Friday, June 25, 2010

Food Inc.

I watched Food Inc with my roommates the other night. I really enjoyed it.

If by enjoyed you mean horrified that baby chickens are hatched in drawers. And that meat is washed with ammonia.

And that meat packing workers are being exploited.



Joel Salatin. I've never been more in love.

His farm is as a supplier for Chipotle. And, subconsciously I believe, I am not patronizing Chipotle for the free range chickens, but for Joel. Because he is so awesome. But also, I want his farm and other farms like his to thrive.

Too bad I don't live in Virginia...

I'm really inspired to try to find a local farm in the so-cal area where I live (I'm sure I'll have to drive an hour...but it's worth it!) A guy at my traffic school (and coincidentally from my chemistry class) said he buys chicken from a local farmer. I shall have to research this indeed.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Things to do.

So, I've decided to try basically the same experiment as Jeanne Haegele and try to live my Life Less Plastic.

Things I already do:
-I bring my own bags. Having worked at a grocery store, I heard "I just never remember to bring them!" all the live long day. I keep a reusable bag on the dash of my car, so no "forgetting."

-I don't buy plastic water/soda bottles.

-I don't put my veggies in plastic bags when I'm at the store. I just throw them in my canvas bag and continue shopping (one time i tried to just carry them around the store, my hands got real cold.)

-Try to buy things in bulk.

Here are two additional things things I've thought of that I can do relatively painlessly and presently (specifically related to plastic)

-Use tampons with cardboard applicators (I guess this is a pretty gross thing blog about. But, all those fancy Playtex-sport rounded-tip green applicators are floating out in the ocean! Being eaten by whales!)

-Not buying foods or products that are wrapped in plastic.

I guess the really horrifying part was when I looked around my shower and realized I had like 10 shampoo and conditioner bottles. And my razor was made of plastic. All of which I will someday throw in the trash. All of which will probably someday end up on trash island. So, I'm saving my glass pasta jars to house my future home made hair and skin products. And we shall see what happens!

I joined Greenpeace for the free "save the whales" stickers.

So the other day I went to traffic school. There were 15 of us and we sat in a circle, for the next 8 hours we went around and talked about our traffic violations. Long story short there was this guy, who I'm certain was high. When it was his turn we let him ramble(it all made sense eventually) about 9/11 conspiracy theories, how quantum mechanics proves we don't exist, and about how cruel we are to each other as a society. He started talking about how distracted people are and another guy said that we should all try to positively impact our own lives and the lives of people around us. The guy who was high said he really wanted to do something with his life. There was also a guy there who grows and juices all his own food and buys chickens from a real farmer.

After traffic school I was walking around the mall when a Greenpeace kid asked me if I cared about what was going on in the gulf. I said I didn't have any money to give him. He asked If I had ever had the Greenpeace talk, I told him I had not and decided why not today. And why not. I love whales. I want to save the whales. So, I'm giving $5 a month to an organization that wants to save the whales. And I figure that's better than just being outraged and doing nothing. I spend so much time just thinking about the things I want to do, I never actually do them. So, why not today. -Really- why not?

This is my first serious blogging endeavor. I really think God put me in that traffic school for a reason, and He put it in my heart to finally listen to the Greenpeace kid.

This blog is going to be about saving the whales and orangutans, food, humanitarianism, and my experimental worm composting and gardening. I want to share what I'm doing so that people will see that it's not difficult. I hope it will inspire my friends and family and any random people who might read this to do something, anything small. And do it consistently.