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A good hotel should run like a well-oiled machine. And of course machines, data systems, and digital platforms are a key part of successful modern businesses. According to a report by Accenture, "77% of executives think that within three years companies will need to focus on training their machines as much as they do on training their people."
Integration between multiple systems is vital to achieving a seamless consumer experience. In these videos our experts discuss the technology systems used in different areas of hospitality business:
Accenture conducted a survey for its Technology Vision 2015. 2,000 business and IT executives across nine countries and 10 industries were surveyed to gather insights into the adoption of emerging technologies.
The report states that: "81% believe that in the future, industry boundaries will dramatically blur as platforms reshape industries into interconnected ecosystems."
Industry specific technology platforms are now available to many industries. According to Accenture; "39% of executives say they are now using these industry platforms to integrate data and applications with digital business partners and collaborate, while 35% are currently experimenting with them."
The report also found that: "81% place the personalized customer experience in their top three priorities for their organization." This is certainly a key issue in the hospitality industry. In order to achieve this technology need to work seamlessly in real time, and information need to be shared consistently across platforms. One complication is that this may involve passing data to technology business partners and would need to be accepted by the customer. Accenture say that: "67% of individuals are willing to share data with companies, but that percentage drops to 27% if the business is sharing data with a third party."
People are the centre of any hospitality business. Whilst hardworking technology is vital behind the scenes to be able to offer the services that we need to give, staff will always be needed to connect with guests on a personal level. One final statistic to mention from Accenture's report is that: "78% believe successful businesses will manage employees alongside intelligent machines— ensuring collaboration between the two."
If you've been sent to this page and you're not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It's free.
Video clips produced by ybc.tv for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.


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External configuration of microservices
Microservices are deployed in multiple environments. Externalizing the configuration with MicroProfile Config helps microservices to run in different environments without code changes.
During their lifecycle, microservices are deployed repeatedly across development, test, and production environments. Each environment requires different configuration data. For example, backing services might require changes in connection details for databases, messaging services, and API accessible consumer services. Your application needs to be able to swap between local and external services without needing you to rewrite the code.
Similarly, in the cloud, microservices that are deployed to Kubernetes clusters must communicate, for example, through HTTP calls. Therefore, port binding, or knowing which port to connect to, is important. As instances of microservices are created and destroyed to scale the application up and down in Kubernetes, port numbers can change. You need to assign new port numbers to the microservices and inject information during startup without changing the code. For more information, see Configuring microservices running in Kubernetes.
Separate configuration from code with MicroProfile Config
MicroProfile Config is an API that helps to separate configuration from application code, so that the same application code works in different environments. With MicroProfile Config, you can inject the external configuration into a service that is running in a container without repackaging it. You can use MicroProfile Config with Open Liberty by enabling the MicroProfile Config feature or the MicroProfile feature in your server.xml
file. The MicroProfile feature is a convenience feature that enables all the core MicroProfile features for Open Liberty.
Applications can use MicroProfile Config as a single API to retrieve configuration information from different sources such as system properties, system environment variables, properties files, XML files, or data sources. In MicroProfile Config, these data sources are called configuration sources. Configuration properties are the properties on the Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI) beans in your application. MicroProfile Config uses CDI to inject configuration property values directly into an application without the need for application code to retrieve them. The same configuration property can be defined in multiple configuration sources.
With MicroProfile Config, you can inject an individual property into a class, or inject multiple properties in one CDI bean. You can also retrieve values from configuration without using a CDI bean.
MicroProfile Config can configure other MicroProfile capabilities. It externalizes the configuration of keystores when microservices are secured. For example, in MicroProfile JSON Web Token, the public key location and verification can be set in properties files. If the location of the key repository changes, you can easily update the information. MicroProfile Config is also used in the configuration of channel attributes. In MicroProfile Reactive Messaging, it can set the connection details of messaging channels, connectors, and the topic names that the application uses to produce messages. Additionally, MicroProfile Config helps override values in fault tolerance. In MicroProfile Fault Tolerance, it can set the value of an annotation so that you can change the value if the tolerance is too low or too high.
For more information, see MicroProfile Config properties.
Default configuration sources
In Open Liberty, MicroProfile Config has six default configuration sources. Each configuration source has a specified priority, which is defined by its ordinal value. A higher ordinal means that the values that are taken from this configuration source override configuration sources with a lower ordinal value.
The following table shows the MicroProfile Config configuration sources in Open Liberty, their default ordinal values, and an example to each of the configuration sources.
Configuration Source | Default ordinal values | Example Configuration File | Example Values |
Values that are defined as a | 600 |
| <appProperties> <property name="server.port" value="9080"/> </appProperties> |
Values that are defined in a variable element in the Open Liberty | 500 |
| <variable name="server.port" value="9080"/> |
System properties | 400 |
| -Dserver.port=9080 |
Environment variables | 300 |
| server_port=9080 |
All | 100 |
| server.port=9080 |
Values that are defined as a | 1 |
| <variable name="server.port" defaultValue="9080"/> |
You can specify an optional default value by using Java annotations. The optional default value applies if the application does not find the configuration values in any of the configuration sources. You can prioritize which configuration source to use for a property value by setting the ordinal value for that configuration source. For more information, see Changing the ordinal of a ConfigSource.

subset: commoncrawl


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Send your deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences with our condolence wreath.
- Poms
- Yellow Gerberas
- White Poms
- All prices quoted are subject to 9% GST.
- Bizlink has the right to replace items that are no longer in stock with items of a similar value.
- Photos are for reference; actual arrangement may not be identical.
- Customised florals & hamper available.
- Contact us for bulk orders.


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- Greece's 2012 GDP will shrink by as much as 5%.
- Greece is expected to return to growth in 2013.
- Greece will cut 15,000 state jobs in 2012.
- Minimum wage will be cut by 20 percent.
- There will be no increase to sales tax.
- The government will cut medicine spending from 1.9% to 1.5% and merge all auxiliary pension funds.
- It will also sell stakes in six companies—in particular, energy companies and refineries.
Of course, the current thrust of fiscal policy will almost certainly guarantee that there still will be a default, involuntary or otherwise, in spite of this agreement. If you don't have a mechanism to allow growth, then how can the Greeks service their debt, even with the reduced debt burden?
Perhaps that's the idea. Make the deal so miserable for the Greek people that the Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Italians don't even begin to think of trying to get a similar haircut on their debt.
Certainly, the deficit reduction won't come. It can't when you deflate a rapidly declining economy into the ground. Common sense suggests that a drop in private income flows while private debt loads are high is an invitation to debt defaults and widespread insolvencies.
Even with all of the concessions, the euro bosses have not officially signed off on the agreement:
* Finance ministers of the 17-nation euro zone arriving for talks in Brussels warned there would be no immediate green light for the rescue package and said Athens must prove itself first.
* "It's up to the Greek government to provide concrete actions through legislation and other actions to convince its European partners that a second program can be made to work," EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
* German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose country is Europe's biggest paymaster, told reporters: "You don't need to wait around because there will be no decision (tonight)."
* Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos flew to Brussels after all-night talks involving Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, leaders of the three coalition parties and chief EU and IMF inspectors left one sensitive issue – pension cuts – unresolved.
It is also worth pointing out that Greece's pension payments on a per capita basis are amongst the lowest in Europe. Still, apparently, this plunder hasn't gone far enough The Greek people must feel like Sabine Women right now.
"Nobody can seriously blame tax evasion for this. It has happened because 60,000 small firms and family businesses have gone bankrupt since the summer.
The VAT rate for food and drink rose from 13pc to 23pc in September to comply with EU-IMF Troika demands. The revenue effect has been overwhelmed by the contraction of the economy.
Overall tax receipts fell 7pc year-on-year."
We're one step closer to ensuring that the birthplace of democracy becomes a form of national indentured servitude. That is of course, unless Greece regains some modicum of self-respect and tells the Troika to take a hike and leaves the euro zone.


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This guide is for Delphin Users.
We recommend that first-time users follow this help page step by step, from top to bottom.
First we will cover what you need to use Amazon Music on your Delphin, then we will cover first time setup, and finally we will provide troubleshooting resources.


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A Fairly Comprehensive List of Birthday Party Locations in and around Newton UPDATED
Posted by Mia on February 4, 2012 · 15 Comments
Birthday party planning need not be daunting. Here are lots of ideas for your child's birthday! Did I miss any? Please let me know and I'll add to the list!
Category Activities for Kids, All About Newton, Guides to Newton · Tags activities, activities for kids, All That Jazz, Aquarium, art school, attractions, Barn Babies, Bead Art Resources, Bowling, Cabots, City of Newton, city of newton ma, Cookie decorating. Cookies by Design, Create A Cook, Diego home party, dress up, Energy Fitness and Gynmastics, Espositos, Exxcel, farm, fun activities, fun things to do, getting to know you activities for kids, Giroux Brothers Martial Arts, guide to newton, HipStitch, ice cream party, ice skating, Jewelry party, kids, kids stuff, knitting, Laser tag., Lizzies, Mad Scientist, magician, Master's of Karate, mini golf, movie, Museum of Natural History, My Gym, newton events, newton mas events, Newton Massachusetts, newton news, newton reviews, old fashioned games at home (pass the shoe, paint ball, paint pottery/plaster, Petting zoo. Barn Babies, Pseudo sky diving, Puppet theater, reviews of newton services, rock climbing, scavenger piñata, schools in mass, sewing, sewing party, sleepover, snow tubing, soccer games, sports at YMCA, swimming (make sure to have plenty of lifeguards!), Things to do, Things to do in Newton MA, tie dye, TOMB, tourist attractions, Trampoline. Sky Zone, video game/Chuckie E Cheese, water park, water slide/bouncy house, what to do in


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Featuring the X2 air filtration system and an anti-vibration system, this cut-off machine is comfortable to use and easy to maintain.
Weight shown without fuel and cutting wheel.
Helping you work longer and more comfortably, this cut-off machine comes with a 14" wheel, delivering a unique blend of performance and efficiency so you get the job done right. Cutting Wheel: 14'' Weight shown without fuel and cutting wheel.
A tool for working in confined spaces. The expanded guard adjustment range of the TS 440 allows greater access in challenging cuts such as the bottom portions of walls, cutting in corners and cutting the underside of in-ground pipes. This expanded guard adjustability is made possible due to the sensor-activated STIHL Quickstop® wheel brake technology. The first cut-off machine in the world equipped with the technology capable of stopping the rotation of the cutting wheel in fractions of a second if kickback occurs. Only available at specially trained dealers.
The STIHL TS 500i is designed for superior handling during the toughest jobs. Featuring the handheld outdoor power equipment industry's first electronically controlled fuel injection system, the TS 500i increases power by 17% and cutting speed by 15%, as compared to the STIHL TS 420. The low-emission fuel injected cut-off saw provides optimal torque throughout the rpm range. No carburetor means no choke needed – just purge and pull the start cord!
With the X2 Long-Term Filtration System, this machine is designed for extended service cutting. Cutting Wheel: 14'' Weight shown without fuel and cutting wheel.
The TS 800 is ideal for professionals cutting asphalt, concrete, reinforcement bars or other metal support pieces. When mounted to a cart, it's the perfect alternative to the conventional floor saw: Cutting Wheel: 16''. Weight shown without fuel and cutting wheel.
Lightweight wood boring drill. Ideal for building or repairing docks and bulkheads, fences, outbuildings, retaining walls and other structures where electricity is not available. Bits available: 1/2''x12.5'' - 3/4''x18'' - 7/8''x18'' - 1''x18''. Weight shown without fuel and drill bit.
The increased tank capacity on the BT 131 auger's 4-MIX engine offers a 30% longer run time compared to the BT 130. Equipped with quality features including a multi-functional handle, oversized hip pad, advanced vibration dampening system, STIHL Quickstop® auger brake and exhaust deflector you can rely on.
STIHL introduces the GS 461 Rock Boss™ to the construction market. This machine is built for freehand cutting of construction materials, such as concrete, natural stone, building blocks, sewage pipes, water supply lines, ductile iron and general masonry. The beauty of the STIHL GS 461 Rock Boss™ is the cutting precision, such as contour, corner and hole cutting to a depth of 16". There's no need for complex and costly tool attachments and intensive manual work. The new GS 461 Rock Boss™ is the tool that you've been waiting for. This high cutting performance concrete saw reduces possible cutting errors and helps to save time on the construction site. Lightweight, easy handling, ergonomic design and efficient water usage are additional features of another high quality tool that you've come to expect from STIHL.


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Boeing Announces Data Analytics Agreements with Six Airlines
Real-time solutions to generate operational efficiency, cost savings for more than 500 airplanes
FARNBOROUGH, United Kingdom, July 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Boeing [NYSE:BA] announced today at the 2016 Farnborough International Airshow agreements to provide six customers with advanced analytics solutions. The offerings will help customers increase efficiency and drive down the costs of operating more than 500 airplanes.
Boeing offers a wide range of analytics tools that empower airlines to make better decisions and significantly improve performance on the ground and in the air.
Agreements announced today include:
- All Nippon Airways (ANA) signed a renewal contract for Airplane Health Management (AHM) on its entire future fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft. ANA uses AHM tools to monitor their aircraft in real time and proactively manage maintenance operations more efficiently.
- British Airways signed a contract for Wind Updates, currently installed on 88 airplanes with plans for additional fleet integration. Customers of Wind Updates typically average a savings of 200-400 lbs. (90-180 kg.) of fuel per flight by leveraging real-time information about atmospheric conditions to improve performance.
- Delta Air Lines signed an agreement to use Airplane Health Management (AHM) on its Boeing 737, 747, 767 and 777 fleets. Delta uses AHM's analytics-based predictive alerts to reduce delays and cancellations by scheduling maintenance in a controlled manner, to avoid schedule disruptions. Currently, more than 3,800 airplanes worldwide use Boeing's AHM service.
- GOL signed an agreement to use the Engine Fleet Planning and Costing (EFPAC) tool, which significantly reduces operating costs by determining specific engine management practices over the life span and enabling better decision making.
- Pobeda Airlines signed a contract to deploy Fuel Dashboard services across its fleet of Boeing 737s. Fuel Dashboard helps airlines reduce fuel consumption 2-7 percent annually. The tool is currently used on more than 1,000 commercial airplanes around the globe.
- Yangtze River Express signed a contract to use Maintenance Performance Toolbox Records with its fleet of airplanes. Yangtze River Express is the first customer in China to integrate the Toolbox Records service, which eliminates the operational challenge of managing paper-based maintenance records.
"Data analytics powers many of the services Boeing provides customers around the globe," said Stan Deal, senior vice president, Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. "From effectively managing inventory and reducing fuel consumption to scheduling pilots and cabin crews, Boeing provides airlines with tools to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs."
Airlines around the world rely on Boeing – and its subsidiaries AerData and Jeppesen – to deliver advanced analytics tools and software to improve operational efficiency and lower costs. Boeing's portfolio of advanced analytics tools includes crew scheduling, digital navigation, management and maintenance of leased airplanes and engines, management of parts inventories, flight optimization software, flight planning tools, optimized maintenance programs and fuel efficiency tools.
SOURCE Boeing


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Audioquest BIG SUR Analog-Audio Interconnect RCA to RCA Cable - 0.6 Meter
Note: All cables in our Bridges & Falls Series place their left and right channels in a single jacket, and feature our Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry with separate high-quality positive and negative conductors. This design allows for a thin, flexible, and uniquely versatile high-performance cable that can be terminated with a variety of today's connections, including 3.5mm (male or female), DIN, and RCA. In Bridges & Falls, you'll find better metals and more sophisticated technologies — including Air-Tube insulation, Dielectric-Bias System, and Noise-Dissipation System — at lower prices than ever before. Do keep in mind, however, that, by necessity, the plugs on Bridges & Falls cables are fairly close together. If the L and R inputs of your components are more than 3″ (7.6cm) apart, please consider models from our Rivers or Elements Series.
Spanning a creek and a formidable travel-impeding canyon, the Bixby Creek Bridge compliments and counterpoints the majestic beauty of California's spectacular coastline just north of Big Sur, 190km (120 miles) south of San Francisco. As an integral part of this stretch of landscape, the bridge has been featured in numerous TV shows and movies, and is seen on travel posters all over the world
SOLID PERFECT-SURFACE COPPER+ (PSC+) CONDUCTORS: Perfect-Surface Copper+ has an astonishingly smooth and pure surface. Proprietary metal-processing technology protects the wire's surface at every stage of drawing and fabrication. When high-purity low-oxide copper is kept as soft, pure and smooth as possible, it becomes a wonderfully low-distortion PSC+ conductor. PSC+ is manufactured by applying the same exceptional technology to an ultra-pure copper. The resulting sound quality is even more focused and simply less in the way. For over 30 years AudioQuest has pioneered the use of superior metals; yet even we were surprised by the huge leap in performance made possible with Perfect-Surface Technology. PSC+ simply outperforms all previously available copper metals at any price. All of Big Sur's conductors are solid. Electrical and magnetic interaction between strands in a conventional cable is the greatest source of distortion, often causing a somewhat dirty, harsh sound. Solid conductors are fundamental toward achieving Big Sur's very clean sound.
FOAMED-POLYETHYLENE INSULATION: Any solid material adjacent to a conductor is actually part of an imperfect circuit. Wire insulation and circuit board materials all absorb energy (loss). Some of this energy is stored and then released as distortion. Big Sur uses air-filled Foamed-Polyethylene Insulation on both conductors because air absorbs next to no energy and Polyethylene is low-loss and has a benign distortion profile. Thanks to all the air in Foamed-PE, it causes much less of the out-of-focus effect common to other materials.
METAL-LAYER NOISE-DISSIPATION SYSTEM (NDS): 100% shield coverage is easy. Preventing captured RF Interference from modulating the equipment's ground reference requires AQ's Noise-Dissipation System. Noise-Dissipation System prevents a significant amount of RFI from reaching the equipment's ground plane.
ASYMMETRICAL DOUBLE-BALANCED GEOMETRY: Purpose designed for single-ended applications, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced Geometry offers a relatively lower impedance on the ground for a richer, and more dynamic experience. While many single-ended cable designs use a single path for both the ground and the shield, Double-Balanced designs separate the two for cleaner, quieter performance.
COLD-WELDED, GOLD-PLATED PURE PURPLE COPPER TERMINATIONS: This plug design allows for a connection devoid of solder, which is a common source of distortion. Because the ground shells are stamped instead of machined, the metal can be chosen for low distortion instead of machinability. Purple Copper offers a cleaner, clearer sound than the nickel-plated or OFHC metals commonly found in competing manufacturers' plugs.
Specifications | |
Metal | Solid Perfect-Surface Copper+ (PSC+) |
Geometry | Asymmetrical Double-Balanced (Lower Impedance on Ground, Same Quality + & – Conductors) |
Dielectric | Foamed-Polyethylene |
Noise-Dissipation System | Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) |
Jacket | Black/Brown Braid |
Terminations | Cold-Welded, Gold-Plated Pure Purple Copper |
Custom Leg-Length Option | No |


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Get your toddler a unique baseball shirt that'll look nice and feel comfortable during their activities. Your little one will look as cool as ever with the shirts' raglan sleeves and shirttail hem.
• 100% ring-spun combed cotton
• Fabric weight: 4.5 oz/yd² (153 g/m²)
• Heather colors are 60% ring-spun combed cotton and 40% polyester
• Soft jersey fabric
• Ribbed collar
• Raglan sleeves
• Shirttail hem
• Flatlock stitched collar and armholes
• Double-needle stitched sleeves and bottom hem
• Blank product sourced from India or Haiti
Toddler KIN - Rachel Baseball Shirt


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Photo courtesy of Dave Hamster via FlickrYou watched Food, Inc. with your mouth aghast. You own a few cookbooks.
You go out to that hot new restaurant with the tattooed chef who's putting on a whole-animal, nose-to-tail pricy special dinner. You bliss out on highfalutin' pork rinds, braised pigs feet, rustic paté, and porchetta.
Later that weekend, you nibble on small bites as you stroll down the city street, blocked off for a weekend "foodie" festival.
Then you go back to your Monday-Friday workaday routine, ordering pizza and buying some frozen chicken breasts at Costco ("Hey, at least they're 'organic'!") to get you through your hectic week. (You make time for at least two hours a day of reality TV.) You manage to get to a farmers market about once a month, but the rest of the time your eggs and meat come from Costco, Trader Joe's, and maybe Whole Paycheck now and again.
Guess what? You are NOT changing the food system. Not even close.
You're no better or different than the average American. You pat yourself on the back, you brag about your lunch on Twitter, you pity your Midwestern relatives eating their chicken-fried steak and ambrosia salad, but you secretly loathe your grocery store bill — which consumes only 8 percent of your income while your car devours 30 percent. Your bananas and coffee may be Fair Trade, but everything else is Far From It. The dozen eggs you splurge on once a month may be from local, outdoor-roaming birds, but all the other eggs you eat come from a giant egg conglomerate in either Petaluma, Calif., or Pennsylvania.
And even that pig in that nose-to-tail fancy dinner came from a poor farmer in Kansas or Iowa because the restaurant is too cheap or lazy to find local, pastured pork. And the ingredients for that foodie festival touting itself as local and sustainable? They mostly came from other states except a few ingredients they highlight as being "local." But those restaurants, caterers, and food trucks just go back to using the low-cost distributor once the event is over.
So. Want to make a difference?
Here's what a sustainable food system actually needs you to do, in no particular order:
Educate yourself:
- Don't take anything at face value — read, listen, observe, research. Look at both sides of an issue and all points in between.
- Read not just the Omnivore's Dilemma, but also Silent Spring, Sand County Almanac, and anything you can find by Wendell Berry.
- Learn why farmers and ranchers who don't earn enough to cover their costs are not sustainable and that something has to suffer as a result, whether it be quality, animal welfare, land stewardship, wages, health care, mental & physical health, or family life.
- Understand why sustainable food should actually cost 50 to 100 percent more than industrial, conventional food. Figure out how to buy food more directly from farmers and ranchers, if you want to avoid some of the transportation/distribution/retail markup costs.
- Know the names of more farmers and ranchers than celebrity chefs, including at least one you can call by first name — and ask how their kids are doing.
- Understand that if you want to see working conditions and wages come up for farming and food processing workers, that you will have to pay more for food. Be OK with that.
- Learn about the Farm Bill and plan to write a letter/make a phone call when it comes up for re-authorization.
Chill out:
- Don't expect a farmer to have year-round availability and selection. Alter your diet to match the seasonal harvests in your area. Get used to not eating tomatoes until at least July, apples in late August to December, citrus in winter, greens in spring. Don't complain.
- Realize that even animal products are seasonal because animals have biological cycles. Know that chickens produce much less eggs in winter when days are shorter and even come to a complete stop when they are replacing their feathers (molting). Consequently you may have to eat less eggs and pay more for them during that time. Don't complain.
- Don't expect the farmer/rancher to sacrifice the health and welfare of the animal for your particular fad diet du jour (no corn, no soy, no wheat, no grains, no antibiotics ever, even if the animal will die, no irrigation, no hybrid breeds, no castrating, no vaccines … what is it this week?)
- Understand that the tenderloin/filet is the most expensive muscle on the animal and that there is very little of it. Don't expect there to be filet every time you go to market. There are finite parts to an animal. Be OK with that. Embrace it. Learn to cook other parts.
- Understand that there are not enough USDA-inspected slaughter and butcher facilities, which makes special orders difficult and limits how the meat can be processed. If you want a particular cut, organ meat, or process, then buy a half- or whole animal so you can ask the butcher to make that happen yourself.
- Don't call a farmer a week before you're having a pig roast to ask for a dressed-out pig, delivered fresh to you, for under $300. We are not magicians, just farmers.
Get your hands dirty:
- Sweat on a farm sometime.
- Participate in the death of an animal that you consume.
- Successfully cook a roast. You don't need steaks and chops to make an amazing meal.
- Get a chest freezer and put some food away in it
- Cook and enjoy at least one of the following: chicken feet, gizzards, liver, heart, kidney, sweet breads, head cheese, or tripe.
- Save your bones for soup, beans, stock, or your doggies!
- If you own land that's not being farmed, tell some farmers about it. If you rent land to farmers, offer a fair rental price or fair lease (long-term is better), and then stay out of the way and don't meddle or hinder the farmers. They are not your pet farmers nor your landscapers.
- Throw your consumer dollar behind a couple beginning farmers or lower-income farmers. Be concerned about how landless, lower-income producers are going to compete with the increasing numbers of wealthy landowners getting into farming as a hobby.
Help your local farmers do their job:
- Bring your kids/grandkids/nieces & nephews to the farmers market and to real farms as often as possible
- If you ask to visit the farm, also offer to help out or spend some decent money while you are there. Otherwise, wait patiently until the next group farm tour. Don't expect a farmer to drop everything just to give you a special tour.
- Consider making a low-interest loan, grant, or pre-payment to a farmer to help her cover her operating expenses. Stick with that farmer for the long haul, as long as he continues to supply quality product and can stay in business.
- Give more than just money to a farmer or rancher — maybe a Christmas card, invitation to a party, offer to spiff up their website, or watch their kid for an hour at the farmers' market.
Really put your money where your mouth is:
- Don't complain about prices. If price is an issue for you on something, ask the farmer nicely if he has any less expensive cuts (or cosmetically challenged "seconds"), bulk discounts, or volunteer opportunities. But don't ask the farmer to earn less money for his hard work.
- Don't compare prices between farmers
who are trying to do this for a living and those that do it only as a hobby (and don't have to make a living from what they produce and sell). - Share in a farmer's risk by putting up some money and faith up front via a Community Supported Agriculture share. And then suck it up when you don't get to eat something that you paid for because there was a crop failure or an animal illness.
- Buy local when available, but also make a point of supporting certified Fair Trade, Organic products when buying something grown in tropical countries
- Buy organic not just for your health, but for the health of the land, waterways, wildlife, and the workers in those fields
- Figure out the handful of restaurants that buy and serve truly sustainable food and become loyal to them. Occasionally give them feedback and thank them.
- If your budget doesn't allow you to eat out often, eat out infrequently but at the places with the best integrity that may be more costly.
- Ask the waiter where the restaurant's meat or fish comes from, and how it was raised before you order it. If the waiter gives an insufficient answer, order vegetarian and tell them what you want to see next time if they want your business again.
- Don't buy meat from chain grocery stores, not even Whole Paycheck. Understand that for them to get meat in volume with year-round selection and availability, they have to work with large distribution networks and often international suppliers, and don't pay enough to the producers for them to even cover their costs.
- Get the majority of your produce, meat, eggs, dairy, bread, dried fruit, nuts, and olive oil from farmers markets, CSAs, U-pick farms, and on-farm stands. Try to buy from the actual farmer, not a middleman. Get the rest of your food from the bulk section, dairy case, or bakery of your local independent grocer.
- Pay for your values. If it hurts, don't have fewer values, just eat less food (sorry, but most Americans could stand to do a bit of this)
I admit, this is a lot to digest.
What I am saying is that we can't be casual about the food system we want to see. If more people don't show some commitment, and take part in some of the hard work that farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers do on a daily basis, then we cannot build a sustainable food system.
You don't have to be a passive consumer. You are part of this system, too. Don't just eat, do something more!
A version of this post first appeared on Honest Meat.


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Kids in Exchange for Deportation: Detained Migrants Told They Could Get Kids Back on Way Out of U.S.
A Honduran man who spoke to The Texas Tribune Saturday estimated that 20 to 25 men who have been separated from their children are being housed at the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Center, a privately-operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for men located 75 miles outside Houston. He said the majority of those detainees had received the same offer of reunification in exchange for voluntary deportation.
The 24-year-old detainee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and requested the Tribune use the pseudonym Carlos because he feared retaliation, told the Tribune that he abandoned his asylum case and agreed to sign voluntary deportation paperwork Friday out of "desperation" to see his 6-year-old daughter, who was separated from him after the pair illegally crossed the border in late May. The man said two federal officials suggested he'd be reunited with his daughter at the airport if he agreed to sign the order, which could lead to him being repatriated to his violence-torn home country in less than two weeks.
"I was told I would not be deported without my daughter," said Carlos, adding that he's now hoping to revoke the voluntary deportation order he signed and get legal help to fight his case. "I signed it out of desperation… but the truth is I can't go back to Honduras; I need help."
Carlos said he's only spoken to his daughter once — on June 21 — since the pair were separated three weeks ago in McAllen. He said he paid a smuggler $7,000 for the 10-day journey from Honduras because he feared being caught up in the violence waged by organized crime syndicates and gangs in the country. They turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers shortly after illegally crossing into the United States on a raft that pushed off from the banks of the Rio Grande on the Mexico side near Reynosa, Carlos said.
He said he wanted a better life for his only daughter and hoped U.S. officials would grant them asylum. He was told he did not pass the first hurdle — proving he had "credible fear" of persecution or torture in Honduras — but volunteer attorneys have instructed him to revoke the paperwork he signed and appeal his credible fear ruling before an immigration judge.
Anne Chandler, Houston director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a national organization that advocates for immigrant women and girls, said she's heard an almost identical account from another Central American migrant detained at the Livingston facility, a taupe-and-blue building surrounded by two chain link fences lined with coils of razor wire.
Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman, said Saturday evening that the agency "cannot research vague allegations," but would do so if given specific details about the migrants who made the claims.
"It is unprofessional and unfair for a media outlet to publish such allegations without providing names, dates and locations so that these allegations can be properly researched," Rusnok said. The Tribune declined to give Rusnok the detainees' identifying information.
A Homeland Security and Health and Human Services fact sheet released Saturday said parents ordered removed from the U.S. can "request that his or her minor child accompany them," but that "many parents have elected to be removed without their children."
More than 2,500 migrant children have been separated from their parents since early May, after the federal government cracked down on border-crossers and began pressuring federal prosecutors on the southwest border to pursue charges against anyone alleged to have entered or tried to enter the country without authorization.
Homeland Security said Saturday that 522 unaccompanied minors have been reunified with family members since the zero tolerance policy began, and that they have a reunification plan for those who remain in federal custody.
But both Chandler and Cynthia Milian, a private attorney working with Tahirih, questioned whether the offers that the immigrants have reported receiving could be honored by the government, given the sprawling and slow-moving nature of the nation's immigration bureaucracy.
While migrant adults are prosecuted by the Justice Department and then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, their children are placed in shelters funded and overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services. Chandler said it could take between one to two months to secure the release of an unaccompanied migrant child.
Many immigrant parents have been placed in removal proceedings and some have already been deported without their children.
Milian, who has spoken to Carlos, said his situation is a "parent's worst nightmare" and that it was highly unlikely he would be met at the airport by his daughter. "I doubt they would put his child on a plane to get her to where he would get deported out from, especially if she's in Arizona," where Carlos was told she is being held. "I just don't see that happening."
Carlos said he worries about the conditions in the facility where his daughter is being held, whether she's receiving proper care for her asthma, and how she will find her way to an aunt in Los Angeles if he is deported back to Honduras without her.
When they spoke on Thursday, Carlos said his daughter was "very sad … and wanted me to get her out of there."
Carlos is one of the thousands of migrants impacted by the zero tolerance directive announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April, which requires federal prosecutors along the U.S.-Mexico border to prosecute nearly all allegations of unauthorized border crossings. The policy inundated already-backlogged federal courts; several courtrooms, including one in McAllen where Carlos was charged in May, have held mass hearings where dozens of migrants plead guilty to illegal entry charges at once — a scene critics have likened to assembly-line justice.
After the new crackdown sparked bipartisan outrage, President Donald Trump signed a hastily-written executive order Wednesday that keeps most families together through the pendency of their cases. But there are divisions within the Trump administration about whether it's possible to continue pursuing every case of illegal entry.
Despite assurances that there are reunification plans in place, confusion and chaos reign on the ground about how families separated at the height of the zero tolerance policy will be put back together.
An MSNBC correspondent tweeted Sunday morning that a Homeland Security official said "separated parents were quickly given the option to sign paperwork leading to deportation. Many chose to do so."
Bob Etnyre, a Houston-based attorney and immigration law expert, said Carlos' case highlights a "particularly diabolical aspect" of the family separations — dangling reunification as an incentive to drop an asylum claim.
Carlos said his daughter was taken away from him on the day he went to the McAllen courthouse to plead guilty to illegal entry. He said officials at the detention facility he knew as "la hielera," or the "ice box," told him she would be taken to an aunt in California — "pure lies," he said.
"She's a prisoner," he told the Tribune through a plexiglass partition in the facility's visitation room. "She can't talk, she cries because she's locked up."
"The kids aren't to blame for what's going on," he added. "We only came because we can't live in our country. We are looking for somewhere to live where our children can have a better future. In our country we can't do it."
Carlos' mother, reached by phone in Honduras, said she hasn't been able to speak to her son or granddaughter since they were detained. She's been told her granddaughter was ill with an upper respiratory ailment. "We've been worrying and suffering over this," she said.
The aunt of 6-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid, another Central American girl separated from her parent and currently being held in an Arizona facility, said she can imagine the distress both Carlos and his daughter are feeling.
Madrid garnered national attention when she was heard on audio, surreptitiously recorded in a Customs and Border Protection facility and provided to ProPublica, persistently asking authorities to call her aunt – whose phone number she'd memorized. "Are you going to call my aunt so that when I'm done eating she can pick me up?" Madrid can be heard saying, as other Central American children weep and sob "Mami" and "Papá" in the background.
"It's inhumane for them to be separated," said the aunt, who lives in Houston and spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity. "And that's a pain she will always have. That little creature will grow up with that forever. It's a psychological and emotional wound for both of them, because people don't come here to lose their children."
This report prepared


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