The Good Hunter

Is there such a thing as a good hunter? Hunting is a pretty complicated issue, and of course when faced with a complicated issue most of us revert to stereotypes to make sense of it.

Hunters = redneck republican bambi killers.

Nonhunters =  arugula-eating democrat sissies.

OK, a little over-simplified, but the point is that the two sides are so polarized that we're left with caricatures. Part of the reason for this may be that, as a nation, we are totally schizo about violence and killing. On the one hand our culture glorifies violence (I mean seriously have you seen that HBO show Dexter?), but on the other we can't stand the idea of killing animals in order to eat them. In fact, we can't even stand to see our meat resembling the animal from which they came - Thanksgiving probably being the exception here. And so we end up totally confused.

I've seen an argula-eating, meat-loving democrat give her husband endless grief about hunting small birds while feasting on a giant feedlot steak. I've also seen hunters cause animals to suffer unnecessarily, take more than they can use, and kill things they had no interest in eating while blasting the regulations to protect wildlife.

We desperately need a voice of reason that can speak to both groups. I think we have that person in David Petersen. His most recent book, "Heartblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America" is definitely at the top of my winter reading list.

See an exerpt of his recent interview here: On The Ethics Of Killing Animals For Food.

Full disclosure: Although I plan to someday, I've never hunted wild game. I have, however, killed my own chickens, caught fish and crab in the ocean from a kayak, dug for clams and foraged for shellfish on the coast.

Cucumber Contortionist

I found this cucumber while putting the veggie garden to bed a few months ago. It was hidden by the vine all summer and was able to grow in and out of the fence several times. I had to break it to get it out.

A side view... kind of looks like a snake, huh?

Future Farmers of America?

Sustainability through Biotechnology: This is the latest sell from Future Farmers of America (FFA), and it's not hard to see which corporations are behind this. FFA calls itself an "agricultural education program" for middle and high school kids, and sadly, we're teaching our future farmers at an impressionable young age that Monsanto is our friend.

It sounds innocent enough on the surface - send us your video showing how modern agricultural practices are helping our planet. Look deeper, though, and I see this as another way to promote unsustainable farming practices that rely on pesticides and genetically engineered plants. Our modern agricultural practices have brought us E. coli in our spinach, pesticides in our vegetables, and tainted meat from heavily medicated animals. Is this a system we want to promote?

If this is what we're teaching our future farmers, I'm afraid. Very afraid.

A toe is at stake: An update

It's been a little over 3 months and I'm happy to report that the toe is pretty much healed. I got a pretty fun and cool looking horseshoe-shaped scar out of the deal.

Unfortunately it's not something I can whip out to impress someone at a bar.

I've even gotten back on the kayak since the accident!

here's how the toe looked about 3 months ago

Lapin Fermier, anyone?

In France, people don't freak out about their meat. Check out this meat case I encountered in the South of France at the Saint Rémy-de-Provence Market last year. It's refreshing to see meat resembling the animal from which they came. Yes, eyeballs and all. Yes, and the bit of feather resemling a mohawk they left on the chicken.

Now before you think ewwww... this is how we get our meat in the US.

I don't know about you, but I'll take eyeballs and feathers (things that belong) over styrfoam and plastic wrap. True, eyeballs and feathers are gross, but consider the advantages of seeing your meat in its "natural" form. No one can sell you a diseased chicken with stuff like

-- Tumors all over its body that the antibiotics couldn't fix
-- Missing eyeballs from the raging infectious diseases inside the CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) it's lived in all its life
-- No feathers left on its head because it was pecked off by its chicken neighbor crammed in the inhumanely small cage next door

I'm not trying to be sensational here. We have a law in this country that a cow can only be slaughtered for human consumption if it can walk into the slaughter house under its own power. It's not hard to imagine why that law is needed to protect us from the worst of factory animal farming.

But if we were to buy more of our meat in its natural state, no one would be able to sell a diseased chicken to you because you'd wonder: Why does that chicken only have one eyeball? Why does it have no feathers left on the head? Once people start asking questions like that, maybe the big corporate poultry farms will have to do better because they can no longer offload mistreated animals in neat little styrofoam packages.

We all live in this imperfect food system and it's not going to change overnight. I believe we have the power to move it in a positive direction, and the first step is to connect more honestly with our food. I started by local whenever possible believing that the positive impact of my actions, however small, will nudge our giant food industral complex in the right direction.

Endocrine disruptors versus modern conveniences

There was a piece in the new york times this week about the link between breast cancer and early puberty. It goes something like this: the earlier a girl starts her menstural cycle, the more estrogen she is exposed to in her lifetime, the greater risk of developing breast cancer. 100 years ago girls used to start puberty around age 14. now it's about 12. Tou can read the full story here.

Why is this happening? Modern life and our constant exposure to chemicals and pesticides may play a role. Especially a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. This stuff interferes with the our endocrine system, which controls the production and release of hormones into our bodies. You can find endrocrine disruptors in all kinds of everyday items, like cosmetics, plastics, and processed foods.  Go check the ingredients in your lotion - chances are you'll find some type of paraben, a suspected endocrine disruptor, in the list. I just did:

Nivea body daily lotion
Ingredients:
Water, glycerin... ... ... methylparaben, propylparaben

Remember the whole controversy over BPAs in Nalgene water bottles? Bisphenol A (BPA) is another suspected endocrine disruptor used in #7 plastic. Once it leaches out and is consumed by those of us who drank religiously out of our Nalgene bottles, or worse by a baby sucking on a BPA-laced plastic bottle, the chemical can start to mimic and interact with the natural estrogen in our bodies.

It's no smoking gun, but it seems to me there's a link between exposure to endocrine disruptors, elevated levels of estrogen, early puberty, and increased breast cancer risk.

So why are we doing this to ourselves? I guess we don't know better.

But funny enough, a bunch of tribesmen from a remote island in the Pacific know better.

A new show on the Travel Channel, "Meet the Natives," follows a delegation of tribesmen from a remote island in the Pacific as they explore America. These five guys were plucked from their traditional existence on a the island and plopped onto American soil for a peek into our way of life.

The 5 guys on the right make up the delegation. Photo from travelchannel.com

In one episode, they spend Thanksgiving with their host family in Peroria, Illinois and help prepare and cook a traditional turkey dinner. A short video of this scene is available here.

*They unwrap the turkey and put it in a oven bag*
(probably a bag like this)

Tribesman 1: But is it OK to cook the turkey inside the plastic?

American host: yes, it's OK to cook with this plastic.

Tribesman 2: Cooking the turkey in plastic frightens me... the plastic can melt and poison us all.

American host:  It's a special, special bag. Would you be more comfortable if we cooked it out of the bag?

Tribesman 2: This is new to us, but if you say it's safe, we'll trust you.

Sometimes, like tribesman 2, i find myself doing questionable things even though i know better. Like putting a Trader Joe's rice noodle soup cup into the microwave.

Microwave Directions:

1. Carefully peel back the lid to open bowl halfway. Empty packets ... into the bowl. (writer note: the bowl is #5 plastic, which is considered a "safer" plastic)

2. Add water...

3. Cook on high for 2 - 3 minutes

I've repeated steps 1 - 3 so many times without question. But when I slow down and think about it, something feels wrong. Microwaving plastic? Doesn't seem right.  But I do it, have done it, again and again without question. Why? I guess because the directions on the back of the package says it's perfectly OK.

But who got to decide that anyway? The guys who own the big food conglomerate that makes this stuff? The same guys who know that if you make it cheap and easy and disposable you sell more product, even if cheap and easy and disposable doesn't necessary mean good?

I think back to when we used to do things the slow way. I don't mean like make noodles from scratch, but like cook noodles in a pot of boiling water. Quaint, huh?

I need to slow down and ask more questions. Is it OK to cook turkey in the plastic? Is it OK to put plastic in the microwave? If it doesn't feel right, maybe I shouldn't follow the directions.

A toe is at stake: Listen to your intuition

We just got back from a long camping trip in Big Sur. This was the big campout we've been planning for 6 months: group site at our favorite campground, lots of friends and family. I bought myself a new surf kayak a few months ago and planned to take it for another spin after a great trial run in July. I couldn't wait to get back on the water.

Everything was groovy. We started to haul all the gear down to the beach but little things started to go awry. We had the kayak but not the life jacket. Then we had the kayak and life jacket but not the paddle. Yadayadayada. Up and down the hill I went, 5 times in total, to fetch the necessities. The hill was monstrous.



On the 5th trip, I finally had everything. I was frustrated and grumpy and had a sneaky feeling maybe I wasn't meant to surf that day. I thought, "The gods hate me today, but maybe because I've gone through all this trouble they'll reward me with a great day on the water."

I jump right in and had a great first ride. I start thinking my intuition was crap. As I come barreling toward the beach on that first ride I do what I usually do: fall out of the kayak like a dork. Immediately there's a sharp ping on my foot. What is that? No matter. I'm psyched, and there's no stopping me. I climb back in kayak, turn it around, and start paddling out for the next wave. Then my senses come back to me. "hmmm, I better check that."


I looked down and saw a chunk of my middle left toe is hanging there, mostly disconnected. It was so surreal because it didn't hurt and wasn't even bleeding much. The cold water numbed everything. I reached down and manipulate the flesh, and confirmed that a chunk of my toe was indeed sheared off, but holding on. The culprit? My fancy schmancy carbon fiber Werner paddle. Who knew the stupid thing was so sharp?

Hobbling back to the beach, trying my best to keep sand out of the wound, we bandaged it up and worked our way back up the hill. The nearest emergency room was 75 miles away. The ER doc SAVAGELY cleaned out the wound and superglued the thing shut. I asked him to wrap it up well because I still had a week of camping ahead of me. This was day 1 of our trip.





One week post-kayak accident the toe looks uglier than ever... my hubby says, "Don't worry, it's part of the healing process. The outer tissues are dying because it's been severed." Nice.

Moral of the story: Listen to your intuition.