As I said a few days ago, I'm interested in which media outlets are covering the conference - and which aren't. NPR has had bulletins from Sylvia Poggioli yesterday and today - but with more emphasis on the politics than the science and economics. BBC is covering it, too.
Here's a quotation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon:
"We have an historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture... I call on you to take bold and urgent steps to address the root causes of this global food crisis."
And here's the link to more quotations from the opening salvos:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7434371.stm
I especially liked this tell-it-like-it-is approach from Croation President Stjepan Mesic:
"We must admit the fact that we have reached the present situation because of decades of mistaken understanding of global development, because of a truly brazen imposition of unacceptable models on other communities and ways of life, because of unfair rules of international trade and the hypocrisy of international financial institutions, because of favouring big business at the expense of ordinary people."
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
We've been discovered
Tourists are coming to Sonoma County to eat local and write about it for the New York Times.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/travel/01explorer.html?ex=1369886400&en=a8a9c32f89b711eb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
While I can sing the praises of some of the places mentioned in the article, I would like to add that you don't have to be precious or pretentious to eat locally here. But perhaps it helps to live here, and to have a sense of how community (the opposite of tourism) and local food work together.
I hope these folks go home and do something about their local food system - and not just for well-to-do foodies.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/travel/01explorer.html?ex=1369886400&en=a8a9c32f89b711eb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
While I can sing the praises of some of the places mentioned in the article, I would like to add that you don't have to be precious or pretentious to eat locally here. But perhaps it helps to live here, and to have a sense of how community (the opposite of tourism) and local food work together.
I hope these folks go home and do something about their local food system - and not just for well-to-do foodies.
Friday, May 30, 2008
High Level Conference on World Food Security
On the global scene, a major conference is coming up June 3-5 in Rome, exploring global food security, especially as it relates to climate change and bioenergy.
http://www.fao.org/foodclimate/hlc-home/en/
Today I got a press release on a statement signed by hundreds of heads of faith group and NGOs laying out their priorities. Or should I say our priorities, since Katharine our presiding bishop is one of the signers.
One of the concerns in the accompanying media advisory is that stakeholders in those sectors, and grassroots agricultural leaders and efforts generally, have not been heard adequately in the process leading up to this conference.
You can read the letter here:
http://www.jpicpassionist.org/
It'll be interesting to see to what extent commercial US media follow this story. I'll be sure to post links here to any news from Episcopal media or RNS.
http://www.fao.org/foodclimate/hlc-home/en/
Today I got a press release on a statement signed by hundreds of heads of faith group and NGOs laying out their priorities. Or should I say our priorities, since Katharine our presiding bishop is one of the signers.
One of the concerns in the accompanying media advisory is that stakeholders in those sectors, and grassroots agricultural leaders and efforts generally, have not been heard adequately in the process leading up to this conference.
You can read the letter here:
http://www.jpicpassionist.org/
It'll be interesting to see to what extent commercial US media follow this story. I'll be sure to post links here to any news from Episcopal media or RNS.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Finally a report on the farm bill
and why haven't I found this site before?
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis offers this three page summary of what was and was not done.
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/commentaries.cfm?refID=102665
Finally a three pager that isn't just from the perspective of grapes or cows or a chemical company, but gives a comprehensive look at what finally happened, albeit with a left leaning slant.
Many media outlets overlooked the modest but progressive provisions in the farm bill which will reward conservation efforts, encourage organic farming, and prefer local sourcing of food in some government subsidized feeding programs - all good steps.
Also ethanol incentives begin to move away from corn and toward other native cellulosic plants.
But here's the sobering fact offered as context for this report: Cargill's earnings in April 2008 were up 86% over the same period a year ago - a trend that has been going on for a decade.
If we complain when oil companies make big profits while gasoline prices rise, where's the outrage over this statistic when food prices are skyrocketing?
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis offers this three page summary of what was and was not done.
http://www.iatp.org/iatp/commentaries.cfm?refID=102665
Finally a three pager that isn't just from the perspective of grapes or cows or a chemical company, but gives a comprehensive look at what finally happened, albeit with a left leaning slant.
Many media outlets overlooked the modest but progressive provisions in the farm bill which will reward conservation efforts, encourage organic farming, and prefer local sourcing of food in some government subsidized feeding programs - all good steps.
Also ethanol incentives begin to move away from corn and toward other native cellulosic plants.
But here's the sobering fact offered as context for this report: Cargill's earnings in April 2008 were up 86% over the same period a year ago - a trend that has been going on for a decade.
If we complain when oil companies make big profits while gasoline prices rise, where's the outrage over this statistic when food prices are skyrocketing?
the global food scene - some updates
I've been doing some research for a story for Episcopal media on the global food crisis. Since I can't get a response from our Washington Office, and the sustainability staff person in the Anglican office at the UN does not answer emails or return calls, I've been going back to some of the secular places I've found helpful in the past.
I am still a fan of Food Aid or Food Sovreignty (see links to the right) as the best treatment of the underlying problems. There is an update on the Oakland Institute site now. Interestingly, they label the current crisis the food price crisis - putting an emphasis on the economic dimensions of the problem. They make the case that free trade has caused much of the current crisis - and yet the IMF and the US are proposing more of the same as a solution. Hmmm.
Check out the media links on the right of the Oakland Institute site
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/
If you do podcasts (or just like listening on your computer when Comcast fails you and you can't get the ball game on the radio after dark which is my present condition) the KPFA interview with Anuradha Mittal of the OI is a pretty good summary. There's also a reminder to check out Kootenay Co-op Radio's Deconstructing Dinner podcasts.
I am still a fan of Food Aid or Food Sovreignty (see links to the right) as the best treatment of the underlying problems. There is an update on the Oakland Institute site now. Interestingly, they label the current crisis the food price crisis - putting an emphasis on the economic dimensions of the problem. They make the case that free trade has caused much of the current crisis - and yet the IMF and the US are proposing more of the same as a solution. Hmmm.
Check out the media links on the right of the Oakland Institute site
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/
If you do podcasts (or just like listening on your computer when Comcast fails you and you can't get the ball game on the radio after dark which is my present condition) the KPFA interview with Anuradha Mittal of the OI is a pretty good summary. There's also a reminder to check out Kootenay Co-op Radio's Deconstructing Dinner podcasts.
Monday, May 26, 2008
further thoughts of food and stories
A few weeks ago I finished reading Kitchen Literacy. The book does provide a sweeping story of how our stories about our food have changed. Most helpful for me was understanding that this is not just a post WWII phenomenon, but happened gradually as the U.S. population grew and we became more urban.
Stories and food seem to go together. The stories of rural and town folk - even city folk when agricultural areas, not suburbs, ringed them - used to be how and where the food was produced, and by whom. Even in my boomer childhood, in a small town with a summer population on its way to becoming a bedroom community, we had these food stories. "Uncle" Phil had cows and beef critters, as did the farm two properties from our house (now a golf course). We bought two piglets in the spring and raised them for fall slaughter. I had hens for the eggs (and stew pot). My dad had a vegetable garden and my grandmother had strawberry beds. My grandfather always grew something he hadn't before in his garden - my lasting impression is seeing Brussels sprouts on the stalk for the first time. We all went blueberrying and clamming, and got our cranberries from the growers. (Cranberries now are mostly harvested by flooding the bogs, which makes them most suitable for processing, and not, very much, for storage. If you want to store cranberries through the winter, you harvest them dry, with a scoop with tines, and pack them dry in crates - not plastic. ) My dad went deer hunting, and taught himself to butcher by studying pictures of cuts of beef and lamb in cook books. Usually around my birthday we would make a trip to visit relatives in western Massachusetts, near where my dad's family had settled in the late nineteenth century. We'd visit the peach orchards in the Connecticut River valley and bring bushels home for preserving, and make pigs of ourselves on the bounty of the small truck farm that my dad's cousin ran.
All of this I may elaborate some day in my food autobiography.
But those food stories got supplanted for us and others over time. In the early boomer time of my youth, freezing was replacing canning both commercially and at home. The stories were as often of brand names (was Betty Crocker real once?) as of blueberrying trips. The guy who sold us the piglets got too old to carry on and none of his children were interested; homemade sausage patties were replaced by the brand du jour. Using King Arthur flour ties me to the Saturdays in the 50s helping my grandmother bake as much as the memory of helping her to pick strawberries to sell at her roadside stand.
Other narratives grew up - like the weekly narrative of what was on sale at the supermarket, sure to be featured in this week's menus. And we watched our first cooking shows, the Julia narrative.
Now as I consider my fellow eaters and shoppers, I see even more sophisticated stories that distance us from our food. There are still stories of brand names - but they are usually built on the clever vignettes of advertising campaigns, not the adjudged quality of the product. We get to know the actors who "make" Post cereals, or the family who eats Thomas' English Muffins, or the Kashee eating bungee jumpers. Who even thinks about where the grains come from? And there are the green washing campaigns, too. We want to believe the idyllic labels on Target's organic food line, and the grazing cows on our dairy products. And, of course, the narratives of quick and easy.
The other stories we tell ourselves about our food these days are the nutrient stories. It's good for you - antioxidants, calcium, contains ginkgo, pomegranate, blueberry extract. And just what are goji berries? where do they come from? At my local market the crocks of staple items contain full nutritional labeling, and sometimes organic certification, but nary a word about where the crops are grown or processed.
It's a luxury to have the kind of conversation I did yesterday, with the person who sources and blends the mix of leaf lettuce seeds from which I am growing a very satisfying crop.
But before I manage to outline my entire food autobiography, I want to attempt to say what I set out to: food and stories seem to go together - meal and narrative. At their best, there is a sacramental quality to meal and narrative, that points us to the meal and stories we share around our holy tables.
Stories and food seem to go together. The stories of rural and town folk - even city folk when agricultural areas, not suburbs, ringed them - used to be how and where the food was produced, and by whom. Even in my boomer childhood, in a small town with a summer population on its way to becoming a bedroom community, we had these food stories. "Uncle" Phil had cows and beef critters, as did the farm two properties from our house (now a golf course). We bought two piglets in the spring and raised them for fall slaughter. I had hens for the eggs (and stew pot). My dad had a vegetable garden and my grandmother had strawberry beds. My grandfather always grew something he hadn't before in his garden - my lasting impression is seeing Brussels sprouts on the stalk for the first time. We all went blueberrying and clamming, and got our cranberries from the growers. (Cranberries now are mostly harvested by flooding the bogs, which makes them most suitable for processing, and not, very much, for storage. If you want to store cranberries through the winter, you harvest them dry, with a scoop with tines, and pack them dry in crates - not plastic. ) My dad went deer hunting, and taught himself to butcher by studying pictures of cuts of beef and lamb in cook books. Usually around my birthday we would make a trip to visit relatives in western Massachusetts, near where my dad's family had settled in the late nineteenth century. We'd visit the peach orchards in the Connecticut River valley and bring bushels home for preserving, and make pigs of ourselves on the bounty of the small truck farm that my dad's cousin ran.
All of this I may elaborate some day in my food autobiography.
But those food stories got supplanted for us and others over time. In the early boomer time of my youth, freezing was replacing canning both commercially and at home. The stories were as often of brand names (was Betty Crocker real once?) as of blueberrying trips. The guy who sold us the piglets got too old to carry on and none of his children were interested; homemade sausage patties were replaced by the brand du jour. Using King Arthur flour ties me to the Saturdays in the 50s helping my grandmother bake as much as the memory of helping her to pick strawberries to sell at her roadside stand.
Other narratives grew up - like the weekly narrative of what was on sale at the supermarket, sure to be featured in this week's menus. And we watched our first cooking shows, the Julia narrative.
Now as I consider my fellow eaters and shoppers, I see even more sophisticated stories that distance us from our food. There are still stories of brand names - but they are usually built on the clever vignettes of advertising campaigns, not the adjudged quality of the product. We get to know the actors who "make" Post cereals, or the family who eats Thomas' English Muffins, or the Kashee eating bungee jumpers. Who even thinks about where the grains come from? And there are the green washing campaigns, too. We want to believe the idyllic labels on Target's organic food line, and the grazing cows on our dairy products. And, of course, the narratives of quick and easy.
The other stories we tell ourselves about our food these days are the nutrient stories. It's good for you - antioxidants, calcium, contains ginkgo, pomegranate, blueberry extract. And just what are goji berries? where do they come from? At my local market the crocks of staple items contain full nutritional labeling, and sometimes organic certification, but nary a word about where the crops are grown or processed.
It's a luxury to have the kind of conversation I did yesterday, with the person who sources and blends the mix of leaf lettuce seeds from which I am growing a very satisfying crop.
But before I manage to outline my entire food autobiography, I want to attempt to say what I set out to: food and stories seem to go together - meal and narrative. At their best, there is a sacramental quality to meal and narrative, that points us to the meal and stories we share around our holy tables.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Farm Bill Finale
With all the sites for info on the Farm Bill, you'd think one would have gotten up a quick update on what was actually passed (which the President has vetoed, but Congress has the votes to over ride).
Some lobbying groups have published what's in it for them, but it's a little like the blind men and the elephant trying to get a picture of the whole.
It's certainly safe to say that it didn't go far enough to reform subsidies, especially given the impact of subsidies on agriculture in countries not rich enough to have them. Some crops were added and there is more support for fruit and veg, not a bad thing if you are going to have subsidies at all. About 10% of the cost of the bill is for crop subsidies.
I think most of us who had things to say about US farm policy early in 2007 realized we weren't going to win this time - but there is progress because conversation about the farm bill seemed much more widespread this time. Or is that just the people with whom I hang out with?
To those who didn't want this bill passed, I have to say that I am not sure programs for the hungry and the malnourished could go much longer without the enactment of some legislation. The widening gap between rich and poor in this country and rising food prices are combining to increase pressure on domestic food aid programs at a time when stocks in food banks, etc., are down. It's not a pretty picture. 2/3 of the cost of this bill is for food stamps, emergency food aid, and nutrition programs.
Some other things: there were incentives for biofuels. Apparently some were of the kind we like to see - conversion of waste to energy sources. Some most clearly were not - crops for fuel instead of crops for food.
I'll be trying to find out more over the next few weeks.
Some lobbying groups have published what's in it for them, but it's a little like the blind men and the elephant trying to get a picture of the whole.
It's certainly safe to say that it didn't go far enough to reform subsidies, especially given the impact of subsidies on agriculture in countries not rich enough to have them. Some crops were added and there is more support for fruit and veg, not a bad thing if you are going to have subsidies at all. About 10% of the cost of the bill is for crop subsidies.
I think most of us who had things to say about US farm policy early in 2007 realized we weren't going to win this time - but there is progress because conversation about the farm bill seemed much more widespread this time. Or is that just the people with whom I hang out with?
To those who didn't want this bill passed, I have to say that I am not sure programs for the hungry and the malnourished could go much longer without the enactment of some legislation. The widening gap between rich and poor in this country and rising food prices are combining to increase pressure on domestic food aid programs at a time when stocks in food banks, etc., are down. It's not a pretty picture. 2/3 of the cost of this bill is for food stamps, emergency food aid, and nutrition programs.
Some other things: there were incentives for biofuels. Apparently some were of the kind we like to see - conversion of waste to energy sources. Some most clearly were not - crops for fuel instead of crops for food.
I'll be trying to find out more over the next few weeks.
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