Documentary Review: King Corn

I've been on a documentary kick lately, partially because I've run out of Dr. Who episodes to watch and partially because I crave learning something new.

King Corn was made by two guys just out of college who wanted to know what happened to corn?  They planted an acre of corn in Greene, Iowa to see where the corn goes.

What fascinated and astounded me about this documentary was just what America uses corn for.  We put corn in EVERYTHING, primarily because corn is used to make high fructose corn syrup, as well as eating corn fed beef.  We used to eat corn with a greater protein content but after decades of genetic modification we now eat corn that is treated to resist certain weed killers, etc.

What I am taking away from this is a greater awareness of what the beef is fed that I eat.  I'm not going to give up beef, but if I can afford to purchase grass-fed beef I'm going to do that.  Typical, cheap beef is fed cheap feed, which in this day and age, is corn because it is cheaper to produce than say, grass or wheat.  Add into that how quickly farmers want to get their beef to a sale-able weight, so they feed their cattle corn, and you have stationary cattle who will die after being fed corn after 160 days.  Cattle are meant to eat grass and the majority of cattle today is being kept in a pen, quite stationary ("Contained" is the term) and fed corn to get to a weight that is best for slaughter and sale in a short amount of time.

Grass fed cattle are allowed to range thereby using their muscles and producing a better, leaner type of meat.

I already know how much HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is in things like soda and juice and I made a commitment long ago to choose things that are actually sweetened by sugar or natural fruit juices.  Americans have a diabetes epidemic because of our consumption of HFCS.  Although now many stores and food products are turning away from HFCS, it's still not quite enough to change the problem.

What you should do is watch this documentary.  Think about what your meat has been fed and if you can make a change, do so.  Think about what you drink.  Think about what you are putting into your body and do not eat blindly.  Eat with thought and purpose.

Alright, I'm getting off the corn soap box.  If you have comments or discussion I welcome it gladly.  Please keep remarks polite.  I agree to disagree and I encourage you to do the same.

xoxo,

Anna

The End of Hatred

I have spent a great deal of my youth being angry.  Angry at circumstances I could not change, angry at the past for mucking up the present.  Angry at my perceived imperfections that I could not magically change.

Today I spent time cleaning up my pictures.  Innocuous enough, you think, yes?  I spent several hours looking through photos of myself.  Pictures I took during various stages of life in various degrees of self-hatred and self-love.  And you know what I discovered?

I am who I am.

Oh, yes, I can change a few things about me; keeping up with good diet, regular exercise and all that rot.  But what I found as I looked into my own eyes was that I didn't hate who I am anymore.

I don't secretly hate my curly hair, my near sightnedness that requires glasses, my seemingly oddly shaped body.  For a long time I have lamented my apparent "lack" of curves, my lack of femininity, and it wasn't until I actually sat down and looked at myself that I realised I am precisely who I am meant to be.  This may be a bit "old hat" to some and for those of you who know me, this may sound a little silly.  Truth is, I go about my day worrying about what you all think of me.  I worry about my appearance, I worry about my body shape and how people perceive me.

Today that all stops.  

Today I am tossing worry, self-loathing, self-hatred, self-mutilation out the bloody proverbial window!

I am Anna.  I am Anna More.  

I am 5' 5" tall, I am 170lbs of awesome and I don't care who knows, and FUCK the BMI ratings.  

They are wrong.

I love every inch and ounce of me.

Now, this isn't an instant thing, what happened today was a turning point in my personal thinking, in my personal journey.  I am taking a different path.  Perhaps parallel to the one I was traveling along previously, but even large ships travel in small gradients to make vast turns.  And what is life but one long jumble of turns and jogs? 

This is the woman who my children will know as their mother.  This is the woman who will make a name for herself in the world.  This is me.

thank you for reading this far.  Thank you for loving me this long and this far. xoxo ~Anna

Never Seconds

Photo borrowed from Never Seconds blog - neverseconds.blogspot.com.es

I wanted to introduce you folks to the young, amazing, and delightful Martha Payne from Scotland.  She blogs about her school dinners to create awareness for a foundation called Mary's Meals which feeds school children in Malawi.  Martha, who goes by VEG on her blog Never Seconds (it stands for Veritas Ex Gustu, truth from tasting, in Latin) photographs her school dinners, rates them and gives an interesting look into the life of a 9 year old primary school pupil.


She is absolutely darling and I fully encourage you to read her blog, and if you feel  like it, donate to Mary's Meals, it is only 6p (6 pence) to feed a child.


This week VEG is away on holiday and an equally lovely young lady from Wales is blogging in VEG's absence.  BLODWYN or BLOD writes half the posts in Welsh (there's even homework for the readers!) and then in English to practise her language.  It's very fun and you should pop on over!

Pictures...

...can be frustrating.  I have so many that I want to share, yet the upload doesn't recognize that they exist on my computer.  I can see and find the images in iPhoto, I can upload them if I put them on my desktop, but who really wants hundreds of images stored on their desktop?  Not I.  This is why there is a storage system just for them.  A storage system that the photo upload interface can't recognize 100% of the time.  Le Sigh.

And now on to your regularly scheduled bloggy-chatter.  Hopefully with more pictures!

xoxo,
Anna

Introducing...The Girls!

I don't think I have introduced the lovely machine that does such nice work with me.  This was a gift that my honey went halvsies on with me.  I got a new sewing machine, and he gets his shirts repaired.  It's a good deal.  This new machine is very computerised from what I'm used to, can't go super slow but that is okay because it can make little flowers and BOW TIES!

Then there is this lady and I'm still pinching myself over her being here.  She was a gift.  A total out-of- the-blue gift from an acquaintance.  He asked if I ever used a serger...I said yes, mostly at school. Why?
Oh, he didn't used his so much and wondered if I would like to have it.  This was the bit where I about died, but remained oddly composed.
I brought her home last week and just unpacked her tonight.  I'm thinking she will be named Daphne.