I Have My Reasons.

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 Well, now I am back again for my second blog post and guess what? Instead of failing at sardonic wit and questionable humor now I am just straight up pissed off. And here’s why.

I am assigned with the happy task of writing about the bizarre and the taboo in food. My inspiration comes from a vegan author. Can you believe that?

Yes; there are indeed vegans. And now they have pens.

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Equality for Eaters? — Thai Butternut Squash Soup

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“For a start, most animals who kill for food would not be able to survive if they did not, whereas we have no need to eat animal flesh. Next, it is odd that humans, who normally think of the behavior of animals as ‘beastly’ should, when it suits them, use an argument that implies that we ought to look to animals for moral guidance.” – Peter Singer, “Equality for Animals?

Singer’s arrogance in his article “Equality for Animals?” is among the multitude of reasons why many omnivorous people despise vegans. Often, their vigilance against all animal products, including eggs, dairy, and honey, comes across as preachy or self-righteous. Many vegans are just as offended at someone delighting in a crispy fried chicken thigh as I am when I see someone wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat or tee. Politics aside, vegans can be a finicky bunch. Continue reading

If You Give a Health Nut a Fruit Chip

 

“Industrial technologies, particularly synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, has fed the swelling human population during the last century. Can organic agriculture feed a world of nine billion people?” David Biello, “Will Organic Food Fail to Feed the World?”

David Biello’s “Will Organic Food Fail to Feed the World?” examines an issue that “has too often been an emotional debate”: organic vs. non-organic farming methods.

Biello begins by drawing attention to how much civilization truly relies on food: we need it to feed ourselves, to feed the animals we use to feed ourselves, to strengthen our clothing with fiber, and even to fuel our cars. Because we rely so heavily on food, agriculture has wiped out massive amounts of the biosphere: 70% of grasslands and 45% of temperate forests have been converted to farmland. Additionally, farming is not only the leading cause of deforestation in the tropics, but also “one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.” Continue reading

Leave the Soybean, Take the Mustard: Considering the “Least of all Seeds”

“Will the future of India’s edible-oil culture be based on mustard and other edible oilseeds, or will it become part of the globalized monoculture of soybean…”

-Vandana Shiva
“Soy Imperialism and the Destruction of Local Food Cultures”

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Have you ever taken a drive through the Mississippi Delta? I’m thinking probably not, so allow me to fill in the gap. Imagine a road. The straightest road you’ve ever seen, stretching in opposite directions until it reaches the horizon. And what is there on either side of the road? Nothing but unbroken fields of green. Row after row of some small, bushy plant with broad leaves. As you drive down the road and look out at the fields, the rows seem to turn like the spokes of a giant green bicycle wheel. You continue on the road for hours, and this is all you ever see. Continue reading