It is not the aim of this blog to try and talk the world into becoming vegan, or even vegetarian but rather the goal is to discuss the object of living with less. Since I started this blog on November 30, 2011 I have discussed a plethora of topics around being a woman/writer/artist who lives part time in a project called Tiny House Ontario and how this huge, but Tiny project is going and is effecting me.
But there is something going on here in Canada and the United States that is too huge to ignore and has me really worried. Right now we in Ontario and a whole lot of the USA are living through an historic and dreadfully bad drought. The Canadian government has been nearly silent on the issue but recently I read an article out of the United States which explains briefly the reasoning behind the USDA’s sensible recommendation that citizens give up eating meat on Mondays. It carries some mind boggling statistics and information in it. Even so, the article does not go far enough (in my opinion). The most significant missed topic in the article is that it does not discuss what the USDA and farmers already know. Here it is! Livestock are being and will continue to be “dumped” because farmers cannot afford to feed them. This means (for those of you who did not come up on farms) that they sell mostly ALL of their animals as livestock for slaughter. This might seem like good news if you are a meat eater (initially) but here is where you are wrong, this means that there will be a lack of breeding stock next year. You will start to see huge price jumps at about Christmas for the cost of meat and the price will keep on raising. Truth is, it will take a few years for the animals and the farmers to catch up.
The hostile and arrogant reaction of the politicians quoted in this article is totally off the mark*. They flaunt their stupidity on the subject of meat. Not just on how it is produced but the time of production as well as the costs of production are not noted at all. These clowns absurdly suggest what they will do, which is to “eat more, put pounds of meat on display and call the USDA heretics”. What they are saying in essence is we are going to eat it all up until it is gone and leave nothing for you. It is greed and ignorance at best!
The sad fact is, I am commenting on this subject because a lot more people will go to bed hungry this winter in both the USA and Canada and for the next year or two as well, if there are not GREAT growing years coming our way. I wish it was not going to be this way, but it is. Quite simply, we have not had nearly enough rain. Below is an image from NASA Earth Observatory. There is more info from them here.
What I am asking, is to buy some food from your most local farmer and please eat less meat for the next couple of years. I know it sounds cliche, but if we all do a little bit there will be a little bit left over for the poorest among us.
I can’t tell you how much that I hope I am wrong.
*I want to qualify that I am not partisan or even particularly interested in who is who. These folks are way too far from me to make me even remotely interested in finding out anything about the particulars of the political affiliation.
Tiny House Ontario 
Been following your blog for a month or so now, and this article really hits home.
Oklahoma is home at this moment; a little woody spot in the southern area, I call it 20A.
When I first moved up here from Texas, in 2009, the rain in the spring and fall nearly floated me away. I live in a ’91 Winnebago Chieftain…
The past two years, with hardly any rain, has me rethinking my plans for a cottage. Maybe instead of on top of the ground, I will begin to dig in, literally.
The heat alone is enough to fry small pets these days, and inside the rig, is almost unbearable. I mostly go without AC due to costs and staying green. So I use wet clothing, dip in my little stock tank often, and use a hose with a sprayer to keep the pupps cool outside.
The subject of meat seems minor to me, compared to veggies, which I am having little success growing due to the drought.
I do have alternatives in mind.. as soon as it cools off a bit… that will possibly work better than any current methods I have tried.
If the world will not wake up en mass, then at least a few of us will, slowly. Hopefully.
Thanks, by the way, for this blog. Enjoy reading and keeping in touch with others out there encouraged to keep it simple and green!!
Hi Victory!
Thanks for reading and commenting. I use the same technique as you, which is to dip the clothes in water. My grandma had this old terry cloth hat which she did this with, she called it the wet hat and wore it a lot in the summer time. It is great that you have running water! I am wondering too, if I should have dug down for Tiny House Ontario.
I am sorry to hear about your garden, mine too has been way less than stellar. I think I may have only had four full meals out of it. Not what I hoped for at all.
I was speaking with Bear the Tinker the other day and am reminded of the old technique that he used in the winter while travelling with the horse and caravan, which was to settle in for the winter. He would order a big load of hay and build this up around the caravan, just like the gypsies of old. This he uses as feed for the horse, which means that the caravan loses its insulation as the weather warms up.
I am not sure if this would work for THO ( I would use straw) but I thought I might give it a whirl.
I have some loved ones who devour the outpourings of Fox News and talk radio, in general. This is what I hear from them – and there have been surveys and studies that suggest that people who get their news from Fox are more poorly informed than people who consume no news whatsoever. I would not be worried, except that there are many, many people who get their news this way and perpetuate what they hear. I am concerned about the economy here – I am in Michigan. I will be all right (I think) but I worry about the effects on others and the resulting crime rise that could come about. I am worried for others, too. I don’t mean to sound like I am only worried that others’ economic stress would threaten me. I just had a tasty dinner of vegetarian black bean soup with hummus and corn chips and a bran muffin for dessert. YUM! Luckily for me, my father handles the cooking.
This is a sensible suggestion. Right now, I eat almost no meat. My father decided he wanted to adopt a vegan diet, so I kind of followed along. I do eat eggs, cheese and milk products at home, and I will eat meat when I am out. This drought is a disaster. Lately, I have been hearing people saying that it isn’t so bad, but that seems crazy! Mostly, these are just the climate change deniers, and they seem to feel that admitting that the weather has affect the food productions would be a admission that climate change exists.
Hi Ravioli! Thank you for your insightful thoughts on this. May I ask if you are coming in from the US or Canada? I am off grid most of the time and thus only get some news. I have not heard/read anything from people saying that the drought is not that bad.
This drought makes me particularly worried for Americans, to tell you the truth. I am of the understanding that they economy there is terribly fragile, I have heard that many, many people are just a pay away from financial collapse. Plus, with healthcare costs, it is a dangerous house of cards.