Monday, July 7

Blue Gal Vlog 7/7 - Food, muckraking, and dangers of progressivism



Bob Edwards has a great radio show with a free podcast. Well worth the listen.

And you can read about Upton Sinclair here.

Happy Monday. Remember, Salon is on vacation this month.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:58 PM

    The best Upton Sinclair quote is "I wrote a book to change mens minds and instead turned their stomachs"

    The Jungle, was about the abuse of workers in the meat packing plants, the unsanitary conditions was a side story.

    OG

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  2. Anonymous2:12 PM

    How to avoid a food crisis:
    1.Support local farmers. Buy their food, support efforts to protect their land from development.
    2. Plan a garden. Consider soil, sun and water. Learn what varieties grow well in your area. Then plant it.
    3. Diminish your lawn. America wastes an incredible amount of time, fossil fuel, fertilizer, etc. in the pursuit of green out door carpet. Give over half your yard to food and flower production.
    4. Spend one hour less in front of the TV and you will have time for your garden.
    5. Plant flowering fruit trees. That helps the bees help you. And you get the fruit.
    6. Learn to can and freeze. It's not hard to plan on eating your garden's bounty through the winter.
    7. Learn from and contribute to local agri-culture. If you learn of something that works to improve your garden, share it with others.
    8. Let your garden be your meditation. It's not chores if you enjoy it. Let your mind go free, or immerse yourself in the sensations of the dirt and plants.
    9. Compost your stuff. Free nutrients--less garbage.

    Me, I'm in the planning stage for next year.

    Taylorbad

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  3. Your vlog resonated with me particularly well today, after an incident at the farmer's market, where the well-educated, well-retired upper class folk were trying to get a petition that would require stores to charge extra for plastic bags.

    Now, the PURPOSE of this was to get people to bring their own totes, which is a *fine* idea, but the likely RESULT would be further alienation of the lower and upper classes. It seems a no brainer to me: you don't touch food prices when people are experiencing food insecurity.

    I argued (briefly) with the rich gal trying to get the petitions signed and got nowhere. She was so invested in the environmental damage the bags cause (which they do) that she couldn't spare the dignity of the people in her community, couldn't figure out how to enlist them.

    This felt like a further entrenchment of the class war, which you might glibly formulate as "hippies versus rednecks" in my hometown, or "educated/professionals versus day laborers and service people" more generally. Signing on to the petition felt like becoming more of the problem - not more of the solution. It felt like a (smaller, less damaging) prohibition-like action. And I don't think it would work any better. In fact, it would most likely backfire.

    Any chance that your travels will bring you within hugging distance?

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  4. Re: "Pull out your How 'Ard Z'inn."

    Oh, so is that what the young kids are calling it these days?

    Hugs and ♥s to Dena.

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