Florence, Italy - The Conclusion To Our Italy Trip

Day 6

So our final chapter in our Italy trip was based in Florence, Italy. We arrived in Florence and were extremely tired so we decided to take a nap. Our hotel room was gorgeous… the best one yet. After sleeping for a few hours, we woke up and got moving. It was around 5 p.m. so when we finally got outside, the city was pretty empty (most of the museums/churches close at 5 p.m. so that’s normal). We were a little disappointed that the city was so empty and didn’t think any city could compare to how much fun we had in Rome and Venice, so we decided that Florence wasn’t going to be as fun as the other cities right away… we were wrong : )

We decided to get some gelato and we found our favorite gelato flavors of the trip… Scott’s favorite was the coffee and chocolate mixed together and mine was tiramisu (the next day I got banana and that became my new favorite ) ; ) It seemed like the gelato tasted better in Florence… more authentic or something. We decided to walk around the Duomo and look at the Ghiberti doors while there weren’t very many tourists. We then decided to go to dinner near the Duomo. Right when we figured out what restaurant we wanted to go to, Scott looked over and Sammy and Dena from Jersey Shore were in the restaurant on camera filming the show. I quickly took a picture and we decided to eat at the restaurant next door so we could look at the reactions of people when they saw the Jersey Shore being filmed. Pretty random running into the Jersey Shore in the middle of Italy eh? The food was the best we had tasted in Italy yet. Not complicated - just spaghetti or pizza with a caprese salad, but maybe we just enjoyed it more because we started to finally relax and enjoy ourselves and take things slow.

Day 7

We woke up the next day to a beautiful view from our hotel room. The complementary breakfast at our hotel was amazing. It had the most beautiful view of all of Florence from the roof top. I highly recommend you stay at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence if you go. After breakfast we decided to head out to the city and walk through the main art museums and churches (lots of walking again – and it was HOT outside!).

First, we decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo to go to the top of the basilica. It was quite the workout! You have to climb a bunch of stairs that are going in a circle in a really small space… so you are exhausted, claustrophobic and dizzy the whole way up, but it’s beautiful when you get there because you can see all of Florence (which has some mountainside – Tuscany area) and you can see the painting on the basilica up close. According to Wikipedia, the basilica and church construction began in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.

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We heard that we HAD to see The David statue so we walked to The Galleria de Academia and waited in line (since we didn’t have reservations). We only waited about 45 minutes, but it was worth it. The David is amazing…. You just sit there in aw of how beautiful the sculpture is, how perfect it is. I can’t help but think that Scott looks like The David… they have the same body type and the same hair!

We were tired, but decided to continue to the Uffizi museum to see more Byzantine art, Da Vinci, Caravaggio and the famous Botticelli painting - The Birth of Venus. I would highly recommend that you eat lunch and get hydrated before you go into this museum because it is huge and there is a lot to look at. The Birth of Venus painting was amazing.

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When we left the Uffizi it started to rain (like it did in the afternoon at the same time everyday). We got some more Tiramisu Gelato and ran back to our hotel in the rain.

Day 8

We decided to go on a tour of the countryside near Florence (The Tuscany region) so we went to this cute little town called Shianti. I tried some blackberry gelato before we got on the bus and it wasn’t my favorite flavor… (we did eat a new flavor each day though!)…. I wish we had more gelato in the U.S.

Anyway, the tour included a tour of some small town countryside churches, a tour of a medieval castle, a tour showing how to make wine and how to make olive oil, and a wine tasting with hors d'œuvres. It was extremely relaxing and romantic which was just what the doctor ordered. We met some cute couples from Mesa, Arizona that told us they had a lot of trouble on their vacation (with taxis overcharging them, losing luggage and taxis bringing them to bad parts of town) so we felt very blessed that everything went smoothly for us. We tasted three different wines after we learned how they brewed them. One that was aged 1 – 3 years, one that was aged 5 – 10 years, and a desert wine that was aged for about five years that was a specialty wine where they had to first make the wine into raisins THEN squeeze it. Apparently they serve this wine in the churches as part of sacrament in their town.

A cool story about the medieval castle (Castello Del Trebbio) where we did the wine tasting before I conclude – The castle was built in the 1300’s and inhabited by the Pazzi family who was the second richest family in town. Obviously the richest family town was the Medici family who commissioned the artists to make Florence (and other cities) beautiful with their art. The Pazzi family was jealous of the Medici family and wanted to kill them so they could be the number one family so they conspired with the Pope at the time to kill the Medici family in this castle. The Pazzi family was successful in killing one of the Medici brothers, but not the most powerful brother – Lorenzo. Lorenzo found out about the conspiracy and killed everyone in the Pazzi family and seized their property (including the castle we were in).

For years the castle was empty, but they told us a cute story that an older man met a woman from Belgium on a train and immediately fell in love with her. She wanted to move to the castle even though it was cold ( you literally have to burn wood to get any heat in the place ), but she loved it. They had five kids in six years and raise their family in the castle. They revived the wine vineyards and olive trees and brought the place back to life. When the boys turned 20ish their father passed away and soon after their mother died in a car crash. The boys had to sell the castle because they couldn’t afford to pay for it. There is a modern day family that lives in the castle with a beautiful original Raphael painting in the living room. They cook in a wood burning stove, make wine and olive oil, and live in the most beautiful countryside of Italy. What a life!!!

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We came back to the city and went to dinner at the same café we dined at the first night in Florence (because the food was so good). When we were done, we saw three more Jersey Shore characters being filmed – Mike, Vinny and Pauly… MVP. It was surreal to see them in person… and in Italy no less?

The trip was absolutely fabulous and we hope to go back to Italy one day.

Venice, Italy - The Orange Full Moon

Day 4 – Venice, Italy

We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.

We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.

We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).

We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.

After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )

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We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )

We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.

We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!

We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.

Day 5 – Venice, Italy

We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.

There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!

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We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.

We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.

We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.

After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.

Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.

Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.

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"When In Rome" - Day 2 & 3

We woke up to sunny skies and birds chirping outside of our window on Day 2. We dressed for warm weather (since Day 1 was HOT!) and headed out to the Colosseum.

About ten minutes after we left the hotel we realized we had dressed for to warm of weather and that it could rain at any moment. Luckily, right before it started raining, we took shelter in a near-by museum – the Mercati di Traiano – an ancient Roman market which also happened to be the place where Julius Caesar lived in the first century AD. There were many statues that were actually in Caesar’s Palace back on 150 AD. A lot of which were recovered from sewers within the city. The actual marble of the courtyard where Caesar is said to have said “Friends, Roman’s, Countrymen” and “Y Tu Brute” is still there. There was a piece of a statue recovered that was about six feet long that was just part of a hand of one of the statues in Caesar’s Palace so you can image how big the actual statue was.

It was a great place to go to get out of the rain, but we decided to buy some ponchos and head over to the Colusseum. Good thing we did because it started raining pretty hard for the next few hours (even though ponchos look awful…let’s be honest, they keep you dry). One thing about me and Scotty, we are troopers – rain or shine, we will stay on schedule. Plus, we are only in Rome once, and we had to see The Colusseum and Forum at least once in our lives right?

The Colusseum was huge. It was cool to see where the animals and prisoners were taken underground before they were let into the Colusseum to fight/be executed. You can see all of the passageways of the ground floor of the Colusseum because they have removed the middle layer. It’s surprising to me that so many people were so entertained by watching humans die at the hand of animals. According to Wikipedia, there was once a contest “involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.” It reminds me of when people used to be hung or stoned to death in front of their entire towns. According to our map, “Its real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. It was begun under Emperor Vaspasian in 72 AD and finished under his son Titus in 80 AD. Back then - the amphitheater could contain more than 70,000 people. It is organized in three orders of 80 arches adorned respectively with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns.” It had a great view of the Arch de Constantine and we ran into a random cat living on one of the sets of stairs. Truly random.

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Right when we were leaving the sun started shining again and we were excited, because the light was beautiful and perfect for us to go see “The Forum” which is a term for the Roman Ruins. A lot of the ruins have had to be uncovered because of harsh whether in the sixteenth century. The Forum was extremely peaceful… beautiful gardens, birds chirping, the smell of rain and orange trees… it was very heavenly. We got to see where they use to host chariot races and where they used to meet and have famous ceremonies. It is said to be the most famous place in ancient Rome. According to our map it was "damaged by a fire in 283 AD and restored under Emperor Diocletian. From the fourth century, it began to fall into decay, echoing the fate of Rome itself.”

Our favorite part of the Forum was the end because it was sunset and we got to see the second and third of the three main arch’s in Rome – The Arch of Titus & The Arch of Septimius Severus - and a bunch of standing columns from the ancient Roman ruins in the middle of a meadow. It was beautiful.

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Day 3

We decided to wake up early to head to the Vatican because we heard that if we got up early we wouldn’t have to wait in lines. We took a bus to Vatican City and decided to visit Saint Peters Basilica first. The square surrounding Saint Peter’s Basilica is beautiful…It is the biggest square in Rome and makes you feel as if you were living in Roman times yourself. There are 140 statues of Saints, works by Bernini, surrounding the square and beautiful fountains and columns surround the 340 meter area. Turns out, that lines are actually worse in the mornings and that we should have come in the afternoon for shorter lines. We are happy we got started early however, because the Vatican + The Sistine Chapel + St. Peter’s Basilica took us about eight hours to get through.

Our favorite part of the Basilica was the shear size of the basilica itself. Michelangelo wanted it to be PERFECT and didn’t listen to anyone when they told him what to do with it. Apparently he didn’t have many friends because he was a “my way or the highway” kind of person. We loved the “Pieta” with the Madonna holding Jesus – obviously… it’s only one of the most famous works of art in history. We also loved the Bernini bronze piece in the center of the basilica – it is a Baroque sculpted bronze canopy called a baldachin. There is a statue of St. Peter within the basilica where you are supposed to rub the right foot of the statue (but rub both just in case) and he will bless you personally. The renaissance art within the basilica is breathtaking and most of the art in the basilica is a mosaic… yes, little pieces of glass/marble making up the works of art. Talk about attention to detail. There are many saints that have been buried within the basilica and have been embalmed/preserved and made into wax figures so that they can be shown to the public. Scotty and I found this a bit creepy, but cool none-the-less.

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We keep feeling like we are living in the movie/book The Davinci Code/Angels and Demons. Apparently they filmed part of Angels and Demons in the St. Peters Basilica square. There is a secret passage-way between the square and the castle that popes have escaped to in war times.

The Vatican is extremely hard to explain… as are most things in Rome… you kind of have to see them in person to see how amazing everything is. It has been the Pope’s residence since 1377. Since 1377, 265 Popes have lived there. Vatican City is an independent state ruled by the Pope so it is technically separate from Rome and its own country with its own citizens. The Vatican museums have so many little details sculpted into the ceiling and walls and building in general. There are halls and halls and ceilings upon ceilings of amazing, brilliant art. It’s impossible to look at it all. There were thousands of statues, thousands of paintings, thousands of PEOPLE too. It’s hard to move and breathe. 40,000 people per day visit the Vatican.

We ended in the Sistine Chapel (Scott’s favorite part of the day) with the famous ceiling frescos Michelangelo painted in 1481 and “Last Judgment” painting by Michelangelo in 1535 (he painted this when he was 60). Apparently Michelangelo painted everyone naked within “Last Judgment” and the church did not like that so they asked him to paint clothes on the figures. Michelangelo refused, so the church left the clothes off until Michelangelo died. They then had another artist paint clothes onto the figures. I am baffled by the fact that they would deface the work of art like this. Michelangelo painted them naked because he said that on judgment day, we will all be naked before God. I think is very true and the piece is not the same without what was intended by the artist. I am personally just not a fan of anyone’s artwork being changed without their consent.

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We are having a blast.

More at http://jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com

Carpe Diem - Rome, Day 1

We started out the day by taking a train from the airport to the Termini Station in Rome. When we got off the train we had assumed we’d be able to use our GPS to find everything we were looking to find, but the GPS wasn’t picking up a signal so we were o our own. No electronics reliance for us! So we went “old school” and got a map. It took us a minute, but we finally figured out where our hotel was on the map and started walking. On our way to the hotel, we were stopped by a cute old woman. She welcomed us in Rome and told us her story. She said she had lived in San Francisco for 15 years with her husband, but he had passed on so she came back to her home – Rome. She reached in her purse and pulled out a bunch of pictures of her past – when she was young, her house in San Francisco, her family… then she asked if I wanted a piece of candy. I know… you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but I did : ) I am such a rebel! Then she says… “I don’t have a second piece of candy for your husband, but wait here and I will run to the grocery store to get one.” And we politely said “that’s okay, it was nice to meet you! Thanks for telling us your story!”

What a way to welcome us in Rome eh?

So we started the journey to our hotel and got there in about 15 minutes (after learning to read a map again). I feel so dependent on Google Maps and GPS systems these days.

Our hotel room is similar to what we stayed in in Amsterdam and Prague… small, but a place to sleep : ) The view outside is amazing, though, and we hear beautiful Italian bells all day long.

We were exhausted from the long flight, but eager to get out and see the city. We figured that we should not sleep when we got to Rome because we had to adjust to the time change – even though we REALLY wanted too : ) So we looked at the map and set out on our adventures.

We started walking and soon realized we would not need a map to see all the beautiful things in Rome. There are beautiful things everywhere…. Fountains, statues, beautiful architecture. The first thing we came across was an amazing fountain with four huge beautiful statues coming out of it. We decided to get some gelato and sit next to the fountain. My sister’s fiancé Sam went on his mission in Italy and he said the No. 1 thing to do is eat A LOT of gelato. So no need to hesitate, right? I had the strawberry gelato and Scott had the chocolate and I can tell you that I have eaten gelato in a lot of places in this world, but the gelato in Italy is by far the best.

We then headed to the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain). If you don’t know what the Trevi Fountain is, let me tell you… It is a slice of heaven placed on the earth. In fact, I would say that about Rome in general, with its Byzantine art (known for the golden halo around the head in artwork), and renaissance architecture. Scotty and I sat next to the fountain for quite a while and just inhaled the beauty. The Trevi Fountain was one of the major aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. There is legend that if you turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain that you will come back to Rome one day. You are also supposed to drink the water from the fountain (not from the actual fountain, but from the right side above the steps). We tried both : ) We were told that you shouldn’t have people take pictures of you because there are a lot of people that will steal your camera, but we just find people who speak English (mainly couples) and offer to take their picture first then have them take one of us. It’s working out well.

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We then decided to try to find the Pantheon and in doing so ran into a bunch of other famous architecture/artwork. I wish I could have brought my 20 pound art history book with me so that I could dissect all the amazing things we are seeing.

As soon as we walked into the Pantheon we got chills. There is a hole in the top of the Pantheon because the creator was trying to make the dome perfectly spherical (and using the Pythagorean Theorem and other mathematical calculations to do so). Everything here is mathematically perfect in proportion. I think that this hole which the creator considered a “flaw” makes it SO much better because there is sunlight that comes in and hits a new piece of art in the building at different times of day. Also – it feels like the rays of God are shining in on you and on the artwork. It is simply breathtaking. It is the only pagan temple in classical style still almost intact in Rome and was commissioned to be built in 27 BC and dedicated to the guardian deities of the Emperor’s family. After the fire the temple was rebuilt between 118 and 125 A.D. Today it hosts the tombs of famous people, like the artist Raphael (who Scott mentioned is his favorite ninja turtle haha!) and the kings of Italy. Scott said this was his favorite thing we saw all day because he was in aw of the sheer size of the building and the fact that it was still standing after 2000 years. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be capable of building it.

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We decided to get lunch in a cute little café by the Trevi Fountain and needed to rest our feet… us two overachievers had probably walked ten miles at that point. We enjoyed the people watching and relaxation. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One other thing that I wanted to mention about our first day – We were looking at another gorgeous monument when we noticed a bunch of police/swat teams swarming in and not allowing people to go in to the monument. We were scared that we were in the middle of a terrorist attack of some kind because traffic was stopped and helicopters were overhead. Then, out of nowhere, we were in the middle of a “Free Palestine” political rally. There were thousands of people marching on behalf of the cause, and a leader yelling through a microphone to “Free Palestine” – we felt like we were in the middle of a 1960s political rally in the U.S.

After the long flight and long day, we both enjoyed a long 11 hours of sleep and are ready for day 2!

More at jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com

Eating Animals

Do you agree with this statement? “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.”

I read a book a couple of months ago that really inspired me and made me think about something most people do every day – “Eating Animals.” Jonathan Safran Foer, the author, discusses many topics surrounding eating animals and really makes his readers think about the decision to eat meat.

I am not sure if any of you are aware, but I was a vegetarian for about six years from age 17 – 23. I decided to eat meat again after marrying Scott (who was and is a meat eater). I didn’t want to cook two meals every night and genuinely started liking the taste of meat again. Recently, after reading the above book, I became a vegetarian again for various reasons that I will describe in my summary of the book below.

Since most of us have a dog that we adore… I think Foer makes a good point in his opening chapter. Foer starts the book by talking about his relationship with his dog. He admits that he doesn’t know what goes on in his dog’s [George’s] head and that he is “surprised by her lack of intelligence as often as [he is] surprised by her intelligence. The differences between [them] are always more present than the similarities.” But he recognizes that although “the list of differences [between them] could fill a book, George fears pain, seeks pleasure and craves not just food and play, but companionship.” Based on this, he asks various ethical questions such as “should we not eat companion animals”? “should we not eat animals with significant mental capacities”? “if we should not eat animals with significant mental capacities then wouldn’t that include the pig, cow, chicken, many species of sea animals and severely impaired human beings”?

“With all the factory farmers that are profiting from meat eaters around the country – ‘is it even possible to eat meat without ‘causing pain to one of Gods living creatures.’? I seriously want to know your answer to this question and think these are all good questions that we should ask ourselves. Controversial? Yes. Questions that might alter your life and the food you eat? Yes. Questions we may not be able to ignore, but out of laziness decide to ignore anyway? Yes. But hear me out anyway…

“On average, American’s eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime – one animal for every letter on the last five pages.”

I know there are a million things to stand up for in our country so you are probably wondering why I chose to blog about animals. Well – to put it shortly – this book inspired me to be a better person and I learned something that I wanted to share with others. “If I misuse a corporation’s logo, I could potentially be put in jail; if a corporation abuses a billion birds, the law will protect no the birds, but the corporation’s right to do what it wants.” Is this right?

Do we really even know what we are eating anymore? “Not a single turkey you can buy in a supermarket could walk normally, much less jump or fly normally before they slaughtered it for you to eat? Not the antibiotic-free, or organic, or free range or anything. They all have the same foolish genetics, and their bodies won’t allow for it anymore. Every turkey sold in every store and served in every restaurant was the product of artificial insemination. If it were only for efficiency that would be one thing, but these animals literally can’t reproduce naturally. What the industry figured out – and this was the real revolution – is that you don’t need healthy animals to make a profit. Sick animals are more profitable. The animals have paid the price for our desire to have everything available at all times for very little money.”

Remember that bird flu and swine flu outbreak we had last year? “Scientists at Columbia and Princeton Universities have actually been able to trace six of the eight genetic segments of the (currently) most feared virus in the world directly to US factory farms.”

Also - “Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella (down from several years ago, when at least one in four birds was infected, which still occurs on some farms). Seventy to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter. Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria. Of course consumers might notice that their chickens don’t taste quite right – how good could a drug-stuffed, disease ridden, contaminated animal possibly taste?”

“Chickens are laying ‘two or even three times as many [eggs] as in nature’” because farmers are changing the food and light deprivation of animals. Is this healthy for our animals? Is this healthy for us?

Now to discuss the environment… Is being a vegetarian better for the environment? The meat industry handles “so much [waste], [that is] so poorly managed, that it seeps into rivers, lakes, and oceans – killing wildlife and polluting air, water, and land in ways devastating to human health. Today a typical pig factory farm will produce 7.2 million pounds of manure annually, a typical broiler facility will produce 6.6 million pounds, and a typical cattle feedlot 344 million pounds. The General Account Office (GAO) reports that individual farms ‘can generate more raw waste than the populations of some U.S. cities.’ All told, farmed animals in the Unites States produce 130 times as much waste as the human population – roughly 87,000 pounds of [waste] per second. The polluting strength of this [waste] is 160 times greater than a raw municipal sewage.”

“John Tietz compiled a useful list of [stuff] typically found in the [waste] of factory farmed-hogs: ‘ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorus, nitrates, and heavy metals. In addition, the waste nurses more than 100 microbial pathogens that can make humans sick, including salmonella, cryptosporidium, streptococci and giardia’ (thus children raised on the grounds of a typical hog factory farm have asthma rates exceeding 50 percent and children raised near factory farms are twice as likely to develop asthma).”

So since the meat industry is polluting the environment so much, you would think that they would be fined accordingly right? ”A few years after this deregulation in 1995, Smithfield spilled more than twenty million gallons of lagoon waste into the New River in North Carolina. The spill remains the largest environmental disaster of its kind and is twice as big as the iconic Exxon Valdez spill six years earlier. The spill released enough liquid manur to fill 250 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In 1997, as reported by the Sierra Club in their daming “RapSheet on Animal Factories,” Smithfield was penalized for a mind-blowing seven thousand violations of the Clean Water Act – that’s about twenty violations a day.”

“One violation might be an accident. Even ten violations might. Seven thousand violations is a plan. Smithfield was fined $12.6 million, which at first sounds like a victory against the factory farm. At the time, $12.6 million was the largest civil-penalty pollution fine in US history, but this is a pathetically small amount to a company that now grosses $12.6 million every ten hours. Smithfield’s former CEO Joseph Luter III received $12.6 million in stock options in 2001.”

“Conservative estimates by the EPA indicate that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has already polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in twenty-two states (for reference the circumference of the earth is roughly 25,000 miles). In only three years, two hundred fish kills – incidents where the entire fish population in a given area is killed at once – have resulted from factory farms’ failures to keep their shit out of waterways. In these documented kills along, thirteen million fish were literally poisoned by shit – if set head to tail fin, these vitims would stretch the length of the entire Pacific coast from Seattle to the Mexican border.”

And you thought the Homer Simpson story about the pollution of the lake in “The Simpson’s Movie” was a made up story (remember when he had the pet pig and didn’t know how to dispose of the waste so he dumped it in the lake?) Hopefully the EPA won’t put a dome over the USA like they did with Springfield.

So, you all know how much I LOVE sushi… I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it… but after reading these stats… I realize how everyone in the world loves sushi and that it is taking a toll on our oceans – “One study found that roughly 4.5 million sea animals are killed as bycatch in longline fishing every year, including roughly 3.3 million sharks, 1 million marlins, 60,000 sea turtles, 75,000 albatross, and 20,000 dolphins and whales.”

Did you know that “thirty five classified species of sea horse worldwide are threatened with extinction because they are killed “unintentionally” in seafood production? (shrimp trawling devastates sea horse populations more than any other activity).”

So why do we continue to eat meat? Is it because we are scared to be an “unhealthy” vegetarian? Because it’s so much “healthier” to eat meat? Well, according to Foer, “Data suggests that excess animal protein intake is linked to osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract, and some cancers. Despite some persistent confusion, it is clear that vegetarians and vegans tend to have more optimal protein consumption than omnivores.”

Also, “Vegetarian diets are often associated with a number of health advantages, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease [which alone accounts for more than 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation], lower blood pressure levels, and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Vegetarians tent to have lower body mass index (BMI) [that is, they are not as fat] and lower overall cancer rates [cancers account for nearly another 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation].”

Do you think being a vegetarian is radical? According to Foer, “Our situation is an on odd one. Virtually all of us agree that it matters how we treat animals and the environment, and yet few of us give much through to our most important relationship to animals and the environment. Odder still, those who do choose to act in accordance with these uncontroversial values by refusing to eat animals (which everyone agrees can reduce both the number of abused animals and one’s ecological footprint) are often considered marginal or even radical.”

Why are vegetarians constantly being questioned about their behaviors, but meat eaters aren’t?

“We have let the factory farm replace farming for the same reasons our cultures have relegated minorities to being second-class members of society and kept women under the power of men. We treat animals as we do because we want to and can. (Does anyone really wish to deny this anymore?) The myth of consent is perhaps the story of meat, and much comes down to whether this story, when we are realistic, is plausible. But compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.”

“Choosing leaf or flesh, factory farm or family farm, does not in itself change the world, but teaching ourselves, our children, our local community, and our nation to choose conscience over ease can. One of the greatest opportunities to live our values – or betray them – lies in the food we put on our plates.”

“Martin Luther Ling Jr. wrote passionately about the time when ‘one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.’ Sometimes we simply have to make a decision because ‘one’s conscience tells on that it is right.”

For all of you critics out there, and I know there are and will be critics because almost everyone I talked to about this said “this book isn’t researched and I am still going to eat meat to matter what I read or hear or learn about” – check out the 60 page works cited/sources at the end of the book. Trust me, this is a WELL researched book. But, if you want to continue to live in denial/ignorance – to each his own : ).