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08.02.2002 || 11h19 Hungry You know, farming seems like such thankless work sometimes. I don't believe in the GMO and injection-addled approach of many modern farmers, and I don't think they deserve my money, but there are farmers out there who have turned to organics as a better, more sustainable way to farm, and these people deserve my help, even just on a karmic level. But Christ, even the profit-driven farmers with the scary chemicals don't deserve to go bankrupt. They have families too, right? Which strangely reminds me of an article I was reading in one of my National Geographics. It was on the state of food in the USA, and how, though popular propaganda would have y'all believe that the US enjoys the safest food in the world, it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny very well. Pesticides, growth hormones, anti-biotics, and just plain ol' questionable practise marks the American food industry every bit as much (and sometimes more) than those of other nations. In the US, many, many farmers are injecting their milk cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) because it vastly increases the milk production, but some people are pointing to stuff like that as the reason girls are volutpuous as hell at 15 these days. I thought it was a gorgeous thing until I realised that those breasts and hips were due to chemicals in the food supply. Who knows what the long-term effects are? rBGH is illegal in Canada. Injecting cows with anti-biotics to speed their growth into steak-ables may work, but the practise is starting to create stronger food pathogens because they're becoming more resistant to the anti-biotics. Of course, right? Well yes; of course. Hello E. coli O157:H7. So, in 1992, Lauren Beth Rudolph had supper with her family at a California fast-food joint a week before Christmas. By Christmas Eve, Lauren went to hospital with severe stomach cramps and bloody diarrhoeia. While at the hospital, Lauren suffered three massive heart attacks, went into a coma, and finally died on 28 December at the ripe old age of six years old. She was the index case in an E. coli outbreak that struck 732 people across four states. Four children died. Just a few of the 730,000 Americans who get E. coli poisoning every year from the damned food supply. Dozens actually die. Was the meat infested with bacteria that had become immune to anti-biotics due to overexposure, or was it fecal-oral in nature? Christ, with that many cases, it sounds like stronger bugs to me. I don't eat meat that comes from factory farms or other standard sources (Well, okay; I rarely eat non-poutry flesh at all). I don't eat in restos if I can help it, and I try to only buy organic and non GMO-produce. I know that Canada is better than the US in terms of the safety of the food grown and/or slaughtered here, but not necessarily by much. I also cook the shite out of everything and wash my veggies before eating them. Am I ensuring myself a safer eating experience? I don't really know, but I know that it's at least a baby step in the right direction. But I don't don't don't understand why people don't care about what they put into their mouths. It's *food* fer fuksakes. ********** Last night, bedtime was yet another nightmare of heat and sweat, unbroken by the two fans we have blowing their little hearts out in the room; at one point, Luv nudged me awake and sent me off to cross-draught the windows because there was a rainstorm going on outside. I went about, slamming windows and yawning, but what I most wanted was to drag her outside and screw her senseless under the rain, just to celebrate the crack that it made in the wall of sweat around this city. I'm a smart cookie: I really have to memorise stuff this morning, so I sent Luv out to see about tickets to the Holly McNarland and David Usher show. Everyone wins: She becomes more confident walking around Montr�al alone and I get time to memorise and make her lunch. Speaking of which, I'm off. I have lines and lines to read... Smooches, kids. |
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shite One last little note... - 09.21.2006 de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006 Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006 More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006 Scary stuff - 05.25.2006
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