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Writing Sin
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Meat is Murder!
On my facebook, I have liked a ton of food related pages because they all have one thing in common: they believe in eating sustainable, wholesome, and unprocessed food as much as possible. One page had been posting more and more vegetarian biased articles. I admire vegetarians because they at least think about and care about the food they eat.
However... Vegetarians and - even more so - vegans tend to verbally abuse meat eaters. At least that's the way it appears to me. Whenever I see a food debate happening, it never fails that a vegan will point out that eating meat is murder.
SO, when Food Inc shared this link: http://www.takepart.com/photos/raising-farm-animals-birth-to-slaughter?cmpid=foodinc-fb, I responded with a heartfelt thank you.
Thank you, Food Inc., for posting something about animals. I personally agree with a lot of what you post, but it seemed to me this page was leaning more and more towards vegetarian/vegan only philosophy when the original goal was healthy and sustainable food. I scratched my head at one point, because a page called Food Inc should concern itself with all healthy food, not just Vegetarian fare, you know? So thanks again for proving to me that the page is still dedicated to all food. :-)
When I went to see if there had been any comments after mine a few hours later, I realized that the post I had commented on was actually not their main post of the article. It was actually them posting it on the wall of another page. On their official post of the link, a lot have people had given them a hard time by saying things like: "There is no such thing as a humane slaughter," and "You mean abnormally short life-spans, right?" It saddens me that vegetarians think they are so much better than everyone else because they choose not to participate in "murder." In response, I posted this:
Dear Vegans and Vegetarians, with respect, I would like to point out that if you are eating only plant foods - organically grown or not - there is "murder" involved. Even organic farmers must control "pests," such as insects, animals, and other plants that would destroy the crops. ( http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97836&page=1#.UWyS4cpUnoF )
Also, plants are alive, and in order to eat them, one must take their life. The only way to make sure that one's vegetarian diet is free from murder is to grow all of one's own food, and then apologize to the plant when it is time to harvest it or its babies so that they can be eaten. If done with respect, I am certain that the plants will understand and speak well of the human who eats them. ( http://www.livescience.com/1909-plants-communicate-warn-danger.html )
In the meantime, since there is no way to consume a food without killing it - aside from milk, milk products, and unfertilized eggs - I hope that everyone can agree that any food grown or raised with love and respect is much healthier to eat than food grown as nothing more than a commodity to be sold. I respect your beliefs as a vegetarian, please respect my belief that eating humanely raised animals is better than factory farmed animals. If you cannot respect this belief, then please kindly agree to disagree. :-)
Thank you and have a happy day :-)
Oh! P.S. Here's a better link to what Steve Davis had to say about ethical and humane farming: http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/mar/osu-scientist-questions-moral-basis-vegan-diet
HERE I HAVE DECIDED TO POST RESPONSES :-)
From a vegetarian: Roxanne Packard: you are delusional. "Agree to disagree" is the coward's way out. You are wrong. Hey! News Flash: "Researcher: Planet Earth is Actually Made of Asbestos." That's how much credence that headline you offered deserves.
My response: So you are saying that plants are not alive and that small animals are not killed on organic farms? Can you please provide proof? And, is this link perhaps better for you? http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/mar/osu-scientist-questions-moral-basis-vegan-diet
From a different Vegetarian (actually a vegan according to her profile): Roxanne, the point is that a majority of our grain crops are actually grown for animal feed. So meat eaters are responsible for not only the death of billions of animals that they consume, but also a MAJORITY of the deaths of the animals killed in fields.
And no, plants aren't sentient. Can't believe people even attempt to make the argument. And once again, should anyone actually pretend to care about the wellbeing of plant life... we feed more plant matter to animals for feed, than vegans would consume. So either way, the omnivorous diet involves more death (for plants AND animals) than the vegan diet does. End of story.
My response to her: I guess that depends on what you consider sentient. When plants respond to love in a good way and then respond to hate by getting sick and withering, I do believe that shows sentience. On an episode of Mythbusters, they tried to bust the myth that plants are telepathic, but couldn't conclusively bust that. Here is a study by the government that goes in to great detail the many ways that plants communicate: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2634023/
Also, anyone who is concerned about the ethics of their food already seeks out and obtains their meat from producers who raise their animals on pasture, so not ALL meat eaters can be lumped into one category. In fact, if all factory farmers reverted to the way animals have been farmed since the dawn of agriculture, the statement that that the majority of grain crops go to feed animals would be untrue since cows and sheep are ruminants who should not eat grain, and pigs and chickens are omnivores who should only eat a little grain. Also, in point of fact, while it may be true that currently the majority of grain goes feed confined animals, it is also true that 25% of the grain grown in the US gets converted into ethanol. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/22/quarter-us-grain-biofuels-food
Do you drive a car? Do you choose ethanol because it is more eco-friendly?
My point remains, in order to be a vegetarian, you still have to murder the plant or harvest its babies - plus, unless you farm it yourself with humane catch and release traps for the small animals that come to feed - you'd have to have some kind of pest control. If I personally choose to consume animals raised on farms where I know they were eating a biologically correct diet and raised with love, then I am no more horrible than a vegetarian.
The point you are trying to make is that feedlot and factory farmed animals are bad, and on that point, I agree completely!
MORE RESPONSES
Response from the vegan above: this is a response vegans hear all the time -- you're not on uncharted territory here. but i have laid out a detailed response to your concerns here: http://veganrabbit.com/2013/03/18/plant-sentience-and-pain/
And another person: Oh geeze.. the plant killing argument again. Come on.. just admit that you're not compassionate/strong/selfless enough to stop eating meat. Stop trying to make yourselves feel better by coming up with these ridiculous arguments.
My response to both: @1, thank you for the link, I have bookmarked it. However, I still disagree that plants are not sentient. I believe that plants are alive and have an important jobs keeping us breathing and cleaning up our pollution. In the grand scheme of things, neither plants nor animals were created specifically to be food. They evolved on their own and their biological imperative it to propagate their species. Eating anything at all is a sign that we as humans are also animals that need sustenance. Our bodies need meet because of nutrients - such as Co enzyme Q12 - that cannot be found in vegetables. Co enzyme Q12 is well documented as being needed by the heart. It can be synthesized in a lab, but to actually help the body, it needs to be real, which means from an animal.
Also, if you read the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, you will see that Dr. Price specifically went looking for healthy vegetarian populations but could not find any that remain healthy into their old age. They often developed things like goiters from iodine deficiency and rickets from B12 deficiency.
@2 - I most certainly am compassionate. I'm also diabetic. If I switched to a vegan diet, then I would watch my health slowly deteriorate. I'm sorry you disagree, but I would prefer to stay as healthy as possible until my sons are 18. I have tried vegetarianism and my blood sugar numbers got higher and higher - and believe me, I was not eating sugary junk food. The ONLY problem that I have with vegans is that they cannot admit that each body is different and that some bodies need meat.
If you choose to not eat meat, that is wonderful. If I choose to eat only humanely raised meat, then I am not weak. I am not selfish either. I also am concerned by your ethics that allow you to tell yourself that you are doing no harm to the planet by eating plants. At least I honor my food and realize the every bite is sacred. I am also concerned that you were raised to believe that it is okay to verbally (via the written word) demean other simply because they disagree with you. You do not read me asking you to admit that you are too weak and heartless to admit that plants are alive until you eat them. I would never demean or abuse you like that.
As I said before. I agree that you have the right to eat what you believe is right. All I am asking is that you all take a deep breath and agree that I have the right to eat what I believe is right
Thanks again for the link, and have a happy day
However... Vegetarians and - even more so - vegans tend to verbally abuse meat eaters. At least that's the way it appears to me. Whenever I see a food debate happening, it never fails that a vegan will point out that eating meat is murder.
SO, when Food Inc shared this link: http://www.takepart.com/photos/raising-farm-animals-birth-to-slaughter?cmpid=foodinc-fb, I responded with a heartfelt thank you.
Thank you, Food Inc., for posting something about animals. I personally agree with a lot of what you post, but it seemed to me this page was leaning more and more towards vegetarian/vegan only philosophy when the original goal was healthy and sustainable food. I scratched my head at one point, because a page called Food Inc should concern itself with all healthy food, not just Vegetarian fare, you know? So thanks again for proving to me that the page is still dedicated to all food. :-)
When I went to see if there had been any comments after mine a few hours later, I realized that the post I had commented on was actually not their main post of the article. It was actually them posting it on the wall of another page. On their official post of the link, a lot have people had given them a hard time by saying things like: "There is no such thing as a humane slaughter," and "You mean abnormally short life-spans, right?" It saddens me that vegetarians think they are so much better than everyone else because they choose not to participate in "murder." In response, I posted this:
Dear Vegans and Vegetarians, with respect, I would like to point out that if you are eating only plant foods - organically grown or not - there is "murder" involved. Even organic farmers must control "pests," such as insects, animals, and other plants that would destroy the crops. ( http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97836&page=1#.UWyS4cpUnoF )
Also, plants are alive, and in order to eat them, one must take their life. The only way to make sure that one's vegetarian diet is free from murder is to grow all of one's own food, and then apologize to the plant when it is time to harvest it or its babies so that they can be eaten. If done with respect, I am certain that the plants will understand and speak well of the human who eats them. ( http://www.livescience.com/1909-plants-communicate-warn-danger.html )
In the meantime, since there is no way to consume a food without killing it - aside from milk, milk products, and unfertilized eggs - I hope that everyone can agree that any food grown or raised with love and respect is much healthier to eat than food grown as nothing more than a commodity to be sold. I respect your beliefs as a vegetarian, please respect my belief that eating humanely raised animals is better than factory farmed animals. If you cannot respect this belief, then please kindly agree to disagree. :-)
Thank you and have a happy day :-)
Oh! P.S. Here's a better link to what Steve Davis had to say about ethical and humane farming: http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/mar/osu-scientist-questions-moral-basis-vegan-diet
HERE I HAVE DECIDED TO POST RESPONSES :-)
From a vegetarian: Roxanne Packard: you are delusional. "Agree to disagree" is the coward's way out. You are wrong. Hey! News Flash: "Researcher: Planet Earth is Actually Made of Asbestos." That's how much credence that headline you offered deserves.
My response: So you are saying that plants are not alive and that small animals are not killed on organic farms? Can you please provide proof? And, is this link perhaps better for you? http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2002/mar/osu-scientist-questions-moral-basis-vegan-diet
From a different Vegetarian (actually a vegan according to her profile): Roxanne, the point is that a majority of our grain crops are actually grown for animal feed. So meat eaters are responsible for not only the death of billions of animals that they consume, but also a MAJORITY of the deaths of the animals killed in fields.
And no, plants aren't sentient. Can't believe people even attempt to make the argument. And once again, should anyone actually pretend to care about the wellbeing of plant life... we feed more plant matter to animals for feed, than vegans would consume. So either way, the omnivorous diet involves more death (for plants AND animals) than the vegan diet does. End of story.
My response to her: I guess that depends on what you consider sentient. When plants respond to love in a good way and then respond to hate by getting sick and withering, I do believe that shows sentience. On an episode of Mythbusters, they tried to bust the myth that plants are telepathic, but couldn't conclusively bust that. Here is a study by the government that goes in to great detail the many ways that plants communicate: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2634023/
Also, anyone who is concerned about the ethics of their food already seeks out and obtains their meat from producers who raise their animals on pasture, so not ALL meat eaters can be lumped into one category. In fact, if all factory farmers reverted to the way animals have been farmed since the dawn of agriculture, the statement that that the majority of grain crops go to feed animals would be untrue since cows and sheep are ruminants who should not eat grain, and pigs and chickens are omnivores who should only eat a little grain. Also, in point of fact, while it may be true that currently the majority of grain goes feed confined animals, it is also true that 25% of the grain grown in the US gets converted into ethanol. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/22/quarter-us-grain-biofuels-food
Do you drive a car? Do you choose ethanol because it is more eco-friendly?
My point remains, in order to be a vegetarian, you still have to murder the plant or harvest its babies - plus, unless you farm it yourself with humane catch and release traps for the small animals that come to feed - you'd have to have some kind of pest control. If I personally choose to consume animals raised on farms where I know they were eating a biologically correct diet and raised with love, then I am no more horrible than a vegetarian.
The point you are trying to make is that feedlot and factory farmed animals are bad, and on that point, I agree completely!
MORE RESPONSES
Response from the vegan above: this is a response vegans hear all the time -- you're not on uncharted territory here. but i have laid out a detailed response to your concerns here: http://veganrabbit.com/2013/03/18/plant-sentience-and-pain/
And another person: Oh geeze.. the plant killing argument again. Come on.. just admit that you're not compassionate/strong/selfless enough to stop eating meat. Stop trying to make yourselves feel better by coming up with these ridiculous arguments.
My response to both: @1, thank you for the link, I have bookmarked it. However, I still disagree that plants are not sentient. I believe that plants are alive and have an important jobs keeping us breathing and cleaning up our pollution. In the grand scheme of things, neither plants nor animals were created specifically to be food. They evolved on their own and their biological imperative it to propagate their species. Eating anything at all is a sign that we as humans are also animals that need sustenance. Our bodies need meet because of nutrients - such as Co enzyme Q12 - that cannot be found in vegetables. Co enzyme Q12 is well documented as being needed by the heart. It can be synthesized in a lab, but to actually help the body, it needs to be real, which means from an animal.
Also, if you read the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, you will see that Dr. Price specifically went looking for healthy vegetarian populations but could not find any that remain healthy into their old age. They often developed things like goiters from iodine deficiency and rickets from B12 deficiency.
@2 - I most certainly am compassionate. I'm also diabetic. If I switched to a vegan diet, then I would watch my health slowly deteriorate. I'm sorry you disagree, but I would prefer to stay as healthy as possible until my sons are 18. I have tried vegetarianism and my blood sugar numbers got higher and higher - and believe me, I was not eating sugary junk food. The ONLY problem that I have with vegans is that they cannot admit that each body is different and that some bodies need meat.
If you choose to not eat meat, that is wonderful. If I choose to eat only humanely raised meat, then I am not weak. I am not selfish either. I also am concerned by your ethics that allow you to tell yourself that you are doing no harm to the planet by eating plants. At least I honor my food and realize the every bite is sacred. I am also concerned that you were raised to believe that it is okay to verbally (via the written word) demean other simply because they disagree with you. You do not read me asking you to admit that you are too weak and heartless to admit that plants are alive until you eat them. I would never demean or abuse you like that.
As I said before. I agree that you have the right to eat what you believe is right. All I am asking is that you all take a deep breath and agree that I have the right to eat what I believe is right
Thanks again for the link, and have a happy day
Crashed and Confused
Chapter
1
Randy
cursed as he checked his sensors. How in the hell
did I run this low on fuel and not notice it sooner?!
His
ship was equipped to handle several different fuel and energy sources
in order to minimize running out of fuel, and yet, he only had enough
fuel to last two days at megalight speed or several weeks at sublight
speeds. Neither would help him if there wasn't a planet in range. If
there wasn't, his best bet would be to stop his ship completely and
put everything into sleep mode while he waited for someone to answer
a distress signal. His fuel might last a year that way...
Randy
rescanned everything within two days journey in all directions. He
could see two Suns that appeared to be close enough that a planet
orbiting either one just might be close enough for him to get to.
Sure enough, there was a large planet that had three moons orbiting
it. The bad news was that it was several hours farther away than he
had fuel for.
“Maybe
I can program the ship to land on one of the moons and use an escape
pod to make it to the planet,” Randy muttered, and then immediately
dismissed the idea. He had no way to know if there were people on the
planet, much less if they would be to return him to his ship if he
left it in space.
Not
having any other choice, Randy set a course for the planet, and then
shut down all nonessential systems in order to conserve as much
energy as possible.
“Two
Suns huh?” Randy mused aloud. In calculating the planet's orbit, he
realized that the planet revolved around both Suns. “I hope
this doesn't mean that the planet is too hot to support life.”
Two
and a half days later, Randy was cursing once again. After he had
discovered and repaired the leak in his fuel system, he had managed
to stretch his fuel enough to get him to the planet, but it was
nowhere near enough to get him to a safe landing spot. He would
definitely crash, and not in a way that he was likely to survive. He
had no choice but to “park” the ship in the one area where the
planet's gravity was strong enough to prevent the ship from floating
away, but not so strong that would pull the ship into the atmosphere.
Randy
had never had to use an escape pod before, and while he knew it was
designed to protect a person during a crash, he just couldn't quite
trust that he would exit the pod alive.
He
sighed. “Still, what choice do I have?”
To his
relief, the planet showed plentiful evidence that it was inhabited.
He took a few moments to create and send off a short video message
explaining the situation to his family in case he never made it home.
It would take quite some time to reach them. By then, he would either
be dead or back in his ship with plenty of fuel.
Next,
he entered the pod and plotted a course – into the minimal
navigational controls – that would cause him to crash in an
uninhabited meadow not too far from a large city. Hopefully – if he
needed medical attention after the crash – he would be close enough
to receive it before he died.
“Here
goes... everything!” Randy said as he strapped himself in the
safety restraints, and then silently prayed as he set his pod to
activate.
Go To Chapter 2
Go To Chapter 2
Sunday, April 14, 2013
3 Card Spread
I was asked to do a quick reading to find out why a boy is holding back his affections. I decided to do a 3 Card Reading because I knew it would answer the question. Here's what came up:
The first and third card are reversed, and the extra card at the end kept popping out in all different positions, so I added it to the end since it wanted to be part of the reading so badly, lol!
The first card refers to his kids. He's afraid of them getting hurt.
Why, you might ask? Well the 2nd card tells me that he's still not entirely certain that this relationship is fated to work out. He's afraid that it's not going to be happily ever after.
The third card tells me that he's also afraid that his girlfriend will just up and leave him when he no longer interests her. He thinks she may just be using him...
The last card, the one that kept popping up, both right side up and reversed, tells me that he just doesn't know how the relationship will work out, BUT - if it does, he's pretty sure it'll be happy and loving :-)
So, to answer the question, he's holding back because he's afraid, and the only way to calm his fears is to just keep being your sweet and loving self and wait until he accepts that you are not playing with him, and that you are not planning to leave him the moment he and his kids fall utterly in love with you. :-D
The first card refers to his kids. He's afraid of them getting hurt.
Why, you might ask? Well the 2nd card tells me that he's still not entirely certain that this relationship is fated to work out. He's afraid that it's not going to be happily ever after.
The third card tells me that he's also afraid that his girlfriend will just up and leave him when he no longer interests her. He thinks she may just be using him...
The last card, the one that kept popping up, both right side up and reversed, tells me that he just doesn't know how the relationship will work out, BUT - if it does, he's pretty sure it'll be happy and loving :-)
So, to answer the question, he's holding back because he's afraid, and the only way to calm his fears is to just keep being your sweet and loving self and wait until he accepts that you are not playing with him, and that you are not planning to leave him the moment he and his kids fall utterly in love with you. :-D
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Food - When it feels like you have no choice
People give me a really hard time when they learn 2 facts about me that exist simultaneously. Fact #1 - That I insist on buying only organic produce. Actually, I insist on buying everything but meat organically, if possible - it not always possible. (The reason I don't buy organic meat is that I simply can't. An organic whole chicken costs 15.00 or more when I can get 2 factory farmed chickens for about 10.00. I wish I could buy grassfed directly from a farmer, but as of now, I just can't.) And fact #2 - That I get food stamps.
Most of the time - especially among my friends, they bite their tongue. But here's what happens, we only get so much a month to buy food, and when that's gone, THAT'S IT! There's no more money to buy food. So, from time to time, generally from about the 8th to the 12th of the month, I start saying things on facebook such as: I wanted to make this, but I realized that I didn't have this or this. OR: My kids are mad at me because we don't have anything to eat for breakfast except for eggs.
Once I make comments like that - which by the way I do for one reason only, because food is VERY VERY VERY important to me and I'm always posting what I make - I almost always get a comment (usually in private) that if I'm always running out of food, then I shouldn't eat only organic. Naysayers think that being poor enough to depend on foodstamps means that I SHOULD HAVE to feed my kids cheap processed crap and let them grow up with health problems. They don't for one second consider that doing so means that my kids will then be depending on the system their whole lives. They will depend on it to pay their medical bills. And if they get TOO sick, they will be depending on society to pay for their disability: Such as SSDI.
I refuse to fall into that trap! So long as I have breath in my body, my boys will eat organic apples and bananas. They will eat organic broccoli and brussel sprouts. They will drink coconut water and Kombucha (and the occasional sip of wine that I make). They will snack on seaweed and sardines.
When I give them sugar, it's in the healthiest form possible, such as organic dark chocolate using fair trade cane juice (which is sugar before all the nutrients are stripped out of it). Even just reading the descriptions of what my kids eat has probably made you cringe. You probably want to hug my kids tight and cry on their shoulders: "How could your mama deny you all the good things in life?!" (I.E. candy and processed junk food.)
Roll my eyes.
On the other hand, I have a large support group of friends on the internet who understand my insistence on real food for my kids. I am surprised at how often my closest friends subtly tell me I'm crazy and a no good leech on society for daring to need foodstamps, and then using them to buy expensive food rather than the cheapest stuff available. I am even MORE amazed by how many of my foodie friends from all over the world have invited me to come live with them for a while.
I have seriously considered it. If I went to live with a foodie friend on a farm, I would not have to worry about feeding my kids good wholesome food. I would be able to learn the mysterious skill that keeps plants from dying when I try to grow them. I WOULD GET TO RAISE ANIMALS!!! for milk or for meat. It sounds very close to paradise to me...
Except that I would then be dependent on my friend. As much as possible, I never want to be dependent on any one again. (Did you just snort and ask: What about depending on the government, and by extension, everyone who pays taxes? Well, I need to depend on somebody while I strive to earn an income and support myself and my family - and my hubby strives to earn a degree so that he can get a dependable and well paying job. Better to use a program especially for helping out the poor than to mooch off of just one person. Shrugs.)
I'm getting slightly off topic. I wanted to address that Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese SNAFU. Basically, a concerned mother wants Kraft to remove the harmful artificial dyes from their products and Kraft refuses because their sales are still strong. I.E. They have no reason to make changes because most of the public is either unaware that they are eating toxic crap. And the ones that are aware often ask this: "Well, what choice do I have? I can't afford to eat all that Organic and All Natural stuff!"
(You can read up on the SNAFU here: Food Babe VS Kraft)
Do you know what I think when I hear that common excuse? I think: what a bunch of bull!
The consumer thinks they have no choice but to buy regular crappy Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese because it's cheap and their kids will eat it - which eliminates the real problem: fighting with the kids to eat something. They will say over and over: "I would buy the organic version if it weren't so expensive!"
Well, let's take a look at that for a minute: Kraft-Macaroni-Cheese-7-25-Ounce-Boxes
Here we have 15 boxes of regular Mac 'n' Cheese for 21.72. That = 1.448 per box. We'll round that up to 1.45. I'm also going to assume that the grocery store will usually carry it for the same price or more. (And that sale prices and dates will vary greatly.)
If you compare that to the organic version of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, of course the organic version is more expensive. Organic version It's 25.44 for 12 six ounce boxes. So that comes to 2.12 a box. Taking that one step further, the regular is .20 per ounce and the organic is .35 cents per ounce. The difference really adds up!
HOWEVER, rather than complain that the organic Mac 'n' Cheese is more expensive (which it's really not, only .67 more a box) I would ask you why you feel the need to buy from a large and obviously uncaring company when you could buy the ingredients and make it yourself in the same amount of time and effort.
NOTE: Because you have to add butter and milk to either the Kraft version or a homemade version, I am not going to cost compare those items.
A 12 oz box of organic noodles in just about any shape or variety I want generally cost me 1.99 a box or less at my grocery store. They are the generic organic brand, but I still consider them better than non-organic, YMMV. In fact, it's often on sale for 1.49 a box! (Basically, I just got twice as much noodles for almost the same price as the Kraft brand! If you want to get technical to keep better track of it: 1.99/12oz= 16.5 CENTS per ounce.
Tell me again how buying organic is too expensive?
To the box of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, it calls for butter and milk to be added. If you want to save money by using the exact same non organic butter and milk, you are still saving money by buying a box of organic noodles rather than a box of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese. (Not to mention, how many people decide that to feed 4 people, they need to make two boxes of Kraft anyway? Two 7.25oz boxes at 1.45 versus one 12oz box at 1.99 for organic means that you are actually paying an entire dollar MORE to buy non organic!)
If money was really that much of a concern, NO ONE WOULD BUY KRAFT MAC 'N' CHEESE! They would buy regular noodles and make their own homemade version. So I'm going to stand up and shout this at the top of my lungs:
BUYING ORGANIC IS NOT TOO EXPENSIVE! You simply have to rethink how you buy groceries.
But wait, Ms. Smarty Pants, I've got you here (you say to me)! You haven't dealt with the cheese aspect!
You're right, I haven't. Let's make a choice here. Are we going to go with the cheapest 8oz shredded cheddar cheese I can buy at the grocery store? (Around here, that's 2.12 a bag.) OR Am I going to go with something a bit spendier? OH WTH! Let's do both :-) 2.12/8oz= .265 per oz. Let's say that you typically use half a bag, so 4 oz. * .265 = 1.06 (I could have just done 2.12/2, lol, but I figured do it by oz in case some of you use less or more.)
1.99+1.06= 3.05. Again, 2 boxes of Kraft at 1.45= 2.90. If a difference of 15 cents for enough to feed 4 people REALLY too expensive???
Now for the organic cheese: Organic-Valley-Raw-Sharp-Cheddar This is 8.00 for an 8oz block of cheese. Keep in mind that I regularly buy this in the health food section of the grocery store for 4.99.
To use the same 4 oz, you'd be spending between 2.49 and 4.00 (depending if you buy it at my grocery store or online). Therefore, 4.00+1.99= 6.99 (or 2.49+1.99=4.48) for 12oz of organic homemade macaroni and cheese versus 2.90 for Kraft non-organic OR (2.12*2=) 4.24 for Kraft organic. Yep, this is where people can complain that going totally organic is expensive. To buy cheese from cows that haven't been fed growth hormones and antibiotics is VERY expensive! But you gotta ask yourself, what do I really want my children to eat? Ultimately, cheese is one of those things I have to compromise on, and only buy organic on occasion because we go through like 5 pounds (5*16oz) of cheese a month. (Okay, it probably actually takes us a month and a half to go through a 5lb bag, shrugs.)
NOTE that my homemade version using organic cheese from my local grocery store only comes to 4.48 versus 4.24 for the same amount of organic Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese. Again, a difference of .24 cents. Let's say you make this twice a week, 4 weeks a month. That's a difference of .15*2*4= 1.20 (for the organic noodles but cheap cheese) or .24*2*4= 1.92 (for the organic noodles and organic cheese from the health food section of my store).
I know that every penny counts and every penny makes a difference, BUT COME ON! You're going to tell me that you have to buy Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese because you can't afford to spend 2 extra dollars a month to make your own organic version???
I'm sorry, I just don't believe that. So what's the real excuse?
I was raised on it! I love how it tastes! I'm addicted to it! My kids won't eat anything else!
Now those are excuses I believe. The question then becomes, are those excuses really good enough? Are they really a good reason to feed children toxic synthetic chemicals and GMOs (because let's face it, they don't have to label GMOs, so they are probably in there too)?
That - my friend - is for you to decide. :-)
Have a happy day,
Roxanne
Most of the time - especially among my friends, they bite their tongue. But here's what happens, we only get so much a month to buy food, and when that's gone, THAT'S IT! There's no more money to buy food. So, from time to time, generally from about the 8th to the 12th of the month, I start saying things on facebook such as: I wanted to make this, but I realized that I didn't have this or this. OR: My kids are mad at me because we don't have anything to eat for breakfast except for eggs.
Once I make comments like that - which by the way I do for one reason only, because food is VERY VERY VERY important to me and I'm always posting what I make - I almost always get a comment (usually in private) that if I'm always running out of food, then I shouldn't eat only organic. Naysayers think that being poor enough to depend on foodstamps means that I SHOULD HAVE to feed my kids cheap processed crap and let them grow up with health problems. They don't for one second consider that doing so means that my kids will then be depending on the system their whole lives. They will depend on it to pay their medical bills. And if they get TOO sick, they will be depending on society to pay for their disability: Such as SSDI.
I refuse to fall into that trap! So long as I have breath in my body, my boys will eat organic apples and bananas. They will eat organic broccoli and brussel sprouts. They will drink coconut water and Kombucha (and the occasional sip of wine that I make). They will snack on seaweed and sardines.
When I give them sugar, it's in the healthiest form possible, such as organic dark chocolate using fair trade cane juice (which is sugar before all the nutrients are stripped out of it). Even just reading the descriptions of what my kids eat has probably made you cringe. You probably want to hug my kids tight and cry on their shoulders: "How could your mama deny you all the good things in life?!" (I.E. candy and processed junk food.)
Roll my eyes.
On the other hand, I have a large support group of friends on the internet who understand my insistence on real food for my kids. I am surprised at how often my closest friends subtly tell me I'm crazy and a no good leech on society for daring to need foodstamps, and then using them to buy expensive food rather than the cheapest stuff available. I am even MORE amazed by how many of my foodie friends from all over the world have invited me to come live with them for a while.
I have seriously considered it. If I went to live with a foodie friend on a farm, I would not have to worry about feeding my kids good wholesome food. I would be able to learn the mysterious skill that keeps plants from dying when I try to grow them. I WOULD GET TO RAISE ANIMALS!!! for milk or for meat. It sounds very close to paradise to me...
Except that I would then be dependent on my friend. As much as possible, I never want to be dependent on any one again. (Did you just snort and ask: What about depending on the government, and by extension, everyone who pays taxes? Well, I need to depend on somebody while I strive to earn an income and support myself and my family - and my hubby strives to earn a degree so that he can get a dependable and well paying job. Better to use a program especially for helping out the poor than to mooch off of just one person. Shrugs.)
I'm getting slightly off topic. I wanted to address that Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese SNAFU. Basically, a concerned mother wants Kraft to remove the harmful artificial dyes from their products and Kraft refuses because their sales are still strong. I.E. They have no reason to make changes because most of the public is either unaware that they are eating toxic crap. And the ones that are aware often ask this: "Well, what choice do I have? I can't afford to eat all that Organic and All Natural stuff!"
(You can read up on the SNAFU here: Food Babe VS Kraft)
Do you know what I think when I hear that common excuse? I think: what a bunch of bull!
The consumer thinks they have no choice but to buy regular crappy Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese because it's cheap and their kids will eat it - which eliminates the real problem: fighting with the kids to eat something. They will say over and over: "I would buy the organic version if it weren't so expensive!"
Well, let's take a look at that for a minute: Kraft-Macaroni-Cheese-7-25-Ounce-Boxes
Here we have 15 boxes of regular Mac 'n' Cheese for 21.72. That = 1.448 per box. We'll round that up to 1.45. I'm also going to assume that the grocery store will usually carry it for the same price or more. (And that sale prices and dates will vary greatly.)
If you compare that to the organic version of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, of course the organic version is more expensive. Organic version It's 25.44 for 12 six ounce boxes. So that comes to 2.12 a box. Taking that one step further, the regular is .20 per ounce and the organic is .35 cents per ounce. The difference really adds up!
HOWEVER, rather than complain that the organic Mac 'n' Cheese is more expensive (which it's really not, only .67 more a box) I would ask you why you feel the need to buy from a large and obviously uncaring company when you could buy the ingredients and make it yourself in the same amount of time and effort.
NOTE: Because you have to add butter and milk to either the Kraft version or a homemade version, I am not going to cost compare those items.
A 12 oz box of organic noodles in just about any shape or variety I want generally cost me 1.99 a box or less at my grocery store. They are the generic organic brand, but I still consider them better than non-organic, YMMV. In fact, it's often on sale for 1.49 a box! (Basically, I just got twice as much noodles for almost the same price as the Kraft brand! If you want to get technical to keep better track of it: 1.99/12oz= 16.5 CENTS per ounce.
Tell me again how buying organic is too expensive?
To the box of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, it calls for butter and milk to be added. If you want to save money by using the exact same non organic butter and milk, you are still saving money by buying a box of organic noodles rather than a box of Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese. (Not to mention, how many people decide that to feed 4 people, they need to make two boxes of Kraft anyway? Two 7.25oz boxes at 1.45 versus one 12oz box at 1.99 for organic means that you are actually paying an entire dollar MORE to buy non organic!)
If money was really that much of a concern, NO ONE WOULD BUY KRAFT MAC 'N' CHEESE! They would buy regular noodles and make their own homemade version. So I'm going to stand up and shout this at the top of my lungs:
BUYING ORGANIC IS NOT TOO EXPENSIVE! You simply have to rethink how you buy groceries.
But wait, Ms. Smarty Pants, I've got you here (you say to me)! You haven't dealt with the cheese aspect!
You're right, I haven't. Let's make a choice here. Are we going to go with the cheapest 8oz shredded cheddar cheese I can buy at the grocery store? (Around here, that's 2.12 a bag.) OR Am I going to go with something a bit spendier? OH WTH! Let's do both :-) 2.12/8oz= .265 per oz. Let's say that you typically use half a bag, so 4 oz. * .265 = 1.06 (I could have just done 2.12/2, lol, but I figured do it by oz in case some of you use less or more.)
1.99+1.06= 3.05. Again, 2 boxes of Kraft at 1.45= 2.90. If a difference of 15 cents for enough to feed 4 people REALLY too expensive???
Now for the organic cheese: Organic-Valley-Raw-Sharp-Cheddar This is 8.00 for an 8oz block of cheese. Keep in mind that I regularly buy this in the health food section of the grocery store for 4.99.
To use the same 4 oz, you'd be spending between 2.49 and 4.00 (depending if you buy it at my grocery store or online). Therefore, 4.00+1.99= 6.99 (or 2.49+1.99=4.48) for 12oz of organic homemade macaroni and cheese versus 2.90 for Kraft non-organic OR (2.12*2=) 4.24 for Kraft organic. Yep, this is where people can complain that going totally organic is expensive. To buy cheese from cows that haven't been fed growth hormones and antibiotics is VERY expensive! But you gotta ask yourself, what do I really want my children to eat? Ultimately, cheese is one of those things I have to compromise on, and only buy organic on occasion because we go through like 5 pounds (5*16oz) of cheese a month. (Okay, it probably actually takes us a month and a half to go through a 5lb bag, shrugs.)
NOTE that my homemade version using organic cheese from my local grocery store only comes to 4.48 versus 4.24 for the same amount of organic Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese. Again, a difference of .24 cents. Let's say you make this twice a week, 4 weeks a month. That's a difference of .15*2*4= 1.20 (for the organic noodles but cheap cheese) or .24*2*4= 1.92 (for the organic noodles and organic cheese from the health food section of my store).
I know that every penny counts and every penny makes a difference, BUT COME ON! You're going to tell me that you have to buy Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese because you can't afford to spend 2 extra dollars a month to make your own organic version???
I'm sorry, I just don't believe that. So what's the real excuse?
I was raised on it! I love how it tastes! I'm addicted to it! My kids won't eat anything else!
Now those are excuses I believe. The question then becomes, are those excuses really good enough? Are they really a good reason to feed children toxic synthetic chemicals and GMOs (because let's face it, they don't have to label GMOs, so they are probably in there too)?
That - my friend - is for you to decide. :-)
Have a happy day,
Roxanne
Monday, April 8, 2013
Reflections on Tarot Reading
I love to read Tarot cards. I've done so ever since I got my first deck for christmas in 98. I've done some simply amazing readings! I've done readings where I've said things like: You find out this in the next two weeks or so, and immediately after the reading, the person got a call and - sure enough - found out the news that I said they would. That's really validating to me!
I've also had readings where the person was completely closed to me. They WANTED me to be wrong about everything, so no matter what I said, they told me I wasn't making sense. I've also had days where I had a headache or the cards simply wern't speaking to me.
Even so, I trust my cards and my ability to read them. I've toyed with the idea of reading cards professionally since I was about 21 - back in 2001. However, even when I advertised, I never did get much business.
Recently, I asked my Angels and the universe to help me earn an income using my (writing) skills, and their answer was to immediately send me an invitation to read my cards at a party. It took me a while, but it finally occurred to me that I should listen to my Angels. So, as of today, I am putting it out there:
Dear Angels, I asked for help and you indicated that I should try making an income by reading my cards. I will do my best to follow your advice, and now, all I ask, is that you send me plenty of opportunity in the form of people who want a reading. Thank you for all the help you have given me so far. I pray that I am in the position to pay it forward someday :-)
Love Roxanne
I've also had readings where the person was completely closed to me. They WANTED me to be wrong about everything, so no matter what I said, they told me I wasn't making sense. I've also had days where I had a headache or the cards simply wern't speaking to me.
Even so, I trust my cards and my ability to read them. I've toyed with the idea of reading cards professionally since I was about 21 - back in 2001. However, even when I advertised, I never did get much business.
Recently, I asked my Angels and the universe to help me earn an income using my (writing) skills, and their answer was to immediately send me an invitation to read my cards at a party. It took me a while, but it finally occurred to me that I should listen to my Angels. So, as of today, I am putting it out there:
Dear Angels, I asked for help and you indicated that I should try making an income by reading my cards. I will do my best to follow your advice, and now, all I ask, is that you send me plenty of opportunity in the form of people who want a reading. Thank you for all the help you have given me so far. I pray that I am in the position to pay it forward someday :-)
Love Roxanne
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