Wine, Pizza & National Parks

It is just another lovely autumn evening, as I look outside my window and imagine all the endless possibilities out there. "If only I could have some land to live and farm on," I think to myself.

It is not reasonable that all public lands are in the hands of national park services. There are very few people who would actually want to farmstead in small communities, without harming the natural environment, as it has existed for thousands of years. Us few, and enjoyable folk, should have access to the wild. Those lands that are neglected by the national park services.

My first note is that national park services mistreat and doom our natural environment to desolation. The process of desertification and loss of wildlife has been running amok, ever since those guys took over. Many animals that are recorded in the pages of history, even from only a century ago, are already gone or quickly vanishing. This is true worldwide!

My second note, which casually leans on the first, is that ecologically inclined people, also known as local (non-industrial) farmers, are exactly what our environment needs! Regular people, without the use of massive industrial machinery and pollutants, have kept nature in a balanced and lush state, since time immemorial.

I believe in nut & fruit orchards, just like I believe in good food.

Just think about it. People farmed the land, in many different ways, for millennia, and no major ecological distastes happened. It is true that many empires slowly and dreadfully destroyed native forests, for example, in the Mediterranean area. Never the less, even then all that was lacking was the replanting of trees; exactly what farmers are doing now, in some areas, sometimes with government support and funds (Some time ago, I saw a good example on video about China.)

So, it is about time that states the world over started getting their ecology into perspective, and returned the wild back to the hands of the simple farmers. Back to the hands of those that can really serve the wild, unlike the National Park Services.

How I Learned To Be Hungry

At the tender age of twenty(20), I started taking interest in my diet, as a particular. Before then, I mostly bothered with avoiding the "really bad" items, like Coke Inc. sodas and McBlurghs.

You see, it is a funny thing, but I was actually raised on those two seemingly friendly corporations. We always had Coca Cola in the fridge, growing up, and it was not a rare event for us to get eat at the local Burger King. Oh, memories...

(A couple paragraphs about my childhood... Skip it if you can't bother...)
Now, surprisingly, already as children, both me and my older brother started condemning our parents for smoking. We were raised on certain values, such as the nineties(90's) American television, and we did not really have other sources of acculturation. It did not take much, from that act, to turn against Coke. Such consuming habits (pun intended) were bad for people, and we saw the truth in that; even if it was coated with zeal and general morality on the TV.

Eventually, I noticed myself becoming more fat than I wanted to be, as a kid that watched a lot of WWF and NWN wrestling and valued physical aesthetics. I realized that it was not just "bad" consumables that were hurting people, but it was a greater issue to observe and examine. At that point, I started noticing my diet, and reduced specific items, such as Peanut snacks ("Shoosh") and pita bread (that extremely doughy bread, if you've ever seen one.) It worked.
(End of childhood bit.)

As an older teenager, looking for more excitement and understanding, I learned of vegetarianism and veganism. I took the time to experiment with different foods, that I would either reduce and avoid or introduce and increase. I decided to completely embrace a 99.9% vegetarian diet, and eventually vegan, at about twenty(20).

Joel Salatin knows how it feels like, to be a hungry farmer.

In recent years, after much learning from experience, I have come to the conclusion, that while I do support the moral issue of killing or mistreating animals for food (or otherwise), I do not feel that I would rather starve, than feed on others. A year with hippie anarchists in nature, with very little food, and also a lot of adventures, in both East and West, has taught me the value of eating what is available.

Only recently, have I really learned the meaning of being hungry. Do not get me wrong now, I had many occasions in which I was famished, but managed with the little bread and fruit that were available. But, that only worked when I was living an abnormal (and generally unsustainable) life style. I feel that the excitement kept me going, mostly.

So, to conclude, while a person can survive on less, at least more often than not; it does seem apparent, that living hungry is not pleasant or wanted. These days, at twenty-six(26), I am still 99% vegetarian, but I eat cheese regularly to keep full, and even some eggs.

Eating the flesh of animals is still not attractive for me, morally, so I avoid it; but, I do get those little tidbits here and there, when they are made available.

What about road kill and moral corpse consumption?

Honestly, I have to agree that it is moral to eat it, if you found it dead. However, it would not be so, if you know that its' death had anything to do with you being hungry.

I imagine a farmer, keeping an eye out for fresh corpses, to quickly process for eating and storage. It might not be sexy, but hunger does not seem to care about aesthetics.