Your Questions About Green Living

Thomas asks…

Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children – Cauldron and Food problems?

I’m currently at level 2 Farming, Engineering, Science, and Exploration (in that order). I aimed at getting access to the coconuts and (more importantly) the farm as soon as possible since the farm eventually takes longer and longer to regrow. However despite my best efforts, I’m running out of food again, and achieving 90,000 tech points for sustainable food source is still too far off. I’m starting to get the feeling that this game is more of a race to get to level 3 farming, and then you can worry about the other stuff.

My current population is 12, and my children are all 3-4 years apart. Could part of my problem be too many children?

Also I’m wondering if anyone has a list of Cauldron Recipes. I’ve been making one, but theres over 50 different combinations you can make, so its rather time consuming. One combination makes my villagers exercise (Building +), plus you need that special combination to breath underwater, so i was wondering if theres any other unique recipes. Thanks!
Oh, heres my recipe list thus far:

Cauldron Recipes

Herb plants listed clockwise 1-6:
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| 4|
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| 5 |
| 6 |
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*Special Stew* 664

Spicy Stew: 234, 123, 112

Burst of Energy: 555
-Makes villagers exercise (construction +)

Sweet Smell: 666

Plain stew: 111, 333

Jumpy! 222

Foul Stew: 444
-Burns, (Health -)

Nasty, Inedible: 134
Yea, appears my lil map got messed up a bit. I think this should give a better idea:

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1: Strange Lilly
2: Rare Rose (blue)
3: Strange Plant (purple)
4: Strange Plant (row of dark purple)
5: Strange Plant (red, 2 flowers)
6: Strange Herb (orange)

Which means that special construction thing should be the Red Strange Plant on the lower right edge x3

I wonder if my “speeding time” is messing with my farm, anyone know of any adverse effects from adjusting yur computers clock?

Oh, ad2006miral, the wonders of bit torrent: www.mininova.org
damnit, messed up again! Yahoo answers are drivin me nuts ><
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Oh, i'm curious about where you're population should be when you're able to get food lvl 3
i give up T_T

The Expert answers:

I found that it is best to let them fish until the algea appears. And then get tech leavel 2 on farming. That way they max out the fish. One person farming is enough.

Also, as much as I hate it, speeding the clock up is a mistake. It does take the farm longer to grow back.

Ken asks…

Why is beef an inefficient food from the perspective of energy consumption and potentially heath threatening d?

1.In order to maximize financial goals of beef production, cattle are fed rendered fat which is thought to have been a source of “mad cow disease.”
2.All meat consumption is wrong and not able to be maintained in sustainable methods.
3.Cows are large creatures and require lots of food, which in turn requires fossil fuels & energy to produce.
4.Antibiotics must be given to the cows preventatively and enter the diet stream of the public who consume the beef products.
5.Feedlots that increase production aid the spread of diseases among cattle which is then ingested by the consumer.

The Expert answers:

It sounds like you’ve already answered your own question, for the most part.

Here’s what John Robbins, author of “Diet for a New America,” says:
http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/articles/art_didyouknowabtmeat.html

– Primary cause of greenhouse effect: carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels
– Fossil fuels needed to produce a meat-centered diet vs. A meat-free diet: 50 times more
– Percentage of U.S. Topsoil lost to date: 75
– Percentage of U.S. Topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85
– Number of acres of U.S. Forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 mllion
– Amount of meat U.S. Imports annually from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
and Panama: 200,000,000 pounds
– Average per capita meat consumption in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
and Panama: less than eaten by average U.S. House cat
– Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pound hamburger: 55 sq. Ft
– Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1000 per year

– User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the U.S.: livestock production
– Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
– Gallons to produce a pound of wheat: 25
– Gallons to produce a pound of meat: 2,500
– Cost of common hamburger if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by the – U.S. Taxpayer: $35 a pound
– Current cost of a pound of protein from beefsteak, if water was no longer subsidized: $89.
– Years the world’s known oil reserves would last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13
– Years they would last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260
– Barrels of oil imported into U.S. Daily: 6.8 million
– Percentage of fossil fuel energy returned as food energy by the most efficient factory farming of meat: 34.5 percent.
– Percentage returned from least efficient plant food: 328 percent
– Percentage of raw materials consumed by U.S. To produce present meat-centered diet: 33

– Percentage of U.S. Antibiotics fed to livestock: 55
– Percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin in 1960: 13
– Percentage resistant in 1988: 91
– Response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock: ban
– Response of U.S. Meat and pharmaceutical industries to routine feeding of antibiotics to – livestock: full and complete support

James asks…

How do we make the transition from dry to wet cat food? Brand suggestions?

I’m ashamed to admit but in the last few months (due to a combination of human illness, time, and budget constraints) we’ve been feeding our sweet feline friends only dry food (Science Diet). I know this is terrible so you don’t have to remind me of that. All the press on the cat food recall has now got me thinking again about their nutritional needs. So, we are planning to return to an exclusively wet food diet (we’ve tried raw, which I know is best, but they won’t go for it and honestly, as a 2 x full-time student household with an infant, it’s not sustainable.) So, I have a two-part question for introducing a fully wet diet: 1) How should we transition from dry kibbles to canned foods? 2) What brands are best? I’m trying to strike a balance between quality and cost. Here is a list of recommended wet foods: http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/tp/tpcannedadult.htm Anyone have any thoughts on these brands? Thanks.
P.S. Previously we feed them PetGaurd branned canned food.
Wow. Um, dry cat food is really bad for cats … I’d prefer to get some answers from people with vet training and/or who have done research into feline nutritional needs. Thanks.
By the way, the recall problem was with wheat-gluten. This is a primary ingredient in dry foods. All of the cat food brands on the link above do not include wheat gluten.
Yeah, uh, by the way. Cat dental problems are usually the result of insufficient protein of which dry foods are sorely deficient. If you are serious about their dental health, you need to brush your cats’ teeth.
I never thought that I’d be the one doing the educating on this question. I’d encourage you all to visit: http://www.catinfo.org/
So, if anyone is else is actually interested in getting the answer to this question. Here is an essay about the very issue. How to make the transition from dry to wet food and why:

Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition


I made the choice to feed our cats wet food based on scientific research on the evolution of feline diets and vet essays. If anyone has any scientific/medical vet essays that argue that a dry food diet is better, I’d be really eager to see them (after all, I do want the best thing for the cats). Please post the sources. I have access to medical journals and if given the complete citations, can easily find them. Thanks!
A few people have asked, what’s wrong with dry food. If you are really interested, there are some good books out there about it. But, we are all pretty busy (as for me I’ve got to get to campus to teach) so here’s some quick info. Basically, the the three key negative issues associated with dry food are: 1) type of protein – too high in plant-based versus animal-based proteins; 2) carbohydrate load is too high; 3) water content is too low. Cats are carnivores (not omnivores like us) they are evolved to eat no more than 3-5% carbs in their diets (usually fresh grass to clean their digestive tract from time-to-time. (Sure they can tolerate more – just like you can eat only Wonder bread and vitamins.) Diseases linked to insufficient animal protein in cat diet include: diabetes, kidney failure, bladder problems, IBD, obesity, fatty liver disease, and dental disease.
To Batgirl: thanks for the link. I actually visited the site and it confirmed everything else I’ve read. I’m not sure how familiar you are with that site but it is about some cats who died from Chronic Renal Failure (CRF). That site links to another site on CRF which states that diet (in particular low protein diet) is linked to CRF. It looks like this information is posted to show people why dry food is insufficient and actually contributes to disease. They state: “In the past, it was believed that a low protein diet was essential in controlling CRF. The idea behind this is to cut down on the kidneys’ load. However, studies done on dogs in renal failure, show that a low protein diet did not help the GFR or BUN of said dogs. Since cats have an even higher protein requirement than dogs, it seems unlikely that they could thrive on low protein diets.” They recommend feeding your cat organic meat to prevent/help resolve CRF. (Source: http://www.holisticat.com/crf.html#feed)
You know why your cat prefers dry food to wet foods and raw meats? It’s because it’s sprayed with animal digestive enzymes. Think kitty potato chips!

The Expert answers:

Good for you! It’s good to see more and more people doing right foodwise for their cats.

I personally feed Natural Balance, but I have tried most of those from this list – all were rejected by Miss Thang here, but they are good brands for sure!

As for the transition, it took me about 2 weeks. I started out looking for the ones on this list, but I also tried some others that met the ingredient requirements. I continued to offer dry food although I might have cut it back just a little. I offered the canned and if Poppy (Miss Picky) went for anything, I noted it down as to brand and type of meat.

She turned up her nose at just about everything! It was very frustrating, but I just kept at it. Again, I still offered her regular food, but it had been cut down by about a 1/4 or 1/3.

I eventually stumbled across the ONE type that she would eat, so I just kept presenting that, and gradually phased out the dry food. My other cat ate anything I put down, so she wasn’t a problem.

Most of those from your list are on mine as well. I wouldn’t have any compunctions about feeding any of them, although one was rather heavy on the veggies!

I’d have loved to feed Wysong’s Au Jus varieties, but again, only Sophie would eat them. They would require supplementation, of course, since they’re just meat and organs. But they very handily make one – Call of the Wild.

Mary asks…

Is there a perfect location on earth to place a utopia so it can be self sustainable?

I’m doing a project for my 8th grade social studies class on creating a perfect utopia.
Our “political” system would require us to be left alone with no debt to other countries so I need it to be self sustainable. Like is there a current country in the world or spot where a city could get the basic necessary living conditions just from the land. Like lakes or wind for energy and food. Good temperature for a descent harvest to sustain about 5,000 people?

The Expert answers:

An island in the Pacific Ocean, like Hawaii. The people called Polynesians traveled in crude boats from Asia to Pacific Islands as far back as 3000 years ago and lived in self sustained societies on some of them. They had simple resource demands, but if they could do it I’m sure we could in the modern age. An island usually has mountains that get lots of rainfall for water, land for crops, and plenty of ocean wind to power wind turbines. As long as the utopia was provided with enough raw materials at the start it could definitely sustain itself. 5,000 is not that many people. The food and resource demands for them would be perfect on an island. Saint Helena is an example of an island settlement that really exists in the Atlantic Ocean and is almost self sustaining.

Susan asks…

Is a global food supply (especially involving China) safe and sustainable?

The Expert answers:

I have always found it strange that a country that has a hard time feeding its own people sells food to us.

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