veganterra's Blog

Water & Monsanto
Date: Apr 7th, 2010 9:20:31 pm - Subscribe
Mood: grouchy


So I opened up the new National Geographic and it is a special issue titled, "Water, our thirsty World". I was immediately pleased with a free map of the Worlds river systems and I was jumping to the moon that on the reverse side of this map was something called the "Water Footprint".

This showed in very bold lettering and in basic detail how much water is used in the agriculture industry. It shows in massive print that it takes roughly 1857 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, 756 for a pound of pork, 589 for cheese, and then of course the low numbers in gallons to produce the same amount in fruits and grains (55 gallons for oranges, 31 gallons for potatoes, 109 for corn).

The entire issue is amazing and they really pull no punches on where the wasted water on our planet is going. They touch on wasted water for our golf courses, lawns, swimming pools and more. There is countless facts and statistics that will make you shiver.

However, two of the first three full page ads were for these companies. SC Johnson who claims that they are making life better for people by coming up with one line of sustainable plant based insecticide. Then there was my favorite that actually made me shake with rage a bit. A full page ad from Monsanto with the massive headline of, "How can we squeeze more food from a raindrop?"

They answer this question a bit lower in the ad by saying, "The challenge for farmers is squeezing the most out of unpredictable rainfall. That requires putting the latest science based tools in farmer's hands, including advanced hybrid and biotech seeds. Our goal is to develop seeds that significantly increase crop yields and can help farmers use 1/3 less water per unit produced.

Producing more. Conserving more. Improving farmer's lives. That's sustainable agriculture. And that's what Monsanto is all about."

Fuck me! Really? That's what Monsanto is all about, I have been getting it wrong all this time. I will cut this blog short as I really need to get started on my letter of apology to Monsanto for all the activism I have put against them. The shame I feel right now.

My only question was this. How in the World can this issue go on and on about the horrors of modern agriculture for the planets water supply only to have a full page ad from Monsanto? Such a wonderful issue ruined by this hypocrisy.

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Choose Life
Date: Mar 25th, 2010 6:29:01 pm - Subscribe
Mood: abnormal


*Pirated from my close friend as it works oh so perfect in describing my life also*

They say life starts the moment one opens her eyes to this World for the first time, between the cries of her mother and the gentle spank from the doctor. They say being alive means breathing, having a beating heart. Existing. They say life can be measured in years, in work experiences, in the number of people you know. They say this is life.

They lie.

If I had to declare the moment of my birth, I would say I started living the day I left “life” as we know it behind and set off in search for something else. For what, I didn’t know or care to know; all I wanted was to breathe Chance, to dance with Love and flirt with Freedom, to chase Life. I had the deep certainty that somewhere, somehow, there was a hidden gift waiting for me, something I couldn’t find there, something that called me from far away persuading me to jump into the unknown. So I followed the orders my shouting heart gave me, and dropped in free fall for miles before touching the ground, but I finally did.

A funny thing happens when one decides to at last cut the strings that tie her to a gray and chosen existence, embraces her fears as long lost friends and heads out into the adventure we were always meant to have but we’ve let others steal from us, the only right that was given to us at the moment of our birth: Living as one best chooses too. It is as if at the moment of such decision, the Universe itself smiled at watching the miracle and decided to help her in any and every possible way. Unpredictable things start to happen, a whole World of previously unnoticed possibilities opens up before one’s eyes, doors leading to unknown destinies appear on the horizon and there’s magic behind every corner. Life, your life, thanks you for living it by making your way easier to walk and enjoy. As if the mechanism of existence, once stuck and dusty, remembered the way to start turning again and it rejoiced with the adrenaline of the moment.

Yes, they lie. Life cannot be determined by any outside parameters or measures. It cannot be filled in registers or summarized in a resume. It can’t be weighted by judges or justified by laws. Life, real Life, cannot be exposed in a museum or kept for later in a box. Life can only be lived. By each one of us, each second of it.

To this day, I don’t own a home, a car, a full time job or a cupboard full of expired food. They don’t own me either. And I’d never been any richer than I am now. The Universe provides, and it does so in each and every way; it only takes to love it to realize how much it loves us back, and to see every day is a new chance to start life. And that doesn’t have a price.

It only takes one stride.

Lady C.
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silent cartographer
Date: Mar 11th, 2010 11:15:43 pm - Subscribe
Mood: eager


i've went and done it again. i know i should not have. i do it everytime. i should know better by now. bad little munkey!

each time i book a ticket far in advance (which I assure you is not often) my feet almost instantly start to itch and my soul becomes restless... okay, okay, more restless than usual.

today i made the mistake of looking at maps in my massive colour atlas. i love maps. everything about them. i constantly make maps in my head of the unlimited possibilities in which this blue marble holds. a zig there, a zag there, a quick stop over in atlantis for tea, and i'm off again. this is how my brain works. i do not mean to live in an imaginary cartographer's World, but i do none the less.

this is an odd thing really. you see, i rarely use maps when i am trotting around the World. this does not stop me from constantly gazing at them when i am not wandering which is now. we have a big globe in the living area, a massive colour atlas, and of course all the maps in the World via this crazy thing called the internet. i can even know exact distances between places i could go. do any of you realise just how dangerous this is for me? good thing i rarely work and have a wide open schedule!

in 1524 hours i am going to iceland. that one is easy enough i am kind of limited to constrains of the fjords that surround you on all sides. and besides, i only have three weeks there so my adventures will be easy enough to sort out once i am there. no map needed. although i keep a few locked up in the back of my imagination just in case.

then there is europe. ah yes, europe. i fly into oslo for the start of june and this is where my imagination sets in and starts to work overtime, unpaid of course. as most of you know i have already spent over three years in europe but this is nothing more than a speck of dust in the hourglass. there is so much more to see, to breath, to live. the unlimited mixture of cities, landscapes, towns, and places all blend together like a massive game of connect the dots. like the constellations in the night sky. all coming together like the map of a demented circus monkey tripping on acid. oh ya, that is the map and route that i want.

dream on demented little circus monkey, dream on... and i shall follow.
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Don't feed the ducks.
Date: Feb 20th, 2010 7:17:39 pm - Subscribe
Mood: dejected


So I went to the park today to feed the birds. It was +14' degrees and the city is pink with hundreds of blossoming cherry trees. The other trees are budding into early leaves making it hard to believe that it is the middle of February. Global warming and climate change at its finest.

After about 30 minutes of feeding the birds I saw one duck acting very strange diving under and then shaking like crazy when surfacing. It took me about five minutes to realize that she had what looked like one end of a sturdy hair elastic in her mouth and the other around the back of her neck. She could not close her mouth fully and she could not really get any food down her throat as the elastic was obstructing her passageway. Then with the other end of the elastic wrapped onto the back of her neck she could not remove it. She was trapped.

I sat around hopelessly for about 45 minutes trying to get her close enough with bread to grab her but I could not do it. Passerbys kept staring at me and a few gave me a hard time for pestering the birds. One of them was even so kind to give me a hard time for harassing the duck and then when I told her the situation she scoffed and made a comment about if the duck is that stupid then it deserves it.

I somehow managed not to punch her in the face and throw her in the water hoping the ducks and geese would crave flesh at that moment.

Just short of an hour I left the pond dejected. I can only imagine what will happen to this poor duck in the next day, week, month, or however long she has to live. I hope she manages a way to somehow get that elastic off but I think it is rather hopeless. I think she will be one of the millions of animals who die in similar fashion. Die due to our pollution in their habitats.

The funny thing is when you enter the lake at the park there is a big sign that states, "Do Not Feed The Wildlife" and it goes on to state several reasons why feeding the animals in the park is inappropriate. I enjoy the hypocrisy of this sign as it was us (humyns) that created this manmade lake in the middle of the city in order to entice animals to stick around for our amusement.

So. We can build a lake and entice animals to break habit and break migration patterns all so we can have a pretty backdrop for digital images. We can ensure that lake enjoys the same amount of pollution that the rest of our environment has... But please, we do not feed the wildlife.


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Taking the blue pill.
Date: Feb 15th, 2010 7:53:19 pm - Subscribe
Mood: deflated


We all remember the Matrix. How many remember anything of the character Cypher? I do as he stood out as an important character to me. The last few days I have been thinking more and more about him. To start, I just want to quote a couple of lines from him if I may. The first being when he spoke with Neo for the first time. The second when he is dining with Agent Smith at the restaurant.

"I know what you're thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?"

"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? [Takes a bite of steak] Ignorance is bliss."

There we have it. Ignorance is bliss. This is what I have been thinking of. That sexy little blue pill.

I do not think many people realize that the life of an activist is filled with mental and emotional hardships on a daily basis. This is not to say that non-activists do not go through hardships, but for this article please allow me to focus on the activist.

I am an activist. I have not always been an activist. I used to live in perfect ignorant bliss. It has only been for the last five or six years where I have massaged that red pill down my throat and my eyes have been slowly opening for the first time.

Neo/Munkey: Why do my eyes hurt?
Morpheus/Real World: You've never used them before.

I am not going to sugar coat things here. We may live in a beautiful World, but it is constantly plagued with disgusting acts of every unimaginable distaste thinkable. That is where the beauty of ignorance comes into play. That is the beauty of keeping your eyes closed and functioning on auto-pilot. You choose not see these disgusting acts. These disgusting acts which in all reality control your daily life, control your puppet strings, and herd you back to your sleeping quarters at night. Because if you are any type of reasonable humyn being you could not live with yourself ignoring what goes on in the World today.

- the blue pill is on the table -

I will not lie to you. Opening my eyes has been the most difficult experience of my life. Everything becomes so much more depressing and difficult. Constantly questioning every small detail of every small event. You remember just how easy it was before the red pill and you get worried. You get worried what you now see.

Others see a Big Mac as a cheap and fast meal. I see a terrible corporation profiting off
the misery of the people and animals. I see fat cat business men and shareholders cashing in billions every year by the systematic torture and killing of animals. I see humyn rights violations in every Country that Mcdonald's is associated with. I see a miserable fucking clown with blood dripping down from his lips onto his cheek.

I am face to face with a billboard for beauty products. Others see a company trying to make sure we look our best. I see a company who spends millions a year supporting vivisectors who cut up animals and perform LD50 tests when they do not need to. I see a company who spends millions of dollars on advertising campaigns which give humanity an unrealistic portrayal of beauty that we need to strive for... and which many cause self-hurt in the process to try and attain.

I can not just watch a documentary about Darfur and go, "Oh that's terrible" and then walk to Starbucks (do not even get me started on Starbucks) with my friends to enjoy a $6 mocha-fucking-ccino to discuss how terrible it must be to live in Sudan right now. I have moments when I break down for no reason thinking about another village of people in Darfur who have just been slaughtered by the Chinese backed Janjaweed... For no other reason besides oil and racism.

I then think of every other war (sorry, peacekeeping mission) and genocide which is and has been fought over oil. Others are sure to raise a flag at their house and slap bumper stickers on their vehicles making sure everyone knows they support our homeland terrorists (err, I mean peacekeepers).

The vast majority of the public see the trillions of dollars spent on space exploration as a positive humyn learning experience. I sit back in emotional pain knowing that a small fraction of this money could provide appropriate programs to make sure that EVERY humyn on Earth is fed, watered, and educated to live in harmony with the Earth. I see that most of the money sent into space is used for military and surveillance programs.

- reaching over to grab the blue pill -

I think of how much Big Brother knows about me... my every step... that invisible bar-code on my wrist.

I think about how nano-technology will most likely have a large role in the destruction of our species when it is advertised as something that could be used to save it.

I see the still prevalent racism, sexism, speciesism, patriarchy, and more destroying the lives of countless humyns and non-humyns.

I think about those children remaining alone or dieing on the street or in a care facility because you would rather have "your own" child than to adopt one in need.

I think of the Marja military assault going on right now and how hardly anyone knows it is happening due to the Olympics.

I think of how $6 billion+ spent on the Olympics could be spent on education, arts, health care, or any other place it is really needed instead of on a silly fucking party for the elite which does nothing outside of provide profits to massive corporations.

I think about how over 50% of American tax dollars go to the military and NASA.

I watch people go to Mosque, Church, or any place of worship and I do not see brothers and sisters spreading love. I see brothers and sisters killing other brothers and sisters in the name of complex dogmas and gods.

I think of the fact that we have enough food and clean water to feed and water every hungry and thirsty person in the World. But we don't.

I think of the fact that every time I jump into a dumpster there is enough to feed dozens of people who really need it.

- fill a glass of water with blue pill in hand -

I think about Monsanto and their terminator technology. I think of how in a few short years the vast percentage of our planet will be fed by them in some way or another.

I do not think about how plastics and other packaging and 'technology' has made our lives easier. I instead think of every river, stream, ocean, sea, forest, and ecosystem polluted due to our failure to live in harmony with the Earth.

I think of countless thousands of acres of pristine rain-forest we cut down daily to make room for grazing land and monocrop plantations.

I think of the thousands of species which go extinct every year due to us cutting down these rainforests and polluting these ecosystems.

I think about what our World would look like before the Industrial revolution set in.

I think about what our World would look like with no humyns at all.

I wonder how many people realise that in the time it took them to read this far approximately; three species of animals have died out do to habitat destruction, over 1.140.000 animals have been slaughtered in factory farms to be put in our mouths, over 500 people have died from lack of clean drinking water, another 1200 died from lack of food, five or six people have died on the streets of North America, and the CEO of Royal Bank Canada has earned close to $30.000.

- put the pill back down -

I realise just how easy it is to get depressed when you are thinking and fighting about such things daily. The above listed are just a fraction of things that I may think of on any given day.

I sit back and I remember just how easy life was all those years ago. In fact, that's the answer right there. Easy. People choose to take the easy route. The straight line A -> B route with very little to think about outside their own ignorance and apathy. I will not lie to you. That easy life was desirable. It was great. It was easy. But would I ever want to go back to that?

Of course I would!

But you know what? There is no such thing as a blue pill. There is no way to unlearn the things that I have learned. I will never be able to look at a steak without seeing the cow it came from. I will never again be able to pick up a consumer item without looking at the ingredients and the company that makes and distributes it. I will never walk by a Starbucks without thinking about how beautiful a brick would look shattering the windows. I will never again be that person I was six years ago.

So what do I do now? What can I even say? I suppose I started this article with a few quotes from The Matrix and I think it will be fitting to end it the same.

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone (end this article), and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

I once again pick up the gauntlet that the evils of the World keep throwing in front of me... and I keep fighting.

I don't have any other choice.
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