Stuffed and Starved

Yesterday I finished reading Raj Patel's "Stuffed and Starved." Enlightening, showing how all the dots connect to food, poverty, and power on our planet. Raj is not American, and I truly valued the perspective of America's role in the world. Sobering.

The fear of the restless masses destabilizing governments and threatening the bottom line for businesses has made the poor poorer and the rich richer. The poor grow our food, the rich profit from their labors. On the receiving end, the poor cannot afford good healthy food. Instead they are subjected to subsidized, processed crap, cheap carbs, high fructose corn syrup, soy, etc. So as this unhealthy diet spreads, so does diabetes and heart disease.

There are so many things wrong with this picture it would, and did, fill a book. Raj Patel's to be precise.

His prescription is a blend of what I'm starting to do already (locavorism, eating lower on the food chain, CSA, fair trade...), which are personal actions, and the group actions that are so much more challenging-- using those wonderful rights in the USA's First Amendment

Speech
Press
Religion
Assembly
Petitioning the government.

My birthday gift to USA is to flex these rights. That which we exercise gets stronger.

Peace, y'all

Molly

More on food

What is a more basic need than food? Only one--water. Food is essential, as is "of essence." It's vital, as in our lives depend on it. How fortunate are most Americans that they think about what to eat, and how much, rather than IF they can eat.

Some of the 300 members of BeadforLife are HIV-positive. The meds for the HIV are free, but they stimulate appetite, so before BeadforLife came around, they would not take the meds because they couldn't feed their appetites. OMG.

Defrosting the frostfree freezer requires emptying it. Now a full freezer is more efficient than an empty one, but it distressed me to see how many "freezer mysteries" persist. These are generally good meals I make too much of, so I freeze the rest before it goes bad. I always intend to have "freezer mysteries" on the week's menu but we can't get ahead of it.

Freezer mysteries will be on our menu at least twice a week until I start thinking my freeze is too empty. This will also keep me out of the grocery store, and save me that time and gasoline and money, and exposure to the marketing mania that is retail food.

Also on the food theme, I'm on track to bake my first ever loaf of sourbread. I fed the starter today. Thursday I'll feed it in the a.m, mix the dough in the p.m. (and feed it once more) and prep, then Friday, I'll actuallly bake. I'm excited and hopeful. If this succeeds I will have a new way to eat healthier.

BeadForLife proceeds so far: $995! Oh so close to a nice round number. I hope to surpass another round number by this time next week (after sales at work, at my Quaker gathering, and with my friends who can't come to the LR party. I love giving parties like this and I really love raising money for our sisters in Uganda.

Bread baking

I went today to a bread baking class the local slow food group sponsored. It was fine fun, and most of the folks also bought some of my BeadforLife offerings. I also had good time with a good friend of mine, an altogether good time. How can I be so blessed when so many others are not?

We are thawing our frostfree fridge, which had an amazing unauthorized ice buildup on the coils. I have never before taking apart a fridge this way. The emptying of the freezer went quite easily, since we did this just one month ago (apparently we didn't get to the root of the problem, though). And it's still clean from last month so that's one other thing we didn't have to tend to.

Thanks to God for portable hair dryers/freezer defrosters.

Peace, y'all

Molly

Eating together

This is a path to peacemaking I really relate to. That's why my husband and I agreed to bring dinner and an activity to the local youth center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queers, straight kids. Gliberty-Qs.

It was very satisfying for me to accept so much appreciation for the food. I still feel a purr coming on when I recall their declarations and their gusto for the grub.

It also was a stretch for me this time, because each youth--every single one--was plugged into his or her or zer phone or PC, or both. They were not fully present. Part of me thinks - these kids have enough challenges, maybe their phone is all they have going for them. Then I think -- we cooked for 3 hours, brought good food to BE with you kids, can't you give us common courtesy?

Yin and Yang, Salt and Pepper, Day and Night, good and bad, it's all there. I realize I must relax my rigidness and be more open to building relationships. And work a little harder at remembering preferred pronouns.

Maybe next time I'll bring a movie so if the kids want to tune out with their electronics it won't be as big a deal as in the game we were playing.

Anyway, eating together is a good peacemaking thing to do

update on the Ruby Ridge workers

Darigold is trying to resolve the issues of the fired workers from the Ruby Ridge dairy,(the Darigold Dozen), who were fired after trying to form a union. The workers have a suit for violation of state rules for employment and federal laws against discrimination. Hooray for Darigold for trying to find resolution.

Darigold is in this because Ruby Ridge dairy is a Darigold coop member. I don't know what happens at other dairies in my area but think I will find out, and share. I hope dairy users will buy from dairies whose workers and cows are treated with respect and care.

The fired Ruby Ridge workers are anxious and need your moral and financial support.

peace, y'all

Molly

Retail abstinence phase 2

Today is the first day of February. My month-long experiment ended successfully.

I strayed from my "rules" just once. My spouse and I went out to dinner and blew $4.31 on a fast food dinner.

The best part for me is that I was able to say no to lattes right up until I was on the road on 1/29. The worst part -- I had a latte at Starbucks on 1/31 and it was heaven on earth.

But if I can go cold turkey in cold dark wet January, I can manage other times too. And I liked saving money. I will not return to my pre-abstinence spending levels.

Today I will spend a little money. I have a lunch date. But no big binge as I had envisioned earlier last month.

I have yet to tally up my expenditures and compare them with a similar month (Sept 2009, the first month I was daughter-less. I am eager to see the tally, and will do something good with the savings. Donate to food bank? Donate to Haiti? Put into investments? Make a rainy day fund? It will be fun to decide.

The other good thing about February 1 is at last cold dark wet January is over, and there will be a few signs of spring this month. Bring it on!

Peace, y'all

Molly

Learning from the World Community

Small epiphany today. If we visit a poor country and see the poverty, we would first feel shock, then get ideas on how to help.

So, it is as well when people from poor countries, or European countries (where the standard of living is high but by using far fewer resources) visit us.

They're amazed (to put it politely) at the amount we waste. The packaging. The food. The driving everywhere. They are impressed (and not in a good way) at the shocking majority of us who are overweight. They see our big cars, our drive-throughs, our big houses and huge grocery stores too big and far apart to get to any other way but driving. They see our huge closets, just bursting with stuff. They see our self-storage cottage industry.

We can share education, infrastructure, sanitation, and public health resources with the others in the world, and they can show us how to live joyfully on far, far less.

Today I viewed my world through the eyes of someone from another country, and didn't like what I saw.

The retail abstinence continues. Day 11. I find I enjoy browsing in catalogs and don't mind stores too much. It's getting easier! I realized today we are saving a LOT of $$ by not going out to eat at all.

We hosted a nice dinner last night for two women friends and their daughters. I opened a bottle of wine (didn't finish it), but also received one, so I think I broke even on that expense. I bought very little for this meal. I had the pork and the bacon (local!), I had the potatoes from the CSA, I had the pears from the CSA. Need to buy the cresent rolls, nuts, brussels sprouts, cheese. That wasnt' too much.

I entertained the daughters with my cats and then with learning to fold cranes. They both embraced it quicky and happily. It gave me happiness as well to share my interest.

In the interest of promoting peace, I shared with the two women issues of the newsletter from Right Sharing for World Resources. Perhaps RSWR will get their moral support (likely) and financial support (I hope).

Hoping to make the world a better place.....

Peace, y'all

Molly

Today's peace offering

As I write, my husband is grating the cheese and this afternoon we'll make a huge batch of mac and cheese for tonight. This is the peace offering. We, along with two of my coworkers, are preparing dinner for up to 12 lbtq's - teens who are lesbian, bisexual, trans-something, or queer. I pronounce this liberty-Q's. Mayba Gliberty'Q, if I add gay to the front of this.

As hard as it must be to not align with the preponderance of popular culture, face bullying, hatred, and discrimination, it would be harder still to go through the difficult teen years that way. So we want to show and give support to these teens, to accept them unconditionally and have a fine and really fun game of Apples to Apples and Cranium.

Fun and tasty peace offering, I think.

Peace, y'all

Molly

Inspiration fizzled and my evening was same old, same old.

But how about Arlen Specter's change of party!!? It sadly reflects on how far to the right the Republican party is going. How does this relate to peace? Well, a good democracy has lots of back and forth, give and take. And the narrowing of the GOP makes that party weaker. Ultimately that is bad for the USA. But maybe it will be good for moving the USA to a better position in a variety of policy areas.

And what about the swine flu's origin in the CAFO pork factories in Mexico? Visit Tom Philpott has the story. to read about it. For me, this underscores the importance of sourcing our foods closer to home. This relates to peace thus: it's better for the planet if our food dollars pay for food, not petrolem. And we need a healthy planet for us to live in peace.

Peace, y'all

Molly

Say Grace

I am grateful my family has a tradition of saying grace for dinner. We don't manage it for lunch or breakfast, which we don't often eat together. But we do nearly always eat dinner together. We join hands and have a few seconds of silence. Into this silence I have learned to pour out intense and efficient thanks, because neither my husband or daughter are as reverent as I, and often the silence is much too quick for my liking. So I very quickly thank God for the food, my health, the wealth that brings us food whenver we want it, the wealth to eat off china in a beautiful room with hardwood furniture and a gorgeous rug, and to buy the lovely light fixture that the empty china plate reflects. In fact I look for that reflection as a visual cue of what I can be thankful for.

Then I think about the incredible love and life the meal represents--all the workers who added value to the food, the families they love and support, the energy of the sun, the force of life....well I can't usually get all that into the few moments of grace, but I try.

Gratitude is a great practice. It's hard to be unhappy when you are feeling active gratitude. The habit of giving thanks is very wonderful. The idea of pausing before plunging into the joy of dinner makes the dinner a little better.

And I love that our grace tradition is solid enough that our guests know it and expect it, and even practice grace our way when we are guests with them!

Grace is good.