Eatin’ Bugs

Insects will be a staple food on Mars and other space colonies.

Paul Pardee :

Lets have the delegates to the UN have a bug banquet to show their support of entomophagy. I know that support from political leaders would help. I’m sure having the Obamas munching on some meal worms while Prince Charles and Camilla have a feast of crickets will really push people towards eating insects instead of food.

Mark Caris :

@Paul Pardee Yes, eating bugs is disgusting. Not wholesome like hormone fed, fecal-spattered beef, covered with a processed pus-filled milk (BGH induced) product, in a bun of pesticide-contaminated GMO wheat. yum.

Of course, a pigs’ rectal lining filled with unsaleable, nitrate treated offal sounds good now, too…

Two billion people can’t be wrong.

@JohnKleinRegina That's the spirit! Over 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diet with insects. bbc.co.uk/news/world-225…—
Royal Sask Museum (@royalsaskmuseum) May 15, 2013

I haven’t tried it yet, I’m waiting for a trustworthy supplier/chef to enter my life first. That, or critical hunger.

Abandoned Community Pastures At Risk #cdnpoli #skpoli

The last remnants of a unique ecosystem on Earth are entering what is potentially their last years of natural existence. This will lead to the extinctions of some plants and animals that exist only on the Canadian prairies. Extinctions destabilize an ecosystem, and it’s an ecosystem where humans cannot be assured of long-term survival if it becomes destabilized.

The Conservatives removed protection for the community pastures in an apparent effort to privatize the land. The Sask Party, instead of putting the land under provincial management, has opted to sell off the land, following in the Conservative Party’s wishes. This is against the interest of Canadians, and of most of the ranchers and farmers who’ve used the pasture land over the decades they’ve been in the public trust.

Trevor Harriot in the Globe and Mail:

As for the program having achieved its goals [according to Ritz], the need for soil conservation and managing ecosystems in the public interest does not simply go away.

Press release sent my way today:

For Immediate Release:

April 17, 2013

Public Pastures – Public Interest

Uniting to Save Saskatchewan’s Community Pastures

Joint Venture Video Release

In April of 2012 the federal government announced it was divesting itself of 2.3 million acres of PFRA community pastures, 1.78 million of which are located in Saskatchewan. The control for these pastures has now reverted back to the prairie provinces and in response the Saskatchewan government has announced they will be seeking to sell or lease these lands to the current pasture patrons. With rising land values putting the purchase of these lands far beyond the reach of most patrons, exceeding their ability to run a financially viable operation, patrons are looking to find an alternative solution. Other stakeholders affected by this decision are looking to ensure a sustainable environmental action plan for the land is continued, safeguarding the continued health of the ecosystem and the 32 species at risk that reside there.

To help communicate this message, the various stakeholders (Patrons, First Nations, Academic and Wildlife/Environmental groups) have been meeting over the past several months to discuss their common concerns and encourage the two levels of government to reconsider their position on the importance of preserving and sustaining our community pastures. The result is a collaborative and inclusive video showcasing stakeholder concerns and their belief that, in order to ensure a positive outcome for all, they must work together to find a viable solution.

It is their hope this video will also help communicate the message to stakeholders not yet involved and encourage them to join the collaborative effort towards protecting out public interests, and maintaining current and long term sustainable management of our Community Pastures.

For more information on this video and the joint initiative please contact any of the following:

* Trevor Herriot, Public Pastures – Public Interest, Regina, trevorherriot@gmail.com , home 306-585-1674
* Senator Roland Crowe – First Nations representative, 306-539-9200
* Joanne Brochu – Patrons representative, jbrochu@sasktel.net , cell 306-255-7602

Doing What’s Right Doesn’t Always Look Cool

“Finish your food; there are children starving in… Regina.”

When I first started recovering items from dumpsters, I was of course keenly aware of the social stigma implications. I consoled myself against the probable eventual ridicule by having a personal code, of things I would not salvage. I certainly wouldn’t salvage food, ick. In Regina’s dumpsters, not far from my home, I learned people were discarding money, and cans of food (not opened, not damaged or expired). I couldn’t bear not to save this food and use it, for the simple fact that it was an unexplained waste. I later learned that people around North America in particular see this sort of waste first hand when they go dumpster diving. Some people (not me) use it as their primary source of food, and eat very well.
Canadians waste over $26,000,000,000 worth of food a year. Who is being disgusting?

Not the Freegans.

People shouldn’t get arrested for stopping waste.

- My name is John, and I am a part-time Freegan.

ReThink Meat

Meat fraud is taking place all around us. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between similar looking meats sold in stores, were it not for the labeling.

Fish fraud is apparently common in the USA.

Safeway recalled big and juicy E.coli burgers. “Must be cooked” is right on the box, and they weren’t kidding, were they?

I’m not above eating horse meat. I’ve never done it, however. At least, I don’t think I have. Many French and Italians didn’t have a choice if they bought from a mega-meat distributor who decided for them.

What all this brings to our attention, is how vital it is to cut down on overall meat consumption. You don’t have to eliminate meat from your diet to make a huge difference. Have it at half as many meals as you typically do today if you’ve not made a previous effort to cut back.

“Unless action is taken, increases in pollution and per capita consumption of energy and animal products will exacerbate nutrient losses, pollution levels and land degradation, further threatening the quality of our water, air and soils, affecting climate and biodiversity.”

Over consumption of meat, leading to higher than optimal demand in the food supply chain, leads to suffering in even rich countries:

Suzanne Salami, a single mother of three, subsists on just £30 a week and is angered by the way the horsemeat scandal is hitting the poorest hardest. “When you can’t afford to buy anything to eat, [or] ask where meat comes from and if it’s sustainable, it is not fair,” she said. “I am being made to eat stuff I don’t know about and I am being let down. It’s like we’re being told to eat and shut up.” She was particularly worried about the potential health impacts of traces of equine painkillers found in horsemeat in the food chain by the Food Standards Agency this week.

When I buy meat, I prefer it come from a source I know, such as a farmer near Wood Mountain or Ormiston; if I’m in the city, then a local meat shop like Fellinger’s. I’ll still take chances and buy meat from elsewhere, but I don’t feel comfortable with doing that.

Holy Sit

Kids were getting chemical burns from a toilet seat (and probably desk, for a boy with burned elbows) at an Ottawa area school. Most likely the disinfectant was sprayed on but never properly wiped off and rinsed. One of my concerns with using publish washrooms that have just been cleaned, is chemical splash-back or toxic seats. Thanks Ottawa area school for perma-scaring these poor kids for life into avoiding public washrooms…

==

The Pope quit. Holy Quit, as the Daily Show wrote last night. The jokes on Twitter were non-stop, totally unlike the Pope. He gave up his job for Lent, and then I saw three others make the same connection. The jokes were coming in so fast, that by the time you thought of one, someone else had used it five minutes ago. Welcome to comedy in the 21st century; it’s all been done, woo woo woo.

==

Popes were no friend to science back in the day, and they still aren’t. So today it’s worth recognizing someone who was. It’s Darwin Day, to commemorate Charles Darwin’s birthday. Both Regina and Saskatchewan have formally recognized the day this year.

==

It’s finally happened. Finally someone in the world has had their death attributed to their severe Coke habit. Coca-cola that is. 10L/day.

==

F-35 JSF has always been a scam, and the Conservatives are attempting to blame the military for their mistakes.

PostModern PostMedia

Somehow Stephen Maher has a job at PostMedia. It’s amazing, there is still some honest journalism going on at the husk of former Black-owned newspapers, in 2012 no less. Instead of enlightening people about the treasonous robocalls made in the last general election, this time he’s explaining that climate change really is taking place now all around us. The future is catching up, and we’re running out of time to make our lives more sustainably comfortable.

You should note the food prices and ratios to income mentioned. Then seek out the food to income ratio in Egypt in 2010 & 2011. Let us know what they are please.

Mosaic 2012 #WHYQR

I had an excellent evening out in Regina with my wife, family, and friends. I met some Ward 1 residents too along the way, including Joe and his wife. Joe’s writing a book about Regina, and it may be available by the end of this year. He also had very interesting comments about municipal politics here, including an idea (not acted on 30 years ago) to do away with the Ward numbers, and focus on geographical names with more meaning instead. Hillsdale, Douglas Park, and Whitmore Park would have meaning to more local people than “Ward 1″. I would have talked longer, but had other pavilions to get to, and the six year old we were babysitting didn’t want to wait to see more. I just realized, looking at Joe’s business card, that I saw his car on the way into the Irish pavilion, because I noticed the Rider plate with his name and mistakenly thought it was a phonetic attempt to match a radio station name.

At the Greek pavilion I also got to talk with education-Tweeter-extraordinaire Alec, who may be pitching an idea I gave him, on the radio next week.

So far I’ve been to Hellenic (Greece), Kyiv (Ukraine; try the borscht), Irish, Scottish, Korean (lit my mouth on fire with some kim-chi), Philippines, and Hungary. I’d like to catch them all, but won’t have time, so the short list for Saturday is Chile, Caribbean, Francophone, and First Nations. Hopefully I squeak in a few more than that.

I heard that people were evacuated from the German Club around 9:30pm due to some electrical problem that was soon resolved. The party ended up in the street, and in the tent instead.

At Hungary, I got to talk with Ralph Goodale a little bit as crowd control kicked in to hold up the line we were waiting in. He congratulated me on entering municipal politics, and gave me some pointers. Which reminds me, Joe spoke highly of Mayor Nenshi’s social media campaign, and recommended I follow it. I explained that as a blogger, I have years of “dirt” people can readily dig up and take out of context, at the push of a button, so not all of Nenshi’s methods of message control are open to me. Although, he’s certainly a legend in municipal politics and social media circles. I sure hope I have a shred of his social-savvy.

ChitChat; Twitter and CVAF

Friday night I spent at Beer Bros with the best sort of party companions: Tweeters! Far from having their noses and thumbs buried in their phones, these Tweeters are social sorts, looking to meet new people and practice their wit in a real-world environment, off the online-record.

To practice my name remembering skill (which is stretched past the human limit of fewer than 200), I met Aaron who operates a pawn shop on 11th Ave. He missed seeing the eclipse the other day, as the part of the province he was in clouded over specifically during the critical hours. Doh! I also chatted with some old friends as we devoured some tasty appetizers. There were little, tiny, blue cheese flavoured hamburgers even, yummy.

I got to meet and talk with Meka Okochi. who is running for mayor this year, and we had a good discussion about our thoughts on the stadium. Also there, and running for city council like I am, were Tina Beaudry-Mellor and Shawn Fraser. Tina was quite dismayed by my musical tastes (I don’t mind listening to country). I wonder about Ryan’s musical tastes, and you should too.

I shouldn’t complain; I find Bad Lip Reading to be amazing:

Gotye doesn’t think he’s too bad either.

I'd like to glue a tiny moustache on your cat. On Wednesdays
bit.ly/J0bUAQ—
  (@gotye) May 04, 2012

==

Saturday I worked at the Regina Car Share booth at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival, and enjoyed the cloudy day. I don’t think a single person ended up with a sunburn today, and it didn’t even rain. Other car share board members had the display set up when I got there, and our new display equipment looked great. We’ve got to have a new sponsor sheet printed, because Sask Central has added quite a bit of support since we had the display made.

I bumped into quite a few local politicians including John Findura, Shawn Fraser again, Marc Spooner, and Jaime Garcia. I saw party leaders Victor Lau and interim leader John Nilson too, but they were busy talking with others as I milled around. I went to the WestJet booth, and someone in front of me won a free flight (I got 5% off my next booking, but the email hasn’t arrived yet).

I had lunch at Eat Healthy Foods, after picking up a replacement seat for my bike from Dutch Cycle (the seat and post had been stolen a few weeks ago). The turd who stole my seat probably learned that the posts are pretty specific to the bike they are in, and found it was nearly useless to him.

RoboCoke: Fun Contest to Celebrate Dying Democracy

I dislike both Coke and iTunes, thinking the world would be a better place without either of them. I hate RoboCon a lot more though, because our country would be a lot better off without cynical and illegal attempts to subvert our democratic elections. So I’m combining all of these things I detest, into one fun contest for my readers. I have a swath of Coke bottle caps that contain free iTunes songs. Musicians get some moola if you use these caps to “buy” their songs. You can support whatever independent artists you want, if they exist on iTunes, and make Coke pay for indie music. Yes, I feel bad mentioning Coke and iTunes, giving them free brain and screen space, but it’s the price to pay for having a little bit of fun.

Here’s how the contest works:
Guess who Pierre Poutine is!
Leave the name of who you suspect Poutine/Jones is in the comments section, and if you’re right, your name will be entered into a random draw with the other correct guessers. One winner from that pool will win not just one, but TWO free songs on iTunes. The codes expire at the end of May, so if charges are not laid and known by April 30th, 2012, I’ll pick two names at random from those who place a guess, and award one song each. Of course the correct guessers also will get perpetual bragging rights for having figured out who the most wanted man in Canada was (or for being a darn lucky guesser).

If you’d like to make your guess in private, so as to not tip off the other guessers, email me or Direct Message me on Twitter @saskboy.
Oh so fine print follows the cut…

Cattle Starved for Globalization & to Preserve Self

A few weeks ago, my friend Seong (he’s from Korea), told me about the effects of Globalization on South Korean farmers. With cheap beef flooding into the country, farmers have been unable to sell their cattle, and unable to pay for feed. Cattle could be heard crying as they starved to death. This naturally destroyed a lot of farmers’ spirits as well.

Here is a section of an academic essay he’s written, as a proposal to study the textbooks of Korea for bias toward Globalization and its underlying political ideology. I’m going to highlight some passages I found particularly striking. People in the Occupy Movement may especially find this interesting.