Cooking Up Rotten Eggs, Sunny Side Up....A "Recall" Reality Check

September 23rd, 2010

One of the things that often frustrate me about people today is the disconnect between the world they feel they live in, and the rest of the world beyond their backyards. These are the people who live in a vacuum, who choose not to see the truth that surrounds them every day, who believe everything they see on television and read in the paper, who believe that those in power do all they can to serve and protect them.

But then a recall happens.

Just a few weeks ago it was the massive egg recall. Yesterday, Jack DeCoster and his son, Peter DeCoster of Wright County Egg Operations, "testified" in a hearing held by a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee about their part in the massive 550 million egg recall which sickened over 1600 people. While they pledged not to sell any fresh eggs until their farm was proven to be disease-free, the DeCosters' testimony was liberally peppered with assertions that they were proud of the work they had done thus far, despite deplorable conditions inside the egg factory, such as live rodents(infected with salmonella), innumerable flies and maggots, and mounds of manure. DeCoster has a felony conviction for knowingly hiring illegal aliens and was once named a "habitual violator" of Iowa environmental laws. Though his status barred him from expanding his state operations for 5 years, his farms still produce about 10% of all eggs in America, and have tested positive for salmonella 73 times in the past 2 years.

A few weeks ago, consumers were panicking about a milk recall in five states(New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island), due to improper pasteurization. Supermarkets hurried to remove their products off the shelves, and people checked their refrigerators to ensure they did not own any of the tainted milk.

It seems that lately, there is a recall every month. Yet the question remains: Do people truly care about the state of their food? Do these concerns melt away after the eggs are scrambled, the meat cooked, the milk poured chilled, frothy white into tall glasses? It is painfully clear during times such as these, that people are so quick to demand redress after their naive sense of security is shattered, but do not do much to research their food sources. No longer do people know where their food comes from, and it is not until a recall occurs that they care to know about the conditions on the factory farms upon which animals are raised and slaughtered for meat and milk. One need not be a member of Greenpeace or PETA to have compassion or at the very least, to be informed. There is no excuse for voluntary ignorance. When we do not demand more, we receive less and less. A recall only has to happen once in order for most people to get the message, or at least it should.

Well, we can only hope.

As a nation, we must:
1. Demand an end to genetically modified plants and seeds, herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides. Many so-called "organic farms" have adopted the name, but not the safe practices. Factory farm runoff (manure and other waste) runs off into land used for conventional farmland, and this is the source of most salmonella outbreaks, as salmonella comes from animals infected with the bacteria.

2. Demand an end to factory farms. Ensure that ruminants like cows and sheep are fed grass, not GMO grain and soy. Ladies and gents, the next time you go to the supermarket and purchase "vegetarian fed" beef, all it means is that the cows were not fed pieces of other cows mixed in with their grain, but they were fed corn and soybeans, which is bad for them. Feedlot cattle are often infected with e.coli from eating their own feces. First prize to the lucky person who guesses who eats THAT meat! Don't forget about the pigs and chickens, who are equally diseased and mistreated. Grass-fed cows, those that are raised outside on pasture, rarely get sick, unlike factory raised cattle, who need anti-biotics to treat infections from their bodies' inability to process grains, and from cross-contamination from their own feces in crowded feed lots. For information on where to find clean food, log on to http://www.eatwild.com or http://www.westonaprice.org. Write to your elected officials and remind them who they work for. YOU. 


3. Travel to local farms and farmer's markets and meet the people who labor day and night to grow our food hygienically and with love and pride. We must do our part in insuring they have a livelihood. 


4. If you are up to it and have space, explore the option of growing vegetables or fruit at home. It can help renew your connection to the earth and remind you how connected we really are. If you are more impatient, or live in an apartment, you can try an Aerogarden and have the satisfaction of a steady supply of fresh, clean veggies in a matter of weeks.


Bottom line: We all live on this Earth, and we all have to ensure our food supply is safe. Do not leave it up to someone else or assume that while you are busy living your life, that someone cares more about you and your loved ones than you do. If you do, it could be a very painful mistake, and I bet a lot worse than a bout of diarrhea. 

The Boys' AND Girls' Treehouse

There are times when I wonder in whose best interest the constant warfare between men and women truly benefits. But then I realize that I know exactly who.

Many women are taught from an early age to suppress their masculine urges, a.k. 'don't play rough with your brother, you'll ruin your pretty clothes', or told which games to play, i.e. 'those toys are for boys'. Giving a little girl a doll reinforces the caretaker role they are expected to perform in adulthood. Depending on their upbringing, they may perfect this role, or if alienation, neglect or abuse occur, they may seek instead to be the ones cared for and protected by the Other. Many times, this "other" is a male figure, but not always, as this search for validation can be expressed in a multitude of ways.
Not only are women taught that their femininity depends on their lack of masculinity, they are also taught that men are meant to be misunderstood, manipulated, seduced, or mocked, as a normal part of adult life. Still, their femininity is celebrated mostly as a way to attract men, rather than celebrate their own beauty in and of itself. For some, it is not enough to be successful, beautiful, intelligent. One must also have a man to "share their life with", even if it is not specifically for marriage. The ingrained behavior, along with a lifetime of low expectations about men, cause them to utilize all the tricks and coercions their mothers taught them in order to "keep their man in check". Of course, this backfires, as men resent being treated like puppy dogs or little boys. Men have their own issues.

At an early age, much like women, men are given their roles, handed them along with tube socks, GI Joes, baseball bats. To "throw like a girl" is a condemnation to a lifetime of humiliation. No man wants to be weak, prissy, worst of all, to show emotion and cry when life's punches are thrown his way. Men are taught that the only emotion worthy of expressing is anger. Everything else is held deep inside, and when a man finally opens up, it appears akin to anger even if it is not. To kill, to destroy, to compete, to chase and conquer(animals, countries and women for that matter). These are all masculine ambitions, and the pressure is magnified by thousands of years of society telling men who they are supposed to be. While women have struggled to gain a foothold in the world of men, men of the 21st century have little left to identify with as being intrinsically male. Now that women have become doctors, lawyers, law enforcement officers, military personnel, scientists and astronauts, men are at a loss. Now that women have "invaded" their world, it's not as if they can easily return the favor. Those few who are in touch with their feminine side are ridiculed, tormented, even attacked.

So what are men and women to do? Continue to work within the established paradigm, or move through a different tunnel into a new reality, one that says it's ok to be a male ballet dancer as much as it is to be a female construction worker? We are already making strides in many areas, but there is still much to improve upon. Perhaps this is where the big red elephant in the room comes in: Sex. There are two prevailing attitudes about sex in modern society, for the most part. It is either an act employed for the sole purpose of procreation and performed with the lights off, in order to minimize passion, or it is an explosion of overt carnal pleasure, with none of the spiritual implications of the union of the two sexes.
Perhaps if the two were somehow blended, there would be more joy in the act rather than a rush to explode into orgasm and fall asleep, or cover up under the blankets and pray for conception. Perhaps we have received sex as a gift, to unify our masculine and feminine nature, our primal, animalistic urges and the spiritual hunger we all carry within us to know the secrets of the universe. We are more than just flesh, but spirit too, so perhaps this union of flesh is meant to join our souls together as well as our bodies, in mutual love, respect and joy.

It's just a thought, one I have pondered many times whenever I see the battle of the sexes enacted over and over all around me. Now that women have found their strength and independence, I feel it is time for men to release their pent up emotions and allow themselves to feel. Perhaps it is time for the boys and girls to play together rather than apart. It could create for some interesting discoveries.

Peace.

I Greet You All With Love

Hello Everyone,

I'd like to start out by saying a big "Thank You" for reading this post. I hope to give people a great deal of information in this blog, information that may anger some, and frighten others, but hopefully empower all. We are all threads in the fabric of this Earth, and while our colors may be bright or dull, loose, or tightly wound up, if we do not pull together, we all unravel. Information is power, power gives way to responsibility. The more we learn, the more we are responsible to teach this knowledge to those who will come after us. We must ask ourselves if what we hope to pass down to our children is the best we have to offer. If not, there is still time. But we do not have forever.

We live in a world of separation between what serves the higher good, and what is self-serving, and benefits no one. We are becoming sicker in body and mind, ever more lost, ever more depressed. Ever more out of touch with that which is our purpose. And we seek connection, with the help of electronic devices....Yet we are still separated from others, and from our true selves. Though technology crosses borders, there are still walls that keep us from true communion with each other.

Where is the joy that we seek? We compare our lives to those of others with more possessions, those who appear to have what we lack in beauty, romantic relationships, fame or success. Are they any more important than us? Do we breathe in less air than they, are our hurts less painful, our challenges less real? We spend more time watching "reality" TV than living within our own reality, actively creating our lives, and manifesting what we desire. We are caught up in lack thoughts that do no serve us----telling us we need more and more in order to live happily, when in reality what we truly need is to simplify our lives. Spend more time with our families. Visit with friends instead of voice chat, email, texting. We need to appreciate our differences in order to see that we balance each other out, no one more important than the other.

We are going through a crisis as a global community, but if we stand side by side, and remember our humanity, we can see past the greed of politicians, the madness of the zealous theocrats, the mindless distractions the media places in front of us to distract us from our true purpose. We each have one. Many of us are suffering from illness, poverty, financial hardships, injustice, and these should inspire compassion in us for others just as we hope to inspire sympathy from those we encounter.

I see a brother, a sister in each one of you. I hope to leave you all tonight with a message of hope:
Love can carry us through any challenge. Honor each other, honor the Earth from whence you came, and know that strong communities are the foundations of strong societies. We CAN change our course, but we must change our hearts. Love allows us to see new possibilities, Fear keeps us staring at a window that is boarded up with wooden planks....hiding our potential to shine.
Though we walk through fire, we are as grains of sand, slowly smoldering until we become incandescent. We become glass, and see all of our faces reflected within it.

I love you all.