I’ve spent the last couple of days browsing the internet for information on poison. Sasha is very concerned that I don’t poison myself when I eat such meats as raccoons. Dioxins love to stick to fat and so they travel quickly up the food chain. It’s not difficult to see the chain here. High levels of dioxin have been found in the sediment of the Willamette River, which separates Portland into two halves, East and West. Living down there are crayfish who get eaten by raccoons (among others). Since raccoons are fatty creatures, most likely urban raccoons will be full of dioxin.

I went searching the net for ways of reducing the level of dioxins in your body. What I found was recommendations to become a vegan or a vegetarian. Not quite what I was looking for. It is not possible to find enough vegetable protein in the wilds of North America. Here in the Northwest perhaps you could store enough Hazelnuts to last all year. Unfortunately I am allergic to nuts.

After reading about dioxin and other poisons for hours I started to feel the emotional weight of our reality. Our air is filled with hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and more. Our food is poisoned with dioxin, pesticides, herbicides and more. Our drinking water is contaminated with chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals and more. The poison is everywhere. I am already poisoned. The only difference between me eating a steak from the grocery store and a raccoon I found on the side of the road is the level of toxicity.

Since these toxins are going to be around long after Civilization has collapsed, it’s important we really look at how to deal with them. What we really need to know is at what level of toxicity do we start to notice it? At what level does it render us sterile or give us stillborn children or cancer or genital mutations? I can see four things we can do about the toxins. The first is to STOP making toxins. The second is to STOP others from contaminating our land and communities. The third is attempt to lower the level of already existing toxins we take in by doing things like change our diets, filter/distill our water, wear gas masks… anybody else?

Lastly, if our only choice to get enough protein (as urban hunter-gatherers) is to eat meat, then we’ve got to learn how to flush the existing toxins out of the body. I think we all need to find out what plants living in our particular bioregions can help us detoxify. Sweat lodges and fasting were part of many indigenous traditions around the world for cleansing and spiritual purposes… sounds like a good place to start. Please share your answers and other questions here.

Current Questions:

1. What herbs found in the Northwest can really clean you out?

2. What are safe/healthy ways of fasting?

3. Is there an efficient/primitive way to distill water?

4. What are some more ways to reduce our level of toxin in-take?

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