Week 32 - Crushed

I'm even more so now that the first draft of this blog post was deleted by Windows automated updates. Have you ever noticed that just when you slip away for a minute to grab a lab protocol for someone, your computer decides to go into 10 minute countdowns on an update it never told you you have? Then you come back to find everything you've been working on is gone. Awesome.

Fermenter work here in the lab is looming in the near future as we move through some culture bottle testing. Right now I've moved into the process of rumen sampling from the university cows and it would seem that we might find enough to keep everyone busy. Two Brazilians are coming in soon, and will stay with us for a few weeks, and two summer interns are also starting with us soon. So as the campus dies down, the lab gets busier. Now we finally have time to address all the things we've been putting off in lieu of pressing deadlines.

Some of our 160 mL culture bottles with rumen fluid samples.

A friend's Easter adaptation of the deviled egg.

Holy Week as always was a flurry of activity and friendly faces. Old friends at churches we rarely visit (and no, we're not Chreasters), and family dinners that leave you fat and hating yourself until Memorial Day. My family is starting to older and slow down, while my wife's family is in the growing stage still with weddings and children's birthdays during this time of the year. We had the pleasure of a fellow graduate student spending some time with us since her family was so far away, and only a five eggs were lost in the hunt, only to be likely discovered by a mower or cat's nose later when they start to turn.

The real point of this post will be kept briefer now that I'm writing it for the second time. This past week started with the visit of one of my childhood idols, Jane Goodall. National Geographic made her famous, but her work spans decades of animal behavior, ape conservation and sub-standard African economic development work. She survived the German bombing of England and an adventure to the wilds of Africa in her 20's to emerge a successful and strong-willed woman. She was a great adventurer who braved the wild animals and brought new knowledge and discovery to the television for kids just like me. But during her talk, I realized she had changed or was always a little bit different from what I imagined. She dropped catchwords such as "factory farms" or "cruel battery cages" and I knew she had picked these terms up from the people that she brushed elbows with, people like the Sierra Club member who stank up the seat beside me (literally, he must not have showered in a week). Could it be true, was Goodall a sellout to this emotional animal rights nonsense? I always pictured her to be such a rational and practical person. I would have loved to ask her to elaborate on her position on this, or why she nonfactually stated that 70% of antibiotics go to animals, or that we can't use antibiotics anymore because animals have spread this resistance because farmers abuse the system, or why she said bird farms were cruel but had never visited one. My mind exploded with the urge to ask her about her preference for feeding the world and preserving the species which outcompete her precious apes, or sacrificing ape habitat for the crops which will be necessary to supply a starving African population, which she also finds so endearing. Coexistence is not impossible, but priorities or plans must be set in place, and surely someone who speaks so harshly of agriculture which strives to keep people alive must have their own plan for the human race?

Jane Goodall on the big screen.

I used to be a pretty active defender of animal agriculture, nearly vehement, but I'd like to think that I've softened and wisened over the years. And this is why I decided to stay in my seat. My wife knows as well as anyone that I only ask 2 types of questions - those that are either a factor of my intense and unsatisfied curiosity, or those that are meant to prove the ignorance and poor foundation of the opinions of my peers, lessors or contentious esteemed. And so I sat in my seat and listened to some girl whine about not being able to face the plants she killed in her desire to be strictly vegetarian (just starve yourself, save the plants and spare us the space already). And I listened to a pompous veterinary student, and laughed at my wife's failed camera phone attempts to capture Goodall when she had been sitting a couple rows in front of us. And I said nothing, because sometimes, nothing is what is best after all. I don't have it in my heart to attack this idol, even if this idol has betrayed my confidence and admiration. She is still a great woman and deserves to be afforded her own opinion without ridicule or challenge in such a public place.