Is informed eating traumatic for children?

The Thames Park community garden is right next to the playground. This is a wonderful thing, because it gives kids the opportunity to learn about where their food comes from. I let many a child pick tomatoes or beets from my plot for this reason.

I think it’s important for kids to know that their food comes from somewhere beyond the grocery store. They get really excited when they see what a growing melon looks like. That’s why things like this scandal are very troubling to me:

Children help to raise pigs to learn about ethically, organically raised food. The pigs are taken to a slaughterhouse, and the pigs are turned into food available for sale to the families. The parents flip out, saying it is insensitive, and that the children are too young to learn about where their food comes from.

These animals weren’t raised ‘as pets’, they were raised as food; they weren’t in ‘pets corner’, they were in a farm. The children appear to have taken the difference in their stride and as a result will probably end up being either informed meat-eaters or informed vegetarians. But to the parents, this is a challenge to their curious, teetering balance of sentimentality and unthinking consumption of meat. If you think your children would be traumatised by the idea of eating pigs, why are you feeding them bacon sandwiches?

I was at a friend’s house one evening, where roast beef was served that was once a cow called Buttercup. I talked to the kids about this. One of them said to me, “Buttercup was a mean cow. And she’s tasty. I won’t eat the nice cow.” That is informed eating, and I think it’s as important that children have the same opportunity to make informed decisions about ethical eating as the rest of us. Thoughts?

Rabbit Poo!

Today I made friends with a woman who breeds rabbits for use as pets. Because I came to take her poo.
What would I want to do with several bins of rabbit poo? Because you can’t run a closed loop system (self sustaining) garden without animals to help you fertilize, and rabbit manure is the greatest fertilizer made in this part of the world (next to worm castings, but I’d need a LOT of worms). Plus, it’s the only manure that doesn’t need to be composted first. And the roll-y pellets don’t smell. Here’s how rabbit manure stacks up against other standard manures:

Rabbit manure: Nitrogen(N): 2.4 Phosphorus(P):1.4 Potassium(K): 0.6
Most concentrated of animal manures in fresh form. No composting needed.

Cow manure (dairy): N:0.6 P:0.2 K:0.5
Often contains weed seeds, should be hot composted.

Steer manure: N:0.7 P:0.3 K:0.4
Often contains weed seeds, should be hot composted if fresh.

Chicken manure: N:1.1 P:0.8 K:0.5
Breaks down quickest of all manures, but it will probably burn your plants (and it reeks) so it should definately be composted.

Until I get out of the city, I’m very lucky to have a new rabbit breeding friend!

and finally, because I had never heard of Peruvian sea bird manure until today:
Peruvian Seabird Guano (pelletized): N:12 P:12 K:2.5
“Legendary fertilizer of the Incas. Use in soil as a long lasting fertilizer, or make into tea (1 tsp pellets to 1 gallon water).”

There’s lots to learn about fertilizer here.