When there's nothing decent on Netflix

I'm not sure why I am just discovering this resource now: live streams and then archived interviews and panels on food system issues from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley in cooperation with The Edible Schoolyard. https://edibleschoolyard.org/ee101
I must say that I find a little Alice Waters goes a long way, but the speakers are top notch and the topics timely. I'm going to watch a few of these - perhaps even some in real time this evening, or a week from tonight when they tackle regenerative agriculture - and then offer a few substantive reviews. Stay tuned.

Book review

Eat Less Water 

by Florencia Ramirez (Pasadena; Red Hen Press, 2017)

My overall impression of this book is that Ramirez tries to do too many things. Part travelogue, part
cookbook, with facts (some footnotes and references) and opinions, it’s an interesting book to stroll through or dip into, but a bit scattered in its argument. 

I do like the food-by-food chaptering, which encourages one to think about one facet of diet at a time. For example, with ecotarian goals I need to think more about the amount and sources of dairy in my diet. I’m not sure, though, that the numbers at the chapter’s head make sense. Does a pound of butter really require more than eight times the water to produce than a pound of cheese does? Maybe I ought to give up butter and just eat more cheese? Or it may be  that the numbers don’t tell the whole story, since the by-products of both cheese and butter making do have uses that share their water burden. I am also really sure that I don’t need to purchase milk from dairy cows treated with homeopathy. 

Which leads me to mention that I’m not sure the author’s always choosing organic in everything she

purchases is best. There are farmers using no or greatly reduced tilling whose crops are not certified

organic, and may be a better choice than products of large scale organic farms. 

On the positive side, I’m still pondering Ramirez’s instructions for purchasing flour. If you don’t know

how the wheat was irrigated, purchase flour from the Dakotas and Montana where it isn’t irrigated,

she instructs. I was happy a year or so ago, thinking closer is usually better, to find organic whole

wheat flour from California; am I wrong to be buying it? 

Finally, a big plus is the author’s inclusion of beverages: coffee, wine, tequila, and beer. I’m a

cider drinker myself these days; but do you know how many gallons it took to produce that

six-pack of beer? 

Climate Change and our food supply

I can't possibly include all the resources I have amassed in the short paper I'm working on for the Episcopal Networks Collaborative. So here's an article on one of my favorite fruits, cranberries - just so I won't lose it.
https://foodprint.org/blog/cranberries-climate-change/

Where I buy it when I don't grow it

Imwalle Gardens
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10538928-181/santa-rosas-imwalle-gardens-a?fbclid=IwAR2M_Tiaf2vCr4Fk3LBcqJuzGaLRnXoRy6KEZMqxANr5GEYQ0D5wx4HWGUk&artslide=4&sba=AAS

And in season, Chiatri de Laguna Farm
https://www.farmtrails.org/business/chiatri-de-laguna-farm/

Both are less than two miles from where I live.

Winter gleaning

Bountifield

Years ago I asked what anyone might know about an organization called CTI, promoting sustainable technologies for global agriculture. I've never found anyone in my local circle who had an answer. A little online research just now revealed that they have been rebranded as Bountifield, with a focus on Africa, providing support for improved and sustainable post-harvest technologies, such as storage and getting crops to market. Ninety percent of the farmers they help are women. It seems critical work to reduce hunger and food waste, and to improve the lives of rural women. You can read all about it and support them through this website https://bountifield.org/

WFPB. WTF?

I ran into "WFPB" on the Rancho Gordo Bean Club Facebook page. Everyone seemed to know what it means except me. After puzzling over it for a while, thinking about all the things it could be, including a radio station east of the Mississippi, I asked.  Apparently it is "whole food plant based." It was explained to me as no meat, no processed foods. So I asked two more questions. Does no processed foods mean nothing cooked, dried or fermented, since those are all processes? No, it means no preservatives or extractions (e.g. white flour, white sugar). And my persistent question, why does plant-based always mean only plants (and fungi) when everything else -based does not mean that exclusively? (A fact-based narrative, for example, can use some poetic license.) I was told that WFPB is really a lifestyle.

So here are my two meta-questions.

Why must we refer to everything by initials? Because texting, I know. But really, you cannot expect everyone you share one interest with (in this case cooking beans) to be in the know on all the abbreviations, initials, and acronyms you use. It's just another way of creating in group out group dynamics, and we have too damn many in groups these days. Just to be fair, I hate it when knitters use cute in group jargony abbreviations, too. And church code words and alphabet soup - yuck.

And why are diets equated with lifestyles? Come on. I love to grow, cook, share and eat food. But my behaviors, my choices, my ethics are bigger than what's in my fridge and belly. My lifestyle is built from the intersection of many things, like a very messy Venn diagram.