August 16, 2007 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

Greetings from a delightful floor in Ann Arbor, Michigan! While my brave co-travelers are out catching up on what I hope to be a not-too-depressing dose of pop-culture (Ben and Julie are out watching Sicko), I opted to stay in with you for the evening… to take some time to get intimate. Not like that, sicko! I want to get into your mind.

But first, I’m delighted to share with you a 20 minute remix of YERTpod3: Ask Uncle Sam. If you liked the original, you’ll probably enjoy the extra footage in this new version. Lots of kids. Lots of questions. Fewer answers. If you didn’t like the original, skip on ahead to our little survey and give us a piece of your MIND.

Here’s the new video: YERTpod3.1: Ask Uncle Sam - Extended Remix

Now tell us what you want us to know!



<a href="http://www.micropoll.com/akira/MicroPoll?mode=html&#038;id=48433">View MicroPoll</A><br /> <a href="http://www.micropoll.com/">Web Survey</a><br /> <a href="http://www.micropoll.com">Free Web Polls</a><br />


Floored,
Mark

Posted in YERTpoll, Video, Mark | 1 Comment »

August 15, 2007 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

Sit back and relax for an easy few minutes of common farming sense, city style. We found ourselves charmed by the easygoing pace and not-too-subtle wisdom of the City Farm in Providence, Rhode Island. We hope you do, too…

Just click here or the picture below to watch “YERTpod5: City Farm Charm in Rhode Island”

Meet Rich Peterson, the City Farmer of Providence, and learn about how the Southside Community Land Trust created an oasis of beautiful nutrition in an inner-city neighborhood. The land on this little plot is filled with wisdom, but the gardeners have painted some timeless advice on signs throughout the garden so that the newcomvers can learn more quickly. We did our best to share it with you in the video!

We’re also learning all about the Farm Bill here at YERT, and if you don’t think that it affects you, think again. This bill has a profound effect on our nation’s food, health, energy, communities, and overall quality of life, and it is coming up for a vote very soon in the U.S. Senate. We’ll be studying up and sharing our thoughts with you as we learn. For a quick video introduction to the Farm Bill by Ken Cook, watch the videos here. For a great written introduction by Michael Pollan, click here. And if you’d rather just listen, KQED’s Forum has a great discussion here.

Reap it and Eat,

Mark, Julie, and Ben (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

P.S. More Breadcrumbs! If you want to learn more about the topics in this video, check out these three resources:

• Southside Community Land Trust - City Farm. From the web page: “Over the past 25 years, these degraded vacant lots have been transformed into what are now beautiful and thriving gardens used for food production. By restoring the health of the land through clearing debris and remediating the soil of its toxins, the community is restored as well.”
• Soil: The Secret Solution to Global Warming. http://www.quantumshift.tv/v/1181028043. From the web page: “As Congress debates the Farm Bill, QuantumShift highlights another reason for them to support organics. Research by the Rodale Institute reveals that sustainably-farmed soil holds up to 30% more carbon than conventional agriculture. Converting US farmland to organic on a wide scale would reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 10%. The extra carbon in the soil also increases food nutrients, which could greatly reduce health care costs. In this QuantumShift special report, farmer Percy Schmeiser urges the President and Congress to shift existing agricultural subsidies to support sustainable farming practices.”
• And a fun little bit by NBC News about some surprising folks who actually receive farm subsidies. Scottie Pippin? David Letterman?? Check this out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPjv4Hrp1hY&NR=1

Posted in Video, Issues | 1 Comment »

August 14, 2007 by Julie.

I’m skipping ahead past the glory that was the rest of VT, to be revisted in a bit. It was simply amazing. Like this random apple tree growing in a bit of grass between the sidewalk and North Street. My neighbor, Randa, back in Queens, told us before we left that we would eat Burlington up with a spoon. I think I ate it with my fingers.

Our wonderful hosts, Nathan and Chris were a beacon and a fount of information and good conversation. They even provided us with YERT’s very first movie of the entire trip, on a projector screen in their living room (no tv - yay!), complete with ice cream…

Nathan noted with some disappointment that I gave a nod to Whole Foods in my blogging but not to coops, which are the heart of local agriculture. I do believe with all my heart that coops and eating locally are THE WAY TO GO and will be the wave of the future. Burlington’s downtown grocery, CityMarket, happens to be, not only a coop, but, one of the largest cooperatives in the entire country - in a town of only 40,000! Consider the bar raised yet again, America.
I hope Nathan can rest assured knowing that we will be showcasing local farmers in tomorrow’s videopod of Rhode Island! (Thank you Nathan and Chris!)

We left Vermont wistfully, and took off for, well, Canada. Cause it’s the 51st state. Alright, we needed to bypass the Great Lakes to get to Michigan, so we popped out our passports and passed over the border with the stationguard’s blessing, stopping when a flurry of hot air balloons came to rest all around us - Ben jumped out and shot with the video camera. No idea what’s the carbon footprint of 30 hot air balloons but we were mesmerized as they all came down.

We hurried on to Montreal and then scrambled for hours trying to find a hotel. The room we were finally able to secure cost as much as all three of our previous hotel rooms combined but there was tennis in town so we felt lucky not to have to sleep in the car, and Mark slapped down the YERT card. Thankfully, the internet connection was fast, the bellhop brought an extra cot so all 3 of us had a bed, and we were able to enjoy a continental breakfast in the morning.

The next day I was immediately reminded that I am a woman. Nevermind the details, but suffice it to say I was in no mood for tooling around Montreal the next day which is exactly what Ben had his heart set on, and which was most unfortunate as it is a most walkable city, with some great architecture, and French besides. Can’t say it was a smashingly successful bit of tourism. Mark ended up by himself in the archeological museum and after some pathetic bit of tooling, and then lemonade, Ben deposited me back in the car in a crumply heap (next to Evans Court!) and left to go find Mark. He left me Rachel’s keys at my request, so that I could go find a bathroom. 3 hours west of Montreal in Kingston, Ontario it was after supper when I realized that I might have left the car keys in the bathroom of the little cafe back in Montreal..

*would like to say a huge thankyou and shout out to Pierre of Montreal who ran down the block several times to find the cafe, which was closed, and then get the name and address, who then alerted his fellow concierges about the missing keys, and then followed up and traced them the next day and who is mailing them to us presently by post. Oh we are loving you Pierre. Call us the next time you need a place to stay in the US, I’m not kidding. Who knows, we may have an actual home by then.

So. It’s Monday, crunch day, and Ben is putting together the pod by himself. again.
It really seems that we need to all 3 figure out how to do these together so that one person is not responsible for the thing. plus that way we will all start to have some creative input in the videos as well as the blogs…

I spent the day doing laundry and baking banana muffins, which is fine and necessary work i think…I don’t do it bc it is expected of me but bc i know what i am doing on both counts and basically I don’t trust the boys with the laundry or the bread. sorry, boys. love you, though.
Godspeed Ben through the night.

Posted in Travelog, Julie | 1 Comment »

August 12, 2007 by Ben.

OK, so here’s the deal. We’re stopping the trip and staying in Vermont. That’s it. Game over. Mission accomplished. I’ve chained Julie and Mark to a hydrangea bush in Burlington and traded in the Ford Escape Hybrid for a Subaru. I’ll be appearing weekly as a trapeze street performer on the Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian walk that makes the Santa Monica Promenade look like a Chuck E. Cheese. No offense Santa Monica, I love you too…really…but have you SEEN Burlington? She is smokin’! I’m not even kidding. The only place to get groceries downtown is this obscenely cool co-op - the third largest in the country. Dude, Burlington has 40,000 people…and THE THIRD LARGEST CO-OP! You know where it ranks in population? #817. Co-op size? NUMBER THREE!! Sorry, I’ll stop yelling. But doesn’t that just say it all?

Oh, and The Intervale? Don’t even get me started. It’s this 354-acre nirvana of farming awesomeness located IN the city. In the 1980’s it was a nasty, polluted, dangerous blight on Burlington until Will Raap led a charge to turn it into the second coming of Eden. It’s now a phenomenal training ground for independent, organic farmers. A farmer farm, if you will…and I hope you do. They, in turn, supply organic local produce to local schools, businesses, the co-op, even the local hospital. Not only that, they run an enormous community compost service, a conservation nursery for local flora, and a farming outreach program that empowers disadvantaged kids by connecting them to the joys of farming, the land, and their community.

And this kind of thing is happening EVERYWHERE in Vermont. Montpelier is currently engaged in the Eat Local Challenge where residents eat only food grown locally (within 100 miles) for a month. Oh yeah, and I found TEN MORE areas doing Eat Local challenges in Vermont. Even the power plant that looms over The Intervale is sustainability-minded. It’s a carbon-neutral 50 megawatt power plant that runs on sustainably harvested wood chips and locally collected scrap wood. And the staff at the power plant was about as kind and as open as could be. Touring a power plant has never felt so much like a big hug. In fact, today I went back to shoot a little bit more B-roll and got stopped by a guy driving one of the front loaders there. I thought he might give me a hard time and I’d probably have to do a little song and dance, but I had forgotten I was in Burlington. He came over, shook my hand, introduced himself, and told me how excited he was about what we were doing - just as happy as could be. Are you FRIGGIN’ KIDDING ME?!?

One gets the unmistakable sense that this is a city (and a state) that knows how to protect what’s perfect and fix what ain’t. And the people in Burlington are about as fine as they come. Even the Mayor is approachable. He called us back himself to have us come talk with him. No secretary or middle man. Called us up. Just like that. Now THERE’S a public servant. Even his name is friendly - Bob Kiss. It just doesn’t get any sweeter than that.

And now, a haiku:

Bob in green vale Kissed
Trust land trusts here now always
Subaru Subaru…bliss

Posted in Events, Travelog, Ben | 3 Comments »

August 12, 2007 by Julie.

We suddenly noticed something very different about the look of the land at exactly the moment we realized we had entered the state of Vermont. The water, the sky, the trees - everything we could see so saturated, lush and verdant, green and green. My little camera’s lens can’t begin to capture - hopefully the video will do a better job…It was like we had just crossed into a parallel plane where humans had nurtured the land instead of spoiled it. There wasn’t a billboard to be seen. Billboards are no more allowed in Vermont as residents feel that they burden the soul. It is such a relief to see, lining the road, only trees and small signs that say Here we are. rather than HERE WE ARE FAST GET OFF NOW AND DON’T MISS US YOU NEED WHAT WE’VE GOT WE ARE HUGELY IMPORTANT WE’RE SELLING COME BUY WE ARE NEAR!!!

And when we pulled up to our host’s little cabin in Chester, VT, we were welcomed with wet dog kisses and fantastic food and forthright conversation. Jerome filled us in on the passing of Bush’s executive order July 17th. And we shuddered to think of the phones they’ve been tapping to give Bush a reason to freeze someone’s assets without any notice or word. Or trial or hearing or lawyer or hope. And climate change seemed not the worst of our worries.

We slept without dreaming and woke to Jerome making pancakes and eggs. He told us to head to the Moondog Cafe and he left for NY with the dogs. (Bye Jerome! and thank you!)
We found the organic oasis, and stayed there all day, for muffins for coffee for lunch…for blogging and emails and editing, for catching up with the world and for dinner. Ben worked on the Barnegat Bay pod all night for his 4th all-night edit in as many weeks. I worried all night over how he was faring and several times got up, and wrapped on my skirt, blinking my way to the kitchen to see if he’d run out of water or needed a bite, or if it was time for a new pair of eyes to review what he’d pasted and cut so far. I made him take out the music from underneath Willie deCamp cause it made me laugh but wasn‘t supposed to be funny…

And morning came, and Ben saw it was good and he rested. Mark and I went back to the Moondog to work while he slept for awhile. We chatted with Steve, the owner, who also runs an Eco landscaping business and believes in the power of healing herbs. He gave us some crazy mushroom tea to fight off any nasties we might have picked up. Steve had had Lyme disease twice. We went back for Ben and then hurried to pack but were stopped in our tracks when we noticed that Jerome’s whole backyard was surrounded by blackberry bushes, with some berries ripe for the picking!! So, we ate off the vine for breakfast.

And then, as luck would have it, we ate off the vine for dinner as well. We missed Brattleboro (and will have to go back there someday) but we stumbled on something tremendous in a little town called Heartland - the Sustainability Institute, founded by Donella Meadows and kept alive by a community of people, like Daniella Malin, who showed us around the farm and Phil Rice and Beth Sawin, who opened up their home and hearth to us for the most amazing supper thus far. We learned how to prune apple trees (theoretically), and that it can take up to 4 yrs for apple trees to fruit. We walked by the milking barn and past the little calves in their pens, to the chicken houses where we learned how to best a rooster who is fronting you, and which hens lay brown eggs and which white or even green!

Cobb Hill is the name of the intentional community that lives on the hill beyond the Institute and is comprised of all kinds of people from all walks of life. Even intentional communities have to deal with inner social strife sometimes, said Danielle, and then it’s the tension that is not sustainable. But they seem to work it out.

One of the residents of the community, Jeem, took us inside his house to get a better look at the inner workings of the housing development, including the composting toilets, which was super cool (and didn’t smell stinky at all!)

After several hours, we were starting to fade and so began walking back to the car saying how much we enjoyed the place and remarking how it seemed almost unreal in it’s simplicity and beauty- cows in the pasture and sheep in the meadow, chickens in the coop and vegetables in the gardens, bees in their hives, and children playing where they will, happily, exploring, no idea of heavier cares or cruel goings on in the world…So when Phil said if we were hungry to join them for supper, but no cameras please, how could we say no? Thrilled, we sat at a picnic table in their backyard garden and watched while their daughter, Jenna, trotted through, picked a cucumber off of the vine and chomped into it just like an apple. Phil’s homemade bread came fresh out of the oven and straight to the table, and neighbor, Matt, from West Virginia, sauntered over with his easy twang and his plate of “day-early” tomatoes. (amazing) Squash, pickles, bulgar wheat and berries, sweet corn and some crazy good cheese made right there on Cobb Hill by Matt’s wife, from 12 or so cows. We ate till our bellies were tight as drums and laughed until they were tighter. Then, when we sure that the day couldn’t get any better, Phil took us to where the maple syrup was stored and sold us the very last bottle of Grade B on the shelf. Which we are saving for a sitdown.
And I can’t wait. Tomorrow: more of the bounty that is Vermont.

Posted in Travelog, Julie | 1 Comment »

August 12, 2007 by Mark.

That’s right. We’ve been telling you all along that YERT stands for YOUR Environmental Road Trip. And, while we’ve been receptive to your ideas, we haven’t extended the red comment carpet for you. Until now. Introducing our first Micropoll– YERTpoll1: Detroit Exploits!

We’re headed to Detroit next week and we’d love to know what you’d like us to explore in that city. Go ahead and vote yourself silly, and then we’ll do our best to bring our YERTpeeps what they YERN for.

Enjoy. And vote.

YERTfully Yours,.

Mark

Posted in YERTpoll, Mark | 1 Comment »

August 7, 2007 by Julie.

Alright, I confess…there was so much going on in Maine, I have an entire page in my states notes dedicated to “stuff we missed in Maine.”

Feeling somewhat sorry for not having found the water story we were hoping for, we left Maine and went on to NH, where we stopped at only our second hotel of the trip, a little inn in Gorham, touted to have internet. As luck would have it, like many web “connections” we are encountering on this trip, their internet was somehow not accessible by any of our computers. (sigh.) We dined at a next door restaurant where the waiter kindly aided us in our quest for no trash, and we hit the sack.

The next day Ben was geared up to go to the top of Mt. Washington, which has the highest recorded windspeeds in America, 3 x higher than most hurricanes! Mark had much to do and was really wanting to move on so that he could connect to the web, and I was super-behind on blogging, so we kind of decided we’d try to find internet somewhere in Gorham and Ben might go to the mountaintop by himself, which he was not at all keen on. As luck would have it, we drove and drove and drove around that little town and were not able to connect anywhere. So little Rachel hauled all three of us up the mountaintop chug chug chugging in low gear, as recommended by the Parks Dept. Definitely the worst gas mileage we have gotten on this trip. And pretty freakin windy at the top. Weren’t no 212 mph but Mark had to hold his hat on some.

And here’s the interesting thing: All that time spent looking for internet, etc. kept us basically in the same area of NH all day, when we would have otherwise high-tailed it out of there. And just about the time we were finally giving up the ghost and heading for Mt Washington, a man named Jim Wilfong called us saying he would love to meet with us to talk about the Nestle bottling water controversy. We had tried to reach him days earlier but he was not available. We hedged for nearly 2 seconds about backtracking (being technically already in NH) but then Jim suggested meeting in Fryeburg, ME, the town whose water rights now belong to Nestle and Poland Springs, and where much of the struggle centered. So we happily drove down that mountain, repairing our mpg (only a little) while cooking our brakes on the descent, and made a beeline for Fryeburg, Jim Wilfong, and the Androscoggin River. (video to follow soon!) Jim’s essays are well worth reading and can be found online at www.onthecommons.org.

We left Jim and his son, Christian, and booked it to Bow, NH, where family friend Kerry Reed waited up and set us up in an office off their family’s horse barn. (Thank you, Kerry!) I will say that composting our apple cores was super easy at this house, since that is horseys‘ favorite snack! And I also happen to love the smell of horse barns so that worked out super well for me.

Since NH is the first state to have the primaries, Mark felt pretty sure that we should try for some politicians who might already be campaigning, so we put out calls but the returns were slow in coming, so we pursued other avenues.

Saturday was spent with the lovely and bright Denise Blaha, UNH researcher and founder of NH Carbon Challenge, which she directs with her colleague, Julia Dundorf. Together they are challenging New Hampshirites (anyone know how to spell that?) to lose 10,000 pounds this year each. Of carbon, that is. And they have spelled out just how to do it. It won’t take huge lifestyle changes, says Denise, but it will take effort. Living as we have been for the last decade will not support the population explosion we are encountering. We simply will not be able to sustain this many people unless we change the way we live on earth. All of us.

We agree! So, Sunday, we joined the NH March for Climate in Concord (aka the Reenergize New Hampshire campaign)(find at www.climatesummer.org) to add our feet to the many students and residents in support of a sustainable future. But not before my flipflops finally broke down to the point that i couldn’t actually keep them on my feet without crimping my toes. (see shoes in my hand) WAAAAaaaaa. Enter hostess to the rescue! Kerry literally gave me the shoes right off her feet, right there in the driveway, saying our goodbyes as they headed off to church. (She did not go to church barefooted though, lest you are wondering.) I am so super grateful! I have been wearing them ever since, so they are well-loved already, and will be my constant companions as long as global warming allows…which hopefully won’t be January.

The march itself was lively and heartening. Once I got my daily dose of java, we changed into our YERT sherts and I waited back at the info tables in “Action Alley” (where we were invited to park Rachel Carson), proudly displaying YERT while the boys marched the final leg with the students and filmed marchers’ thoughts and antics… everyone gathered at the State House. There was music, there were banners, and hundreds of cloth flags bearing written promises and prayers for the Earth were carried and fastened to wire globes by a local artist. We heard quite a few speakers, including dynamic author Bill McKibben, who spoke with us on camera (video forthcoming) along with Congressman Paul Hodes. Bill joined students gathered on the lawn rapping about what we are all thinking - how to make the change we wish to see in the world. We felt so lucky to have been able to participate, we were able to leave NH feeling like we had at least added our voices to the many rising. Next: VT!

Posted in Travelog, Julie | 3 Comments »

August 7, 2007 by Mark.

Dear YERTians,

We spent most of our time in New Jersey learning about the wetlands of Barnegat Bay, and now we have the video to prove it!

Just click here or the picture below to watch “YERTpod4: Gunga Gunga in New Jersey”

William “Willie” deCamp Jr. guided us through a multi-faceted multi-day tour of Barnegat Bay, introducing us to the people who work to protect this fragile wetland. We literally got a taste of “gunga gunga,” and found out why it grows and what it means for the surrounding waters. We also got a taste of Mark’s favorite food (oatmeal) turned into his other favorite food (ice cream) while speaking to a charming local leader working for clean water on the New Jersey shore. We dare you to guess her name. We finish the video pod with the birth of a compost pile.

Enjoy the Show,

Ben, Julie, and Mark (Your YERT Team)

team@yert.com

P.S. And now for the Breadcrumbs! If you want to learn more about the topics in this video, check out these three resources:

• Ecological Society of America - The ESA has quite possibly created the best introductory document I’ve found on the topic of nonpoint water pollution and clean-up options: http://www.esa.org/science_resources/issues/FileEnglish/issue3.pdf . From the article: “Eutrophication is currently the most widespread water quality problem in the U.S.” “Eutrophication means the fertilization of surface waters by nutrients that were previously scarce.”
• A fun, picture-filled introduction to New Jersey wetlands: http://www.brookdale.cc.nj.us/staff/sandyhook/tripdata/wetland/index.htm. An interesting tidbit from the page: “About 916,000 acres, or 19% of New Jersey, is wetlands, which seems like a lot; but the bad news is that about 40% of the original 1,500,000 acres has been lost to dredging and filling, dams, farming, development and highways.”
• And a little background on Willie’s efforts to Save Barnegat Bay:  http://www.savebarnegatbay.org/news_213.shtml. From the page: “Barnegat Bay is like a garden that is getting too much fertilizer and no weeding,” said William deCamp Jr., Chairman of Save Barnegat Bay. “The result is an unhealthy ecosystem that provides less sustenance and enjoyment for humanity.”

Posted in Video | 1 Comment »

August 4, 2007 by Ben.

Wow. Been a little while since I’ve blogged. Time to hop back on here. It was a real scorcher here in Concord, NH today - the mercury hit 100. It’s no wonder water seems to keep rearing its head as an issue. Today was spent mostly holed up at a Panera Bread trying to get wi-fi, cell service, and dodge the heat. However, this evening we had a wonderful interview with Dana Bisbee, a lawyer in NH who’s worked on environmental issues both in government and in the private sector for the last several decades. Good stuff. Yesterday we interviewed Jim Wilfong, a groundwater rights expert who used to work for Clinton, and later we listened to Amy Goodman’s recent piece on the brewing backlash against bottled water. We’ve had a heady couple of days…”water water everywhere.” Oh, we also summited Mount Washington yesterday (albeit, in Rachel - sadly, time constraints forced us to use the road which felt like a carbon-intensive cop-out, but at least now we know we’ll make it over the Rockies). The weather at the top was surprisingly benign given that the peak is known for having the world’s worst weather - an all-time top sustained windspeed of 231mph. It’s easy to spot the shack that the scientists huddled in to measure that windspeed as it’s chained to the ground. It’d be a great place for wind turbines on crack.

Incidentally, Maine was pretty darn cool. As was Massachusetts. And Rhode Island. But it’s late now and I’m getting “the eye”, so I’ll have to blog retroactively about those states later in between planning and editing. Waaaaahhhhh….

And now, a limerick:

There once was a boy from Maine
Who fished near a papermill drain
He believed that dioxin was hardly a toxin
But these days he’s got water on the brain

Posted in Events, Travelog, Issues, Ben | 1 Comment »

August 4, 2007 by Mark.

The lab results came back a couple days ago. Heres what the Imugen lab attendant said: Your tick is a deer tick nymph (most common Lyme disease carrier), it was not carrying Babesia (a parasite), it was not engorged, but it was carrying Lyme disease.

Woah.

Flash back one week: In my previous “Tick in Time” blog entry, I wrote about my latest encounter with nature– a little freeloader attached at the hip. Literally. Ixodes Scapularis. Friends and family contacted me with all sorts of thoughtful words of wisdom. Everything from “donít worry about it,” to “get pre-emptive antibiotics just in case.” And online I found no end of conflicting advice:

“It won’t transmit disease for 24 hours.”
“36 hours.”
“48 hours.”
“Save the tick and watch for symptoms.”
“There’s a good chance that youíll have no immediate symptoms.”
“Get the tick tested.”
“Lyme disease is no big deal. Treat it if you get it.”

I tried fruitlessly to blend the advice into a cohesive medical plan, but there were too many contradictory information fragments, so I decided to contact a local doctor’s office in Rhode Island that specializes in tick-related illness. They said something like this:

“There have been so many cases of Lyme disease in the Rhode Island area this year that we just prescribe a two week course of antibiotics for anybody who shows up with a tick bite.”

Hmmm. I called my doctor back in CA and he recommended that I simply save the tick and watch for symptoms. Who did I trust? I chose to trust the specialist and asked my doctor for a prescription for 14 days of the antibiotic named “doxycycline.” He agreed and wrote a prescription for me, but I checked the recommendation once more with the pharmacist before popping my very first pre-emptive antibiotic pill. Considering my present lack of symptoms, the drug seems to have done the job– if I ever even caught anything in the first place. Now to address my conscience…

I really hate the idea of taking pre-emptive antibiotics. Even if I actually need the medicine to fight an infection, I still give a little thanks to the universe that antibiotics still exist and are mostly functional. Considering the rampant over-use in hand soap and feed lots, it seems that our antibiotics’ days are numbered. All of that medicine is washed out into rivers and streams and out where the little bacteria live– where they learn to happily co-exist. And for what? So that weak bacteria are killed on our hands, only to leave room for more resistant bacteria? So that we can mess with the diets and lifestyles of animals so that they need the stuff just to survive?

I’d love it if my guestimate above was wrong. In fact, if you know better, please share! I’d feel better about the state of the universe if our casual use of antibiotics made more sense.

So then I must consider how I can justify pre-emptive doxycycline. After preparing for a year for this YERT adventure, the last thing I want to do is get sidelined after the first couple weeks by a 10-day fever, or an advanced case of Lyme’s disease requiring a month of intravenous antibiotics. Could I schedule periodic antibiotic injections without even knowing the city and state that contained my next meal? Doubtful. I don’t have the time for that. So I opted for the pre-emptive antibiotics. But are pre-emptive antibiotics in the same loathsome category as antibiotic hand soaps? Was I risking the accelerated demise of functional antibiotics for the sake of my own convenience? Or is this whole process simply self-indulgently excessive reflection?

Ultimately, I think that it is always difficult to reconcile the way things should be with the things really are today. If I can accomplish anything by this guilt-ridden rant, it would be that you think twice — no, think thrice about your antibiotic hand-soap. But if you still don’t care, read this.

Acknowledging that Mother Nature rules. Literally.

Mark

Posted in Travelog, Mark | 1 Comment »