December 2006 - Posts
So I was walking to work this morning and over by the river someone had put out a big pile of feed pellets for the pigeons. what the heck are they thinking feeding these
birds sky rats? Who are they ... PETA-wannabees ... thinking they are being kind to nature? These birds carry disease, are overpopulated, crap on everything and are just generally annoying in public places begging for food. Newsflash: you aren't saving the planet when you feed city pigeons. We should import an elite squadron of fighter eagles into the city to take care of the problem once and for all. But fortunately or unfortunately, eagles don't thrive in urban environments while pigeons have adapted just fine to become the rats of the sky. But please people, do your part and don't ever feed the pigeons. Feed other wild birds as much as you can, like blue jays, cardinals and chickadees, but not pigeons. And please don't feed squirrels either, they are evil and must be destroyed. And judging by the ones in my neighborhood, appear to be overeating if anything.
This is awesome, the single McDonald's in Devon is
closing due to lack of interest. Seems people would rather eat local and/or organic. Hmmm.
I just finished reading
The Ethical Gourmet and found much of it very thought-provoking, but one thing that struck me is I don't think a whole lot about the fish I eat. I don't eat fish maybe as much as I should, but I do love sushi. I'm realizing I should be more careful in the type of fish I choose, since some popular sushi species are actually not being fished in a sustainable manner. In the worse cases, some species may be extinct in our lifetimes due to overfishing. One interesting anecdote in the book is that a 1500 lb tuna used to be considered a good catch, but now they are lucky to get 200 lb fish. What this shows is that tuna are not living nearly as long as they used to and not being given time to fully mature before they are caught. There are some species of tuna that are a better choice than others though, but you have to know your homework. The Blue Ocean Institute puts out a
handy guide that gives full information on pretty much every fish you might eat, including whether they are farmed in a sustainable way under oversight of conservation agencies, etc. They even have a pocket guide you can keep in your purse or wallet. Check it out.
As with their tendency to screw up most everything else they touch, now Walmart is
incorrectly labeling products in some of their stores as organic when they are not. I'm no fan of Walmart anyway for a number of reasons (destroying local economies, sourcing products from countries without living wage conditions, etc.), but this is ridiculous. It's ridiculous that Walmart is trying to sell organics anyway, since they are basically the direct opposite of what most of the organic community holds dear. But I'm cautiously for it if they put the terrible production of food that goes on in most factory farms out of business. I'm convinced it's just about the profit motive for them (they see a rich market and jump into it), but they are going to destroy the general public's trust in organic labeling if this keeps up. It's bad enough the government is trying to relax restrictions on what can be termed organic.