What the Soybean!!?!
The European Commission just approved its first Genetically Engendered soybean, so aptly named “LibertyLink” on Sept. 8 in a so-called written procedure after the Council of Ministers (a democratically elected legislative body) reached a decision of no decision (either approving or rejecting it) last July. This is a HUGE victory for agribusiness and a bleak page for environmentalists, farmers and really anyone who eats in this world.
What happened Europe?
Europe was the only place in the world that was strong enough to stand up to the bio-tech industry. When GE soy, sugar beets and corn first hit farms back in 1996-97, citizens across the continent went out into the night and literally dug up fields of GE crops, sending a message that they didn’t want what Monsanto or DuPont had to offer! As a result, Europe, which is politically and economically powerful enough to mean something to these multi-national corporations, banned all GE foods from entering her boarders. Because genetically engineered crops have such a huge impact on their environment, this was a huge success for conservative farmers and concerned citizens; likewise it was a tremendous thorn in the back of agribusiness. GE crops by their very nature as plants cross-pollinate with other plants. It is not possible to plant GE crops in one area and not contaminate the region, as far as the wind blows. This has been a huge problem for organic farmers in particular who wish to preserve the genetic integrity of their plants. This is one reason that so many farmers and informed citizens have rejected the release of GE crops without sufficient testing. Once a crop is planted and goes to seed there is no going back. Since the ban, biotech firms have been committed to finding ways to erode this powerful legislation. Today it looks to me like they have been successful. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy reported Friday that:
Approval of [LibertyLink and pending Round Up Ready Yield 2] would largely address the problem of how the EU should handle feed shipments for its livestock industries that contain trace elements of GMOs not authorized in the EU, but approved in other countries,…the likelihood of such unauthorized traces in feed shipments from the United States has been reduced, according to U.S. sources. As a result, it is no longer as urgent to develop a policy for how to respond to feed contamination with unauthorized GMOs, they said.
Yes, “unauthorized traces” of GMOs have been reduced because they are now authorized! And it is no longer urgent to develop a policy of how to respond to contamination because the contamination has been approved.
Biotechnology firms pressured the EU to approve LibertyLink as a way to avoid a feed shortage for its livestock industry, since the EU is largely dependent on outside vegetable protein sources to feed its growing meat industry.
I don’t really know what to say, I am so devastated by this decision. The most appalling thing though is that this story is not even being covered. Not in the New York Times, not on NPR, I didn’t even see anything on the Greenpeace website. Please help to spread the word about what is going on here.
To learn more about the technical aspects of LibertyLink check out this article http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=502 For the full IATP article see: http://www.tradeobservatory.org/index.cfm
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A day in the life
This morning I woke up before the roosters. I know this because I couldn’t hear them in the bathroom where my father has plugged in a tiny baby monitor transmitting to the “adolescent” chicken coop. This morning could have been a fatal blow to the future of one bull-calf’s lineage- but more on that later. I went outside in the tall wet grass and climbed up into the passenger side of my dad’s great big pick-up truck. He already had the trailer hitched up and Alex, the 6-week-old bullRJH, pacing inside. We had to drive far to the vet’s and I could only imagine the gas mileage with this load. None of the vets in or around town treat large (AKA farm) animals, my dad told me. He rubbed his fingers together, “there’s no money in treating large animals. Farmers don’t have any money.” The Vet finally came out to see Alex, chuckling as he did at my father who listened to his wife and decided against castrating the little guy today. My mother convinced him that Alex, unrelated to the female heifer calf back home, would be more valuable as a stud than as a series of steaks. My dad was worried that nobody would want to buy him as a stud, and for good reason. Farmers across the country are slashing their herds. The reason? A 50% increase in grain costs. Ironically, last year’s grain harvest was the largest in the planet’s history. Explanations for the spike in grain prices abound and most of the big reasons- increased fuel costs, bad weather, ethanol- help to explain the current spike in food prices, but they also expose an enormous liability within our current food system. Ultimately, if grain prices are increasing this year, the price of meat is bound to follow suit by next year. And who knows, maybe the nescient food economy will begin to offer farmers a real living wage that reflects the good work farmers do! I am hopeful that change to our fundamental way of life, down to the very food we produce and eat, is possible.
The new Economy of
55 gallons of gasoline, siphoned from my boat
A shovel
A chainsaw
21 feet of rope
A cord of wood
A jar of peanut butter.
Each of these stolen from wealthy homes in East Blue Hill, Maine.
"What with the price of oil and the price of food, I'll tell ya, if it's not bolded down it's as good as gone already." Men talking out at the boatyard, gathered there for the annual lobster bake to which NOT all members of the Village Improvement Association were invited.
"And I just thought it was me, having a string of bad luck or maybe somebody didn't like me too much, you say this happened to you too?"
"Yeah, it's going to be a tough winter, especially if we get a cold one."
A shovel
A chainsaw
21 feet of rope
A cord of wood
A jar of peanut butter.
Each of these stolen from wealthy homes in East Blue Hill, Maine.
"What with the price of oil and the price of food, I'll tell ya, if it's not bolded down it's as good as gone already." Men talking out at the boatyard, gathered there for the annual lobster bake to which NOT all members of the Village Improvement Association were invited.
"And I just thought it was me, having a string of bad luck or maybe somebody didn't like me too much, you say this happened to you too?"
"Yeah, it's going to be a tough winter, especially if we get a cold one."
A few good (some non-western) Ideas
OK, today I want to share some really exciting news from around the world that you probably didn’t read in the New York Times or hear on NPR.
1. Ecuador is proposing to recognize nature- ecological systems- as having inalienable rights (like the right, and therefore the protection of its right, to exist) This is super exciting in terms of environmental law because if nature has a right to exist, humans and corporations and states will need to show substantial or just cause to infringe on those rights. You can read the article here: http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=479 Very exciting. If you think this is an awesome step in the right direction towards a sustainable human future in harmony with our environment, as I do, I urge you to propose integrating this language into your own social pact at the familial, community and city levels. In Boulder, CO, a group of women are working to integrate the recognition of nature’s right to exist into the language dictating the town’s “transition” to a world beyond peak oil.
2. On that note the Transition Town movement is pretty exciting if you’re not plugged into that here is some information: http://www.transitiontowns.org/
3. Finally, I read that the country of Bhutan measures their GDH, that is, their Gross Domestic Happiness. They point out how the GDP measures things but not the impact of those things (pollution, for example). In Bhutan the focus is on not only what is gained but also what is lost and whatever tradeoffs there might be. OK. That’s all I got for today!
1. Ecuador is proposing to recognize nature- ecological systems- as having inalienable rights (like the right, and therefore the protection of its right, to exist) This is super exciting in terms of environmental law because if nature has a right to exist, humans and corporations and states will need to show substantial or just cause to infringe on those rights. You can read the article here: http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=479 Very exciting. If you think this is an awesome step in the right direction towards a sustainable human future in harmony with our environment, as I do, I urge you to propose integrating this language into your own social pact at the familial, community and city levels. In Boulder, CO, a group of women are working to integrate the recognition of nature’s right to exist into the language dictating the town’s “transition” to a world beyond peak oil.
2. On that note the Transition Town movement is pretty exciting if you’re not plugged into that here is some information: http://www.transitiontowns.org/
3. Finally, I read that the country of Bhutan measures their GDH, that is, their Gross Domestic Happiness. They point out how the GDP measures things but not the impact of those things (pollution, for example). In Bhutan the focus is on not only what is gained but also what is lost and whatever tradeoffs there might be. OK. That’s all I got for today!
Muffin-Eater
Muffin-Eater
Up up up above the clouds
Somewhere between Denver and Huston,
I awoke to the jangle of soda bottles on a beverage cart.
Sitting as I was
In the second-to-last row of the airplane
I woke just in time to see the cart disappear into the steward’s quarters.
A man to my left was eating a muffin.
Across the isle, I spotted another man with exactly the same type of muffin.
“Did they give you that muffin?” I exclaimed.
Being fed on the airplane was like a throwback to pre-911 travel and with it the national tradition of complaining about soggy bread and frozen milk- but at least there was something to eat if you got hungry!
The stewardess handed me my very own muffin. I was voracious, breaking pieces of moist bread. I held a piece in my hand, staring at the speckles of blue food coloring, reminiscent of blueberries. What flavor was this muffin and why did it have to be reminiscent of good food? The only flavor I detected was sugar. Now I thought about this muffin and its food miles and carbon footprint and all this post-modern politico-food ethic shit that I love to shoot, and it dawned on me what a fascinating microcosm of the complexity of the whole food-miles debate this now sacred muffin and muffin-eater could become. I thought about renaming my blog muffin-eater. Really.
So, to count the food miles of this particular airborne indulgence I am confronted with three questions: 1. Where to begin. 2. Where to end. And perhaps the most convoluted 3. Which miles to attribute to me alone, without muffin and which to bequeath upon said muffin.
I began my travels this morning in Denver. It could be said that I traveled all the way from that metropolis to indeed eat this muffin. Yet, this muffin was not my sole motivation for this expedition across the sky. Matthew J. Mariola in his recent article The Local industrial Complex? Questioning the Link Between local Foods and Energy Use, claims that a piece of fruit or vegetable grown and consumed locally could possibly have a greater carbon footprint than one produced across the globe and shipped to a grocery outlet. The sticking point being that while a pint of raspberries, for example, might travel 500 miles from where it is harvested to where it is sold, that individual package of raspberries can only be accountable for a small fraction of the total fuel usage since it is not traveling alone. A similar pint of raspberries picked on a farm in rural Maine and trucked 20 miles to the local farmer’s market via that farmer’s gas-gusting flatbed pickup truck must be accountable for a much greater fraction of the fuel consumed since the small farmer is trucking much less and using a less efficient vehicle. Further, Mariola points out that the purchaser attending the market may herself have driven 20 miles across town to attend the market where she finally bought the berries, thereby doubling their carbon footprint.
Extending Mariola’s argument to the saga of the muffin, I would include my journey from Denver and the muffin’s journey from wherever it was baked (on board… over New Mexico?) as well as the journeys of each ingredient from their respective harvest locations.
Now, the tallying of food miles stops either when I accept the on-board treat or when I consume it, which fortunately for this analysis occurred simultaneously.
But how many of these total miles can I really attribute to the muffin alone? Mariola includes the miles a shopper travels to attend a local market or pick up a produce box at a farm stand. For myself I can say that I will not drive anywhere just buy one item. Similarly, I did not go on this flight just to eat a muffin. In attempting to reduce the impact of your food choices a plethora variables and obstacles come into play. And I think Matthew Mariola is right to point out that the “greenest” option might sometimes surprise you. Here’s another interesting article about food miles and the ecological impact of food choices: http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/apr/science/ee_foodmiles.html
I do think it is important to remember that there are other important benefits to eating locally produced food- it builds community and relationships with our environment, and sometimes, as in the case of honey, eating local can acclimate us to our environments building tolerance for allergens and the like.
When it comes down to it, you do what you can and try not to stress out too much because after all, “we are all spiritual beings having a physical experience.” And it is pretty ridiculous to count the food miles of your muffin when you yourself are flying across the country~ the single biggest indicator of a person’s ecological footprint is wealth; which makes sense since wealthy people consume more….
Up up up above the clouds
Somewhere between Denver and Huston,
I awoke to the jangle of soda bottles on a beverage cart.
Sitting as I was
In the second-to-last row of the airplane
I woke just in time to see the cart disappear into the steward’s quarters.
A man to my left was eating a muffin.
Across the isle, I spotted another man with exactly the same type of muffin.
“Did they give you that muffin?” I exclaimed.
Being fed on the airplane was like a throwback to pre-911 travel and with it the national tradition of complaining about soggy bread and frozen milk- but at least there was something to eat if you got hungry!
The stewardess handed me my very own muffin. I was voracious, breaking pieces of moist bread. I held a piece in my hand, staring at the speckles of blue food coloring, reminiscent of blueberries. What flavor was this muffin and why did it have to be reminiscent of good food? The only flavor I detected was sugar. Now I thought about this muffin and its food miles and carbon footprint and all this post-modern politico-food ethic shit that I love to shoot, and it dawned on me what a fascinating microcosm of the complexity of the whole food-miles debate this now sacred muffin and muffin-eater could become. I thought about renaming my blog muffin-eater. Really.
So, to count the food miles of this particular airborne indulgence I am confronted with three questions: 1. Where to begin. 2. Where to end. And perhaps the most convoluted 3. Which miles to attribute to me alone, without muffin and which to bequeath upon said muffin.
I began my travels this morning in Denver. It could be said that I traveled all the way from that metropolis to indeed eat this muffin. Yet, this muffin was not my sole motivation for this expedition across the sky. Matthew J. Mariola in his recent article The Local industrial Complex? Questioning the Link Between local Foods and Energy Use, claims that a piece of fruit or vegetable grown and consumed locally could possibly have a greater carbon footprint than one produced across the globe and shipped to a grocery outlet. The sticking point being that while a pint of raspberries, for example, might travel 500 miles from where it is harvested to where it is sold, that individual package of raspberries can only be accountable for a small fraction of the total fuel usage since it is not traveling alone. A similar pint of raspberries picked on a farm in rural Maine and trucked 20 miles to the local farmer’s market via that farmer’s gas-gusting flatbed pickup truck must be accountable for a much greater fraction of the fuel consumed since the small farmer is trucking much less and using a less efficient vehicle. Further, Mariola points out that the purchaser attending the market may herself have driven 20 miles across town to attend the market where she finally bought the berries, thereby doubling their carbon footprint.
Extending Mariola’s argument to the saga of the muffin, I would include my journey from Denver and the muffin’s journey from wherever it was baked (on board… over New Mexico?) as well as the journeys of each ingredient from their respective harvest locations.
Now, the tallying of food miles stops either when I accept the on-board treat or when I consume it, which fortunately for this analysis occurred simultaneously.
But how many of these total miles can I really attribute to the muffin alone? Mariola includes the miles a shopper travels to attend a local market or pick up a produce box at a farm stand. For myself I can say that I will not drive anywhere just buy one item. Similarly, I did not go on this flight just to eat a muffin. In attempting to reduce the impact of your food choices a plethora variables and obstacles come into play. And I think Matthew Mariola is right to point out that the “greenest” option might sometimes surprise you. Here’s another interesting article about food miles and the ecological impact of food choices: http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/apr/science/ee_foodmiles.html
I do think it is important to remember that there are other important benefits to eating locally produced food- it builds community and relationships with our environment, and sometimes, as in the case of honey, eating local can acclimate us to our environments building tolerance for allergens and the like.
When it comes down to it, you do what you can and try not to stress out too much because after all, “we are all spiritual beings having a physical experience.” And it is pretty ridiculous to count the food miles of your muffin when you yourself are flying across the country~ the single biggest indicator of a person’s ecological footprint is wealth; which makes sense since wealthy people consume more….
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
