Resolutions…What a Waste
Animals living in their own waste…they’re living next to animals that are sick or even dead…stuck in cages with these animals where bacteria tends to spread…
Three thousand people die every year in the United States from Salmonella…twenty thousand people dying from antibiotic resistance deaths…
…if you live near a swine spray field …three times more likely to have a MRSA infection…
…ten million pigs in North Carolina produce the waste of one hundred million humans…this is the equivalent of the entire eastern seaboard flushing their toilets in to North Carolina…
The pig’s waste falls through slats in the floors of the sheds they are forced to live in… then pumped into giant waste pits…and pumped out unfiltered on to fields…
(From the documentary “What the Health”)
Happy New Year!
Time to bust out some new resolutions!
Maybe I’ll finally fix that sink that has never drained properly…
Maybe I’ll quit procrastinating…
Maybe join the gym…
Maybe change that diet and eat healthier too…
A few months ago my wife decided to change her diet. Not that she was eating poorly to begin with; she almost never ate meat with the exception of some chicken and fish; but this time she was going to try to live on a plant based diet only. No animal anything.
No cheese, no eggs, no chicken, no beef, nothing dairy; nothing derived from an animal.
Just plants.
I thought I might go along with this and do it with her but I insisted that until the freezers were purged of all the leftovers and frozen foods; all those meatballs, chicken wings, and other food stuffs we had accumulated, I would hold back. Somebody had to eat that stuff, it would be wasteful!
So while my wife got healthier… I got heavier.
It would go something like this:
ME: “Hey honey, how are you…you’re on your way home? Good, are you hungry what do you want for dinner?
KIM: “No not really, I had a big salad for lunch.”
ME: “Oh… okay… no problem I will just stop and get some bread, get some meatballs out of the freezer and eat a meatball sub.”
The next day…
ME: “Oh hey honey, great I will see you at home. Are you hungry, want me to make something for dinner? “
KIM: “No, you know I had some beans and rice later in the afternoon today so I am good.”
ME: “Okay… no problem… it’s all good…hey you know I will just have a meatball sub…it’s fine don’t worry about me. “
So while my wife cleansed her body of toxins; I cleansed the freezers.
And I gained weight.
All this got started with my wife by her watching the documentary I illustrated at the beginning of this essay.
The documentary titled What the Health.
Recently while sitting with my parents and talking about growing up in New Jersey we got on the topic of septic tanks.
Because back when I was growing up before they put the sewers in Oceanport in the 70’s, septic tanks were common. You had a septic tank on your property that held the waste until it got full, and then a truck would come along and pump out the sewage until the tank got full again, and so on and so on.
My grandmother had a couple of these septic tanks on her property and she lived across the street.
My parents went on to explain that they heard that these sewer trucks would pump out the sewage and then drive the raw sewage down to farms in south Jersey where it would be sprayed on the fruits and vegetable fields as fertilizer.
What the hellllth?
Wait, wait, wait so I could have pooed at my grandma’s house in central Jersey and my poo could then have been driven to south Jersey and sprayed on a head of lettuce that may have subsequently ended up in my salad bowl; or on strawberries that may have been on my strawberry shortcake birthday cakes that I loved so much?
Somehow that whole pig spray issue sounded rather genteel to me now…
I seriously don’t know what to eat after learning all this…the meat is bad…the veggies are sprayed with poo…
Probably not mine anymore but maybe someone else’s!
What kind of resolution should I make?
Never to talk to my parents about septic tanks again?
Maybe…
And why couldn’t my good plumber friend from New Jersey have retired to Northern Virginia and not the west coast of Florida? I don’t want to fix that drain.
And I already joined a gym, so at least my bank account is getting leaner.
I don’t know what to do…
I know… I will procrastinate.
That always works for me…
Now what is it that I could be more resolute about?…
If you would like more information about the film visit the What the Health website. For additional information visit their facebook page. It’s worth a look, draw your own conclusions.