Vampires beware....

We planted garlic last October, overwintering it in three of our backyard beds. It was experimental. We've grown garlic every winter, with varying degrees of success, so this year, in the interest of increasing our 'storable' yield (read: self-sufficiency in garlic) we attempted to be more strategic and take better notes.

In the past, we've saved back a few heads from the CSA or grabbed strong candidates at the market and planted them. This year we bought heads of garlic specifically propagated for seed--the benefits here include selection of varieties that do well in this region and knowing the exact variety planted.Of course, these benefits accrue only if you are mindful enough to write down the variety when you buy the heads (ahem, of the three we know that one is Spanish Roja...)


Either way, we patiently waited until this past week to harvest. Definitely worth the wait: 108 heads of garlic total, only two that had underground damage (splitting) and four that were savagely mauled during the harvest (read: struck by the shovel).

The Spanish Roja

Softneck garlic

third bed: garlic leaves

The take.

Dry curing on old screens in the garage

Root trimmings

 After a few days of curing we cleaned and trimmed and braided the garlic. Braiding is an art, we are clearly not artists...but in theory the braids allow the garlic to continue curing while being stored in a more compact and manageable manner. The next stage of the experiment will be to see what storage area works best. Garage? Pantry? Something else....

The goal: to not have to buy garlic for the year.

Braids!

So, if you have a need for warding off vampires (although, I hear they are all the rage now) or enjoying some exquisite deliciousness...garlic!

Taking up space

One of my good friends--who incidentally is not a geographer--remarked to me once that a cup of coffee buys space.
I am acutely aware of that today as (after a quick search for coffee and wifi) I sit in a coffee shop adjacent to the train station. For a couple bucks I have bought myself a corner seat, complete with free wireless, a powerstrip (charge the phone, charge the netbook) and table space to spread my work on.
I have six hours to burn while I wait for my train. Ah coffee.
I have many more things to say on the subject of coffee and space, but perhaps that's for another time...

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.

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.

How I spent Memorial Day weekend.

When Ella was born I commented to Michelle and Andy that if we could bottle and sell the smell of baby + the immense feeling of relaxation that washes over you when holding a sleeping baby1 we'd make a killing on the graduate student market.

 {--------After all of that, I feel like this.


I love being Aunt Zee.









1: note that the baby should not be the offspring of said graduate student.

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.

Hellshire

The line flowing out of the brewery for the first Hellshire release on Saturday at 8am.
People started lining up at 7am.
I am so proud.

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

...wanderings

I gave a paper at a symposium in Berkeley this week (using a prezi...it went very well); I feel as though I'm starting to figure out how to properly negotiate this whole academic thing...and I might get a publication out of it too!

Joe joined me the day following the symposium and we took in the city from a beer and food angle (surprise, surprise). We both took the train down on separate evenings..which gave us a topsy turvy feel to what day it was...

Taking in the pizza of the day.

We plotted out some of our trip, making reservations for a B&B up the hill from the UC campus.
We also made the requisite month early seating reservations for dinner at the famed restaurant pictured in the post below (p.s. it was just okay).

Taking the recommendation of a bay area native we made sure check out this place, where we had a slice of gourmet pizza (which was effing amazing) and listened to live jazz music during the lunch rush...glad we didn't try to get dinner, walking past later in the evening the line wrapped around the block. In fact, the seating was full for lunch too, so we ate our fare in the middle of the street seated in an obliging grassy median.

the famous circle of anarchy, UC campus.

 Otherwise our trip was mostly unplanned, a complete delight given our normal agenda setting days. I took to the books there and back and fielded some questions from students via email about their upcoming exam, but otherwise we checked out from our day-to-day.


We wandered about the city and UC campus taking it in and enjoying beers, kombucha, gelato and other delights as we went. It was a nice business turned pleasure trip. I think we walked about 20 miles over two days.

Humongous hen and chicks!

Just cause we happened to be in the neighborhood....literally.

Joe plays with the house-made chips.

that's the bay, behind our big heads

Golden Gate from our B&B room

City and Bay Bridge from our room

Bouldering fool : )

Taking in some sun in the gourmet ghetto. I'm not kidding, that is the actual name of the neighborhood in Berkeley. This was at the gardens adjacent to the imperial tea room. Despite the royal nuptials having been that day, we declined a pot of tea in the sun and 70 degree weather.

Channeling Tommy...mmm Gelato

 The train, while long and full of strange and mysterious folks, was a nice and affordable way to get to and fro and I was able to get a ton of work done both ways. Although they lie about 'free wifi'...it's free if you're a premium customer...in the parlour. bastards. Thank goodness for the almighty iphone and for sour beers (not from the train...the train only has $5 AB and liquor, we had these prior to the train). These menus are from here, which we hit after walking to this place, which had a nice selection, but only half the ambiance.

Through the Cascades

Yeah, I'm a foodie.

I'm okay with that.

...dog new tricks

I've just come off a week at the annual professional conference for geographers. I lost my voice due to sickness the week prior and was still recovering, which made me sound as though I'd been chain-smoking since birth and was rather uncomfortable...all things considered. I gave a talk, I used powerpoint. Other people gave talks, they used powerpoint. Because this conference allows any paper to be given that is submitted, I've learned that it is largely a networking opportunity rather than a moment for critical feedback on your own work. But I digress....

I have nothing in particular against powerpoint (except for people who use it to display the full text of their paper, while they read to you). But I want to step out of the linear style of presenting...I have reasons, empirical evidence and other anecdotes to this effect (I won't bore you).

I'm giving a talk (peer reviewed!) at a symposium in Berkeley this coming week and to that end, I took precious hours to teach myself how to use prezi today.

I'm not a particularly expressive/visually creative person...but I think my first attempt is alright. In fact, I'm obnoxiously giddy about it. Tomorrow I will test it in front of my colleagues (which is sure to bring me down to normal). A full report will be forthcoming...

Baby Hughes!!!

Remind me again

Why do people go to college?
Oh right, independence, sex, drugs and alcohol.
It certainly isn't for the classes.
I'd say about 10% of my 150 person class is clued into college = education.

Since classes started last week I have received 5 emails...which I know is only a paltry 3% of my class...asking if they missed anything crucial in the first week of class and demanding my syllabus. I have received 1 email offering me a correction on my apparent confusion over terms (citing the about dot com professional geographer) (p.s. my definitions were correct). I have received 1 email asking me which of the required reading is really the most useful. And finally, the all important nameless folks who have approached me at the start of lecture--10 to be exact--who have claimed various reasons for potentially missing class at some point and how unfair my pop quiz (you can't make them up) policy is.

Now that I have complained (yet again) about students not caring about class, I must admit that I recognize the formative experience that college is and I do not begrudge them the opportunity to grow as adults and sleep, drink and smoke their way through the undergrad student body (er...time...experience). I certainly did my fair share of those things and I realize that my experience as a student is different, as I am in love with college and classes and research and writing. I realize I'm weird.

I just want them to respect me and pay attention when I'm talking. Is that so much to ask? It's hard to know how to earn the respect of students who won't give you the opportunity to try. And, who will later feel entitled to a good grade, despite having not attempted to earn it.

I have decided not to harp on about paying attention though. In class on Wednesday I gave them the breakdown. If you are an in-state student you're paying (before fees) $600 for my 4-credit class; if you are an out-of-state student that jumps to $2200. I told them that it was up to them how they wanted to use this time that they had paid for. I will leave it at that.

It's an intro class, I can't be expected to win the hearts and minds of people who are taking gen-ed credits right?

Also, I aged several times during my second lecture having mentioned close-encounters of the third kind and 'young' Richard Dreyfuss. 150 blank stares is an amazing sight.

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:

Yearning for a snow day

I just had one of the most demanding week/weekends of my academic career thus far (more to come). Is is so much to ask for a snow day?

Perhaps it's just the kid in me. I got up earlier than usual with hopes of being able to go back to bed and reclaim the energy and voice that has left by body after my efforts this weekend.
Sigh.

Restricted information...

I know why this building is restricted, I just find the sign funny.

Big brother

This has a totally different meaning for me then it must for the intended audience.

30 year old kid...redux

I'm sure it's not gone unnoticed that the new quarter is in full-swing. I am up to my ears in reading, food justice, grant writing and classes. However, I took a few hours off this weekend to celebrate the birthday of a friend and to also entertain good friends from out-of-town (entertain = dinner, plus late-night brewery tour).
The birthday shenanigans were hosted at the local skate rink, which brought back many elementary age memories...one of which allowed me to actually still be able to skate some 20 years later. Apparently it's like riding a bicycle.

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!

Filled with the spirit of...something...

"It is required of every man,that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world-oh, woe is me!-and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness." - Dickens, A Christmas Carol

The holidays mean something different for everyone. For me it is generally an experience in trying to find a balance between loathing materialism and overindulgence in the joyous act of giving and receiving.
Also, taking a day to cook glorious amounts of food and be with Joe....to just be.

One of my favorite first lines of a book belongs to A Christmas Carol..."Marley was dead: to begin with"... Dickens is an absolutely brilliant writer and I think he captures it best when allowing the three ghosts to convince Scrooge that he should use his mind and body...his spirit, to the best of his ability. To savor life, to make and build rewarding friendships and to build a loving family. Frankly, I do not think it has anything to do with Christmas, it has to do with being alive and 'using well the days.'

Perhaps though, we need a gentle reminder; for some that is found in the celebration of the birth of Jesus, for others in the festival of lights, for others in choosing a noble fir and adorning it with baubles and other shiny things, even still, for others it is about the giving and receiving of gifts, or Chinese food or working a lousy shift at the movie theater...no matter which, the holidays are...in some way...sacred.

"I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child and yet been [adult] enough to know its value..."

300000

It seems appropriate that the good 'ole 'precious' hit the 300,000 mile mark on I5...of course it did make taking a photo rather risky business...

This vehicle was purchased by my Dad new in 1992, graciously gifted to Joe and I (at 186,000) in 2003, and has traveled across country at least 3 times (once with us). Original engine, 3rd battery, umpteenth distributor (ditto spark plugs) and 2nd muffler (you don't know joy until you've run back from the car to claim your muffler from the middle of the road).

...if it can just get us through grad school (apparently I said that the last time I was in grad school too).

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.

On removing words from the undergraduate student vocabulary.

As a result of my fellowship with the Food Justice conference I'm not teaching this term. So, my interaction with undergrads is limited to passing moments. Also, due to my fellowship, I find that I am outside my office rather frequently these days walking to and from the law school. So, I have the opportunity to overhear many conversations (the proximity of the dorms to the law school makes this extremely amusing). I have been exposed to a whole host of exchanges, the majority of which sound something akin to this (which I overheard yesterday):

freshman #1: "hey, did you like do that paper yet?"

freshman #2: "yeah, I like worked on it, for like a little bit, like last night"

freshman #1: "I totally don't know like what I'm going to write"

freshman#2: "yeah, I like had a hard time with the first part, you know, like doing what the teacher said." "I like wrote, um...well, like, you know about the stuff from class." "wow, I like totally don't remember what I said." "and I had a hard time with my notes, because you know, like, how the teacher talks." "but then, I like, talked about that stuff from the book we read, you know like who the characters are and like, what they're doing and like what their saying"

freshman#1: "yeah, that's like a great idea, I hope I can say something like that too in my paper."

...and so on.

Which raises a number of questions for me. This conversation smacks of a lazy mind, I know because I am guilty of it too...I say "fuck" a lot and in place of other equally reasonable (and less offensive) words. But this use of "like" in a range of grammatical positions it was never intended for really bemuses me. Is it that we're so attached to 'soundbite' communication (twitter, facebook, bad television reporting, blogs and whathaveyou) that this is how we talk? Or is it simply the comfort of friendly conversation?
If we removed that one word from the student vocabulary would they cease to be able to describe things? link verbs together? start a sentence? exclaim in commiseration?

Also, does it even matter? Probably not...

I hope I never get one of these...

I walked by an office door yesterday and saw this note pinned to it. Ouch...

Professor and student names removed for privacy...but I will note (happily) that this was not an office in my department.

USDA should put its money where its mouth is.

Marion Nestle recently highlighted on her blog the disparity between the percentage of USDA subsidies that go to certain food sectors and the propaganda of the USDA dietary guidelines. Her brief discussion comes out of a larger study completed by the Produce for Better Health Foundation. The section that I was most interested in (Disconnect between USDA Spending Priorities and Public Health Goals) analyzes the extent to which the allocation of USDA spending on the major food groups is congruent with their endorsement of the 2005 dietary guidelines for people living in the US.

The methodology for their statistics on this is interesting (check out page 10-11 of the report), as it is rather difficult (as was pointed out to me by Scott) to compare subsidies to daily food intake. But I think that it is an interesting thought experiment and I was extremely happy to see that they had broken down the information visually.

Wow, look at the blue one. The meat group dominates spending, as does the grain group (a double whammy, as it were, as the majority of subsidized grain in the US goes to meat production), the only close to reality spending versus advocacy is in dairy and fats.

The beauty of irony.

My phone rang last night--an exciting event all on its own, since I rarely pick it up, people have stopped calling...
It was exciting news on the other line, my good friends had just had the ultra sound appointment for determining their baby's sex...they are expecting a boy!

What was so fabulous about this phone call (besides the good news) was that my girlfriend pointed out that she had to call me to tell me because I wouldn't see it on facebook.
...I have thus determined that my anti-social behavior has actually caused me to be more social...