How do we envision the end of the world? Will it all end in a big fiery blast on judgment day where the good will be lifted up into heaven and the sinners will meet there comeuppance? Will Nostradamus's ancient speculations come to pass? Or will we single handedly destroy the earth? Philosophers, economists, and religiousos alike have dealt with this question throughout the entire history of man kind, not for the sake of being morbid, but because it occupies a certain place in all of our minds. We are all fixated on this idea that the world will end; even today millions of Americans are exposed to theories on the coming apocalypse through the history channel and other such mass, televised programming. How it will end, none of us can rightfully say, as religious beliefs cannot rightfully be disproven, and one can never know the validity of a theory (nostradamus) until it actually occurs. All that we can deal with is the concrete.
As many Americans have probably realized, our country is in trouble. Some blame it on the mortage crisis, others on the past administration, etc... There are many different theories on what is wrong, although I would have to argue that many of them are shortsighted. There is one fundamental issue with America and all other industrialized societies; since we have all grown so comfortable with having machines and the poor do everything for us we consider it unsanitary or demeaning to perform such lowly tasks. Thus, we are unwilling to alter our status of life to anything other than what it currently is. This staunch inflexibility is what will lead to our downfall...
...but of course its not that simple. This issue permeates every aspect of our culture, be it food, housing, or transportation. Having looked at many of these aspects in this class I feel that I can rightfully proclaim that they bear certain similarities to one another. Out of all of these, however, one thing stands alone, for it permits us to perpetuate the overindulgent lifestyle that all industrialists follow; Oil! Who'd think that this black, tarry, noxious fluid would literally pave the way to our peak and our ultimate demise? Certainly not the creators of the first oil well, nor the many individuals who first used their product. In this day and age, however, we all know full well that oil is bad for the environment and how incredibly limited of a resource it is, so one would assume we would do something to stop tearing apart the world around us like a spoiled infant with tinker toys.
First off, I'd like to establish this one fact: EVERYTHING IS RUN AND CREATED BY OR BY USING OIL IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. The Hummer drivers aren't the only ones at fault; even many of those so called health nuts that work out at the local YMCA contribute; they buy nylon exercise outfits to allow for flexibility (nylon being a derivative of oil), they buy shoes with rubber soles which are also made out of rubber, and they buy bottled drinks on the fly because canteens require commitment that they aren't quite prepared to give simply because they are cumbersome and once you are done working out you have to carry it around, at which point it is no longer of use or wanted. The point being that we all contribute. Hell, even using water requires oil to filter and heat. Its truly inescapable.
Now lets take a country as massive as ours; just think how much oil it takes to run things...evaluating everything in our daily lives that is somehow related to oil is no small task. According to the documentary "A Crude Awakening" the U.S. uses 25% of the worlds oil despite the fact that we make up a whopping 3% of the world population. Shocking, right? And worst of all is that its not just us doing it; the majority of people in any industrialized country go through life with blinders on, ignoring all the shit that goes on out of pure convenience, entirely disregarding the obvious effects on the natural world.
Peak oil is the theory that the peak of our oil production "coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted" (Life After The Oil Crash, Matthew David Savinar) Once we reach this peak oil production continuously decreases while cost simultaneously increases. Because we are a constantly growing nation, both in regards to population and the economy, demand for oil will certainly increase and we will need an even greater amount to satisfy our thirst. The U.S. reached peak oil in 1971 and since then the theory has held true. Of course we, the people, haven't actually seen this, after all we are still producing more and more crap each year. We leach oil from other countries to sustain ourselves, and what do we have to show for it? We produce very little of anything and most of the goods we buy are from foreign countries.
But what would we ever do with out oil in this day and age? Nothing. We simply cannot do without oil since it is now firmly ingrained in every aspect of our existence. The real worry, however, is not so much that we will run out, but that our world supplies will diminish to the point where we will no longer be able to sustain our status of life. "In this regard, the ramifications of Peak Oil for our civilization are similar to the ramifications of dehydration for the human body. The human body is 70 percent water. The body of a 200 pound man thus holds 140 pounds of water. Because water is so crucial to everything the human body does, the man doesn't need to lose all 140 pounds of water weight before collapsing due to dehydration. A loss of as little as 10-15 pounds of water may be enough to kill him." I like how he characterized America as this tremendous, obviously overindulgent man. The main point here being, that this lifestyle is unsustainable.
Yet what do we do? Millions upon millions of Americans continue driving and buying plastic despite knowing how it will affect the earth. Even when the world spells it out for them in the weather and in the news people still don't take a hint. But as the theory of entropy states, all societies will inevitably decline and degenerate.
We can see that this theory has held strong throughout the entire history of human kind; the mayans fell, The Roman empire fell, china has fallen several times...Every past civilization has been reduced to ruins, whey then do we feel that we can preserve what we now have, especially with all the many new complexities our system has placed on us. We no longer have just sticks and rocks, nor do we have only our own seperate islands at our disposal; we have the entire world at our finger tips. Its not just us exploiting our own local natural resources anymore, no, we can now take from the rest of the world because everything, the earth included is treated like a commodity. This is made especially clear in the case of the Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island. In order to build the monumental statues off of which they have been made famous, the Polynesians cut down trees to construct lifting mechanisms, for the strength of no man nor group of men was enough to lift the tremendous statues. To build more they had to cut down more trees, and for a while they could sustain this ideal, but as time bore on and the trees steadily decreased in number their land already reflected the impact that they themselves had caused. And thus their society fell apart; the people overthrew the chiefs, toppled the statues that they had sacrificed so much to build, and people fled or died.
There are obvious parallels between these two different circumstances, the main one being the rapid depletion of natural resources to uphold a certain standard to which they held themselves and the society around them, the standard in this case being the statues. History has told us that any society that exploits mother nature to such a degree will collapse, yet we still follow our ancestors with the misguided optimism of a pack of freerange cattle being led into a truck to the slaughterhouse.
After reading most of these articles and hearing of our disgusting, gold-digging affair with petroleum I feel that I can proclaim with the utmost certainty that our civilization is going to fall and we're taking the rest of the world with us. God can send all the plague and pestilence that he wants; one way or another, no matter what religious deity we pray to, our addiction to oil will be our downfall.
While investing and utilization of alternative sources of energy such as sunlight and wind could definitely improve our current situation and provide us with something to fallback on I believe that it is only prolonging the collapse...that and you can't build bottles out of wind or sunlight. Also, our country has so firmly embedded oil in its structure that switching to another more expensive source on which to fuel our country would not likely fly. Do you really think people would give up their hummers for some dinky looking electric car? Do you think that people would be willing to stop buying their morning bottle of water? I think people wont be willing to alter their way of living until the reprecussions of their actions are pointing a a big fat GAT at their porky fucking heads, at which point it will be too late for us. And as for reverting to a more primitive lifestyle, I think we will keep on searching for ways to mimic what we currently have, and each time we find away entropy will follow through once again. Its the nature of the world.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Final Food Assignment: Our "New-Found Livelihood" (second draft)
http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
Over the course of our evolution, human beings have developed these unique and complex brains; as a result we have art, literature, math, science. We have an entire world of academics and learning that was previously unheard of on earth, amongst other species and human beings alike. But how; why did this come to pass and what allowed us the luxury to persue these "New-found livelihood"'s? Since the creation of agriculture the human brain made room for more "noble" quests, but with it also came the difficulty of class difference, a sense of ownership of the natural land, population increase, and "dramatic changes in our smug self image" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). In this day and age we have seen a dawn of new problems; the food industry is entirely out of our hands and thrown to wealthy, profit-bent capitalists. Of course they don't actually do the work themselves; instead they pay migrant farm workers low wages and systematically demolish the beautiful gifts given us by mother earth. And, worst of all, they are paid beneath minimum wage to ravage our earth for its natural resources which, at this point, have been taxed to non-repair.This system with which we handle food is unsustainable and it sacrifices the wellbeing of others, plants and animals included, for a specific standard of living that people feel entitled to. In order to allow for universal equality and environmental prosperity we must revert to a more, hunter-gatherer way of surviving in which food is not grown in excess, and we control all that we put into our bodies.
Before we approach the whole concept of Hunter-Gathering from our current, comfortable social stand point, we should first understand why agriculture started in the first place. Agriculture, as we know, allows for mass production of select crops in one region; but what change would stimulate the need for such methods of survival? Professionals have noticed that as our ancestors numbers multiplied, so did their demand for food, and thus, we now use agricultural farming methods to feed the masses. Instead of going through the laborious task of finding food day by day, we can now sit back and relax comfortably and dawdle around with other such life difficulties that have arrived as a result mass farming. For our still relatively simple ancestors, agriculture meant "an efficient way to get more food for less work" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). For us on the other hand, agriculture is a standard of living that most individuals would not be willing to sacrifice.
But what was before this, before we developed this wide expanse of interests and expressive mediums? Something along the lines of 10,000 years ago mankind was still picking berries off trees and running along side his prey, armed with a spear and ready to kill. The hunter gatherer man killed and managed his own diet accordingly to what he could find for sustenance and, unlike farmers, they had to look for their food and eat whatever they found. And because food is scarce in every environment they had to travel around season to season to stay alive. Their entire lives revolved around eating.
Of course, like any system, agriculture has its benefits; "agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more crops per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). It also allowed us the liberty to lounge about and relax, which as we all have seen, can, if left unproductive, lose its appeal after some time. Thus began the world of art, mathematics, and science and other such intellectual or personal journeys. So, as one could probably guess, our lives no longer revolve around food...at least not in such a direct survival related way. Most of the people in our country, hell, the world, are entirely removed from the process of preparing, eating, and gathering what we eat.
Eating: Looking at your average American one can see this alienation quite clearly reflected in our actions. Every day I wake up to people rushing, people working, sticking to their strict schedules like some massive spider web, their bosses, the giant black widow licking their chops a few feet away. But what are we so busy doing if we aren't out searching for food? We are out working at jobs, each in their respective category of math, science, and art, begrudgingly placing one more obstacle on the direct path for getting food. We have created an un-necessary middle man that stands between us and our daily bread, and this stands true for all agricultural societies, not just America. Work, being as stressful as it often is, starts incredibly early, so one can imagine how challenging eating and enjoying a meal can be. Instead of cooking their own breakfast or going out and collecting food for their morning nourishment, what do Americans do? We rush out of the house to the nearest fast food drive by terminal and get some processed junk with indeterminable ingredients that we then, over time, convince ourselves is real food.
That there is one of our largest problems in regards to eating; we don't know what goes into most of what we eat. All we know is calories, fat, sugar, and carbs. I was reading the ingredients off of a can of soda my brother had just purchased and not one of the ingredients made sense to me; whats sorbitol? whats high fructose corn syrup? Whats potassium benzoate? and the list goes on and on... But sadly, this is our idea of the food world; we entrust massive companies like Coka Cola and Mc Donalds with our diets and leave it to them to not poison us. So as you can clearly see, it is out of our hands while we sit back and let others decide what is put into our slobbery gullets. Hunter Gatherers knew what they were eating.
Also, on a side note, self prepared food just tastes substantially better than prepackeged food. Not only is it fresh and lacking in preservatives necessary to keep it good on shelves for months at a time, but it involves you in the process of preparation. Just think to yourself: what is more pleasurable? Handing over a few bucks and having your food handed to you, or working in the kitchen for an hour or so to prepare a dish with home grown or even store bought goods and then sitting down and enjoying it? Personally, I'd go with the latter of the two, but in our instantaneous pleasure society one could see how someone may not feel the same way.
However, in our culture, we are offered up a variety of different foods and food lifestyles, so we aren't nearly as limited as it may seem. If you like fast food (god knows how anyone could) we have mickey dee's and KFC. If you're looking for organic and local food there are plenty of local farms and markets around to go to...of course there aren't nearly enough family farms and cheap organic growers to satisfy our entire population because the general populous often prefers the efficiency of fast food joints and simply cannot afford to buy organic even if they want to. However, with enough widespread demand for products of that nature that could change over time. On a more important note; according to Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the vast abundance and instantaneous availability of food in our culture complicates the entire process of eating and deprives us of any one specific food culture. This lack of a steady food culture has left us susceptable to the varying words of scientists and marketers alike, thus further removing us from our own food. And having been raised on this artificial shit we now perpetuate its reign over us by eating and supporting it. Instead of taking our own initiative we sit back and watch intelligence-reducing television and pray homage to our new-found livelihoods.
But, as we spend our idle time reading our books, creating our artistic masterpieces, and ultimately searching for individual happiness, somebody else is doing that work, picking our fruits and vegetables, and slaughtering our meat. But it most certainly isn't us out here in New York or even America for that matter; most of those jobs go to immigrants on both sides of the legal fence. They make low wages and are, more often than not, beneath the poverty line...but, because minimum wage laws explicitly exclude farm workers, they continue making wages that can't rightfully support the lifestyle of any human being in this culture, no matter how low to the ground it is. Almost all the food we eat is picked by these people and we owe our entire lifestyle to them, yet we continue supporting it by keeping ourselves in this little "not me" bubble. I have seen way too many people reflect on how insignificant such efforts would be and then continue living like the inconsiderate pig that they are. If we all sacrifice our own beliefs and call what we support a futile cause then nothing will get done, but if we all live by example and do as we would want others to do we could end that. Of course, with this new stance a new way of living would have to be upheld, but what does that compare to sacrificing the lives and liberties of others for our own selfish and indulgent way of life.
And it is here that I begin to broach on the topic of population and its impact on our farming system...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
Over the course of our evolution, human beings have developed these unique and complex brains; as a result we have art, literature, math, science. We have an entire world of academics and learning that was previously unheard of on earth, amongst other species and human beings alike. But how; why did this come to pass and what allowed us the luxury to persue these "New-found livelihood"'s? Since the creation of agriculture the human brain made room for more "noble" quests, but with it also came the difficulty of class difference, a sense of ownership of the natural land, population increase, and "dramatic changes in our smug self image" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). In this day and age we have seen a dawn of new problems; the food industry is entirely out of our hands and thrown to wealthy, profit-bent capitalists. Of course they don't actually do the work themselves; instead they pay migrant farm workers low wages and systematically demolish the beautiful gifts given us by mother earth. And, worst of all, they are paid beneath minimum wage to ravage our earth for its natural resources which, at this point, have been taxed to non-repair.This system with which we handle food is unsustainable and it sacrifices the wellbeing of others, plants and animals included, for a specific standard of living that people feel entitled to. In order to allow for universal equality and environmental prosperity we must revert to a more, hunter-gatherer way of surviving in which food is not grown in excess, and we control all that we put into our bodies.
Before we approach the whole concept of Hunter-Gathering from our current, comfortable social stand point, we should first understand why agriculture started in the first place. Agriculture, as we know, allows for mass production of select crops in one region; but what change would stimulate the need for such methods of survival? Professionals have noticed that as our ancestors numbers multiplied, so did their demand for food, and thus, we now use agricultural farming methods to feed the masses. Instead of going through the laborious task of finding food day by day, we can now sit back and relax comfortably and dawdle around with other such life difficulties that have arrived as a result mass farming. For our still relatively simple ancestors, agriculture meant "an efficient way to get more food for less work" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). For us on the other hand, agriculture is a standard of living that most individuals would not be willing to sacrifice.
But what was before this, before we developed this wide expanse of interests and expressive mediums? Something along the lines of 10,000 years ago mankind was still picking berries off trees and running along side his prey, armed with a spear and ready to kill. The hunter gatherer man killed and managed his own diet accordingly to what he could find for sustenance and, unlike farmers, they had to look for their food and eat whatever they found. And because food is scarce in every environment they had to travel around season to season to stay alive. Their entire lives revolved around eating.
Of course, like any system, agriculture has its benefits; "agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more crops per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). It also allowed us the liberty to lounge about and relax, which as we all have seen, can, if left unproductive, lose its appeal after some time. Thus began the world of art, mathematics, and science and other such intellectual or personal journeys. So, as one could probably guess, our lives no longer revolve around food...at least not in such a direct survival related way. Most of the people in our country, hell, the world, are entirely removed from the process of preparing, eating, and gathering what we eat.
Eating: Looking at your average American one can see this alienation quite clearly reflected in our actions. Every day I wake up to people rushing, people working, sticking to their strict schedules like some massive spider web, their bosses, the giant black widow licking their chops a few feet away. But what are we so busy doing if we aren't out searching for food? We are out working at jobs, each in their respective category of math, science, and art, begrudgingly placing one more obstacle on the direct path for getting food. We have created an un-necessary middle man that stands between us and our daily bread, and this stands true for all agricultural societies, not just America. Work, being as stressful as it often is, starts incredibly early, so one can imagine how challenging eating and enjoying a meal can be. Instead of cooking their own breakfast or going out and collecting food for their morning nourishment, what do Americans do? We rush out of the house to the nearest fast food drive by terminal and get some processed junk with indeterminable ingredients that we then, over time, convince ourselves is real food.
That there is one of our largest problems in regards to eating; we don't know what goes into most of what we eat. All we know is calories, fat, sugar, and carbs. I was reading the ingredients off of a can of soda my brother had just purchased and not one of the ingredients made sense to me; whats sorbitol? whats high fructose corn syrup? Whats potassium benzoate? and the list goes on and on... But sadly, this is our idea of the food world; we entrust massive companies like Coka Cola and Mc Donalds with our diets and leave it to them to not poison us. So as you can clearly see, it is out of our hands while we sit back and let others decide what is put into our slobbery gullets. Hunter Gatherers knew what they were eating.
Also, on a side note, self prepared food just tastes substantially better than prepackeged food. Not only is it fresh and lacking in preservatives necessary to keep it good on shelves for months at a time, but it involves you in the process of preparation. Just think to yourself: what is more pleasurable? Handing over a few bucks and having your food handed to you, or working in the kitchen for an hour or so to prepare a dish with home grown or even store bought goods and then sitting down and enjoying it? Personally, I'd go with the latter of the two, but in our instantaneous pleasure society one could see how someone may not feel the same way.
However, in our culture, we are offered up a variety of different foods and food lifestyles, so we aren't nearly as limited as it may seem. If you like fast food (god knows how anyone could) we have mickey dee's and KFC. If you're looking for organic and local food there are plenty of local farms and markets around to go to...of course there aren't nearly enough family farms and cheap organic growers to satisfy our entire population because the general populous often prefers the efficiency of fast food joints and simply cannot afford to buy organic even if they want to. However, with enough widespread demand for products of that nature that could change over time. On a more important note; according to Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the vast abundance and instantaneous availability of food in our culture complicates the entire process of eating and deprives us of any one specific food culture. This lack of a steady food culture has left us susceptable to the varying words of scientists and marketers alike, thus further removing us from our own food. And having been raised on this artificial shit we now perpetuate its reign over us by eating and supporting it. Instead of taking our own initiative we sit back and watch intelligence-reducing television and pray homage to our new-found livelihoods.
But, as we spend our idle time reading our books, creating our artistic masterpieces, and ultimately searching for individual happiness, somebody else is doing that work, picking our fruits and vegetables, and slaughtering our meat. But it most certainly isn't us out here in New York or even America for that matter; most of those jobs go to immigrants on both sides of the legal fence. They make low wages and are, more often than not, beneath the poverty line...but, because minimum wage laws explicitly exclude farm workers, they continue making wages that can't rightfully support the lifestyle of any human being in this culture, no matter how low to the ground it is. Almost all the food we eat is picked by these people and we owe our entire lifestyle to them, yet we continue supporting it by keeping ourselves in this little "not me" bubble. I have seen way too many people reflect on how insignificant such efforts would be and then continue living like the inconsiderate pig that they are. If we all sacrifice our own beliefs and call what we support a futile cause then nothing will get done, but if we all live by example and do as we would want others to do we could end that. Of course, with this new stance a new way of living would have to be upheld, but what does that compare to sacrificing the lives and liberties of others for our own selfish and indulgent way of life.
And it is here that I begin to broach on the topic of population and its impact on our farming system...
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Final Food Assignment: Our "New-Found Livelihood" (first draft)
http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
Over the course of our evolution, human beings have developed these unique and complex brains; as a result we have art, literature, math, science. We have an entire world of academics and learning that was previously unheard of on earth, amongst other species and human beings alike. But how; why did this come to pass and what allowed us the luxury to persue these "New-found livelihood"'s? Since the creation of agriculture the human brain made room for more "noble" quests, but with it also came the difficulty of class difference, a sense of ownership of the natural land, population increase, and "dramatic changes in our smug self image" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). In this day and age we have seen a dawn of new problems; the food industry is entirely out of our hands and thrown to wealthy, profit-bent capitalists. Of course they don't actually do the work themselves; instead they pay migrant farm workers low wages and systematically demolish the beautiful gifts given us by mother earth. And, worst of all, they are paid beneath minimum wage to ravage our earth for its natural resources which, at this point, have been taxed to non-repair.This system with which we handle food is unsustainable and it sacrifices the wellbeing of others, plants and animals included, for a specific standard of living that people feel entitled to. In order to allow for universal equality and environmental prosperity we must revert to a more, hunter-gatherer way of surviving in which food is not grown in excess, and we control all that we put into our bodies.
Before we approach the whole concept of Hunter-Gathering from our current, comfortable social stand point, we should first understand why agriculture started in the first place. Agriculture, as we know, allows for mass production of select crops in one region; but what change would stimulate the need for such methods of survival? Professionals have noticed that as our ancestors numbers multiplied, so did their demand for food, and thus, we now use agricultural farming methods to feed the masses. Instead of going through the laborious task of finding food day by day, we can now sit back and relax comfortably and dawdle around with other such life difficulties that have arrived as a result mass farming. For our still relatively simple ancestors, agriculture meant "an efficient way to get more food for less work" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). For us on the other hand, agriculture is a standard of living that most individuals would not be willing to sacrifice.
Of course, like any system, agriculture has its benefits; "agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more tons per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). It also allowed us the liberty to lounge about and relax, which as we all have seen, can, if left unproductive, lose its appeal after some time. Thus began the world of art, mathematics, and science. Although these "new-found livelihoods" have developed a reputation in our culture, for granting pleasure, there are many more things we can do to satisfy ourselves.
But, as we spend our idle time reading our books, creating our artistic masterpieces, and ultimately searching for individual happiness, somebody else is doing that work, picking our fruits and vegetables, and slaughtering our meat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
Over the course of our evolution, human beings have developed these unique and complex brains; as a result we have art, literature, math, science. We have an entire world of academics and learning that was previously unheard of on earth, amongst other species and human beings alike. But how; why did this come to pass and what allowed us the luxury to persue these "New-found livelihood"'s? Since the creation of agriculture the human brain made room for more "noble" quests, but with it also came the difficulty of class difference, a sense of ownership of the natural land, population increase, and "dramatic changes in our smug self image" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). In this day and age we have seen a dawn of new problems; the food industry is entirely out of our hands and thrown to wealthy, profit-bent capitalists. Of course they don't actually do the work themselves; instead they pay migrant farm workers low wages and systematically demolish the beautiful gifts given us by mother earth. And, worst of all, they are paid beneath minimum wage to ravage our earth for its natural resources which, at this point, have been taxed to non-repair.This system with which we handle food is unsustainable and it sacrifices the wellbeing of others, plants and animals included, for a specific standard of living that people feel entitled to. In order to allow for universal equality and environmental prosperity we must revert to a more, hunter-gatherer way of surviving in which food is not grown in excess, and we control all that we put into our bodies.
Before we approach the whole concept of Hunter-Gathering from our current, comfortable social stand point, we should first understand why agriculture started in the first place. Agriculture, as we know, allows for mass production of select crops in one region; but what change would stimulate the need for such methods of survival? Professionals have noticed that as our ancestors numbers multiplied, so did their demand for food, and thus, we now use agricultural farming methods to feed the masses. Instead of going through the laborious task of finding food day by day, we can now sit back and relax comfortably and dawdle around with other such life difficulties that have arrived as a result mass farming. For our still relatively simple ancestors, agriculture meant "an efficient way to get more food for less work" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). For us on the other hand, agriculture is a standard of living that most individuals would not be willing to sacrifice.
Of course, like any system, agriculture has its benefits; "agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more tons per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). It also allowed us the liberty to lounge about and relax, which as we all have seen, can, if left unproductive, lose its appeal after some time. Thus began the world of art, mathematics, and science. Although these "new-found livelihoods" have developed a reputation in our culture, for granting pleasure, there are many more things we can do to satisfy ourselves.
But, as we spend our idle time reading our books, creating our artistic masterpieces, and ultimately searching for individual happiness, somebody else is doing that work, picking our fruits and vegetables, and slaughtering our meat.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
"Wildman" Steve Brill and sustainable agriculture
Today I went on the nature walk through central park with Steve Brill, and I have to say, I was surprised with the end results. First off, though, allow me to share me experience with this very strange and knowledgeable man; the second he passed out the consent forms I thought to myself, "this guys going to be all buisiness"; all work and no play, and such. Of course appearances can be deceiving; shortly before we set sail, so to speak, he gathered us all in a small cluster and made an expression similar to that on the face of the person in Edvard Munch's, "The Scream," brought his cupped hands together near by his face, and began omitting a strange conga, esque sound from his moth by banging them together. My point being, he was a strange guy.
Of course, shortly after he started the hike and his strange mannerisms were overlapped by the immensity of his knowledge of plants. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we set off, and about a hundred feet later, we came across, what he referred to as, "Poor-Man's Pepper," which was a small stalk with frayed leaves branching every which way, all beneath a tiny, practically insignificant little flower. He told us the etymology of the name; the exact time period in which the story took place escapes me at the moment, but during this one point in history the pepper plant was so highly taxed that very few people could actually afford it, but because the demand was so high people were driven to find other, more affordable, alternatives. Poor-Man's Peppers is, as it's name states, the poor man's version of the pepper plant. It tastes almost exactly the same as pepper, and could very well be used as a perfect substitute for pepper.
Seeing this brought a flood of thoughts rushing into my brain, not so much about the pepper (ha), but about how perfectly applicable to today this is.
A.) In this day and age, for every North Face or Ghirardeli there is a cheap knock off, which is, more often than not, just as good as the more expensive version, which draws its allure and cost from the name as opposed to the comparative quality of the item itself.
B.) It also goes to show that everything, plants included, has a natural alternative that can substitute for the "real" one. While pepper is no longer a heavily taxed commodity this shows you that you can get this stuff for free and from mother nature's very own backyard...in the middle of central park.
One of the main concepts, aside from the plants in specific, that he talked was how remarkably similar the properties of many of these plants were relative to their synthetic, man-made alternatives. I can't think of any examples at the moment, but the point is that, all the artificial crap that damages Gaia is un-necessary, and that if more people knew about the natural alternatives to what we are so commonly spoonfed by the system, they too would shift their eating habits to healthier and more sustainable substitutes.
I think the ability to self sustain is beautiful; not only does it feel better to be part of the process of handling and dealing with our own food, but it is less harmful to our already taxed environment. Actually hunting down and finding our own food is much more rewarding of an experience than simply paying for it at our local, flourescent bulb lit supermarkets. This, I feel is an important part of living a full and involved life; being part of the process of doing is something we so commonly miss out on in our industrialized culture, and we have grown to take things for granted, thus losing a greater appreciation of them. In doing so, we remove ourselves from all the necessary survival aspects of our lives, which, arguably, will make our experience more dull .
All in all, I'd say I had a fun time and I would definitely consider doing it again to find out more natural substitutes to common foods. Luckily, I bought a massive book on such foods throughout all seasons. Lately I've been trying to avoid buying all prepackaged foods, so this is perfect for me, and, as I am going to Hampshire College next semester, I feel that having this knowledge will be of use to me in the future.
Of course, shortly after he started the hike and his strange mannerisms were overlapped by the immensity of his knowledge of plants. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we set off, and about a hundred feet later, we came across, what he referred to as, "Poor-Man's Pepper," which was a small stalk with frayed leaves branching every which way, all beneath a tiny, practically insignificant little flower. He told us the etymology of the name; the exact time period in which the story took place escapes me at the moment, but during this one point in history the pepper plant was so highly taxed that very few people could actually afford it, but because the demand was so high people were driven to find other, more affordable, alternatives. Poor-Man's Peppers is, as it's name states, the poor man's version of the pepper plant. It tastes almost exactly the same as pepper, and could very well be used as a perfect substitute for pepper.
Seeing this brought a flood of thoughts rushing into my brain, not so much about the pepper (ha), but about how perfectly applicable to today this is.
A.) In this day and age, for every North Face or Ghirardeli there is a cheap knock off, which is, more often than not, just as good as the more expensive version, which draws its allure and cost from the name as opposed to the comparative quality of the item itself.
B.) It also goes to show that everything, plants included, has a natural alternative that can substitute for the "real" one. While pepper is no longer a heavily taxed commodity this shows you that you can get this stuff for free and from mother nature's very own backyard...in the middle of central park.
One of the main concepts, aside from the plants in specific, that he talked was how remarkably similar the properties of many of these plants were relative to their synthetic, man-made alternatives. I can't think of any examples at the moment, but the point is that, all the artificial crap that damages Gaia is un-necessary, and that if more people knew about the natural alternatives to what we are so commonly spoonfed by the system, they too would shift their eating habits to healthier and more sustainable substitutes.
I think the ability to self sustain is beautiful; not only does it feel better to be part of the process of handling and dealing with our own food, but it is less harmful to our already taxed environment. Actually hunting down and finding our own food is much more rewarding of an experience than simply paying for it at our local, flourescent bulb lit supermarkets. This, I feel is an important part of living a full and involved life; being part of the process of doing is something we so commonly miss out on in our industrialized culture, and we have grown to take things for granted, thus losing a greater appreciation of them. In doing so, we remove ourselves from all the necessary survival aspects of our lives, which, arguably, will make our experience more dull .
All in all, I'd say I had a fun time and I would definitely consider doing it again to find out more natural substitutes to common foods. Luckily, I bought a massive book on such foods throughout all seasons. Lately I've been trying to avoid buying all prepackaged foods, so this is perfect for me, and, as I am going to Hampshire College next semester, I feel that having this knowledge will be of use to me in the future.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Response to Michael Pollan
Food # 6 - Response to Pollan 1
For this assignment please respond briefly to Michael Pollan's argument, in the first few pages of Omnivore's Dilemma, that we as a culture lack a stable food culture like the Italians or French, are obsessed with health, are confused and anxious about food, and therefore easily succumb to various expert-directed food fads.
What food experts do you and your family pay attention to - scientists, journalists, chefs, commercials on tv, doctors, nutritionists, health officials, book authors?
First off, I'd like to fullheartedly agree with Michael Pollan; we have lost faith our sixth sense that allows us to decide, on our own, what to eat and have become subserviant little minions to the health/nutritionalist experts as a catastrophic result. Crap-tons of people trusted that obese psycho who created the Atkins diet with their health and nutritional well-being simply because he was a certified "health expert." Look at him, he's dead now thanks to his all meat diet. All meat and no carbs makes Atkins a dead boy.
A few years ago my mother went on the weight watchers, points system, and I don't recall her losing any weight, which is not to say that systems such as this don't work, but its just interesting to see these highly praised diet plans fail. Its not so much the controlling that prevented my mother from dropping a few pounds, but more so the outlook. How do we as Americans look at eating?; with enough self control and hard work we can look forward to a brighter, lighter, and thinner future.
I see a direct correlation between the outrageous number of hours most Americans work per week and the way we eat. According to the documentary, "the overspent American" Americans work more hours than any other people on the entire planet, even more than those little Japanese kids that we've stereotyped into being workaholics. Just think about it; people all around the country wake up at 8 AM (if they are lucky), they have no time to make themselves breakfast, and because they are such a rush they buy the quickest, most convenient food possible; fast food. Then after hours of work they take their car/subway back home, possibly grabbing a snack along the way, and then they sit, exhausted, on their couch in front of the boob tube while they stuff crap down their throats. When we start gaining weight from all this quick, lazy eating, we are too exhausted and busy to have time to think about and savor that which we eat so we go to the professionals after years of mindless subserviance to our superiors, or those with the big label on their collar, and we trust people like doctor Atkins with our diets. It all kinda makes sense. This is not to say that the french are always out and about, eating wholesome meals in stead of junk food, but Americans are well known for their crappy eating habits and tense work situations. Stereotypes are there for a reason.
My family has never really relied on health professionals with the exception of my mothers encounter with the weight watchers diet. We've all gone with the flow and changed it for ourselves without the advice of health officials. We have, however, changed our diets according to commonly known things about eating, just like yur average American. Recently I've been paying attention to Dr. Andrew Weil; a friend of mine told me about him and his vitamin system, and while I did not buy into it (literally) I did consider doing it for some time.
For this assignment please respond briefly to Michael Pollan's argument, in the first few pages of Omnivore's Dilemma, that we as a culture lack a stable food culture like the Italians or French, are obsessed with health, are confused and anxious about food, and therefore easily succumb to various expert-directed food fads.
What food experts do you and your family pay attention to - scientists, journalists, chefs, commercials on tv, doctors, nutritionists, health officials, book authors?
First off, I'd like to fullheartedly agree with Michael Pollan; we have lost faith our sixth sense that allows us to decide, on our own, what to eat and have become subserviant little minions to the health/nutritionalist experts as a catastrophic result. Crap-tons of people trusted that obese psycho who created the Atkins diet with their health and nutritional well-being simply because he was a certified "health expert." Look at him, he's dead now thanks to his all meat diet. All meat and no carbs makes Atkins a dead boy.
A few years ago my mother went on the weight watchers, points system, and I don't recall her losing any weight, which is not to say that systems such as this don't work, but its just interesting to see these highly praised diet plans fail. Its not so much the controlling that prevented my mother from dropping a few pounds, but more so the outlook. How do we as Americans look at eating?; with enough self control and hard work we can look forward to a brighter, lighter, and thinner future.
I see a direct correlation between the outrageous number of hours most Americans work per week and the way we eat. According to the documentary, "the overspent American" Americans work more hours than any other people on the entire planet, even more than those little Japanese kids that we've stereotyped into being workaholics. Just think about it; people all around the country wake up at 8 AM (if they are lucky), they have no time to make themselves breakfast, and because they are such a rush they buy the quickest, most convenient food possible; fast food. Then after hours of work they take their car/subway back home, possibly grabbing a snack along the way, and then they sit, exhausted, on their couch in front of the boob tube while they stuff crap down their throats. When we start gaining weight from all this quick, lazy eating, we are too exhausted and busy to have time to think about and savor that which we eat so we go to the professionals after years of mindless subserviance to our superiors, or those with the big label on their collar, and we trust people like doctor Atkins with our diets. It all kinda makes sense. This is not to say that the french are always out and about, eating wholesome meals in stead of junk food, but Americans are well known for their crappy eating habits and tense work situations. Stereotypes are there for a reason.
My family has never really relied on health professionals with the exception of my mothers encounter with the weight watchers diet. We've all gone with the flow and changed it for ourselves without the advice of health officials. We have, however, changed our diets according to commonly known things about eating, just like yur average American. Recently I've been paying attention to Dr. Andrew Weil; a friend of mine told me about him and his vitamin system, and while I did not buy into it (literally) I did consider doing it for some time.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Grocery Store and Habitual food
Grocery Store and Habitual Food
Please write a post about how your family uses grocery stores and the variety of vegetables, fruits, roots, grains, and nuts that you eat in a typical week.
You should include your insights about how grocery stores "push" particular types of products, how you learned (or didn't) to eat a variety of foods, and information about your favorite meals and habitual diet pattern.
My parents usually go grocery shopping once a week, but, as I stated previously, my brother and I are often left to do our own thing. My parents usually buy copious amounts of fruits and vegetables that are usually gone within 2 or 3 days. We often thrift shop and because exotic fruits (ie: durian fruit, papaya, mangosteen, leechee, guava, rambutan, etc...)are usually more costly than main stream ones (ie: bananas, oranges, grapes, apples, pears) our fruit selection is fairly homogeneous. I, however, spend any money my parents give me (something along the lines of $20-$30 per day) on different kinds of fruit when I can. Papaya is one of my recent favorites.
I don't eat nearly as much grain as I probably should. I'd say I have a few pieces of what/whole grain bread each day with sandwich toppings (mostly veggies with tofu bacon and mustard), but most of it is just oats mixed with flour and white bread anyway. My parents don't really shop for oats and wheat simply because there is no real demand for it. They only started buying as much fruit as they do after I started asking for it. I eat fibrous, whole wheat cereal every now and again(and only fibrous, whole grain cereal), if that counts for anything.
Most of my meals generally consist of soy, some form of bread (always wheat or whole grain), mustard, veggies, with a large side various types of fruit; most recently its been grapefruit or papaya. I'd say that I'm a pretty healthy person; I eat a fairly wide variety of fruits and veggies frequently, balance it out with vitamins (for what I lack) and eat for the positive feeling that it gives me as opposed to just satisfying the gut urge, which I seldom get, seeing as I snack perpetually throughout the entire day between small meals.
I didn't always eat this way; I grew up eating a pint of ice cream every night with a massive, American- sized burrito for dinner. Over the past two years I came into my own diet-wise and helped to turn my entire family around in a healthier direction. Every member of my family has lost weight since I changed my diet.
Grocery stores may have influenced my eating habits as a child, but I don't feel too drawn to most of what they advertise. I'd say that grocery stores generally guide people towards buying cheap or marked-down foods. When I walk into a supermarket the first thing I usually see is a massive sign reading "discount prices." They try and harp on cheapster within each and every one of us.
Please write a post about how your family uses grocery stores and the variety of vegetables, fruits, roots, grains, and nuts that you eat in a typical week.
You should include your insights about how grocery stores "push" particular types of products, how you learned (or didn't) to eat a variety of foods, and information about your favorite meals and habitual diet pattern.
My parents usually go grocery shopping once a week, but, as I stated previously, my brother and I are often left to do our own thing. My parents usually buy copious amounts of fruits and vegetables that are usually gone within 2 or 3 days. We often thrift shop and because exotic fruits (ie: durian fruit, papaya, mangosteen, leechee, guava, rambutan, etc...)are usually more costly than main stream ones (ie: bananas, oranges, grapes, apples, pears) our fruit selection is fairly homogeneous. I, however, spend any money my parents give me (something along the lines of $20-$30 per day) on different kinds of fruit when I can. Papaya is one of my recent favorites.
I don't eat nearly as much grain as I probably should. I'd say I have a few pieces of what/whole grain bread each day with sandwich toppings (mostly veggies with tofu bacon and mustard), but most of it is just oats mixed with flour and white bread anyway. My parents don't really shop for oats and wheat simply because there is no real demand for it. They only started buying as much fruit as they do after I started asking for it. I eat fibrous, whole wheat cereal every now and again(and only fibrous, whole grain cereal), if that counts for anything.
Most of my meals generally consist of soy, some form of bread (always wheat or whole grain), mustard, veggies, with a large side various types of fruit; most recently its been grapefruit or papaya. I'd say that I'm a pretty healthy person; I eat a fairly wide variety of fruits and veggies frequently, balance it out with vitamins (for what I lack) and eat for the positive feeling that it gives me as opposed to just satisfying the gut urge, which I seldom get, seeing as I snack perpetually throughout the entire day between small meals.
I didn't always eat this way; I grew up eating a pint of ice cream every night with a massive, American- sized burrito for dinner. Over the past two years I came into my own diet-wise and helped to turn my entire family around in a healthier direction. Every member of my family has lost weight since I changed my diet.
Grocery stores may have influenced my eating habits as a child, but I don't feel too drawn to most of what they advertise. I'd say that grocery stores generally guide people towards buying cheap or marked-down foods. When I walk into a supermarket the first thing I usually see is a massive sign reading "discount prices." They try and harp on cheapster within each and every one of us.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
May Day
How does the forgetting of a workers' holiday commemorating an American labor struggle show fundamental aspects of the American Way of Life?
First off, I wouldn't call the holiday "forgotten" so much as erased and replaced with jovial and warm hearted Labor day. People prefer to keep things positive, especially if they are taking a day off from work to celebrate it. God forbid they should actually use this precious day off to be productive and commemorate the men that brought to them the eight hour work day.
International Workers Day, or May Day, is a commemoration of the Haymarket massacre/strike in chicago where police open fired into a crowd of workers, protesting for a shorter work day. When an Anarchist group set up follow up strikes a bomb went off in the crowd, killing policemen and rioters alike, the pigs opened fired once again on the crowd of unarmed civilians. The Anarchist leaders of this riot were held responsible and hung for the actions of the irresponsible individuals in the crowd.
Of course, few Americans actually know about this and blindly accept Labor day, a day now reserved for traditional family barbecues and drinking, as an adequate substitution. How typically American. No wonder we as a people are so disgustingly lacking in a voice, our schools don't teach it, our government doesn't celibrate it, and the media exploits it by destroying our brains with alcohol. Its been more or less hidden. What better way to keep people under control than by getting them to ignore their past.
First off, I wouldn't call the holiday "forgotten" so much as erased and replaced with jovial and warm hearted Labor day. People prefer to keep things positive, especially if they are taking a day off from work to celebrate it. God forbid they should actually use this precious day off to be productive and commemorate the men that brought to them the eight hour work day.
International Workers Day, or May Day, is a commemoration of the Haymarket massacre/strike in chicago where police open fired into a crowd of workers, protesting for a shorter work day. When an Anarchist group set up follow up strikes a bomb went off in the crowd, killing policemen and rioters alike, the pigs opened fired once again on the crowd of unarmed civilians. The Anarchist leaders of this riot were held responsible and hung for the actions of the irresponsible individuals in the crowd.
Of course, few Americans actually know about this and blindly accept Labor day, a day now reserved for traditional family barbecues and drinking, as an adequate substitution. How typically American. No wonder we as a people are so disgustingly lacking in a voice, our schools don't teach it, our government doesn't celibrate it, and the media exploits it by destroying our brains with alcohol. Its been more or less hidden. What better way to keep people under control than by getting them to ignore their past.
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