Et tu(na), Greenseas

Last 20 March I linked to Greenpeace’s Canned Tuna Guide [1, 2]. It ranks tuna brands based on several environmental criteria. Whilst Greenseas tuna’s fourth on the list of 12, it’s the highest ranked brand available in Deloraine – even though it’s in the red, i.e. very poor, category. Last week I bought a ‘425g net’ can of Greenseas ‘Tuna chunks in springwater’. Opening it, I was astounded to see the water level well below the can’s upper rim; and the tuna well below the water level. I weighed the can’s contents at 282g (66%) tuna and 143g (34%) water. So I phoned Heinz (i.e. Greenseas’ parent company) [3]. The consumer liaison woman sounded uninterested. She pointed out the label states the tuna’s 65% of the can’s contents and it comprises four servings of 70g each. These figures agree with my measured 282g tuna within the can’s 425g net weight. But I think the ratio of 34% water to 66% tuna’s excessive as is the can’s size given a significant airspace in the can above the tuna and water. I said to the Heinz woman that to me, notwithstanding the correct labelling, these two factors mislead the consumer. She said she’d pass this on to the marketing department. I replied that as I’d taken the trouble to phone, it’d be reasonable for Heinz to respond to my two complaints, i.e. not merely record them. Grudgingly she said Heinz would write to me ‘in a week’. I await its reply. Stay tuned.

P.S. Happy 10th birthday today, darling Indi.

Survival Ark - coming over the horizon

Last 18 May I wrote I was looking to buy a hand-operated flour mill – to grind wheat into flour for 100% wholemeal bread [1]. Now, 12 weeks later, I still haven’t bought one. But I will soon. Last Monday Sweetheart Vivienne and I went to the health food store in Deloraine to buy flour and yeast. Whilst there I asked about flour mills. The proprietor showed us one. It looked okay, and it was a good price. But I had misgivings. Free floating ones. Gut feelings. When I asked about the warranty, he said he’d have to check. I took that as a way to temporise. I said I’d be back in two days. Yesterday I made some internet and phone inquiries. I’ve found a better one: more functional design, improved grinding capacity, made in Victoria, lifetime guarantee. It’s about A$90 dearer. But the advantages justify the higher price. So later today I need to tell the Deloraine man I’m not buying the mill he’s selling. That’s too hard for me to do. I don’t know why, but it is. A result of one of my many long-term psychological glitches. So Sweetheart Vivienne’s doing it. She’s much more psychologically able than I. Also we’re returning a 20kg bag of baker’s flour we bought on Monday – as we’ll need less once we grind our own flour. So all going well, some time next week we’ll be proud owners of a Survival Ark (pictured). Oh what fun. Stay tuned.

The shape of things to come?

Vis-à-vis the farm part of Farmdoc, a recurring theme in this blog is hay. In the nine years my sharefarmer Sharon and I’ve been jointly farming our adjoining properties, we’ve used square hay bales [1]. (They’re actually rectangular but called square.) This is because they’re smaller and lighter than round bales – the hay in a round bale’s roughly the same as in 15 square bales – so we can handle them manually. (Lifting round bales needs machinery – which Joel Salatin derides as ‘heavy metal’ [2] – which we don’t have and don’t want.) As neither Sharon nor I is getting younger (and stronger), we’re seeking ways to make our farming easier. So we decided we’d experiment this year. Last Saturday we bought a round bale (pictured) (for A$50) which we rolled off Sharon’s ute into one of our paddocks where we have 36 sheep and 29 goats. Instead of feeding square bale hay to them daily, the round bale’s now available to them, buffet-like, 24/7. How quickly they’ll eat it, and whether it’ll be degraded by the weather or them climbing and then excreting on it, remains to be seen. But if you don’t ask the question you won’t know the answer. This aspect of farming’s fun. It intrigues me. Stay tuned.

The Police Chief's bullets and the Rule of Law

The Rule of Law [1, 2, 3]. As I have no legal qualification I’m no expert on its ins and outs. But I take it to mean, in essence, that the law applies equally to everyone. That is, no-one’s above the law. Thus it’s a safeguard against the arbitrary exercise of power. And so to Victoria Police’s Chief Commissioner Simon Overland (pictured). As per this Age story [4], last Thursday he was detected carrying three live bullets on a Qantas domestic flight. Carrying dangerous goods on an aircraft without permission is a breach of s.23 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988. It can result in a maximum 7-year jail term if the breach was intended, or a 2-year jail term if unintended. Mr Overland said his carrying bullets on the flight was a mistake and a genuine oversight. A spokeswoman for Victorian Police Minister Cameron said he was satisfied with the police chief’s explanation. A statement by the federal Office of Transport Security said Mr Overland would be reprimanded over the incident. Not nearly good enough, methinks. The law is the law – for everyone, including a police chief. Both the Age article and one in the Australian [5] quote others who agree. If you or I committed the same offence, we’d get more than a reprimand. No doubt. I eagerly await further developments in this case. Wikipedia calls the Rule of Law a ‘foundation of a civilised society’. We’re about to find out how civilised our society is. Stay tuned.

farmdoc's blog post number 576

Last mid June, I wrote that ‘Though I haven’t created music, it’s been a major accompaniment to my life. Just about all types. Classical, opera, folk, bluegrass. Even country.’ That list didn’t include Rap. And I’m not sure I’d include it today. But I’m on the way to finding out. Last Thursday darling Emily’s boyfriend Jono – aka J-Dog, as he’s affectionately called – presented me with a CD compilation he’d burned especially for me. Titled Rap 101 with Prof J-Dog, you can see the CD’s emblazoned with ‘Farmdoc’s Hip Hop Mixtape #1’. (I must confess that until then I didn’t know for sure that Rap and Hip Hop are one and the same.) The CD has 17 tracks, each by a different American artist/group. I’d previously heard of only one, i.e. Eminem, the heterograph of the confectionery). I can’t recall exactly how this CD came about. I think I confessed to Prof J-Dog that I knew nought about Rap, and he volunteered to rectify my deficiency. Yesterday Sweetheart Vivienne and I played a few tracks during our drive back from Daylesford. The words were hard to hear, so I look forward to listening on my iPod. Until then I’m taking my decision under advisement and reserving my judgement. I’ll let you know my verdict. Prof J-Dog said if I like Rap 101, he’ll make me a Rap 201 CD. (Or is that 102?) And that one’ll be Australian Rap. Oh what fun. Stay tuned.