Paleo to vegan via omni - locavores - parallel world insanity - and gratitude

This post is - not for anyone who does not care about the status of this world and what humans are doing. If you are on a course towards waking up, awareness, integrity or clear conscience - maybe this is an area to wake up in for you -  and act - in this case starting to nourish yourself the most humane way you are able to  - with full awareness of where your food actually does come from and what type of transformational work you can do while eating it. If you want to know about a couple of things you can do TODAY, without changing any other thing you do - skip right to the end of the post.

Yes, I am the extra rooster - and yes - there is LOVE

 IT IS TOTALLY INSANE - all the various factions of how we feed ourselves - and - if you are the militant kind, you will be so no matter what the point of view you are defending or promoting.

WHY  this .... blog????

Because I paid a high price for what I learned and received, because it is painful, because maybe you can take something away from this that helps you and them - the animals - something that helps you to stop supporting the treatment of sentient beings as inanimate objects. ..I am not saying to never eat meat or fish - but don't cause it suffering - because I feel an obligation to help you wake up to this section of the Universe.

So before we just even scratch the surface of the planetary insanity of the ways we feed ourselves, here is just a little section  on how I got "involved":


Where I live there is a garden, and the folks who were primarily working it were getting too old plus there was not enough time. The soil is hard to work, none of that good "Mutterboden" - that dark fertile mother soil here.
So I thought: ok, I can try to work some of it, use some of the existing garden structures and have some chickens to help with the fertilizing and tilling and I'll have some eggs too and I got permission to do the project.
By this time I have raised 32 roosters and 21 pullets of 2 straight runs from a reputable hatchery that will not sex their chicks.  These are chickens for a garden project, free range, organically fed and very  loved.

I asked around, did my homework,  read Harvey Ussery's Book and yes, as an animal lover, straight runs was it for me. (no brutal killing of the males as is customary in the industry). Since the property is AG zoned with no limit, I was not expecting any trouble from the noise complaint department. Not eating animals myself at this time and others preferring to buy their chickens in the store, what was I gonna do with the roosters?. Luckily, a friend of ours raises birds the best way you can imagine and they use kosher ways in the most peaceful location to "harvest" the birds. He is eating meat raised like this for medical reasons. ...and yes, he was gonna take the extra males.

The chickens came - I started to "see" them as who they are, fell in love - and - I got stuck with the roosters.

I learned a few things:

Chickens are AMAZING. They are smart, sweet, clever, and they talk ...they have a language, memory and a social life. Roosters are beautiful and amazing. They don't all fight, some breeds get along together better than others. They are very protective of the flock, they go a little "nuts" when the hormones first kick in. Given enough space and females - there would never be a problem. Alas, I did have to split some of the 17 roos from the first run to be in a separate part of the garden and in the back part of the coop. The 9 pullets did not appreciate THAT much attention. I learned that afternoons and evenings are the most "mating-active" times of the day.

And I found out roosters are difficult to re-home. The local Sanctuaries were full, in any case were not gonna take any, I did not want them to go straight to someone's axe to be butchered, as seems to be the case through craigs list. The most helpful was backyardchickens.com in terms of finding anyone to take roosters. My facebook account does not have anywhere near enough "likers" to find anyone.

The problem of extra roosters is conveniently not discussed by most of the pet chicken lovers - and the homesteaders see no problem in killing them.

At some point I had to help cull 2 golden polish cockerels, beautiful birds, but too unruly and I had no further way to separate them. Maybe I will write about all that some other time. I rehomed 5, at very expensive shipping costs and lost 4 roosters to predators - very hard too. ... and I began comprehending the magnitude of male killing in the commercial feed industry - as well as the backyard chicken supply hatcheries....as far back at 100 years ago in the United States.

BILLIONS of male chicks, the brothers of all the egg layers, get thrown alive into the dumpster to suffocate, or tied up in plastic bags or fall from the belt into the chopper machines - billions every year.  They are deemed unworthy as no one can make money from them. Year after year.... and yes, I am reading "The Chicken Book" from 30 years ago - it IS being done for money and over the past 100 years, the fate of chickens has gotten worse and worse - till now?

Do you really want to continue supporting that, being sucked in by that? Or maybe you can feel a little stirring that says: no, I don't want to be the cause of suffering ...wait a minute ...what are you saying here ...

Enough of the male chicks get used as "packing material" for those who have ordered just female chickens, ending up in people's homes who did not ask for them - or are not allowed to keep roosters - like in the City. Many get sexed wrong and end up in homes that never asked for one ...and rooster dumping is something that now seems to be a last resort for many.

So I am looking at the price of my eggs, and eggs in general, and I was considering becoming vegan.

and I started looking into that, reading reports and articles and visiting vegan facebook pages  ..... and found out some things.

Ways we feed ourselves

This is not going into the investigation of things like food additives, high fructose corn syrup and the like. Anyone investigating will come to the conclusion that the western diet is making people literally sick. This is more as it relates to eating animals and their products....and not even discussing any view on domestication of any animals and whether or not animals actually benefited from it.
I am just gonna use some bullet points of what I remember from various investigations, I know it is incomplete and I am not even giving you the references.:

• General: world hunger is manageable - if wealth and food  were appropriately re-distributed and meat consumption were dramatically reduced, truly alternative ways to obtain proteins were used in production, if there would not longer be wastefulness. Western packaged foods literally make you sick, and have an incredibly high environmental as well as medical price tag. GMO foods are a threat to genetic heritage and health of the planet....let alone individuals.

• Vegan: that is a fully plant based diet, no animals or animal products are consumed. Animal rights and welfare are top priority, in fact, animal keeping itself is not ok. This includes using them for ANY purpose, including pets of all kinds. What I have not yet seen/found on a "vegan" site is a discussion of how they are gonna prevent the reduction of field populations of animals by 50-80% during harvest. What I have not seen is how fats are to be obtained where nuts don't grow. How they can live with the deforestation to get palm oil and other vegan products.  If you eat commercially grown food - animals WILL die, even if you only eat plants.  So is it not time to come clean with that moral superiority thing I encounter often in vegan arguments, even as many points are well taken and I agree with? Also - a lot of their claims of "unhealth" of animal products are not correct. (unless from factory farmed animals). Those folks who are going vegan for the sake of the animals, they do FEEL though - their hearts are open were many others are afraid to go - and no - it is NOT all sentimental. There is a real evolutionary step here, or rather - a daring to allow empathy. ...and confront your conditioning and comfort zone.

• Paleo: back to the stone age hunter-gatherer diet, because that is what we are meant for genetically:meat and animal fats, and other foraged or dug out items, healthy, good for your teeth and gut and pankreas.  Most of the population on the planet would starve and the remainder of natural habitat totally destroyed if everyone would be on a paleo diet. And if you eat meats from commercial animals (which they are not supposed to eat): they are toxic on many levels - not to speak of the unspeakable pain and violation to the animals you caused. Lucky few who can afford to raise their own - I wonder how they kill them .....

• Omnivore: eats everything, general population not really aware how their food gets produced - the problem here is the commercial barbaric ways in which animals are kept for your eating pleasure. BARBARIC and not deserving the name human - unless you agree that humans are basically barbaric creatures. Also the widespread use of pesticides and GMO is fundamentally destructive. ALAS, money rules here too....just wait till the bees are gone. There is a growing section of "organic" produce - alas, for animals, that does NOT equate animal welfare, and it IS more expensive as well as unsupported by the government.

• Locavore: eats like an omnivore but locally produced foods only - like within a radius of 100 miles obtainable foods - in season. Not sure what that would look like if everyone in big cities were to drive into the country several times a week to get local foods. Can't imagine, not that there would be enough farmer's markets to provide supplies. Would be interesting though to see shelves with canned local foods in the store. I guess we'd have huge canning factories......and not a single lawn anywhere - it would all be gardens and chickens and rabbits in the cities. Growing up with rooster noise would make crowing complaints obsolete after 1 generation.

Just a word on Homesteaders and Backyard animal keepers: few vegans there, mostly locavores and omnivores, most way better on animal welfare and healthy organic produce: yet most of the animals raised for sale will die the same horrific death in slaughterhouses in the end. A price many are willing to pay - and maybe even the animals for a chance to be on earth and loved and well cared for. I have seen barbaric treatment of animals by "backyard" animal keepers. I suppose if you are barbaric, it does not matter if you are in a slaughterhouse or backyard. I will save you the horrible images.

So - There is no easy answer. There is no answer without a worldwide sweeping change in perception of how we use animals, how we distribute wealth, how we treat our earth, how we invest in new and truly friendly, non-toxic energy sources and sustainable ways of living.

This change is gonna have to come from somewhere - be sweeping and soon. A quantum effect of some kind. 

And that is assuming that there can be change - rather than an actual switch into a parallel Universe.
But in a way, is that not a cop out? How does transformation happen, how does relief of suffering happen.

 But let us say - it can't be changed - then the question for you is: WILL YOU CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE EXPLOITATION AND CRUEL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS by continueing to give the producers your money to be able to ingest such tortured beings?

There are environmental and transport factors, wild animal habitat preservation, the notion that absolutely, some animals WOULD agree to work with humans, even if it meant for some of them to serve as food. ...and  - not addressed by ANYONE - the unmitigated exponential human population explosion. The right to reproduce ad infinitum? REALLY, the right to abuse every species in the animal kingdom, destruction of the earth - really??? The problem is - there are some people, a lot of people,  millions of people that would say: of course.

Humanity needs to grow up. The rich and powerful have always done what they wanted to get more ...only now the planet is being destroyed as greed escalates and humans multiply and multiply.

You really think the powers won't unleash a very deadly virus some day ...They already tried (2012 contaminated flu vaccine in Europe, or find some other way to get rid of large portions of the populpation if their own very life on the planet gets threatened?

Back to the local garden and the chickens I tend to:
Breathe girl, even as you are beginning to understand the conspiracy folks ....

Here - the neighbors complained anonymously to animal control, who came by 3 times,   and even though it is all legal with the roosters, and animal control is now satisfied that this is agricultural and not coming again - I am told to get rid of the roosters, all of them if need be. NVM any plans I might have had to have more chickens to provide a renewable food source....but then, maybe I was not meant to do that - as it would have involved killing?

Open to the universe telling me that getting deeper into animal keeping is not necessary, needed or wanted - or is it another lesson in letting go - like letting go of that sweetest rooster I will know in this lifetime?

And I am in the process of doing that - with the roosters who will have to go. I am able to re-home 2 of them, the others are going to a  place to be culled - a better way I can't imagine. It feels so peaceful there that when I went there I thought to myself - this is what I'd want when I die - such serenity....but - their life will be over.

I have cried so much, read so much - and  if I ever were to kill a roosters or chicken myself, not just carry it, put it head first into the cone, or put it in a box to be taken, it would have to be out of real necessity. And if I ever will breed chickens, I would act as mother nature: cull the weak and sick and the ones I can't support, looking out for the health of the flock. The place of death would have to be a space that is peaceful, without fear, and they would go with prayer - for I would be taking a sacred life. One thing for sure: all my chickens were and are loved - and that is more than many humans can say to have had experienced in their time on earth. Love remains - it stays with them forever....as it is, I have the chickens I got - not knowing where it would lead me and the doors of perception it would open - into the worlds of the paleos, vegans and locavores, opening my eyes and heart even more to the unimaginable suffering caused to animals at the hands of humans. .... and who knows what is still in store on this journey.

I don't want to get into the whole - "all phenomena is illusion" or "they will be in heaven" or this is all  like a giant video game. Because no matter how to look at it - the feeling of pain, suffering is real, even in the dream.
Changing into a parallel world is not gonna relieve suffering in this one ...

are you getting a sense of the never ending ordeal this is - .....????

In the end, there is a simply rule: be kind to all of the creatures, all of god's creatures and creation - no matter where you find yourself. For those who claim to be spiritual: feel the oneness you talk about - and then tell me how you can eat your dinner at your favorite place - made with a commercial chicken....embodied unitive consciousness - how can you eat other sentient beings who have suffered - how can you pay with your money supporting such barbarism and sleep well?

Do yourself a favor: investigate ... the reports and images and videos are out there. There really is no excuse other than  .......fill in yours .....

I have been running Karma wash orbs for my roosters. ...and lately for people too. ....because - it is the humans who need the most help. Has it helped the roosters - yes. Has it helped me - yes.

Running orbs is like praying, only better.


And I cannot deny how well some of my roosters have done.

Here is another way: The healing waters amulet. What I like here is that you incur an obligation for some action, which could in fact be to run orbs every day. It can be the same orb every day. http://www.beaconwork.org/amulets/all/healing-waters/

There IS a way to eat consciously, no matter where your food comes from. At the very least - the attitude of gratitude is important in this. The good old saying grace/thank you - in any way you feel is appropriate for you - is a step in the right direction. No matter if plant or animal - someone gave their life for you so you can eat. If you are able to - you can learn to trans-substantiate the food you eat.

Vegan is not the answer

OK, in my exploration and adventure with chickens I discovered that I am unwilling to do the necessary killing to maintain acceptable flock size and health. In addition, the so called organic dairy products do not come from animals that have been kept humanly and environmentally sound. No, I don't provide references, just take a little time and check it out for yourself.

So that leaves vegan ... which is where I seem to be headed?

So the investigation begins and then I read about all the animals (rodents mostly) that get killed during the harvesting of the grains planted for the vegan diet (decimated 50 -80 % during harvest) and things like the rain forest deforestation and extermination of the Orang Utan for palm oil. So the recommended fat in one of the recommended vegan recipes of the local Animal Sanctuary, required vegan to volunteer, contains palm fruit ...and they get that differently from palm oil? Gimme a break.

So I am slowly coming to: if foods have to be transported many many miles and cross continent and to be raised as mono-cultures so veganism is an option: that is NOT environmentally sane, sustainable or humane for a LOT of the animals.

It appears that in the end, the best way is to grow my own - and get what is locally available. And coconuts just are not around here, and there is no source for palm oil close by. Almonds are, and walnuts - and a few other things. In order to grow locally - animals on the land can be extremely beneficial and may prove to be NECESSARY in the long term for soil fertility and pest control, and that leads to: working with animals - which necessarily, at some point or another, will lead to management  - ie culling, which is the elimination from a flock, usually understood by killing, of an animal, which will then be used for food.

Given the need of human bodies for fats and oils - and the non availability of certain oils (fish and the nut tree oils locally) - this will mean animal fats most likely, either from hunting or from farming.

And so, if there is true and real necessity - I might agree to manage the flock by killing and even consume meat/animal fats.

Until such time, I won't be killing the birds - in fact, my heart hurts each time I have to pick some of the buff catalana cockerels to be culled - too much crowing for the neighbors and no place to go (I think they need to move into a retirement community - not stay in a fully agricultural zoning area). The place of the rooster's death is one of the most peaceful I have sensed, they will be prayed for, and the process is as humane as it can be - and still, it is the taking of a beautiful life - and I cry. They are just starting to trust me.

I will grow things, use some grains, eat the local nuts for oils and for the moment, I already have the hens for some eggs. Maybe it can be done small scale .... but what are those in cities to do? I really think ALL lawns need to be converted. Nut trees ought to be planted in public places and city parks everywhere. Coconuts are to be eaten whole too, where they grow. Killing and eating of animals for showing off or culinary pleasure is something that needs to be left behind in the evolution of humans  towards the next step of compassion and ethical beingness. Killing and eating animals is only ever acceptable if there is true necessity for health of the land and our bodies. (see video at the end - very interesting to say the least) There is pain on this planet - does it have to be so bad for so many? There is suffering, and then there is unnecessary suffering - and its relief for all sentient beings everywhere.

And then there is technology: the making of actual muscle meat produced from stem cells and even meat products from human waste. Given the human the population growth and demand for meat - that may be where we are headed. They are working on it.

"Meat consumption is going to double in the next 40 years or so, so we need to come up with alternatives to solve the land issue," Post said.

"Dutch scientists have used stem cells to create strips of muscle tissue with the aim of producing the first lab-grown hamburger later this year.

The aim of the research is to develop a more efficient way of producing meat than rearing animals.

At a major science meeting in Canada, Prof Mark Post said synthetic meat could reduce the environmental footprint of meat by up to 60%.

"We would gain a tremendous amount in terms of resources," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17104501

And have you heard about the guy who lives on the energy of the sun, harvested thorough the eyes only at a very specific time of day?
That is far out and most people will never get there - it does illustrate however that what we think we need to stay alive need to be up fro rediscovery.

There will need to be a shift in perception of what is truly needed for healthy living.

We'll see how that goes. For me, today - I am not willing to kill innocent animals who want to live and express their beingness, who feel pain and contentment, hunger and pleasure, who can learn and show affection, who have rich social lives. For me to kill them, there needs to be another level of necessity. So I am a bad flock keeper.

This might mean being headed in the vegan direction for now - knowing, that long term, it is not the answer for this planet - just a good direction to go for the next step. Here is a VERY interesting video: How to combat the desertification of the planet - wow

Natural Chicken Keeping and the Rooster dilemma

Random thoughts on "Natural" chicken keeping, rooster dilemma  and the natural health of the flock.

Natural chicken keeping has at it's heart a way of keeping chickens that is as natural to them as possible.

This usually means plenty of space and access to free foraging most of the day, pesticide and GMO free foods, no antibiotics or immunisations. Given good nutrition and being allowed to do what they need to do - chickens tend to be very healthy.

So then I got chickens as a straight run - keeping them all "natural" as per above and they have been VERY healthy so far. However,  out of 53 chickens, 32 were male ....the first run being 17 males and 9 females - that is not 50/50 ....and the person who said they would take my males backed out - and I needed to do some managing of that situation - and learned a lot about roosters.

It certainly is more natural to have roosters in your flock than not. This is simply an observation - about how well they get along in general and they contentment.
I found out when trying to re-home roosters, that there are unwanted roosters everywhere.
I also did some research because I wondered - what the heck to chickens do "in the wild" surely there are as many males as females - and there is no such a thing as 1 rooster for every 8-10 females. And sure enough, they arrange themselves in pairs or small groups, sometimes a few roos stay together, some are solo.

When they all grow up together - given enough space and at least and even number of males and females - you can have as many roosters as you want. Does breed matter - yet it does - but it basically translates into: some need more space than others.

And they all, roosters and hens, are very content together - unless the hens are totally overrun by roos. The guys keep each other in check and off the females - on the other hand, sometimes they stand in line for mating. Again - you need the space.

Natural does not mean: kill 90 % of the males - most suffocating as baby chicks - others eaten for meat. 
Talking about natural chicken keeping after you killed most of the males is - closing your eyes to a part of it....but since this is in part another "rant"  -> it is hypocritical.
Calling yourself a chicken lover after you killed the males for your convenience - is equally hypocritical.
"Oh I love chickens"  (nvn those that got sacrificed so I can have the ones I love.....)

Not saying it is good or bad or that not everyone is doing the best they can - but it IS hypocritical.

So let's face it: it is all relative and you are keeping chickens for your own purposes, be it eggs, meat, business or pleasure. Being a truly "natural" chicken keeper is in a way an oxymoron, because there are no safe coops in the wild, no predator protection. Of course, without those, our chickens would not really make it it many part of the country at all. Natural and Keeping is the oxymoron. The only truly natural way is: in nature - not kept at all.

So, that being out of the way, we can keep chickens as natural as possible. .... except for the roosters part. Who wants to feed them? Who wants to take care of them? Their noise can be a problem even where there is no limit in agricultural areas. They are not economical, they can fight - but that includes fighting predators. They are quite watchful.
Of course because of inbreeding and breeding for fighting, there appears to be a lot of rooster to rooster aggression - and they will fight and will kill each other.....though in my research on the original chickens ...death seemed to hardly ever occur.

Of course, many breeds have had their broodiness bred out of them ...so we can have eggs all year, in fact, how natural is THAT?  And, how natural is it to take away the babies of those birds - so I guess the egg laying backyard flocks are by themselves a step removed from natural.

And what about those pet chickens in your flock? In a healthy natural flock - nature takes care of the small and weak and deformed and those who can't keep up. A lot of the more sentimental chicken keepers tend to those especially. I see it in myself: there is this runt in my second straight run...half the size of anyone else ...bottom of the pecking order and sometimes i think one day they are gonna kill her - and I try to give her the best and most nutritious tit-bits - how healthy and natural is THAT for the flock as a whole? - Pet chicken keeping is not natural chicken keeping.

Culling in nature, whether by predators or from their own kind always leads to the best and healthiest flock as a whole. Culling is a necessity of truly natural chicken keeping.


In conclusion:

The backyard chickens we have are no longer natural.
Natural chicken keeping does NOT require to kill most of the roosters. Monitoring rooster numbers  is only necessary if you keep too many birds for the space you have.
Culling of the weak and sick is part of good natural chicken keeping (unless you have predators doing it for you), given the same healthy living condition for all members of the flock.

No matter how I look at it though -  don't want to do the killing - not for space, sex, meat or to pacify some neighbors - and not because some chick is a runt.

So I am unfit to be a chicken keeper - natural or otherwise. I might be able to grow into  a chicken rescuer - but the vet requirements will probably prohibit that.

In "natural chicken keeping", and in  contrast to the abominations happening in the commercial  poultry industry, we strive to be as close as possible to allow the chickens we DO in fact keep around our house and yard their natural expressions and foods, ....but as a whole, natural - is is not.