Compassionate Farming

Rat's are people, too, albeit without the large primate brain, but whatevs.

You know by now that I spent some time in college as a "Vegetarian", at the request of my well-meaning but somewhat learning-impaired college buddies. It was fine but not for me, and how could it be? 
The Werewolves of my culture eat a modern diet of brown rice, raw meat, and chicken, over a traditional Arctic diet of seal meat and blubber, with maybe a handful of grains thrown into the mix as a binder, for the type of variety that passes for the very short growing season that is the North Land from whence I sprang, but I digress. I tried it, and I lack the cultural dietary biology that is required to be a weepy hippie. I just can't do it, without significant lethargy and weight gain. 

But, I can say that I did try it, however briefly that was, with secret hamburger cheats monthly, per my Werewolf Lunar Phases. It left me with a pronounced awareness about the types of foods I consume. 
Of course, my over-dramatic roommates coped with college stress through the wide pamphleteering of bunny rabbits with sore eyes from cosmetics, but I had already agreed to it through my security deposit, which was essentially signing off on their cause. Uh, point taken, gentle person. No need for more graphic photos. Since then, I've kept a toe in the water of their culture, through periodic meatless fasting (as is my faith's regular practice through our most holiest times), and for my own sense about keeping up balanced good health, one that I've worked really hard to develop, maintain, and sustain.

I call this "Hippie Dreamland" for its suggested psychedelic super-powers.

I also love "freebies", like any other great housewife on a limited budget, which led me to receive in the mail a series of charmingly produced but somewhat irrational comic books, aimed at recruiting children to "The Cause". Like any good cult, there's some well-meaning intent about considering animals compassionately, and then there's stuff so bat-shit insane, no teacher worth her weight in salt would ever ethically distribute such obvious fucking tripe to her kids. The simple fact is, as much as we all love cute furry animals, most other lifeforms on this planet do not live as long as us, notwithstanding certain Joshua trees in remote desert climes, or giant tortoises that live deep in the cold ocean water, but those are stories for other beautiful days, like this gorgeous Fall one of 2015.

Look, we get it. Don't abuse animals. Treat them with compassion, empathy, and great understanding, to make up for the gap in their consciousness that they did not create. If you can love those lives that depend on you, even without their explicit understanding, it shows the world who you are and what you do when no one is watching. Obviously, if you hit your dog, you're a total pile of human dog shit. Don't do that. Don't mercilessly box farm animals in, starving them unnecessarily and depriving them of sunlight and fresh air. Don't poke and prod at them like they're your fucking personal Frankenstein "Lab of Horrors", just because you feel like you can abuse creatures when no one else is watching, because you're some big swinging dick of a man. There are dicks far bigger than yours out there, and they are watching. Got it? Good!

In the meantime, here's a really great list of ethical farms that "Mommy Marie" (that's me) follows on social media. Enjoy the new world order, friends! I feel fine, don't you? There's no more delusional fantasies about make-believe psychedelic chicken super powers, or strangely human farm animals that trip out on butterflies in the sky, anymore; just the plain simple awesome truth about All of Creation. Join me there, in the here and NOW. We love animals, too.

http://www.bpfarm.org/

http://www.sugarhousecreamery.com/

http://windfallfarm.blogspot.com/

http://www.mountainsidefarms.com/

Your homework, hippie: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnana.2011.00029/full

See it here: http://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/11068/fnana-05-00029-HTML/image_m/fnana-05-00029-g007.jpg

Oh, snap!

Absolutely no bullshit on this label and it's locally made. Nice!

You know by now that I am an open advocate for local foods and sustainable resources, that includes supporting our area's agricultural enterprises, be they big or small. Because of this "trend" in consumer buying, "Marketeers" edge in on this niche by any means possible, in search of The Almighty Dollar. How to describe the vicious amped-up caffeinated energy of an ad/promo/marketing personnel accurately? Crazed "Rah Rah!" phony cheerleader type (a.k.a. the "Positivity Princess" from Lego The Movie: http://i.imgur.com/YzcY3AC.gif) addicted to running marathons lest reality catch up to her? YES! 
Bob the Sales Guy with serious mother issues and deep-seed neuroses in plural? Double down! They're like the douchebag office people who don't run companies or start them or make anything, but they will pillage your work to rip you off if they can, without totally killing you off, like a parasite does. Yeah, like that.

Healthy and tastes great: it IS possible to have both.

Same thing with consumer brands and the a#@holes who manage them. They will, in literal truth, kill people off with their poisonous food stuffs to make a buck off that nice Grandma on her fixed Social Security income, or anyone else who gets in their way. Not good people, is what I'm telling you. Up there (in terms of "bad") with a pharmaceutical rep or tobacco company lobbyist in Washington. 
Like, total scum, but of the rich white kind, which means they look down their noses on the poor people who are addicted to the sh%t they sell. Kinda like, if the folks from Soylent Green (both the movie and the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green) had much less of a conscience. Yeah. They care that little about your ugly, painful, tragic death and huge medical bills. Try selfish, of a monstrous "Godzilla" type size.

Do the work and read. It's not that hard.

So, what to do? No worries, Mom's here. Well, first, you read things. Like, a lot of things, and don't ever stop reading. The worst thing you can do to a "Shopping Monster" is to carefully read the ingredients printed on packaging and the product label.  My mom taught me early on to do it (and how to pronounce the pesky and obscure Latin-based terminology in make-believe foodstuffs, because "Dr. Diane" was also in  food science), and now I'm telling you all about it.

Bitchin' product with great ingredients "Made in the USA". Yay!

There's been some great changes in the fight for our health and that of our children's children, the brightest being the more frequent availability of US-based goods. I'm not some jingoistic isolationist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism) looking to inbreed for weirdo reasons. Far from it. I actually believe in commerce and trade as someone who does business at an international level. I also do know that most big producing countries, like China for example, do not have federal bodies like the USDA (http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome) for quality-control or the FDA as a consumer watchdog agency (http://www.fda.gov/) because, like aforementioned "Food Gangsters", they do not care whether you and your family live or die. I know! That's so bad.

Real food made here and certified by a trade organization.

I do find some great things that I want to continue to share with you (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2015/01/like-water-for-chocolate.html), including local products that may also by Non-GMO certified (http://www.nongmoproject.org/), not because I get paid to promote products, because I don't. Want to know my "ad revenue"? You're looking at it. A word-based Google Ads feature that I can control with the type of content I publish by attaching word labels to posted features, and that can go away anytime I want it to. For the record, I think my mom got one payday from them for $11.00 that I asked her to cash and keep, and that was years ago.

Wow! An actual New York State herbal farm product. Cool!

No, I do it because it's the right thing to do and I believe in it. Like, for reals and stuff. Because I would never trust anyone who told me one thing and then did another. Hypocrisy is the worst form of evil in my faith, and now you know about that, too (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23). A wise person once said that you don't have to remember to tell the truth if you don't lie, and I couldn't agree more. It's the season for it, so why not start now? You'll feel better for it, I promise. I've been to Hell and back, my peeps, and it lives in an office building. An "April's Fool", indeed.

Oh, I see. Joke's on me, as a hidden "f#ck y@*" I didn't see coming.

Flew the Coop

Yep, you read it right: "Backyard Chickens for Beginners" bitches!

I believe in the great educational institutions and huge agriculture of New York state like its' yesterday's news, and it totally is. We've been doin' this a very long time. Every once in awhile, I get a whiff of "Big Agra" out west trying to co-opt our rep as the so-called American Heartland, and here's the problem with that kind of thinking: a semi-arid desert does not a fertile river valley make. It really just doesn't make it. Oh sure, you can artificially prop it up as a competition with the use of freely given government hand-outs, but the thing is, we have all of human history on our side, like the way water flows downhill. It's a part of our nature, and I'd love to have you on board with me.

Special thanks to my peeps at Cornell (my oldest bro's Alma Mater for grad school) for keeping our history alive through these small, local satellite programs that serve as outreach to the community. We need you! And I will be in touch with you in the future about growing chickens for their fresh eggs in my backyard. Can't get more organic than that! Future neighbors, please take note now: hens do not "cock-a-doodle-do" at dawn like a male rooster, so know your stuff beforehand. Thanks friends, and please keep reading.  
You are my audience.

http://rocklandcce.org/ 

http://rocklandcce.org/events/2015/04/07/-backyard-chickens-for-beginners