Family, Tuesday, October 24, 2006
As strange as it sounds, our son has aquired a skill treasured by the Chinese. You might have seen the characters in the Karate Kid movie trying to catch flies with chopsticks as a test of agility and mastery. Matthew didn’t use chop sticks, but he did use his bare hands!
Jenn called me just as I arrived at work to tell me that our son has caught a fly. 
Apparently he was following it around the house for a while. Jenn had told him not to touch it because it’s dirty. Of course, Matthew couldn’t resist to follow this fly on it’s journey around the house. The fly landed somewhere, giving Matthew enough time to walk up and grab it. I was waiting to hear that he had put it in his mouth like our dog Sayrah. Thankfully, our courteous little boy kindly turned and handed it to Jenn.
Oh the suprises of parenthood! 
Health, Friday, October 20, 2006
I’ve started reading an excellent book called “Omnivours Dilema” by Michael Pollen. He traces the history and path of several common foods.
He recently wrote an article that appeared in New York times that talks about the problems with our industrialized and centralized agriculture and the further complifications of regulations. Vegetable-Industrial Complex
News, Friday, October 20, 2006
I usually try to prioritize the hot issues in politics when I’m choosing a candidate. Abortion being the most important since it is directly linked to a huge number of human lives that are destroyed every day. However, with global warming becoming a threat to the entire planet and every human life, the priority might shift to be higher than abortion.
Historically, the Republicans have been pro-life, but they are also pro-corporations. Corporations have resisted legislation that reduce green house emissions The Bush Administration is also responsible for pulling out of the Kyoto protocol and putting the U.S. farther behind in efforts to cut green house gas emissions. So should pro-lifers like me give up their position and leave the Republican party in order to go after a more important, life-saving issue of global warming? Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of a few Republicans that have bucked the Republican trend and signed in one of the largest initiatives in the U.S. to cut green house gasses in California. If the Republican party doesn’t follow Arnold’s lead, and the Democrats promise more regulaion of green house gases, I might seriously consider hoping the party line.
Christianity, Friday, October 20, 2006
Today, we find an emphasis on the sensual. Through advertising and many other means of communication, people are emphasizing feeling over thinking. The churches are being effected by this trend.
Many churches adjust by mimicking modern communication styles. Providing video clips and sound bites to produce emotional responses in the viewers. The idea is that by moving peoples emotions, they will be moved to embrace the deeper truths. However, there is such an emphasis on producing feelings in the attendess that the thinking portion is often poorly delivered. The emotions may experience a push, however, without the corresponding, thorough convincing of the mind, the emotions soon fade and behaviors remain the same. Only when our minds are transormed, will our behaviors begin to follow. This is not easy work, because it is best done with rigorous thinking. Meditating on God’s word, and the truths is holds, which carries the power of God to transform our minds.
Christianity, Friday, October 06, 2006
Some of you may already know that I’ve been very interested in ethics and health surrounding the food my family eats. Activism in the area of food has long been associated with wacko liberals. Organizations like PETA are well known for their crazy tactics. This has caused a negative reaction to the very mention of animal rights, etc. However, I think there is a new breed of conservative in the making. Richard Dreher wrote a book Crunchy Con that coined a category for a new brand of conservatives. I have yet to read the book but I think I probably fit into that category. I think there will be more Christian minded people who care about being good stewards of the gifts that God has given them. This worldview includes proper stewardship of all the resources God has given us. This includes land, money, animals, and people. Each area is a struggle and each area has room for improvement.
If we prioritize our efforts, people would be of highest importance, followed by animals, land and finally money. I think this priority is also modeled biblically. God created man to rule over all creation. Animals have numerous laws in the Old Testament that show God’s heart for the health and treatment of animals. They are even given rest on the Sabbath day. Land of course is a blessing in so many ways, able to sustain both man and animals. Finally, although we should wisely manage our money, wealthiness is not a virtue and is depicted in the Bible as a spiritual burden.
In our lives, we often think of animals as those creatures we see on the discovery channel or the family pet. However, animals have an even more intimate part in our daily lives. They come to our dinner table nearly everyday, their lives sacrificed to help sustain our health and provide energy for us to do our daily work. Yet, we don’t think much about where that animal came from, the life it lived, how it was treated or how it was killed. We have become complacent, unkowing and uncaring about such things. Fortunately, I have become interested in knowing about these things.
Let me take a step back and explain how my family came to this point. It all started with the rental of a movie called “Future of Food” from Netflix. We became aware of the corporate corruption in the food industry. Suddenly, we were acutely aware that we could not trust the corporations that were feeding us. The movie directed us to http://www.localharvest.org where we learned about a local CSA called Live Earth Farm (http://www.liveearthfarm.com) where we can get organic fruits and veggies. We were not only concerned about the pesticides on our food, but we were wanting to take part in a farm that would depend less on oil, pesticides, chemicals, and the corrupt corporations. We have been extremely pleased with Live Earth Farm and they are doing so well, that they have 200 people on the waiting list for next season and only 500 slots available.
In addition to fruits and veggies, I wanted to explore the options for getting chicken, beef, poultry and seafood. Through the www.eatwild.com website we were able to find Morris Grassfed Beef and TLC Ranch for pastured chicken, eggs and pork. Finally, Poppy’s poultry and seafood in Morgan Hill is also an excellent place to get wild fish at good prices. Beef is purchased in split halves (~100 lbs), chicken is purchased whole, and hogs are purchase either half (~100 lbs) or whole (~200lbs). We purchased a large chest style freezer that holds all the meat for use throughout the year.
I pretty much jumped into purchasing organic, grassfed, pastured meat from local farmers believing it was the right thing to do. Recently, I’ve discovered a wealth of information supporting the decision. It’s not only healthier us, but it is better on the animals, the environment, the workers and the local communities. The alternative is to buy from the large CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and slaughterhouses that have been compromising our health with food-borne illnesses and higher levels of bad fats, mistreating the animals, polluting the environment, mistreating the workers and shutting down family farms that have been running for generations. Read more about CAFO’s at www.factoryfarm.org. You can also learn about the health benefits of Grass Fed products at www.eatwild.com
It is more expensive to buy local organic, however, I don’t see how we have an option. Putting the health benefits aside, mistreatment of the animals, workers and the environment is enough reason to stop buying their products.
God has revealed in the Bible that we should be good stewards of his creation. I found an excellent study of biblical passages on this subject at www.all-creatures.org. (The site is vegetarian, but if you follow the link, it has an excellent bible study for understand scriptures position on stewardship of animals) As a Christian, I don’t see how I can continue to purchase meat from these large corporations and have a clear conscience.
I’ve also found Fast Food Nation to be an eye opening book that reveals the darker side of America’s current food system. A Fast Food Nation movie is soon to come out.
I encourage you all to learn more about this since, as consumers, we are responsible for making wise choices about the products we purchase and the places we put our money. Choose fruits and veggies that are grown locally and organically. Choose meat that has been grassfed and pastured. Support your local farms.
