200 lbs of Meat Per Person?!

Tom Philpott at Mother Jones

I love Mother Jones which I read on line as often as I can take the time to brush up on what the left of left thinkers are dishing these days, one of the best sources for what's going on in the nation with respect to our food and farming, is any article by Tom Philpott, a national blogger (Food For Thought - Food + Farming). He can be found at
Tom Philpott at Mother Jones

So what I learned was that the annual meat intake of Americans is about 200 pounds per person. According to Philpott this is twice the amount compared to the global average, but wait. China is at the head of the class among emerging nations trading in their traditional vegetable-heavy diets for meals that include McDonald's Big Macs and Jack's double Angus steak sandwiches. But hold on to that veggie burger.

Recent analyses show that there will a shortage of water available on current croplands to produce food going into 2050. Researchers find that "industrialized nations currently see 20 percent of calories from animal protein (meat, milk, eggs). To produce the grain necessary to maintain this into 2050, farmers will need more usable water than the planet is capable of providing."

As Philpotts puts it, "In other words, we nonvegans need to prepare ourselves and our children for radically different diets in the coming decades—eating about a quarter of the meat, eggs, cheese, etc. we now do. Rather than relying heavily on animals for protein, we'll have to learn to consume much more of what we now feed animals: legumes and grains."

If you ask me, that's good news. We can all use less red meat in our diets and definitely a whole lot less gas. Excuse me, but I refer to meat production, the world's biggest generator of "climate-changing gases" with hundreds of thousands of cattle chewing and mooing their way through life eating and farting day after day, penned up and waiting to be slaughtered just for our dining pleasure. Perhaps the old adage "less is more" may in fact save us from our selves. Life is Good.

www.PacificNetwork.tv

Before & After Rail (2)

For the anti-heavy-rail proponents the recent Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that the State Historic Preservation Division violated its own rules by allowing the project to proceed before surveys were completed seems reminiscent of the escalating problems we saw with the Super Ferry project. Remember that financial fiasco? Well let's get ready for another costly transportation controversy and a temporary halt to construction on the $5.26 billion dollar rail project, the largest public works project in Hawaii's history. Yes, even more expensive than the controversial H3 freeway project that eventually forged on in spite of delays in construction to address similar Native Hawaiian protests. Why is it that transportation projects in the state of Hawaii seem to cost us taxpayers a bundle regardless of whether they are initiated through proper protocol or never completed ? How is it that we end up paying for all of this while our city's streets and sewers need fixing?


The rail construction crews began work on segments of the rail line and a storage facility located near Leeward Community College and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. sued the state and the city on behalf of Paulette Kalei­kini, alleging the city had begun construction prior to completing its mandatory archaeological surveys of the proposed rail. The Hawaii Supreme Court ruling has temporarily halted that construction.

Life is Good... let's think twice before we mess it up.




www.pacificnetwork.tv

Stop Elephant Abuse

Here is a sample letter to GROUPON to ask them to stop offering discounted tickets to ciruses that have been cited for abuse. Those include "Circus Gatti" which was reportedly cited by the USDA just last year for unsafe conditions that put kids and animals at risk. It is not ethical nor humane for a company to profit from circus acts that beat, chain, and confine elephants and big cats. This is wrong. They are wild animals. I just signed the following petition addressed to: Groupon. Visit this site and you can read more and submit your petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/groupon-stop-supporting-elephant-abuse?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9926&alert_id=jhymTwKXta_EniuJoxtka
Greetings,

----------------
Stop Supporting Elephant Abuse. I'm upset that you are making money from elephant abuse.

Do you know what a bullhook is? Do you know these are wild animals? Please use this opportunity to show your true vision to being an innovative business. Set a positive example of how animal cruelty will not be tolerated. Every animal advocacy organization opposes circuses that use animals. But so do a great many of us - your regular customers. Your business has the chance to either do the right thing or lose members.
Please choose the compassionate way to do business.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

Robot Waitresses

Big Mahalo to friend and ex pat living in Tokyo for a few decades now, Kamasami Kong. The entire concept of women dressed up as western-featured robots with big breast implants tells us about the culture. The extremes we see in Japan from the demure traditional image of the quiet female to this sexed out caricature-- does this confuse and baffle anyone else? What a culture post WW2.

Nation of Waste

Nation of Waste could refer to a myriad topics, like how we Americans waste precious resources like fresh water or the average number of hours per day that we spend watching television or the countless hours our children devote to playing video games... but a new study reveals that while millions of people in other parts of the world struggle with starvation, we Americans are busy throwing away 40 percent of our food every year? That's about $2275 worth of food per family each year, as per the Washington Post report from the new Natural Resources Defense Council, "These wasteful tendencies have worsened over time, with the average American dumping 10 times as much food as a consumer in Southeast Asia, up 50 percent from the 1970s."

What is wrong with this picture? Life is good but we seem to desire more and more. More stuff to load up into our extra jumbo sized shopping carts we then have to load in to our big extra wide SUVs full of the stuff that will pack our refrigerators and freezers, our cupboards and our garages and here in Hawaii? Let's not forget that extra freezer on the patio we have to fill with ... more stuff. If we're part of that 40 percent waste factor why not consider changing our daily habits. If it's too hard to cut back on buying food to store for the future because we're all so paranoid that there'll be a shipping crisis or a national disaster (and who can blame us, with stats that reflect less than 9 days of food in the state to feed the population should something like this occur) but the next time you cook think about that 40% waste factor. Even if you've got a compost going. Let's see how much we can decrease wasting precious food while so many go hungry.