Mai avem putin si ajungem la zi, don't give up

The promise of a new crop and a new beginning is always a good time on the farm, once the seed is in the ground. Until then it can be somewhat nerve-wracking for everyone, and Jethro has been a might tetchy in the last few days.

One of my tasks today is to clear a patch in the current brassica bed ready to plant some overwintered onions and garlic for next year, and clear out the herb bed which is now hidden under a tall tower of fat hen and thistles. The pigs will no doubt be pleased with their additional greens when I have finished.

On the subject of the pigs, we weighed a batch of youngsters last week to see how they are doing. This involves a lot of bribing with food to enter the electronic weigh scales and then be let out into the clean concrete yard beyond for a mass exploration and chance to talk to all the other pigs. This task has to be done so gently and kindly as you cannot and should not make a pig do anything against its will, they are just too strong and scream too loud. If you push them they just rebel, and you can't budge them. However, once they get the idea of scoops of free food under their noses and this regular weigh in it is usually quite straightforward. 

Nevertheless for this group [who are aged about 15 weeks] this was their first weigh-in so it took rather longer. While we were weighing the very last pig one of the smaller ones stuck his head into the bucket of meal and while frantically gobbling food as fast as he could, before his brothers noticed, he somehow looped the bucket handle right over his neck. Disaster! Poor little pig, he got such a fright and took off around the yard with such a squealing and clattering all we could do was howl with laughter at this ridiculous sight and watch in amazement through the tears of hysteria that cheerfully leaked from our eyes. All the other pigs in the group took off after him, chorusing their own delight, as from this full to the brim five gallon bucket poured piles and piles of lovely meal and treats for all.

Eventually the bucket emptied, the squealing stopped, and the perpetrator of the deed freed himself from the handle and rushed off to join his friends for his early tea. We left them all out in the yard to clear up the meal and run around and while we had our supper they put themselves back to bed in the clean straw, replete and happy and Jethro found them all fast asleep lying close together - back to belly, looking exactly like fat pink sausages in a pan. All he had to do was shut the door.

Almost criminal that this is a limited-release seasonal beer, only available from late March to October. But seasonal it is - Bell's summer ale pours a very hazy amber pint with huge downy cloud of a head that floats across the top of this creamy amber delight. A clean, crisp, citrus aroma greets the nose, followed by the refreshing bite of this wheaty ale and it's long, refreshingly bitter finish that just makes you want to reach for another. Along with a sharp cheddar cheese filled croissant. Damn I'm hungry now.

Long story short: Bell's, please find a distributor west of the Mississippi. We need easy access to you here in Washington.

JBB6 Rating: For the Win

Without a second's hesitation, almost before I've finished talking, he says, "Veggie sandwich."

Ok. Let me pause here and say that I don't really like sandwiches. Most of them have too much bread and not enough filling. When I order a sandwich, I generally take off one of the pieces of bread to eat it. (And then if it's good bread, I eat the un-sandwiched piece by itself, so clearly this isn't for dieting reasons)

Back to Jo's. I take the guy's word, sub in whole wheat bread, and am good to go. I carry the sandwich around for an hour or so before I get a chance to eat it, but it's a "cold" sandwich anyway (that they still pressed in the griller thing), so no worries. I sit down at my desk, unwrap the sandwich, and take a bite.

AMAZING!

This effing sandwich knocked my teeth off. It was so damn good I stuffed almost the entire half in my mouth at once before realizing that if I did that, I wouldn't get to spend as much time with the sandwich. So I tried nibbles, though I was fairly ineffective at it, as I wanted more more more of this veggie sandwich.

The wheat bread had those little nubby berries in it and was toasty on the outside but squishy on the inside. It was slathered in bright green pesto sauce. Thinly-sliced grilled zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplant were piled high. And havarti cheese--havarti! I love you!--was smushed into the mix. I couldn't even take the top off, the ratio of filling to bread was so perfect. The pesto + havarti + grilled veggies were perfect. The whole thing was perfect.

Sigh. I'm so full. Talking about it has brought it back and made me full again.

Jo's on Second Street. You are my new friend. And thank you tall nameless counter guy, for recommending the veggie sandwich. You too are my new friend.

I wrote this article in March of this year; I thought it would be good to revisit it (in its original form) simply as a reminder that what is happening now in the financial sector did not come out of the blue.

One would think economic news would take a backseat this week, but to the contrary, it may make big news. As Christians we should strive to be aware of what is coming so as to be in better shape to handle things and to provide guidance and help to others. There is an ominous storm brewing on the financial front. Just as the Federal Reserve once again tricked the masses into thinking all is well economically through actions not taken in forty years on Friday; the atomic bombs of economic implosion were detonated. Clearly we are dealing with a classic example of “peace and safety” being propounded by the media while sudden destruction is looming just ahead.

There is no way I can begin to express the severity of the current economic situation in this country except to say I would not be posting this at this time if it were not extremely urgent. What lies ahead in the coming weeks has the potential to cripple millions of households as they will no longer have enough money to buy food, gas and pay the mortgage. Credit is tightening at this very moment and the birth pangs getting ready to be felt in this world will cause it to literally stagger. My purpose in writing this is to help us all get prepared now while we still can so we can help others very soon.

Let us say that I gave you $1000 ten years ago. With that $1000, you could have purchased over 3 ounces of gold. The price for an ounce of gold in March of 1998 was $300 per ounce. Five years later, in March of 2003, the price for an ounce of gold had only gone up $50 to $350 per ounce. Even in March of 2005 gold was only $420 per ounce. That means only three years ago, your $1000 could purchase two and one third ounces of gold.

Today, gold is trading for $1002 per ounce. Your one thousand dollars could not even buy one ounce of gold today. This is a terrifying reality. What this means is that the value of the dollar is falling so quickly that soon it won’t be worth the paper it is printed on.

In March of 1998 oil traded at $15 per barrel and the average cost for a gallon of gasoline in this country was $1.06. One year later, oil still traded around $15 per barrel but the cost for a gallon of gas had dropped to 96 cents. Even in March of 2004, oil traded at only $30 per barrel and gas averaged $1.78 per gallon. Now, four years later, oil trades for $110 per barrel and gasoline averages $3.27 and is climbing daily.

Wheat historically trades at $3 to $7 a bushel. But this week, futures of spring wheat -- which produces the flour used in hearth breads, rolls, croissants, bagels and pizza crusts -- were close to $18 a bushel on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. They climbed as high as $24 in late February. Everywhere wheat is used, the price for the end product is rising dramatically. A recent article documented some pizza parlors being hit with a 250% increase in the cost of wheat for dough in one week.

The huge trucks that transport everything from vehicles to candy bars across this country every day have been paying around $3.70 or more for diesel fuel for many months. As more and more money has to be used for fuel costs, the cost of shipping has to be increased for trucking companies to stay in business. These increased shipping costs are then passed along to the consumer by way of higher wholesale and retail prices. It is inevitable that we are going to see dramatically higher prices for EVERYTHING simply because of the shipping costs.

Yesterday the government had the audacity to release figures supposedly showing very little inflation during the month of February. Perhaps that might be true, but if so, it was only because we had a month of stable gas prices. The first two weeks of March have more than made up for February. The price of gasoline has skyrocketed and along with it so has the costs of just about everything else.

This past week, the Federal Reserve Board announced they would pick up the bad loans from many huge banks at a cost of over 200 billion dollars. Then yesterday they had to inject billions more into just one financial institution to keep it from going bankrupt. Behind the scenes, the people who control the money supply just keep giving orders to print more and more money to starve off the inevitable collapse of this nation’s economy.

Every time the Government prints more money to bail out someone or to “bless” us with a gift as we are to receive in May or June, the dollar loses more and more of its value. You can’t just keep printing more “funny money” that is not backed by gold without it reaching the point where it becomes worthless. Every country that has fallen into the trap of doing this has faced economic disaster. The United States of America will be no different.

Let us assume you are a good steward of your finances. You go to the grocery store on Monday and the bread that had cost $2 last week is now $3. Suddenly you must find an extra $1 to make up the difference. No big deal unless all over the store many more products have jumped in price. By the time you go to check out instead of your grocery bill being $50 it is now $60. Somewhere you must find an extra $10 or put some of your items back.

On the way home you must get gas. Instead of it taking $40 to fill up the tank, now it takes $50. Once again, from some source an extra $10 must be found. Once home you get the day’s mail. You open the electric bill to find out there was a dramatic price increase and instead of your bill being $100 it is $125. Once again, from some source, an extra $25 must be found. At the bottom of the stack of mail is the credit card bill.

Every month you had been able to pay off the balance in full to avoid finance charges. This month’s charges were $400. In one day you just got hit with needing $45 to keep up with price increases. You make the decision to only pay the minimum of $30 on the credit card so as to have the “extra” money to pay for food, gas and utilities. In effect, you take out a loan for $370 at anywhere from 10 to 25% interest depending on the card. I think you know where this leads.

Inflation is an animal most people under 40 know little about. The last time we had a bad experience with inflation in this country was in 1980. If you were too young to pay bills back then, talk to someone who had to deal with 13.5% inflation. This period of high inflation was triggered by the Iranian hostage crisis and the corresponding hike in the price of crude oil. In late 1979 gold sold for $200 per ounce. Within a few months it was selling for $700 per ounce. On a graph, gold is doing the exact same thing since September of last year as it did in 1980.

If the experts are right, and I think they are, we will all be paying between $4 and $5 for a gallon of gas by May. We also could be paying $5 for a loaf of bread and $15 for a cheese pizza. Now is the time to prepare for what lies ahead. Now is the time to free up any cash that is available so as to have that “extra” when prices start shooting up. Now is the time to eliminate high interest debt even if it means tapping into the ridiculously low interest rates available to people with good credit and income.

Now is the time to make a plan. What expenses can be eliminated with the minimum of hardship? Now is the time to make provisions for elderly parents and grandparents. Find comfortable assisted living type situations now before the prices go through the roof. Now is the time to re-evaluate your investments and make sure your money is someplace YOU believe it is safe and not where your broker wants you to put it.

We are one major natural disaster away from economic devastation. If we were to have an early season Katrina type hurricane hit the Gulf Coast where most of our oil refineries are located; we could easily see gas hit $6-7 per gallon. If England used US dollars, the price of a gallon of gas right now would be just under $10. Are you prepared to spend $100 or more every time you fill up with gas? Can you imagine the hardship if this happens?

I do not share these things to inspire fear but to inspire action while we still have time to act. Americans are notorious for loving to stick their heads in the sand and pretend things are “not so bad” even though they are horrendous. Americans are notorious for being lulled into a false sense of security thinking their jobs or nice little IRA nest eggs will be their sufficiency if the economy collapses. Americans are notorious for procrastinating and putting off doing anything to prepare for potential economic disaster.

Spiritually, the times ahead are guaranteed to get worse and worse, for the Bible says so. Spiritually, this once great country will be brought to its knees because of its idolatry and moral filth. There is no question as to IF, the only question is WHEN. Anyone so naïve as to think this country can keep going economically as it is now for any length of time is sadly mistaken. The so called experts can smile and say “don’t worry”, but keep in mind most of these people are sold out, lock, stock and barrel to the devil and will say whatever he tells them to say.

Finally, if you happen to have some “extra” money, as crazy as it sounds, it might not be too late to invest in gold. In September of 2007 (six months ago), gold was selling at $650 per ounce. By December 31 it was selling at $850 per ounce. Today it is selling at $1002 per ounce. As long as the United States Government keeps printing more and more money, the dollar will keep falling steadily lower and lower. The lower the dollar falls, the more dollars it takes to buy gold, oil and wheat. Considering just about every day the Federal Reserve decides on another major hand out; I don’t think there is much chance the dollar is going to go up anytime soon.

God is our sufficiency and not the government, pension plans, IRAs, jobs or nest eggs. God will provide for His own, but there is no assurances that He will provide on the grandeur level most of us are used to. As 1 Timothy 6 says; “having food and clothing let us be content”. As long as we have a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and clothes on our backs, we should be the most contented people on earth. That is how we must think or else when things get bad, we will be in no better condition than the world.

God needs His people to be smart and alert to what is happening. I pray that we all take heed to the economic storm warnings that have been issued. Preparation eliminates fear and breeds confidence. I pray that we can weather the upcoming storm and provide safe shelter to those who don’t. This is our hour to shine if we’re ready.

]]> http://masteroftheuniverse.wordpress.com/?p=603 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:21:53 +0000 masteroftheuniverse http://masteroftheuniverse.ta.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/hectic-day/ There were many interesting things today.  I thought the grains would do better than they did, but they only rallied a bit, with the exception of corn which went down.  This makes me suspect that there's still room to go on the grains.  Sugar looked really firm.  I managed to get some more euros within a half cent of today's high, and will probably end up staying up all night watching them.  I have a pretty big position in euros, and might be looking to cover some of them if the market doesn't look right.  Treasuries, what can I say.....they are wonderful.  I expect that they might continue with this strength.  Today, I was messing around trying to scalp AAPL and lost $2.50.  I ended up buying the high of an intraday move and watched it go straight down, and pitched it near the low.  Oh well, that's part of the cost of doing business.

I want these markets to cool down a little, as it's getting near that time of year when I start putting down my early grain spreads.  Grain spreads are really my bread and butter, and I don't like putting them on with all the volatility as the risk is too high.

I need to fire up the coffee maker, as I suspect that it will be a long night.  I've spent so much time in front of a screen as of late that my skin has developed a sort of pallor.

Jeff

If you'd like to comment on your own stories, I'd love to hear from you. Hopefully this blog will be able to help spread the word about a more-common-than-you-think sensitivity to a very, very common food.

Rice Krispie treat.

It was delightful.

There were several factors, one of which - and perhaps the biggest hit America took - is generally overlooked.

If you look at any egghead, scholarly paper on that long, painful chapter in US history, you'll usually see the following items cited as the cause for the Great Depression:

• the 1929 Stock Market Crash,
• bank failures,
• credit-driven consumerism in the 1920s,
• tariffs on imports and a decline in exports,
• a decline in personal savings,
• a sharp downturn in agricultural prices.

In reality, the stock market rallied in 1930, as did the bond markets.  Stock prices themselves would suffer a sharp decline over the next two years, but this had very little to do with the stock market itself, or with the financial markets as you'll see.

The biggest driver in the devastating economic downturn was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act - a protectionist / anti-free-trade piece of legislation that slapped tariffs on thousands of products - signed into law in the summer of 1930.  In response, Europeans started buying less goods from the United States...especially agricultural products.  In other words: because of government intervention in open markets, the result was the unintended consequence of harming the economy.

The second problem was that numerous Europe nations had been devastated by World War I, and were obligated to pay back loans to the United States that were near impossible for them to pay off...Germany being one example of this condition.  Add to this the rise of a new form of modern-day tyranny (that would be "socialism") in the European political theater, and what you've got is utter chaos in European economic circles.  Germany, once a financial powerhouse, was just about wiped out; a condition that fed the rise of the Nazis to power in that nation.  Russia wasn't on the verge of collapse, it was relegated to a economic non-factor by revolution, and socialist control.  France, England, and the other victors in the war were under heavy financial burden, much of which was owed to the US.  Add the Smoot-Hawley Act, and what you got was a full-fledged revolt by Europe, and boycotts against US products in the only other genuine economic market in the world at that time.

This was before the days of Japan, China, Australia, and the Middle East having any sort of global economic clout.  There was really only one other market out there besides the United States, and that was Europe.

So exports dried up.  American farmers were producing crops that weren't being sold.  The result was a drastic drop in prices.

But the most devastating event that cemented the Great Depression into US history is the one thing rarely mentioned, because it isn't really sexy-sounding.  I'm talking here about the Dust Bowl.

The Dust Bowl started with a drought in America's breadbasket in 1930.  Because American farmers were not using modern-day crop rotation methods, the topsoil (which is needed to get crops to grow) became thin.  The drought in 1930, coupled with high winds, literally stripped away what little nutrient-rich soil from the parched ground, producing huge dust storms that ravaged Texas, Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and huge portions of the country all throughout the 1930s; even up to 1938.  The result for American farmers was devastating crop failures of almost Biblical proportions over the course of nearly a decade.  Unable to pay their loans, taxes, and debts a huge number of farmers fell into default and foreclosure.  This flooded the market with foreclosure properties and lost funds that banks couldn't reclaim (who wants to own a farm in the middle of a desert?).  The result was the collapse of both the banking industry AND the agricultural industry.

Some can compare this today with the seeming collapse of the banking industry and the housing industry, but that would not be an accurate comparison.  Back during the 1920s and 1930s, the financial sector may have hired roughly the same percentage of the population (in 2007, this was something like 3.3% of all non-farm labor), but the housing industry (taken from the figures on construction jobs) only employs something like 3% of the total non-farm employees.

Contrast this with the number of people involved in agriculture in the years preceding the Great Depression, which was anywhere from 20% to 25% of the total workforce.  Nowadays, that number is less than 2% (if not less than 1%) of the workforce, and they produce more agricultural products than ever previously recorded.

Hopefully now you begin to see the picture: the LARGEST employment sector in the US was almost wiped out by government intervention, over-production, and natural disasters.  Take a huge chunk of the population having no money to spend, and what you get is a giant ripple effect, impacting just about everyone in the country.  Add to this the fact that Europe wasn't buying our goods, chaos in the European markets, and that the Soviet Union was putting grain out on the open market at cut-rate pricing (while starving millions of Ukrainians in the process), and you get a devastating blow to the US economy.

In short: we were carrying around a pretty big egg in one basket.

The catalyst here appears to be government-based protectionism in global markets.

Some may think my explanation "simplistic".  I've read more than enough economic egghead-ery that cited "overly optimistic markets", and the Fed, and income taxes, and whatnot as bringing together a "perfect storm" that caused everything to go awry.  Some of this is pulled from demi-socialist economic thought, and some of this is speculation-turned-fact.

What is clear is that none of this was relieved until after the drought-time ended (around 1938), and with the advent of WWII.  All of the government interventionist policies of FDR did nothing to revive the economy.  Stock prices increased after 1933, but slowly, and unemployment remained at or above 15% until 1940.

As FDR critics will tell you: it was WWII that got us out of the Great Depression.  Europe, especially the Soviet Union, had no other choice but to look to the United States for manufacturing their equipment and armaments (especially the Soviets, whose flagging socialist industries were crushed by a Nazi invasion, and socialism's own devastating effect on economic production).  This literally rebuilt our infrastructure such that, after the war was over, we were the only nation that could actually revive Europe.  They had no other choice but to come to us.

This then created the 1950s economic boom, and vaulted the United States of America into superpower status.

Our seeding of other markets post-WWII is, in my opinion, the safety net that will prevent this country from slipping into another huge economic depression.  Between the oil wealth of the Middle East, Europe, the emerging Asian Marketplace, and prosperous English-speaking markets in Australia and Canada a strangling boycott of American goods is almost an impossibility.

The US economy is FAR more diverse than it was back in the 1920s and 1930s.  As we've seen in the past year, even with a near collapse in the housing sector the economy still kept chugging along.  That's because things like Construction only comprise about 3% of the workforce.  The US is in a position to take a couple of big hits in its economic sectors, and still stay afloat.  But as I've shown with the intervention of the FDIC in the subprime markets, and GSEs in lending this could all change if government gets more and more control of our economy.

The passage of the present financial bail-out bill does just that: gives idiot bureaucrats more power.

We weren't on the brink of another Great Depression.  It was all propaganda designed to get average people begging the federal government to do something to "fix" the economy.  And as we saw with the New Deal, the actual results will be anemic at best.  If there is any resurgence in the economy in the near future, it will all be psychological.

People out there need to get a grip.  They also need to stop listening to idiots like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank.

Taken in Fitchburg, Wisconsin in July, this photo, titled "Life" was selected as a winner in the AnchorBank 90th Anniversary Calendar Competition.

The photo will be included in the 2009 AnchorBank Wisconsin Calendar and will be featured during the wonderful month of November.

The calendars will be available for free at Wisconsin AnchorBank branches starting in November.

• AnchorBank Locations

Canon EOS 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

Perhaps it is because I grew  up in a place where there were only 2 seasons: Rainy  or Dry, that I find myself  so  enamored of  the way the  4 Seasons give shape to the passing of time.

It's  beautiful how the Greeks gave physical form to this division of time in their creation of the Horai, the goddesses of the 4 seasons.

These lovely deities (daughters of Helios, the god of Sun) presided over the revolutions of the heavenly  bodies which spin out our earthly days and years,  while the 3 Graces are more closely associated with the spinning of the web of our personal fates.

Statue.com offers the Four Seasons statues in numerous versions. Some  are available in the finish of your choice. You can purchase Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter singly,  or as a set.

Buy a statue.  Give shape to that important season in your life.

Although I like to cover profitable trades with options, sometimes it doesn't work to my best interest.  I wasted a week and a half in the grains and pulled out an average profit of a nickel/bushel after it was all said and done.  My money could have better served me somewhere else. However, it still doesn't hurt to take a profit.

As I've said before, I feel like I'm a hamster running on one of those little wheels.

That being said and done, now I'll have to get my position back in the grains when this settles down.

My protegee has done well trading the e-minis with my direction, and is mentally taking credit for his success.  He's getting arrogant again, and finds my fear of the markets to be unfounded. I got rather heated with him when I mentioned his blowing out half of his account a few short days ago. I like his cockiness, and that's one thing that made me agree to give him a hand. He gets mad at me that I don't like to have CNBC on while I trade.  He also doesn't like my choice of music I play when trading, as I choose music to complement the tone of the market.  Sometimes, my music therapy works, it certainly doesn't hurt.

I've been rather focused, as of late, and need him to do research.  He doesn't like to do what he calls "scut work." Scut work is asking him to run programs analyzing data, looking stuff up, and getting me answers to my questions.

I've been trying to figure out what level oil will finally settle at.  I also am wondering about the oil vs. natural gas, and where that will settle.  I wonder where the dollar will seek a level.  How high can treasuries really go?  How low will the gold go? I think that I know where the stock market is going, and have a huge bet on that.

My fade indicators haven't given me any signals yet, and I'm patiently waiting.

I've got so many questions and so few answers.

GE selling stock isn't a good sign.

Jeff

Verse 1
First the farmer sows his seed,
Then he stands and takes his ease,
And he stamps his feet and clasps his hands,
While the sun shines on the land.
chorus:
Oats and wheat and barley grow,…..etc

verse 2
The seeds sprout up so green and tall,
The ears of corn grow ripe and gold,
And the farmer laughs and he rubs his hands,
And takes his harvester to the land.

chorus:
Oats and wheat and barley grow,…..etc

verse 3
The corn is cut and threshed to grain,
Put in sacks and sent by train,
And the miller grinds them all into fl our,
Sing a song with a mighty roar.
chorus: Oats and wheat and barley grow,…..etc

Adapted from the traditional song "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" for a programme about the process of bread-making, from the planting of the grain, through the production of fl our, to the baking of the bread itself.

• apply glyphosate at 0.75 lb active ingredient/acre prior to planting wheat or immediately after wheat is planted
• if timing/manpower does not allow for applying glyphosate prior to wheat emergence, plan for a early- to mid-November application of herbicide in emerged wheat (best: Express at 0.33 oz/acre plus dicamba at 4 oz product/acre)
• fall herbicide applications in wheat are more effective than spring applications of herbicide in winter wheat

Listen to an excerpted version of the article in my podcast below

[audio http://blip.tv/file/get/Andykleinschmidt-WeedControlInWinterWheat740.mp3]

With all eyes on a bail out package, I try to look into a crystal ball and see if there will also be a  rate cut.  If so, I wonder how the yield curve will respond. Trying to apply logic, I still remain confused as to when and how all this added liquidity is going to be translated into hard inflation, despite the lower demand. I also remain confused about how the election is going to affect the market, as there's a good probability that both houses and the Executive branch will be of the same party.  If that is the case, I wonder what that will do to capital gains, and when they'll raise the rate. I wonder how the market will react through all of this election noise.  Although I've managed to keep my head above water throughout these trying times, I wonder when the next shoe is going to drop.  These times require a strong defensive game, with capital preservation a must. The equities are the bright spot today, and I've managed to hold on to my position, and that's what counts.

I need to get some sleep, and also work on finishing my book.  I've had such a case of writer's block, and keep going over what I've already written, trying to polish it up.  I feel rather guilty for neglecting my book this past week, and don't enjoy missing my self imposed deadlines.

Somehow, I've managed to muddle through all of this volatility and make a couple of bucks.  If I were to grade myself on performance, I'd give it a solid "B."

One thing I need to do is reduce my intake of caffeine, as it leaves me very uncomfortable when I'm trying to unwind.

Jeff

The traditional kind, to be exact. It's just sooo delicious. Since I'm naturally not into anything so-sweet-goody-two-shoes, it's not a surprise that I like Chex Mix. It's salty and crunchy. A winning combination!

So there's many different peices to Chex Mix. And I will tell you my opinion on every single one, because..... well.....it's my blog.

First, there's the good ol' rice chex. They're pretty good. A little plain by themselves, but I guess they bring out the flavors in the other ones.

Next there's wheat chex. they're pretty much the same as their neighbor, rice chex, except, they're obviously made of wheat instead of rice. How do you tell the difference? Well, I believe the rice chex are a golden-yellow color, and the wheat ones are a darker toasty-brown color. I think.

Now there comes the pretzels. In the traditional Chex Mix, there's two kinds of pretzels - round/ring pretzels and window pane pretzels. They're good. I mean, for pretzels. The ring ones barely fit on your finger, though. I know that's not the point of a round pretzel, but in my opinion, if it looks like a ring, it should be a ring.

Next there's bagel chips. I don't really like bagel chips. On Wikipedia it just says "Bagel Chips", but there's actually two types of the chips. There's a light colored one with a dark edge, like a crust, and the other is a dark brown one. I usually only eat the light colored ones. They're both a little tough (indestuctable, if you ask me), but the lighter ones are a tiny bit softer. I generally stay away from bagel chips. If I want bagels, I'll eat a bagel. Sheesh!

Is that it? Oh, wait, there's those bread twisty things. They taste like any normal cracker. And they're not really a twist, they're more like....wavy....lines. Yeah. Wavy lines.

In this day and age of pet food recalls, salmonella poisoning, pet obesity and even death, how is one to know which pet food brand to choose?  Well, because I believe part of being "green" is being healthy, I have put together this informative article which clearly tells you which brands are safe and healthy for your cherished pets.

I used to work in the pet food industry and was specialised in holistic pet nutrition.  I was shocked, jaw dropping disgusted and angry when I learned what was actually considered "acceptable" by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), the organisation responsible for monitoring pet food.  In 2005, I wrote  The Truth about the Pet Food industry (which has since been updated) which gives full descriptions of why certain ingredients are bad and which ones are necessary.  Here, I give you a black and white list of what I approve.   My goal, is that your pet doesn't just survive, but can prevent a host of the diseases that plague companion animals these days such as obesity, excessive shedding, itching and scratching, paw licking, tumours etc. My opinion, which is shared by many, is that the majority of health issues faced by pets today are all directly linked to improper nutrition.

GENERAL GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW:

1. If it's advertised on TV, it's probably crap (pardon my bluntness)! Generally, the lower the quality of pet food, the more advertising money is needed to promote it. Since they can't promote it on the merits of their ingredients,  ads will often portray cute looking dogs while throwing the word healthy around which has absolutely no legal meaning whatsoever.
2. If it's sold in a grocery, corner or warehouse type store, it's probably crap! The exception of course is for some holistic brands which might appear in the natural/organic food aisles.  These low quality pet foods are are able to offer the retailer high profit margins because so little is actually invested into the product.
3. If it contains artificial colours or preservatives, it's crap! Dogs are colour blind, so these pet food companies must really think we're stupid if we believe that the kibble is really red, orange or green because of the vegetables.
4. If they can't specify the type of meat (meat-by-products, chicken by-products or meat meal), it's crap! A brand that can't specify the type of meat leaves the door wide open for what would be accepted from feathers, cow udders and tumourous parts to euthanised pets and expired grocery store meats (I'm not joking).
5. Only buy human-grade (holistic) quality pet food.This means that every food ingredient is the same quality as what you would eat, and all the vitamins and preservatives are pharmaceutical grade. By doing this, you are sure that the food is made in a plant that has been inspected by a regulatory food board like the USDA for example.  It will also help you avoid foods from plants that try to save money by turning refrigeration off when inspectors aren't there, use dubious quality ingredients and are not clean, increasing the risk of listeria or salmonella type poisoning. However, because of the lobbying power that some gigantic (low quality) pet foods companies have with AAFCO, it has become increasingly harder for the smaller, healthier pet food companies to label their food as human-grade or organic. Thus, the only sure way to know is to contact them. Through my work in the pet food industry, I was personally able to speak with most of the approved brands below.

So here it is, healthy pet foods that get my stamp of approval. None of the brands below will contain non-human-grade meat, (some might even be hormone or antibiotic free), meat by-products, rendered meats or fats, expired meats from grocery stores, euthanised dogs or cats, corn, wheat, soy, (major allergens) peanut shells, BHT & BHA, (suspected carcinogenic preservatives), Ethoxyquin (pesticide used to preserve fats and rubber in car tires), beet pulp (artificial stool hardener), feathers or meat from downer animals (those too sick to make it to slaughter). And, in keeping with the "green" theme, I have listed them by country of origin for those who prefer to buy locally, although they are all available across North America.

PET FOOD BRANDS I APPROVE AND USE:

Canadian Pet Foods

Holistic Blend
Orijen
Go!, Now, Summit (Petcurean Pet foods)
Amoré (raw food)
Pets4Life (raw food)

American Pet foods

Wellness
Solid Gold
Innova
Natural Balance
California Natural
EVO
Karma
Evolve
Nature’s Variety (Prairie)
Canidae (dogs), Felidae (cats)
Azmira
Wysong
Newman’s Own Organics
Pinnacle
Merrick
Fromm
Eagle Pack Holistic Select (Although human grade, does contains corn meal, brewers rice and dried beet pulp, 3 ingredients I advise to stay away from. Avoid if your pet has a corn allergy.)

New holistic brands are constantly being added to the market so it's possible that there might be other great brands out there that I am not aware of.  None the less, these are the most well-known and available. In the unlikely event that one of the above mentioned brands changes its formula or doesn't live up to holistic standards, I will not be held responsible! At the time of writing this article, they were all deemed holistic!

PET FOOD BRANDS TO AVOID:

Grocery store/warehouse brands

Iams *
Friskies
Alpo *
Pedigree *
Kibbles & Bits
Whiskas
Purina
Caesar
Costco Diamond brand / Kirkland Signature Brands*
(PC) Presidents Choice Brands *
Sensible Choice
Old Roy (Walmart) *
Sportmix

Premium brands

Royal Canin *
Nutro *
Eukanuba *
Nutrience
Nutram
First-Choice
Propac
Prism
J.E. Mondou *

Vet brands

Science Diet *
Techni-Cal
Medi-Cal *
Hills *

* Indicates companies that have had pet food recalls since March 2007 according to the FDA

UNDERSTANDING VET PET FOOD
Some of you might be shocked that I have listed vet brands and I can understand your confusion. After all, the vet should know what's best, right? Well, it's the same with doctors who focus on illness as opposed to prevention. Vets like doctors are not there to teach you about nutrition. If you have questions about your diet, your doctor will send you off to a nutritionist or better yet, a naturopath. Well, the vet is the same in the sense that yes, their vet foods have been studied for specific illnesses (weight management, diabetes, sensitive stomachs), but they contain very few ingredients that would actually prevent illnesses.  If you fed your pet great food in the first place, they shouldn't have these problems in the first place, right?  Moreover, most are loaded with fillers, contain well-known allergenic ingredients like corn, wheat and soy and are not even human-grade.  Not to mention, 3 of the 4 above mentioned vet foods had issues with contaminated pet food since 2007.

Nowhere have I found a vet food that focuses on whole foods, non-allergenic grains like quinoa or brown rice, that use hormone and antibiotic free or free-range meats, that add in human-grade antioxidants, sufficient quantities of omega 3's for healthy skin and coat, include probiotics (digestive enzymes & immune boosters) and use slow cooking methods so as to lessen the amount of minerals and vitamins that are killed off during the cooking process.  I want the food I feed my pets to include low-ash meat and cranberries to prevent urinary tract infections not cause them.  I want my pet food to include sufficient quantities of essential fatty acids so that they have glossy fur with no dandruff or itchy skin, not cause it.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:
I have been feeding my pets holistic pet food since 2004 and I have NEVER had a problem of UTI (urinary tract infection), itchy skin, bad breath, pet dandruff, obesity, diabetes, cancer or diarrhea. My 2 cats Simba and Beardie-Girl are in perfect shape, have glossy fur, big bright eyes and are extremely healthy.  My dog Bailey is the same. When I adopted my chihuahua Bailey in 2004, he was fed Nutro and did have chronic skin irritations and bad breath. I realised he had an allergy to chicken and when I switched him to a human-grade salmon based diet and gave him Seagreens, he stopped his scratching, chronic paw licking and excessive shedding within about 3 weeks.

MY CLIENTS' RESULTS:
When I managed a holistic pet food boutique in 2004, I had numerous clients who, once switched to holistic pet food, could notice a change in their pets fur in as fast as 2 weeks. Those who had overweight cats (from feeding Iams for example) didn't even need to put their cats on a "diet" to lose weight. Simply switching to holistic did the trick because they are higher in pure meat protein and contain virtually no fillers.

HOW MUCH DOES HUMAN-GRADE OR HOLISTIC PET FOOD COST?
In terms of price, holistic or human-grade pet food is about the same or even cheaper in some cases, than premium quality brands. The reason is that instead of investing into expensive advertising or kick-backs for pet food retailers, their money is invested into higher quality ingredients. Because the ingredients are higher quality, the pets usually fill up on smaller portions reducing the amount you feed, thus saving you money.  I could also argue that by preventing common illnesses, you could also save on expensive vet bills.

WHERE CAN I BUY HUMAN-GRADE OR HOLISTIC PET FOOD?
Nowadays, you can find it almost everywhere and we are finding more and more pet boutiques specialised entirely in holistic food. Otherwise, most pet stores have seen the increased demand in healthier pet foods so generally carry a few of the above mentioned approved foods. Some health food stores are even starting to carry it. As for pet warehouses like Petco or Petcetera, up until recently they were not carrying it, although I believe Petco has started carrying holistic brands like Natural Balance and Solid Gold. This only makes perfect business sense as sales have gone though the roof in human-grade foods as people become more and more concerned about what they feed their pets.  Of course, if your neighbourhood pet retailer doesn't carry it, just ask them to bring it in. Most of the distributors they deal with carry them anyways, so they might be able to specially order a  bag for you, or better yet, the entire line if there is enough demand.  If you are still having a hard time finding it, then I suggest using the store locator on the websites of holistic brands. I'd also like to mention that if you have a choice, choose a pet retailer that doesn't sell pets as they are generally buying them from puppy mills. Support those that have adoption centres or hold adoption day events!

Thus, my experience, coupled with experiences shared by my clients and friends is more than enough to convince me that I would NEVER switch back to conventional pet food, especially considering that most have been recalled since 2007 for various kinds of contamination. The point after all is that pets don't just live, but can prevent common pet illnesses through eating healthy food.

BTW- Beware of brands that claim their pet foods are "healthy" and "natural".  These words are unregulated and have no legal meaning yet they are often used to describe poor quality brands. Scrutinize the ingredients before you decide if they are or not.

[gallery]Style and Glass: Saison; tulip
ABV, Volume & Calories: 6.5 % in 12.7fl oz. estimated at 150 C
Purchased at: Canal's Burlington, NJ for $3.79 after discount

Aroma: nice, hay, fields, wheat, rain, alcohol. 8 out of 10.

Visuals: okay design, brilliant, golden, clear, thin white head, fine lace. 5 out of 5.

Taste: very well balanced, low malt, low hops, low strength, high craft. 8 out of 10.

Palate: high quality, smooth texture, long malty finish. 4 out of 5.

Overall: A very nicely craftedfarmhouse ale -- perhaps the best, I'd have it again, not nearly a favorite, medium value, high craft. 16 out of 20.