Posts by mike @change.org
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More and More Young People Take To Sustainable Farming
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Sustainable Food Will Benefit From Fewer Americans Relocating
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Ag Sec Vilsack Won't Take Sides, But Admits GM Regulations Needed
Harvest Boon: Satellites Help Farmers Boost Yield
Published November 12, 2009 @ 05:15PM PT
Farmers have long looked to the sky to predict the weather, the chance of a good harvest, and the likelihood of rain. Now, the skies are looking back, and talking back, with satellites helping farmers boost crop yields. Satellites are able to give quick and relatively cheap analysis of what the optimal amount of seed, fertilizer, pesticide and water is. Even those opposed to use of industrial pesticide must agree that using a little as possible is a good thing. It's the same with water: this advance will reduce the need of water, or increase it where water is necessary to guarantee a good harvest, and avoid wasting a crop.
The satellite provides an analysis of the spectrum of radiation which can help reveal properties of the soil, levels of minerals and moisture, and by adding weather patterns, indicate "how, where and when crops should be grown." The cost is as low as $15 a hectare, and by improving yields by up to 10% it's just another way that science can help farming without destroying the environment or using genetic modification to increase yields. France leads the way in the use of this technology, and governments in Canada are even getting in on the act, using the information to see where farmers are creating too much nitrate fertilizer. It'll soon help developing countries too, with African soil samples being taken to build and initial digital map that will be given free to farmers and supplemented with satellite imagery.
Are SUVs More Eco-Friendly Than Dogs?
Published November 04, 2009 @ 12:50PM PT
Is it time to chew on the chihuahua? Robert and Brenda Vale think it might be in their new book "Time To Eat The Dog." They consider the eco-impact of pets, and determine that when you look at the emissions data of an animal's consumption of both cereals and meats, it show that an SUV is twice as eco-friendly as owning a dog. This is largely down to the amount of meat that dogs eat; you'd need to feed your dog a vegetarian diet to be absolved of some of your sins, but the eco-pawprint is still a big one.
Michael Pollan weighed it to a similar debate recently, explaining that "A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius." He later retracted that statement, but it's a statement that, like "Time to eat the dog," questions how much we are prepared to change our lives, and how many sacreds cows we will slaughter in order to cut the damaging and unsustainable aspects of our lifestyle.
Cuba Cracks Down on Capitalist Farmers Markets
Published October 30, 2009 @ 09:56AM PT
Cuban leaders aren't embracing farmers markets, free market "agros" where vendors control prices rather than national authorities. The communist authorities are ending that capitalistic experiment and cracking down on those profiting from the enterprise. At a market where state workers appeared for an inspection, police had to be called when customers began a shouting match with them, the AP reports.
Farmers markets take control of food supplies out of government hands, but at least it allows a variety of food to reach those who need it. After an outcry by citizens, changes to farmers markets were pushed back to the new year. It's in the interest of farmers to sell directly to sellers rather than the government because they make more money. Cuban leaders aren't happy about farmers or sellers becoming rich, so the markets are closing.
This news comes despite Raul Castro's minor reforms towards so called 'socialism lite.' Castro is restructuring parts of the country's agricultural system, allowing farmers to own land previously left idle, hoping to make the country's agricultural system more efficient. Not permitting farmers to profit from their work is no way to encourage efficiency. At the farmers markets that have been scrutinized, many sellers stay away — it simply doesn't make sense to sell produce at a loss.
A UN project aims to increase food security through decentralization initiatives, production stimulation, and increasing the involvement of the private sector, but I imagine this will become unhinged should the Cuban government remained opposed to farmers markets.
Mistrust of Science Won’t Help Create Sustainable Agriculture
Published October 28, 2009 @ 06:47AM PT
When it comes to food and farming there is no 'natural' ideal to which we can possibly strive. Though organic food and sustainability helps us reacquaint ourselves with where our food comes from, are we fetishizing the idea of 'natural' and 'real' food? We've never agreed what these words mean, leading us to oppose and mistrust science, to the detriment of a growing population that we'll need to feed. That's the argument of a recent piece in Seed Magazine, asking us to rethink broad and vague terms that have little scientific merit.
Political scientist Robert Paarlberg explained in his 2008 book, Starved for Science, that whilst the productivity of our farms has risen through the application of science, we don't need any more of it; “This turn against new agricultural science is an affordable attitude in rich countries, but it becomes dangerous if exported to science-starved poor countries,” he explained.
It isn't enough to assume organic food is a universal good for the world. If it's shipped half way across the country or planet, conventionally grown local food is better. Similarly, the article speaks favorable of biotech firms and makes the compelling point that shouldn't we mustn't automatically distrust science in the name of 'natural food' — especially when it comes to feeding a growing population.
Trouble Down At the Food Co-op: Sustainability Isn't Easy!
Published October 26, 2009 @ 06:48PM PT
The story of being suspended from the Park Slope Food Co-Op in Brooklyn, exiled from the borough's hub of environmentally friendly groceries where members get up-to 40 percent off is featured in today's Times. But of course, such a saving comes at a price — every member must work one or two shift a month, along with 15,000 other members. Alana Joblin Ain missed one too many shifts, and told her story — one of slipping away from the store, but not from sustainability altogether. Alana isn't bitter, explaining that the co-op is "a place that raises aspirations for society, makes us raise aspirations for ourselves."
She notes that not everyone is enamored by the cost cutting community atmosphere, with one ex-member explaining the co-op is "something between an earthy-crunchy health food haven and a Soviet-style re-education camp." Many of the exiles, cast out, end up shopping at a grocery store two blocks down from the co-op's HQ.
Sustainability, of course, is no drive-through. You've got to makes sacrifices — whether it's making the extra effort to get to a market, or searching out farmers box scheme. Making a positive change requires an active contribution.
Foods to Eat to Cut Emissions: Chicken, Honey, Whole Wheat
Published October 21, 2009 @ 09:17AM PT
We have been told that agricultural accounts for 51% of emissions and that eating meat is the single worst thing you can do to the environment (provoking 60 comments on both sides in a recent post). And we also know that sometimes flying food half way around the world is a bad idea, and sometimes it's better than growing it out off season in greenhouses. But what should we be eating?
Benno Hansen explains the familiar foods vices in a comprehensive blog post based on a peer reviewed journal article. It explains that we should avoid steak and cod, and not eat proteins like cheese and eggs in excess, as we do currently. And if we want to replace these food with foods that are better for the environment, for the meat eaters, the evidence points favorably to chicken.
For the meat eaters, chicken is six times less polluting to produce per kilo than steak. Small scale chicken production can help keep pests down, with chickens also able to recycle food waste, and live most anywhere in the world. In place of cod, herring is suggested. It is forty times less polluting that chicken, whilst in terms of protein efficiency domestically produced wheat scores even higher.
The others winners are fresh carrots, potatoes and honey, all causing very little greenhouse-house gas emissions. Also apples, even when they are shipped in by boat. So best avoid the lasagne, and choose whole wheat or potato based dishes as much as possible.
Locavorism Isn't Inherently Elitist, But Many Are Excluded
Published October 20, 2009 @ 09:40AM PT
Locavores are frequently accused of harboring an elitist mentality about food, with local food most recently accused of being "anything but liberatory for those traditionally marginalized." And that's not the worst of it as James McWilliams explains in a guest-post on the Freakonomics blog. He contends that "Localization ... specifies what is and is not acceptable within an arbitrary boundary. In this sense, it delimits diversity." So are those in favor of local food in fact alienating themselves from their community by creating a level of exclusivity not attainable by so many?
To the extent that local food is currently not widely available as it could be: yes. But as the blog explains, this can change. And the sustainable food movement is young! The solution, of course, is not to stop producing local or supporting local food. The solution is to consider who's being excluded by our tight embrace of sustainable food.
Samuel Fromartz doesn't have so much time for McWilliams, arguing back with statistics: "the median income of an organic shopper was right around the national median," further explaining that the problem may be that local food markets simply aren't sufficiently available. Both Fromartz and McWilliams offer compelling arguments that it's worth considering, rather than stumbling into supermarkets or farmers markets' and blindly assuming either is best. We must consider who's being left out, and how we can do better to give good food to more people, not just to ourselves.
