Meat Loaf - I Would Do Anything For Love

One less flesh-eater

My 11-year-old, the smart one, announced a few weeks ago that she’s officially a vegetarian. I thought it would prove to be a phase, a passing fad like it was with me – my commitment to a meatless lifestyle lasted 75 minutes – but she’s serious. So we’ve had to adjust, to think about ordering battered cod in addition to burgers from our favorite local pub, to refrain from offering Nikita breakfast sausages and ham and cheese sandwiches, and to pick up more lettuce and tofu and less beef and bologna at the grocery store.

I’ve even joined a few pro-vegetarian groups in Facebook so I can pass along recipes and factoids that she can use to bolster her resolve. Because if she’s anything like me – and thankfully, she isn’t, really – she’ll find herself sorely tempted by the sight and smell of a thick, juicy steak or delectable shish kabob sizzling on the grill. Some of the smartest people I know adopted meat-free diets long ago, though, and since Nikita’s brighter and more self-disciplined than any child I know, it’s probable that she’s joined their ranks for good.

I found the following food for thought in one of these new Facebook groups:

How To Win An Argument With A Meat-Eater

The Hunger Argument
Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition this year: 20 million
Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 100 million
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by people: 20
Percentage of corn grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 80
Percentage of oats grown in the U.S. eaten by livestock: 95
Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
How frequently a child dies as a result of malnutrition: every 2.3 seconds
Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 40,000
Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 250
Percentage of U.S. farmland devoted to beef production: 56
Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce a pound of edible flesh from feedlot beef: 16

The Environmental Argument
Cause of global warming: greenhouse effect
Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
Fossil fuels needed to produce meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 3 times more
Percentage of U.S. topsoil lost to date: 75
Percentage of U.S. topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
Number of acres of U.S. forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million
Amount of meat imported to U.S. annually from Central and South America: 300,000,000 pounds
Percentage of Central American children under the age of five who are undernourished: 75
Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound of rainforest beef: 55 square feet
Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 per year

The Cancer Argument
Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to less than once a week: 3.8 times
For women who eat eggs daily compared to once a week: 2.8 times
For women who eat butter and cheese 2-4 times a week: 3.25 times
Increased risk of fatal ovarian cancer for women who eat eggs 3 or more times a week vs. less than once a week: 3 times
Increased risk of fatal prostate cancer for men who consume meat, cheese, eggs and milk daily vs. sparingly or not at all: 3.6 times.

The Cholesterol Argument
Number of U.S. medical schools: 125
Number requiring a course in nutrition: 30
Nutrition training received by average U.S. physician during four years in medical school: 2.5 hours
Most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart attack
How frequently a heart attack kills in the U.S.: every 45 seconds
Average U.S. man's risk of death from heart attack: 50 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat: 15 percent
Risk of average U.S. man who eats no meat, dairy or eggs: 4 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption of meat, dairy and eggs by 10 percent: 9 percent
Amount you reduce risk of heart attack if you reduce consumption by 50 percent: 45 percent
Amount you reduce risk if you eliminate meat, dairy and eggs from your diet: 90 percent
Average cholesterol level of people eating meat-centered-diet: 210 mg/dl
Chance of dying from heart disease if you’re male and your blood cholesterol level is 210 mg/dl: greater than 50 percent

The Natural Resources Argument
User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of California beef: 5,000
Years the world's known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
Calories of fossil fuel expended to get 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
To get 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Percentage of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock: 33
Percentage of all raw materials consumed by the U.S. needed to produce a complete vegetarian diet: 2

The Antibiotic Argument
Percentage of U.S. antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
Response of U.S. meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: full and complete support

The Pesticide Argument
Common belief: U.S. Department of Agriculture protects our health through meat inspection
Reality: fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues
Percentage of U.S. mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 99
Percentage of U.S. vegetarian mother's milk containing significant levels of DDT: 8
Contamination of breast milk, due to chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides in animal products, found in meat-eating mothers vs. non-meat eating mothers: 35 times higher
Amount of Dieldrin ingested by the average breast-fed American infant: 9 times the permissible level

The Ethical Argument
Number of animals killed for meat per hour in the U.S.: 660,000
Occupation with highest turnover rate in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker
Occupation with highest rate of on-the-job-injury in U.S.: slaughterhouse worker

This is pretty persuasive. I’ve read that certain animals are surprisingly intelligent and can feel pain and anxiety and attachment to family and friends, too, which is another compelling reason to refrain from eating them.

I’m not there yet but I sure am proud that Nikita apparently is.

Chet Baker - Blame It On My Youth

Not Ashamed to Blame

Torrential rain, a flooded tent and an alarming forecast necessitated that we pack up hastily and leave Orchid Campsite #39 in the Manistee National Forest last Saturday, just a day after arriving, cutting short our family’s end-of-summer camping weekend.

I blame the GOP.

Anita and I took our stresses out on each other Saturday night and had a nasty fight. We’re in that tender phase of reconciliation right now.

I blame the GOP.

The President of the United States came to the Motor City for Labor Day – something that used to always excite and draw me to the D – and I couldn’t care less.

I blame the GOP.

I’ve gone from looking forward to signing into Facebook and visiting my favorite blogs and websites to dreading it because of all the posts and information about what Congress and the POTUS are doing to, and not doing for, the people of this country.

I blame the GOP.

I don’t talk with my aging parents half as much as I should and haven’t seen them in more than a year.

I blame the GOP.

I’m officially estranged from my firstborn daughter and my younger sister, and never speak with my two stepsisters or their partners, two nephews, a niece, my maternal aunt and uncle or two maternal cousins.

I blame the GOP.

I’m overweight and out of shape, and have reached the age/stage where my children are embarrassed if I mow the lawn without a shirt on.

I blame the GOP.

Our two new Maltese puppies are having a hard time with the house-training thing and repeatedly choose a spot right next to my computer at which to express their inability to grasp the concept.

I blame the GOP.

I’ve lost interest in my favorite television shows, books and magazines and listen to music only sporadically now.

I blame the GOP.

I’m more short-tempered and less tolerant than I used to be, quicker to get angry and slower to apologize when I‘m wrong.

I blame the GOP.

People who insist that assigning blame is a useless exercise are wrong. I feel better already.

The Police - Can't Stand Losing You

Lamenting Some Losses

This post was written on a laptop computer on a picnic table at Orchid Campsite #39 in the Lake Michigan Recreation Area of the Manistee National Forest on September 2.

As I laugh and play with and scold and yell at my four beautiful children, my awesome, advanced, amazing charges, I can’t help thinking that my firstborn should be here, in this forest, at this campground, on this beach.

I didn’t take Amelia camping. I didn’t leave a strong enough mark on her, or influence her enough, or make myself as important or essential to her as I should have. If I had, she probably wouldn’t have unfriended me in Facebook which, sadly, served to end all communication between us. Again.

Sure, I could call or send a text message or try to refriend her or send her a letter. I’ve done all those things before. But to be honest, I’d rather be estranged than continuously rejected. I’d rather be a victim than a stalker to be humored and ultimately ignored.

Bryant wants me in his life for sure. Even though I sometimes irritate and embarrass him, he likes it better when I’m sitting in my camping chair on the sidelines at football practice than when I’m not.

Nikita and Maya and Devina love me too, although we all know I’m less important to them. When given the choice between hanging with Mommy or their Fat Daddy Pat, they always choose The Woman Who Gave Them Life. Go figure.

I know how lucky I am to have this chance to parent these kids, to attend their school orientations, to help them grow and learn, to help shape and guide and console them. My divorce made it hard for me to do these things for Amelia. Still, I always feel bad, in the back of my mind, that I apparently screwed up so much the first time I did the Daddy thing.

I sold my Chrysler LeBaron, my pretty four-door sedan with the cushy seats, through Craigslist the other day. It was just gathering dust and taking up space in the garage since I drive Anita’s late father’s Buick Century now, and I got a fair price for it since it needed some work. The sale proved more emotional than I had anticipated, though, for two reasons: it had been my late, beloved grandmother’s car, and Amelia had accompanied me to Georgia – where my grandma had lived – to pick the car up and drive it back to Michigan, back when Amelia was still a kid and she still loved and needed and cherished me. Back when she was still my little girl.

Now my grandma and my oldest daughter and my LeBaron are all gone.

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Circle