{"id":52009,"date":"2012-01-18T01:28:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T06:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=52009"},"modified":"2012-01-18T10:02:47","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T15:02:47","slug":"your-dinner-plate-your-world-you-ceres-on-the-aries-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/your-dinner-plate-your-world-you-ceres-on-the-aries-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Your dinner plate, your world, you: Ceres on the Aries Point"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Happy, organic kale growing in the North Street community garden, Portland, Maine, during the last eclipse. Photo by Amanda Painter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012.<\/a><\/strong>. There are many ways we feed ourselves, and each other: from the choices we make around how and where we buy, grow, prepare and eat food; to things like spiritual practice, building community, giving and receiving love, and standing in our truth and acting on it. This week\u2019s astrology brings the more literal food themes into focus with the ingress of Ceres into Aries \u2013 activating the ever-sensitive Aries Point \u2013 tomorrow. Your favorite astrology website \u2013 Planet Waves \u2013 is planning to feed the fires of activism and revolution by participating in the Internet blackout later today.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ll have details about our participation in the Internet direct action later in the morning; for now, let\u2019s stick to the astrology. Sort of.<\/p>\n

Minor planet Ceres, named after the goddess of the harvest, is set to arrive in the first degree of Aries, where personal and political unify with a bang, tomorrow at 1:35 pm EST. This puts Ceres into a conjunction with Uranus, where it enters the Uranus-Pluto square. Aries is a sign of innovation and Uranus-Pluto is shorthand for revolution. Add Ceres, and you have a call to stand up for your rights in the realms of agriculture, food safety, and the intersection of personal and cultural attitudes toward food commerce and consumption. Ceres on the Aries Point wants you to notice where your attitudes around eating and nourishing yourself and others intersect with (for better or worse) with those prevailing in your community, wider culture and even the world. After all, all food comes from the Earth \u2013 and we\u2019re all on it.<\/p>\n

With a synchronicity that might be considered bizarre were it not for the fact that astrology keeps proving itself over and over again, yesterday an article that was making the rounds on Facebook looked suspiciously familiar. It was a controversial piece Planet Waves had reposted<\/a> last year when it broke on the Internet, accusing Whole Foods, Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farms of cutting a backroom deal on genetically modified alfalfa with Monsanto and the USDA.<\/p>\n

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The letter, written by Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of the Organic Consumers Association, was later parsed out in this article at fairfoodfight.com<\/a>. I\u2019ll let you read the breakdown there for yourself; the short version is that certain companies and growers had made a choice that might work for organic farmers trying to stay alive. Cummins saw anything short of a total rejection of what was on offer by the USDA as a complete sell-out. Things got ugly in the organic ranks.<\/p>\n

Every once in a while an older article gets sudden new traction on Facebook and the Internet in general. What makes this instance notable is the timing. Ceres was in the last degree of Pisces yesterday \u2013 the \u2018anaretic degree\u2019, which yesterday\u2019s Daily Astrology described as feeling urgent yet vacillating. And the story about GMO alfalfa was definitely posted yesterday with a sense of urgency \u2013 and then was redacted.<\/p>\n

So what is in food news now? For one thing, Natural News is reporting that some of the U.S. diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveal that \u201cmany US diplomats are pushing GMO crops<\/a> as a strategic government and commercial imperative.\u201d <\/p>\n

That article continues, <\/p>\n

… the U.S. focused their efforts toward advisers to the pope specifically, due to the fact that many Catholic figureheads have openly voiced their opposition to GM foods. With this kind of political influence, is it any wonder that many food staples are now predominantly GM? Nearly 93% of U.S. soybeans are heavily modified conservatively, with many other staple crops coming in at similar numbers.<\/p>\n

U.S. diplomats have unique opportunities to spread honest and intellectual campaigns that can serve to better mankind and end suffering, however they are instead spreading the roots of Monsanto deeper and deeper into international territory. As a substitute for the betterment of mankind, these paid-off diplomats are now spreading environment desecration and health destruction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve been walking around eating tofu and tempeh like a good soul trying to do no harm to other animals or yourself, you may want to check out where those soybeans come from, if you can. It\u2019s easy to say, \u2018Oh, how awful what those diplomats are doing in those other countries\u2019. But did you catch the statistic at the end of that quote? Nearly 93% of U.S. soybeans are heavily modified \u2013 as are many other staple crops. Now, you may carefully buy organic and local. But what about the food you\u2019re eating out at restaurants? And what is your child eating in collage, or your parents in their assisted living facility? And what about <\/em>your fellow beings in these other countries, whose governments are faced with either feeding their people with U.S. aid or letting them starve? <\/p>\n

If the politics of food and corporately-controlled science and government just came crashing onto your dinner plate, you may want to think about speaking up and making conscious choices to take even small actions. Or even do more than just think.<\/p>\n

Maybe you could start by writing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to urge them to update their pesticide use database, which they stopped updating in 2008. At that point, the top-ranked herbicide used in the United States was (and likely still is) glyphosate \u2013 \u201cThe chemical at the heart of the planet\u2019s most widely used herbicide — Roundup weedkiller,\u201d as described in an August 2011 article on The Huffington Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That article details an Argentine study, which found that \u201cglyphosate causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying. It also found that malformations caused in frog and chicken embryos by Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate were similar to human birth defects found in genetically modified soy-producing regions.\u201d Results that were in line with the high rates of birth defects and cancers being reported in the farming regions of Argentina that had been \u2018saved\u2019 by the introduction of Roundup-ready soybeans in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, last week jury selection began in the town of Nitro, West Virginia for their suit against Monsanto over alleged contamination of the town by the company\u2019s former chemical-making operations there. You can bet that for the citizens of that town, the political is damn personal. Is it for you yet? And if so, are you ready to stand up for the health of your food, your holistic nourishment, and that of the very planet it all comes from?<\/p>\n

Much thanks to Carol Van Strum for digging up more source articles than could be crammed into this piece.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your<\/strong> personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light<\/strong><\/a>, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription<\/strong><\/a> includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012.. There are many ways we feed ourselves, and each other: from the choices we make around how and where we buy, grow, prepare and eat food; to things like spiritual practice, building community, giving and receiving love, and standing in our truth and acting on it. This week\u2019s astrology … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}