What's in a Twinkie?

The people over at GOOD have tipped me off to a fantastic photo project done by Dwight Eschliman: "37 Or So Ingredients," a visual tour of what it takes to make a Twinkie.  I can't claim immunity to the sweet, sweet spongy deliciousness of Twinkies, or to most of the other Hostess deserts.  But these pictures will at least make me think twice.

Also, it's worth noting how insane it is that there's a company bringing in over two and a half billion dollars in revenue in a given year, who markets and sells products which do nothing but increase the waistline and the blood pressure of the country.  I really don't think I'm going out on much of a limb with this one: The world would be a better place if Twinkies didn't exist.

Thoughts? 

Why Are Hamburgers So Cheap?

Really though, why?  The subsidies are part of it, of course.  And the subsidies have to do with what we want to export: there's more money to be made exporting meat and wheat than cucumbers.  Part of it is economies of scale: the b. model of McDonald's requires that there be thousands of locations to keep their prices so low.  

Can we do anything about it?

Fortunately, yes.  In capitalism, a dollar is a vote.  As long as money makes the world go round and people use cliches, a person's consumer behavior is meaningful.  Spending money responsibly and "being the change you wish to see" are the best bet I think.  The deeper issue, and the one that McDonald's would use in its defense, is that people like hamburgers more than salads.  Is that true?  Is it changeable?

Update: Annie Leonard over at The Story of Stuff uses the term "manufactured demand" to discuss how bottled water companies convince people to buy their inferior-to-tap-water product.  I think the term is great, and it obviously applies to the cheap hamburger discussion.  

(Thanks to GOOD and PCRM for this story).

How Can We Feed Everyone?

How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

Check out more from Fast Company.  Is anybody still surprised that a global commodities market widens the gap between rich and poor, fed and unfed? 

High Steaks Gamblin'

A country's meat consumption increases with its GDP per capita, but what happens to a country when foreign bankers make cold, hard wagers on its future food prices? The Food and Water Watch, a consumer NGO headquartered in Washington DC, published this report in November, 2009, which provides a startling look at the connection between Wall Street's investments (read: speculation) in the future prices of commodities--including food--and the sharp rise in global hunger attributable to higher food prices.

Why Have the Climate Talks Neglected Food?

Seriously? It's no longer a secret that agriculture is a major contributor of greenhouse gasses. Reuters reports:

When that indirect effect [of deforestation] is included, farming accounts for
nearly a third of global greenhouse gases.

This report from Iowa State University (can't get enough of the Hawkeye state) tells a different story, but it still puts agriculture's impact on greenhouse gas emissions at a very noteworthy level.

Why would the Climate Change Summit ignore it?

Root for Local (Vertical) Produce

GOOD, a group the Vertical Farmer loves, published this infographic (an image created to illustrate boring numbers data, see more here) showing how far "local" produce travels from plant to plate compared to that distance for "conventional" produce. The results are shocking.

The UN Committed to Solving Global Hunger? Don't Be Fooled

We must give money to farmers in developing countries. It is, according to Jacques Diouf*:

“The most effective way to eliminate hunger from the face of the Earth.”

Bloomberg News published that in an article today that expounds the UN's commitment to curing the global hunger problem through, essentially, financial aid. The article almost convinced me that the UN is doing everything within their power to rectify this horrifying injustice.

But then I thought about subsidies.

There's a Movement Afoot

It was a night to hobnob with farmers of the urban variety. In honor of Jane Jacobs, the writer and activist to first articulate the need for humans to live in cities, the Municipal Arts Society of New York City hosted its 2nd annual panel discussion last night, featuring five authorities on urban sustainability, entitled Re-Imagining New York: Designing Urban Farms to Feed Our City. Over 300 attendees prodded and applauded the panelists, who covered issues from politics to biology over the brief one and a half hour forum (and a reception afterward.) Here's a rundown, in reverse-alphabetical, of who last night's panelists are and what they said.

UPDATE: Listen to the entire panel discussion here.

Read My Lips: Vertical Farms Can Solve Hunger

For some reason, lots of people have stopped caring about words. From movies and music to cell phones and laptops, it's never been easier to get by without careful consideration of what exactly one communicates than it is now. WTF, BRB, ROTFL: we effort more to do life quickly rather than well, it seems. But most of us are not law-makers and shakers (at least yet), and so this is not where the intoxicating disregard for words is troublesome.

The troubling thing is that those in positions of social influence have fallen victim to this perfidious use of the English language as well; theirs is perhaps more insidious because it is more subtle.

Dear Mr. Bill Gates...

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an effort to beget the second Green Revolution, as it is called, has decided to pour $120 million into organizations that will work to assuage hunger in Africa. The particularly noteworthy part of the Foundation's generosity is this: it believes technology can and should be integral in addressing and solving this problem. The Gates Foundation has a history of pursuing these kinds of solutions, and its choice to fund organizations that share its vision speaks to the growing body that rejects the notion that technology and nature are somehow inexorably opposed:

“Productivity or sustainability — they say you have to choose. It’s a false choice,"

Everybody, Meet Will Allen

In case you don't know him already, the Vertical Farmer is pleased to introduce to you Will Allen, an urban farmer in Milwaukee. He has recently made the GOOD 100 list of people, products and ideas that are making our world a better place. Mr. Allen was awarded the prestigious $500,000 MacArthur grant in 2008, nearly 15 years after founding Growing Power, a community farm aimed at providing healthy, local produce for an inner city food desert, bringing salubrious diets to the malnourished.

How Can I Help?

As a follow-up to the last post, here's something from the Mayors Climate Protection Center:

Throughout the nation there is clear evidence that mayoral leadership is producing business and community support for policies that reduce emissions. While progress is already being made in many cities, our goal must be to increase the number of cities involved in the effort, and to equip all cities with the knowledge and tools that ultimately will have the greatest impact on undo the causes of global warming...

...The establishment of the Mayors Climate Protection Center takes us a giant step beyond advocacy of a stronger federal role in reducing emissions. It acknowledges that while mayors recognize the need for a federal partner in this effort, they cannot and will not wait to act until Washington is ready to move on this problem.

Want to know if your mayor is part of this? Check out the list.

And if you fall on the side of those who think that the food crisis is in fact a crisis of governance, and if you think pursuing Vertical Farms is the answer, maybe you should let your mayor know. Write a letter, demand it.

The Vertical Farmer says: change requires only that the next step be taken.

The Hunger Problem: Whose Is It?

European farmers protested low milk prices last week, saying poor governance is to blame for the global food crisis. "Hunger is a political problem," said farmer Sieta van Keimpema, the leader of one protesting group. Others agree:

"It is not the free market that is perverted, but the players in an imperfect free market," says Michiel Keyzer from the Centre for World Food Studies in Amsterdam. He points the finger at governments that created chaos by stimulating the use of biofuels and limiting trade by putting export barriers in place. "Institutions like the G20 don't pay enough attention to the problems that it, meaning the governments themselves, creates."

But some suggest that dumping milk in protest is a waste, and that the milk should have instead been used to make butter that could be sent to Africa.

What do you think?

Read the whole story here.

Jakarta Crop Failures: "Use Hydroponics," says Ag Expert

An agriculture expert from IPB recommends using hydroponics methods to protect against crop failures in Indonesia. Warning that El Nino and La Nina threaten national food self-sufficiency efforts,

Herry Suhardiyanto [An agriculture expert from IPB]...recommended [that] farmers should increasingly use glass-houses and hydroponic methods to help prevent crop failure due to unstable weather patterns.

Read the whole story here.