It is for ideas that lives are willingly laid down, nations built up, and many a fulfilling life’s work discovered. But these are challenging times for ideas when the web culture consists principally of reacting to, rejecting, and piling onto other people’s ideas instead of generating one’s own. Within the largest exchange of words in history, we are saying less and less of import and substance. It seems humanity is all out of large inspiring ideas, leaving us bereft of hope -the most potent of fuels for the human spirit.  

We face the most incredible peril humans are ever likely to confront – ourselves – and our outrageously acute exploitation of the natural world for the love of commerce. Large corporations are accelerating demand for meat and dairy, causing accelerated deforestation of the Amazon. Felling majestic forests to make land available for soybeans and corn – cheap animal fodder. Land that without the trees is nutrient-poor and loses productivity quickly. Creating a cycle of slash and burn agriculture where forested land is constantly destroyed for short-term profit. Palm Oil companies mechanically scythe and burn virgin forest at alarming and clearly unsustainable rates in the tropics. It’s a heartache, nothing but a heartache.

Destroying forests is such a stupid thing to do at this stage of human history it is unimaginable that any thinking person agrees it is a way forward for humanity. 

Because corporations are just piles of money to which investors have sold their souls, they can’t be reasoned with. There is no heart or conscience to appeal to – they are answerable only to their shareholders. All-consuming greed and deepest fear drive shareholders to seek ever more financial security – as illusory as security is in a warming world. 

Corporation eco rape will never end of its own volition; enough is never enough for the few and the very few, who dwell at the top of the money and insecurity pyramid. 

The difficulties and dangers life-on-Earth faces will not be solved by closing our eyes, ignoring them, and hoping they go away. However, though the word crisis is aptly applied – there is a flicker of hope. Crisis, has a second meaning – it also means opportunity, a chance or occasion to alter direction. Let’s do that!

Most troubles are worse in the prior period of gnawing contemplation than in fact. Nothing about the climate crisis points to it turning out to be more benign than expected. Sadly, the opposite is likely – a turbulent cascade of intense suffering, privations, hollowing fear, death, and overarching heartache. 

Accepting that crisis also means opportunity can be invigorating. History demonstrates hope restored, and hope burning in the human heart, fanned, and inflamed through action, is enough, and more than enough. Humans rise to challenges, endure, and prosper even in crushing adversity through the sparkling luminescence of our invigorated spirit. Our spirit becomes an unquenchable torch lighting our way when its burning with conviction and hope. 

We have opportunity right here and now, shining, and radiant – To dawdle, trifle or turn away will bring on us inescapable, long, and bitter self-reproaches through ever-darkening tomorrows.  

Corporations don’t have a heart, but many of their investors do – we need to make appeals to them to engage their conscience when investing. Their desire for financial security should not be costing us the Earth.

We need to be aware our values matter little to them, and that’s fair enough; we should not waste opportunities attempting to impose them. However, we should ask them to take careful note of their own values and conscience when choosing investments.

Addressing our fellow human beings who invest in corporations is an important task; however, that is not our most vital strategy. Corporations are most interested and closely attentive to three things, their sales volume, market share, and profit margins. By collectively and consistently directing our purchases away from the most destructive corporations and switching out their brands for others who cause less eco-damage, we gain a voice and a virtual but decisive vote in the boardroom. 

Ultimately, consumers’ support of brands allows corporations to bloat into the monsters they have become. Corporations have made it nearly impossible for consumers to know how corrupted and deliberately eco-careless favorite brands have become. They feast off our purchases – we are their sole source of income. 

To make your opposition to deforestation for stock feed count, eliminate or use much less dairy. Alternatively, only purchase from smaller dairy farms practicing regenerative farming.  

Eat less or preferably no meat – at a minimum only purchase genuinely regenerative grass-fed, not from the large feed-lot farms. 

Choose products that don’t use palm oil. 

Doing so will complicate shopping because so many products contain palm oil. 

People are generally shocked that many of the bright and cheerful brands they have loved long are, in fact, utterly irresponsible and eco-destructive at the back end. These big brands advertise cheerfully, greenwashing and virtue signaling frantically to keep us from knowing how unethical and dishonorable they are willing to be to win. They allow ethics to slip to retain our patronage, and they will do the other; they will do right when our purchasing pattens demand it. 

The beauty and skin care industries are major palm oil industries, read labels.

If we do these three things: cut out or reduce dairy, cut out or reduce meat consumption and switch out brands that use palm oil, we stop being helpless pawns and start making the significant difference we want.

It is said humans exploit what they merely value – but save that which they love. Do you value the tiny blue dot in space that is our home, or do you love her? The answer is evidenced by our actions. 

Are we to be peril or pearl?

The post We are the Peril – and We are the Pearl first appeared on milkadamia.

The post We are the Peril – and We are the Pearl appeared first on milkadamia.

At least the current pandemic wave seems to be waning, allowing us the headspace to meditate on the import of the other big one, the climate issue.   

Reflection

When I was younger, I did an exercise someone recommended to me. I wrote in detail what I wanted aspects of my life to look like twenty years ahead. The next step in the activity required I note where I must therefore be in ten years? Then in five years, two and a half years, and on down to what must I do later that very day (Smarten my appearance and get a haircut). 

It was a powerful exercise. It turns out that once we have a clearly defined goal, things happen rapidly; buffeting headwinds become smooth tailwinds. It took less than four years to achieve it all. I clearly should have set higher marks, but it already seemed overly audacious as I wrote that day.

Were I to repeat that exercise, twenty years takes us to 2042. What do we expect things to look like by then? It probably is not how we want them to look, but the specifics elude millions of us laypeople; there is too much we don’t and possibly can’t understand. It isn’t possible to reduce the instability, multiple cascading climate events, and the simultaneity of it all to a neatly delineated straight and narrow path. The thing about instability and uncertainty is they give us no line of sight into the specifics of the outcome. The danger of the absence of knowledge is replacing it with the arrogance of some false certitude unsupported by evidence. The evidence is we face a gargantuan task just up ahead of us. 

Acceleration

We gather from reports many things are occurring earlier and advancing more rapidly than predicted by the climate models. While nothing terribly untoward is happening to most of us – the climate crisis remains chiefly forecast predictions or prophecies of science. We accept the sea is warming, ice is melting, and greenhouse gasses are accumulating. But outside, the sky is blue and cloudless; flowers bloom, and birds chirp on the fresh green lawn; as climate crises go, this one is, to date, underwhelming—this paradox of the present blinds. Still, the emerging patterns of a steady acceleration of all the issues driving the crisis pick away at our calm. We can only hope a general lack of composure will eventually generate enough critical-mass anxiety to influence business and the way society works and that it happens soon enough. 

It shouldn’t seem overly audacious to believe that the common sense of the ordinary people will work to divert us from climate calamity. We know our leaders have proved pathetically meek in the face of humanity’s greatest challenge – so we are the last best chance. Any less audacious expectation does injustice to our complexity and humankind’s sometimes irrelevant brilliance. 

Action

As the crisis bites ever deeper into our lives, we are likely to discover new layers within ourselves, and within them, footholds for new possibilities. In the ceaselessly twinkling constellation of challenges ahead, we must protect and save what we love while maintaining our humanity, our power, poetry, poise, and grace. 

The age-old human quest of seeking the meaning of life may have to give way to an all-consuming purpose – granting us the experience of being fully alive as we confront the most urgent and consequential all-hands-on-deck moment.

What to do?

 Imagine immensities, save what you love, remember to stop and laugh sometimes, but don’t compromise or waste time.

The post No Calm Storms or Gentle Crisis first appeared on milkadamia.

The post No Calm Storms or Gentle Crisis appeared first on milkadamia.

Amazingly we are experiencing it right now and are deep into the existential fight for life on Earth, but it doesn’t feel like it. Yet many don’t want to hear much about it. Indeed, many don’t want to take personal action for fear of reducing modern convenience or lowering living standards. Despite plenty of high and low-level talk, deepening angst, and widespread emotional handwringing, we have been accelerating our demise by every measurable data point since we first learned of our impact on the climate. Now aware of our danger, we are in fact hastening towards the cliff. OK, this is our first climate-induced end of life on Earth experience; we will naturally make a mistake or two. I am sure we will do better next time. 

It all seems too immense to contemplate. We cannot independently grasp the knotty plumbing and impossibly complex global interactions of climate. We are at the mercy of science to inform. Ironic that, given that without science’s insatiable lust for the power of knowledge (and our adoration of technology), we wouldn’t be here in the first place. 

Wendell Berry states, “We live in the most destructive period of human history – therefore the most stupid.” How irritating is the truth so evident in that statement? It challenges everything we believe about the advancement of humanity and dulls the luster and sparkle of the technological wizardry that has so blinded us to our peril. We are more knowledgeable, connected, advanced, and educated than all previous generations combined – and more destructive – what the hey?

There is a misfit – the climate models are silicon-based and digital while we are carbon-based analog bags of emotions, feelings, and passions. Something’s getting lost in translation. How can a warm creature of blood, substance, and mass fathom a thing without substance or mass? It hasn’t helped that, for the most part, the climate crisis is presented as hotly debated, ever-revising climate models and changing projections. 

Then the media’s handling of the climate crisis is a seesaw of partial credence and proviso, always rounded off with the bland assurance that we still have time – if we act soon. We are left with a startling lack of exactitude and wracked with uncertainty about what to do while increasingly anxious that we’ve become mere pawns in a gradually but steadily unfolding terror.  

The advance of knowledge was supposed to usher in an idyllic epoch in the human occasion. We indeed went at it with vigor, digging deep into the Earth’s treasure-house; we developed a genius for inventing gadgets and creating novel uses for materials. For the most part, humanity was greatly advantaged, at least in the short term. Across large regions of the planet, famine and disease retreated, life expectancy advanced. We overcame and tamed the wildness of the Earth – separating it into human civilization and Nature as though they were each disconnected entities capable of independent existence. We aggressively exploited Nature to provide for human society. The piper is now demanding payment.

Just how nigh is the end?

Apocalyptic doom and end of the world predictions usually come from those living at the fringes of polite society or on the very edge of sanity. “The end is nigh” sandwich-board is a cartoon standard and prophets of doom rise and pass as regularly as the date marked in red on their end-of-the-world charts. We are, thus, primed to be skeptical of apocalyptic prophecy, and rightly so, it’s clear enough none has yet proved accurate.  

Daily weather reports are too frequently inclusive of overblown, dire warnings of severe weather events that are hyped and amplified for ratings. As the majority (not all) pass without serious incident, our confidence in the predictive capacity of supposedly authoritative voices and news entities diminishes. 

The media also pelts us with stories of impending financial ruin. There are always headlines predicting a catastrophic market crash. Catastrophe headlines pull in the punters, so the media dials to the max any prediction of disaster, no matter how speculative. Exciting predictions and rumors of wars fill many of the remaining media time slots or pages. Is it any wonder that when climatologists started crying wolf, our alarm response, jaded through years of media overstimulation, barely stifled a yawn? However, even inoculated as we are by over-exposure to all the trite and excited attention-grabbing headlines, the crisis of all crises requires our attention. 

Our world is choked horizon to horizon with pandemic surges, planet bruising climate whiplash, mountains of garbage, and oceans a-chock with pollutants and plastics. As free-range icebergs the size of countries calve and melt, they are altering vital ocean currents; collectively, it becomes clear something truly untoward is upon us this time. It is also clear we are a significant part of the problem and must become the solution.

Our tomorrows, and increasingly todays, are shaped by the pandemic gauntlet and the global climate crisis. Yet believing we have no influence is to surrender to the notion we are mere human debris driven by the currents and eddies of other people’s choices. 

Suppose we choose to work with Nature instead of against her, accepting that what is good for the natural world is ultimately good for us. In that case, we gain the most potent ally possible in our quest to alter the predicted climate trajectory.

Dishing dirt.

It may be humbling to acknowledge the centrality and importance of soil to life on Earth, but we, and our every aspiration, are entirely dependent on fertile ground. Over-exploitation of the soil has preceded the collapse of every previous civilization on Earth, and ours will not be an exception without change. In another irony, we currently scour lands for precious-earth ignoring the fact the most precious earth is the top six inches we greedily push aside. 

Milkadamia supports regenerative farming. Regenerative farming focuses on soil health which is the first and most critical step in the right direction.

Every dollar we spend on food to sustain our families also supports industries and agricultural systems. By demanding only Regeneratively Farmed products, we consumers hold a powerful lever for change in our own hands. Consumers can force change faster than any legislation or protest could achieve. The oft-used term “consumer buying power” is an apt description – consumer purchases drive a large enough chunk of commerce to impact the health of our planet significantly. Collectively we are not pawns at all – business serves us, not the other way round. 

We seek to change all destructive agriculture practices, yet cultivated land is scattered across borders, separated by oceans, rivers, cultures, politics, and seasons. No single entity has governance, but fortunately, none is required. The force that can convert agricultural practice to Regenerative Farming is also scattered across borders and oceans and separated by politics, race, mountain ranges, and rivers. It is we, the people.

It is evident we must remake the very soul of our times. The irreparably fragmented consciousness of humankind may only ever achieve unity of purpose in the commonality of love of land and life and desire for a future for their children’s children. We love and share the same sky. All rivers feed into the seas and intermingle. We are in this together. In the very endeavor of rejigging our relationship to the soil and engaging in restoring health to our lands we also experience profound reconnection.

 “What we do need to worry about is the possibility that we will be reduced, in the face of the enormities of our time, to silence or to mere protest”. Wendell Berry

 We hold a large enough chunk of our fate and future in our own hands to allow facing the future to be helpful, hopeful, and bearable. 

The post Remaking the Soul of Our Times first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Remaking the Soul of Our Times appeared first on milkadamia.

We know this in our bones and bodies instinctively, and we know it intellectually and rationally via the science and the evidence of our own eyes. We know it results from human industrial activity. We know those who profit from the industrial activity fiercely if clandestinely, resist any shadow of real change that they fear may impact their finances, positional power, and social standing. We know that they are tightly aligned with the inhabitants of the political sphere in this endeavor. Welded and stitched seamlessly through lobbyists, money, ambition, and that insatiable hunger for personal prestige. 

Like with like – the pillars of their character anchored in the same foundational creed, they scramble and strive for ever higher positions on their chosen totem of success. They well know the price includes some of their own humanity and the random diminishment of options for other humans, yet willingly continue to make that exchange.  

Civilizations are built upon and dependent on an excess of resources beyond the basic survival necessities of life. It requires a degree of stable abundance to enable any culture to exist and flourish, for markets and economies to function, and for investment in infrastructure and public works to be made at scale. We have, however, taken excess to extreme excess.  

A period of stable and largely benign climate greatly facilitated the advance of human civilization. A less stable and less benign climate will progressively test the functioning of culture and batter and degrade our infrastructure. It needn’t have come to this. Political leaders, and parties present and past all failed to demonstrate the vision, character, and courage the occasion required. Industry, education, politics, and the media, with few exceptions, have catastrophically failed us. They still control the agenda and set the pace for mitigation and attention to the crisis. 

The stark truth is, because of the climate crisis, our world will never again be as stable as it is today, never be more achingly beautiful, never be more benign or productive.  

COVID’s lockdowns taught many that small domestic pleasures, like inhaling the passing moments of breathless beauty surrounding us, have surprising gravitas. Pleasures inherent in attention to the progress of the seasons draw us toward a place of gratifying, gently exhilarating, and unexpectedly fulfilling contentment. There are pleasures aplenty buried and lost under the avalanche of the consumerism experience to be recovered. For instance, thrift is sniffed at as a relic of harder times, but we will learn its enjoyments and satisfactions again, through choice or grim necessity. Maybe it’s just me but reusing, repurposing, and restoring stuff strangely intrigues and brings delight, calls forth creativity, and delivers a sense of satisfaction. Something no amount of fevered purchasing ever bought.  

The hollow inside is not filled by items external to us. Wholeness comes from what we do and why we do it, not what we buy. Multitudinous storage units stacked to the ceiling with the soulless junk we traded the health of the planet to obtain are proof. Each item came with a promise to make us or our life better, easier, and more complete. There is no raw material so amenable to being uplifted by possibility and aspiration as is the human heart – and they exploited that as thoroughly and mercilessly as they exploit the Earth.

Hope and tenacity, those great vitalizing biceps of the human spirit reached their most muscular expression during the London blitz. With death and destruction raining down from the sky each night, people found strong fibrous character and stubborn resistance existed within them and among them. We need to find those reserves in and among ourselves once again.

No one is coming to save us – all who had the opportunity have failed, and they failed miserably and cowardly. If the Earth, so abundant with the life, awe, and beauty we love, is to be preserved, it’s now up to us.

What we consume will either consume us in turn or consummate change.   While they disregard our voices, they are vigilant about our choices. They pay careful attention to their market share and share price. It is our purchases that allow them to bloat and float. We, through what we purchase, give them the lolly to lobby. We give and we can take away. 

We can non-consume, apply thrift and creativity with earnestness of purpose. When we must buy, we won’t buy products from companies that are, and long have been, part of the problem – purchasing instead from businesses striving to be part of the solution.  

We should not make perfection the enemy of good – even the most genuinely concerned and earnestly striving companies have a long path. Stop dealing with them when they stop making progress. It’s the big dominant and established polluters, brands that are purveyors of single-use plastics, fossil fuels, and palm oil that need to hear a clear, immediate, and loud message. Stop trashing the planet – or we stop purchasing from you.  

However, it is not all gloom and doom. From the original Greek, the word ‘crisis’ has a second, less known meaning – a turning point, an opportunity. Let’s focus on grabbing the opportunity with both hands – it won’t come again. 

The post The Climate Opportunity first appeared on milkadamia.

The post The Climate Opportunity appeared first on milkadamia.

Halloween is a great celebration for kids – an adventuresome, slightly spooky calendar event that is anticipated and enjoyed in equal measure. For kids, the pain of heightened anticipation seems to make time slow to a crawl as the day approaches. Then the costumed, candy-filled evening speeds by, and it is a whole year before Halloween returns, an eternity to kids.    

Time is funny like that. We, adults, orient ourselves to time through understanding ourselves to be moored, albeit temporarily, within its passing current. We understand our past slipstreams out behind us while the future flows toward us with its metronomic, relentless intent.   

Occupying the space between the future and past is a brief sliver of time we call “the present.” It is where we live and where we are advised by life-coach types to always “show up” and “be.” Yet, the present is a single tick of the clock. It marks the spot and moment we intersect with time. The past, though illuminated, is behind us, and the future, yet to manifest, remains cloaked in impenetrable darkness ahead. All we actually occupy is the present.

Time is understood differently by the people of Papua New Guinea; for them, it flows in the opposite direction.  

Because the future is yet to be visible, they reason it must still be behind the eyes. Whereas the past which has already been seen is in front of their eyes. Therefore, for them, the future is always approaching from behind, and the past is laid out in front. Their present, however, like ours, is a single fleeting heartbeat.

The direction of the flow of time is something humans made up. The only constant we all share is the present, which as soon as it arrives becomes immediately part of the past and thus, beyond and behind us – or possibly in front.    

As certainly as we can know anything, we know that we cannot change the past nor, unfortunately, avoid its consequences. However, it is also generally agreed we can change the future – and we do that by being deliberate about what we do in the present.   

In my youth, riding a dirt bike at pace seemed to alter my relationship to time. The connection between present actions and future consequences was compressed sharply into focus as I tore heedlessly through the landscape. In those moments, I lived my life about 40 feet in front of myself, making constant adjustments to the bike’s direction and balance. Future, present, and past threatened to otherwise collide in a blur of trees, rocks, mud, and adrenaline. Life-coach types would surely have approved. I was fully present and totally focused – on the potential short-term consequences. 

However, consequence can also be long-term; consequence has a long memory and an implacable and exacting sense of justice that ensures we will indeed reap what we sow. It is this longer arch of consequence we face over the human-induced phenomenon we are living through. We are experiencing wildly oscillating, randomly dispersed, calamitous climate fluctuations percussing the present and darkening the future outlook.  

As scientists project ever more sophisticated and powerfully granular climate models forward, the resultant graphs and charts are a real horror, very Halloween-worthy. Wrap yourself in one of their scary scenarios as a Halloween costume and watch the fun evaporate. Or don’t do that because Halloween is for kids to enjoy. We go to great lengths to ensure they are jolly and safe, enjoying themselves in the company of their cutely costumed friends. We wouldn’t willingly do anything to spoil their innocent fun.  

The future also belongs to those same kids, and we most certainly don’t mean to spoil that for them either. The thing about the future is that it’s always arriving, ready or not, shaped in part by actions we took back when the past was temporarily the present.

While kids love the thrill of slightly scary events, will today’s cute little trick or treaters grow to face more terrifying events than they would ever choose? If we adults continue to live in the past or focus only on the present, that is the only future we will leave them. 

If, however, we choose to focus on the consequences of our choices about 20 years ahead of ourselves, adjust and seek balance to avert disaster, even the worst of what our kids may have to face will be bearable. 

It’s the kids who will be present when our past and their futures collide. It could be Halloween-like, minus the treats: an unendingly scary night – or not.   

All the evidence points to the same thing – the occasion for us to choose their future is right now – in this sliver of gifted time we call the present. 

We can yet spare our kids a lot of scary stuff. The challenge and the trick is, we will have to sacrifice some, maybe a lot, of our accustomed treats. Pounding ever louder on our front door is trick or treat on a global scale. Turning out the lights and ignoring it will not make it go away.

The post Halloween, Time first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Halloween, Time appeared first on milkadamia.

Trees are a gorgeous and glorious adornment to any landscape; they also bind, feed, and shelter the soil biome. Trees stay in place for very long periods, all the while absorbing carbon and encouraging soil health. Trees actually exhale the sky, and they purify water; they create beneficial microclimates, where birds, bees, and insects abound.  

Of course, humankind cannot live on trees alone; however, we should, wherever possible, preferentially chose to support food products that come from trees. Doing this encourages the widespread wholesale planting of trees.

Four things we can do to make a difference to the timing and severity of the global eco-crisis is:

1. Cut meat and dairy consumption – way down, or better yet, stop altogether. 
2. Limit our use of fossil-fuel intensive transport, heating, and cooling.
3. Drop to our knees on the bare ground, scoop out a hollow – plant a tree – repeat. 

Do this every day – plant clusters of trees – do it frequently. Planting trees and caring for them connects us to the land and to the future. By dropping to our knees, there is a chance we may not so soon be brought to our knees. Visiting saplings as they start to take space, sprout life and reach for the sky is a more intense slow-burn joy than you would expect.  

1. Those who can’t plant trees can take equally appropriate action by choosing products without palm oil, thus saving tropical rainforests. Spending on palm oil products directly encourages the widespread wholesale destruction of billions of trees. 

 Following 2020 we are more aware of nature’s beauty, close kinship, and exquisite fragility. We will be the first generation to positively put the Earth’s needs before our own, or among the last even to have that option.  

If there is an upside – the climate countdown demands we experience the raw immediacy of being fully alive and fully engaged right now. We have all been unwillingly life-thrust into facing scary immensities with potentially fraught and monumentally consequential outcomes. We, it turns out, are last-responders. We may have to change everything. It will likely require the most seismic philosophical, cultural, and behavioral shift – ever. Aren’t we more primed and up for that than any previous generation? – bring it on.

Unlike previous generations, we cannot sleep-walk life in a glutinous stupor, believing eternity is at our disposal and Earth is provided for our plunder. We decidedly know otherwise; it will be our roar that echoes beyond these times, our defiance that alters the trajectory of events, or nothing will. Our focus is crisis-sharpened to the bright connection of everythingness. We will demonstrate the human spirit is most alive, potent, and present when facing blistering challenges and adversity – or prove it is not!

To misquote, quality of life is not simply about the economy anymore; “it’s the ecology stupid.” We are almost out of time to turn our love for Earth’s astonishing wonderments and matchless beauty from exploitation into practical, proactive nurturing and care.  

Knees – trees – please!

The post Knees, Trees, Please. first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Knees, Trees, Please. appeared first on milkadamia.

We gather these chips rather than waste them and turn them into a paste, then into milkadamia. It takes effort to separate the tiny shell chips and macadamia chips, but by doing so, we ensure nothing gets wasted. The shell pieces become part of the biochar used to fertilize our macadamia trees. The macadamia chips become milkadamia.

Taking something considered a waste stream and turning it into a beautiful, useful product is both enjoyable and motivating. The macadamia chips are perfectly good high-quality food, just the wrong size and shape for most uses.

Once we started making something beautiful out of rejected chips, we were motivated to look for other opportunities, as you do. When people chose to undertake even a little thing, like doing away with plastic straws, it is a good thing in itself, but these types of actions’ significant contributions reside in the truth that movement begets more movement. We turn inertia into momentum.

Googles momentum definition – “The strength or force that something has when it is moving.” By taking one action to help combat food waste, our team has become captive to the power of momentum that impels us to strive for more.

Offering an alternative to dairy milk and promoting and practicing earth positive regenerative-farming led to speaking out against the insanely destructive palm oil industry and sourcing and manufacturing alternatives to palm oil products. Momentum, Google claims, also allows something “to continue moving or grow stronger or faster as time passes.” Hope so.

As in many life-defining moments – starting the ball rolling is a beginning. Maybe it will instigate a life impelled by adventure and enriched through meaning and your values manifesting in action.
At milkadamia, momentum is causing us to aim ever higher. We want to be part of altering the trajectory of the global climate crisis. As we said, some things are hard, and some are incredibly hard, and maybe we are just clutching at (non-plastic) straw’s, but we rather risk that than inertia because we already know what happens when we do nothing.

The post Chip Happens first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Chip Happens appeared first on milkadamia.

Please watch.

The post The ‘deadly’ food we all eat first appeared on milkadamia.

The post The ‘deadly’ food we all eat appeared first on milkadamia.

A lace of shifting shadows spun of sunlight, breeze, and leaves

Each silhouette in shadow but a moment on the grass

Like portend dreams of slumber that surface – then they pass

A “stand of trees” a point that’s fixed amid the flux of life

Sentinels of centuries take the long view of our strife

They gift us shade and majesty, point to heights we cannot know

Trap secrets of the universe, stand steady in the flow

Their stillness is prescient in histories sad gyration

And trees there be near you and me that’ll eclipse “civilization”

Our passing goes unnoticed long before they fall

Living with our trees we are not central after all

Alone they stand upon this land rooted in one place

Curing our souls, soil, and air while all around we race

What in life is not improved by a moment in their shade

Just you and me, a macadamia tree – our cathedral in the glade

The post you, me and a macadamia tree first appeared on milkadamia.

The post you, me and a macadamia tree appeared first on milkadamia.

Meanwhile the crash, roar, and thunder that accompanies so much of our usual activity remains muted and hushed.  That all this comes at a high price in human lives and is accompanied by grief and loss, ensures any acknowledgment that the Earth is being gifted some much-needed breathing space, must also be appropriately muted and hushed.

Earth Day – every day.

Milkadamia.

The post Happy Earth Day to You… first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Happy Earth Day to You… appeared first on milkadamia.

Keeping updated on the emerging data of our climate crises and the actions taken to alleviate its impact, permits a similar idea to bud.  Within our own planet, there also exists worlds in parallel, upside-down and opposite worlds. In one the need for immediate and decisive action on the climate crisis is obvious, while another parallel world prefers its citizens just keep calm and carry on.  In one world we are invited to take up the yoke of responsibility and the other world prefers we just leave things and let the-as-yet-unborn deal with it all.  In one, the doctrines and processes of governments and politics employ cemented static mindsets even as the climate proves a tumultuous cascade of dynamic processes potentially propelling us to who knows what.  Parallel but opposite worlds.

Between the extremes is yet another world, the one we common folk commonly inhabit.  It is our neighborhood, where we live and work, our town, our city.  A place mostly comforting and familiar because over time it has been sculpted and shaped by the actions, motives and cares of local people to fit local needs.  This is our sphere of influence and the world we want to preserve.

We care about orangutans, koalas and polar bears, we really do, but the sheer breadth, scale, and complexity of the problems overwhelm. The many eco-urgencies progressively lose impact as they increase in scale and are located far beyond our reach.  Most of us have skill and geographical constraints on our ability to positively impact big issues like rising sea levels, melting glaciers and bleaching corrals.   We are best placed, and frankly most incentivized, to start where we are and work from the bottom up. Where we can be busy is in saving those things near us that we love, and then enlarging the space of our influence as we go.

Of course, we understand ecosystems are not respecters of town boundaries nor do they care about the depth of our attachment to local amenities like river-walks, and parklands.  We know our homes and towns cannot be insulated from the causal network in which everything is bound together.  Yet that same causal network allows that we can remain local and still have global influence if we choose our actions wisely.

Transportation of all forms is the cause of about 14% of the human-generated carbon, and incredibly Palm oil production is the cause of about the same amount of carbon going into the sky!

Our use of transport is not always a choice, it is hard to imagine life without some form of transport.  However, our use of palm oil is always a choice furthermore it’s easy to imagine life without it, after-all humans thrived until the 1960s with most not knowing palm oil even existed.  Not only is palm oil a choice, ultimately and critically, but it’s also our choice.

One important reason we need to actively save that which we love is, the actions of one person always influences the information base of another and on and on the impact grows.  Starting one thing will encourage and engage others and collectively we can improve the long-term destiny of our world with our own self-generated cascade of dynamic processes.

Palm oil is an unnecessary and offensive ecological disaster, the production of this one item is causing as much climatic damage as every single motorcycle, car, truck, train, boat, and airplane on earth.  Further tropical forests have been and are being burned recklessly and extensively to make way for ever-more palm oil monoculture.  The palm oil industry is boasting that our demand for palm oil is set to quadruple, vast and beautiful tropical Peat forests will be burnt to meet that demand, our demand, but only if we allow it.  All this mindless destruction is they say just the law of supply and demand in action.

Obviously, we are not consciously demanding millions of acres of tropical forests be burned on our behalf each year – if we could make the rules, we would, in fact, demand the very opposite.   But we do inadvertently incentivize and fund the destruction through our purchase of items made with palm oil – and we purchase lots of them.

Palm oil is in so many products it is really quite hard to avoid.  Manufacturers love to use palm oil because it is quite versatile and very cheap. But of course, Palm oil actually has, a hidden, but extraordinarily high eco-price, it is costing us the earth.

Palm oil is likely an ingredient in most of your favorite brands.  But if we commit to doing this thing, this one hard-ish thing, that will complicate shopping a bit and require persistence on our part – if we switch to palm oil-free products – we, together, will compel a positive and pertinent eco-impact that is equal to shutting down all transportation globally. Without leaving home we collectively can send a crystal-clear message to manufacturers. They respond to dips in their sales and market share with an alacrity and intensity we wish they reserved for measuring and reducing the eco-impact of their ingredients.

We, the people, can create new laws of supply and demand – any company that supplies products containing palm oil will see demand diminish, and their bright cheerful logo can come to symbolize the dark badge of corporate greed.   It is only our patronage and goodwill that gives power to brands, and it is our purchases that gift fortune to the companies behind them – they prosper only as they serve our needs and wants.  Change those wants and we change a great deal besides.

Watch out for claims of sustainable palm oil.  The truth is there is no such thing as sustainable tropical forest destruction.  Call BS on that sort of virtue signaling nonsense.

Not buying palm oil products will demonstrate even the biggest global issues are not beyond our reach or influence.  As we get strategic about palm oil, corals, glaciers, sea levels and even Borneo’s (oxymoron named) pigmy elephants will directly benefit.  Those koalas, polar bears and orangutans we care about will get to breathe easier also, as will we all.

We may have our backs against the climatic wall (so to speak) but neither the scope of the ecological problems, nor our ineffective leaders loitering in their parallel world, should cause us to ignore the problems that we, and possibly only we, can effectively attend.  We may not be able to address everything – but believe me, we can address this one big thing.

Historically the extraordinary courage of ordinary people manifests clearest in crises when we are rising to defend neighbors, neighborhoods, and homes – like now.  The intensity of stubborn determination and ingenuity we common folk can collectively bring to this fight is one of humanity’s super-powers.

Besides, we have to make our infinite number of parallel selves feel good about us, even that fortunate us living in the world populated by cute purple pygmy elephants.

The post Palming Off first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Palming Off appeared first on milkadamia.

The bees are part of the reason we leave strips of tall flowering grasses when we mow the orchard so the pollinators always have a food source.  We don’t collect honey from the very small native bees, which look like flying ants,  we just co-exist, and all benefit.

http://bit.ly/2uurarG

The post To Bee…Not to Bee Is Not An Option first appeared on milkadamia.

The post To Bee…Not to Bee Is Not An Option appeared first on milkadamia.

It is personal.

We know people being affected day in and day out. Family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors.

We know the places being scourged. We’ve laughed in those spots, taken a stroll, saw them pass by our car window as we gazed into the landscape.

We are saddened by the tremendous loss of life. The images of people fleeing, animals perishing and the trees engulfed in flames will forever haunt us.

We are mad by the denial of the cause and the insanity to think this won’t keep happening. We are mad that there are other fires, affecting other homes, burning across the planet, charring the earth.

Yet, we are proud of our fellow citizens rushing in to fight the fires, to save the animals to rescue those stranded, to condemn those that say this is normal. This is not normal.

We want to thank everyone who has reached out and asked how we are doing. It means a great deal. We won’t stay sad and we won’t stay mad, we will go back to being hopeful. We hope this is a wake-up call. That the practices that led to the fires will be questioned. That those denying climate change will be drowned out by the voices that speak for the billions of animals that perished, by the voices that speak for the scarred earth and the life below the surface, and by the voices that speak for the air we breathe.

It’s our choice as to what “we” do next.

The post The Raging Fire(s) first appeared on milkadamia.

The post The Raging Fire(s) appeared first on milkadamia.

Why is switching to a vegan diet so important? There is no denying the massive climate impact taking place all around us. However, the good news is that the collective “we” have the power in our hands to turn away from destructive practices to those that benefit the animals, our health and the health of the planet.

So where do you start? This grocery checklist list is but one tool but it’s a great first step. Note that milkadamia makes delicious plant milks, creamers and buttery spread (our one and only small plug) but we also understand you may want to try other brands. If you do, we encourage you to pay particular concern to those utilizing palm oil in their products. Palm oil is a bit ubiquitous as a recent study found that nearly 50% of all packaged products contain palm oil, which leads to deforestation, loss of habitat and dispersion of native populations.

As with every great expedition, planning is vital. Adopting a vegan diet and lifestyle, even for a short time, requires a bit of foresight and dedication. Even with a well thought out program in place, just know that stumbles do happen and that’s ok. Just pick yourself up, remind yourself why you signed up to the pledge in the first place and start anew. No one is keeping score. It is meant to be fun and enjoyable and the effect switching to a vegan diet will have, even if just for January, will be immeasurable.

Dairy Substitutes, Plant-Based

• Milks (in both the refrigerated and shelf section of your supermarket)
• Creamers (for cooking and coffee)
• Butters
• Cheese (slices, spreads, shredded, hard)
• Cream cheese
• Yogurt

Proteins

• Plant-based eggs
  (ready-made or make your own using flaxseed)
• Plant-based meats
• Seitan
• Legumes: beans, lentils and chickpeas
• Nut butters
• Seeds: hemp, chia, flax, pumpkin

Staples

• Grains: quinoa, brown rice, spelt, bulger, millet
• Tofu: firm (cooking) and silken (soups)
• Tempeh
• Vegetable stock (or you can make your own)
• Coconut milk (canned)
• Unsweetened apple sauce
• Vegan sugar
• Canned tomatoes
• Dried pasta (egg-free)
• Sweet potatoes
• Onions, garlic and shallots
• Dried hot and cold cereals

Flavorings

• Sweeteners: agave, maple syrup, molasses, Medjool dates, coconut sugar
• Nutritional yeast
• Smoked oil and seasonings such as smoked paprika
• Tamari sauce (trust us on this one)
• Vinegars
• Dried spices

Dips and Spreads

• Hummus
• Vegan mayonnaise
• Salsa

Plus

• Favorite vegetables, both fresh and frozen
• Favorite fruits, fresh and frozen
• Fresh herbs (parsley, dill, mint, cilantro, basil to name a few)

Obviously adjust this list if you are on a special diet. Searching for recipes to make before you head out to grocery store, so you aren’t schlepping in the cold for a lemon is a great idea. Our website has delicious ideas for smoothies, soups, desserts and meals. You can also go to veganuary.com for others or just Google a dish + vegan—there are so many out there! Every day, everyday people like you and I are making food choices as if the well-being of the Earth depends on them and we welcome you on this journey.

Download the milkadamia Veganuary Shopping List here.

The post Veganuary Grocery List first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Veganuary Grocery List appeared first on milkadamia.

We don’t pay much mind to hand-wringers, those who proclaim the world is dying. We choose instead to labor for its health. It is futile to agonize over the vastness of the task or to weep over losing that which is not yet fully lost.

Even soils degraded by plows and chemicals can be regenerated, restored and revived. Though their vitality and structure have been diminished from relentless mono-cropping, they can again be the silent engine of life they always were.

Regenerative farming focuses on the health of the soil. A good regenerative farm actually creates new layers of topsoil every year. The technique is to stop exploiting and abusing soil and to work with it. With crop rotation and cover crops, no plowing and no chemical or artificial fertilizer inputs, the soils can begin to regenerate. Given the opportunity, the microorganisms multiply into astound abundance and set about regenerating land.

All of life on Earth is possible only because of all the life in the earth. To save the Earth, we must first save the earth. Healthy topsoil sequesters astounding quantities of Co2 – enough that if 20% of the currently cultivated soils were farmed regeneratively we could halt and reverse the buildup of carbon in the sky.

How the food you purchase is grown matters. Your choice of regeneratively farmed food over the produce of industrialized farming has genuine and immediate eco-pertinence.

The post For The Love of Earth first appeared on milkadamia.

The post For The Love of Earth appeared first on milkadamia.

The early climate models they developed alarmed them but were crude and left room for alternative explanations. In time more powerful climate models confirmed their central calculations – unless we acted decisively, we were incrementing our way toward serious trouble down the track.

Scientists sounded a series of warnings. We were impacting the weather and were either cooling or possibly warming the whole place. Additional time, investment and computing power settled it – we were warming, not cooling the planet a little – 2-6 degrees over the next 100 years or so. Such a small change spread over such a long period seemed trivial, even desirable, to many of the world’s populace. Also, many scientific uncertainties emerged, and the sheer complexity of our climate left lots of space for doubts and limitless action, stalling debate.

The consequences of these seemingly trivial temperature changes slowly became evident, and we learned they were not going to be good for us, not good at all. Scientists sounded a louder warning citing something called the greenhouse effect.

Now, greenhouses are little islands of abundance, growing vegetables and ripening tomatoes out of season. My gentle and wise grandparents had a greenhouse at the bottom of their garden. They loved to spend the hours between naps there, pottering, muttering and humming tunelessly. Their greenhouse was a glorious disarray of mismatched containers and tiny pampered cuttings. This is where my grandparents most deeply communed with nature via long, rambling conversations with random seedlings. Why should we be terrified of the planet becoming a peaceful if somewhat odd and mildly chaotic greenhouse like my grandparents had?

They tried the label climate change – such a poor description for a crisis. Climate is always changing, always has been, always will be. It’s a bit like the weather, isn’t it? We discuss the weather endlessly, and much of the discussion is on how changeable it is. So, nothing new and no need for alarm there.

They tried global warming – “warm” is a nice word, cozy, snug and welcoming. Who doesn’t want to be warm? I love being warm. Walking barefoot along sun-warmed sand with my wife by my side is the most potent and happy sensory memory of mine. Warm spring sun on my back is my number one happy place. We embrace warming in a warm embrace.

Today some news outlets are calling it a climate crisis – ok, that is a bit better, a crisis at least sounds alarming. But meanwhile thirty years have gone by and much of the population remains a bit bemused and ambivalent. There has been little progress toward mitigating the impending crunch and not much strident demand from we the people. So, politicians know they can get away with kicking the can further and further down the road. Let the generations to come worry about it is their attitude.

What I ask is the next time the world is in deadly peril requiring alarm and action – for goodness sake let the marketing team do the naming exercise!

Words matter. Some have the power to startle, shock, incite, excite, inspire and cause action. Others comfort and lull. Our scientists chose the wrong words.

My choice in bold capitals is the acronym WTF.

I don’t mean to offend, but I find the inaction by our leaders even more offensive and such an inexcusable obscenity that only the strongest language will suffice!

WTF – to all of us. How can we love the good life so much that we casually impose crushing hardship on our own offspring?

Politicians, WTF and WTF again, calculating, cynical, callous cowards only interested in power, prestige and pockets, where is your leadership? Where is your compassion and empathy – where is your love of this planet and the people you are supposed to serve?

WTF no one is coming to save us – we are going to have to take action ourselves.

We propose as one action demanding regeneratively farmed products. We need 20% of currently cultivated land to become regenerative, thus halting the buildup of Co2 and creating some breathing space. This we can do.

We all need to get busy with WTF – Winning The Future.

The post How Not To Brand first appeared on milkadamia.

The post How Not To Brand appeared first on milkadamia.

Ten thousand small farmers say, “We need Congress to work with us to develop food and agriculture policies that support climate-friendly organic and regenerative farming, ranching, and land-use practices.” These farmers ask that Congress quit subsidizing monopolistic, exploitive industrial-scale agriculture. Industrial farming pollutes the environment, produces unhealthy food and disproportionately devastates rural communities and economies, they contend.

The concerted cry of farmers is due to what they see happening in their soil and in the food they produce. Their agenda is straightforward: to sustain their livelihood and ensure humanity’s food supply, we must change how we farm. The switch to regenerative farming is not simple. It is even harder when fighting against the tide of subsidies and crop insurance the government reserves for traditional methods reliant on chemicals and plows.

Small farmers are demanding action. Today, students are leaving classes and taking to the streets to fight for their tomorrow. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, they are protesting the inaction of the adults on climate change.

Life is the accumulation of todays and tomorrows. We have only the present and the future. What we do in the present will decide the number of tomorrows we accumulate.

The post Enough Is Enough first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Enough Is Enough appeared first on milkadamia.

Recent exposes have shown what our bovine friends go thru for the unethical dairy industry. Our creamy, delicious milkadamia is made from natural macadamias, not from cows.

2. TASTE

Plant-based milks, including our own milkadamia, bring you the creamy smoothness and delicious taste of milk in a way that’s sustainable and healthy for the planet.

3. REGENERATIVE FARMING

Our Jindilli Farm practices earth-friendly regenerative farming techniques that keep the rich carbon in the soil.

4. PERFECT SUBSTITUTE

Plant-based milk is the perfect substitute for dairy in recipes. Whether it’s baking or cooking, plant milk like milkadamia replicates the smooth, creamy taste that all cooks want.

5. COMPASSION

Unlike what you’ve seen from the dairy industry recently you’ll never see video of a farmer torturing a macadamia nut. Enjoy the taste you grew up with but leave the milk to the cows.

6. VARIETY

Animal-based milk comes in regular, chocolate or skim. BORING! Plant-based milks, creamers and butters come in a wide range of delicious flavors.

7. HEALTH

Plant-based milk, like milkadamia, is generally lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than whole milk, plus they contain zero hormones. Milk does NOT do a body good. Plants do.

8. PERFORMANCE

Plant-based athletes such as Lewis Hamilton, Novak Djokovic, Kyrie Irving know that one can achieve maximum performance on a plant-based diet.

9. OUR PLANET

Drinking plant-based milk is a great way to give the Earth some breathing room. Our Jindilli Farm employs regenerative farming principles to sequester carbon and feed the soil, so it feeds us.

10. GOOD FIRST STEP

Many people looking to make the change to move to a plant-based diet start with plant-based milk and eventually realize they don’t need meat or dairy in their diet.

11. GREENHOUSE GASSES

Big Dairy farms are a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions and the mishandling of fertilizer runoff harms rivers and streams. Transcend the herd!

12. WATER USAGE

Did you know it takes 144 gallons of water to make one gallon of dairy milk? The trees at our Jindilli Farm are not tethered to irrigation systems. We rely on Mother Nature. Thanks, mom.

13. DAIRY IS WEIRD

We are the only species who drink the milk of another species. Let’s leave cow’s milk for whom it was intended: baby cows.

14. PLANT-BASED PRODUCTS ARE NOT JUST FOR MILK

There has an explosion of new plant-based products in every dairy category from ice cream to yoghurt to cheeses to buttery spreads, further rendering moo moot.

The post 14 Reasons Why Moo Is Moot first appeared on milkadamia.

The post 14 Reasons Why Moo Is Moot appeared first on milkadamia.

Then cometh the climate crises! In seeking to find effective ways to help avert the worst-case scenario, we discover 50% of our topsoil has already disappeared by erosion and desertification.

Much of the loss is due to Poor Farming Practices ! As a consequence, rainfall patterns are shifting beyond recognition, and vast areas will soon become too hot or dry to grow food.

We also discover that farming lobbies are bloated and powerful and fully invested in maintaining the destructive status quo. That too many Government Subsidies flow to farmers, without which, most dairy, livestock and stock-feed production farms are as wildly uneconomic as they are inefficient. Our taxes support unnecessary land destruction and water wastage. All encouraged by the herbicide/pesticide and artificial fertilizer companies embedded within the agriculture system.

They are ruthless in policing their plundering of the system, existing only to maintain their free-range exclusivity and dominance over government agricultural policy and largess. They Thwart the development of alternative farming solutions and stall conscience on global climate change. They Block Any Shift that may threaten their income or influence. Thereby they diminish even the incredible potential of human ingenuity and resilience, just as these attributes are most desperately needed to help solve the most significant threat humans face.

Those few brave farmers who attempt alternate farming methods are abruptly cut off from Government funding. The monolith of agricultural policy remains focused on rewarding the intense application of chemicals. The rusted-on article of faith, that chemicals provide food security, endures, despite all the evidence shouting the very opposite.

Alternate farming methods

1. Organic farming has now been part of the farming scene for decades, yet less than 1% of U.S. farms are organic. We wish there were many more. The organic movement has stalled out, and it is not entirely focused on soil vitality. Constant plowing and disking to control weeds has severely degraded the soil on many organic farms.
2. Soils revitalized through the alternative of regenerative farming take up and hold massive quantities of Co2. Enough to halt and then reverse the buildup of carbon in the sky. We need 20% of the currently cultivated land, globally, to move to regenerative agriculture as rapidly as possible.

Regenerative agriculture produces nutrient-dense food in abundance. Regenerative farmers prosper without having to charge a premium for their produce. Regenerative agriculture focuses on the continual rebuilding of the vitality of soils. The improved soil structure created on regenerative farms slows erosion, saves water, supports billions of microorganisms and takes Co2 from the atmosphere. The abundant quantities of nutrient-dense chemical-free food is a welcome side-benefit.

Regenerative agriculture is soul-deep good for farmers. The satisfaction of rebuilding soil and creating an abundant future also regenerate the heart and enthusiasm. Regenerative farming is our last best hope for allowing the Earth some much-needed breathing space.

We have no time to wait for legislators to find the intellect, fortitude and moral fiber to stand up to Big Ag and the farming lobbies. The Big Ag companies view soil in much the same way we see (or don’t see) the paper on which this article appears: merely a medium for the written message. So, the land is only to them a substrate to hold their chemicals and artificial fertilizers — only the lifeless underpinning of their wealth creation system. Value for them is not in the soil, but in the chemicals they foist onto it. Good topsoil is after all their only competitor, a competitor they have been systematically killing off for decades because good, fertile, productive topsoil makes their whole business model redundant.

Good, fertile, productive topsoil is what regenerative farming is all about. Healthy topsoil is the living, resilient, abundantly fruitful silent engine of all life on Earth. Every growing thing, even every aspiration we hold and our very future, depends on the continuing vitality of our lands. Soil is the goose that lays all the golden eggs. A goose that is rapidly becoming too chemically toxic to keep producing.

Now science informs us that without intervention and dramatic change in agriculture, we have no more than 59 harvests left to us. Read that sentence again! It has become imperative that we regenerate our soils.

As the soil goes, so goes all life above it. 

The good news is that consumers across the globe are spontaneously altering their food purchases in support of our planet. Many will join in demanding regeneratively farmed produce – the alternative is just too weighted with dispiriting consequence to contemplate.

We are in this battle together, and we have to win. Now is a historical all-hands-on-deck moment. We, the common folk of Earth, collectively face a most common problem. We can match the fragility of life with our ferocity to save it.

We the people can enable regenerative farming and the planet to flourish – or not.

As for milkadamia, we choose to support the Earth’s earth through regenerative agriculture.

#ItsRChoice

Jim Richards, CEO milkadamia

The post To Save the Earth, We Must Save the Earth first appeared on milkadamia.

The post To Save the Earth, We Must Save the Earth appeared first on milkadamia.

What do YOU stand for? And what will YOU not stand for? It is the values we express and act upon that are the building blocks of our civilization. They sculpt and shape our shared future.
Jewel-Osco was congratulated for acting decisively after being made aware of the pernicious and systematic cruel treatment of cows and calves at Fair Oaks Farms. Theirs was not a financial decision; it likely cost the retailers significantly, added complexity and created some chaos. Theirs was an ethical decision and that is heartening and encouraging.

The question is, can factory farming of animals survive the social media age?

The dairy industry has a large and well-funded PR machine. They employ multitudes of political lobbyists who will soothe and assure Washington and us too if we allow. The workers in the video will be made scapegoats, it will be declared an isolated aberration, the industry will march on.
Dairy cows and their newborn vulnerable calves have no PR agency and no lobbyists, and they can’t speak for themselves – they have only our voices guided by our values. For any who chose to signal their values to corporations like Fair Oaks and Coca-Cola, here’s a tip – they listen most attentively to their sales volume, profit and market-share.

#ItsRChoice

Read more on our belief that moo is moot.

The post Anything But Fairlife first appeared on milkadamia.

The post Anything But Fairlife appeared first on milkadamia.