This just in: the County Council passed the green legislation!
Also, the fair is just around the corner. This is the one time a year when we can ride rides, eat cotton candy and watch children learn obsolete skills while being indoctrinated by the meat industry. Sorry, I am not a big fan of the Fair.
11 comments:
I ain't no fan of meat indoctrination either. We already have enough of that in this world.
I'd prefer meat indoctrination over corn indoctrination.
Yes, WRE, for all the suffering corn endures.
No, anony-veg, for all the suffering corn causes, mostly in the form of serious health problems in humans. Remember, we're talking "indoctrination" here, and Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that corn – and lots of it -- is good.
From an article discussing "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan:
"Pollan decided to follow the food chain from his plate all the way back to the farms and fields where his meat and vegetables were grown. In the process, he found an unexpected culprit for America’s nutritional ills: corn. More than a quarter of products in the average American supermarket now contain corn or its derivatives, Pollan points out. It can be found in everything from coffee whitener, to candy, toothpaste and even charcoal briquettes.
Corn also has become a staple ingredient in fast food. Pollan asked a UC Berkeley researcher to run a McDonald’s meal through a mass spectrometer to find the tell-tale signature of carbon atoms derived from corn. The results showed that a fast-food meal is, in the end, mostly corn. Sodas turned out to be 100 percent corn, milk shakes 78 percent, salad dressing 65 percent, chicken nuggets 56 percent and cheeseburgers 52 percent. Corn even turned up in French fries (23 percent)."
... And it goes on.
There's a strong correlation between the mass replacement of palm oils with corn oils in decades past and the rising obesity and inexcusable excesses of health problems many Americans have.
Corn's ubiquity is *a* culprit in our country's decline of health amid affluence.
That's my two yen.
yes, and if you couple this ignorant consumption of processed foods with the needless suffering of animals along the way, you may be close to the tragedy associated with eating meat.
Corn causes suffering in relation to that? Hardly.
Wolf River- if you have read Pollan’s book, you know that he does not have pleasant things to say about the meat industry. In fact, he became a vegetarian at one point while writing the book. Of course, he flipped back before the writing was complete.
I was attempting a bit of humor with my original comment about meat vs. corn indoctrination. I completely understand that people often feel very deeply about their food choices. I do. And to the extent that others wish to talk about this subject here, I'm game (or is that foul?), as I've given the subject a lot of consideration over the years. So …
Yes, freemarket, not only did Pollan flip veg-omnivore, if I remember correctly, he even killed one of his meals. :) I do agree, thoroughly, that the meat INDUSTRY is a nasty one. Ever seen "Baraka"? Here's a video clip that 2:32 minutes in shows one face of this icky industry. It’s really unpleasant. Be forewarned. http://youtube.com/watch?v=lhxVb4hsceI
But, really, is one food production industry ultimately better than another? Or is there a much bigger principle at hand. The environmental degradation from most agricultural practices today is intense and widespread. If one just looks into the eyes of a cow (chicken, pig, etc.) and says, "Awww, it suffers," that's not, imo, a very comprehensive understanding of what's really going on in much of the system of food production today.
See, I'm less interested in the Hollywood Mega Fauna* (stuff with eyes and warm blood and celebrity causes behind them) and more interested in the microbes, soil health, water table and such. It's a world view thing for me: the little things are where the big changes happen.
Now, to Anony-Veg, I don't see the animals as suffering "needlessly" when I eat their flesh. (The meat industry sucks, but so do agricultural practices suck if you're a spider just trying to hang out on a tomato plant.) Animals nourish me. I eat their flesh, their eggs and their products with respect. Really, I do.
Anony-Veg, if you don't want to eat animals, don't. And go for it if you want to be an advocate for vegetarianism, for all your reasons. Yay for strongly held beliefs.
But you're not God, and God (Life, The Universe, whatever you want to be calling it) clearly has eating other creatures as part of the system here on earth. Are you going to tell a wolf not to eat meat because its prey will suffer?
You may not agree with me, Anony-Veg, but I'm not certainly not ignorant, as you call me behind your veil of anonymity. I'm informed and my conclusions are just different than yours. Welcome to Earth, where this is a rather common thing people discover in their experience here.
And, hey, while you’re here, enjoy the fruits (and vegetables, nuts and so forth) of our beautiful lands. :)
____
* I wish I could claim creation of the "Hollywood Mega Fauna" term, but I can't.
Comparing a human's choice to eat meat to a wolf's is weak.
"God" gave humans moral reasoning and free will. Guess he just missed some of us.
Anony-mouse, I can see God gave some of us not only moral reasoning, but moral superiority, to boot.
I'd be careful if I were you, Mouse. You're small and would make a tasty snack for bigger omnivores and carnivores, alike. :)
Wolf makes good arguments which are based on logic and facts. I like it!
No more corn. Seriously, I suspected as much when I became ravenous after eating things like cornbread. For people like me, this food can send me on a brain-numbing, body-immobilizing binge that can rival a heroin addict.
There's rool for all of God's creatures. Right next to the mashed potatoes.....
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