Drought report

Here's a summary of the most recent UC Davis report on the drought.
http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10978

Many of the numbers are small percentages, but if one looks through them the impact of many individuals, workers and farmers, could be heartbreaking.

I'm curious about the fact that prices for grapes, nuts and dairy won't be much impacted.  It will be interesting to see if they rise anyway, with the drought as an excuse.

Most shocking - California has not statewide plan for groundwater management.  Who has been snoozing? cowardly about addressing this?

Food, good and neighborly

The e-news of the Association of Episcopal Deacons linked to this story.  It made me hungry even though I'd just had dinner.  Let's hear it for deacons who don't just offer food aid, but good food, and find ways to fund it which connect community.
http://www.ediblebajaarizona.com/listen-to-the-deacon/

Availability vs Prohibition

Catching up on reading some e-newsletters led me to poking around resources for the "healthy corner store" movement.  "Healthy" here means a healthy business selling healthful food.  (I will stick to the usage conventions I learned!)  One thing that fascinates me is that none of them talk about banning certain products, but about increasing healthful alternatives and promoting them effectively.  And why not?  My experience is that kids at the Teen Center, next door to a corner market, ask for fruit for after school snacks, and are disappointed if the Gleaning Project or neighbors haven't donated any lately. Emphasizing the positive choice is contrary to the impetus here in Sonoma County - banning tobacco, alcohol and sugar in corner stores.
Prohibition didn't work!
I found this nice guide for merchants in the materials from Philadelphia:
http://thefoodtrust.org/uploads/media_items/phcsn-sell-healthy-guide.original.pdf

First the Padres

then the Giants.  Oh for better food and some fresh alternatives at Athletics' games.
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/edible-gardens-go-ballpark/

When consumers speak

apparently even Cargill listens.
Yesterday's Ag Insider pointed me to a story about Cargill's development of an identity-preserved, conventionally bred (that's the positive way of saying non-GMO - and really, a much better description) soy bean oil.  It's processed in Des Moines, in response to consumer interest.
Details here:
http://www.world-grain.com/articles/news_home/World_Grain_News/2014/06/Cargill_develops_non-GMO_soybe.aspx?ID={DBA637A4-C4B0-41A2-9C42-261D59984855}&cck=1

I Love Olive

Here's a story from yesterday's Sac Bee about the growing trend of growing olives in California.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/22/6500375/olive-cultivation-is-on-the-rise.html

I was fascinated that California farmers are planting olives, a drought resistant crop, in intensive ways (for machine harvest) that seem to negate some of the value of drought resistance. Thus more affordable California olive oil is not necessarily the best thing from a sustainability perspective. But who can afford the boutique oil prices?

Perhaps we should grow our own.  Should community gardens be putting in a few olive trees?  Should we bring back the idea of a communal press, where folks can take their back yard olives?

A few interesting statistics:
97% of the olive oil consumed in the USA is imported - and not all of it is what it seems.
98% of olives grown in the USA are grown in California - though other states are growing more.
4% of California olives were destined for oil in the '90s, but in 2012 it was 46%.

"Health" isn't all there is

From an article in yesterday's Washington Post on organic vs conventional:

"Leave aside for the moment whether organic agriculture is better for the planet and whether organic livestock have better lives, although there’s a strong case for both of those arguments. Leave aside flavor, too, because it’s subjective and variable. What motivates many organic buyers, particularly the parents of small children, is health benefits, and there are two questions: Do organics do us more good (in the form of better nutrition), and do they do us less harm (in the form of fewer contaminants and pathogens)?"

I'm just not willing, even for a moment, to leave aside the health of the soil, the well being of animals and the flavor of my food.  This consumerist, reductionist, food as nutrients and toxins only mindset gets up my nose.  

There, I've said it and I'm glad!