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rametarin · 3 years

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The problem with Eat Da Buuuuuuugs.

It’s not that insects aren’t a high protein, nutritious meal. Because, objectively, they are that. The problem also isn’t “high class vs. low.”

The problem with Eat Da Booooooooogs is that it’s based on moralism and oughts. You OUGHT to brush your teeth, so we invented a state-mandatory toothbrush; it now records the number of times you’ve brushed your teeth and rates how you did it and informed your insurance provider. You OUGHT to have, but you didn’t, so now the state will punish you with higher personal fees and lower how much it will help subsidize the cost, and state subsidies make medical and dental care affordable, so the end result is you pay a literal fortune for not doing what the state thinks you OUGHT.

There are people alive, right now, that for religious reasons, pseudo-spiritualist reasons, moralist dogmatist reasons, absolutely abhor the consumption of red mead and the use of plains and grazing lands, for grazing and feeding animals for food.

Some abhor it because they believe that private property should not exist, and they do not feel people should be able to own livestock; that ‘society’ should own all livestock and be forced to share it. Whether you’re a productive member, or you just sit on your bed playing The Sims and doing ketamine all day. Guess which of the two likes this idea more.

Some abhor it because they’re exisetnailly terrified of life and its consequences. They crave some sort of logic and reason to their existence and a life after death, and aren’t satisfied with the Christian version, so they drift back and forth between their own schizophrenia and the world’s pseudo-spiritualism/New Age Enlightenment, “I take a little bit from all the popular religions and choose what my personal bia- I mean, sixth sense, validates as reasonable to me.” So they dislike the idea of eating red meat, because they don’t want to die and come back as an animal for slaughter. They’re terrified that in a past life or in a future life, they’ll be the meat and suffer for someone elses enjoyment.

Some are spoiled, out-of-touch moralists that believe it’s based on “suffering.” They morally believe penning, owning, feeding and then consuming animals for their flesh is ethically wrong, and so have decided that shouldn’t be a thing other people are allowed to do.

Some are simply shills for Russian or Chinese or Brazilian cattle grazers and want other western countries to adopt anti-meat eating policies under the beliefs that lack of access to red blooded animal protein will reduce the size and strength of their enemies, as well as give them the market on beef, pork and chicken exports to other countries- both legitimate and contraband meat.

Some are simply uppity futurists that believe for humanity to experience a, “global, social evolution,” we have to give up the personal private means of owning and producing anything and turn it over to a central authority that manages that and distributes resources accordingly. They don’t like meat eating, because it’s messy and requires a lot of trained, knowledgeable people to make the food. If everybody just ate plants, they wager, they could grow more in bulk and not only secure where the food comes from through controlling arable land for growing food, but control everybody dependent on the food.

Some are trendy know-nothing, “environmentalists,” that will hop on whatever poorly informed bandwagon that touts itself as progressive. Just, the sort of soy sop that will scream about loving science one minute and then ignore where the cloth medical mask says, on the fucking box, “it won’t prevent viruses like COVID-19.” But still wear it and goose step around demanding you wear it to show your patriot- I mean, to show you believe in THE SETTLED SCIOOONCE. These ones believes that cow farts and burps are extremely detrimental to the atmosphere in the form of methane produced, as well as their production of CO2 from breathing and to a lesser extent, living, dying and excreting.

The problem with that is that cows, chickens and pigs are also part of the carbon cycle, and as far as CO2 production, agricultural meat is kind of.. benign. Meat eating does not affect the CO2 cycle directly. You can argue that transportation of it might affect some, but if you switch out gasoline and diesel for electric vehicles, suddenly red meat drops to virtually nothing in the CO2 department.

And then if you count the methane emissions, well, we have workarounds to virtually eliminate cow, chicken, pig, goat and all major red meat food gasses.

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So CO2 outputs and methane outputs can drop to virtually nothing, we can clean up our agricultural sector into non-problematic in any way. To where any argument that growing animals for food has any effect on climate change, at all, just becomes an bogus lie from someone hellbent on using the institutions of our society to make cattle, sheep and pig farming, legally impossible.

And ultimately, why?

Because you can grow more bugs in a smaller space on shittier diets? We already have meat alternatives.

The biggest argument for bugs as food is you might be able to grow more of them in space for cheaper and take them further. That’s it. A million bug buttholes still produce noxious clouds of nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane. Leafcutter ants down in South America make bacteria filled piles that rival human wastewater treatment plants, for example. They still emit the same noxious gasses that animals do.

And when it comes to methane production, cows don’t hold a candle to the amount of negative atmospheric effects that rice farms do. Are we going to tell Asia, “no more rice,” because the global effects of climate change? It makes no fucking sense to single out cows, sheep, pigs and chickens as even relevant sources of these gasses, where even IF we can deal with every conceivable complaint or concern, people still just want you to no longer be allowed to grow them and just EAT the BOOOOOOGS.

I’m not opposed to crushed up insects as another alternative protein. I am absolutely, 100% opposed to vegetarians or vegans or fabian socialists trying to get the government to subsidize this source of protein, demand that every taxpayer put forwards money to public schools to provide the bug pattys as their source of nutrition (if only by not just the factually reduced cost but the suddenly subsidized captured market that is school lunch budgets and mandatory purchases), and either charge cattle and beef plants more as a “luxury tax” or punish them for being, “dirty, environment destroying” sources of food.

These people are not content to leave you alone to the things you enjoy, you have to be financially and economically incentivized to give them up, institutionally punished, or effectively give away your opportunity for a brighter future if you persist in consumption and traffic of them. Eat Da Boogs is about whether moralists are allowed to use the institutions and the legal system to enforce subjective, preferential things on other people for bogus reasons, and if you can be compelled to do someone elses, “right thing,” or what they think you OUGHT to do.

So. I’m not against bugs as a supplemental nutrition source. I’m against uppity vegans trying to make the government subsidize it and violently take over every single niche, both economically and through government regulated FIAT to eliminate the one held by beef, sheep, goat, chickens and pigs from our agricultural sector and culture.

Once humans are no longer allowed to grow animals for food, and they’re all effectively killed and disappear, there’s no undoing that. That culture will disappear. And that’s ultimately what they’re counting on.

After that, all they need to truly force vegetarianism on “society,” is eliminate the legal growth of insects as a food source for the same moralist precedent reasons as they deemed red blooded animals to be no good as food or agriculture. With no remaining alternative but to try and domesticate other animals.

The Bugs are about more than crushed up insects on a patty. They’re about using shitty false pretenses to eliminate choice from you and take agency away. It’s not about not wanting to eat bugs, it’s about wanting to eat pork and beef and chicken and the existence of an alternative emboldening them to try and ban those.

#eat the bugs

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fromtraveldiaries · 3 years

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Kanha - 5

Safari 3: Kisli Zone (Morning)

At 6 am we board the Gypsy for the morning safari. We are heavily dressed for the biting cold. We are particularly grateful for the balaclava (that was purchased in 2012 in downtown Leh while shopping for the EBC trek but hadn’t been used ever) that protects us from the swirling mist and freezing air that are out to get us in the general grogginess of pre-dawn darkness.

The silence of our drive on the bumpy road is shattered by shrill cries that suddenly fill the air. We halt the Gypsy. The cries seem to be coming from the thicket on the left. We manoeuvre the Gypsy and turn on the powerful lights to spot a pair of deer frantically bellowing out the alarm call. They look visibly scared, their big wide eyes reflecting fear in the light. We study the surroundings that lie just outside the beams of light for movement. We go back a few yards and direct light towards the thicket again to see if we can spot the source of the distress. We go forward a few yards and repeat the exercise. The deer are still very alert but the tension has lessened. Alarm calls continue at less frequency and seem to be moving in a westerly direction. ‘Probably a big cat just passed by’, Mr. Ashu observes, explaining the scene for the first time. We realize that in the 3 minutes since we stopped, we are hardly breathing.

We are too caught up in the tense experience to even consider taking out the cameras. One would imagine that as onlookers we wouldn’t be deeply affected by the plight of the deer. However, the fear seems more visceral than vicarious. ‘It can be quite an experience to deal with the emotions that arise in the wild. Different people react differently. But one has to realize that there’s no preplanned malice by the hunter nor complex afterthought by the hunted. It’s just the way of the world,’ Mr. Ashu shouts over the steady rush of the wind as we speed along on the metaled road towards the park gate.

The sky is already brightening as we wait for our guide. We watch wistfully as other Gypsies enter the park while we wait. At last our man appears. He takes the back seat and we amble along. All the mist-laden pictures of Kanha that we had seen earlier do little justice to the actual view. The mist is especially dense on the water bodies. The scene is right out of a Hindi horror movie. We glide along the mist laden trails through numerous water bodies. Finally, we see the dark orange sun peeping out from behind distant trees. Despite the sun announcing its arrival, light is dim and the forest is swathed in a veil of thin wickedness. Visibility isn’t good and the forest is eerily silent. It is at times like these that the tiger makes an entrance.

We spot a little clearing by tall grasses where a family of deer are grazing. They are alert and from time to time lift their heads as if to scan the surroundings. Somewhere in the jungle, monkeys shriek. We sit tight in anticipation. A barasingha sounds an alarm. The deer look up again. The barasingha is joined by another. At regular intervals the calls keep coming. For maybe 3 minutes. ‘You can track a tiger’s movement by listening to the calls of other animals. Birds, monkeys, deer, barasinghas will all alert you to a tiger’s presence. The alarm calls precede a tiger’s presence and die down as the tiger moves on. Animals see a tiger and sound an alarm. The tiger then hides. The animals think the tiger is gone. So they stop their calls. Then the tiger reappears. And the alarm calls restart. In the jungle, animals only react to what they see. If they see the tiger, they call. If they don’t see the tiger, even if the tiger is right there hidden behind the bushes, they don’t call. They live in the present - very real-time and immediate’, our guide speaks in undertones.

The monkeys have stopped their ruckus by now. The deer have also relaxed and are moving further into the forest. We still sit in the clearing waiting till the alarm calls die down. The tiger seems to have moved on from this area. We follow the sounds. The sun continues to shine through tall trees, casting more shadows than light. Mr. Ashu and the guide scan the trail for pug marks. There are none. We climb uphill and meet a Gypsy going downhill that tells us that a tiger crossed their path moments ago. This is probably the same tiger that had set off the alarm calls. We proceed slowly till level ground all the while scanning the vegetation on the left. We come upon the bend on the trail and bump into 2 other Gypsies that are still. Everyone is craning their necks. Something’s happening ahead, excitement increases.

We see the white whiskers first. Then we see the stripes. A magnificent tiger gingerly appears from the left, stares at the waiting Gypsies, crosses the trail to the right. He is very relaxed, neither dazed nor in a hurry. He approaches a tree, looks up as if contemplating climbing it. He stands on his hind legs and clutches the tree with the front paws. He crosses the trail again and goes to the left. It stops to look at us from time to time. Our presence doesn’t scare or anger him. He continues to study the grass, lie down, yawn, and proceeds to leave his scent on the trail by rubbing his underside on the foliage. We think he’s also farting into the grass to leave behind his scent. ‘Like most predators, tigers mark their territories by leaving their smell behind. This is M1. This is not his usual territory. But of late, we have been seeing him here. He’s difficult to spot but has over time got used to all the attention. Earlier he was very fidgety and would disappear into the bushes on seeing the Gypsies. Now he’s more assured and relaxed. He’s new to this area but has been moving in these parts since some time, probably reconnoiterring the area before settling down. M1 is named so as he’s the eldest of the 4 cubs, M1 through M4. They are all the offsprings of T8,’ Mr. Ashu explains.

M1 is a nice name to have - simultaneously anonymous and a stand-out. It's a fully grown adult male - a big animal, probably more than 2 meters in length and more than a meter in height. We are surprised that he's not roaring, not growling, not baring his menacing fangs. We are surprised that he's letting itself be watched, clicked, commented on for such a long time. We follow it for maybe 200-250 meters. If the Gypsies give it more room who knows how far it's willing to walk straight on the track! The sun is stronger now, casting a bright yellow light that bounces off the shiny orange coat of M1. Alternating sun and shade paint M1 as an unreal ephemeral beast.

Our guide explains standing atop his seat for a better view of M1. ‘The tigress pushes the cubs away nearly after 2-2.5 years of birth. The cubs become a burden for the tigress around that time. She has to hunt almost daily if she has to feed her litter at 2 years. A single kill (depending on its size) can last a tiger from a couple of days up to a week. With cubs it becomes difficult to ration food. Once they are separated from their mother, the cubs figure out ways to hunt, establish territories, find partners to mate, etc. They also forget their mothers or siblings after a while. Except a young mother with cubs, it’s all about survival of the self.’ ‘Deer are the most frequent kill. Boars are a good kill but they require a lot of work. Munna used to steal cattle from neighboring villages’, he continues.

While M1 is calm personified, the Gypsies are restless. They are inching forward in low gear with restrained engines and excited tourists. All of them want to get close to the tiger. M1 senses this and stares up and down the trail. He acts cool but the noise is starting to get to him. He walks in the middle of the track for a long time, Gypsies at his tail. There are Gypsies on the other side too, delaying their departure to allow M1 to come as close to them as possible. M1 doesn’t mind the attention but he’s had too much of it now. He enters the thicket on the left and for a while walks alongside the trail before disappearing into the trees.

We speed away after M1 leaves. The rest of the safari is a blur after the high of M1. However, we remember a few things vividly. We spot a playful jackal couple in the sun close to the place we have breakfast at. Winter sun is pleasant for everyone - humans and animals alike. We marvel at the numerous streams and the bamboo bushes. We spot and click a lot of birds - parakeets, jungle babblers (also known as the Seven Sisters), oriental magpie robins, Indian rollers, kingfishers, woodpeckers, greater racket-tailed drongos, and black drongos. We sit for a long time under the trees listening to birds and trying to name them. It’s great fun. We learn a lot about birds from the guide and Mr. Ashu. Our appreciation of birds stems primarily from David Attenborough’s documentaries on Netflix. We spot a couple of tortoises with glistening backs that have surfaced in a pond to soak in the sun. An Indian cormorant is drying its wet wings next to them.

We are again climbing uphill when we hear alarm calls. Another tiger! The calls increase in frequency and seem to move in a tangential direction which we anticipate to be behind us and wait at the estimated point of crossing. However, the calls change direction and move away from us. The big cat seems to have changed its mind. We wait for a little while before proceeding towards the exit. It’s been a great day, and we are already thinking of documenting the day’s experiences before they fade away.

#Kanha National Park #Kanha #national parks #Indian jungles #wildlife #fauna #Indian wildlife #tigers #birds #forests #jungles #animals #M1

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drferox · 5 years

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Bloat in Cattle

Anonymous said to @ask-drferox: Why would a cow die if it can’t burp? Can’t the gas force it’s way out the back end? ( I know cows fart a lot) (I also know that a cow MUST burp or it’ll die.) So is the gas can’t make it up, why doesn’t it make it out back? Just not fast enough to prevent the rumen from exploding?

The anatomy of a ruminant’s digestive system is such that if the gas can reach low enough to pass out the back way, it could also have passed out the front way. Gas rises, and both the oesophagus an the opening to the omasum/abomasum/small intestine is quite low in the animal. This diagram should help explain:

In pasture bloat, where cattle have been grazing on too much rapidly-growing clover, the protein causes a foam which traps the gas, which the cow cannot move (burp) effectively.

It will kill cows, and it can knock out an entire herd. The expanding rumep puts pressure on the diaphragm so the cow can’t breathe, and puts pressure on the caudal vena cava, reducing blood flow returning to the heart from the back half of the body.

If the cow is up and about, you can give her oil by passing a stomach tube. Some gas may escape this way, but the oil breaks up the foam so she can burp.

Failing that, especially if the cow is already collapsed, stabbing into the distended rumen so gas can escape (behind the ribs, in front of the hips, below the spine on the left side) takes the pressure off, and the vet can suture it up when they get there later. Cows are tough about wounds.

Anonymous said: Does an exploding rumen actually sound like a pop? I know you can flick a rumen and it’ll sound like a basketball... will it pop Like one?

If you stab it, yeah. My cattle medicine lecturers recommended standing on the right side of the cow, reaching over her to stab on the left, to avoid being sprayed with exploding rumen contents.

#veterinarian #vetblr #cattle #cows #bloat

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foragehawaii-blog · 6 years

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Q&A: Greenhouse Gases Associated with Beef

Jess, Just read something about beef requiring much more resources than pork or chicken and also the amount of methane from cattle, does that make beef less environmentally friendly? Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Livestock I love this question because climate change and livestock is poorly understood by most people who write about it. Not to say I am an expert by any means but it doesn't take much effort to dive into the scientific literature and find the bigger picture. To begin with I would like to define a term: Reductionist: analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents. This is one of my biggest fears. It is why I often find it hard to get points across without going on for days. It is why I spend hours upon hours researching answers to my questions. This short blog will by no means account for the complexity involved in this answer but I hope to spark some curiosity and better understanding of the subject. As a quick side note: Keep in mind that Makaweli Beef is 100% grass-fed, no hormones/antibiotics/steroids and uses all hydroelectric renewable energy. Their inputs are minimal to say the least. Spend a few hours checking out the Savory Institute if you're interested in the land requirements and feasibility of raising large amounts of beef or other livestock on pasture.

Lets take a look at the emissions of beef to begin answering this question. The three main greenhouse gases associated with livestock are: 1. Methane (CH4) 2. Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and 3. Nitrous Oxide (NO).

METHANE Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has been emitted into the atmosphere for millions of years. Decomposing organic matter releases gases, including methane. Fracking (gas and oil extraction) is responsible for the largest share of the world's rising methane emissions. Wetlands and rice paddies also contribute to a large portion of global methane emissions, as does food waste in landfills (this is not the case with properly composted food waste.) Believe it or not, termites actually produce more methane than cattle by weight. The main source of methane emissions from cattle is from liquified manure storage, but for some reason it is more fun to talk about cow farts than poop lagoons (manure lagoons don't exist with pasture raised cattle.) Ruminants, like cattle, emit methane through the unique digestion process of converting nutrient rich grasses into high quality protein. All ruminants, including buffalo, deer, sheep, antelope, giraffe, and the extinct mega-fauna, breathe out, burp, and occasionally fart methane. This process evolved 90 million years ago in a symbiotic relationship with the earth. Methantrophs (methane consuming bacteria) flourish in healthy soils and diffuse methane emissions from the atmosphere as well as the atmospheric free radical (OH). The biological function of grazing animals is to encourage the growth of these, and trillions of other bacteria that make up healthy soil. As David Wong said to me today, "All life comes from soil." As you can imagine, industrial agriculture has stripped soil of its methane consuming potential through tillage, fertilizers, pesticides, and mono cropping. It has also been demonstrated through research, that methane emitted from cattle can be reduced by half when adding certain proteins, salt licks, and algae to their diet of high quality fresh forage. It is important to note that the decomposition of plant matter would emit methane whether or not the animal digests it. Methane Emissions of Conventional Beef vs Grass-Fed Here is where the reductionist thinking singles out beef regardless of how it is raised. They look at the gross methane emissions and unrightfully blame cattle for being these awful climate change creating beasts that don't deserve a place in our ecosystem. By estimating an output they fail to calculate the ability grazing has to reduce atmospheric methane. They also don't subtract the methane emissions resulting from factory farming. They simple point out that grass-fed cattle often live an extra year longer than feedlot cattle and therefore emit more methane. Feedlot cattle does indeed have net positive methane emissions, which include the methane emissions from hay, corn, and soy feed. Our local beef graze on fresh, lush, green pastures and have the ability to contribute to methane and carbon loss from the atomosphere, cancelling out their emissions. CARBON DIOXIDE I could spend a lot of time on this specific greenhouse gas that cattle is blamed for, but because it is mainly associated with factory farmed beef, I will just touch briefly on it. First off, the number that gets repeatedly cited (even though it has been denounced by the scientific community) is from a 2016 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) report that blamed livestock for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, with the majority of it coming from cattle. The report also specifically encouraged moving towards industrial poultry and pork and away from grazing animals, which is widely believed to be the author’s agenda. The methods used to calculate this number have been widely criticized and retracted by the same organization and scientific community. The number currently agreed upon by the UN Environment Program for ALL agriculture is 8-11% (this includes plant crops.) The majority of carbon emissions calculated for cattle comes from deforestation in South America to grow soy, and the carbon emissions associated with growing soy and corn feed. Heres the catch, American Beef consumption is not associated with deforestation and less than 1% of our feed is imported from those areas. Not to mention, 100% Grass-fed beef on fresh pasture doesn't require feed. There is also the powerful ability of livestock to sequester carbon into the soil. This is another one of mother nature's ecological creations. I went over this in a previous newsletter about perennial grasses and livestock grazing. The amount of carbon sequestered into soil by properly managed cattle has been shown by research to offset carbon and methane emissions of the animals. NITROUS OXIDE This gas accounts for 5% of total greenhouse gases in the United States. Three quarters of nitrous oxide emissions in agriculture result from the use of man-made fertilizers, also not associated with 100% grass-fed beef. My Take I personally believe that properly raised beef is one of the best sources of food to eat with regards to climate change. Monocropped plant agriculture is incredibly fossil fuel dependent and is unsustainable in the long run as it survives only off inputs and strips the soil of life. Conventional pigs and chickens live their entire life confined indoors with massive amounts of fossil fuel inputs and unnatural feed, antibiotics, hormones etc. At least feedlot beef spend the majority of their life on pasture and get to see the light of day. That being said, there are poultry and pork sources that minimize their greenhouse gas contribution and are wonderful protein sources that also have external benefits. I'm so excited to share with you more information on David Wong's pig farm, which tackles some of these issues so well. Chicken would get my last stamp of approval for multiple reasons but I include it in my menu often because its delicious and is sourced from a local farm that is making an effort to use better methods of raising, especially compared to conventional. The other thing to consider is that none of us can avoid eating foods that play a role in global warming. Sunny Savage on Maui is the closest thing I know to reducing her footprint. She sources wild invasive plant and animal species primarily in her diet. But what emissions take the place of meat if you eliminate it from your diet? Is it more righteous to eat mono cropped plant species shipped from across the sea? Or pesticide ridden greens? Animals are one of the best way to improve soils without fertilizers and they have incredible potential to offset emissions by sequestering carbon into soil. Unfortunately mainstream media doesn't get much attention when talking about soil, but that is the beginning of the solution. Soil is life and we are losing it at an alarming rate, which has scientists considering loss of topsoil as one of the greatest threats to global warming. Quitting beef or meat has far less impact on climate change than switching to well-raised beef or meat. Reducing food waste should be first in line if you wish to reduce your ecological impact.

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olympianpandback · 3 years

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May 10

We headed to Crater Lake fairly early because it is a 3 hour drive. It is always a scenic drive On the Volcano Scenic Byway. We parked behind an RV from Alaska and the lady who was in that RV came up to talk to us about our RV. She has friends who are looking for a leisure travel Van. We head a nice long chat and went over to look at Crater Lake. It's impossible to really describe and I am sure the pictures won't do justice for the sights we saw. There is still up to 8' of snow around the buildings. We found a campground along a river that was nice and quiet until after we went to bed. We had no idea about any train tracks somewhere near us, at least 4 trains rumbled through that were not very loud, except for the train whistle. We met our neighbors who are from Beaverton. He is a retired financial guy and his wife Faye finally retired from part time work at the church so they could travel. He was in the army from 59 through 61 and extended for a year because of the Berlin wall and the Cuban missile crisis. He was supposed to go to Germany but got a fever 3 days before the unit shipped out and the shipped unit out without him and 2 of his buddies. He never worked in his MOS (military occupation specialty), in artillery again. He spent 2 years in the active reserves and 2 years in the inactive reserves and got called back to active duty again. What a “lucky” guy. His wife worked as a ground crew member for American Airlines for 10 years then took a leave of absence for 5 years so she got credit for 15. They flew a lot to Europe mostly to France and travelled as much as they could on her D1 pass. The campground owner Steve has Scottish Highland cattle on his 140 acres because they eat the BlackBerry bushes and all the other brambles that no normal cattle will eat. He doesn't even have to feed them during the wintertime because they just disappear into the BlackBerry bushes and stay healthy during the weather. If he gets a male cow, they eat it. On the way to this campground South of Roseburg Oregon. we saw a great deal of devastation from recent for fires. It actually looks like it happened in the last year not later than 2 years. There is a lot of cleanup and trying to salvage usable lumber. We rounded one curve and there was the stump of a tree lying across the guardrail that was at least 2' in diameter that had just been cut out of the road not long ago from the looks of the cut. I can't imagine how long the delay had been before they got a crew out with the right equipment to move that log off the highway. Just another trip of discovery for us seeing such beautiful scenery and meeting so many nice people it's hard to describe in words or pictures.

May 11

We left mid-morning after another good conversation with Rich and Kay. We headed for the coast and got here midafternoon after stopping to get some to die for Apple walnut fritters at a local bakery. On the way here, we saw a spot that is called the Dean Creek Elk viewing area. Supposedly up to a 140 elk use this area as grazing ground. We didn't see any when we stopped on the way to the next campground. The campground is nice, but the bathrooms are closed and it's only private campgrounds that are having their bathrooms closed according to the host. We found out later that was probably a cop out to keep from cleaning them. This is an RV resort that people stay at year-round a lot of time. After dinner we went back to the elk viewing area Around 7:15 and saw about 40 or more cows grazing in the field. We hung around for about 20 more minutes hoping to see a bull, but none showed up. At least we can say we have seen elks and cross that off our list of wild animals. Tomorrow we head north a couple of hours to depot Bay. We hope to see some whales from the shore and will definitely take the 1 and 1/2 hour whale watching Tour, if we can book one.

May 12

On our way out of town we decided to go by the viewing place one more time period There were 40 or 50 cows out there but again no male elk. We headed North to Depoe Bay to try to do a whale watching cruise. We had checked with a campground just North of there who said their bathrooms were open. It was one of campgrounds in our group for big discounts. We drove there and found out that they had no cell phone signal. Even though I don't keep up with the blog as much as I would like to, we still need cell phone signal. We came back to town to another campground. Their bathrooms are open and it was a nice campground. They didn't offer a discount for veterans and I started to leave but Elizabeth wanted to stay there so we signed in. Marilyn gave us a 10% discount because I was such a nice man. Her words not mine. She also suggested a whale watching tour with a marine biologist area We were going to book a 12 o'clock tour, but we would have been on the boat for an hour and a 1/2 without anything to eat so we pushed it forward to the 10 o'clock tour. We got a text later saying that the 10 o'clock tour had been pushed up to 9:30 because they expected heavy seas that afternoon.

May 13 Whale watching trip

We were worried about a place to park the RV so we got there very early and parked in front of the jump off point. The leader was a very nice marine biologist who was passionate about her work we got a 15 minute lecture on whales before we went down to get on the boats . We got on the big boat which is a navy seal assault boat that had been retired. They asked who wanted to sit up front and we volunteered. It was a raw day and going to be cold and windy no matter where you were sitting. There are a group of whales come North from Mexico and hang around Depoe Bay while others continue on to the Alaskan water for feeding in the summer.ie Carry the biologist had named all the whales who stay around the area. It was foggy and around 46 degrees when we left. Sees were chopping but not too bad at first. We went buoy that had some sea lions on it. Then we meandered around following the other boat and listening for spotters looking for spouts. Carrie had also trained a dog that she rescued to smell the whale spouts which smell like the worst fart you've ever smelled and the dog Coda had been trained to detect those smells from an early age. Coda ran all around the boat from side to side and front to back sniffing the air, but we never saw a whale. We saw a lot of kelp and birds. The marine biologist says if we come back in August-September, the whales will be swimming up next to shore and we heard the same from locals later. So much for good timing. The Internet said whales should be here now! We will head north trying to find some more whales because they only move at 4 miles per hour and we can overtake them. As we came back into the dock area we saw a mama seal and her baby seal who just been born that morning. On the way back to ,the dock Carrie asked if we were ready for some bumpy rides. We had no choice but to say yes and she opened up that seal boat with its twin 200 (I guessed at the size) HP Evinrude engines. We were hitting the bottom of some waves and riding over the top of many of them. It was a very fun ride for me and Elizabeth enjoyed it somewhat. We decided to eat in town and got to a restaurant just dead opened so we didn't have to wait area I had a seriously good clam chowder Elizabeth had a beer-based Tillamook cheese soup. It was in a brewery so we had craft pilsner for lunch. Everything was very good and I took a nap we got back to the camp after setting the RV up. I spoke to our neighbor to our South who is a retired Air Force avionics technician, meeting his children here for the weekend into two other RVs. We had a nice chat about the military, his travels around Europe and working on F-15s and 16s. He also gave me some insights into the Olympia peninsula where he and his wife had lived for many years. Our neighbor to the North is a retired civil servant, mechanical engineer who helped build the submarine base in San Diego and worked there most of his career. We briefly discussed COVID and his wife who is a nurse says they were waiting to get the Johnson and Johnson shot because it doesn't use MRNA to send signals to your body to protect yourself from the virus but actually uses a strain of the virus to make you immune to it like a flu shot. He said it wasn't really worried because it only affects a minor percentage of the population who have comorbidity issues most of the time. He and his wife have been full timers for several years in their 5th wheel. Again, you meet some of the most interesting people just by casual conversations. You know how shy I am so it's hard to meet strangers.

May 14

We drove north to the Washington border and found refuge at a National Guard base with an electric only hook-up for one night $15. It’s clean, quiet and near the “latrine”. Elizabeth prefers bathhouse/restrooms.

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jedimasteramell · 6 years

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no such thing as ethical food consumption was a painful tag to read, like its somehow altruistic to starve to death. Food out of necessity is one thing, one of the biggest reasons we eat cows is that they are so big and can feed a lot of people. I think free range cows and chickens are a wonderful thing, an animal can life its life happily, and then be use for human food consumption. Its terrible when they are kept in small terrible conditions and thats how the dogs at the festival are kept.

Look I see where youre coming from but you need to look bigger. (Also bear with me, Im on mobile and cannot link sources)Firstly unless you are going to a local farm and picking out your own animal to butcher, just because something says stuff like 'cage free' or 'free range' does not mean it has some lovely hollistic lifestyle. Aside from the legal definition being variable across countries, the USDA definition simply requires 'that egg producers be able to demonstrate that "free range" egg layers have access to the outdoors', though there is no government oversight as to the quality of the external environment, or the amount of time the hen has access to it. Same for cattle and pigs. That means if I had a chicken farm and had one 4x4 square the hens could go out in outside, I could call my eggs free range. So that definition is arbitrary and unenforced.And thats before the massive amount of destruction and pollution the meat industry causes. Its estimated about 30% of the dry earth is used for animal grazing and producing the subquality grains that go into animal feed. Thats a staggering amount of space that requires pesticides and fertilizers that run off into the water shed, promotes deforestation and the destruction of indigenous plant life, AND require fresh clean water. Between the fuel needed to develop the cattle to slaughter stage and the methane cows produce in their farts, theyre the number one cause of global warming. Small scale farms have less overall impact, but theyre forced to utilize the same avenues of production and comply with the chemical usages as defined by the USDA, FDA, or their countries equivalent. Also the commercial fishing industry, yeah not good. Then theres plant material, so vegans and vegitarians dont get an easy out either. Along with similar numbers with just how much water is used and chemicals are dumped on global crops, how deforestation especially in the amazon is a direct product of the mass food industry, increased demand for things like quinoa hurt the human cultures that rely on those staples that are now being mass harvested and sold as better alternatives for diets in 1st world countries. Plus theres the very people doing the harvesting in the US 1 out of 4 migrant farmer families makes below the poverty level (which is about 19k) and these people arent doing easy work. AND thats just the legal workers, saying nothing of the companies that use undocumentes immigrants whom they can get away with paying even less. (And this says nothing about the fact these people have no benefits and no job security). What happens in other countries I dont know, but I imagine its as bad if not worse than the US. Look I know all this sucks, and Im not saying at all you should starve, simply think about where your food comes from. We live in a capitalist world, and to save money, companies cut corners. Sometimes thats with calling a 4x4 patch of land enough to say the chickens are free range and charging an extra $1.50 a dozen, sometimes thats with importing foodstuffs from other countries at the expense of their land and workforce because it circumnavigates US worker and enviromental protections. That steak or that pile of rice, unless you grew it and didnt poision the environment, didnt divert water or cut down trees, comes at the very real expense of the people who helped produce it, the fuel used to manufacture and ship it, and the very land it was raised on, you simply have no way of knowing or ensuring what you eat is ethical. Because of this you have to pick and choose. Buy from your neighbors or local farmstands, raise the plants yourself, get products that are ethically sourced and rainforest certified. Its impossible to sustainably eat ethically, just like its impossible to 100% ethically buy your clothes, somewhere, somehow, there was a corner cut, a persons health sacrificed, a piece of the earth destroyed for profit. Just be mindful of that and dont let what you take go to waste, and dont judge other cultures for what you perpetuate yourself.

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gmrophe · 5 years

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Flatulence, or Farts (Cow)

flat·u·lence /ˈflaCHələns/ noun the accumulation of gas in the alimentary canal. "foods that may cause flatulence" synonyms: intestinal gas, wind, gas; informalfarting; formalflatus, borborygmus "medications that help with flatulence" pomposity, pompousness, pretension, pretentiousness, posing, posturing, grandiosity, grandness, grandiloquence, bombast, turgidity, hot air "the flatulence of his latest recordings" inflated or pretentious speech or writing; pomposity. "the flatulence characterizing his writings"

Farts. Everybody passes gas and that includes the animals as well. It occurs whether we want it or not.

Some Idiot Congressman wants to pass a law to fine farmers when the cows fart, and it is my understanding that this highly intelligent person wants to make it a percentage based on the number of cows the farmer has.

First of all you can't always control the cow farts much less the same problem with people. That means you would have to place all the cows in a barn and control their intake 24/7 which is not really feasible since the cows need to go to the pasture, and graze, it would also cause greater expense down the line to the consumer.

My question is what is next if this law gets passed, are we going to legislate against the farting of the other animals. And what about the Humans?

I hope that you see how ridiculous this kind of mentality is and that we actually have people who think this way who have graduated from the University of Socialism.

Our highly intelligent and industrious Congress has written many laws that make no sense and their only reason for being passed is to levy punishment on some unfortunate person who offended them by stating their opinion. Many of the Laws are designed to control the Populations thought process and way of living. They will try to enforce laws that control the food products you can buy, the surgery or medical care that you can receive, and what books you can read. They even try to control how many children you can have.

They try to enforce the Propaganda from the central government on Schools and parents. They are eeven now trying to control your religious beliefs.

We don't have many people in The government who have common sense or morals. Maybe it is time we start looking more closely at the people running for office?

Our current congress is wasting resources on trying to find fault with President Trump and this started before he was elected. The only thing they have proven is how absurd they are and that we have elected anal retentive fools and idiots to office.

We do have a lot of Flatulent congressmen and women in the legislation and government.

The most vindictive people are usually Politicians and con artists. By definition a Politician is like a snake oil salesman.

Have a nice day and remember to think about this world. I am glad I don't belong here.

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thehappyvegan · 7 years

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Hey i'm vegan for the animals, and I don't really know much about enviromental side of it! I know just basic stuff like using grain for animals is not efficent as you end up with way less food (that is eaten by animal during growing)... So can you write some important facts I should know as a vegan when trying to defend myself in front of other people (noone is really attacking me but just in case)?

Hey there! Just remember #1 thing, you don’t have to defend yourself against anyone! You are doing the right thing and as long as you know that, is the main thing!If you want to know more about the environmental side a good documentary is cowspricacy, I also LOVE racing extinction - it’s a must see documentary and doesn’t get enough love as I think it should!

- A 2006 study by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) finds that 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions is directly attributable to livestock production, which is more than the emissions attributable to the entire transportation sector. (https://journals.law.stanford.edu/stanford-environmental-law-journal-elj/blog/leading-cause-everything-one-industry-destroying-our-planet-and-our-ability-thrive-it)…Not only because it’s takes so much more energy to produce meat ( crops, water, transport to and from the slaughter house etc) cows emit methane when they burp or fart. Methane is much more destructive as CO2 because it’s traps more heat in our atmosphere than C02. I think it’s about 6 C02 particles equal to 1 methane particle. (I could be wrong environmental science was a while ago!) & 1 cow per day produces 2 garbage bags of methane, so with the amount of cows we are raising for beef & dairy. that’s a whoooole lot of methane a day going into our atmosphere AND our oceans, they are taking in so much C02 that’s it’s causing ocean acidification, this changes the oceans normal PH which then in turn effects everything in the oceans.

Animal agriculture is the also the #1 cause of deforestation, water pollution, species extinction/loss of bio diversity & ocean dead zones. I could go on forever about all these different issues relating to it but yes I’ll post a few facts for you and the websites they are from have even more information! :)

• Raising animals for food (including land used for grazing and land used to grow feed crops) now uses a staggering 30% of the Earth’s land mass. (Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, a 2006 report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization)

• Of all the agricultural land in the U.S., 80% is used to raise animals for food and grow grain to feed them—that’s almost half the total land mass of the lower 48 states (“Major Uses of Land in the United States” by Marlow Vesterby and Kenneth S. Krupa)

• Animals raised for food produce approximately 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population and animal farms pollute our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Run-offs of animal waste, pesticides, chemicals, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics are contributing to dead zones in coastal areas, degradation of coral reef and health problems. (The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

• Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food (“The Food Revolution” by John Robbins). It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat and only 25 gallons to produce one pound of wheat (“Water Inputs in California Food Production” by Marcia Kreith

• The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth (“The Global Benefits of Eating Less Meat” by Mark Gold and Jonathon Porritt

• Climate change can be substantially slowed down with a universal vegan diet and the shutting down of the entire meat production industry and the entire industrialized fishing fleets. We need to replenish biodiversity in the ocean and on land. It is biodiversity that keeps the life support system of this planet running. It is the interdependence of species within that diversity that feeds the ocean, nourishes the phytoplankton and zooplankton, keeps the healthy bacteria flourishing and seeds the sea with iron and other essential minerals. ( An Extremely Very Inconvenient Truth. Observation by Captain Paul Watson. )

• http://myscienceacademy.org/2015/01/14/35-fish-facts-that-will-make-you-never-want-to-eat-fish-again/ - has some awesome facts about the problems of industrialised fishing and fish farms on our oceans.

And here is the cowspiracy website which includes every single little fact on the effects of animal agriculture and our environment. http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

I hope there’s something in there that you find useful or interesting :)

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gogocrazygo · 4 years

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It is human instinct to put out a fire or at least call for help when a house is burning, as we want to save what we can of it.

It is human instinct to help someone, sometimes even a stranger, when they are in desperate need, as we thrive from self-satisfaction of being of help to someone, and being perceived as thoughtful and compassionate.

So what makes us human? It is not just our built and physical capability. What truly make us distinguished from other living creatures on this earth are our minds. The capacity of our brains is greater than of any other species in animal kingdom, therefore our senses and logical reasoning are stronger. Imagination, creativity and being able to analyse situations and problem solve enabled us to build the world we are living in now. We are all so proud of our human achievements throughout history. We are also very compassionate in nature. We feel emotions towards objects like food, situations like falling in love or war, other people and their impact on our lives, and most of us appreciate and cherish animals and the nature surrounding us. So why is it that our so called Home, Planet Earth and natural world is slowly shrinking, sinking, burning and warming before our eyes?

Barack Obama himself said “Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now,”, and with the amount of scientific support out there it is just no sensible reason for us as human beings to turn our backs on this crisis. Without our home we cannot thrive and continue to grow as we have been.

Growing up in an average household, global warming was mentioned in many family conversations. We tried recycling and being more aware but it was something that I never thought we would have much impact on at all. It is only now that I have been living on my own for one and a half years, I thought to myself that “yes there is an issue, and I am very aware of it”, but what can I do about it? The government and economy are way out of my control and while some people might be aware of the issue, but life is just too busy so we brush this topic under the rug. My budget is certainly not that great so I’m very cautious of my outgoings, and I’m also busy all the time, so how can I possibly be more environmentally friendly?

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experiences” is what my man David Attenborough has said, which is why he is so good at showing us all through various or media how amazing this planet is and why we have to protect it.

I love this planet; I love what it has given me, the surrounding nature, the animals, my family, the people that I meet, and I love the freedom of speech and expression. Reviewing my current personal situation got me thinking, I have to do something or at least try and slowly start making changes as I cannot look away anymore.

If you already know enough about pollution but want to know more about what you can do to reduce waste at your household, skip to the Easy Swaps section. If you want to find some interesting facts continue reading on 🙂

Global Warming and Pollution

UN reports that from 1880 to 2012, the average global temperature increased by 0.85°C. Oceans have warmed and the melting ice is making the sea levels rise. From 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm which is quiet alarming.

UN also states that “Given current concentrations and ongoing emissions of greenhouse gases, it is likely that by the end of this century global mean temperature will continue to rise above the pre-industrial level. The world’s oceans will warm and ice melt will continue. Average sea level rise is predicted to be 24–30 cm by 2065 and 40–63 cm by 2100 relative to the reference period of 1986–2005.” Such a high rise in sea levels will make certain Islands such as Atolls, Maldives and Tuvalu hard to visit or live on due to coastal erosion. Other coastal cities like Miami will be affected and so will millions of people in residence.

When we talk about pollution, one of the first things that come to our minds is greenhouse gas emission from combustion of fossil fuels in cars, buildings, factories, power plants and burning fossil fuels in manufacturing processes etc. Here are some less popular facts that have a huge impact as well:

Population growth alongside the standards of living. In most MEDCs we have more money to spend on we don’t even know what as we have sooo many choices. When consumption grows, the waste and plastic pollution grows it’s as simple as that.

Methane released from landfills, natural gas and petroleum industries are a huge factor, but not as big as the methane released from food agriculture/ farming. This is mainly caused by grazing animals releasing gasses (yes this means #farts) on meat and dairy farms. We also have nitrous oxide released from fertilizers and gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes. Other things in agriculture that affect pollution and global warming are logistics, land use, water and food resource use, deforestation and interfering with natural habitats. All our food manufacturing processes result in using more and more natural resources, leaving less and less behind.

Single use plastic is proving to significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emission at every stage of its life, starting from production, going into distribution and then at the end of its life where it takes between 50 and 600 years to biodegrade. Even after that, the small plastic molecules are distributed in the air and the oceans, ending up in out drinking water, fish we catch, even farm foods we consume. I don’t like the idea of slowly being poisoned to death with plastic by just eating veggies and drinking water.

Plastic waste

Pretty city view in Amsterdam this summer surrounded by litter.

So lets’ get a couple of facts and figures out of the way, shall we?

Research shows that annual CO2 emission from plastic waste could grow up to 2.75 million tonnes by 2050. It’s in 30 years’ time guys. I’m going to be 58 and swimming in plastic waste. Lovely thought for future L

Jokes aside, plastic pollution has not only been a concern related to climate change. Recently it has been all over media, after Blue Planet 2 release in 2017, that plastic polluting our seas has an impact on the entire ocean ecosystem, our health and the natural world all over. Microplastic particles are now floating in the air and can be found from top of Mount Everest to Mariana Trench, which is the deepest ocean trench explored.

Millions of animals varying from krill, to fish, whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed from either ingesting plastic, or by simply being stuck in a plastic object unable to get free, suffocating to death. The UKs leading marine charity MCS organises yearly beach clean-ups to make sure we reduce the risk of animals and habitats being affected by the pollution on our coasts. You can get involved in their work by clicking here and help make change.

By simply identifying which plastics are recyclable and which ones are not, we can reduce plastic pollution dramatically. But the main goal is to reduce single use plastic buying. Less plastic in household means less plastic in our lands and in our seas.

BBC has done a brilliant, well researched and eye opening piece on the Plastic Pollution Problem, which I highly recommend on checking out by clicking here.

As consumers we have the ENTIRE power over what goes into our household, so why not take some simple actions right now?

Easy swaps

Here are some of my personal tips and easy swaps that can help you start plastic waste reduction:

No more plastic bottles. Reusable bottles are so much better in so many ways and water should be FREE so why are you paying for it?

Bringing your own food storage pots. In case you are thinking of having a take away or a lunch at a local caff, if you know they will give you a plastic pot to serve your food in, why not give them yours? I have been doing this a lot at work with the local caff, and they were more than happy to put the food in my own food container.

Have a straw with you at all times. I also carry my small cutlery set everywhere I go. Just say no to plastic straws and cutlery. Small stuff but it adds up over the years.

Invest in an eco-friendly coffee travel mug. A lot of coffee shops like Starbucks serve their drinks in fully recyclable cups, but sometimes these are not recycled properly so it’s better to have your own. Some places even offer you money off if you bring your own mug.

Use long life bags for house shopping. This should be a norm now I think.

Using biodegradable everyday items instead of plastic options. These could be cleaning ware, natural fibres in furniture and clothes, swapping clean film for food containers or beeswax wraps and just overall using natural substances where you can. Reusing and recycling is key.

Buy loose fruit and veg as much as you can. You can save money by going to local markets and educate your little ones (if you have any) about the importance of supporting local farmers and businesses.

If meat or dairy is in your diet, go to local butchers or farmers’ market and get fresh food packed in your own containers.

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I also did some blog posts on waste reduced food shopping and some Beauty Product Swaps that might be of use.

Another thing to consider is how you commute. Public transport is a great alternative to commuting privately, whether going around the country or travelling abroad. This is something I’m currently struggling with as I love to travel. Abroad is not much of a problem as I normally depend on public transport and walk or hike, but in the UK I take my car on way too many road trips.

As a personal choice I have also decided to go on a vegan diet and have been following it as best as I can for over 2 years. By going veggie I’m reducing individual impact on:

Agricultural pollution as animal waste pollutes waterways all over the world (which ends up in our oceans).

CO2 and methane emission from land use and livestock production.

Water use e.g.: it takes 13,000l-100,000l of water to produce a kilo of beef and only 1,000l-2,000l to produce kilo of wheat.

Not consuming fish impacts on life cycle of oceans. Oceans help absorb CO2 and they also hold one of the most important organisms on the planet, the phytoplankton. These little guys are responsible of absorption of most CO2 from the atmosphere and producing 2/3rds of the oxygen we breathe in.

There are many other reasons why I believe a plant based diet helps to reduce pollution and impact on the climate change crisis, but I think this is personal choice and this topic has been covered quite well by media already with plenty of evidence supporting it.

If you haven’t already started on being more environmentally aware, I really hope that you get inspired to take small actions and then see for yourself that little changes can have a big impact on pollution, plastic waste and global warming. Just because you are one person making that change, it doesn’t mean you are alone in this. Awareness is growing and more people are trying. With a new year around the corner, this could be a perfect challenged to take on for 2020. We can all be a part of this greater movement if we just try a little.

“There is no planet B. We have to take care of the one we have.”

________ Richard Branson ________