8.20.2007   why? sherry explains

Hey, all, a few santa cruz pics are up.

My long unanswered question about almonds has been answered. Sherry’s great for such things. About two years ago, out of nowhere, almonds more than doubled in price and I wondered why. Granted, I never googled it, but I did ask a few. No one knew. Sherry explained, “pollinators. There’s been a problem with pollinators.” Ahh.

sherry's kitchen & beyond

She spent her lunch hour explaining various things to me. Why GMO food may be an issue. Why choosing to genetically modify a wind-pollinated plant (like corn) changes everyone’s food supply. Why Monsanto is creepy (as if agent orange weren’t enough). Basic bio refreshers on how seedless watermelons are cultivated (they aren’t GMOs, duh). Why our genetically sparse food supply is a huge food security risk (this bit I knew. She got specific). Why putting small farmers in Mexico with genetically diverse corn crops out of business (by dumping our genetically uniform corn on them) has put our food supply at risk. Why Norway has created a genetically diverse world food bank. Then we moved on to the war.

Sherry argues that she doesn’t care what the administration’s motivations are because it’s silly to believe politicians have sincere motivations. As long as conditions improve for Iraqis, which is seldom part of the discussion, she doesn’t care how much Halliburton makes. And matters have recently improved, as far as improving the situation for Iraqi’s.

I agree that the US has an obligation to stabilize Iraq, as the US took it upon ourselves to destabilize them. I don’t think that the administration is currently improving the lives of Iraqis and I do not believe they care about them in the least. I don’t believe that they don’t care about the lives of Americans, for that matter. That this administration might accidentally improves the lives of anyone while on their profit-motivated offense strikes me as highly improbable.

I do agree with Sherry’s central argument, which is that the quality of life for Iraqi’s should be a topic of discussion, rather than the seemingly sole focus and constant chatter about the administration’s ill motives. I seem to be more alarmed about the effects of their motives on the citizens of the world, but maybe I’m an alarmist.

Here's a blog on Cuba Sherry wrote a bit back, iyi.

Three days in Sonoma and I’ve yet to visit a vineyard. I’ve been before, and it’s not a big interest at present. Sherry is underimpressed by the grape and doesn’t clamor to see more of them, even less in liquid form.

not a grape