Category: Animals

Planting vegetables with Native American music

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This past week we planted 10,000 sweet potato starts.

It is a ‘one-at-a-time’ hand process….so a number of us spent a lot of time on our hands and knees in the field.

We are done!

Jesse, one of my farmer partners, brings a small speaker into the fields. On an early morning we were planting to Native American music.

We named our property Shewatuck Farm – a name the Narragansett Indians used for the area.

We’ve done a good deal to diversify the landscape…adding bird houses and other conservation improvements.

As we planted there were a variety of birds…..definitely watching our progress! A hawk, plovers (we are reasonably near the sea), and different chirping birds.

It was altogether a lovely experience.

I had a real sense for the early Narragansett Indians.

Hopefully we continue to make the connection between plants, animals, and our preceding human inhabitants.

The Relationship between Mental Health, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Engagement with Nature

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Somewhat over two years ago I began a conversation with the administration of my undergraduate school, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, on use of a portion of their new land acquisition for a campus sustainable, organic farm.

My premise was an interest in broadening the psychosocial aspects of the student experience – specifically around the theme of sustainability.

It was very directly driven by my own life and the lives of my family and close business colleagues.

There were a number of underlying hypotheses:

  1. Current uses of personal computers and handheld devices have profoundly changed how we interact as a species – acutely so with young people.
  2. How we eat, what we eat, and how we interact when we eat is critical to human health.
  3. The degree to which we are conscious of our bodies – and physical activity that aids body awareness – greatly enhances human health.
  4. Interaction with biodiverse ecologies in different weather conditions aids human health – particularly regular early morning biodiverse interactions.
  5. The term ‘mental health’ is, for me, too narrow. It rests upon old notions of material differences between mind and body – differences that I find artificial and biologically illogical (physiologically we are complex material beings – not ‘pieces of anatomy’).
  6. The Rose-Hulman campus, although pleasant, limits student interaction with the natural world. This is true of most college campuses.

From my visits to campus there appears to be a great need for mental health services – and I assume a similar need to identify students in need of mental health care.

I fundamentally question whether individual counseling can be effective with young students who have, in many cases, profoundly altered their human and natural interactions through the use of electronic devices –and the resulting changes that occur with family, friends, and interactions with nature.

Unless counseling takes a broad biological and sociological health perspective, I think it has limited value.

I also think solutions to the health problems of current students need to be long term and incremental. Most of the health problems that bring students to mental health clinics have been evolving for much of their lives – and do not lend themselves to easy solutions.

Many of my motivators for proposing a campus farm were based upon an interest to greatly diversify biological experiences for students utilizing both plants and animals. I also believed it would expand student and faculty perspectives on Rose-Hulman’s specialized academic programs.

How we integrate learning and knowledge with compassion, affection, and caring behaviors will be critical to addressing the increasingly acute health problems of young people.

Lucille the Dog

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I have had Lucille for over 13 years.

In those years she has taught me how to live well, how to care for others (without talking!), and how to manage the ups and downs of life without whining.

She has pointed out – on hundreds of occasions – how any thought of the superiority of humans compared with other animals is folly.

The simplicity and elegance of a healthy dog’s intelligence puts our fumbling, erratic human brains at the bottom of the class.

Lucille’s innate sense for her place in our relationship is remarkable (even when she is disturbed or hungry)….she gently demands equity.

Even her dog ‘rear end licking’ sensibilities can be seen as ethical thoroughness.

We humans – in the name of invention, creativity, etc. – have profoundly changed the earth and the universe – many times with little understanding of the impact of those changes.

We have tinkered with, extracted from, and manipulated.

The value and good of all our human activity appears to be in doubt – given predictions of our climate impact and how those climate impacts might alter the earth’s ability to sustain life.

When I asked Lucille her opinion about all of this she licked my face.

As Wendell says… it all turns on affection.

The Danforth Street Woods

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Lucille the dog and I have been fortunate for over thirteen years to walk a lovely woods across the street from our house.

It’s small…perhaps 60 acres…but amazingly diverse and interesting.

It’s also beautiful.

The woods exist because of the conservation effort of a neighbor.

Our favorite trail starts in a pine uplands with scattered large boulders. Some of the boulders are glacial aggregates – locally known as puddin’ stones.

Mixed in with the pine are maples and a few oaks giving the trails a nice bed of leaves in the late fall.

We go up a short hill to where the trail flattens and wanders. It is distant from roads, so you get pristine quiet.

There is a fork …and the more interesting trail is to our right (Lucille knows all of this!).

We quickly go down into a wetland woods of bush and small immature trees.

The trail narrows to just walking width and traverses several small waterways…all of which are walkable on stones.

Immediately you feel deep in the woods. The trail darkens and you are constantly brushing against vegetation.

The wetlands have some small fern forests and several vegetation ‘tunnels’.

After fifteen minutes or so you turn right and walk along the Palmer River (a small stream).

A large log of perhaps ten feet goes over a waterway. Lucille finds it easier than I – the advantage of four feet.

The River pools on the other side of the log and gives an opportunity for a wade/swim in good weather.

In ten minutes we’re on the exit trail through another pine woods abutting a pond.

She and I have done this for a long time.

It is as interesting today as it was fourteen years ago.

Lucille and the Domestication of Animals

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Lucille the Dog is a bit of a free spirit.

I’ve always been resistant to the kind of training done by many dog people.

My thought has always been she (Irish Setter and Poodle mix) has a given character that I need to respect.

She loves people, she loves to run, she loves to chase in the woods or the yard.

Around people she is enthusiastic, yet understanding. If you are comfortable with her, she is comfortable with you. If you are hesitant, she is respectful.

Part of her is wild, part of her is a domestic homemaker.

 

Mitch Seavey’s Dogs Won the Iditarod

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What Mitch Seavey had to say about winning the Iditarod…

” ‘They love speed,’ Seavey said of his sled dogs. ‘I think it frustrated them to go too slow, so I just let ’em roll. It was scary because I’ve never gone that far that fast ever, but that’s what they wanted to do and maybe it’s a new chapter.’

“Seavey’s team recorded 10 and 11 mph runs and the separation he built over other racers gave him the flexibility to bank generous rest for his dogs, and himself, as they moved up the Norton Sound coast in the race’s final days.

” ‘They only know one thing and that’s 9.5 to 10 mph and they hit their feet, and they hit their speed and that’s what they do. And they trusted me to stop them when they needed to be stopped, and feed them, and I did that, and they gave me all they could. But I guarantee they’re tired now,’ said the new champion.”

The Rights of Animals

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I’ve been reviewing a draft of some new Rhode Island animal treatment regulations.

….also been listening to some talks/lectures on human rights and civil law.

…also, through a series of events ‘beyond my control’, I’ve experienced some grotesque abuse of civil law (in my opinion).

My conclusion is that animals have been in trouble for some time, and animal ‘regulations’ are not going to help much.

In certain specific examples, animal regulations certainly might halt an abuser, but the broader problem is  – in the animal husbandry industry – the generally accepted approaches for the care of animals is driven by a human need to profit more than the common sense of animal care.

What animals need are not ‘rights’… but proper care. Proper care will only result from religiously sound beliefs about animals.

More Thoughts on the Human Manipulation of Biological Characteristics – Transgenics

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Transgenics refers to those specific genetic engineering processes that remove genetic material from one species of plant or animal and add it to a different species.

The field of transgenics allows scientists to develop organisms that express a novel trait not normally found in a species; for example, potatoes that are protein rich, or rice that has elevated levels of vitamin A (known as “golden rice”). Transgenics may be also used to save endangered species such as the American Chestnut tree, which is currently being repopulated by Chinese-American chestnut hybrids specifically engineered with a genetic resistance to the chestnut blight—the deadly fungus that nearly decimated native populations in the early 1900s.

Ethical Issues

Transgenic biotechnology presents an exciting range of possibilities, from feeding the hungry to preventing and treating diseases; however, these promises are not without potential peril. Some of the issues that need to be considered are the following:

Social Concerns

  • If the blending of animal and human DNA results, intentionally or not, in chimeric entities possessing degrees of intelligence or sentience never before seen in nonhuman animals, should these entities be given rights and special protections?
  • What, if any, social and legal controls or reviews should be placed on such research?
  • What unintended personal, social, and cultural consequences could result?
  • Who will have access to these technologies and how will scarce resources—such as medical advances and novel treatments—be allocated?

Extrinsic Concerns

  • What, if any, health risks are associated with transgenics and genetically modified foods?
  • Are there long-term effects on the environment when transgenic or genetically modified organisms are released in the field?
  • Should research be limited and, if so, how should the limits be decided? How should the limits be enforced nationally and internationally?

Intrinsic Concerns

  • Are there fundamental issues with creating new species?
  • Are species boundaries “hard” or should they be viewed as a continuum? What, if any, consequences are there of blurring species boundaries?
  • Are chimeras and transgenics more likely to suffer than “traditional” organisms?
  • Will transgenic interventions in humans create physical or behavioral traits that may or may not be readily distinguished from what is usually perceived to be “human”?
  • What, if any, research in genetic engineering should be considered morally impermissible and banned (e.g., research undertaken for purely offensive military purposes)?
  • Will these interventions redefine what it means to be “normal”?

The Issue of Species Boundaries

Some individuals argue that crossing species boundaries is unnatural, immoral, and in violation of God’s laws, which presumes that species boundaries are fixed and readily delineated.15 However, several books and journal articles demonstrate that the concept of fixed species boundaries continues to be a hotly debated topic. Some bioethicists point out that a variety of species concepts exist: biological, morphological, ecological, typological, evolutionary, and phylogenetic, to name a few. All of these definitions of what a species is reflect both changing theories and the varying purposes for which individuals conceptualize and utilize different species.20 If species boundaries are simply a matter of a naming convention, and there are no truly fixed boundaries to cross, then many philosophical objections to transgenics are rendered less problematic.

In addition to the issue of species boundaries, there are other issues that need to be considered and discussed prior to large-scale acceptance and usage of transgenics and other genetic engineering research, including:

  • the risks and benefits of the experimental use of animals;
  • the risk of creating new diseases—for which there is no treatment—by combining animal DNA or human DNA with plant DNA;
  • the potential long-term risks to the environment;
  • the potential for increased suffering of transgenic organisms. Various bioethicists, environmentalists, and animal rights activists have argued that it is wrong to create animals that would suffer as a result of genetic alteration (for example, a pig with no legs) and that such experimentation should be banned.

Source: Ethical Issues in Genetic Engineering and Transgenics, Linda MacDonald Glenn

Note: I would add many of these ethical issues are from the perspective there could be some  control/management/regulating of biological manipulations. I believe numerous additional ethical questions arise when you introduce uncertainty over ‘who uses and how’.

Sexual/Gender Identity and Agriculture

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Through some research and reading I’ve been doing on moral, ethical, and religious thought related to agriculture I have come across a number of discussions on sexual/gender identity…and a language system that is evolving to discuss sex in politics.

From a sexual human rights website:

Sexual orientation

An inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people.

Gender identity

One’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One’s gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.

Gender expression

External appearance of one’s gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, haircut or voice, and which may or may not conform to socially defined behaviors and characteristics typically associated with being either masculine or feminine.

Transgender

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.

Gender dysphoria

Clinically significant distress caused when a person’s assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the term – which replaces Gender Identity Disorder – “is intended to better characterize the experiences of affected children, adolescents, and adults.”

Citations of the term dysphoria in Google books database.

Dysphoria is a state of unease or general dissatisfaction with life.

I also find that there is an increasing amount of academic writing redefining the meaning of gender. Traditionally, gender has been described as the state of being male or female…in essence a direct link to human sexual biology. Currently, you can find discussions of the definition of gender that are extensive and take the position that gender is a social construct.

I grew up spending a great deal of time in horse country Kentucky. Long before dysphoria came into use folks have been ‘genetically modifying’ horses (and many other animals) to suit their human needs/desires/social constructs.

Agriculture has also genetically modified seeds to an enormous extent to suit their human needs/desires/social constructs.

How do we, as a society and a community, evolve ethically, morally, and religiously given our current willingness to profoundly alter the biological characteristics of plants, animals, and ourselves?

How can we know with any certainty what we are creating?

How do we evaluate the risks we are taking?

Do we know with certainty that we are not creating catastrophic biological conditions for Earth?

Lucille and Livestock

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Due to ‘circumstances beyond my control’ I am, beginning about a month ago, the sole caregiver for a wonderful dog.

Lucille is a mix of Irish Setter and Poodle. She is 10 years old (and we’ve been together since she was a puppy).

She is beautiful…with a lovely personality….a great companion.

I’ve been bringing her to the office …which she seems to enjoy…as she continues to make new friends.

She has been a wonderful gift…and a privilege to care for her.

When you search Google for livestock a definition pops up:

farm animals regarded as an asset

I grew up on the edge of farm country in Kentucky. I was a city kid (mostly) but spent time with dogs and farm animals as a child.

…never as a child did I see a farm animal as a commodity. Food, yes. Financially valuable, yes.

But not a commodity.

Did not matter if it was the goofy chicken or the super smart herding dog, they were our companions.

My great grandfather on mother’s side and my grandfather had a large truck farm – with pigs and chickens. They slaughtered animals with names and personalities…and prayed the Bible at dinner to mourn the dead and give gratitude for the food.

It was simple,  small,  dignified, and lovely.

Just like Lucille.