Editor’s note: Here we go again: another uninformed column by weekly columnist George Boardman drawing an “Other Voices” in The Union. It’s endless. Think of all the ink and paper that is wasted from publishing his column and then having to publish the counterpoint. How utterly unproductive. Where’s the RL Crabb cartoon on “Bored Georgeman”? LOL.
“George Boardman’s portrayal of organic farming as food grown for indulgent yuppies and not worth the extra money is an outstanding example of not understanding the subject of GMOs whatsoever.
“The main reason the public wants food labeled is because of the amount of herbicides and pesticides that are sprayed on GMO crops.
“Many of those chemicals remain on and in the food that goes to kitchen tables all over the world.
“More reasons for ‘no’ to GMOs:
“1. Organic farming practices are safer for the water, air, soil, farm workers, farm families, all animals, bees, adjacent towns and especially children and pregnant women.
“We are all paying extra for the fallout from GMOs.
“2. The weeds that are being sprayed are now superweeds— resistant to the herbicides, requiring heavier use or stronger poisons further affecting the environment.
“3. The GMO companies produce patented seeds that farmers are not legally allowed to save without paying again and they manufacture the herbicides and pesticides that go with them.
“4. There are health risks associated with GMO feeds given to lab rats and farm animals.”
The rest of the column is here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 
“Village Idiot” will lkely be taken as a complement!?! Perhaps subscribers should demand from the Publisher these silly, yet harmful, features reuired citations for the BS they are selliing.
See SACRAMENTO CONNECT at the SACBEE is featuring thhis post. Soooo, the world now knows about GEORGE and what locals who still subscribe to The Union SUPPORT (unless your only reaspon for subscribing, far as I can tell, is to have the ability to comment, and hopefully negate “our not so secret, secret” about what the paper puts on display. Then they wanna be looked upon as a contributor to Grass Valley or Western Nevada County as a tourist stop. Yea, right.
Hiring a guy in the year 2014 who routinely bashes the anti-GMO, organic and farm-to-table movement in his weekly columns. Now that’s another “only in Nevada County” story.
BTW, now here’s a guy The Union ought to hire instead: “Horace Georgeman,” George’s parody on Facebook. He’s a pretty perceptive fellow:
11/12/14 Monsanto Co. has reached a $2.4 million settlement with Pacific Northwest wheat farmers who sued after unapproved genetically modified wheat was discovered growing in Eastern Oregon.
The discovery, in May 2013, prompted Japan and South Korea to temporarily suspend some wheat orders, and the European Union to call for more rigorous testing of U.S. shipments.
Monsanto has not admitted liability, but has agreed to pay——- Chase Bank anyone?
I hope George reads, or gets out, a little more. Japan, South Korea, and The European Union quit buying our wheat over GMO. Holding your hands out like a scale, with Boardman on one hand, and the worlds scientists on the other, — now let me see……
As I said, George is another “only in Nevada County” story.
Robert Kennedy Jr. warned that being able to patent seeds would in the long run destroy Monsanto or whatever company who owns the patent. Eventually farmers will figure out the law works both ways and will sue due to patented seed infected their crops.
Monsanto is the 3rd most hated company on the planet only to be outdone by BP and BofA. http://drleonardcoldwell.com/2014/11/12/poll-monsanto-third-most-hated-company-in-the-world/
I am out for the winter on social media except for occasional updates on FB, it is time to roll up the sleeves and get writing a book with the working title of;
27/5
How Obamacare Saved My Life
The 27/5 represents the numbers of my prognosis 27% survival rate for 5 years.
And
Obamacare or Covered California made health insurance affordable to my wife and I who have been health insurance free for almost a decade due to being self employed and our premiums going up 300% in one year for no apparent reason other than they could do it and there was nothing we could do about it.
I hope everyone has a great holiday season and winter.
I’m about as far of an indulgent yuppie (or any kind of yuppie) as one could get and I still avoid GMOs. George failed miserably on his “research”. There are people from all walks of life waking up to this disaster and avoiding GMOs like the plague.
I actually enjoyed reading the Union… this morning. This column, the opinion piece on legalization of marijuana will lead to ruination of our economy, story on Greg Faller, and the letters of intent for NU’s student athletes.
The pure evil of the GMO industry was never more apparent to me than when, after a devastating earthquake in Pakistan, local subsistence farmers were provided with GMO seeds and fertilizers to increase their production. The result of this is the loss of native stocks, exhaustion of farmland, and finally the collapse of the small farm economy when the farmer can’t afford specials seeds and fertilizers. This type of thing should be seen for what it is: a legal crime perpetrated on the poor.
Greg,
The same thing is going on in South East Asia and India. It is amazing what traveling around the world and seeing the things US based businesses are doing out in the open of underdeveloped nations. The financial sector and their influencing the cost of commodities needs to be outlawed as well since they never take delivery on those investments but rather just sell off the shares when they hit the correct price. People who live on those commodities get screwed big time when the cost even goes up pennies in US dollars because I don’t know how many billion people around the world live on less than $2 American a day. So a a five cent increase is quite substantial and in bad cases unaffordable forcing the family to do without the little nourishment the get from those commodities.
I think you were swayed by the piece that legalization of marijuana will lead to ruination of our economy. 😉
I was a bit a taken back that someone would say something like that thinking that it would convince us to keep marijuana illegal.
Actually.. that was just worth a small chuckle. An example of the dumbing down of our country or too stoned to know better.
The fact that George pretends to be middle of the road is laughable. Climate change, GMOs, fracking, etc. are all right wing corporate causes. A recent study at Duke University found that people’s reality is filtered through their ideological beliefs based on the proposed solutions to a problem. For example, when liberal types are presented with solutions for “home invasion robberies” their belief in the propensity of home invasion will vary by solution. When the offered solution is restricting gun ownership liberals tend to overstate the incidents of home invasion. When the offered solution is increased gun ownership, liberals will downplay the frequency of such acts. Climate deniers work in the same way. When the proposed solution to climate change issues is more government regulation, conservatives will deny that climate change is happening. When the proposed solution is ” allowing business to create innovative technologies to combat climate change”, 55% of Republicans will acknowledge that climate change is a problem. Thus mistrust of government carries more weight in the argument than facts.
We also shouldn’t forget that it was a column like this (“whether farmers markets are really better for the environment”) that turned Russ Steele into a Former Union Columnist. LOL
https://sierrafoothillsreport.com/2010/04/03/russ-steele-i-have-been-fired-as-a-union-columnist/
I think Russ is a sincere person in his beliefs, but, in my humble opinion, he tends to rely too heavily on corporate sponsored right wing think tanks and blogs for his information, much like George Boardman or so it seems based on some of the columns he has written.
The Circle of Stupid:
Oh, no they’re after me again this week! A rarely updated blog called “cascadeshoresstuff” suddenly writes: “You can find him slamming beers at Jernigans, frequently.” Really? I tried to contact the author (I believe it is Denise Cain of Nevada City) for a correction, but the email address bounced. This personal attack got my attention, because I have had only had two pints of suds (one in each sitting) at Jernigan’s, which its owner Sean can attest to. Jon Shilling saw me drinking one of the pints, at a lunchtime lecture with Charlie Bamforth, an eminent professor in the brewing program at UC Davis. I do enjoy going there with my wife and son for lunch, however. For background, this blogger is friends with Dixie Redfearn, RL Crabb and others, so I could only surmise how such a personal attack might have wound up on her blog.
Then in a parody post about me – with a headline that made light of concussions, comas and my personal appearance and led to Denise’s post, The Union Publisher Jim Hemig, who is supposedly a busy professional, weighed in with the only comment: “Yeah and monkeys might fly out of my butt.” Really Jim? That’s interesting.
Penny Matson summed up this behavior well on RL Crabb’s blog, where I was ridiculed in a cartoon and some nasty comments were posted: “I am surprised at the crude and ugly tone of some of these remarks. How is it that the blog and opinions of another local character appear so threatening to your commenters? They sound like adolescents bullying an unpopular kid. Seems sad somehow.”
Small towns are a hoot, but not for the faint hearted. I haven’t had so much fun since junior high school.
I can personally attest to the fact that yes, I did see Jeff enjoying a pint (one) at Jernigans, at Charlie Bamforth’s outstanding presentation. For the record I thoroughly enjoyed the company at our shared table and I enjoyed a pint with my burger, too. I sincerely hope that this does not invite personal attacks and I look forward to my next visit to the fine establishment, Jernigans.
Since her email bounced, I have left a voice mail with Denise Cain of Cascade Shores, asking her where she got the erroneous information (I can easily surmise) and asking her to correct it. This is one of the “circles of stupid” in our community; in fact, there are several besides the one in the hard-right blogosphere. This is the Nevada City (or ex-Nevada City) contingent. It’s members are well known to our family. They usually cringe at a personal conversation, because they like to hide behind their computers or launch the “whisper campaigns.” It’s like being in junior high school all over again.
The offensive blog post has been removed.
You nailed it Jeff. Old fishy pants now thinks we’ve met and shook wrists? You & I have never met, you sure he’s some kind of detective? Well, maybe a little on the Maxwell (not so) Smart side.
I count Dixie as a friend, don’t know RL Crabb (1 for 2 Jeff) Was gone all day on 11/14, when I got home had a message from you, a message from CSHA rep, and noticed the blog link removed from website. No worries, I only wrote in it once a month, it had run it’s course (blog still exists, just not listed on their website) Voluntarily removed the “offensive” post, sent you an apology via PM on your facebook. Meant Ol Repubic, not Jernigans. I get the watering holes mixed up, not being much of a patron. Keep on keeping on. I don’t know you, but apparently the rumors are true. PS: no email from you. Perhaps you made a typo. 0 for 1. Oy vey.
DC
Hi Denise,
Here’s the email I received about you from the board of the Cascade Shores HOA:
“Jeff,
On behalf of the CSHA board we would like to apologize for the content of Denise’s blog on our website. We in no way condone the actions of Denise, feel the blog was inappropriate and contrary to our goal that the website provides only information that reflects a positive image of Cascade Shores. The blog has been removed from the website. Again, our sincerest apologies.”
Ouch! BTW, I don’t “slam” them down at ol’ Republic either. Any beer I buy from them is “to go,” in a growler, and my wife does the buying. I think we’ve bought about four in total. Tell Dixie I said “Hi.”
Denise Cain,
I didn’t know that you count Liz Kellar, The Union’s city editor, as a friend too. That explains a lot. Happy New Year!
This is priceless:
Jonathan says:
November 15, 2014 at 9:35 pm
RL, why do you allow anonymous posters such as “fish”? Who are these people?
Reply
rlcrabb says:
November 16, 2014 at 5:32 am
I guess you don’t read the Sierra Foothills Retort, where Fish was outed as a guy named Dave who lives somewhere in the Sacramento valley. It is a requirement on this blog to let me know if you are a real person, and then I decide whether to let the comment stand. “Fish” can comment here, “Jonathan”.
Reply