Food Sovereignty – Insectamonarca's Blog

Butterfly Corner – March 23, 2012

March 23 – The 2^nd Annual Northwest Wisconsin Regional Food Summit was held at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College. John Peck, Family Farm Defenders, was keynote speaker. The topic: Food Sovereignty. In the not so distant past, the family farm and home garden were responsible for supplying food on the table. This system radically changed during the “Green Revolution.” Currently in our everyday lives, we have found out that a globalized food chain has come at a very high cost. Fuel for transportation has risen; seed has gone to hybrid and patented GMO; animals are owned of big Ag-chemical companies. What is wrong with this picture? Food Sovereignty is imperative for food security.

Last year I raised my own vegetables. I learned to can, freeze, dehydrate and dry my foods and herbs. I bought Bashaw’s organic berries and grass fed frozen beef. The organic farm is located on Highway 63, between Spooner and Shell Lake, WI. I know this food is healthy. In 2011, Lac Courte Oreilles Public Library published Jiibaakweywang, We are Cooking together, Flavors of Lac Courte Oreillis. Sandy Stein’s award winning recipe 3 Step Manoomin (wild rice) is published in the book. Sandy is Happy Tonics Secretary. She started a Happy Tonics garden plot of native and medicinal herbs in 2011. This is a seed saving project.

My recipe for Organic Four Grain Health Bread was published in Jiibaakweywang. I used amaranth (red root, pig weed) from the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake. Who knew that wild edibles would be part of the native plant community, in the Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden? The collaborative book project was made possible by the Institute of Museum Library Services Enhancement Grant for Native American Library Sciences. The focus of the project is to target areas of health, the environment, and traditional culture.

April 14 – Last year over 100 people attended the Gadsden, Alabama, Public Library Local Author Day, which according to Julie Dobbins, is a fun and exciting event! The yearly event provides a great opportunity to discover new writers, buy some books, and get them signed by the author. My Name is Butterfly, written by Mary Ellen Ryall, will be on display at the event. Colorful postcards, with details on how to purchase the book on Amazon, will be available to fellow authors and the public. It is near impossible to attend all the writer events, such as this; when we are so far off the beaten path. I consider it a great privilege to have my book at the Gadsden, Alabama, Public Library Local Author Day event.

The Aldo Leopold film, Green Fire, will be shown on TV in April. The film is about land ethics. Aldo Leopold Foundation says, “The first full-length documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, Green Fire, highlights Leopold’s extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement. Leopold remains relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land.” We should all be proud that the environmentalist lived in Wisconsin. Leopold wrote his famous book Sand Country Almanac in our own state. See the following times and channels:

Friday, April 20 at 8pm on WPT; Sunday, April 22 at 2pm on The Wisconsin Channel; and
Tuesday, April 24 at 11pm on WPT.

March 22 – Monarch butterfly news. Due to the unusually warm temperatures and high winds blowing north from the Gulf of Mexico, over the last two weeks, the butterfly has traveled further north at record speed. According to Journey North, the monarch has already reached Kansas, a distance of 1,200 miles from Mexico. There is concern that the monarch is ahead of the normal migration cycle, usually the monarch is in Kansas on April 15. Scientists are diligently watching for an “ecological mismatch.” The monarchs are at a critical time in life. It is this generation that reproduces the next generation of butterflies. Will milkweed be up and ready for the laying of eggs on milkweed this early in the season?

In December, Dr. Lincoln Brower and other scientists count the number of Oyemal fir trees that have overwintering monarchs. The Mexican count showed the monarch population down by 28 percent from last year. This is an ongoing trend. Part of the cause is the continued plundering by illegal loggers in and around the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Mexico.

Another concern is the loss of milkweed in breeding habitat. “Dr. Karen Oberhauser is co-author of newly published research. Her study found a 58% decline in milkweed and an 81% decline in monarch egg production in agricultural fields of the Midwest,” Source: Journey North.

Environmental Film Festival “King Corn”

Yesterday Happy Tonics was a co-sponsor at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College’s Film Fest featuring “King Corn.” Mary Ellen Ryall, Executive Director of the nonprofit spoke about Oneida Corn, a tribal corn, that originated in New York State near Syracuse and Utica. The corn seed was gifted to the Oneida tribe to the west side of Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1992.

In 2009 Oneida corn was grown out by Mike Brenna of Little Footprint Farm, Turtle Lake, Wisconsin.

Mike told me that the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin gave him some of the corn seed. He cherished the seed and only gave us three ears. I take one dried ear with me when I am lecturing.

Corn silk is medicinal and good for urinary tract infection. The dried silks can be added to soups and stews. Ayner Larson (originally from Turkey) told me the silks can be used in tea.

Phytochemicals: Maysin, Carvacrol, Flavonoids and Polyphenols make up some of the medicinal properties of corn silk.

Maysin helps protect the plant from bag bug larva such as European Corn Borer. What is good for the plant may be good for our own intestinal health.

Carvacrol may have antibacterial, anti fungal, antiviral and anti-cancer properties when naturally distilled in liquid. If corn silks are in a liquid base such as tea, soup and stew, this will allow the phytochemical to release its essence into the liquid.

Flavonioids have antioxidant properties. Polyphenol also has antioxidant properties. Rather, they may affect cell-to-cell signaling, receptor sensitivity, inflammatory enzyme activity or gene regulation.

Food sources are more than just a question of eating. Are we conscious of what we eat? For example, Oneida corn is a life substance to the Oneida people. My ancestors came from Ireland and I am tied to the potato. Being connected to our ancestral food has an effect on our DNR. We are linked to our past through food.

King Corn points out that corn being grown today is often not for human consumption. Corn is grown to feed cattle in the concentrated animal feed operations. It is often grown as a byproduct called corn syrup. It’s in mayonnaise, ketchup, boxed food and soft drinks. Corn syrup is a processed product from a non food source. Diabetes is often caused by a diet of high corn syrup. The closer to the natural food source, the healthier we can be.

Happy Tonics display featured Tarahumara corn from a remote area of Sierra Tarahumara, Chihuahua, Mexico. Growing biodiversity of corn species can keep the landraces alive. There are more types of corn besides yellow sweet corn. Tribal people understand the importance of growing dent, flour, flint, popcorn and sweet corn.

Tarahumara serape corn tassels. Just look at the beautiful red striked tassels. This species is a Flour/Flint Corn. When dry, flints generally store better and have a great resistance to insect damage. The kernals can be toasted and ground and popped.

There is more to the corn story. Visit http://happytonics.org/mbr13b1.htm to read the Colonization of Maize by Mary Ellen Ryall.

Be happy insectamonarca friends where ever you are.

HOPE – WE NEED TO SEE the movie FRESH

: Lacinto kale. Italian heirloom from 18th century.

Just when we thought the global food battle was lost to genetic engineering (GE) in Washington, DC, along comes hope. I am thrilled to speak about the Good Food Movement.

The movie FRESH will be out this spring. Watch the movie trailer at http://www.freshthemovie.com/

Happy Tonics promotes the importance of local grown and organic crops and grass fed animals for dairy, poultry and meat.

FRESH the film is already marching forward in Wisconsin. You can view the film in Hayward, on January 31, at 2 p.m. at the Park Theatre. The film features Joel Salatin from Polyface farm, Shenandoah, Virginia, and Will Allen, of California’s Growing Power. Both of these extraordinary people have been instrumental in the Good Food Movement. Allen says,
“The Good Food Movement is now a Revolution.”

If each and every one of us can take this message home and practice it, we can change the global food marketplace one plate at a time. Remember Margaret Meade said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Visit Will Allen at www.growingpower.org/blog

Visit Joel Salatin at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

Let us know how we can work together to promote food sustainability in our own neighborhoods right where we live. Home is where the heart is. Let’s hear from yours.

Good day, Mary Ellen

Eco Adventure in Wisconsin – day six

It’s Wednesday.

Wednesday is chore day. I went outside only to nearly miss the garbage truck. Luckily the driver saw me. I dashed to the shed to get the garbage out for him. We have to lock garbage up here because creatures from the woods would make a mess of it.

The fellow was friendly. He asked, “Are you having a good time?” I said, “I’m having a time of my life snowshoeing and I am so happy.”

Country road — A near miss and a friendly hello.

The driver responded, “You make me feel like I should be out here doing the same thing.” We talked about the forest and how it reminded us both of Upper New York State. He told me, “I drove a truck till 1996. That is the last time I saw Vermont and Upper New York State.” I mentioned that I hadn’t been back since 1985.

I explained that I came out here to be away from crowds and how that part of the country had grown dramatically. I mentioned that out here, I could raise my own food and the heck with it. He said, “I know and feel much like you do.” Then we went our separate ways.

This is the land of self survival and there are more people who have a Pd H degree here and love this country simply because they want to live free. New Hampshire has a motto “Live free or die.” That’s how many of us feel in the Great North Woods. We are self-sufficient and depend on ourselves.

The wind is howling and it is a bitter cold today. I did not snowshoe. Instead I am studying a book MycoMedicinals by Paul Stamets. Sandy Stein and I met him in 2008 at the Tesuque Pueblo Food Sovereignty Conference in New Mexico where Happy Tonics was invited to exhibit. He was the keynote speaker.

This is when I seriously started to dive into learning about mushrooms. I have always been fascinated by them and did an independent study in learning to identifying mushrooms and finding out which ones are edible. Not having a teacher, I never did learn to properly identify them and knowing how dangerous they can be, I will wait till I have a teacher.

I did notice tree and rock lichen and took some photographs. Here is a good web reference that will educate about the role of lichen and air at http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/p429lichens.html

This is one of the things I noticed most out in these woods was the fresh air and I think the lichen may have a role in how pure the oxygen is here on this land.

In the meantime, I order my mushrooms from Paul Stamets Company Fungi Perfectis because he is world-renowned for his knowledge about MycoMedicinals and mycelium. I even coated some vegetable seed with mycelium last summer because it is reported to make roots stronger. This summer I plan to scatter mushroom spawn in my straw laden garden.

I now want to grow mushrooms. Here’s is Paul Stamets You Tube video on how 6 Mushrooms Can Save the World at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

This discovery and research is very important. So few of us understand the mycelium connection in its relationship to the earth and compared to the computer Internet. We are hi tech now and perhaps because we are we are now able to grasp the importance of mycelium to save the world.

Be happy readers where ever you are.