11:09pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Stacy Hart
Following on from last weeks title “ignorance is bliss” I have to hold my hands up and say there are times in life when I’m just plain ignorant, nothing blissful about that but I can only put it down to a learning curve, and I’ve certainly learnt something this week..............
Monday 24th May is Vegetarian week and those that follow my blogs will know that I’m a vegetarian, have been over half my life, so lets see, half of 21 is? ...erm......anyway, I don’t have hairy armpits, wave banners, or wear flip flops, for those that do it’s their choice, and I don’t beat people over the head with a rolled up copy of the vegetarian monthly if they choose not to be either because...well, that’s their choice. But this week I had a rather guilt busting moment whilst reading about milk...yes milk...the stuff we put in our tea/coffee.......comes from cows...................
Now this is where my ignorance comes in, although thinking about where milk comes from doesn’t fill my every waking hour, on the nano second it does, I imagine cows in a barn with an elderly farmer sat on a little stool pulling away at the udders like he was pulling himself a pint, Turns out I’m horrifically wrong .
Milk is cheap because the lives of cows have become cheap; one way of keeping down costs is to artificially stimulate milk production with antibiotics and hormones, makes you look at your breakfast cereal in a whole different light huh? Cornflakes and hormones yum yum.
The natural amount of milk for a cow to supply is 10-12 litres a day but with modern treatment and machinery this can be doubled or even trebled, it’s also helped by keeping cows continuously pregnant. For all you ladies out there imagine being kept constantly pregnant and having something attached to your nipples, other than your husband that is.
After a birth a cow can still supply milk naturally for two or three years but todays dairies make them get pregnant once a year. Consequently after three or four births the cow is worn out and is then sent for slaughter, her life expectancy should be 15-20yrs but they are often slaughtered after just five years.
And the calves from all those forced pregnancies?
They’re taken from their mother at birth and if they’re female raised for milk production, if they’re male they are fattened and slaughtered for beef or veal and the rest are sold for export. Makes you thank god to be a human huh? Although as a human I’m often saddened that there are those who use their power and status to inflict pain and suffering on a defenceless animal and it’s deemed acceptable.
The other Frankenstein news I read this week was that in just a few years time you could be eating meat grown in a lab ( nuts & bolts not included, although I cant guarantee it wont be green) No its not April 1st I’m deadly serious.
Scientists in Holland have been working on this for sometime now, concentrating mainly on pork at the moment and apparently it’s achieved by taking a muscle biopsy of a pig then doing things that scientists do in a laboratory with cells to make it multiply numerous times, providing the quantities of meat that would usually come from slaughtering many animals.
They’re hoping it will be accepted by meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike, because if the animals are saved from slaughter and well cared for during the process then it’s got to be a good thing? But no, I will not be eating anything that’s been grown in lab anytime soon.
Heathwise? I’m overdoing it at the moment but I’m also having to rest a lot so I’m hoping that should balance things out a bit. I managed the choir this week and every week just gets better. I also did my voluntary and after having to miss the last two weeks it was great to see everyone and they’d been missing their chocolate so it was smiles all round.
I did have to dodge though as one of the ladies took a dislike to the Twix I’d given her and decided to throw it back at me across the canteen, but hey that’s Alzheimer’s for you, and despite M.E I was still able to move quick enough to avoid being knocked out by a chocolate bar.
Talking of health, May 9th begins M.E awareness week so ladies, gentlemen, boys, girls, ankle biters, chocolate eaters, window lickers, your aunties’ pet Chihuahuas hairdressers uncle you’ve got plenty of time to get your thinking caps on and maybe do something to help raise money for the charity ACTION FOR M.E, www.afme.org.uk
It can be something adventurous, something exciting or something plain silly but whatever it is please find the time to get yourself sponsored for something. Once you’ve decided what you’re going to do why not let the Watford Observer (or your local paper wherever you may be) know what your up too? And you can even let me know and I’ll include it in my blog.
For those of you that listen to Herts Mercury radio 96.6 a birthday congratulations go out to presenter kez milsome who celebrated her big 4.0, last week, life’s just about to begin Kezza. Also to Susan Watt the director of the Gospel Arts Manna Community Choir who....er..... I think is 21 just like me. www.gospelmanna.com Which brings me onto my music, and it’s been a very good week on the whole, I received an email from the BBC to say they’re considering two of my trax for airplay, “You aint runnin with my rhythm” & “Trouble”.
Last year they very kindly played the radio edit of “More W**ksta than Gangsta” so I’m keeping my fingers crossed, It’s near on impossible as an unsigned artist to get radio play from such a large credible station but not impossible as I’ve proven so it’s just a case of sit tight and wait and see, but as always you’ll be the first to know if it happens.
On my other music site noisehead.com under hip hop I had 10 tracks voted into the first page, a mixture of my demo stuff taken from the demo album “RAW” recorded from my sick bed while housebound for two years in 2006 and some of the new studio stuff, considering there are 224 pages and over 4000 trax I was well chuffed.
It makes the achievement so much sweeter because it gives hope that there’s still a chance for me despite illness and despite being written off and told to forget the dream of a music career and think of cocoa and slippers. Good job I rarely do as I’m told huh? www.myspace.com/mamachill.
Thanx to everyone who votes, comments, writes in and generally has supported everything I’ve done so far from the music to the Watford observer blogs to my debut in Action for M.Es quarterly journal “interaction”. My achievements so far are only down to the generosity of your time and your luv and support so thanx a bundle for sharing this journey.
Don’t forget Mothers day this Sunday 14th March if your lucky to still have one, make the most of it while she’s still here , tell her you love her and how much you appreciate her while you can.
Till next Friday, be good, stay blessed, back before Elvis :) xxx
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