A – To spend an awesome afternoon laughing and conspiring with her favorite feminist comrade, of course!

***

You know those once in a lifetime friends? The kind of friends that are so incredibly amazing you still can’t believe they are in your life? Well, that is [...]]]> Q – Why did the feminist cross the causeway?

A – To spend an awesome afternoon laughing and conspiring with her favorite feminist comrade, of course!

***

You know those once in a lifetime friends? The kind of friends that are so incredibly amazing you still can’t believe they are in your life? Well, that is the kind of friend I am lucky enough to have in Ro. Even luckier? She lives right across the causeway from me in Bahrain, and back when Cody and I still lived there we were next door neighbors.

Ro is my mentor, my friend, my comrade, and all around the coolest person I’ve ever known.

You have probably heard me gush about Ro before. She is an internationally renowned feminist, global south advocate, vegetarian, and gender specialist. (Here and here are 2 interviews I did with her.) She is also a globetrotter extraordinaire so I have to be sure to catch her when she is in town. So, it was off to Bahrain!

Bahrain is a tiny island kingdom located right off the coast of Saudi Arabia. The two countries are connected by a very long bridge, a causeway, that spans 25km of ocean, with a checkpoint in the middle so you can go through immigration and customs to switch countries. It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t so bad. In fact, I used to commute (with a driver, of course) from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain and back again every day for school during high-school. On a good day the whole trip only takes about 45 minutes. So, heading over to spend the afternoon with a dear friend is simple and not too much hassle.

First, though, you gotta wake up and get the day started right. And with me that always means a green smoothie -

Then it’s time to change into my comfortable traveling duds. No matter the occasion, comfort is always the most important thing in determining what clothes I wear. And being stuck in a car for at least an hour, in this brutal summer heat, means I need something soft and easy.

After reliving my modeling days for a bit, I remembered where I live, and that any time I leave the compound I need to wear my abaya. Of course, I chucked it off the second I reached the very liberal shores of Bahrain.

After saying goodbye to one of the more elusive members of my herd (gotta catch her when I can)….

…I loaded up into my car for the trip across the causeway.

Women can drive on my compound, but not anywhere else in Saudi Arabia, so I have to use a driver to get around. Women can also drive in Bahrain, but I have to use a driver to get from here to there! So, as the trip begins I hand him my passport so he can hand it over to the causeway immigration guards to get stamped once we reach the border…

I get my tunes going (it is impossible to ride in the car for any length of time without good music!)…

I also like some light reading material; I can’t read anything that requires too much concentration while I’m in the car, otherwise I get a headache…

Yep, the one ‘starring’ yours truly…

After only half an hour or so waiting in line on the causeway we finished crossing the border and before too long reached Bahrain, and the lovely ramshackle compound where Ro lives. Actually, Cody and I lived there for a year or so, too, and we still keep an apartment there.

It is such an offbeat and unique place, exactly our style, and a type of compound you rarely find in Bahrain anymore. It is one of the very few ‘authentic’ compounds left, and one of the only ones with grass, flowers, trees, and room for dogs to run. Plus, it was located right in the village that is known as Bahrain’s riot hot-spot. Bahrainis love to riot, so a few nights a week we would always be surrounded by the sound of Molotov cocktails, riot police, rubber bullets, and flying tear gas canisters. It was exciting, to say the least!

Happily, the whole family was home to greet me. Even Crystal, the blind, yet pugnaciously pushy rescue dog.

Peter, Ro’s fantastic husband, is the best cook. He is a star at making hearty yet simple dishes that I can never seem to recreate. I wish he would write a cookbook! We feasted on a veggie packed lentil stew and a crisp and crunchy salad topped with a tofu salad dressing. Delicious!

After lunch Ro and I talked for hours and hours, but no matter what, the topic always came back to global feminist struggle – my favorite! We dished, we laughed, we ranted (as all good feminists do), and we had a wonderful, fulfilling afternoon.

There aren’t many people like Ro in the world, unfortunately, and there are even less in my neck of the woods, so spending time with her is like a breath of fresh air. I was sad to go, but didn’t want to leave the trek back across the causeway till too late. So, I called my driver and piled back into the car for the journey home.

You know you're back in Saudi when...

Before too long I was home sweet home in Saudi. I didn’t really do much that day, but whenever I have to travel any amount of distance in this heat it tires me out. I lounged in bed, cuddled with my dogs and Cody, did some writing, did some reading, and for dinner feasted on a super tasty snack plate!

What you see up there is mashed spicy beans, toast topped with avocado and hot sauce, a salad, a few crackers, and super sweet tangerines. I never get tired of snack plates, aren’t they delicious?

What a wonderful day!

***

***Don’t forget to spread the word about the t-shirts for sale from Conducive Chronicle. The proceeds will all go to the Navdanya Project in India to fight world hunger. To be honest, I was shocked and dismayed by the lack of enthusiasm about this simple and wonderful way for us to all raise money for a good cause. We are a community of people who claim to want to make the world a better place. Are we all talk? Come on people, buy a t-shirt if you can, and spread the word. Take a stand and do something!***

Okay. Confession Time.

As you all know I am an expat, born and raised, and still living in Saudi Arabia. Because of this I have spent much of my life traveling the world…by plane. By my rough estimate I have been on over 200 planes in my lifetime, starting with my first [...]]]>

Okay. Confession Time.

As you all know I am an expat, born and raised, and still living in Saudi Arabia. Because of this I have spent much of my life traveling the world…by plane. By my rough estimate I have been on over 200 planes in my lifetime, starting with my first international flight at the age of 6 weeks, 2 around the world journeys before the age of 3, and extensive travel in over 40 countries by the time I was in my 20s. You would think after 200+ plane rides it would be mundane and boring, a fact of life. Not so.

I have a severe fear of flying. Severe. As in nightmares about plane crashes months before I have to fly, hysterical crying at the slightest bit of turbulence, and irrational terror at the mere thought of flying. It is crazy, irrational, absurd, yes, all the things that make a fear a phobia. But it doesn’t make it any less terrifying and life altering just to know it’s not rational. I know, logically, that flying is the safest way to travel, and far safer than driving a car…but no matter how often I remind myself of that it just doesn’t help.

I wasn’t always this way. For most of my life I hopped on and off planes without a care in the world. But about 10 years ago, when I was 18 or so, it all started to change. Slowly, slowly, slight nerves gave way to unsettling fear which gave way to all out blind panic. It isn’t pretty and I wish it weren’t so, but it is.

Yesterday we found out that  Cody has to spend 2 weeks at the end of July/beginning of August in Washington DC on a business trip to sort out visa paperwork and get his Saudi residency. For the past year he has been on a temporary visa which has made day to day life a hassle and getting a permanent visa is not only necessary but will make our life a lot easier….if only it didn’t involve putting the only person on this earth that I’ve ever really loved onto not 1, not 2, but 4 planes. I will be staying here while Cody flies all the way to the states and back. Oh the terror.

As soon as we found out I’ve been crying pretty much non-stop, envisioning the worst, as a worrier like me always does in situations like this. I always predict disaster when it comes to the most mundane facts of life, so you can imagine that I really go overboard when it comes to my biggest phobia of all. Add to that the fact that in our 6 years together we have never spend more than 3 days apart, this is pretty rough. The only thing worse than me having to get on a plane is the man I love having to get on a plane.

Cody is sweet and patient with me, just like he was when we flew from the US to Saudi Arabia and he was left with scars on his arms from my digging fingernails. He is just as wrapped up in me as I am in him, so it will be hard for him to be gone for so long, but he is not scared of flying at all so he sees this as a fun summer holiday. He is looking forward to visiting all of DC’s amazing museums, visiting with our oldest and dearest friend Maris who calls DC her home, and spending a few days with his parents who are going to fly up from Texas to visit with him. For him this is an all-expenses-paid vacation, for me it is sheer, miserable terror.

So. If you all want to help me (and I know you do!) you’ll tell me how ridiculously silly I’m being. Tell me how often you fly, or how often your family members or friends fly. Tell me how fine it always is and how ludicrous I’m being. Seriously. Please tell me. A lot.

When I’m terrified beyond belief the last thing I want to do, or can do, is eat. I have to struggle just to fill my stomach, everything loses its flavor and nothing is appealing to me in the slightest. Here are the meals I nibbled at yesterday.

My usual morning green smoothie was okay. Green. Tasty. Cold. Sweet. My tears only slightly distracted me from its tastiness.

After breakfast I dragged myself to the gym for an hour of cardio which turned more into an hour of me trying not to have a full blown panic attack at the gym. Lovely.

When I came home for lunch this last thing I wanted to do was eat, but when I don’t eat I end up feeling even worse. So I spent an hour picking over this gorgeous and very tasty burrito and salad lunch –

It looks delicious and it was delicious, it just took all of my determination to finish it all even though this is my favorite kind of lunch. What you see is a spinach tortilla filled with vegan butter, Amy’s refried black beans, a batch of brown rice I made that is filled with onions, bell peppers, and garlic. I topped it all with sliced avocado and hot sauce. The salad is a mix of baby spinach, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, a dollop of homemade hummus and balsamic olive oil dressing.

I wish I could say that I felt better as the day wore on, but it was the exact opposite. As the sun dipped towards the horizon and the day wound down everything seemed even worse. Yes, there were more tears. Yes, I know how ridiculous my phobia is, that is why it is a phobia. It doesn’t make sense, logically I know it’s ridiculous, but like I said, it feels real to me.

So, amidst the tears and sobs I could not even think of eating something for dinner. Cody made me a tasty juice and convinced me to drink it, but that was all I could stomach.

That lovely juice had lots of celery, cucumbers, carrots, apples, ginger and mint. It was not enough for dinner, I know, but this blog is nothing if not honest and that is all I could manage last night.

So far today I’m doing a bit better, I feel all cried and panicked out. I just can’t believe that someone like me who has flown several times a year for every year of my life is this terrified of planes. It is ludicrous. Go ahead, laugh at me, hopefully it will make me feel better!

***

The TofuXpress giveaway was a big hit and the lucky, randomly selected winner is….Jessie from Bites and Pieces! Congratulations Jessie! Contact me with your address and we’ll have your TofuXpress to you in no time. Thanks again to TofuXpress for their generosity.

Yesterday afternoon at 3pm Volvo passed on. We had our vet come to the house and put him to sleep. Both Cody and I held Volvo and petted him and whispered to him that he was a good boy and that we loved him very much as the vet did his [...]]]>

Yesterday afternoon at 3pm Volvo passed on. We had our vet come to the house and put him to sleep. Both Cody and I held Volvo and petted him and whispered to him that he was a good boy and that we loved him very much as the vet did his work. It was quick, dignified, and completely pain free. After a life of hardship and suffering it was a peaceful release, he is now free from pain and able to chase cats once again.

We have been preparing for this day ever since we first rescued him from death’s door over 2 years ago. We found him at a horse stables in Bahrain, starving to death because his nails had been allowed to grow so long he was crippled and unable to walk to his food. He had no skin on his back, an infection had eaten it away, and raw tissue shone through, bloody and swollen. His eyes were swollen shut and his ears dribbled blood from a life long mite infection. When I took him from the man who was supposed to be taking care of him and rushed him straight to the vet, I thought he might die before I could even get there.

The vet took one look at him and said he would be dead in 2 weeks, that all I could do was try to keep him comfortable. We never expected him to survive very long, but he healed completely, what a fighting spirit he had. He thrived and enjoyed life for another 2 and 1/2 years.

All of his health conditions cleared up completely with lots of cleaning, food, and medicine, and he enjoyed his new family and all the fun we had together. He could never move around very well, his hips were bad and his shoulders always ached, but he managed.

And he did have fun. He fell in love with my little dog Polly at first sight and was absolutely obsessed with her, to the exclusion of everything else in his life. (Too bad for him Polly doesn’t like other dogs! She barely tolerated him.) He liked to harass our cat and we were never quite sure if he wanted to eat her or cuddle her, but either way, she loved him back. We would take him for short walks that he could handle, and when he stopped being able to handle even those we would drive him to the park in our car and put him out on the grass so he could watch the other dogs.

At the park, sporting his summer hair-do

A few months ago he lost the ability to walk, and even though we kept him on a hefty regimen of pain killers and joint medications, he was never able to move very well again. The vet recommended we put him to sleep then…but I couldn’t handle it. I just couldn’t cope with the idea of choosing to have him die. It terrified me, and so, in my typically selfish and all too human way, I kept him alive. I made sure he was as comfortable as he could be and we fed him indulgent treats, and we loved him a lot, but he was never really comfortable again.

Cody and I (mostly Cody) have been bathing him 2 or 3 times a day because he lost all control of his bladder and bowels, and we massaged his legs and back to try to keep him loose. I kept telling myself that he was still happy, still enjoying things, but I don’t know if I was right.

And then a few days ago I just couldn’t fool myself anymore. I walked over to him and saw that he was struggling just to lift himself up to get to his water bowl that was right in front of him. My heart broke and I completely shut down. It’s like my brain just blanked out. I told Cody that he had to do it all, that I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t handle it. Luckily Cody took control of everything, because he knows that while I might be tough as nails on the outside, on the inside I’m so sensitive I would have crumbled, and he handled all of the arrangements. He did everything, and I’m so grateful, because it was the right thing to do.

Volvo had a hard life. It isn’t fair that he had to go through what he did. But at least I can say he had a good death. He was in the arms of people who loved him, in his favorite spot in the front yard, on a cushy bed and an even cushier blanket. He was stuffed with all of his favorite foods that we’d been tempting him with all day, and he had gotten to give the love of his life Polly the sweetest lick across her face when they said goodbye. As hard as it was for me, it was the right thing to do for the only person that mattered: Volvo.

Good-bye Sweet Old Man. We will miss you so much and you will never be forgotten.

Nightime fetch session at the park

]]> http://thevoraciousvegan.com/2010/06/25/rip-volvo-goodbye-old-man/feed/ 53 http://thevoraciousvegan.com/2010/06/09/to-raw-or-not-to-raw/ http://thevoraciousvegan.com/2010/06/09/to-raw-or-not-to-raw/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:05:17 +0000 thevoraciousvegan http://thevoraciousvegan.com/?p=1246 Hi everyone! In my last post it was so great to read where you all are located in the world. Seems we’ve got people just about everywhere – how cool is that!?!?!

Before I get started with today’s post I just wanted to let you all know about a change to my [...]]]> Hi everyone! In my last post it was so great to read where you all are located in the world. Seems we’ve got people just about everywhere – how cool is that!?!?!

Before I get started with today’s post I just wanted to let you all know about a change to my blog. If you look at the linkbar above you will see that Voracious Bakery is no more and has been replaced with my Recipe Index. It contains all of my recipes that have been published here on VV, I hope you enjoy! I know it helps me remember things that I’ve made before and it reveals just how much I like soups, the word ‘cheezy’, and desserts galore! Check it out.

Yes, as you probably figured out, I decided to stop Voracious Bakery. While there was a huge demand for vegan treats (more than I could comfortably keep up with most of the time) I just found that I was not happy baking for money. Whipping up cookies and cakes for family and friends is a source of endless pleasure for me, but once I added customers and money to the mix it just sucked the joy right out of it.

It also took away all of my writing and activism time, something I was not willing to part with. I tried to keep going for several months because I felt bad letting people down and I wanted to provide cruelty free treats for everyone to enjoy, but I just couldn’t balance my writing schedule with baking for pay, and trying to have a life with my family and animal herd. I feel that my time is much better utilized cooking for fun, and writing and agitating for a living.

So, I decided to close down shop….and I’m really okay with that. Writing and activism is my passion, baking for money is not. Now, if people still call or email me with an order I let them know the news and I give them the recipe of whatever it was they had wanted to order. You know what they say, give a man a vegan cake and he feasts for a day, teach a man how to cook his own vegan cake and he feasts for a lifetime.

And now on to today’s post – To Raw, or Not to Raw?

A reader (Hi Lynne!) recently asked my thoughts on raw foods and a raw food diet. I thought instead of just answering her directly, I would share my thoughts with all of you and hopefully start a great conversation about the topic.

As you all know I love raw foods, I adore my crunchy salads, and raw nut pates, and I couldn’t start my day without a delicious green smoothie. But you also know that I love my burgers and my ice cream, not to mention potato chips and pasta. As you see below, my food is sometimes raw, sometimes not, a nice healthy and tasty mix of delicious food that fuels my body and keeps me happy.

Breakfast is almost always a green smoothie, it is light enough for me to stomach first thing in the morning and has just enough fuel to get me through my morning work out. Plus, they taste divine!

Lunch might be a big snack plate filled with fresh veggies and fruit, some crackers with avocado dip and nut pate. You know me, I love my snackplates!

Or sometimes, lunch might look a lot like this…

This is my favorite lunch lately, and isn’t it beautiful? A big veggie salad, with a rice, bean, and veggie burrito topped with lots of avocado and hot sauce, with another tortilla packed with lots of vegan butter. Yum doesn’t even begin to cover it.

And sometimes lunch can look like this…

A black bean and veggie infused batch of mac & no cheese! You just can’t get any better than a creamy dreamy cheezy pasta sauce, can you?

And dinner is always something tasty that Cody and I can linger over. So it’s got to be good, raw or not!

Creamy Cheezy Curry Cauliflower and Carrot Soup always makes a great dinner. It might sound a little crazy, but I assure you it is delicious!

But dinner could also be….

A raw veggie wrap with a side of sea salt coated edamame! This is always one of my favorites. Why is it that when you wrap something up it elevates the tastiness exponentially? I don’t know, I’ve never been any good at math, but I do know it is a fact!

You will also see this on my dinner plate…

Chicken Fried Seitan! Oh it does not get any more meaty than this. Omnivores refuse to believe that this isn’t real chicken! Honestly, it is THAT realistic and yummy!

And we can’t forget dessert! Here are some of my favorites -

Autumn Spice Pumpkin Cookies are delicious any time of year. I adore using pumpkin in desserts, and these have the subtly sweet and cakey texture that I just love.

But raw food makes delicious treats too!

Raw Chocolate Cake! Rich and decadent and oh so tremendously good. Who said raw food can’t be beautiful?

But we can’t forget…

Royal Fig Cheesecake with Balsamic Reduction!

My most glamorous dessert, and the flavor is complex and addicting!

Whew! A whirlwind tour of what my daily eats might look like.

As you see, I get plenty of both cooked and raw foods, and that is what makes me feel the best. I don’t plan the amounts or stress out about getting enough of this or that. I always eat exactly what I want, when I want it and it works out to make me feel great.

When I first discovered raw foods last summer I made a conscious effort to add more of them to my diet as an experiment to see how I would feel. During that time I realized how much I adored green smoothies and green juices, I fell in love with nut cheeses and really enjoyed always having a giant raw veggie salad on hand. I was happily eating raw all day until dinner, when I would have cooked beans and veggies, with some kind of whole grain. I didn’t notice any huge changes eating more raw foods, I felt happy and healthy and full of energy, but that wasn’t too much different than I normally felt.

After a while I got so caught up in experimenting with raw foods and new uncooking techniques that I found myself forgoing my large, cooked dinner and going for days at a time eating nothing but raw foods. Raw foods are delicious and are so much fun to prepare and to eat, the shift in my diet wasn’t conscious or planned, it was just a fun experiment that became part of my daily routine. Then the days with no cooked dinners became entire weeks of no cooked dinners where I was eating almost entirely raw foods, 75% or more of the time.

That was when I noticed the real change.

I felt miserable. I was exhausted and weak and constantly hungry. My usual daily hour at the gym became unbearable and I wasn’t sleeping well at night.  I also started dropping weight, just a few pounds, but definitely not what I wanted and not what was best for my health. The change to a mostly raw diet had happened so gradually that at first I couldn’t even figure out what was wrong.

When it dawned on me what the cause was, I eagerly added back in healthy cooked foods like whole grains, beans, rice, and the improvement was immediate. I felt like my body had energy and power once again. I could crank out an hour at the gym without thinking twice, I wasn’t constantly starving and lightheaded, I just felt better. I hadn’t missed the taste of cooked foods too much because raw foods are so delicious, but my body had desperately missed the amount of calories and energy that I can only get by consuming cooked food.

Now, I would say I eat about 25% – 50% raw on a given day, but I never let myself get so carried away enjoying the taste of raw food that I forget to include lots of cooked foods too. Whenever I don’t eat my whole grains and beans I feel absolutely physically and mentally wrecked. I have found that any higher than 50% max raw food leads to a decrease in my energy, mental clarity, and strength. Without cooked foods I felt like it was impossible for me to get enough calories to support the strenuous, active lifestyle that I want to live.

I want to make it very clear that my thoughts on raw foods are in no way universal, my experience is not the same one that everyone has. While I personally do not think a 100% raw foods diet is the optimum for most people, and I know it isn’t the right one for me, there are some people who thrive on only raw foods and credit raw food for their health and wellness. I know people who eat a predominantly raw, plant based diet and are shining with health and fitness.

It is my belief that the human body evolved  to function on lots of raw foods, as well as cooked foods like grains and beans. (This flexibility is one reason we were able to succeed as a species, and our ability to eat cooked food is one of the main reasons we were able to spread out around the globe and thrive in a variety of climates.) There are some vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients that are best found in raw foods, and then there are others that are best found in cooked foods.

I think it is clear that a healthy mix of both cooked and raw is the best for me, something I discovered by never forcing myself to adhere to any kind of diet and by always first and foremost listening to what my body wants. I think this is why it is so important never to get caught up in food and diet fads without checking in with our own feelings and health. Just because someone else wants to eat all raw, high raw, no raw, or high protein, low protein, whatever, doesn’t mean it will be right for me. My own body knows best, I just have to listen.

Eating raw foods is ultimately up to you as an individual, there is no moral imperative like there is with veganism. I do think most people could benefit from adding more raw products into their diets, like I did with salads and green juices, but I do caution against going too far or forcing yourself into an rigid diet that is ultimately detrimental to your health – whether that means all raw or no raw. This all comes back to intuitive eating. When we really listen to our bodies, we can’t go wrong. The signals are loud and clear, and I have found that when I listen and give my body what it needs, I’ll always feel my best.

Now, it’s your turn! In the comments let me know what you think about the raw food diet. How much, or how little, raw food do you eat?

Actually, where in the world are you? It might be fun to find out how scattered across the globe we all are – leave a comment saying what country you are in, and what country [...]]]> Hello all of you lovely people! I hope you are having a great day, wherever in the world you are.

Actually, where in the world are you? It might be fun to find out how scattered across the globe we all are – leave a comment saying what country you are in, and what country you are from!

Things here in the Land of Sand are peachy keen, except for this heat. It is much hotter, much sooner, than it was last year. We are already up to 118F with a hefty helping of humidity. This weather means I’m trapped inside all day long, only venturing outside to walk the dogs, hike, or ride my horse in the early morning or late evening. And it is only June which means there is 4 more months of this to go!

Even though we are trapped inside, our Insanity workouts are still going strong! You know what’s even crazier? I’m just adding them on to my regular workout schedule! Let’s see if I can take it. All this Insanity means I need lots of yummy food to power me through the day. Here is what I’ve been noshing -

Breakfast – I have a green smoothie almost every day. It is hearty enough to get me through my workout that follows my morning meal, but light enough not to weigh me down. I blend up chard with bananas, frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries, with enough soy or rice milk to smooth it out. Always yummy!

While sipping on breakfast I start my day by reading and answering all my emails and getting my work plan started for the day. Lately I have been getting so many hateful and ugly comments on my blog I just can’t believe it.

Of course, I instantly delete them and I have trained myself never to take the bait and respond, no matter how badly I want to. I used to think I should reply to every message and maybe be a good advocate for veganism, or feminism, but I have finally come to realize that if people start out the exchange by spewing hateful idiocy, then they will never be reached by anything I say.

Why people waste the time to leave half coherent poorly thought out criticisms of the way I look, my feminist ethics, or my vegan food, I will never know. Folks, if you don’t like what you see here, move along – click away!

After sifting through my mail and slurping away on my green smoothie I skedaddled to the gym and spent 20 minutes on the treadmill loosening up – Insanity has my muscles so tight – before moving onto 20 minutes on the elliptical (my favorite!) and 20 minutes on the summit climber. It was one of those great days where I could really push myself to my absolute limit and still feel strong and energetic. Love those!

Lunch – Remember that yummy cilantro and lime tofu I made the other day? Well, I piled the leftovers on toast with lots of vegan mayo and spicy mustard and I was in sandwich heaven. For some reason, bread and mustard and mayo makes everything even better! I really loved this simple meal!

In the afternoon I picked back up my writing work and got a few articles polished and finished up. While starting a piece is difficult, sometimes finishing them is even harder! I am always so reluctant to send them off to be published because I keep thinking I can make them just a little bit better. I passed the time while agonizing for ages over tiny differences in grammar or word choice by munching on a snack plate that looked a little something like this -

After enjoying my snack of spicy cashews, sundried tomato pesto, bell peppers, zucchini and orange slices I was feeling much more relaxed and mellow. I called it quits on my writing for the day and waited eagerly for Cody to get home so we could continue our Insanity workouts.

Insanity is CRAZY! All the hopping and bouncing and jumping and leaping gets my heart pounding and turns my legs into pure jell-o. I love love love this workout series; it is motivating and a lot of fun. You also don’t need any weights or special equipment, just some room to groove. Have you tried the Insanity workouts yet? How much do you love them?

After we wrapped up our workout and caught our breath we took our unruly dingo herd for our usual 45+ minute walk. This time we stuck close to our neighborhood, after all the excercise we weren’t sure we could make it too far! Polly and Lobi (our little dogs) love our daily walks, but Jack (our young, big dog) needs them for his sanity. He is almost 4 years old now but is still in puppy mode mentally, and if he didn’t get his daily constitutional he might pop!

Dinner – was a pot of pinto beans that I had been simmering away for about 4 hours with lots of onions and garlic. I love beans. They are so cheap and easy to make, super healthy, and always delicious. I like mine with a lot of broth, that is my favorite part! I also had some roasted broccoli (broccoli is magical when roasted) and some of my dad’s fresh baked rosemary garlic bread. Ohhhh soooo gooood!

Dessert – Peanut Butter Bombshell Ice Cream from Bittersweet’s e-book A la Mode.

There are no words. None. Not even one that could possibly describe the immense perfection of this ice cream. It is a scientifically proven fact that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is the best thing on earth and this ice cream marries the two perfectly. The taste is amazing – salty and super sweet, a rich peanut butter caramel flavor spiked with lots of dark chocolate chunks.

But the texture, oh the texture. I omitted the peanuts that the recipe calls for because I knew I wanted it as luscious as possible – jackpot! This ice cream is my favorite EVER because of the soft, rich texture, more like a very firm frozen yogurt than an ice cream. I never like ice cream that has ice crystals or is too hard, so this soft and rich, almost chewy consistency was PERFECT for me.

I have to go have another bowl right now…..

Yesterday morning started like any other, with a refreshing and invigorating green juice and two pieces of toast. The juice had lots of chard, 2 apples, a big carrot, [...]]]> Thursday and Friday are the weekend here in Saudi Arabia and Cody and I decided we were going to spend this one doing something a little different.

Yesterday morning started like any other, with a refreshing and invigorating green juice and two pieces of toast. The juice had lots of chard, 2 apples, a big carrot, a couple celery stalks, a hunk of ginger, and a cucumber. Looks like a normal way to start the day, right?

Well, after breakfast is when things got a little….insane.

Yesterday Cody and I started the Insanity workouts – and they are everything I hoped they would be. After hearing a lot of buzz around the blogosphere I was so excited to give these a try. This workout series is supposed to be tough, brutal, and excruciating, something no workout dvd I’ve ever done has managed to be.

Insanity is a 60 day program of 10 different workouts that you follow according to the given schedule. According to the website:

“The secret to these mind-blowing results: MAX Interval Training.  Shaun T took traditional interval training and flipped it on its head—you perform long bursts of maximum-intensity exercises with short periods of rest. Each workout keeps you constantly challenged as you alternate between aerobic and anaerobic intervals performed at your MAX. The results: burn up to 1,000 calories an hour and get the most insane body in only 60 days.”

You all know I love to workout. I spend an hour a day at the gym, 6 days a week, on top of all the bike riding, dog walking, and horse riding I do. But falling into a routine can be a real drag and it makes me feel less than motivated. I have also known that I was plateauing – I had reached a pretty comfortable limit and I wanted to bust out of that rut. Enter Insanity…I had heard that professional athletes were having trouble coping with the workouts, that it was the hardest thing ever put on dvd. I knew I had to try it!

Yesterday we did the fit test, a quick 30 minute workout designed to let you gauge your fitness level. You retake the fit test every 2 weeks so you can see yourself improving. Well, this fit test was a pretty tough workout all on its own.

The thing about Insanity is that it is largely based on plyometric movements; fast, explosive, jumping movements that crank up your heart rate and use all the muscles in your body. Doing just a few minutes of the routine got my heart pounding like an entire hour on the treadmill never does.

After that rigorous workout, which was technically only a fit test, we needed fuel fast! And what better than complex carbs and some tasty protein?

Rice, Bean and Veggie Burritos with a big fresh salad to the rescue! I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture, but I assure you it was identical to this meal:

After an afternoon spend reading and writing and an evening spent at the stables with my sweet boy Ender, I came home and settled down to movie night and a pile of tasty sushi and edamame.

We watched Blade Runner – stunning visuals, gorgeous music, but the story line was a little bland and it lacked the depth that I really wanted. I’m a sci-fi junkie and I expected more. But the sushi was just as delicious as always!

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Day 2 of our Insanity madness began with a green smoothie, filled with bananas, chard, frozen strawberries, and rice milk. Always my favorite breakfast!

After letting our food digest it was on to our second day of Insanity with 45 minutes of plyometric circuit training.

Whoa.

WHOA.

I can’t even tell you how ridiculously hard this workout was – I loved it! Sure, I had to stop and gasp for air a few times (having excercise induced asthma is a pain), and I chugged more than a little water, and some foul language might have escaped from my lips, but it was GREAT!

Wow, what a workout. There is little that can compare to the cardio workout we received today, plus it was coupled with strength building moves that left me feeling weak and shaky and totally wrung out. This was exactly what I was looking for. (And no, I am not in any way recieving anything for my review of Insanity, they don’t even know I exist! I bought this on my own and am gushing about it because I really do love it.)

And the host and creator of the program, Shaun T, is an absolute doll. A lot of times workout dvds get on my nerves because the host is obnoxious. Well, not with Shaun T. He is so high energy, and encouraging, and funny, and really inspiring – love him. I want to bake him some vegan cupcakes.

Also, as we were working out, our cat Twilah plopped down right in front of us and watched us in horror and concern for the entire 45 minutes. Cats just don’t get working out.

As you can imagine, after a workout like that I was desperate for, what else – burritos! With a side of roasted broccoli. Oh yum.

We spent the afternoon recuperating, reading, dingo cuddling, and relaxing, before heading out to the stables in the evening.

So, these pictures have nothing to do with vegan food, or Insanity workouts, but I love my boy Ender SO much I just had to share his cuteness with you. Hope you don’t mind!

He looks so calm in these photos, but believe me, he is not. Imagine hanging out with and riding a volcano, or a lightning bolt on speed! But he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, he always means well, and he is super friendly and very outgoing. He also has the biggest heart and the silliest personality – I adore this horse.

(If you want to read more about Ender and about how and why I am a horse riding vegan, please check out this post.)

Ender lives for his food, it is the center of his world, and he especially loves all the tasty treats I give him. His favorites are apples, carrots, and watermelon. He would follow you to the ends of the earth for some watermelon!

Has there ever in the history of time been a softer, more velvet-like quilt of a nose? I don’t think so. Oh his sweet snuffly carrot scented kisses really do make my heart skip a beat. How can he be so perfect? I’m giddy just thinking about him.

Riding Ender after a morning of Insanity was over the top craziness, my legs were screaming when we came home from the stables. I needed sustenance and I needed it NOW!

Inspired by Heathen Vegan’s latest post of cilantro and lime tofu, I blended up some cilantro, garlic, fresh ginger, lime zest and lime juice, olive oil and salt, marinated the tofu in it for an hour and then baked it till it was chewy. Then I piled it on top of a quick and tasty brown rice and veggie stir-fry.

It was just the thing I needed. The flavor combination of lime and cilantro is so fresh and summery, I’m thinking of making it into a salad dressing. How great would that be?

Alright, guys and gals, I’m outta here. These sore and aching muscles need some rest and I’ve got some dingos who need cuddling.

And of course, lots of dark chocolate that needs to be devoured….didn’t you know it’s the perfect workout recovery food???

This series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there to check it out!

And so begins day four of my World Hunger journey. I awoke this morning from a very heavy sleep, a sleep that had taken me longer than usual to achieve. It seems that mimicking the diet [...]]]>

This series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there to check it out!

And so begins day four of my World Hunger journey. I awoke this morning from a very heavy sleep, a sleep that had taken me longer than usual to achieve. It seems that mimicking the diet of the world’s hungriest people and eating less than 1,000 calories a day leaves me exhausted all the time, in a strange twist it also renders me unable to sleep. In fact, last night after dinner I felt wired and jittery, bursting with energy, a strange contrast to the listless and groggy feeling I had experienced all day. Now that I am awake, it is all I can do to keep my eyes from drifting shut as I write today’s post exploring the causes of hunger and poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the need to recognize food as a human right.

Just as my body and energy levels seem off kilter, my thoughts are also disjointed and sluggish. I find myself losing track of what I’m doing and just gazing off into the distance, eyes unfocused, and my brain at a standstill. Trying to regroup and refocus seems to take an extraordinary effort and I usually give up and put my head down on my desk for a few minutes. The ability to craft just one coherent sentence eludes me and I wonder if anything I’m writing makes sense. Words bunch and jumble on the page as my eyes slowly inch shut, sleep seems so easy now. It’s hard to believe I’m this tired after only four days of this journey and I live a soft life, with an air conditioned, comfortable house, no children to take care of, and no manual labor to perform. If I can barely stay awake while sitting on the couch reading a book, it is inconceivable to me how people eat this little and work all day, every day. It is not fair that I have lived the life that I have; I did nothing to deserve this luxury, just as millions of people do not deserve their hardship. As always, the same thought rings endlessly through my head: It does not have to be like this.

It feels almost futile to try to cover a topic like world hunger in seven days, let alone the hunger in South America and the Caribbean in one post. I could spend weeks analyzing and writing about chronic hunger and poverty in any one country and I worry that I’m doing a disservice by trying to wrap up whole swathes of the globe in a few short articles. The problem with chronic hunger is it is growing around the world, but it is especially severe in Latin American and the Caribbean where 53 million people face food insecurity and 40 percent of the region’s population lives in poverty. Latin America faces the largest wealth inequality in the world and has experienced some of the worst effects of neo-liberal restructuring and the insistent destruction of ‘free’-trade globalization. Through actions that Naomi Klein refers to as ‘shock therapy’, Latin America has seen its democratically elected leaders undermined or overthrown, its social policies eviscerated, and its economies plunged into a tailspin of instability. Perhaps it is because of this unique history as the test subject for many of the West’s harshest ‘free’-market experiments, that this region of the world continues to create unique strategies for dealing with their poverty. I wrote in a previous article that one of the reasons for the current state of global food insecurity is the misguided policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In this article, I would like to cover some of Latin American’s political economic history that led to this food insecurity.

As Naomi Klein illustrates so clearly in her book The Shock Doctrine, the nation of Chile was one of the first casualties in the neo-liberal restructuring experiments carried about by the United States. In 1973, after many decades of peaceful democratic rule, Chile underwent the so-called ‘Chicago School Revolution’ that ended in the death of the Socialist President Salvador Allende and the beginning of the brutal regime of Dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Advised by the American economist Milton Friedman and without the support of the Chilean people, for the next 16 years General Pinochet adhered to neo-liberal dogma and decentralized and dismantled the nation of Chile by privatizing social programs, liberalizing trade, deregulating the financial market, curtailing or eliminating trade unions, and overhauling the country’s laws and constitution. Chile experienced drastic instability, plunging between periods of growth and extreme loss, before settling on a course of almost non-existent growth, the slowest of any Latin American country. Inflation reached 375 percent, almost double the level experienced under Allende, while income inequality grew to out of control levels. Chilean workers in 1989 ended up earning even less than workers did in 1973, after adjusting for inflation. The people of the country were given no say in any of this, as wide spread state sponsored brutality silenced all dissent.

Similar strategies were underway in varying degrees throughout many countries in Latin America. In Uruguay the military staged a coup in 1973 and the subsequent adoption of neo-liberal tactics guided by American economists saw real wages drop 28 percent, and the number of people living in extreme poverty soar.

Argentina’s new junta followed suit soon after, eliminating financial market regulations, opening up the economy to foreign investors, lifting price controls, limiting social programs and banning union strikes. Within a year the results were undeniable: wages lost 40 percent of their value, factories shut down and poverty increased. Before these policies began Argentina had less people living in poverty than in the U.S. or France. After the disastrous effects of the newly adopted strategies had taken their toll, the country slid backwards and dragged it’s citizens into the grip of extreme poverty.

In 1985, in a move completely opposed by the people, the government of Bolivia implemented catastrophic changes to the country’s economy. They eliminated food subsidies, canceled price controls, froze government wages, cut government spending, downsized state run companies, and opened the borders to unrestricted imports. The results were devastating: inflation was brought under control, just as they had hoped, but at the same time the unemployment rate increased 10 percent, real wages dropped 40 percent, and tens of thousands of people lost their job security and pensions.

During the 1980’s when U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker raised U.S. interest rates, developing nations in Latin America (and throughout the world) that had been saddled with huge debts saw their economies crumble as their inability to repay their loans demolished what little stability they had. Brazil, in particular, was hit hard and their debt exploded from $50 billion to $100 billion in just six years, which was one of the precipitating factors in the inevitable collapse of the Brazilian economy. In the Caribbean, after decades of U.S. supported dictatorship by the Duvaliers, Haiti went from being a self-sustaining rice exporter to a rice importer, and became one of the poorest nations in the world.

The effects of this instability, economic restructuring, and social upheaval lasts for a long time and are not mitigated by short term improvements, or superficial changes. Crises of this magnitude etch deeply into a nations’ ability to thrive, and leave them vulnerable to predation from powerful multinational corporations. In Uruguay today 33 percent of the population lives in poverty, while eight percent live in extreme poverty. As of 2007, 23.4 percent of Argentina’s population was living below the poverty line. Brazil has one of the largest income gap disparities in the world; the poor are incredibly impoverished while the rich are astronomically wealthy. Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, with 2/3 of its population living below the poverty line. 2.4 million Haitians face food insecurity, and their country is now filled with sweatshops, providing slave labor for the West, while they owe over a billion dollars in debt. In a world flush with food, millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean are going hungry because they are too poor to afford their share.

Efforts to combat food insecurity in the region are unique and wide ranging, but one emerging trend is the recognition of food as a human right. Food as a human right means that all individuals have the right to feed themselves and their families; not just ‘be fed’. Access to food should not be seen as a privilege or charity, but as an inalienable right. The right to food is intrinsically linked to other basic rights such as the right to health care, education, social security and work. It is important to understand that meeting a person’s biological need for food is different than honoring their right to food.

The people in many Latin American countries are putting their belief in food as a human right into action. In 2008, with a referendum vote of 64 percent of the population, Ecuador established food sovereignty in their constitution. The people have the right to good living and an environment kept healthy to guarantee the right to food. The Ecuadorian government is supposed to support this right by providing food aid when food prices rise, and by supporting small and medium farmers in sustainable development. It has also committed to transforming the national food system by introducing organic and sustainable technologies, promoting eco-friendly practices, and implementing fiscal strategies to protect the national economy from food import dependency. They have also banned the use of biotechnology and genetically modified seeds deemed harmful to human and environmental health, and have declared their land free of genetically engineered crops and seeds.

“Food Sovereignty constitutes an objective and strategic obligation from the State to guarantee its people, communities, pueblos and nationalities self-sufficiency in healthy food, culturally appropriate in a permanent form.” ~ Translation of the Ecuadorian Constitution

Brazil, under the leadership of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in 2003 implemented the Zero Hunger Plan. The plan is designed to combat poverty and hunger by providing food aid, literacy training and family farming incentives to the poorest Brazilians. Hunger in Brazil is especially egregious because the country is one of the top five food producers in the world. The Zero Hunger Plan has seen considerable success, with child malnutrition and mortality rates dropping throughout the country. The plan is not without its flaws, but most agree it is a significant step in the right direction as a move towards broad based structural development, as opposed to merely food aid. On February 3, 2010 the Brazilian Congress approved the Constitutional Amendment Project which will include the right to food as a fundamental right in the national constitution, alongside the already included rights to work, health, education, and social security.

International civil society and more than 120 states recognize the right to food as a basic human right, however most countries do nothing to honor this fact. Food is not generally viewed as a necessity for life, but as a commodity, something that is available only for those who can afford it. In most countries, when people are starving and unable to afford food, it is not seen as a failing of their country or government, but as a fact of life that should only be addressed by charitable giving. Viewing food as a commodity and not as a right allows the status quo to stay in place and does nothing to address the fundamental problem of hunger. Incorporating the recognition of the human right to food into existing strategies combating world hunger is vital to the movement’s longevity and reach.

In an effort to share knowledge and experience and create a global movement towards food as a human right, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations maintains a database collecting the national strategies being implemented by people in various countries in their struggle to gain the right to food.

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“When we create a food system that relies on heavy inputs of pesticides and fertilizers and depletes the soil and the water, making it more difficult for small farmers to raise crops, that undermines the right to food. When we make it more difficult for farmers to save their own seeds for a new year, that undermines the right to food. When small, local farms fail and we don’t think about increasing the capacity of communities to grow their own food, that undermines the right to food. When we try not to think about those who are struggling and how to change the social inequalities and systemic problems that lead to lack of food, that undermines the right to food.” ~ Tricia Edgar

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Life and Debt – a wonderful documentary examining the effects International Monetary Fund policy has had on the Caribbean nation of Jamaica. I highly recommend this film to everyone I know, as one of the best of its kind.

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I keep returning to the same fact throughout this journey: there is more than enough food for everyone. This thought has been on permanent repeat in my mind. That 1.2 billion people are struggling to find food to live, in a world that produces more than enough for everyone, breaks my heart every time. The fact that so many people know this and do nothing saddens me. The fact that for so long I have known this and done nothing angers me.

I feel absolutely worn down after only four days on this diet and sometimes I wonder if I can even continue for another day, let alone three more. I truly have no idea how Kenda managed for 21 days. It still seems hard to believe that 1 out of 6 people feel like this every single day. It actually seems surreal. I compare this feeling to what I experienced when I first became vegan, several years ago. I had the sensation of wanting to scream my new-found knowledge from the rooftops, to shake everyone I met by the shoulders, and demand they listen to the truth. That so much pain and suffering was occurring on such a monumental scale, and people were not rebelling against it in droves, blew my mind. This journey into world hunger feels the same way. How can the world be so divided, and how can those of us who are well off be so silent? This afternoon as I flipped through the channels on the T.V. I came across the Food Network, an entire channel devoted to celebrating food and the pleasure of eating. It made my skin crawl to realize I couldn’t even remember the last time I had heard world hunger mentioned on the news.

Today was filled with ups and downs, highs and lows that were both emotional and physical. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with helplessness that I couldn’t feed every single child dying this very minute from hunger. Minutes later I would feel invigorated by the prospect of change, of the true, sustainable transformation of our global food industry that so many people are fighting for right now. Hours of exhaustion spent sprawled on the couch were punctuated by frenetic periods of activity and energy. All of this, of course, was framed by my constant watching of the clock. I could not wait until dinner.

The meal I made tonight might just be my favorite one yet. A simple dish containing many Latin American staples, it was filling and scrumptious, although, I ate it so fast on an empty stomach that the initial pleasure it provided has now faded to a dull belly ache. It had rice, black beans, an onion, a tomato, a small piece of avocado (my favorite!), and olive oil.

Total Calories: 1,078
Total Fat: 47.3
Total Carbohydrates: 139.9
Total Protein: 25.2

Further reading on the topic of globalization:

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Globalization and its Discontents by Saskia Sassen
The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger
Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz
A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

If you would like to help in the fight against world hunger please spread the word about this Souljourn, we are trying to build a movement! If you would like to join in, let us know!

You can also donate to Food for Life and International Fund for Africa, they are both 100% vegan organizations dedicated to ending poverty and chronic hunger while spreading the benefits of a cruelty free vegan diet.

Thank you to BookPubCo for their support!

This series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there to check it out!

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It is day 2 of my 7 day Souljourn for World Hunger, where I am going hungry in honor of the 1.2 billion chronically undernourished people in the world. To read about [...]]]>

This series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there to check it out!

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It is day 2 of my 7 day Souljourn for World Hunger, where I am going hungry in honor of the 1.2 billion chronically undernourished people in the world. To read about Day 1 of my journey please click here.

I woke up this morning with a dull head ache, already dreading the thought of having to go an entire day before I could eat. The one meal I ate yesterday evening barely kept me full until I collapsed into bed a few hours later. Through the night any semblance of satiety evaporated and I wake up to a stomach clamoring for food, hands too shaky to lift my hairbrush. The thought of sitting in my home-office, just a few steps from the kitchen all day long, without making my usual half dozen or so trips to the fridge or pantry seemed unbelievable.

Morning is usually my favorite time of day, everything seems bright and the potential of what could be accomplished always makes me smile. But not today. Today the only thing I can focus on is how many hours until I can eat. When I send an email I think about eating, when I answer the phone I think about eating, when I take the dogs for a walk I think about eating. I cannot imagine living like this for an entire lifetime, haunted by the idea of food every second of the day. I’ve thought about food so much over the past day the word has almost lost its meaning. How is it possible that we live in such a divided world? Why is it that some people are so saturated with food, food to eat, food on tv, food in magazines, food in books, that they completely take it for granted, while other people are besieged by food because of its absence?

The 1.2 billion women, men, and children who are suffering from chronic hunger right now live in a world with an abundance of food. This fact makes my head spin. The world produces 17% more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, in spite of a 70% rise in population, and yet 35,000 people will die today from hunger related causes because they are not able to have their share. The fact is chronic hunger is not caused by a lack of food, it is caused by poverty.

In our world this poverty is not a rare condition, it is, in fact, the norm for most of humanity. Almost ½ of our planet, 3 billion people, live on less than $2.00 a day. 1 out of every 2 children alive today exist in poverty, 640 million people (that is twice the population of the United States) live without adequate shelter, 400 million people have no access to safe water, and 270 million people have no access to health services.

In many cases this poverty is not an aberration or an unfortunate tragedy; it is a central requirement of our global system dominated by ‘free’ market capitalism. This system is often referred to as ‘globalization’ and is premised on ever expanding markets, cheap raw materials, and even cheaper labor, and it thrives on the exploitation of the weak and the powerless. In a world with finite resources the only way some people can be very, very rich, is if other people are very, very poor.

Developed nations, led by the US through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund under the banner of ‘freedom’, have forced devastating economic policies on countries too underdeveloped and powerless to resist. The central tenets of these neo-imperialist strategies are fiscal austerity, privatization and financial liberalization. These policies benefit the industrialized nations while sending the recipient nation into a tailspin of skyrocketing debt, crumbling infrastructure, and eviscerated social programs, all while creating an insurmountable wealth gap between the rich and the poor. These policies also form one of the main causes of poverty and chronic hunger.

Whether through political force, the threat of economic sanctions, or military might, the US forces weaker nations to accept these policies and open up their economy to the global market, all in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘development’. These poorer countries are not allowed to protect or subsidize their fledgling industries which inevitably collapse when faced with global competition. In an ultimate act of hypocrisy the US heavily subsidizes and protects its own industries, creating an imbalance of power that is overwhelming for nascent industries forced to compete on this unlevel playing field.

While the countries’ industries are put out of business and the workers put out of a job, these same IMF and WB policies require all social programs to be severely curtailed or eliminated entirely. The small safety net once relied upon by the poorest of the poor, like welfare, food subsidies, free schools or health care, is removed and the people most at risk are shoved into a total free fall, no jobs, no safety net, and no hope.

Countries that were once self-sufficient net food exporters are now forced to scrap the sustainable crops that were providing food for their citizens, to focus instead on growing cash crops for export in order to raise money to pay back their debts. This creates a situation where the farm land is used primarily to produce non-essential crops for rich, Western consumers, leaving the citizens unable to grow their own food and unable to afford the imported food in the stores. As desperation lowers the value of labor, investors flood into the country enticed by the lack of regulation, environmental protections, and investment retainer laws. The social situation in the country grows unstable, capital flows become volatile as the market price for raw materials fluctuates, investors grow uneasy as the situation spirals out of control and the money is quickly and easily pulled out of the country since the IMF forced all protectionist laws to be dismantled. Country after country has followed this pattern and has been left in shambles, the development policies failed, the economy collapsed, and burdened with massive debts to repay.

To add insult to injury these countries are required to repay the money that was loaned to them in the process of implementing these failed strategies, often with sky high interest attached. The citizens who were not given a say in whether or not they wanted these changes, suffer the brunt of their failings, and then are crippled with the burden of paying for them. This engineered catastrophe creates a cycle of poverty from which it is hard to escape. The bottom line is that food is always available to those who can afford it. Blaming drought or natural disasters for world hunger while overlooking the calculated poverty created for millions of people by coercive manmade policies allows the inequality and devastation to continue and flourish.

The Luckiest Nut in the World. This video is an easy to understand example of what I explained above. In a lighthearted way it describes the very serious way that the IMF and WB destroyed the economy of Senegal.

“Debt is an efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples’ raw materials and infrastructure on the cheapest possible terms. Dozens of countries must compete for shrinking export markets and can export only a limited range of products because of Northern protectionism and their lack of cash to invest in diversification. Market saturation ensues, reducing exporters’ income to a bare minimum while the North enjoys huge savings. The IMF cannot seem to understand that investing in … [a] healthy, well-fed, literate population … is the most intelligent economic choice a country can make.” Susan George, A Fate Worse than Debt

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To further understand the connection between our global economic system and poverty induced hunger I contacted my good friend Rosanna Barbero. Rosanna has spent the past 2 decades traveling the world as a development worker, feminist activist, and gender specialist with Oxfam. She was the founder/director of Womyn’s Agenda for Change in Cambodia and pioneered the Gender and Trade Mekong Network, and supported the establishment of the Women’s Network for Unity, a sex worker Union in Cambodia and one of the biggest grass-roots sex worker networks in the world. She has been a committee member for World Social Forums, the world’s largest anti-globalisation network, as well as an advocate against the IMF, WB and WTO, and a member of the Jubilee South Network.

How have globalization and ‘free’-market capitalism led to such an increasing amount of inequality and poverty in the world?

‘Free’-market simply means that corporations are free to go where they want and do whatever they want with no checks, accountability or regard for sovereign nations. The fundamentals of neo-liberal economics are privatization, de-regulation and liberalization. It removes all protectionism for nation states and pits them against the machinery of multi-nationals, local capitalism can not compete with the power and resources of these companies that are worth more than some economies of the nations of the global south. So, in short, with no hope or chance to develop, grow, or create the conditions that allows people to improve their life and livelihoods, nations become poorer as they sell off their natural resources and their service industry, and their people become impoverished and debt ridden like their nation, as they pay more for the essentials to sustain life. .

In the communities that you have worked with how have these ‘free’-market policies actually undermined the democracy and freedom they claim to encourage by forcing countries to enact strategies without the consent of the people?

Countries that I have worked in are poor and need loans, in order to be eligible for loans they are forced to develop what is called the PRSP’s, standard World Bank and International Monetary Fund poverty reduction strategy papers, which is exactly the blue print of the discredited SAP (structural adjustment program), a proven failure. The policy matrix of the PRSPs lists the reforms a country has to implement prior to receiving a loan. As part of these reforms and restructuring, it includes selling state owned enterprise, removing or reducing tariffs, tax breaks for foreign companies, reducing public services, privatizing educations (selling) and running health for profit and not for the welfare and wellbeing of a population. This is to satisfy the Bretton-woods institutions, which also monitor the progress of this process, and governments become accountable to the undemocratic, unelected WB and IMF and not to their people.

Can you describe how poverty and chronic hunger leads to the
disintegration of a community and creates a vicious cycle that can be hard to change?

A simple example is when a country like Cambodia, which had food security because most of its people lived off the land and grew enough variety to eat. In the case of a natural disaster they could withstand the period of loss of staple food by fishing and foraging for forest foods. Under the free market dogma, small farm holding gives way to large cash crop production, such as cashews, as an example. Farmers then compete for scarce land, they are sold new seed varieties, then fertilizer, pesticides, diesel, pumps, etc and go into debt. If the rice price of the food falls, they fall with it because they can not sell their crop, feed their family and pay back their debt. If there is a natural disaster they can not withstand it because of the debts. Or if there is an illness, they cannot cope because health care has been privatized and they can no longer afford it. It does not take long for a family to go into so much debt that they have to send a daughter or a son to find work in the city or neighboring countries. A girl child can often fall prey to predators that are looking for young women for the brothels. Given little choice and the dire need at home a girl child may agree to an unfavorable situation. The father and mother sell their labor seasonally to the plantation owners, and communities and families disintegrate. Young children are raised by old grandparents and generations are missing.

What do you say to those who claim that globalization has lifted
people out of poverty and improved the lives of the poor?

Where? For those that have been lifted out of poverty there are countless more that have entered poverty. Globalization has been good and beneficial for the capitalist and their compliant corrupt cronies.

Why do you think so many people in developed nations continue to believe that ‘free’-market capitalism and globalization is a good thing?

Because the propaganda touts the free market as the answer to all. The word free confuses people and people think it must be good because freedom is a good thing.

The IMF and WB have admitted that the SAPs of the past decades were largely misguided mistakes. Do you think their new individualistic approach will be an improvement?

There is no new individualistic approach, they are still using SAP (structural adjustment policy), it is the same policy matrix they have just given it a new name. Yet another trick, my dearest, to confuse everyone; look closely, it’s the same SAP.

(The problem of world hunger is complex and multilayered and while there are other causes of poverty and hunger, failed economic policies predominate, and are entirely manmade and therefore preventable. Another, and not entirely unrelated, cause of poverty is a countries’ reliance on the export of raw materials, which I will be examining in more depth tomorrow.)

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Dinner tonight was a meal inspired by the cuisine of Southern India; a dish of lentils and rice, with a sauteed onion, bell pepper, and one chopped tomato. The bit of cilantro and pinch of turmeric I added brightened everything up and added a nice touch. As hungry as I had been throughout the day I assumed I would tear through my entire portion, but halfway through I felt full. I struggled to finish the meal, knowing that my body needed the calories and the nourishment, and I didn’t want to be hungry in a few hours when I go to bed.

It is only day two and I already find that I am handling food differently. Whether it is chopping a carrot, or measuring out my portion of rice, I have noticed a certain quiet reverence seeping into my mind. I look at the food and think this is what sustains me, this is what keeps me alive. I am remembering all the times in my life when I wasted food and I cringe. The total calorie count for tonight’s dinner was a little over 1,000, less than half the amount of what I am recommended to eat in a day.

Total Calories: 1,081
Total Fat: 42.8
Total Carbohydrates: 147.5
Total Protein: 29.4

Sustainable giving programs dedicated to providing solutions that help eliminate poverty and world hunger.

• Trees for Life

• Fruit Tree Planting Foundation

• Women’s Bean Project

• Sustainable Harvest International

Plenty International

Further reading on this topic:

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Globalization and its Discontents by Saskia Sassen
The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger
Globalization and its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz
A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

If you would like to help in the fight against world hunger please spread the word about this Souljourn, we are trying to build a movement! If you would like to join in, let us know!

You can also donate to Food for Life and International Fund for Africa, they are both 100% vegan organizations dedicated to ending poverty and chronic hunger while spreading the benefits of a cruelty free vegan diet.

Thank you to BookPubCo for their support!

This Souljourn series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there and check it out!

***

For the next seven days I will be going hungry in honor of world hunger and the 1.2 billion women, men, and children who are chronically undernourished. Inspired by [...]]]>

This Souljourn series is also being posted at The Conducive Chronicle. Please head over there and check it out!

***

For the next seven days I will be going hungry in honor of world hunger and the 1.2 billion women, men, and children who are chronically undernourished. Inspired by Kenda Swartz Pepper’s recent experience I will explore, examine, and bring attention to the topic of world hunger by going on a Souljourn.

Souljourn – A mental journey undertaken with great care and consideration to learn and grow as a person and ultimately become a better denizen of Earth. A time to reflect, reevaluate, and make changes or sacrifices to live our lives to the fullest, and reaffirm our commitment to making the world a more peaceful and equitable home for all.

As I research the myriad causes and potential solutions to the devastating phenomenon of chronic hunger, I will eat the staple foods of the regions hardest hit by food insecurity and concentrate my daily allotment of less than 1,000 calories into one evening meal to adhere to the typical habits of those afflicted with hunger.

***

Hunger. I know what the word means, but when I think back over my life I’m not sure I’ve ever really experienced it. Of course, there have been times when my stomach was growling and I couldn’t wait for my next meal, but honest, real, long term hunger? Not once. I’ve never even gone on a diet. The concept of going without food makes me nervous, scared even. In the food blogging world I’m know as The Voracious Vegan and I’m used to thinking about food, writing about food, and eating food all day long. On my website I share my delicious vegan recipes with the world while promoting a joyful, guilt-free approach to enjoying food. I also run a small vegan bakery, Voracious, where I craft cupcakes, pies, and cookies for the routine celebrations of life. To me food has been a lot of things, joy, comfort, and nourishment, but never something to worry about. Its presence was never questioned; it was something assumed, a fact of life that would always be there.

For the next 7 days as I mimic the diet of the world’s hungry, I expect to experience hunger and discomfort, but I am not kidding myself. Nothing I do or feel could ever come close to what those who are truly suffering from hunger go through. At any time I can put a stop to this journey, walk into my kitchen, and eat. So, while I am nervous about what I will feel, this experience is created by me, and ultimately I am in control. I have a choice. I can say no and stop it at any time. For that reason alone this Souljourn can never be more than a mere shadow, a vague hypothesis, of what true, chronic, no end in sight hunger actually feels like.

World hunger has been something that I knew about in only the most esoteric ways, an article or two here, a book or documentary there. The magnitude of the problem has always paralyzed me, the causes and solutions so complex and multilayered I didn’t even know where to begin. The numbers alone are almost too large for my mind to comprehend. There are 1.2 billion people living with hunger right now. That means 1 out of every 6 human beings alive does not have enough food to eat. 16% of all humans do not have adequate food to keep themselves healthy, to meet their basic biological needs for life. This lack of food results in the death of millions of people every year, simply because they  have no food.

This chronic hunger is not caused by famine or lack of food; in fact we grow more than enough food to sustain everyone. According to Food First, our planet produces enough for each person on earth to have 4.3 pounds of food every day; 2.3 lbs of grains, beans, and nuts, 1 lb of fruits and vegetables, and 1 lb of meat, eggs, and dairy products. That is more than 3,200 calories per person per day, a generous amount of food that everyone could survive on. And despite what many people think, emergencies account for less than 8% of hunger’s victims. Chronic hunger is therefore not a matter of lack of food or natural disasters; it is a matter of unequal and unfair distribution of food. Some people can afford to buy food and they have so much they end up throwing tons of it away every year. Other people cannot afford to buy food and they suffer and starve. Some of us have too much, while others have nothing at all. I will explore one of the reasons our world got to this point of drastic inequality in tomorrow’s post.

I woke up this morning and tried to avoid the kitchen. I planned to power through my work, thinking that if I kept myself occupied I would be too busy to think about food. Oh, how wrong I was. The hunger was only slight and intermittent; my desire to eat more out of habit than anything else. But it was persistent. For nearly 28 years I’ve had a hearty breakfast most mornings, so my body wasn’t sure how to start the day without one. I kept finding myself standing up and taking a step towards the kitchen before I would catch myself and remind my grumbling stomach that I wasn’t going to do that today. I found myself watching the clock, counting down the hours until I could make dinner.

My weight, the numbers on the scale, is meaningless to me, something I only know about once or twice a year at routine doctor’s visits. And yet when I am crouched under the sink, digging through the bathroom cabinet to find our rickety old scale, I find myself terrified by the thought of those numbers shrinking. I weigh in at 125lbs, slender yet strong at 5’9. I love my muscles and I pride myself on my strength and the thought of that diminishing elicits the first real blast of panic I’ve felt yet. I eye my reflection in the mirror, ashamed that this is what is preoccupying my mind.

By the time I begin preparing dinner I have a slight headache and my hands feel a little shaky as I measure out the ingredients. I am beside myself with excitement at the thought of eating this simple meal of potatoes, chickpeas, and veggies. This meal isn’t too far off from what I eat normally, although the portion size is distressingly small. Most of the world’s hungry people already eat a predominantly vegan or vegetarian diet simply because it is usually the most economical option.

As Kenda mentioned during her Souljourn, it isn’t the quality of food that I’m worried about, it is the quantity. The food that I eat over the next 7 days is actually incredibly wholesome and nutritious; the portions will just be too small to sustain life. The ingredients all have plenty of protein, calcium, vitamins, and minerals to fuel anyone adequately, if eaten in larger than World hunger diet proportions. As a vegan I am well versed in refuting the protein myth (if you are eating enough calories from healthy foods, protein is not something you need to worry about on a plant based diet) and the calcium myth (leafy greens are a far better source of dietary calcium than dairy products), and I know that the diet that is actually most likely to be insufficient and lacking in vital nutrients is the Standard American Diet, not the vegan diet. So, it is not the type of food (vegan) that I will be eating that is cause for concern, it is the miniscule portions and overall lack of calories.

The 1.2 billion people living with hunger throughout the world rely on a small selection of staple foods, augmented with fresh vegetables, fruits, and animal products, when they can be found. According to the FAO, the food staples that make up the bulk of the diet vary from region to region, but central to most human diets are 15 crop plants that make up 90% of the world’s food intake. 2/3 of this is rice, maize, and wheat, which are the primary staples of more than 400 million people. The need to rely on only a few food items places the world’s poorest people in a precarious situation.

FAO’s The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009 found that “At the end of 2008, domestic prices for staple foods remained, on average, 17 percent higher in real terms than two years earlier. This represented a considerable reduction in the effective purchasing power of poor consumers, who spend a substantial share of their income (often 40 percent) on staple foods.” The food and fuel crisis of 2006 – 2008 followed immediately by the global financial crisis of 2009 has seen the rates of the world’s hungry skyrocket, people who were on the brink saw their ability to cope crumble as the cost of living soared out of their reach. In our world where food is a commodity, and not a human right, the number of people living with food insecurity, and dying from hunger related causes, remains shockingly high.

My dinner tonight was a recipe from Veg News that Kenda Swartz Pepper shared with me. A simple and extremely delicious Ethiopian inspired meal of potatoes, chickpeas, onions, peas, carrots, and a few spices. This is similar to the kind of meals that I eat normally, but when I finished my bowl and realized there were no second helpings to be had it was demoralizing to say the least. When that thought was quickly followed by the realization that it would be another 24 hours till I could eat again it was all I could do not to tear up a little. As you can see the meal clocked in at a little less than 1,000 calories. Based on my age, weight, height, and activity level it is recommended that I consume 2,400 calories a day, so this is less than half of what I should be eating.

Total Calories: 940
Total Fat: 37.9
Total Carbohydrates: 125.7
Total Protein: 29.2

At the end of day 1 of my Souljourn I’d like to leave you with a video from the WFP:

If you would like to help in the fight against world hunger please spread the word about this Souljourn, we are trying to build a movement! If you would like to join in, let us know!

You can also donate to Food for Life and International Fund for Africa, they are both 100% vegan organizations dedicated to ending poverty and chronic hunger while spreading the benefits of a cruelty free vegan diet.

Thank you to BookPubCo for their support!