After yesterdays thoughts on a ‘best possible’ diet I thought I might do an experiment for a week, trying out Vegan only.  I want to see if it’s do-able without eating loads of extra imported tropical products – coconut mostly.  Everything specifically vegan seems to have coconut in it!

Walking around Asda a minute ago I found myself in a real grump.  Thinking ‘what’s the point of this? – I don’t know why I’m choosing to do it when I’m quite irritated by the whole Veganism thing going on right now’.  It’s not that I’m against animal rights or anything, I think that animal welfare is a really important topic, it’s just that it all seems a bit extreme, and some what faddy. Yet again someone is profiting off the back of people’s need to feel ‘on trend’, or in with the ‘now’. And how many people are actually thinking about the wider implications of their choices. – Does this vegan product have palm oil in it for a start.  Or, is it highly processed, and therefore adding to the destruction of health, natural environments and the welfare of the planet through the need for chemical additives, processed white sugar, and all the machinery and fuel needed to run a food producing factory.

I wonder how many vegans live in modern homes, snort cocaine, drive environmentally unfriendly cars, and so on and so forth.  I don’t expect vegan’s to be able to achieve a perfect life where they never accidentally kill a spider or anything, but I would at least expect them to have thought about all the wider implications of their actions and understand their own reasoning on this.  And this is what I want to achieve, I want to understand my own position regarding food and the environment and in the end feel that I can squarely justify my own reasoning to anyone who asks.  After all, the world that we are currently privileged to live in, despite it’s multitudinous flaws is pretty luxuriant in terms of food choices, and the fact that it is readily available in great quantity. 

This is what has arisen from the Blackcurrant philosophy, the notion of how easily we get food, and in what quantity.

For me to be able to eat mindfully would require me to slow right down, stop drinking coffee, get over my addiction to sugar (– because this tends to cause the high-speed snaffle reflex), and be able to sustain a varied enough organic (wherever possible) diet of locally produced food. A difficult if not entirely unachievable prospect for someone looking after a family of 5 on a low budget!

The experiment starts tomorrow morning, so I’ll keep updating to keep myself committed, for now I might check out Cowspiracy or something.

I’m standing here with a salad bowl full of blackcurrants harvested from one half of one bush in the garden.  This is the first year we’ve bothered to net the mature bush since I inherited it from my dad’s patch, and so it’s the first year I’ve had enough fruit to do something with, and it’s got me thinking.

As usual I’m thinking several different things on the same subject at once, so as usual I need to write to clarify this jumbled mess I call brain.

The questions arising in me on this subject are firstly around Veganism- (Is it mostly a fad thing?), versus eating a meat/ dairy inclusive diet that is local, and therefore assumedly suited to those from a northern European descent. Which is better?

The answer to this is linked to the second question I guess, but from a personal point of view I don’t see how eating lots of imported tropical fruits and nuts can be better for you physiologically if you are northern European, than eating a diet which contains organic meat, and dairy as well as wild or home-grown fruit and veg. – This, I see as an ideal diet, not currently an easily achievable diet.

Secondly, is our concept of the food we consume.  I guess what I mean by this is mindfulness, and the spirituality of food.  Is there even a practice of this these days? – There must have been in the past, but now it seems that the fast paced, I need it now, or I want it done now culture has permeated the food industry as fully as it has the entertainment industry and is now the ‘shovel it in quick’ industry.  Through the mind techniques of advertising ‘They’ virtually force us to not think about where our food has come from, or what is involved in the growing, harvesting and processing of any whole food or product.

When I started I was quite irritated by this bowl in front of me.  I must work through the berries, picking off stalks and leaves, and wrinkled or under-ripe ones and then bagging and dating them for the freezer. It has been there since yesterday, so I need to do it now.  ‘How fucking annoying’ I thought. ‘I want to hurry up, so I can sit at the computer’ (to read pointless bullshit politics and look at other peoples apparently perfect lives).  But as I got in to the process my thoughts turned to a conversation I had yesterday with my friend, a year long Vegan who has just recently bought a small 40acre farm and has just realised/ been told that they have a duty to keep the self-seeding weeds in check, and so have decided to buy a small herd of Dexter cows.

We talk about the ethics of farming, and the eventual destination of their animals.  It seems to be a mental U-turn in my friend.  Not that I think she is in anyway in the wrong to be Vegan, or to change her mind.  Life is not simple or straightforward, and we should always question our own choices. But separating the old and wrinkled, and the young, small and green from the rest of the black berries in this slow, but (historically at least) important process, I wonder ‘do blackcurrants have feelings? Am I acting out barbaric and murderously against these defenceless juicy beings? – I could be.  We now know that trees communicate, they support each other, nurture their young, and help others in need for the good of the wider community (the woodland).  So why not blackcurrants? We all have a cycle of life and death.

Having just watched the box set ‘Britannia’ my mind wandered to how it would’ve been 2000years ago, (or basically any time except the recent his/herstory).  The preparation of these berries, or similar, would’ve been vital for the winter months ahead for the people of any community.  The berries a vital source of calories and Vitamin C, and the leaves being used as tea, - a tonic for the liver and kidneys.

Considering all these things then, food preparation becomes a spiritual act. Thinking about our impact on our immediate environment, the food we take, the separating, killing and processing of our food stuff, be that plant or animal brings us gratitude for our continued sustenance. Unlike the ‘shovel it in’ culture that we live in. 

I look at labels a lot, for various reasons and I recently noticed on a spreadable butter type plant-based spread that actually said ‘suitable for Vegans’ on it, that there was in fact, palm oil in it.  That really pissed me off.  I put it on Facebook, but I was surprised by the reactions I got, no real acknowledgement of what I saw as the problem, only polite responses suggesting I try this product or that.  My friends are either too polite to argue with me, or just not seeing the implications of lazy consumption.

I’ve finished sorting the berries now, a stop starting between writing and sifting. I think I’ll go out and return the remaining bits to the earth around the bush and say a pray of gratitude for my harvest before starting on the second half of this huge task.  I’ll even make sure I leave plenty for the birds as they need these little black wonders too.

I just hope I can control my addictions a little more, and think a little more before I snaffle down that packaged processed piece of crap chocolate cake next time…

As usual I’m thinking several different things on the same subject at once, so as usual I need to write to clarify this jumbled mess I call brain.

The questions arising in me on this subject are firstly around Veganism- (Is it mostly a fad thing?), versus eating a meat/ dairy inclusive diet that is local, and therefore assumedly suited to those from a northern European descent. Which is better?

The answer to this is linked to the second question I guess, but from a personal point of view I don’t see how eating lots of imported tropical fruits and nuts can be better for you physiologically if you are northern European, than eating a diet which contains organic meat, and dairy as well as wild or home-grown fruit and veg. – This, I see as an ideal diet, not currently an easily achievable diet.

Secondly, is our concept of the food we consume.  I guess what I mean by this is mindfulness, and the spirituality of food.  Is there even a practice of this these days? – There must have been in the past, but now it seems that the fast paced, I need it now, or I want it done now culture has permeated the food industry as fully as it has the entertainment industry and is now the ‘shovel it in quick’ industry.  Through the mind techniques of advertising ‘They’ virtually force us to not think about where our food has come from, or what is involved in the growing, harvesting and processing of any whole food or product.

When I started I was quite irritated by this bowl in front of me.  I must work through the berries, picking off stalks and leaves, and wrinkled or under-ripe ones and then bagging and dating them for the freezer. It has been there since yesterday, so I need to do it now.  ‘How fucking annoying’ I thought. ‘I want to hurry up, so I can sit at the computer’ (to read pointless bullshit politics and look at other peoples apparently perfect lives).  But as I got in to the process my thoughts turned to a conversation I had yesterday with my friend, a year long Vegan who has just recently bought a small 40acre farm and has just realised/ been told that they have a duty to keep the self-seeding weeds in check, and so have decided to buy a small herd of Dexter cows.

We talk about the ethics of farming, and the eventual destination of their animals.  It seems to be a mental U-turn in my friend.  Not that I think she is in anyway in the wrong to be Vegan, or to change her mind.  Life is not simple or straightforward, and we should always question our own choices. But separating the old and wrinkled, and the young, small and green from the rest of the black berries in this slow, but (historically at least) important process, I wonder ‘do blackcurrants have feelings? Am I acting out barbaric and murderously against these defenceless juicy beings? – I could be.  We now know that trees communicate, they support each other, nurture their young, and help others in need for the good of the wider community (the woodland).  So why not blackcurrants? We all have a cycle of life and death.

Having just watched the box set ‘Britannia’ my mind wandered to how it would’ve been 2000years ago, (or basically any time except the recent his/herstory).  The preparation of these berries, or similar, would’ve been vital for the winter months ahead for the people of any community.  The berries a vital source of calories and Vitamin C, and the leaves being used as tea, - a tonic for the liver and kidneys.

Considering all these things then, food preparation becomes a spiritual act. Thinking about our impact on our immediate environment, the food we take, the separating, killing and processing of our food stuff, be that plant or animal brings us gratitude for our continued sustenance. Unlike the ‘shovel it in’ culture that we live in. 

I look at labels a lot, for various reasons and I recently noticed on a spreadable butter type plant-based spread that actually said ‘suitable for Vegans’ on it, that there was in fact, palm oil in it.  That really pissed me off.  I put it on Facebook, but I was surprised by the reactions I got, no real acknowledgement of what I saw as the problem, only polite responses suggesting I try this product or that.  My friends are either too polite to argue with me, or just not seeing the implications of lazy consumption.

I’ve finished sorting the berries now, a stop starting between writing and sifting. I think I’ll go out and return the remaining bits to the earth around the bush and say a pray of gratitude for my harvest before starting on the second half of this huge task.  I’ll even make sure I leave plenty for the birds as they need these little black wonders too.

I just hope I can control my addictions a little more, and think a little more before I snaffle down that packaged processed piece of crap chocolate cake next time…

Trump.

The name paints a picture in all our minds, and for many that current picture is that of the immigration detention centres.          I've known for a day or two that under immense pressure he has stopped separating children from their families, but that does not in any way rectify what he has caused to happen.  To read that the separated children are still separate, and that they are kept in cages, with strip lights on 24hours/ day, and the detention workers are unable or not allowed to even comfort them is quite literally unbelievable. As I read, even the families still together are kept in these conditions.

My mind has become obsessed with the link between Patriarchy and the destruction of the world, and to me, Trump is the epitome of Patriarchy.  Trump is the epitome all that is wrong in the world right now.  

We are animals, but that is in no way an argument for humans treating each other badly.  Indeed, it is because of our brilliance in thought and practice that has separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom, and so this type of behaviour towards other human beings, not least the innocents, is absolutely, unequivocally, unacceptable.

Trump seems to see himself as in some way superior to virtually all other human beings (and for that matter the planet), and especially from women, children, and all who are from poorer or developing countries.  His overly macho, ego driven, psychopathic notion of survival of the fittest, of those who have the most deserve the most, of bigger, better, more and 'I'm going to stand on you, your communities and your kids to get it' attitude is wrong.

It is this attitude that allows him, and others like him to act in such barbaric ways to protect what is, (they believe), rightfully theirs, with no compassion, no notion of the universal spirit that binds us all, and definitely no empathy.

It appears irrelevant to them that they were fortunate to be born in to families of wealth and power, and it is this denial of being gifted fortune that allows them to mentally separate themselves from fellow human beings.  If Trump and the like were able, or rather willing, to recognise their own good fortune there would be a humility, a gratitude, and therefore compassion.

To me, it is this notion of 'god given' superiority that has long been a weapon of Patriarchy, used to abuse and crush those less fortunate than themselves, and to wrongly justify sitting in their ivory towers lording it over the many.  Arrogant and yet terrified that they might potentially lose this power they constantly create and reinforce their own, and our reality. 

For the likes of Trump to lose his extreme arrogance, for the machinations of power and destruction to be overthrown we need to start having the conversations that open up the possibilities of Patriarchy to end.  That is, to respect the feminine aspect in all its forms.  The earth has cycles of light and dark, growth and expansion followed by quiet, inward times. Humans also need this.  Women know these cycles within their bodies, men feel the loss of being denied these cycles by being born in to a world where they have to win, they have to be strong and successful at all times. And we all know these cycles when loving and caring for children, and our elderly loved ones - those who need help and support and who give us something in return that is not profit or material gain, but are the quiet moments, the love connection, the wisdom, or the reflection and learning opportunities. 

To me, this seems a hell of a long way off.  My thoughts are way outside of the current view through the Overton window; political or societal, but I do believe we can get there.  The more that normal everyday men become less frightened of feminism, the more the conversation gets opened up and the easier it will be to sink in to the psyche. But ideas like mine are intrinsically related to the environment, and this means more humans need to start connecting to where their food comes from, more opportunities to sit in quiet wonder at the beauty of a sunset, or a dragon fly over a glimmering summer river, or noticing the changing of the leaves on the trees.  More women need to connect with the power of their bodies in childbirth, and more men need to learn how to cry freely, and we all need to learn once more to recognise death as part of the cycle of life.  Through these processes we would start to realise that we are not so dependant as we think we are on having some overlord system to control us, and a new democracy could emerge that is fairer to all, including animals, plant life and the earth mother herself.