It's late January and still no snow in New York City. It was chilly and there was plenty of time to read. We saw Hansel and Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, the chilling Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale framed in this production around the concept of food. Food and climate were the themes of our weekend.
On Peoples' Mind:
"They have been calling for snow everyday this week. I'll believe it when I see it. Do you really think it will ever snow again? Feels like it won't." - Woman walking dog in Riverside Park.
"Ban Foie Gras". Several protestors held signs outside of Fairway market in New York City and yelled out to passers-by "free the geese." One person showed a gruesome laptap video depicting the practice of gavage. One onlooker said, "We are a force-fed nation, after all. If we can do it to birds we can do it to ourselves."
In The News:
Eating so much meat isn't good for our health, or the earth. There was a time when eating rich energy consuming foods was a luxury. In some cultures the eating of meat is considered sacred, in others it is simply a rare treat. Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat eater isn't important. What matters is whether or not you have a tolerance for limits. Continuing to consume meat at the current rate - 284 million tons worldwide per year, 8 ounces per day for every American alone - is not sustainable. Our planet can't sustain the billions of cattle necessary to produce so much meat. It isn't good for our bodies either.
Further, Our minds and our psyches function best when we can't always fulfill our impulses and desires. Feeding an impulse stimulates greater degrees of desire. I'm not saying starve yourself, or advocating vegetarianism - although I am one. I'm saying this: eat less! When you stuff yourself you hurt yourself, and the planet. Plus you establish an unsatiabile personality pattern, becoming someone who is never satisfied and always hungers for more, and then more, and then more . . . and there is no limit to this kind of need driven greed.
Ecological and psychological sustainability tip of the day:
Moderate yourself. Eat food, and only what you need. If you are still feeling empty, do something that matters to you. Plant a garden. See art. Go to the opera. Take a walk with a friend.
2 comments:
We are so alienated from the earth that a Master Gardener was taken to court by her neighbors for planting tomatoes and flowers in her front garden, rather than hiding them behind the house.
"One of the great unsung epics of the modern era is the worldwide diaspora of marine invasive species. Rising water temperatures brought on by global warming have allowed mauve stingers and harmful algae to thrive far beyond their native habitats. Supertankers and cargo ships suck up millions of gallons of ballast water in distant estuaries and ferry jellyfish, cholera bacteria, seaweed, diatoms, clams, water fleas, shrimp and even good-sized fish halfway around the globe."
Taras Grescoe recommends eating these invasive species, thus solving two ecological problems at the same time.
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