0:00:00.000,0:00:02.210 Por que como esquilos? 0:00:02.210,0:00:04.827 Ironicamente, eles vinham comer 0:00:04.827,0:00:06.970 as proteínas vegetais 0:00:06.970,0:00:09.670 que eu plantava no meu jardim: 0:00:09.205,0:00:10.960 girassóis e amendoins. 0:00:10.960,0:00:13.253 Na permacultura, existe o ditado: 0:00:13.253,0:00:16.274 faça do problema a solução. 0:00:16.274,0:00:19.460 Como os esquilos eram o problema, 0:00:19.460,0:00:21.268 a solução foi jantá-los! 0:00:33.020,0:00:34.835 Quero explicar direitinho. 0:00:34.835,0:00:37.190 Como tudo aconteceu? 0:00:37.190,0:00:39.355 Como passei a comer os esquilos 0:00:39.355,0:00:41.470 que estavam comendo meu jardim? 0:00:41.470,0:00:44.302 Recentemente, iniciei a missão 0:00:44.302,0:00:48.153 de cultivar 100% do meu alimento 0:00:48.153,0:00:50.434 por um ano, sem comprar em mercados 0:00:50.434,0:00:52.518 lojas ou restaurantes, sem embalagens 0:00:52.518,0:00:54.164 sem processados, sem produtos 0:00:54.164,0:00:56.841 transportados, literalmente tudo 0:00:56.841,0:00:58.970 que eu ia comer em um ano 0:00:58.970,0:01:01.783 ou brotava no meu jardim ou eu colhia 0:01:01.783,0:01:05.237 na natureza. Comecei o jardim 0:01:05.237,0:01:07.864 e os esquilos começaram a vir. 0:01:07.864,0:01:11.970 Tive de produzir minha farinha, minhas calorias, 0:01:11.970,0:01:16.515 meu açúcar, proteínas, legumes, frutas. 0:01:16.515,0:01:19.530 Literalmente tudo, até meu óleo. 0:01:19.530,0:01:23.574 E eu planejava cultivar também 0:01:23.574,0:01:25.642 algumas proteínas vegetais. 0:01:25.642,0:01:27.751 Colhi com êxito feijões 0:01:27.751,0:01:31.662 e ervilhas, mas tive esse problema 0:01:31.662,0:01:33.889 com girassol e amendoim. 0:01:33.889,0:01:37.708 O problema foi que os esquilos 0:01:37.708,0:01:39.906 vinham comê-los. Ironicamente, 0:01:39.906,0:01:42.197 comiam minha proteína vegetal. 0:01:42.197,0:01:45.159 Na permacultura, a questão é: 0:01:45.159,0:01:47.355 como transformar 0:01:47.355,0:01:49.034 o problema numa solução? 0:01:49.034,0:01:51.408 Se os esquilos eram um problema, 0:01:51.408,0:01:54.846 como eu solucionei o problema? 0:01:54.846,0:01:58.383 Foi aí que decidi comer esquilos. 0:01:58.383,0:02:01.205 squirrels. A lot of people in this scenario 0:02:01.205,0:02:03.853 would just kill the 'pests' who are a 0:02:03.853,0:02:07.004 problem in their garden. But I am not 0:02:07.004,0:02:10.439 someone who just wastes resources or who 0:02:10.439,0:02:13.370 looks at life as a pest in itself. 0:02:13.370,0:02:16.037 Yes, these squirrels were posing a problem 0:02:16.037,0:02:19.227 for me but I still had great respect for 0:02:19.227,0:02:21.687 the squirrels for the creatures that they 0:02:21.687,0:02:24.522 are. So I wasn't going to just kill them 0:02:24.522,0:02:27.364 in order for my garden to be able to 0:02:27.364,0:02:28.850 produce peanuts and sunflowers. 0:02:28.850,0:02:31.717 For me, this was actually about finding 0:02:31.717,0:02:34.682 a valuable resource that there was and 0:02:34.682,0:02:38.405 using that resource wisely. Now squirrels 0:02:38.405,0:02:40.982 are actually a sustainable source of meat. 0:02:40.982,0:02:44.582 There was a huge abundance of squirrels 0:02:44.582,0:02:47.183 in the environment that I was in which 0:02:47.183,0:02:50.298 was the city of Orlando, Florida. And so by 0:02:50.298,0:02:52.599 harvesting these squirrels it wasn't that 0:02:52.599,0:02:55.946 I was taking from a resource that was not 0:02:55.946,0:02:59.148 renewable and there wasn't already an abundance 0:02:59.148,0:03:02.281 of it there. If that was the case It is not 0:03:02.281,0:03:04.241 something that I would have done. 0:03:04.241,0:03:07.933 So this is a form of organic gardening. 0:03:07.933,0:03:09.857 Some people would choose to use 0:03:09.857,0:03:12.372 pesticides to kill things. So this was a 0:03:12.372,0:03:15.308 sustainable local source of food right in 0:03:15.308,0:03:18.387 my garden and the reality is that even 0:03:18.387,0:03:20.589 before they were eating my peanuts and 0:03:20.589,0:03:23.788 sunflowers I was already thinking about 0:03:23.788,0:03:26.900 catching these squirrels and eating them. 0:03:26.900,0:03:29.407 So it is not that I was forced to do this 0:03:29.407,0:03:32.898 or that I had to, but it really motivated 0:03:32.898,0:03:35.671 me to finally do it. So really the reason 0:03:35.671,0:03:37.057 I was eating the squirrels is because 0:03:37.057,0:03:40.155 they are a local source of protein. A 0:03:40.155,0:03:43.090 local quality source of food. But at the 0:03:43.090,0:03:45.689 same time I was able to deal with a problem 0:03:45.689,0:03:47.821 that I had in my garden and actually turn 0:03:47.821,0:03:50.159 it into a solution, into a positive thing. 0:03:50.159,0:03:54.086 Alright so, here is the situation, I am 0:03:54.086,0:03:57.188 in no doubt, under the crossfire for this. 0:03:57.188,0:03:59.156 A lot of people will look at this, whether 0:03:59.156,0:04:01.203 they are vegans and they are against 0:04:01.203,0:04:04.341 eating animals altogether, or people who 0:04:04.341,0:04:05.759 just like squirrels. They think they are 0:04:05.759,0:04:08.921 really really cuddly and cute and think that I 0:04:08.921,0:04:10.822 shouldn't eat this while they are eating 0:04:10.822,0:04:14.602 cows and pigs and chickens, for example. 0:04:14.602,0:04:17.438 I am in the direct crossfire here because 0:04:17.438,0:04:20.233 I am sharing that I am trapping and eating 0:04:20.233,0:04:25.173 the squirrels. But the reality is that I have 0:04:25.173,0:04:28.056 put myself out there but the truth is 0:04:28.056,0:04:31.256 that every single one of you watching this, 0:04:31.256,0:04:34.273 while animals are dying on your behalf, 0:04:34.273,0:04:36.943 whether you are vegan or you eat meat, 0:04:36.943,0:04:41.021 the death is happening. I will do another 0:04:41.021,0:04:42.942 video where I go into that a little bit 0:04:42.942,0:04:45.115 further but if you are eating vegan and 0:04:45.115,0:04:47.478 the food is coming from farms, animals are 0:04:47.478,0:04:51.607 dying. Whether it is mice and rats, or 0:04:51.607,0:04:55.225 birds or just the place being created 0:04:55.225,0:04:57.741 where animals are being kept out, 0:04:57.741,0:04:59.565 where an environment is being created 0:04:59.565,0:05:02.021 that doesn't want animals to be there. 0:05:02.021,0:05:05.257 The truth is what I am saying is that death 0:05:05.257,0:05:08.055 is happening for every single one of our 0:05:08.055,0:05:11.191 meals whether they have animals on the 0:05:11.191,0:05:13.570 plate or not. I am happy to be under the 0:05:13.570,0:05:15.873 crossfire but I know that I will get a 0:05:15.873,0:05:18.288 lot of comments for it and this is about 0:05:18.288,0:05:21.171 going into the truth of the food. 0:05:21.171,0:05:23.954 And that was a big purpose of my year of 0:05:23.954,0:05:25.522 growing and foraging all my food to 0:05:25.522,0:05:27.837 really go into the depths and go into 0:05:27.837,0:05:30.737 the food and look into those grey areas. 0:05:30.737,0:05:32.321 And the more that I've looked into the 0:05:32.321,0:05:34.287 grey areas the more I realise that no 0:05:34.287,0:05:37.686 labels, whether it is vegan or gluten-free 0:05:37.686,0:05:41.624 or organic. No label is actually one 0:05:41.624,0:05:45.404 that is cruelty-free and that is not 0:05:45.404,0:05:47.855 causing destruction to people, to the 0:05:47.855,0:05:50.561 planet and to other species. 0:05:50.561,0:05:54.538 I ate the squirrels. It is obvious to see it. 0:05:54.538,0:05:56.754 But we are all killing the squirrels 0:05:56.754,0:05:59.373 or something like it in one way or another 0:05:59.373,0:06:01.246 through our modernised lives. 0:06:01.246,0:06:03.522 What I didn't eat, such as the fur and 0:06:03.522,0:06:05.961 the skin went right back to the land and 0:06:05.961,0:06:09.154 actually fertilized my garden. So it was 0:06:09.154,0:06:12.703 a closed-loop system. In fact, even the 0:06:12.703,0:06:15.173 bait that I used to trap them was sweet 0:06:15.173,0:06:19.163 potatoes from my garden using a metal trap. 0:06:19.163,0:06:22.188 So zero waste whatsoever and a completely 0:06:22.188,0:06:25.804 closed-loop system. So we are talking about 0:06:25.804,0:06:28.739 sustainability here. Squirrels are also 0:06:28.739,0:06:31.604 rodents. They reproduce a lot. So it is a 0:06:31.604,0:06:35.007 sustainable source of food. Now a big thing 0:06:35.007,0:06:39.570 that people would ask or say is, 0:06:39.570,0:06:42.204 'Would it be sustainable if everybody did 0:06:42.204,0:06:45.187 it?' or not a question, just saying if 0:06:45.187,0:06:47.505 everybody did this, would all the squirrels 0:06:47.505,0:06:51.960 be dead? Yes. So sustainability 0:06:51.960,0:06:53.922 is about critical thinking and problem 0:06:53.922,0:06:57.303 solving. If everybody in Orlando is eating 0:06:57.303,0:06:59.339 the squirrels then I wouldn't have been 0:06:59.339,0:07:01.376 in that scenario in the first place. 0:07:01.376,0:07:03.512 And if my neighborhood all wanted to 0:07:03.512,0:07:05.670 eat squirrels I would think about this 0:07:05.670,0:07:08.454 situation differently. True sustainability 0:07:08.454,0:07:12.322 is not about any direct set of rules. It is 0:07:12.322,0:07:14.389 really about looking at individual 0:07:14.389,0:07:17.091 circumstances and deciding what the 0:07:17.091,0:07:19.657 sustainable thing to do in that scenario is. 0:07:19.657,0:07:22.037 So that requires critical thinking, it 0:07:22.037,0:07:24.693 requires problem solving, it requires 0:07:24.693,0:07:27.214 not thinking in a black and white way. 0:07:27.214,0:07:31.254 It really requires localized thinking and 0:07:31.254,0:07:34.154 understanding our resources. 0:07:34.154,0:07:35.858 Alright if you have got this far you 0:07:35.858,0:07:38.394 might be wondering what does squirrel 0:07:38.394,0:07:42.004 taste like? And recently I did a video 0:07:42.004,0:07:43.939 for BuzzFeed that has been viewed over 0:07:43.939,0:07:46.562 three million times and the answer I 0:07:46.562,0:07:50.165 give is just squirrel tastes like squirrel. 0:07:50.165,0:07:52.039 And that is actually how I feel. 0:07:52.039,0:07:53.922 But I am going to go into it a little 0:07:53.922,0:07:55.770 bit more for you. It basically tastes not 0:07:55.770,0:08:00.091 that different from rabbit or any wild bird 0:08:00.091,0:08:04.907 or wild small game or chicken. You know 0:08:04.907,0:08:08.971 to me, most meats don't taste that different 0:08:08.971,0:08:11.308 from each other. But it would basically 0:08:11.308,0:08:12.673 taste like a combination of that. 0:08:12.673,0:08:13.988 How did I cook it? 0:08:13.988,0:08:15.921 Generally, I would just put it into stews. 0:08:15.921,0:08:20.520 A vegetable stew with potatoes and cabbage 0:08:20.520,0:08:22.367 and different greens and carrots and 0:08:22.367,0:08:24.605 things like that. And just make a stew 0:08:24.605,0:08:28.931 that added a lot of flavor and a lot of[br]consistency 0:08:28.931,0:08:32.587 to that stew. Squirrels aren't very large 0:08:32.587,0:08:35.071 but they can really go a long way in 0:08:35.071,0:08:36.339 adding to a meal. 0:08:36.339,0:08:38.538 I want to close by saying that this 0:08:38.538,0:08:41.687 really isn't about the squirrel at all. 0:08:41.687,0:08:43.703 This is about a bigger picture. Honestly, 0:08:43.703,0:08:45.573 I wouldn't do a video that is really just 0:08:45.573,0:08:47.874 about why I ate the squirrels if there 0:08:47.874,0:08:50.187 wasn't a much bigger thing behind it. 0:08:50.187,0:08:53.318 I went into that, but really the take home 0:08:53.318,0:08:55.770 lesson is that the world is not a black 0:08:55.770,0:08:59.607 and white place. When you actually unlift 0:08:59.607,0:09:02.171 the veil behind the food you are buying 0:09:02.171,0:09:04.137 at the supermarket you realize it is far 0:09:04.137,0:09:06.089 more complex and far more intricate than 0:09:06.089,0:09:09.454 that. When you look deeper at life you 0:09:09.454,0:09:12.454 realize that all of our actions are far more 0:09:12.454,0:09:16.094 complex and deep than we think or would 0:09:16.094,0:09:19.239 like to think. Labels are a false sense of 0:09:19.239,0:09:21.671 security. When you really look there are 0:09:21.671,0:09:24.071 pros and there are cons to everything. 0:09:24.071,0:09:26.721 So that is where I want to go. I want to 0:09:26.721,0:09:28.905 go into the grey areas that really create 0:09:28.905,0:09:31.437 critical thinking and that is the purpose 0:09:31.437,0:09:34.137 of talking about the squirrels and 0:09:34.137,0:09:37.687 why I chose to eat them. 0:09:37.687,0:09:40.121 And I hope that you got that. I hope that 0:09:40.121,0:09:43.021 you see that intricacies of life. 0:09:43.021,0:09:45.189 Now if that is where you want to go in 0:09:45.189,0:09:48.247 life, if you want to go further down the 0:09:48.247,0:09:51.197 path of sustainability and living a just 0:09:51.197,0:09:53.837 and equal life then this is definitely the 0:09:53.837,0:09:55.756 channel for you. So make sure that you 0:09:55.756,0:09:57.823 subscribe, like and comment and share 0:09:57.823,0:09:59.987 this video to help get it out there. 0:09:59.987,0:10:02.055 I love you all very much and I will see 0:10:02.055,0:10:03.488 you again real soon.