Faintest Ink

A New York Times article from Christopher McDougall, who is also the author of “Born to Run,” November’s reading selection.

At the very least, check out the video at the top of the article to learn about the lost secret of perfect running.

Vegetarian joke. Something I saw on facebook.

Vegan joke. Courtesy of the New Yorker magazine.

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know about food, how it’s grown, and how it affects our bodies. For consumers, it’s so costly to ensure the foods we eat are pesticide free, and yet, the poison’s cost to our lives can be grave.

According to Pesticide Action Network, exposure to the stuff “causes late term miscarriages, contaminates groundwater and is so reliably carcinogenic that it’s used to create cancer cells in laboratories.” Since it is applied to soil before plants even go into the ground, it poses little risk to consumers of strawberries. But for the farmworkers who apply it and the people who live near treated fields, it’s a different story, because of its “tendency to drift off site through the air,” the group warns.

And this seems a common reaction:

The US government’s official opinion on methyl bromide has been: We can’t fully ban it until we find a suitable alternative.

Another good reason to switch to a vegan diet! More on my route to veganism. 

Also, read the article supporting the chart, an excerpt is below:

Two researchers at the University of Chicago estimated that switching to a vegan diet would have a bigger impact than trading in your gas guzzler for a Prius.

(Source: motherjones)

Yes, I’m still vegan. Hence, reading this article from Mother Jones makes me especially glad to have given up meat. Oh, how I used to praise the virtues of Spam… =(

If this article interests you, definitely check out “Fast Food Nation”.

Here’s the official summary for the article:

First Hormel gutted the union. Then it sped up the line. And when the pig-brain machine made workers sick, they got canned.