Chronology of Earth

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#6666CC" TEXT="#080000" background="54401573.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" >Chapele.com</FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chapele.com"><B>home</B></A><B>                            </B><B>back to</B>  <A HREF="questions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions">Questions</A>                                         <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Amaze" ><A HREF="http://www.radiozx.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.radiozx.com">RadioZX</A></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="religion.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Religious News">Religious News</A>   |   <A HREF="prayer.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prayer">Prayer</A>   |   <A HREF="wedding_servcies.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Wedding Servcies">Wedding Servcies</A>   |   <A HREF="divorce_guide.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Divorce Guide">Divorce Guide</A>   |   <A HREF="funeral_guide.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Funeral Guide">Funeral Guide</A>   |   <A HREF="charity.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Charity">Charity</A>   |   <A HREF="questions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions">Questions</A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#6666CC" TEXT="#080000" background="543d2013.jpg"> <div> <B>Chronology of Earth</B></div> <div> <A HREF="education.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Education">Education</A></div> <div> <A HREF="health.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Health">Health</A></div> <div> <A HREF="calendar.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Calendar">Calendar</A></div> <div> <A HREF="credits.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Credits">Credits</A></div> <div> <A HREF="search.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Yahoo Search">Yahoo Search</A></div> <div> <A HREF="about_us.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us">About Us</A></div> <div> <A HREF="contact_us.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us">Contact Us</A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>CHAPELE CHAT</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="55b6d600.gif" border=0 width="109" height="96" ALT="CHAPELE CHAT" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>Chronology of Earth</B></I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Botanical Humanist Chronology</B></div> <div> <B>History of Homo Sapiens</B></div> <div>  <A NAME="world_history_time_line"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><IMG SRC="55efb290.png" border=0 width="507" height="41" ALT="botanical beauty fresh from nature" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Chapele.com </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >WILL GROW this Time Line Page</FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > through out the life of the WORLD WIDE WEB. </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#006633" FACE="Arial" >World history is different from a green perspective.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> It is intellectually fashionable to fetishize the unknown, but at this World Time Line, a person will get the opposite feeling -- that science is a voracious, relentless and tireless enterprise, and that soon there may not remain on this Earth an unturned stone.</div> <bR> <div> This Time Line represents a search for information, for factoids, even trivia, that mark advances and turns in the History of the World, documenting the idea that the Earth has provided the foundations for human health, and pleasure.</div> <bR> <div> Entries range from basic to whimsical, chronicling the interaction between humans as well as enlivening the way we view our Country.</div> <bR> <div> This Time Line gives world history from the viewpoint of a Botanical Humanist.  It is the story of Human discovery and use, and addresses the role of Earth in human civilization.</div> <bR> <div> The Time Line also provides you as an individual the opportunity to reflect on how the history of human interaction with the Earth has shaped and impacted your own life and heritage. Pursuits Not So Trivial.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>The typical story of civilization will say little or nothing about plants.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> History focuses on powers and potentates, on seminal events in the lives of individuals and nations, seldom acknowledging the roles of plants in the daily lives of humans, much less in great matters of economy and culture.</div> <bR> <div> World history is different from a green perspective. It started with the formation of carbon, oxygen, and other elements in the hot fury of big bangs and supernovae billions of years ago.</div> <bR> <div> Anaerobic bacterial life reigned until the revolution brought about by photosystem II - the unleashing of free oxygen.</div> <bR> <div> Advanced life forms, evolving in this newly oxygenated and reactive world, were aerobic. They were not only dependent totally on photosystem II for oxygen, but like many of their anaerobic comrades, dependent on photosystem I and the dark reactions for fixed carbon and available energy.</div> <bR> <div> The entire breathing world evolved so completely in the context of green services that ever present plant have become as unseen as air itself.</div> <bR> <div> To most humans  plants are static natural fixtures, growing, but somehow un-living. The truth, from a botanical perspective, is predictably contrary.</div> <bR> <div> Plants are green makers of life, utilizing the raw ingredients of a physical world, the legendary earth, air, fire, and water, to create oxygen and sugars, cells and materials, landscapes and habitats.</div> <bR> <div> To Add Data to the information provided here, fill out the Form at The Bottom of this page or <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="#time_line_form" TITLE="Chronology of Earth">Click Here</A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> In the Begining</div> <div> <B>About 3.8 billion years ago</B></div> <div> <B>Oldest Fossils on Earth</B></div> <div> <B>About 3.8 billion years; they're bacteria-like organisms</B></div> <bR> <div> Homo Sapien is 250,000 years old</div> <div> First Primates are 70 millon years old</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Dawn of Religon France 25,000 years ago</B></div> <div> Paleolithic Man in Europe.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Is THIS How Life Began on Earth?</B></div> <div> Life on Earth began in outer space--specifically the warm, mushy insides of comets.</div> <div> That's the bold and controversial theory of Chandra Wickramasinghe, an astrobiologist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, who insists that life on Earth started after a comet filled with a warm and watery clay pool collided with the Earth, creating a perfect environment for organic molecules to be transformed into living creatures.</div> <bR> <div> Wickramasinghe and his team say the proof is in the math.</div> <div> They have calculated that it is one trillion trillion times more likely that life started inside a slushy comet than on Earth, reports Space.com.</div> <bR> <div> "The comets and the warm watery clay pools in comets are settings in which the organic molecules are transformed into living structures in comets," Wickramasinghe told Space.com. "That transformation is more likely in some comet somewhere in the galaxy than in any small pond on the Earth." </div> <bR> <div> <B>Not so fast!</B></div> <div> Even though the findings have been published in the prestigious International Journal of Astrobiology, not everyone is convinced this theory is right. Many scientists do think that comets could have delivered some of the water and organic materials necessary for life on Earth; however, their agreement with Wickramasinghe ends there, insisting his theory is speculative and without hard evidence.</div> <bR> <div> "It is a theory built on air, not solidly grounded in scientific facts," David Morrison, a senior scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who was not involved in the study, told Space.com. </div> <bR> <div> <B>How could a comet be the building block of life on Earth?</B></div> <div> Wickramasinghe's theory is based on the idea that comets are filled with porous clay particles that can hold water in liquid form--for just about forever. While some comets may be like this, it doesn't fit the description of all comets.</div> <bR> <div> The "assumption that Earth has very little clay while comets are full of clay is the key to their argument, and it is at best speculation," Morrison insisted to Space.com. </div> <bR> <div> No matter what is inside a comet, Paul Falkowski, a biochemist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, doesn't think the origin of life can be solved with a mathematical calculation. "These basic kinds of things are dependent on the beginning initial assumptions.</div> <bR> <div> I don't know that we know the odds," Falkowski explained to Space.com.</div> <bR> <div> "We know the odds for exactly one planet, and it happened once, so everything else is a game." In fact, Falkowski thinks that DNA could only survive a few hundred thousand years in space, which rules out the idea that comets could have been the key to populating the Earth.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The tenets of many religious faiths hold that life sprung from clay. Find out how science has now backed that up.</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <B>Researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have shown that materials in clay were key to some of the initial processes in forming life, reports Reuters.</B></div> <bR> <div> The essential material is a clay mixture called montmorillonite that not only helps create little bags of fat and liquid, but also helps cells use genetic material called RNA--one of the key processes of life. Earlier research showed that clay could catalyze the chemical reactions needed to make RNA from building blocks called nucleotides. Reuters reports that scientists Jack Szostak, Martin Hanczyc, and Shelly Fujikawa have now figured out that clay speeds up the process by which fatty acids form vesicles, tiny bag-like structures. In addition, the clay carries RNA into the vesicles.</div> <bR> <div> "Thus, we have demonstrated that not only can clay and other mineral surfaces accelerate vesicle assembly, but assuming that the clay ends up inside at least some of the time, this provides a pathway by which RNA could get into vesicles," Szostak said in a statement announcing the findings. "The formation, growth, and division of the earliest cells may have occurred in response to similar interactions with mineral particles and inputs of material and energy."</div> <bR> <div> <B>What does this mean?</B> First, Szostak emphasizes the team is not saying this is how life started. "We are saying that we have demonstrated growth and division without any biochemical machinery. Ultimately, if we can demonstrate more natural ways this might have happened, it may begin to give us clues about how life could have actually gotten started on the primitive Earth." </div> <div> <B>But the faithful have long believed that life formed from clay and the dust of soil.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In the Old Testament there are multiple references: </B></div> <div> <B>Book of Genesis 3:19</B></div> <div> God speaks to Adam in the Garden of Eden and says: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." </div> <div> <B>Job 34:14-15</B></div> <div> "If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath,</div> <div> all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust." </div> <div> <B>Psalm 104:29</B></div> <div> When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. </div> <div> The research findings were published in the journal Science</div> <bR> <div> <B>Years a Go, </B> <img src="HTMLobj-1375/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="20" height="11">  </div> <div> <B>5-15 Billion+</B></div> <div> Carbon (the basis of organic life), oxygen, and other elements were created from hydrogen and helium in the fury of burning supernovae.  Having arisen when the stars were formed, the elements of which life is built, and thus we ourselves, might be thought of as stardust</div> <bR> <div> <B>3.75 Billion</B></div> <div> Mixed deposits of ferrous and ferric oxide suggest the presence of free atmospheric oxygen.  This could be construed as evidence for photosynthetic activity. </div> <bR> <div> <B>3.5 Billion</B></div> <div> Origination of the oldest dated stromatolites.  These layered geological formations are built by successive generations of blue green algae (cyanobacteria.) Lower Precambrian rocks in South Africa contain what is possibly the earliest known evidence of cellular organisms, resembling blue green algae.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2 Billion</B></div> <div> Data suggest that by this time in the history of the Earth molecular oxygen began to make a significant difference in the nature of the atmosphere.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1.6 Billion</B></div> <div> Strong evidence indicates that filamentous and unicellular blue green algae existed by this period in the history of the Earth.</div> <bR> <div> <B>900 Million</B></div> <div> Late Precambrian deposits at Bitter Springs, Australia, hold numerous kinds of blue-green and green algae.570 Million: Dawning of the Paleozoic era. Now 2000 it is Grown Commercially as a Health Food.</div> <bR> <div> <B>345 Million</B></div> <div> Now termed the Mississippian, this period together with the Pennsylvanian (through to <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>225 million years BP</B></FONT> constitutes the age of coal - the Carboniferous.</div> <bR> <div> <B>136 Million</B></div> <div> With deposits from the Cretaceous period we see the first evidence of flowering plants.</div> <bR> <div> <B>BC </B> <img src="HTMLobj-1376/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="20" height="11">  </div> <bR> <div> <B>50,000</B></div> <div> Wild date seeds were left in the Shanidar Cave of Northern Iraq.  Also found at that site was evidence that cave dwellers consumed <B>chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, and acorns</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>17,000+</B></div> <div> Excavations at Wadi Kubbaniya, Nile Valley (Egypt) reveal charred remains of 25 different plants, including wild <B>nut sedge tubers, acacia seed, cattail rhizomes, and palm fruit.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>8000+</B></div> <div> <B>Wheat and barley</B> were Near Eastern food crops.  In ancient cultures barley was the everyday food of the poor.  Archeologists have learned that by this time people used flint sickles and grinding stones.  The cultivation of grains had an essential role in the development of civilization.</div> <bR> <div> <B>7000</B></div> <div> <B>Flax</B> was known in Syria and Turkey, and is apparently the earliest plant source for fiber (linen) as well as an important source of oil (pressed from the seed).  By 5000 B.C. we know that various flax species were involved.  Evidence shows that seed size increased over time, suggesting that humans were selecting for larger seed.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6800</B></div> <div> A "large hoard of carbonized<B> lentils</B>," over 1,000,000 seed, was present in B Yiftah'el, north Israel.  The size of this hoard indicates the lentils were under cultivation.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6500</B></div> <div> <B>Faba bean</B> was known in Israel.  Lentil, pea, chickpea, and faba bean constituted the principal pulses for ancient Old World agriculture.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6000</B></div> <div> <B>Chili pepper</B> and beans of this date have been discovered in a Peruvian highland valley.  Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) and regular beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are known archaeologically from Peru.</div> <bR> <div> <B>5500</B></div> <div> <B>gourds, squashes, beans, and chili peppers, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >In midden levels dating from 5500 to 7000 B.C. in Tamaulipas, Mexico, researchers have discovered evidence they were grown.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>5000</B></div> <div> <B>Corn</B> was cultivated in Meso-America.  This important grain would be introduced to Europe by Columbus. [See 1550, China]</div> <bR> <div> <B>5000</B></div> <div> <B>Domesticated rice</B> (Oryza sativa) is reported from the Ho-mu-tu site in Chekiang Prov., China.  Cabbage seed from this period were discovered in earthen jars in Shensi Province (today cabbages make up 1/4 of all expenditures for vegetables among Chinese families).</div> <bR> <div> <B>4000</B></div> <div> <B>Cotton seed</B> dating from this time period have been found in Pakistan.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3000</B></div> <div> <B>Sorghum</B> was known in sub-Saharan Africa. [See 1100 B.C., China].</div> <bR> <div> <B>2800</B></div> <div> The Fah Shên-Chih Shu details five sacred crops of China: <B>soybeans, rice, wheat, barley, and millet</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2750</B></div> <div> A coffin from the Egyptian Saqqara Pyramid was made of six layers of wood veneers, sandwiched and glued together like <B>plywood</B>.  Cypress, juniper, and cedar of Lebanon were used.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2737</B></div> <div> The <B>brewing of tea</B> was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shen Nung.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2000</B></div> <div> <B>Peach (Prunus persica) and apricot (Prunus armeniaca)</B> were mentioned in Chinese literature before 2000 B.C. It is supposed that apricots were transported to Greece by Alexander the Great.  Certainly the Greeks knew peaches by 332 B.C.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1550</B></div> <div> A 65ft long medical scroll from Egypt (discovered in 1884 by Georg Ebers and named the Ebers Papyrus) lists about 800 <B>medicinal drugs</B>, including many herbs and spices, among them <B>anise, caraway, cassia, coriander, fennel, cardamon, onions, garlic, thyme, mustard, sesame, fenugreek, saffron, and poppy seed</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1500</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Cocoa cultivation began</B></FONT> by Mayan tribes in Central America, ca. 1500 BC. Mayas and Aztec attributed divine origin to <B>cocoa tree</B> (brought by god Quetzacoatl).</div> <bR> <div> The precious cocoa beans were used as a currency. The sacred beverage called "chocolatl" was consumed from golden cups.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1485</B></div> <div> Hapshepsut, Queen of Egypt, had 31 <B>myrrh trees</B> imported to Egypt for planting at Thebes as homage to the god Amon.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1325</B></div> <div> Many seed and other plant products were stored in the Tutankhamen tomb, including <B>watermelon, safflower, emmer wheat, barley, lentils, chickpeas, flax, fenugreek, olive (leaves and oil), almond, date palm, garlic, cumin, and coriander</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1100</B></div> <div> <B>Soybean (Glycine max)</B> long had been domesticated in China.</div> <div> By 300 B.C. it is thought to have become one of two major food crops for northern China, by A.D.100 it was common throughout China and Korea.  Lotus was known as a crop by this time.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1000</B></div> <div> Researchers find evidence of <B>peanut cultivation</B> in Peru.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1000</B></div> <div> By this time it is certain that <B>oats were cultivated</B>, most probably originating as weeds in wheat and barley fields.</div> <bR> <div> <B>C</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT> <img src="HTMLobj-1377/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="20" height="11">  </div> <bR> <div> <B>c694</B></div> <div> Trees bearing wool <B>(cotton)</B> were introduced to Assyria by Sennacherib.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c500</B></div> <div> The Susruta-Samhita, an Indian herbal, described 700 different plants of value.  This time period in India also provides the earliest known record of <B>banana</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c500</B></div> <div> The oldest known Chinese herbal, the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Classical Pharmacopeia of Tzu-I was written</B></FONT>.</div> <div> Although no version of this book has survived since AD 500, a copy was available to Shen Nung, the writer of the Classical Herbal (which was produced as early as 100 BC.)</div> <bR> <div> <B>c400</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Hippocrates</B></FONT> wrote numerous treatises on medicinal plants, such as <B>saffron, cinnamon, thyme, coriander, mint, and marjoram</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c399</B></div> <div> Condemned to death, <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Socrates</B></FONT> was allowed to administer his own sentence by drinking a potion of <B>poison hemlock, Conium maculatum.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>c300</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Theophrastus</B></FONT> (ca. 372-287 B.C.), the Father of Greek Botany, taught about plants from his own working knowledge of them, experience reflected in the <B>"Inquiry" (Historia Plantarum) and "Causes" (De Causis Plantarum)</B>. </div> <bR> <div> Text covers 550 kinds of plants, including <B>strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), date palm, figs, and water lilies</B>.  His avoidance of more preposterous notions about plants made a seemingly auspicious beginning for botanical study.</div> <bR> <div> During the middle ages, however, the Theophrastan works were generally unavailable, and second-hand versions were corrupted with misinformation - thus the level of botanical knowledge available in writing actually declined.</div> <bR> <div> The rediscovery and printing of his works beginning in 1483 replaced muddled interpretations of plants and helped rekindle an interest in botany.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c300</B></div> <div> Plants known to the ancient Chinese were discussed by <B>Erh Ya</B>.  Other treatments from the period mention cultivated crops such as <B>yam</B>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c250</B></div> <div> <I><B>By this time the Maya are known to have cultivated cacao intensively in Belize</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>c241</B></div> <div> Annual tribute demanded after the conquest of Sicily allowed Rome to provide <B>wheat cheaply</B> to its citizens.</div> <bR> <div> War in general brought benefits through the capture of productive acreage, the opening of markets for Roman plantation-produced wine, and the taking of slaves.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c50</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Varro</B></FONT> described Roman agriculture, including cultivation of grain <B>(wheat, spelt, & barley - but not rye or oats), legumes, olive, and grapes</B>.  By this time Romans had well-developed systems of legume rotation (the use of legumes as a fertilizer crop to return nitrogen to the soil.).</div> <bR> <div> <B>c50</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>Columnella</B></FONT> wrote a treatise on Roman Agriculture, covering many subjects, including the various benefits and difficulties of <B>managing slaves</B> versus tenants on large properties.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c32</B></div> <div> The extreme value of <B>spikenard</B>, a fragrant emollient made from <B>Nardostachys jatamansi</B>, is highlighted in a Biblical episode in Mark 14:3-6.</div> <bR> <div> A believer is chastised by other supporters for anointing Christ with the expensive spikenard, which could have been sold for charity.</div> <bR> <div> By the time of Pliny the increase in direct Roman trade with India lowered the cost of spikenard to one-third of the value it held before Roman fleets began to sail with the monsoons.</div> <bR> <div> <B>c32</B></div> <div> Biblical account of <B>Palm Sunday</B>.</div> <div> The <B>date palm</B> has long been considered the tree of life in deserts of the Old World.</div> <bR> <div> With 70% sugar content the fruit serve humans and other animals.</div> <div> Moreover, the date palm is associated with fertility and fecundity.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <img src="HTMLobj-1378/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="50" height="50">  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><U><IMG SRC="5638d950.jpg" border=0 width="141" height="149" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></FONT> <img src="HTMLobj-1380/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="50" height="50">  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="5669d9d0.png" border=0 width="157" height="157" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="567959b0.png" border=0 width="149" height="155" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="5689d9d0.png" border=0 width="157" height="157" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Tropical Cocoa Tree with Fruit Pods on trunk, Cocoa Beans are inside the Pods</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>AD</B>  <img src="HTMLobj-1385/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="20" height="11">  </div> <bR> <div> <B>1200</B></div> <div> <B>Aztec Culture</B></div> <div> The Aztecs attributed the creation of the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>cocoa plant</B></FONT> to their god Quetzalcoatl who, descended from heaven on a beam of a morning star carrying a cocoa tree stolen from paradise.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >In both the Mayan and Aztec cultures cocoa was the basis for a thick, cold, </FONT>unsweetened drink called <I>xocoat</I>l… <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >believed to be a health elixir.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Since sugar was unknown to the Aztecs, different spices were used to add flavor, even hot chili peppers and corn meal were used! </div> <div> for free xocoatl Recipes: CLICK HERE</div> <bR> <div> Aztecs believed that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cocoa tree, and also that it had nourishing, fortifying, and even aphrodisiac qualities. The Aztec emperor, Montezuma drank thick chocolate dyed red.</div> <bR> <div> The drink was so prestigious that it was served in golden goblets that were thrown away after only one use.</div> <div> He liked it so much that he was purported to drink 50 goblets every day!</div> <bR> <div> The cocoa beans were used for currency… records show that 400 cocoa beans equaled one Zontli, while 8000 beans equaled one Xiquipilli.</div> <bR> <div> When the Aztecs conquered tribes, they demanded their payment in cocoa! By subjugating the Chimimeken and the Mayas, the Aztecs strengthened their supremacy in Mexico.</div> <bR> <div> Records dating from 1200 show details of cocoa deliveries, imposed on all conquered tribes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1492 </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Columbus Returns in Triumph From America: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were presented with many strange and wonderful things… the few dark brown beans that looked like almonds didn’t get a lot of attention.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1502   </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Columbus landed in Nicaragua: On his fourth voyage to America, Columbus landed in what is now called Nicaragua. He was the first European to discover cocoa beans being used as currency, and to make a drink, as in the Aztec culture. Columbus, who was still searching for the route to India, still did not see the potential cocoa market that had fallen into his lap.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1513    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >A Slave is Bought for Beans: Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez, who went to America in 1513 as a member of Pedrarias Avila's expedition, reports that he bought a slave for 100 cocoa beans.</FONT></div> <div> According to Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez 10 cocoa beans bought the services of a prostitute, and 4 cocoa beans got you a rabbit for dinner.</div> <bR> <div> <B>At this time, the name of the drink changed to Chocolatl from the Mayan word xocoatl [chocolate] and the Aztec word for water, or warm liquid.</B></div> <div> see okeatme.com for free chocolatl Recipes: <A HREF="http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm">http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm</A></div> <bR> <div> <B>1519    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Hernando Cortez Begin a Plantation: Hernando Cortez, who conquered part of Mexico in 1519, had a vision of converting these beans to golden doubloons. While he was fascinated with Aztec's bitter, spicy beverage [he didn’t like the cocoa drink], he was much intrigued by the beans’ value as currency. Later, Cortez established a cocoa plantation in the name of Spain… henceforth, "money" will be cultivated!</FONT></div> <div> It was the birth of what was to be a very profitable business.</div> <div> Emperor Montezuma, who reportedly drank 50 or more portions daily, served chocolatl to his Spanish guests in great golden goblets, treating it like a food for the gods.</div> <div> <B><U><IMG SRC="56a82560.jpg" border=0 width="130" height="86" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></div> <div> <B>Chocolate affected many cultures and traditions, and even…International economics!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1528</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>   </B> Chocolate Arrives in Spain: Cortez presented the Spanish King, Charles V with cocoa beans from the New World and the necessary tools for its preparation. And no doubt Cortez taught him how to make </FONT><I><B>Chocolatl</B></I><B>.</B></div> <div> <B>Cortez Inspires a Major Breakthrough: Cortez postulated that if this bitter beverage were blended with sugar, it could become quite a delicacy. The Spaniards mixed the beans with sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.</B></div> <bR> <div> The results were tantalizing, coveted, fashionable, and reserved or the Spanish nobility which created a demand for the fruits of his Spanish plantations. Chocolate was a secret that Spain managed to keep from the rest of the world for almost 100 years!</div> <div> It is no secret that Chocolate has enjoyed a reputation as an aphrodisiac ever since Conquistadors first became aware of the "pagan" ways of the Aztecs [who regarded chocolate as a medicine, but probably not as an aphrodisiac.]</div> <bR> <div> <B>1544    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Dominican Friars Get into the Swing: Dominican friars bring a delegation of Mayans to meet Philip. Spanish monks, who had been consigned to process the cocoa beans, finally let the secret out.</FONT></div> <div> <B>It did not take long before chocolate was acclaimed throughout Europe as a delicious, health-giving food.</B></div> <div> The beans were still used as currency. Two hundred beans bought a turkey cock. One hundred beans was the daily wage of porter, and would buy a hen turkey or a rabbit (the price has really escalated in 30 years! Three beans could be traded for a turkey egg, a new avocado, or a fish wrapped in maize husks. One bean bought a ripe avocado, tomato, or a tamale.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1569</B></FONT><B>    </B> The Roman Church Takes a Serious Look at Chocolate: Pope Pius V, who did not like chocolate, declared that drinking chocolate on Friday did not break The Fast.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1579</B></FONT><B>    </B> English Buccaneers Burn Currency: After taking a Spanish ship loaded with cocoa beans, English Buccaneers set it on fire thinking the beans were sheep dung.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1585</B></FONT><B>    </B> Chocolate Goes to Market: The first shipment of beans intended for the market makes it to Spain.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1587</B></FONT><B>    </B> Another Ship Goes Down: When the British captured a Spanish vessel loaded with cocoa beans, the cargo was destroyed as useless.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1597</B></FONT><B>    </B> They wrote in 1597 that <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>sage "quickens the nerves and memory."</B></FONT> Eat this herb and it will boost your memory! Spice up your food and your memory--and possibly ward off Alzheimer's disease while you're at it--with sage. If your grandmother spiked your tea with sage and told you to drink up, she probably knew this secret that was first discovered some 400 years ago by herbalists.</div> <bR> <div> They wrote in 1597 that sage "quickens the nerves and memory." Now researchers from the northern English universities of Newcastle and Northumbria have confirmed it scientifically: Healthy, young adults who took sage oil extract in capsule form in the medically-controlled study experienced a marked improvement in their memory capabilities and performed significantly better on a word recall test than those who took a placebo.</div> <bR> <div> And that's not all. Researchers at the Universities' Medicinal Plant Research Center concluded that sage can possibly help Alzheimer's patients by protecting a key chemical that the disease destroys.</div> <bR> <div> "This research does have serious implications for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, as it will inform drug research and development," lead researcher Nicola Tildesley said in a statement. "This proves how valuable the work by old herbalists is, and they shouldn't just be ignored because they were writing centuries ago."<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0000" FACE="Arial" > Best of all, sage has no side effects.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>The next step:</B> Researchers will try to figure out how sage actually boosts the memory, especially in Alzheimer's patients. The findings were published in the British journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behaviour.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1600</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#CC0033" FACE="Arial" ><B>From the court of the Bentivoglio family in Bologna during the 1600's comes a recipe for hot chocolate.</B></FONT></div> <div> see okeatme.com for free chocolatl Recipes: <A HREF="http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm">http://www.okeatme.com/hot_cacao.htm</A></div> <bR> <div> Their cook, Giuseppe Lamma, was responding to the fashion of the day in writing a recipe for processing the cocoa bean along with his own rendition of the drink, chocolate<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" > (the candy was still far off).</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Some historians claim Italians taught the art of chocolate making to the French and English in the 1700's. Another logical explanation is all the Spanish connections with those countries through diplomacy, noble marriages and alliances. After all, it was the Spanish who brought chocolate to Europe from the America's, and they adopted chocolate drinking with great enthusiasm.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1609</B></FONT><B>    </B> Chocolate is Lauded in Literature: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>The first book devoted entirely to chocolate, "Libro en el cual se trata del chocolate,"</B></FONT> came from Mexico.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1615</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >    Chocolate Comes With the Dowery: Ann of Austria, daughter of Philip II from Spain, introduced the beverage to her new husband, Louis the XIII, and his French court, too.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1625    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Cocoa Beans are Currency in Spain too: 200 small cocoa beans were valued at 1 Spanish real, or 4 cents.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1643    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The French Court Embraces Chocolate: When the Spanish Princess Maria Theresa was betrothed to Louis XIV of France, she gave her fiancé an engagement gift of chocolate, packaged in an elegantly ornate chest. Chocolate was extremely popular with Louis XIV and the members of his Court at Versailles. Louis XIV, The Sun King, reigned for over 74 years [1643 to 1715] and is considered to be one of the greatest absolute monarchs.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> His foresight lead him to appoint Sieur David illou to manufacture and sell chocolate, which not only created a new income stream, but also it is said to have inspired erotic pleasures.</div> <bR> <div> It was well known that in Louis’ 72nd year he was making love to his wife twice a day… Chocolate? <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" >Chocolate Mania in Paris:</FONT> The chocolate craze which now included candy took hold in Paris and then conquered the rest of France.</div> <bR> <div> Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac flourished in the French courts. Art and literature was thick with erotic imagery inspired by chocolate. And the Marquis de Sade, became proficient in using chocolate to disguise poisons!</div> <bR> <div> Casanova was reputed for using chocolate with champagne to seduce the ladies. Madame de Pompadour was advised to use chocolate with ambergris to stimulate her desire for Louis XV… but to no avail. Madame du Barry, reputed to be nymphomaniacal, encouraged her lovers to drink chocolate in order to keep up with her.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1657    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The first of many famous English Chocolate Houses appeared. Spanish monks, who had been consigned to process the cocoa beans, finally let the secret out. It did not take long before chocolate was acclaimed throughout Europe as a delicious, health-giving food. For a while it reigned as the drink at the fashionable Court of France.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Chocolate drinking spread across the Channel to Great Britain. London's first chocolate shop is opened by a Frenchman. London Chocolate Houses became the trendy meeting places where the elite London society savored their new luxury. The first chocolate house opened in London advertising "this excellent West India drink."</div> <bR> <div> <B>1662    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > As chocolate became exceptionally fashionable,The Church of Rome took a second look at this bewitching beverage. The judgment: "Liquidum non frangit jejunum," reiterated that a chocolate drink did not break the fast. But eating chocolate confections didn't pass muster, until Easter. Is this where the Easter Bunny makes an entrance?</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1670    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Helmsman Pedro Bravo do los Camerinos decides that he has had enough of Christian voyages of exploration and settles in the Philippines, where he spends the rest of his life planting cocoa, thus laying the foundations for one of the great plantations of that time.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1671</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><B>Praline,</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > As the story goes, a bowlful of almonds is dropped, and the angry chef tries to "box the ears" of his kitchen boy… but instead he spills a pan full of hot, burnt sugar over the almonds. Meanwhile the renowned gourmet, Duke of Plesslis-Praslin, is waiting for his dessert!</FONT></div> <bR> <div> His personal chef turns anger in to creative energy, and serves the Duke almonds coated of cooled burnt sugar. The Duke is not only delighted… he is also inspired to give his name to this nouveau sweet. Today we call this confection "praline," but there is no doubt of the origin!</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1674</B></FONT>      A Trendy Coffee House, London Coffee House called <I>At the Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll, </I>goes down in the annals of history for serving chocolate in cakes, and also in rolls… <I>in the Spanish style</I>.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1677</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     By Royal Decree, November 1, 1677, Brazil establishes its first cocoa plantations in the State of Par. later to achieve an important position in the world market.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1697</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Heinrich Escher, mayor of Zurich, drinks chocolate in Brussels and introduces the awe-inspiring concoction to his friends at home… nothing he has ever tasted is even slightly like this brew!</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1704</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Chocolate makes its appearance in Germany, and Frederick I of Prussia reacts by imposing a tax. Anyone wishing to pay homage to its pleasures has to pay two thalers for a permit.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1711</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Emperor Charles VI transfers his court from Madrid to Vienna and along with his Court, comes chocolate.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1720</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Italian Chocolatiers from Florence and Venus, now well versed in the art of making chocolate, are welcomed to France, Germany and Switzerland.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1730</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >       Chocolate had dropped in price from three dollars or more per pound to within financial reach of all. Hand Methods of Manufacture Gave Way to Mass Production:</FONT></div> <div> The transition was hastened by the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>advent of a perfected steam engine,</B></FONT> which mechanized the cocoa grinding process. By 1730, chocolate had dropped in price from three dollars or more per pound to within financial reach of all.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1747</B></FONT><B>    </B> Frederick III of Prussia forbids hawking. Especially the hawking of chocolate! In fact, Frederick prohibited chocolate in his realm. In where Chocolate flourished, It’s high price ensured that only the wealthy could indulge.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1753</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><B>The Cocoa Tree was named by the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >the scientific name of the cacao tree (the tree that bears the fruit that produces chocolate) is Theobroma Cacao. Theobroma literally translates to "food of the gods."</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1755</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Diligently forging the concept of Democracy, </FONT><B>Americans take time out to discovers Chocolate.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1765</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >      </FONT><B>First Chocolate Factory In the USA </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The production of chocolate proceeded at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. It was in pre-Revolutionary New England.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1780    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The first machine-made chocolate is produced in Barcelona, Spain.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1792     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >In Germany, the Josty brothers from Grisons open a confectioner's shop and make a hit selling Swiss Chocolate… and they open a chocolate factory in Berlin.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1800    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Antoine Brutus Menier built the </FONT>first industrial manufacturing facility for chocolate<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >.</FONT></div> <div> <B>1800s </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><IMG SRC="56c87870.jpg" border=0 width="135" height="135" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> German immigrants who settled along the Ohio River brought along their recipes for beef cooked in the style of Hamburg, Germany’s largest seaport. Chopped beef in the form of steak tartare had arrived in Hamburg via sailors returning from Russia perhaps as early as the 14th century.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Hamburg cooks experimented with variations on the Russian dish, but their broiled version of beef cooked with onions became the favorite preparation. Stands along the New York City harbor that were frequented by German sailors offered “steak cooked in the Hamburg style.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>1810</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > A survey shows that Venezuela produces half of the world's chocolate. And 1/3 is consumed by the Spaniards.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1819    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >In a former mill near Vevey, Fran‡ois-Louis Cailler, who had learned the secrets of the chocolate trade in Italy founds his first factory. As cocoa plantations spread to the tropics in both hemispheres by the 19th century, the increased production lowered the price of the cocoa beans and chocolate became a popular and affordable beverage.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1822</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Off the west coast of Africa on the Principe Island in the Gulf of Guinea, Ferreira Gomes [from Portugal] introduces the cocoa tree as an ornamental plant.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1828</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     The invention of the cocoa press reduced the prices even further and helped to improve the quality of the beverage by squeezing out part of the cocoa butter, the fat that occurs naturally in cocoa beans. From then on, drinking chocolate had more of the smooth consistency and the pleasing flavor it has today.</FONT></div> <div> <IMG SRC="56d68680.jpg" border=0 width="104" height="104" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>1828</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     The Cocoa Press is Invented. The Press lead to reduced prices and helped to improve the quality of the beverage by squeezing out part of the cocoa butter. Drinking chocolate had a smooth consistency and a more pleasing taste.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1830</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><B>Solid eating chocolate was developed by J. S. Fry and Sons, a British chocolate maker.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1834</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     “Hamburger Steak” was listed at 10 cents, one of the costliest items on the menu, at Delmonico’s in New York.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1847</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >      </FONT><B>An English company introduced solid "eating chocolate" </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >through the development of fondant chocolate, a smooth and velvety variety that has almost completely replaced the old coarse grained chocolate which formerly dominated the world market.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1848</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><B>The first chocolate bar was made.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1849    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Cadbury Brothers Exhibited Chocolate: The exhibition was at Bingley Hall at Birmingham, England.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1851    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert orchestrated The Exposition in London.</FONT></div> <div> It was the first time citizens of the United States were introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hard candies (called "boiled sweets"), and caramels.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1853    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><B>Heavy Import Duties Are Reduced.</B></div> <div> <B>Once English duties made Chocolate a luxury for the wealthy, now the doors were open, allowing a number of cocoa and drinking chocolate manufacturers to get into the business.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1857     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Ghana Develops into an Important Producer: A Portuguese Baron of Agua Iz, takes the cultivation of cocoa from Principe Island to a neighboring island, Sao Thome, and then to the African continent. Members of the Basle Mission in Ghana encourage the growth of this emerging crop, and small to medium farmers turn Ghana into one of the most important producers.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1868</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     </FONT><B>The first "chocolate box"</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > was introduced by Richard Cadbury, when he decorated a candy box with a painting of his young daughter holding a kitten in her arms. Cadbury also invented the first Valentine's Day candy box.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1875    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > <IMG SRC="55c32320.png" border=0 width="50" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </FONT><B>Milk Chocolate,</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > In Vevey, Switzerland, when Daniel Peter devised a way of adding milk to the chocolate, creating the product we enjoy today known as milk chocolate.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> The inventor of milk chocolate was a candle maker until he fell in love with the daughter of a Swiss chocolatier. Once smitten, Daniel Peter converted his candle factory into a chocolate plant and quickly became a success.</div> <bR> <div> In 1867, he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. 8 years later, with the help of his neighbor, Henri Nestlé, he introduced his new product, garnering numerous awards. His original formula is still in use today. Love is so Grand?</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1879</B></FONT><B>    </B> Rodolphe Lindt of Berne, Switzerland, invented "conching", a means of heating and rolling chocolate to refine it. After chocolate has been conched for 72 hours and has more cocoa butter added to it, chocolate becomes <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>"fondant"</B></FONT> and it melts in your mouth!</div> <bR> <div> <B>1879     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Chocolate as we know the confectionery today dates to the inspired addition of triglyceride cocoa butter by Rodolphe Lindt. The advantage of cocoa butter is that its addition to chocolate sets a bar so that it will readily snap and then melt on the tongue. Cocoa butter begins to soften at around 75 F; it melts at around 97 F.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1884    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The Boston Journal quoted a local chef’s reference to chopped “Hamburg steak,” the first published reference to the beef patty.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1885    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Local legend of Seymour, Wisconsin, maintains that 15-year-old Charlie Nagreen invented the hamburger sandwich when he sold hamburger steaks from an ox-drawn wagon at the Outgamie County Fair, placing them between slices of white bread so that diners could eat while they strolled the fairgrounds.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> He continued to sell his creation at the county fair for the next 65 years. Late 1880s Oral histories credit Fletcher Davis, known as “Old Dave,” with creating an unnamed sandwich of hamburger steak between slices of warm home-baked bread at his lunch counter in Athens, Texas.</div> <bR> <div> Davis spread a mixture of ground mustard and mayonnaise on the sandwich and topped the beef with a slice of Bermuda onion and cucumber pickles.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1889    </B></FONT> The <I>Walla Walla,</I> Washington Union referred to “hamburger steak” on the menu of a local restaurant, confirming that the chopped beefsteak had spread from coast to coast.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1897    </B></FONT> Fanny Farmer’s <I>Boston Cooking School Cook Book</I> published the first recipe for hamburger steak.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1900</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Spain, where chocolate was first introduced to Europeans, falls far behind Switzerland. Germany consumes the most per head, followed by the United States, France and Great Britain.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1900    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The family of Louis Lassen maintains that he invented the hamburger at his tiny Louis Lunch counter in New Haven, Connecticut, when he formed sandwiches of thinly sliced steak trimmings and served them between white bread slices. The Library of Congress accepted this local legend, but eyewitnesses identified the sandwich as thinly sliced steak on bread.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1904    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The hamburger makes its official debut at The St. Louis World’s Fair (The Louisiana Purchase Exposition). The New York Tribune reported that the new sandwich was “the innovation of a food vendor on the pike (midway).” McDonald’s research center, Hamburger University, concluded that an anonymous food vendor at the fair was the first to introduce the sandwich to the public.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Recent research and a photograph of “Old Dave’s Hamburger Stand” located across from a living exhibit of Geronimo and other aging Native American warriors indicate that the unnamed vendor was most likely Fletcher Davis from Athens, Texas.</div> <bR> <div> Local legend there suggests that his customers raised money to send Davis and his wife to St. Louis for the fair. Following the fair, the hamburger spread quickly throughout America, popularized at portable lunch wagons and carts, diners, soda fountains, luncheonettes, and greasy spoons that popped up everywhere to serve the rapidly expanding work force.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1910    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The Swiss Reputation for Wonderful Chocolate is Undisputed: Bolstered by an unbroken series of medals at international exhibitions, Swiss Chocolate, like bratwurst, rosti and fondue, is elevated to a national dish.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1913</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Jules Sechaud of Montreux of Switzerland introduced the process for filling chocolates.</FONT></div> <div> Chocolate making is an important part of European Cultures of the Swiss, Belgians, French, Italians and Germans. And now, American Chocolatiers are also making their mark.</div> <bR> <div> <B>August 1914 to November 1918</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > World War I military conflict, that involved many of the countries of Europe as well the United States.</FONT></div> <div> During World War I, the politically incorrect German name of hamburger was generally replaced with “Salisbury steak” in the South African War and World Wars I and II, solid chocolate was issued as standard rations for the troops and given by Queen Victoria as a Christmas gift to all her fighting men.</div> <div> Current US Army Field Ration 'D' is a 4 ounce (125g) bar of chocolate containing vitamin B1 and 600 calories.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1916</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >, J. Walter Anderson, a cook in Wichita, Kansas, flattened the traditional hamburger steak into a thinner patty that could be cooked quickly and created individual buns to substitute for sliced bread.</FONT></div> <div> He opened a hamburger stand in a converted trolley-car diner, where he sold small, square burgers for a nickel each and encouraged customers to “buy ‘em by the sack.”</div> <bR> <div> <B>1917    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Full-sized hamburgers served on buns appeared on the menu of Drexel’s Pure Food Restaurant in Chicago.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1921    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > J. Walter Anderson, in partnership with Billy Ingram, opened his fourth 5-cent hamburger outlet and named it White Castle, which became America’s first fast-food hamburger chain, offering a standardized look, menu and service.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> White Castle pioneered the use of advertising to sell hamburgers and was the birthplace of the disposable paper hat for food servers. White Castle’s success led to scores of imitators, including White Clocks, White Diamonds, White Domes, White Huts, White Manas, White Towers, Royal Castles, King’s Castles and The Krystal.</div> <bR> <div> <B>September 1921</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > the nation’s first drive-inrestaurant, "The Pig Stand" opened in Dallas, Texas, delivering hamburgers and other sandwiches by servers dubbed “carhops” from their practice of hopping onto auto running boards to take orders and delivering them on trays that hung over the windows.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1923</B></FONT><B>    </B> CMA, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association of the United States of America (CMA) was organized.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1924    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The first cheeseburger may have been prepared at Rite Spot in Pasadena, California.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1925    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The New York Cocoa Exchange, located at the World Trade Center, was begun so that buyers and sellers could get together for transactions.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1929    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > J. Wellington Wimpy appeared in Popeye comic strips, stating “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” The character was so popular that hamburgers became known as wimpy burgers, possibly the first use of the shortened term “burger” for the sandwiches. A burger chain named for Wimpy soon followed.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1930s    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Streamlined drive-ins with large overhangs to protect the carhops were perfected in California. Roller skates, used first by gas station attendants, speeded up carhop service in many drive-ins.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1933    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > White Castle introduced the first frozen hamburger patties.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1934    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Steak and Shake carried the drive-in concept to the East Coast.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1935    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Louis Ballast of Humpty-Dumpty Drive-In in Denver, Colorado, applied unsuccessfully to trademark the name “cheeseburger” after cheese was first used on hamburgers.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1936    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Bob Wian opened Bob’s Pantry, a hamburger lunch counter, in Glendale, California.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1937    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The double-decker burger was created by Bob Wian, who named it “Big Boy” after a rather large lad who cleaned the restaurant in exchange for burgers.</FONT></div> <div> The sandwich proved so popular that Wian changed the restaurant’s name to Bob’s Big Boy, and he soon became the nation’s first hamburger-franchising mogul.</div> <bR> <div> Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a drive-in in Arcadia, California, first selling hot dogs and orange juice, and quickly added hamburgers to the menu.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1938    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Hamburger Heaven opened on East 51st Street in New York City and became a favorite hangout of the rich and famous, who were fans of the prime beef burgers and the one-person booths.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>World War II 1939-September 2, 1945     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The U.S. government recognized chocolate's role in the Allied Armed Forces. It allocated valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans which would give many weary soldiers the strength to carry.</FONT></div> <div> Today, the U.S. Army D-rations include three 4-ounce chocolate bars. Chocolate has even been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1940    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The McDonald brothers moved their drive-in building to San Bernardino, California.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1941</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >, The California Supreme Court ruled that a “hamburger sandwich is the type of food frequently offered for sale to and desired by persons who wish to eat something while walking about. It is not the type of food generally ordered by a person who patronizes a hotel, restaurant, or other public eating establishment with the intention of securing a ‘meal.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> ’ It may not be said that one has ‘served’ a meal who merely prepares a sandwich for consumption, wraps it in a paper napkin, and hands it to a purchaser without offering any facilities for its consumption on the premises”.</div> <div> With America’s entry into World War II, women became carhops and counter servers to fill the jobs that had been exclusively men’s work. Sexy uniforms were introduced a bit later.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1945    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The climactic and destructive end of World War II prompted references to the book of Revelation, in which a terrible war heralds the end of the world as we know it.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1948    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Harry and Esther Snyder opened "In-N-Out Burger" in Baldwin Park, California, the first drive-through burger stand.</FONT></div> <div> The McDonald brothers eliminated carhop service, dishes, glasses, flatware, and a varied menu, and converted their drive-in into the world’s first self-service burger bar, pioneering the concept of prepackaged burgers with no condiment choices and with ready-cooked fries and drinks in a hurry.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1948    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > According to Revelation, the establishment of the "new Jerusalem" is a key moment in the creation of heaven on earth. The state of Israel announced the first step in that direction.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1949    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Googies in Los Angeles introduced modernistic architecture that inspired numerous imitators and shifted the emphasis from car service to indoor dining known as Coffee Shop Modern.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1950s</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The hamburger became symbolic of America around the world. Backyard burger cookouts developed into a favorite pastime, and magazines and cookbooks offered numerous recipes for making burgers at home. Drive-ins introduced electronic ordering devices.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1951    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Jack-in-the-Box opened its first location in San Diego, California.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1952    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Weber introduces the first kettle grill for backyard cookouts. George Reed patented the Insta-Burger Broiler in Hollywood, California, which made it possible to quickly cook large quantities of burgers.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1953    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > First McDonald brother’s franchise featuring a modern red-and-white building with gigantic golden arches opened in Phoenix, Arizona. The chain’s success quickly spawned countless imitators.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1954    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > James McLamore and David Edgerton opened the first Burger King in Miami. McDonald brothers granted exclusive U.S. franchise rights to Ray Kroc.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1955    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Ray Krock opened his first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plains, Illinois.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1957    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > White Castle introduced holes in burger patties for faster cooking. Burger King introduced the Whopper®. Burger King was first chain to offer dining room seating.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1959    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Troy Smith opened Sonic Drive-In in Shawnee, Oklahoma (still operating as the largest chain of drive-ins with carhops and America’s 5th largest burger chain).</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1961    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1963    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > McDonald’s served the chain’s one-billionth burger on “The Art Linkletter Show.”</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1965    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Prime Burger took over the Hamburger Heaven site in New York City. McDonald’s Corporation went public. It’s “You deserve a break today” theme song ranked second only to the national anthem in public recognition.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1967    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > General Foods purchased the Burger Chefs chain, Pillsbury bought Burger King, and Ralston Purina acquired Jack in the Box.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1967    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The Six-Day War left Jerusalem, and perhaps more importantly, the Temple Mount, under Israeli control—seemingly completing the "new Jerusalem" prophecy.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1968    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > McDonalds introduced the Big Mac®.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1969    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Dave Thomas opens first Wendy’s, named after his daughter, in Columbus, Ohio, offering made-to-order square burgers.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1970    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Wendy’s introduced the drive-through window with its separate cooking area.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1974    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Burger King introduced their “Have it your way” slogan.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1981    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Paul Wenner of Gresham, Oregon, created the vegetarian Gardenburger.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1982    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The big three – McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s – launched the media burger wars.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1984    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Restaurant trade journals hailed “gourmet burgers” as the year’s biggest trend. Creative chefs added burgers made from protein other than beef to their menus, or created gourmet beef burgers. Wendy’s introduced it’s “Where’s the Beef?” advertising campaign.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1990    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Sutter Home Winery created the Build a Better Burger® recipe contest. Jim Pleasants of Williamsburg, Virginia, won the Grand Prize in the first national cook-off with his Napa Valley Basil-Smoked Burgers.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1991    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > The Gulf War sparked new fears that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon, thereby nudging the world toward its final days.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>1992    </B></FONT> <I>James McNair’s Burgers</I> (Chronicle Books) featured recipes from the first two Build a Better Burger cook-offs and from celebrity chefs, including Michael Chiarello, Cindy Pawlcyn, Paul Prudhomme, Judy Rodgers, Jeremiah Tower, and Alice Waters.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1992    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Adams Chocolate go's on line with Billboard.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>1993</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >     Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University ¹ concluded that stearic acid, the main saturated fatty acid in chocolate, does not raise blood cholesterol levels.</FONT></div> <div> These researchers also reported ² that a 1.4 ounce chocolate bar eaten in place of a high carbohydrate snack does not raise LDL-cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) levels and increases HDL-cholesterol (the good cholesterol) levels. </div> <bR> <div> Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University ¹ concluded that stearic acid, the main saturated fatty acid in chocolate, does not raise blood cholesterol levels.</div> <bR> <div> These researchers also reported ² that a 1.4 ounce chocolate bar eaten in place of a high carbohydrate snack does not raise LDL-cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) levels and increases HDL-cholesterol (the good cholesterol) levels.</div> <bR> <div> In addition to its neutral affect on blood cholesterol levels, recent research has indicated a possible antioxidant benefit in chocolate similar to that found in red wine.</div> <bR> <div> Not only is chocolate and red wine a tantalizing combination for its sensational taste, but research shows these foods also contain antioxidants which may be good for health.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>September, 1996     </B></FONT>The <I>Lancet</I> reported cocoa powder and chocolate contain a relatively high amount of phenolic compounds, which possess antioxidant properties.</div> <bR> <div> Further, they found the compounds possess properties that may be beneficial in reducing the risk for coronary heart disease.</div> <bR> <div> A 1.5 ounce chocolate bar contains about the same amount of total phenolic compounds as a 5-ounce serving of red wine, which has been associated with a reduced risk for coronary heart disease.</div> <bR> <div> Currently, the American Cocoa Research Institute, the research branch of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, is sponsoring a study to evaluate further the amount and types of antioxidants in chocolate products.</div> <bR> <div> The results of these studies will also provide additional information about the potential benefits of chocolate products in our diets.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2000     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Y2K fears played on apocalyptic anxieties over global interconnectivity and technology, two aspects believed to be tied to the end of the world.</FONT></div> <div> Comment by PSRAST</div> <div> <I>Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of  Science and Technology (PSRAST)</I></div> <div> The article below presents scientific observations that, along with the related articles listed in the end of this document, effectively contradict the key arguments for agribiotech.</div> <bR> <div> These have been that agribiotech (non-organic & GE) farming gives better yields and is more friendly to the environment than other forms of agriculture.</div> <bR> <div> As found in the related articles, recent reseach has not been able to confirm that GE crops give superior yields. And their environmental safety has not been established. Furthermore, agribiotech farming is not environmentally sustainable.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>The research presented below indicates that organic farming is even superior to non-organic farming regarding yields in addition to being greatly superior regarding friendliness to the environment. In addition, it is environmentally sustainable.</B></I> </div> <bR> <div> Considering this and that the environmental safety of GE crops has not been established, there remains no justification for the use of GE crops. They should be withdrawn from the market.</div> <bR> <div> There appears to be good reasons for the US, Canada, EU and other countries, to consider diverting the large sums now spent on agribiotech to the development of organic farming.</div> <div> Organic Farming Will Feed the World</div> <div> Astonishingly, it's more productive than high-tech agriculture</div> <bR> <div> By George Monbiot. </div> <div> Published in the Guardian, UK 24th August 2000. </div> <div> (Republished here with the permission of the author who also provided the references which were not included in the original article. Editings in bold and italics were added by PSRAST)</div> <bR> <div> The advice could scarcely have come from a more surprising source. <B>"If anyone tells you that GM is going to feed the world," Steve Smith, a director of the world's biggest biotechnology company, Novartis, insisted, "tell them that it is not. - To feed the world takes political and financial will - it's not about production and distribution."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>(1) </B></div> <div> Mr Smith was voicing a truth which most of his colleagues in the biotechnology companies have gone to great lengths to deny. On a planet wallowing in surfeit, people starve because they have neither the land on which to grow food for themselves nor the money with which to buy it.</div> <bR> <div> There is no question that, as population increases, the world will have to grow more, but if this task is left to the rich and powerful - big farmers and big business - then, irrespective of how much is grown, people will become progressively hungrier. Only a redistribution of both land and wealth can save the world from mass starvation.</div> <bR> <div> But in one respect Mr Smith is wrong. It is - in part - about production. A series of remarkable experimental results has shown that the growing techniques which his company and many others have sought to impose upon the world are, in contradiction to everything we have been brought up to believe, actually less productive than some of the methods developed by traditional farmers over the past 10,000 years.</div> <bR> <div> Last week, Nature magazine reported the results of one of the biggest agricultural experiments ever conducted.</div> <bR> <div> <B>(2).</B></div> <div> A team of Chinese scientists had tested the key principle of modern rice-growing - planting a single, high-tech variety across hundreds of hectares - against a much older technique: planting several breeds in one field. They found, to the astonishment of the farmers who had been drilled for years in the benefits of "monoculture", that reverting to the old method resulted in spectacular increases in yield. Rice blast - a devastating fungus which normally requires repeated applications of poison to control - decreased by 94 per cent.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>The farmers planting a mixture of strains were able to stop applying their poisons altogether, while producing 18 per cent more rice per acre than they were growing before</B></I>.</div> <bR> <div> Two years ago, another paper published in Nature showed that <I><B>yields of organic maize are identical to yields of maize grown with fertilisers and pesticides, while soil quality in the organic fields dramatically improves</B></I> (3). In trials in Hertfordshire, wheat grown with manure has produced consistently higher yields for the past 150 years than wheat grown with artificial nutrients.</div> <bR> <div> Professor Jules Pretty of Essex University has shown how <I><B>farmers in India, Kenya, Brazil, Guatemala and Honduras have doubled or tripled their yields by switching to organic or semi-organic techniques</B></I>(4).</div> <bR> <div> A study in the United States reveals that <I><B>small farmers growing a wide range of plants can produce ten times as much money per acre as big farmers growing single crops</B></I> (5). Cuba, forced into organic farming by the economic blockade, has now adopted it as policy, having discovered that it improves both the productivity and the quality of the crops its farmers grow (6).</div> <bR> <div> High-tech farming, by contrast, is sowing ever graver problems. This year, <I><B>food production in Punjab and Haryana, the Indian states long celebrated as the great success stories of modern, intensive cultivation has all but collapsed </B></I>(7). The new crops the farmers there have been encouraged to grow demand far more water and nutrients than the old ones, with the result that, in many places, both the ground water and the soil have been exhausted.</div> <bR> <div> We have, in other words, been deceived. Traditional farming has been stamped out all over the world not because it is less productive than monoculture, but because it is, in some respects, more productive. Organic cultivation has been characterised as an enemy of progress for the simple reason that it cannot be monopolised: it can be adopted by any farmer anywhere on earth, without the help of multinational companies.</div> <bR> <div> Though it is more productive to grow several species or several varieties of crops in one field, the biotech companies must reduce diversity in order to make money, leaving farmers with no choice but to purchase their most profitable seeds. This is why they have spent the last ten years buying up seed breeding institutes and lobbying governments to do what ours has done: banning the sale of any seed which has not been officially - and expensively - registered and approved.</div> <bR> <div> All this requires an unrelenting propaganda war against the tried and tested techniques of traditional farming, as the big companies and their biddable scientists dismiss them as unproductive, unsophisticated and unsafe. The truth, so effectively suppressed that it is now almost impossible to believe, is that organic farming is the key to feeding the world.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2001     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >9/11 NY, NY, USA, According to the prophecy, the end of the world will be heralded by terrible suffering and unimaginable loss. Prophecy or not life go's on, and we learn from our past.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>2002    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Expensive, lu, xury-ingredients burger wars among New York chefs made big news, with prices soaring to $41 at Mark Sherry’s Old Homestead and $50 for a truffled burger at Daniel Boulud’s DB Bistro Moderne.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>2003    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Americans ate an average of 3 hamburgers per week per person.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>environmental safety of GE crops has not been established, </B></I>Still skeptical?</div> <div> <I>Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of  Science and Technology (PSRAST)</I></div> <div> If you still believe that it is justified to release GE organims into nature and that GE foods are safe, you have, like many others, probably been exposed to the very skilfull propaganda campaign of the biotech industry. It has lasted for several years. Leading PR companies, experts on manipulating peoples attitudes have done the very best to brainwash people to believe that GE foods are a boon to mankind, the pinnacle of scientific progress. </div> <bR> <div> How could it happen that GE foods were released in spite of insufficient knowledge? </div> <div> <B>As you now begin to realize GE organsims should neither have been released into nature nor sold as food, you may be surprised that they still have been approved</B> (we were stunned when it occurred).</div> <bR> <div> How could it happen that GE foods were released in spite of insufficient knowledge? </div> <div> <B>As you now begin to realize GE organsims should neither have been released into nature nor sold as food, you may be surprised that they still have been approved</B> (we were stunned when it occurred).</div> <bR> <div> Our understanding of what happened is presented in this article which serves as a general introduction:</div> <div> <B>Why were genetically engineered foods approved in spite of insuffient safety data?</B></div> <div> Revealing is how the American Food agency, FDA suppressed warnings about GE foods among its own experts:</div> <bR> <div> <B>FDA suppressed warnings from their own experts about GE foods</B></div> <div> The dependence of scientists upon sponsorship from corporations has contributed importantly to this situation. This is explained further in:</div> <bR> <div> <B>Dysfunctional science</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > - Towards a "pseudoscientfic world order"?</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Agricultural problems</div> <div> The great expectations that the biotech proponents created have not been fulfilled. There has not been increased yields, rather the opposite. It has not been possible to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, rather the opposite. Increasing numbers of farmers, even in the "mainland of GE", United States, are turning away from GE crops. The problem reports are many. Here are a few articles:</div> <bR> <div> GE crops are economic disaster shows new report. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >The Soil Association, UK, has issued a comprehensive report about the economics of GE agriculture.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> GMO crops not very profitable. <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report. </FONT></div> <div> For more, see the section: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >Agricultural Aspects</FONT> </div> <bR> <div> Global aspects</div> <div> The Vancouver Statement On the Globalization and Industrialization of Agriculture.</div> <bR> <div> Excerpt: "Reducing farming to a monocultural, synthetic, transnational orporate business threatens the health, nourishment, right livelihood, and spirituality of communities and the earth. It is insane to believe that we must poison land and water and waste the soil in order to feed and clothe ourselves. Five decades of the so-called Green Revolution have not only led to the destruction and contamination of water, soil, biodiversity, and human communities, but exacerbated hunger worldwide"</div> <bR> <div> <B>It is a myth that world hunger is due to scarcity of food</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Increased food production is not the solution. </FONT></div> <div> Alternatives to genetic engineering of food</div> <bR> <div> <B>1. Sustainable agriculture</B></div> <div> Sustainable agriculture means, by definition, agriculture that does not deplete natural resources and does not use harmful, artificial substances that cumulate in the environment. Therefore, contrary to industrial agriculture, it can be applied indefinitely without harming the environment. It is the only kind of agriculture that is feasible in the long run. </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >For more, see: </FONT>Sustainable agriculture    <A HREF="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain">http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain</A></div> <div> Research on organic farming indicates that it can give as good or better yield as industrial farming without using any harmful chemicals.</div> <bR> <div> Organic Farming Will Feed the World.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Some reports indicate that it can be more productive than industrial "Hi-Tech" agriculture. This is a major blow to the main argument for genetic engineering of crops. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>2. Genomics</B></div> <div> This technology uses biotechnological gene mapping to select the best varieties in breeding without any manipulation of genes. See <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><U>Genomics</U></FONT>. This approach is expected to speed up the pace of conventional breeding greatly. Leading experts, even in biotech companies consider this a more effective and much better alternative.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Industry is abandoning genetic engineering</B></I><B>, realizing that it is a blind alley with insurmontable technical difficulties, unresolved safety problems and because it has had not been successful in producing plants that are better than natural varietes.</B></div> <bR> <div> Instead genomics is now superseding genetic engineering according to a leading industry representative:<I>"From a scientific perspective, the public argument about genetically-modified organisms, I think, will soon be a thing of the past. </I><I><B>The science has moved on and we're now in the genomics era</B></I><I>...with new knowledge and modern tools of the trade, breeders can make more rapid progress on many more traits than in the past."</I></div> <div> Professor Bob Goodman</div> <div> Former head of research and development at the biotech company Calgene, creators of the FlavrSavr tomato, the world's first GM food.</div> <div> <B>Source:</B> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"Genomics portends the next revolution in agriculture"</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Conclusion</div> <div> Now we hope it is more obvious to you why we find it necessary to stop the use of present GE foods, and why there should be a long-time moratorium on the release of GE-organisms.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >For more information, see:</FONT>  <A HREF="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain">http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain</A></div> <bR> <div> <B>2004    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Ancient Lost City Found In the Jungle. Call it lost in plain sight. A team of British and American explorers has located in the jungles of Peru an Incan city that has been lost for centuries, reports Reuters.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Amazingly, it is within sight of a key religious center at Machu Picchu. Briton Hugh Thomson and American Gary Zeigler knew Llactapata was there. Somewhere.</div> <bR> <div> It was first mentioned in 1912 by explorer Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu. But since his description of the location was very vague, the ruins of Llactapata were never found by anyone else. Fast forward 90 years. Using infrared aerial photography to penetrate the dense forest canopy, Thomson and Zeigler were able to pinpoint the location of the lost city.</div> <bR> <div> The high-tech help ended there, though. They still had to climb 9,000 feet up the side of a mountain using machetes to hack their way through the jungle. It was worth it. When they finally arrived in Llactapata, they found stone buildings, including a solar temple and houses covering several square miles.</div> <bR> <div> Here's the most interesting part: The buildings are located in the same alignment with the Pleiades star cluster and the June solstice sunrise as Machu Picchu, which was a sacred center. "This is a very important discovery. It is very close to Machu Picchu and aligned with it. This adds significantly to our knowledge about Machu Picchu," Thomson told Reuters. "Llactapata adds to its significance." One thing archaeologists know for sure: There are more lost Incan cities just waiting to be found.</div> <bR> <div> After the Spanish Conquistadors captured and executed the last Incan leader, Tupac Amaru, in 1572, the Incans deserted their cities and towns and beat a hasty retreat. Reuters notes that while some of the cities have been rediscovered, many more are believed to lie hidden in the dense jungle. The only way they will ever be found is with new technology or dumb luck. And machetes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2004     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Alternatives to genetic engineering of food</FONT></div> <div> <I>Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of </I></div> <div> <I>Science and Technology (PSRAST)</I></div> <div> Sustainable agriculture</div> <div> Problems with industrial agriculture</div> <div> Food biotechnology is part of industrial agriculture. This form of farming, originally developed in Europe and America, has become predominant in a large part of the world since the "green revolution" when it was introduced in developing countries. Its "ideology" is to achieve effective productivity at large scale through the use of technological means including machines, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Indeed, it appeared more effective in the short run, but now increasing numbers of complications are reported.</div> <bR> <div> The ground water in regions where industrial agriculture has become increasingly contaminated by the toxic chemicals. In some parts of the USA the drinking water contamination of pesticides is so high that children before the age of 10 have been exposed to the maxium allowable "life dose" of such chemicals. Thousands of farm workers contract chronic health problems or die from the chemicals every year.</div> <bR> <div> The residues of these chemicals in the food may cause cancer and other health problems. Recent research indicates that the combination of different chemicals may enhanced the harmful effect. One study indicates that when two pesticides were combined, their harmful effect was ten times stronger than the effect of each one of them if used separately.</div> <bR> <div> As chemicals are mostly combined in farming, this means that the present "safe" levels in food may be considerably too high. In addition, not infrequently, the concentrations of these chemicals in food are above present "safe" levels.</div> <bR> <div> The nitrogen and phoshpate used in fertilizers contaminate the ground water and pollutes rivers and the sea to a problematic extent.</div> <div> Experts on agriculture and ecology are realizing that this system of agriculture is <I>unsustainable</I>. This means that it causes accumulation of complications and harmful effects of various kinds that will ultimately make it impossible to continue with it.</div> <bR> <div> Already there are increasing signs of declining yields due to soil degradation in regions where this system has been used. And there are indications of harmful health effects of eating food containing these chemicals, see for example <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"Canadian docs call for total ban on pesticides"</FONT>, <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"Pesticide exposure and your health"</FONT> and <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"Pesticides"</FONT>.</div> <bR> <div> Industrial agriculture was launched without careful investigation of its environmental consequences, similarly to genetically engineered crops. Now that it has been clearly established that it is environmentally harmful and unsustainable, its continued use is not justifable considering that there are sustainable alternatives as explained below.</div> <bR> <div> Agricultural economist Charles Benbrook has shown that biothechnological agriculture, using genetically engineered crops will bring US agriculture even further away from sustainability than it has been so far, see <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"Sustainability and Ag Biotech"</FONT>.</div> <bR> <div> Advantages with Sustainable Agriculture</div> <div> Sustainable agriculture means, by definition, agriculture that does not deplete natural resources and does not use harmful, artificial substances that cumulate in the environment. Therefore, contrary to industrial agriculture, it can be applied indefinitely without harming the environment. It is the only kind of agriculture that is feasible in the long run.</div> <bR> <div> Organic farmers can produce crop yields for a variety of crops in a wide range of locations that are competitive and even superior to crop yields produced by industrial methods. </div> <div> Organic farmers can generate net cash returns from both crop and animal production that are often superior to industrial farmers.</div> <div> Source: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >"The Economics of Sustainable On-Farm Food Production"</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"Current research indicates that organic production levels can be similar to those from non-organic and that it should be possible further to improve production while simultaneously reducing environmental impact.</B></I></div> <div> Professor Martin Wolfe. Global Ag 2020 Conference - John Innes Centre, April 19, 2001</div> <bR> <div> Articles</div> <div> Short introduction to sustainable agriculture<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). </FONT></div> <div> Sustainable Agriculture -- A New Vision<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >. A vison of the possibilities. By UCS. </FONT></div> <div> The Sustainable Approach to Agriculture<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Briefing describing the methods. By UCS. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> Excerpt: <I>"Sustainable agriculture can provide high yields without destroying the environment or undermining current productivity." </I></div> <bR> <div> Can organic agriculture feed the world?<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Ten scientists analyse the value of organic farming. They find that it has significant advantages to industrial agriculture which is unsustainable due to incremental environmental damage. Moreover it has ruined millions of third world farmers because of its dependence on costly fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. While providing as good or better yields, organic farming has no harmful environmental impact and does not demand costly external inputs making it ideal for poor farmers in developing countries.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> "The benefits of organic farming systems are relevant both to developed nations (environmental protection, biodiversity enhancement, reduced energy use and CO2 emissions) and to developing countries (sustainable resource use, increased crop yields without over-reliance on costly external inputs, environmental and biodiversity protection)." </div> <div> What is Sustainable Agriculture?<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Organic Farming Will Feed the World.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Astonishingly, some reports indicate that it's more productive than industrial "Hi-Tech" agriculture. This is a major blow to the main argument for genetic engineering of crops. By Professor George Monbiot.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> "Sustainability and Ag Biotech"<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >. A condensate of the analysis of agricultural economist Charles Benbrook resulting in the conclusion that GE agriculture brings US agriculture even further away from sustainability than it has been so far.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Biodiverse farming systems are more productive.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > While industrial farming is geared at minimizing diversity, organic farming does the opposite. A recent research report now confirms that this promotes productivity as well as reduces weed problems.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> Links to some sustainable agriculture related sites<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >.</FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >For more information, see:</FONT>  <A HREF="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain">http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain</A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Sept. 27, 2004 ---</B></div> <div> A new study <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >Why Women Crave Sweets. </FONT>. This new study may help explain why women polish off the sweets, especially during PMS or menopause, says lead researcher Lisa A. Eckel, PhD, a behavioral psychologist in the Florida State University Program in Neuroscience. Results of her new study -- conducted on rats -- appear in the November issue of <I>American Journal of Physiology</I>.</div> <bR> <div> They suggest that something besides willpower -- or lack of it -- is at work in females of both rats and humans. "It may be that the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >female hormone estradiol promotes this craving for sweets</FONT>," Eckel says.</div> <bR> <div> Studies of human cravings have shown <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" >increased yearning for chocolate during the menstrual cycle</FONT>, she notes. This animal data suggests that females have a preference for high-carb, sweet foods -- which may encourage or promote overconsumption of those foods." What's driving this preference is unclear, she says.</div> <bR> <div> "We're investigating whether the female hormone estradiol plays a role, and some data suggests it may affect sweet tastes. ... There are lots of studies looking at preferences for sweets vs. fats across the menstrual cycle that may be driven by estradiol."</div> <bR> <div> "I see it all the time -- men may overeat, but they eat more servings of meat, fast food, or salty things. They just don't eat as many sweets as women do," says Darlene Allen, RD, a nutritionist and educator with the Duke Diet and Fitness Center at Duke University Medical Center. It's our basic physiology at work.</div> <bR> <div> "Women's bodies are saving up fat to support growth of new life. It's genetically in our makeup. It's why we go to sweets." Also, human females may be drawn to sweets for comfort or to reduce stress.</div> <bR> <div> Men are more satisfied with protein or fatty foods, says Allen. "And women under stress don't eat well-balanced, regular meals.</div> <bR> <div> They skip meals, eat meals on the run, don't get enough calories from nutritional foods to help them control hunger an hour or two or three later." There's another factor at work: Overeating sweets promotes eating more sweets, Allen says. Sweets make blood sugar go up, then dive back down, making you hungry again.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2004    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Sutter Home’s Build a Better Burger® contest will celebrate 100 years of burgers in America and increase the cook-off Grand Prize to $50,000, making it one of the five highest-paying cooking contests in the USA.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="56e4f4f0.jpg" border=0 width="79" height="79" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <B>Happy Birthday, Hamburger</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > Turns 100 this year. While there is some debate over the Orgin of America's Favorite Sandwich, most food Historians agree that the Haamburger made its Offical Debut at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. A $ 50,000 Burger?</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >if you make the Best Burger around, then Sutter Home Family Vineyard's 14th annual Build A Better Burger Contest is your chance for a sizzing Grand Prize of $ 50,000 In of the 100th Birthday of the Burger! For more information see this web site:</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.buildabetterburger.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.buildabetterburger.com">http://www.buildabetterburger.com</A> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >August 31, 2004 is the dead line.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>Grass-fed Beef</B> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >is better for you and if you would like the convenience of being able to order it over the Net, you can buy grass-fed beef online, shipped overnight to your door, at <A HREF="http://storesense01.dynamic.net/grassland/index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://storesense01.dynamic.net/grasslan">Grassfed Organics</A></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Today</U></B></div> <div> Researchers are discovering more and more attributes of chocolate in addition to its savored taste.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="56f87530.jpg" border=0 width="135" height="83" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>2005     </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>Science and Technology (PSRAST)</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Genetic engineering (GE) means artificial manipulation of the hereditary substance. GE-foods are widely used in America, especially the US, and they are now spreading all over the world. Yet they may be hazardous to the health and may harm the environment. We will explain why. </div> <div> Most important news</div> <div> Liver changes from GE food</div> <div> Liver changes were found in mice fed on Genetically Engineered Soy Beans. This indicates that GE foods may cause serious disturbances in cellular function that may affect health.</div> <div> Our main conclusions at a glance</div> <div> Commercial application of genetical engineering for production of foods cannot be scientifically justified and carries with it unpredictable and potentially serious consequences. </div> <bR> <div> <B>The reasons are as follows:</B></div> <div> The knowledge about DNA is too incomplete to make it possible to predict and understand all consequences of genetic engineering. </div> <div> (For this reason commercial application of genetic engineering of any organism especially for non-contained usage is unjustifiable blind and unscientific experimentation. This includes plants, trees, bacteria, insects and animals.) </div> <div> The knowledge about the health safety of GE foods is seriously incomplete. </div> <div> The knowledge about the environmental safety of GE organisms is seriously incomplete. </div> <div> There is no need for GE organisms for feeding the world or solving nutritional deficiency problems. </div> <div> Furthermore, food biotechnology perpetuates environmentally unsustainable industrial agriculture. It is based on chemicals of various kinds that are demonstratedly harmful to the health of the consumer and to the environment.</div> <div> Major conclusions about the safety</div> <div> of genetically engineered foods</div> <div> Summary of the key points</div> <div> Genetic engineering represents an <I>intervention with unprecedented depth and power</I>. Radical artificial alterations of the code of life, the genetic makeup, can be created. Such changes may have very complex consequences on the properties of the organism.</div> <bR> <div> Therefore it is most important that science has very good knowledge about how genes function before GE products are released.</div> <bR> <div> Our impartial evaluation has found that the radically opposite situation is the case. </div> <div> Once released into nature the genetically engineered organisms and their altered genes cannot be recalled. They may spread widely and uncontrollably century after century, yes indefinitely. Scientists have warned for a number of potential hazards, some of which may be serious.</div> <bR> <div> Therefore it is most important to ascertain beyond reasonable doubt that such altered organims don't cause environmental harm.</div> <bR> <div> Our impartial evaluation has found that this requirement has not at all been fullfilled.</div> <div> Genetic engineering may cause the creation of unexpected harmful substances. This includes poisons, mutagens (substances causing genetic changes that may be harmful) and carcinogens (substances causing cancer).</div> <bR> <div> Therefore it is most important to ascertain beyond reasonable doubt that GE-foods are not harmful. </div> <div> Our impartial evaluation has found that this requirement is far from fulfilled for any of the foods on the market.</div> <bR> <div> Moreover, none of the presently developed GE organisms are of any significant value to mankind (not even the "golden rice" whose benefits have been greatly overstated). So there is no reasonable justification for taking any risk at all by releasing these organisms.</div> <bR> <div> <I><B>In spite of all this, GE foods have been approved and released on all continents. This represents a serious failure of the national and international regulatory agencies to fullfil their responsibility for environmental safety and food safety.</B></I></div> <div> The reasons for this are undue political and corporational interventions including a problematically widespread dependence of science on corporate sponsorship.</div> <bR> <div> You may be perplexed to read this and may doubt it. If so, it may be the first time that you encounter an impartial account. This is not surprising as powerful corporations have invested many millions in flooding the media with biotech propaganda, often disguised as apparently impartial feature stories by hired leading journalists in TV, newspapers or journals.</div> <bR> <div> Or you may have heard of endorsing statements by scientists who pretend to be objective, but who are, in reality, serving the biotech corporations.</div> <bR> <div> By studying this site you will understand that the points above are supported by scientific facts.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >For more information, see:</FONT>  <A HREF="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain">http://www.psrast.org/alt.htm#sustain</A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dec 2005</B></div> <div> <B>Incredible Find in a Guatemalan Pyramid</B> </div> <div> Archaeologists are accustomed to finding cool ancient artifacts. It's their job. But archaeologist William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire admitted he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya mural in a pyramid in Guatemala that no one has seen for nearly 2,000 years.</div> <bR> <div> The mural, which was found at the San Bartolo site, covers the west wall of a room that is attached to a pyramid. Painted in about 100 B.C., the mural tells the Maya story of creation. It features four deities, but they are actually all variations on one figure, the son of the corn god. Amazingly, the mural still retains its original brilliant colors. "It could have been painted yesterday," Saturno told reporters in a news conference organized by his sponsor, the National Geographic Society. </div> <bR> <div> Saturno first found the site in 2002. Trekking through the jungle, he stopped to rest in an old trench. That was no ordinary trench. It was actually part of the ancient room in which the mural was discovered. </div> <bR> <div> <B>The mural's depiction of the Maya view of creation was described by Saturno:</B></div> <bR> <div> The first deity stands in the water and offers a fish, establishing the watery underworld.</div> <bR> <div> The second stands on the ground and sacrifices a deer, establishing the land.</div> <bR> <div> The third floats in the air, offering a turkey, establishing the sky.</div> <bR> <div> The fourth stands in a field of flowers, the food of gods, establishing paradise." Another section shows the corn god crowning himself king upon a wooden scaffold and the final section shows a historic coronation of a Maya king.</div> <bR> <div> There is also some writing on the mural, some of which can be understood; however, most of it is too old to decipher. Facts about the finding will be published in the National Geographic magazine. </div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="57487aa0.jpg" border=0 width="135" height="170" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Verdana" >Nov 2005</FONT></div> <div> <B>Ancient Lost City Found In the Jungle</B></div> <div> <B>Call it lost in plain sight. A team of British and American explorers has located in the jungles of Peru an Incan city that has been lost for centuries, reports Reuters. Amazingly, it is within sight of a key religious center at Machu Picchu. </B></div> <bR> <div> Briton Hugh Thomson and American Gary Zeigler knew Llactapata was there. Somewhere. It was first mentioned in 1912 by explorer Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu. But since his description of the location was very vague, the ruins of Llactapata were never found by anyone else.</div> <bR> <div> Fast forward 90 years. Using infrared aerial photography to penetrate the dense forest canopy, Thomson and Zeigler were able to pinpoint the location of the lost city. The high-tech help ended there, though. They still had to climb 9,000 feet up the side of a mountain using machetes to hack their way through the jungle.</div> <bR> <div> It was worth it. When they finally arrived in Llactapata, they found stone buildings, including a solar temple and houses covering several square miles. Here's the most interesting part: The buildings are located in the same alignment with the Pleiades star cluster and the June solstice sunrise as Machu Picchu, which was a sacred center.</div> <bR> <div> "This is a very important discovery. It is very close to Machu Picchu and aligned with it. This adds significantly to our knowledge about Machu Picchu," Thomson told Reuters. "Llactapata adds to its significance."</div> <bR> <div> One thing archaeologists know for sure: There are more lost Incan cities just waiting to be found. After the Spanish Conquistadors captured and executed the last Incan leader, Tupac Amaru, in 1572, the Incans deserted their cities and towns and beat a hasty retreat.</div> <bR> <div> note that while some of the cities have been rediscovered, many more are believed to lie hidden in the dense jungle. The only way they will ever be found is with new technology or dumb luck. And machetes.</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#663333" FACE="Arial" > <A NAME="time_line_form"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" ><B>Chapele.com</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" > WILL GROW this Time Line Page</FONT> through out the life of the WORLD WIDE WEB. 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