So, Friday night at T&E - great dinner and I got a present and some excellent advice!!!

The present:
It’s a live culture of sorts that turns milk into yoghurt (stuffed with all the good stuff of course, no preservatives, anti-biotics etc etc). I got the bottle full, the pic on the left is after I harvested it – my next batch is in progress.

Now I must admit, even after I got the demo the other night, the woosh sound the bottle makes when you open it is still a tad disconcerting. I was told that the taste is slightly sour, but quite pleasant. After having done the harvest I was less than enthused – one is taught from an early age that stuff like this is not on.

So after giving myself a peptalk (actually I could not think of a reasonable excuse not to trust my best friend, and I can’t lie to her face about NOT actually trying it) and having a stern look at myself in the mirror, I ate some. It was indeed quite lively, but actually VERY good. I’m having some with my oats tomorrow!!

The advice:
I recalled an incident a couple of years back with a fairly famous local musician I got to play on my birthday. It suddenly dawned on me how absolutely silly an argument I had with him about a certain aspect of the arrangements, how insignificant the impact on me actually was (it felt like the a part of the sky fell on my head at the time) and how absolutely brilliant having him there for the evening was.

The advice was to write him an email, saying just that. I did that knowing he quite possibly forgot about the incident and me a long time ago already. Maybe I’ll never get a reply. Maybe he’ll give a polite reply and swear at me in front of his PC ( the little I know of him I actually seriously doubt that ) or maybe I get to buy him a drink someday and have a laugh about it.

We’ll just have to see, but it’s some of the simplest & best advice I got in a long time.

Slow waaaaay down
Some of my tantra “homework” is to take time eating. Making it special and taking time with it, feeling it. I know I’ve been chasing the wind. After H&A feeding me, making me sit at home & watch a DVD (on a Saturday night?!? ) and the short one’s (who I’ve grown to love a lot!!) stern words to “look after yourself Emile”, I thought it best to do just that. They say the smaller people get more violent and I quite like the compliments I’ve been getting about my age lately. :-p

Finished all the housework (even watered the garden – it might be a cold tomorrow!!) , dropped by the shops, had a quick row at the gym and sat myself down to candle light, awesome music by Tony Cox, that ultimate of sophisticated gentlemen’s drinks (ice cold soda & a squeeze of lemon – you should not have to ask!!) and smoked salmon with lemon & black pepper in the one plate, soy sauce in the other. Charlie seems to not want to keep wasabi in his sushi bar. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

I think there some merit to this idea of slowing down. I feel relaxed. I’d still like some company, but apparently I can survive without it, and so far it’s looking like I’m going to be in some very good company on Sunday…   

The end of seafood by 2048?
The ocean without fish.
Your meals without seafood.
Imagine the global consequences.
 
Narrated by Ted Danson this award winning, groundbreaking film reveals the impact of overfishing on our oceans. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.

PS: Be sure to keep an eye out how the guys breeding GM fish will use this as an excuse to further their cause, say NO!

A few odds and ends I still need to take through and then just tag along for the ride. It’s a beautiful spot, with the sound of running water from the stream nearby. Some pics below, more to follow as the project progresses:

From Activist.co.za:

Success! Woolworths commits to switching over to free range eggs and apologises for “unintentionally” misleading customers. The First 60 products were promised by April 2010 – now we follow up

FREE RANGE EGG UPDATE FROM WOOLIES
In an e-mail to Wendy Hardie on 19th April, 2010, Julian Novak apologised for the delay in the roll out of products made with free range egg, and went on to say : “We are delighted to be able to communicate to you that the first 100 lines “made with free range eggs” will appear on our counters over the next 4 months, with 70 appearing in the next ten weeks.”

He said that they expect to launch the second wave of free range egg products by the end of the year : “We will be able to confirm this list and the timing by end June.”

To meet the needs of the 600 remaining Woolworths products still made with battery egg, he said that planning is underway to build a new liquid egg factory.  “We expect new production capacity will become available in approximately 2 year’s time….As soon as the factory becomes operational, we will expedite the changeover.”

Battery eggs are produced by hens who live in cramped, caged conditions with a space allowance each of 75% of an A4 sheet of paper. Their beaks are always seared off and they do not have access to sunlight or the ability to exercise any of their basic behavioural needs such as laying an egg in a nest, dust-bathing, sun-bathing, foraging and scratching for food.   After a year, the rate at which they lay eggs drops from one egg every 25 hours to one every 34 hours. They are no longer considered “economically viable” and are sent to cull farms where hawkers buy them for slaughter in informal settlements. Please join me in this petition which aims at ending the cruel and unnecessary practice of battery farming in South Africa.

To ALL supermarkets – asking them to STOP battery eggs.

And once again, a seemingly ethical company like Woolworths needs to be coerced into going all the way:
For Woolworths customers – to Woolworths Top Management – asking them to live up to their signs, and stop using battery eggs in their food.

Old Julia is at it again. On IOL this morning: “Why should athletics in South Africa suffer because they (Nedbank) hate an individual? They mustn’t use Chuene as an excuse.We must expose their real agenda: and that is that Nedbank is disappointed because medals were won by three Africans.”

Who’d have thought he has space for yet another foot in his mouth?
I missed this one before - he puts his foot in it by saying Caster is ugly:

Milking it:
Only after a public outcry, Nestle decided they will not be doing business with Mugabe anymore. See the IOL article here, and from this BBC article (via email, fanks mom) it seems they will be sidestepping the issue by buying from the Zim government. Of course the Zim government will NEVER buy from Mugabe…..

Just another case of a big corporation doing as they please until they get caught out.

About the birds & bees:
via OCA:
“Imidacloprid, marketed as Merit by the original manufacturer Bayer, is well documented for its toxicity to bees, as well as birds, worms and aquatic life. Many beekeepers, environmentalists and scientists — though not all — feel that imidacloprid is the root cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) of bees.

France has long-since banned most applications of imidacloprid ever since the synthetic nicotine compound was blamed for wiping out its bee-keeping industry during the 1990s. The Bayer Corporation reportedly paid French beekeepers $70 million to rebuild the beekeeping industry, but as recently as Sept. 15 a representative of Bayer claimed to the Boston Globe that imidacloprid has “no connection whatsoever” to colony collapse disorder. Widespread evidence and common sense suggest otherwise.”

Yes, and smoking does not cause cancer, ’cause the doctor also smokes it.

If you can’t measure it…..
Check out how much pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers your are saving when buying organic with this online calculator.

“Most people don`t think about how chemicals in their diets affect their weight or weight loss efforts. But the man-made chemicals you consume on a regular basis can play a big role in whether you`re fat or not – even if those chemicals don`t contain a single calorie.

To understand this, you’ll need to know that your liver is your primary detoxification organ. Your liver is also your primary fat-burning organ. Therefore, the more unnatural chemicals you consume on a regular basis, the more time and energy your liver needs to spend detoxifying you. But, the more your liver is consumed with the role of detoxification, the less time and energy it will have for burning fat. It`s really that simple.”

All the more reason to go organic, don’t you think?

With slogans like “The other greenhouse effect”, “Business as usual is over” and an author called “Oren R. Lyons, Faithkeeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, Six Nations, Iroquois Confederacy Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, New York.”  who is described as “…recognized not only in the United States and Canada but internationally as an eloquent and respected spokesperson on behalf of Native peoples. He is a sought-after international lecturer or participant in forums in a variety of areas, including not only American Indian traditions, but Indian law and history, human rights, environment and interfaith dialogue, and has received numerous honors and awards.”  I’m sure there will be plenty interesting reading on the site in future.

They are also devloping new greenhouse concept:
“The Plantagon® greenhouse will dramatically change the way we produce ecological and functional food. It allows us to produce ecological with clean air and water inside urban environments, even major cities, cutting costs and environmental damage by eliminating transportation and deliver directly to consumers”

Demand action!!. Insist on proper labeling, detailing harmful additives such as MSG, and clearly indicates whether the product is genetically modified or not.

“The study brings to light ‘a significant underestimation of the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others. We demand the systematic publication of the results of these tests, which we could only obtain on a case by case basis by taking legal action.’

‘Agricultural GM companies and evaluation committees systematically overlook the side effects of GMOs and pesticides. This is clearly illustrated by the EFSA and the US FDA, which evaluated the controversial GM maize varieties MON 863 and MON 810,’ “

Read the full article here.

My issue is that these facts are purposely hidden from the public by the producers. If there are people happy to use these products, fine, let them do it, but I want the choice NOT to. I don’t want to be fooled into eating this crap by false advertising and / or labelling.

As they say: “You are what you eat.” – why risk it? 

(Shrivelled Homunculus 01 by ~timmolloy on deviant ART)