THE ATTACK OF THE KILLER CLOVER

While doing research on the dangers posed by hormone mimickers, I found an interesting article on natural hormone mimickers. This phenomenon has been known and utilized by mankind for thousands of years by our primitive ancestors -- womankind to be more precise, as you will see later.

Back in the 1940s, some enterprising Australian farmers imported clover seed from Europe. This strain grew lush and green in the Australian soil. The sheep grew fat and produced luxurious wool. The farmer and sheep both prospered. Apparently the farmers failed to alter or supplement the diet of the sheep since the forage was so sumptuous, and a problem ensued. Within a few years it was noted that there was a sharp decrease in the fertility of the sheep. Fewer ewes conceived; those that did conceive would not go into labour and died. Those that did go into labour lost interest in the offspring and the lambs withered and died.

No one could fathom what was going awry. New rams were brought into service with no improvement. The state and federal scientists were brought in to investigate why the industry had collapsed within a five year span. Someone finally suspected that the clover itself might be the culprit. It gave all of the symptoms of fighting back from being overgrazed. It took three more years before the scientists found a naturally produced compound in the clover that mimicked estrogen. This compound resisted digestion in the sheep's stomach and entered the blood stream. From there it bonded with the estrogen hormone receptors.

So why did this plant make this non-estrogen estrogen? To answer, I will quote Claude Hughes, a researcher who investigates this type of phenomenon. "Plants are making oral contraceptives to defend themselves". Since plants cannot escape predators, they have been given (or evolved) a wide variety of defenses. Sometime they stink, sometimes they poison. They grow thorns, spines and have bad tastes. All of these defenses are to ward off insects and other creatures who would reduce there numbers to zero. This hormone mimicker trick simply renders the grazer sterile thereby reducing the risk to its own extinction."

It has since been found that these mimickers abound in nature. This would indicate to me that we would best adopt a varied diet to avoid the risk of overdosing on a single food's fake estrogen. Every season has a reason, and I believe that the food for each season is the best food for that time frame.

To date, twenty different chemical mimickers have been identified in sixteen different plant families. It is obvious that the clover example is not a fluke of nature.

The list of foods, herbs and spices that provide the world's nutrition is long. It would appear that over 300 plants also would like to maintain their place in nature by not being too docile. I will make no effort to list these foods that have been identified by the scientific community. If this is of interest to you then you can find the literature at the library.

These natural estrogen mimickers seem to have a short life in a body. The natural defenses in the body soon break them down and dispose of them. It is only when the source of the mimicker is constant and uninterrupted that the major effects, including sterility, are forthcoming.

Now many people will say, "So what's the big deal with a few man-made hormonal mimickers if the plant world is already doing the same thing?" Well, it is not the same thing. Man-made mimickers can be persistent and do their damage for years on end. Some of these mimickers can literally drive a person mad when they disrupt the body's natural order. Their ability to deform a fetus, and produce cancers 20 years after exposure are not the same as the more humane and degradable mimickers of nature.

There is at least one plant that became extinct because of its hormone mimicking defense mechanism. Women discovered this mechanism and put it to use in ancient times. They used it as a method of controlling the size of their families by making themselves temporarily infertile and through induced miscarriages. The plant called silphium was actually harvested to extinction because of these sought-after properties. I guess that this plant never properly assessed the determination of women to be in control of themselves.

I am available to discuss this paper with anyone interested: email me at world@golden.net.

Next week we will discuss how a Martian might look for intelligent life on Earth, "Beam me up Mzxypltx, there is no intelligent life here, -- except for one very clever clover."

Have a nice day.