Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "waste"

by Denis Hayes and Gail Bapu Hayes, New York, W.W.Norton + Co., 2015.

The title says it all--almost. The impact is much larger than we have imagined. In startling detail, the Hayes describe the harm we have done to our country and ourselves by tolerating the overproduction and cruel practices used to create beef, and veal, and milk.

The authors illustrate sensitive ways to raise cattle, providing them with longer, productive lives. They quote Temple Grandin, reminding us how she has instructed the industry in humane practices. A few pages are devoted to the clear hormonal evidence for bovine emotion and suffering--their sentience, which we can no longer deny. Their conclusions are clear: we must eat less beef and do away with feed lots.
Several excellent pages are devoted to the work of Allan Savory, who has restored thousands of deserts in Africa, turning them into green grazing lands by “holistic management” of cattle grazing land. The Hayes point out lessons learned—1) that some deserts are natural and needed to reflect some solar heat and 2) that the complexity of restoring grass lands requires due diligence in watching the ground and keeping the herds moving continuous, as they did in the early days of Africa.

Perhaps the most revealing notes are the author’s summary of how big business and money have taken over corn, “grain facilities”, and meatpacking. These “…giant interests have funded the campaign of both Republicans and Democrats. Hence small farmers supported the “candidate who promised to kick the government off the farm”

Do read this book. You’ll eat less beef, if any.

How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time

It isn’t easy. It requires minute by minute awareness of how much plastic runs our lives. Photos tell the tale. The oceans are full of it, over 90% gets into birds, and the finest, toughest plastic wraps are choking small ocean dwellers. One third of plastic in the ocean is microfibers released when washing clothes!

The answer is difficult for all of us, since we rely on so many handy items.made of plastic. The hard part is to recognize each plastic item and find a substitute. Ultimately, however, its the manufacturers and waste managers who hold the ultimate keys to saving the oceans

For starters, this small book gives us a very useful list of finding plastic in our houses, room by room.

Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
(version 2012-13 reviewed here)

In his crystal clear prologue, author Charles Murray paints a detailed portrait of America before 1963, when President Kennedy was shot. The “civil religion” that held America together began to unravel after World War II with rumors of class differences, an“independent ethnic heritage” in the country.

Today, in 2020, it is all too clear: “…an evolution of America…has taken place since November 21, 1963, leading to the formation of classes that are different in kind …and separation from anything that the nation has ever known.” The differences “…diverge on core behavior and values.” the whys “…involve forces that cannot be changed.”

Examples explored in the book include marriage, “residential segregation,” job types, industriousness, crime, perhaps honesty, and religion. After 300 pages the reader finds a long list to support Murray’s theses. He suggests that we compare differences between parents at elementary schools in a median income zip code and in an “elite private elementary school”.

The author suggests that the solutions require the “new upper class” to focus on restoring “what makes America different.“A life well lived requires engagement with those around us.”

Courtney White by Courtney White, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2015

This collection of “Low-Cost, Low-Tech, Nature-Based Solutions “for “Combating Hunger, Drought, and Climate Change”. has some handy advice for “implementing a wide variety of regenerative land management practices.”

Make compost by covering manure with wood chips, straw, and a little corn. It will keep your cows warm all winter. Then, in the spring, feed your pigs while they aerate it, turning the anaerobic into “fluffy aerobic soil.

“What can I do for the planet?”…Eat less feedlot meat.” Feed lots are “crowded, stinky, and grassless.” They’re also cheap, and too abusive. “They make no ecological sense for the stress the cows ;suffer. They make cattle lose 15% of their weight, while being more “susceptible to disease.” Eat grass fed meat.

Plant food crops in rows between “solar panels at a height of four meters.” That’s good for water efficiency and could reduce transpiration needs.

Waste vegetable oil from restaurants should be warmed or stored for a few weeks so food bits can settle, then given free to farmers for automotive or tractor fuel.

Since it takes so much water for sanitation disposal, human waste should be collected, heated, checked with PhyloChip, and used as fertilizer in agriculture. See CCC’s Thermophile Project, Marin County, CA’.

For other manure disposal, bring on more dung beetles.

Check out grandin.com and the Wild Farm Alliance for strengthening the alliance between farmers, ranchers, and conservationists worrying about wildlife vulnerability-- “habitat destruction, or fragmentation…water pollution, pesticides, and other effects of industrial production.

We may be thoughtless or feel helpless, but we don’t need to trash the planet.