I'm in a crap place these days...my grandfather passed away on January 10, and that's shaken me up pretty well. Other stuff is going on, too - some good, some challenging....but all of it is leaving me pretty low. I keep trying to write about it, but I just get so tired of feeling like all I ever do is whine and bitch, so I never post anything. At some point, I imagine I will, but for now, it's easier to ramble on about something else. Feelings are confusing and frustrating; green activism, particularly food activism, is less so - and what does that tell you about the shit in my head, eh??
So, TreeHugger asked the question "Is Eating Meat the Best Way to Fight Factory Farms?" The various conversations around this topic bring in a lot of perspectives, because this is an incredibly complicated question to ask. Personally, though, I think even that complicated question is an oversimplification. Let me explain.
First off, there are two major reasons to oppose CAFOs (which I'm separating from factory farming, because factory farming also includes non-meat crop farming...which is awful, too) and consider going veggie: either for what I'll call Compassionate Reasons or Environmental Reasons. (I am choosing to ignore religious/spiritual reasons, even though there's some overlap, just for the purpose of keeping this relatively quick.)
If you're doing the compassion thing, the major concern is usually animal cruelty: animals in CAFOs live pretty awful lives. Overcrowded into standing-room-only cages and pens, fighting with their brethren for food and water and space. Poultry birds are debeaked so they can't peck each other. Excrement fumes and dust are inhaled by the animals with every breath, requiring prophylactic antibiotics to prevent illness. Some animals never see sunshine, or eat anything approaching an actual plant. And all of that's not even looking at how factory farmed animals are slaughtered....to put it mildly, it's not done kindly. (And, as someone who grew up seeing livestock and wild game slaughtered, I believe it can indeed be done kindly and ethically.)
If those are the reasons someone opposes factory farms, then eating grass-fed/small farm/ethically-raised-and-slaughtered meat is a much better option (though it's been my experience that many of these folks just oppose eating animals in general), since the animals usually have less horrible lives that end with much less misery. So, yeah, if your goal is to put CAFOs out of the business of torturing animals for us to eat....then yeah, eating meat from small farms with ethical agricultural practices is a good way to vote with your dollars - it more directly gives huge corporate meat producers a profit incentive to change their ways. If you stop eating meat altogether, they may not even notice; if you give their competition a bump, they're more likely to see it and maybe consider trying to get your money.
The other major reason for opposing CAFOs is the environmental one. CAFOs, in addition to all the awful crap already mentioned, also wreak total havoc on the environment. I don't just mean the shit lagoons that stink up the neighborhood and necessitate all that over-medicating the livestock....I'm talking about soil and groundwater contamination (not only with poo and bacteria, but also with those antibiotics I mentioned), I'm talking about waterways flooded with waste, I'm talking about massive fish kills, I'm talking about huge amounts of methane and carbon dioxide produced en masse by confined livestock. Beyond that, CAFOs are an integral part of the overall factory farm system, driven by petrochemically-supported monocrop operations that produce bumper crops of corn and soy that have to go somewhere....like, say, the mouths of food animals in CAFOs. The system as a whole is a major contributor to greenhouse gases, the oil industry via petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, and climate change overall.
If those are someone's reasons for opposing CAFOs, then it's still true that eating ethically produced meat would be a good step to take. The mechanics of a CAFO are not such an issue for small farms, since the volume of waste is significantly smaller.
However, both of these perspectives miss a bigger issue: even ethically produced meat can be problematic, environmentally speaking. The bottom line is that meat - regardless of how it's produced - requires more resources than plants do. More water, more time, more energy....and if you're trying to find the most environmentally conscious way of eating, meat is likely to be a small part of it, simply because eating vegetarian has the smallest footprint. Even if you don't "eat local," a vegetarian diet uses less water and less oil, and produces fewer greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
Also, as it becomes clear that global hunger is definitely going to be a huge issue (hello, food riots), the plain fact is that feeding food plants to animals instead of hungry people...is not exactly groovy. (Ditto putting food plants into gas tanks, ethanol!) If people ate less meat, that would mean fewer crops would go to feed livestock, meaning they could be shifted towards solving that hunger crisis thing.
So...if the point is to stop CAFOs, yeah, I guess eating ethical meat could be more helpful than skipping meat entirely. But if we think just a smidge bigger, to the overall global environemtal and sociopolitical issues that loom large now and will only become more and more critical, the truth is that eating less meat overall - if not going totally vegetarian - is the best choice for the health of the planet.
Of course, that's on a broad, global scale, and the other truth is that there are tons of complicating factors of economics, physical and mental health, etc. that make it tricky for lots of people to go veggie, even if they wanted to. As in most things, there is no such thing as One Size Fits All.
Showing posts with label local food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label local food. Show all posts
10.01.2008
Happy World Vegetarian Day!
Today is World Vegetarian Day, the kickoff to Vegetarian Awareness Month.
Now, I am not a vegetarian and probably never will be (the lure of venison tenderloin and morel mushrooms when I'm at my dad's is not something I ever intend to resist). However, I believe that eating less meat is a really important piece of environmental activism.
Let's talk about the reasons that eating less meat is better for the planet. First off, even if you're eating ethical meat (either ethically-raised organic animals raised on small scale farms, or wild caught or hunted animals), more resources go into a meat-based meal than a plant-based one. That cherished venison tenderloin, for example, belonged to a two or three year old buck, who spent those two or three years drinking water and eating grass and leaves and bark and bait carrots and apples and whatever else it is that deer eat...which adds up to a lot of resources just for that one animal. Veggies use less resources, because they only take one season to grow and be harvested for eating. Choosing veggies over meat effectively reduces the amount of energy that goes into making your meal, and reduces your water footprint. It's a sneaky way of conserving energy and water.
Beyond that, though, there are the horrors of the industrial food system. Factory farms and their CAFOs not only rob animals of dignity and any kind of reasonably enjoyable life (like, say, sunshine and fresh air), they pump them full of antibiotics and feed them processed corn and petrochemicals....a diet that is not natural for most livestock animals. Industrial meat (which is what you get in most supermarket - including Whole Foods - meat departments, frozen processed foods, restaurants, and just about anywhere else you encounter meat you don't know for a fact was hunted or caught) takes up an incredible amount of resources: water (which, in addition to what the animals drink, is used to spray down animals and holdings pens to prevent fecal dust from making the animals and farm workers constantly sick), petrochemicals (fertilizer for the animals' feed, as well as the prophylactic antibiotics and nutritional supplements required to keep the animals healthy), as well as all the energy used in mass slaughter and transport and processing. Even choosing industrially grown veggies is a better option here - while they're still saturated in petrochemical fertilizer, they skip the extra additives and antibiotics, and still have an incredibly smaller water footprint.
((Not incidentally, avoiding industrial meat is a socially just call, too: factory farms often employ undocumented workers for tiny salaries, no benefits, and crazy working conditions....like, say, working in animal pens clouded with airborne fecal dust, for example.))
When it comes to cutting out meat, I'm actually pretty lucky. My natural preferences lean away from industrial beef and pork generally (I was raised on game meat, which spoiled me in terms of flavor and texture), and I live with a vegetarian these days. Other than a couple cans of chicken soup and an occasional frozen pizza, I don't really keep meat stocked at home...so typically, I eat meat maybe once a week when I don't carry my lunch from home and splurge on a turkey sandwich (something I venerate like the sacred and holy delight it is).
So, even if you're like me and don't totally give up meat, it's a big step to try to make one meal a day (or even one a week) plant-based. Try subbing roasted zucchini or extra mushrooms for the meat in a pasta dish, or go with a comfort classic like grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Try taco night with black beans for filling instead of beef. Make a homemade pizza with as many veggies as you can pile on. Eat a green salad made of handsful of tomatoes and raisins and grapes and blueberries and beets and chickpeas and cucumbers and carrots and croutons and whatever dressing makes you happiest. Soup and bread. Yogurt and granola with fruit for breakfast. Hell, eggs and toast! There are tons of vegetarian options out there; probably ones most people already enjoy without even thinking about the fact that there's no meat involved.
Another way to rock the veggie thing is to patronize vegetarian restaurants - and I don't mean the restaurant that has a token grilled portobello sandwich. In the Chicago area, I can recommend:
Supporting vegetarian restaurants not only gives you a meat-free meal you don't have to make yourself, but also makes a political statement with your dollars.
I don't necessarily attach any kind of virtue to vegetarianism....but (along with living car-free and trying to grow my own veggies and switching to CFLs and making less trash and buying less stuff ad nauseum) eating less meat is one way I can reduce the impact I have on the planet...so I encourage others to try it as much as they are able to within the constraints of health.
And what better time to try it out than Vegetarian Awareness Month?
Now, I am not a vegetarian and probably never will be (the lure of venison tenderloin and morel mushrooms when I'm at my dad's is not something I ever intend to resist). However, I believe that eating less meat is a really important piece of environmental activism.
Let's talk about the reasons that eating less meat is better for the planet. First off, even if you're eating ethical meat (either ethically-raised organic animals raised on small scale farms, or wild caught or hunted animals), more resources go into a meat-based meal than a plant-based one. That cherished venison tenderloin, for example, belonged to a two or three year old buck, who spent those two or three years drinking water and eating grass and leaves and bark and bait carrots and apples and whatever else it is that deer eat...which adds up to a lot of resources just for that one animal. Veggies use less resources, because they only take one season to grow and be harvested for eating. Choosing veggies over meat effectively reduces the amount of energy that goes into making your meal, and reduces your water footprint. It's a sneaky way of conserving energy and water.
Beyond that, though, there are the horrors of the industrial food system. Factory farms and their CAFOs not only rob animals of dignity and any kind of reasonably enjoyable life (like, say, sunshine and fresh air), they pump them full of antibiotics and feed them processed corn and petrochemicals....a diet that is not natural for most livestock animals. Industrial meat (which is what you get in most supermarket - including Whole Foods - meat departments, frozen processed foods, restaurants, and just about anywhere else you encounter meat you don't know for a fact was hunted or caught) takes up an incredible amount of resources: water (which, in addition to what the animals drink, is used to spray down animals and holdings pens to prevent fecal dust from making the animals and farm workers constantly sick), petrochemicals (fertilizer for the animals' feed, as well as the prophylactic antibiotics and nutritional supplements required to keep the animals healthy), as well as all the energy used in mass slaughter and transport and processing. Even choosing industrially grown veggies is a better option here - while they're still saturated in petrochemical fertilizer, they skip the extra additives and antibiotics, and still have an incredibly smaller water footprint.
((Not incidentally, avoiding industrial meat is a socially just call, too: factory farms often employ undocumented workers for tiny salaries, no benefits, and crazy working conditions....like, say, working in animal pens clouded with airborne fecal dust, for example.))
When it comes to cutting out meat, I'm actually pretty lucky. My natural preferences lean away from industrial beef and pork generally (I was raised on game meat, which spoiled me in terms of flavor and texture), and I live with a vegetarian these days. Other than a couple cans of chicken soup and an occasional frozen pizza, I don't really keep meat stocked at home...so typically, I eat meat maybe once a week when I don't carry my lunch from home and splurge on a turkey sandwich (something I venerate like the sacred and holy delight it is).
So, even if you're like me and don't totally give up meat, it's a big step to try to make one meal a day (or even one a week) plant-based. Try subbing roasted zucchini or extra mushrooms for the meat in a pasta dish, or go with a comfort classic like grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Try taco night with black beans for filling instead of beef. Make a homemade pizza with as many veggies as you can pile on. Eat a green salad made of handsful of tomatoes and raisins and grapes and blueberries and beets and chickpeas and cucumbers and carrots and croutons and whatever dressing makes you happiest. Soup and bread. Yogurt and granola with fruit for breakfast. Hell, eggs and toast! There are tons of vegetarian options out there; probably ones most people already enjoy without even thinking about the fact that there's no meat involved.
Another way to rock the veggie thing is to patronize vegetarian restaurants - and I don't mean the restaurant that has a token grilled portobello sandwich. In the Chicago area, I can recommend:
- The Chicago Diner
The Lakeview classic that's been around for 25 years. Easy to get to and a nice menu with lots of options. They first got me hooked on jicama. - Lake Side Cafe
This place is in my neighborhood, and is a new discovery for me. Holy cows, really amazing food - and a substantial portion of their menu isn't just vegetarian, it's vegan (no eggs or milk). They had this vegan artichoke dip that was creamy...without the cream! Miracle of miracles. - Karyn's Cooked Cafe
The original Karyn's restaurant serves only raw foods...and I haven't been there. But I've tried the menu at the cooked cafe in River North, and the food is tasty and the mead is awesome.
Supporting vegetarian restaurants not only gives you a meat-free meal you don't have to make yourself, but also makes a political statement with your dollars.
I don't necessarily attach any kind of virtue to vegetarianism....but (along with living car-free and trying to grow my own veggies and switching to CFLs and making less trash and buying less stuff ad nauseum) eating less meat is one way I can reduce the impact I have on the planet...so I encourage others to try it as much as they are able to within the constraints of health.
And what better time to try it out than Vegetarian Awareness Month?
9.23.2008
Green v. "LOHAS"
If you live in Chicago (or L.A. or San Fran or Seattle...hmmm, one of these things is not like the other...), you may be familiar with Conscious Choice, a magazine dedicated to "LOHAS" (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), which from what I can deduce, consists of yoga, meditation, and buying a whole buttload of eco-friendly stuff. The consumerist bent of this magazine has really started rubbing me the wrong way; I read it because it also has info on local green happenings and occasionally, interesting articles or essays (I tend to enjoy the heck out of Daniel Pinchbeck's monthly columns). The class blindness generally creeps up my ass only mildly, but this month, when they were running down the idea of green leases, I kinda lost it. I mean, they expect people to pony up two years worth of utilities in advance. So, let's conservatively argue that a month's utilities are, say, $100, between water and gas and electric...which is $1200 a year. Now, I don't know about other folks, but if I'm already shelling out to move into a new apartment, I'm spending on moving costs, plus deposit on the new apartment; on top of that, which could run a couple grand itself, depending, I'd need to come up another $2400 or more?! Who the fuck has money like that laying around, especially these days? So, yeah, not striking me as terribly helpful on that count, Conscious Choice.
((Sidenote: Shucks, it would be nice to find green resources that didn't involve shelling out craploads of money, or just in general green tips that weren't just replacing the same ol' consumerist habits with green versions of the same! End digression.))
Every month, they have a feature that runs down a bunch of statistics. This month's listing included this tidbit, recommending a vegetarian breakfast over the "traditional" American breakfast:
Now, first off, I don't know *anyone* who actually eats a breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, and toast on a regular basis. Once or twice a month at weekend brunch, maybe, but I can't think of a single person I know who does that more than occasionally. (Granted, my social sphere may be skewed by my hippie liberal leanings, but still...I come from farm folk, and even my grandparents don't eat like that!) In fact, I'd hazard a guess that I know more people who eat *no* breakfast than who eat eggs plus two servings of both meats and carbs for breakfast.
Secondly, and maybe more disturbing to me, the breakfast they're recommending includes yogurt, cereal, milk, and fruit. I like this breakfast - in fact, it's one I have myself fairly often (sans milk - I like cereal in my yogurt). Over this past summer, I've enjoyed it many times with farmer's market blueberries or strawberries. As we shift into fall, I suspect it may become apples, since that's what's both local and seasonal. I'm curious, though, why Conscious Choice would make a specific recommendation for a particular type of fruit, when a general statement would have done just as well. I am specifically curious as to why they felt it necessary to recommend bananas, the evil-est of all evil exotic fruit. Are the Conscious Choice editors and writers not aware of the political ramifications of bananas? Of the environmental ones, due to monoculture and long-distance transport and petrochemical agriculture and genetic modification?
Needless to say, I have written a letter to the editors asking them to reconsider this recommendation. I'm all for yogurt, cereal, and fruit for breakfast - but skip the blood-soaked environmentally-unfriendly banana in favor of some local, seasonal fruit instead. Or, if you can't get local/seasonal fruit, try organic raisins or just about anything at your neighborhood fruit market that's not a banana.
Also annoying? The usual weight loss claptrap. Especially the part about cutting 300-500 calories from your diet to "slow aging." Not only did this two sentence blurb contain three (count 'em) weasel words (might, may, could), it mentioned no cautionary statements about starting points....like if you're already eating 500 calories on a starvation diet, cutting 300 of them might be a bad idea. Also, although it's impossible to know for sure which study they're basing this off, all of the likely studies in the publication they reference involve mice and rats - not a human-based experiment in the lot! Again I say: "THEY DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW FOR SURE, and whatever they're selling you is based on FUCK ALL."
I wish there were better choices in the world.
((Sidenote: Shucks, it would be nice to find green resources that didn't involve shelling out craploads of money, or just in general green tips that weren't just replacing the same ol' consumerist habits with green versions of the same! End digression.))
Every month, they have a feature that runs down a bunch of statistics. This month's listing included this tidbit, recommending a vegetarian breakfast over the "traditional" American breakfast:
10 Times less, in greenhouse gas emissions, incurred by eating a light breakfast of yogurt, banana, cereal and milk in place of a traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes and toast.
Now, first off, I don't know *anyone* who actually eats a breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, and toast on a regular basis. Once or twice a month at weekend brunch, maybe, but I can't think of a single person I know who does that more than occasionally. (Granted, my social sphere may be skewed by my hippie liberal leanings, but still...I come from farm folk, and even my grandparents don't eat like that!) In fact, I'd hazard a guess that I know more people who eat *no* breakfast than who eat eggs plus two servings of both meats and carbs for breakfast.
Secondly, and maybe more disturbing to me, the breakfast they're recommending includes yogurt, cereal, milk, and fruit. I like this breakfast - in fact, it's one I have myself fairly often (sans milk - I like cereal in my yogurt). Over this past summer, I've enjoyed it many times with farmer's market blueberries or strawberries. As we shift into fall, I suspect it may become apples, since that's what's both local and seasonal. I'm curious, though, why Conscious Choice would make a specific recommendation for a particular type of fruit, when a general statement would have done just as well. I am specifically curious as to why they felt it necessary to recommend bananas, the evil-est of all evil exotic fruit. Are the Conscious Choice editors and writers not aware of the political ramifications of bananas? Of the environmental ones, due to monoculture and long-distance transport and petrochemical agriculture and genetic modification?
Needless to say, I have written a letter to the editors asking them to reconsider this recommendation. I'm all for yogurt, cereal, and fruit for breakfast - but skip the blood-soaked environmentally-unfriendly banana in favor of some local, seasonal fruit instead. Or, if you can't get local/seasonal fruit, try organic raisins or just about anything at your neighborhood fruit market that's not a banana.
Also annoying? The usual weight loss claptrap. Especially the part about cutting 300-500 calories from your diet to "slow aging." Not only did this two sentence blurb contain three (count 'em) weasel words (might, may, could), it mentioned no cautionary statements about starting points....like if you're already eating 500 calories on a starvation diet, cutting 300 of them might be a bad idea. Also, although it's impossible to know for sure which study they're basing this off, all of the likely studies in the publication they reference involve mice and rats - not a human-based experiment in the lot! Again I say: "THEY DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW FOR SURE, and whatever they're selling you is based on FUCK ALL."
I wish there were better choices in the world.
7.07.2008
OMG: Shows!
I have shows coming up, amazingly enough!
First, I'm playing this Friday evening (July 11th) at Clandestino, an underground supper club run by awesome Chicago chef Efrain Cuevas. I've played one of these before, and I HIGHLY recommend the whole experience. This dinner is being held in a ballroom, I'll be playing some music, and the menu....just wow. Very cool. This is a private party, so if you want to come, sadly, you have to have reservations and stuff, and (fair warning) it ain't exactly cheap. But if you got the Benjamins to throw around, it's totally worth it. Learn more here.
Secondly, I'll also be playing (with some friends!) on July 19th at "In Service to the Sacred: a Fundraiser to Save the Land at Diana's Grove," presented by Chicago Mysteries and Earth Spiritualists of Chicago. The funds raised at this event will go to save land near Diana's Grove nature sanctuary, dog rescue, and retreat center in Missouri - that's currently in danger of being clearcut. This unsustainable logging practice devastates the land and its inhabitants, and the Grove is spearheading an effort to save as much of the land as they can. The evening should be a good time -
in addition to playing a set, I'll be reading palms and Tarot cards for the rest of the evening. There'll also be drumming and dancing and potluck food (bring a dish to pass!) and a silent auction (bring anything you want to donate!) and other diversions, too.
Details:
July 19th, 2008, 6pm-midnight
2032 W. Fulton, Chicago, IL 60612
Admission is $5 and up; all monies go towards the land fund.
More info here or at the Grove website.
So, you know, maybe I'll see you at a show or something....
First, I'm playing this Friday evening (July 11th) at Clandestino, an underground supper club run by awesome Chicago chef Efrain Cuevas. I've played one of these before, and I HIGHLY recommend the whole experience. This dinner is being held in a ballroom, I'll be playing some music, and the menu....just wow. Very cool. This is a private party, so if you want to come, sadly, you have to have reservations and stuff, and (fair warning) it ain't exactly cheap. But if you got the Benjamins to throw around, it's totally worth it. Learn more here.
Secondly, I'll also be playing (with some friends!) on July 19th at "In Service to the Sacred: a Fundraiser to Save the Land at Diana's Grove," presented by Chicago Mysteries and Earth Spiritualists of Chicago. The funds raised at this event will go to save land near Diana's Grove nature sanctuary, dog rescue, and retreat center in Missouri - that's currently in danger of being clearcut. This unsustainable logging practice devastates the land and its inhabitants, and the Grove is spearheading an effort to save as much of the land as they can. The evening should be a good time -
in addition to playing a set, I'll be reading palms and Tarot cards for the rest of the evening. There'll also be drumming and dancing and potluck food (bring a dish to pass!) and a silent auction (bring anything you want to donate!) and other diversions, too.
Details:
July 19th, 2008, 6pm-midnight
2032 W. Fulton, Chicago, IL 60612
Admission is $5 and up; all monies go towards the land fund.
More info here or at the Grove website.
So, you know, maybe I'll see you at a show or something....
5.22.2008
Today's outrage.
I never really was all that hot for John Edwards as a presidential candidate (I've been a Hillary girl since, well, 1992?), but I always considered him as strong a candidate as either Obama or Clinton. And, since he's officially NOT running for veep (which totally makes me think of that truism from Lions for Lambs), I like what he's doing instead. Beefing up Head Start (of which I'm a beneficiary, by the by), Medicaid, SCHIP, and other programs that offer aid to low income families - especially children - is a great idea.
Disappointingly, though, it seems like corporate interests are running the show pretty much everywhere - first by maintaining a stranglehold on the intellectual property and patent system that keeps medicines only in the hands of those who can afford them (or profit by them) - second by destroying local food systems in favor of agribusiness that propagates GMO crops, enjoys significant government funding in the form of subsidies and grants for cleaning up their own unnecessary environmental messes, survives on the backs of underpaid and overworked labor, not to mention prioritizes profit over human life or environmental sustainability. With those powers at the wheel (and can anyone really argue that corporations aren't calling the shots here? how scary is it that drug companies are giving more to Democrats than Republicans?? REAL scary....and please note that Obama - he of the "no special interests" money position - got the largest number reported in that article...), it's a huge challenge to try and level the playing field for those living in poverty, in this country and around the globe.
In the context of my ongoing re-education about the geography and history of the planet, I found this article from The Independent really fascinating. Now, I hate bananas and don't eat them....but I know lots of people who do, and I think it would be a shame if there were no more bananas. Furthermore, I find it really fucking horrible how rich, white people seem to have swapped the cunning use of flags for equally unjust corporate takeovers, which trend this story illustrates nicely.
((Sidenote: I feel really disappointed in myself for not previously knowing the origin of the term "banana republic," which for some reason I thought was just a descriptor for countries in steamy equatorial regions that would be good for growing bananas. I had no idea it was such a blood-drenched term, and I'm furthermore very interested in following up this read with some digging about what countries currently embroiled in conflict of some sort might be suffering from this kind of corporate interference in their governments.))
I assume that most people think I'm a little crazy for thinking capitalism is evil and money is evil and corporations are evil and banks are evil and that most of the world's ills can be laid directly at the feet of one or more of those culprits. But this pattern is so clear to me, and so clearly WRONG. And killing people, and destroying the planet. Right now, I'm having trouble understanding how anyone can think money and banks and corporations and capitalism *aren't* evil.
Disappointingly, though, it seems like corporate interests are running the show pretty much everywhere - first by maintaining a stranglehold on the intellectual property and patent system that keeps medicines only in the hands of those who can afford them (or profit by them) - second by destroying local food systems in favor of agribusiness that propagates GMO crops, enjoys significant government funding in the form of subsidies and grants for cleaning up their own unnecessary environmental messes, survives on the backs of underpaid and overworked labor, not to mention prioritizes profit over human life or environmental sustainability. With those powers at the wheel (and can anyone really argue that corporations aren't calling the shots here? how scary is it that drug companies are giving more to Democrats than Republicans?? REAL scary....and please note that Obama - he of the "no special interests" money position - got the largest number reported in that article...), it's a huge challenge to try and level the playing field for those living in poverty, in this country and around the globe.
In the context of my ongoing re-education about the geography and history of the planet, I found this article from The Independent really fascinating. Now, I hate bananas and don't eat them....but I know lots of people who do, and I think it would be a shame if there were no more bananas. Furthermore, I find it really fucking horrible how rich, white people seem to have swapped the cunning use of flags for equally unjust corporate takeovers, which trend this story illustrates nicely.
((Sidenote: I feel really disappointed in myself for not previously knowing the origin of the term "banana republic," which for some reason I thought was just a descriptor for countries in steamy equatorial regions that would be good for growing bananas. I had no idea it was such a blood-drenched term, and I'm furthermore very interested in following up this read with some digging about what countries currently embroiled in conflict of some sort might be suffering from this kind of corporate interference in their governments.))
I assume that most people think I'm a little crazy for thinking capitalism is evil and money is evil and corporations are evil and banks are evil and that most of the world's ills can be laid directly at the feet of one or more of those culprits. But this pattern is so clear to me, and so clearly WRONG. And killing people, and destroying the planet. Right now, I'm having trouble understanding how anyone can think money and banks and corporations and capitalism *aren't* evil.
5.20.2008
Tuesday Ruminations.
I think it is human nature to separate the micro and the macro into nice, cozy separate boxes. I think the blurry lines between individual choices and the inextricably connected Big Picture are frightening on some insitinctual level - it challenges whatever it is in human brains (or maybe just ones bathed in capitalism and patriarchy and Western culture?) that individuates and helps us prioritize the survival of our genes over the survival of those *other* genes that are NOT ours. I think about this kind of paradox a great deal, which is why I feel like I spend a lot of time walking the razor-thin line between, er, "normal" (for lack of a better term) and some kind of Peak Experience. I see this dynamic in religion (a sort-of-like-a-human God v. the entirety of creation and uncreation being one seamless whole living being in all its diverse parts), in politics (individual freedom v. peaceful coexistence), in activism (my individual actions v. the faceless and overwhelming status quo), etc., etc., etc.
I think it's hard for one brain to comprehend the endless complications of even the most seemingly simple idea. A cup of coffee isn't just a cup of coffee - it's a product of an ancient process with millenia of history and context, with impact based on where and how it was grown and harvested and shipped and processed and transported and prepared and how I choose to drink it, not to mention the various social and cultural and economic and environmental factors for all the people involved in all those processes...and then there's the effect it has on my body when I drink it, the cultural implications of drinking coffee, how it affects my appearance and status and how the way I choose to drink that coffee reflects my personality and my lifestyle, the effects on my immediate environment and possibly the regional environment...but even holding an awareness of all those layers of complication, I have trouble not just focusing on the cup of coffee. I can only hold so much thought at one time, and I haven't yet progressed in my enlightenment enough to truly sip coffee with a full awareness of the vast network of inter-related factors tied to this two second moment of my life.
And therein lies, in my opinion, the central challenge humanity wrestles with as a species. Self. Universe. And the mushy middle between, where most of life fits.
I stumbled aboard this train of thought this morning while reading this piece. The writer talks about the idea of food activism and individual choices being a somehow more manageable alternative to massive environmental problems, like global warming or soil contamination or polluted water or deforestation or toxic chemicals in everything. It's an interesting way of looking at the environmental movement as it's become more and more mainstream over the past few years; I find it particularly interesting the way so much activism (especially the kind I hear about in the media) has shifted from nuclear protests and people chaining themselves to redwoods and laying in front of bulldozers....to more capitalist measures - conscious consumerism, as it were. That's a really noteworthy (and sort of disturbing) shift, and it brings up the idea of individual choice in a context of severely harmful systems of being.
((My inner conspiracy theorist says: How much of a shift from groups challenging systems, to individuals changing how they consume...how much of that shift is a total red herring?))
This theme popped up again for me, in reading the comments on this piece from The Guardian. As always with any story about fat people, there was a lot of "just eat less, and move more" (with various levels of courtesy or coherency) and also plenty of "get rid of your cars and bike everywhere" (not to mention "people just need to learn how to eat healthy" - which makes me wonder, what the fuck rock do people think these alleged ignorant people are living under that they don't know how to "eat healthy"? Seriously, I can't crack a newspaper, flip on a TV, listen to a radio, or surf the internet - or have a conversation with most of my friends and family - without having seventeen opinions about what "healthy eating" means shoved right down my throat! If anyone doesn't know how to eat healthy, it's because the only person they ever talk to is painted on a volleyball...) (/end rant). The premise of the article, though, was that there are systemic issues at work, not just individual choices...that food "choices" are less free than people want to think, that economic realities and various other cultural factors have an effect on fatness. Interestingly enough, the bugaboo of fatness leading to a decrease in life expectancy didn't come up in this article (via Common Dreams), which talked about how life expectancy has gone down, but mostly for poor people with little access to proper healthcare...which again begs the question: is it the individual, or is it the bigger picture? Magic Eight Ball says: Answer Not Clear.
I have said before (in answer to many, many questions) that "It's Not That Simple," and I always mean it. It's been my experience that very little in life is ever simple - and if it appears so, there's likely more to it than what's visible. The personal is political, the part affects the whole, as above - so below, all different ways of saying the same thing: what is done in this moment matters, and cannot be disconnected from what was done in the preceding moment or what will be done in the moment following. When we're talking about fighting presidential secrecy, that won't just be done by my writing to the White House and telling the President I think he's an asshole for legislating from the Oval Office and pissing on the Constitution - it will probably also take massive systemic change coming from Congress and broader, collective efforts to reestablish the checks and balances that separate a representative democracy from a fascist oligarchy. When we're talking about ending racism and sexism and sizism and ableism and looksism and other kinds of outdated (and yet, sadly, still present and active and pervasive) discrimination, it can't just be done by calling out some jerk for shitty comments at a press conference...it will probably also take a complete and total reframing of our cultural understanding of gender and race and ethnicity and all the other visible (and not visible) characteristics that mark the tremendous diversity of the human race. Saving the planet won't just happen because I buy local, organic food...it will take global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, massive shifts in food and transportation systems, and an overhaul of what "lifestyle" means in a world on the brink of breakdown.
I recognize that I have some pretty radical ideas, in general. I sometimes want to give away everything I own and go walkabout in a veggie-powered RV, fer chrissakes (holy cows, I'm not the only one!). A lot of that has to do with wanting to distance myself from People. You know, Them. They are stupid and ignorant and different and intolerant and judgmental and whatever other adjectives apply. They are faceless and there are way more of Them than there ever are of Us. Part of my desire to go a-wand'ring is tied to my chronic boho hiraeth, but it's also part of how I manifest my own personal need to draw a line around myself and clarify that I Am Not Them. I separate myself from the Whole, because it makes it easier for me to simplify the messy chaos of life - it makes it harder for me to get hamstrung by the heartbreak that would inevitably haunt me if I really could see the impact of every moment I am alive.
But the harder I work to become more aware of my impacts on the world around me, the more I recognize that that line between me and the world around me is a creation in my head and doesn't really exist. And there has to be a way to apply this concept to all the systemic injustice and degradation in the world. I'm still working on that.
I think it's hard for one brain to comprehend the endless complications of even the most seemingly simple idea. A cup of coffee isn't just a cup of coffee - it's a product of an ancient process with millenia of history and context, with impact based on where and how it was grown and harvested and shipped and processed and transported and prepared and how I choose to drink it, not to mention the various social and cultural and economic and environmental factors for all the people involved in all those processes...and then there's the effect it has on my body when I drink it, the cultural implications of drinking coffee, how it affects my appearance and status and how the way I choose to drink that coffee reflects my personality and my lifestyle, the effects on my immediate environment and possibly the regional environment...but even holding an awareness of all those layers of complication, I have trouble not just focusing on the cup of coffee. I can only hold so much thought at one time, and I haven't yet progressed in my enlightenment enough to truly sip coffee with a full awareness of the vast network of inter-related factors tied to this two second moment of my life.
And therein lies, in my opinion, the central challenge humanity wrestles with as a species. Self. Universe. And the mushy middle between, where most of life fits.
I stumbled aboard this train of thought this morning while reading this piece. The writer talks about the idea of food activism and individual choices being a somehow more manageable alternative to massive environmental problems, like global warming or soil contamination or polluted water or deforestation or toxic chemicals in everything. It's an interesting way of looking at the environmental movement as it's become more and more mainstream over the past few years; I find it particularly interesting the way so much activism (especially the kind I hear about in the media) has shifted from nuclear protests and people chaining themselves to redwoods and laying in front of bulldozers....to more capitalist measures - conscious consumerism, as it were. That's a really noteworthy (and sort of disturbing) shift, and it brings up the idea of individual choice in a context of severely harmful systems of being.
((My inner conspiracy theorist says: How much of a shift from groups challenging systems, to individuals changing how they consume...how much of that shift is a total red herring?))
This theme popped up again for me, in reading the comments on this piece from The Guardian. As always with any story about fat people, there was a lot of "just eat less, and move more" (with various levels of courtesy or coherency) and also plenty of "get rid of your cars and bike everywhere" (not to mention "people just need to learn how to eat healthy" - which makes me wonder, what the fuck rock do people think these alleged ignorant people are living under that they don't know how to "eat healthy"? Seriously, I can't crack a newspaper, flip on a TV, listen to a radio, or surf the internet - or have a conversation with most of my friends and family - without having seventeen opinions about what "healthy eating" means shoved right down my throat! If anyone doesn't know how to eat healthy, it's because the only person they ever talk to is painted on a volleyball...) (/end rant). The premise of the article, though, was that there are systemic issues at work, not just individual choices...that food "choices" are less free than people want to think, that economic realities and various other cultural factors have an effect on fatness. Interestingly enough, the bugaboo of fatness leading to a decrease in life expectancy didn't come up in this article (via Common Dreams), which talked about how life expectancy has gone down, but mostly for poor people with little access to proper healthcare...which again begs the question: is it the individual, or is it the bigger picture? Magic Eight Ball says: Answer Not Clear.
I have said before (in answer to many, many questions) that "It's Not That Simple," and I always mean it. It's been my experience that very little in life is ever simple - and if it appears so, there's likely more to it than what's visible. The personal is political, the part affects the whole, as above - so below, all different ways of saying the same thing: what is done in this moment matters, and cannot be disconnected from what was done in the preceding moment or what will be done in the moment following. When we're talking about fighting presidential secrecy, that won't just be done by my writing to the White House and telling the President I think he's an asshole for legislating from the Oval Office and pissing on the Constitution - it will probably also take massive systemic change coming from Congress and broader, collective efforts to reestablish the checks and balances that separate a representative democracy from a fascist oligarchy. When we're talking about ending racism and sexism and sizism and ableism and looksism and other kinds of outdated (and yet, sadly, still present and active and pervasive) discrimination, it can't just be done by calling out some jerk for shitty comments at a press conference...it will probably also take a complete and total reframing of our cultural understanding of gender and race and ethnicity and all the other visible (and not visible) characteristics that mark the tremendous diversity of the human race. Saving the planet won't just happen because I buy local, organic food...it will take global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, massive shifts in food and transportation systems, and an overhaul of what "lifestyle" means in a world on the brink of breakdown.
I recognize that I have some pretty radical ideas, in general. I sometimes want to give away everything I own and go walkabout in a veggie-powered RV, fer chrissakes (holy cows, I'm not the only one!). A lot of that has to do with wanting to distance myself from People. You know, Them. They are stupid and ignorant and different and intolerant and judgmental and whatever other adjectives apply. They are faceless and there are way more of Them than there ever are of Us. Part of my desire to go a-wand'ring is tied to my chronic boho hiraeth, but it's also part of how I manifest my own personal need to draw a line around myself and clarify that I Am Not Them. I separate myself from the Whole, because it makes it easier for me to simplify the messy chaos of life - it makes it harder for me to get hamstrung by the heartbreak that would inevitably haunt me if I really could see the impact of every moment I am alive.
But the harder I work to become more aware of my impacts on the world around me, the more I recognize that that line between me and the world around me is a creation in my head and doesn't really exist. And there has to be a way to apply this concept to all the systemic injustice and degradation in the world. I'm still working on that.
4.23.2008
Locavore & Food Activism Miscellany.
First, there's this excellent piece from Grist's Tom Philpott, looking at farming infrastructure, how it favors industrial farming over smaller and mid-sized operations. I also really liked his previous column, which addressed the fact that higher food prices probably won't drive people to make better food choices, but to fall deeper into the cheapest (both economically and nutritionally) traps of the industrialized food system.
Speaking of fast food, we move on to farm labor practices, and TrueMajority's call to action in support of Florida tomato pickers. Turns out, they're getting shafted when it comes to wages and working conditions, all so we can get burgers for under a buck - and this is right here in the U.S., not in a sweatshop on the other side of the globe. (More about this here, again from Philpott - I just can't get enough of the guy!)
A big thing that I hear often in discussing food activism is the idea of "should" and the inherent judgment a lot of people feel, either internally or from other people. This brief, ass-kicking essay on the difference between morals and values is illuminating in that context, and I heartily recommend it for anyone worried about being judged for their food choices. (Also, the comments are pretty funny - though heads up for one that's annoyingly fat-phobic, complete with lame donut-based metaphor - 'cause all fatties eat nothing but donuts, doncha know!)
...and to round things up, if you're local to Chicago - don't forget the upcoming Food Activism Class I'll be teaching in May with my awesome friend, Jennifer Byers. We'll be looking at the realities of industrial food - how it affects us in body, in community, and environmentally - and what we can do to try to change that in our individual lives, as well as on a global scale. (Not like it's ambitious or anything.)
Speaking of fast food, we move on to farm labor practices, and TrueMajority's call to action in support of Florida tomato pickers. Turns out, they're getting shafted when it comes to wages and working conditions, all so we can get burgers for under a buck - and this is right here in the U.S., not in a sweatshop on the other side of the globe. (More about this here, again from Philpott - I just can't get enough of the guy!)
A big thing that I hear often in discussing food activism is the idea of "should" and the inherent judgment a lot of people feel, either internally or from other people. This brief, ass-kicking essay on the difference between morals and values is illuminating in that context, and I heartily recommend it for anyone worried about being judged for their food choices. (Also, the comments are pretty funny - though heads up for one that's annoyingly fat-phobic, complete with lame donut-based metaphor - 'cause all fatties eat nothing but donuts, doncha know!)
...and to round things up, if you're local to Chicago - don't forget the upcoming Food Activism Class I'll be teaching in May with my awesome friend, Jennifer Byers. We'll be looking at the realities of industrial food - how it affects us in body, in community, and environmentally - and what we can do to try to change that in our individual lives, as well as on a global scale. (Not like it's ambitious or anything.)
4.22.2008
Last Earth Day thing...
This article (by the sainted Michael Pollan!) rocks!!!!
(via commentary on my friend Jen's LJ)
ETA: Also this (heads up for a lame fat-phobic metaphor) and this and this, all via Common Dreams. Seriously, it's greentastic up in here today!
(via commentary on my friend Jen's LJ)
ETA: Also this (heads up for a lame fat-phobic metaphor) and this and this, all via Common Dreams. Seriously, it's greentastic up in here today!
4.16.2008
Announcement: Sacred Food, Sacred Body, Sacred Earth!!
Sacred Food - Sacred Body - Sacred Earth
with Jennifer Byers and Tari Follett
A six week exploration of the impacts of food on
individuals, communities, and the planet.
Dates: Wednesdays, May 14 – June 25, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
(no class on June 11)
Location: Fulton Carroll Center - 2032 W. Fulton, Ste. F-263-A
Cost: $25-50 sliding scale (work exchange possible)
Few things in life are more personal and intimate than eating - literally taking something into our bodies in such an intense and permanent (relatively speaking) way. It's surprising how remote we can seem, culturally, from the realities of food. Often, we're not conscious of what is actually in our food, where it comes from, how it affects our bodies, or what the broader impacts of our eating habits might be. Further, because eating is something everyone (with tragic exceptions) does every single day, several times a day, the potential for tremendous impact on the planet is enormous.
Wrapped up in our food disconnects is a related estrangement from our bodies. Pop culture, media of all types, and societal stereotypes and gender norms all feed alleged "ideals" that do not, in fact, reflect averages, health, or happiness...yet every day millions fall prey to advertising smoke and mirrors, sacrificing their mental and physical health (not to mention happiness) and torturing their bodies with insufficient food, toxic chemicals, and other catastrophically harmful behaviors - all in pursuit of an illusion only achievable by a tiny genetic minority.
Addressing all of these issues is the work of several lifetimes, and is most impactful when personally engaged by every individual. Unfortunately, we may not have several lifetimes to tackle these complicated problems - the earth is at a tipping point, and the impacts of our relationships with our bodies and the food we put into them cannot be shifted too soon. Our survival as individuals, as a species, and as one facet of a delicate biosphere depends on the choices we make at the breakfast table.
Our intention in "Sacred Food, Sacred Body, Sacred Earth" is to wade into the confusing morass of issues surrounding food, health, and ecology to broaden perspectives and offer information that will enable students to make wiser, more sustainable choices - for their own understanding of and enjoyment of their food, their bodies, and their planet. What if we knew the life cycle of our food from seed to soup bowl? What if we viewed each bite as an act of devotion to our health? What if we saw ourselves as strong, vibrant, and beautiful - just as we are in this very moment? What if we viewed the health of total strangers as just as sacred as our own? What if every meal was a prayer?
Wrapped up in our food disconnects is a related estrangement from our bodies. Pop culture, media of all types, and societal stereotypes and gender norms all feed alleged "ideals" that do not, in fact, reflect averages, health, or happiness...yet every day millions fall prey to advertising smoke and mirrors, sacrificing their mental and physical health (not to mention happiness) and torturing their bodies with insufficient food, toxic chemicals, and other catastrophically harmful behaviors - all in pursuit of an illusion only achievable by a tiny genetic minority.
Addressing all of these issues is the work of several lifetimes, and is most impactful when personally engaged by every individual. Unfortunately, we may not have several lifetimes to tackle these complicated problems - the earth is at a tipping point, and the impacts of our relationships with our bodies and the food we put into them cannot be shifted too soon. Our survival as individuals, as a species, and as one facet of a delicate biosphere depends on the choices we make at the breakfast table.
Our intention in "Sacred Food, Sacred Body, Sacred Earth" is to wade into the confusing morass of issues surrounding food, health, and ecology to broaden perspectives and offer information that will enable students to make wiser, more sustainable choices - for their own understanding of and enjoyment of their food, their bodies, and their planet. What if we knew the life cycle of our food from seed to soup bowl? What if we viewed each bite as an act of devotion to our health? What if we saw ourselves as strong, vibrant, and beautiful - just as we are in this very moment? What if we viewed the health of total strangers as just as sacred as our own? What if every meal was a prayer?
Visit http://www.tarifollett.com/SacredFBE for more information.
E-mail SacredFBE@tarifollett.com with any questions or to register!
3.04.2008
Quick locavore news roundup.
First, Jack Hedin (a Minnesota organic farmer) talks about the federal government's roadblocks to building local food systems - in the NY Times, of all places! (via Common Dreams) My takeaway from this article: commercial fruit and veggie growers in Cali, Florida, and Tejas and their lobbyists need to be punched. All the more reason to learn about canning and other natural (and old-fashioned!) preservative methods, so I can stop giving those bastards my produce money in the off seasons.
I really enjoyed this piece from the Boston Globe, looking at the connections between spirituality and environmentalism. My personal tradition was born from the intersection of religion and politics (see here if you're curious about specifics), and so I'm always intrigued by the way activism and faith connect - especially as in this context, the faith in question is Christian in nature, with the token exception of a few lines from the Harvard UU Minister. (I do find this line hilarious: "Early environmentalists evoked a spirituality about the earth, but some religious people interpreted this spirituality as pagan, one that viewed the earth itself as a deity." Since my personal tradition came from those early environmentalists, and is in fact pagan in nature....uh, yeah. I guess those "religious people" would be right, then.)
I also found this article from the Baltimore Sun, talking about some of the reasons local agriculture is so important, and some of the obstacles to joining the locavore movement in a region with little agriculture and even less sustainable local food infrastructure. Some of this is specific to Baltimore itself, but the general principles I think can be applied to any urban environment, especially economically disadvantaged ones. (With, of course, the exception of the too-often-hyped "obesity epidemic" argument for the locavore movement...which it DOES NOT NEED. UGH.)
I really enjoyed this piece from the Boston Globe, looking at the connections between spirituality and environmentalism. My personal tradition was born from the intersection of religion and politics (see here if you're curious about specifics), and so I'm always intrigued by the way activism and faith connect - especially as in this context, the faith in question is Christian in nature, with the token exception of a few lines from the Harvard UU Minister. (I do find this line hilarious: "Early environmentalists evoked a spirituality about the earth, but some religious people interpreted this spirituality as pagan, one that viewed the earth itself as a deity." Since my personal tradition came from those early environmentalists, and is in fact pagan in nature....uh, yeah. I guess those "religious people" would be right, then.)
I also found this article from the Baltimore Sun, talking about some of the reasons local agriculture is so important, and some of the obstacles to joining the locavore movement in a region with little agriculture and even less sustainable local food infrastructure. Some of this is specific to Baltimore itself, but the general principles I think can be applied to any urban environment, especially economically disadvantaged ones. (With, of course, the exception of the too-often-hyped "obesity epidemic" argument for the locavore movement...which it DOES NOT NEED. UGH.)
1.21.2008
On food activism, ecological impact, and belching cows...
For those unfamiliar, the Slow Food movement involves many factors that go into what we eat, but the general idea is that it's the opposite of fast food: not processed, not cookie-cutter, not frozen and microwaved and stuffed full of chemicals and sugar and who the heck knows what else. Ideally, a slow food meal involves the people who eat it from seed to table. I love that idea - it really appeals to the (probably romanticized) notions I have of being the product of generations of farm folk (which may or may not actually be true, although I know for a fact there at least *some* farmers in my genome somewhere).
(Slow Food isn't quite the same as Local Food, but there are a lot of close ties.)
Tied into these food movements is a general objection to factory farming, a la CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). Factory farms pretty much kick out one or two crops at volume, without regard to how they impact the environment. The pig shit geyser of Al Franken fame looks at some of that impact (with, of course, lots of snarky shots at the Bush regime - bonus!) (it's both sickening, horriffic, and hilarious all at the same time). The overall downside to factory farmed meat is that it's horrible for the environment, cruel to the animals, and produces meat filled with chemicals and antibiotics and who the heck knows what else.
This is why eating veggie as much as possible is a good thing, on many levels. Or, alternately, trying to source as much of your meat as possible from family farms or wild game (yes, I mean hunting and fishing). Anything to keep money away from the meat-corn industry!
One of the other purported environmental impacts of beef specifically is the huge amounts of methane cattle belch into the atmosphere during their four-stomached, cud-chewing digestive process. The more cows being raised, the more cud being chewed, the more methane in the air, the more greenhouse-y the greenhouse, or so goes the theory. I'm not sure how much this is actually a legit concern, since I don't really have a handle on how much methane a cow is burping up over the course of a lifetime. Lucky for me, they're doing a study to find out!
I know on some level, I should take this news seriously, in the hopes that it will shed some light on one more way the meat industry is destroying the planet....but my inner five-year-old just can't beyond the idea that they're spending over half a million bucks to study burping cows. I swear, it's its own punchline!
(Slow Food isn't quite the same as Local Food, but there are a lot of close ties.)
Tied into these food movements is a general objection to factory farming, a la CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). Factory farms pretty much kick out one or two crops at volume, without regard to how they impact the environment. The pig shit geyser of Al Franken fame looks at some of that impact (with, of course, lots of snarky shots at the Bush regime - bonus!) (it's both sickening, horriffic, and hilarious all at the same time). The overall downside to factory farmed meat is that it's horrible for the environment, cruel to the animals, and produces meat filled with chemicals and antibiotics and who the heck knows what else.
This is why eating veggie as much as possible is a good thing, on many levels. Or, alternately, trying to source as much of your meat as possible from family farms or wild game (yes, I mean hunting and fishing). Anything to keep money away from the meat-corn industry!
One of the other purported environmental impacts of beef specifically is the huge amounts of methane cattle belch into the atmosphere during their four-stomached, cud-chewing digestive process. The more cows being raised, the more cud being chewed, the more methane in the air, the more greenhouse-y the greenhouse, or so goes the theory. I'm not sure how much this is actually a legit concern, since I don't really have a handle on how much methane a cow is burping up over the course of a lifetime. Lucky for me, they're doing a study to find out!
I know on some level, I should take this news seriously, in the hopes that it will shed some light on one more way the meat industry is destroying the planet....but my inner five-year-old just can't beyond the idea that they're spending over half a million bucks to study burping cows. I swear, it's its own punchline!
1.17.2008
Locavore-alicious!
Over the past year or so, I've been trying to step into the local food, or locavore, movement. It's kinda tricky living in Chicago, which doesn't have California's year-round growing season, but I'm exploring ways around that (I'm planning to learn how to can for next harvest!) as I am able. I love the idea of eating local because, in addition to putting the focus on fresh, organic foods and finding ways to reconnect with where food comes from, locavores reduce the fossil fuels used in harvesting, processing, and transporting food. Plus, part of my locavorism has involved growing some of my own food (greens, tomatoes, peas, herbs, edible flowers, etc.), which is crazy fun - and saves money, too! Big yays all around.
This little tidbit, from Grist's Tom Philpott, highlights some of the positive progress of the movement. For geeks like me, that's really exciting.
This little tidbit, from Grist's Tom Philpott, highlights some of the positive progress of the movement. For geeks like me, that's really exciting.
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