According to an article published by CNN, John Mackey (the CEO of Whole Foods) feels singled out by the FTC's attempt to block the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger.

Whole Foods is the largest seller of organic and natural food, and it had planned to acquire Wild Oats, until the planned merger was blocked by the FTC (for anti-competitive reasons). Mackey says:

Look at the track record of the FTC in the last six years. They have approved 96 oil and gas mergers. They approved Smithfield buying the No. 2 pork producer, giving them around 30% market share in the U.S. [In 1999], they approved Exxon and Mobil merging. It's ludicrous to single [Whole Foods] out for anticompetitive reasons. [The rules] are obviously being selectively enforced.

Mackey has a good point. It seems odd that the FTC would block the merger of two natural foods companies, when they have approved the merger of large oil and gas companies, and other special interests. In the CNN article, Mackey goes on to say that Whole Foods will focus on opening new stores in the future, instead of acquiring them. This will prevent entanglements with the FTC. He is quoted as saying:

You can open as many stores as you want without permission form the FTC, but if you try to buy stores, that requires permission. The solution is obvious: We won't be buying stores, we'll be opening them. You don't see Wal-Mart acquiring anyone in the U.S. anymore. It's easier for them and us to just open stores.

Other interesting points from the article:

• If the merger succeeds, Wild Oats prices will be lowered.
• Whole Foods adapts certain stores to fit the culture. For example, in London, Whole Foods has an organic pub where customers can buy organic draft beer and wines.
• When considering where to open new stores, Whole Foods looks at the density of college grads. Mackey says Whole Foods "caters to the well-educated [because] for people to change their dietary habits requires that they be well-informed."
• Whole Foods has tripled its supply of local food in the past year, and is loaning up to $10 million a year to local producers. 13 loans to local producers have already been made this year.
• Whole Foods has a positive effect on real estate property values. When Whole Foods opened in Chelsea [in New York City], condos above the store went up 10% in price on opening day. This has caused some real estate investors to buy up property in neighborhoods where a Whole Foods store is slated to open.
• Whole Foods is seen as a highly-desirable tenant by property developers because of its effect on real estate prices.

I hope the merger succeeds. It's sad to see the FTC apply rules selectively. I think it comes down to lobbying, and unfortunately, Whole Foods doesn't have the same lobbying power that the oil and gas industries have.

In my earlier post, I mentioned how I was growing some organic vegetables. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble keeping the deer away. They are eating the young plants. The zucchini is doing well, though. For some reason, the deer don't find zucchini too appealing. :-)

I am really starting to sympathize with farmers who deal with pests on an everyday basis.

A friend of mine told me that placing human hair around the plants should keep the deer away. So, it looks like I will be buying deer netting or putting uncolored (non-chemically treated) hair around the plants. I'm going to try the hair trick first. If that doesn't work, then I guess I won't have home-grown vegetables this year.

In other news - I've been dealing with some spammers (RSS/Feedburner, and of course the usual blog comment spam, most of which Akismet catches). So, if you see anything odd coming from this blog, now you know why. It seems spam is becoming more of a problem online.

Local Produce - I've been eating some great produce from the CSA that I belong to. Last week, I received some excellent (but very small!) watermelons. I've included a photo below. These are the some of the smallest watermelons I have seen (they tasted great, though).

A couple of weeks ago, I was given an avocado plant at a local Meetup group. The woman who gave me the avocado plant had 10 avocado plants sitting on her windowsill, seeped in water with 4 toothpicks on each of the 4 sides of the avocado. She had grown each avocado plant from seed.

I'm curious to see whether my avocado plant will actually produce an avocado, since I don't live in sunny California or Florida. I've read that avocados need an enormous amount of sunlight. The first avocado plant she gave me looked like this:

Unfortunately, this particular plant was eaten by a squirrel 2 days after I got it!

I found the pot overturned, the avocado bulb gone, and the leaves shredded into pieces on the ground. My aloe vera plant escaped the fate of being eaten, although it had squirrel toothmarks on the side of it. Apparently, the squirrel didn't like the taste of aloe vera because - other than the tooth marks - he left the aloe vera plant intact.

My friend generously gave me another avocado plant—and I've put chicken wire around the new avocado plant to protect it from hungry squirrels. It's pretty sad that I have to put my plants inside cages (to keep them from being eaten/destroyed), but what else can I do? Any suggestions for preventing squirrels from eating plants?

Here is the poor little avocado plant inside its cage:

I've also put the aloe vera plant and another small plant inside the chicken wire (both had tooth marks from the squirrel, but were left intact).

Vegetable Gardening
I was inspired by the Dervaes family garden, and so I started a small vegetable garden. So far, I've planted green beans, sugar snap peas, cucumber, zucchini, and Chinese red noodle long bean. The Chinese red noodle long bean is similar to a green bean, except it's bright red, sweet tasting, and can grow up to 22 inches long. The Red Noodle Long Bean was an heirloom seed, given to me by a friend. I've never seen (or eaten) a red noodle long bean, so it should be interesting to see how it turns out. Eventually I want to grow tomatoes and sweet red peppers, but I'll save that for next year.

I'm hoping all my plants grow, and I'll keep everyone posted. Assuming I get a decent harvest, I'll take photos and post them to the blog.

A friend of mine just recently gave birth to her first child, and she has been dealing with the issue of vaccination. Based on what I've read, I am against vaccinating infants. An infant's immune system is not yet fully developed and I think it's absolutely foolish to inject live viruses into a tiny body that is only 2 months old.

In the U.S., infants are supposed to be given vaccinations at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 12 months. If it was my child, I would refuse. The effectiveness of vaccines is questionable (at best), and in my mind, vaccines should NOT be given to infants (children under 2 years). There is even good evidence against vaccinating adults.

Here is a very sarcastic video that decribes the dangerous ingredients found in most vaccines (including the flu shot).

I came across something new and interesting—especially if you like movies (and who doesn't like movies?).

The first-ever Raw Food Film Festival will be held March 16-18th at MOA in West Hollywood, CA. Movies screenings will include:

• Breakthrough (about the Talifero family)
• Raw for 30 Days
• Not the Cooking Show
• Supercharge Me: 30 Days Raw
• Vegan 2 Raw Vegan
• Interview with Sergei Boutenko
• Living Foods
• Raising Children Raises Us
• Lelek
• Go Further

Other films will cover health topics such as natural birth, the dangers of factory farming, the pharmaceutical sales industry, and the effects of pharmaceutical drugs.

Looks like there will be speakers from various raw food restaurants, and raw vegan food for everyone. This is a unique idea.

I've come across an amazing story — a family in Pasadena, CA has created a self-sufficient urban homestead where they grow over 350 varieties of edible and useful plants on 1/10 acre. They are in the middle of Pasadena, surrounded by neighbors—and yet they produce more crops than most small family farms!

The Dervaes family chronicles their journey online (their website is nicely designed with beautiful graphics) with articles, newsletters, outreach campaigns and information for people interested in organic gardening and eco-living.

According to the website, their organic garden produces over 6,000 pounds (3 tons) of produce annually. This provides fresh vegetables and fruit for the family’s vegetarian diet and a source of income.

This is really quite amazing, and very impressive.

The Power of Thought: A Consciousness Experiment

I've discovered an amazing experiment that proves the power of thought.

This experiment will give you visual proof that your thoughts affect the physical world. In this experiment, you will control and affect the motion (and speed) of an object.

The Experiment