A short history of the great British improvement.
They came for beef dripping. We got margarine, then seed oils, then a cardiac ward in every hospital.
They came for butter. They told your grandmother it would kill her husband. The replacement was a tub of palm oil emulsified with rapeseed and a yellow dye, and her husband died of a heart attack in 1989 anyway.
They came for full-fat milk. We got skimmed milk, a vitamin D deficiency epidemic in children, and a cereal aisle fortified to plug the gap.
They came for mutton, the meat that fed every shepherd, miner, and mill worker for six hundred years. We got a chicken breast injected with water and a turkey twizzler.
They came for the kipper. We got a Findus boil-in-the-bag, dyed orange, and a fish oil capsule sold at the chemist to make up for the omega-3 nobody is eating.
They came for wool. We got polyester fleece, and microplastics in human placentas. Every one tested. Sixty-two out of sixty-two.
They came for leather. We got synthetic shoes that delaminate in eighteen months, and a high street with no cobbler.
They came for the cotton nappy. We got the disposable, and a landfill that will outlast the child wearing it.
They came for the cast iron pan handed down three generations. We got Teflon, and a forever chemical now found in 98% of British rivers.
They came for the wooden bowl your grandmother kneaded dough in. We got Tupperware, then BPA, then "BPA-free" plastic containing compounds we have not yet bothered to measure.
Now they are coming for the cow herself. The replacement is a textured pea isolate, extruded in a factory in the American Midwest, packaged in plastic, and marketed as the ethical option by a company called Cargill, who happen to be the third-largest meat processor in the United States.
Every traditional material we have been told to give up was working perfectly, for free, for centuries. Every industrial replacement has been worse for the body, worse for the land, and considerably better for the shareholders of the company that sold it.
The pattern is not subtle, and the people running it are not embarrassed.
Your great-grandmother is no longer here to call it.
You are.
I slept on the farmlands of South Africa to understand how white farmers are hunted for their skin.
Plaasmoorde tells their tale. It is not for the weak.
My heart will be forever on this hill. #SouthAfrica (full documentary link in bio)
Praise God for Trump / MAGA
Very good news. According to epidemiologist @BallouxFrancois that even after increased testing, omicron cases have already plateaued & are going down in South Africa. He says that before 2019 we may not have even been aware of it.
Patagonia stopped all paid advertising on Facebook platforms in June 2020 because they spread hate speech and misinformation about climate change and our democracy. We continue to stand by that boycott 16 months later.
Completely overwhelmed. Incessant inflow of GSW victims again tonight. Still vast numbers of covid patients in the hospital- oxygen supplies under strain. Afrox can only deliver oxygen to my hospital if they get an armed escort due to the riots. This leads to delays
Let’s just call this what it is: Planned terrorism against SA in the name of #Zuma. No quintessential protestor attacks the water network, electrical supply, hospitals, journo offices.
Zuma's 'private spy' Thulani Dlomo a prime suspect. - @News24 https://t.co/4MjvJuOqdp
An emergency medical dispatcher in Joburg has created a Google map of current hotspots in Gauteng. The map is dynamically updated as reports come in. https://t.co/vE5OzkLuLO
As a contingency plan to the protest action, please note that the departures drop-off road and arrivals pickup road have been closed. All traffic will be directed to Parkade 2 South level 2 where passengers can be picked up and dropped off. We apologise for the inconvenience.