Migration forces

In a masterfully crafted piece on nationalgeographic.com, David Quammen traces the paths and explores the reasons for animal migration. Animal migration is distinct from other animal movements since, as biologist Hugh Dingle explains, they are prolonged, linear, and focused movements that carry animals beyond their familiar habitats. Quammen further explains: "Migrating animals maintain a fervid attentiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistracted by temptations and undeterred by challenges that would turn other animals aside." When people build roads, houses, and other bottlenecks that force migratory animals from their singular journey, survival is threatened.

Two weeks after I landed in France to start my first post-college job with a conservation organization, I was lathering on mosquito repellent and untangling migrating barn swallows from mist nets. From late August through early October, hundreds of thousands of barn swallows roost in Provencal marshland while on their way to the Sahara. By day the swallows disperse to feed, but around sunset, the birds come back to the flooded reedbed to roost. I had never before worked with birds so closely (I'm a plant girl!), but I had to learn quickly on the job, as each evening at least 10,000 swallows swoop onto an acre of reeds for the night. A Rocha France, my employer, is working with local farmers to encourage them to leave flooded reedbeds and marshlands of the Rhone River untouched. While some farmers hesitate to let valuable land lie, all who come to the roost site during migration season are shocked and awed into agreement: migration is a mighty force to be reckoned with.

Quammen's article communicates such images with conviction. It reads like a novel and you may be impressed, as I was, as the author literally walks in the trail of migration. Quammen concludes the article with an image of 60,000 sandhill cranes rising from a marshland after a rest on their journey. "It was the accrued wisdom and resoluteness of evolution that I was witnessing, airborne above the Platte. If we humans have accrued equal wisdom and can summon equal resoluteness, I thought, maybe we'll allow them to continue their journeying a while longer."

Food insecurity in the US

In international development circles and at local food banks, there's been a lot of talk about 'food security.' Curious about this phrase and the potential differences between the domestic and international interpretations of food insecurity, I did a little digging.

Let's start with definitions and details: A food secure household has "consistent access to enough food for active healthy living" (USDA). Food insecurity, therefore, is when access to food is limited due to poverty, environment, disaster, or social upheaval (think Zimbabwe). Health problems increase and environmental degradation (particularly in countries populated by subsistence farmers) is a given as people eke out food, cash, and shelter from whatever natural resources are available.

Poor food availability and choice in the US has become a necessarily hot topic. In the US, 1 out of 10 households struggle to put food on the table. American families with minimal food security can trend towards obesity and food insecurity simultaneously, as they choose processed food that fills bellies rather fresh produce that nourishes. In 2007, the USDA surveyed households about food insecurity, asking questions such as: 'In the last 12 months, did you or other adults in the household ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there wasn’t enough money for food?'

Childhood food insecurity - and often-related obesity due to poor food choices - is a significant problem in the US. The Child Nutrition Reauthorization, renewed in similar, if water-downed versions in both the House and Senate this year, promises funding for farm-to-school programs and lunches. Farm to school programs partner local farmers with government-funded school lunch programs, providing fresh, nourishing food with a story. These programs cultivate young citizens who are friends with farmers, aware of what they eat, and connecting their food with their environment. The bill awaits passage in the November lame-duck session of congress, so child hunger relief - and local food - advocates are holding their breath.

In the next post, we'll discuss international food insecurity - linked directly with rising food prices and environmental fragility.

Digging into common ground

Saturday, September 25, volunteers across the country joined Slow Food's to transform spaces into urban farns, edible schoolyards, and community gardens. The national "Dig In" event hoped to contribute towards "a world where food is good for you, good for the grower, and good for the planet." At the end of the workday, volunteers ate a meal together - truly the epitome of community bonding. As a closet foodie, politics major, and environmentalist, I love the Slow Food movement, which "links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment." Nothing inspires me like local people investing in their land and community, transforming it from simply a location to meaningful common ground. Is there ground more common than gardens and food?

Some notes from volunteers who participated in Dig In:



"Glad to have participated in an open house for a newly implemented children’s garden for our community children’s resource center. The resource center is also part of a garden food pantry program. It was great to meet new people and learn more about volunteering in the garden program."

"We raised a greenhouse at the Angelus Street Community Garden sponsored by GROW Memphis. Just put photos up on the Flickr stream. Everyone is a bit more sore today than yesterday but it was very satisfying labor."

Playing with our food

Pure, homegrown tomatoes, just like grandma's... right? Think again. With the GM salmon debacle rising in the public's eye, I'd like to spend the next few post exploring the history and future of genetically modified plants and animals. This Associated Press article argues that the once-promise of the Green Revolution has now tainted our food's gene pool irreversibly.

Foods in their purest forms mostly gone, scientists say.

For thousands of years, humans have practiced selective breeding — pairing the beefiest bull with the healthiest heifers to start a herd. That concept was refined to develop plant hybridization and artificial insemination. Today we have tastier corn on sturdier stalks, bigger turkeys, and meatier cattle.

Now comes an Atlantic salmon that is genetically engineered to grow twice as fast as a regular salmon.

If US regulators approve it, the fish would be the first such scientifically altered animal to reach the dinner plate.

Whatever the regulator’s decision on the salmon, it is only the start. In labs and on experimental farms are:

■ Vaccines and other pharmaceuticals grown in bananas and other plants.

■ Trademarked “Enviropigs,’’ whose manure does not pollute as much.

■ Cows that do not produce methane in their flatulence.

And in the far-off future, there might be foods built from scratch — the scratch being DNA. Sometimes when science tinkers with food, it works. Decades ago, Norman Borlaug’s "Green Revolution" of scientifically precise hybrids led to bigger crop yields that have dramatically reduced hunger.

Sometimes it flops. Anyone remember the Flavr Savr tomato? Probably not. "There was no flavor there to save," one taster quipped. To the biotech world, precise tinkering with the genes in plants is a proven way to reduce disease, protect from insects, and increase the food supply. To skeptics, genetic changes put the world and the food supply at risk. Modified organisms can escape into the wild or mingle with native species, changing them with unknown effects. In the past 15 years, genetically engineered plants have been grown on more than 2 billion acres in more than 20 countries. Some specialists say the natural food of our forebears is mostly long gone, due to breeding and other commonplace practices. Old-fashioned breeding has led to turkeys that "can’t have sex anymore because we’ve been breeding them for big chests," says Martina Newell McGloughlin, director of the University of California’s Biotechnology Research and Education Program.

"All of the animals, plants, and microbes we use in our food system, our agricultural system, are genetically modified in one way or another," said Bruce Chassy, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "That or they’re wild." The modifications are mostly from selective breeding and hybridization. But genetic engineers compare these methods employed for thousands of years to using a sledgehammer. McGloughlin said, "Genetic engineering is more precise and predictable, yet it is regulated . . . There is no regulation at all on the traditional breeding system." She finds fears over genetically engineered food and the regulations that accompany them hard to stomach. More than four-fifths of the soybean, corn, and cotton acreage in the United States last year used genetically engineered crops, according to a 2010 National Academies of Sciences study.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

A drop of inspiration

May this remind us of our intellectual curtain call, rally us for continued curiosity, and give us hope for small happinesses.

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is

unafraid of change,

insatiable in intellectual curiosity,

interested in big things,

and happy in small ways.

- Edith Wharton

Sustainable food jobs - college to the workplace

Whether you're bee-lining towards higher education or simply curious to probe the swell of college and graduate programs in sustainable agriculture and food, our friends at the Sustainable Food Jobs blog are compiling a very accurate college and graduate program list for potential students of people, food, and politics. Who else is excited about new cohorts of visionary, passionate, and aggressively interdisciplinary graduate students?

Get your dose of world beauty

Enjoy this fantastic photographic tour of our globe...

Interdisciplinary street food

Those of you who've tracked my blog(s) (past and current) know my passion for food. Food is the ultimate interdisciplinarian. Environment and society and economics and health find common ground when we eat. Thinking about the connection between farmers and food stamps and nature shouldn't be a challenge as we munch on fresh fruit. When I was fundraising at churches for my work with A Rocha, I frequently re-framed politicized issues such as climate change in terms of eating. We all need to eat, and most of us can recognize the natural source of nourishment that is the earth - regardless of politics, economics, or opinion.

This week, San Fransisco is hosting the first ever Street Food Conference . Attendees discuss urban public space, cultural differences of street food across the globe, and marketplaces. My favorite food blog, Epicurious (*cough...thus my blog's name) highlighted some quotes from this event that express the unique role food plays in our lives:

"40 percent of the consumer diet in the developing world is street food."

"The sun goes down, the market catches fire," on the night market in Marrakesh.

"The night market allows us to have families outside of our families," on the sociability of the night market in Marrakesh.

Happy eating.

Africa's green revolution - people-centric and old-fashioned

BBC News is running a series of opinion articles on environmental issues called the "Green Room." This article, by president of the Rainforest Alliance Tensie Whelan, argues for low-input, traditional agriculture methods in order to spread the green revolution throughout Africa.

Whelan agrees with Africa's Green Belt Movement Founder and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai that a environmental revolution is overdue in Africa. "But when it comes," argues Whelan, "it must be sustainable; socially, economically and environmentally."

She continues: "A green revolution created and developed at the expense of sustainable, clean water supplies, good forestry protection and good soil management will not only be a disaster for the people of Africa, it will be a disaster for its ecology as well. Yet so far, much of the debate has been on the technology of agricultural inputs such as the role of fertilizers and genetically modified (GM) seeds...The debate - dominated by the West - has become, like so many western debates on big environmental questions, fixed on the technological solutions that will magically create tomorrow's paradise.

"In doing so, it has largely ignored the role good farming and forestry practices can play in mitigating food scarcity, protecting scarce water supplies and soil productivity, addressing climate related issues and both preserving and enhancing biodiversity across the continent."

At the Rainforest Alliance, Whelan encourages "good land-use management and harvesting practices, or reintroducing native tree cover" to improve biodiversity and reduce environmental fragility. Whelan echoes the perspective of one of my vocational heroes, ECHO, an educational and networking organization for workers in tropical agriculture.

Whelan also argues for sustainable forestry management. Re-growing trees and forests provides a barrier to desertification as well as haven to struggling species. While Whelan doesn't delve into the human benefits of forest preservation, a real-life example comes to my mind - A Rocha Kenya's Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Ecotourism Scheme.

View the entirety of Whelan's article at Calling for an 'old-fashioned' green revolution. Of particular interest is the discussion invited by BBC moderators in reaction to her article.

I'm excited that the president of an environmental organization is so sensitive to the needs of societies in biodiversity hotspots and so forward-thinking about agriculture. Using traditional, basic techniques of farming supports local people and conserves land in a sustainable and productive fashion. What do you think?

Bio-diverse-artistry

One day, a tree met a remarkable artist with a big imagination, Christoph Niemann. Perhaps more artists can weave nature into creative expressions?

USAID - Farmer to Farmer program

I stumbled upon this intriguing program from USAID. While it's focused on agribusinesses (less my field of interest), it's a hopeful attempt for the big and bulky USAID bureaucracy to connect overseas on an individual level.



"The John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) Program provides voluntary technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, and agribusinesses in developing and transitional countries to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, production, and marketing. The program relies on the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, land grant universities, cooperatives, private agribusinesses, and nonprofit farm organizations to respond to the local needs of host-country farmers and organizations.

"The FTF Program was initially authorized by Congress in the 1985 Farm Bill and funded through Title V of Public Law 480. The U.S. Congress authorized the current FY 2009-2013 phase of the FTF Program in the 2008 Farm Bill, designating it the "John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter FTF Program" in honor of one of the pilots killed September 11, 2001 and of former Congressman Bereuter, who initially sponsored the program.

"Evaluations suggest that the program provides high quality services from volunteers, leveraging over $34 million worth of volunteer time contributions to development efforts. Approximately one million farmer families (representing about five million people) have directly benefitted from the FTF Program. Volunteers help host individuals and organizations build local institutions and linkages to resolve local problems and have provided direct hands-on training to over 80,000 people. Since program initiation, over 12,000 volunteer assignments have been completed in over 80 countries. Approximately 43% of all individuals trained by FTF volunteers are women."

And now, on emancipation and bicycles

A tribute to my favorite two-wheeled transportation:

"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
-Susan B. Anthony

Bamboo to the rescue

A few weeks ago, I had an in-depth conversation with a coworker about his bamboo collection. Other than coveting beautiful bamboo cutting boards , my knowledge of this rhizome was limited. My coworker explained the delightful varieties of bamboo he was growing on his farm...I had no idea so many types of Bamboo existed! This peaked my interest into the uses of bamboo and I stumbled upon a community of bamboo-lovers.

Bamboo shoots are edible, the wood is sustainable and useful for construction.

The following article from the site Truth Out explores the economic and environmental benefits of the fast-growing perennial in the face of disaster.

A 7.5 earthquake in Limón, Costa Rica, in April 1991 destroyed homes built with concrete and rebar, but all 20 of the more-flexible bamboo houses at the earthquake’s epicenter remained standing. When three typhoons swept into the Cook Islands in 2005, one producing winds of 173 mph, they devoured everything in their path — everything, that is, except a group of bamboo houses on the beach.

But in the age of global warming, bamboo has a benefit beyond construction: Both young and mature bamboo plantations capture more carbon than similar stands of trees. In a 2007 paper titled “Sub-optimal Equilibriums in the Carbon Forestry Game: Why Bamboo Should Win and Why It Will Not,” energy specialist Raya Kühne said, “A non-tree species — bamboo — may be one of the species most well-suited to the Clean Development Mechanism’s goals of maximizing carbon revenues and promoting sustainable development.”

Not all types of bamboo are ideal for construction, and without treatment to protect against insects and mold, bamboo houses will last only 15 years or so. But as a construction material, bamboo’s advantages over wood are numerous: It is cheaper to plant, grows faster and can be harvested using less fossil fuel. While trees are typically harvested every 20 to 50 years, bamboo reaches maturity in four to six years and can be cut two or three years after that. Bamboo plants’ rhizome maps grow continuously throughout their life spans — which can be from 10 to more than 100 years — meaning that unlike tree roots, which die and decompose after a tree is harvested, releasing their stored carbon, rhizomes stay alive even after bamboo is harvested.

See Bamboo Living for more!

Wheel Hoe Wonders

It's been a month since the last day of agriculture after school club at the Joshua Farm. My friend Kirsten Reinford, manager of Farm, wrote this lovely piece on her blog about one of our big projects with the guys. (I'm the one in the signature flannel shirt).



During the spring, the youth in our after school training program constructed some very nifty tools called wheel hoes. Technically, we were building wheel hoes with 8″ oscillating stirrup blades (some wheel hoes have interchangeable attachments–furrowers, cultivators, hillers, etc.–but they cost a lot more). The blade is sharpened on both edges, so it cuts just below the surface on the push and pull strokes. It’s a great tool for getting weeds when they are small, and much less tiring than using a standard hoe, since the weight balances on the wheel.



We got the kits from Planet Whizbang and started by sanding off burrs and smoothing rough edges. The next step was to prime and paint the frame.

For the handles, I purchased ash from Middletown Lumber (a great local business!). In the process of cutting it, we discovered firsthand the difference between hardwood and softwood! My friend Tim Lyne graciously used his router to round off the edges for a more finished look and comfortable grip.

The final step was putting it all together, where the adage “measure twice, cut once; measure once, cut twice” was demonstrated. The most memorable quote from the whole process? “I’ve never used a wrench in my life!” The wheel hoes are already getting put to work, as Joe demonstrates. Next time you stop by, give one of them a try!

Job seekers: Sustainable food jobs

From Slow Food NYC headquarters to permaculture farms, Sustainable Food Jobs is a regularly updated blog sharing fantastic job opportunities from every region of the country. For those of us who dream of working at a meaningful job, changing the way we eat and educate others, this is a treasure trove of opportunities. For those of us who are hesitant to move to NYC... the pickings might be a little sparse. But it's worth taking a look!

An open letter to give up the water-bottle habit

The town of Concord, Massachusetts, is leaning towards banning the sale of bottled water within the town in 2011. Concord is the first town in the US to approach such a radical water decision. BBC carries an open letter from Huw Kingston from Bundanoon, Australia - the first town in the world to voluntarily go bottled-water-free - which encourages Concord to take the plunge.

For more resources about the water bottle debacle, visit Food and Water Watch's water bottle page. They provide a slew of educational information, videos, and fact sheets that will make every person want to become a tap-water advocate. While the presentation may come across as a bit too black-and-white, the information is thought and discussion provoking.

Finally, this movie is on my to-watch list, and should be on yours: Tapped, a documentary about the life cycle (or rather, dead-end) of our plastic water bottles.

Farmers in the Square

After a recent frustrating attempt to buy "local" food (the word "local," like "natural," has no regulation. At a nearby farm stand, "local" means from within a day's drive), I started digging for a real local farmer's market to shop. 10 miles down the road is "Farmers on the Square". The Sentinel, a local newspaper, wrote a great story about this rejuvenated marketplace that requires farmer-vendors to come from within a 50-mile radius.

"Stephanie Williams, the greenway and open space coordinator for Cumberland County, said county officials talk a lot about farmland preservation and maintaining working farms. Supporting local farmers through farmers markets and retail shops is a big part of that, she said. “It’s one way to support local agriculture,” she said, noting that she, too, has seen an increased interest in buying local food and other goods.
Over the last year, the Carlisle area has seen the re-emergence of a downtown seasonal farmers market in Farmers on the Square, a new country market in Mountain Lakes Market and the rebirth of the Holly Pike market, Williams noted.

"The vendors who manage the market, open three days a week, year-round, put their own money into paying the lease on the property and maintaining it. Supporting the markets pumps money into the economy, she said, adding, “It’s also nice to know where your food comes from.”

See you next Wednesday at Farmers in the Square!

Kids Grow Their Own Food

I lifted this story from my friends at Epi-log. For a cooking website, they are consistently aware of ethical and sustainable food issues, as well as education. Well done Epi-log, once again.

by Joanne Camas - on 06/14/10 at 11:59 AM
"Two great stories about youngsters growing food caught my attention this weekend. In Chicago, the Green Youth Farm at the city's Botanic Garden held a farmers' market to share the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors. The Farm hires 60 local teens each summer and teaches them skills such as organic planting and beekeeping. "By the end of the season, participants have learned how to work together as a team, gained valuable job skills, discovered a whole new way to look at the food they eat," say the organizers.

"And starting to green their thumbs even younger are two five-year-old girls in Washington, DC, who've just written a book - or at least told it to their mother - called We Grew It, Let's Eat It! reports NPR. Annie and Veda enjoy growing veggies, but confess that their favorite crop would be "ice cream plants!"
We've reported on the "Chefs Move to Schools" initiative and Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard, and surely creating young and educated consumers is the best way to speed up movement toward healthier school lunches. Seeing these youngsters enjoying getting their hands dirty is a sign that we're moving in the right direction.
Are there youth farms or gardens where you live? Do your children like to garden and grow food?

"P.S. Check out the Design a School Garden contest at Good.com. They are looking for creative designs for a 20-foot-square space focusing on one or more of these themes: edible/kitchen, sustainable/habitat, science/learning, literacy/reading, and rooftop/vertical."

Oil in the Gulf

Now, for a rather depressing count-up clock:

Oil in the Gulf

Niche volunteering: FoodCorps

Inspired by Americorps and other service-year programs, sustainable food leaders have inaugurated the planning process of FoodCorps

FoodCorps is a project of the National Farm to School Network, a joint program of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College and the Community Food Security Coalition. This collaborative planning process, which has already tapped into the knowledge of over 60 leaders in nutrition, education, and local food systems, is being led a power team of Curt Ellis (filmmaker, King Corn), Cecily Upton (formerly Slow Food USA), Crissie McMullan (National Center for Appropriate Technology), Jerusha Klemperer (Slow Food USA), and Debra Eschmeyer (National Farm to School Network).

The program addresses the multi-faceted obesity epidemic "with a mechanism that, as philosopher Wendell Berry says, “solves for pattern.” The simple tool of a schoolyard garden positively addresses six of the eight contributing factors to obesity identified by the CDC. Gardens that engage children provide better food choices, encourage physical activity, reduce sedentary behavior, and lead to healthier environments at home, at school, and in the community."

FoodCorps leaders are dreaming of planting young adults in communities for a yearlong term of public service - focusing on school food systems. "FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens."

I'm happy to throw my weight behind a program that focuses on "increasing the health and prosperity of vulnerable children while investing in the next generation of farmers." Young people, particularly passionate ones who see connections between poverty, health, and food systems, will love this program, particularly since this generation faces the conundrum of few jobs

And my generation sure loves to volunteer.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote...

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function"

Think interdisciplinary. Think hard thoughts and remain hopeful: seemingly disparate spheres of life, thought, and action can coexist. The sum of interdisciplinary ideas are often greater than their independent parts.

Mapping your fresh produce

I'm working part-time at an urban garden that is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and also provides farm stand produce to the neighborhood. I love Epilog's excellent seasonal produce map

I grew convinced, after being forced to eat local from the market in France (seriously, we we're allowed to buy out-of-season... we ate a lot of onions and potatoes in the winter) that eating locally is one of the simplest ways to 'go green.' Take a few steps closer to the producer in your consumer cycle.

Conserve Pennsylvania's land... and excellent blog

Some days, I find blogs that make my home state a little sweeter. The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association compiles a rich blog in addition to its excellent policy and education supports. I love the essays by land owners about their preserved land, as well. A beautiful, interactive testament to land and people preservation.

Alternatives to chemical oil cleanup?

A friend from the Udall scholar network sent me this interesting approach to oil clean-up in wetlands. What do you think? Has this been tried before?

Good communication: French farmers

Imagine this: the Champs Elysees transformed into a farm. Complete with cows, sod, trees, and no cars. The French farmers are struggling to make ends meet, so they created this part-publicity stunt, part-celebration of food and agriculture in the most urban environment in France. Well done!

The why and the what

Food is linked intrinsically with environment; farmland is another form of wilderness; policy is at once powerful and vulnerable; education is communication. Fascinating discussions on human-'eco' (as they refer to all things 'green' in France) are occurring throughout the world. For the curious, the passionate, and the stubborn, my hope is that this blog provides fodder for discussion on the interdisciplinary and interconnectedness of food, agriculture, nature, and policy.

Forbid it that we always agree. Conversation and challenge cultivates and most interesting, valuable, and most importantly, immediately practical solutions. Solutions are not the end-all. They evolve as we thoughtfully discuss issues. So, colleagues, bring on the conversations on all things 'eco.'