It Strikes Me Funny

Eat More What?

During yesterday's fun and fitness walk I noticed two messages displayed in front of neighbours' houses: Eat More Fish (turkeys will be pleased); Eat More Kale.

My first thought: I will, I will. I'll put the two together, and 'sea' what I come up with. My second: I know something else we should be eating on a regular basis.

["Did this guy knock the rooster off the feeder?"]

I think we should be eating more seeds and grain, especially those in the birdseed mix I use, because the squirrels really love it, and so do the birds if there is a bit left over after the greedy, bushy-tailed rodents finish Hoovering the feeder.

I'll read the list of ingredients to see what makes the mix so special, then add it to my diet.

PS - Did you think I was going to suggest squirrel meat? I read it sells well in the UK.

Link to It Strikes Me Funny

Photos GH

Danger. Pie.

Pat was out of the house at lunchtime. Red flag.

I'm not teaching Phys. Ed., walking to work, chopping trees, or running marathons regularly now that I'm retired. But I still eat as if I'm a younger, busier man. A simple lunch hour can therefore be dangerous, especially if one of Pat's pies is sitting out in the open... unguarded.

Better get busy, make a healthy lunch, I said. Not rely on pie.

Had leftover soup with extra turnip. I do like my root vegetables, so I should go with that this week. Less meat, sugar, salt, cheese, pie. More roots.

I think I'll make a list with two headings to start. Good choices. Not so good choices. Because I'd like to get back to running weight within two years.

["I'm not over 170, but I feel like it"]

Photos by GH.
Sketch from Gord's iPad

More Gord's Journal

Live Small and Prosper PT 2: It’s time for Frontier Stew

[Economists say the cost of food in Canada could jump by 8% in the coming months and stay that way for the next year. Breads, grains and cereals will rise the most, with the global costs of wheat, corn and soy increasing. Analysts say the cost of meat also will rise, because livestock consume the same grains.” - Food Prices Forecast To Rise, Mar. 21, London Free Press]

To stay alive, maybe McDonalds will make the Big Mac just a bit smaller.

Maybe Canadians will eat a meatless meal once per week. Maybe twice.


Maybe some will switch from Double Chocolate Oreos to McVitie’s Digestives. They are ‘The Original’ after all.

Maybe PM Harper will increase corporate taxes by 1 or 2 per cent and we’ll all live happily ever after.

What do you think? Any of those ideas stand a chance?

Here’s what I think. In order to survive, save a few dollars here and there, all Dads and Moms and kids over 14 need to learn how to make Frontier Stew. And I don’t mean heating up a tin from the corner Valu-Mart. I mean the real Frontier Stew. The stuff that early Canadians ate from a pail. The stuff that made this country strong.

Yes, we’ve had some downturns and recessions, many Thing$ are going North $$, The Leafs won’t make the playoffs, and we may have to throw a handful of oatmeal into our next batch of BBQ burgers - to stretch the ground chuck, you know what I’m saying - but deep in our genes lies the ability to make stew so fine it makes tinned stuff taste like the crap that it is.

(Admittedly, Puritan Irish Stew, with its preformed chunks of meat, passes muster while camping).

And not only can we make fine stew, we have the opportunity to save money in the process.


["Homemade saves money. Frontier Stew is in there!": photos GH]

Warning: A digression ahead.

Years ago, while shopping, I saw a pan of frozen lasagna on sale for $9.99, and for a brief moment I was tempted to buy it. Then I recalled what a pan of frozen lasagna tasted like at the last staff supper I attended. It was crappy stuff, especially compared to homemade. It lay there in the tinfoil pan like a wet pair of socks.

So, believe it or not, I stepped back and challenged the makers of Equity frozen lasagna to a duel.

“I bet I can whoop your skinny little butt,” I said (inside my little round head, of course) to the CEO of Equity Co.

I tore up my grocery list, turned my cart away from millions of dollars worth of prepared and frozen food and tracked down all the ingredients for fine lasagna.

Though my bill came to more than $9.99, I left the store certain in the belief I would whoop serious butt when I got home.

Stay tuned.

***

Please click here to read Frontier Stew PT 1.

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Live Small and Prosper Pt 3: The more solar projects the better

Concerning solar projects, the more the merrier, I say.

19 of 20 proposed projects will likely begin as early as 2011 in Ontario.

1 of 20 was recently cancelled, because concerned citizens made an effort to save a significant plot of arable land.

I support their cause. We should save arable land and put it to good use.


["Fields of white beans border the Lake Erie shoreline": photos GH]

And I believe it’s possible to save more than we already do.


["Soy and corn grow back to back in may plots of land"]

For example, much of the farmed land surrounding Deforest City is covered at this time with healthy crops of white and soy bean and corn.

A lot of those crops are destined for the beef and pork industry, and many would say Ontarians benefit greatly as a result, especially after the corn has been passed through a cow or a pig.


["More corn, more soy, more soy, more corn"]

Interestingly enough, cows are grass eaters (thus the second stomach) and must be force fed a lot of chemicals along with the corn in order to keep their health up to standard. Grass would be a healthier diet - for the cows and those who feast on them - but it would take beef producers almost twice as long to get the cattle to the slaughter house and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

‘Cause business is business and the beef business is big business closely connected to the fossil fuel industry.

Knowing this, it may make much sense to preserve more arable land for sustainable food products - and even a few solar arrays if no one wants to plant fruits or vegetables - by reducing our meat consumption by 5 - 10 % for the remainder of 2010.


["Reduce meat consumption, save more arable land"]

Then, if we survive the minor change to our diets, reduce meat consumption even more in 2011.

(I bet most readers would survive quite well. Many would even look more svelte. Now, isn’t svelte a word you’d love to hear in the same sentence as your name?)

Ontario - produce less pork and beef and more sustainable energy.

Now, there’s a campaign slogan for a brave politician, eh?

***

Only good will come from reducing meat and dairy products.

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Pt 2 Can we develop a deeper appreciation for Nature?

As I said when I initially asked the question - of course we can.

And after watching and reading reports about ongoing environmental and economic damage in the Gulf of Mexico, we should.

And we should start immediately.

After you’ve started or expanded your garden and purchased a few packets of vegetable seeds (please click here to visit Pt 1 and some delightful context), try the following so your appreciation for Nature can deepen:

Eat local food. And if you have children, take them to a farm where some of their food is grown. Point at a cabbage, tell your kids what it is, and be proud you can still identify a living plant.


["Kids, are these turnips or red peppers?": photo by GAH]

(Hey, even if you don’t have kids, go to the farm. Learn how to spot a turnip from 50 paces).

Going to a farm and growing our own vegetables is a step forward, not backward, as some would have you believe.

Any step back from heavily-industrialized, fertilized and fossil-fueled agribusiness is forward thinking.

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What say you? Global warming may be phenomenal?

I borrow the word ‘phenomenal’ from the following quote:

Grain farmers in the London area have had a great spring, with corn plantings several weeks ahead of schedule, says (Peter Johnson) a crop specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

“The planting progress is nothing short of phenomenal.” (May 1, London Free Press)

‘Phenomenal’ doesn’t spring to mind as I put excerpts from the newspaper article under the umbrella of global warming, which is where the warmer temperatures in our region likely fit.

For example:

About 80% to 85% of the corn in the London area has been planted, compared to 5% to 10% by now in an average year.

Is it phenomenal, even a good thing, that we’re so far out of whack with an average growing season?


(As well), “This year is the diametric opposite of last year. For most of the London region, it’s hard to complain right now,” Johnson said.

I suppose he’s right. It will be easier to complain in the future, when the negative results of global warming are a bit more obvious to more people.

The winter wheat is also benefiting from the good weather and is at least two weeks ahead of normal maturity. “Bean acres will fly into the ground in the first week of May, if the weather holds, and that’s way ahead of normal.”

Because beans and corn chiefly end up in the gut of a cow, and BBQs are a summertime passion in Deforest City, there will be much clapping of hands on backyard patios this year.

“Phenomenal beef,” some will say.

How long will we continue to stuff our faces while the world slowly warms?

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Climate Change Concerns Pt 1: Reduce meat and dairy products - a good idea

And not just during Earth Day, i.e., tomorrow.

Leo Phillips, in a Letter to the Editor (Apr. 20, London Free Press), suggests we ‘celebrate Earth day and every day by replacing meat and dairy products in our diet with healthful, eco-friendly foods.’

He makes his case by stating the following:

A recent study in WorldWatch magazine found production of meat and dairy products may account for half of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions


["Our farming practices leave a lot to be desired": photo GAH]

Such production contributes more pollutants to our water supplies than all other human activities combined

It is causing global shortages of drinking water

It is the driving force in global deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction

Perhaps the magazine article to which he refers shares more information related to each point, but his focus nonetheless is a good one, i.e., changes in our food production methods and eating habits are required.

Leo encourages us to consider ‘healthful, eco-friendly foods.’

I suppose when he says the above many think about the following:

Eating more locally grown produce

Eating more locally raised and butchered meat

Reducing the amount of meat in a meat-rich diet

Planning and planting a garden.

What else? Please, you tell me.

I do know that one other thought entered my mind, because last night, while reading and riding (gotta lose a few pounds), I came across a paragraph in Super Freakonomics about fertilizer.

So, to the above list of four thoughts I’d add a fifth:

Using compost in the garden rather than industrial fertilizer.

***

More to follow re fertilizer.

Please click here to read Part 2.

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Series of Some Significance: KFC’s Double Down Sandwich

After reading a bit of my commentary re KFC’s new sandwich in the USA, a reader double-checked on Google because he thought the Double Down was a hoax.

(Hey, it's not Hallowe’en yet).

Though it’s a stupid sandwich, and getting too much positive press State’s side, I added the 4-part series to Series of Some Significance (see side margin) because - in my opinion at least - the salt and fat bomb is linked to another current news item here in Canada.


["No hoax. The DD is a fat and salt bomb"]

I.e., the rising cost of health care.

And the cost of health care is linked to another of my pet concerns.

I.e., the growing national debt.

As well, one day soon perhaps (in time for high school graduation?), the DD may come to Canada and I wanted my fellow citizens to be warned.

We are what we eat and are poorer and unhealthier for it.

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Climate Change Concerns: Gorillas under threat = climate concern?

When I read the title (Congo Basin gorillas under mounting threat) and three short paragraphs re a recent report in yesterday’s London Free Press I related the matter to climate change.

Because of two words really. Can you see which ones?

Gorillas may become near-extinct in Africa's Greater Congo Basin by the mid-2020s unless action is taken to prevent poaching and to protect their habitat, a UN-backed report said on Wednesday.

The situation is particularly critical in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where activity by local militias has hit local gorilla populations, according to the report by the UN Environment Programme and Interpol.

Illegal logging, mining, and escalating demand for bushmeat, or meat for food, an increasing portion of which is ape meat, have also taken their toll.

If you said illegal logging you are correct.

Not because I know tonnes about illegal logging. (Yes, I rescue lumber for birdhouses from an area landfill site but that’s only slightly dodgy).

I know some things re illegal logging and its connection to climate change because I’ve been reading Saving Planet Earth by Tony Jupider recently and came across the following:


[Congo Basin gorilla: photo link]

In addition to being cleared to free land for agriculture, the tropical rain forests are also being plundered to supply the world with wood... the loggers are targeting the large blocks of natural forest that remain in Amazonia, New Guinea and Central Africa... including the Democratic Republic of Congo. (pg. 192)

The growing demand for exotic woods and beef from North American, European and Asia drive deforestation tactics that lead to wasteful, fossil-fuel dependent agricultural practices (e.g., soy production for cattle feed), the emissions of more climate-changing gases and biodiversity loss.

Not only are natives driven off their land, but as ape habitat is lost the animal’s often end up on dinner plates - and visa versa (for apes).

“An expanding trade in so-called bushmeat, now driven by demand from urban centers where animals caught from the rain forest, including gorillas, are considered as delicacies, is one of the main reasons for the loss of biodiversity across the central African forests.” (pg. 193)

I think Joni Mitchell got it right when she sang, we won’t know what we’re missing ‘til it’s gone.

Please click here to read about other climate change concerns.

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Green Ideas 2010: Under construction but almost done

I think it's only fair to say I took the easy way out when faced with making new resolutions for 2010 related to green ideas.

The first thing I did (my gosh, a brilliant idea) - and everyone should carefully follow my example - was review my goals for 2009, to not only evaluate how I did (it's only fair), but see if there was any chance I could just continue on doing some of the same things in 2010 and not strain my brain too badly.

The second thing: I added one or two new items in order to strain the brain a bit.

Though the following list is under construction (and in side margin) it now contains a few of my goals for the current year.

1. No New Clothing

For the second year in a row...

I will buy no new clothes

2. Victory Garden

2009 was a bad year for my Victory Garden, however...

I will plant a garden in Spring 2010 and call it a 'Worthy Attempt Plot'

3. Bicycle

I will ride my used but lovely Miele bicycle on crowded city streets until I bend or break a rim


["Birdhouse by unknown maker, on way to Port Bruce": photo GAH]

4. Vacation

I will walk to Port Bruce (65 km.) and push my gear in a baby-jogger. I just need one week of good weather.

5. re Preserving Food

I will hang onto my used canning gear and put up beans and tomatoes if my 'worthy attempt plot' produces sufficient quantities of produce

6. Solar Cooker

I will build a solar oven out of recycled materials, including a bulky wool sweater for insulation.


["A GH model behind New Sarum Diner": photo GAH]

7. Birdhouses

I will attempt to build 3 - 4 dozen birdhouses from rescued lumber, photograph them all and bore readers to death with all the brilliant details

8. Haiti Relief

I will make two financial donations to the Red Cross (for Haiti relief) and work hard to repay my savings account by reducing restaurant meals and increasing meatless meals.

So far, so good, but the year is young.

***

I want to add a goal re exercise but will think about how best to frame it and get back.

Do you keep lists of resolutions? Do they help keep you on track?

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Lunch with Gordie: Probiotic just sounds so blinkin’ positive, eh

Sure, I had toast with PB for breakfast and toast with PB and bananas for lunch (should I have written ‘toast w PBB?’) but that doesn’t mean I’m hooked on PB.

I’m just lazy. (I could have had ham and eggs but after turning on the heaters in the workshop I felt I wanted something quick).

And I grabbed a 100g container of Activia probiotic yogurt for dessert and caffeine free peppermint tea to drink.


(The tea is made by Tetley, is called Revive, and after I drink I feel so... revived. From what, I’m not sure. Sorry, I digress).

While waiting for the toast to pop I read the ingredient list on the yogurt label, though I felt sure I really didn’t need to worry about anything because ‘Activia’ coupled with probiotic makes it sound like I’m eating the healthiest food known to man.

But - does 13g of sugar sound high to you?

And I read 13g of sugar is only 5% of our daily requirement (i.e. 260g of sugar). Does that sound right to you?

To me, it sounds very high (it makes Activia taste like candy, not yogurt) and I’m glad I have a hockey game this afternoon.

***

I’m also glad I turned the heaters on in the shop.

Time for work.

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My Lucky Day: Dodged a snausage bullet aimed at my heart

Is this happening more often to you as you age?

(I hit the big 6 - 0 in 3 weeks, so age is on my mind a lot more than usual).

I was staring silently into the bathroom mirror this morning, wondering (Do I still have it? Have what? You know, what I used to have? What did you have?), when my wife poked her head around the corner and said, “I’m going to pick up breakfast. Would you like hot cakes and sausages?”

Hot cakes and snausages? I thought. Maybe just hot cakes is enough. Snausages aren’t real meat. Some young punk just sweeps stuff off a barn floor and throws it into the snausage bin. His motto - don’t throw anything out.


["My first mad encounter with mystery meat in a can"]

Before 8 a.m., a problem like that will take me 20 - 30 minutes to resolve.

Eventually I said, “Just hot cakes.”

But before she left the house I said, “OK, I’ll have the snausages, just this once.”

Then I changed my mind, then back then forth. Final word - yes to the snausage.

When I heard the car pull back into the laneway 10 minutes later I tasted snausages in the air and they didn’t taste bad at all. Extra syrup was playing with my mind.

But I discovered, as soon as I removed the foam top to my breakfast, there were no snausages. The girl at the drive through had made an error. But hadn’t charged us for any snausages, however, so I immediately forgave her.

So did my heart. We’d dodged another bullet.

***

OK, about the introductory question? It could refer to several things.

Take your pick.

Are you eating more fast food? Wondering if you still have it? Having a harder time deciding re the snausages (I call it the mystery meat factor)? Can’t make up your mind easily, especially before 8 a.m.?

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Nature’s wealth is going through a recession too

Natural sockeye salmon numbers are down so low in the Fraser River that one day soon the majority of Canadians may be reduced to eating a factory farm replacement.


["The number returning from the sea - down substantially": photo link]

The lower quality replacement will sit on our plates alongside our factory farm pork, beef, chicken and lamb. (I’d include wieners but I think they’re still made from real chicken lips).

My suggestion: Reduce your intake of fish and meat, reduce our reliance on factory food, and give nature and natural herds a chance to rebound.

Ten to twenty years ought to do it and our average weight per person might return to near normal levels.

***

Want to lose five pounds before Christmas?

Reduce meat in your meals by 50 per cent and skip the second helpings at Thanksgiving.

Am I onto something?

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Live Small and Prosper: Prepare now for less meat in the future

Too bad it’s BBQ season, but cut back by about 10 per cent for starters, I say.

From A Small History of Progress:

“Population growth is slowing, but by 2050 there will be 3 billion more on earth.”

“We may be able to feed that many in the short run, but we’ll have to raise less meat (which takes ten pounds of food to make one pound of food), and we’ll have to spread that food around.”

“What we can’t do is keep consuming as we are.”

[For those who think 2050 is a long, long way off, think about the age of the youngest member of your family. By 2050 my grandson Ollie will be 43, just a young pup. Twins due in September will be 41.]


["Ollie and friend will be young pups in 2050": photo GAH]

Cutting back meat consumption by even 10 per cent - to prepare for a frugal future - will be a big challenge for my fellow Canadians. We get 32 per cent of our fat from meat (and alternatives) and we love our meat - our growing waistlines say as much.

Why a big challenge?

Ingrained habits - we eat what we want when we want. Big portions too. We’ve lived in a world without limits for 60 years.

Marketing and media - “eat eat eat” is a constant message. Put all the capital letters together from M and M Meats and you get MMM.

Big business - the meat industry is a giant enterprise and will see the growing population as business opportunity, not a reason to conserve.

Governments - can politicians find a way to effectively educate and encourage consumers/voters to conserve resources and trim the fat off their lifestyle because a growing population threatens resources? How can they sell the message we live in a country with a market economy that is unsustainable?

HMMM.

***

Are we trapped? Is it impossible to reduce consumption without a future crisis?

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Paul McCartney promotes ‘meatless Mondays’: Give peas a chance

I've always liked The Beatles. The voice of Paul McCartney is one of the reasons why.

He recently made the news with his latest message - to go meatless on Mondays.

Why eat less meat?

Less methane would be produced.

Less stress on the environment.

Fewer factory farms.

Less consumption in all areas related to basic needs (e.g. food, clothing, shelter) and transportation, communication and recreation would benefit Mother Earth and future generations.


McCartney also points out that we eat to excess and we’d be doing our bodies a favour if we consumed less meat.

He says, “You’re all running down to the gym to try and work it off so just have a meat-free Monday.”

I’ve always liked The Beatles and I like that message too. Maybe we could give beans and peas more room on our plates.

Live small and prosper.

***

Does another musician you enjoy have a positive message to share re the environment?

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It Strikes Me Funny: BBQ season arrives, Lindsay Lohan cracks wise, and now this?

It strikes me funny that on the first full day of summer around here (sure, it’s April, but yesterday it felt like summer to me), the same day I check the BBQ to see if it still works after spending 6 months under a tarp, I catch wind that “those who eat more red meat have a modestly increased risk of death from all causes, cancer or heart disease” (according to a recent study by the US National Cancer Institute.

It’s funny, I tell you... maybe a conspiracy.

So, rather than put a small peppercorn steak and tray of veggies under the hood and sit in a lawn chair on the back deck to reread a very funny and entertaining article about the train wreck known as Lindsay Lohan, I popped a veggie lasagna into the oven and made a salad.

(The article begins like this, re Lindsay and girlfriend Samantha: “We are taking a brief break so I can focus on myself.” As if spending quality time with herself will improve her resume.)


Quality time with a salad will help my diet. I’m in the middle of the age group the study studied. And during the study twice as many men (that’s me) died as women. And red meat was involved in the crime.

Now I'm wondering... who put the results of the study on my desk?

***

Once my solar oven is finished, maybe I’ll be heating up veggie lasagnas rather than seconds and thirds of my Scorch and Burn (beef and pork) chili.

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My Point of View: True Canadians make their own pancakes

I love self-reliant people and hope to be one someday.

And while my whole wheat buttermilk pancakes are browning up I’ll type this quick post that proves I’m moving one step closer to my goal.

About two weeks ago I turned my nose up at a batch of PC pancakes because I questioned how healthy pancakes could be if I only had to add water to the mix.

Though a line on the box proclaimed “Excellentes avec du Sirop d’erable pur a 100% PC” I thought, sure, it’s delicious with 100% Pure Maple Syrup - but so is the cardboard box.


[Maple syrup: photo link]

I made an omelette instead, posted a few salient thoughts and was later sent a recipe for whole wheat pancakes by Jesse.

Speaking of, I’d better flip my breakfast. Be right back.

A few minutes ago, while mixing healthy ingredients, I wondered how people came up with the correct amounts when adding eggs, butter, baking powder or soda.

Was there a lot of the following in a country kitchen several years back?

“Here Billy, try this one. It’s got less baking soda so you won’t wince.”

“How about this one with a touch of oil. Does it slide down easier or still make you gag?”

Gotta rush. My own breakfast is ready.


While I eat, read over Jesse’s recipe.

She halves it, using the whole egg, for herself and two children and I did the same for my wife and I.

Whisk together:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
 
Add:

1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons butter or oil
 A bit more milk if necessary.  Cook.

Eat.

Gord’s conclusions:

My wife and I poured maple syrup on two pancakes each and really enjoyed them.

I’ll definitely make them again, and not just to use up the buttermilk.

(I can’t drink it from the glass. It makes me gag.)

The PC factory farm pancake mix is out the door.

And now I’m one step - and stack - closer to being a True Canadian.

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Grocery Store Blues: Excellentes avec du Sirop d’erable! Maybe not.

Yesterday, I worked through lunch in the shop and when I walked into the kitchen at 2 p.m. I was starving and could have eaten anything.

Well, almost anything.

Nothing jumped out at me from the fridge so I looked in a cupboard, saw pancake mix, the picture on the box of three fat syrup-covered ones (add blueberries and I might live on the stuff) and had it in my hand when I read the following:

“Excellentes avec du Sirop d’erable pur a 100% PC”

Because I didn’t fully understand I read the English translation which included “just add water!”

And I immediately thought:

How healthy is this PC stuff, and what is it made of, if all I have to do is add water?

No milk or eggs? Blueberries?

Sure. It’s delicious with 100% Pure Maple Syrup but so is the cardboard box.


[A better idea: Photo link]

I put it away for a future motorcycle trip (for a morning when I’m too lazy to walk to a store for fresh supplies) and cooked up a three-egg omelette - with corn, Parmesan, red pepper and onion.

Was I better off?

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Grocery Store Blues: How do we keep up with higher food prices?

Crap. Where’s my wallet... again?

We may have a record wheat crop worldwide but prices will remain high, says the Canadian Wheat Board and US Dept. of Agriculture.

Many people’s wages or pensions won’t rise as quickly.


[“Kiss my penny collection good-bye!”: photo link]

Add in costs related to gas, home heating, rents and mortgages and we’re living inside the perfect storm.

Recently I whined:

“I’m up a pant size and my son’s wedding is just around the corner.”

So, at least in the food department, I will try to eat and spend less and it will honestly do me good. (And the recent addition of extra insulation in the attic and walls of this old house will hopefully save me more).

I think as bread and pasta prices rise [“during the past decade the price of bread has increased by 87 per cent”] I’ll balance things out by eating fewer restaurant meals and cutting back on pork and beef.

It helps that I’m motivated to lose 10 pounds.


["Harrison dekes around the defence..."; Photo in context]

My son’s wedding and hockey season approach and if you think new suit pants are expensive check out the price of hockey pants!

How are you adjusting to rising food prices?

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Live Small and Prosper: The latest reason for practicing restraint out-shadows all others

I said in my most recent column that a quick look at the four main reasons grain prices are on the rise will reveal that our personal fingerprints are all over them.

One reason, greater meat consumption globally, is directly related to the beef, chicken and pork found in our refrigerators and freezers and since summer is approaching and big BBQs sit on 99.99999% of the back decks in North America I thought it would be a good time for us to start showing some restraint in our eating habits.


[Over-consumption is like planting a tree in concrete - GH]

There are many good reasons:

The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people - more than the entire population of the planet. [The Virtuous Consumer by Leslie Garrett]

Eighty per cent of agricultural land in the US is used to raise animals for food. [Ibid]

Less meat on the plate equals more crops for people and/or more land for Mother Nature. [Me]

A vegetarian diet is credited for providing a longer life with reduced risk of such diseases as diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and some cancers. [The Virtuous Consumer - link to Leslie's personal website]

The animals live longer too and their numbers would decrease to more natural levels. [Me]

There is an even better reason to eat less meat.

It takes less effort than leaving the car at home to conserve fuel (our insatiable thirst for fossil fuels is another reason grain prices are on the rise) and we need an easy way to practice restraint over and over and over again until we get really really good at it so we’ll be ready for the hard hard times when they come.

I mean, if we can give up cheeseburgers we can certainly take public transit.

If we can say no to a tenderloin we can, with new internal fortitude, walk to the variety store for smokes and a bag of chips.

If we can eat fewer chicken wings and more beans and brussel sprouts - my gosh, hold onto your hats - we’ll find the strength to trade in the monster pickup for an electric scooter. Yowwzzah.

Practice does make perfect.

[Did you know that climate change will lead to fashion faupas? It surely will. Visit Four Mugs]