Recommended Reading: Books about eating, breathing and blankets of coal dust

I was pedalling hard on the exercise bike when I reached Chapter 15 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

After several complicated mathematical calculations I discovered I was two-thirds of the way through the book, an excellent read and education to that point.

From page 268:

"These days farmed salmon are being fed like feedlot cattle, on grain, with the predictable result that their omega-3 levels fall well below those of wild fish. If the steer is fattened on grass and the salmon on grain, we might actually be better off eating the beef. The species of animal you eat may matter less than what the animal you’re eating has itself eaten."

Ch. 15 is entitled The Forager. Is that what he’s recommending I become? I’ll find out tomorrow.

And in another 16 years I’ll discover if I can still breathe the air.

In Heat, the second book I’m reading while trying to burn calories, I read that "in 2025, according to the US government’s Energy Information Admin., the United States will burn 40 per cent more coal than it does today." (Hack, hack. I live just north of several Ohio Valley coal-fired hydro-producing plants.)

"China intends to treble the electricity it produces from coal by 2020." (pg. 82)

And why we ask? Because natural gas supplies in North America (used in the production of hydro) have already peaked and are going to decline and 90 per cent of the remaining energy reserves in the US are coal. So get used to that black cloud hanging over your head.


Or should I say ‘clouds’?

The third book I’m reading, The Little Green Handbook, said the following:

"The process of global warming is faster than previously thought. In the 20th century, the mean global temperature increased by 0.6 degrees C, and it is projected to increase by up to 6.0 degrees C by the end of this century."

So, if we’ve experienced some climate instability because of a 0.6 degree change, how many clouds will hang over our heads as the temperature changes ten times as much? I’m not sure but I think we’re going to find out because a business as usual philosophy rules the day.

Where’s the Lorax when we really need him? (Calling Dr. Suess!)

[Link to the above three books in right panel, under Recommended Reading]

Reading Books, Riding Bikes: Buried in Killing Power and Cheap Food

I read while riding a recumbent bike in the basement and though I’d like to say I’m learning and staying lean at the same time I’d only be half right.

Cycling makes me hungry and soon after I dump sweaty clothes in front of the washing machine I open the door of the fridge and look for replacement fluids, especially in the shape of a can of Guinness.

The following is from The Little Green Handbook (TLGH), one of two or three books I dip into several times per week:

“Between 1989 and 1993 about 100 million pistols, revolvers and rifles were sold through US-approved commercial channels to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.”


After several mathematical calculations I learned that, if annual sales remained the same, another 350 million light weapons would have been sold since then - by the US alone. Many other countries sell vast numbers of weapons, of all kinds.

TLGH is a book that outlines seven trends shaping the future of our planet and ‘Conflicts and Increasing Killing Power’ is one of those trends. What a blast.

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma I read of another disturbing trend:

“Of course the problems of our food system are very different - if anything, it produces too much food, not too little, or too much of the wrong food.” pg. 257, Michael Pollan

Why so many bullets and burgers?

When time allows, link to the two books; see “Recommended reading”, side panel.]

[On the lighter side, also see Cartoon in Progress at Four Mugs and a Crock]

Really, I’m not 100% juiced but I wanna be

Ever since reading Sugar Blues by William Dufty several years ago I banned soda pop from my diet.

Get offa my porch, stop your knockin’, I say. Thou shalt not cross my lips.

I don’t drink Coca-Cola, Pepsi or Dr. What’s-his-name because even though I run on a treadmill and ride a recumbent bike 3 - 4 times per week I have trouble keeping my love handles down to the size of small pillows.

Besides, one beer or can or Guinness before supper is surely enough sugary drink for one day.


[I repeat: This is not me. It's definitely some other guy.]

“Since 1985, an American’s annual consumption of high-fructose-corn-syrup has gone from 45 to 66 pounds. You might think that this growth would have been offset by a decline in sugar consumption, since HFCS often replaces sugar, but that didn’t happen: During the same period our consumption of refined sugar actually went up by five pounds.”

“What this means is that we’re eating and drinking all that HFCS on top of the sugars we were already consuming. In fact, since 1985 our consumption of all added sugars - cane, beet, HFCS, honey, maple syrup, whatever - has climbed from 128 pounds to 158 pounds per person.” pg. 104, The Omnivore’s Dilemma

Now, I do like to drink real fruit juices but they’re getting squeezed off grocery store shelves by cocktails and blends and stuff that is a very poor excuse to cram more HFCS down my throat. (We’re buried in cheap corn, so get used to HFCS being added to just about everything we eat and drink.)

So, help. What’s a poor boy to do?

I want good juice in the fridge. What’s best?