Island views

This book, which took 4 years of worldwide research to complete, paints a most comprehensive picture of the activities of one of the world most controversial (and most despised) multinational.
In the first part of the book, French investigation journalist Marie Monique Robin looks at the history of one of the greatest polluter of industrial history, manufacturer of the infamous “Agent Orange” defoliant, which was used as a defoliant by the US armed force in Vietnam without them fully understanding the long term effects of this extremely toxic products, which contains dioxin, one of the most toxic molecule ever manufactured my man, and look in details at the way they routinely concealed from their client (including the Pentagon in the case of Agent Orange) the toxicity of the products they were manufacturing.
She also looks at the way Monsanto promoted Round Up (TM), now the most widely sold herbicide in the world, as a safe and even environmentally friendly product in spite of evidence of its toxicity, which Monsanto had carefully concealed. (The company was fined in France for false advertising in relation to Round Up).
Finally, she looks at the ill fated Bovine Growth Hormone, a product designed to increase the milk yield in cows (at the expense of their well being), that Monstanto launched in the US in the early 80s under the name Posilac,but failed to commercialise outside the US as it was rejected by the Canadian Ministry of Health, and later by the European Commission.
Along the way, the uncovers various bullying and lobbying tactics used by Monstanto to push its products and looks at its connections with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the government agency responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety of the nation’s food supply.,which is supposed to regulate most of Monsanto’s activities.
In part 2 of the books, she looks at the rise of Monsanto in the controversial area of GM crops (Monstanto now owns 90% of the World GM technology patents), up to its ill fated attempt to impose GM wheat (which foundered, even in the US, because of customers resistance to GMOs) and uncovers more bullying tactics and more disturbing connections with the FDA.
In part 3 of the books, she looks at the disastrous consequences that the introduction of the GM models has had in the 3rd world, from the loss of corn biodiversity in Mexico, to the expansion of (Round Up Ready) soy beans monoculture in South America driving small farming communities out of their land, and the wave of suicides in India in the wake of the introduction of transgenic cotton in that country.
A few quotes from part 3 of the book:
From an Argentinian agronomist: “People who grow transgenic soy beans have a purely commercial aim; they don’t live on their farm, so they don’t suffer the collateral damages… This transgenic technology does not serve the farmer but an economic enterprise whose promoters are prepared to do anything to get rich.”
From Ignacio Chapela, a former researcher in Berkeley University, who lost his job because he proved that Mexican corn had been contaminated with GM genes: “…we’re living in a totalitarian world, ruled by the interests of multinational corporations who recognize their responsibility only to their shareholders.”
Mrs Robin concludes on a positive note, showing that in spite of its apparent strengths, Monsato is a “Colossus with feet of Clay”,selling products that the world neither want nor need, and exposed to the constant risk of large litigation lawsuits.

A must read for anyone who wants to understand the problem of GM crops, or indeed, anyone who has more that a passing interest in food or agriculture.

In our quest for self suffiency, dairy production has been an important stumbling block.
When we started looking at what food we buy, dairy came up as one of our major import. This is even more of a problem on the island, because organic milk is not always available, even in Westport. And we buy large amount of yogurt, butter and cheese, as well as fresh milk.
Being very partial to goat milk, my first idea was to get goats. But Ciara, who doesn’t like goat’s milk and had goats before, vetoed it on the ground that goats would be very difficult to keep out of the garden and woodland, and would do enormous damage there.
So we looked at cows, and ended up buying 2 kerry cows. Kerry cows are an small, indigenous dairy breed, and it looked like a good idea at the time. But unfortunately, because they are a rare breed, many Kerry cows are kept solely for breeding, and are rarely handled. Suffice to say that ours only stayed on Clare island for 6 month, before being sold on to a rare breed enthusiast in Wexford. We didn’t even go as far as getting them in calf! We then toyed with the idea of getting a heifer from our friend Bernie, the only man on the island who is still milking his cows. But neither of us have much experience handling cows, and not much interest in them either and in the end, it didn’t happen, and 3 years later, we were stil no closer to being self sufficiency in milk.
Then, last year, I found out about milking sheep at Tim and Sandra’s place in West Cork (see my earlier postings on woofing in West Cork). I got to taste sheep milk for the first time in my life and realised that of all the milking animals, sheep are probably the easiest to keep. They are they are much smaller than cows, and therefore easier to handle, house and feed and a lot cheaper. More importantly, Ciara is well used to handling sheep, having kept some continuously for over 20 years . And besides, who need 10 liters of cows milk every day? In retrospect, how could we even have been stupid enough to buy two kerry cows? A good milking sheep gives over 2 liters of milk per day, enough to cover all our needs. The only questions was how they would survive on Clare Island.
I got the job of sourcing milking sheep, which turned out easy enough, just ring all the sheep cheese manufacturers in Ireland and find one who is willing to sell you a few ewes. We eventually got three Texel / Friesland cross ewes from Cratloe farm last October. We felt that pure Friesland wouldn’t survive on Clare Island, and that, although their milk yields might be a bit lower, a Texel cross would be a better bet. And although one of them died shortly after her arrival on Clare Island, the other two settled well. We put them to a local Texel ram and in March, we got our first lamb from them. It was time for me to build a milking stand for the ewes.
I had milked goats in Canon Frome Court last Autumn, and had a good idea of what it should look like, and Tim emailed me the essential dimensions: width,50 cm and distance between the yoke bars, 15 cm. With a few pieces of scrap timber and a sheet of plywood, I got the milking stand built in an afternoon. It turned out to be just as well, as the other ewes lost one of her lamb at birth and the other one a few days later, and we had to start milking right away.
Two month later, we are getting over 3 liters of milk every day from our two ewes, which is plenty: we have stopped buying fresh milk and yogurt and are even making a bit of cheese. In fact, we have so much milk that we milk one of the ewes only in the morning, and let her lamb (who will be kept as a ram) is left to suck during the day.
Sheep milk is richer than cows milk, but has a pleasant, mild taste, and most importantly, makes lovely yogurt.

Tess, one of our two milking ewes

Island life has a way of fostering self sufficiency. In matter of  hoof care, the road to self sufficiency  started for me on a windy winter morning, when our farrier rang from the harbour on the mainland, saying that, no, he wasn’t coming out to the island after all, as the sea was too rough.
Sinbad and Misty, our two riding horses, had been without shoes for a month at this stage. “When can you come?” I asked wearily. “Well, since I need a full day free to go out to you, it won’t be for another six weeks”. Ten weeks without riding. There had to be a better solution.
That’s when I started to research other options and found out about barefoot trimming.
For years, my riding horses had been shod because, like most horse owners, I simply didn’t know horses could be ridden without shoes. In my ignorance, I assumed that riding a horse barefoot was cruel, or at best, careless.
But necessity, in this case, turned out to be the mother of education. A bit of research led me to the work of Jaime Jackson and after reading his “Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care”, I knew that not only I had found the perfect solution to my shoeing problem, but that I would end up with happier, healthier horses.
Shoeing is clearly a specialized skill, but trimming hooves looked more like something that I could master. After all, I am a reasonably competent amateur carpenter, so as far as I was concerned, with the right tools, I could do it. As well as a set of farrier tools, I got a copy of Peter Ramey’s “Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You”, and a few trimming DVDs, and I was on my way.
My first attempts at trimming were slow and awkward. The hooves looked OK, much like the ones in the books, but I wasn’t really sure that what I was doing wasn’t hurting the horses, and one of the riding horses was tender on his feet without shoes. Clearly, there’s only so much you can learn from books and videos. I needed further training.
Unfortunately, looking for a training course proved frustrating. There were none in Ireland, and while I could have travelled to England every month for 2 years and become a qualified “equine podiatrist”, I could neither spare the time nor the money to do this.
That’s when an internet search found Dermot McCourt’s website. Someone in Ireland who was doing barefoot trimming! Not only that, but he had been a farrier and had twenty odd years professional experience in hoof care. He had rescued many laminitic horses including some desperate cases that were on their way to slaughter. It looked like I had found the right man. Luckily, after a couple of phone calls, Dermot agreed to come to the island to trim a few horses and show me how to do it.
Dermot’s first visit to the island was a memorable experience for all involved (including Dermot himself, who ended up travelling back to the mainland at dusk, in rough seas, in a RIB). But within the few hours he had spent on the island, he had managed not only to trim our horses, but to gently point out my trimming mistakes -the toes and the bars left too long, leading to contracted heels and bruised soles -and to show me a few tricks of the trade. Most importantly, he had proven to be hugely competent and extremely generous with his knowledge. The idea of a more formal training course was born, and while it took a while to obtain funding and organise it, this was eventually held on the island in March this year.
Ten horse owners gathered in the Clare Island community centre bar to listen to Dermot talk about why horses first got shod, why shoes are not necessary, and explain in detail the anatomy of the horse hoof. Then, after a healthy lunch, we all headed out to start trimming.

Trimming demonstration by Dermot

We had lined up a variety of horses. Mostly Connemara brood mares, of course, as they are the most numerous on the island, but also an Icelandic riding pony, a few of our own horses (who regularly work barefoot), and a couple of youngsters. Trimming proved to be the most instructive part of the workshop as we worked our way through a variety of cracked, overgrown or bruised hooves (as well as some healthy feet), under the expert guidance of Dermot and his son John (also a qualified trimmer). By the end of the workshop, we had seen fifteen horses trimmed, everyone had put rasp to hoof, and we all felt a lot more confident about doing it ourselves. Of course, we are only talking about maintenance trims, not remedial work or shoeing. But with a clear picture in one’s mind of what a healthy hoof should look like, as well as good hooves to start with, it is possible.

Before and after trimming

We will be running another Natural hoof care workshop at Macalla farm in September.

See also our Horse ressources web page for links to barefoot trimming ressources.