But he denies drug abuse, saying he had recently eaten mohnnudeln, an Austrian speciality consisting of noodles, poppyseeds and fruit. Reinhard Fous, head police doctor in Vienna, told the Kronenzeitung the man 'wasn't under the influence of drugs' since his blood test came back negative. Yet, the traces of morphine in his urine showed he wasn't fit to drive, the doctor argued. But fellow...

Tests Show U.S. Failure to Block Contamination From Gene-Altered Varieties Much of the U.S. supply of ordinary crop seeds has become contaminated with strands of engineered DNA, suggesting that current methods for segregating gene-altered seed plants from traditional varieties are failing, according to a pilot study released yesterday. More than two-thirds of 36 conventional corn, soy and canola seed batches contained traces of DNA from genetically engineered crop varieties in lab tests commissioned by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based advocacy group. The actual amount of foreign DNA present in U.S. seeds appears to be small, and most engineered...

President of Queens Firm Found Guilty of Criminal Contempt For Violating Court Order Not to Market Bogus Cancer Cure Over the Internet ROSLYNN R. MAUSKOPF, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and MARK B. McCLELLAN, M.D., Ph.D., Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced today that a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York has convicted Jason Vale, president of the Queens based company Christian Brothers Contracting Corporation ("Christian Bros."), of three counts of criminal contempt in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 401(3). On April 20, 2000, in a civil suit brought...