Sustainability for the few

What type of message does it send when the price tag, on what has been framed as the most effective sustainability technology, is so ludicrous?

The $60 light bulb.

Wing nation, factory food.

Beyond the attention to the normal misogynistic, patriotically tinged and otherwise money wasting commercials that tend to dominate the non-football related reporting following the 'big game,' the next most analyzed item was the fare consumed during the game. Beer, yes, we know that one...and wings yes, we know that one too.

But how many wings exactly?

Apparently, according to officials, folks in the U.S. ate 1.25 billion chicken wings (100 million pounds). That's a lot of chickens. And that is only a portion of what is consumed on average in a year (roughly 25 billion total).

Prepare to get sudsy, because here is where I stand on the soapbox. The enormous amount of seasoning, barbeque sauce, hot sauce and dips masks an incredibly unsustainable food production system. Destructive to the environment and economically, socially and morally untenable; the large-scale industrial farming of chicken is only fed (forgive the pun) by moments of intense consumption such as this. A side-note: the same could be said about turkeys in November. 

The industrially produced chicken is one of the most manipulated livestock products in the U.S. Engineered and selected for particular traits, from birth chicks are selected, beaks soldered off (to avoid pecking in tight conditions), fed a diet of hormones, antibiotics, GMO soy and corn and offal. Bred in a contained atmosphere and given only weeks to mature, many become sick and die. The economic burden and risk is on the producer. The environmental externalities are taken on by the consumer.

And so on.

...the stale taste...

I'm sorry, but this: "The Privileges of China’s Elite Include Purified Air"

reminds me of this: Perri-Air

and also this: Orwellian much?

namely because of this quote: “Breathing clean air is a basic human need,”
All are equal, but some are more equal than others apparently.

You are here.

I'm currently in residence at the Sustainable Living Center at UCSC. Also known as the Village.
 
I'm officially half-way through an intensive course on Agroecology and Sustinability, which has, thus far, afforded me the opportunity to sit in on lectures by the founding agroecologists (and also from the professors--Altieri and Nigh--who first got me interested in doing work on agriculture in Chiapas); visit farms employing agroecological methods; travel a bit around the downtown Santa Cruz area and take in the weekday farmers market; and eat amazing food from the gardens here and from local veg and fruit growers....oh my expanding waistline! yum!

Of greatest importance, thus far, I have made contacts with folks in Chiapas and with other researchers who have interest in my work. I'm giving a short presentation for everyone tomorrow night after dinner, so hopefully I will get some critical feedback on my work before I head into the funding fray. Also, tomorrow's official lectures promise to be exciting...food sovereignty, small farmer traditional systems and direct trade coffee from CAN (something I would love to get involved with in a research capacity). The team of lecturers here is quite a family...for them (this is their 12th course), it's a reunion...so that is really quite inspiring and wonderful to see in the academic community.

my residence...and some familiar humor

I had some trepidation before coming because I knew I'd be staying a dorm setting....all fears completely unfounded. The village is surrounded by fruit trees, redwood trees, small garden plots and families of bunnies, quails and deer. It's wonderful...and in the evenings I compete with the young bucks to get to the plum trees.

If nature...

Perhaps it's due to the carbonation...heh heh...

iMatter - Happy Mother's Day!

First, Happy Mother's Day...especially to the mommies who are celebrating for the first time this year!

Second, today saw the global march (called the iMatter March) of youth in cities all over the world. Their cause? Climate Change. Their goal? to remind us that "climate change is a moral issue -- not a political or financial one." I find it fitting that they chose Mother's Day.

This March is tied to action in the past few weeks, where the organization Our Children’s Trust, filed either a lawsuit or submitted a petition for rule-making in all 50 US states, DC, and at the federal level to demand that the government do more to address climate change. This action utilizes a different legal approach, one that is based on the public trust doctrine, arguing, for the first time ever, that the atmosphere is a public trust and that the government has a legal obligation to protect it for its citizens. Namely, its future citizens.

french fries are good for you...

Since I've been back in school I've started a small collection of ads from the big Ag companies. I don't come across them too often in my daily reading material...but when I do...oh man.
This troubles me exceedingly.


This first ad campaign comes from ADM and has the tagline..."you're body can't tell the difference." They are currently being sued over this ad campaign (US District Court) by sugar distributors, disputing that claims of High Fructose Corn Syrup being equated to real sugar is false advertising. This campaign is a jumpstart for the rebranding and relabeling of HFCS as corn sugar to deal with all the bad press it has gotten. Imagine when all the packaging changes from saying HFCS to 'corn sugar' how the consumer imagination will change.

Frankly, I can't worry too much for ADM, since corn syrup and HFCS are in a plethora of processed foods (as this picture gently reminds us), and people are unlikely to give those up anytime in the future. Although the 'real coke' and 'throwback pepsi' campaigns, which feature cane sugar probably have the execs shaking in their boots.


This next one hits a number of levels for me.
First, the idea of "fitter french fries"...that's right up there with heart-healthy cocoa-puffs. That getting rid of that 'trans-fat risk' is all that is needed to make it possible to eat french fries all the time.
Second, the normalized sounding altruism around this campaign, which is targeted at keeping people interested in fast food through explaining the use of new "non-hydrogenated oils" in the creation of that french fry we all know and love.
Third, the idea that tampering with canola seeds on a genetic level is the answer.
Fourth, the idea of growing more canola to accommodate this new 'non-hydrogenated demand' (yes, yes it's an edible oil, but think of what foods we could be growing instead)
Fifth, that once again, technology (whether it be through different processing methods, genetic manipulation, chemical use whathaveyou) is the answer to issues related to food and agriculture.

 And my all time favorite, from Monsanto. This was a full page ad spread in the New York Times, which I now have taped to the wall of my office. Again, the claim that Monsanto has anything to do with sustainable agriculture makes my skin crawl. Campaigns like this speak to the desire of global ag to convince its audience that we have used up our available resources (land, water, soil) and must turn to technology to create greater yields, efficiencies and fixes to this problem.
Nevermind the fact that the industrial processes perpetuated by big ag are largely the culprit in water pollution (including salinization), soil degradation (read: topsoil loss, desertification, toxicity) and the use of large tracts of land for the production of corn and soy that goes to feed meat and cars.
Again, the altruism that this campaign speaks to, "improving farmers lives" absolutely slays me...as if putting the "latest science-based tools in farmers hands" is an amazing feat to counter the twin issues of climate change and the impoverishment of farmers worldwide.

Lest we forget, profit is the bottom line here.
Accumulation for the sake of accumulation

Some things...including signs of spring

This past week has seen many things unfold. I see an exclamation point on the erosion of democracy as evidenced in Wisconsin; a question mark on the benefits of nuclear power as Japan is absolutely and tragically devastated; and a period on winter as our garden begins to blossom.

Wrapping up this quarter I feel a lighter load than most winter's generally bring. In between editing papers and prepping for next term I have been giving time to having spirited debates over the utility of unions and corporate personhood and pouring over the daily news local and international.

When it all seems like too much, I've walked out into the garden. Perhaps things go easier with flowers involved?

While recovering from running a conference....

I learned a bit more about social media. Meaning, I hung out on our twitter feed and facebook pages looking into what other people said about the content of the conference.
We had a dedicated team of folks doing social media, including twitter, facebook and 30 second video spots with our attendees: "what does food justice mean to you?"
The delightful and amazing food advocate, Naomi Starkman of Civil Eats has already posted 'twitvids' (look at me with my lingo) for folks to peruse.

er...you can read more tidbits by using this 'hashtag:' #foodjustice

Although I tend to be critical of a soundbite approach...my weekend was bound up in soundbites as I moved from session to session making sure everything was running smoothly. I did see the entirety of all of our keynote panels, plenaries and dialogues and for that I am grateful. I also took the time to sit in on many of Sunday's sessions, which were in the easily navigable Law Center. Due to the spatial configuration of the Monday program in the student union (and having three concurrent sessions), I saw less of the program and spent more time running between rooms. But it all worked out brilliantly for me. Being behind the scenes allowed me to engage with our attendees on a much deeper level.

That said, for me, the most critical soundbites of the conference are these (and they come from a variety of speakers)...telegram style:

We must redefine deliciousness. stop. Fair Trade can be thought of as a food sovereignty strategy that cooperatives use to defend rights to land. stop. activist research is essential. stop. migrant farm workers are among the most food insecure. stop. farming for sustenance versus farming for subsistence. stop. must understand the first green revolution before beginning a second one. stop. biotech is a ponzi scheme. stop. there exist wheat anarchists in France. stop. re-decentralization of wheat. stop. Gates supports biotech, he's building a new empire. stop. NAFTA is killing Mexican farmers. stop. climate change. stop. structural racism. stop. there cannot be shame-based culinary education. stop. we must have a biodiversity of movements. stop. to have sustainable cities, must have sustainable agriculture. stop. anti-food. stop. industrial agriculture is a food desert. stop. at brink of seed famine. stop. 

I have come away from this conference blissfully exhausted; bowing under the weight of many thanks and congratulations; (which I am still not quite sure I deserve) and with a keen eye to the future.

In a beautiful synchronicity, I was able to share food at breakfast, lunch and dinners with our attendees, literally breaking bread with world renown food activists and local farmers, students and educators. I was able to share my own work, research interests and activism while asking questions.I shared food and thought. Deliciousness and hope.
As soon as I get my voice and energy back, I'll be a force to reckon with.


p.s. Oakshire got a bunch of good press for their delicious sponsorship via "liquid justice" - a special thanks to John for making this beautiful logo for us:

The face of climate change

One of the biggest concerns of the agroecology promoters I met with during my short research trip this summer was the problem of climate change. The promoters work with farmers and they talk about climate change and the movement is trying to figure out how to work on this because there could be climate change related events (such as drought or at the other end of the spectrum, hurricanes) that could wipe out their crops and the seeds that they have been cultivating.One of the most immediate concerns was pests. They have seen warmer weather each year and with it more pests in the fields and in their storage facilities.

In my conversations with the lead agroecology promoter in Oventik, I learned that they are trying to establish a seed bank to protect against this; simultaneously they are working towards the “vital improvement of corn” through looking at varieties from other climates and doing experiments between climates (that is, testing highland varieties in lowland areas etc), which show that adaptation is very slow.

While they look inwards to craft local responses to climate change, a delegation is attending the COP 16 in Cancun to make demands on the global players.