So, I try not to get preachy, and by "preachy" I mean "self-righteous". Let me tell you, it is a struggle. Self-righteousness is not a noble flaw (is there such a thing as a noble flaw?) and does not endear others to either yourself or your cause. With that being said, I promise I'm not trying to be preachy right here.
You may remember the "worm bin experiment," which was a miserable failure. All my worms died and I ended up with a compost bin, a smelly compost bin, on my patio. When I finally conceded defeat and disposed of the erstwhile home of the worms yesterday, I even found the mumified remains of a worm who presumably died in the attempt to escape my awful worm bin. (Note to potential worm husbanders: worms like surface area. Do not put them in a well-aerated trashcan, no matter what any website said to you about it. They need something flat.) Admittedly, it's been a while since I suspected, and then confirmed that all my worms had died. But I decided, for a short stinky while, to try and have just a compost bin on my patio. Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Especially in an unusually warm spring. However, it led me to a new appreciation for the "reduce" part of the "reduce/reuse/recycle" motto. If I had to actually live with all the trash I produced, I would produce a whole lot less trash. So, in fact, I'm going to try and do it anyway. I already recycle, but after my sojourn with the failed worm bin, I'm actually motivated to take it one step further and bring reusable dinnerware to fast food restaurants, buy (or make) reusable grocery bags, and consider what product I'm buying based on the recyclability of its packaging.
On a related note, I'm now committed to purchasing fairly and humanely raised and slaughtered meat and animal products as much possible. (I say "as much as possible" because it would probably be a full-time job to research the farming practices of every supplier of every restaurant I ever want to eat at now or may eat at in the future. So I'll just try my best to make humane choices on that front.) What brought about this, you ask? Was it a well-placed factory farming documentary? A highly judgemental conversation with the office vegan? No, it was Angry Birds Rio and a very good lecture by Norman Wirzba. The lecture was not very full of facts and figures. In fact, I think it might have been completely devoid of facts and figures. But it brought to the forefront the issue at hand: factory farmed animals aren't happy. And shouldn't that be important to us? Now, it might possibly be true that I play Angry Birds Rio every day. For those that are unfamiliar with it, instread of "killing pigs" by breaking their houses, the goal of the Rio version is to free little cartoon birds from cages. Now, I made it through about 16 levels before I noticed that all the little cartoon birds had sad faces while they were still in their cages. And then suddenly, I got it. Caged animals aren't happy. Factory farmed animals aren't happy. And shouldn't that be important to us?
You may remember the "worm bin experiment," which was a miserable failure. All my worms died and I ended up with a compost bin, a smelly compost bin, on my patio. When I finally conceded defeat and disposed of the erstwhile home of the worms yesterday, I even found the mumified remains of a worm who presumably died in the attempt to escape my awful worm bin. (Note to potential worm husbanders: worms like surface area. Do not put them in a well-aerated trashcan, no matter what any website said to you about it. They need something flat.) Admittedly, it's been a while since I suspected, and then confirmed that all my worms had died. But I decided, for a short stinky while, to try and have just a compost bin on my patio. Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Especially in an unusually warm spring. However, it led me to a new appreciation for the "reduce" part of the "reduce/reuse/recycle" motto. If I had to actually live with all the trash I produced, I would produce a whole lot less trash. So, in fact, I'm going to try and do it anyway. I already recycle, but after my sojourn with the failed worm bin, I'm actually motivated to take it one step further and bring reusable dinnerware to fast food restaurants, buy (or make) reusable grocery bags, and consider what product I'm buying based on the recyclability of its packaging.
On a related note, I'm now committed to purchasing fairly and humanely raised and slaughtered meat and animal products as much possible. (I say "as much as possible" because it would probably be a full-time job to research the farming practices of every supplier of every restaurant I ever want to eat at now or may eat at in the future. So I'll just try my best to make humane choices on that front.) What brought about this, you ask? Was it a well-placed factory farming documentary? A highly judgemental conversation with the office vegan? No, it was Angry Birds Rio and a very good lecture by Norman Wirzba. The lecture was not very full of facts and figures. In fact, I think it might have been completely devoid of facts and figures. But it brought to the forefront the issue at hand: factory farmed animals aren't happy. And shouldn't that be important to us? Now, it might possibly be true that I play Angry Birds Rio every day. For those that are unfamiliar with it, instread of "killing pigs" by breaking their houses, the goal of the Rio version is to free little cartoon birds from cages. Now, I made it through about 16 levels before I noticed that all the little cartoon birds had sad faces while they were still in their cages. And then suddenly, I got it. Caged animals aren't happy. Factory farmed animals aren't happy. And shouldn't that be important to us?
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