food fight

during one of the zoom socials of my high school batch at the height of the pandemic, i mentioned that my head almost exploded in ecstacy after i first tasted an apple in my cousin's backyard in hayward california and spent the next few months visiting all the grocery stores in the entire san francisco bay area looking for that variety of apple but to no avail. there were different kinds of theories being brainstormed in an attempt to explain the mysterious apple, and one thing lead to another my batchmates even ended up tree planting in the new campus of our alma matter.

i just watched a video in yt "How Corporations Are Ruining Your Health" that solves our backyard apple mystery. turns out it's not the variety of apple but the richness of the soil that gives the taste and quality of the fruit or vegetable. it's not economically feasible for giant industrial/commercial farms to use very rich high quality soil so they use more profitable chemicals such as nitrogen that just allows the crops to grow but sacrifices a lot of the taste and quality. this explains why my head almost exploded in ecstacy after my first taste of organic apple grown in the backyard. 

the previous generations taught our generation that spirituality, career, and relationships were the important things in life. the quality of food we eat was just a background peripheral or an elective. but just think about it. owning a private jet or yacht will actually lower your quality of life. it exposes you to more kobe bryantness (or kobe bryantly?) danger. commercial airlines have way more safety standards and regulations. in my case luxury yacht equal motion sickness. why would i spend millions just to suffer nausea and vomiting? they also deprive you with one of the most pleasurable stimulants that God or mother nature bestowed upon us - social interaction. such as talking with a long lost friend at the waiting gate while waiting to board your flight. or flirting with the salesgirl at the snack bar while riding a passenger boat from cebu to manila. i don't get to enjoy these in a private yacht. on the other hand, if you eath healthy, it significantly reduces your chances of experiencing concrete suffering such as cancer and diabetes. there's even new data figures that show processed sugar is most likely responsible for three times more deaths than cigarettes.

the cultural change the video is talking about is not unrealistic because it is actually affordable and don't need government intervention as evidenced by the "edible schoolyard" program started by a school girl. it's just a matter of promoting attitude and having a new perspective. example when someone gets a promotion and can finally afford hir (gender neutral) dream BMW, maybe just buy a toyota corolla which is just as reliable and comfortable and then use the extra money to buy a garden plot and make gardening hir hobby. it also works out for selfish right wingers because it only results in self happiness and pleasure. it does not help other people. then, because the selfish right wingers don't get sick anymore, health industry oligarchs such as UNH and centene will be begging for medicare for all so they can continue to stay in business. 

as they say every generation is an improvement of the previous generations. when i was kid it was normal for our dads to smoke inside the car with the whole family in the car. nowadays, i see fb photos of my batchmates planting vegetables in their backyard (i hope they are vegetables and not related to proposition 64).

although i wholeheartedly agree with the yt video, i would refrain from the typical knee jerk reaction of extremists demonizing and feeling resentment towards our corporate oligarchy or as we say in our parlance - "the establishment" (low intellects like me feel proud to use words like parlance. hehehe. i learned this word from kyle kulinski's talk on "passionism"). my very own alma matter UPLB considers monsanto the devil but i believe it's never that simple. i believe these agro industrial behemoths played a vital role in cutting down world hunger and poverty. i remember growing up in the philippines we can only eat apples and chocolates during christmas and eating meat regularly was a luxury or status symbol only the rich can afford. but now the world is upside down - apples and meat are for poor people and organic vegetables and dried fish are only for rich people. 

and as the video pointed out, industrial agriculture is a matter of national security. it gave america a big advantage during WWII. we must never forget that winning WWII was never a given and we would be slaves speaking german right now if it weren't for the victory which the corporatist and imperalist america played a vital role. that's why i find it narrow minded for leftists to one sidedly demonize our nation's history and advocate for tearing down the system. it's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. it's like me demonizing my dad for smoking inside the car and not feeling grateful for all his hard work to feed and educate me. america comitted countless atrocities against filipinos yet just like dr. martin luther king who never advocated for violence, we filipinos cooperate in harmony with america because we know in the big picture it's better for us. if palestinians get rid of hamas and cooperate with israelis, palestinians will surely become prosperous and netanyahu will hang himself. the left's lack of condemnation towards hamas is a big gift to netanyahu and naftali bennet.  

the yt video is also not one of those unrealistic health fads. it even shows clips of alcoholic beverages complimenting the good food. the message was overall pleasure and happiness. and it's a fact that junk food is just short term pleasure but causes long term suffering. although we've always known since childhoold that junk food is bad for us, we were not aware of the joys, pleasure and health benefits of organic eating. i haven't had processed sugar in the last 5 months and i've never felt so happy, healthy, and energetic. i used to keep getting sick and depressed and now not anymore. holy cow !!! although i fear this cultural revolution might bring leftists and right wingers together and for me life can only be fun when right wingers and leftist are at each other's throats. if all leftists join this cultural revolution, the result would be like freeing a thousand julian assanges. but maybe chomsky was right when he said americans are jingoist fanatics and politics in america is just like a sports event and not really about caring for people and improving lives. 

another core message of the yt video is CHOICE. they don't intend to shove healthy eating down people's throats. they just want everyone to be given the choice. i know the word "choice" is a blasphemous word among leftists but history shows the lack of choices help poor people only in the short term and causes more suffering in the long term. simplification of choices only works for societies with humane personalities like canadians, scandinavians and zapatistas of mexico. it is proven to not work in less humane societies such as russia, greece, venezuela and most likely america where an employee in a medicare for all office would rather watch netflix and not bother answering a phone call because their jobs are protected by a union and the caller can't go next door to the competition. social democracy is also starting to fail in france where the yellow vest protest ended only because of the pandemic. i also recently saw in kyle kulinski's show a protester slapping macron on the face. 

social democracy is working well in canada maybe because canadians are more humane. only jordan peterson will slap trudeau on the face. maybe also davie504 but he slaps everyone. i have a cousin in canada who told me her favorite pastime is volunteering to deliver food to the elderly who don't have families to take care of them which made me feel guilty because my favorite pastime is golf which is a right wing past time. that's why i suspect kyle kulinski is not a true leftist because he is an avid golfer. that's why i don't think sweden and norway is really a leftist country because golf is popular there. china is a true leftist because their government is cracking down on golf. i don't know why golf is a right wing sport when the handicap system is very socialistic because it levels the playing field. fun trivia: golfers have won 11 straight US presidential elections dating back to 1980, and of the last 11, nine presidential losers were non-golfers. meaning kyle kulinski is the only presidential hopeful of the left and he should replace bernie sanders. 

as i been saying in my blog, it bewilders me that i never hear the left promote healthy eating when it's the biggest factor to improving the quality of life of poor americans. medicare for all can easily become a reality if only very few people get sick such as the case in sweden and norway. according to this yt video, healthy eating will hurt the pockets and diminish the power of our corporatist oligarchs. healthy eating will even help alleviate climate change according to the ted talks in yt 

so instead of just medicare for all, maybe ALSO advocate for garden plots for all. america has over abundance of arable lands and you don't need a college degree to learn how to plant vegetables. i wonder what the evil right wingers will say about garden plots for all. they can't say it's income redistribution because government owned lands are not wealth generated by private individuals. it's not wealth redistribution either because a garden plot has no value and will only become a source of wealth after you labor on it. they can't say it has shades of communism because private ownership of garden plots is the antithesis to socialism. right wingers will probably support garden plots for all because it will give them the nostalgia of black people tilling the soil. 

i'm sure it's because i'm just a low intellect, but i also wonder why it's possible to grow food in mars but venezuelans go hungry when their economy collapses. i think hollywood is anti leftist because it was the martian movie that opened my eyes to this question. i know it's just a movie but scientists say it's possible to grow food in mars using greenhouses. 

by the way, it's not in this video but there are a lot of expose in yt about fake farmer's markets around the US so i hope you don't blindly go to a farmer's market and think everything there is organic. 

if you want icecream for your brain, watch cnn and fox news. if you want healthy organic food for your brain, read chomsky. if you want industrialized qanon junk food for your brain, read https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2020/10/make-filipinos-healthy-again.html).

(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)