I’m as caught up in the primary stuff as anyone—maybe too much. I keep thinking about the perhaps apocryphal story that Mozart never once mentioned a little thing called The French Revolution in any of his letters. The guy was a bit focused on his work, I guess, and that’s looking pretty good right now.
As a Sandernista, I appreciate Richard’s hard look at Bernie’s health care plan, and Betty’s wise suggestion that both candidates rein in their more obnoxious proxies. At the very least, I’m sure we can all agree that, now more than ever, it’s GREAT not to be a Republican!
Anyhoo, I’ll be posting something politicky soon that I’m sure many of you will enjoy eviscerating. In the meantime, perhaps as a break from the all the politicking, how about some News From the Faunasphere?
- FBI now tracking animal abuse like it tracks homicides and other serious crimes. Not just for the animals’ sake, but because “research has backed up that animal abuse can be a precursor to future violent crimes.”
- A lovely piece in The New York Times on a rehab center where traumatized vets and parrots help each other heal.
- Bad news for grandma, and so effed up. States use so-called “ag-gag laws” to criminalize free speech, free assembly, and whistleblowing. They’ve primarily targeted animal activists who document animal abuse and other malfeasances at factory farms and slaughterhouses. However, North Carolina’s new version adds “nursing homes, day care centers, and veterans’ facilities” to the list of protected enterprises.
- Courageous pilot who was tracking elephant poachers in Tanzania died after his helicopter was shot down by one. Roger Gower was only 37. So sad.
- The very first cultured-meat meatball has been produced and—surprise!—tastes like a meatball. Video: https://youtu.be/Y027yLT2QY0 Mosa Meat founder says cultured meats will be on supermarket shelves within three years. (Note: cultured meat isn’t cruelty-free since it originates with non-cultured meat and requires animal-derived nutrients for growth. But it will still relieve a lot of suffering.)
Sea Shepherd is buying a new boat and it’s big (and cool).- The New York Times ponders which pronoun to use for a non-human.
- Kids from Guatemala being trafficked to work on egg farms.
- If you can’t beat ’em… After a year of feckless anticompetitive shenanigans against vegan upstart Just Mayo, Unilever (maker of Hellmann’s/Best Foods) just announced that it will sell its own brand of vegan mayo. And last, but way not least:
- It’s here!!! Ben & Jerry just (today) announced its long-awaited vegan ice creamfrozen dessert line.
Thoughts on any of the above, Juicers? Got any other fauna-related news?
Betty Cracker
My fauna news report: I see human relationship dynamics reflected in the behavior of my squabbling flock of hens. Sometimes they remind me of the Republican field, with boss hen Joan Jett playing the role of Trump and pecking the shit out of poor Fuzzbutt (the hapless Jeb of the bunch). The difference is that any one of my chickens would be a wiser, more intelligent executive than their Republican presidential counterparts.
Cermet
Almond milk as its base! Wow, another environmental damaging choice – the water needed for almond tree’s is huge and most are grown in California. Still, it is vegan … .
geg6
My fauna related news is that Lovey is fat. Winter has not been kind to her waistline.
I only realized this because I got two new doggie coats/sweaters for her at Petsmart yesterday, mainly because they were 75% off but also because they were very cute (of course, fucking Martha Stewart has her hands in the lucrative pet business!). I got the same size I got when I bought all her current sweaters, a small.
Ha! I couldn’t stuff her pudgy little body into those things to save my life. I hadn’t realized how big she has gotten over the last few months. In my defense, 16 pound Lovey still looks very, very, very small next to 96 pound Koda, so minute weight gains (and, apparently, not so minute ones) are hard to notice. So it’s off and back to Petsmart after work again today to exchange for some medium togs.
If she wasn’t so tiny, I’d just say she’s big boned.
NotMax
Whatever it may be, calling it ice cream (which Ben & Jerry’s does not do) is deceptive if not mendacious.
Mike J
It’s a pity Unilver lost. You shouldn’t be allowed to advertise a product as something it is not. No eggs, no mayo. Eggs and oil is the definition of mayo.
Which isn’t to say that fake mayo isn’t as good or bad as actual mayo. It’s just not mayo. If the name doesn’t have to reflect the contents, why not relabel some real mayo as “Vegan Mayo”?
Gin & Tonic
Good segue from 9 to 10, as liberal heroes B&J sold out to Unilever years ago.
Adam L Silverman
Is cultured meat meat that has a pretentious accent and puts on airs? Sort of the William F. Buckley of meat.
Hillary Rettig
@Betty Cracker: the way Trump seems to be folding at his first setback – so much whining and complaining IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!! – I suspect your henz could kick his ass.
if anyone weighs in with some pet lemmings, that might be an even more apt comparison for the GOP
lurker dean
that NC gag law is absolutely insane. what kind of f-ing lunatics thinks that abuse of seniors, children, and veterans should be protected?
Scott S.
That North Carolina law has gotta be one of the most purely evil laws I’ve ever seen enacted.
Hillary Rettig
@Cermet: i love how all your fingers broke right after typing that so you couldn’t, in fact, see whether almonds are a problem. Let me help you: “Replacing a glass of cow’s milk with almond milk is a net gain for the environment” http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/04/almonds_in_california_they_use_up_a_lot_of_water_but_they_deserve_a_place.html
If you’d care to post the details of your diet here we can all take a look at your resource use.
Hillary Rettig
@geg6: what kind of dog is she?
I’m struggling with Billy now who is supposed to lose a bit of weight (also big boned ;-) ) but is also on a drug that is making him ravenous. it’s actually a project to manage his intake.
schrodinger's cat
@Adam L Silverman: Cultured meat uses RP and speaks with a flawless Oxbridge accent.
Hillary Rettig
@Adam L Silverman: LOL and I have two words for you: GREY POUPON.
btw, if my meat entree spoke like WFB I’d be even more vegan than I am now.
chopper
@Mike J:
true that. federal law requires anything labeled mayonnaise to be made with eggs. IMHO labeling it ‘vegan mayo’ would be okay by me cause a reasonable person would be able to figure out it’s eggless. but selling something with no eggs and calling it ‘just mayo’ is a pretty clear violation of federal food-labeling laws.
Marc
No problem with meat here, but can’t do dairy..so I’ll give the frozen almond milk a go. It can be done pretty well, also true for coconut. Thanks for the heads-up!
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
At some point, Sea Shepherd is going to wind up getting people killed and ships sunk. I’ve seen too much footage of reckless action.
They’re raging assholes and are begging for naval action. PETA assholes on the high seas.
Hillary Rettig
@NotMax: @NotMax: fixed for you, honey, and if that’s what you consider mendacious you’ve led a sheltered life
Gin & Tonic
@Hillary Rettig: Great pull quote from an article that is way more nuanced than that. The fact that almond farming in California can be less wasteful than dairy farming in California conveniently ignores tha fact that you can run a dairy farm in way more limited agricultural areas like, say, Vermont, where the almond industry has yet to take off.
Hillary Rettig
@Mike J: You can google different recipes for mayo, so why not vegan? Also we’re operating in the realm of marketing so there’s a lot of subjectivity.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Good, because the link between animal abuse and violent crime is pretty much 1:1. Plus people who abuse animals are scum who don’t deserve to live.
Hillary Rettig
@lurker dean: i guess it’s the same group that thing we should have guns everywhere and healthy school lunches are COMMUNIZM.
Actually that’s probably more true than it seems. The Ag gag laws, like the rest of them, spew from ALEC’s putrid maw.
Emma
Well, I have something to approve of, so there. In one of the previous threads someone mentioned So Delicious Coconut Frozen Desserts, so I checked them out. AND…. I was back in my childhood. I rediscovered helado de coco and it was delicious! There was also a pretty decent coconut chocolate chip, but definitely it is the Coconut Milk one that was a fantastic find.
chopper
@Hillary Rettig:
the main reason almond milk is an environmental gain over cow’s milk is that the almond milk you buy at the store is more filler than actual almond milk.
so yeah, i guess a tall glass of carrageenan is pretty vegan. and good for mother earth too! so drink up.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman:
It is meat that stands athwart the ramparts of history, screaming, “STOP…eating me”.
Hillary Rettig
@chopper: Unilever actually sued Hampton Creek (maker of Just Mayo) for the reasons you mentioned, but then dropped the lawsuit. http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/19/news/companies/mayo-lawsuit-unilever/
Bobby Thomson
@Cermet: my great grand uncle was a pioneer in the almond business. Cold dead hands.
The Golux
@schrodinger’s cat:
Wondering what that meant, I Googled it, and there are lots of candidates. So far, I’ve eliminated Retinitis Pigmentosa, Radical Prostatectomy, Radiation Poisoning and Regis Philbin. Reese’s Pieces is a possibility…
Roger Moore
@lurker dean:
The people
doingprofiting from it.chopper
i find it ironic that so many of the same people who back the vegan “mayo” company also want more serious and better-enforced food-labeling laws in this country.
F
I hope the NC Dems go full culture war on their ass. Full page ads saying that the GOP is running interference for pedophiles.
schrodinger's cat
@The Golux: Received Pronunciation.
Hillary Rettig
@Gin & Tonic: is someone planning to grow almonds in Vermont? // also, don’t you see the CA dairy / CA almond comparison (in the article) as having some value?
schrodinger's cat
@chopper: Vegan food is like the Animal Farm of food or is it 1984?
chopper
@Hillary Rettig:
i know. that’s the comment i was responding to.
not a fan of unilever, but they were right. ‘just mayo’ clearly violated federal food-labeling guidelines.
singfoom
Aren’t these ag-gag laws blatantly unconstitutional?
NPR Story on Idaho Ag Gag Law that was struck down
If that ag-gag law was struck down, can’t that be used as precedent to try to strike down NC’s and others? I know it’s a different federal district…but…
Gotta love state legislatures, doing the Peoples* Work.
*People being defined as individuals with net worth over 500K and/or corporations.
Parmenides
I’ll say on the vegan mayo thing that I’d love for the Vegan movement to own the food. An emulsion of various plant protein and water things with oil. Sounds like interesting sauces, but its not Mayo. That its white and has thickness doesn’t make it mayo. It reminds me of the time when I worked at a whole foods like store and someone made some seitan patties with gravy and called them vegan veal.
I know everyone doesn’t cook but if vegan mayo can’t do all the things that mayo can do in cooking, doesn’t react the same as mayo when heated and so on, then labeling it as mayo is a bald face lie. I love tofurky’s, they taste nothing like turkey, in fact they don’t resemble turkey at all. But you can slice the thing and put it at the center of a table so people call it that and that’s fine because no one could ever be confused by the idea that a tofurkey is a turkey.
The fact is that the world would be better off if people ate less meat. But there will likely never be a time when people eat no meat. So creating a class of dishes that people enjoy that are meatless is a worthy goal. But it will never work if you view them as substitutions or as good as the real thing, rather than worthy dishes and ingredients in and of themselves.
chopper
@Hillary Rettig:
but that’s the point of food-labeling laws – so that said subjective marketing can’t go too far. thus you can’t sell a bar marked ‘MILK CHOCOLATE’ that has no milk or chocolate in it, and when people complain say ‘but it’s just marketing!’
A Ghost To Most
Life is too short to stop eating bacon.
Frankensteinbeck
@lurker dean:
Conservatives. Cruelty is a virtue and they’re royally pissed at federal encroachment of their right to abuse others in general. Isn’t that obvious by now?
schrodinger's cat
@Parmenides:
That’s the basis of most traditional Indian vegetarian food. Its stands on its own merits and does not try to masquerade as meat.
Cermet
@Hillary Rettig: Ouch; in answer to your request to aid me – I avoid refined carbs- esp. standard sugar, rice and potato’s and all beef and pigs since I don’t approve of eating mammals. Care to help me to avoid environmental issues further within my diet?
The issue I raised was solely focused on California due to their drought and not an attempt to say almonds, in general, are worse on the environment than cows. Clearly cows are worse. So, I clarify since… oops, fingers broke again … .
The Golux
Seems to me Just Mayo might be getting a pass on their name because “mayo” =/= “mayonnaise”, i.e. it’s a slang variant.
Hillary Rettig
@singfoom: abso-effing-lutely unconstitutional. they exist purely to harass and terrorize activists. Will Potter’s done a lot of work on this:
http://www.greenisthenewred.com
https://www.ted.com/talks/will_potter_the_secret_us_prisons_you_ve_never_heard_of_before?language=en
@chopper: well, the Just Mayo label has a plant on it and says plainly Egg-Free.
Hillary Rettig
@Parmenides: honestly I don’t know how to respond to this b/c the mayo substitutes do just fine in many uses.
Hillary Rettig
@The Golux: i think that’s it.
Cermet
@Bobby Thomson: I very much like almonds and no disrespect to them or their producers; just raising an issue that will impact future production – didn’t mean to imply almonds shouldn’t be grown
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet: Just that they shouldn’t be grown in the Central Valley?
Gin & Tonic
@Hillary Rettig: The comparison has some value, but it is not dispositive as you present it to be. But I am getting on an airplane now, so I will both despoil the environment and be unable to continue this.
p.a.
Any Juicers in Connecticut? What’s with the state budget issues? National economy isn’t great, but it’s not exactly 2008 bad. Why is the nutmeg state having such issues currently?
kc
Jesus, from the NYT story re the expansion of the “ag-gag” law in NC:
Truly appalling.
Hillary Rettig
@Gin & Tonic: safe travels
schrodinger's cat
I am off to make pizza with cruel cheese and other non-vegan stuff.
OzarkHillbilly
@kc: I suddenly feel the need to secretly record the sausage making in the NC state legislature.
Parmenides
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m thinking in reference to the american diet. I make a lot of indian dishes with no meat. Their great. Can you get fran who goes to the southern diner that serves meat and three to eat it, no.
Villago Delenda Est
Mozart was very, very busy the last two years of his life, composing some of his best known works, which overlaps the period of the French Revolution. So he can be excused.
beltane
@kc: Doesn’t NC also have a gag law regarding the discussion of global warming? The wingnuts like their freedumb to be served North Korean style.
Linda Featheringill
@Cermet:
Cashew milk has made its appearance. I’m told that cashew trees require less water.
kc
@beltane:
NC used to be sort of moderate, relative to its neighbor SC, but it’s been making giant strides in the wrong direction the past few years.
chopper
for some reason FYWP ate my earlier comment, but a big reason why almond milk is “better for the environment” is because the almond milk you buy at the store is mostly filler, with little almond in it.
so i guess a tall cup of carrageenan is truly better for mother earth. shrug.
chopper
apparently FYWP doesn’t like links to mother jones. that’s really interesting.
chopper
from the MJ link FYWP won’t allow:
Aleta
Big news this week in animal cognition and behavior: evidence of tool use in canines.
Yesterday the dog used me as a tool to open the refrigerator, remove the canned food and dish it out, eight hours before it was supposed to happen.
MomSense
I’m learning to cook a hybrid Indian/African cuisine from a friend of mine. Her family is from India originally but she grew up in Africa. Best food I have ever tried and I’m quite adventurous. I’m not at the providing recipe stage as yet, mostly because my friend does not measure anything. If I can translate her instruction into recipes, I’ll offer some.
raven
That’s a ship not a boat,
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
O/T. If I’m not mistaken, we have an occasional commenter with the nym Wally Ballou. He, and doubtless others, will be sorry to learn that Bob Elliott, half of the brilliant radio-TV comedy team “Bob and Ray,” has died at age 92 (Ray Gould died in 1990).
Makes me sad, even though he had a nice long run. I guess January 2016 wasn’t willing to give it up quite yet :-(
Calouste
@Parmenides: IMO the “Vegan Movement” doesn’t want to own the food in the way you describe because that makes it harder to convert the heathens.
geg6
@Hillary Rettig:
She’s the exact same as John’s Thurston but more auburn fur than black. They were litter mates. All we know is mom was Ginger, a poodle (of the teacup variety, I believe) and father is an unknown breed. John was fostering them and he brought me Lovey last spring.
Cermet
@OzarkHillbilly: Just that right now almond tree’s can’t survive in the Central Valley due to climate change and it will only get worse in the future. It is doomed regardless of my post and needs to be changed since it is very water intensive and the farmers need to be helped to change. Using more almonds from there will just compound the issue like the US thinking fracking will really solve the collapse of oil as a fuel.
MomSense
@geg6:
I have been thinking of making custom hand knit sweaters for dogs. Maybe I can experiment and make something for Lovey. You would have to tell me what features are desirable and Lovey’s favorite colors, of course.
Hillary Rettig
@Cermet: is there a significantly more sustainable tree nut? cashew?
singfoom
@Cermet: What’s even crazier than that is that they grow cotton in California and Arizona.
Propublica Project on Cotton in Arizona
The relevant snip from the article:
Our tax dollars at work, growing the thirstiest crops in the most arid of places…because….we can?
geg6
@MomSense:
Oh, she’d love that! She loves her sweaters!
The biggest problem we’ve found with knit sweaters is that the necks are usually not tight enough to stay on when she’s wiggling around. She’s always wiggling half out by accident unless we keep her harness on. As for colors, we think she looks lovely in purples and bright greens. Pinks also too.
Hillary Rettig
@geg6: cute! the not-quite-so devilish one of the litter, if I recall correctly
M31
Well, Mozart died in 1791 and he was psychotically busy, so not writing about something that started in 1789 is not too surprising.
When he was a little boy Marie Antoinette held him on her lap and fed him off her plate, so he probably was following events.
“when he was a little boy and had already written 12 symphonies”
chopper
@Hillary Rettig:
other tree nuts may have similar or even higher water requirements (like walnuts), but at least can be grown in parts of the country that have consistent rainfall and thus don’t require large amounts of irrigation and fossil water.
the biggest problem with almonds is that in america they don’t really grow anywhere other than the central valley.
jacy
@geg6:
Elliot is fat. There, I said it. And I’ve got him on salmon/pea dog food for his stupid French bulldog itchiness, plus a tablespoon of coconut oil. I’ve been measuring his food, but he’s still fat. I suspect that it’s the fact that I can’t stand to look at him while I’m eating without sharing. I am a terrible dog parent. He just had frozen yogurt with me in the car on the way home from picking up the kidlets.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel:
FYWP for not letting me edit. Of course, that’s Ray Goulding (not Gould).
Bobby Thomson
@Cermet: I know. Just razzing.
Goblue72
All this talk of food has me hungry for some steak tartare. The proper kind, with a raw egg yolk on top. Some foie gras would be tasty right now too. With a nice Gamay.
jacy
@Linda Featheringill:
I heartily enjoy cashew milk. It makes a great fruit smoothie. Also good with cookies.
lumpkin
@Cermet:
This “almonds are a big waste of water” meme seems like a really popular notion that is absolutely never backed up by numbers. People gotta eat something. How much water does it take to produce an equivalent amount of nutrition from other sources. I don’t know, but it seems kind of intuitively obvious that beef or dairy products are almost certainly much more water intensive on a comparative basis.
And how do you think the land that currently hosts almond trees would be used instead? Golf courses? Feed lots? Suburban tracts, with big lawns out front?
Stop bashing almonds unless you have data to back it up and suggestions for alternatives.
Yutsano
@Villago Delenda Est: @M31: There is also the minor point that whatever illness killed him (still suspected to be syphilis) was taking over his body at that time yet he was throwing himself at work. So in addition to being busy he was dying.
singfoom
@lumpkin: This is relevant to the discussion at hand:
LA Times Food Water Foot Print Interactive Thingy
I think that meme got traction less for almonds sucking up water more than other things than for the almond production central being in the California drought zone.
geg6
@Hillary Rettig:
Yeah, I’m not so sure about that! She’s pretty damn devilish! But not the crazed barker that Thurston is. She barks like a nut to let us know she needs to go outside, to alert us to visitors and any time the firemen at the VFD next door are outside in the parking lot or the trucks are pulling out/in.
Hillary Rettig
@jacy: we actually prefer cashew milk; much richer than almond. use it for everything except coffee (soy)
Cermet
@singfoom: Again, I like almonds and in no way believe they are the worst crop grown there – alfalfa is most likely. Glad to know the insanity of cotton growing there and Arizona. Again, continued growing of almonds is a bad idea with climate change happening and switching to almond products isn’t going to help matters but make them worse. Growing cotton in areas requiring irrigation is simply insane and proof (like we need it) that right wingers will always pay the rich to get richer regardless of the consequences – like fracking subsidies; and interestingly, the Saudi’s are currently trying to kill US fracking and setting themselves up for a revolution (thank goodness.)
Hillary Rettig
@chopper: gebus nuts are complicated http://grist.org/food/what-are-the-most-eco-friendly-nuts/
oz29
Sea Shepherd actually causes me to root for the whalers — not for them to have a successful whaling voyage, but rather for a successful pirate hunting cruise.
Hillary Rettig
@M31: yes but the peasants were revolting long before that ;-)
MomSense
@geg6:
Good to know. You’ll have to post her measurements.
Hillary Rettig
@oz29: given that Sea Shepherd actually succeeds at its mission of preventing whale slaughter, your loyalties must be pretty mixed
Hillary Rettig
@singfoom: TERRIFIC LINK thanks so much
geg6
@jacy:
I feel your shame. We give her too much people food, too.
Part of Lovey’s problem, I think, is she’s really muscular through her chest and it makes her look big. That comes from spending all day wrestling with Koda. When a 16 pound dog wrestles all day with an almost 100 pound dog, muscles will grow a lot no matter what. I also think it makes her have a huge appetite. We’re going to start our spring walking routine early since the winter has been mild. Hopefully, that will take care of what my John calls her fat ass.
MomSense
Lip sync battle currently has a stage full of Trumps singing “I Touch Myself”. Ha.
The Golux
@p.a.:
Just west of Hartford. I know there are others.
Juice and nutmeg – made for each other.
oz29
@Hillary Rettig: Nope. Terrorists are terrorists, whether they share my beliefs or not.
PJ
@Villago Delenda Est: Not to mention that he wasn’t French. I would not be surprised if the vast majority of people who were alive in 1789 and writing letters never mentioned the French Revolution, or at least not until their countries went to war with France.
goblue72
@Cermet: Try this one – growing sushi rice in California’s Central Valley, just to export it to Japan.
Cermet
@lumpkin: I have not “bashed” almonds nor growing of these wonderful and nutritious nuts. Compared to many things I am sure almonds use less water and so? The absoult fact is that almond tree’s do not grow naturally in the Central Valley with normal rain fall there much less what they will receive from now on due to climate change and that needs to be addressed; creating more support for almonds from that area isn’t helping anyone in the long run with current practices of irrigation (another fact for you.) It is tragic since it takes so long to grow mature tree’s and I do feel the farmers need to find either more drought resistant crops or be helped to develop drip irrigation but further expansion does not make any sense considering … here it comes again … the FACT that conditions, in the long run will get worse and not better.
I am not responsible for this stupid practice of developing crop usage in near deserts nor should I be required to suggest alternatives nor does that justify even worse practices so that was, is and remains a straw man you threw in; so as such, I do not need to develop these alternates but facts are facts and these and many other crops will not be sustainable whether I point out the emperor has no clothes or not.
mclaren
Just a friendly reminder that Hillary will not be the Democratic nominee. Everyone knows Hillary Clinton has no chance of winning the general election.
Cermet
@goblue72: yes, I am familiar with that practice and that just proves my point – most of central valley’s crops cannot be sustained in this warming world as I pointed out relative to almonds (since the post was also about a new vegan product using almonds.) And so your point is what, exactly? Grow almonds because rice is worse? (If it is – that I have no data on but since you brought it up, would be a good idea to determine.)
In no manner does this invalidate my point.
Ryan
You know who else treated the invalent like cattle?
chopper
@mclaren:
of course, you’re the one who said:
Mnemosyne
@lumpkin:
The problem is that almonds are a big waste of water in a state suffering a multi-year drought. Even the article Hillary linked to concedes that it’s going to turn into a fight over who gets that water, almond trees or human beings. Ironically, the animal feed crops are moving to more water-rich states, which means almonds are taking up even more water than before:
Ultraviolet Thunder
Fauna news? Our little hen African Grey parrot Sunny has laid a fourth egg. Guys, I can’t tell you how shockingly big these things are from a bird that weighs less than a pound. We’ve got to get her to knock this off because she’s 35 and it’s hard on her system long term. But it appears that this is her reaction to having a very favorable environment since we adopted her. Thanks, but cool it okay little girl?
Cermet
@lumpkin: By the way, don’t be a typical troll and attribute a quote I never said; I didn’t imply it either. That is underhanded and low.
Mnemosyne
@singfoom:
Pretty much the entire West Coast is in the drought zone, including Washington and Oregon. Other food products can be moved to other states — and are moving — but the only place almonds will grow in the US is central California.
I realize that the rest of the country doesn’t give a shit about California as long as you can continue eating the food we grow for you, but this drought really is a huge problem that needs to be dealt with. Telling us to just stop eating dairy and meat doesn’t actually solve the drought, and planting even more almond trees makes it worse.
debbie
Hey, can someone please make sure Elizabelle sees this? It’s that clip of Cruz’s daughter recoiling from her father.
This version includes sound. There are much longer versions at youtube.
I tried scrolling back through Balloon Juice threads, but clicking on subsequent pages only brings up the current front page.
Thanks!
NotMax
@Hillary Rettig
Your superciliousness is exceeded only by your zealotry.
I am not your “honey.” Organically harvested or otherwise.
Unabogie
@Hillary Rettig:
Yay for Balloon Juice vegans!
That is all.
lumpkin
@Cermet:
My point was that if the land isn’t used to grow almonds, it will be used for something else. And the facts on the actual ground are that if the water doesn’t grow almonds, it will grow something else – golf courses, cattle feed, suburbanites, etc. you know the drill. It is an absolute given that all available water in CA will be used for something. Might as well be something that is relatively productive per gallon. And yeah – given this set of facts, you prolly ought to suggest what you think is an achievable alternative use. Otherwise, you’re just wanking.
delk
I miss my dog!
Since I had my shoulder surgery earlier this month I cannot take him for his usual afternoon walk so my husband drops him off at doggy daycare in the morning and picks him up after work.
Although the dog is having a blast, it’s a bit lonely around the house.
It’s ironic since the two of us were featured in a Dogs That Heal exhibition.
Cermet
I will say this – if California is the ONLY place almonds can be grown in North America, I must admit then it would be logical to find a way to make this work regardless of the problems as long as the solutions make both ecological sense and aren’t overly energy intensive nor “stick it” to the taxpayer. Those tree’s take a VERY long time to grow and alternatives locations/supplies might not be possible.
Now you are being a real republican ass – you say I am wanking because I said some things that are true and you can’t refute? Please. Try to act mature instead of like a thirteen year old boy who is acting out.
magurakurin
@oz29:
And more importantly not only do they cause you to root for the whalers, they cause the Japanese people to do so as well. Most younger people in Japan have never eaten whale meat. It isn’t part of the mainstream diet. It is a throw back to an older time and entrenched interests keep it alive. The Japanese people could probably be persuaded to turn against the whaling fleets, but attacking working class seamen isn’t going to get it done. The only way the Japanese whaling stops is with backroom talks to persuade Japanese officials to abandon it. It’s just the way things are done here. It’s kind of shitty that that is so, but as far as getting the whaling to stop, Sea Shepherd ain’t helping. And I totally agree that the Japanese whaling industry should just stop.
singfoom
@Mnemosyne: So one, I used to live in CA till just a year ago and I’ve seen the effects of the drought firsthand myself. I have plenty of friends there still. So, I do care about the state outside of it being our country’s breadbasket.
Second, I don’t see above where I said anything about anyone stopping eating dairy or meat. I merely provided a link that showed how much water is used to produce various food items. So I’m not sure where you’re coming from….
It is absolutely something that needs to be dealt with and one step that would help is to reduce the agricultural subsidies to thirsty crops that can be grown elsewhere. There are many other steps, like all the non grass lawns I saw proliferating in my neighborhood before I moved away.
Cheers.
lurker dean
@Roger Moore: very true. and kidding aside, i know a lot of conservatives are fine with kicking brown people, women, immigrants, gays, etc. but these laws affect their family, one would think/hope they would draw the line somewhere. i guess i underestimate their greed.
lumpkin
@Cermet:
I meant the quotes to apply to the “meme”. I thought that you were promoting that notion, but I did not suggest that you said that exact thing. What you actually said was “an environmentally damaging choice”, which I assumed to be in support of the water waste meme. I now understand that your point is more nuanced, but it wasn’t at all apparent in your initial comment.
Also, I would suggest that you calling me a troll when it is not warranted is……trolling.
schrodinger's cat
I best drink from the cashew tree is not milk (?) but feni.
Cashews probably need even more water than almond trees do since the cashew growing regions in western India are the ones that get the heaviest monsoon rains.
lumpkin
@Cermet:
Final point: I presume that most people who say (in whatever way) negative things about almonds basically are mimicking the ideas in this article
Perhaps one of the key statements in the article is this: “we should probably consider them a delicacy, a special treat.” My response would be: as opposed to what? – cheese and steak?
The real answer to this problem is just simply sane water use policies, along with whatever level of regulation/government control of the market is required to insure that healthy food is grown sustainably and water resources are used efficiently. I don’t think that that day is in our near future so we need to recognize the political reality that almonds may in fact be the best possible use of that land under the current circumstances.
FWIW, I am not, nor ever have been a republican. And, except for calling me a republican, thanks for the interaction.
Miss Bianca
and in other weird fauna news…nothing says “I love you” like a remote-control fire-breathing duck decoy:
Perfect for the pyromaniac duck hunter or PETA activist in your life!
goblue72
@Cermet: Chill out. I was mostly agreeing with your overall point about water intensive cash crops grown in CA.
BruceFromOhio
@lumpkin:
This made me squirm in my chair a bit. If I read the MJ articles correctly (and there is a LOT of linky goodness in those, thank you) the food supply has some pretty significant momentum built into it. In my neck of the woods, square miles beyond count are devoted to growing inedible corn that gets rendered into rail cars of high fructose corn syrup. Yuck! Where is the edible stuff? California, almost entirely, it seems.
Regulation is what got us here, along with the good-intentions-but-awful-results farm subsidy system (cotton in CA? are you f’ing kidding me?) and all the momentum we have around our food supply over decades – what we have today didn’t just pop up overnight. What will change it is how people every day spend their coin on food. When that changes, the food supply will change with it. And conversations that challenge the thinking and behavior on a personal basis are emblematic of how that change can occur, one shopper-diner-cook-chef at a time.
A local co-op not too far away is a hydroponics farm. The lettuce and herbs are just the start of what they can do: fresh veggies, locally grown, in the dead of winter, using a renewable resource efficiently. Is it the whole answer? Hell no, not even close. But it’s a start to how things change. With the two-bit soulless criminals now running the legislatures just about everywhere, regulation isn’t going to do it. Getting people to think about how they spend their money on food will get us there a lot faster.
lumpkin
@BruceFromOhio:
You will note that I didn’t say any and all regulation was good what I said was: insure that healthy food is grown sustainably and water resources are used efficiently.
I know that libertarian/conservative types think that good and effective regulation is impossible, but they have never been to Somalia or other libertarian paradises- perhaps you should consider a summer vacation in the Levant. The fact is, that we mostly think of regulation as being bad because that’s the only form of it we ever see – like the examples you cited. Most of it is unseen. How would you like to have to research every restaurant or hotel or every food or other thing you consume before you do so? Do you want to establish your own regulations for airline safety? Sure, you can sue if the airplane crashes, but it won’t help you. You don’t have to do all these things because of – guess what? – Regulations. It is possible to make things work, and this is what we need to strive for, not a caveat emptor environment where it’s all against all and everyone is on their own.
Mnemosyne
@singfoom:
Sorry, that “you” in the ranty part was more of a general purpose out to the universe “you” rather than meaning, well, you.
What we REALLY need in CA is for our legislators and governor to stand up to agricultural interests and mandate water-saving agriculture methods, but they’re a very powerful lobby and even Jerry Brown is afraid of them. Almond farming can probably be made more sustainable with better irrigation methods, but casting it as a simple “meat/dairy vs nuts” is, well, simplistic.
Roger Moore
@Hillary Rettig:
21CFR169.140(c), that’s why. By federal regulation, mayonnaise must contain egg yolks, either liquid, dried, or frozen. If it doesn’t contain egg yolks, it would have to be sold as imitation mayonnaise or vegan dressing, or something similar. I suppose it’s possible that the FDA would accept “vegan” as a modifier indicating that it was a vegan substitute for something normally prepared with animal products, but that’s certainly not guaranteed.
Darkrose
@Mnemosyne: A couple of years ago, we drove down 5 from Sacramento to San Diego. On the way we passed multiple billboards proclaiming that Obama (naturally), Pelosi, and Brown were to blame for the water shortage. It was at that point that I pretty much lost whatever remaining faith I had in humanity because hello, there is no water because IT HASN’T FUCKING RAINED, YOU MORONS!
Darkrose
Trufax: I live almost equidistant between Big Abortion–Planned Parenthood at one end of the street–and Big Almond–the main Blue Diamond processing plant at the other end. There’s a small building next to the almond factory with a sign calling it the Almond Innovation Center. I really want to know what they do; I assume they’re trying to figure out ways to grow almonds with more efficient water use. I’m a little afraid to think of what else it might be.
polyorchnid octopunch
I’m just going to leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI