A Much Needed Discussion

Thursday, July 2, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will conclude our discussion on the race issue in our country. Sherman will lead the discussion. Unfortunately, I will be away on travel so there will be no video at the meeting. But this is a good thing, because there will be more opportunity to voice your opinions.

As always, you are invited to leave comments on this blog to share your opinions with everyone.

The Racial Issue

Thursday, June 25, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Every week there is another reminder that the racial issue in America is far from settled. For the next two Zoom-in meetings we will discuss the progress, or the lack thereof, of racism in America. First we will take a broad view, by viewing several TED Talks, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

The following week, Zoom-in member Sherman will lead us in a more in depth discussion of racial issues closer to home.

Nuclear vs Renewables Debate

Thursday, June 18, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will view the TED Debate: Does the world need nuclear energy? This is a debate between two environmentalists who want to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to save us from climate change. Stewart Brand favors nuclear, while Mark Jacobson thinks we can do it only with renewables, such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. We have seen both Brand and Jacobson in previous meetings, and now they will debate each other in perhaps the most important issue that is ignored by main stream media and both political parties.

Zoom-in member, Calvin will lead the discussion. I hope that other members will lead in future meetings. I can help in finding appropriate videos. Please help to make this format work by previewing the video and coming prepared with related issues we can discuss in the meeting.

The GMO Heresy Revisted

Thursday, June 11, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next two weeks we will revisit two of four heresies presented by Stewart Brand in our 5/8/15 meeting. Next week we will zoom-in on the GMO issue. We will view a recent TED Talk about how the genetic engineering of crops provides unique solutions and may be necessary in a changing world. We will then look at an opposing view, particularly about the need for GMO labeling.

Two weeks from now we will revisit the nuclear energy issue by watching a TED debate about nuclear energy vs renewable energy, between Stewart Brand and Mark Jacobson. Since we already saw Brand's pro nuclear talk, it is only fair to see a pro renewable talk by Jacobson ahead of the actual debate.

The Dietary Health Crisis

Thursday, June 4, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Every five years, the USDA Dietary Guidelines gets updated; 2015 will be the latest update. The scientific recommendations have been submitted and is awaiting approval. However, past recommendations have not halted the nations decline in health due to poor nutrition. What went wrong?

One possibility is that past guidelines did not clearly delineate refined carbohydrates from whole grains. HERE is a talk by the Walter Willett, the chairman of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which has dominant influence on the interpretation of science used by the USDA Dietary Guidelines.

Another possibility is that current dietary science is flawed. The unhealthy person is blamed for not following the guidelines, but at least for some people the guidelines is the cause of the problem. In THIS TED Talk, Peter Attia relates how he blamed obese people for their poor health habits, but later had his own problems and had to shift to a fat based diet, not recommended by the dietary guidelines, to regain health. Attia is now leading a foundation to bring integrity in dietary science.

New discoveries in microbiology suggest that past dietary guidelines have been unsuccessful because they underestimated the role played by gut bacteria. HERE is a TED Talk about this promising line of research.

Polyface Farms

Thursday, May 28, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will continue with food sustainability by looking at Joe Salatin's of Polyface Farms, made famous by Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, HERE is an excerpt. Salatin has employed the methods of using cattle grazing to enrich the soil and capture carbon. He also uses other animals, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and pigs in a symbiotic "dance" to improve the yield of his farm. Salatin is a colorful speaker of is farming methods and his philosophy of life, HERE is an example. He definitely has a conservative libertarian bent, but he believes that climate change is real.

We will also show the TED Talk that we did not have time for last week, on us eating insects. While we may not be ready to eat insects, insects can be used as animal feed as is being on on Salatin's farm.

No Cows, More Cows and Insects

Thursday, May 21, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In the last meeting, we learned how GMOs can address the sustainability crisis. In the next meeting, we will review three TED Talks which offer other solutions for sustainability, two of them involving cows. There is a movement to eat less or no meat, primarily beef, to promote health and improve sustainability. This theme has been incorporated in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, DGAC, report, and is its most controversial recommendation of many controversial recommendations.

The primary argument against the DGAC recommendation is that the issue of sustainability was outside its charter and expertise. Focusing just on the efficiency of plant based diets ignores the role that animals, especially cattle, can play in soil management. The real problem are the concentrated feedlots, not animals in our diet. Many believe that grazing animals will play a major role in food sustainability and removing carbon from the atmosphere.

The third solution for sustainability, eating insects, is really a serious suggestion but is often considered a joke. Rather than explaining it here we will let the TED speaker make his case.