Topic: Barley Straw

[Hugh_Jones]

I hope that all you pond lovers have noted the latest edict from our masters in the European Soviet Union - the use of barley straw in ponds to clear green water is now to be BANNED, and its future use will be a criminal offence.

Unbelievable as this may sound, I can assure you that it is correct.  The reason given is that nobody has gone to the trouble and expense of proving to the satisfaction of our masters that barley straw is completely harmless, and until somebody does the standard Euro dictum of Guilty until proven innocent will apply.

[teresa]

Well thats about right for the so called body. ???
If something works ban it, what anoys me is someone is sitting in a office and getting paid a high wage to think of what to ban next.  :o
Insteed of investigating it them selves and printing the findings to much like hard work just ban it. >:(
I have never used it but know a few people who have and have been happy with it. ;)
Pity we never had these problems before we joined them and now they run our lives. ::)
What will they think of next to warrent their wages? >:(
Teresa

[tricia]

What I'd like to know is how the ban can possibly be enforced! Do they plan on wasting even more of our money by employing 'pond snoopers'? ::)

I, for one, shall continue to use barley straw until my supply is used up!!  ;D

Happy Monday morning everyone. :)

Tricia

[legless]

fantastic! can you imagine how the police call centre would react if you tried to report your neighbours!!!  ;D how pathetic!

[Hugh_Jones]

While I fully agree with all your sentiments, may I remind you of the case of the Metric Martyrs?  Any local authority which is prepared to having its Inspectors wasting days of their expensive (for the ratepayers) time searching the markets for anybody selling apples by the pound will be just as happy to have them peering over your garden fence and prodding into your pond. And for the boys at DEFRA (Department for Eradication of Farming and Rural Affairs) who revelled in the completely unnecessary slaughter of half the nation`s stock of livestock, a dawn raid on your fish pond (complete with EU warrants and stun guns) would simply be a jolly outing.

[teresa]

can you imagine a dawn raid. ::)
Men in black with faces black out with the letters EU on their backs stun guns in hand. :o
up to their ? ;) in cold water trying to find the barley straw and taking it and you away. :(
Darn it would make a good film. ;D
I bet you all their is someone out their planning to turn the straw into a liquid glue and bottling it to sell to us. 8)
That would be the last straw oh sorry. :-[
Teresa

[tricia]

You can buy barley straw in a liquid form. I've seen it at the Garden Centre - will that be banned too?

Tricia ::)

[Hugh_Jones]

It might have made a good film teresa, but where the European Soviet Union is concerned  the only actors who could play the parts convincingly - namely Laurel & Hardy, or the Marx Brothers - are unfortunately no longer in the business - although perhaps Rory Bremner and the 2 Johns (Bird & Fortune) could give it a go.

As for the Barley Straw in liquid form, they`ll probably simply repackage that as the latest herbal cure for heartburn.

[LynneA]

Well, I'm planning to sow some barley (to make my own pearl barley, but possibly for brewing if the hops take).  I'll be left with loads of excess straw which I will tie into small bundles with twine.  Every now & then, one will accidentally fall into the pond.  And as it would disturb the wildlife to remove it, I'd just have to leave it there.

This year I noticed that tadpoles were feasting on the stuff that clings to the pond pads, and that the fox cub had great fun fishing the straw out and hiding it in the potato patch!

If you find the text of the edict, I'd love to see it.  I wonder what poison, sorry chemical company, feels its products are losing out to a safe option?

[teresa]

Hi Lynne
Love the idea of grow your own, I too would like to see what Hugh saw. ;)
But I often wonder if its the old saying (money talks )and how much it cost to buy the things you want? ???
You could lable the straw as toys for wild life ha ha
Teresa

[Hugh_Jones]

Sorry teresa, I can`t supply you with the actual text.  However the ban comes under the EU Biocide Regulations shortly to come into force.  Unfortunately, nobpody actually knows HOW  or WHY the barley straw works in clearing green water, and the EU Regulations will not allow any product (natural or otherwise) if the producers cannot explain this exactly.  Producers of the Barley Straw `Patches` have indicated that the cost of attempting to do this would simply drive them out of business.

Of course, our own Health and Safety Executive is to take up the matter and protest to EU, and we all know how much good that will do.  Don`t we just?

[Beer_Belly]

You could make straw dollies for the fish to play with !

[Hugh_Jones]

At last, teresa.  The Euro Directive in question is our old friend 98/8.  Ex Beeb members may remember that I posted a warning about the dire effects of this Directive on one of the Beeb Boards 7 or 8 months ago.  It is the same Directive that has resulted in the loss of almost every effective chemical insecticide/fungicide we had, and it is the same one which, in effect, bans the use of all those organic remedies such as bicarb, milk, urine etc as fungicides, rhubarb leaf potions as insecticides, coffee and garlic solution as slug killers - you name it, the Euro Directive bans it.

The reason, as I have already pointed out, is that the Directive bans the use of ANY substance as an insecticide, fungicide, biocide etc. which has not been registered with the EU for the purpose.  To register, the applicant has to submit the effective constituent of the substance for lengthy testing (at a cost of over £200,000) followed by a lengthy report and application process costing up to another £100,000.

Obviously, in the case of generic products such as coffee or rhubarb or milk, or simple chemicals such as bicarb, no one company is going to spend the money registering so that everyone else can get on the bandwagon and cash in, and I`m certainly not going to register my pee.  So out they all go.

As I said, the trouble with barley straw, although it`s been used for clearing water for over 900 years (and is now so used by almost every water authority in the country) nobody actually knows why it works, or what the active constituent is, so they don`t know what to test and register, and again the same economic problem still applies since, if it were once registered, any farmer can grow a few acres of barley and  cash in with the straw at the expense of the muggins who went to all the cost of registering.  So out it goes.

Of course, we can see why the EU need to raise such sums by forcing registration of everything - it`s to replace the yet more millions they now find have been lost to the internal fraud and corruption which our own N.Kinnock has so signally failed to stop during his tenure in the job to which he was appointed for the purpose.

Our own Government`s reaction to these daft Directives invariably comes in 3 stages:-

Stage 1 - It`s only a proposal and it will probably never happen

Stage 2 - It`s going to happen after all, but don`t worry, it won`t mean what it says, and we will have it amended anyway.

Stage 3 - Sorry, it has happened, everybody ignored our amendments, it means exactly what it says, and our Inspectors will now be poking and prying into your affairs to see that you are obeying it.

I never voted for the silly b*ggers in the first place, but I still have to suffer with all the idiots who did.

[teresa]

Hi Hugh
Thanks for the info now where do I find 98/8 is it on a gov web page? :-/
Now I have learnt a lot from yourself Eric Tim and all the other girls and guys from the other side one was
PEE. as an activator. ;)
Now say you go out on the town and drink beer? ???
I go out and drink brandy? ;D
My dad only drinks coffee? :'(
which one of us would have the best activator to go on the compost heap? ::)
Interesting? wonder which of us it would be.
Teresa

[Hugh_Jones]

Beer.  And if you want to grow champion Leeks the Geordies swear by Newcastle Brown (although in that case you can by-pass the compost heap and just stop at the allotment on the way home from the pub)

[teresa]

Oh Hugh
Thats a B. pub is at one end of village and lottie at the other.  >:(
Ok hubby is going to change his drink and have a large bucket in the bedroom  ;) (aim is not what it use to be after dark) will also save him banging that darn door twice a night.  ;)
Got quite a few leeks on lottie from a lovely irish gent so far they have had fish poo water now for the hard stuff. 8)
Thanks for the tip.
Teresa