Election Day

As we are making decisions about who we will vote for in the upcoming election, if you follow this blog you should consider the presidential candidates stances on farm policies. Sounds like the candidates will have to be kicked in the face before they seriously consider that our food system needs revolutionary changes. Starting with dropping subsidies and laying down the law on pollution. On another note, I thought it was strange that the author still thinks that ethanol was the sole cause of the food shortages in the past year. It really was not a substantial cause, as I noted in an earlier article. Food shortages were linked directly with the increasing cost of transportation, or fuel prices, and increased demand for food with decreased production.

The Second Green Revolution

I found an article proposing the scientific approach to the global issue of static food production in a ever multiplying population. This article states that we need a second green revolution that is based on a freer distribution of GM crops. The first revolution created from the development of technologies including pesticides, irrigation projects, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. These developments seemed like a boon to society at the time. They made food production double in some developing countries. There were unforeseen costs such as massive water pollution from chemical drainage into streams. Also these technologies are allowing farmers to use the land in an unsustainable way, degrading the soil, so it may produce more food now, but at what costs? We didn't know what the downside of the massive jump in food production would be then, and we don't know how GM crops could be harmful now. Developing crops resistant to certain disease strains could make the strains develop into more harmful diseases.

Victory Gardens

In this op-ed article in the New York Times, Ms. Arieff talks about various land reclamation projects that use new innovative spaces for growing food. These projects are popping up all over cities, including St. Louis. For example, on my first expedition to the botanical gardens, I discovered that there is a entire section devoted to food crops. Funny that we have to visit the botanical gardens to know what plants look like before they reach our table. I'm curious where these crops will end up when they are ready to be used.

Amy Franchesni started a Victory Garden project in San Francisco (mentioned in the article) part of her art work was designing fun tools for gardening such as this awesome bike.


Franchesni convinced San Francisco City Hall to transform their lawn into a giant garden. Most of the food will be "donated to those with limited access to healthy, organic produce through a partnership with local food banks and meal programs."

Tower Grove

Hello avid readers! I know you must have been wilting away while I was on hiatus. Never fear for I have returned! Better yet, I'll be here for another year. Aren't you lucky.

SO, have you been to Local Harvest Grocery? It is a tiny little shop in the Tower Grove South Area on Morganford. I make an effort to not buy eggs unless I'm in the area for some Local Harvest eggs. They have so much more flavor, and they are from local farmers. They carry a range of locally grown and produced foods, including food from the urban farms like City Seeds. All of their local products are labeled with a green tag. Their other products are "wholesome and healthful foods that are produced in organic and sustainable methods." They recently opened a cafe down the street. I cannot rate it for you yet because I still haven't eaten there, but I look forward to it!

The Tower Grove Farmers' Market is located next to the kiddy pool fountain in the middle of Tower Grove Park. It's great because all of the vendors are local businesses. It is smaller and has less variety than Soulard, but at Soulard you can't tell where the food is coming from. If I remember correctly it isn't even labeled by farm. Extra double plus bonus is if you are buying from vendors here or at Local Harvest, you are getting food that is in season.

People's Grocery

Two very inspiring projects called the People's Grocery in Brooklyn and The Greenhouse Project in Johannesburg. They address how to make a community in need more self-sustainable by creating jobs, reusing waste, and producing food within the community.

Seed Saving

A short video about a seed saving project in India.

"Each civilization was based on agriculture and collapsed at a certain time in history. They collapsed because their environment collapsed, because there was no more arable land, because they cut all the forest around. And somewhere, now in the 21st century the same thing is repeating but on a larger scale, on a big, large global scale."

Stephan Fayon

Managing needs versus demand

I found this article in which Mike Coupe director of Sainsbury's, one of the UK's leading grocery stores, in response to a statement about reducing consumption as the only viable way to cut carbon emissions said "Managing needs versus demand seems like a form of communism," he said. "It's something the world we are living in isn't ready for." This statement is not surprising coming from someone who makes his money off of people buying surpluses of food that they never use. How true is this? Are people not ready to reduce their consumption?

Just from the recent price jumps in gas, people are in mass finally shying away from excessively large cars and getting on waiting lists for hybrids. So, how far do you have to push people before they reduce their consumption? The world didn't have the problem of extreme excess production 200 years ago. When food was industrialized in the early 20th century produced in extreme excess, we provided too much food for the consumer. This made obesity eventually a national epidemic. I can't see why it should be a problem to reduce food consumption. People lived perfectly happily for thousands of years before they had the choice of Cheetos or Fritos or Doritos or Tostitos. At what point will we realize that maybe the health of the nation and the environment is more important that making this crap food that helps line the corporations pockets. It's a natural response to eat what is in front of you, and with this lining our shelves, how are we supposed to resist?

Ok, so it's viable to say maybe people are not ready to reduce consumption. But I firmly believe that mass production, leads to mass consumption.