MY CHILDHOOD FARMING EXPERIENCE

My 2 1/2 year old son juicing a big bag of carrots for breakfast,

with mummy supervising, of course.

How adorable is this!

When I was a young kid, my cousins, brothers and I would go on long walks along the narrow dirt roads leading to small Seremban farms that rear chickens, pigs, ducks and so on. There were a few vegetable farms as well. We, kids, would casually walk right through the farms. We never even thought trespassing was illegal, and nobody at those farms said anything, and even allowed us to look at the ducks and the fish swimming in the small ponds.

Here's a little trivia people may not have known. Back in those days when the pig farms were thriving, pig farmers where I lived used to boast that Malaysia, not Thailand, not Singapore, was the biggest exporter of pork products to Southeast Asia. This was an amazing feat considering more than half the Malaysian population were of Muslim faith. It goes to show how tolerant a society we are, being multiracial and all. It's important to note that the pork industry brought in millions of dollars in revenue to our country, and create thousands of jobs for people as well.



Those days are gone now. Those that had pigs, I was told by my aunt, had closed down now, after people started dying one by one from the horrific Nipah virus from the nearby farms.


At that time, nobody knew what these victims were dying of. Everyone was afraid. My paternal grandma, bless her heart, started to grow more vegetables in her garden, for the family. She had an amazing green thumb and everywhere you looked, there were beautiful green vegetables in pots, on the ground. It was marvelous. Everyone was more careful about what they ate. Grandma or Ah Mah lived to be 92.



Many pig farms are now placed in designated areas, with hopefully, better rearing equipments. There are also one or two Muslim politicians kicking up a huge fuss as they don't want pig farms. I know some readers here are not from Malaysia, so I need to explain that pork is not halal or not kosher, if you may, to the Muslim community.

Pig farms bad for Muslim communities. Mad cows disease. Fish with high mercury content as a result of polluted waters. The solution? Eat more fruits and vegetables. Organic if you can afford it. This transcend all race, all religion.


Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/


ps there is a good article about the Nipah virus problem. Please read at http://www.mysinchew.com/node/14068?tid=52