Does buying local matter?
Do we really want to take the risk that buying those local apples will turn us into North Korea?
Food & Water
A healthy (and profitable) oasis in Philly’s food deserts
Want proof that the goals of business and the needs of the most vulnerable can align? Meet Jeff Brown, fourth-generation grocer and owner of the 10-store ShopRite regional chain based in Philadelphia. By mixing old-fashioned customer service with innovative new approaches, Brown is chipping away at the nation’s jobs challenge, starting in the communities hardest-hit by the financial crisis.
HOMEGROWN Life: A Word on Efficiency (and Productivity and Sustainability)
Here’s the rub…Is it really more efficient for me to shovel goat manure, let it age, plant some lettuce in it, and truck it to local consumers? Or is it more efficient for Missourians to keep buying lettuce from California that was picked by migrant workers in unsafe conditions who were likely paid poorly, and with said lettuce robbing the withering Colorado River of its flow? There are people who try to figure these things out, but a lot of it centers on the pivot of what one means by efficiency and productivity and measurement.
The peak oil crisis: global dynamics
The most dangerous force changing our way of life has to be climate change which from all indications is starting to affect our economies, lifestyles, and most importantly our food supplies at an increasing rate. Every reputable expert is saying that this summer’s unusual melt of the arctic icecap is only the first stage of what will soon be frequent and lengthy disruptions of global weather patterns as the warming arctic causes the polar jet stream to become more erratic. These disruptions will result in alternating floods, droughts, and severe storms that will continue indefinitely – perhaps for centuries or longer.
Now that of course leads to questions about the food supply …
A small thing but maybe not
All summer I raved and ranted at the squirrels that were eating the corn in my crib. I was particularly concerned because the drought seemed to be making sure this year’s crop was going to be a bust. I did not look forward to buying corn at drought-inflated prices just to keep squirrels fat eating my reserve supply. Eventually, we practically encased the whole crib in chicken wire. To no avail. Once a squirrel makes up its mind to get into something it will find a way even into a lead vault.
Not quite 100 Million, but it is a start
A few years back Stuart Staniford, (who is one of the most brilliant people I know) and I had a lively debate about the future of small scale agriculture over at The Oil Drum. Stuart argued that agriculture would continue to get bigger and more industrialized, because its fossil fuel dependency really wasn’t that great. I argued that in fact energy and environmental pressures would push us back to smaller scale agriculture.
Number of farms in the United States
So, we are a long way from Sharon Astyk’s Nation of Farmers, but it certainly looks like the giant loss of US farm count in the mid twentieth century has stabilized and perhaps now begun some kind of bounce back.
Innovative crops of the Alai Valley
The High Pamir and Pamir-Alai mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan form one of the world’s most remote and beautiful landscapes. But with this isolation and dramatic scenery are extreme climate and socio-economic marginalization that results in communities here being some of the poorest in Central Asia…Farmers in this region rarely have enough money to risk investing in new crops that might improve their economic situation. But the ingenuity of some local farmers who are interested in expanding beyond the confines of traditional staple crops, is leading an agricultural transition towards micro-innovation.
Real food right now and how to cook it: Grapes
Grapes are a special fruit. From inspiring myth (think Dionysus and Bacchus) to sustaining WWII troops in the form of raisins, grapes have been involved in so much of human history. Although I grew up eating lots of raisins and grapes, as I imagine so many American kids in the 70s and 80s did, I didn’t really value the fruit until I was old enough to appreciate wine. The magic that happens between the grape harvest and the first pour into the wine glass is something thrilling – and it’s amazing to think that the beverage we let stain our teeth is (essentially) the same beverage that the ancient Persians, Romans, Greeks and Egyptians drank.
Citywatch: Getting to the right question on the nutrient benefits of organic food
The international media had a field day headlining a Stanford university dissing significant nutritional benefits of organic food. I hope it’s not too late for me to ask a few questions that might steer the debate in a more useful direction.
Sharing for Survival Chapter 4: Policy Packages
A viable mechanism to reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions, such as Cap and Share, is a necessary part of any coherent action plan to avoid catastrophic climate change, and end fossil fuel dependence. There are many other aspects to the global economic and ecological crisis, though, which have to be dealt with through complementary and synergistic measures. Any element of a coherent package including Cap and Share could, on its own, be counterproductive. This chapter explores some of the main issues that need to be addressed in tandem with capping fossil fuel CO2.
Fires in the field
If you want to see the landscape of hell painted prettily on a farmland horizon, watch a field of corn on fire. It is hellish enough, in my view, to see corn fields stretching away in every direction from sea to shining sea with no houses, barns, trees, fences, grazing animals or any other sign of human habitation in sight. But when a curtain of fire is rushing across this land of the free and home of the brave, the effect is quite as terrifying as watching a big slice of the Great Plains suddenly disappear before the onslaught of a dust storm.
