the food revolution

Image from Drafthouse: Soylent Green


The"Food Revolution"

...and a slew of mysterious acronyms and short forms.

PLUS: The Poop on Alternative Hamburgers

As if there aren't enough acronyms clamoring for our attention already, the food industry is creating a massive slew of them! As it is, with all that's going on in the world, thanks to US hegemonic mania, one needs to have an acropedia to keep track of them. Acropedia itself is at least an acronym that actually informs, or did before it was co-opted by a corporate conglomerate and diminuized (if they can make up words, so can I) to simply "Acro" which does not mean anything like what you might think.

It's an international yoga teacher training chain, with its many locations connected by social media.

I have a book called Yoga for Beauty and Health (it's never before occurred to me to refer to it as YBH), printed in 1968 and fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions. The price marked on it is 95 cents. It was given to me by a long-time, dear, but now-departed friend, and has served me well for many years, costing nothing but some time and effort.

But here we are in the Acronym Era -- AE, that is, which alone has, count 'em, 164 designations, and possibly more being added as we speak.

One also wonders why the Yoga teacher business would want to use the same acronym as the American College of Radiation Oncology. {Shiver}

One might think that an acronym would make it easier to recall an entity more "bigly" (aka a Trumpism) named. Instead, it serves to mystify, so why is it done? The news media are full of it (yes, you can take both meanings from that) to the point that I've had to create an alphabetical text list of media acronyms so that I can figure out who or what's being discussed.

The phenomenon is so pervasive that grade school curricula (in the US at least) are now including lessons on how to formulate lists of acronyms for easy reference. Being a kid no longer, I've had to devise my own list.

You do realize that the English language is being systematically destroyed, don't you? Why is something I couldn't tell you, but I almost wish I hadn't been so rigorously trained in it because its demise is painful to behold.

Acronyms become the most worrisome (for me at any rate) when they apply to companies that are, shall we say "creative" or at least instrumental in the production of our food supply. Food is generally just food, right?  But add "tech" to that and I begin to feel somewhat nervous.

A US company called Food Tech which boasts of being an EMCOR (Fortune 500) company, as if that, added to its proclaimed support for "Missing Children", makes it trustworthy. Yet EMCOR is exactly like those ravenous conglomerates that were officially distrusted back in the '60's by the US, and therefore also by Canada:

• Emerging in 1994 as a result of the bankruptcy of JWP, Inc., formerly Jamaica Water Properties Inc., EMCOR Group, Inc. has grown through an acquisition strategy focused on broadening company services by branching out into new geographical areas and moving into new markets.​Wikipedia

There's no clue as to what, if anything, the acronym EMCOR stands for. But they have mechanized the food industry to the hilt -- in a good way, they insist.

Monsanto has been worrisome enough; we knew it was all about chemicals and avoided it wherever we could. But if "Agri" is now coupled with "Tech" there's no telling what we need to avoid. It bothers me that AgriTech is not fully defined, even in Wikipedia, which lists "bio-tech" as being another type of "AgriTech" without actually defining it.

My daughter once educated me on "predictive" movies. She said that much of what happens now has been forewarned of in books and on film. Yet libraries still list them as fiction.

There's a guy on YouTube who strongly reminds us about "soylent green", except that he spells it "soilent", no doubt for legal reasons, since he's trying to scare us into buying his remedies.

His company website presents its come-on equally as carefully. Note the acronym "Immusist", short for Immunity (or Immune system) Assistance, and the declaration of:

• "23 years dedicated to Surfactant Wellness"

(a surfactant being merely a mind-boggler for "wetting agent").

Now notice these prominently placed words without any direct relation to the product:

• Antivirals  Antifungals Antioxidants  Antibacterials

These imply that the above are ingredients in "Immusist", though the following sentence carefully avoids saying they do, and merely expresses a get-well wish:

• "Our goal for you, like so many others have experienced, is to have increased energy, wellness and pain relief."

Innuendo at its most diabolical, I would say.

Finally, almost hidden at the bottom of the page, is the truth:

• IMMUSIST™ Beverage Concentrate is not a drug, medicine or dietary supplement. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

"Buyer Beware" has taken on a whole new urgency! Especially considering the prices being charged. But the world is full of people desperate to feel better and far too easy to scare witless.

The "Immusist" guy's YouTube warning about McDonald's "poop-burgers" has been variously countered, but the suggested alternatives, as part of the planned C02 reduction program, are not exactly mouth-watering either, though Bill Gates has invested "bigly" in the company that sells them, aptly called: "Impossible Foods" (Wikipedia).

So how gullible are we really?  It's hard not to wonder how many of Canada's tax dollars go to companies with vague acronyms like AgriTech.  Yes, there really is an AgriTech entity.  Farm tech used to be tractors and milking machines, but it's much bigger than that now.

Canada's government has a department called AgriFood, which recently announced a year-round greenhouse production that will require an immigration influx, all due to the urgings of a former AgriFood president in preparation for an upcoming conference:

NationalNewswatch: Agrifood can be content as a dependable global food supplier or aim to be a superstar

• The choice is between remaining as one among many quality food-producing countries or “become one of the world’s most trusted suppliers,” the former president of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute [David McInnes] said in advance of the conference.
• A new language is being introduced as commodity sectors, food companies, NGOs, and others, seek to produce food differently, such as embracing regenerative agriculture, the circular economy and true cost accounting. And, the scrutiny will only increase.

Check out the upcoming conference to which McInnes refers. It has nothing at all to do with food quality, but about a Canada Brand. And if the quoted words "New World Order" don't produce a reminiscent chill, and a realization of how country leaders can instil monstrous lies without blinking, then I'm worried about you.

That part about producing food "differently" has already left a bad taste in my mouth. Canada has its work cut out for it, having to come up against heavily anachronized (hey, if they can make up words, so can I) conglomerates like AgriTech:
--
AGFunderNews: Agrifood tech is the small but growing segment of the startup and venture capital universe that’s aiming to improve or disrupt the global food and agriculture industry.

That there will be copious acronyms involved is clearly a given, but adding the word "tech" to "Agri" gives me serious pause.

And here's Canada's competition.

Sometimes it seems that corporations will do almost anything to become numero uno, which makes me wonder if "poop burgers" might not be entirely out of the question, considering that Canada has been tasked with becoming No.1 in the food business and also to at least appear to achieve a massive reduction in C02.

Don't forget: Greta does not eat meat.

The sense of urgency also gives rise to the kind of blatant manipulation found in the above-mentioned "Immusist" YouTube video.

His claim, however, about Alzheimer's -- a word that nobody can mistake for anything else -- might actually be true, though not proven. One of my closest friends, a very sharp, energetic, witty woman who ran her own kitchen/closet design business, could have been the prototype for the book, "Still Alice".

My friend's symptoms began as she approached 50 (early onset, it's called) and the only difference is that while Alice's illness destroys her marriage, my friend's husband eventually died of sorrow, it seems, after taking care of her at home for a long time and finally having to consign her to a locked ward in a nursing home, where I visit her whenever I feel in good enough condition myself so as not to feel devastated by her plight and the loss of her friendship. I can always make her smile, but I don't kid myself that she knows who I am.

I don't know what causes Alzheimer's, but we all know it's on the increase, and that it isn't simply a condition of old age. Some of us also suspect it has something to do with our modern environment being loaded down with chemicals.  (And they want to 5G us as well.)

I don't mean to suggest that what I am about to say should be interpreted as a harbinger of my friend's impending illness, but she went through a phase ( from something she had read and begun to believe) where she wouldn't eat meat or serve it to her family (until the protests became too strong). I have no idea if diet contributed in any way to her illness, but she did worry that the modern diet was all wrong.

Still, I wonder how the current meatless trend might affect the meat-based Keto diet intended to solve today's worrisome increases in obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

Canada is being strongly pushed to become a global standout in food production, in keeping, of course, with "AgriTech" and the need to counteract "climate change".

I'm reminded of Buck Owens singing: "They're gonna put me in the movies ... and all I hafta do is act natcherly" (YouTube)

It seem that all Canada has to do is "act natcherly", with emphasis on the word "act", as in pretend, as in simulate, as in fabricate ...

So far our government's been pretty good at that.

Image from here.