Filed under: Business + Politics, Food + Health, Justice + Outreach, Society + Media | Tags: big ag, factory farms, hunger, illegal immigration, industrial agriculture, population control
Illegal immigration is about so much more than taking jobs away from Americans.
At any time, there are between 12 million and 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States, according to the Census Bureau’s best guess. Most hold jobs Americans consider too lowly to do – jobs like those in agriculture.
Illegal immigrants usually work as seasonal workers, picking oranges in California or harvesting cranberries in Maryland. It’s no secret that illegal aliens work for cheap.
But as much as people complain about lower wages making job competition fruitless, it’s the cheap labor of immigrants that helps put food on the tables of most Americans, and most of the world.
Industrialized agriculture provides a large majority of the food for the world, so they employ a ton of people, some being illegal immigrants. Let’s think about what would happen if the America were to completely stop the influx of illegal immigrants.
• Big Ag would lose its stake-holdings in American agriculture, leading to an increase in the need and development of local farms.
• The surge in local farming would decrease the methane, carbon dioxide and the rest of the pollutant cocktail that comes transporting food thousands of miles away or herding millions of pigs into tiny spaces.
But …
• Food production would plummet.
• The cost of food would skyrocket.
• Millions of people wouldn’t have access or be able to afford food.
• Starvation and undernourishment would affect thousands more than the 900 million people already suffering from lack of adequate food.
• The U.S. economy would go into the tank.
So, stop illegal immigrants, give Americans more jobs, reduce emissions and increase local farming? Or grant them amnesty and a chance to improve their lives, continue to feed Big Ag and risk the earth’s sustainability?
Is there a right choice?
-AlyV
Thanks to Guinness Wench and More Marin for the pictures.
Thanks to You Tube for the video.
Filed under: Food + Health, Justice + Outreach, Society + Media | Tags: breastfeeding, formula, infant formula, kansas law, la leche league, marian tompson, melamine, nestle, nursing
On a lazy summer afternoon in 1956, my great-aunt Marian Tompson was sitting on a checkered blanket, chatting to friends at the church picnic.
The most natural of foods
Her little daughter began to whimper. She set down her plate, unbuttoned her dress and guided her daughter’s rosebud mouth to her plump breast. As she nursed, she realized that the infants at the picnic were the only congregation members who weren’t eating homemade food. She counted only one other mother nursing her infant, the rest held bottles of formula.
In the 1950’s, when Marian’s children were young, only about 20 percent of new mothers breastfed their babies. This seemed ridiculous to her– breast milk is full of the exact nutrients that a baby needs to grow. Infant formula cannot match the chemical makeup of human milk, which gives infants antibodies that fight disease. Moreover, nursing allows bonding between the mother and child. Yet grocery stores are stocked with formula and people turn squeamishly from a nursing mother’s bare breast. It showcases society’s distance from food, nature and natural life process.
So why is it so bad?
Inspired, Marian organized a forum where five breastfeeding mothers shared their experiences with the community. This soon developed into La Leche League. In 1958, Marian began LLL News, a publication to reach out to women without a local chapter—using journalism to educate a hungry public of young mothers. Over the next 24 years, this grassroots group became an international organization promoting women and children’s health and awareness about breastfeeding.
Yet, formula is still in use today. Problems are pervasive. Uneducated or poor mothers may prepare the formula wrong, creating health hazards for their infants. In China, melamine in formula killed multiple infants. In America, Nestle, too, had a melamine scare. In Kansas, it wasn’t until 2006 that public breastfeeding was made legal. It is an ongoing struggle between nature, corporations and society, despite what should be a no-brainer: breast is best.
— images from http://www.personneltoday.com/blogs/human-resources-guru/Breastfeeding2.jpg, http://www.got-breastmilk.org/newsletter/Lucy-Lawless-breastfeeding-_small1.jpg
Filed under: Energy + Climate, Food + Health, Waste + Recycling | Tags: burger king, eating out, fast food, green restaurant, Happy Cow, vegan dining, vegetarian, veggie burger, When Harry Met Sally
Have you ever entered a restaurant and done a mental happy dance? Clapped on realizing you can eat everything (or nearly) on the menu as it is? If not, well, eating out is probably not as…inventive for you as it can be. Me, on the other hand? Well, lemme put it this way — my dad has likened eating out with me to the scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Sally makes changes to everything she orders. It might seem like eating out wouldn’t be that big a deal — supposedly, it’s the easy option, right? But then again…
In high school, when we’d stop at fast food places, I was pretty much left with the option of a “meatless cheeseburger” — which, judging from the number of times I had to describe what that meant, apparently is a harder order to fill then it might sound. Now, of course, places like Burger King offer veggie burgers (although they’re not vegan) and BK has made other changes to become more humane.
Of course, eating out means concerns more than just what’s on your plate. There are the environmental impacts of water and electricity usage and garbage produced. Although it may seem a stretch, there is a link between going to a restaurant and leaving a larger carbon footprint. But does that mean you can never eat out and be environmentally conscious? Nope! There are a number of resources to help you find “green” or “veg friendly” eateries.
I will admit that the happy dance isn’t a regular dining out occurrence. The time above? Well, that was upon entering my first ever all vegan/vegetarian food restaurant. And for someone who pretty much has never been able to order off the menu, it definitely called for happiness.
~ Mary Beth
Image from: cartoonstock.com
Filed under: Energy + Climate, Food + Health, Society + Media | Tags: food waste, greenhouse gas, rotting food, world hunger
The monthly food waste of a family of four.
With grocery bills rising to unaffordable heights and food banks unable to provide for the growing demand, people are experiencing hunger at alarming rates. What’s more alarming is what can be found in landfills across America.
Studies have shown that Americans squander a quarter to a half of all the food we produce. Grocery stores throw out products with cosmetic flaws and minor damage. Restaurants discard what doesn’t get used or sold. In homes everything from wilted fruit to last weeks left over take-out find their way into the trash. Consider this: rotting food in landfills produces methane, a major contributor to greenhouse gases.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that in one year 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States is never eaten. However, the problem doesn’t only belong to Americans. In England, the Brits toss out about a third of purchased food and in Sweden the average household throws away about a quarter of the food they buy. On the other hand, in parts of Africa a quarter or more of crops are lost or destroyed before harvest due to lack of technology and infrastructure, droughts, and insect infestation causing wide-spread starvation and food wars.
Everyone knows wasting food is a bad idea, but not much is done to address the issue. Food in America is cheap, relative to the rest of the world, and portions are increasingly over-sized. Of course, world hunger and global warming won’t be solved simply by eliminating food waste. But it could make a difference and wouldn’t take alot of effort or money. The Department of Agriculture estimated that recovering only 5 percent of wasted food could feed four million people a day; while recovering 25 percent could feed 20 million people. Now that’s food for thought.
Tina Wood
Filed under: Society + Media, Waste + Recycling | Tags: landfill, mass consumption, photography, Topeka, waste
I feel at home in a landfill. I love everything about it, all the different colors, textures, shapes and especially the smell. The smell that stays with you all day. The smell that gets on your clothes and your shoes and completely overwhelms you.
I love going to landfills because I can actually show people how awful they are. I could list staggering statistics like how Americans throw away around 40 billion bottles and soft drink cans and 25 billion Styrofoam cups each year, but I feel that these numbers can be expressed better in a visual way.
These photographs are from a project I did on mass consumption a few years ago. I tried to show the tremendous amount of waste and how are society makes these products readily available to consume and throw away. As has been said many times “away is a place” and this place is a landfill.
I am the youngest of 4 children, all boys. Most of my clothes are hand me downs, I’ve never really lived any other way. This is a good way to reuse old things, which is the second step to the good old phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle.” I reduce my wardrobe by not having many clothes in the first place, and donate all my clothes to goodwill to reuse them. Every American throws away over 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per year, and this could be dramatically reduced if people shopped more at second hand stores or the goodwill and reused old clothes. The photographer Chris Jordan has also done some wonderful work on mass consumption.
I will continue to document the horror of landfills. If people see where “away” is then maybe they will start reusing things and think twice before throwing things out.
– Tyler Waugh
Filed under: Business + Politics, Society + Media | Tags: economics, govenrment, money, policy, spending, subsidy
What’s worse than a bad environment? A bad environmental policy.
Uploaded to flickr.com on July 24, 2008 by net_efekt
Between subsidizing oil and commercial farming, to this nations devotion to ethanol, we have made some major mistakes in how we spend tax dollars in the name of a clean environment.
By now most people know about the side effects of growing too much corn for fuel instead of food. And if they don’t know, they’ve seen them in the price increase at the grocery store or around the bar.
But, do we know the side effects of over subsidizing select parts of the economy? Do we understand that our tax and subsidy policy has everything to do with our clean environment or our lack thereof?
Hardly. And it’s obvious when we look at this nations attitude toward the public sector subsidizing (the new word is “bailing out”) the private sector.
We are so use to spending money as the end all be all. But we have spent a lot of money in this country and look at the results — a crippled economy, a dollar that has lost over 90 percent of its value and little to no actual wealth.
We need to seriously consider how we spend money on the environment and what role money has in its regulation or protection. We need to understand the economy is the human extension of ecology — money flowing through our economy is symbolically the same as energy flowing through our ecosystem. Money like energy can be wasted. Money like energy is being wasted. Is it really a coincidence that the color of the environmental movement is the color of money?
Better question: If I spent $100 on the environment, would the government give me any change I could believe in?
Bryan Dykman
Filed under: Cars + Transport, Energy + Climate, Food + Health, Science + Tech, Society + Media, Waste + Recycling | Tags: algae, biodiesel, biofuel, Brian Pierce, Cannonball Run, carbon footprint, ethenol, Nik Bristow, Willie Nelson, Willie Run
“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again,” sang Willie Nelson in one of his most iconic songs.
As Americans, automotive transportation is vital to our way of life. But our dependency on oil can produce detrimental consequences on the environment.
In September 2008 my brother Nik Bristow and Brian Pierce drove non-stop from Manhattan to Santa Monica, establishing the record for the first and fastest coast-to-coast run by a biodiesel-powered car. The cross-country drive took 38 hours and 37 minutes, fast enough for the duo to have placed fifth in the 1971 Cannonball Run. The record setting event was dubbed “Willie Run ‘08” in honor of the patron saint of biodiesel, Willie Nelson.
Willie Run '08
***
Are biofuels the way of the future?
Ethanol production has increased massively in the past decade, thanks to government subsidies. But the corn used to produce this fuel, in turn, has had a tremendous effect on global food prices.
Biodiesel, like ethanol, can be derived from food crops, it can also be made from used oils (like those found in a deep-fat-fryer at almost any restaurant.) Many restaurants are more than content on having their grease-traps cleaned out for free, but our nation’s automobiles obviously can’t run on grease alone.
The next generation of biofuels may come from algae. Large, green ponds are used to grow algae that can then be converted into fuel. Algae, which grow rapidly, are rich with natural oils and thrive on CO2. It can be housed adjacent to carbon dioxide emitting industrial sites, like coal-fired power plants and be used to minimize those sites’ carbon footprint.
The future of our energy consumption will rely primarily on renewable resources. It is our conversion over from fossil fuels that will be one the most daunting challenges we, as a planet, will have to face.
-Matt Bristow
Photo credit: willierun.com
Video credit: youtube.com
Filed under: Business + Politics, Food + Health, Waste + Recycling | Tags: environment, homeless, restaurant food waste, throw away, waste
Those who work at a restaurant develop a relationship with their food. It is their capital and their craft; it provides them their weekly paycheck. Every dish they create is almost like a child to them.
While you prepare food, it is nobody’s but yours. Music blares from radio speakers as you chop onions and tomatoes and slice meat and fry potatoes. Prepping becomes habitual, and you sometimes even forget that you’re dealing with food. If a sliced apple or onion falls on the floor, you don’t think twice about throwing it away. I once thawed an entire brick of ground beef too early, and had to throw all three pounds of it away.
I’m not the only one. Food waste in the restaurant business is relatively common. After all, when there’s a full freezer of fresh meats, cheeses, and produce at your very finger tips, why worry yourself over old spilled meat? You certainly can’t pick it up off the floor and serve it to your customers. The three-second-rule does not apply in a restaurant kitchen.
But, outside the kitchen, there are whole families who must line up in the cold for soup and a chunk of bread. They may not have the means to buy a pound of ground beef, let alone to thoughtlessly throw it away on a whim. Why should we value our food any less, just because we have more of it? If anything, restaurant workers should value their food more. Make sure your restaurant buys sustainable produce… and DON’T WASTE IT.
Justin Leverett is ready to take your order, sir!
Filed under: Food + Health, Local Events + Action | Tags: fruit, growing food, National Gardening Association, veggies
I can still see its faded brown outline in the back corner of the lawn. Our little backyard garden used to overflow with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers carrots and a rasberry bush. Two years ago when my parents moved into my grandparents’ old house next door to ours, I watched as our new neighbors moved in and neglected the food we’d worked so hard to plant. Now it’s nothing but an awkwardly placed patch of dirt disrupting the symmetry of their perfectly mowed green lawn.
Keeping up the garden wasn’t exactly labor intensive for me (I usually just got the benefit of picking the rasberries for our morning cereal) but it still gave me a little sense of pride. This feeling used to be so commonplace in America, but now it’s something really rare. Michael Pollan put it best when he asked– since when do we need journalists to tell us what’s in our food and where it comes from?
Factory farming and the over-processing of food has long been on the mind of the food conscious. But could all this thinking actually be causing some change? A recent National Gardening Association survey reported a 19 percent increase in the number of Americans who said they planned on growing their own fruits, veggies, berries and herbs this year. That’s 7 million more people who want to grow some of their own food this year. The economy is one reason for this change of heart- you’ll save about $500 at the grocery store- but maybe American’s are finally realizing that a closer connection with growing your food doesn’t make you a hillbilly: It makes you a responsible human being.
-Amanda
photo from cenblog.org
Filed under: Food + Health, Society + Media | Tags: basil, grow indoors, herbs, lavender, sunrise garden center, the sacred balance
…but I do like my herb. My sage, oregano, parsley, and thyme of course.
basil: my favorite herb
The comforting taste of my mother’s basil chicken on a cold winter’s day, the refreshing bite of mint in a glass of lemonade, the sleepy scent of lavender in potpourri. Herbs are a natural way to liven up food, prevent illnesses, and “Febreze” your home. Many herb plants are easy to grow indoors or in a window box, and can be found at any garden or outdoor store, such as the Sunrise Garden Center here in Lawrence, KS.
Then why do many of us reach for a McCormick’s shaker instead?
Influenced by our society’s switch from homemade to storebought, we’ve been “trained” to believe that the latter is better, cheaper, and faster: all qualities of being modern. We’ve forgotten that basil weren’t always little green specks and lavender weren’t crumpled purple things, but rather actual leaves and flowers. That our steaks once mooed or that our loaves of bread once rippled in the wind as waves of wheat.
And our self-inflicted amnesia doesn’t stop there. We’ve forgotten we’re a part of the natural world and removed ourselves from the sacred balance of life and death. Doing so has allowed us to blamelessly pollute, desecrate, and kill the earth we were once part of. Herbs may not be the real problem, but it is a definitely a reflection of one.
It may be easier to use packaged basil, but there’s nothing like the friendly, fresh smell of basil growing in your kitchen to remind you of where it all comes from.
Janie Chen
photo from flickr
J500 Media and the Environment 
