My Views on Food and Animals

I see so much these days about people boycotting this and that, and people trying to pass laws that adhere to their (sometimes narrow) views about ethical animal treatment. Some of these I agree with, like the brave people who are shown on "Whale Wars". Others I am ambivalent about, like the people who march in front of furrier shops. And still others make me absolutely mad enough to bite nails and spit Rebar, like Vegans and Veggie Nazis telling me how and what I should eat. There are a couple of these who post to a local free newspaper, and their growling, whining and mumbling about forcing our school children to eat a Vegan diet in school finally got to me, and I wrote in. Of course, I got flamed, and one person held these idiots up as saints, for all the stuff they had done to promote Vegetarianism in our area, and the "sacrifices" they had made in this cause. Never mind that I have been promoting the love of Nature for years. Never mind that I have spent a majority of my life teaching Environmental Education, and teaching people of all ages to love Nature, and protect Her in any way possible.
Many of the people the New Age people claim to love are the so called "Native Americans", who actually, if you don't know their Tribal or National affiliation, prefer to be called Indians. Many of these groups produced men and women of great Spiritual acuity, and they ate many kinds of animals, including Bison and deer. All these wannabe veggies and vegans go nuts over "Native Americans", but sort of slide right over the facts that they ate (and still for the most part eat) many species of wild game that these people hold in absolute reverence. If pressed, they will say "well, that is their tradition". Bull feathers. It is my tradition too. My grandfather fed his family during the Great Depression with a shotgun, and I was taught to hunt by my mother's brother. These people will say "we are more conscious than that". Than what? Is the Cougar any less conscious than we when she drops out of the tree and breaks the deer's neck with one great paw? Do we have the hubris to say we are more conscious than she? Do we need to divorce ourselves from Natur Herself in order to be "conscious"? I think not.


You may have gathered that I am what Veggie Nazis call a "meat eater". Oh, I eat all kinds of things, potatoes, squash, beans, corn, other vegetables, but they focus on the meat, and say it is WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

I have a few questions. If a wolf goes out and pulls down an elk or deer, what do you say? Some of these people will cheer the wolf on. What? What's that you say? "It is the wolf's nature!" Really? And it isn't mine? How dare you tell me what is my nature! Wanna turn the wolf vegetarian? You might be able to manage it, but not with Cougar. Cougar requires meat, and the fresher the better. Once again, do NOT tell me that my nature is different from theirs. That is a type of hubris that has separated humans from their nature for thousands of years, the idea that we are somehow outside the natural process. It has also been instrumental in destruction of Nature, the thinking that we are outside Her laws.

A human eating meat is no different from a bear or raccoon eating meat. We are all omnivores, made to eat almost anything, from vegetable matter to raw meat. Not me. I think that fire was probably an adaptation to eating a variety of stuff and not have it kill us. Fire can purify a lot of things

Golden days

The days of late summer are golden, with maybe just a tinge of brass. The sun is following a southward path every day toward the Equinox, and the days turn from a sultry heat to a pleasant mildness. A flush of flowering has begun, following the doldrums of summer, that time when the Mountains are just an unrelieved green with but few spots of color. Late summer is a golden time here with all the yellow composites abloom. Of course, those are not all that is blooming, not by a long shot, but in many places, they are in the majority, and Goldenrod can cover whole fields.

Late summer and early Fall flowers!!!

I am struck by the flowers this year. For once we have had something approaching normal rainfall here in the Southern Appalachians around Asheville, Land of the Weird. Normal rainfall here is something approaching 50 plus inches a year, making some scientists call our forests a "temperate rain forest, but not for the last few years. For the last several grueling years, we have been afflicted with an unrelieved drought. Flowers that normally burgeoned with color were scraggly, or did not bloom at all. Whole sections of forest, rooted on thin soil over rock simply dried up and died.

This year, every field, hedgerow, roadside and wet pasture is lush with growth that just a few weeks ago was a deep hunter green, but now has burst into a myriad of colors, many of them some shade of yellow, but of course, not all. Goldenrod covers many a field and roadside, turning them into burnished gold.

 Bill Hilton at Hilton Pond http://hiltonpond.org has written several articles about Goldenrod, and if you go to his site, you can enter "goldenrod" (without the quotes) into the search box, and get lots more info. Bill is a top notch Naturalist, and writes great articles. (He writes in the third person with the "editorial we" which I find mildly annoying, but everything he writes is solid.)

I have heard so many people say "oh, I'm allergic to Goldenrod". My first response is to say "no you're not". Of course, I often get the "are you callin' me a liar?!" of ignorant folk. My usual reply is "no, I am saying you are an ignorant so and so". I hate it when people do that, just so you know.

No, the real culprit is Ragweed, a rather camouflaged and cryptic member of the same family that is wind pollinated. Notice the wasp on the Goldenrod in the last picture. It is transferring pollen. The pollen of Goldenrod is heavy, and must be transported by insect. On the other hand, pollen of Ragweed is light, and is carried by wind, often miles from the parent plant.

This one blended in so well with its background, I put it on the hood of the car to photograph it. Notice the green flowers all along the top.

Another that was made famous by a book and a movie is a purple flowered plant made famous by a book and movie of the same name, namely Ironweed.

Ironweed is found in low pastures near a stream where it usually stays rather damp. This one was found on a stream bank.

Speaking of stream banks. The Swannanoa River near Asheville, particularly the Azalea area is hopping with flowers this year. Goldenrod is everywhere, painting whole areas of the riverbank gold, and in other places the Joe Pye Weed is king.

Remembering

Check the political and social blog of Blue Ridge Discovery at http://alexnetherton.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/.

Revisited