Meat Needy America
Does any country eat more meat than US? I’m questioning what is behind this, and how good it is for our health. Studies show that eating red meat or processed meat can significantly lower your life expectancy. Even the meat-eaters among us, of which I am one of, could not argue with this universally-accepted fact by now.
Once upon a time, I went vegan, for a four year period, as an experiment in personal health. It was a rewarding and eye-opening experience. During that time, I read avidly on different types of dietary systems, and learned a lot about the corporate profit-driven so-called food that most of us consume on a daily basis – processed crap, with little nutritional value – that is essentially killing us. It is no wonder why America is the fattest country in the world; and in spite of having the most advanced medical technology, we are some of the sickest people in the world as well. Our overall healthcare system is not very effective or unbiased when it comes to educating people. Instead, we are treated like consumers, with dollar signs on our heads, so that every food and healthcare-related company can essentially say “what can we get out of this family or person? what can we sell them at the highest possible price and profit margins, and convince them that it’s great product or service?” Believe me, I’ve been working inside the belly of the beast, as a marketing professional, for 16+ years now. And this is exactly the conversation that happens. Very few business people really care about their customers, no matter what tag lines they say, or “thank you” letters they post on their websites.
Coming back to the need for meat, is it an addiction? Or have we simply been programmed to believe “you have to get your protein” through meats? How do we measure the quality of meat that we consume at restaurants, or even what’s available at the grocery store? Do we really need as much as we consume?
Although I did “switch back” to a non-vegetarian diet in 2006, I still do value the concept of “meat fasts”, limiting types or quantity of meats and pure vegetarian diets altogether. From my own four-year experience, I can tell you that energetically and health-wise, I was in great shape and suffered no negative side effects from cutting meat (and dairy) out of my life. Of course, it’s hard to do a fully formal, objective analysis on oneself, as far as measuring vitals and organ functioning; but those studies have been done with large groups of vegetarians, and the results are fairly clear. Vegetarians experience less illness and organ failure, and generally live longer lives. John Robbins elucidates these arguments in The Food Revolution, Healthy at 100 and Diet for a New America. I highly recommend all three books, starting with The Food Revolution, which was a big-time eye-opener for me, and others whom I shared it with. If you watched the movie Food Inc., The Food Revolution goes deeper into those same topics – if you haven’t, I highly recommend you watch it!
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which is a show about a chef who transformed the school lunch programs across the UK, and is now starring in his own reality show (which airs on ABC) about doing the same in the US. Of course, he meets significant resistance from entrenched interests and basically lazy people, who are beyond the point of no return.
I’m not making any arguments here. This isn’t about vegetarians vs. meat-eaters – I’ve been both, and think that one can lead very healthy and very unhealthy lives on both sides of that fence. The main goal is to raise the reader’s awareness on the following topics:
- You are what you eat. What you put in your body has a huge impact on your physical health as well as your moods and mental well-being.
- Super-Sizing. The value of portion control and conscious shopping choices. Avoid emotional over-eating.
- Factory Farming. Watch Food Inc and read The Food Revolution for a shocking, eye-opening look at the lengths that corporations, with complete approval from our complicit government, will go to for the sake of profit maximization, at your family’s expense. The most alarming common practices by these ruthless conglomerates involve the treatment of animals, use of antibiotics, steroids, GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and meat processing.
- Corporate Media Bias, Advertising and Mind Control. Very few food companies have a vested interest in your personal health. They will generally sell you whatever they can convince you is good enough to buy. Great packaging and “well-known” brands don’t mean much in terms of nutritional quality. Yes, media, ad agencies and paid nutritionists are all part of the game as well.
If you’re not already on this path, of being a highly vigilant food consumer, that is not afraid to experiment with new dietary programs in order to see what makes you feel your best, consider this a call to action. There are many ways to take charge of your own personal health plan, starting with doing some research and questioning mainstream sources of dietary advice, which are 99% of the time, paid corporate interests that have little care for people. This is not to say that all food companies are bad – absolutely not – and there are ways to gage how ethical food producers are. Here is a quick checklist that can get or keep you on the right track:
- Essentially, the more transparent companies are about their entire supply chain, the better. Live webcams into every aspect of the supply chain – something I haven’t seen yet – would be the ultimate level of transparency.
- Farmer’s markets are generally better than supermarkets. Personally knowing your farmer(s) or food providers, which is virtually impossible for those of us living in metropolitan cities like New York, would be great.
- Paying attention to Social Media related to particular food brands. I’m not talking about company-driven games and contests; but what other educated consumers are saying about those brands and their products.
- Organic and Non-GMO foods are generally better than alternatives, especially when it comes to meats and vegetables. Get those pesticides and hormones out of your system!
- Speaking to a dietician or nutritionist is not a bad idea.
- While calorie counting is not a full-proof health strategy (since it counts quantity, not quality), using a personal health mobile app to help you monitor your eating choices and limits is useful.
Related articles
- A Small Triumph in the Food Industry Fight – No More Pink Slime! (cleanfoodexperiment.wordpress.com)
- Dutch scientists grow test tube hamburgers (leftperspectives.com)
- Jack in the Box’s Bacon Shake is Vegetarian…Not Healthy (treehugger.com)
- When Vegetarians Must Eat Meat, Ctd (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
2.22.2012…today’s date = near-perfect symmetry
2.22.2012…today’s date = near-perfect symmetry. 2+22+2012 = 11 (a highly significant and balanced number in most Spiritual and numerology traditions / going further, 11 or 1+1 = 2
Why Occupy: Overhauling a Nation’s Identity
Gaddafi’s gory picture on the front page of papers is a sign of the times. Blood thirsty, war mongering puppet masters, trying to juice up a naive crowd. We are truly a military nation. Is that really who we want to be?
This (OWS movement) is a call to (political and spiritual) consciousness. As a Spiritually oriented person, I feel impelled to pray, meditate and do other activities that raise my Consciousness, thereby developing my internal world. “Prayer and action” said a wise Sufi sheik. We cannot leave this world to the devices of those who only know the mundane (materialistic) life. This is why OWS is very timely and relevant. To be spiritually and politically active simultaneously is a healthy way of being, and provides a positive force in the world, which impacts one’s own life as well as that of others.
Regarding the ‘mundane life’, the point is that most of us who live in modern cities (like New York City) have quite active lives, socially and professionally. We have our hobbies, educational pursuits, family lives and career ambitions to occupy our time. Occupy Wall Street is about creating space for political, social and spiritual Consciousness. Separation of church and state may have worked to induce a more seamless capitalist system of markets, but it has in the process (BY DESIGN) stripped away the essential moral fibers that keep any system in check, holding them to the light of ethical scrutiny. We (in the West, and the US especially) have been induced and enticed by these dark forces of disintegration, which have fragmented people and systems, piece by piece. Every man, woman and child for themselves. It is a devious (and brilliant) plan that has worked for many years, working its black magic by infiltrating our institutions of government, media, religion, education and when necessary, military (brute force) to carry out the program.
The fact that we all have these busy, engaging lives is PART OF THE PLAN. Keep us all distracted and part of the Paid, Upper end of the Pyramid scheme, so that we won’t say anything about the abuses happening ‘under the table’, at the bottom of the food chain. We, the 99%, are conspirators in this Ponzi Scheme, as we all aspire to “move up” the ranks, even if that means stepping on someone else’s throat to do so. ”Nice guys finish last”, remember how we’ve been taught those precious, Machiavellian lessons? Have you checked into your hard drive (unconscious memory) recently, to see what kind of cultural messaging is still deeply embedded?
Would re-integration of church and state solve our problems? No. Modern day religious institutions, for the most part, are complicit in the big scheme. They do not carry the Essence of true Spirituality, in the vision of the Prophets, peace be upon all 124,000 of them, who appeared during equally troubling times in human history to bring light to human fallacy. In our lifetimes, we don’t have those beams of light to guide us away from error – if we did, we would be too busy to take notice anyway! Even for those of us who have partially ‘woken up’ from our unconscious slumber, as did Neo in the Matrix, and harbor serious doubts in our hearts about how our society is being run, the question remains – will we stand up for real change? Well, thank God, a movement has started, which is inspiring people to WAKE UP, not go back to sleep and take up real, transformative action. The ideas being discussed at OWS are as practical and humanistic as what those messengers brought to humanity years ago. Read the words of any Prophet, and you will find the seeds of democratic, ethical human affairs in them. From land and wealth distribution, to systems of governance, to how we should spend our time, to human relations, it was all laid out, from the Highest Source. And we, on a collective level, have not been following it recently (for at least the past 50 years of humanity).
This brings to mind the importance of the 1%, at the top of the food chain. Leaders of nations and major organizations are the key holders and most influential stakeholders of that group. Their decisions carry the most weight for the direction of humanity, which is why we cannot sit back neutrally (ref. Zinn) and just mind our own business. YES, we need to develop or own internal worlds, in the midst of whatever chaos is going on outside – that is the #1 priority in my opinion, and what I hold to in my own life. But once we have attained a relatively high level of awareness, the next priority, as Plato urged in The Republic, is to take it to the streets, our own communities, and become active citizens and helpers of mankind. We have to either throw out the 1% or transform them, as we transform ourselves not to be passive sheep, in a herd that is currently en route to nowhere. Ruthless, profit (only) seeking, corporations and laws that enable them to continue pillaging Mother Earth, have to be stopped. How long can we put profits (of the 1%) over people (99%)? Seeing the reality of what is happening and letting it sink in – really hit the heart – can bring about all kinds of emotions, from sadness to rage. Anger, as Deepak Chopra said recently about the Occupy Wall Street movement, is being channeled into Awareness, which is why these protests are peaceful. OWS is a thoughtful, creative and powerful response to years of abuse and manipulation. As Naomi Klein said recently on OWS, “this is the most important thing in the world right now”. The 1% is having trouble with this, trying hard to find some targets (“who is the leader?”) and vulnerabilities, so that the other 90% who are not aware of the charade yet, or at least not mad enough to speak up about it, don’t catch wind of what is going on. That is why we’re seeing some belligerent responses, and intimidation tactics [ie. think of bullying, mace-spraying police forces]. Let’s keep it peaceful, but no less energetic and emotionally charged. Being angry is justified. Channeling that emotion into thoughtful action and service of humanity is the greatest challenge of our time. And the time to embrace that challenge is upon us.
Related articles
- Occupy Wall Street’s dilemma: are the police part of the 99%? | Ari Paul (guardian.co.uk)
- Occupy Wall Street News Update of the Day (thedailywh.at)
- Adrienne Parks: Bullying Part Deux: Occupy Wall Street and the Gay Movement (huffingtonpost.com)
- Jim Sleeper: Behind the Snarking About OWS (huffingtonpost.com)
- Deepak Chopra: Only Spirituality can Solve the Problems of the World (aquariuschannelings.com)
Why one of the World’s Smartest People, Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia Professor), Supports Occupy Wall Street
There is good reason why Jeffrey Sachs and 200+ other Columbia professors support Occupy Wall Street – http://www.scribd.com/doc/68042482/Faculty-Action-Committee-2011-10-07.
Many people consider this movement a fad or some misguided waste of time. Well, frankly, those folks couldn’t be further off. There is a reason why the entirety of Wall Street has been barricaded since Occupy Wall Street started on September 17, 2011. Mark that day down as one of the most significant in American and World History. It’s the day the tides started turning, and the sadistic, manipulative power players of the world finally met their match – THE PEOPLE of the world, finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together and standing up against them en masse. The group may have started out as a few thousand, but in just three weeks, they have millions of supporters around the world, in spite of an intentional and equally deceptive media blackout, ordered by the big shots from their ivory towers.
Look, I am all for making money – after all, I am an entrepreneur that works 15 hours a day. I believe in a great work ethic and incentive to succeed big for working hard, gaining expertise and taking calculated risks. Capitalistic, competitive forces have a place at the table, and can make us all better. But raw, unbridled greed is devastatingly cancerous – and that is what we have right now in the world, led by the U.S., and powered by Wall Street. That’s why the protest started here – and must end here – with the complete reformation of the United States and global economic systems.
This – what is going on – is what real Democracy looks like.
Related articles
- This Is What Democracy Looks Like! Occupy Wall Street is the Real Deal. (armanrousta.com)
- Why Liberals Should Welcome Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
- OccupyWallStreet NYC announces “emergency call to action” as Bloomberg tries to shut them down (americablog.com)
- Tracing the Roots of #OccupyWallStreet (greatfinds.icrossing.com)
After all those years of reading glorified (and mostly skewed) history books, and learning about America’s Founding Fathers, I developed an idealism of what this country was based on and the revolutionaries that brought it into existence. As I came into maturity, never in my 20 years of adult life, have I felt that inspiration from the system that we have now. There is a disconnect. Instead, like most everyone else, I have been disenfranchised and turned off by the corruption, hypocrisy and overall ineptitude of leadership in the U.S., across government, media and business sectors. Most politicians just don’t seem credible; and once you peek under the hood, even just a little bit, it all becomes clear. We are being fooled.
Everything changed on September 17, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street movement started. As an American, I have something to be proud of, for the first time in a long time. While I have a lot to say on the topic, here are some quick hits, to get started. Over the coming weeks and months, as the movement spreads, I will expound upon these topics further.
* Political Parties are just a distraction. The current two party system is completely broken, as they are simply two sides of the same, self-sustaining coin. Don’t fall into this trap. We need something new altogether, that has not been seen yet in American politics. We need another revolution.
* “This is what democracy looks like” chanted the crowd of protestors as they circled Wall Street on their twice a day march yesterday (Day 20). I really like that. This IS what democracy (should) look like, feel like and act like - an assembly of vastly diverse personality types, races and classes – with varying opinions and non-uniform views on social topics; but all united under the general premise of equality, ethics and fairness in our society. They/we ALL realize that this has not been the case, by any means. Simply put, America, and many of our people, have become corrupted by greed and power. We have been duped, by the “Powers that Be”. We are currently being manipulated, although people, through various channels, including this movement, are starting to wake up. Some people, in reality, have always been awake, and have spoken up about it in the past. Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey Sachs, Cornel West, and more. But this leaderless movement has more momentum than anything we have seen in the past. It is truly our country’s Matrix moment – red pill or blue pill? For those movie buffs out there, this is also akin to The Truman Show movie, when Truman finally realizes that the whole thing is a scam that is designed to make him think it’s real. Once you discover the true nature of affairs, it is impossible to ignore the fraud or pretend it’s OK anymore. It is not OK – it never has been; we just didn’t have critical mass of Conscious people before. It’s time to break free.
* The movement can be misconstrued to be “anti-business”, which in reality, it is not. It is against big business bullying and manipulation. I would like to explore how Entrepreneurs can get involved. I hope to speak to the protestors, and encourage them to engage Small Businesses, and promote entrepreneurship amidst its ranks. Well, they already seem quite enterprising, given what has been achieved in organizing groups, posting great videos and pictures, and utilizing digital media. As CEO of a digital media company, I’m proud of this group’s work! I want to tell the story about why this is good FOR US, SMB America.
* How YOU/Anyone can get involved. You don’t need to camp out at night, be homeless or jobless to participate! Just stop by, spend a couple of hours at your local #Occupy hotspot. Talk to people, learn about the issues. Take pictures and post them to your Facebook. Go home and tweet, blog or email people about it. Discuss with your families, co-workers and local communities. It is very important to our country’s future that this movement does not die down or get warped into something else by the tricky media and corporate manipulators.
The People’s Media
Read THE REAL Occupy Wall Street Journal, not the corrupt corporate-backed fantasy version.
- Here is the first edition of The Occupy Wall Street Journal - http://www.breakingcopy.com/occupied-wall-street-journal-pdf - which has already raised over $60,000 via Kickstarter to fund its ambitious but attainable 50,000+ print run. Let’s support true, non-corporatized People’s Media!
- Turn off CNN, tune into livestream.com/globalrevolution instead.
- Unbookmark nytimes.com. It is a completely bought, corporate agenda-driven, excuse for media. Visit occupywallstreet.org to see what is REALLY going on instead.
#OccupyWallStreet – Marching Forth in the Face of Ignorance and Corruption
I really didn’t know much about #OccupyWallStreet until Friday 9/16 when our office manager at Blueliner got a notice from the building that some protestors were staging a rally “to take over Wall Street” on Saturday 9/17, and that it could be dangerous. Well, when I showed up for work on Monday, there they were, still protesting (Day 3)…peacefully, with intelligent points and demands, exercising their civil liberties. And there also were hundreds of NYPD cops, with barricades preventing protestors (and the rest of us) from walking on Wall Street or Broad Street freely. While it’s not Tahrir Square or Iran’s Green Revolution quite yet, I think that these protestors are on to something. I’m not totally sure (yet) who is behind them or exactly what their master plan is; but I am pretty sure that they’re scaring the “powers that be” in our entrenched government, media and business circles – the 1% elites that control the rest of Americans (and the world population to a large degree) like puppets.
It is not surprising, but worthy of note, that the mainstream media has refused to cover these protests and is doing their best to marginalize this demonstration as something akin to a harmless college campus protest that will pass in a few days. Maybe it will pass…but I do feel something different here. I’ve never been an activist or protestor type – and maybe this is just hitting home with me because I have to literally walk through Liberty Square to get from the WTC PATH to my office on Wall Street every single day! Being a Wall Street residing CEO, you would think that signs like the one above – “Fire Your Boss” – would scare me and pit me against these “jobless vigilantes”. That is not the case. I agree with almost everything that I’ve seen and heard from them so far, although the movement and manner in which people are participating still seems very raw. There is an intelligence behind it, and a peaceful wave of activism that seems like it belongs in Seattle or San Francisco more than New York. I’m happy to see this energy here, and aimed at what I agree is the biggest fraud in today’s world – Wall Street’s corrupt financial system that I believe perpetrates, enables and feeds off of the pillaging of the world’s human labor and natural resources for the benefit of an elite group of sinister people that obviously do not want to see their house of cards collapse. Well, I have news for the perpetrators – the system that is “too big to fail” has already failed – is in the process of failing before our eyes. Our whole system of governance and financial management, including the Fed, stock exchanges and financial regulation, are about to collapse – mainly because they are not in line with what is natural, viable and sustainable for the betterment of a society. The war-mongering, greed-feeding, anti-humanist platform that has somehow pervaded (or better put, invaded) American society, mainly by taking control of our decision-making power centers, is finally getting exposed. No wonder the mainstream media, which is part of this charade, doesn’t want to cover it – to avoid transparency and save its own ass. Well, if they won’t cover it, eye witnesses and bloggers like myself must! Here is a clip from today. I’ll try to upload more pictures and videos throughout the week, since I walk through there daily.
Whether or not this particular protest sets off a full-scale revolution or not, I really don’t know. Are people here fed up enough yet to take to the streets – almost, maybe, we’ll see! But they certainly need to know what’s going on, and why people are upset. Politicians and our entire political system is out of touch and incapable of serving people and solving the problems at hand – which is in large part, the system itself. It’s broken, and we are all starting to come to grips with that quite scary reality. Scary as it may be, ignorance or defense of it is worse. It’s better to take the pill and be on the side of those that want to do something about it – to revamp the system entirely, because that is what I believe we need. I think that’s what these protests are about. Over the coming days, I will learn more, and report it here. I hope someone out there is listening.
#OccupyWallStreet – spread the word, because mainstream media certainly is failing (intentionally) to do so! I think this goes to the (potential) power of Social Media. All of the things that our Western media is so quick to jump on when it happens on the other side of the world, sending crews to the Middle East and coming up with clever names like “The Arab Spring” – see how we fail to recognize and report on our own dysfunction? The problems in our own country and system are vast, potentially much worse than what is happening elsewhere. Let’s pay attention instead of being diverted by supposed opportunity and entertainment. Stop tuning this out – it’s time to start tuning in!
What else can we do in the face of daunting ignorance, greed, manipulation and corruption…except to fight the good fight, and March Forth!
Related articles
- Live Blog of #OccupyWallStreet: Day Five, 99 Percenters Rise Up (dissenter.firedoglake.com)
- Occupy Wall Street Protestors Arrested! (perezhilton.com)
- There Are Still A Couple Of Hundred Protestors Occupying Wall Street (businessinsider.com)
- Occupy Wall Street: Tahrir Over Here? (fastcompany.com)
- Yahoo blocked emails about ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest (digitaltrends.com)
- Bringing Music to #OccupyWallStreet (wfmu.org)
- Occupy Wall Street: manifesto by United Thought (unitedthought.wordpress.com)
Mantrapreneur: “Boldness has genius, power and magic in it”
I love and live by this quote. If I find myself not doing so, at any given moment, something is wrong or blocking me – most typically my own blocks.
While I and many others (ie – see the image I’m using in this post as an example) had typically attributed this quote to the famous author Goethe, it is in fact by William Hutchinson Murray from his 1951 book The Scottish Himalayan Expedition. Either way, it is beautiful!
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:
that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
