Our actions have a cause & effect pattern that is global.

I feel it is important to discuss issues that are happening on our planet. It would be irresponsible to be writing about food, indulgences and the privilige of three+ squares a day, while ignoring the ever growing global food shortages. We have reached a crisis that touches so many places and people, Palestine, Africa, Afghanistan, China, Haiti, Phillipines, just to name a few. Our way of life, the lack of equilibrium in the way we consume, has been one of the top contributing factors leading to these shortages of food. This isn't about digging into our pockets to send financial aid to others, it's about our refusal to learn from our mistakes, our constant nagging and whining for more, the egotistical belief that we are intitled at all times, that there is a never-ending supply of everything, always. This isn't an issue about food, this is an issue about society and social inequalities, the ones that Durkheim, Weber, W.E.B. Dubois, Jane Addams, spoke of, warned of.

Obesity is on the rise in the U.S. & Canada, our population is looking more and more like the overweight images posted here, which impacts our health negatively and places a tremendous strain on our health care systems. Preventable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, cancer,stroke have reached epedemic proportions, in the 1940's the #1 killer was pneumonia, today, the #1 killer in North America is heart disease.

We are a society that has a tremendous void, we pursue trappings to fill this insatiable appetite and when that doesn't work, we turn to food. For comfort, to satiate boredom, eleviate stress, cope with all manner of upset, or to "reward" those we love.

Do we even recall what the reason is for consuming food? It's fuel, we need food for survival & survival is not the same as comfort.

We put all manner of trash in our bodies and think nothing of it but would be horrified if we were to put inferior quality fuel into our cars-how is this logical?

Our inability to be responsible, mature adults, social conditioning, constant mixed messages from the media and rushed lifestyle makes us believe we are to be excused.

I eat local and organic as much as I can afford, I choose to eat smaller portions, keeping fast food down to a bare minimum, cook more whole foods and without shame pass off vegetarian dishes to those I love who believe it's meat til the last bite. I try to steer clear of toxic packaging, recycle and reuse whenever possible, bring my own bags, and am making an effort to learn and implement a method of composting, I also frown on litter bugs and push those around me to pick up their tossed crap. This does not make me a better person, there is so much more I should be doing and I am not writing this blog to give others negative feelings. This is about awareness, spreading information in hopes that someone out there will read this and make better choices because they are armed with knowledge.

The time of being thoughtless consumers is over and done, this is a call to act, we are all being effected by what is happening and this planet can no longer sustain our irresponsible and lazy natures.

Choose to make a difference, choose to question and learn, but most importantly, choose to care about those in the pictures, they will easily be you and I if we don' do something NOW!