Sunday, October 23, 2011

A land flowing with milk and honey

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years to live." the author of this quote is undetermined but the significance of bees to our food diversity is beyond question. Taggart Siegel's movie "Queen of the Bees" was eye opening. I was a vegetarian growing up and we drank buffalo milk and ate honey. Many people think that Indians revere cows but as a Punjabi, I didn't. However, we took good care of all our animals. When our goat or our buffalo gave birth, they were extra nourished and their milk was left for their calf or kid.  When the baby was grown, we had a symbiotic relationship. We fed the animal well, and, in exchange, it provided us with milk.  People tried to nourish the animal in the best possible way because the healthiest animals provided the most milk. I think the same principal applies to bees.  When we feed our bees well by providing lots of forage that is pesticide free, we have strong bees that produce more honey than they need and we can have the bounty.  Therefore, when the Israelites looked forward to a land flowing with milk and honey, to me, it signified that everything was in balance.  

We live in an environment that is extremely unbalanced.  Instead of nourishing cows so we can have an excess of milk, Dairies ensure the cows have calfs so their body produces a lot of milk. They then separate the calf from its mother and sell us the copious amount of milk.  Instead of protecting our plant life so bees can have an abundance of forage, we monocrop millions of acres with plantlife that doesn't sustain the bees. Corn, Soy, Wheat and Canola are not sources of food for bees.  Although almonds provide a few weeks of pollen for bees, the millions of acres of monocropped almonds means bees can't live here in the valley because they have nothing to feed on for the rest of the year.  I discovered that commercial bee keepers transport the hives thousands of miles to pollinate almonds and then feed them high fructose corn syrup. They hope that there is enough honey left in the hives so the bees can derive enough nutrition from it to stay alive.

Dairy cows used to live 20 years, now they live 4 or 5.  Pigs and chickens are bred to be so fat that they can't stand up. Beef cattle are fed corn that will kill them instead of grass that nourishes them. Bees are dissapearing despite efforts by man to increase bee production by breeding Queen bees and impregnating them. All our animals are being mistreated, and for what? So that you and I can eat meat?

When I was a young adult, I ate very little meat, but when I did, I loved veal parmigiana. Someone tried to tell me that cows bred for veal were not allowed to have a life and they were confined.  I didn't really care because I didn't know how they were being treated and I didn't think that my occasional consumption of veal was going to change anything.  My previous attitude towards meat is now personified by most americans. Because we are so far removed from how our animals are being treated, we think that our individual consumption of meat won't change anything. Because we are so far removed from farming and how our plants are being grown, we don't understand how the pesticides are killing our bees and us.

The Bible tells us that knowledge brings accountability. In Genesis, God told us to take care of the animals and to eat fruit and vegetation bearing seed.  Many will protest that Noah was allowed to eat meat and that we aren't under the mosaic law anymore. That is true, but Noah was only allowed to eat meat because there was no fruit and vegetables. Secondly, people were not far removed from the animals and plants like we are now.  In India, we didn't eat the buffalo or goat when it died. Those animals were a part of the family. Every day they had worked to provide milk for us. The oxen weren't eaten after their death, they had plowed our fields. 

Knowledge brings accountability. If humans started to live for 20 years instead of 80 because of an external force or treatment, an outcry would erupt. But our consumption of meat has created an environment where animals are mistreated and live only a quarter of their lifespan in degrading conditions. Many choose not to learn about our food by refusing to watch movies like Food Inc, Food Matters, The Future of Food, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Forks over Knives and Queen of the Bees -- but ignorance is not bliss.  This ignorance is what is killing humans with diseases like diabetes, stroke and cancer in ever growing numbers.

Although Christians could eat meat, the apostle said that if eating meat made his brother stumble then he would never eat meat again. Although, we can eat meat, drink milk and eat pesticide sprayed vegetables, if our actions result in the mass slaughter and mistreatment of animals, should we not feel obligated to stop eating this way? Or, are we like the Israelites who didn't treasure the perfect food, manna, that Jehovah provided and demanded meat instead?

We have the grand privilege of living in California where there is a cornucopia of fruits and veggies that we can eat year round. We also have organic meat options that are pricey but reflect the cost of life. If everyone in Fresno woke up tomorrow and chose only to eat organic,-- overnight the meat industry and conventional farmers would start doing things differently. They are in the business of making money. If they can make money feeding us garbage and treating animals like dirt they will. If they can't because we demand humane treatment of animals and plants, they will change the way they farm.

If we can't care for our bees by being beekeepers, then the least we can do is grow, or purchase organic fruits and vegetables. This protects our bees who need to live in a pesticide free environment to survive. We should purchase only raw, local honey. This supports the beekeepers who carry the torch we can't.

May you take the time to take in knowledge. Then act on that knowledge. Remember if we are faithful in these matters that may appear to be little, then we will be faithful in much.  May the day come when all of us have the courage to faithfully honor and support a sense of community and well being for each other, in as much, as we have done it for those animals in our care from bee to calf.

Yours in health and kind treatment, I remain

Ta-raw Hamilton

 

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