Change the World Wednesday – 7th Jan

The first CTWW of 2015.

Small will be back in a couple of weeks.

Most of the people who read this blog are already ‘green’. As I said in a comment last week, I sometimes feel as though I am preaching to the converted, but I look at it positively, if I can reach just one more person…

This week’s challenge is something small.

Look at everything you have changed, or aspects of life that are now different; how can you can waste less of just one thing.

or

If you have already made a small change this year, tell us about it.

Over the past year, I have changed my life, in particular, my diet. I am not dieting, heaven forbid, dieting is a myth, counting calories is counterproductive; and I have read this week that ‘flushing toxins’ out of your body is a fallacy.

So what did I do?

I have changed some of the liquids that I used to drink. Previously, I wasn’t beyond drinking Coca Cola and boxed fruit juice and my milk intake was a lot, often more than a litre per day.

For the past year, I have all but stopped drinking all soda; I still have a little coke if I make a Cuba Libre, but I have had only one since I gave up soda.

Fruit juice in a box, don’t even think about it. I buy or grow fresh fruit and make my own juice without sugar,

I still drink beer. In fact my beer consumption has risen since the silly season; mainly because I have had less students and more free time. After carnival the students will return and I will have less free time.

My milk consumption is down drastically. So much that the last two litre boxes of milk went sour in the fridge before I could use them all; because I now only have milk in my coffee, and maybe one cold chocolate drink a week in the evening, whereas before it was a nightly ritual.

So, what did I do with the last box? Because I was sure that it would be sour in the morning and end up going down the kitchen sink too.

Before the milk went sour, I filled an ice cube tray with the last and put it in the freezer.

This morning I made my coffee as normal and put two milk cubes in it.

The milk cubes turned yellowish, but taste normal

Okay, that’s a small change, but it reduces waste and saves about half a litre of milk. I have enough frozen milk for coffee for the next three days.

So, what do I drink instead of Coca Cola? Sparkling mineral water! It’s also cheaper than Coke. So the saving is twofold, health and finnancial.

The end result was a weight loss without dieting and I counted not a single calorie. I just made changes.

How much weight have I lost… about 20kgs (44lbs).

I can walk easier, I have less reliance on my walking stick, I can’t yet run up the stairs at work, but I can walk up in a semi-normal fashion instead of taking them one at a time which was laborious.

So small changes can make a big difference.

What have you done, or what can you do this year?

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Monday Moaning

Stupid laws.

Comments from my Make you Fink on Friday post made an old issue raise its ugly head.

The world is full of stupid laws that prevent people from living their lives as they want to.

The one in question is the zoning laws that outlaw earth ship type houses, but there are many others.

To my way of thinking, when you buy land, it is yours. If you want to build a castle, a house or an earth ship, that is your decision and the local authorities have no say in the matter.

Earth ships are usually free form and reflect sustainable living

An Earthship is a type of passive solar house made of natural and recycled materials (such as earth-filled tires) – Wikipedia

But local authorities ban them, why?

There will come a time when this type of dwelling is necessary.

They are not ugly buildings, quite the opposite, they conform to nature.

Another stupid, stupid law prevents most people from growing their tomatoes and other veges in the front yard or areas that can be seen from the street.

Criminal activity, growing veges in the front yard

Why can’t you grow veges in the front yard, if you choose this form of self-sufficiency, you should be awarded.

But you can only grow flowers… You can’t eat flowers!

The criminals are the ones who complain that front yard vege gardens ruin the neighbourhhod, it is these people who are responsible for our declining society.

Yet another stupidity. Why can’t we buy fresh milk? But we have to buy the crap sold in supermarkets.

Just look at that full cream at the top of those jars

We are forced by law to buy milk that has been pasteurised, homogenous, ultra heat treated and had the crap beaten out if it, because if we don’t the bastard dairy corporations won’t make a profit.

One of the biggest cons; skim milk, sold as ‘low fat’ or diet milk. Skim milk has part, or all the butterfat removed, what’s left has no use in the human food chain. When I was a kid it was slops feed to the pigs… maybe it still is. Because they sell it at the same price as ‘whole’ (which it isn’t) milk; raking in even more profit from the gullible.

If we choose to buy milk direct from the source, why can’t we. “It’s bad for the health! It’s full of bacteria!” Bullshit! I have been drinking whole unpasteurised milk almost most of my life (60+ years), neither I nor anyone I know has ever suffered from any milk related illness.

These are just three examples of stupid laws.

Can you think of others?

Leave a comment, because for sure I haven’t covered the whole gamut.

Change the World Wednesday – 31st Jul

Well, this week has been kind of rough.

Apart from the cold that has devastated Brazil for the last week and destroyed many crops that have already had an impact on the market. Milk has shot up in price, from R$2.70/lt to R$3.30/lt because cattle feed has gone up in price. I ask myself, why don’t they feed the cows on grass? Grass doesn’t go up in price.

The major upset this week, was the unexpected death of Lixo, my cat. He was poisoned, along with the neighbour’s fox terrier. You can read my post RIP, my Friend for the full story.

Lixo was AWOL for three days, then on Saturday, I heard the news.

My little furball rubbish (Lixo is Portuguese for rubbish) has been recycled. He is buried along with Herbie under a small palm tree that my neighbour grew from seed in the praça he loved so much.

It was with tears that I cleaned up Kitty Korner for the last time.

I remain hopeful; all my cats have come from the street, so it won’t be long before another comes along, that I can repurpose.

Click on the banner for the full post

This week’s CTWW, is about the Tar sands oil pipeline, an important issue, not only for the USA, but globally.

Have you heard about the Tar Sands Oil Pipeline? It not only threatens wildlife and natural habitat, it threatens drinking water. While it directly affects Canada and the United States, it sets a dangerous precedent worldwide … that the use of fossil fuel is acceptable. Let’s raise our voices and let the world know that we not only want to stop the Tar Sands Oil Pipeline but we want sustainable, environmentally-safe energy. Please sign this Petition (appropriate worldwide).

 

OR …

Choose any of the petitions found HERE (or choose a cause specific to your area) and take action.

 

OR …

Contact your public officials via letter, email or phone regarding your environmental concerns.

Because of the anonymity I maintain on the net, I will not be signing petitions, but I will spread the word and urge all my readers.

My reason for anonymity is not cowardice, for those of you who have known my blogs over the years will be aware that because I am outspoken in many areas; an attempt to be anonymous is a case of self preservation. My blogs have already been wiped once, and I don’t want to lose all my work again. Just because I am in Brazil, doesn’t mean that I am immune from NSA; it turns out that Brazil has the highest rate of eavesdropping by NSA in Latin America, and Brazilians are not at all happy about this.

The world is changing, and it is not for the better.

Make you Fink on Friday

Margarine v butter: are synthetic spreads toast?

Sales of margarine are in decline, due to a combination of reformulated recipes, price, health and taste. Do you defend marge, or is butter simply better?

Margarine: makes wonderfully crisp shortcrust pastry. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

Butter v marg: it’s a fight that has gone on for decades. On one side, there’s butter – rich, creamy, defiantly full-fat and made for millennia by churning the milk or cream from cattle. On the other, there’s margarine: the arriviste spread invented in the 1860s. It might not taste delicious, and it doesn’t sink into your toast like butter, but for decades margarine has ridden a wave of success as the “healthy” alternative.

No longer. Sales of margarine have plummeted in the last year, according to Kantar, with “health” spreads dropping 7.4% in sales. Flora has been particularly badly hit, losing £24m in sales, partly due to reformulating its recipe.

Meanwhile, butter is back in vogue. Brits bought 8.7% more blocks of butter last year, and 6% more spreadable tubs. This is partly due to the “narrowing price gap between butter and margarine,” Tim Eales of IRI told The Grocer, but also to the home baking revival led by Mary Berry, Paul Hollywood and co. We’re all sticking unsalted butter in our sponges these days.

A yen for natural, unprocessed produce could also be a factor. “Since all the food scandals of the last 10 years, people are thinking about where their food comes from – butter is perceived as ‘pure’,” says food writer Signe Johansen. But is marg really out for the count? Big brands are owned by powerful multinationals such as Unilever, with huge marketing budgets. Don’t rule spreads out just yet.

Margarine was invented in 1869 by a French food scientist, Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, who responded to a challenge by Napoleon III. Napoleon wanted to find a long-life alternative to butter to feed troops in the Franco-Prussian war. Mège-Mouriès mixed skimmed milk, water and beef fat to create a substance similar to butter in texture, if not in taste. He called it “oleomargarine” after margarites, the Greek word for pearls – a reference to its pearly sheen. In 1871 he sold the patent to Jurgens, a Dutch firm now part of Unilever.

Beef fat was soon replaced by cheaper hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated vegetable oils. “Margarine gained a foothold during the first world war,” says food writer and historian Bee Wilson. “George Orwell wrote of the ‘great war’ that what he remembered most was not all the deaths but all the margarine. But at this stage people recognised it was an inferior substitute for butter: an ersatz food, like drinking chicory instead of coffee.”

In the second world war, British margarine brands were legally required to add vitamins to their recipes. “The move in status to margarine as a health food, marketing itself as a superior alternative, happened after the war,” says Wilson. Added “healthy” extras – vitamins, omega-3s, unpronounceables that lower your cholesterol – are still a mainstay of the market.

But while margarine has spent decades fighting butter on the health front, what about taste? “Margarine has never been able to replicate the flavour of true butter,” says Johansen. This despite the fact many brands add milk and cream to their spreads. “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”? Really? I can.

Unsurprisingly, it’s hard to find a defendant of margarine among food writers and chefs. One of the few exceptions is Marguerite Patten, who a fan of baking with Stork. Indeed, Stork does make for wonderfully crisp shortcrust pastry.

Margarine has taken a bashing on the health front in recent years, too. Negative press about trans fats in the 00s saw many brands remove hydrogenated fats from their spreads and reformulate their recipes. Growing suspicion of processed foods has led many consumers to return to butter. As Johansen puts it: “If you want a healthy heart, eat more vegetables.”

And yet, and yet. I’m looking at a tub of Pure Dairy-Free Soya Spread. It contains 14g saturated fat per 100g, compared to butter’s 54%. For many consumers, such stats still outweigh taste when it comes to deciding what’s on their toast. And what about vegans, and those with lactose intolerance? Margarine can fulfil needs that butter can’t.

It will never win any taste awards, but there is still a place for margarine on the supermarket shelves – even if there isn’t one for it in most food lovers’ fridges.

Opinion:

I have heard it said… or did I read it? That margarine is one molecule short of being plastic. Which just begs the question; would you melt your Tupperware to spread on your toast?

Whether that is true or not, I can’t remember the reference, the fact is that butter and margarine are from different planets.

I have both in the house. Principally, I use butter, but the marg comes in handy if I run out of soft butter. In a typical month I would use 7x250gm packs of butter, whereas a 250gm pot of marg lasts the whole month, and into the next.

Don’t even think about suggesting that I soften the butter in the microwave! I wouldn’t have one of those in the house; I have even thrown a new one out of a restaurant kitchen. Microwave ovens are pure evil!

“In the mid-1970s Russia banned microwaves. Now you may think that is pretty silly, until you look at the latest reports on how they f**k-up food beyond all recognition. More recent studies have shown that microwave ovens totally alter the structure of food, so much so, that it isn’t food anymore.

Yes, Russia made a good move.

Microwaves should be banned globally, but of course that’ll never happen. The microwave oven market is big. Corporations like this because there’s a lot of profit. Because the corporations run America, America will continue to have microwave ovens and obesity, yes, microwave ovens are a part of the obesity problem.” – From a Make you Fink on Friday post a year ago; feel free to take your microwave to the scrap-metal yard.

The evils of butter vs the benefits or margarine were touted by the margarine manufacturers who suppressed all evidence that didn’t fit their claims.

The same happened to natural dripping and lard vs vegetable cooking oils. The same happened to milk vs pateurised milk; I have drunk pure unpasteurised milk throughout much of my life and have never suffered the maladies as claimed.

No consideration was ever given to your health. Oh, they said so, because that’s what you wanted to hear. Nobody ever challenged it.

But people are beginning to see through this veil of secrecy, food scandals are more frequently being brought to the fore and people are stopping to think.

When are you going to stop and fink?

Monday Moaning

My Monday moaning could well be about the fact that I didn’t get to moan on Monday.

I am suffering a terrible affliction at the moment, it’s called work. Not just work, but it’s worse than split ends, it’s split days. Split days do not bode well with my post load.

It’s now Tuesday late p.m.

So here is Monday Moaning.

Generation Cool: Self-obsessed Millennials having so much fun

I saw this BBC Headline, the rest of the article was not so much about the topic, but it did give me an idea for a moan.

“We will not be a great generation, we are too self-absorbed, spending most of our time on frivolous things, like posting photos of ourselves. We are cool kids, we are the cool generation.” – That’s the last paragraph from the BBC article.

The Millenials, as opposed to my own time called the Baby Boomers, are about as a miserable generation as I could ever have depicted; totally frivolous and wasteful, like never before.

Milk and honey, even the oatmeal is a GMO

What was the ‘land of milk and honey’ is no more. We’ve polluted and destroyed the milk and , as the Brits are finding out, we’ve poisoned the bees with insecticides; so there goes the honey. What we have left is bland white liquid and honeyless love.

Of course, all this is helped along by the devious politicians. This is exactly the way they want it because there are too many people around, 7 billionish at the last count, and rising.

The cure is piss poor education to keep us stupid, and chronically shocking health ideals to help some of us to die off, being so stupid that we can’t see the wood for the trees.

Next station: Extinction

We, as a race, are barreling along like a driverless steam locomotive heading directly for the last station on the line:

“Extinction! All out!” Cried the conductor.

We are all too busy being cool, wasting stuff and having fun, that we aren’t capable of noticing our arrival at the last station.

Monday Moaning

Once upon a time we used to get milk from farms, those of us in the city had milk delivered to their gate by the milkman.

It was milk. Lovely milk with that layer of cream at the top of a glass bottle.

Bottle milk was pasteurised, but nothing other ‘ised’.

Then came homogenised milk, the layer of cream disappeared, although we were told it was still there.

Cream also came in the bottle, smaller with a different coloured top. It could be whipped into the most delicious whipped cream.

.

.

Then the milk companies took over, and it has been downhill ever since.

The rich cream attracted the birds, they would peck a hole in the foil tops to get it. Today you won’t see birds interested in milk, so what has happened?

Today, milk comes in boxes, the delightful tetrapak, and plastic bottles, gone is the cream, as we have ultraheat treated crap.

On the box they advertise ‘whole milk’ 3% butterfat – I say bullshit!

What happened to the other 0.5 – 1% butterfat? Without that it is not ‘whole’ milk. But the population today are so worried about obesity, that they think the milk companies are doing them a favour.

FAVOUR, my arse! They’re doing it to cheat you and make more profit!

The milk companies lobbied the governments and the laws became that you could only buy company milk. If you bought your milk from the farmer, the companies would make less profit, couldn’t have that now, could we? So buying milk from the source became illegal.

Many people didn’t like it, they wanted their whole fresh milk back. So some stores and farmers bucked the law.

Selfridges raw milk sales prompts FSA prosecution on food safety charges

The Food Standards Agency is to charge the retailer over its vending machines that sold unpasteurised milk

Untreated milk from dairy cows can contain E coli and salmonella bacteria. Photograph: Getty Images Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Selfridges is being taken to court for potentially putting public health at risk by selling raw milk at its flagship London store, the government’s food watchdog has announced.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) began an investigation last year after Selfridges installed vending machines selling unpasteurised milk supplied by Sussex farmer Stephen Hook in December 2011.

Unpasteurised milk may contain bacteria such as salmonella and E coli, which can cause food poisoning, and the FSA warned at the time that the move was in breach of food hygiene regulations designed to protect consumer health. Westminster City Council was also monitoring what was regarded as a highly unusual situation.

Today the FSA confirmed it would be prosecuting Selfridges and Hook for potentially putting public health at risk. It said in a statement: “Summons have been served to both parties and a hearing date has been set for 6 February at Westminster magistrates court.”

Raw milk dispensers are hugely popular on the continent, allowing customers to fill their own glass bottles. But in Britain the sale of raw milk is much more tightly regulated. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, unpasteurised cows’ milk can only be sold direct to consumers from farms or the farmer, including farmers’ markets; in Scotland its sale is banned outright.

Hook, of Longleys Farm, has been selling raw milk since 2007 and says his customers like the taste of the product as well as the perceived health benefits – he claims beneficial bacteria usually destroyed by pasteurisation can reduce childhood illnesses such as hay fever and eczema.

Read more

Opinion:

A threat to public health!!!

I was brought up on raw milk as a baby and a child, my kids were brought up on raw milk.

In 61+ years I have never seen a case of where a person got sick from drinking raw unpasteurised milk. There may have been, but not in my knowledge.

Is this a case of the companies scaremongering to make ONLY their product available to the people. Is the government being sucked in by the companies?

Stores like Selfridges should be applauded for giving the public what they want.

Real milk!

Not being prosecuted.

“food hygiene regulations designed to protect consumer health” should read… “food hygiene regulations designed to protect company wealth“.

People around the world should be giving their governments a clear message:

We want real milk!

And if you don’t take steps to give it to us, then get out of government!

Monday Moaning

Milk Scare Hits Dairy Power New Zealand

Low levels of dicyandiamide-also called DCD-have been found in New Zealand milk. The chemical, which farmers apply to pastures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, is toxic to humans in high doses

WELLINGTON—A toxic substance has been found in New Zealand milk, in a potential blow to the nation’s dairy exports, which are valued at 11.5 billion New Zealand dollars (US$9.7 billion) annually.

The country’s two biggest fertilizer companies, Ravensdown Ltd. and Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd., have suspended sales of dicyandiamide, or DCD, after low levels were found in dairy products. Farmers apply DCD to pastures to prevent nitrate, a fertilizer byproduct that can also cause health problems, from getting into rivers and lakes.

Though there are no international standards for the acceptable level of DCD in food products, in high doses the substance is toxic to humans.

Government officials Thursday expressed concern about the potential damage to the image of an industry that accounts for nearly a third of the nation’s exports.

“New Zealand’s reputation is based on the high quality of food we produce,” said Carol Barnao, deputy director of general standards at New Zealand’s primary industries ministry, which is responsible for exports and protecting the nation from biological risks. A government study of DCD use is now under way.

Wall Street Journal

and this…

Fonterra CEO plays down milk worries

The CEO of dairy giant Fonterra has described reaction to trace findings of nitrate inhibitor in milk as “way out of proportion”.

Co-op chief Theo Spierings said he could assure consumers worldwide that Fonterra products were safe to consume.

“We know some of our customers and regulators have questions. We need to answer them, and that’s exactly what we are doing,” he said.

“We have strong science and we are providing assurances about the safety of our products. Our testing has found only minute traces of DCD in samples of some of our products. It is important to remember that the minute traces detected were around 100 times lower than acceptable levels under European food safety limits. ”

On Friday Fonterra issued a press release saying it supported moves by New Zealand’s two main fertiliser suppliers to voluntarily suspend sales and use of Dicyandiamide (DCD) treatment on farm land until further notice.

DCD is used to inhibit nitrate leaching into waterways from fertiliser treatments and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision followed a finding in September that traces of DCD had appeared in milk tested by Fonterra. Spierings said talks with fertiliser companies Ravensdown and Ballnce agri-nutrients about withdrawing DCD from the market had begun at that time.

Todd Muller, managing director of co-operative affairs at Fonterra, said the problem with DCD use was that although Europe had standards for DCD traces, most countries didn’t, which meant the issue could create barriers to Fonterra’s exports.

“Because farmers were looking to DCD as a tool to mitigate farm environmental impacts,” he said, “we could see a potential problem in future.”

The press conference followed media headlines in the United States and China drawing attention to the DCD finding and questioning the safety of New Zealand milk.

Spierings said his concern was not about milk safety but about consumers being concerned by rumours rather than facts. “The whole industry is affected, based on rumours,” he said.

The potential impact was enough to make sure the government was kept fully informed, said Spierings.

“We have a 100 per cent open line [to the government] every day, because it’s a New Zealand issue,” he said.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Opinion:

Point 1 :: I would trust nothing any CEO says.

Point 2 :: Ditto for governments.

Question, why has Dicyandiamide (DCD) been immediately withdrawn from the market?

I suspect because there IS a problem!

Is this another case of companies, corporations and governments pulling the wool over our eyes?

Profits and GDP are more important than people!

Further reading:

Don’t blame me, I just eat grass – image: 3news

Now, look where it’s made

But Ministry for Primary Industries director-general Wayne McNee said in a statement the amount of small DCD residues found posed no food safety risk.

“DCD is not melamine. It is a different chemical and has none of the toxicity that melamine has.” – 3news Read more:

DCD is also used in the production of melamine, the compound which left Chinese babies sick and some dead, after they drank milk powder contaminated with melamine. – RadioNZNews Read more:

Change the World Wednesday – 8th Nov

Whoops, it’s Thursday!

All explained on Life is a Labyrinth.

Well, our American friends have got another four years. Really the elections weren’t about who is best for the country, rather who was the lesser evil, the lesser evil won.

This weeks CTWW is a long one; it takes a bit of reading.

This week shop local by making at least one purchase from a local independent business. In other words, pass right by the big chain stores and search out a local merchant. Need some ideas? Have your hair cut by an independent salon … buy food from a farmer’s market or a local grocer … get your car maintenanced by the neighborhood mechanic … buy lunch from a “mom & pop” restaurant … get your cup of coffee from the neighborhood barista. Want to shop online? No problem … shop at a local Etsy shop (find one HERE), via a site such as GROUPON, using CRAIGSLIST or do an Internet search for local businesses in your area to find their website (if available). As always, we’d like to know all about it … where you shopped, any problems with shopping local, etc.

 

Or …

Not planning to make any purchases this week? Then your challenge is to do a little “homework” and come up with a plan for shopping local when you do need to shop. We’d like to know what kinds of purchases you can make locally and any problems you’ll need to overcome (along with solutions if you come up with them).

The best use for credit cards

I am planning on making a purchase this week, bigger than my usual. I badly need a new digital camera and my only option is a big retail outlet with specials, because it is the only way I can afford one. I am paying cash, not using a credit card; in fact, I don’t have a credit card any more. I did some calculations which proved what I had already known for years but wasn’t prepared to face. Credit cards are the biggest consumer of cash that exist. I paid mine off, and cancelled it.

Having admitted that I am making a big purchase, and they are few and far between, I do try to shop local where possible. I would much rather go to a brecho (secondhand shop) than buy something new. I prefer the sacolão (fruit & vege shop) to buying my fruit and veges at the supermarket. I would buy my meat at the açougeiro (local butcher), but he is more than an hour there and back on my walking stick, so the supermarket wins. I want to buy my milk at the local dairy farm, fresh from the cow, but it means two bus fares, making 2 litres (3+ pints) a whopping R$10.75, whereas the supermarket the same white liquid trash is R$3.80.

Up the Ante!

Not only is this CTWW a message to shop and buy local, I want to take it a step further. Don’t buy anything at a franchise. By that I mean don’t even buy a coffee at Starbucks. McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, nothing of that kind. Make your coffee at home, or go to a little coffee shop. These franchise places are stealing from your community and stopping the little people making a living.