Talking, talking, talking...

Sam and I are always talking. I’m quite certain that after we leave the noise level at Daruma Eco-farm will drop dramatically. That said, by no means will a peaceful silence reign after our departure. Trains, roosters, wailing cats, construction drills... This cacophony of sounds will continue long after we leave.

However we both recognize that we are yappers- me especially. One of our friends here at Daruma has now dubbed me “Moaning Myrtle,” some kind of reference to my loud and “unique” (as Sam kindly describes it) voice.  This is a step up from “Stupid Cow,” which this same friend called me when I tried speaking more quietly and apparently was hardly audible. I just can’t win.

Rest assured that all of this name-calling and mockery stems from a place of love. At this point I’m quite used to being picked on (I could hardly say a word on the Bus without a heavily accented “Strong Island” being shouted back at me in mimicry of my “unique” voice). In every group living situation that I have experienced, I have been teased insistently. You might be reading this and be thinking, “That is oh so sad! Poor, dejected Kelly.” But have no fear. Sam is actually helping me to appreciate this fact. Both her and I are just so ridiculous, loud, silly, talkative, and the like that people feel comfortable around us.

The most amusing part of our talking is the distinction between our voices. While my “unique” voice carries quite far, Sam speaks at much lower volume in a monotone and tends to mumble (even worse than I do). Interjection by Sam: Kelly does NOT mumble. At mealtime, Sam will be participating in the conversation with often no one hearing her but me. So usually people hear only me talking and miss Sam’s constant stream of comments running underneath the conversation.

We are quite the duo.

On Saturday the two of us reading two different books side by side generated a fascinating and completely laughable discourse that spanned three leisurely hours. Sam was finishing up Just Food by James McWilliams and I was finally making a dent in Joel Salatin’s Folks, This Ain’t Normal. Both authors examine the current food system in the U.S. but from notably disparate angles. Sam and I, easily excitable, would frequently shout “Listen to this!” and read off a statistic or opinion that shocked us. Being so easily entertained, the distinctions and coincidental similarities between the arguments made our banter even more rapid and energetic than usual. Here are some snippets of the conversation. Perhaps you will find it educational and enlightening, If not, thanks for reading this far. I recognize that my writing tends to be a stream of thoughts that gets incredibly long. I would apologize but Sam says that her grandmother will appreciate it, so this is for you Mrs. Krogulski.

S: According to James, cows are highly inefficient. Because they have to move around supporting a large body mass, they convert food energy very inefficiently. It takes 33 calories of energy to produce just 1 calorie of conventionally raised beef. Also according to James, a vegan diet is the most sustainable one you can have in the US. So, you are basically winning at life.

K: But what kind of cow is he talking about? Joel Salatin’s practices on Polyface are so vastly different from the conventional factory farm. Quote from Joel: “The cow, or domestic herbivore, is the most efficacious soil-building, hydrology-cycling, carbon-sequestering tool at the planet’s disposal.”

S: I guess it depends on the type of cow. Sure, raising grass-fed beef requires fewer energy inputs, but most grass-fed operations don’t use Salatin’s method of moving the cattle around in different enclosures, so the land becomes degraded because the cows continually graze the same patches of soil, which decreases biodiversity and depletes the soil of nutrients. No good. Also, grass-fed operations require vast tracks of land for grazing (more than conventional farms), and the type of expansion needed for this usually requires deforestation. That’s why is also doesn’t make sense to start converting conventional farms into grass-fed operations because they simply aren’t large enough to accommodate the large number of cattle we are accustomed to.

K: It’s just interesting because your book is saying a vegan diet is the way to go and Joel says that if we are aiming for biomimicry then cows are a vital part of the system. We need grasses for soil building and biodiversity, and grasses need herbivores. No natural systems exist without animals. I agree with all of that, but I also see what your book is saying. That a plant-based diet makes sense in today’s food system and can be the more ecologically ethical choice.

S: I think that if you have to eat meat, the best option would be to limit your meat intake to maybe once a week. Or reduce the amount of meat you are eating at each meal because, at least in the US, we simply do not have the land to raise cattle sustainably while maintaining our current consumption of meat. It’s like Scott Stokoy, the farm manager of the Dartmouth Organic Farm, says, “Meat should be a condiment, not a main entrée.”

[Time passes. We read. Mumble something here and there to one another.]

K: Ha! Listen to this: “For all the soymilk and tofu lovers out there, historically normal ingestion of soybeans requires lacto-fermentation and eating volumes equivalent to condiments.” Argument against veganism from Joel. Too funny.

[More time passing...]

S: Hahahaaha. James over here references Polyface: “The foodie press has lionized these ventures [pioneer restorative companies], as have locavores. Their underlying assumption has been the beauty of these renegade operations – say Polyface Farms mentioned in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivores Dilemma – is in their unique emphasis on localism. However, what also distinguishes them is that they are making sacrifices in order to unilaterally eliminate passive subsidies.”

(About a minute goes by)

S: And another quote in support of Sir Joel. “Common examples of pioneer operations often involve meat. Although I have spent much of this book questioning the long-term sustainability of any sort of meat production, the fact remains that the polycultural production of beef, chicken, and pork represents a far more responsible use of resources than conventional methods do. These smaller producers pass some of their higher costs on to consumers willing to spend more money on meat produced in an environmentally friendly fashion.”

Okay that’s all that I wrote down and really all I can remember right now. But that afternoon was a great example of Sam and Kelly banter. It continues endlessly, often characterized by sharp spikes in volume and rapidity when we get excited about something. Or we start singing.

We depart for Bangkok in just a few hours! More adventures to come...

-Kelly