Weather Forecast: Highs in the low-60s, partly cloudy.
Tonight (Sunday) is the kind of night that gives fruit growers nightmares: clear, still, predicted low temperatures of 29 degrees F, and the apple trees still in full bloom. Twenty-nine degrees is a full three degrees below freezing and it won't take too many hours of that temperature to destroy fruit blossoms. Imagine your entire year's crop destroyed over the course of one night! That's a reality that farmers gamble with every year. And as climate change brings us more unstable weather patterns, it's a gamble that's getting riskier.
So, it's possible that tonight will determine whether or not we have apples this year. Fortunately, we grow a lot of different things and so we won't go hungry if frost hits the trees tonight. For example, we could eat potatoes instead! This week on the farm we hope to get a bunch more beds worked up and ready to plant, so if you haven't gotten your fill of working the broadfork, you're in luck. We'll be planting the remainder of the brassicas (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbages), as well as . . . potatoes.
Potatoes are another one of those crops whose history is so intimately connected with human history that it's difficult to say which one of us (the potato or the human) has been more changed by our interactions. For a quick (30 min) summary of this history, watch the potato segment of Michael Pollan's "The Botany of Desire." It's from 1:23:30 to about 1:53: http://naturedocumentaries.org/126/the-botany-of-desire/.
Then, for a more in-depth look at how climate change is affecting Peruvian potato farmers and how they are using their traditional farming methods to adapt, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLI2KySC9-U.
The questions I have for you stem from a comment made by the former Monsanto potato engineer near the end of "The Botany of Desire": "I think some of the methods they've developed in Peru to use genetic diversity by planting a whole range of varieties within one field is a very good strategy, but I just don't see how we readily adapt that to a production system that not only has to feed people in the U.S., but feed a worldwide system with a product that's a certain quality."
In this comment, I hear echoes of a familiar rationale that I see frequently used to reinforce the status quo. There's an innuendo that the Peruvian farmers' methods may be nice for the environment and healthier for people (less chemical toxins), but that they are "outdated" methods that simply don't work in "modern" production systems. But if we really look at each system, which population is most likely to survive climatic changes? The one that is relying on monoculture to "feed a worldwide system" or one that is actively stewarding genetic diversity in order to feed its local community, while sharing information and resources to help other communities around the global increase their food sovereignty and security?
And what, exactly, does "has to . . . feed a worldwide system with a product that's a certain quality" mean? First of all, since potatoes are super-versatile and can be grown around the globe, why should U.S. potato growers need to feed a worldwide system? Second, I'm pretty sure that those Peruvian potatoes aren't lacking in quality. So, does "certain quality" translate to "will fit through McDonald's automatic french fry cutter machine"? And does "feeding the world" really mean "supply the world's McDonald's with fries"? In which case, perhaps "feeding the world" really equals "giving the world heart disease"?
What are your thoughts about this? Are there ways that you see that we might be able to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and methods such as those practiced by the Peruvian farmers into currently dominant, yet unsustainable agricultural systems? The former Monsanto potato breeder couldn't envision such a thing. But the lessons of the Irish potato famine might indicate that our future depends on just such creative visioning.
What are your visions for how we might transform (or begin to transform) our food and farming systems to make them more resilient, just, and joyful? What is one step that could be taken?
I hope that the apple blossoms don't freeze tonight! This weather has been absolutely bonkers! I'm not only concerned with your apple blossoms but with the over all predicament over climate change. With the food and agricultural system that we have in place I do not see a future for us in having sustainable crops. I do not see major actions being taken to reduce our carbon foot print with the administration in place since the so called president thinks global warming is a myth.
ReplyDeleteI think it's ridiculous that we have to grow potatoes or any other crop a certain way in order for it to be valuable. It's food! It keeps us alive so I think no matter how it looks it's valuable as long as it's not poisonous.
I don't think people realize how vulnerable we are when it comes to food. I think we have forgotten how climate effects what food is produced because we can just import food from anywhere. However, I think one way that we could change or transform our food and farming is by individually building our own gardens to better shape the changing climate. I know many people do not have access to land or funds but maybe if enough individuals who did have those things began their own farm and then in turned shared their crops then it could radicalize the system. If we stop giving money to cooperation's like Walmart or McDonalds then maybe they will start changing the way they handle things.
I think that the comment is interesting. The comment is very controversial, and could be interpret in a variety of ways. I think that it is possible to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and methods such as those practiced by the Peruvian farmers into currently dominant and unsustainable agricultural systems. I think forming farming relationships on an international level is important. I think that many other countries have very innovative and effective ideas when it comes to producing food. When we work together, especially when it comes to producing food, the world runs better. Working on an international level could help resolve many food problems and challenges. In the future, I hope to see food and farming systems become more collaborating. Communicating with other countries in one of the first steps that can be taken. The United States and other Western societies should also consider moving from an individualistic culture, and consider moving towards more of a collectivistic culture. The sharing of ideas is important and collaboration is the key to improving food and farming systems.
ReplyDeleteI want to start by saying that this topic hits very close to home. My step-father grew up in northern Maine, up in the county, and I have forever heard stories of his childhood struggle with potatoes. For every single meal, in some variation, his mom would cook potatoes, because that was what they farmed up there. He told me how even when he was growing up in the 70s and 80s, they would take a month off a school in the fall so all the kids and families could harvest potatoes. Even now, our family loves potatoes and we eat them with just about everything, but I have to admit that we don't vary that much in variety. Normally we eat the normal sized purple ones, the small yellow ones, or sweet potatoes (I don't know any of their actual names, but I know they are all fairly common). After watching these two videos (especially the second one) I am shocked that there is this large variety of potatoes that I never knew about! Although, being in 7th week of this class, I am not surprised to hear that we don't have that variety mainly because of the system we live in. The industry's demand for that one type of potato (the one that makes good french fries) is causing such a mess of the whole situation. I am trying to think of a way to change it, and make our food and farming systems more resilient, just, and joyful --like you asked us-- but I am finding this question to be immensely challenging. It is hard to change our entire system when it is so dominated by these large farms that don't offer variety. The only thing I could think to do would be to force everyone to taste all of these varieties, make popular cooking shows and restaurants incorporate different varieties into their recipes, and thus increase the demand for variety in potatoes. But unfortunately I know nothing of economics so I don't really know if this idea would do anything at all, but it is the first thing that came to mind. This was a pretty hard question to think about!
ReplyDeleteThe United States is a young country, with little time to practice agricultural practices that hold a strong connection to the environment. The people who rule society are out of touch with the agricultural practices used by the Native Americans. Many of our agricultural practices came out of war practices or at times when the United States was at war. These practices have increased efficiency, but only short-term. The United States food supply industry wastes food and thus, the resources that are needed in agricultural production. The need to feed a worldwide system may come from the United States being obsessed with being the leaders and the best, a statement that may hold up in many cases but also fails often. The United States food supply industry needs a reform that makes it more sustainable for the environment, animals, and humans. The incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge and methods may be incredibly helpful in the reform and to get us back on track to more a more sustainable system. However, there first needs to be a shift in understanding and acceptance of traditional ecological knowledge and methods. Since people in the agriculture business like the Monsanto engineer have a strong disbelief in and do not want to use traditional ecological knowledge and practices to improve our agriculture practices, it could come from the people. Protests led by the public is one of the strongest political actions we can take besides voting.
ReplyDeleteI think this comment can embody many aspects of the United States’ problem with its food system and culture. Starting with our idea of what food should look like. I believe the ex-Monsanto engineer was referring to consistency with the food that they grow. One of the problems that we struggle with in this country is the appearance of our food and if it’s consistent. We have moved to this culture of perfectly shaped food that is consistent anywhere you go. Amy, correct me if I am wrong, but I think that fruit and vegetables don’t always grow into a perfect shape and it is common for there to be deformity with the plants. Similarly, I feel like many people in the United States would not be able to hand “Variety.” We are a nation that loves choices, but we are also overwhelmed when we have too many choices. I think that we could make the shift from a monoculture system to a more variety rich system if we change the culture around what our food looks like. There are many obvious benefits and many which we have discussed in and out of class. Planting a variety of potatoes would increase the survivability of some of the crop exponentially. I was also thinking that people would then learn to appreciate their food more as they are able to learn about the new varieties of a similar fruit or vegetable.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that monoculture is going to prove catastrophic for our global food supply in the face of climate change. I took a class while on study abroad called “Climate Change and Adaptability” and a big focus was the ability of nature to evolve and adapt, but how preventing those processes through methods like monoculture is detrimental to entire ecosystems. The other reality that is ignored in the quote Amy brought up is that we are currently not successfully feeding the global population. Food insecurity, malnutrition, and hunger are very real parts of many people’s lives, including right here in the US. In regards to the question of whether or not we can incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and methods, I think the big answer is no. The system is not meant to be traditional, holistic, or sustainable. It cannot continue to exist in the way it does today without the unsustainable, harmful, dominant methodology on which it is founded. However, I think we can (and should) learn from traditional knowledges from around the world in order to entirely restructure our food system in order to create something better that actually does what Monsanto people say it does.
ReplyDeleteI think about potatoes quite a bit. When I was growing up, they were one of the main staples of my diet – it seemed like my mother made mashed potatoes with just about every meal. I can remember the debates that she was always having with my grandmother. My mother is firmly of the opinion that the skins should be left on for mashed potatoes; my grandmother always felt that they needed to come off. My mother always put a ton of butter into hers; my grandmother felt this was unnecessary and unhelpful.
ReplyDeleteAll this is a roundabout way of saying that I thought about potatoes a lot growing up, even if it wasn’t in the ways that we are being asked to think about now. I, of course, had been taught about the Irish potato famine, but my schooling never talked about the causes behind it. Monoculture clearly played a role in this event, and it’s disturbing that we don’t seemed to have learned our lesson from this. As this class progresses, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that we need to radically change the way that we think about food production. I’m wondering how we best convince others that this is this case; it seems to me that many people are either not aware of these issues or are willfully ignorant.
Something that I can’t stop thinking about when it comes to this week’s issues is fast food culture. I like McDonalds french fries as much as the next person! I’m concerned about approaches that propose the complete elimination of fast food; I just don’t think this is realistic, given how engrained it is into our everyday lives. However, I think it’s necessary to reconsider how frequently and how critically we choose to eat fast food, including french fries. I’m wondering how it might be possible to put pressure on fast food corporations. What would it look like to demand a form of fast food that valued food diversity over uniformity? Is there any way to shift our expectations of what fast food looks like?
This conundrum posed by two agricultural systems shows how unsustainable our social organization has become.
ReplyDeleteThe logic behind GMO (as a remedy, not the technology per se) seems to be that 1) current global model of economy and society must persist which dictates that 2) we must find ways to sustain large urban population by growing food at large scale with the lowest cost possible which in turn means that 3) new technology such as GMO that allow for such food system is therefore both necessary and just.
On one hand, I identify with this stream of thought. If we look at certain communities hit heavily with drought or pest and are suffering from lack of food, who am I to deny them the GMO technology which alleviate their pain?
My uneasiness with this logic comes from the direction of the thoughts. The logic flows from the industrialized model of the society down to agriculture, and back into the soil; if we look up at the skyscrapers and imagine feed those who occupy that space, of course GMOs and other desperate measures such as industrial agriculture may look promising. Here we see the status quo as the given, unchanging truth, and everything else must follow to support and sustain such status quo.
What if we reversed the stream of thought? What if we underneath our feet, at the soil, and imagine the way of organizing human society that could spring naturally from the energy of the sun? I would guess that if we were to follow the food rather than drag the agriculture system along with our carbon fuel driven industrialism, we would end up with a lot different society than what we have now. In this world GMO would not become a problem simply because there is no need for it.
Hopeful thoughts...
To me the statement seems completely contradictory of itself. It is being said that we need to feed the globe a high quality product, but we can't afford to plant a greater variety of potatoes. But isn't greater variety also better quality? If having genetic diversity in the crop will make the products better overall then wouldn't feeding the globe a high quality product actually require us to plant a greater variety of potatoes? Also, with our current monoculture system, we aren't even actually doing a very good job of feeding the globe- there is still widespread hunger and many global communities are handling it much better than the US monoculture system (such as the Peruvian potato farmers). So doesn't it seem logical that we would need to change something?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, post-rant, I am trying to come up with a suggestion for how to include more genetically diverse practices in our current agricultural system, but unfortunately I feel like I just don't know enough about how the current system functions to come up with any profound changes. I do really like Rachel's suggestion though. I think it would be beneficial to put more pressure on the fast food companies to do something about the issue, such as pushing them to use a greater variety of potatoes. Honestly, it could even maybe benefit them if they came out with a new variety pack of fries from lots of different potatoes- people might like that. Also, it would be really great to see more fast food options that are actually not quite as unhealthy as the standard McDonald's and friends but still more appealing than the current healthier options such as subway.
Wow, I was eating an apple as I read this post, and I really became so so thankful for the life of this apple that is nourishing me. I'm just thinking about the fragility of the life of this apple that I take for granted. Then I think about how this is one apple, and that's just ONE little thing that I consume in the day... Wow there are so many humans to be feeding! And the food really depends on the climate. I knew this before but it's just really hitting me right now, especially after watching the YouTube video.
ReplyDeleteI laughed as I read your response to the statement made in the Botany of Desire, I have very similar thoughts to this. What I keep coming back to as I think about all of this is the materialistic minds and egos that make up the modern society we live in-- their motivations and values are not the same as those shared by the minds and egos that make up indigenous societies (and also smaller, "mindful" communities). The more "sustainable" and "mindful" communities really value "slow-farming", delayed gratification, appreciate the process, etc. It seems that modern society in the U.S. at least does not share these values; their drives comes from instant gratification, time-saving strategies, increasing capital strategies. For any sort of traditional ecological knowledge and methods to be introduced to and practiced in an unsustainable agricultural society, there will require a mind/ego/value/motivation shift that will change human behavior. I feel like this is happening (maybe I'm living in a bubble) so I am hopeful that the support for and knowledge of such sustainable agricultural practices will overpower the use of monocultural and other unsustainable agricultural practices. But like I said, this would really mean that the U.S. would have to stop trying to be a hegemonic nation, and the individuals in the U.S. would have to slow their lives down and really restructure their priorities and values-- to be more mindful of their food and involved in the production of it and not just consumption. Before we can change the system we must change the mindsets that have created the system...SO for the first step in transforming the food system, I think that we need to appeal to the human mind/emotion-- people need to truly WANT this and resonate with this-- I'm trying to figure out what that means exactly and what it entails. For a more just, resilient and joyful agricultural system we would need it to be local- we need to be engaged with our food and the people making it. SO, I see a first step as getting to know my neighbors, slowly and surely, and then conversing about the food systems with them (maybe sharing articles/documentaries) and learning together. Another step may be a community meeting about food and our system with conversations about logistical details of implementing a community garden. Another step may be hosting a documentary viewing as a larger community event to bring awareness to the food system. Of course, there are so many other steps that I can think of that would help us break our current agricultural system down and plant seed for/establish a better and more sustainable system, but they very much are intertwined with and overlap as steps affecting other systems such as our economic system, governmental system, etc. I will refrain from heading down that path as it is filled with thorny bushes that I don't have the power to tackle just yet.
From the video of Guardians of Diversity, it shows many great points for how good the traditional agricultural system is, like the mass variety of crops could reduce damage form natural disaster, none-chemical raised crops make people healthier, and reduce the negative effect on environment. Concerning about how to maintain the traditional agriculture system (which is sustainable in the long-term, but not quiet sustainable in the current economy system), the Potato Park in Peru also provide us some good solutions, which is to get sponsored by large institutions, get law protections, and develop some related business, like tourism and fabric making, which could increase the stabilized the income of these farmers. I totally agree with these solutions, especially for the last one, because as long as traditional agriculture system attracts more customer, there should be more demand which lead to more income, and with more income the system can expand and hopefully dominate the market.
ReplyDeleteThese are the questions that keep me up during the night (other than the never ending river of homework of course, but nuclear wars, climate change, food shortage, are all fantastic topics to think about during the night). And at this point as the hopeful college senior, I sometimes wonder if we can just start all over from clean slate, from the planet’s perspective at least. Not our perspective since if we are starting from clean slate, we’ll be dead and gone.
ReplyDeleteI know there is no easy answer. I know that we are here to learn critical thinking, to poke and prod, and to question, but there comes a point where everything seems so hopeless. On the surface the answer appears easy enough: the Peruvian farming methods are not outdated – instead, they incorporate a wider perspective that is far more stable and grounded in the planet that we live on. We as society has stripped away the diversity, variation, and unpredictability until all we have is a deformed equation of a system that once worked (that’s what gets me. Everything worked perfectly until … it doesn’t anymore). We have carved away Nature until we are no longer part of it (in our mind at least), and now all we have is unpredictability of the future, ie. Climate change.
But how do we turn this accelerating vehicle 180 degrees so that we don’t hurl ourselves off the cliff? I can give the grassroot answer, where individual actions carry a great impact and we aspire to change around us. But it lacks the speed that we need. We need to dramatically change right now, within the next five years. This week the biology department hosted a climate change scientist who was the first to publish a paper that said “climate change might be driven by anthropogenic factors”, and he sounded lot hopeful than I did, but I think he was faking it somewhat. No offense to the guy, but I genuinely don’t know how he hasn’t broken down yet. He’s testifying to the current Congress next week about the fossil fuel industry and the on-going climate change, and just… how is he staying calm?? More I learn about climate change, less hopeful I become.