Will rising prices mean less food waste?

That's the question posed at the end of this article on wasting food in America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?ex=1368936000&en=e6a84a8faa66ddbe&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

We've all heard the statistics, I'm sure, and know it's an appalling situation. And anyone who shares a dumpster with neighboring apartments or condominiums certainly knows the score.

We have small yards here where I live, but no green or organic waste dumpster. I don't eat meat, and I do compost, so I don't have much of that childhood guilt about the starving people in other countries. (The country that comes to mind first when you fill in the blank of "Save the starving -----" is probably a clue as to when you were in grade school.) But one look at what others throw out is always a great reality check. It's appalling. And sometimes the food looks almost as good as that in the Times article.

Then when you think about how foodcentric life is around here, the potential waste is astounding.

Is there a Mark Bittman fan club?

If not, perhaps I could start one.

Here's a 20 minute video of a talk he gave last December and which he linked to his blog today.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/263

I take exception to his minimizing (the minimalist!) the chance of eating locally, but the central point here - eat less meat and more plants - is well and entertainingly made.

What North American food nation do you live in?

I keep forgetting to post this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/29/dining/20080430_LIST_GRAPHIC.html#

A wonderful map accompanying a review of a book, “Renewing America's Food Traditions” by Gary Paul Nabhan, about disappearing foods.

I feel a little squirrely knowing I live in acorn nation, but I feel as though I live where acorn nation meets salmon nation. I also get a sense of reality about our diocese when I note that we also include part of pine nut nation.

The Greendex is pretty interesting

Here's another footprint-type calculator where you can compare yourself to our national average (not good) and to ratings of other countries.

http://event.nationalgeographic.com/greendex/index.html

I answered the questions, and found it gave a more nuanced picture than other calculators I have used. Usually I am over the top because I live alone and drive a lot for work/ministry purposes. Here, work miles are exempted, and eating and recycling habits count. But when I compared myself to the descriptions of countries with average scores similar to mine, the similar scores come from very different practices. Also, I noticed there were comments on water use for the various countries, but I didn't find the questions in the survey for individuals.

What makes me saddest about things like this is that they are based on the assumption that everyone is defined by their consumption habits. Of course, in one sense we are - but aren't some of the habits ones of producing and sustaining?

Could we feed ourselves?

I've been searching for and working over some statistics with the question in mind: could we feed ourselves here in Sonoma County if we had to. This is part of some work with our ad hoc Food Systems Group, trying to get an accurate picture of where we are in resiliency, sustainability, worker justice, availability of nutritious foods - all those parameters of the food system.

It's not a pretty picture. In a few words - we might have plenty of dairy products and chicken and wine - but we'd suffer for grains and vegetables. And frankly, I'm not sure about where the feed for the chickens comes from. We have quite a bit of range land, and grow some feed grains, etc. - but I am not sure it is enough to support the poultry and grazing animals we have.

The black box, as far as getting a picture goes, is what happens in back yards and community gardens - and what might happen.

I suspect that we have have a fair amount of fruit in residential backyards: apples and lemons probably lead the pack, some pears and other citrus, persimmons and figs. This is the home of the Santa Rosa plum, and some California Italians still grow the plums that are used for prunes - though they have dropped off the radar as a cash crop. I'm also aware of kumquats and quinces - but those may be a bit fringy. And there are backyard berries - cultivated of various sorts - as well as the himalayan wild (invasive) blackberries everywhere.

If my trip to Imwalle's on Monday was any indication, more people are doing backyard gardening. There were a number of folks puzzling over the bedding plants. How many tomatoes and summer squash plants do I need?

And I'm still spotting vacant lots that could be turned into gardens, and wondering why there is no community garden as part of the plan for the vast sports fields being developed in northwest Santa Rosa, and wondering why there are so many lawns.

Today's NY Times contains an article on urban farming, on the turning of small plots into vegetable gardens, and of people supplementing their income and improving neighborhood access to fresh produce by taking back the vacant lots.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/dining/07urban.html?ex=1367899200&en=4081d4d0ad4b3af5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

In fact, this article answered one of my questions. I was wondering why we are growing so many grapes here, when apparently small scale organic vegetable farming is more lucrative. In 2006 we grew about the same acreage of Sangiovese grapes and vegetables - just under 300 acres - but the market value of the vegetables was three times the value of the grapes! I couldn't believe this - until I read that a half-acre farm in Philadelphia "generated $67,000 from high-value crops like lettuces, carrots and radishes." Radishes?

Why garden?

Michael Pollan's essay, "Why Bother?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?ex=1366516800&en=4c931d0a068a2a1a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

underscores the importance, real and symbolic, or personal change, of - he dares say it so I will, too - character, as we face the specter of accelerating climate change.

He concludes, of course, by suggesting everybody plant a garden. It's about using solar power directly, cutting the food miles close to zero, recycling kitchen waste, amusing yourself rather than being dependent on electronic diversions, cutting down on time at the gym - and better tasting food.

I got my first salad from my garden this year a few evenings ago - lettuce and radishes from the community garden, with some edible flowers - nasturtiums and chive blossoms - from my back yard. Dressed with olive oil from Oroville and the juice of half a Meyer lemon - from someone else's backyard - it was perfection. I had forgotten how good really fresh baby lettuce - as opposed to the gassed stuff at the supermarket - tastes. I planted my edible podded peas late, but they are blooming, and every grey morning means means another day they'll like before the consistent heat hits.

Why don't we have one of those?

An interesting article on my BBC feed discusses a plan to make the dairy biz in Britain greener. Less water, less fossil fuel usage, less energy usage, doing a better job with waste of all kinds - with clear numerical targets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7378030.stm

What really caught my attention though was this: the plan came from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Why don't we have a department like that in our government, rather than having agriculture in one department, environment in another, and things affecting both all over the place?