What are you/have you been doing today?

I think my dog has mange and I can't afford to treat him. Holy. Fuck. He seems to have lost a lot of weight this week too. He's fine in himself though. I wonder what's up with him. I'm really angry with myself because I cancelled his insurance a few weeks ago.

 

http://www.myhomeremedies.com/topic.cgi?topicid=294
Here ya go!

 

Typing, tripping; Typing while tripping, breathing, being, a bit of everything for today.

 

Swooshing into slyness.

 

Thanks but symptoms say he should be scratching a lot but he doesn't scratch at all. There's two patches on each side that feel lumpy. He still has a great appetite though. Arrrrrrgh. I think it could be something to do with fleas. He's had it a while but we thought it was matted hair which we've been trying to work on. Obviously not.

 

O no problem. Maybe just dry skin due to winter weather.

 

I don't know.... I found another site that said sarcoptic mange is on the elbows and abdomen. But then again, it's saying that he should be sluggish and lazy but he's absolutely fine.

 

Ahoy H … LOL … Nice …

… Although it does appear as though the problem is choice.

Ahoy Z … not sure what you are saying here. Are you saying that organic meats don’t have a negative impact on social and environmental sustainability?

Ahoy Z and L … the ethical treatment of livestock is a socially moral issue, which is also linked to nutrition.

But now days there is an even bigger issue at hand, that being the availably, management and usage of natural resources, specifically scare resources and particularly arable land and water.

According to the Global Change Program at the University of Michigan, 90% of global food is made up from 15 plants and 8 animals. From these species, wheat, rice, maize / corn, millet, and sorghum contribute almost 70% of all food produced world wide.

The IFPRI and UN FAO 2008 figures indicate that 50% and 30% of global cereal production is used for livestock and biofuels respectively, bearing in mind that the mechanised practices of monoculture faming methods to produce mass quantities of cereals, is a huge burden on scarce resources like arable land and water.

Any increase in the demand for cereals, particularly for these two products, will increase this burden.

In countries like the US, actually specifically the US, local resources are depleted for cereal production, which are used for livestock and biofuels … with the solution being to import food from other countries, usually poor ones that have high hunger levels, thus using these countries resources for US food.

However, when it comes to organic meat, the US producers cannot keep up with its own local demand, due to conversion issues relating to high production costs, lack of certified slaughterhouses / meat processing plants, and a limited distribution infrastructure. The result is that the US is organic meat import dependent … and the big supplier is Latin America.

Reports by Organic Monitor and the Organic Trade Association indicate that there was a 51% - 55% organic meat sales increase in the US between 2002 and 2005. By 2006, this increase from 2002 had grown to over 150% and the estimate is a yearly increase of almost 20% until 2012.

According to GRAIN, and here is where it gets interesting, there was a 4% increase between 2006 and 2007, in the global production of grain, amounting to a record 2.3 billion tonnes. 2006 to 2007, that was the same year that the ‘Global Food Crisis’ officially kicked in … the same period that various reports emerged of peeps in Haiti eating cakes made of mud just to consume any form of nutrition …

During this period, agribusiness giants Mosaic (fertiliser) and Noble Group (Grain Trading) had a profit increase of double and 92% respectively. Between 2007 and 2008, Mosaic and Potash Corporation (fertiliser) increased its prices to 85% in Latin America, and the list really goes on and on … but the panicle in all this ugliness is cereals, particularly grain … and along the way organic meat sales have been increasing.

Then there is the mechanised agricultural contribution, to the increase in global greenhouse gases. Figures compared by the IPCC, Stern Report and Greenpeace indicate a 3 % increase, by the agricultural sector, to the overall greenhouse gas count between 2006 and 2008, an increase of 6.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalent in 2006 to 8.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas equivalent.

And this is all during the same period that cereal production, particularly grain, has increased, during the same period that organic meat production and sales has increased, the same period that the food crisis became more vivid than in previous years, the same period that the agricultural contribution to greenhouse gases increased and the same period that agribusiness corporations saw massive profit increases.

So for sure, I hear you on the ethical aspect of livestock farming … I’ve been a strict veg since ’95 for that very reason. But the big issue surrounding organic meat is sustainability. And while all these figures obviously do not relate solely to organic meat, it is a product that has no doubt made a significant contribution.

However, the ethical treatment of livestock is a marketing approach to sell it as a popular brand. And while any brand is marketed as popular, no one outright advertises its downfalls; that only happens when a new product is ready to replace it.

If the treatment of various livestock is such an issue, then surely the best is to not consume meat products? However, consuming organic meat with the reasoning that it is a habit that some how makes a positive impact on a wider level is basically a feel good illusion … more to the point, it’s pretty elitist to eat organic meat for the benefit of one’s own conscience at the expense of social and environmental sustainability.

OK, blab, blab …

Jah Live!

 

Okay
Don
the beef that I eat is in my town because I live in WI we have lots of farms, the cows eat grass, they poop, eat more grass, poop, so on and so on, then they go to the slaughter house after a nice little life, I eat this meat because yeah it is more humane on the cows, but also because they don't get feed cereal and corn and then grinned up in machines with ammonium! that is why i eat organic meat. that is all.

sorry been working on homework the past 4 hours and didnt feel like writing a lot lol.. just plain and simple ...=p

 

So...cuz Im moving soon I have to find a new school for Amara. There is a wonderful montessori school that Ive had my eye on for awhile. I drove past it the other day and on the marquee it said they were accepting applications for new students and then underneath it said parent night Feb. 10. Soooo....assuming parent night meant it was somewhat of an orientation night for new parents for next school year I marked the date and went. I arrived tonight at 6:30 and the school was dark...but there were parents just arriving. So I asked them where the orientation was being held and they said...well we are going to the yellow room. I was so confused and it was so akward...I then realized that it was a "back to school night" sort of a thing for already existing students and family and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Doh.

 

wow that post was about 50 sentences too long!

 

Today I went to work despite being absolutely exhausted, came home, ate, studied, and did absolutely nothing at all productive after that.

 

I made some dank Tofu stew with carrots, snow peas, cucumber, yellow squash, sweet potato, tomatoes, spinach, rice, green peppers, onion, a little ginger and tons of garlic and other things. I was in Colorado for a while and hopped in a car headed to Austin, where I stayed behind and left my car(house) up there with the few things I 'own'. Luckily, my mom, who's on disability ssi, needed a caregiver so I applied at the place and got a job "taking care of my mom"

What's really cool is she smokes herb and now I'm just going to crash here until I get a paycheck get another car. It's awesome. We just chill and they'll send me a check. This helps me shift her to a healthier diet too, I'm giving her spirulina everyday and have already replaced her sleeping meds with Valerian, which works amazing.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I guess it was a little off subject??? Who knows. I'm new. I'm figuring this out. Practice, practice.

 

yeah, blab blab....

The point I was trying to make, which you may have missed entirely, is that it requires far more land to raise animals organically, therefore if all meat were required to be organic, we would use less "cereals" and eat less meat.

I am a sociology major, I've read the books, of course I am aware of sustainability issues. But you can't make people quit eating meat when they like meat, and you can't make meat illegal. SO, the best and most sustainable thing would be to raise all meat organically. Capisce?

No, I don't eat meat. But I can't forcibly stop anyone else from doing it, nor would I want to. I can however vote for laws that enforce higher standards regarding the way food is produced and distributed.

Organic meat and food is often shipped far and wide, wasting fuel and somewhat nullifying the "organic" claim. There are few truly organic, sustainable, zero impact farms in America. But, they exist. That's what we need to work toward, and I'm hoping this "organic" craze/fad is the first step toward true sustainability.

 

^^ agreed!

 

we should all become snakes.

 

Whoops ... meant to go off topic ... sorry!

 

We got the house!!!! We're moving in six weeeeeeeks.

 

Mmmm vegetablols

Today I made a two-part plaster mould, and 5 vases ! Busy busy. Big day of lectures tomorrow about the dissertation, I'm actually looking forward to it. I think I'm improving masellff

 

EEEEYAYAYAYAYA

House party?