Comments | annis39: Where to go from here . . .

annis39

Where to go from here . . .

Jul 13, 2007 10:57

So. Yes. I'm back again for my first update in a year. As always, I've been busy, and chosen to do things other than blog in my downtime. Not much has changed . . . I've got a year off from worrying about funding, since I've obtained a 2-year more-or-less administrative position, so that's nice. I haven't gotten any more work done on my ( Read more... )

eating local, food politics, pasture-raised, prey-model diet, canning, food

Comments 10

redstapler July 13 2007, 15:32:16 UTC

Welcome back to the blogosphere!

flammifera July 14 2007, 17:09:17 UTC

Cool!

Yes, I've decided that local food is my passion, at least for now. I've been volunteering at a local-food stand at a public market in Philly (Reading Terminal Market), and now I work for a nonprofit that facilitates farmers' markets/CSAs/winter buying clubs! Not so much pursuing classics right now...

annis39 July 23 2007, 02:44:42 UTC

Funny how that seems to happen to some people working on graduate degrees in the humanities . . . sometimes the actual academic work seems a bit pointless, and it's nice to have a grounding in the dirt.

flammifera July 23 2007, 23:39:05 UTC

Hmm. Possibly, although I'm not sure that attempting to increase the market share of local food is a less theoretical or ideal goal. ;) At any rate, it's tastier!

midnightplat July 22 2007, 22:17:42 UTC

For those of us who are far too absorbed (by more than myself, for once) in far too much to pour over an unfamiliar info source, would you recommend reading through rawfedcats.org for an old cat with kidney issues (9+ year old with renal cancer in unusually full remission, but likely consequential kidney disease)?

annis39 July 23 2007, 02:43:34 UTC

Actually, what I'd recommend for that is the Rawcat group at Yahoogroups: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawcat/

There are a number of people on there who have cats with various types of health problems, and I know that I've seen threads on kidney disease . . . the main thing that I've picked up is that a lot of people there are pretty convinced that the raw diet is the best thing possible for cats with kidney issues, since it gives the animal food that it's actually meant to digest. But definitely sign up for that group, search through the archives, ask questions . . . they're a very helpful and knowledgeable bunch of people.

midnightplat July 23 2007, 05:31:19 UTC

Cool, thanks.

My only misgiving is that domestic cats, I assume, generally have a lifespan longer than cats "naturally" do, and that assumption further assumes the reasons for that lower "natural" longevity are beyond the fact that cats in nature are a predator/prey species (that is "natural" cats would lair away from known predators ... or shack up with the humans). In other words the natural diet, or "nature," may not presume the life expectancy human pet owners hold for their pets. Same goes for the recent rethinking on human diets too (i.e. that we can citrus and other seasonal things year round has done good things for human longevity and all around health), but I'm just thinking out loud and out of ignorance on that.

annis39 July 23 2007, 14:40:02 UTC

From what I understand about people and domesticated animals, the shorter lifespan in more "natural" settings has less to do with diet and more to do with disease, injury, vicissitudes of weather patterns, and availability of quantity of food. In short, because humanity is able to somewhat control environmental factors, everybody benefits. However, there still seems to be evidence that a "natural" diet is better for any animal, human or otherwise-- just look at all the research on how highly processed foods are what's making us obese and malnourished, no matter what the lengthened life spans. It seems to be similar with domestic cats-- a high percentage of them finally pass away from odd things like cancer, kidney disease, diabetes, and so forth, all of which issues have some dietary contributing factors ( ... )

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