Behind The Headlines

To eat, or not to eat, meat

Fri, 13 Nov 09 21:35:23 GMT

I’ve struggled with my status as an omnivore for many years. The more I learn about the way meat is produced and processed the less I want to eat it. And, yet, I do still eat meat.

I’ve flirted with vegetarianism but never truly succeeded. The first step was to cut out the most popular meats, like chicken, beef and pork , where the poor living conditions of the animals that render the plump, antibiotic injected cuts of meat are well documented and of suspect nutritional value.

I stopped cooking them altogether in my early twenties (which was easy because I was just learning how to cook and meat seemed intimidating) and only ordered things like lamb in restaurants when my parents took me out for the occasional celebratory dinner. Eventually I stopped doing that too. However, I never gave up bacon. For me the meats that were impossible to completely forego were the ones you always knew were bad for you anyway. I was never under any illusion that, for example, poutine (French fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy) was good for you. So, the health-based philosophy that led me to trying to stop eating meat often didn’t hold strong against these savory temptations.

I lived my life meat-free (except the afore mentioned bacon and poutine side steps) for five years in total. For the most part I didn’t miss it. But one day my acupuncturist suggested I start eating red meat again. The next thing I knew I was at The Keg Restaurant ordering steak, medium well. It was divine. And so began the long, slow slide back to omnivore status. This summer I even had a Big Mac for the first time in approximately a decade. It was also divine.

And then, earlier this week, I read The New Yorker article Flesh of your flesh by Elizabeth Kolbert. It examines the contradiction between the relationship we have with the animals we keep as pets:

Americans love animals. Forty-six million families in the United States own at least one dog, and thirty-eight million keep cats. Thirteen million maintain freshwater aquariums in which swim a total of more than a hundred and seventy million fish. Collectively, these creatures cost Americans some forty billion dollars annually.

And, the relationship we have with the animals we eat:

Americans also love to eat animals. This year, they will cook roughly twenty-seven billion pounds of beef, sliced from some thirty-five million cows. Additionally, they will consume roughly twenty-three billion pounds of pork, or the bodies of more than a hundred and fifteen million pigs, and thirty-eight billion pounds of poultry, some nine billion birds. Most of these creatures have been raised under conditions that are, as Americans know—or, at least, by this point have no excuse not to know—barbaric.

This reminded me of a program I produced last season which examined the exact same issue through the lens of the law, and how the legal system views the animals we keep as pets versus the ones we eat.

Take a look:

After reading The New Yorker article, and rewatching this show, I have again resolved to eat less meat. I’ll let you know how it goes, but in the mean time I’d love to know what your meat eating philosophy is so please add a comment below.

Eureka! There's Water on the Moon!

Fri, 13 Nov 09 18:00:25 GMT

We had quite a lively debate on the first night of our Quantum to Cosmos Festival programs from the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario.

Our panelists, from astronaut Chris Hadfield to Donna Shirley, former manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Program were arguing whether it made better sense to attempting to colonize the Moon or Mars. The Moon may win out, according to the latest breaking news from NASA today -- last month's crash of a satellite on the south pole of the Moon did indeed find water.

Water is the key to being able to sustain humans outside our own planet. It may sound far-fetched, but you probably won't think so after watching our debate "Are we Bound for Space?"

Two NHL Teams in Southern Ontario

Mon, 09 Nov 09 19:59:58 GMT

It seems like the time has finally arrived for the NHL to admit that a second team in Southern Ontario is not only possible, but economics make it pretty much inevitable. According to today’s Globe and Mail:

Most sports economics experts agree that such a team that would likely earn enough revenue to be a major contributor to the NHL's revenue-sharing program as opposed to a continual drain like the Phoenix Coyotes, the team BlackBerry billionaire Jim Balsillie tried and failed to move to Hamilton.

The issue came up at a news conference with NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, who said “I suppose, without talking about time frame, there may be [a possibility of moving a team into Southern Ontario].”

There is an assumption that the Toronto Maple Leafs were blocking this move and could continue to do so to protect their revenue base. Daly disagrees.

“[The Leafs] don't have to agree,” Daly said in the Globe and Mail. “They can be dead-set against it, but that doesn't mean they can stop the league from putting a franchise here if the league thinks a franchise here makes sense.”

It also came up in a program I produced in September called Hockey Brawl where we examined the economics of a two-hockey-team Ontario along with billionaire Jim Balsillie’s bid and the peculiar nuances of sports franchise law.

Enjoy:

Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Mon, 09 Nov 09 19:43:07 GMT

Today, November 9, is a very special day in Germany. It marks the 20th anniversary of the moment when the Berlin Wall began to crack and, within days, fell.

People began streaming to the Wall when the East German government announced they would allow their citizens to pass through the Wall's formerly restricted checkpoints. Before long, people began chipping away at the Wall itself with hammers, and even started pulling sections of it down with ropes and other equipment.

While reforms in countries such as Poland and present-day Russia had already begun before that day, the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolizes for many the end of the communist system that had dominated Central and Eastern Europe since 1945.

A number of events are taking place in Berlin to mark the occasion. And news organizations from all over the world are reporting on the anniversary and trying to analyze its significance. You can read some examples here, here, here, and here.

Knowing how much discussion and coverage the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall would cause, The Agenda discussed the legacy of the Wall's collapse on October 29 at the Munk Centre for International Studies.

While the end of communism is seen by many in the western world as an undeniably good thing, our guests often gave very different views on how things have turned out for the people of the former Soviet bloc:

I'm sure a lot of you reading this blog have memories from when the Berlin Wall fell and what it meant to you at the time. And I would imagine some of you have lived in Central or Eastern Europe and have a personal connection to the changes that part of the world has seen in the past 20 years. What are your memories of that time? Have the past two decades fulfilled the hopes you had back then? And what's your sense of the state of the former communist countries today? Please share your thoughts by commenting on this blog.

Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish

Fri, 06 Nov 09 16:20:13 GMT

The plight of the oceans, and the animals that live within them, is nothing short of tragic. The New Republic’s lead story last month was titled Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish and it says "Our oceans have been the victim of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries." It's hard to fault this anology when you consider that it only took 50 years to decrease the global supply of of big fish, such as bluefin tuna and cod, by 90%. In our harvesting of the ocean, we've left almost nothing behind.

The Agenda tackled this topic in April, 2009, looking at pollution, climate change and overfishing: the tragedy of the commons and the slow-motion death of our oceans.

Take a look:

Kevin Page: Canada’s Last Parliamentary Budget Officer?

Wed, 04 Nov 09 23:04:43 GMT

Kevin Page is Canada’s first Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). He may also be Canada’s last Parliamentary Budget Officer.

As reported by the Globe and Mail, Kevin Page is “recommending to the Conservatives that they shut down his office unless he gets the full funding he was promised.” He is apparently serious. Page believes it is better for the PBO to cease to exist, rather than leave Canadians with the false impression that there is oversight of the Government’s books.

Last year, the PBO's budget was cut by one-third (or one million dollars). Page says he cannot carry out the PBO’s mandate with his present funding.

In May, The Agenda interviewed Kevin Page.

What a difference six months makes (especially during a minority parliament and a recession). In this clip, Page says:

•    The federal government is not yet in a structural deficit. On Tuesday, the PBO announced the structural deficit has arrived and that Canada will be in an $18.9-billion structural deficit by the 2013-14 fiscal year.
•    Page seemed reluctant to discuss the then-contentious Opposition proposal for more generous Employment Insurance benefits. In October, the Government survived a non-confidence vote by agreeing to more generous EI benefits.
•    Steve Paikin asked Page if he was concerned that stimulus funding would not be spent wisely. It appeared he was not. Last week, Page complained that the Government was trying to make his analysis of the stimulus funding difficult by providing 4,476 pages of stimulus reports.

The list could go on. However, most interestingly, near the end of the interview Kevin Page says the future of the PBO is strong. Times have changed.

The DSM Battle: A Syndrome by any other Name

Wed, 04 Nov 09 22:45:01 GMT

One of the most important events in psychiatry is currently underway, as the profession is seeking to update the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the industry bible. Though it is not used by all psychiatrists, it is considered the most up-to-date and comprehensive reference of mental and cognitive conditions, and essential in diagnosis and insurance billing in the United States, in particular.

Asperger's syndrome, considered a “high-functioning" form of autism, entered the DSM during its last revision in 1994. The DSM overhaul is considered to be long overdue by many in the field and is set to be published in 2012. What to update, add and delete, is a more contentious issue. And for the Asperger's Syndrome community, the potential of being lumped in as simply an Autism Spectrum Disorder, has many worried according to this Globe and Mail article.

The Agenda broadcast the debate, Disorder on the Couch, on what may and may not be included in the upcoming DSM-V on February 2, 2009:

Canada Headed for an Even Bigger Structural Deficit :PBO

Tue, 03 Nov 09 16:41:21 GMT

There is more bad news on the deficit front. First Ontario finance minister Dwight Duncan annouced Ontario will be $24.7 billion in the hole this year and now a new report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer projects Canada will be in a $18.9-billion structural deficit by the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

A structural deficit means the government's budget is set up to spend more money than it brings in even if our economy is working at its full potential. In order to slash a structural deficit there needs to be a tax hike or spending cuts.

So far, the Harper government has denied Canada is in a structural deficit. The Agenda did a program on this very topic on September 16th. Check out the full episode.

The Polygamy Question

Thu, 29 Oct 09 17:50:38 GMT

Last week, B.C. attorney-general Mike DeJong announced he would ask his province's Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of Canada's anti-polygamy law, a move that was applauded by the federal government, and also by some media commentators.

British Columbia's action comes a month after a judge threw out the province's charges under that law against two leaders of Bountiful, a breakaway fundamentalist Mormon community in which polygamy has been openly practiced for years.

The constitutionality of the polygamy laws has been debated for years. For a summary of the debate, please have a look at what I wrote on the topic in May of 2008: The still-active link is here.

At the time I blogged about the issue, DeJong's predecessor Wally Oppal was considering whether or not to press charges against the leaders of Bountiful (he ultimately did, and those were the charges that were thrown out last month on what some would describe as a technicality related to legal processes).

The Agenda also broadcast a debate on the legal issues surrounding polygamy in Canada. Here is that debate as it originally aired on May 15, 2008:

NASA launches the Ares 1-X, the next phase in human space exploration

Thu, 29 Oct 09 17:09:11 GMT

NASA’s Ares 1-X rocket launched Wednesday, giving a spectacular start to the human-spaceflight Constellation program facing an uncertain future.

The Ares project is hoped to replace the space shuttle program, which is scheduled to end in 2010. When the shuttle program ends, the money normally budgeted for the shuttle will be moved to the Constellation program.

The next flight test, Ares 1-Y, launches in March 2014 and will test the Orion crew capsule’s ability to escape from the rocket at high altitudes.

However, it's not all clear sailing for the program. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The program faces an uncertain future, however, following the release of a report by a committee the Obama administration appointed to chart a financially sustainable course for the US human spaceflight program. The committee, led by former aerospace executive Norman Augustine, warned that without additional money, the Constellation program has little hope of doing more than building the Ares 1 but have no place to send it.

The Agenda recently looked at the future of human space exploration. Check it out:

And also take a look at David Erwin's timeline of human space exploration:

Milestones in Space Exploration on Dipity.