Defenestrating Thoughts from the Bivouac

Wow, it’s a long time since I posted anything. I had been doing such a good job of writing and using delayed posting to spread out when things come online, but then I got lazy. And now my head is full of mostly pointless thoughts just waiting to be “defenestrated” out into the blogosphere. :-)

Recently Google added compostable plates, utensils, cups and napkins to our cafeterias. The napkins and plates are made of special paper so they biodegrade easily. The cups and utensils are made of corn starch. For those that are curious, my friends and I have done a few taste tests and the utensils taste just like rice cakes.

Along with these, we have compost bins to toss these and food scraps into. And presumably this gets used as soil additive or mulch. So it would be used to grow more crops.

Now the interesting part (for me): if someone throws away some left-over chicken and it’s used to fertilize the plants, what does this mean for my vegetarian sensibilities? Is there a ethical problem with eating “Chicken-fed cucumber”? :-)

Aside from being really amusing, I suppose it’s not an issue, as random dead animals have been feeding plants forever as part of the circle of life.

Somewhat related, we realized over lunch that one of the traditional “don’t eat things that have nervous systems” approach to vegetarianism has a few flaws. After all, potatoes have eyes and corn has ears. :-)