Ashley's Weblog

Diary from Japan – “We should rethink our eating habits”

ashleyslife — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:43:34 +0000

We should rethink our eating habits

Posted 2 days ago

One of the greatest pleasures of travelling around the world is eating. In conversations with my high school students, they share their desires to visit America just to eat a juicy hamburger with all the fixings; or Italy to twirl their forks in spaghetti.

Recently, I went to Korea and had a field day at the bustling street markets where I indulged in the local cuisine. I’d go back there in a heartbeat; however, I would be reluctant to revisit the dog markets.

At Gupo Market in Busan, Korea’s second-largest city, I locked eyes with about 50 dogs packed paw-to- paw in rusty, wire cages. The dogs looked like the ones you might consider buying from a local pet store.

It took every ounce of energy not to break down as I watched one dog get yanked out by its neck while it used all of its strength to resist. The other dogs barked in protest as their friend was tied up and brutally killed. Its eviscerated carcass would later end up in a glass display case.

As I left the market in hysterics, I was determined to spread the word about the dark side of Korean markets.

I recounted my experiences and expressed my disgust with the barbaric Korean dog industry. My American friend was deeply disturbed, but told me I was being ethnocentric by insinuating their culture was backwards for eating “man’s best friend.”

“How is eating veal any better than eating dog?” he asked rhetorically.

My friend proceeded to educate me on how the maltreatment of dogs is the same, if not worse, in comparison to the methods used in North American slaughterhouses. There are allegations of force-fed calves, mutilated pigs and debeaking egg-laying hens and keeping them in over-crowded battery cages where they live in each other’s feces. Even though I have seen these images in documentaries, including the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals video Meet Your Meat, I have never seen this with my own eyes.

Seeing maltreatment first-hand is much different than seeing it on a TV or computer screen because we have the luxury of switching the channel when the gory parts become too disturbing to watch. It wasn’t until I witnessed animal cruelty first-hand in Ethiopia, India, Korea and Japan that I no longer craved meat.

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian,” said Paul McCartney, the former Beatle and animal rights activist.

To be sure, not every farm animal is cruelly treated. Farms that are family-run or free-range tend to use ethical methods. But the reality is that most of the meat we buy from grocery stores comes from factory farms.

Killing animals inhumanely is immoral and unnecessary. Regardless if it is considered a family pet or an entrée for a family feast, all animals feel pain and pleasure, and have intellectual abilities.

According to Peter Singer, philosopher and founder of the modern animal liberation movement, pigs and dogs are comparably intelligent and “need a varied, stimulating environment if they are not to suffer from stress and boredom. Anyone who kept a dog in the way in which pigs are frequently kept would be liable to prosecution.”

Of course, people who eat meat are not immoral monsters or careless consumers. Some animal rights activists and vegetarians can get carried away with pretentiously preaching a meat-free agenda.

What we chose to eat is ultimately our decision, and we need to respect each other’s choices; however, we are responsible for how our daily decisions impact our health and environment, including animals.

The conditions in some factory farms are breeding grounds for viruses, and also play a major role in perpetuating ecological degradation and world hunger.

If we can’t face facts and “meet our meat” perhaps we should reconsider our eating habits. We owe it to our future generations.

Contact Ashley Clayton at

Final Project Reflections

ashleyslife — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:01:05 +0000

All done! Here are my final reflections in a form of a Q and A.

Why did you stop 1 week early?

It started to interfere with my work. I was always tired, short-tempered, and lazy. I wasn’t myself anymore, and little things that bugged me had the potential of ruining my entire day. I feel like I achieved my goal to spread awareness and will continue to involve people in dialogue about the world’s economic inequalities.

How much money did you spend on food in 45 days?

15,615 yen or about $156.00

Over 45 days, how much did you spend on food each day on average?

About 347 yen, or $350

How much money do you think you saved?

LOTS! I spend about $7 per day on average, depending if I eat out a lot or do grocery shopping… it varies. So I saved probably around $200.

What did I eat?

Mostly rice. It was my main staple because it is so cheap and could curb my hunger. I would have preferred to eat brown rice, but white was cheaper even though was not as healthy. I also ate a lot of soup. For fruits, I ate bananas mostly. Meats and alternatives, I ate a few cans of fish and peanut butter. For veggies, cheap produce was a challenge to find. I mostly ate spinach and carrots. I didn’t end up buying frozen veggies, because I think they weren’t that much cheaper. Milk and milk products were hard because it’s not a big staple in the Japanese diet. I drank soymilk when I could, and sometime yoghurt. I tried to drink as much tea, coffee, and water I could as to keep up my fluid intake. Most of the time I mixed leftovers or anything that was still edible into some interesting concoctions.

What was the most challenging?

Budgeting and preparing meals everyday. Smelling and seeing delicious food. Resisting the urge to splurge. Becoming another person – having low energy, being moody and irritable. Trying to stay motivated. Not being able to go out for dinner or get take-out with friends.

How many people responded to your question?

The question was: 2.8 billion people worldwide survive on less than $2/day… what can our generation do to lower this number. I got probably around a hundred verbal and written responses. I got 12 short and long essays from people who really gave a lot of thought to the question. I hope that more people will continue to write me their opinion and keep the dialogue going. I also hope that people for different countries/backgrounds, age groups can become engaged in the dialogue. Most of my responses came from 20-30 year olds.

Thanks so much for everything who took the time to offer me words of encouragement, check out my blog, and offer their opinions. I REALLY appreciate the support!

Will I do it again?

Probably not. But I would like to do some more projects either by myself or with a group to create a greater awareness about how important it is that we do something about the grave inequalities. If we don’t do something now, we will face a great war or revolution that “the haves” will not be able to hide away from.

What will you do with the information you collected?

I am hoping to use it for my graduate studies that will commence in September. Before that, I want to create a report for the UN Millennium Development Team to advise them how they can engage young people into achieving the goals, even though the goals are a bit unrealistic. For more info, Google: UN MGDs (UN Millennium Development Goals)

How much weight did you loose?

It wasn’t the purpose of the project, not it’s not important.

How has this changed your perspective about the question?

In several ways. I will elaborate later. I am still a firm believer that foreign aid is not the answer and that to some extent foreign aid workers should pull out of “poor” nations because most (not ALL) of them are imposing a neo-colonial agenda. There are many organizations and people that mean well, and feel they have a moral obligation to help low-income peoples. Who or what organizations am I specifically referring to? I don’t have the specific data, but I am referring to organizations that are led by foreigners, not locals, in other words, organizations that don’t promote capacity building. For example, do you think an organization that has its main headquarters in London really “helping” people in Sierra Leone? I am working for a NGO that has its headquarters in Addis Ababa and is led by Ethiopians. Some of its funding comes from international donors, but ultimately the agenda is Ethiopian-driven.

Some will disagree with me and say that if “we” leave “them” they will die or be killed. Of course I am not saying that this is right, that people should die. In an ideal world, people would be able to take care and/or defend themselves. I guess what I am getting at is people shouldn’t be going to “poor” countries with the pre-determined, utopian idea they are going to SAVE them. This is the same idea the colonists of the 1800s had when they went to Africa: we will save them with Christianity and make these savages into civilized human beings. I’m not against Evangelicalism completely, and I’m not saying the conversion movement was all bad news, but I think we have to respect other people’s right to lead their own lives.

That brings me to another point. I can’t stand it when people talk about “eliminate poverty”, or “poor countries”, etc. The words “poor” and “poverty” have negative connotations and hinder the progress of many low-income countries because the rhetoric indicates that these people have no agency! We don’t realize that there are rich, and VERY rich people who live in these countries and some of them are doing great things to change their country. The last thing they need is more Angelinas to “save” the children of Africa and Asia. She is a great spokeswoman, but adoption isn’t always a good idea.

I apologize if my rant isn’t as coherent as I would like it to be. I don’t mean to offend anyone who is genuinely trying to “do their part”. Most people want to do good and want to learn about other countries and help in any way they can. But somehow our efforts should be redirected into a different capacity. For example, instead of going to Zimbabwe to volunteer at an orphanage, one should lobby their home government to redirect aid to Zimbabwe’s local NGOs and not the government. It’s not the answer, but the former method of aid is treating the symptoms of the situation, the latter is getting to the cause of the “illness”, or at least 1 of the causes.

Did you achieve your purpose or goal?

Yes, I think I did. I created some awareness within my network and hopefully they will tell their friends about it and talk about the question.

What is the answer to the $2/day question?

No idea! Right now, it seems to be a process of elimination. Right now, I’ve eliminated the possibility of “increasing foreign aid” to being an answer. Like any complicated question, there will most likely be a multifaceted answer.

What is your next project?

Not sure yet. For now, I will be busy trying to create some kind of report and present it to anyone who will listen.

Stay tuned.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, criticism, and support. Thanks! Arigato!

project – day 46

ashleyslife — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:50:14 +0000

Date: April 24th

Thoughts: So today, it is officially over. I just spent 3500yen ($35) on dinner for my friend’s birthday. It felt so weird and I felt SO guilty and spent the whole time thinking about how outrageously expensive it is to eat out. Surely, it was a special occasion so I and people in general cant beat themselves up… I’m a firm believer with the saying “everything in moderation”. BUT, I think that this kind of spending is really needless. There are other ways we can have a “good” time and not splurge on frivolous things, ie. excess of alchol and rich/junk foods. I guess I am targeting this more towards peole who splurge carelessly, ie. celebrities and the rich. But at the same time, everyday people can change their lifestyles to help the planet (as a whole) by consuming less… and focusing on need rather than want.

project – day 45

ashleyslife — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:40:04 +0000

Date: April 23

Thoughts: Cannot believe its really Day 45. It has been a really interesting experience to do this and to read people’s comments and see their reactions. I think I am pretty much done though with eating $2/day. I feel like I have succeded in my experiment/project. Today I resumed eating normally, but not spending more than $5-6/day.

project – day 44

ashleyslife — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:35:01 +0000

Date: April 22nd

Thoughts: Nothing really eventful happened today. Still truckin!

Week 6 – Reflections

ashleyslife — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:18:53 +0000

Date: April 20th

Thoughts: Not $2/day anymore. Unfortunately. For the past 43 days, on average I am spending $3.50 a day on food. For the past 2 weeks, I have been more inclined to accept people’s offer for free food. I’m just so tired of being hungry all the time and thinking about everything. I am SO SO fortunate to have lotsa friends who are so willing to buy or share food with me. Initially I thought I was going to follow $2/day very strictly, but I’ve found it is almost impossible. I think I could do it if I was more able to deal with being hungry 24/7. I’m not as tough as I thought I was i guess… which is one of the purposes of the project… rather, i should have called it an experiment. That would have been more appropriate. Anyway, I have saved a ton of money so far, which is great news because I really need to save my money now for school next year.

Food for Thought: I’ve got the answer, FINALLY to the solution to all the world’s problem. Not really, but I did find a really good website that talks about food waste. Get this: ”In the US alone, 30% of food gets wasted”.

If we “the haves” waste less food, perhaps the lack of food in other countries wouldn’t be as bad because we would buy less food, thus reducing food demand in our countries. There IS, yes there IS enough food to feed the world’s people, but the distribution isn’t equal. It’s not that earth-shattering, but at least it is something we can actually do… EVERYday.

Here is the website: http://sustainablog.org/2008/08/25/the-shocking-statistics-of-food-waste/

Food purchases to date: 15,615 yen

project – day 42

ashleyslife — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:06:12 +0000

Date: April 20th

Thoughts: Having very little means being creative. I have been making some very interesting, borderline, gross meals in the past few weeks in order to satisfy my hunger. Here are some of the most interesting…

- soba (buckwheat) noodles, fish power, soya sauce, and dried nori and wakame (dried seaweed combo) [Taste Rating: 2/5]
- peanut butter and hot chocolate [ 2/5]
- freezer-burned french fries, ketchup and melted cheese [ 3/5]
- rice with dried seaweed and seasame seeds [5/5]
- rice with boiled egg and soya sauce [5/5]
- 6-month over-the-due-date oatmeal: [1/5]
- apple slices and p/n butter [4/5]
- sphaghetti noodles with ketchup [1/5]
- spinach, bread, p/n and sesame salad dressing [4/5]

Food purchases to date: 15,615 yen

project – day 41

ashleyslife — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:04:38 +0000

Date: April 19th

Thoughts: Lazy day today. Called a lot of people back home, which was nice and surprised many. Great to catch up! I am not sure though if I felt more homesick before or after talking with everyone. I definitely needed a little taste or “talk” of home.

I’ve noticed how much this project is taking a toll on my energy levels and my ability to release stress. I’m used to exercising to blow off steam, but now I can’t really do that all to much because I don’t want to burn off any more calories/nutrients than I want/need to. Today was a beautiful day and I wish I could have gone out for a run or walk, but no energy. I’m really looking forward to getting back into a more healthier routine.

I spent most of the day watching movies, and some grocery shopping.

Food purchases to date: 946 + 14,669 = 15,615 yen

project – day 40

ashleyslife — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:55:48 +0000

Date: April 18th

Thoughts: Can’t believe it’s day 40! Wow… time goes fast!

So today I woke up with 3 of my other friends after a night of partying. Had a pretty bad head ache. I cant remember the last time I ever had a hang over. Anyway, it was such a fun night and a nice change from my monotonous routine.

My friends and I slept in for most of the day and after they left I watched some movies and did some cleaning. I still couldn’t get rid of my craving for ramen which I couldn’t stop thinking about after one of my friends brought it up. I consider myself a semi-vegetarian at the moment (if that term even exists). The ramen comes with pork and pork broth. I get the broth, not the actual pork. I try in little ways to cut back on meat/fish intake, sometimes I can’t be bothered to nit pick. So yah, I splurged! I got ramen at a shop near my apartment. It was 500 yen (5 bucks). I’m realizing how weak I’ve become over the past few weeks.

One of the people who stayed over was a new English teacher in my prefecture. He gave me a box of marshmellow chocolates and oreo cookies. SOO nice and thoughtful!!! Such a nice gesture!

It kind of got me thinking though about how we (the rich) give away candy/chocolates/ or other things to children in “poor” countries. Sure, the kids go wild for the handouts, but it is really doing any good??? Wouldn’t it be better to give them something they will actually use or something that is actually healthy to eat? Of course it would be more expensive, but I was thinking about my friend who gave me chocolates. Of course, it was so nice of him, but I secretly wished that I could have replaced those sweets with some veggies or fruits because right now my body is over-loaded with cheap, refined carbohydrates/junk food and what I really nice is some hearty produce.

I guess beggers can’t be choosers.

Food purchases to date: 500 yen+ 14, 169 yen = 14,669 yen

project – day 39

ashleyslife — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Date: April 17th

Thoughts: “Running on empty”, was today’s theme. I got home after work and passed out in preparation for a party tonight. Long story short, I had too much to drink especially on an empty stomach which made for an epic night full of adventures. I had a few sips of whiskey left over from when I had a get together many months ago. So I finished that off before heading out to the club. So I don’t count that as part of my $2.

After getting home at 3am, my friends started talking about getting some ramen (chinese noodle soup), and I couldnt stop thinking about ramen and how gooooood it would be right now after a night of dancing and ridiculousness! We didnt have anything to eat, instead we all passed out at my apartment. Great night, but an unhealthy choice. Ah well!

Food purchases to date: 14, 169 yen