miércoles, 26 de diciembre de 2012

DAYDREAMERS PART TWO

I DID NOT mention coffee, tobacco and sugar cane in the previous. Of the 3 only the first are alive and kicking. those left cultivating and processing are making some buck$ here and there with their expensive 'gourmet' brands, some with a cost of 2 bucks and more a cup of macchiato, espresso or whatever, in many coffee shops. 

Nevertheless, the people in the coffee industry always whine about not having enough cheap labor hands to collect the grains here.  Some fools talk about importing them peasants from elsewhere, beside the illegal population from the west island, occupying Puerto Rico.

There is no sugar cane, except for some 'guarapo', which makes some of a mystery how there are 'Puerto Rican rums'.  Imagine what would happen to scotch, bourbon, gin, vodka if the countries making it, had to import all the ingredients for the spirits.

There is no tobacco that I know off. But there is a Consolidated Cigar left in Cayey City still manufacturing cigars in that far away city in the boondocks.

Thus, the agricultural possibilities mentioned in the first post, in addition to others like flowers, ornamentals, herbs, spices and mushrooms remain as possibilities to restore some level of food sovereignty.

I see a great obstacles to reach them goals.  One is the avaricious, greedy profit expectations from the people talking, hollering about the urge to return to farming to save the people.

They  claim and preach that farmers need to become entrepeneurs, not in a wise, cautious fashion, but as if farming is merely a project like opening a junk food franchise in which the variables are all under control and prone to planning and projections in terms of profits/expenses/traffic/cash flow and such.

I have bad knew for you if you think likewise. Farming in an under roof nursery roof or  any open space require water, electricity, transport, handling, storage and refrigeration for perishable products.

Most farming in the open depend on weather conditions that contrary to the junk food joint, can not be controlled by men anywhere. For that reason, to concentrate banana or plantain cultivation in areas of easy access, create the possibility of lost
crops during the rainy/hurricane season.

The normal, standard, custom and use, avaricious tone present in the register and discourse regarding this urgent/rushed agritultural revival, from jerks who have not planted a single bean in their life, as if farmers have to become some sort of Bill Gates, with computer, accounting and calculus know how, idiots preaching, believing this will be the cure all solution to our lack of local food production.

They not only show stupidity in the mentioned areas, there is one even worse, the imbeciles are expecting the government, the state, to buy their  crops to feed students in public schools cafeterias, as if our bankrupt state with a 100 billion public debt, was an employment/welfare state/philanthropic institution to finance and embrace business for private and personal profit.

Planting any crops requires timing and waiting, long and short periods to collect if no diseases, drought, rainstorms affect the crops. For that reason I reiterate the need to do an inventory at a national/local level to determine what the general population has planted in their backyards.  This would allow to calculate what is too much or enough of this or that, in terms of planting new crops.

Since breadfruit, lemon, grapefruit, oranges, bananas, guavas, plantains and bananas are already planted in the yards of rural/urban residences in the four cardinal points of Puerto Rico, there is no need to wait, but to find out what the owners plan to do with their crops. To consume, sell, exchange or barter.  This type of inventory does not require any loans from banks to start your little farm by the prairie, just some vision and imagination.

Agriculture does not need the expectations of any periodontist here o there, the Berny Maddox types ripping off, left and right.

The photos at right were taken in Bayamon City in a thirty year old housing project. The area is about 300 square meters, imagine all the different kinds of fruit, edibles, flowers, herbs and spices, trees, that could be found to make the agricultural revival, a process, a project involving the whole island for the benefit of all, and not only a few bastards thinking in their own pockets and benefit.

that is that.

domingo, 23 de diciembre de 2012

DAYDREAMERS BY THE FARM

SOME  segments of the Puerto Rico 'does it better' clan, in the agricultural department for feeding sovereignty, are now loudly talking about the need to return, to focus on the economical possibilities as if farming was/is such a simple activity.

Not one of them has considered the implications and complexity of agriculture, except with daydreamer utopic illusions. Some difficulties of any farming are environmental. Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, diseases and irrigation are among these.  Pragmatics in terms of economics/profits are the others.  Competition from foreign countries with quality produce, intermediaries and  chain supermarkets selling exclusively this imported and cheaper imports are a tremendous obstacle.

Them agriculture pundits should talk about these issues before they engage any tax payer moneys in projects similar to the super port in Ponce or the super gas pipe recently.  That is a most, unless they assume the government, perceived by too many as a employment agency and private bank to default,  will be the one to  subside their operations and buy all their products like a life sentence.

The  global economical crisis created by  avaricious, money laundering banks, security firms, real estate speculators and greedy politicians will not be corrected planting yautia, batatas and malangas without a serious look at  agriculture as a whole.

What is the short/long run plan? To plant what some islanders consume in their diet?  How much will they cost?  Will the price paid by consumers be equal, similar or below what is now available? What about quality?  Will the daydreamers get those supermarket chains to sell them?

I wonder if daydreamers by the farm comprehend the economics of world agriculture. That understanding will help in the planning. Cheap and exploited labor, with long hours, exposed to all kinds of pollution is what makes agriculture in USA and Europe a success.
That in turn, creates a collateral plague: illegal immigration in those regions, a problem not to worry anyjuan here since over 200,000 from Dominican Republic occupy some regions of Puerto Rico.

Other amazingly ignored issues are the possibilities of grape plantations for good or bad wine/vinegar.  It is really unbelievable those geniuses in the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez, experts in you name it,  if related to agriculture have never proposed it.

Considering the amount of  trees planted in many urban contexts, endemic or not,  such as roble, ucar, caoba, Ficus, to name 3,  creating problems with the electrical wires and water pipes, the blind hogs in question have never considered the exploitation of these trees for furniture, appliances or tooth picks if I may. industries are never mentioned.

The poultry segment of agriculture has been a failure more than once, even when chicken/eggs were sold everywhere and profits were made. Unfortunately, avarice once again killed the industry thanks to people in the board of directors,  stealing and defrauding the local enterprises.

Puerto Rico a Mecca of hog consumption in the roasted mode, in addition to all it parts, produces only 20 percent of the millions  of pounds required annually to feed the population, a third of which is morbid obese/obese. Believe it or not! 

THIS the picture or photo of the scene,
agriculture demands vision, a wide angle lens
preferably.  That is the reality, plus my perception. I have not mentioned fruits, with these any planting wont even be  be necessary. An inventory of every vicinity in Puerto Rico will  show a variety of oranges, lemons, guanabanas including breadfruit, in many  backyards that could be collected, bought, sold or bartered for the benefit of many home owners as they do in other countries.
 
Agriculture is more than panas, guineos i batatas,
cabrones.  It is time for a new register and reading the subject. A sure profitable agricultural enterprise of Cannabis sativa, plantation, manufacturing and distribution should be considered.  They do it in California. 14 billions of of  USA dollars are created there. It is time to decriminalize and jump in the wagon.
 
that is that







viernes, 14 de diciembre de 2012

USC IMPUNITY CHRONICLES II

PERHAPS, you belong to that gullible group of people happy with the money wasted to find out if there is/was life in Mars.
So what?  While the earth is destroyed, soil, water, air its flora and fauna.  I believe that urban contexts have to be protected and restored. Universidad Sagrado Corazon destroys that possibility on a daily basis.  The amount of birds, for example, is minimal thanks to 1,200 vehicles, delivery trucks, miscelaneous noises and pollution, night and day.
                                                                                                              
Universidad Sagrado Corazon   




However noise and pollution could never be a matter of individual discomfort, thanks to airwaves and air, it affects everyjuan, even if those making profits, find any fantasy explanation logical and fair.

 ALL those  responsible for this abuse and impunity have been informed for the last two years: administration dean, lawyers, president, Mary Martinez in the communication office, the director and staff of maintenance.  All have looked the other way.  In addition Department of Health for the Fazaa cafeteria food stench, Environmental Board about noises,  who did nothing until denounced to the Office of the Ombudsman, doing nothing in turn, did nothing to take this institution to the tribunal.

The absurdity of this situation, when I look at it--besides the avarice and greediness of all--USC and Mr Fazaa, is that in front of the loud basketball court and gym, there is a gigantic cafeteria enough to supply the demand from staff and future unemployed and emigrant students.  These lazy, morbid obese, complacent people, refuse to walk to maintain a good 
health--remember the shuttle-- 200 meters from Barat sur, where is located, to the giant cafeteria.

So far I have covered a few examples of pollution, fumes, air, noise, all from a hundred meters from Bouret street residents.  I am not finished. A few are left.
Their treatment, essential bad faith and attitude towards nature and  neighbors will  appear on the next episode.

that is that




















 

miércoles, 12 de diciembre de 2012

USC IMPUNITY CHRONICLES




HERE a first token of  feeble minds running USC and their impunity, disturbing the community with noise and pollution.  The solution to this daily morning and evening traffic jam is so
simple, you need no Harvard degree, Mr. Ricci,  nor to be a rocket scientist. Students, staff and employees with even numbers would enter from Ponce de Leon avenue,  odd numbers by the Eduardo Conde avenue.  Elementary Watson!   
The shuttle bus shows no concern for the health of the lazy, morbid obese students who refuse to exercise and walk, at Sagrado. There are between 500/600 steps from the train station to this polluting, noisy, crowded, over rated university. The shuttle bus is kept idling, non stop, burning fossil fuel every day for an average of 10 hours daily. However, this is not the only way the institution concerned with recycling paper and plastic, pollutes our environment.  Noise, fumes, food stench from the illegal cafeteria, in Barat sur, students, teachers, employees hollering before the sun rises are also part of the menu.
 
SOON after we bought our residence, 44 months ago, I wrote and visited the office of  dean Ricci, to inquire about this unbearable humming and the garbage truck daily pick ups at--believe it or not at 3AM--his written response?  The air conditioning chillers have been there (100' from our yard), for 20 years.  The truck arrives so early to be able to maneuver, before people park.  After thirty day of the garbage truck harrassment, I called WM and told them about their disturbing of peace, the now come daily at 7AM, to pick the garbage from the illegal Fazaa Cafeteria in Barat Sur.

I think this will do for now. There are teachers, students hollering, more pollution and noise from delivery trucks and destruction of trees in spite.  The leaves from a Tabebuia tree, in their property clogs the drain pipes in our garage, however they cut a couple of trees unnecessarily, leaving us with the problem after been informed.

     

I often wonder what goes on his mind?  Our house was built in 1940, that 3 story building in our backyard violates the community air space, 
taking away any peace and/or privacy.  How this fools got a permit to build this noise making factory, makes anyjuan wonder. What about a study on the environmental impact of such noisy chillers?


Universidad Sagrado Corazon

to be continued








PART III of the Parque Donha Ines Series

endemismotrasnochado


miércoles, 14 de abril de 2010


THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOREST...PART ll

Human induced disturbances to the landscape are now of such great scope and scale that they overshadow the patterns of natural disturbances. Natural disturbance is,
of course, part of a natural cycle, the result of climatic extremes, fire, the death of a tree, a flood, or countless other phenomena. Indeed, these cyclical events are a vital
stimulus to change and integral to sustaining regional diversity within great forest
expanses. What most distinguishes natural disturbance from human induced disturbance is the extent to which it falls within the historic range of its occurrence.
Events at the limit of the natural range shape the landscape profoundly, such as the
blowdown of 1938 in New England or the fire of 1963 in the Pine Barrens of the New
Jersey. Events that extend well beyond their naturally occurring variability, however, exceed the recoverability of many plant and animal communities.
Complex, long established ecosystems are collapsing after repeated disturbance.
For example, repeated clearcutting inflicts far more serious and long term impact
of natural forest regeneration than was previously recognized. At the same time,
a few supercompetitive and generalist species are thriving at the expense of almost all others in the landscapes created by human settlement. Now unchecked suburbanization and resource extraction are consuming ever more of the remaining wild and rural lands. The living systems around us are losing their
richness and resilience, and we sense the implications for own lives.

Few of us can fully imagine or appreciate the grandeur and intricacy of the original forest encountered by the first settlers. But mos of us remember a forest we knew once that we have watched decline or disappeared all together. The lands we saved for their rich landscapes are changing before our eyes as the impacts of the last few centuries become more visible.

While park users and land managers are becoming more aware of the urgency of the problem, they are hampered by lack of information and experience in dealing with the management and restoration of disturbed landscapes. Natural resource
managers typically study intact ecosystems and may have little experience with disturbed landscapes, and horticulturalists are usually inadequately trained
in large scale natural systems. Ecologists and biologists in the past often devoted
relatively little energy to solving on the ground management problems and sought
instead to find and document the most pristine sites. Today the scientific community is shifting its focus toward restoration, but there is are no consistent policies or proven methodologies that reliably result in restoration. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of all is that restoration is a long term effort requiring a high degree of expertise and commitment rather than a quick fix.

Despite the challenges facing them, many landscape managers are attempting forest restoration and getting some good results for their efforts. These concerned
managers are developing the art and science of caring for fragmented forests by monitoring, studying, maintaining, replanting, and experimenting in woodlands and forests. They are aware that restoration is an going job and that natural systems are often so compromised we cannot expect them to recover if they are simply left on their own. Progress is not necessarily smooth and transformation
are not instantaneous, but these landscape managers are monitoring the landscape, limiting further impacts, and initiating improvement in the management of the natural systems under their care.

I will leave it here. There is one more part of the introduction left. In Puercorico USA, any jerk
with/without academic titles, politicians, community leaders, and jerks/jerkettes, opportunists of all kinds, banks, public/private agencies believe that taking care/respecting the environment is just: collecting garbage, recycling, or digging holes like mentally retarded without supervision and planting trees without much else, any
thought about maintenance. That is my stance. and that is that....



martes, 11 de diciembre de 2012

PART TWO OF PREVIOUS

artes, 13 de abril de 2010

THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOREST

SOMETIMES, I wonder when will this prevailing anger, intolerance at the insular feeble mindedness will subside. Now in Feisbuk, there are some
environmental DUNE SAVERS, in Isabela. The ignorant savers announced
with great fanfare their great endeavor, but I noticed a remarkable error.

Dunes need something to grab, hold the sand in place. Ground covers and/or grass. Their selection? Cocos Nucifera. The retarded ones, instead
of doing research, under erosion, sand, decided to plant palm trees where there were none. These not only will not stop/decrease the erosion, the DUNE SAVERS fucked up the landscape scenery/view, obstructing it with the vertical barriers. JERKS!

The tittle of the post is also a must have book. If you are into the offering unsolicited opinions as I do, you have to read and have references available for the ignorants, illiterates, and Phd's, as ALBERTO ARECES MALLEA, and his aboriginal Mexican Olmec wife. If they had taken the time to read the essential chapters on forest/habitat restoration, the eco-environmental crimes against FLORA/FAUNA/WATER/SOIL, committed in Parque Donha Ines, would not have taken place.
The Once and Future Forest
Leslie Jones Sauer
and
Andropogon Associates
Island Press, 1998
For many of us, urban and suburban forests are the closest we can come to nature. Sadly, these beloved places are deteriorating throughout the country. Some forests are destroyed in a moment--cut over and built upon. Others, especially urban parks and remnant woodlands, die more slowly, their destruction is caused not by a single act but by an accumulation of daily assaults--by public use of the landscape as well as by the public agencies responsible for their care.

Protection of the land has not necessarily protected the landscape. We all contribute to this deterioration--from the mountain biker gouging a
rutted trail up a steep slope to the birder who steps of the path for a better view. Damage occurs when a police car, for example, compacts the soil on either side of a woodland trail meant only for pedestrians or when uncontrolled stormwater careens downslope, eroding the forest floor. Less visible but no less serious is the damage done daily by atmospheric pollutants from vehicles, industry and other energy
consumption.

For many species of wildlife, these forest fragments are habitat vital to their survival. In our sprawling, developed landscapes, every patch of green has become an increasingly important remnant in an ever more tattered fabric. Today
those responsible for the care of protected landscapes are expressing growing concern about the accelerating deterioration of this resource. The negative impacts of use and abuse, already apparent in urban parks, are becoming more visible in suburban and rural areas as well. For millions of people, contact with
the natural world is a progressively diminished experience. Our own observations
confirm the gravity of our environmental condition: We are losing the rich variety
of native plants and animals that once typified our regional landscapes. The biodiversity crisis is here in our backyards and parks.

Biodiversity is the variety of forms of life. In addition to the 30 million or more species of plants and animals on Earth, the term "biodiversity" embraces highly specialized subspecies which may be far more numerous as well as more suited to
a world that is becoming increasingly homogenized. Indigenous species, those that were native to an area before the European settlement in this hemisphere, are
dying our at about the same rate that exotic or alien species, those introduced by
people to a region, are establishing themselves.
to be continued...

Back to this world..If you want to do something about this, verify, or prepare your own rebuttal, go to Facebook, under SEARCH, go to Luis Munoz Marin Foundation, give them a call 787-755-4506 or 787-755-7979. Or do something better by writing: info@flmm.org.

Ask for the inventory of FLORA/FAUNA before the works in Parque Donha Ines started and after the destruction of all vegetation and soil. You may also REQUEST the botanical list of ANYTHING that has been planted in Parque Donha Ines. Talk to Zuleika Vallenilla or Julio Quiros Suazo your hosts down there. That is that.

lunes, 10 de diciembre de 2012

LAST FIVE YEARS BEST A COLLECTION

PARQUE DONA INES 

ALBERTO ARECES MALLEA phd  AND GABRIELA OCAMPO 

 WHY/HOW THEY FAILED

After my return from New York, 2002, I had the chance to work and watch closely the two mentioned in the tittle. Ignorant foreigners, one with more degrees than the Duchess of Alba and the wife, aboriginal from Central America.

If you read this blog often you may be sick about the importance of inventories. However, the damage by these two can not be forgiven and/or/forgotten. 8 million dollars wasted, along our flora/fauna without any rigorous botanical records before the massacre or after.

Restoring a forest is not for amateurs without any previous experience or expertise. It  is not a matter of just digging holes and planting endemic trees collected all over the island, without much consideration to other 
 Restoring a forest is not for amateurs without any previous experience or expertise. It  is not a matter of just digging holes and planting endemic trees collected all over the island, without much consideration to other environmental variables.



THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOREST
Leslie Jones Sauer
pages 30-31 

Poor Herbaceous and Shrub Recruitment

Because of the ease we cultivate plants in our gardens we may be unaware of how different a forest is.  For example, rampant reproduction by seed is a very important phenomenon in the garden and yard, for both desirable plants and weeds.  Not so in the forest, a landscape of very long-lived plants where reproduction is limited and where there are simply fewer chances  for recruitment even under the best of conditions.

While popular interest often centers on old trees, stands of wildflowers, where they still persist, may be far older.  What happens to be hundreds of mayapples, for example, 
may really be a single plant with myriad stems.  The same is true for trout lily and many other forest ferns and wildflowers.  Many forest wildflowers are in fact ancient clones that have been colonizing a site for centuries. 

The plight of native herbaceous plants is especially serious because reestablishing them is so difficult and takes so long.   Once its ground is lost, a new plant has little chance in the highly structured environment of a forest. All the vacancies are filled and, when they do occur, such as when a great tree dies, many well established plants are better poised to take advantage of the gap than a woodland wildflower.  

Once established, an herbaceous plant must hold its spot; 
hence the strategy of living a long time.  Living in the shadow of the trees makes flowering and setting seed a biologically expensive effort, so forest herbs tend to produce fewer and more infrequent seeds than their field-dwelling counterpars.  Many often rely on "vegetative reproduction"; that is, a new plant is established from a sucker or other vegetative part of an existing plant rather than from seeds only.  
This is a form of asexual, or clonal reproduction.  Indeed, 
vegetative reproduction, not seeds,  is often the rule in the eastern forest, and for woody species as well.  The trees of the temperate land are often called the "sprout" hardwoods. For many species reproduction by seed may occur only infrequently.

Some questions may be spinning in thy heads. That is the intention. Only a fool will be proud of destroying 15 acres of land with the biggest tractor available, compacting the soil, killing in fact every creature on top and below ground, without forgetting the top soil running down the slopes during two years. Leaving a moonscape where there was flora and fauna to be accounted for.

After the massacre, how can I forget  the scene: two fools on the hill spreading Kentuky Rye and Bermuda grass seeds in the compacted, destroyed soil when we were about to leave the premises. 

Or the caravans of tens of trucks with  80,000 pounds of 'top soil' spread on the compacted hills of Parque Dona Ines, over a 2 million tons total, also going running down the hills after each rain storm.

How can any one with such degrees, a polyglot do this? Never considering that a forest, has native grasses, herbaceous plants, vines, ground covers and shrubs?

The culprits, Gabriela Ocampo and Areces Mallea were not alone. Accomplices: The municipality of Trujillo Alto, 007 Recursos Naturales, Fundacion Luis Munhoz Marin the whole Board of Directors. 

I have to declare that many gullible people fell in the salt and water endemic dream these two preached for some time. However, one single voice for the last five years,  has not only kept the fraud on the surface, but researching, studying to go beyond the benefit of the doubt, with references and going back to journals, photos kept at the time.

that is that 
no sleeping and no laurels
down these here pastures 


 


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