Many things 1

I have many things to blog about right now. This will be a several-part post probably.

The big news is that my article that I have been working on for basically the past three years was accepted, and I uploaded the final version today. It will be printed eventually in Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, which, if that doesn't sound exciting to you, I just don't even know. I'm now waiting on other people to get their articles through the ringer so our special issue can be published. I will finally have been published in an important periodical, woohoo. My only hope is that I will have gotten there before Alison and Arun.

Second, I read the following article yesterday: Wolfgang Puck: I Want Animals to Be Happy. It seems that Wolfgang Puck has decided that, at no extra cost to the consumer, he will instigate reforms to his culinary empire (including frozen foods even, which is pretty amazing) so that all animals used for his food will be hormone-free, and cage-free (nothing mentioned about vegetarian-fed). Also, he'll start using as many organic ingredients as possible, and make an effort to use recycled materials and reduce waste.

There were a few quotes in it that made me laugh:
"I'm not going soft, or, heaven forbid, vegan." - Apparently being vegan carries a stigma still...
"Why shouldn't cows and pigs feel sunlight on their backs, grass under their feet? Fish shouldn't be jammed into tanks too full for them to even think about swimming. They should be able to exercise their muscles and feel a current. Yes, they'll be killed for food—but until then, they should have a nice stay on Earth."
"As for foie gras, my customers and I can easily live without it."

He also gave the following quote, which I think is important for people to understand. It is in reference to his upbringing in Austria: "We never stocked cans in our pantry. Instead, we ate summer fruit in the summer and winter vegetables when the weather turned cold, just as nature intended. Our chickens were raised to run about the property, and were fed a wholesome diet. Our cows didn't know a thing about bovine growth hormones. And the food tasted better." I think that most people have no idea any more of the things that happen to their food, and the energy that it takes to make sure that we can have strawberries all year. I love being able to eat the same thing at any time of the year, but I think, once we move to Albuquerque, Alison and I are going to start trying to eat more things we grow ourselves, or are locally grown; that makes for a big sacrifice, bigger than it might seem. That means apples in the summer and fall only, bananas and oranges never (so sad), and fresh green chiles only in the fall. We'll see how long that lasts.