Month: September 2016

I am posting the lecture I did for the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii in July.  In this lecture, I speak about dietary changes we can make to prevent or reverse the metabolic syndrome.  I also touch on how some auto-immune diseases are improved with a plant-based diet.  Enjoy!

 

This is a fun little video I made in the ocean with friends.  The underwater world is beautiful, but at the rate we are overfishing, I am not sure that it will be the same in future generations.  We can make a difference by either not eating fish entirely, which is preferable, or at least not supporting destructive fishing practices such as these:

Bottom Trawling: A bottom trawl is a type of fishing net which is pulled along the seafloor, usually to catch shrimp and bottom-dwelling fish like halibut and sole. Unfortunately, the nets also catch a variety of ocean life that’s usually thrown back dead or dying. Dragging heavy gear across the seabed also damages the seafloor habitat.

Dredging:  Dredges are large, metal-framed baskets which are dragged across the seafloor to collect shellfish.  Metal teeth dig into the seafloor, which damages the seafloor habitat and bottom-dwelling species.  Dredging also has high levels of bycatch.

Gillnetting: This uses curtains of netting suspended by a system of floats and weights, anchored to the seafloor floating at the surface. The netting is nearly invisible, so fish swim right into it. Gill nets are used to catch sardines, salmon and cod, but accidentally entangle and kill animals, such as sharks and sea turtles.

Long lining:  A central fishing line (ranging from one to 50 miles long) is strung with smaller lines of baited hooks, dangling at evenly spaced intervals. The lines are near the surface to catch pelagic fish (like tuna and swordfish) or on the seafloor to catch deep-dwelling fish (like cod and halibut.) Many lines unfortunately hook sea turtles, sharks and seabirds that are attracted to the bait.

Purse Seining:  This uses a large wall of netting to encircle schools of fish. Fishermen pull the bottom of the netting closed, herding fish into the center. This method is used to catch schooling fish (like sardines) or species that gather to spawn (like squid). These can catch other animals, such as dolphins (tuna seines).

To make sure you are not supporting these fishing methods with a large by catch, check out:  seafoodwatch.org

References:

“Fishing and Farming Methods: Fishing Methods”  Retrieved 16 September 2016 from : http://www.seafoodwatch.org/ocean-issues/fishing-and-farming-methods.

The beauty of pineapples, is that you can eat the bottom and recycle the top by planting it to make a new pineapple!  It is a very renewable resource.  They also need little water and are more drought resistant than other tropical fruits.  The tops take about 2 years to fruit.  (That is how long my plant took to fruit).  Once it fruits, it takes about six more months to mature.  Therefore, you must be patient with your plant.  If you take better care of it, it will probably fruit sooner.  Good luck planting!