america's health goals!

[me&thegals]

I agree with you, really! "I can't" are swear words in my house!

I just remember reading a book on diabetes a while back. The white female physician was earnestly advising her patients in diet and exercise. Then, she spent a little time in "the core" where they lived. There were no fresh foods, anywhere. It was unsafe to walk outside.

Still, though, at least a person could do jumping jacks or dance inside. I think there's usually at least 1-2 tiny things that could improve things.

I guess I was just pointing out that not everyone is so crazy lucky as I am to be surrounded by things that create health. (well, except for conventional farming chemicals...)

 

[abifae]

well there is an obvious solution here.

*packs her bags and moves in with me&thegals*

 

[me&thegals]

I could feed you well! And I could seriously use some help here this summer. Wait, though, I don't suppose you work free of charge?

 

[abifae]

i'd work for room and board! i have a cat. she needs room and board too. so i guess i'd work for BOTH our rooms and boards the lazy thing. actually she chases mice.

we have mice in the house. rather, they do upstairs because amira doesn't allow them down here. she'd LOVE if they weren't such cowards so she could chase and eat MORE of them but they run just cuz she kills them all

 

[Wifezilla]

I also recall people raising pigeons for food during the depression.

Of course, zoning can be a problem, but that just involves more choices.

1) work to change the restrictive zoning that keeps people from feeding themselves
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16509728/Changing-Your-Citys-Chicken-Laws
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/frequentlyasked.html
2) become a gorilla gardener/animal raiser
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/
http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Chicken-Coops/The-Stealth-Coop-p493.aspx
3) move
4) learn how to indoor garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNxabqqRDU
5) become a sprouter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting
6) work with local church or community groups to change laws are get permission to use abandoned or under utilized property to garden
http://www.nyccgc.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening

Like Abi, I don't believe the no choice line. It is usually most often a case of...
"my choices suck"
or even more likely...
"I don't want to have to make any effort, change my actions, or in any way do anything on my part but I want the circumstances or outcome to magically be different."

 

[freemotion]

Wasn't it Euell Gibbons (sp?) who, years ago, encouraged people to go to the city parks and eat from the wild? Or someone like him.

I have an elderly aunt who has lived in various cities for many years and is very resourceful. She even walked and took a bus for many years to have a small garden for free, she called it her Victory garden, from the movement after WW II.

When we went through a rough patch when I was a teen, in early winter when the idea of a garden was many months away, I saw my parents feed us well by being very resourceful. My dad got boxes of produce scraps for our rabbits from a local grocery store for free, but we ate a lot of them ourselves. And mom would go into the only produce store just before closing and just before a long holiday weekend bring a tomato or something to the checkout and flash a $10 or a $20 if she had it. She would ask if he had any old bananas to sell. They would start negotiations on all the produce that would be unsellable by the following Tuesday when he opened again. He was determined to get that cash he saw and she was determined to come out of that store with as many cardboard boxes as she could. She came home and blanched and froze while we all peeled and chopped.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I think it was Euell, Chasing the wild asparagus

I get a huge kick out of urbanites who forage well in the city. Love it! Someone posted a blog from a chick who got all her meals from city forage. Was interesting, pretty tough on the woman, but she made it work.

I know street rats (their name! not mine!) from New Orleans who scavaged & ate well without using the food banks (pre-Katrina, don't know about now...) Granted, they also squatted in abandoned houses and leached power from neighbors, but they ate decently.

 

[hikerchick]

I also recall people raising pigeons for food during the depression.

Of course, zoning can be a problem, but that just involves more choices.

1) work to change the restrictive zoning that keeps people from feeding themselves
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16509728/Changing-Your-Citys-Chicken-Laws
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/frequentlyasked.html
2) become a gorilla gardener/animal raiser
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/
http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Chicken-Coops/The-Stealth-Coop-p493.aspx
3) move
4) learn how to indoor garden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNxabqqRDU
5) become a sprouter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprouting
6) work with local church or community groups to change laws are get permission to use abandoned or under utilized property to garden
http://www.nyccgc.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening

Like Abi, I don't believe the no choice line. It is usually most often a case of...
"my choices suck"
or even more likely...
"I don't want to have to make any effort, change my actions, or in any way do anything on my part but I want the circumstances or outcome to magically be different."

It's always a good idea not to judge people unless you have lived in their circumstances. I grew up in the inner city. When your main goal is surviving every day, you don't really have lots of time to spend contemplating gardens. When you live in an 8 story tenement with no yard, you have few options when it comes to gardening, guerilla or otherwise. Indoor gardening can be problematic when you have 6 people in a four room apartment and two windows face bulidings a foot away.
Unless you have lived in the inner city, you really don't understand the obstacles that must be overcome there.

 

[Wifezilla]

Can't is an attitude. A lack of ideal circumstances doesn't mean small measures can't be taken when they allow. Because a situation isn't perfect is not an excuse to not do anything.

I CAN sprout in a jar in a cupboard. Last I checked inner cities had cupboards and jars...and running water. (Well unless we are talking homeless people and that is a different story and not applicable)

The indoor garden info I provided doesn't even require a window. It required a light bulb. I have peppers, basil and cress growing on an old dresser in a room with crappy natural light right now. I am using cheap CFLs and fixtures purchased at thrift stores and garage sales.

If people have money for cigarettes, acrylic nails, visits to a hair salon, beer, etc... then they have money for sprouting seeds. If not, you can still purchase seeds with food stamps. If they have money for a cat or dog, they have money for a quail or pigeons.

If real food is a priority, they can make it happen. Many communities and churches have done just that....made it a priority and made it happen. I gave plenty of examples.

I have been poor (still am last time I checked), I have been without transportation, I have been without a job.... It isn't any easier to be poor in the country. Inner city means you can take a bus. Living out in the middle of nowhere means 4 hours round trip on a bicycle....IF you have a bicycle.

You don't have to hit yourself with a hammer to know it would suck. Having not hit myself with a hammer doesn't mean I have no right to tell abi hitting herself with a hammer isn't a good idea. It's just using your judgment.

 

[ScottSD]

If people have money for cigarettes, acrylic nails, visits to a hair salon, beer, etc... then they have money for sprouting seeds. If not, you can still purchase seeds with food stamps. If they have money for a cat or dog, they have money for a quail or pigeons.

I can't count how many times I've seen people who classify themselves as poor in the convenience store picking up smokes and/or beer....or at the pet food store picking up dog or cat food!

The funny thing is, with the direction "America Health" is heading.....it won't be the poor that will be effected the most.....

Sounds like the middle class will be the hardest hit:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ountdown-senate-health-hit-middle-class-hard/