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Dreams of growing your own food don’t look so hot in reality

My youngest daughter wants to be a farmer. She is heading off to the local fair grounds tomorrow to help get the barn cleaned up in preparation for the big 4-H show where she will give a presentation on fur mites. Although her rabbit is extremely cute, it usually comes in last place, because cuteness doesn't count. We indulge her farm fantasies because she is learning a great deal about life and having a wonderful childhood while she's at it. Childhood only comes around once, at least until you have kids and can partially participate a second or third time.

Junk-food makers seek to make junk food healthier

Not strictly environmental news, but on the closely-related topics of human health and consumer habits:

The City of New York has asked local restaurants to voluntarily hold the fat by switching from extremely heart-unhealthy transfats -- found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil -- to healthier fats like sunflower and olive oils in their dishes.

Our famous black-and-white cookies are apparently impossible to make without transfats, but not all local treats will suffer. After all these years of considering butter and beef fat the anti-Christ, the data on transfats renders (heh) foods prepared in or prepared with animal fats less evil than their hydrogenated counterparts:

Not all of New York's beloved foods will suffer. Balthazar's French fries rely on healthier peanut oil, which is to frying oils what Manolo Blahnik is to shoes. Magnolia Bakery uses butter in its cupcakes. On the rare occasion that the Magnolia bakers make a pie, they use a new version of Crisco without trans fat, said Allysa Torey, the owner.

Even without a lot of cash, food-loving New Yorkers can find ways to avoid trans fats. At Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side, the thick-cut French fries that go so well with a pastrami sandwich are fried, as they always have been, in beef tallow.

Denmark's had a law severely limiting the percentage of trans fats in a food item's total fats since 2003, and Canada's considering a similar rule.

My initial response is to wonder if such measures can catch on in America, where the freedom to choose from various modes of self-destruction is practically a national religion. But ... what if we didn't have to choose? What if there were ways to have our junk food guilt-free?

regarding the dispensation of pork

1. Republicans control all three branches of government.
2. Thus, pork goes disproportionately to Republican congressional districts.
3. Republican congressional districts tend to be either rural or exurban.
4. Rural pork is composed primarily of agricultural subsidies and exurban pork is generally car-friendly.
5. Agricultural subsidies and car-friendly infrastructure development are environmentally destructive.

Whatever to do?

Update [2005-8-12 14:25:26 by Dave Roberts]: Oops. In reference to the above, I meant to point to this Nathan Newman post.

Newly discovered lemur species too cute for words

Scientists discovered two new lemur species, named Microcebus lehilahytsara (shown here) and Mirza zaza, in one of the most studied rain forests of Madagascar. New primate species are rare finds, though the animals' small size -- about the size of a mouse and a grey squirrel, respectively -- help explain why they were never spotted before.

Germany says auf Wiedersehen to nuclear power, guten Tag to renewables

For a people as addicted to order as the Germans, this country is floundering in uncertainty. The economy has sputtered to a post-World War II record 5 million unemployed. Chancellor […]

Pup Tense

Parks ban dogs from hiking trails to protect wildlife You might find it heartwarming to see Rover frolicking in the wilderness, but residents of the backcountry may not share your […]

Kit Me Baby One More Time

Last chance to donate to Grist and save yourself from global warming! That feverish, woozy feeling you have? It’s not the warming planet. It’s guilt! You haven’t donated to Grist […]

Alan AtKisson on Sweden

Delightful.

Update [2005-8-12 10:25:6 by Dave Roberts]: Iceland sounds pretty cool too!

Being ‘right’ about peak oil is only the first step

All right, I've been meaning to write a post on this forever, but a comment from The Oil Drum's Prof. Goose finally lit a fire under my butt:

It seems to me that one of the keys to the puzzle of why people don't understand peak oil and other sustainability issues is innumeracy and a lack of understanding spatial functions.

Ah, so that's it! But wait, it gets better:

However, getting 100*ln 2(~=70, btw)/rate per annum=doubling time in years through your head ain't that hard...is it?

Oh, well heck no!

But let's get to the point:

One of the main points of Dr. Bartlett's lecture is that "we cannot let other people do our thinking for us." So, so true.

Um, no. So, so false.

In fact, we let other people do our thinking for us constantly. If we couldn't outsource some -- nay, most -- of our thinking, we would be screwed indeed. People think about their families, kids, boy/girlfriends, health, school, job, finances, parents, weight ... now they have to learn calculus?

I'm not trying to be cute. People are busy. Average folk can hope to have in-depth knowledge in one area, maybe two. For many it is sports, clothes, TV shows, hobbies of myriad sorts.

Even those who devote their lives to what we may consider good causes -- learning all there is to know about, oh, poverty, or ocean health -- do we hold them responsible for not knowing all there is to know about peak oil? Do we hold Prof. Goose responsible for not knowing the basic facts on, say, the tropical lapse rate quandary?

No. Most people rely, for most of their information, most of the time, on other people. They let other people do the thinking for them. It could not be otherwise.

Kernel knowledge

The Daily Show has done several funny bits on the energy bill. This one, on ethanol, is particularly funny.