How long til my lappie is junk

It pisses me off that when I buy a laptop it has been designed to be obsolete junk in well about 5 years. I have only owned my first laptop for just over two but already desperately want an upgrade, those super thin postable ones are super cool and less of a pain to lug around the world but unfortunately that doesn’t quite justify it quite yet.

While in Guatemala I had a system failure and must have been the only person ever to go into get it fixed that said yes I do have everything backed up. Amazingly I only lost a few, like five photos.

Now I am running a Spanglish system, extra useful for the continuing error messages and other notices popping up around the place because I don’t even need to try understand if it might be important to understand them a task far beyond my bad English and worse Spanish.

Back to it pissing me off, it doesn’t need to be like this and shouldn’t as far as I am concerned this is another criminal act like wasting food. I try to continue with out of date technology for as long as I can examples I was traveling with tapes when the first ipod came out, my film camera was taped shut while my friends showed me photos instantly. I continued to fight for the mysterious joy of developing, paying more than my camera was worth to develop a roll. Ok cell phones I liked my brick so much that even when it switched off upon receiving a call most of the time I resisted for far too long. Still the technological waste I have produced is unacceptable. Already at least three phones, like five tape players, one discman, one mp3 player and now I have two ipods. At least the size of the products designed to be toxic waste is getting smaller and a few people are thinking about making them less toxic. I am going to pick on the chip producers because they an easy target, intentionally redesigning the shape so instead of just changing a few pieces of your computer you have to buy a whole new machine.

Overproduction!!! In the seventies America decided to encourage farmers to grow as much as possible and ended up with a farming industry reliant on government payout. Michael Pollen explains that best and I will rant about that more in another post.

So I would love to hear that the presidential candidates had thoughts on this ludicrous form of production the under regulated free market has created. Surely the economy can grow and we can all get richer without designed waste and overproduction.

I love bluefin

Fatty bluefin tuna, the most prized and expensive raw treat so good that dangerous levels of heavy metals don't matter. I have flown this beautifully versatile protein in from around the world and feel privileged to eat and work with it. Such a mighty fish deserves respect, the biggest ever caught weighted nearly 1500 pounds.
The Mediterranean is the bluefin's spawning grounds. In 1990 Purse seiner technology enabled one fishing boat to trap 3000 tuna in one drop of the net, combined with tuna ranching (the business of fattening tuna) to continue the abuse of the EU's fisheries. After years of illegal methods and blatant disregard for quotas the EU's ministers continued to do too little too late. This June the purse seiners (70% of the catch) were banned albeit part way through the season when a reasonable quota had probably already been exceeded. This huge step met serious resistance, understandably as the price of bluefin has tripled with fish being worth as much as $100000 each.
Last year the fishery was also closed early, as more evidence of the lack of sustainability in this fishery emerged, it appeared that quotas had been set 800 tonnes over the replacement capabilities. The EU's fishing capacity is so large that this quota could be reached in just two days of fishing.
So what will happen next season? The demand will stop as people realize that eating this beautiful fish is not worth causing its extinction....no the Japanese demand isn't but maybe outside of the sushi kingdom. Gordon Ramsey has removed bluefin from his menus, it is easily replaced by yellowfin. More likely the fishery will reopen next year, more quotas will be ignored, illegal spotted planes will be used and nothing will be enforced let along held accountable or even face penalties. Even if the EU continues the ban throughout next season to promote recovery, the laws of economics means that other countries will increase supply to serve the continued demand.
No more bluefin for me.
Many fisheries are in danger, hopefully more companies like CleanFish can help show there is a better way to continue to enjoy the delicacies of the sea

Recycling Food

I hate throwing good food out, as my parents always told me there are people starving. I have become good at reinventing meals or recycling food. Unfortunately spoilt yachties aren’t satisfied always eating leftovers. So I had to get good at disguising what would normally go into the slop bucket as a brand new fresh made with love meal. My success is judged by how often I get compliments on the same food someone wanted to throw out the day before. After the meal is eaten and enjoyed I take great joy, maybe some pride, it can even be a little like 'i told you so, nah nah" but i think i just want them to feel bad for having wanted to waste good food .

Mould!!! Anything with mould or even slightly blemished fruit will not be touched. Easy, the fruit is guzzled back when liquefied and the moldy cheese is simple represented later cut to look nice, rather than making people sick I am probably strenghtening their immune systems. To date I have not been linked to any fatalities or had my food accused of causing a upset stomach.

One of my crew meal favorites is “jail house slop”, a crew member is like an inmate, living by someone elses rules, stuck on a boat living in cabins smaller than cells being served gourmet food, getting you clothes washed and folded everyday, well in some ways but it can definately feel like being a paid slave. Ok jail house slop, it involves piling whatever you don’t want to throw away (and is still perfectly edible) together with some sort of sauce and baking but most importantly it needs to be served in giant metal tray. Stuffed mushroom have been great for telling the crew that the delicious stuffing was yesterday’s snubbed vegetables. I do feel a bit absurd when I won’t throw out potatoes or rice and have reinvented something multiple times. Some enjoy my food recycling as it fondly reminds them of the forgotten waste not methods of parents or grandparents. Could food recycling be a start in moving away from the throw away society we westerners have embraced?

Why are we so willing to waste food? Is it because we have become so obsessed with food bacteria? Do we notice the quantity and value of the food we throw away? Laziness? Indifference?

Try saving all your organic waste for a day. Even when only cooking for two and trying not to waste anything I am amazed at the quantity of compostable waste I produce.

Food is energy so a sustainable efficient food system is the first step to sustainable efficient energy systems.