All Entries in the "Socially" Category
Heirloom Seeds - Ever Taste a Tomato Grown for Flavor Instead of Transport?
(This is a slightly modified re-post from April, 2008)
In between discussions of high blood pressure, and the upcoming dreaded first colonoscopy, those of us of the “I owned an 8-track once” generation, will sometimes sit around reminiscing about the good old days. One sunny spring afternoon recently, amidst the usual memories of the firsts- first communion, first part time job, first kiss…- one of my friends looked up at the sky, big puffy white clouds rolling by, and said “Remember the tomatoes?”
We sucked on our frozen margaritas and fell silent.
Ahhh, yes, the tomatoes of summer from the local farm stand, or if you were even luckier , your own family garden, where you would pick one off the vine, and later sit on your back steps with your father, a tomato in one hand and the salt shaker in the other, and take a bite out of what had to be positively the best tomato in the world- or so your father said.
Now, tomatoes just don’t taste like they used to. I couldn’t even grow a good tasting tomato last summer. I diligently fertilized and watered three plants. The tomatoes sure looked great. But they tasted like grocery store tomatoes in February- bred for longevity, transport and the flavor of cardboard.
I bought my seedlings at the local nursery. Not this year. I’ll be buying heirloom tomato plants through the mail. Bred to test like a tomato, not the package they come in.
The largest provider of tomato seeds- and all seeds -to the commercial agricultural farmers these days is Monsanto Agrochemical. The seeds are genetically engineered(GE) to meet commercial grower’s needs for a sturdy, pest and drought resistant tomato. Notice flavor is not a Monsanto criteria.
There’s something inherently unnatural about one of the largest toxic chemicals manufacturers in the world now also 
being the world’s major seed - and therefore food- supplier.
And Monsanto is so big, they have been systematically buying up their smaller competition, now totally controlling the seed market.
Luckily, there are alternatives. A growing number of traditionalists are starting organizations around the world such as
The Seed Saver’s Exchange. Their purpose is to protect heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables for future generations.
Thank goodness.
I wonder if some day Monsanto will decide to genetically engineer the flavor back into the tomato?
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Super Bowl XLIII Isn’t Just About the Game and Commercials.
Having the Superbowl at a stadium near you is worth the hassle these days.
In edition to bringing two weeks of financial prosperity to the local merchants, restaurants, and hotels, the NFL has gone out of its way to support local community efforts.
Says the Superbowl XLIII Host Committee website:
“The Host Committee is committed to creating a lasting impact on the region by partnering with the NFL on a variety of programs and events designed to enrich the lives of area youth and strengthen our community foundation.”
The programs run from:
- planting trees and buying renewable energy,to making
- donations to local food pantries. They’re also supporting a number of
- emerging minority businesses and
- youth programs around the city.
Events like the Super Bowl have a way of separating the super privileged Americans from the rest of us. After all, not too many middle class people are flying to Tampa this week.
Yet this Sunday night, most TVs across the country will tune in to at least part of the often mediocre game - if only for the half time festivities and commercials. After all, who wants to talk about the game come Monday - when you can talk about the Geiko cavemen?
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Fair Trade is Bizarro Frugal. Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That.
Let’s face it. Putting the words fair trade and frugal in the same sentence is like trying to mix oil and vinegar. In fact, frugal prices are often obtained at the expense of fair trade.
I’ll let the people at Global Exchange - an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic, and environmental justice around the world - explain further.
“What is Fair Trade?
Fair Trade means an equitable and fair partnership between global marketers and producers in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other parts of the world. A fair trade partnership works to provide low-income artisans and farmers with a living wage for their work.
Source: Fair Trade Federation
Fair Trade Criteria
- Paying a fair wage in the local context
- Offering employees opportunities for advancement
- Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices
- Being open to public accountability
- Building long-term trade relationships
- Providing healthy and safe working conditions within the local context
- Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible
- Ensuring that there is no abuse of child labor
Source: Fair Trade Federation
Why Fair Trade?
Our consumer spending choices affect people’s lives around the world. The products we enjoy are often made in conditions that harm workers, communities and the environment. But increasingly consumers are demanding more humane, more environmentally sensitive products.
In today’s world economy, where profits rule and small-scale producers are left out of the bargaining process, farmers, craft producers, and other workers are often left without resources or hope for their future. Fair Trade helps exploited producers escape from this cycle and gives them a way to maintain their traditional lifestyles with dignity.
What Fair Trade Products are Available?
Fair Trade encompasses a range of goods, from agricultural products from the global South like coffee, chocolate, tea, and bananas, to handcrafts like clothing, household items, and decorative arts.
How to Identify Fair Trade Products
Fair Trade products can be identified by the “Fair Trade Certified” label or the Fair Trade Federation logo on a product. The “Fair Trade Certified” system involves non-profit organizations in 17 different countries, all affiliated with Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International. In the USA, TransFair USA places the “Fair Trade Certified” label on coffee, cocoa, tea, bananas and other fruits. This label is product-specific, meaning that its presence on one product doesn’t mean that all of the companies products are Fair Trade. The Fair Trade Federation is an association of businesses that follow fair trade principles across the board, so its presence on a product DOES mean that a company supports the highest level of commitment to fair trade -100%.
Who Benefits from Fair Trade?
The Fair Trade system benefits over 800,000 farmers organized into cooperatives and unions in 48 countries. Fair Trade has helped farmers provide for their families’ basic needs and invest in community development. However, these farmers are still selling most of their crop outside of the Fair Trade system because not enough companies are buying at Fair Trade prices.”
You can shop at The Global Exchange Fair Trade On-Line Store - Your on-line store for socially conscious gifts. Or you can look for fair trade labelled products in your local supermarket.
Seinfeld: Scene From The Bizarro Episode
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54 Discounts on 54 Eco Friendly Gifts
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“Bloggers Unite” for Global Aids December 1st, 2008
If you’re a blogger, join other bloggers in writing a post about some aspect of one of the most difficult health challenges facing the world today: Aids. Post date is December 1st.
Bloggers Unite (BU) is a Blog Catalog group who’s aim is to raise awareness of Global Issues. About once a month they ask bloggers to post about a chosen topic on a chosen day.
Last November 10th, the subject was refugees.
This month, it’s on Global Aids. They’re asking us to post our articles on Global Aids Day, December 1st.
Just click the picture below to get started.
You can also joint the Bloggers Unite Blog Catalog group by going here.
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Bloggers Unite for Refugees Around the World
There were 8,400,00 refugees at the end of 2006.
Most sought asylum in a neighboring country because, due to natural disasters or war, it was unsafe or impossible to live in their own.
This link takes you to database that provides refugee history for over 100 countries.
Refugee camps obtain assistance from a variety of private and government agencies world wide. The goal initially is to provide basic needs in a safe environment, as most refugees most leave their belongings behind. Sometimes host countries provide a squalor environment in warehouse refugee camps. Malasia has been deemed on of the worst locations for refugees.
Once basic needs are met, refugees obtain assistance in:
- returning back to their own country, or
- relocating to a new country.
To return to their own country, financial assistance is often required for rebuilding homes and finding a job. For relocation, in addition to financial assistance, language skills and job skills may be taught.
Today bloggers are writing posts to bring awareness to a dire global situation. Please take a moment to read about refugees around the world, and if you can, donate a few dollars.
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Blog Action Day - Poverty. October 15th, 2008
Over 12,000 bloggers are writing about world poverty today. I hope you’ll read my story, then head over to the Blog Action Day website for links to other blogs. Free From Broke, and Prime Time Money, both personal finance blogs, have posted on poverty today as well.
My Post from March 15th, 2008:
As my regular readers already know, my Uncle Mike is very involved in assisting the poor children in impoverished Haiti. He has made friends with two other volunteers there, who have kept a blog of their experiences. It can be difficult reading, but it’s a first hand view of the difficulties this country’s people endure. We thought we’d share it with you.
This is from the introduction to Maria’s Blog, Live From Haiti:
“Maria and John Carroll spend several months a year living in Haiti. John works as doctor in this scandalously poor country. Maria writes about John’s hard work. Haiti is the kind of place that breaks your heart as it fills it up. The more people learn about this country, only 600 miles from the United States, with its lovely, suffering people, the better off we will be. And isn’t that what we all want, especially your mother?”
Does anyone out there have any similar experiences?
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Healthy Food on the Cheap
You can eat inexpensively and still eat well.
1, 2, and 3) Shop around, look for sales, and use coupons. No brainers.
4) Put aside a little prep time. Homemade tastes better, and is better for you. Make double batches and freeze for up to two months. I’ve gotten into the habit of making a double batch of different kinds of muffins, waffles or French toast on Sunday mornings. I freeze the left overs. The waffles and French toast taste great directly from freezer to toaster.
5) Buy less prepackaged foods.
- The longer the list of ingredients in a product, the less likely it is to be healthy for you.
- Frozen vegetables lose 50% of their nutritional value after six months
- Canned foods have lots of salt.
6) Don’t always buy the least expensive or the most expensive item. Read the label, and buy what makes sense for you.
7) If you have something you particularly like, indulge yourself a little. For example, I like really good Parmesan cheese from Italy.
Buy all your dairy organic ( or know the local source) when possible. The non- organic stuff is really bad for you.
9) Know what your cows and poultry are eating. Again, really important. Make sure their feed is hormone and pesticide free, that cows are eating grass. And it’s humane to think that they all can walk around during their lives. That’s called free range for cows, and cage free for poultry.
10) Do food exchanges or lunch exchanges with friends. Take turns making a lot and share. It will give each of you a break from cooking.
Healthy Inexpensive Foods
Fruits and Vegetables - can actually be a great deal, if you follow some simple rules.
- Buy local when possible. Even grow it yourself. Can’t get any more local than that.
- For fruits and vegetables only, don’t make your grocery list ahead of time. See what looks good for the money when you get there. Planning ahead can force you into buying something over priced or not healthy looking.
- Look for those grown in the USA, where farmers must comply with more stringent pesticide regulations than other countries.
- Buy the “Toxic Twelve” produce organic when possible: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, raspberries, spinach and strawberries. Otherwise, your wasting your money.
- If you find good cheap produce, buy a lot, cook it, and freeze it in meal size portions.
Yogurt. Buy a reduced fat version. I like 1% fat. Fat free tastes like wall paper paste to me.Cottage Cheese. A low-fat protein source many haven’t tried. Either you like it or you don’t. I grew up on it, and now eat it nearly every day. Buy organic, or at least buy the type without strange sounding additives.
Canned beans - Rinse away salt, if any.
Canned tomatoes - Don’t add any salt to the dish, or get no salt added. Beans and tomatoes are two items that actually taste pretty good out of the can.
Peanut Butter - Buy the good stuff. I know it’s a pain to mix, but those additives that keep it emulsified for you are really bad.
Rolled Oats - Get a BIG container. It lasts a long time. You can make oatmeal and all kinds of baked goods with it.
Pasta - get the healthy kind when it’s on sale.
Tofu - Don’t everybody groan at once. It’s not bad if you marinate it.
Anyone want to add anything to the list?
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Remember the Tomatoes? Heirloom Seeds
In between discussions of high blood pressure, and the upcoming dreaded first colonoscopy, those of us of the “I owned an 8-track once” generation, will sometimes sit around reminiscing about the good old days. One sunny spring afternoon recently, amidst the usual memories of the firsts- first communion, first part time job, first kiss…- one of my friends looked up at the sky, big puffy white clouds rolling by, and said “Remember the tomatoes?”
We sucked on our frozen margaritas and fell silent.
Ahhh, yes, the tomatoes of summer from the local farm stand, or if you were even luckier , your own family garden, where you would pick one off the vine, and later sit on your back steps with your father, a tomato in one hand and the salt shaker in the other, and take a bite out of what had to be positively the best tomato in the world- or so your father said.
Now, tomatoes just don’t taste like they used to. I couldn’t even grow a good tasting tomato last summer. I diligently fertilized and watered three plants. The tomatoes sure looked great. But they tasted like grocery store tomatoes in February- bred for longevity, transport and the flavor of cardboard.
I bought my seedlings at the local nursery. Not this year. I’ll be buying heirloom tomato plants through the mail. Bred to test like a tomato, not the package they come in.
The largest provider of tomato seeds- and all seeds -to the commercial agricultural farmers these days is Monsanto Agrochemical. The seeds are genetically engineered(GE) to meet commercial grower’s needs for a sturdy, pest and drought resistant tomato. Notice flavor is not a Monsanto criteria.
There’s something inherently unnatural about one of the largest toxic chemicals manufacturers in the world now also being the world’s major seed - and therefore food- supplier.
And Monsanto is so big, they have been systematically buying up their smaller competition, now totally controlling the seed market.
Luckily, there are alternatives. A growing number of traditionalists are starting organizations around the world such as The Seed Saver’s Exchange. Their purpose is to protect heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables for future generations.
Thank goodness.
I wonder if some day Monsanto will decide to genetically engineer the flavor back into the tomato?
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Is Fair Trade Coffee About Profit, Politics or People?
[[[After reading Trent's recent post, Saving Money Versus Saving the World, at The Simple Dollar, I thought it was worth revisiting Fair Trade. (See my post from last January on Fair Trade Organic Coffee.)]]]
At first it was part of a grassroots movement to change the world. But now it’s big business. Fair Trade Coffee is the latest buzz, a growing profit maker. Americans’ growing awareness of unfair labor practices abroad has spawned newfound compassion from the big guys, like Starbucks, and even MacDonald’s, compelling them to respond by offering increasing numbers of fair trade options. And the result: more fair trade coffee is being sold than ever before.
The question is, is it enough? Worldwide each year 7 million tons of coffee beans are grown, most of it hand picked. Why shouldn’t it all come from Fair Trade Farms? It should be the norm, not the exception.
But large companies are not motivated by doing the right thing, they’re motivated by stockholders. And many stockholders see profit as King of the Hill.
Now, here’s a chance for we consumers to have input. By rewarding companies for doing the right thing, we can help change the lives of farmers around the world. It’s one individual’s small, yet heroic, deed. 138 billion cups of coffee are consumed by Americans alone each year. If each of us - especially the coffee addicts like me- simply reach for the fair trade, Starbucks and the like, will listen.
I hope you’ll consider it.
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“Found Object Meals” and Other Eating Tips for the Frugal
My grocery bill’s up, in spite of coupon fever. Time to pull out all the stops. I still enjoy a night out once in a while, but when eating in, I’m watching my dollars more than ever. Here’s how I’m doing it-
Only eat organic when necessary. Eating organic is important, but costly. It is especially important for children. See this post on “When Eating Organic Pays Off and Doesn’t.”
Try planning a few meals a week without meat. Protein is essential to your diet. You need thirty-five to fifty-five grams per day. Protein is made up of 21 different amino acids. Meat, Poultry, Dairy, and seafood, are good sources of complete proteins because they contain all of these amino acids. Grains, beans, and rice contain some of these amino acids, and when eaten in the right combinations, make a complete protein. And grain, beans, and rice are much less expensive.
Some examples, with a little dairy thrown in:
You just need to eat these over the course of the day, not in the same meal. And eating less meat and low fat dairy products lowers your cholesterol and blood pressure.Buy what’s on sale. Plan your menu around the weekly grocery adds. Stock up. Spending more now is spending less in the long run.
Buy in bulk. Products generally cost less the larger the package size.
Use what’s on your shelf. We have “found object night” once a week, usually the day before I go grocery shopping. We’ve come up with some imaginative food combinations. OK, sometimes they weren’t so tasty, but, with an inexpensive bottle of wine, who cares?
Cook extra, and freeze it for later meals or for packed lunches. No brainer here.
Eat less processed foods. Processed foods are more expensive, have higher salt levels and lower nutritional value. And, they don’t taste very good!
Find International recipes. Other cultures have developed cuisines around locally abundant foods. Try expanding your repertoire with Mexican bean enchiladas, Mediteranean falafel in pita, or vegetable lasagna.
Make a game out of eating healthy for less. Have some fun with it. Don’t just eat for less. Anyone can do that. But can you eat healthy for less?
Watch for future posts with healthy frugal recipes. Does any one have any tips or recipes they’d like to tell us about?
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Misleading Food Labels
I am on the “deceitful marketing” rampage since my last post on credit cards. I may as well keep going, and get it out of my system.
This one is on food labeling. We’ll start with some definitions. Then I’ll site a few particularly irritating examples.
100% Organic- Means just that. You can’t mess around with 100%. Also, all manufacturing must meet government standards, and be inspected by an independent accredited organization. Look for the Certified Organic” label.
Organic- Up to 5% of products labeled organic can be non-organic or synthetic.
Noteworthy exception: Seafood labeled organic can be anything, as there are currently no means of inspection to back up the claims.
Made with Organic Ingredients- 70% must be organic.
So far so good. But now we get into the latest creative marketing buzzwords.
Meaningless Labels
“Free Range” or “Free Roaming”- can’t you just imagine a huge chicken coop with frolicking happy chickens? Or cattle lazing out in a sunny open field, where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play?
Here’s what is actually guaranteed when you pay your extra two dollars for those eggs with the cool “free range” stamp: “outdoor access must be made available for an undetermined amount of time each day.”
So, if the door is open to the chicken house for 5 minutes, you pass the legal definition.
Look for a label that says “Certified Humane” on your animal based products. To gain this certification, companies are regularly inspected by an outside independent group.
“Natural” or “All Natural”- an unverified claim that only has any meaning at all if seen on meats and poultry. The USDA’s definition goes like this: “shall contain no artificial preservatives, flavorings, colorings, or synthetic ingredients.” Doesn’t it make you wonder what the meats not having this label contain? Or what is actually in all those other “natural” labeled products?
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) regularly sites examples of misleading food labels. Here are just a few:
Quaker 100% Natural Cereal- One half cup of those tasty oat clusters has more fat than a McDonald’s hamburger.
Betty Crocker Carrot Cake Mix- shows a cake with real carrot pieces on the box, but actually only contains carrot powder.
Quaker Oats Pasta Roni with Broccoli- doesn’t have much broccoli in it.
Gerber Graduates for Toddlers Fruit Snacks- the leading ingredients are corn syrup and sugar.
California “Raw” Almonds- are processed with propylene oxide and “fumigants” before shipping, yet are still labeled raw. Propylene oxide has been classified as a probable human carcinogen.
I could go on and on.
Bottom Line: User Beware of misleading food labels. An embarrassing example of American Culture.
Anyone out there have any stories about mislabeled products they’ve found?
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The 100 Mile Diet
March in Massachusetts is not the time to be thinking about eating locally grown food. Nothing has grown here for six months. My spring crocuses are just starting to surface. Without preparation, I’d be living on meats, dairy, and maple syrup. Nevertheless, I thought I would explore these “Four Easy Steps to the 100 Mile Diet.” After all, according to this website, people in Canada are eating local. I mean, next stop, North Pole. The site is written by the authors of two separate books - one describes the adventures of an American couple, the other a Canadian couple, as they determinedly foraged their way through one year of local eating (within 100 miles.)
So, inspired by their bravado, still savoring the half pint of imported organic blueberries I’d recently treated myself to, I began my investigation.
It turns out the four steps are rather simple:
1) Join their group. I decided to skip this step. I’m a free spirit.
2) Getting Started. This step is a bit harder, as it is eight little steps in one. To summarize: Start slowly, find locally grown food, and eat it. It can be grown by you, or someone else. It can be preserved, dried or frozen.
This has actually been an ongoing process for me. I’ve joined a CSA this summer, and already buy locally farmed meats and poultry. I dried parsley from my garden last year, and canned apple sauce from apples I’d picked at a local orchard.
3) Find Your 100 Miles: The 100 Mile website has a 100 mile radius finder. Enter your Canadian or American zip code, and see your very own 100 mile radius. Here is what mine looks like:
Notice it goes no further south than Rhode Island. Not a lot grows in Rhode Island in the winter. Not a vegetable or fruit in sight. But I can add locally harvested fish. There are also products that store well that I can get, like Maine potatoes and local apples.
Perhaps I should do the Atkins Diet in the winter.
4) Spread the Word. Easy. That’s what you’re reading.
So, I feel like I’m at least partially indoctrinated, have become a quasi “locavore“. Perhaps some day I’ll even live up to my version of the Pareto Principle: If I can do something 80% of the time, I’m happy. That means I can take 73 days off a year, and still meet my goal. That will not quite get me through the winter, but it’s close.
More and more people are turning to locally grown, unprocessed foods. If it’s organic, all the better. Local chapters of international groups such as Slow Food and Community Supported Agricultural Farms(CSAs) continue to expand. Small farms are recharged. Not only is it healthier, it helps the environment. Food products travel an average of fifteen hundred miles from farm to table. That broccoli you had for dinner might be from California, and the meat from Nebraska. That’s a lot of fuel to use for one meal. Packaging foods for travel, and processing foods, adds to environmental costs.
It’s nice to see us all becoming more concerned about our health, our world, and our children’s future. If we could all strive to do it 80% 0f the time, well, not to get preachy but…. that would be a good thing.
Has anyone else out there experimented with eating locally? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
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The Price of Eating Organic- and Coupons!
I realized about thirty years ago that, if I wanted to be healthier, I would have to incorporate more organic foods into my diet. Even back in the late 1970’s, when I was just entering college, scientific studies were available showing the dangers of many common foods. Fruits and vegetables were covered with carcinogenic pesticides. Meats and dairy products were filled with carcinogenic hormones and immune suppressing antibiotics.
So, it was time to say good-bye Purdue, hello Bell and Evans.
The world was a lot different thirty years ago. Only “hippies” ate organic foods. My father thought the whole organic concept was some sort of communist plot. About once a month, I would drive into Boston, MA. from my small suburban town, and stock up on organic dairy, dry goods and antibiotic/hormone free meats. Because availability was scarce, prices were exorbitant.
Fast forward to 2008. At forty-nine, I still try to eat healthy. How has fulfilling this goal changed? The good news is, now I can find organic, antibiotic free, and hormone free foods at almost any grocery store. No more driving to the Big City. What’s the bad news? The price is still higher. Cha-Ching.
Being the ever vigil frugal freak, I’m always looking for ways to reduce that organic pain in my budget. Here’s some examples:
1) I only buy organic products that are necessary. For example, organic bananas and oranges provide no added health benefits. However, any dairy, meats or certain fruits and vegetables like blueberries, spinach and lettuce, are certainly worth the extra organic cha-ching. If you’d like more information, read “When Eating Organic Pays Off and Doesn’t.”
2) I’ve joined a local organic CSA Farm. The cost is only $22 week for vegetables over the 5 month period.
3) Organic product coupons are hard to come by in the weekly ads. I have found several good websites offering printable coupons. Here’s some links:
Dairy:
Stonyfield Farm.
Organic Valley
Brown Cow
Cereals/Soups
Health Valley
General sites offering organic coupons
Organic Coupons
Living Naturally
Eating Well
4) I’ve made a commitment to eating to live to 100. Here’s a free life-expectancy calculator. See how you do.
I’m curious to know how others feel about this. Anyone care to comment?
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No Bargains Here: Clone Burgers with GM fries
One thing is for sure: we are not eating the same food our grandparents ate. Science continues to invade our pabulum, and it is here to stay.
The most recent contribution: On January 16th the FDA approved meat and milk use from most cloned animals. No labeling is required, since they have deemed the clones to be identical to non-cloned animals.
Hmmm. Is this science or science fiction?I thought back to another scientific contribution to our food chain. Remember DDT? In 1948, a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of its use as a pesticide. Farmers around the world applied it indiscriminately to increase food yields. Then, in 1962, the biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. This ground-breaking book outlined DDT’s potential carcinogenic effects on humans, and it’s negative impact on the environment. Finally, in 1972 the US banned it’s use. Today, in spite of numerous research publications defining DDT’s health and environmental hazards, it is still being used in some parts of the world.
I think I’ll pass on those imported blueberries, thank you.
Will cloned animals follow in the footsteps of DDT?
And how about the recent introduction of genetically modified plant foods into our diets? Again, no labeling required. What will the long term effects of these GM Foods be? Currently in the US, 89 percent of all soybeans, 83 percent of cotton, and 61 percent of corn are genetically modified varieties.
I would rather see the FDA take the same route as parts of Europe. Even under extreme world pressure due to trade agreements, many European regions have chosen to say no to GMOs.
When it comes to playing with DNA in our food chain, it should be “guilty until proven innocent” instead of “innocent until proven guilty.” Acting hastily in the approval of genetically modified food products is no way to sustain a planet.
Food for thought.
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