War Pony

My father owns a Royal Blue 2001 Nissan Frontier Truck, 4 doors with  140,000 miles on it, a vehicle he affectionately calls his 'War Pony.' Many people who see it in the parking lot or on the road are very likely to either ignore it or see it as a 'junker,' a 'beater,' as it shows a lot of wear and tear. Compared to the new, large and shiny Chevrolet Silverados, Toyota Tundras and Ford F-150s that people drive around, it cannot compare. But then, what is a truck supposed to be? Is it meant as a vehicle that the owner obsesses over and keeps in mint condition, like 'an action figure still in the packaging?' Or does a truck merit scratches, dents and broken tail lights in its lifespan to reflect the work it served to its owner? I argue here the later but also a little bit more. At some point a truck takes on the personality of its owner.  

Like an insurance agent, looking to save his/her company some money, I will talk about these 'marks of deprecation' on my father's truck, one-by-one. But I do not mention them to take away the monetary value of the vehicle. I list them to show the entrepreneurship and labor he has put in these past fourteen years to create roots, a solid foundation for both his wife and his sons. 

There is a tar burn on the hood, a spill that occurred when working on a roofing project. The antenna is bent from the wind and tree branches beating against it over time. There are, of course, small pings in the windshield from gravel kicked up from larger trucks, but then every vehicle on the West Coast experiences that at some point. There are deep scratches on the side of the cab, the cab's door, and in the bed lining from all lumber and the various construction materials he brought up to his property the first five years. Since then more marks have appeared: scratches and dents from the trash, dirt, plants, furnishings, fixtures and containers that have traveled back and forth from home to shopping center or other facilites. The left tail light is broken and cracked, a mishap in backing up too far one time where a pile a lumber stuck out near the community garden just a year ago where he lives.

Both inside the truck and around the crevices of the hood and the windshield wipers are Pine needles and the variable leaves of Coastal Redwoods. There are a collection of pebbles and rocks beside the transmission from beaches along the Mendocino Coast that my father explored these past fourteen years. There are markings on the seats from paint, turpentine and oil. There is the remote scent of last dog my father and step Mom cared for, not a strong odor but also not a pleasant scent. The dog could not control her bowl movements in her last remaining years. For a stranger that was not familiar with my father’s entrepreneurship, generosity and kind-spirited nature with living things, to climb into this truck cab would be a horror story. But I and my brothers entered into it with enjoyment over the past decade-and-a-half. We saw our father in this truck, not ‘marks of depreciation.’ 

At some point, a material good: whether it is an article of clothing, a toy, a tool, and even a vehicle, surpasses a point where it is sterile, new and a general commodity placed on the shelf or parked in a car lot. It takes on the character of the owner who wears, plays, uses or drives it. I had the honor of using my father’s truck for the past two weeks in order to establish myself in my new job. And as I sat in Bay Area traffic, listening to music and slowly navigating through accidents, construction and speed traps, I felt a deep sense of admiration and respect for my father. He lives a good and honorable life. His War Pony is a testament to that.   

Washington State Initiative 1338 (I-1338)

For ten days between the dates of  May 22 - June 10 in 2014, I posted myself in front of public libraries (for nine days) and at the Folklife Festival in Seattle (for one day only) to request from Washington State registered voters their signatures and voter information on a ballot initiative that if passed, would make mandatory the labeling of genetically-engineered foods, many times referred to as GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). This ballot initiative, called I-1338 is a revised version of an initiative that already reached Washington State voters in November 2013, Initiative 522 (I-522). I-522 lost by a margin of less than 2%, although some popular media claims the margin was larger. In addition, the money spent in opposition to I-522 was the largest amount ever raised for or against a Washington State initiative, the sum exceeding 22 million US dollars. Spending to support I-522 only amounted to 8 million US dollars. So why make the effort if Washington State voters voted down the bill last year and, with when large food corporations are spending so much to make sure GMO labeling does not pass?

The answer is food. In truth, I wish food was healthy and did not need labeling except for the ingredients label and allergy warnings. But today, it is not uncommon to see labels like FREE RANGE, ORGANIC, FAIR TRADE, GRASS FED, NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS - NO ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS - NO PRESERVATIVES, RAW, CRUELTY FREE, VEGAN, and in recent times NON-GMO.  But while the consumer is bombarded with all these marketing tags to influence their purchase, the larger picture of food containing harmful products and for that matter, unhealthy food, remains cloaked. Corporations will argue that they use low levels of harmful products and genetically modified foods in order to reduce the costs of food production, increase the shelf life of food and, in turn, reduce the cost of food to the consumer. What is not mentioned is that the results of doing this increases their profits and in gaining more sales a larger market share. Large food corporations use both natural and synthetic compounds in preserving, flavoring and coloring foods. And since the early 1990s, they have on the production end manipulated the chromosomes of seeds to make crops that resist pests and/or endure a regime of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides. This is when GMOs began filtering into foods in North America. 

Look at the changes in health statistics for North American children since the 1990s. Obesity is now the norm, diabetes is a major risk and allergies or intolerance to certain foods is also increasing. Media reports evade the real contributions to this growing health crisis, making reports concerning the loss of exercise through the adoption of the latest technologies. Our health care system, since it is primarily runs on profit, is held captive by pharmaceutical companies who promote drugs to combat these new health problems. The prescriptions, however, most time come with major side effects that involve taking another pill to offset the side effects. It is a vicious cycle, but one that can change through one fundamental change, and that is gearing our food production to the growth and distribution of healthy food instead of large amounts of food that is cheap, convenient and profitable. 

Thus, I committed time and effort to ask thousands of Washington State voters for their support.  532 of them took the time to supply me with their voter information and signatures. They could see an importance in people voting with their dollars for healthier foods. But tragically, Washington State voters will not have a chance this year to pass I-1338. The organization collecting the signatures from volunteers for the ballot initiative, Respect for Mother Nature Committee of Washington, did not meet the 50,000 signatures needed to bring the initiative to the voters again. Volunteers were weak and only one food store showed interest in the new initiative after the smear campaign of agribusinesses in 2013. Voters in the state of Vermont, however, passed a GMO food labeling initiative this year. Farmers in Benton and Jefferson Counties, Oregon continue to struggle for ending the growth of GMOs state wide. Two battles were lost in Washington State, but the fight for healthy food still wages on.  

Don’t dare eat those, Doritos!

                        

In my continuing attack on foods that expose people to chemicals and compounds impacting good health, today I go after the very popular snack chips, Doritos, from Frito Lay. The Topps Company spoofed the snack chip with the parody (to the left) in one of their Wacky Packages series, but this narcoleptic scene is far from the reality of the long-term exposure this food has on adults and children. 

The ingredients list for Frito Lay’s Nacho Cheese Doritos (shown below) could be an extra credit assignment for Chemistry majors: Maltodextrin; Monosodium Glutamate; Natural and Artificial Flavor; Dextrose; Artificial Colors: Yellow 6, Yellow 5 and Red 40; Disodium Inosinate, and Disodium Guanylate. A few of these are benign, while others are questionable if not problematic. Maltodextrin is a food additive (this is repeated again with others listed below) that is also used in sodas and candy. Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG, is a flavor compound, commonly known for its use at many Chinese restaurants. Before 1998, however, it was clumped with other flavor enhancers as ‘spices and flavorings.’ Despite arguments over the research concerning MSG, it is suspected that long-term consumption of the compound may cause neurodegenerative effects. Natural and Artificial Flavoring opens a host of possibilities from anything like ‘Beaver Anal Glands’ (a perfectly acceptable candidate for natural flavoring) to flavors derived from antifreeze, paint thinner, lice medicine, etc. (which are the bases for many artificial flavors in agribusiness). This is speculation, but what else can one do when Frito Lay and other food corporations choose an ambiguous term instead of transparency about the ingredients used in their foods? 

 

Dextrose, or Glucose, is a monosaccharide extracted from grape vines or other plants. Of all the ingredients indicated in this break down on the Doritos label, Dextrose is the most benign. When arriving to the Artificial Colors, however, the outlook takes a serious nose dive back into serious health warnings. Yellow 6, also referred to by the misleading, tranquil name of Sunset Yellow, is known to cause allergic reactions among people who have aspirin allergies. Yellow 5, called Tartrazine, is also common in processed foods like other snacks, desserts, sweets, beverages and condiments. There is concern that this coloring can cause asthma, migraines and hyperactivity in children. Red 40, also known as Allura Red AC, is suspected of also causing hyper-activity among children. 

The last two mentioned are food additives/flavor enhancers: Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate. Disodium Inosinate is found in instant noodles, potato chips and other snacks. It interacts with MSG to enhance the flavor of the snack chips. Disodium Guanylate is extracted from other dried fish or dried seaweed, the former creating concerns for vegans and vegetarians unaware of this additive. Like Disodium Inosinate, it too is used in instant noodles, other snacks, rice dishes and beef jerkies. It, however, is not safe for babies under 12 weeks to ingest or for asthmatics and those suffering from gout.  

Given the various concerns raised from the investigation of the ingredients in Frito Lay’s Nacho Cheese Doritos, perhaps simplifying people’s diets to foods that are natural is better than supporting the ‘ongoing lab experiments' agribusinesses have made of their customers, essentially the majority of Americans and consumers overseas.

I hate my Campbell’s, this soup makes me droop!

From time to time with a new generation, the Topps Company puts out editions of a children’s collector cards and stickers called ‘Wacky Packages.’ These ran first in the 1960s, later in 1970s and also the 1980s, with reprints and unreleased caricatures in the mid 2000s. Three examples of their high jinx of Campbell’s Soups are pictured above.

As a adolescent in the 1980s, I very much liked these spoofs on popular foods and consumer products. It goes without saying that I collected them. But as an adult and food justice advocate, I never thought I would be revisiting these mockeries of popular foods, toiletries, soaps and beauty products. In recent years, however, the multiplication of chemicals, inorganic compounds and use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in common foods and care products to increase the shelf life, appearance, taste and performance will, in all likelihood, create unintended illnesses and health problems among the newer generations using them in the long-term. 

Case in point: view the ingredients list for Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup (shown above). Four of the ingredients listed: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Potassium Chloride, Flavoring, and Monopotassium Phosphate are disturbing for various reasons. First, a product derived from hybrids or GMOs, High Fructose Corn Syrup has been linked to various health problems including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and liver diseases. On average, North Americans consume 51 pounds of High Fructose Corn Syrup every year in their diets. It is used in the soup as both a filler and sweetener but this is unnecessary considering that wheat flour is also used here as a filler and tomatoes are naturally sweet. But because it is inexpensive and promoted aggressively by corn growers it becomes a product in many processed foods.

Next, although there is less than 2% of the following, Potassium Sulfate, also known as Potash of Sulfur, is fertilizer. Flavoring, likely used for taste and possibly scent, is an ambiguous term that does not verify whether it is natural or artificial. Such ambiguity can only mean there is something malign about its use. Finally, Monopotassium Phosphate is both a fertilizer and a fungicide. In this case it is used as a food preservative, but the long-term consumption of these and other foods that use chemicals and other compounds are alarming in the long run. 

Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup is used for more than just soup. It is also used in other prepared dishes like meatloaf, stuffed bell peppers, chili and macaroni dishes. It is a brand name that started 145 years ago and is likely found on the shelves of low income and middle class homes. But rest assured the ingredients on today’s label do not reflect the ingredients used in the ascension of Campbell’s as a trusted name for canned soups. What is our society coming to when the apocalyptic visions a jester-card company begins, like Topps, coming true? 

« … . But there was more to it than the mere fact that business is a swindle. What he realised, and more clearly as time went on, was that money-worship has been elevated into a religion. Perhaps it is the only real religion - the only really felt religion - that is left to us. money is what God used to be. Good and evil have no meaning any longer except failure and success. Hence the profoundly significant phrase, to make good. The decalogue has been reduced to two commandments. One for employers - the elect, the money-priesthood as it were - ‘Thou shalt make money’; the other for the employed - the slaves and the underlings - ‘Thou shalt not lose thy job.’ »

- George Orwell - Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Azodicarbonamide

A plastic product that is used to make yoga mats, shoe soles and other synthetic rubber products is also found in food as well. Azodicarbonamide, despite its ban in the food production in Europe and Australia, is used as an improving agent in baked goods. It can be found in the breads, croissants, buns, bagels and other baked products at the fast food restaurants of McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, Arby’s, Jack in the Box, Chick-fil-A, and Dunken' Donuts. In the United States and Canada, the use of Azodicarbonamide is permitted to levels of 45 ppm (parts per million). So yes, this is a very dilute concentration of Azodicarbonamide, but it was banned in Europe and Australia because of its links in causing respiratory illnesses among workers that were exposed to the plastic chemical agent.   

An activist and food blogger by the name of Vani Hari (see photo above) petitioned and received over 50,000 signatures for Subway to remove Azodicarbonamide from their foods. Subway agreed but the injustice is not over. Others in the fast food industry have not agreed to remove the plastic chemical from their foods and it is also found, at times, in the take-and-bake breads found at local supermarkets. Many consumers are unaware that they are being exposed to Azodicarbonamide (and other food additives that are also dangerous in the long term). The pervasive use of Azodicarbonamide in foods, and the corporate practice of adding harmful agents into foods in order to ensure longer shelf life, appealing flavors, colors or textures, must end or at least, have greater transparency for those purchasing the foods to make a choice. 

Long Time Coming

The two people in this photo recently published an article in Counterpunch entitled The need to fight border regimes worldwide (accessible at: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/31/the-need-to-fight-border-regimes-worldwide/ ). The man on the left, Gabriel Kuhn, attempted to visit the man on the right, Franklin Graham IV, in 2010 at the United States during a book tour. Gabriel was, however, banned from traveling to the USA. In 2011 Franklin attempted to visit Gabriel in Europe, but was detained and later deported by United Kingdom immigration officials. This year (2012), they finally met up in St. Imier, Switzerland during le rencontre internationale de l’anarchisme (http://www.anarchisme2012.ch/ ).

The exact reasons why Gabriel was banned from travel to the USA and Franklin was refused entrance to the United Kingdom are unknown, but the two authors suspect their ideologies were the main cause. Gabriel is a long time political activist who publishes and translates for various left-wing presses. Franklin is an academic committed to defending the rights of local communities in the Sahara and Sahel (North and West Africa) and staunch critic of the Global War on Terror. US and UK officials never cited these reasons for their actions, but it was apparent to Gabriel and Franklin that the authorities were aware (and certainly uncomfortable) of their work.

So what did they talk about after a two year delay because of the excessive paranoia by homeland security and immigration officials? Did they plot the overthrow of democratic regimes or plot violence aimed at Western citizens? No. On the contrary, they talked about the conference, they discussed the troubles in Syria, Palestine, Mali, the Western Sahara, and caught up on the travels and experiences they have had worldwide. They talked about their future goals. Gabriel wishes to decrease his workload and make it to the forest more often. Franklin looks forward to reuniting with his wife in Morocco and is searching for work with non-governmental organizations in Africa. If these men are a threat then they are a threat to those committing injustices both outside the law and through the law.

Thus the two authors would like to thank US Homeland Security and the UK Border Agency for providing them the opportunity to expose their abuse of power. The Counterpunch article shows how thousands are ideologically excluded from traveling to the USA and how the lives of tens of thousands in North America, Europe and Australia are ruined through detainment and deportation.