Tierhoek Organics

Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, 1600 kms from land, there's an area known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a dump of plastic debris - and it is twice the size of Texas.

I cannot even begin to picture this, and I don't want to. Texas covers 696 200 square kms, so we're already talking about close on 1.5 MILLION square kms of rubbish in the open ocean - expanding all the time. And that's not counting the loose bits floating around all over, and washing up on beaches everywhere - not to mention the unimaginable accumulation of garbage on land...

It's deeply worrying, and it should be. Now my conscience has taken me on a shocking tour of discovery through my household. I am shamed, I tell you. Guilty as charged. And I thought I was doing better than most... Well, sorry, No. Too much packaging, way too much plastic... Better start walking my talk.

So imagine my delight: Tierhoek Organics - Naartjie Bites. A Deliciousness for which I have no words. Weighs nothing (perfect for hiking, or any long-distance packing requiring padkos) and comes in fully bio-degradable, compostable packaging. Ditto their Dried Tomatoes. Don't know how they do it - NO plastic. I read the science somewhere & found it completely convincing & reassuring, and am now happy to indulge what has become a veritable addiction... those Naartjie Bites. The essence of more-ishness.

I like to think of those good people in their valley - hidden among the foothills of the Langeberg - bravely battling all the organic farmer's odds, and so gently and generously showing us the way.

Tierhoek Organics. Naartjie Bites. Go find some.

carbon conscience

Found myself in mixed company (omnivores, carnivores...) the other day, and stuck my neck out by quoting internet-sourced statistics - a meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet, meat production uses 10 to 20 times more energy than grain production, red meat production uses 100 times more water than...and so on.

Since I was quoting "facts" I couldn't verify myself, I was quickly backed into a corner - but it made me think...

I wonder if anyone has made calculations comparing the carbon footprint of a fruitarian lifestyle with other options. My own experience tells me that the outcome would be very interesting indeed.

A fruitarian kitchen is a very uncomplicated, uncluttered place. No cooking means No need for most of what you'd find in a "normal" kitchen - which means that none of that stuff needs to be manufactured, marketed, transported, powered, discarded... and if your garden (or your neighbour's garden) feeds you - no packaging, no transport, no marketing machinery, none of that commercial madness & misery...

And that is but the beginning... now think of the environmental balance sheet, which begins with fruitarians planting trees, and trees, and more trees, and not needing to cut down trees to fuel cooking fires....

If I hadn't chosen this way for myself a long, long time ago, I suspect that I would have found the carbon footprint issue a convincing enough argument to say goodbye to the bloody fleshpots... if you know what I mean.