Quick Hit: Fed Up Documentary

Last night the Lady of the House and I got to see the documentary "Fed Up" and really enjoyed it. The movie is really good from the food science perspective, focused on the day to day "normal" food chain. It has a lot of information the Lady of the House and I already knew, but is well worth knowing. Even if you know everything it is very well presented, and is a documentary I think everyone in the USA and other developed countries at the very least should watch.


http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home

Thinking about chickens and what we're doing.

Of course on a post mostly about chickens I'm going to start with a bunny photo because they were being adorable when I came out this morning, and wanted attention. Of course, that meant I gave it to them because when they want pettins, I want to give them pettins. They're looking good, growing fast, and eating everything in the world that is provided to them. No wonder they've grown so well with eating how they have. But now over to chicken discussion.

Pensive on a rainy morning: Food ethics and farmers

There are no good photos to share right now due to being busy yesterday and waking up with the speed of a glacier this morning, but that's ok. This is going to ramble a bit because it's a train of thought, so bear with me please. While I obviously am focused on our homestead I've been thinking about food ethics in a broader perspective. One of the critiques of the food movement that I can't really discount is that not everyone has the opportunity to grow their own food, and if you've been around the USA you know there are places you can't get fresh produce. Not you can't get organic, you can't get fresh anything at all. Now the food deserts can change, but there are things that can't change.

Barring a catastrophic rearrangement of the world, people are going to live in cities. As long as people are living in cities there will be a large number of people, perhaps even a majority of people that can't grow their own food in sufficient quantities to survive. This is especially true if we build our cities to discourage car use, and focus on public transportation which I happen to believe is an ethical and practical necessity. The consequence of the existence of cities is that there are going to have to be farmers that are larger scale to produce, and if we want it to be more ethical there are going to have to be ethical farmers.

We think about the ethics of animals, and the ethics of our own food a lot. The thing we need to think about is how to improve the ethics of readily available food, for everyone. The catch is, there are costs to that, and we can't push those costs solely off on the farmers. Farmers are already in a precarious position, and to get changes in the practices of farming there is going to have to be money available to help with the changes (note, there is some), accessible training made available to everyone that wants it, a lot more farmers, and people are going to have to be able to make money doing it.

I suspect many of you have seen this article from the New York Times.  It's not a new article titled "Don't let your children grow up to be farmers". Some of the interesting information comes from this USDA report which points out that most farms have significant off farm income, and this USDA farm income forecast that shows that most farm income is in the negatives, the median, not the mean. Now some of this certainly comes from the increasing number of small farms that as the USDA notes, "barely has enough agricultural activity to meet the requirements to be considered a farm," which includes homestead farms, owning horses, and similar situations. The other thing they noted is that most of the off farm incomes were high, often in management. To me this is part of an increasing divide between the rich and everyone else in terms of food access. I'd link to an article about that, but there's a lot of them to read through and have opinions on. Suffice to say I think that a food gap relating to health, and safety of food rather than luxury food items can't be sustained.

Coming back to the topic at hand, how do we make sure that as we transition to more ethical food, that we don't rely on slave labor to execute. There are a lot of examples. This NPR Article has some basics, this article from Take Part has some interesting information about the prison labor use which I'd call slave labor, and an article from the Guardian about migrants living and working in criminally bad conditions just scratch the surface of the truth of slave labor in our food. That's discounting the issue of a lot of our imported food coming from areas with water shortages, effectively exporting water.

To that end we as a society need to recognize that sufficient, and healthy food is and should be considered a necessity. We should be dedicating public funding to insuring that our farmers are not living in poverty. This needs to come with the recognition that farming is risky both in terms of safety and financially if you have a bad year, or two and can't sell crops. Now, food is one of the most profitable businesses out there, everyone needs it. We just need to figure out how to transition the money from large, monocrop agriculture megafarms to smaller farms without putting the entirety of the burden of paying for the costs of more ethical farming on them.

I do wonder how changing how antitrust laws see farm conglomerates would change things.

I think the short of it is, beyond personal, local support we need large scale government support for ethical, more sustainable farming that's ecologically and personally focused. We also need to stop supporting slave labor practices forcing lower prices on those who do the work themselves. I don't have all of the solution, but in the end, to get ethical food, we can't do it for free. We have to recognize that the costs come from somewhere, and that it can't all come out of the farmers.

P.S. We also need more than 0.1% of our population to be farmers in the USA.

Independence Day

Today in the USA is Independence Day and around the world there are protests occurring for many reasons. So given today and the purpose of homesteading I'd like to take today to think a little about independence, and what it means both in a general sense, and in the specifics of our homestead.

Ag Gag and Glass Abattoirs.

Today we don't really have a whole lot to talk about since I went through just about everything that happened over the weekend on Tuesday. Now that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to talk about, just that it isn't the current activities on the homestead. Instead, I'm going to talk about my opinion on Ag Gag laws and my feelings on the distance between people and their food.

Meetings, events, and learning, going outside the homestead for new perspectives.

So I'm going to start with a quick homestead update glossing over a lot over the past few days. The babies are doing well, the garlic is growing, kale, radish  and lettuce are planted though those haven't come up yet. We are hoping they do come up because we are really excited about gardening right now, partially prompted by going to a Gardening 101 class put on by "Grow Food Amherst."

Chocolate--Edible Happiness at What Price?

Chocolate--Edible Happiness at What Price?

Chocolate and Valentine’s day go hand in hand, whether you receive it from a lover or are raiding the bargain bin on February 15th.  Being that our most popular post is last year’s The Costs of a Rose where we destroyed many people’s love of giving flowers, this year we’re gonna follow tradition and focus on the other common token of love: chocolate.

After last year's post I would have thought these would be better than real roses...

Thanksgiving Food Traditions

There is a lot that can be said about food and Thanksgiving in the USA. There is also a lot that can be said about food traditions, and what they do for our health and the generational continuity of families. A lot of good can come out of food traditions, but I figured I'd post this video for today since it's kinda a busy day!

It is a commercial for a boxed mashed potatoes.  Here a child is asking his mother about where they come from as she prepares them.  This is something that happens all over the country, particularly at this time of year. What do you think of her answer?

For nutrition facts look here at their own website.
http://www.bobevans.com/Grocery/51/Bob-Evans-Original-Mashed-Potatoes

For some information about what those numbers mean.
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-bob-evans-mashed-potatoes-i166086

For what the nutrition on mashed potatoes made with whole milk at home.
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-potatoes-mashed-home-prepared-whole-i11657

And if you use butter.
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-potatoes-mashed-home-prepared-whole-i11934

Note that for the mashed potatoes made at home the serving size is twice the size. Also note that for Bob Evans original mashed potatoes that is without butter added.

Keep in mind too that the word farm often brings to mind a lovely pastoral scene ala Old MacDonald while the reality is more like science fiction, not to mention the underpaid workers in the fields and factories.

Sound off on what you think about this ad in the comments. For Tuesday I will try to have the recipes we used for Thanksgiving up for you all.

Enjoy, Happy Thanksgiving, and be well.

The Old Adage: Waste Not, Want Not

What happened to that being the norm in the USA? No really, we didn't used to be a country of rampant consumption, in fact it used to be that the government was big into saving, food efficiency, and similar practices. Notice the notation at the bottom, "U.S. Food Administration." For those of you who don't know, as I didn't before doing a little research into it, The U.S. Food Administration was in charge of food and making sure there was enough during WWI. During WWII that was rolled in with other rationing and there wasn't a specific department for it, though most of the food rationing and propaganda came under the US Department of Agriculture. The poster Right in my mind embodies how we should be thinking, though I think use less corn would be an important addition today.

Discussion: Is Ethics a Luxury?

To most people the answer is obviously no, ethics isn't a luxury. Ethical behavior is what keeps humanity from ripping itself to pieces. But really, beyond the knee jerk reactions let's look at it for real. For this post I'm going to confine it to, are ethical choices about food a luxury?

Why Still Pay Attention To Politics

It came to the attention of the Lady of the House yesterday via a community she is part of online that the Department of Natural Resources in Michigan is implementing an order that could lead to small scale farmers being declared felons. The law itself isn't specifically targeting these farmers according to the MDNR, it is targeting feral pigs. However it is defining feral pigs by their physical characteristics, not by whether or not they are loose. If you look up this order from any sort of major news source it is reported as a positive thing, backed by environmentalists and pig farmers both, but a little more research is always a good thing.

An Article Worth Reading

A piece written by Mark Bittman for the New York Times. Covers a lot of our ideas, and concerns while having good ideas for workable solutions to the problems facing the future of food. Well thought out and well written.


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/?src=me&ref=homepage