one step away

I saw this a few weeks ago on the NYT and thought, 'we are one step away from being in a dystopian novel.' As Joe pointed out, watching is not yet mandatory. Of course, I question whether it would have to be....

humanity fail

As a professor I try to keep my classes current. Recently, while looking for a succinct explanation of the mass movement of people that is happening right now advertising offered a total fail.

Hundreds of thousands of people drowning, being denied asylum, being effectively trapped in purgatory that we call refugee camps and more....total fail, humanity.

In the new year...

In the past, I have not tended to look towards resolutions as the year draws to a close - a couple of years ago a group of friends set some intentions and I am proud to say that I was successful in my professional intent--in fact to think where I was two years ago in my degree and what I hoped to accomplish and to look now at what I have accomplished gives me a nice bit of perspective in a moment of professional struggle.

This year though, I am not so interested in myself as the clock ticks past midnight, but in the hope of alternatives, the strength of resistance, and the importance of struggle. Tonight is the twenty year anniversary of the movement and though my interaction and research and passion is but a tiny star in the great universe of this groups' work, I feel a sense of pride and joy at the celebration.

Caracol Oventik, JBG - 2010

¡Viva la Sexta!

*Update: Nice summary of 20 years accomplishments in the 500-year struggle: Ya Basta 
...and in headline news, photos and stories from the area where I work: Struggling on  

Staying connected is key...

There are a number of reasons that I have come to greatly dislike my new student loan servicer:
1. The fact that the fed sold my loan to them in the first place
2. The fact that when it was sold to them they tried to collect on it immediately even though it is in deferment because I am a full time student.
3. The fact that they considered my deferment null because conducting fieldwork for my dissertation does not fall under the rigid rules for full time in-school deferment.
4. The fact that they made me deal with all of this while I was in the field.

These are just some things that make me wish I had more choice in who is going to benefit from the payback of my MA debt.

But this, this takes the cake:

email subject: "Proven steps to successfully pay back your loans"

By "liking" Great Lakes on facebook I will not default on my loans. Wow. Nevermind the job market, economic crisis, and neoliberal stance on funding education, as long as I stay connected I'm on the road to success.

Sigh.

Food as 'high culture'

In the Sunday review (online early I surmise), there was a cheeky op-ed about how we've traded foodie-ness for high culture. Rather than sit around and discuss the true authorship of Elizabethan plays or the new installation at the museum, we wax philosophical (and starry-eyed) over grass-fed beef and truffle oil.

I found some proof in the pudding, as it were....I have had long concern at 'good food' being taken up as a fad and thus made into something that is for a select few. And remember, this is FOOD we're talking about here.

And perhaps it is true, as the author points out:

“A good risotto is a fine thing, but it isn’t going to give you insight into other people, allow you to see the world in a new way, or force you to take an inventory of your soul.”

Perhaps not, which signals that our concern with food has gone off the wrong end…
That said, here are some foods—oranges perhaps, or lettuce, or coffee—which should make people pause, if not ‘take inventory…’

Gendering drinks

I was going to ask, "when did drinks become gendered?" but then I remembered every superbowl commercial with scantily clad women selling sex beer.

But this is less *subtle* (if you had to choose a word).
I drove by a billboard yesterday proclaiming this new flavor of soda only allowed the "10 manliest calories" to remain in the can. I can't find an image of it yet, but stumbled upon other, similar marketing which is equally obnoxious:

How can calories have a gendered identity? Oh, right, if we socially construct one.

Not only do our calories now take on gender roles (does this soda make me look fat?), apparently so do our beers:

The new ad line-up for this beer, features a "him" that is 'cold and sweaty,' 'likes to party' and if in can form, wants you to 'crush him.' Our beers now have a persona too. It's not just the beerholder, soda drinker or juicebox that defines you--you now give life to another persona through your purchase.

And I must then too ask, what image are we trying to portray? Manly calories, not for women. Oversexed, bitter; less shrinkage, lager. Machismo comes to mind. Being macho, sexist and lewd is apparently in fashion.

I suppose stupid was at one time too.


Later generations, or possibly alien scientists are going to see some serious signs of psychosis.

Two-pronged

I have recently become interested in fan-activism--as an educator I find it extremely intriguing to see what motivates young people. I have had extensive theoretical debates (with myself and others) regarding the current fashionable movement, but this news story crossed my desk the other day and then I saw foodies blogging about this. And I think that's pretty damn curious (and I mean that in a friendly way).

It raises interesting questions for me about what actors and actions will be mobilized and who their target recipients are...

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 ads....

I object.
The institutional memory is faulty.
AB's insistence that "they say a man's work is never done" is an insult.
That phrase comes from the 'working' woman.

...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.

Occupied...

 

The movement has relocated to 100 feet from my office...complete with drum circle.

No camping allowed on campus though...we'll see if they're still here tomorrow.

Update 10.28 - All clear.

Increasingly difficult...

 

I walked past this on my way in this morning and I found it impossible not to think about whether or not the act of spray painting "resist" (with an Anarchy symbol sidekick) is necessarily resistant.

Yes, yes I'm writing about resistance right now, so it's a tad obnoxious, but really...

In this case what are we resisting? 

Private property? This was spray-painted onto the side of a house.

Organized government? Chaos looks good in candy red.

The man? Well "you're the man as well."

Or maybe it's telling me that I should add more resistance to my life.

Disobey. Read: spray paint the side of shit that other people own because it's an illegal act.

Yet, how can we resist within domination? 

Perhaps, an individual act of civil disobedience is outside oppression. Rather than reproducing the power hierarchy and dualism of resistance/domination.

The politics of the plate

After unveiling a new (and useless) food pyramid five years ago, the USDA has recently released the new plate.

I find this to be equally useless. Yet simultaneously, it demonstrates better how different food lobbies prefer the food pie to be sliced up (carved? apportioned? cut?)

The recommendations that come with the new plate are short:  Balance your calories by eating less, increase your fruit, veg and whole grain consumption and change from sugary drinks to water, whole milk to 1% milk and high sodium to low sodium. Frankly, I'm surprised the USDA got away with saying 'water instead of sugary drinks.' For the government, this represents a pretty strong push away from the high-fructose corn syrup merchants, yet as Marion Nestle has pointed out, this lumps fruit juices in with energy drinks and sodas, which is potentially unhelpful.

These recommendations smack of a processed food society and implies several things: 1) everything comes with a nutrition facts label; 2) cow's milk should be part of a normal human diet; 3) people have an understanding of what whole grains are (and dairy/protein for that matter); 4) that the fundamental problem with our eating is that we eat too much...just to name a few. Furthermore, by consistently separating these things out into their own sectors, the fact that nutrients to not hold to these borders is lost; for example: protein is a nutrient and is found in many food items such as dairy...

And forgive me here, because I'm going to go Foucault on you, but this is an approach that has the USDA asking people to police themselves. It's a model to change behavior, indicating that it is personal food choices that are responsible for the problems of obesity, under-nutrition and hunger. I firmly disagree with this standpoint, to be sure, our choices influence such things, but this obscures issues of access, race, class and etcetera.

Again, this guide to "healthy eating" is an industry staple, serving the interests of companies, not people (oh wait, I forgot that corporations are people too). This serves capitalism, not diet. It allows large conglomerates to make unfounded health claims (heart-healthy cereal, immunity boosting yogurt and so on) and privileges the purchase of processed (labelled) foods. It also relies on these companies to make such claims, allowing Proctor & Gamble, Kraft and Coca-Cola to educate the public--through advertising--about what food is.

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:

Ducklings

You may have heard that the UO football team went undefeated this year...there's a big championship game and blah blah blah. Good for them, good for us. Perhaps now that the sports funding has paid off, academics can win some popularity contests.

It's not that I don't have school spirit, but all of a sudden EVERYONE does. The Ducks are hotter than ever before and everyone needs a piece of merchandise. I went to get a cup of coffee at the student store yesterday and I could barely get through the door there were so many people queuing up to buy BCS paraphernalia. School's not even in session!