Disaster capitalism

This story from the Washington Post really tells you a lot about where we’re at these days:

Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide, according to the report by the Ottawa-based ETC Group, an activist organization that advocates for subsistence farmers.

The applications say that the new “climate ready” genes will help crops survive drought, flooding, saltwater incursions, high temperatures and increased ultraviolet radiation — all of which are predicted to undermine food security in coming decades. 

On the one hand, you have to think that, if you were running a corporation intending to produce profits from food under any circumstances whatever, then it’s only prudent to plan for the possibility of climate and other factors getting in your way. On the other hand, this just sounds like something dreamed up by a misanthropic science-fiction author.

And as long as we can pretend to be finessing our way out of disaster, we don’t have to confront the disaster. I’m sure that the PR flacks for these corporations would respond that they’re not in the business of solving global warming; they’re just trying to make an honest buck. But if this is what “making an honest buck” looks like, then we’re in a bad bad place. It’s hard to believe that anyone can really believe that we’re going to engineer our way out of the problems created in large part by technology… by applying more technology.

The global situation is becoming more frightening on all fronts. Frightened people make bad choices. Decisions based largely on financial outcomes are often short-sighted. Short-sighted decisions have bad consequences.

That’s where we are and that’s where we’re heading, as fast as the ever-toiling machine of industrial capitalism can take us. We have no real say in all of this; we’re just along for the ride. All we can do is try to stay sane and build better solutions in our backyards.

Seasonal Food File (May): Rhubarb Realizations

It’s Rhubarb Season…

If you’re a fan of sweet and sour, rhubarb is the perfect food. Best known as a tangy pie filling, this vegetable has such potential as a sweet treat, that it is most often considered a fruit.

As with most complex carbohydrates, rhubarb is low in calories. Because it is 95 percent water, rhubarb is generally not thought of a highly nutritious food. However, its nutrients match its taste in significance, boasting a good amount of vitamin C, folate, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Rhubarb is also considered a good source of potassium and is rich in fibre.

Rhubarb for Healing
Originating in Asia more than 2,000 years ago, rhubarb was first used for medicinal purposes. Chinese folklore reveals that doctors used the plant to reduce fever and cleanse the body. According to specific Asian tradition, rhubarb is an extremely effective food for detoxifying and cooling the liver. In Traditional Chinese Medicine today, the root and stem are used as a remedy to reduce the toxicity that results from eating too much meat. A study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, found that rhubarb stalk lowers both cholesterol and fat levels in the blood.

Choosing Ripe Rhubarb
Select stems that are long, thin, and fully colored. They should be firm and crisp, without seeming hard. If leaves are still attached, they should look fresh. Avoid either very slender or very thick stems, since these are probably over-ripe and will be too fibrous to enjoy.

Rhubarb stalks can be stored for up to four weeks when sealed, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Peel off any stringy covering before cooking. Be sure to cook and eat only the stems of the rhubarb plant. The leaves contain toxic levels of oxalic acid, which makes them poisonous.

Rhubarb Nutrition:
One cup of diced rhubarb contains:
Vitamin C      10 mg
Folate         8.5 mcg
Calcium     105 mg
Magnesium     14.5 mg
Phosphorus     17 mg
Potassium    351 mg
Protein        1 g
Dietary fibre    5

Rhubarb Recipe Ideas:
- add chopped bits to muffin batter
- combine with strawberries or raspberries when making jam
- use when making apple crisp, apple pie, apple cake and apple sauce

Rhubarb Sauce Recipe:
1 1/2 cups slice, 1/4” thick rhubarb
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup unpasteurized honey
1 Tbsp arrowroot powder (or corn starch) dissolved in a 1/2 tsp water

Place the rhubarb and water in a small pot. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the rhubarb is totally soft and able to be stirred into a sauce-like consistency. Add the honey and stir, continuing to cook, for another two to five minutes, until well blended. If you desire thicker sauce, whist in the arrowroot powder, whisking continuously until thick (if necessary, turn heat up so that sauce bubbles slightly).

The entire cooking process should take no longer than 25 minutes. Serve immediately over potatoes, rice  or ice cream.

Julian Darley: “Rethinking and relocalizing our food and fuel systems”

From HopeDance Magazine:

“Ultimately, the most obvious way to source your food – and energy – more securely, resiliently and locally is to grow some of it yourself. And this is the part that could apply to every able bodied human being  – if only they have access to some fertile land and the tools and knowledge to work it. After all, if we lived within our local carrying capacity and had fair access to fertile land, we would be able to feed and provide for ourselves without relying heavily on a vast and increasingly unreliable food and fuel system. That however, will involve us rethinking land use, land ownership and how we should live. The sooner we are ready for that, the sooner we’ll start building a sustainable food system, and much else besides.”

His comments about meat consumption underscore how truly idiotic the meat inspection regulations are that we are facing in BC. A wise government would be doing everything it could to encourage small-scale meat production and local consumption. Instead, the small-scale is under threat, and we will have to rely increasingly on trucked-in meat. It’s madness.

If you can’t get enough of Julian Darley, here’s a link to a conversation between him and David Holmgren, one of the co-founders of permaculture.

Frances Moore Lappé on the causes of the food crisis

From the CBC’s Sunday Edition: This week, host Ramona Dearing talks to Frances Moore Lappé about the world food shortage and the future of our supply. But first, Frank Faulk takes a documentary look at a new breed of farmers.

The segment with Lappé begins at 26:47, but the earlier story about young people getting into farming is well worth listening to.

MP3 here.

(H/t Mercedes.)

WOW!!! Two opportunities to learn about wild plants and foraging! (Sat. May 10 and Sun. May 25)

We are lucky here in the Powell River area to have a few local experts in recognizing and gathering wild food plants, and knowing how to use them food food or for medicinal uses.

Brian Lee will be leading a plant walk this Saturday May 10, and Kristi McCrae will be leading another one on Sunday May 25. All the relevant information is given below. Please come out and support your local wild plant experts, get some fresh air, and learn a thing or two (hundred) about your local bioregion!!

Sat. May 10: Wild Edge plant walk with Brian Lee

Come out with Brian Lee (Bush Man) for a wild plant walk. You will see that the local bushes have a variety of plant life to offer and the Spring is when the edibles are at their peak.  Most plants are multi-use; edible, medicinal, clothing, shelter, tools, etc. and I will speak to these uses. The bush is like a supermarket and sometimes you can’t get everything on one aisle, but come out for a wild walk and we will see what Mother Nature has to offer us.
Saturday May 10, 9:00 AM to 12:00 AM
Meet in the parking lot of the Community Resource Centre, 4752 Joyce Ave., Powell River
$20 per person; kids of babysitting age are free (accompanied by a parent)
For more information call Brian at (604) 414-5183

Sun. May 25: Wild Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk with Kristi McCrae

Plant identification, a couple different ecosystems, discussion about properties of wild plants, harvesting and preparation.
Sunday May 25, 10:00 AM
Craig Park in Lund (on Craig Rd.)
$15-$25 sliding scale (kids free)
Bring: Lunch, Field guides, water
Be prepared to hike
If you have a back road worthy vehicle that we may carpool in that would be great!!
Contact: Kristi at (604) 414-5723 or woodwitch@ecomail.org

Growing your own food is catching on in BC

From The Tyee, Some evidence from local seed retailers that the grow-your-own food movement is really catching on this season:

“We put out the catalog at the beginning of January, as we always do” says Jeanette McCall, a sales representative at West Coast Seeds, based in Delta, B.C.

“Then, boom. We had many, many, many more orders than we anticipated. [Our computer system] simply couldn’t handle the load,” she adds. “It just sort of crashed.”

It’s the same story at Salt Spring Seeds, which specializes in heritage and heirloom vegetable varieties.

“I’ve never seen the likes of this in over 20 years of selling seeds,” confirmed owner Dan Jason.

Now, if we could only establish a local seed-saving project here, to serve our local needs…

Every crisis a potential goldmine

From the Independent UK: “Multinationals make billions in profit out of growing global food crisis.”

Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

And:

Cargill says that its results “reflect the cumulative effect of having invested more than $18bn in fixed and working capital over the past seven years to expand our physical facilities, service capabilities, and knowledge around the world”

Why we’re in trouble

Interesting update from Corky Evans, who will be in Powell River on Sunday June 1 to talk at the Open Air Market. Corky is currently touring the province talking to farmers and getting lots of information on the effects of the new regulatory regime, especially the meat inspection regulations, which are causing a lot of our local farmers to fear for the future of farming in this region. Corky:

Dear Friends,

I have been traveling BC for a few months talking to farmers about farming. I have heard a huge number of excellent ideas for support systems to regenerate the business of farming that are not subsidies. None of these ideas, though, will work as long as BC is content to be LAST in Canada in support for food production and farming.

The enclosed graph was sent to me yesterday by a person who I met on the tour. It is the best representation of the overall situation in BC, now and historically, I have ever seen. Please give it a look. In fact, please give it a considerable amount of study.

The graph is pretty easy to understand. It starts in the 1980’s and runs up to last year. It shows that under the Socreds, the NDP and, now, the Liberals, British Columbia has failed farmers and farming. The top line is the average (not the best, the average) of support by Canadian Provinces. The bottom line is BC. As long as this condition continues to exist no Minister, no Cabinet and no Premier will be able to turn things around for the farmer. Essentially, we are the least competitive jurisdiction for this particular form of business in Canada.

If the graph interests you, send it to your friends. Maybe broad public knowledge of this embarrassment will convince society and societies Leaders to want to fix what is broken. I am working on the Party I support to understand the issue. Maybe you could work on yours.

Thanks,
Corky Evans
Agriculture Critic/ Official Opposition

In case you missed it, here’s that graph again. It tells a pretty sad story indeed. But the question is: what are we supposed to do about it?

Come on out on June 1 to hear Corky Evans speak in Powell River. Guaranteed to get you fired up!

Powell River Food Security Newsletter #11

Hello and welcome to the 11th issue of the Powell River Food Security Newsletter!!
 
Wow, time flies. Things here in Powell River are pretty busy these days, as we head into the growing season. Since the last newsletter (February 1, 2008), the Powell River Farmers’ Institute had a very successful third annual Seedy Saturday; the demonstration garden has been mostly constructed; Kale Force has met three more times and looks like something that might continue and prosper; the community garden behind the Seventh Day Adventist Church has found two coordinators and is getting started for the 2008 season; and generally things are picking up speed all over.
 
One thing that the local folks reading this could do, and that is to let me know of any workshops that you would to see organized this spring and summer. I have some ideas for more workshops, but could always use more ideas. If you would be willing to lead a workshop, or you know someone with special skills or experience who might be a good workshop leader, let me know that as well. Thanks!!
 
One other thing that I want to let people know is that I am starting to think seriously about ways of increasing local food production. It’s great to see that so many people are interested in growing their own food, but we need to start building larger solutions at the community level. I’m interested in researching the feasibility of a cooperative which would work to covert arable urban land to food production (using something like the SPIN farming model), with memberships available to anyone in the community and revenue coming from sales of produce to members and elsewhere. I see this as a good way of putting control over our food supply in local hands, and making it easier for people to get high-quality local food. It could also provide some good jobs for local folks who want to learn some useful skills. I’ll be working on this in the next few months, and hopefully will have some progress to report.

Local News & Upcoming Events

1. Kale Force

We continue to meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 5:00 PM at the Community Resource Centre (4752 Joyce Ave., Powell River). It’s a very casual meeting, starting off with a potluck, so bring food if you can, but there is always plenty to go around. It’s a good opportunity to meet some of the other folks in the area who are keen to get more food growing and help others grow more food, learn about food preservation and food storage, and any other aspects of regional food security. Next meeting: Wednesday May 14.

2. Demonstration garden

The demonstration garden is coming along great: there are fences, beds, fruit trees, a herb spiral, and some planting is underway. It’s still very much a work in progress, but it’s a genuine community project. If you’re interested in helping out, drop by the garden any Friday afternoon. A bunch of us usually gather for lunch and then spend some time in the garden working on whatever needs doing. There’s always room for more hands!! Come join us behind the Community Resource Centre (4752 Joyce Ave., Powell River). If you’re interested in working in the demonstration garden, especially if you have experience growing food, please let me know. We can use more willing hands!!

3. Open Air Market opening on Saturday April 26

What more needs to be said? We’re back into another season of local food, so come on out and support your local farmers and craftspeople, up at the fairgrounds on McLeod Rd. just off Padgett Rd. on the way from Powell River out past the airport. Saturdays 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM; Sundays 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM. If you grow food, or bake or cook or make specialty foods with local ingredients, and you’re interested in selling your goods at the Open Air Market, please contact the coordinator of the Open Air Market, Julie Bellian, at (604) 483-4923.

4. Seventh Day Adventist Church Community Garden

The community garden behind the Seventh Day Adventist Church is getting going for another season. If you’re interested in getting an allotment of your own, as an individual or as a family or other group, please contact one of the coordinators and they’ll do our best. You can reach David Counsell at dcounsell@shaw.ca, or Sharon Deane at kingfisherbooks@shawbiz.ca. There is usually one of them at the garden on Tuesdays and Thursday around noon to one p.m., so you can drop by and connect with one of them.

5. Gardening and food growing on JUMP FM

Powell River’s very own Carol Engram has a weekly radio show on JUMP FM, where she talks about gardening and growing food, and offers hints and ideas on how to make your garden more productive. Tune in every Thursday at 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM at 90.1 FM. Or you can listen over the internet at http://jumpradio.ca/.

6. 50-mile diet challenge

This summer we’ll be celebrating the third annual Eat Local challenge. So get ready, start your garden soon, talk to your local farmers, and spread the word. Eating locally is the future! If you’re interested is helping organize the 50-mile diet challenge, let me know. We can always use help.

7. Fruit Tree Project

Also, we’re getting closer to the time of year when the fruit ripens, and the bears go crazy. Anne Michaels is going to be coordinating the Fruit Tree Project, which works to organize teams of volunteers willing to go out into the community to pick fruit so that it won’t go to waste. Usually, the fruit is shared among the owner of the trees, the pickers, and charitable organizations in the region. Anne also has some ambitious ideas about pressing cider, drying fruit, making jams and jellies, and so on. But all of those projects will require some more volunteer help; so if you’re interested in working with her, please contact her at prfruittreeproject@shaw.ca.

8. Good Food Box

Every second Wednesday of the month, at the United Church kitty-corner to the library at Duncan & Michigan, from a little after 9:00 until a little after noon, a bunch of volunteers get together to help pack up the hundred or so Good Food Boxes that go out every month. I regularly attend, because it’s a worthy cause to give some time to, and also because it’s a nice social occasion. There is a pretty regular crew of people who help out, and afterwards there is always a good homemade lunch cooked by volunteers while other volunteers are bagging, counting, carrying, boxing, and generally running around. So come on out if you’re interested!

In case you didn’t know, the Good Food Box is a program open to anyone. Participants pay $12 each month for a box of produce worth somewhat more than $12, since the produce is bought in quantity. Anyone interested can sign up for a Good Food Box through the Family Place in the Town Centre Mall (495-2706), or through the PREP Society (485-2004). Or you can contact the organizer, Kimberley Murphy-Heggeler at (604) 483-3045 or prgoodfoodbox@shaw.ca.

9. Corky Evans coming to Powell River on June 1

The provincial NDP’s agriculture critic Corky Evans will be in Powell River on June 1 as part of a cross-province tour to raise awareness of the growing threats to small farming, particularly the BC government’s imposition of strict new meat inspection regulations. June 1 is a Sunday, so Corky will be speaking at the Open Air Market in Powell River, tentatively from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, but stayed tuned for updates. If you want to get an idea of what Corky will be talking about, tune in to this recent episode of Deconstructing Dinner.

News, Opinion, etc.

Of course, the huge story that is all over the news lately is the growing global food crisis. Food prices, particularly the prices of staples such as wheat, corn, rice and soybeans, are rising rapidly, causing even more hunger and unrest in the poorer parts of the planet. If you want to read something pretty exhaustive on this subject, this post from the excellent blog The Automatic Earth is a good place to start. The reasons they give for the food crisis are:

1. The world population is growing constantly, while the amount of arable land is declining.
   Climate change is causing a loss of agricultural land, irreversible in some cases, as a result of droughts, floods, storms and erosion.
2. Because of changing eating habits, more and more arable land and virgin forests are being turned into pasture for livestock. The yield per acre in calories of land given over to pasture is substantially lower than that of arable land.
3. The World Bank wants developing countries to introduce market reforms, including the abolition of protective tariffs, a move that often causes massive damage to local agriculture.
4. Speculators are driving up the prices of raw materials. The resulting high oil price leads to “energy crops” being cultivated instead of grain for food or animal feed.
5. Millions of people displaced by civil wars need food, and yet they themselves are no longer capable of producing food.

This is a terrible systemic failure, and it’s hard to know how we as individuals are supposed to respond. One good idea would be to eat less energy-intensive factory-farmed meat coming from far away. Support your local farmers; lord knows they can use your support.

a. Michael Pollan on the value of individual actions (such as growing your own food)

“Let’s say I do bother, big time. I turn my life upside-down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat so low I need the Jimmy Carter signature cardigan, forsake the clothes dryer for a laundry line across the yard, trade in the station wagon for a hybrid, get off the beef, go completely local. I could theoretically do all that, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit. So what exactly would I have to show for all my trouble?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
Michael Pollan on Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/13/in_defense_of_food_author_journalist
Transcript of an interview with Michael Pollan: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/77330/?page=entire

b. Genetic modification reduces crop productivity

“The study - carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt - has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops-myth-812179.html

c. 40 Ways to Encourage More Local Food Production

(From Guy Dauncey and Carolyn Herriot of Earth Future in Victoria, BC)
http://100milediet.org/how-to-change-the-food-system

d. Parksville-Qualicum resident Kathryn Gemmell starts a SPIN farming operation

“‘We need to start educating people about getting back to growing food on our properties and making viable use of the land,’ she said. ‘Over the next 10 years, with the price of oil increasing, we won’t be able to bring food in cost-effectively from elsewhere in the world, so we need to work on our local infrastructure. Urban farming is one way to do that, making use of people’s properties to grow food.’ Gemmell, a Parksville resident, said the initiative would see participants either rent the property for part of the year or provide fresh food from the yard to the owner, with the rest distributed in the community or sold at the local farmer’s market for wholesale prices.”
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/parksville_qualicumbeachnews/lifestyles/Taking_Oceanside_for_a_SPIN.html

e. A cooperative in the UK gets a whole town growing its own food

“Of the 164 families who live in Martin, 101 have signed up as members of Future Farms for an annual £2 fee, although the produce can be sold to anyone who wants to buy it. The “community allotment” sells 45 types of vegetables and 100 chickens a week, and is run by a committee which includes a radiologist, a computer programmer and a former probation officer.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=559580&in_page_id=1770

That’s it for now — see you at the Open Air Market!

David Parkinson
Program Coordinator
Powell River Food Security Project
(604) 485-2004

Kale Force meeting of March 12, 2008

The Kale Force met again on Wednesday night this week, with about 14 people in attendance. As always, we spent some quality time at the beginning, eating the food that people brought, and catching up with each other. Then we went around the room and everyone introduced themselves and said a word or two about what they were doing there, what their interests were in food security, and so on.

I gave a pretty long-winded spiel about some of the stuff that is going on in the Food Security Project. Besides the obvious stuff like Seedy Saturday this past weekend, and all kinds of other administrative overhead (bleah), the most exciting new development is that I went out to Sliammon a couple weeks ago and had a very positive meeting with Laurette Bloomquist, Dawna Pallen, and Rose Adams of Sliammon Health; and Maureen Adams from the band office. They’re all very concerned about nutrition and access to good food out there, and our meeting was a first brainstorming session to see if we couldn’t get something going to tackle the problem. We shot around a couple of ideas, one of which would be awesome if we could make it happen: a weekend-long picking & canning/drying festival to provide for canned/dried fruit for the community, to be used especially for elders and others really struggling during the winter months. Now I just need to keep working with them to see if we can’t chase down some funding for that idea and make it happen. Whew.

The demonstration garden is moving along well, and there will be a work party next Monday (March 17) to plant the fruit trees. Starting this week, Friday afternoons will be a regular meeting time in the garden for anyone who wants to connect with the team of folks who will be taking care of the garden now that the youth project is slowly winding down. We’ll be meeting from 1:00 to 4:00 PM in the garden behind the Community Resource Centre to plan upcoming activities, workshops, and work parties; and also to dig in and work on the garden. So come on out and see what’s happening there!

Another thing that’s happening is that Kimberley Murphy-Heggeler, the new volunteer coordinator of the Good Food Box, is keen to start boosting the profile of that program around town. She has met with Georgina Kendrick, who runs the Food Bank in town, and it looks as though there may be some way for those two programs to partner, since the Food Bank is mainly in the business of distributing non-perishables, whereas the Good Food Box distributes produce. It would be good to connect the two together. Also, Kimberley and I are thinking about getting local businesses and individuals to sponsor a Good Food Box by paying the low low sum of $12 per month. We need to work on a campaign to raise awareness, and hopefully start getting the community on board with the idea of signing up for a one-off box or a year-long subscription. There are plenty of places in the area who would happily distribute boxes of produce to their patrons.

The star attraction of the evening was Sue Moen, from the LUSH Valley Food Action Society over in the Comox Valley, who told us about all the activity over on their part of the island. They’re working on a centralized hub for food distribution, food preparation training, small business incubation, and social connection for people on the margins. It sounds like an excellent project, and similar in some ways to some of the activity that is starting to coalesce around the Community Resource Centre in Powell River. I’ll be keeping my eye on what’s happening across the strait, since we can certainly learn from what they’re doing.

We brainstormed a bit about how we can start to spread the word about the need for more local growing. Most of the people present were feeling a lot of anxiety about the gap between where we need to be in terms of production, and where we’re at. But in some ways it’s tough to reach out to the unconverted, or to people who never think much about where their food comes from and the hidden costs of food trucked in from thousands of miles away.

We certainly need more activity, and more outreach into the broader community. This is obviously part of what I’m funded to do by Vancouver Coastal Health. But somehow we need to build up a team of people who are willing to take on some of this effort. I had hoped that the regular Kale Force meetings would provide the impetus for this sort of thing; and maybe over time it will. I’m not sure yet how valuable it is to have a regular meeting which is informal and more about connecting people together than it is about trying to make sure that every meeting is full of activity and learning. There is a place for both sorts of things, and sometimes I find that an endless series of meetings which are tightly scripted leaves you feeling hungry for opportunities to just connect and talk informally, strike up casual conversations and let ideas just brew naturally.

It’s possible that the regular Friday meetings in the demonstration garden will provide the more action-oriented venue, and Kale Force will continue to work well as a more social event. I want to hold the options open a little, and let things evolve naturally as much as possible.

What’s your opinion? Any ideas for future activities?