Greenfly,

I don’t think they were talking about dogroll as such. More the type of dogfood they advertise on TV these days. Sobering is an understatement if I ever saw one.

Wow. Looks like Shadbolt has finally become disillusioned with the status quo and has gone back to his activist roots. Good for him I say. I wish him all the luck with his goals.

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SleepyTreehugger – that’s sobering, given that the composition of dog roll is, I’m told, an unholy mix of ‘shouldn’t be eaten’ animal parts.
On the topic of diets and communities, Tim Shadbolt, in his Saturday column, called for Southland and Otagocommunities to ‘come together’, form a single community and learn to look after each other. He’d like to see ‘councils distribute free seeds and organise gardening competitions with brilliant prizes’ and see ‘fertile council land ploughed up and planted in crops..’
‘Perhaps a recession could lead to more gardening and healthier diets’, Shadders says. Good work, that man! He hits the nail on the head with this comment -
” If the council is informed of a potential threat to our community and we fail to prepare for it, we would be condemmed for our lack of responsibility” His earlier, vocal support for the NActional government
sits kinda wonky on him now, in light of their retrograde approach.

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“Janine – those images are online somewhere. Very sobering. Some of those families have fascinating diets. Not the Americans, I have to add. Theirs is frightening!”

I can well believe that.

I’ve recently read a book called the Next Frontier by Robert Rodale, and in it the author stated that in the 1970s the US Department of Health conducted a comparative study of a basket of food that the average American ate and dog food. Shockingly they discovered that dogfood actually fulifilled a human’s dietary requirements than did the typical American’s diet. I’d shudder to think what a contemporary study would find today.

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# frog Says:
December 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

> Except DaveS, that this particular frog happens to be a vegetarian, if you include insects in a healthy vegetarian diet!

Oh yes, these inconsistencies again – ‘frog is vegetarian, but eats insects’. If I didn’t know better, I could almost believe that the frog was a fictitious character, and his blog written by a human pretending to be a frog.

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… insects … Frog???

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Except DaveS, that this particular frog happens to be a vegetarian, if you include insects in a healthy vegetarian diet!

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Great talk.

Here is a link to a presentation by Paul Stamets, on TED, which touches on some related areas.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

Also, another talk by Mark Bittman, is right on it.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

Well worth a look.

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Janine
Here’s a link to the Hungry Planet on Googlebook

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=TFCER7w_dooC&dq=hungry+planet&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=JnvXiTeCxk&sig=SuSyHJiqgergqyAF5W7tWBSuvn4&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA19,M1

I first heard about the book a while back possibly on Earthwatch.

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Janine – those images are online somewhere. Very sobering. Some of those families have fascinating diets. Not the Americans, I have to add. Theirs is frightening!

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Have just had from the library a fascinating book called Hungry Planet which is a beautifully photographed and written look at how people across the world feed themselves. Ordinary families from Tibet to Texas, Russia to Australia and everywhere between.

In addition to the photos of each family with a week’s worth of food piled in front, the book has analyses of the various elements of that food and its cost in US$. As well there are little stories of each family and their lifestyle, some stats on the country they live in and excellent essays on various aspects of food.

It’s very global, enlightening and a pleasure to read. I think I will try to buy it – three weeks is not long enough!

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>
food (and it’s production) is probably the most important lynch pin issue any government faces
>

That’s right. We need more beef, lamb and pork. Together with potatoes cabbage, peas and cauliflour these three form the basis of the food Western people have sustained themselves with for the last few centuries, and built our civilization on.

I’m with the twins on this one, (and you too of course Frog).

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