ARS ships batch of seeds to genebank in Norway
Remote Arctic storage facility preserves genetic diversity
By Jan Suszkiw
Agricultural Research Service
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Agricultural Research Service this month shipped some precious cargo to Norway: seeds from 20,000 different crop samples maintained by the agency’s National Plant Germplasm System.
The shipments - to Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault - serve a two-fold purpose, according to ARS plant physiologist David Ellis. The first is to ensure the safekeeping of duplicate copies of seeds already maintained in the NPGS, which contains more than 500,000 accessions of cultivated plants and their wild relatives.
The second purpose is to help promote world food security by adding to the genetic diversity of crops whose seeds are now stored in the vault, or will be. These include aroids, maize, banana, cassava, carrot, finger millet and sunflower. This month’s shipment, the second by ARS since January 2008, contains pepper, lettuce, pea, rice, flax, sorghum, wheat and safflower seeds. Over the next 10 to 15 years, it’s hoped that seeds from almost all of the 500,000 NPGS accessions will be represented in the vault, according to Ellis, curator of the plant collection at the ARS National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo.
The vault’s entrance resembles a fin protruding from the side of a mountain on one of a group of Svalbard islands, located midway between Norway and the North Pole. The vault’s three storage chambers are nestled in permafrost deep inside the mountain, which helps preserve the seeds.
The vault, which was built to store 2 billion seeds and celebrated its one-year anniversary on Feb. 26, is administered by the Nordic Genetic Resources Center for the Norwegian government in partnership with The Global Crop Diversity Trust. The Trust was co-founded by the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization and Bioversity International.
About 1,400 genebanks are operated worldwide. But the vault isn’t meant to replace them. Rather, it provides a backup in the event that seeds - and the genetic diversity encoded with them - are lost to equipment failures, mismanagement, budgetary cuts, natural disasters and other catastrophes.
http://www.capitalpress.com/print.asp?ArticleID=49681&SectionID=106&SubSectionID=845
They watch Obamanation grow in unbridled power
Americans Largely Silent as Their Nation is Systematically Destroyed
By JB Williams Tuesday, March 24, 2009
After trillions in taxpayer debt has been foolishly poured into the bottomless black hole of leftist wealth redistribution programs, under the guise of economic “stimulus” or “stabilization” legislation, the new “ONE World” government running Washington DC announces; Geithner, Bernanke Call for New Wind-Down Powers After AIG… and the people still sit silent as they watch Obamanation grow in unbridled power.
Geithner Asks Congress for even Broader Power to Seize private Firms as the average American stumbles through their daily routine as if nothing is happening. Canada Free Press managing editor Judi McLeod writes No cheerleader for propping up greenback at G20 summit asking, “Is the table being set for One World Government rather than speeding the recovery of the worldwide recession at next week’s G20 London summit?”
Obamanation has taken the nation from a trillion in debt to over $4 trillion in debt in the first sixty days, with even more federal spending promised, which could put the nation $10 trillion in debt before the 2010 mid-term election cycle. Amnesty for illegals and ACORN led redistricting will make 2010 and beyond a moot point.
Still, beyond the movement to mail tea bags to members of congress or file another legal demand for proof of Obama’s constitutional eligibility for the office he holds, both of which are like whistling in the breeze, the people remain largely silent.
Threatened with a Soup Line Existence
The American people would never trade personal freedom for the false promise of federally redistributed free-stuff under some ill-fated socialist experiment, unless they were first threatened with a soup line existence.
And so it shall be…
50% of their life savings and 30% of their home values have already evaporated into thin air. National unemployment is driving towards double digits as home foreclosures continue to mound.
With their backs against the wall, confused by a daily diet of media manipulated headlines aimed at scaring the public into submission, convinced that our nation’s complex woes demand a solution far too complicated for the average peasant to comprehend, the people find themselves in a state of terminal paralysis.
Incompetent Evil in Charge
The same people responsible for the many disasters now surrounding every American household, were elected in 2006 and 2008 to fix what they broke. Instead of reversing course and placing their faith in the principles of freedom, they are installing more of the same failed entitlement policies that created the problem and they are doing so at a fever pace.
The folks currently in charge of the nation don’t like anything at all about the nation that once was. They have a very different vision for America, one based on redistribution of free-stuff, not equal access to freedom.
At the foundation of personal freedom is the right to make your own decisions, invest and risk your own capital, own your own property and keep that which you are willing to work and sacrifice to earn. It’s called economic freedom, aka capitalism.
But capitalism is public enemy #1 in America today, thanks to decades of class warfare and the art of division via social envy, all for purpose of political gain.
Life, Liberty and the right to individually define and pursue Happiness has been replaced with the right of some to take from others against their will, in the name of a greater common good, better defined as the entitlement mentality.
The Change Agents New World Dictionary
Old concepts have been redefined. Capitalism is now referred to as Fascism. Personal ambition is now called greed. Those who seek access to other people’s rightful earnings are called charitable, and those who demand a right to only that, which they earn, are called greedy.
It isn’t just the words that have new definitions. The concepts have new meaning as a result.
Words like socialism and communism no longer have a negative connotation attached to them. Most Americans have no idea what they are anymore, or why they don’t want to find out the hard way.
The concept of liberal interpretations limits the meaning of words only to one’s individual imagination. The Constitution means only what someone imagines it to mean. If the shoe doesn’t quite fit, a new definition will solve the problem.
What are Americans Waiting For?
I don’t know what it will take to wake up the average American, but whatever it is, it hasn’t happened yet…
The people currently stocking up on food, water, guns and ammo in record numbers, causing shortages in all the above at the retail level, are clearly awake and anticipating something, but what? Meet the “extremists...”
The people still trying to get a court somewhere in America to hear the arguments concerning the most secretive corrupt president in US history, have been awake for a long time. Meet the “birthers...” But they continue to have trouble waking anyone else up, including in the so-called halls of justice.
Is it a bankrupt dollar and a new international currency that will get their attention? - A North American Union? - An ACORN Army on their doorstep? What will be the final straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back?
I don’t have the answer… Frankly, I expected the people to revolt long before now. Clearly, I had underestimated the depth of apathy and tolerance for anti-American nonsense in the average modern American. But then, so did our nation’s founders, whom I’m certain are rolling over in their graves in disgust by now.
The Silent Consent Continues
Nobody knows for how long or at what expense, but so far, the people remain silent and Washington continues to profitably interpret that silence as broad-based consent.
At this late date, I have no idea what will wake up the average American or how they might react once finally awake and ready to engage in self-governance. However, I am sure about two things…
When they finally do awake, they are going to be really angry…
And, the anti-American left won’t let up until then…
The clock isn’t just ticking. Time has already run out as of the 2008 election. Washington DC is currently dismantling America, individual right by individual right, in an unprecedented massive multi-faceted assault on all things American.
If you are not familiar with the Democratic Socialists of America or their legislative branch, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I strongly suggest that you take time to learn them well. They are in charge of your nation. This is who the average American is up against and they are a very well funded and organized enemy of the state.
You will not be able to take your country back without putting these two organizations out of business. The longer you wait, the tougher the battle, the higher the price.
Clearly, the organizational skills of the average American are equal only to that of the stumbling bumbling Republican Party. Fragmented, distracted and disorganized, the people are no match for the leftist juggernaut running roughshod in DC.
The people are lost, so they are losing… The most complex problems require the simplest of solutions. But the average American is so baffled by a daily diet of elitist B.S., that they cannot even see daylight… – When all else fails, return to the basics!
Here’s to the average American waking up in time! - Good luck!
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9607
The shipments - to Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault - serve a two-fold purpose, according to ARS plant physiologist David Ellis. The first is to ensure the safekeeping of duplicate copies of seeds already maintained in the NPGS, which contains more than 500,000 accessions of cultivated plants and their wild relatives.<<
This should be a good thing, I would prefer that we were in charge, but the way things are going here, maybe it is better that it is not.