So I bought a hog that was raised organically and with healthy slop and all that. Since the Mrs. and I went in on a deep freezer big enough to train sled dogs in I went ahead and bought the whole hog. I had it butchered, processed and wrapped up ready for me to pick up without ever actually meeting the hog in person.
Part of me regrets not meeting the hog, and part of me is glad I didn't. The part that regrets is the part that understands and appreciates the ultimate sacrifice the hog has to make in order to feed me and my family. The part that's glad I didn't is the part that's perfectly happy being ignorant of that sacrifice.
Here I'm doing my very best not to make any references to the way our culture at large has perfected the art of turning an ignorant eye towards the real "how" of what's going on, be it our food supply or our government, our soldiers or our scholars, our farmers or our CEOs.
Well I failed to not mention it but there it is. We're so blind, so willing to take what we get and not think twice about where it came from or what it took to get it there. We put blind faith in a system we don't understand to protect us while we worry about the other little details of our lives.
Along with a lot of documentaries and notes from Bryan on various books and studies, TPT helped open my eyes to the darkness which looms over our food industry. It helped me recognize that we're all systematically poisoning ourselves and each other, all the while paying directly into the hands of people who are conscious of the issues and who manipulate the system to continue it on its course. We pour our dollars into the hands that manipulate entire societies with expert marionette finesse, marching us one step at a time toward our own doom.
Quit buying garbage food! Support local businesses that don't contribute to turning every town in America into identical interstate exits! Recognize the value of a family owned diner! Stop shopping at Walmart! It may save you a few bucks, but it costs you your soul and it's killing this country. Look around. I'm right. We are the problem, and it's because we've been conditioned to be mindless consumers.
Thank you, local farmer who sold me a naturally raised hog; I support you! Thank you small business owner who struggles to stay afloat next door to massive corporate chain stores. Thank you for providing me with the choice to be free.
TSN
I am proud of the improvements you have made thus far, Zach. However, how is eating more meat an answer to anything?
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the health impacts of consuming animal flesh and products day in and day out (since that is "debatable"), here is something not debatable from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization:
"FAO estimated that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport. It accounts for nine percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, most of it due to expansion of pastures and arable land for feed crops. It generates even bigger shares of emissions of other gases with greater potential to warm the atmosphere: as much as 37 percent of anthropogenic methane, mostly from enteric fermentation by ruminants, and 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide, mostly from manure." - http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
All that? What about the volcano in iceland that spewed thousands of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere recently? What about two hundred years ago when millions of buffalo roamed the plains, farting contentedly 24 hours a day? Does the data take into account the thousands of years worth of dinosaur farts after big ol T Rex scarfed down a family sized order of pteradactyl burritos? What about fish farts? Do fish fart? Do bugs fart? There are tons of bugs for every human and or rhuminating cud chewers, you should know, you're a bug guy...
ReplyDeleteBesides that, whose job is it to count cow farts? What kind of a degree do you need to get that gig? What questions do they ask during the interview?
Ignorance is bliss, that's for sure! But I think the major problem is the Western world's hostility towards anything from the past. We seem to be mesmerized with the idea that new is always better. As far as nutrition is concerned, humans have figured out how to eat and be healthy for thousands of years through the ultimate trial and error: If they got it right, they lived; if they didn't, then they would die.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, the rising interest in Paleo, and the evolution of Paleo theory itself, is helping to reacquaint our modern society with the dietary wisdom of our ancestors. My hope is that our ailing world will be helped with the combination of modern science with Paleo, primal, and traditional approaches to eating and living.
As for cow farts, I'm not too concerned: CO2 (or any of the other greenhouse gasses) can't compare to the heat retaining (and deflecting) power water vapor. So I propose that we devise an expensive, Rube Goldberg-like scheme to somehow destroy all clouds, or at least banish them to the atmosphere over our oceans. After that, we can try to do something about that big fireball in the sky. Although may scientists can't believe it, that thing has to have something to do with these warmer temperatures.