Soy Isn't Green

So nothing is open, so I just grabbed a cold premade vegan wrap out of the cooler. Super disappointed. Like no veggies in it (specifically one leaf of lettuce -_-), and then it had rice and soy curls. I hate how vegan shit goes so crazy with soy. There are other vegetables! And think about it, really think about it...they only do it because they are trying to sell vegan-ism to people who love meat. Western culture is all about its meat and three. In other cultures and societies they may only eat meat once or twice a week. A true vegan or vegetarian hopefully knows this, but a lot of the hoity toity college students at that time of their life where they know everything and they are super cool and conscientious so they get stuff with soy because they think it's better for animals may not have considered that yet. But it's not better for animals; that's a lie, because the soybean is owned by Monsanto, who single-handedly has fucked over every other farmer in the United States. They also use ungodly amounts of pesticides and GMO's and plant miles on miles of soybeans effectively destroying any animal habitat and devastating local insect populations. Most fields are pollinated by plane. So really think about where your food comes from. Soy is as incomplete a nutrition as corn and that's basically all we eat here. It may say juice or whatever but corn syrup makes up the bulk and all our chickens, pigs, cows and everything else in the US gets fed mostly corn only diets because its cheap for the businessman. Humans can't even fully digest corn, so what type of nutrition do we think we are even getting?
Whatever you decide to eat, be smart, be aware. Don't take someone's word. Do your own research. I would think if there was one thing in this life we should have total control over its what we eat. Why don't we fight for that more?


If you are interested in learning more then you should check out some documentaries available on Netflix:  Food INC  and More Than Honey

More Than Honey gives really great perspective for vegetarian and vegan consumers as well. Not eating any animal products is almost impossible.
Also, this makes me want to touch on the issue of human waste (non-medical, just regular piss shit and vomit) and chemical sewage treatment.  One, yes I understand that in order for non chemical treatment to be a truly feasible idea there would have to be a population decrease as well as an inside out re-configuring of our socioeconomic conditioning. Two, if all we eat is processed and has a lot of sugars and plastics chemical residues and hasn't been very properly cleaned and has had weekly soakings in pesticides, then it shouldn't be very surprising that our waste is also toxic.  I'm not saying we should all go dig a hole in the dirt when we have to crap, but I am saying that we probably could and not have so many harmful side effects if we ate things that were natural and non-processed. Energy should go: sun-->plant--> animal-->human OR sun-->plant-->human NOT sun-->plant-->animal--> factory-->human. Three, what nutritional value could a processing plant of plastic and wood and metal and chemicals have?


Mav


PS: Yes, I know i updated it quite extensively, but I wrote it initially on brreak at work, so it had to be cut short then. I'm not sorry, enjoy the new riff.

Just wanted to say...

Participated in a podcast on Social Environmentalism and thought I'd share.

Click Me ;)

Feel free to comment questions, comments or ideas. I'd love to hear.



Mav

Are feet shoes?

I'm watching a documentary, A Year On The Ice and this is a scene where this seal pup accidentally wanders into this science camp because it got lost on the ice and they won't help it find the sea again. I think it's bullshit how people say, "we aren't allowed to interfere with the wildlife, we have to let nature take its course." Look at it this way, we are all a part of nature. This other species is in distress and is calling for help. We are a capable, intelligent species with the means to help this creature. Interfering would be killing or disrupting mating or feeding. This is different, this is an individual looking for a chance at survival and we think we are outside this and we have to let them die on the ice. I say no! This is not the only option! In fact, it's cruel and counter-intuitive. Why do you think we have that gut reaction to help? Why do we stop ourselves from showing compassion to other species in the name of science?


Mav

Humanicide- n. "The inevitable extinction of humanity because of human nature."

Seems a symptom of a highly developed intelligence is a massive god complex.  We think we are so entitled.  It's our "rite" to have children.  It's our "rite" to use up the earth.  It's our "rite" to slay others in the name of gods that we can't even prove are real.  We still live in the same world that was survival of the fittest.  We are still playing that game.  We will ALWAYS be playing that game.  We are not better than our environment, nor are we outside of it. People think back on evolution and only see the short game because hindsight is 20/20 and we have a lot of the information from a span over millions of years. And we think we've beaten it from having  been here a few thousand years....But evolution, time, nature, life, existence is only a long game.  Survival of the fittest does not just mean having enough babies to survive.  It means finding your balance with the world, with nature.  Our race will die.  Our culture will end.  It is completely inevitable.  We are already fucked.  We will fall because we refuse to find our place in nature.  We continue to believe ourselves better than. We have gotten to where we are because of our highly adapted brains.  We have gotten that through the ages of slowly adapting to better survive. But there must always be balance. Now, I fear we have caused too much damage too quickly and are working (in terribly too small groups) too slowly on righting the problem.

Or maybe the real problem isn't the majority, ninety-some percent, but the minority, greedy, power holders who benefit so much from the destruction of everything we have come to know. It feels hopeless. We have been hounded and brainwashed and critiqued and judged and condemned and told how to live our lives every second of every day as soon as we pop out of our mothers. Oftentimes, it's even sooner than that. The government is using us. We are their slaves. We are forced into this society, this capitalism, religion, racism, ethnocentrism, patriotism; on penalties of death, imprisonment, "re"claiming of all property, exile, public isolationism and separation from family. Wanting to live life in some other way is not allowed. Since when is there a handbook on the way to live your individual life? I had no idea that all humans were so simple that we all fell into the same philosophical and intellectual/mental and physical mold; or that we were so dumb that when left on our own we weren't able to survive by our own organic methods. When is enough enough? I'm done listening to what everyone tells me I'm supposed to do. I refuse to be a slave forever. Do you?


Mav

questions

I am sad for no good reason. I miss my boyfriend, even though he is asleep in the next room. I don't know what I'm good at. I don't know if what I'm good at even matters.  I feel trapped by things I have no control over, like politics and society.  I'm forced to pay the price for my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents (etc) choices. I don't understand how people think. I don't understand why people allow things inside of our social structure to happen. Why do we view each other based on country? Are we not all children of the same planet? Why do we view each other based on gender? Should not love and self expression be a completely free idea? I don't understand a lack of empathy. In every situation, EVERY ONE, is it not an evolutionary enhancement to be able to see things, no matter what those things are, from the others perspective? 

At work today, we were having cowboy day and this guy (the one guy in our group who I guess has pretty heavy Native American heritage, and they are always making jokes about him drinking and whatnot and he makes them too.  I am one quarter Cherokee.  Maybe it's not half or more, but I'm still proud, so anyway this guy I just told you about...) says, "Well I'm gonna bring my tomahawk since there's gonna be cowboys." And I didn't know how to feel really, but I found myself offended that that is where he went.  Native Americans of all different tribes and locations have rich, wonderful traditions and history. No one is denying that they shed blood (I dare you to name a "race" that never has), but it's a very narrow-minded stereotype to represent them with merely tomahawks. Not to mention that this guy will probably run around like he's scalping people.  

Just to throw it out there, you can be racist against someone of your own "race". Anyone who gives you the whole, "Oh, I can't be racist against <insert race here>, because I am <insert same race>," is full of so much shit that they should be used for fertilizer.  That's the whole point! It's so stupid, that there are no rules of engagement. If all is fair in love and war, then I'd call racism a a kind of socio-verbal war. It acts upon the masses to convey general ideas and perception of different groups of individuals based upon propaganda spread by those on top to keep the masses muddled in their own misconceptions so that they can't see the true injustices that are being done in the world. (It's in the book.) Maybe it's not so conspiracy theory as all that, but all of that does come into play. 

We act as if we were born into a world that has these laws of survival written down somewhere never to be changed again. We so easily forget that we, the humans of earth, so long ago that it almost doesn't even feel like us anymore, we made all this shit up. We are the ones who decided race was a thing.  We are the ones who chose to listen to a far away possibly nonexistent god or gods.  We are the ones who decided money even was.  Now, we need to remember who we are, and look again and allow those things to change. For us. For our now and future. 

Which is where I get lost again.  Why do so many agree with me, but so few speak out? As a society, we are ruled by outliers.  Why is that? 

Now how do I turn this into a sustainable future?

Mav

PS: broke my phone. again. 

I don't have a good title. How's that?

I ordered a shampoo bar that comes in a paper wrapping.  I got J. R. Liggett's.  It's about 3.5 oz and about 1.5 x 2 inches big.  I go out of my way to avoid the plastic and it comes in a square foot cardboard box with a sheet sized cardboard that has the tiny little shampoo bar on it and it's completely wrapped in plastic -_- 

Plastic. It is inescapable.  I'll be trying it soon. Maybe tomorrow.  Laid up with bronchitis right now. 

But this shampoo bar is all natural.  Made with tea tree oil and hemp and almond oil. I'm excited about it. 

Sickly,

Mav

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. 

Open-Spirited, Free-Minded People

I was restocking the silverware at work. We go through hundreds of plastic forks and spoons a day. At work, we also go through thousands of plastic straws that come in little plastic wrappers. Grab a yogurt in a plastic cup. Grab a plastic spoon.  Grab a Vitamin Water in a plastic bottle, or maybe an iced coffee in a plastic up. When you are done, maybe you recycle.  In my county, they accept plastics numbered 1, 2, 4 & 5.  There are seven in total. Most places take less.  In Alabama they only took 1 and 2.  They also didn't do curbside pickup, so most people didn't even try to recycle.  Don't just assume by putting it in recycling that it wont end up in a landfill somewhere. Make sure you check what your county is able to recycle and stop buying plastics as much as possible. Plastic is made with such a strong chemical composition that it doesn't break down, and therefore, is non biodegradable. It doesn't go away. It might break down into smaller and smaller fragments, but it's still there. There is a good documentary about plastic that is on Netflix, called Plastic Paradise. I encourage you to look up information on your own. But if you are the kind of person who likes to eat out a lot then there are lots of ways to stop using needless plastic. Bring your own beverage and food containers. There are bamboo utensil sets out there that you can buy. There are also glass straws. I'm getting wooden case for mine, because I don't necessarily trust that it's "unbreakable". So there are ways to avoid it. It just takes a bit of conscientiousness.  Seeing that I am broke, my first step towards a plastic free existence was purchasing one of those glass straws.  We will see how that goes. If it actually lasts over time. Until then I'm just trying to use as little plastic as possible.  I didn't buy shampoo the other day because I'm going to order a bar shampoo instead of buying the plastic bottles full.

trying something new,
Mav