JUST Eat Organic

I'll let the video do all the talking on this one. Enjoy!



Share it, stumble it, digg it.. you know the deal - THIS video needs exposure right now! We al need to JUST EAT REAL FOOD!

TAKE ACTION TUESDAY: Let the EPA Regulate Factory Farms!

Since the beginning of this blog, I have been largely concerned about the nature of the factory farms prolific in the food industry. I feel as though it may be at the root of the problem of our food safety, many of our environmental issues and, perhaps even some of our health issues. However, I can say none of these things with confidence, nor can I dispute them with as much because the effects of this type of farming continue to be under dispute without an unbiased third-party evaluator present.

It is for this reason I was happy to find a petition to "Tell the EPA It's Time to Regulate Factory Farms" over at the Food & Water Watch website.

To get an idea of how prolific these factory farms have become, and some of the risks associated with their presence, you can check out the Factory Farm Map on the Food & Water Watch site. Here is a mini version of the map that you can add on your website, if you have one, too. Get the embed code on the site.

Actions to take right now:

• Check out the Factory Farm Map for the country, your state and filter by various types of animals
• Sign the petition
• Tell a friend, or lots of friends via Twitter, FB or StumbleUpon

Screen Time

Last night I found a couple of videos that I simply had to share. I wasn't planning on posting today, but I figured a short post to accompany two must-sees would be worth the time (watching both videos will take less than 10 minutes!).

Even the Kids Know Something is Very Wrong

First, I begin with our message out of the mouth of babes, because sometimes when we hear children speak about the world we have created for them, we tend to listen a little bit more closely. Birke Baehr, at the age of 11 gave a TEDx talk this past Spring in Asheville, TN about sustainable food. If you have not yet had the opportunity to view any TED talks, I highly recommend that you do (check out the TED site and if you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask me, but I think you'll find your way around). For now, you can whet your appetite for TED talks with Master Baehr's presentation:



Ecocentric, a fantastic blog I found last night, has an interview with Birke Baehr if you simply must know more about this 11 year old, soon to be organic farming advocate. I highly recommend checking this blog out and I anticipate that there will probably be many future links to this site as I continue to post.

Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Back in 2003 the following video went viral before YouTube was even invented. I think I will allow the Meatrix website's description of the movie serve as your intro.

The Meatrix:

Watch the movie that started it all! The Meatrix spoofs The Matrix and highlights the problems with factory farming. Join our heroes Moopehus, Leo, and Chickity as they help save family farms!
Winner of the 2005 Webby Award and viewed by over 15 million people, The Meatrix will change the way you look at meat!



So there you have it. You've taken the red pill, you know the truth and there is no turning back. There is a lot of other stuff on The Meatrix website, so if you are looking for more, please click away and SPREAD THE WORD!

Maybe Mom Was Right

"Eat your veggies!" you hear moms sing-songing the phrase everywhere, but maybe, just maybe it is that simple. I finally finished the book Eating Animals (it was a rough week, headache-wise, even for an audiobook), and I am left thinking that maybe vegetarian is the way to go for me. Was that Foer's intention with his book? Probably. Nonetheless, in my current state, I am left with little ammunition to argue with. There are three things I know about myself, that make me an especially weak opponent:

1. I strive to do right by my planet - I recycle, I am conscious of wall warts, I try to limit use of electricity, water and other utilities. I use a refillable water bottle. I planted a ginko biloba tree in my backyard in support of Million Trees NYC (http://www.milliontreesnyc.org) last year. So what about my food? How do I argue the numbers (I am a math teacher after all!): it takes approximately 26 calories of grain feed, to produce 1 calorie of meat. How can I argue that all of the land devoted to feed for livestock could be devoted to food for the hungry? What about the toxic fumes, waste and land created by factory farms?

2. I love animals - I have two dogs and two fish of my own right now. My neighbors bring me the hurt duck, the seagull caught in plastic, the baby duckling separated from its mother... I am the crazy girl that chased a wild sparrow around her kitchen after nursing it back to health. In fact, I am also the one who, with her husband, protected baby possums in the backyard from tht their own hunting beagles by creating safe-havens and, at one point, even standing guard, armed with flashlights. I am the girl who cried when she hit a bird that flew into the hood of her car on a highway. Then, I ask you, who am I to be selective about that compassion and love of animals? THIS is question of my conscience that makes this seem like a simple decision. If I could trust that meat was coming to me in some sort of natural way, and, not produced for me, perhaps it would not be as simple a decision, but that is not the case, is it?

3. I want to be healthy - This is not something that I am right now, sadly, but it is something I once was and it was wonderful. I want it back. I am not suggesting that all meat is bad for all people, but I think, right now, it might not be so great for me. It is easy and convenient for me, but not my best option. The meat I am eating right now (because everything I have in my house is some product of some factory farming), is not the quality of food my body needs - it has been exposed to antibiotics, disease and, if I truly wish to look at all energies possibly influencing me, the meat has been exposed to some seriously bad chi! How do I, who has been unable to work a full day's work all this week, who can no longer read, drive or plan to have children the way she would be doing right now, how does this obviously unhealthy person have the right to argue that what she's been doing all along is perfectly fine? Why not try something dramatically different?

So, while the decision may be an easy one, the actual undertaking seems nearly impossible. I am not sure where to begin, or when to begin (while RIGHT NOW seems like the obvious choice, I still can't bring myself to trashing all of the meat in the house). I guess it is time for me to research a transition plan for me.

A Seed Was Planted...

Over the last ten years I have slowly become more and more concerned (in a very cerebral way) with the value of my consumption. I imagine that one of my triggers for this deep thought and reflection came from the fact that I was (and still am) a teacher of adolescents. After the first few years of growing pains in my profession and feeling as though I was comfortable with my content and planning, I began to think of the bigger picture - besides the math I teach my students, what is REALLY important for them to know in this world? This was a big question for a twenty-something, still living at home with mom, to answer.

I remember beginning to incorporate personal finance into my weekly units, character education and jumping on whatever "teachable moments" I could find that may or may not be math related. I remember becoming more cognizant of what was being played on the radio, on television and what types of stories were getting play on the local news. I remember being very nervous about the world "my kids" were being brought up in. I remember arguing with my mother who said THESE KIDS weren't my children and I shouldn't worry so much. I told her she didn't understand, she told me I didn't understand and, at night, we would both lose sleep over our children who weren't listening...

And then one day, while in the bookstore and thinking of "my kids" again, I saw a book called Fast Food Nation and I thought, I need to read this... so I can know what else to teach them, so I can truly see what our world has become. They were my motivation to read the book, but the book changed ME forever. This book started my obsession with the insanity of not only "my kids'" world, but my own - what have I done? What haven't I done? What can I do?

Fast forward to the next decade: I am 33 years old, now married, but still with no children of my own besides those I teach. My mother passed away nearly four years ago, at the age of 58, from cancer and last year I was diagnosed with a rare disease, IIH - idiopathic intracranial hypertension (http://www.ihrfoundation.org/), which damaged my optic nerves leaving me with 20/40 sight WITH corrective lenses and currently dependent on a drug that is not approved to take during pregnancies. I don't feel especially healthy, I feel like life has been put on a little bit of a hold and put through a bit of a wringer as well... I would like to grab hold of the reins again.

The last book I was reading before my sight began to be affected by disease was called The Omnivore's Dilemma. My obsession with my consumption rages on! However, as I stated earlier, it has been one of thought alone... until now. I hope.

 I am currently listening to the audiobook (reading the printed word is still just too painful right now) Eating Animals and I am done. I am done with factory farming, agribusiness and eating food that has consumed more drugs than I did during my hospitalization, or has been exposed to more chemicals than my mother was during her chemo! I don't know what this statement, "I am done," means, I don't know how I am going to accomplish this, but I need to try.

I am writing this blog to, hopefully, force some accountability on myself in my search for sustenance.

I am searching for sustenance:

• SAFE sustenance,
• SUSTAINABLE sustenance,
• SAVORY sustenance,
• SWEET sustenace,
• SUMPTUOUS sustenance and
• SHARED sustenance.

I hope I can do it living in this east coast town of mine. If you have any ideas I would LOVE to hear them!