Get with the Program Steve Jobs


I admit that I am a big fan of Mac computers- their energy efficient design, easy to use style, artistic qualities, no Microsoft programs, etc, but they are slipping environmentally. They have been leaders in certain areas in the past, but recently they have been doing little to reduce toxic plastics and flame retardants in their products. Earlier this month Greenpeace named them the worst electronics manufacturer on environmental issues. This sparked some more protests at the NY Apple Store.

Greenpeace has a campaign called Green My Apple. The site has a wealth of information for taking action as well as some resources for turning activism into art. So please, if you are a Mac fan take action. Otherwise that new notebook I planned on buying this spring may be a *uhggh* Dell *cough*.

Quote of the Day

"McDonald's has been providing nutritious menu options to all of our customers for 52 plus years."

Danya Proud, McDonald's spokesman

When I went to check my email this evening I couldn't help but notice this article regarding "gyms" being incorporated into McDonald's. I guess those plastic balls covered in disinfectant and greasy food from the fingers of children no longer constitute as enough exercise. The new gyms are supposed to have stationary bicycles hooked to video games-which as goofy as they are, are not a bad idea. Still, this is just another attempt by a corporation to improve its tarnished image. Most likely McDonald's is simply trying to stay one step ahead of the lawsuits that are coming its way involving obesity and health issues.

Which leads to my question "Is the fast food industry to blame for the obesity epidemic or is it the poor choices made by consumers?"

I Should Be The CEO of ADM

Earlier this year ADM named Patricia A Woertz, a former senior executive at Chevron, as their new CEO, while Allen Andreas held on to his Chairman of the Board post. Allen never had the political clout or flamboyance that his uncle Dwayne Andreas had. An Andreas has run the company for the past for 35 years, so it only makes sense they should have went with me. After all, my last name is Andreas, I'm from Illinois, like former CEO Dwayne Andreas I have a mennonite family background, and I'm not very tall. There has to be a relation there somewhere. The name Andreas isn't very common.

On the other hand, isn't ADM one of the biggest recipients of corporate welfare? 43% of their profits are from heavily subsidized products, including ethanol. Not to mention they are responsible for high fructose corn syrup being in everything. They are actually responsible for keeping sugar prices high ensuring soda makers use HFCS instead of sugar. It is also into procesing cocoa, buying much of the product from low wage slave like labor suppliers.

Then there was that price fixing thing a couple years ago where 3 ADM, including an Andreas, went to jail for charges of price fixing lysine, a corn feed additive, which overcharged US purchasers between $155-166 million. The company was fined $100 million, the biggest anti-trust fine in US history.

So actually, ADM, you can keep your 9 figure assets. I'll go on being against everything you stand for. Even if we are distant relatives.


Dwayne Andreas and Myself as ADM CEO










Allen Andreas and Myself as ADM CEO







Here are a couple good links on ADM's corruption. One from the CATO Inst. and one from Mother Jones.

Industrial Meat and My Fast Food Experience

Well I'm beyond the industrial farming section in the Omnivore's Dilemma, but I am still haunted by how bizarre our food system has become. I knew large amounts of antibiotics and estrogen were being used to treat factory livestock, but I was not aware that they were blended with liquefied fat (which includes beef tallow) and supplements to be dumped in the feeding trough continuously. Apparently, without the daily dose of antibiotics large feedlots would never be able to operate.

The CAFO Poky Feeders in Kansas where Pollan visits

Why do the cattle need so many antibiotics? One answer is corn. The digestive system of cattle is not designed for a strictly corn diet, they are grazing animals. The stomachs of cattle and other rumen are fairy neutral, opposed to our acidic stomachs. The corn makes their stomachs more acidic leading to bloating, diarrhea, ulcers, rumenitis, and liver disease. In fact, it is estimated 15-30% of all feedlot cows have abscessed livers. Basically these poor animals are barely kept alive long enough to be slaughtered. There is no way they would be able to sustain long-term conditions like a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation).

To conclude the industrial food section Pollan eats a meal from McDonald's in his car- the perfect end to following the planting of commercial field corn in Iowa. Pollan once again describes how fast food is entirely the result of food scientists and is all processed. Most of the food contains soy or corn, especially high fructose corn syrup. But this was McDonald's, I knew their food was fake. What about other restaurants. Well, I drove past a Culver's yesterday, a fast food restaurant that started in Wisconsin and now has spread throughout the Midwest. I had eaten at one a couple years ago and it seemed a cut above most fast food joints. So I went in. I had to.

I rarely eat processed foods anymore and I can't remember the last time I had eaten fast food. I gave it up more for health and ethical reasons than taste. So I wondered, did it still taste good? I ordered a cheeseburger, fries, and soda. Then I grabbed their allergen chart that was sitting by the napkins. They were out of nutrition guides so I asked the lady at the counter if they had anymore. She finally dug one up by the drive through window. Well for the curious here is what I found:

*According to the allergen sheet the only food listed that do not contain soy or corn are their classic lemon ice, strawberries (for sundaes), raspberry vinaigrette dressing, dill pickles, unsweetened and hot tea (which oddly contain gluten), a carton of milk, mild and spicy mustard, picante sauce, and green beans (which contain dairy). Even the nuts for toppings contained soy, perhaps because they were produced in the same factory that used soy.
*None of the sandwiches or burgers contained under 600 mg of sodium. Most contained over 1000mg.

As for the meal? It wasn't tasty at all. Everything tasted like salt. There was no way I could finish my soda. I made sure to try and savour the food to bring out any flavour, but there was little to be brought out. A perfect quote from Pollan regarding fast food is this, "The more you concentrate on how it tastes, the less like anything it tastes. So you eat more and eat more quickly, hoping somehow to catch up to the original idea of a cheeseburger or French Fry as it retreats over the horizon. And so it goes, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied exactly, but simply, regrettably, full."

To make matters worse, about an hour later I had a mild case of indigestion. Pollan suggests that one and three children in the US eat fast food everyday. I guess they have built up an immunity to it better than my stomach. I feel better after a triple-americano than that food.

And of course another relevant Onion article.

An Early Thought On Michael Pollan's Book The Omnivore's Dilemma:


A couple days ago I received a welcomed phone call from the library informing me that the book I had requested awhile ago, The Omnivore's Dilemma, had finally come in. I actually had forgotten I had even put it on hold. I have just started it, but it is already a fascinating read.

The author divides the book into four different food chains or meals that may reach our plate; the industrial fast-food meal, an "industrial-type" organic meal, a local organic meal, and a foraged/hunted meal. Currently I am still in the conventional industrial section.

What has really interested me thus far, (although I'm not overtaken with surprise) is the reliance of the industrial food system on corn, which is heavily reliant on chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels. According to the book, one-fourth of all items in a typical grocery store contain or was processed with corn. Many foods, like a chicken nugget, contains corn upon corn. The chicken was fed corn. There is cornstarch to hold it together, corn flour on the batter, and corn oil for frying it. It also contains leavinings, lecithin, glycerides, and citric acid-all derived from corn. Wow. Now I know why there was corn in every field where I grew up in Illinois.

One problem with corn is the amount of nitrogen that it needs to grow. Of coarse the industrial corn producers use chemical fertilizers, which end up in the wells. To this day the well at my Mother's house where I grew up has nitrate levels so high children and pregnant women aren't supposed to drink the water from it. Needless to say I bring my own artesian water.

Another huge problem is the amount of fossil fuels needed to produce industrial corn. Pollan brings up an eye-opening statistic. Because of the amount of fuel needed to create the fertilizers and pesticides, drive the tractors, and transport the corn, more than one calorie of fossil fuel energy is needed for every calorie of food produced. It doesn't take much to see that this process isn't very sustainable. Or as Pollan states it "too bad we can't simply drink the petroleum directly".

To keep this from becoming a book review, I would jsimply like to recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read it, or like myself, hasn't finished it. Perhaps I will do another post on the book in the future if it's a topic I feel like discussing.

Will the Democrat Majority Restrict Free Trade?



Today my partner and I went on a shopping adventure for a new iron, because ours started smoking the other day. The closest sewing shop is about an hour away. I called them to see what kind of irons they carried. They only carried a special German iron that ran about $140. We didn't really want to spend that much or travel that far, so we decided to try to shop local. We checked two resale shops to no avail. We also tried a quilting/knitting shop, but they only carried small hobby irons. We finally had luck at the local hardware store-well sort of. They only had two irons, both made in China. The only choices left were Wal*Mart and Pamida, both of which would probably have the same products (plus I refuse to set foot in Wally World).

The thing is I probably could have drove to Duluth and had the same luck. Either one buys a specialty product from Europe or buys a cheap product from China. What happened to "durable" prducts that carry that "Made in America" logo. Oh yeah, the jobs aren't there anymore. We decided free trade was a wonderful idea.

Well, one of the most promising matters that the Democrat majority may tackle is the ambiguous Free Trade situation. Many of the newly-elected democrats, especially in the Midwest industrial areas, ran on an anti-globalisation platform. Areas such as Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Michigan have seen a great amount of their manufacturing jobs disappear overseas. While I disagree with many of the new "conservative" democrats social platforms, I agree with their populist beliefs. It is my hope, that unlike the 90's, the democrats will stand up against free trade and unchecked globalisation. They will strike down Bush's power of fast track authority and begin to bring jobs back to America. At the same time this will reduce our ridiculous trade imbalance with countries like China that have such poor labour standards.

While I am in no way promoting consumerism, I would like to see a return to more localised manufacturing when one is faced with the decision to buy something. It would be nice to buy an iron that is made in Minneapolis or Milwaukee. Perhaps I would run into a worker from the factory while he or she was vacationing up here. Instead our policies promote a businesses like this or this that thrives on shipping jobs overseas.

For more info on the prospects of free trade with the newly elected democrats check out this Washington Post article.

Or for a more humorous related article check out this Onion article.