Organic GMO Aggravation

I saw a couple great articles yesterday about the ongoing battle between people who advocate GMO's (genetically modified organisms) and those who advocate organic food, and I thought I would share them with you.

First, there was this article in the NYT about a genetic food scientist and an organic farmer who are happily married. The piece was well written, although the article itself had little substance to offer other than the fact that these two people, representatives of competing (sometimes violently so) ideologies, can actually tolerate one another's presence. Kinda cool right?

Which brings me to the second article, published in the Los Angeles Times. This article, with the byline "Let's not join one of the armed camps deeply suspicious of one another shouting past each other," is aimed at food movement "independents," also known as the majority of Americans who have some interest in their food but who don't have several hours each day to devote to food policy. What this article essentially says is that there is a great conversation to be had about GMO's and organic food, and we should all chill out and have good, logical discussions without ripping each others heads off.

Generally speaking, articles saying we should all just get along kind of piss me off. However, this specific article intrigued me, because while it did have some of that annoying "us common folks are the ones who get it" edge to it, it also had some really good points. Such as:

"Agriculture is a business. Farming without a financial motive is gardening." (I'm sure he's used this one before, but it's still funny)

and

"Over the last 50 years, American farmers performed an agricultural miracle, all but eliminating hunger as a serious health issue in this country." (How much of that miracle actually relied on modern farming practices and pesticides is up for debate, but I'll give him this one)

but

"That battle has been won, and... the demands of today are different."(Hell yes)

and

"There's no free pass on progress. Just because you've always farmed a certain way does not mean that you are owed the right to continue farming that way in the future." (Hallelujah)

and finally...

"Don't assume that those who disagree with you are evil, stupid or greedy. And even when they are, that doesn't relieve you of the responsibility for making a constructive and convincing argument." (What are you looking at me for? He said that way better then I can)

So overall, pretty good articles, and proof that the debate over GMO food will be around for some time to come. And yet, I can't help but feel hopeful that we can all take a chill pill and, well, maybe just all get along.

Farmville photo by sabrina.dent

Michael Pollan Cements His Status As My Freaking Hero

I like Michael Pollan for many reasons, the obvious being that he is THE leading voice in the local, organic food movement. His books have singlehandedly brought the food policy discussion into settings where it was never before conceivable, ranging from cocktail parties to office water coolers. If it were not for Pollan, the current food movement would look absolutely nothing it does today.

Another obvious reason why I admire Pollan is that I happen to like his particular food philosophy, which he sums up in seven simple words: "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Who can argue with that? Even I, a known connoisseur of bacon in its myriad forms, and a person who consumes quantities of food at the occasional Dim Sum Sunday that no sane observer could call "not too much," can find little wrong with Pollans statement.

Which brings me to the less obvious reason why I like Michael Pollan -- Michael Pollan is Mellow. Mellow with a capital "M." Here is a guy who has devoted his entire life to the study of food policy, yet who sums up that life's work in "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Seriously. Can you imagine PETA getting a crowd rowdy with a reasonable statement like that? Now way -- they have "Meat is Murder" and "Save the Sea Kittens" (I am not even joking about that last one). Or on the other end of the spectrum -- try getting farmers and middle Americans angry over Pollan's slogan. Not gonna work. Instead, we hear hyperbole about rising food prices, our planets inability to feed the people who live on it, and how the government is trying to control us. This is the real reason why Michael Pollan is my hero. He is so mellow in his approach and policies (in addition to just plain being right, which I admit helps) that no one can successfully argue with him.

Take for example Pollan's recent NPR debate with Blake Hurst, a blogger who wrote The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals (you can listen to the interview here). The debate begins with Pollan, in his mellow, even-keeled voice, outlining his basic position. Great. Cue Hurst.

The first thing we hear from him (in a pronounced twang) is a hokey, overpracticed statement about how it is not true when Pollan says the agricultural industry hides behind farmers. Really, Hurst continues, the only person who helped him write his essay was his wife, (she needed to "help him sound out the big words" since he is no intellectual). He talked about how he wasn't really growing a mono culture since he switches between soybeans and corn every year. He talked about how it was unfair of Pollan to ask him and other farmers to go back to the farming methods their grandparents had used in the 1930's. In other words, he used some well known, cheap debating techniques to try and score points with NPR's listeners, and he did it all in that twang and using these rehearsed colloquialisms that made me want to punch him in the face. In then process however, he left himself open to about 1000 different logical attacks from Pollan, and I couldn't wait for Pollan to seize on one and jump down his throat.

But he didn't. Pollan remained calm as an organic cucumber. He just kept making his points in that same mellow tone of voice. And I eventually realized why. As the debate went on, Hurst became more and more flustered, and less able to respond to anything Pollan said. The debate wasn't going the way Hurst had planned it at all. His whole shtick was to play the part of the small farmer being yelled at by some agri-intellectual who didn't know what he was talking about. But Pollan didn't take the bait. He refused to get ruffled, no matter how little sense Hurst made. And the more Hurst realized that Pollan wasn't going to let him play his part, the less sense he started making. By the time the debate ended, all Hurst's little colloquialisms were gone, and even the twang had softened. There could be no doubt who finished on top.

Please listen to the full interview to see the master at work. We could all stand to take a lesson in mellowness from this man, not the least of which is to eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

You got that WHERE?

Chances are you've heard of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) before. In case you haven't, it is where you buy "shares" in a farm in return for a getting a portion of what that farm grows. Sometimes this is all done upfront, which gets money to farmers when they need it most -- before the growing season starts. Sometimes it is done on a weekly or monthly basis. Sometimes you go to the farm to pick your share up, and sometimes it is delivered to your door. There are many versions of this model, but what they all have in common is that they give farmers some reasonable idea of how much of their crop they will be able to sell, and let customers know they will be getting local, fresh produce all year round (or at least for as long as they bought shares for).

Sounds pretty awesome right? Well it is (I personally get a CSA from Planet Organics every week) but there is a new version making headway in the SF Area which really piqued my interest. Let me introduce the CSF, or Community Supported Foraging.

Basically, Community Supported Foraging combines the principles of a CSA with the reality of urban foraging. So instead of getting organic corn and fresh pink lady apples in your basket, you may find your box filled with mushrooms collected in a local forest along with some nettles or sea beans. When it comes to fruit, the foraging takes place in local backyards whose owners have agreed to let the foragers in to pick their crop in return for getting to keep a portion of it. This portion then gets passed along to everyone who bought into the CSF. It doesn't get more local than that.

And no, foraging is not the same thing as freeganism.

Image provided by ScottDMoose

Fish to Receive Protection at Some Undetermined Future Date

Now that I got you to click through to the whole article, let me take a step back; not in substance (the title is technically true) but in tone. In spite of the fact that the decision I am referring to really won't do anything what-so-ever for our current bankrupt fisheries, it is still a very important step. That decision is the announcement yesterday by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to prohibit the expansion of commercial fishing in federal Arctic waters until researchers gather sufficient information on fish and the Arctic marine environment to prevent adverse impacts of commercial harvesting activity on the ecosystem.

That may sound a bit wonky, so let me break it down. Basically, we all know that the ice caps are slowly melting. We know that there is currently a race in which all nations with land bordering the arctic are staking claims to the various natural resources believed to be locked up underneath all that ice. We also know that there is currently a boatload (read: many many boatloads, pun intended) of money being made by large fishing companies around the world, and that these same fishing practices are driving our fish populations and ocean ecosystems to near collapse. What you (dear reader) may not know is that when it comes to sustainable fishery management, the US is actually (for once!) a real thought leader, and that the announcement above is a reflection of that. Essentially, the US just announced that it will absolutely prohibit any commercial fishing in US arctic waters until AFTER the science dictates the most sustainable way to go about it.

The plan approved will prohibit commercial fishing in a huge swath of American waters in the Arctic that have never been fished and that nobody currently wants to fish (hence the snark in my title). HOWEVER, in reality this is a very smart move because the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change will someday make the area more accessible and more commercially more attractive, not just to oil interests, but to fishing interests as well.

The plan was developed by environmentalists and the Marine Conservation Alliance, the same group that turned Alaska from a sustainable fishing nightmare in the and 50's into the model of sustainability it is today. (As I said before, fishery management is one of the few environmental areas where the US is really a thought leader: Alaska is currently recognized as one of the worlds leading sustainable fisheries and even has a theory of fishery management named after it. More on this in another post).

In spite of this announcement, the reality is that no one knows where the borders may eventually be drawn in the arctic so there is a good chance that at least some, if not all, of the area the US wishes to protect may not be within our jurisdiction. However, this announcement is symbolic in addition to practical -- the US has signaled (finally!) that it is willing to engage unilaterally in a sustainability agreement - something it has avoided doing elsewhere, most notably on climate change itself. Hopefully, this announcement will send a signal to the other Arctic nations -- including Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark-- that while there may be an economic opportunity for fishing newly uncovered areas of ocean, it must be done in a sustainable way.

Top image provided by Alan Vernon

Review of Wild Fermentation

I have been a fan of fermentation every since tasting my first beer at what was certainly an inappropriate age. What really got me going however, was the time I spent in Belgium after graduating high school. The beers I experienced there (yes, I said experienced) were like nothing I ever tasted before -- truly wholesome brews crafted over long periods of time and filled with healthful, beneficial microbes (in addition to plain old deliciousness). I knew then that I would forever be a fan of the fermented beverage. What I didn't know is just how far down the rabbit hole this newfound love of fermentation would take me.

Later on in that same trip, I experienced real German sauerkraut. Growing up, I had always been a fan of sauerkraut (Rubens are without question my favorite sandwich). What I was unaware of however was that the sauerkraut in these sandwiches was dead -- all the healthful organisms in it were killed by pasteurization before this corporate product was shipped all over the country. Not in Germany. I still remember sitting down at my first pub there and ordering a bratwurst with sauerkraut (sauerkraut which, unbeknownst to me, was actually fermented in the back of the pub). I couldn't believe my taste buds! This sauerkraut was to the sauerkraut I loved at home what a grilled ground sirloin burger is to a happy meal. Unbelievable!

That's it - I was hooked. I still didn't trust myself to mess around with my own ferments, but as soon as I got home I sought out micro brews and home fermented krauts and yogurts wherever I could. I even had a short love affair with a Mr Beer home brew kit while in college (the kind you buy from SkyMall magazine and where you never have to deal with truly raw ingredients). My roommate and I turned out a couple good beers to be sure, but we weren't quite craft ready. So when I graduated and moved to San Francisco, I decided it was finally time. I bought myself a copy of Wild Fermentation and got brewing:

When I first started reading this book, I was amazed at how many times I stopped and just stared off into the distance, imagining all the things I was going to ferment when I was done reading. There is almost not a page of this book that I haven't marked with a post-it or a dog ear. The author provides great insight based on both science and on his own experience, and his excitement is literally contagious. He loves fermented foods, and by the time you finish reading his book, I guarantee you will too.

Since buying this book, I have made my own saurkraut (several different variations), kimchi, and dill pickles. I am working on my first batch of Kombucha right now. The beer is on hold until I can find space in my apartment to set up a simple brew station, but I feel more comfortable going into it than I ever could have without this book.

Wild Fermentions is very informative, with great recipes and very easy to follow step by step instructions. If I had to point to any negatives in the book, it would be a little too much information about the author himself and his communal living situation (not that I mind the author's hippy dippy ways, it's just that the many exploits of his house mates with single, nature-based names are besides the point).

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fermented foods, and even to people who aren't. There is some form of ferment in this book for just about anyone.

Proust!

Image provided by Wild Fermentation

Great Sustainable Food Resource

I think that my love of food is the number two reason why I am so interested in green (right after my love of the ocean, which is coincidentally related to my love of food). Anyway, since moving to San Francisco I have been just totally inundated with the most unbelievable fresh, organic, hormone free fair trade (yada yada yada) fruits, vegetables and meats. The stuff is really everywhere. I even get it delivered to my home once a week thanks to my local CSA.

Recently I had some friends in town who were complaining that they just can't get food like this near them. While that is somewhat true, I told them that there are almost no places in this great country where you can't get fresh fruits and veggies at a farmers market or participate in a CSA if you really take the time to make it happen. The variety may not be as good as it is here, but there is no need to subsist on a Safeway diet.

So I introduced my friends to this great site where you can find local farmers markets, CSA's recipes - you name it. Everything you need for healthy, organic food.

Enjoy.

The Green Dude

As this is my first post, I thought it might be appropriate to make it an "About Me" post. You can see this same thing on my blogger profile, but what the heck you know? Anyway, this is my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I’m an environmentalist and proud to say it. I also love some things (read: many things) that aren’t good for the environment. This does not make me a bad person. It doesn’t even make me a bad environmentalist. Living a more sustainable life doesn’t mean not lusting after fast cars and juicy burgers; it means supporting the coolest new green technologies in our rides and making sure that when we do eat a burger, it’s grass fed and not pumped full of hormones. It means I can love snowboarding, waterskiing, and mountain biking, while understanding and accepting that there are certain places I shouldn’t bring my board, my boat or my bike. Most importantly, it means that I can continue to love doing the things I love doing, while consciously trying to do them sustainably.