Thank you Dr Herrera!

memories from the RGV!

I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Our schools were fantastic. Oh I have many stories to tell, but let’s start with our favorite Science Teacher from high school. Dr Herrera was a DVM.. A veterinarian who stepped in and taught science to we little skulls full of mush. WE sat with rapt attention as he related science in stories. Oh, he explained about water injection in a P-51 engine and how it gave you extra power - because he was a WWII P-51 pilot in the war and he had flown those planes and used the water injection to get out of tight corners with the Nazi planes. He even brought a sack full of chocolate covered ants to class and sat and munched on them and offered whoever wanted a taste. Heck yes I tasted some. He played a role in my interest in surgery.. inviting me to come to his vet clinic where he had a male cat that needed - well the operation that takes away his aggressiveness.. so I got to help him with an orchiectomy.. let’s use fancy language here. Learning about the intraperitoneal injection of the anesthetic and then watching and caring for the cat throughout the procedure. Other WWII fighter pilots in the “Valley” went into the crop spraying business, naturally and one of my best friends dad had a runway and did that. We used to go be the flagman and walk up and down the fields with flags to show him where to aim. My first date in school was with a beautiful blond (she still is!) whose daddy had a crop dusting service. Those guys started the Confederate Air Force which was a group of pilots interested in preserving and flying the old WWII planes. That eventually became the Commemorative Air Force - And those planes still fly! Here are three of us aficionados who are EAA members and attended the Recent Oshkosh EAA “Airventure”

Now, back to the ants. Dr Herrera NEVER told us our main protein should be insects. He was just giving us a lesson to remember over the next fifty or sixty years. Some of my high school buddies will read this and maybe comment!

Why would we be needing to eat bugs? Well, let’s just say.. 1.) I live in Central Texas - cattle country.. and there are way fewer cattle on the pastures than we have had in the past and 2.) Central Texas is a chicken producing area. But as I drive around, almost all the chicken “shacks” are abandoned. And on top of that, as we flew to Oshkosh WI over the chicken country of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma. We looked down and saw all the roofs of the chicken producing areas (we were at 7000 feet, - great viewing). I asked my buddies to look as well and there were dozens and dozens and dozens of those obviously abandoned. Not a single car or truck anywhere around the chicken shacks. Abandoned. Why are we cutting food production? You priced chicken meat or steaks lately?

Read this amazing article about a repugnant idea. I hope you are not eating as you read it.

Buffalo Worm/Soy Burgers, Anyone?