Photo Ian Campbell


Do you remember our childhood days on the beach No plastic, a bit of Tar which
we removed from ourselves and our clothes with oil of Eucalyptus. The only bright bits were the victorian pieces of glass worn smooth and frosted by the abrasion of the sea and sand. The bright green and blue of the victorian bottles which had contained corrosive
and poisonous materials and the brown green and gold of the beer and
wine bottles. We loved to collect these along with shells especially cowrie shells..
I still have a strong nostalgia for Returnable Glass bottles, greaseproof paper, blue sugar paper, wood chip strawberry punnits..... And a strong Aversion to Man made Fabrics. A love of cotton, wool, silk, and linen etc.
Thalia

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A very good read !
"The Unnatural History of the Sea: The Past and Future of Humanity and Fishing "
by Professor Callum Roberts - ISBN: 978-1-59726-577-5
He is is a marine scientist and conservationist at the University of York in England

Hamish has attended the 2011 gathering in Greece He may have met lots of contacts and done workshops, networking ... maybe get some helpers for Vision on tv and the festival in the autumn They first started in the early '70's.
The gatherings did start off very hippy but by 1990's more like a
Glastonbury festival or a Wilpf Congress/Peace train without either
the noisy music nor the formal UN Input. There are challenges such as
feeding that many people, Hamish cooked for several years at the European
gatherings. The Vegan element makes cooking in the wilderness easier
without refrigeration.... He regularly cooked for Green gatherings as
many as 2000 people in Romania... The gatherings are a bit large now.
I suppose I see it as a continuation of many of Gertrude's beliefs.
Looking back I think I was the only one who got interested /involved in.
Gertrude's beliefs because I had the chance of spending time with her. Thalia

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In 1991 we went to a Green gathering on
the banks of the Severn, an idyllic place .I was very skeptical but
quite impressed. There were only about 300 people, all very varied, of
all ages including children. They spent time together cooperatively
and peacefully and behaved responsibly. No litter, No drugs, No
drinking, no violence no noisy music after ten o clock, some very
interesting surprising speakers on housing the environment , health
etc lots of very inventive environmental facilities... way ahead of the
times, like the Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleth....
That started in 1970s. Thalia


Link to Centre for Alternative Technology


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Italy has been slow to confront its environmental problems. Central government agencies concerned with the environment are the Ministry for Ecology (established in 1983), the Ministry of Culture and Environmental Quality, the National Council for Research, and the Ministry for Coordination of Scientific and Technological Research. Localities also have responsibility for environmental protection, but most of the burden of planning and enforcement falls on regional authorities. The principal antipollution statute is Law No. 319 of 1976 (the Merli Law), which controls the disposal of organic and chemical wastes; enforcement, however, has proved difficult. Air pollution is a significant problem in Italy

Water pollution is another important environmental issue in Italy. The nation's rivers and coasts have
The long-term threat posed by flooding, pollution, erosion, and sinkage to the island city of Venice was highlighted by a disastrous flood in November 1966.

Rome has implemented a project designed, in part, to protect the Roman Forum and other ancient monuments from the vibration and pollution of motor vehicles.

Here's our story of RYE GRASS. Ian is aways bemoaning our UK Rye grass deserts
Ian and I were having an arguement about the beauty of the hedgerows in Devon and Pembrokeshire .My stand was the Devon ones were more beautiful with a much richer variey of wild flowers. I put forward the fact Devon is a bit further south and would it make a difference. Out of this discussion came the fact that were were discussing two different times
....My childhood in Devon in the 1940s and Pembrokeshire in 2007. In the 1970s we had lived near Aberystwyth .

Ian was the branch sec of the trade union representing workers from the Plant Breeding station. At Aberystwyth the Plant Breeding Station was developing these Rye Grass varieties. These varieties were very vigorous. Later it was found that they succeed by producing chemicals from the roots which poisoned competitors and chemicals in the foliage
which inhibited or killed competing organisms.
This has not been acknowledged widely.
The staff who developed these strains expressed concern that they were turning Wales into a rye grass desert. We can now see the results, upland Wales is a true rye grass desert, one species overpowering the native vegetation.
There is a problem with fertility in dairy cattle due to the inhibitory content of the rye grass in most leys.
The digestive problems needing expensive dietary additives to maintain milk production, the increased use of AI and hormone injections to put the cow in calf to maintain lactation.
One of the factors behind the short life of dairy cattle is the dietary deficiencies caused by the selective inhibitory effect on absorption in the gut of the cow.
Twenty years later what we see in the hedgerows is the escape and spread of these invasive rye grasses taking over the verges. Luscious green growth by rye grass smothering native grasses and plants, by out competing them.
This has taken twenty years to show, involves the unforseen results of growing rye grass seedlings in plots with an open radioactive source gathering the seeds trialling them picking any with more vigour trialing these and selectively breeding them.
Mass sowing, then selling as improved seed varieties only later after years of sales carrying out research on the effects on gut flora and soil. Thatcher privatised the Plant Breeding Stations, the EEC have their Approved list of all seed varieties which can be sold.
All the government seed banks are now in private hands,decisions which are made about which varieties to be available for sale are commercial decisions.
If you know that one variety increases yields of dry matter in grass crops but is flawed you sell as miuch as you can of that variety as you can and plead ignorance when you are found out, you can do this for years as there are few if any independent scientists working in these
fields they all depend on finance from the industry.
So once again we have the disastrous effects of private capital whose only criteria are commercial profit.
NOW can you see the pitfalls of GM crops in the hands of multinationals such as Monsanto. Thalia and Ian

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16.06.2010

Many of the existing badger sets are the result of hundreds of years of communal effort by generations of badgers.
With more sophisticated research we can see their effect on the landscape surrounding us.
Milk production has been in process for very few years less than one hundred. The incidence of tuberculosis has crippled milk production for not more than twenty years, so what has changed.
Cattle are basically herbivores feeding mainly on grasses but dependent on other plants which live in grass land.
We spray the sward so that only grasses survive. We plough the soil and reseed it it with alien man made grasses.
These grasses were developed by State Owned Research Stations. PBS Plas Goggerddan Aberystwyth Many were the result of exposure to radiation, cross bred by species from all over the world many occurring in arid high difficult habitats. Fields were sown with plants surrounding an open radioactive source. Seed was harvested and grown on in greenhouses.
Some were toxic to grazing animals. Thatcher sold off these seed banks to the private sector. Commercial companies saw the commercial value of these rapidly growing dominant species and ignored their potential effects on the gut flora of grazing herbivores.
Cattle breeders selected cattle with large udders and then fed them artificially with dead cattle, industrial waste products. and imported feeds.
Feed manufacturers were allowed to label feeds as carbohydrate, fat protein minerals and vitamins, but not the source of these ingredients ie whether they were of animal plant or artificial origin.
Cattle now are grossly stressed milk producing machines run on leys which are composed of toxic grasses. No wonder they are susceptible to infection by tubercular bacilli.
Cows are slaughtered after only a few lactations they are not bred to be disease resistant.
There are examples of holdings run on conservative lines in otherwise tubercular active areas with clean herds.
So for the sake of a decadent inefficient failing dairy industry we are destroying animals which have been forming our landscape for millenia. Short term ignorance rules OK.
Ian Campbell

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One summer when we were away a lot our half acre area of grass was not
mown and it grew to be a wonderful patch work of British grasses, first in flower and then in seed. The arid Golf course around us sprayed and worn was a strong contrast ... the down side of our unmown lawn was were were burgled.The house looked unoccupied!
Mown Grass was said to be Green Concrete as far as Wildlife is concerned Thalia

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BBC 4 - 2100 - 21.06.11 ( Letter of complaint)

What a masterful exposition not to mention the use of radioactivity and
chemical manipulation.
Wales is overrun by perennial rye grass poisonous to cattle developed by
The Plant Breeding Station Aberystwyth growing crops in fields with an
open radioactive source and trialling all the mutations.

Ian Campbell Rutger The Green Pembroke SA71 4QE 01646621449

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I remember dad waxing lyrical about the lanes full of wild flowers on our way to Bantham and Thurlestone beaches and the South Hams where Vina spent her childhood.Mother told us that Norman was going to buy a sort of moblie tea place up there at one point. We used to go collecting Wild Eating Chestnurts on Haldon Hill and Mother was always concerned to see if the tramp who lived there was OK.
Those lanes were the ones I was remembering as we went from Pembroke to Freshwater East last June discussing rye grass ! Only us oldies can make these comparisions!
We've lost Length men who used to look after the hedges and ditches and
these machines which flail the hedges plus the past pesticides don't
help. Do you remember the Lengthmen and how they used to pick up their trimmings between two short planks each side of the pile of trimmings? I still do that. Thalia

"A good LENGTHMAN was a treasure because he had the interests of the village at heart. His daily stint would ensure that drains were always kept clear, which in turn meant flood water and heavy rain was channelled into a safe escape route.

He cleared away litter from the highway, its verges and hedgerows. This was important, not only due to the unsightliness, but also because litter can be dangerous to domestic livestock and wild animals, with broken bottles threatening risk to humans as well as creating a danger from fire."

Lengthmen worked on the railway verges and the canals.


ATHERINGTON PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES 1998

Mobile Lengthmen - As from the 1st April Devon County Council are introducing “mobile lengthmen” to carry out highway cleaning works. Essentially this will be two men travelling in a pick-up with small tools on board and it will be their task to carry out routine cleaning works. The duties of the lengthmen include hand cleaning grips, ditches, easements and buddle holes as far as they are physically able. They will also attend to rodding and cleaning of small culverts, hedge trimming in order to gain access to ditches and other outlets, clearing of debris, weed clearance, cleaning road channels, drainage, etc., items which are clearly the responsibility of the Highway Authority.

"In secret UK farmers are growing GM crops NOW! Well rewarded by Coroporations and Government?"

On thinking about the hedgerows, for the past few years we have noticed a vast difference betwen driving by car in the UK and on the Continent especially France. We can drive 900 miles to Scotland and have no problem whatsoever with the windsreen. After a few kilometers on the French roads our windscreen is smoothered with all types of insect life necessitating a stop at every service station to wash the screen. Buckets of special liquids are provided at every garage, this continues through Germany Austria and Italy. In most cases a petrol pump attendant will wash & rinse your screen free of charge, Their hedgerows and verges appear to be teaming with insect life, does this tell us something about how we are managing our hedgrows and verges in the UK - or spraying ??
I don't think I'd be quite as keen on wandering the lanes picking wild herbs and fruits from the hedgerows like I did with my grandfather.
Janice & Mimmo

Ink and pencil sketch - Janice

Built in an area of outstanding natural beauty before these things really seemed to matter!
The area is home to vast numbers of birds, invertebrates and important populations of plants, and its wildlife importance is reflected through its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). These designations cover large parts of the shingle beaches and flat marshland in the area and much of its extensive wetlands, saltmarsh, saline lagoons, grazing marsh, gravel pits and intertidal mud and sand flats.

There is a fight on at the moment to keep the site open due to the loss of jobs in the East Kent area. Already Pfizer are pulling out of Sandwich with the loss of 2,200 jobs. Plans have been passed to build an 'international' airport at Lydd causing havoc to the local environment with planes flying directly over Dungeness and the shingle lakes. This would destroy the natural tranquillity of Dungeness and could see its remarkable wildlife slowly disappear, poisoned by increased levels of pollution, or simply driven out by the massive disturbance that such a large airport would cause. The present small airport is owned by Sheikh Fahad al Athel, a Saudi businessman.
At the enquiry local residents living near the Dungeness Nuclear power plant were shocked to learn that there has been no security assessment of sabotage or terrorist threat, undertaken on the rail transport of the intensely radioactive spent nuclear fuel from the remote Denge railhead, located approximately one mile outside the power station, along the rail track, through to the stopping point at the Lydd town crossing.

The railway track between these points, which is used to transport the spent fuel from both Dungeness A & B nuclear power stations onwards to Sellafield, runs 200 metres from the end of the main runway at Lydd airport.

Dungeness is the largest stretch of shingle coastline in Europe. Shingle is naturally moved
from west to east along the southern shore, past the nuclear power stations and gradually
builds up on the eastern shore. Since the1960s, the shingle has been taken from the beach at Dungeness and placed back on eroding beaches in the west. This reduces flood and erosion risk to properties and infrastructure.

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