How'd you like your steak? With a side of tree frogs or tapirs?

I know what you're thinking.

What does your steak have to do with tree frogs and tapirs?

Has Mama gnome lost it? I wish I had, then it would be easier for me to forget this horrible mess we're in. I don't even know where to start. But I'll try my best.

Mama gnome loves trees. Loves forests even more. And as far as rainforests, let me tell you about one who is very special.

She is Amazonia.

The largest rain forest in the world is the Amazon rainforest. Her range touches nine countries, with 60% of it in Brazil, 13% in Peru and smaller portions run in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

The Amazon rainforest is the most biodiverse rainforest on Earth.
She is home to thousands and thousands of plants, millions of insect species, thousands of species of fish and birds, hundreds of species of mammals and reptiles.

The Amazon rainforest is where you'll find tapirs, leaf-cutter ants, anacondas, jaguars, emperor tamarins, pygmy marmosets, two-toed sloths, harpy eagles, pink dolphins, tree frogs and countless more wonderful animals.

Not only is the Amazon home to all these animals, she is also home for more than 350 ethnic and indigenous groups of people. Their land for thousands of years.

How much do you think this biodiversity and ancestral land is worth?

How about priceless dollars, pesos, euros, francs, gold... She is priceless.

And yet people are burning, flooding and destroying the Amazon.

http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/20945/image08082006_md.jpg

This picture from NASA shows square brown areas where the rainforest has been cleared in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil.

According to this report, almost 3 million acres of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil was deforested from August 2007 to July 2008.

"Today, rapid deforestation threatens the Amazon. At current rates, 55 percent of its rain forests could be gone by 2030—a looming disaster not only for the region’s plants and animals, but for the world."

That's more than half of the Amazon rainforest gone in 21 years.

Twenty one is not some abstract number in the distant future.

That's our lifetime, our children's lifetime, our grandchildren's lifetime.

Who or what is destroying the Amazon?

Basically, this is where your steak or chicken comes in.

With more and more people in the world, more and more people are eating meat.

Therefore, people who are only capable of short-term planning and consider the rainforests not as profitable, employ slash and burn methods to clear the forests to make way for cattle and soy farming.

And Mama gnome has to consider that there are probably desperate people as well who have no other economic means but to do this.

Why soy?
To feed the cattle and chicken in factory farms where meat is processed and mass marketed to the world.

If you are now slumped down in front of the computer, depressed and frustrated with this dilemma, Mama gnome says,

"Dust yourself off. Pick yourself up and let's get to work."

Please, please consider changing your diet.

Now, don't panic.

The spectrum is wide.

On one end is becoming vegetarian and vegan.

The other end is not changing at all. Just go about your business as usual.

I propose somewhere in the middle to start. How about really looking at where you buy your meats and produce?

I know times are hard and fast foods are the cheapest.

But really consider purchasing local produce, meats that are grass fed and not from factory farms.

And even the act of limiting how often you eat meat would make a world of a difference not just for the Amazon, but for your health as well.

How about considering growing your own produce?

I'm sure where you live gets more rain than where Mama gnome lives. Ehemm, lots of Joshua trees here. Not that that's bad. But the gnomes (especially you know who), do their best to save water, our lawns are the attractive color of beige.

Visit here http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/amazon/index.html
to read up about the World Wildlife Federation and what it is doing in conjunction with the Brazilian government to save the Amazon.

Also visit here to read up more about the deforestation of the Amazon.

http://amazonconservation.org/

http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/

Participate in tree planting.

Purchase electronic cards from Arbor Day Foundation where they plant a tree for every person you give an electronic card to.

And watch this:

video from http://saveouramazonrainforest.blogspot.com/

Side note: Mama gnome thought she had to give up soy milk, veggie burger and tofu as well, but..."the soy that is used in veggie burgers, tofu, and soy milk in the United States is almost exclusively grown domestically, not in the Amazon."

Darn... I mean, good, good, very good.

Yes, it's almost 3 months since I've taken on my greatest challenge and I haven't fallen off the wagon, so to speak.

But for a moment Mama gnome did consider surviving only on air but that's a precious commodity too.

How about lint? Nobody misses lint. Pweh, pweh. Nah, won't work.

So Mama gnome has to ask this unpleasant question,
"Before you eat that hamburger, what side dishes are you eating with it?"

Go green.

(c) 2009 Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog