Yesterday, a jury awarded Dewayne Johnson, terminally ill with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,  $289 million in damages. After a trial that lasted a month, the jury decided that Monsanto’s Roundup was the cause of his cancer. Johnson worked as a groundskeeper for a school district north of San Francisco and sprayed Roundup repeatedly throughout the year, sometimes for hours a day. While Monsanto has long argued that Roundup is safe for humans and not linked with cancer development, the World Health Organization in 2015 classified it as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Unfortunately it is ubiquitous now in our environment and when I tested myself (my family can attest to the fact that…

The chemical giant Monsanto had a rare come-uppance in a California Court when it was ordered to pay almost $300-million to a Roundup user. Roundup is a herbicide widely used in the United States and widely banned in many other countries. Monstanto Article Back in the day when I was blogging at the North American Devon website a recurring target was Monsanto. I felt then, as I do now, that much of the growth of cancer can be traced in some part (alright, large part) to Monsanto and its’ brothers in the chemical industry. Monsanto is an American corporation recently purchased by the German chemical giant Bayer. Now there’s something…

….and yes we are continuing to offer a limited amount of grass fed beef. If you want to be on our mailing list write: info@thistlehill.net In the 13 years we’ve been raising Devon the market has really exploded. When we began, Wooz and I would carry a booth around and explain the health benefits and offer samples. About year 5 we realized the people standing on the other side of the table knew as much or more than we did about the selling points of our product. And we’d sit quietly while they’d explain it to each other. Since then the grass fed market has grown from $15-million annually to…

…that’s my report from Thistle Hill. After a year and a half I’m finally on my feet. But I won’t be chasing cows again. That will be up to my grandson, Church. Church just graduated from Denison University with a degree in biology. He’s managing the farm and entering the master’s degree program at George Mason University.  He has a wonderful touch with animals and a good eye as well. He’s grown up with Devon and so he will be a formidable package as Thistle Hill goes forward. Hopefully I can convince Church and his mother Carolyn to contribute to this blog. Carolyn’s schedule, as a cancer surgeon and director…

….in fact, raising beef is better for the planet than growing vegetables.  The real threat is cultivating crops the conventional way.

….it’s not only the human tragedy.  Lois Ayelstock of Blue Ridge Meats has a link to some dramatic footage of cattle fighting for their lives. https://www.facebook.com/FoxNews/videos/10154336454526336/  

…..throw another steak on the grill! No, this isn’t at Thistle Hill.  We thank our friend and webmaster Keith Smith for the link.