lions, tigers and bears oh my

This isn’t about food. It’s about us. It’s about them. Them, in this case, is all the other species. I read the other day that in just one or two more decades there won’t be any more lions left in the wild. That’s just 10 -20 years from now! I may have grandchildren who don’t know what it’s like to have wild animals on planet earth like I grew up with. A couple of weeks ago I read how there are less than 4000 tigers in the wild and over 10,000 in captivity. Only about 1000 of those being in zoos with the rest owned privately. The point here is that the wildlife on our planet isn’t very wild anymore. The wild places are being developed, cleared and taken over by us, the homo sapiens. I don’t even like to think about the reported over 27,000 species per year going extinct. The planet is considered by scientists today to be going through a mass extinction even as I write this. It’s not from any sudden cataclysmic event like the causes of past earth extinctions that we know of. As I found on the site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html , “it’s not a chance asteroid collision, nor a chain of climatic circumstances alone that’s at fault. Instead, it is chiefly the activities of an ever-growing human population, in concert with long-term environmental change”. What is wrong with us as a species that we cannot see, acknowledge or figure out how to live on this planet without using up and destroying everything else on a scale rivaling global annihilation of life? I think we have the mental capability to figure out how to do it, easily. We have the resources on the planet, if it’s not too late, to make the things we need in a sustainable way so we stop the destruction and endless exhaustion of resources. We certainly have the numbers of people to do the physical work required for any project, even on a global scale. We have the pooled finances between us to accomplish anything we want, which shouldn’t even be an issue since it’s our responsibility for messing it up in the first place. There is no reason I can think of why we, the homo sapiens, as a species do not, can not and are not stopping the waste and destruction of the planet itself and every living species on it, including ourselves … except plain old laziness. I would have said ignorance, but I think even the most remote members of indigenous tribes are getting the gist of things aren’t going along like they used to. Many or most of us see or have heard things on the planet aren’t all that great. I don’t mean to belittle us all when I say laziness but I feel it myself. It’s too much sometimes to have to think about the burden of changing my whole lifestyle to do my share to effect the changes we all need to make in the world for it to survive. It’s easier for us to just wish it weren’t the way it is. Hope someone else will take care of it. Trust the planet will heal itself and it’ll all just all be ok like we took for granted it always would be, without us as an individual having to do anything or change our life. But it just can’t go on like it has and still is. It is like a bubble getting bigger and bigger. It will burst. There is no place on the planet that is not at least beginning to feel the squeeze of human encroachment from the swell of our population. There are just too many people to support the way the global economy has been set up. Sure it’s nice to have everything and anything we can think of right down the road, 24/7, but we also have to consider the cost. We must either willingly realize what we are doing and change our ways soon or we will sooner or later, inevitably be forced to change, like it or not. Just like our recent global financial meltdown, the rampant resource-based consumerism will melt down because the stuff to make it all just won’t be there anymore. I knew someone once who had a job just to earn the money to go shopping at Wal-Mart and other discount stores because it made her happy. That’s what she enjoyed doing. Driving to the stores to buy stuff she didn’t need just to have something enjoyable to do. Seriously, there are alternatives and we have to stop being stupid. What really concerns me most is the soil, water and other resources that won’t be there to make the stuff we call food. We take it for granted more than anything else. Food is everywhere in our world. It’s there in a dazzling array of endless variety in the supermarkets scattered across this country not more than 5 miles away from any of us, if that far and usually at least a convenience store much closer open 24 hours a day! Without lifting a finger, to grow, make or produce it, we have abundant, pretty food at our fingertips practically all the time. I guess this little blog was about food after all. That’s all I have to say about this for now. Don’t know what to do in my immediate world about the lions and tigers but be sad for their plight. And I also wish, hope that somewhere, someone on this planet can effect the changes that need to be made before it’s too late for everything.

Who makes real food anymore

Today I’m in Tampa with my daughter in the hospital. I wasn’t able to go anywhere else for food and had to get dinner in the cafeteria. The cafeteria appears to actually be a salad bar, drink fountains, dessert case and a few common restaurant food chain counters such as Saborro, Subway and the old traditional cafeteria of Morrison’s. I was surprised to find it like that and not just one big regular cafeteria with a kitchen where all the food is actually cooked from scratch like in some big hospitals I’ve been to. I decided on the Morrison’s fried chicken, because it looked the best of several not so good-looking choices. I got what looked like fresh steamed broccoli. I kinda wanted the mashed potatoes and decided to ask the  server if they were made from real potatoes. It is unfortunate I have to even ask that question, but I find myself doing it all the time now. Not surprisingly, she shook her head and said “no, they’re instant”. I got the macaroni and cheese. It was not any good either and not even the Morrison’s mac and cheese I knew and loved from childhood though I know it’s bad for me food. The server then asked if I wanted cheese on my broccoli as she held the spoon over an orangish brown sauce. I asked if it was real cheese. She just looked at me and shook her head no. I said “no thanks” and took my styrofoam box plate. As I was leaving I spoke to a woman who was standing there, looking at the food considering getting it. I said “you’re old enough to remember the kind of food we grew up on that was real home-made food?”. She said “yes, but with everyone working all the time, no one has time to cook anymore”. I told her that this was true. And I told her about the mashed potatoes. We talked about it being fast food and how that’s all everyone seems to eat anymore and it’s a reason we have so much obesity and health problems in our country.  Then I realized the workers in the restaurants and food places were working all the time too, but they were working making food, so why couldn’t they make the food the real way since that was their job anyway? She just smiled and said “you’ll never be able to do it, but good luck”. I’ve thought about it all day and it is a good question. Since we don’t have time to cook anymore and have to rely on our food being prepared in the restaurants by people whose job it is to cook our food, why aren’t they actually cooking the food with ingredients? Why are the restaurants serving us the instant, boxed, bagged, canned and frozen foods we could get in the grocery store and go home and microwave for ourselves?

Hello world!

I have to begin by dedicating this blog to my children, granddaughter and all of the children, especially those who cannot speak for themselves and have to eat only what is given to them. Bless their hearts and the food they eat. May we always remember the importance of the food we eat, from the field or farm to our plate, grow what we can and take the time to lovingly prepare it ourselves and share it with those we love.