VegetableYarden in Ferguson, Missouri

Picture of the beautiful VegetableYarden.

I was going to title this post, "Food Security in the Age of the Supermarket" but that sounded too boring and uppity. "VegetableYarden in Ferguson, Missouri" is a much better title and, I must admit, stolen from the intertubes. I stole it because it's beautiful in its simplicity but also disguises an issue that tends to be ignored, even by the most cognizant among us.

VegetableYarden in Ferguson, MO is a blog about a man and his family and their attempts to grow heirloom vegetables in their front yard instead of grass. The concept seems simple right? Grow fresh vegetables full of nutrients and without pesticides and serve it up to the family. But that's not the way the folks in Ferguson, see it. They see something different in that front yard. Something different than green grass, immaculately manicured, watered, and if you have some extra cash, herbicides sprayed on it so it looks like supernatural golf course grass that is soft, fuzzy, and a little bit creepy. They see something out of the ordinary.

Woah. When did gardens become peculiar and when did green grass become the norm, I say. Oh. It's a garden in the front yard that is peculiar, you say. What's the matter with a vegetable garden in the front yard, I say. It's peculiar because I have to drive by every day and look at it and it feels different, you say. But our differences are what makes up America, I say. Different means a decrease in property values, you say. Ahh, I see.

So, we are more concerned with making a buck and keeping things status quo than we are with learning how to grow something with our bare hands to feed our families? We'd rather make a buck and continue to count on supermarkets with produce ripening in dark semis and processed boxes of frozen food made with ingredients that I can't even pronounce and made who knows where? To me that's insane and a dependency that makes me feel uncomfortable. That's why I stand in solidarity with VegetableYarden in Ferguson, Missouri. He's teaching us, through his fight with local government, that to be at the mercy of the local supermarket for your food is a dumb and shortsighted way of living. He's teaching us that to lose the ability to grow your own food anywhere on your property is a dumb and shortsighted way of living. And finally he's teaching us that we are losing sight of the connection between humans and nature. I think it's time we all carve out a plot in our front yards and grow some vegetables. Are you with us?

Farm-to-table Revolution in Western Colorado

Great article in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on the partnerships that can be developed between local food growers and institutions like hospitals, schools, and nursing homes. Programs like these aren't the cheapest, and often can't compete on price and convenience with the large corporate food producers, but I believe that focusing your attention on more locally produced food will be beneficial to your community in the long run. Why? Because processed foods (think of the stuff that comes in a can or box) is loaded with high doses of sugar and salt (which are major factors in obesity, diabetes, and heart disease and which cause a drain on the local health care system). Processed food can come from 1,000s of miles away using large amounts of fossil fuels. Even the food processing itself is fuel and resource intensive. How many resources does it take to drive a crate full of fresh tomatoes or corn or strawberries or spinach 100 miles down the road? Not much. Getting our tomatoes from California and our grapefruits from Mexico is not sustainable. Growing our own or purchasing our food locally from our neighbors is sustainable. This article is a reminder to see what each of us can do in our own communities to buy locally.

There Is No Such Thing as Clean Coal

I saw an ad on the television the other day, using a clip of President Barack Obama (presidential candidate at the time) on the campaign trail saying to the crowd that clean coal (scrubbing sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other particulate emissions from the coal-burning process) could be a reality some day soon. I've also seen and heard Barry Schweitzer, governor of Montana, speak to the benefits of carbon sequestration (burying carbon dioxide underground) from coal-fired power plants. The latter is unproven on a large-sale and is cost prohibitive. The former is to me an oxymoron. Even if you capture all of the particulate matter and toxic chemicals from the coal-burning process where do you put it? We've seen what happened in Tennessee when we put another by-product of the coal burning process, fly-ash (aka "slurry"), into large storage ponds or landfills. There's a chance that it will spill, flood, or completely leach into the water supply as we saw in Tennessee in December 2008.

If you hadn't already noticed from the masthead above, I am a proponent of renewable energy. The reasons are simple. For one, the current rate at which the U.S. and other emerging economies (China and India) burn coal for their electricity and/or use oil in the combustion engine is unsustainable. These fossil fuels are both finite and hazardous to humans, animals and the planet itself. Second, I am a much happier person (and I think it's safe to say for all Earthly people) with clean air, water, and land. Burning coal or oil doesn't contribute to clean air, water, or land. Using renewable energy sources does. Third, finding renewable resources to assist with our energy needs is the right thing to do for the living and future generations.

I am not an environmentalist or a moral crusader. I am realist. That having been said, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that there is no such thing as clean coal and burying carbon dioxide underground is a fool's errand. Utilizing renewable, clean energy technologies to offset some of our coal-burning is a step in the right direction. And let it be known that I completely understand that the road ahead involves a partnership with coal, because the base electricity load cannot be supported by solar or wind technologies alone. Coal still needs to be used for the foreseeable future. But we can't continue to use coal as our primary means to electricity because it is the cheapest source out there. When our skies are polluted and our coastal cities are flooded and our droughts get worse, and the forest fires become more intense and prevalent, and the food supply dwindles, and people begin to starve, I dare say that we aren't going to care whether things are "cheaper."

So let's lose the myopia, and the feeble attempts at placating the coal and oil lobbies who scream that the sky will fall and jobs will be lost if we take away the lush subsidies that they receive today. We need to roll up our sleeves and figure out a way to transfer most of our energy production to renewable sources as soon as possible. This isn't a time for politics as usual or business as usual. This isn't time for outta sight outta mind and back to our SUVs and driving 10 miles to the grocery store just because gas prices are low. This is time to plan for the future with innovation and research and investment into renewable energy, alternative public transportation sources, localization (food, energy, and commerce), smart grids, and urban renewal. What do you think?

Agribusiness Heavies Form Biofuels Lobbying Group

Great. I guess we've come to this as a society. Even as food prices go higher, as people have trouble putting food on their tables, and as millions of people go hungry each night around the world, lobbyists will come in, wave gobs of cash around, and buy out our elected officials to promote crops as biofuels. It is all about the money. How pathetic.

Local Farms — Healthy Kids a Hearty Investment

Along with the localization of our energy supply that I've talked about before, I think that an equal if not greater pressing need is the localization of our food supply. We all enjoy out of season fruit or vegetables or meat from around the world (Argentina, South Africa, Spain, China, etc.) but perhaps we have been lulled into thinking that these abundant, out-of-season choices are a good thing or a convenience of the modern world. Sure we have a cornucopia of choices at the grocery store, but how much energy did it take to transport those fruits and vegetables halfway across the world? In addition, how do those countries treat (pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers) their food while it is growing? Add another layer or frozen food on top of that and we have a disturbing trend - we really don't know what happens to the food that we put into our bodies from seed to supermarket.

Now we're all adults and we can make conscious decisions about what types of food we put in our bodies. But what of the kids who eat food at the schools around the nation? What are our schools putting into the growing bodies of our children? What types of health issues do we have today because of the food that we have put into our bodies and what health issues will our children have in the future?

Alright, enough of the soapbox and check out what the Washington state legislature is doing for their kids' food in public schools and for their local farmers via The Seattle Times.

Oh, I should probably change this blog to be about not only renewable energy but also acquiring food from local sources. Because in a way they are connected.