I doan read that Ole Grey Hag, but some folks insist on sendin' Aunty articles in it from time to time.
Yesterday, Tom Friedman jes' freaked out all over the the Op-Ed pages. The man is ready to be put to pasture. In his The Earth Is Full rant, Friedman wrings his hands an' hyperventilates:
"You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century....and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once? "
The man either has never read history (What were the Vesuvians thinkin' durin' them orgies when the ground started vibratin'? What were the The Romans thinkin' when the Hideous Huns scrambled over the walls ? What were the Europeans thinkin' when rats infested their cities an' plague came knockin'?) or he jes' needs to get 700 words written an' collect his 2k fer he day.
There is always SOME panic SOME where. Has ever been so.
Friedman is horrified. But the man got a hold of the wrong horror.
Personally, I'se a lot more worriet about the GMO corn in the chips and salsa at the neighborhood Mexican Mama's ...GMO corn is engineered wif on board pesticides so bugs doan eat the crop profits. Nobody cares I reckon that that pesticide transferred to yore gizzard changes the bacteria in your gizzard to be super resistant to antibiotics? Many scientists say thas' whas' up wif' these deaths in Germany whar' a new serotype of E. Coli done turned itself into a population scythe (see post below). NO antibiotic is workin' against it--why? cause this super toxic bug ain't phased by nuthin' we throw at it--they theorize thas' cause it grew up in the intestines of cows fed GMO corn an' soy.
An' while we's theorizin', what if some whiz at the microscope--a Bernie Madoff of micro-world--has been readin' Friedman? What if Friedman freaked off Micro-Madoff who now figgered he'd save the earth fer the snail darter by settin' off a roach -bomb on humans? Well...I said it was theorizin'....mebbe.
What's worse, a spike in gas prices or recombinant microbiology experiments on the human race?
What's yore theory?
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22 comments:
If y'all is weary of Aunty's own rant on food wars, I'se sorry in advance.
I was going to write a book called "Times Friedman Has been Proven Wrong" but got bored after page 942,163.
LOL@ troll. indeed, Freakman is like a weatherman - no matter how wrong he gets it he still has a job.
well i never get tired of this topic and no one should. I guess Tom's role is to sell that meme so that we go ahead and accept genocide and think cancer is normal and think we are locusts upon the earth. Isnt that what bill gates and oprah and ted turner and the facebook dude all get together to talk about behind closed doors?
perception is everything.like margaret sanger being a hero of liberalism - and she was all about getting rid of the weeds *black people*
i told V about how almost all corn was GMO - he loves a bunch of chips and salsa. he cant care -hes doggpaddling so hard to keep his head above water he just cant add one more horror to his plate. We just leave all the doom (reality) to me.
keep these posts coming aunty!!
Drop the topic, mam, it's stale.
@ anon (how brave of you)
yeah, nothings more stale than discussing one of the many ways a once free people are under assault. But cheer up! you can always park your GMO ass in front of the Kardashian channel where its fresh fresh fresh.
Don't stop your food rants Aunty and I wonder if "Anonymous" thinks it's stale because it's hard to hear the truth?
I laughed at the last line:
"We may be slow, but we’re not stupid.”
No, actually, I think the majority of this country/planet ARE stupid. They just want to continue over consuming mass produced crap and not think about it.
Whenever I read about global climate change, etc I wonder why no one talks about the Ice Age. Or why when Moi and I were driving through canyons in Arizona, it used to be under water. This article said nothing new or very interesting.
I'm THIS close to grinding my own (real) corn to make chips and I stay away from most processed carbs/food because it's all full of things we don't need.
Keep 'em coming Aunty! As Chicory said, no one should get tired of learning about we're eating and WHY.
Well La Diva is CERTAINLY NOT weary of this topic, Aunty Belle, but at times feel so hopeless about it all. On Facebook, some of my hippy dippy rainbows-and-sunshine friends just think that by eating organic you will save loads on medical bills and voila, your investment is returned. How simplistic and naive. Obviously they don't have family laid off in Michigan that can barely meet their bills let alone buy wild salmon or grass fed beef or all organic fruits and vegetables. It makes me insane that only the "good" food is readily available for the rich while our obese and diabetic underclass AND middle class is fed from the GMO steroid ridden dollar menu.
Another huge concern for me right now is plastic...leaching into everything and in everything and on everything. HOw much is safe? Does my organic green pepper really need to be shrink wrapped? How green can that be? Or safe? I'm completely frustrated and not sure what to actually DO about it. Being "positive" and "envisioning" "positive change" is not enough! Time to DO. Any ideas?
Rant on Aunty!
We all need to stay keen on the dangers of this reality. That BananaFishy ain't funny.
K9 is right, the people like her V, who at regular intervals try to kick back and de-stress don't want to deal with one more thing. They are maxxed out and cannot take on the issues of world food sourcing. Good thing for him his best girl can raise chickens, garden, and seed her stream with trout.
@La Diva .... how did your granny keep her produce fresh? It wasn't in plastic. What I have noticed in my travels out of the USA? folks buy their food fresh at the corner market on the way home. They are not storing anything but staples.
I'm still basking in the afterglow of a spectacular vacation that thankfully took all the rant and worry outta me :)
If you're up for a little armchair travelin', I'm slowly culling through my umpteen photos and posting in installments. Some people think, why would you want to go to South Dakota? I have visual evidence to dispute that kind of narrow-minded thinking :)
xoxo, eggy
Fishy, I'm not sure where you live but when I lived in Australia, that was the life I lived and TRY to live here. I don't do a big two week shop at Costco, I can't, because I buy fresh food. In Sydney, you can actually still go to the green grocers and pick out your own beans! (heck, they even still have butchers, albeit not as many as in the past) Here in Florida, almost all fruits and veggies sold in the grocery store are in plastic bags, on styrofoam trays or shrink-wrapped! I can't smell my fruit or veg before buying! It's maddening!
The earth is, what, sixty billion gazillion years old? Populations of critters have come and gone for eons. Eventually, we humans will expire, too. Today, tomorrow, fifty or a hundred years from now? Not likely. But when mother nature truly, finally, is done with us, believe me, she'll be done with us. Ain't nothing we can do to stop that evolutionary eventuality.
Troll-Man
Ya could use the book fer weight liftin'.
Chick9,
yep--thas' Tom--hey, notice he extols the wisdom of "environmental entrepreneurs?" Oh now, gimme a break--so if Is'e a mega capitalist is ok as long as mah entrep skills is labeled "environmental"? These people cannot believe their own swill--can they??
Anon,
I hear ya'. But, iffin' anythang be stale, it is Friedman.
@ K9 hhahahaha!
Boxer-babe
yeah, really! Ya wrote:"I'm THIS close to grinding my own (real) corn to make chips and I stay away from most processed carbs/food because it's all full of things we don't need."
La Diva will concur--let's git back to LOCAL. an that might even be yore own back yard. A few container crops ain't out of the realm of the new realty. I think we can all grow at least our salad stuff.
This E. Coli strain? Has ya heered how now they say it will leave half the victims wif' PERMANENT neurological deficits??
LA Diva,
oh Sugar Pie, edoocate them hippy- dippies. They need to know-- Real food is EXPENSIVE. But then, we Americans is spoiled--%wise of budget, we spend less on food than other western nations.
Sorry, but I think one of the major tenets of a responsible kitchen is true food value--good quality, good nutrition trumps cheap price. But that said, the good food is now out of reach for stressed families an' thsi is the fault of mega markets--we soon will have no chocie but to return to local food economy. Mah advice is buy yore open pollenating seeds NOW before they's outlawed.
Fishy,
ya grimaced at that fishy-nana? heh.
Youse in SC so ya have good options--but stress that OTHERS shop more often an take home jes' what they really need.
Oh an La DIVA? see that horror about plastic in frozen KASHI pizza?? mercy!
Eggy!
I seen a quick peek-wow wowe wow !
comin' back soon to comment.
Moi, Cherie,
hah--ever the feet on terra firma. I like that.
Blogger ate me comment! argh
Blogger is eating comments again, argh!
So, funny you should say that as on my balcony are my little seedlings for salad greens for my plot! Aunty, where do you suggest I get non GMO and heritage seeds from? I order from Johnnys but honestly don't know that much about them....if you could enlighten me, I sure appreciate it! xo
for years, we've employed Vietnamese fabricators and I've watched not only how they manage their money, but how they eat; they bring in rice, chicken, fish and vegetables. They buy everything at local markets, butcher the entire chicken, use the entire chicken and manage to have enough money to send home to their families. They are not fat, nor bloated with debt. They eat "well", of course not by American standards. The American version? Cash their paychecks, bring back McDonald's crap, then ask for advances on the next week pay. Buying food at whole Foods in expensive but it's not expensive to buy food in it's WHOLE food (chicken, fish, etc.) and then actually work to prepare it. We're lazy. I'm lazy. And that's where it all begins.
Great points, Boxer. It's not just lazy though but also it's what we've been conditioned to believe about how we should eat...grandma was not offered "lean chicken breasts" for main meal salads to keep trim! Grandma worked her tail off ringing the water out of the clothes from the washer, hanging them on the line, walking to the market, carrying the bags backkneading bread dough, etc. Grandma didn't need no salad, fo sho! And Grandma made the whole chicken cuz that's all they sold!
Dawgawn, was I THAT far behind???!!! Stuff happens, knowwhutImeanVern?
Rant on, Aint B; rant on! 'snuff to make a body despair, ain't it? Life ain't sposed t' be thisaway.
Got 5 free ears of corn yestuhday; figger the squirrels can have'm. I don't like squirrels much.
Duller thinks I'm a little fanatical about it all, but he's your typical ostrich. Shift sand, insert head. If I can't see them, they can't see me. Personally, I'm scrapin' together ever' cent I can get to order up seeds.
Good evening Aunty Belle,
Rant at will, this is your little hunk of the cyber universe, use it as you please. Personally I don't get tired of it. I had planned to link several articles from Scientific American. I get the print version and the online won't show the full text of an article unless you're a subscriber. Stupid on their part. The articles on roundup ready seeds and how the weeds are mutating to combat the Roundup are very interesting. You may want to look for article on Monsanto and Brazilian farmers also.
Assuming we have any seeds to grow with I really believe that on a large scale we need to go back to the Victory Garden concept, it worked quite well during World War II and could go along way to feeding people good food in a less expensive fashion than fast food. Of course this whole theory is negated by the idea that Ketchup and French Fries are a balanced vegetable diet.
If you're producing your own food, glass Mason jars and canning are a great way to avoid plastics.
There's my 2¢ worth. Enjoy your weekend!
LA Diva!
Knowed I can count on ya to be food savvy. Post picture of your balcony plot.
As fer heritage seeds, when I first got on this kick, 10-12 years ago, I sent off fer the Seed Savers catalog. From thar' all manner of other sources seemed to have come across mah desk but Seed Savers is still mah first go-to.
http://www.seedsavers.org/
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/
http://www.victoryseeds.com/
http://www.anniesheirloomseeds.com/?gclid=CLv7mvuXrqkCFcGs7Qoday4kLg
http://www.arkinstitute.com/seed.html
http://rareseeds.com/
other smaller sources are sometimes listed in the advertisements of magazines like ORGANIC or HOBBY FARM.
But another real real good source is ole folks out in the rural areas of yore city. These folks often have seeds from their own grandmama's stash. This will be a fun scavenger hunt--an' folks all know someone else who might have similar. what usually proves interesting is that these seeds do well in yore location.
Lemme make a suggestion too--buy some unpopular varieties of thangs-- not the easy grow ones, or purty ones--but jes' some hardy varieties that ain't likely to ever be one crossed wif'a terminator tech GMO (Monsanto seeds).
Boxer-babe,
doan it give ya a gut punch? To know we's been snookered by the big AG (CON Ag is appropriately named) into thinkin' we's eatin when all we's doin' is bein' guinea pigs--a very piggy at that.
SophieMae!!
LAdy, whar' has ya been? hey hey.
Well, now, most fellas is kin to Duller--unless they make it their bidness to know this stuff, they's to busy keepin' their OTHER haid above water. (one haid in the sand, one above water--heh)
trouble wif yore feeding the frankencorn to the squirrels is now yore squirrel purloo ain't fit fer humans (hahahaha! Yes'm, git them seeds. (see above sources--or send yore address an' Aunty will send ya some from own heritage beans what I'se been growin' now fer some years and savin'. )
Karl
Oh mah friend--I knowed ya' wuz a good sort--youse hit the bulls-eye on Monsanto--Aunty done ranted on them such that folks' got plum weary of me.
Monsanto own /sells 1/5th of all seeds globally--and jes' 9 other companies (German/ Japanese ) own the rest:
Sales per yr in US $ millions
1. Monsanto (US) $4,028
2. Dupont (US) $2,781
3. Syngenta (Switzerland) $1,743
4. Groupe Limagrain (France) $1,035
5. Land O' Lakes (US) $756
6. KWS AG (Germany) $615
7. Bayer Crop Science (Germany) $430
8. Delta & Pine Land (US) (acquisition by Monsanto pending) $418
9. Sakata (Japan) $401
10. DLF-Trifolium (Denmark) $352
For more, if youse a masochist, see
http://abporkrinds.blogspot.com/2008/10/food-terrorism-is-real-for-troll.html
AN' Karl, we need more to see what ya know--grow victory gardens--to take back some measure of food autonomy. Amen to that!
I am never tired of your food rants, auntie.
I hate companies like monsanto and the idea of gmo foods.
i am concerned that gmo foods produced for human consumption as well as bt corn and gm soy for animal feed and biofuel are not sustainable forms of agriculture. I do think that the deforestation to grow these crops and the pesticides and herbicides used to maintain these crops harm the earth ... harm us, including all the other critters and insects God put on this earth.
My husband tried growing a vegetable garden from heirloom seeds a few years ago. It failed miserably .. Too much shade from oaks that are probably over a 100 years old. I can't bear to get rid of them.
Foamy, I is on yore page--this stuff harms the earth--not like global warming, but the actual dirt is corrupted from all this pesticide stuff--worse, the bad gmo genes is now loose upon the face of the earth.
Doan cut no old growth oaks!! Gracious no....but mebbe some folks wif more sun will let ya grow stuff--if ya give 'em a mater or two.
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