Tag: Sustainability

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Curiosity About Food

Washed Vegetables
Washed Vegetables

LAKE MACBRIDE— During the late 1990s I worked on a logistics project in Ochlocknee, Ga. for four months. I don’t remember much about the town, except it was a poor place, with a per capita income of $10,112. When I encountered locals outside the job site, the conversation was a mix of complaining, gossiping and harshness. The place and its people defined hard-scrabble.

The project was located at the largest employer in the area, which was and is involved in mining and processing minerals for a variety of consumer applications. No local ever complained to me about the mines. The rest of the economy was agricultural: peanuts, cotton and pecans. It was a common practice to let cattle roam without fences, and we frequently had to stop the car on Main Street to let them cross. I decided to stay in the nearby county seat at a motel with cable television— a needed escape after working 14 hour days.

TV Food Network, as it was known, occupied my non-working time, and I developed an insatiable curiosity about food and its preparation. Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, Julia Child and others prepared food on screen, and I was captivated, watching episode after episode on Georgia weekends. Food is a common denominator for humanity, and I couldn’t get enough. My involvement in the local food movement today has its origins in the contrast between that uninviting place in South Georgia and my food escape.

There is a broader point to be made than one person’s transient addiction to a television network while away from home. It is that American food pursuits, and the economy around them, continue to be based partly upon curiosity.

I discovered a confection made of dark chocolate, quinoa, blueberries and agave syrup. Why would any informed person want that, given the problems?

Maybe blueberries could be cut some slack, but cocoa production is a fragile and labor intensive operation. The growing demand for cocoa products is leading to deforestation and its negative impact on the environment. Consumer demand for quinoa has elevated prices so that indigenous people in Peru, who used it as a staple food, now can’t afford it. Agave syrup has 50 percent more calories per tablespoon than refined sugar, and like sugar and corn syrup, is a highly processed food. According to WebMD, “the American Diabetes Association lists agave along with other sweeteners (table sugar, honey, brown sugar, molasses, fructose, maple sugar, and confectioner’s sugar) that should be limited in diabetic diets.”

The answer to the question is people like chocolate and are curious about food.

It seems clear that American curiosity about food and food preparation drives what we find in stores. It is a commonplace that corn syrup can be found in every aisle of a traditional mega mart, but it is the endless combinations of diverse ingredients that attract our attention then get us to buy.

By developing and marketing new things— quinoa mixed with chocolate or chicken, troll or pole and line caught tuna, gluten and GMO free products, and a host of others— purveyors of the consumer economy seek to engage us through the current sales cycle. I suspect we will stop buying at some point, returning to staple foods, or moving on to what the food marketers deem next.

In a free society, people should be able to do what they want with only minimal restrictions to protect the commons. In our consumer society, that is a joke. For a local food system to be sustainable beyond the initial curiosity of trying it out, something fundamental must change. It is a need— perceived or real— to change from the act of consuming to the act of production. That involves a lot of hard work, and I’m not sure it could be done in the current society.

If we are serious about sustainability and local food systems, we must get beyond curiosity, and distraction from the challenges of a turbulent world. We must get to the production of things that matter in our lives on the prairie.

Categories
Work Life

A Good Spring Day

Spring is Here
Spring is Here

LAKE MACBRIDE— Word at the legion this morning was a local farmer broke a couple of blades while applying nitrogen, running into some frozen spots in the field. Tractors were out around the county, and if planting season isn’t quite here, some folks are making a go of it, preparing the fields. Tomorrow I hope to turn over a couple of spadefuls to test my garden soil, planting lettuce from seed if the ground can be worked.

A member of the township trustees resigned. An octogenarian, he had been a trustee since 1975— now he’s cutting back on commitments. The fourth generation to live on his nearby farm, his son was recently killed in an auto accident. The son was to take over, but it wasn’t meant to be. I gave him a plaque to recognize his service and we took a photo that didn’t come out so well.

The sheep and lambs were out in the pen at the CSA, a definition of bucolic. I made soil blocks, lining them up in twelve pairs. The person on high tunnel duty came into the germination shed to take seedlings for transplanting. When she left, we talked about current projects and strategies while I worked the soil blocking tool and another planted trays as I made them. The work went quickly, and I bought a bag of last year’s soil mix on credit to use at home.

The afternoon was laundering my warehouse work clothes, and working in the garage. I put soil in seed trays and planted sweet pepper seeds: King Arthur, Lunchbox Orange, and Lipstick. I filled out the tray with a packet of last year’s green bell pepper seeds. Tomorrow will be hot peppers: Serrano del Sol, Conchos Jalapeño and Bangkok hots. Then I will be out of trays.

The radio announcer said lake water remains cold, as the ice cover just melted. There was a report of a deer in Allamakee County that had the first case of chronic wasting disease found in the wild in Iowa.

My story about backyard chickens in town was on the front page of the weekly newspaper when I stopped by the office for a chat.

I never imagined my life would be like this. It’s a good life, so full of people. I want to grab on and hold it, but the grip couldn’t be sustained for very long, even if I figured out how. So instead, I’ll just be thankful for another day in Big Grove.

Categories
Home Life

The Future in Canned Beans

Organic Beans
Organic Beans

LAKE MACBRIDE— Canned beans are delightful because the processor calculates the moisture content of each batch and cooks them accordingly. The product is consistent, and we use a lot of them. We are also willing to pay a premium for USDA organic. Recently, we began buying them by the case from our local grocer.

In our town of 2,200 the cost of goods is much higher than what can be found in large grocery and box stores a few miles away. Sometimes items are ridiculously high.

Most locals don’t buy organic, and the store manager is reluctant to carry slow moving goods. There is a carrying cost of inventory. They do have buying power and access to warehouse inventory. When asked, the buyer was willing to buy special items for us as long as we bought a case or more. We tried our first bulk order this week.

It was simple. Two cases of dark red organic kidney beans and one case of organic black beans for an average price of $1.07 each. A savings of 23 percent over the closest chain store, and 30 percent over buying them from the shelf when they used to be offered. I ordered on Thursday, and they were ready to pick up on Monday. It’s hard to beat the deal.

What is significant is that by special ordering in bulk, we could leverage our local retailer’s network and save money on things we buy, but others don’t. This could have broader implications, not the least of which is expansion of bulk purchases in town to include other items currently being purchased through Walmart, HyVee and others.

What matters is not where we shop, but how we live. By negotiating with local retailers and growers, there is an opportunity to eliminate what is worst about the big box stores and grocery chains… things that make them unsustainable.

By buying locally more often, and custom ordering, society might take a step toward reduction of the carrying cost for a broad and mainly idle inventory. There will always be a need for impulse items, and there should be a premium for them. Yet with proper planning, negotiating and bartering, grocery expenses could be less, and the quality of food higher. A paradigm shift is in the works.

How shall we live? At least in part by buying organic canned beans from a local retailer.

Categories
Work Life

Turning Point

Greenhouse and High Tunnel
Germination House and High Tunnel

LAKE MACBRIDE— A cold wind blew across the hilltop where the sheep barn is situated. The barn doors had come loose from the bottom brace and were flapping in the wind. There was no securing them, so I walked over to see the lambs. Spring’s hope wobbling about the pen.

The goal was to pick up get ten bags of soil mix for the day’s work. A couple of deer legs were laying around, scavenged by the dogs. They wanted me to play fetch with one of them, but I wouldn’t. There was work to be done and it seemed a bit weird.

Seven of us were working in the germination shed and high tunnel. The table space in the germination shed was filling up as I made 28 seed trays in two and a half hours. Seedlings planted in March were being transplanted to the high tunnel for the spring share. It was a busy place. One worker, who I hadn’t seen since last fall, asked if I had a good winter. I did and we went about our work.

Not many in Iowa grow celery, and the seeds I planted weren’t germinating very well. One farmer said give it time, comparing it to parsley. She also mentioned someone who wanted to put in an acre of the vegetable. Local celery would sell if it could be grown.

I discussed my low lettuce germination rate with another farmer. After a couple of her questions, we determined the problem must be moisture levels, which can be remedied by watering frequently.

After work I headed home, stopping at the grocery store.

Walmart is something I would like to get out of my life, and to do that, I need to get some things they carry, but our local grocer doesn’t. I found the buyer and asked him if I ordered a large quantity, would they get me a case, or bin of them. Things like organic kidney beans, that apparently no one but me bought when they did carry them. He said he would, so I will place an order later in the week.

Upon returning home, I spent the rest of the day in the garage and yard. It was the first day of working with the garage door up, listening to the radio. I swept the sand from the street in front of our house, and replenished my supply of five cat litter buckets for next winter. This annual event is combination of frugality, cost avoidance and practicality. Why buy sand when there is plenty available?

I cleaned the garage floor of dirt and grime delivered by the cars, and cleared my work bench. I dug into a large pile of paper goods to find the yard sign for the county attorney, who has a challenger in the June 3 primary. It was on the bottom, as she hasn’t had many challengers. I found a wire that fit and stapled the sign to it. It’s ready to place on the lawn tomorrow.

The seeding operation was near the water heater, where it was too crowded. I moved it to the garage, making quick work of mixing soil batches and preparing a couple of trays. I seeded 120 cells with celery in hope of getting enough seedlings to plant a row or two. The other tray was planted with six kinds of tomatoes. All of this was overkill, but I want to have enough for our garden and to share.

Coming inside for dinner, I watered all the seedlings, did three loads of laundry, a load in the dishwasher, and re-arranged the trays on the table in the bedroom. Not a lot of dramatic or exciting stuff to report. It was a turning point in the year, and that is enough.

Categories
Home Life

To the Hardware Store

Westdale Mall Demolition
Westdale Mall Demolition

CEDAR RAPIDS— Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids is closing at the end of March. The 72 acres will be re-purposed, retaining two of the anchor stores, J.C. Penney and Younkers (which remain open), and replacing the mall with housing, and recreational and commercial endeavors. Many of us believed malls were a bad idea when this one was built. We had a longer view of social progress than others, yet there is no feeling of vindication as stores and jobs go away.

The stores I visited at Westdale were the picture framer, J. C. Penney, Montgomery Wards, and one or two of the jewelers. Probably others, but memory is a fickle master. Shopping has never been important to me, and the similarities between retail establishments outweighed the differences. There are other places to shop.

After taking this photo, I stopped at the nearby hardware store. That is, a hardware store equivalent. During the post-Walmart era every large box store has groceries, sundries and some amount of plumbing, heating and home maintenance goods. Menards is a hardware store because they sell lumber and a greater inventory of home improvement items. Too, contractors frequent Menards, and it is a home base for many small businesses. They may sell red Solo cups here, and run advertisements featuring American made goods, but their inventory comes from all over the world.

It was the first trip to Menards in a long time, a harbinger of spring work. I spent $124.73. There was a globe to replace the one knocked loose when the roofer’s hammering made one fall and break; a tank lever to fix a toilet; a bag of charcoal to remove a tree stump; two bags of grass seed to re-plant the ditch where the drought burned off last year’s planting; new gloves for the garage in deerskin, goatskin, PVC and cloth; two new seedling trays; two bags of seed starting soil; some two-cycle oil for a chainsaw project; a bag of zip ties; and a packet of organic beefsteak tomato seeds. All representing spring projects. I put up the light globe and fixed the toilet yesterday.

Visiting a hardware store is not necessarily a guy thing, as I know plenty of women who frequent what are now called home improvement centers. Yet, as a guy, there is nothing quite like returning home and emptying the vehicle of tangible evidence of the work to be done to sustain our lives on the Iowa prairie. It is a kind of hope yesterday’s spring snowfall could not hold back.

Categories
Work Life

Drinking Fountain

At Sunset
At Sunset

CORALVILLE— Perhaps the best perquisite of my warehouse job is the public drinking fountain. At anytime, I can partake in the cool, filtered water to quench my thirst. Maybe I’d like something more substantial, something that would pay the bills or reduce expenses. Yet the water is very good— and it meets a human need.

All around me, in every social setting, I hear stories of people who work for low wages and no benefits. People don’t talk much about this as a collective idea, yet it is everywhere. It is a way for companies to minimize the cost of human resources. It is also becoming the new normal.

Understanding the low wage, no benefit, temp worker culture is important, as it’s the life many people live. I write often about temp workers, wages, unions, and work because to survive in the seventh decade of life every source of income and expense reduction has become important. In a way, it represents preparation for the infirmity of being elderly. Health and mortality have become an issue as I proofread the weekly obituaries at the newspaper. A lot of the subjects are people younger than me, and already, I feel like a survivor.

My newspaper colleague Milli Gilbaugh recently wrote about people in my age group. “What we need is another 20 year category between “middle age” and “elderly” that includes the years from sixty to eighty. Maybe the word “older” would work, or “retired” which isn’t necessarily accurate, but it does give an indication of the age span involved. […] The term “retired” has a bunch of problems in that not everybody in the 60 to 80 year age range is retired. Some may be retired from life-long careers and spend their time supposedly enjoying the golden years, […] but most are still working, or have retired and taken a “retirement job” with less stress, fewer hours, and considerably less pay.” While Milli doesn’t cover everyone who works a low wage job, she defines something relevant that people haven’t been discussing.

Recently, when applying for a job at a large company, I knew my chances were slim. They mentioned on their website that the normal retirement age was 62. When they replied to my application, “after careful consideration, we have decided to continue our search for a candidate whose background and qualifications more closely match the requirements of the position,” I wasn’t surprised. I recognized the legalese for “we don’t want you, whatever your qualifications.”

I’d rather work for people who want me in their organization. As long as our family makes enough to live in kind and money, we’ll be okay. Better than that, we’ll live in a way that is better then a large segment of the global population. A global village that doesn’t take drinking water for granted.

Categories
Social Commentary

Snow Fell in Town

Newspaper Office
Newspaper Office

SOLON— An inch of snow had accumulated while I was inside working on next week’s newspaper. When one is the proof reader for a small weekly paper, he gets a preview of what’s happening. There is some action, but not much.

The second session of the 85th Iowa General Assembly began last week, as evidenced by the multitude of newsletters from our state representatives and senators. Our circulation spans two senate districts, so there were a total of four in my folder. As a recovering political junkie, I had already read the four at home, and then some. There was little news, except to say it’s open season in the Iowa legislature. My state representative was holding two listening posts today in Bennett and Lowden. Had the weather been better, I would have driven over.

What was in the news was that J.C. Penney is closing 33 stores and laying off 2,000 employees. On Thursday I accepted a part time job requiring white shirts, and I didn’t have any decent ones. I went to Penney’s yesterday morning to buy them. (Note to self: throw the rags in the closet away, as they are not shirts any more).

Upon arrival, I was one of a small number of customers in the store. A gent greeted me close to the door, offering his assistance. My shirt is an oxford-style, buttoned down collar with long sleeves. The gent attempted to compliment me by suggesting a size smaller than I required, but the photo of the tag from my old shirt clarified the matter. He helped me find what was wanted in short order.

I am baffled by the pricing scheme at large box stores. The tag on the shirt said $30. There was no other price posted. The gent told the cashier to make sure I received the 25 percent unadvertised discount. When she rang it up, the computer/cash register gave me a 50 percent discount. While discussing payment terms, she asked if I had a J.C. Penney credit card. I explained that I do, but prefer to keep all my charges on a single card, so I would use my MasterCard. Another discount. My final cost was $12.75 plus tax per shirt or 42.5 percent of the listed price.

Keep in mind there was no visible price advertising in the store and when I mentioned the discrepancy to the cashier she said the amount was correct. Price was dependent upon the cashier’s entries, the bar code and the computer database. The personal shopping experience was compelling because the price seemed to get lower every step taken toward payment. How do they make money that way? They’ve taken logic out of the process, and one supposes they have their reasons.

I pointed out to the cashier that our store wasn’t on the list to close. She said they were rated number one in the U.S. for sales by size. She asked if I had ever been to the Muscatine store scheduled to close. She had been, and wasn’t surprised because they had so little merchandise in it. We had a nice conversation.

The whole shopping experience was engaging on many levels, but I don’t see how this store could be making any money with so few customers and the vagaries of pricing. If they stay open, I’ll be back if I need additional shirts.

When I got home from the mall, I ordered garden seeds— 26 varieties costing $122.75 including shipping. That plus herb seedlings to be bought at one of the farms and I should be ready for planting. As soon as the snow lets up, I’ll be ready to get outside and prepare the soil.

For now there is snow, and I’m okay with that.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Garden Planning 2014

Garden Planning
Garden Planning

LAKE MACBRIDE— In January, the vision of the future is a weed-free and abundant garden. Beginning with a stack of blank pages, through several iterations, vegetables are considered and a plan is made. The change in 2014 is that I am ordering some of the seeds online from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, an employee-owned company used by some of the local growers. It’s time to get the order in and make a schedule for the work of soil preparation and planting.

In past years, some seed catalog companies took my order and money, then blew off sending me the seeds. Heck of a way to run a business, but that is what happened. After that, I bought seeds locally at the grocery store or the discount house. The varietal options are much better at Johnny’s, so I am going to give it a try. I am particularly interested in pelleted seeds which make some of them easier to plant. Fingers crossed.

The garden plan includes the idea that we are part of a local food system and bartering labor for food. I struck two deals similar to last year, to process farm seconds and share the results; and to exchange a fixed number of hours of labor for a share in a CSA. What this means is certain vegetables will be plentiful from the farms and my garden can contain less tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, onions and peppers. That frees up space to plant more carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and other vegetables of which we can’t get enough. We can experiment with new items, like I plan to do with celery and Daikon radishes. In a local food system, produce used in the kitchen comes from a network of suppliers, and my garden will be an example of how that will work. In some ways, being part of a local food system is the opposite of “growing your own food.” It is about community and shared labor more than about what’s in it for me.

The rest of the year’s planning will be about how to fund cash flow through our household. When I re-directed in 2009, it was unclear how things would shake out. Now I realize the importance of budgeting income and expenses, and am working to generate enough income to live, and add to our net worth. The year is off to a good start as I start a second part-time job next week. Outside the bartered positions, I have four paid gigs lined up in 2014. I would like more, and the prospects for finding them seem pretty good. What I don’t want is to rely upon a single job as the main source of financial income.

Being optimistic about life comes with the turf of home gardening. I am hopeful 2014 will be another good year in a garden situated in a turbulent world.

Categories
Environment Living in Society

Defending Obama’s Climate Action Plan

Analysis of Peer Reviewed Scientific Articles
Analysis of Peer Reviewed Scientific Articles

On Thursday, Jan. 16, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, “Review of the President’s Climate Action Plan,” begging the question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

A well credentialed panel is scheduled to appear, including administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy. The hearing is important mostly to generate interest in a conversation about climate change that is on life support on Capitol Hill. (For more information about the hearing, click here). Who will be listening?

There aren’t enough votes in the 113th U.S. Congress to put a price on carbon emissions, something that is essential to slowing them. Recently, U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) announced formation of a task force to revive talk about climate change in the Congress, and to defend President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

The goals of the task force are modest— introducing some small-scale bills intended to “use the bully pulpit of our senate offices to achieve (a) wakeup call,” Boxer said. She added, “we believe that climate change is a catastrophe that’s unfolding before our eyes and we want Congress to take off the blindfolds.” What will come of this year’s task force is unclear, but anyone paying attention can see the disruptive effects of changing climate on our society. However, as a writer on Daily Kos pointed out, it is another task force in another year, and legislation mitigating the causes of climate change, or dealing with its effects, is expected to be dead on arrival because the votes aren’t there.

Boxer has it right that people on the hill, and in the public, are asleep about climate change. The reason is the money spent by climate deniers. In December, Drexel University released a study of 140 different foundations funding an effort to delay action on climate change. The so-called Climate Change Counter Movement (CCCM) spent more than $900 million from 2003 through 2010. Author Robert J. Brulle wrote that the study was, “an analysis of the funding dynamics of the organized effort to prevent the initiation of policies designed to limit the carbon emissions that are driving anthropogenic climate change. The efforts of the CCCM span a wide range of activities, including political lobbying, contributions to political candidates, and a large number of communication and media efforts that aim at undermining climate science.” The efforts of CCCM have been successful, insofar as “only 45 percent of the U.S. public accurately reported the near unanimity of the scientific community about anthropogenic climate change,” according to the study.

What does “near unanimity” mean? James Powell recently evaluated 2,258 peer-reviewed scientific articles about climate change written by 9,136 authors between November 2012 and December 2013. Only one article rejected anthropogenic global warming. This may not represent a consensus, but consensus is not the purpose of science. Science is to explain the world to us, and we don’t need to strike the word “near” to understand climate change is real, it’s happening now, human activity is causing it, and scientists believe that is the case.

I am not sure whether a group of rich politicians posturing in the Congress will make a difference. However, it’s the only game in town. They are willing to take positive action to support the president’s climate action plan, which doesn’t rely on new legislation that isn’t in the cards anyway. While not hopeful of meaningful action, fingers are crossed, and the game is on.

Following is this afternoon’s press release from the League of Conservation Voters:

WASHINGTON, D.C.– League of Conservation Voters (LCV) president Gene Karpinski released this statement on the creation of the Senate Climate Action Task Force, a group chaired by Senators Boxer and Whitehouse that includes more than a dozen senators committed to pushing for action on climate change:

“Big Oil and corporate polluters have worked with their allies in Congress to prevent action on climate change for far too long. This task force is the latest sign that environmental allies in Congress are fighting back, standing up for basic science and pushing for action on climate change. This is the type of strong leadership we need if Congress is finally going to get serious about addressing the climate crisis and meeting our moral obligation to future generations. We thank Senators Boxer, Whitehouse, Cardin, Sanders, Klobuchar, Merkley, Franken, Blumenthal, Schatz, Murphy, Heinrich, King, Markey, and Booker for speaking out on climate change today and look forward to continuing to work with them to address this vitally important issue.”

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Environment

Climate Change in 200 Words

the-climate-reality-project-logoPeople seeking scientific proof of anthropogenic global climate change are barking up the wrong tree. The goal of science is not to prove, but to explain aspects of the natural world. Following is a brief explanation of climate change.

Around 1850, physicist John Tyndall discovered that carbon dioxide traps heat in our atmosphere, producing the greenhouse effect, which enables all of creation as we know it to live on Earth.

Carbon dioxide increased as a percentage of our atmosphere since Tyndall’s time at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As a result, Earth’s average temperature increased by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

The disturbance of the global carbon cycle and related increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere is identifiably anthropogenic because of the isotope signature of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

We can also observe the effects of global warming in worldwide glacier retreat, declining Arctic ice sheets, sea level rise, warming oceans, ocean acidification, and increased intensity of weather events.

It is no wonder 97 percent of climate scientists and all of the national academies of science in the world agree climate change is real, it is happening now, it’s caused by humans, and is cause for immediate action before it is too late.