Is it Chicken Little time?

What’s going on right now in the agriculture industry is scary to say the least.

I don’t mean for this to be a doomsday post, but I figured that I should write something on one of the most pressing issues facing society today. It’s such a multi-level problem that I need to write something to digest it… Best quote ever was in a comment from one of my readers:

I read voraciously, but in the end, reading is a passive activity. Only when you write do you create and explore new ideas. The more in depth the writing, the more you digest, dissect and discover new elements of the issue you are writing about.

Reading is akin to eating well. Writing is more like going to the gym.

So, here goes the workout.

I’m sure everyone is aware about the spiralling out of control cost of food. The UN is meeting in Berne right now and has just announced that it’ll set up a new task force for this massive challenge.

To be short:

• Demand outstrips supply
  • Soaring population, increased demand from India/China (higher economic growth means more meat eaters)
  • This causes mass panic and hunger in the developing world and people begin hoarding and rioting
• Supply is dwindling
  • rising oil prices (fertilizers made from petrol, think about where our food comes from and then tack on the transport toll)
  • climate change – drier seasons in many places decreases the yield
  • farmers changing to biofuels
• No quick fix solution
  • Not just a question of supply and demand – it’s much more complex and the experts agree that there is no quick solution
  • The whole system is quite shaky
    • Need to shift to sustainable agriculture (less fertilizers/pesticides) and more natural techniques
    • Very dependent on oil

But, my concern is that I don’t know if people here in the western world have really reflected on what this might mean in the long term.

How to react?

We’re not rioting because we haven’t quite seen the effects in our lives yet and we in the Western world spend far less on food (as % of our income) than those in the developing world (good stories on bbc here) making us better positioned to take on this challenge. I bet most of us haven’t changed our eating patterns because of this situation, and why should we? We haven’t been seriously affected…yet.

I recently wrote a comment for the Globe after reading annoyingly ignorant comments that people were making dismissing the food crisis as scaremongering and making fun of the Chicken Littles out there.

My point:

“The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

True of false? You say that the sky is not falling and that we’ll adapt.

Yes, we’ll adapt…but only by changing.

So, no, of course we’re not all going to die, but let’s face it, a lot more will die if things don’t change soon.

Next up: ideas for changing

The amazing drying act!

There’s something I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while now…

THE DRYING CUPBOARD! (tai, astiankuivauskaappi in Finnish)

The first time I came to Finland I was in awe at the simplicity of this commonplace object.

Let’s face it, we’ve all had to do dishes at some point or another. And for those of us who don’t have a dishwater (i.e. most students) it can be a pain. Washing the dishes at my grandma’s house we’d divvy up the tasks:

• Someone washes
• Someone dries
• Someone puts away

But here it’s so much easier with the help of this:

Wash, and stick in the cupboard, close the cupboard and let drip dry over the sink. I don’t dry and it’s my storage.

Every single kitchen in Finland has this and yet amazingly this idea hasn’t spread to many other countries. For those building new or renovating their kitchens, c’mon, give it a try!

Such a simple, yet effective solution.

Save time
Save space
Save energy (if you don’t use the dishwasher and just physical energy if you’re hand-drying!

When I come back to Canada I’m bringing the sauna and the astiankuivauskaappi with me;) (of course not literally…)

The milk bag boys

I wanted to write another post about Wal-Mart going green (which is making it harder for me to hate it…) but I’ll have to do that later.

For now, what I absolutely must show my international readers is this:

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Yes my friends, we drink our milk from bags!

(Loved the dancing at the beginning and the Canadian toque!)

When reduced packaging is all the rage now, I have to say I’m quite proud that this is what I grew up with.  Yes you can say what you want about it still being plastic etc., but at the end of the day, it uses less energy to produce a small bag than a carton (with the numerous materials that go into it) and takes up much less space when it goes to the landfill.

Eat your veggies: Part 2

I wrote part 1 last week and was quite happy with the feedback, along with landing on the veg.ca blog the following day. (Kiitos;)

This past week I took the Veggie Challenge and gave up meat completely for one week. Obviously this wasn’t too hard considering I now only eat meat at school or at friends’.

But, I can definitely say that I was happy with the results. I felt healthier, cooked more interesting recipes and overall felt better with myself.

I made potato leek soup, a zucchini/tomato/cheese quiche and bought a lot more interesting veggies/ingredients in general. If I don’t buy meat, I feel as though I can ‘reward’ myself with things like artichokes, nice olives, and more expensive veggies. (Remember, this is ‘reward’ on a student budget!)

Today at school, I “gave in” (well, my week was over) and ate some meat. To be honest, I can say that I didn’t miss it and I kind of wish I hadn’t.

In perfect timing, a friend just gave me this link on “rediscovering the joy of meat”. “The new carnivore is ethical, environmentally-friendly and will eat the whole animal”.

Can’t say I love eating bull testicles, although I do remember passing through Montana with the family when I was a kid during the “Testicle Festival” (omg…they have a website – testyfesty.com – hilarious) but anyways, they have a point. As the person in the article points out: “I eat less meat now than I ever did, but it’s all much better meat.”

That’s it. We don’t all have to be vegetarians and asking people to do it, willingly, won’t happen. But we can just focus on consuming less – much less.

One of my readers made an excellent comment to the last post. He’s about a 90-95% vegetarian. So what if he’s not a ‘real’ vegetarian? When he feels the craving, he’ll give in but it doesn’t happen too often.

I completely agree. I don’t like the “vegetarian – yes or no” attitude. I think that there’s a scale. I’m not going to feel bad every time I eat meat but I’ll work on just eating less.

And then yes, when I do indulge it’ll be great piece of meat – and no, that’s not bull testicles for me;)

Talk about a downer…

What a weekend…

I would love to say that I’ve been partying and welcoming the spring (although it’s been mighty grey here for the last week) but no, it’s been pretty depressing.

I have an exam on Monday about Global Environmental Problems – my reading package is the 400 page UN report on the State of the Environment. It goes through everything: land, marine, biodiversity, freshwater, atmosphere, urban, disasters for all of the regions in the world. Pretty in depth, and yes, pretty depressing… yet interesting.

Through it all though, I can’t help but think how dumb our civilization has become. I realize that that’s a blatant statement (it’s perhaps the tiredness getting to me;) . The environment didn’t become a topic of concern at the the International policy level until 1972 in Stockholm. By that time, we had already destroyed half the forests (most ecologically complex and self-perpetuating of all ecosystems). And since 1970’s there has been great improvement in some areas (eliminating ozone depleting substances, int’l/regional policy making) but all in all, the facts remain that we’re drastically undercutting ourselves of resources for the future.

The saying couldn’t be truer: “Ignorance is bliss”. Although we are opening up our eyes to it a little more nowadays – thankfully:)

I think I’ll save all of the “quick facts” from these readings for another post (still very interesting) but when you read about things like oil tankers “cleaning” their tanks (i.e. dumping the oil residue) into the ocean and inefficient agricultural irrigation systems in the desert (wasting up to 70% of the water) or that St. Petersburg, Russia didn’t have a wastewater treatment plant till the late 80’s … you kinda go “cuckoo cuckoo, anyone in there???”

Obviously fixing the world’s problems is not so simple – complex system and of course money plays a huge role.

But, when I read all of this it reminds of some giant playground : the big kids bullying and hogging the ball (ahem, most often that’s us in this western world) the poor little ones crying in the corner. And then there’s the teacher looking down at the scene and telling people to “play fair”. There’s a poster that says “Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten”. Kind of true in this case. We know deep down what’s right and what’s wrong. We know that we have to work together to fix these problems.

And perhaps, we may just know that our current “bliss” will go away if we keep on being ignorant.

On another note, my choice of “fun” reading didn’t really help… The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Great book but yeah… talking about the end of society as we know it (in a very screwed up sense) combined with this, perhaps you now get it why this one was a downer… I’ll try to pick it up next post;)

Why blogging has made me a smarter person

One of my friends just asked me how I got started on blogging.

Although he wants to get started (a lot on the mind that needs an outlet – like most of us) – he cringes at the thought of starting one.

Exactly a year ago, I was cringing too.

The internet world was just opening up to me and it was, well, overwhelming. Before I always used the internet, but only for things like reading my G&M homepage, hotmail (yuck, thank god I dropped that!), Facebook and Google searches for school or the occasional question I had.

Now? The internet taps my curiosity and fills me with information.

It was just under a year ago that janeporter.ca got started and this is now….drumroll…  my 80^th post:)

I say that blogging has made me smarter. Here’s why:

1. Forces you to think critically

You read something and instantly you’re hit with curiosity, or an emotion or just a thought. By actually allowing yourself to stop and let that curiosity sink, you’re not just glossing over fast news, you’re absorbing an issue. (Society moves so fast nowadays, that most times, we don’t get a chance to do this) – BBC World Debate on Media – really good points on this)

2. Forces you to research

Absorbing an “issue” is more than just writing down your opinion on an article. Someone once told me that they couldn’t believe I had all these extra links on my stories. But that’s it – once you commit yourself to writing about something, you need to have backup sources. I google ridiculous amounts a day.

Take the post on toilets. I obviously don’t know all of those stats on Canadian water consumption but as I write, I research and find out how much information is out there at my fingertips. (Which often leads to more blog posts!)

3. Strengthens your opinion

Once you research, you’re can form better opinions. I know how much water we consume vs. other European countries, I know (somewhat) what the gov’t is doing to fix this problem and so now I can express my opinion (we’re not doing enough;) with a more solid grounding. Granted, of course, I don’t know the whole situation – I know more than before, and if I am really wrong, usually someone will correct me in the comments;)

4. Connects you with others

I’m amazed. This week I was featured on the Toronto Vegetarian Association site, one reader, Dan Bloom (polar cities guy) found me from Taiwan and posted me on the NYT Dot Earth comments. Guy Kawasaki twittered me! Etc etc, etc.

5. Personal branding (It’s the marketing in me;)

I like the fact that I’m getting a voice now, and being heard. People know me a bit more for who I am – as in what my thoughts are and that’s important to me. Who knows, might come in handy later on in life;)

Many more benefits but for any of you out there that has thought about it and just isn’t sure yet… as I told my friend, the cringing goes away after you start… so START;)

Eat your veggies

As the old saying goes… you should “walk the walk if you’re going to talk the talk”.

The more you know, the more likely you’ll start paying attention to your “walk”.

I can’t say that I’m a perfect green consumer though. (Umm..who is?) I love clothes and yes, I still shop at H&M… I don’t always buy organic and I still love to travel. So, feel free call me a hypocrite now;)

But I am starting to change some of my old patterns… slowly, but its coming.

Starting with the new year, I gave up buying meat.

For anyone that knows me, you’d probably know that I love a good thick med-rare bbq steak, and bacon is a staple for any good breakfast.

Although there are plenty of reasons for people going vegetarian (animal rights etc.), the clincher for me was reading about its environmental impact (big surprise eh?)

Fast facts:

· the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport.

· A meat-based diet requires 7 times more land than a plant-based diet.

· Food scarcity: cost of grains are soaring and we feed that to animals so that we can eat meat

Google it and you’ll be amazed at the toll it has on society and the environment.

But, notice that I said I only gave up buying it.

I can’t do it. There’s no way I can go home this summer and not enjoy my Dad’s fabulously bbq’d steak.

So, it’s a slow start but it’s a start. I’ll still eat meat at restaurants or at people’s houses, but I just gave up cooking it myself. I’m surprised at how easy it is too. It’s not cold turkey (haha, no pun intended) and it makes grocery shopping easier.

Something small… but still has a positive impact – on this world and for my health