The Three Sisters: Corn Beans and Squash

By Kristopher Hite

Planted together corn, beans, and squash form a "holy trinity" of cooperative growth. By living in close quarters they provide each other with physical protection and nutritional abundance. As the corn emerges high above the others the stalk provides a living scaffold the beans can coil their vines around as they seek the sun. Meanwhile at ground level the squash act as living mulch by preserving moisture under shady leaves and monopolizing sunlight that might otherwise go to nefarious weeds. The prickly stems of the squash provide a defense system against raccoons and other pests that might otherwise "help" harvest the corn.

Underneath the soil the balancing act continues. The beans are legumes - famous for their ability to reduce nitrogen to nitrates by using their root nodules filled with nitrogen fixing bacteria. Corn is notorious for sucking nitrates from soil at a high rate. In the context of large scale farming, corporations get around this by dumping tons of nitrate fertilizers on the corn fields. To fix nitrogen artificially fertilizer producers need to use copious amounts of fossil fuels. This demonstrates that our current food supply relies on ever-evaporating cheap fossil fuels. Another pressing reason to remember and respect the wisdom of the three sisters.

The origin of this wisdom is not a university laboratory but the pre-Columbian fields of present day New York State. The Iroquois or Ho-de-no-sau-nee stumbled upon this beautiful triumvirate sometime during the millenia they lived and played there. So central was this horticultural combination to their sustenance that it became intertwined with their spiritual world-view.

Lewis Henry Morgan writes in League of the Iroquois (First published 1851).

"These plants were regarded as a special gift of Ha-wen-ne-yu (The Great Spirit); and they believed that the care of each was entrusted, for the welfare of the Indian, to a separate Spirit. They are supposed to have the form of beautiful females, to be very fond of each other, and to delight to dwell together. This last belief is illustrated by the natural adaptation of the plants themselves to grow up together in the same field, and perhaps from the same hill. Their apparel was made of the leaves of their respective plants; and in the growing season they were believed to visit the fields, and dwell among them. This triad is known under the name of De-o-ha-ko, which signifies Our Life, or Our Supporters. They are never mentioned separately, except by description, as they have no individual names."

Depending on where you live the time to plant these varies but on average the span between April 20th and mid May marks the optimal planting window. As an added bonus cultivating a garden in your yard or containers in your apartment with your children boosts their veggie intake and physical activity.



For a much more in-depth look at the practical aspects of cultivating the three sisters see this article by the homesteader John Vivian.

Tom Vilsack can't be all bad if he appreciates this wisdom.

HERMANN, J., PARKER, S., BROWN, B., SIEWE, Y., DENNEY, B., & WALKER, S. (2006). After-School Gardening Improves Children’s Reported Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 38 (3), 201-202 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2006.02.002

James Lovelock has a new book

We have summoned the thoughts of this skeptical prophet before within the pages of Tom Paine's Ghost. At ninety years of age his wit remains nimble. The Vanishing Face of Gaia a Final Warning by James Lovelock is reviewed this week in Nature. Watch an interview with James Lovelock here on Nature video archives.

Earth Day 2009

A small thing we all can do right now is bookmark ENERGY.GOV. By coming back to this site periodically we can make sure we walk the walk.

Why has "UNION" become a dirty word?

By Kristopher Hite

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

...and on and on, as most people who attended grade-school anytime in the later half of the twentieth century probably know. This classic ballad of the American landscape was written by good old Woody Guthrie. But there is a song, most people probably do not know, that was written by this same brilliant American - the ballad of the Ludlow Massacre.

On April 20th, 1914 twenty men, women, and children were murdered in Ludlow, Colorado by the Colorado National Guard. The men in these families were part of the mine worker's union that were staging a labor strike. This struggle represents the roots of the American labor movement and unfortunately has been forgotten in recent years.



In his penetrating dissection of the recent financial meltdown and subsequent corporate power-grab Matt Taibbi makes a subtle point regarding unions and their political decline in recent decades. Taibbi describes how Bill Clinton's administration turned their back on unions simply because the Democrats were sick of loosing the fund-raising game during campaigns. Of course there has been a concerted effort by Republicans to undermine the philosophical concept of a union for the better part of the last century, but this relatively recent change in Democratic attitudes towards unions has further eroded any remaining traction unions held in the minds of the electorate.

Cornell University has an entire college dedicated to the study of industrial/labor relations. Much work here focuses on giving workers the tools they need to use leverage when undertaking collective bargaining. The college helps the research process of unions so they might identify weaknesses in corporations and exploit them in order to gain the basic rights they deserve - health care, decent pay, respect.

This is where, I think, there is a fundamental misunderstanding amongst the general public. What is the purpose of a union?

To guarantee basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.

This is the reason I am writing about this on Tom Paine's Ghost.

People have been made to believe that unions are filled with fat lazy socialists who don't want to work. This is part of the distorting barrage of information that oozes from broadcast corporations such as the Sinclair Broadcast Group who have their tentacles wrapped around the visual cortices of the American Midwest. Some unions may have behaved improperly and over-stepped their bounds when considering the United Auto Workers Union and others. But this is no reason to disband the concept of unions altogether!

Again. The main purpose of a Union is to guarantee basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.

Upon recommendation from a friend that attended the college of Industrial Labor Relations I began reading a book titled Global Unions. This book is the distillation of a conference held in February of 2006 regarding the past current and future role of unions on the international stage. Video of each talk given can be found here.

The main point made here, through historical perspectives and contemporary examples, is that in order for unions to be effective, from now on, they need to operate on the same scale as the multinational corporations they serve to balance.

While we approach the anniversary of the Ludlow massacre I feel obligated to breath onto the embers of understanding unions. It will be interesting to see how ideas about unions evolve in the recently bluing state of Colorado. This state has maintained an anti-union err up until very recent history. Traveling to Pueblo, CO in fall of 2008 I heard many first-hand accounts of scabs blocking the efficacy of a steel-workers strike at the Oregon Steel Mill there in the early 2000s.

On the birthday of Clarence Darrow I feel it appropriate to reignite an understanding and passion for core union precepts; basic rights - health care, decent pay, respect.

It was THAT bad

If there are any psychological handbooks out there that help rape victims cope I suggest they be handed out to every American citizen. As a country that metaphor is sadly quite apt for what happened to us over the last eight years. From the administration of a man elected on the premise of restoring morality to the white house came a clear sanction of torture. If you have not read the memoranda released by President Obama last Thursday please consider reading them to form your own opinion of whether the practices described within constitute torture.

I had heard of and even skimmed The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, I had seen previews for Taxi to the Dark Side, but I had always maintained a hope that the US government really did not use these torturous practices. I wanted to believe that this was not possible. That age of innocence ended for me yesterday as I read the last of the torture memos released by President Obama. I realized finally that it really was THAT bad.

I began the move from denial to anger.

At once I wanted justice served to individuals. I wanted to see George W. Bush in front of an international court of justice being tried for war crimes. If not George Bush then at least the person who made the legal decision to allow these practices to be carried out on our enemies, namely ninth circuit court judge Jay Bybee. After calming and talking with friends I realized that even if the person that wrote these "permission slips" for torture was convicted of sanctioning torture what justice would come of this for future generations faced with these same questions?

After ruminating on the most effective cascade of events to ensue in the wake of these memos being made public I came to one solid conclusion. A case should be brought to the supreme court, the people of the United States vs. Jay Bybee. The desired result of such a hearing would be to make clear to the world the exact definition of torture. Our supreme court justices would have a monumental task of using language to build a threshold barrier on the slippery slope between interrogation and torture. In this manner we would both serve justice and clarify the guidelines for what a civilized democracy can and cannot do under universal circumstances.

In the meantime it is our duty as a self-informing citizenry to carefully read these memos and think about their implications. One conclusion I have made is that it really was as bad as I had suspected.

If you happen to have 3 hours of extra time you might want to watch this



John Yoo - this is the name of the author of some of the torture memos. Though Jay Bybee's name appears at the top of the memos John Yoo admits in this hearing (video directly above 1 hour and 13 minutes in) drafting the document.

Praise for "Not Exactly Rocket Science"

A Blog Review.

Perusing the corridors of the free buffet of information out there precious few minds deliver a steady stream of clear, insightful, and inspiring material to ponder. One shining star has emerged for me. This is Ed Yong, author of Not Exactly Rocket Science.

While reading some background on why Ed writes his blog I came to the following sentence which sums up the way I feel about sharing information over the internet through thought-posting.

And I prefer to talk talking about science than attacking anti-science. Many people already do that very well and I appreciate the need for that approach in order to defend ourselves from nonsciencical rubbish. But I don't personally believe that bashing creationists or homeopathists is going to inspire people to take an interest in science in the first place. The things that have done that for me are popular science books, wildlife documentaries, good teaching etc, things all united by the common theme of making science seem less complicated and more beautiful. That's the approach I fancy.

"Taking on the System" a book by Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga presented one thought that really jumped out at me and stuck in my head. That is that the purpose of a blog is not to tell people what they SHOULD think but to provide people with the information they need to form their own opinions. I did not agree with many other points Mr. Zúñiga made in this book but this is certainly a worthy ideal that I feel Mr. Yong embodies by making statements as I have just displayed.

For individuals who do not "believe" in evolution it is not the duty of scientists to berate them and tell them they are wrong but rather to present the beautiful data demonstrating evolution in action. It is not a climate expert's job to have a screaming match with an oil & gas investor on the message boards of big newspapers but rather to simply clarify their explanation of the data by further refining their delivery of the facts.

On top of these lofty standards Ed Yong has set for himself he also infuses his blog with wonderful mental excursions down scientifically related cultural avenues. His review of the evolution of Ballet serves to bridge understanding by drawing in readers that might otherwise give no care to the thought of evolving cultural elements.

Not Exactly Rocket Science takes a positive tone in diffusing big ideas and intricate data in a most accessible fashion. In a sea of information this is one island I would suggest revisiting over and over again.

Building a "Cerebral Electorate"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bush Torture Memos

A little bird told me that Air Force One has sent a message on the wire saying it will release 4 Bush era memos on excessive interrogation practices. We need to bring Robert H. Jackson back from the dead to preside over the
BUSH
CHENEY
RUMSFELD
WOLFOWITZ
ARMITAGE
POWELL
PEARL
ROVE
RICE
TENET
War crimes hearings!

We are no longer the United States of Amnesia and we all remember reading the US constitution in grade school and the part about cruel and unusual punishment.
And we all remember the Geneva Convention agreements. You will not get away with hijacking our country without justice being served to you Mr. Bush!
Read more at the Guardian.

Everyone wants to be Thomas Paine

First it was Bob Basso now it is Glenn Beck. Why is Thomas Paine such a popular hero with these extremely egotistical right-wing gasbags? What does this say about me as I have named this very website in honor of Mr. Paine? I hope it just says that these racist, chauvinist, and apparently illiterate pundits claiming to be modern reincarnations of Paine never made it past the first few sentences in the Wikipedia article on Paine.

Chris Kelly does a great job at the Huffington Post breaking down the fundamental differences between the real Thomas Paine and all these contemporary personality hijackers.

Here is a brief smattering to wet your whistle.

But before another sputtering doofus claims to be the author of the Rights of Man, he might want to check if they share a single belief.

Do you like estate taxes? Paine was pitching them in 1791.

How about progressive taxation? Paine wasn't just for it, he made charts and graphs.

Welfare? Absolutely.

Government make-work programs? Yep. Pay for them with the estate tax.

Public education? Yes, please.

International organizations? Paine said we needed them. Thought they might be useful for preventing wars after we disarmed.

Feminism?

If a woman were to defend the cause of her sex, she might address him in the following manner ... If we have an equal right with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right to praise? ... Our duties are different from yours, but they are not therefore less difficult to fulfill, or of less consequence to society ... You cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less than you ... Permit our names to be sometimes pronounced beyond the narrow circle in which we live. Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its emblem on the tomb where our ashes repose; and deny us not that public esteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of well doing. -- T. Paine

Compare and contrast:

OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you're a guy, you can get past it. I don't think you can as an ugly woman. I don't -- no, I don't. If you're an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you've got a double cross, because if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well. --G. Beck

Animal Rights Nuts?

Everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty. -- T. Paine

Religion?

Religion is under attack! -- G. Beck

Priests and conjurors are of the same trade. -- T. Paine

Clammy Tub Toys who Think Putting on a Tricorn Makes Them Thomas Paine?

I'm Thomas Paine. -- G. Beck

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. -- T. Paine

Read the entire comparison here.

These comments echo my own sentiments on these unfortunate associations.

ABOUND SOLAR - Opens SupPLANT Today

Colorado governor Bill Ritter, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Hermann Scheer and the head of the National Renewable Energy Lab spoke at a ribbon cutting ceremony this morning in Longmont, Colorado. The first commercial production of the low cost cadmium telluride solar cells begins today at the ABOUND SOLAR factory.

Read more about the company, its history and vision here and here.