Why do I eat organic again?

I’ve always thought eating organic foods was a good idea… mainly for personal health, not ingesting poison seems like an inherently good idea. But back in the States I was turned off by the high prices. I’d only occasionally get the organic apples or eggs. I took a random tour of a local dairy and became addicted to the fresh, hormone-free, local milk – Shatto (oooh so yum, i miss you shatto!!!).

Then we moved to Oz. Almost everything is already more expensive than I’m used to, so it was all about financial survival at first. In the gold coast, Theo met a trainer, who is now our good friend. He’s a CHEK practitioner, if you’ve ever heard of that...totally awesome at what he does.

It has kinda changed Theo’s life, and mine since Rhett advises to eat organic. We find all the hippie organic food stores and markets around town and even found an organic food delivery service. Some things are more expensive this way, but some are cheaper. And the delivery charge is the same cost as us catching a bus or train somewhere and dragging it back home. So we’ve been mixing it up depending on what we need.

We love the deliveries, though. I’ve heard and read quite a few accounts of friends in the States joining local CSAs and talking about how fun it is to receive their box, not knowing what surprises they’ll find inside. It’s the same for us. We generally get small box with a mix of fruits and veggies… here’s a pic of our first one:



I know there have been studies recently comparing organic food and conventionally grown food and results have shown no difference in nutrition. So the jury is still out on that, but I have a feeling long-term studies should be done to really understand the long-term effects of the chemicals.

The second reason I always had for eating organic was the environment. It’s not rocket science to understand that the chemicals used on farms don’t always stay on their own fields or food. Anyone who works in the environmental field will tell you our waterways are becoming more and more polluted by fertilizers, insecticides, and other chemicals used in agriculture.

So those were really my only reasons until the other day I watched a documentary with Theo about globalization and some workers in Indonesia wanting to start a global workers union to provide better working conditions in 3rd world countries where huge corporations come in and take advantage of the cheap labor source, with no regard to worker safety (it’s called the Globalization Tapes, kinda long, but interesting).

The movie actually had nothing to do with organics. But there was a scene showing workers spraying DDT on palm oil trees (whole other environmental issue in itself) all day long without protection. They explained how they had to beg their employers for protective gear because they were getting sick from the poison. It was pretty horrible.

And the light bulb went on. Eating organic isn’t all about my health or just “the environment.” The first exposures to the poison are the workers! Not just another reason to eat organic, but another reason to eat local organic and understand exactly where your food comes from. Now I don’t feel bad paying double sometimes for food, we figure we save so much money by not having a car, it works itself out.

And I actually should have come to this realization earlier, since my own husband was a victim of DDT poisoning as a child….Jeeeeez… Sometimes I have a thick skull.

“Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples
Leave me the birds and bees…”
-Joni Mitchell

Happy Australia Day, my dingoes!

Just remember, dingoes are capable of eating babies. Read the sign!

(it says "Please close the gate. Always stay with your children. Be dingo safe.")

For real though, there have been some serious dingo issues on Fraser Island. A woman was prosecuted for feeding dingoes, which should not be fed, as they are wild animals. Now the population of dingoes are becoming more aggressive towards people. Recently a tourist was bitten.

So have a safe Australia Day holiday, my dingoes.

Back to Work and Silver Linings

Well, the worst of the flooding is over and the water has receded and there are no more stay-at-home flood days. Here are some cool before and after aerials to give you an idea of how many areas were affected. After everything downloads, you should be able to move your cursor over the photo to see the change.

Luckily no one I know was greatly affected by the floods, but definitely people all around me know at least a couple of people who were. I know I won't look at the rain the same for awhile. Up until yesterday, it was all heat and sunshine, but yesterday and today, the daily thunderstorms kinda give you an eerie feeling.

But there have been some silver linings through it all... this weekend, we finally went to the organic markets we heard about. Although not all the vendors could be there, there were quite a few. The ones who did had some pretty good stories about even managing to get themselves and their products there. The organic meat vendors even had a 1/2 off sale. We ended up getting two large bags of lamb, chicken, beef, and pork to stock the freezer with, we were so excited!

There's also been free public transportation this week, to help volunteers and everyone else get around during this difficult time. So that has been nice, although the routes and schedules have been cut back.

I read a cute story about a guy finding a Mexican coin from the 1800s!

You just have to find a silver lining whenever you can, especially since they say the floods are moving South (note the photo of the blow up doll... this photo would never publish in the US!!). Anyway, hopefully, no more lives are lost...

Sunshine over the Floods

A break in the weather is saving things from getting too much worse, I think. Although flood levels are still steadily rising, it only sprinkled a tiny bit last night. It was sunny, hot, and humid.

We were awoken yesterday by the apartment building PA system (which is handy to have, by the way), which announced that the electricity would be turned off at 8:15am. So I got out of bed and hurriedly cooked some breakfast, but we were spared the trouble, because an hour or so later, it was confirmed that it wasn’t happening. I’m thinking it’s because we are located not far from a couple different hospitals as well as a police station. Or maybe the lack of rain helped as well.

A couple of times yesterday, Theo and I explored the neighborhood. The Brisbane River seems to be continuing to rise, reaching the iconic Brisbane ferris wheel and filling up the Queensland Performing Arts Complex underground parking garage on the South Bank.

This photo was taken from South Bank, looking past what used to be walking and bike trails. On the other side of the river, you can see my office building:














And quite a few low lying areas of downtown are now in water. Most businesses have sandbagged their doors and storefronts, the work of which was made easier by the lack of rain.











So still no movies. And now no grocery stores. But we’re stocked to last at least a few more days, and still having electricity really helps. And we did pick up a couple movies from the Oovie Box… just like the Red Box in the US. Thank goodness for that, our entertainment saving grace, since we don’t have a TV!

As we went to bed last night, it looked like clouds were moving in as the sun went down and news reports said the river would peak tomorrow flooding thousands more homes and businesses. But we awoke this morning to bright sunshine and news report that the river didn't peak as high as expect, which is great news!

La Niña Strikes

Well, the Christmas rain appears to be here to stay. I can only count on one hand the number of days it hasn’t rained since then. Apparently, we have switched from El Niño to La Niña conditions, after about 10 years of drought and dryness in Australia. Now, as is typical here, it’s either feast or famine. (I still have trouble saying El Niño with a straight face and without conjuring up images of 1990s SNL skits, but I read about it so much now, the silliness is finally starting to fade.) No silliness here, for sure, because we are in flood mode in Queensland. Apparently areas the size of France and Germany together are now inundated with flood water. At least 10 people have died and many more are missing.

I thought being in the city would exclude me from the flood experience, but yesterday, it devastated a town only an hour’s drive from Brisbane City. Today, the Brisbane River, only a few blocks from my office building began to rise, now covering the walking/biking trails and parks along adjacent South Bank. Parts of the train and bus network began shutting down, due to new areas of the greater Brisbane area becoming flooded. People working downtown began leaving the city to get home before routes became impassable and by lunch time, we were told to go home and don’t come back until Monday!

Luckily our apartment building is on a hill, and we’re on the 12th floor, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about. As for ourselves, we’re mainly worried about all the businesses near us downtown shutting down and having enough food/water/electricity, etc. to get us through. This evening we scoped out the situation and the grocery stores (and a few pubs) were still open, but pretty much everything else had closed its doors in preparation for the worst. Fortunately, the grocery shelves hadn’t been raided too bad… only a few items were sold out.



So far, this is said to be the worst flood in over 100 years, when floods actually did affect downtown, so we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow, the Brisbane River is expected to peak. And there’s no dryness in the forecast in the foreseeable future, so Theo and I are just hanging tight and watching it all unfold. Unfortunately it’s going to be boring with even the movie theater shut down, so we’ll see!

(watching debris float down the Brisbane River:)

Summer Holidays

I still haven't gotten used to the idea of Christmas being during the summer. But at least it wasn't as hot as last year. It's actually rained for almost a week straight and has been a nice temperature for most of the holiday season. Sometimes I would squint my eyes and pretend the rain was snow (worked for me)! When the rain breaks for a day or two though, it's back to sweltering heat!

Last year, I was still new to Oz and wasn't working yet, so this is my first holiday experience as a working person. It annoyed me last year when businesses and restaurants seemed to shut down for a week or two around Christmas/New Years. This year, I'm actually part of the shut-down, so I'm ever so grateful for the break and calm. Since Christmas and Boxing Day and even New Years fell on weekends this year, the public observation of those were celebrated on Monday and Tuesday last week and this coming Monday, respectively. That left 3 days between those public holidays, so my employer gave us Wednesday off and because the office is shut anyway, we can use accumulated time off or vacation or whatever to fill the gap. So in essence, I had 6 paid days off work for the holidays. And this is pretty common here unless you work for the mines or a grocery store, or hospital I guess. With most businesses closing during those times and most people off work, it certainly creates a wonderfully relaxed vibe... a true holiday.

If there were one cultural thing I could export to the US, it would be this. I think Americans just work so hard (as people do here and elsewhere in the world), and they deserve true holidays to relax. Many Americans don't know what a real holiday or break is like, especially when they're working multiple minimum wage jobs just to feed their kids. I feel guilty sometimes living here, getting so much vacation time and holiday time. People here think nothing of taking month-long vacations. When I told people my mom only had 2 weeks vacation to come visit me in NZ, they just normally looked at me with a blank stare...like ....what? Everyone in the world can't take 4-6 weeks vacation every year???

A vacation revolution is in order.

We've had nice quiet holidays so far. We had guests come up from the Gold Coast to share a Christmas meal with. Theo and I made lamb and roast veggies and they brought yummy shish kabobs and to-die-for potato salad, among other things. It was certainly a feast (and mostly organic, too)!


(melt-in-your-mouth lamb and melt-in-your-mouth potato salad)


(the kumara looks burnt, but it was actually perfect!)


(ian, rhett and theo)