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Welcome to The Change Underground Blog Page!
8 June 2010
Diet?!
What can we say about diet, our diet, here in the privileged, wealthy West? There is but one thing we can, with any certainty, observe about the Western diet. It is not good for us. Before we go on any further we need a few definitions. What is the Western diet? What other choices are there and what do they tell us?
The Western diet as we eat it now could best be described as the Henry Ford diet. 80% of the supermarket food available to us has been subjected to an industrial process. From bread, milk, butter/margarine to the fresh meat and vegetables there is hardly a food that has avoided an industrial process. The effects of this we’ll come to later.
As alternatives we have a plethora of choices. Everything from the dairy-vegetarian diets of the Indian sub-continent to the all meat diets of the Inuit to the indigenous diets of the Aborigines and the common feature of these diets is health. Low or no levels of heart disease, diabetes (Type 1 or 2), obesity, anorexia, cancers or tooth decay.
What does this tell us? To understand this we need to have a look at whom we really are. So here goes: We are a relatively new species that came into being about 100,000 years ago in a vastly different climactic period, the Pleistocene. This period was characterised by lower temperatures, polar ice caps, lower rain falls (generally) and humans living in bands of 20 to 50 individuals. There were three things in short supply at this time and we evolved to crave these and we don’t appear to have an off switch when it comes to eating them. These three things are: salt, fat and sugar. This is why, within a generation of coming into contact with the Western diet, indigenous peoples develop high blood pressure, increased rates of obesity and sky rocketing rates of diabetes.
Those peoples who maintained their evolved traditional diets based upon natural products with little human manipulation exhibit levels of health dieticians only dream about. So what happened to us? Rates of heart disease, cancer and perhaps most telling of all, dental health disorders started to increase in the early twentieth century. Our food was changing. Most diet historians point to sugar and this may have its place but it is only a portion of the story. What started out as a way to feed the urban and suburban masses has turned into a multi disciplinary process to reinvent the wheel. We analyse a particular food, dissect it and then attempt to rebuild the “goodness” taken out of it in the industrial processing. Why not just eat the real thing?
Look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtwT57BL4aE to see the processes involved in making Corn Flakes. What you see the industrialisation of our food. Corn Flakes were developed by the Kellogg brothers in 1894 because their of their vegetarian religious views. They were both Seventh Day Adventists at the time. They believed eating meat for breakfast led to unhealthy acts by pubescent males. Clearly they were on the outer edges of their faith. However, on a dollar per kilo basis, comparing Corn Flakes to ground corn grain, the flakes are a big winner for the manufacturer.
With more people living in cities and food having to be transported from farther and farther away, cereals were processed to make them cheaper to transport and provide a bigger return to the manufacturers. As you will recall from the video link above, parts of the grain were removed and nutrients added later to re-instate the original food. What we don’t know is the synergy that occurs in our bodies when the original nutrients are eaten. Does adding synthetic alternatives have the same effect or benefit or does the processing cause a deleterious effect on the human body?
We just don’t know, at an individual level. What we do know, on an epidemiological level, is these “foods” eaten as a diet are not good for us.
I’m not attacking Corn Flakes in particular, they are simply an example because they were one of the first commercial food manipulations. We could look at bread, milk, margarine or meat and see a similar effect. What are we to do?
Eat porridge, not the instant type, old fashioned rolled oats are ok. These are much cheaper than breakfast cereals and this is a clue not much has been done to them. I eat wheat porridge for breakfast but I have a grain mill and access to an organic food co-op which not everyone else does. I know which farm from which the wheat came. We have a local butcher who raises grass fed beef within 40 kms of where I live, not everyone does. It is complicated and requires thought to feed ourselves well. This is not how things should be! In following blogs I will be exploring ways we can each make small changes with positive effects to our diets.
Read labels!!! The smaller the number of ingredients the better. Do not eat anything with ingredients of more than three syllables. Who knows what these things are and just what their long term effects will be? They may not cause cancer in mice but I’m not a mouse and neither are you and we both live a lot longer than a mouse. In the end it comes down to Michael Pollan’s creed: Eat Food, Not too much. Mostly Plants.
Take personal responsibility for what you eat and what you feed your children and what we prepare for our clients. Despite all the food science our bodies are still the best tool we have for knowing what’s good for us and what’s not.
2 January 2010
The past six months has seen a period of re-assessment and review. I've had a book accepted for publication, due out August 2010. I've also chosen to return to wage slavery for a period of time. The re-assessment process has seen the refining of the Change Underground System, of which more over the coming weeks. I am now re-energised and ready to put the process in practice. It is a relief to be over the initial philosophical development stage. This is really a never ending process with new information assisting in the refining of the system but the base forming grunt work is now over. Stay tuned for more as I put it all done in words and deeds.
6 July 2009
The publisher has informed me the manuscript doesn't need completion until December '09 so the pressure has been released. The work continues and with winter well and truly here, it is a good time to be at internal work. The apples at the community gardens will be ready for giving up their cuttings next week. There are some very old varieties available that should allow us to spread our harvest over a couple of months. Eating, cooking and dual purpose cultivars are all available. I can hardly wait.
11 June 2009
The last few months have been hectic. I've found a publisher who's interested - after a tidy up- in a manuscript I sent off back in March. Flat out will be drill for the next month. Winter has arrived in the mountains with temperatures ranging from minus 1 to 3 yesterday. The fire effected country in Victoria received a nice drop snow to help things along and maybe get some soil moisture to stay. Here we haven't had snow but it feels like it may well this winter. Gooseberries, raspberries and apples will be ready for cuttings/splitting and potting on in the next week or two. It never rains but it pours. Fertiliser tests continue with good results, even in this slow growing time of the year.
3 April 2009
Bit of a break and the time has not been wasted. Added to the homemade butter and apple paste/cheese I have now developed a liquid fertiliser using a series of concentrations of sunlight (See Fractional Farming) and a carbon/nitrogen rebalance. Testing has began and the trials are very promising. The use of this liquid, tentatively called Rocket Fuel 4, in a closed system with feed production as the major effort to produce manure for worms could, nay should, produce sufficient income from 600 m2(0.15 acres) to be comfortable. Some costs and imports are unavoidable but acceptable given the output. More as the process develops.
Further to the bushfires of early February, the death toll has been revised down from 210 to 173 as the forensics boffins carried out the DNA testing. Residents have been allowed back into all the affected areas and I noticed on the radar last night they seemed to getting a good drop of rain.
25 February 2009
The results of the latest value adding experiment are in! Quince paste is well known to improve the flavour of every cheese. I didn't have quinces but I do have apples. John Seymour in "The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" has a recipe for apple cheese. This has nothing to do with cheese. It is simply a more evaporated form of apple "butter". It is in effect an apple paste recipe. It takes time but is worth the effort. A brief google search reveals apple paste is almost as good as quince paste as an accompaniment to cheese. Well it worked out well. As a stand alone sweet it is good in small amounts. Seymour suggested serving it with cream as a dessert but that's just a little too much for my taste. So we have another possible value added product in the bag.
15 February 2009
What a fortnight! 8 days ago we suffered what may end up the worst death toll in a natural disaster in our nation's history. (The worst to date was was a tidal surge caused by Cyclone Mahina in Far North Queensland in the year 1899, 410 lives lost.) The toll currently stands at 181 but the coroner has prepared facilities to hold 300 bodies. A Royal Commission will investigate and the same results from the past four post bushfire enquiries will be published. Fuel loads were allowed to grow to dangerous levels, houses were surrounded by trees and not defensible against ember attack. The Canberra fires a few years back added another statistic. Any house where bark chips were used to save water in the garden were guaranteed to be destroyed. Meanwhile and concurrently with the fires in Victoria, Northern Queensland went under water. 60% of that State's local government areas were flood declared.
Since then the East Coast lows that flooded Queensland have drifted south bringing rain to New South Wales. The fires in Victoria continue to burn and will do so until drought breaking rains falls on that state.
The failure to remove fuel from the bush is as evident in our part of the world as it was in Victoria. There seems to be a view that burnt forest is dead forest. This is clearly not the case. The Australian Bush needs to burn periodically to rejuvenate. Two years ago a major fire burnt through a valley to the North of us. I had cause to drive along the edge of the burnt area a month after the fire. Even at that point in time the bush was sprouting and regenerating. I was on that road last November. The tree trunks are still blackened and some have fallen. The under story has recovered, life has returned in abundance. Any cursory reading of Australian Archaeological texts reveals that the bush was constantly and consistently managed with fire by the Indigenous population. Unless we adopt this practice, we are doomed to repeat the events of Black Friday (1939), Ash Wednesday (1983) and Black Saturday (2009).
3 February 2009
Well, what a fortnight! A possible block of land has been located, the engine for the bike has finally arrived at the mechanics and the car has blown something that may have been a head gasket or an inlet something or an entirely different problem. The new job is great and I managed to get a lift last Friday out to Bathurst as I am now down to no serviceable vehicles. Organised a train ride home, first class, of course. Unfortunately we're in the middle of a heat wave and the XPT was reduced to 40 kmp and so it was an hour and half late into Bathurst. A nice trip all the same. There's still a good amount of feed in the paddocks of the Central West. By the time the train arrived at Katoomba, the temperatures had dropped from 35-40 degrees C to a very fresh 23 degrees C.
The possible block is a near level 7 acres with a creek boundary on the edge of a village of about 100 people. Close enough to two cities and on the rail line. A blank canvas ready to be a creative expression of the System. There's a nursery in the village and few studs around in the adjacent area. I'll do a reconnoitre once the bike is running and post my feelings.
Thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon, and 15 to 17 degree drop in the maximum for next Monday. Woo Hoo!
19 January 2009
Great news! The replacement bike engine will now be sent to Penrith where I can pick it up and take it to the bike shop and be mobile again. The apples keep growing as the hot weather alternates with wet weather. I've been looking into sheep dairying but the goats still look a better bet. This link gives info on the idea of an ultra small dairy. Finding markets seems the key. That and the hoops the NSW Food Authority require producers to justifiably jump through. The ideas keep evolving, the answer will crystallize and we will be away.
5 January 2009
I
went for a quick look, record and photographic session at the Community
Gardens yesterday. The photo is of the apple avenue. There are 48 different
cultivars but only 24 have labels. I'll have to contact the committee to
gather the other names. There is a joy to being surrounded by apples in
fruit. A hot day yesterday and yet the microclimate amongst the trees was
perfect.
The set up definitely confirms my theory, tested in the past, that orchards benefit from sheep. The huge windfall crop rotting on the ground is a great food source for sheep. A small, docile, meat breed like Ryelands looks ideal. The huge leaf drop in Autumn also provides high mineral level feed for in lamb ewes that usually carry a high percentage of twins after a pre-mating session on windfall apples. I was getting 180% lamb weaning from a flock of Shropshires.
The planning and the info gathering continues and the move moves closer.
3 January 2009
The season continues to turn. The New Year's Test Match started today. The temperature fell from 25 to 8 degrees in three hours last night so we must be in high summer here in the mountains. The raspberries have that early Autumn look already as the apples continue their slow progress towards edibility. This has brought the white cockatoos in their hundreds to the area. I'm off to the Community Gardens this arvo to check on their apples for damage and compile a definitive list of cultivars. Three days to the new job and I'm quite excited at the prospect. Change and change in the right direction, too, always feels good. I have deep feelings of expectation and wonder about the coming twelve month. I hope it flows to all who read this.
22 December 2008
Today was my third last day at my current employer. In this position I have been the point of balance between the staff, the clients and management. I told the staff and clients I am finishing up on Christmas Eve. The clients reacted with tears and sadness and "I'll miss you." The staff were gobsmacked and management finally showed their true colours. For the first time since my resignation I have received confirmation the decision to go was correct. It is such a relief to be now heading towards the block and away from suburbia, the "celebrity" magazine world and the shallowness of a shopping trip being the height of civilization.
A disappointing day in some ways, as I had hoped for better but have come to terms with reality. The sadness comes from leaving intellectually disabled and mentally ill individuals in the care of those who do think that shopping is the height of civilization.
Life is about moving on, moving to and changing those around us in some way by virtue of our having passed their way.
21 December 2008
Here we begin. Today is
the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. The aim is to be celebrating the
next Summer Solstice on our own block.
After twenty years of experimentation and development of the system, we are now ready to make the move. Over that twenty years I struggled to develop the system without support until seven years ago when I met, moved in with and finally married Ginny (See photo left!). In that seven years the system crystallized and we have been collecting the necessary seeds, plant cuttings and starter orchard material.
Pictured below are the gooseberry, raspberries and one Golden Delicious Apple. From these we are breeding up, with cuttings. We are ready to go for this winter's planting. In addition there are 48 heritage varieties of apples in the local community gardens from which we can take cuttings. The idea will be to have a long series of harvesting for the apples. The raspberries are for home consumption and the gooseberries will be for income as they will ripen just before Christmas.
Stay posted as the new year moves us closer to the dream.
