My grandmother used to say that a weed is just a plant growing where you don't want it to. And that's true--the designation of a plant as a "weed" is solely based on whether humans want it to be growing in a particular spot. Dandelions are a great example of this. For me, dandelions are a more valuable plant to have growing around my house than grass, since they provide food for bees and food for me! But on K's campus, they are considered a weed that requires eradication through both mechanical and chemical means.
A big part of farming and gardening on any scale is encouraging the plants that you want to grow while discouraging the plants you don't want from over-growing and out-competing them. This week, we'll have you help us with weed-management in our gardens and strawberry patch. (And also, for those of you who haven't yet had a chance to soil-block, we'll be doing some of that too.) We manage weeds through cultivation practices such as hand-weeding, mulching, and cover cropping. "Conventional" farms use herbicides to deal with weeds and it's big business. According to the latest publicly available EPA report on pesticide use, glyphosate (the active ingredient in the weedkiller RoundUp) was the most highly used herbicide in 2012, with over 270 million pounds applied to US crop fields. The reason that so much glyphosate is being used is, as you have already learned, that many commodity crops such as corn, cotton, and soybeans have been genetically engineered to be resistant to glyphosate and so farmers can spray the weedkiller on these crops without killing them.
There has been a lot of concern and controversy in the past few years about the effects of having so much of this chemical in our soil, water, and food, and there have even been some relatively high-profile lawsuits brought against RoundUp's manufacturer: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/27/707439575/jury-awards-80-million-in-damages-in-roundup-weed-killer-cancer-trial. Besides the concern about human health, there are also concerns about glyphosate's long-term detrimental effects on soil chemistry and microbiology. On our farm, we are dealing with some of those long-term effects as we are trying to remediate the soil in one of the asparagus patches we inherited from my Dad, who sprayed it with RoundUp every year to kill the weeds. At some point before the end of the quarter, we'll take you to that patch and we can show you some of the residual effects of even minimal regular use of this chemical.
But the bad news about herbicides doesn't stop there because, as we know, nature adapts and evolves under pressure and the pressure from all of this glyphosate in farm fields has facilitated the development of resistance in several species of weeds that are now immune to RoundUp. If you are a science geek, you'll find the mechanism of this resistance fascinating: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/04/24/superweeds-how-pigweed-palmer-amaranth-developed-resistance-herbicide-glyphosate-and-why-the-news-isnt-all-bad/.
If genetics doesn't fascinate you, you might skip the article above--but you will want to know about the solutions that agribusiness is coming up with in order to deal with these "super-weeds." If you remember back to the beginning of this class when we talked about how the majority of conventional seed companies are owned by chemical companies, it won't surprise you to learn that the solutions involve genetically engineering crop varieties for resistance to stronger herbicides sold by these companies. One of these herbicides, dicamba, has caused a lot of controversy in the past several years because of its propensity to drift from the fields that it is applied to and to affect neighboring fields and ecosystems: https://civileats.com/2018/11/08/beyond-damaging-crops-dicamba-is-dividing-communities/. The conflict this creates between neighboring farmers even led to a murder in 2016: https://modernfarmer.com/2016/11/pesticide-drift-leads-alleged-murder/
Another herbicide in play right now with drift concerns is 2,4-D, one of the active ingredients in Agent Orange, which you may be familiar with as a defoliant used as a weapon during the Vietnam War. There's a question about whether 2,4-D resistant crops will also be resistant to dicamba and vice versa and what that will mean for farmers planting them near each other: https://www.apnews.com/9eaf78c201294db38f4483e64108189e
What I'd like to focus on, though, is what the Center for Food Safety scientist Bill Freese expressed at the end of the above article---that focusing on creating the next herbicide is a "poor answer to a complex situation." Managing farms and gardens without herbicides does require more complex understanding of ecological interactions and strategies for intervening in those interactions, for sure, and it's something we are continually working to get better at on our farm. While you are out this week, we'll show you some of the methods we use to manage "weeds" and how the "side effects" of those weed-control strategies can enhance rather than deplete the health of our ecosystem.
And since we'll be working with strawberries this week, I also want to mention that many of the farmworkers that medical anthropologist Seth Holmes was working with while he was writing his book "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies" that Ayla referenced last week were working in strawberry fields. Embedded in this article is a 3 1/2 minute video that describes some of the challenges faced by workers in strawberry fields: http://civileats.com/2015/03/26/is-the-strawberry-field-the-next-farmworkers-rights-battleground/.
Please watch the video, and if you didn't listen to the full interview with Holmes last week, I encourage you to do so. It's only an hour long: https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2013-10-11-SethHolmes. The reality is that if you truly want an understanding of where your food comes from and who is impacted in its production, you have to spend some time self-educating, because it is in the interests of agribusiness to keep the true ecological and humanitarian costs of food hidden from you. Lots of people ask me "what can I do?" to change the food system. One thing you can do is to take the time to critically understand the food web (human and non-human) that delivers the nourishment that sustains your life, whether that nourishment is in the form of dandelion greens, strawberries, or Big Macs. With that critical understanding, you can then sit with Robin Wall Kimmerer's idea of the Honorable Harvest and ponder what it means for you, personally, to live in good relationship not just to the ecosystems that produce your food, but also to the people who produce, process, and transport your food to you.
For your blog comments this week, I have a challenge for you. Pick one ingredient from a food that you currently have in your house or have eaten recently. Do some research into the plant or animal that this ingredient comes from. Where in the world was it likely to have been produced? What are the likely ecological effects of its production? What people are impacted by its production, processing, and/or transport and what are the effects of those impacts?
As you research these questions, evaluate your sources with a critical eye. The website for Driscoll's berries (https://www.driscolls.com/), for example, paints a very different picture of strawberry production from the video I linked to earlier. When there is so much conflicting and sometimes even deliberately misleading information on the web, how can you tell what's true, what's half-true, and what's just plain wrong?
Finally, once you've found some information about your food, write a few sentences about how you might apply the principles of the Honorable Harvest to your relationship with that food.
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ReplyDeleteThis past weekend my parents and I made a pot of delicious vegetable soup and I decided to explore the sourcing of the celery we used, which was purchased from the Meijer in Manistee where I live. Meijer promotes itself as a business that uses locally grown food (http://meijercommunity.com/sustainability/better-products/fresh-and-local/) and within Michigan, it appears their main partner is E. Miedema & Sons, Inc located in Byron Center, MI. While exploring their website, it appears their specialty is in several varieties of corn, cabbage, squash, and ornamentals which appears to be a dead end to my search for the origins of my celery. Within the United States, celery production is dominated in California, although Michigan was noted to produce some as well (https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5e95e1743cbc4f4e8c772d4eefd994bd). The two main areas for celery growers are the south coast (Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties) and the central coast (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties) as identified by a publication by the University of California (https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/7220.pdf). This PDF also lays out the soils, irrigation, climate, fertilizers, pests, and disease associated with the crop. Some elements of production includes the effects of the larvae of the pea leaf miner on celery, which appear to be more commonly treated with general insecticide, as well as several other insects and diseases are known to damage celery stalks. Finally, these researchers indicated that nearly all of the stalks are hand-picked and although this PDF did not indicate by whom, it is likely migrant workers. The harvesting of celery is difficult work which involves “10-hours swinging a knife in the hot sun” (https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/607996811/worker-shortage-hurts-californias-agriculture-industry). Further, as we discussed in class and previous blogs, there are several mental and physical health problems, economic instability, a lack of agency and independence, and an endless network of injustices these populations face.
ReplyDeleteAs with any fact checking, I believe there are elements that you can corroborate with other sources, ways to look into who is producing the information, and an element of judgement from you as an individual to determine what is credible. Personally, what I look for is who is funding or benefiting from the narrative being shared. For example, the Driscoll website is working to sell a product, and would not benefit from bringing the injustices of the industry to light. Instead, that part of production is veiled. As I am sure many of my peers ran into, to get to the source of a crop you have to do diligent searching which is both time consuming and frustrating which I am sure fellow people would not voluntarily conduct, which is what larger corporations rely on.
I don’t think there is anything in our commercial system that follows the tenets of the Honorable Harvest. Within instructions of the Honorable Harvest, it is clear we are taking more than we need and not using everything we take by the fact we waste 40% of our food throughout the stages of production. Further, from the soil to the humans who pick and consume the food, we do not minimize harm. We are overusing pesticides, which harms the planet and individuals who have to come into contact with them day in and day out. We treat those who harvest these crops as lesser and do not give them living wages or the respect they deserve, which does not indicate that we express gratitude to those individuals for their work. Lastly, we do not reciprocate the gift, instead, we take and try to maximize the ‘productivity’ of the land. Clearly, the ways in which our commercial system is set up is not reciprocal or conscious of the Honorable Harvest.
Currently as I write my response to the question above, I am eating Hope Hummus from Costco. An ingredient of hummus are garbanzo beans or chickpeas. These legumes have a low environmental impact due to being a rainfed crop and do not require large amounts of water to grow. Like other legumes it improves soil structure and enriches it by fixing nitrogen as well as are ideal for organic production (http://www.chickpeaproject.com/why-chickpea#p3). There isn't much on the effects of growing garbanzo beans on production, processing, and/or transportation. Recent research has found that in developing countries chickpeas are manually harvested by laborers and have a low level of efficiency, therefore the use of a tractor-pulled harvester produces the same output as 16.6 farm laborers at a low cost (DOI:10.5307/JBE.2015
ReplyDelete.40.2.102).
I think the best way to tell what's true, what's half true, and what's just plain wrong is finding trusted alternate sources that may or may not agree with the one painted by the corporation in question.
Looking at the relationship or exchange between the garbanzo bean and the Earth, I think that the protocol to harvest in way that minimizes harm is promoted through this crop cultivation. With its low environmental impact and if grown organically requires little water use and has little issue growing without the use of pesticides in my opinion growing it as a food crop is minimizing the harmful effects other food products have on the Earth. I also think it is important to acknowledge my gratitude for the easy access I have to organic hummus. Without the cultivation of garbanzo beans in the U.S at the high rates we are currently farming them, I would be unable to either afford or access hummus.
I decided to look up cashews and learn a little more about their production. I learned that the nut is actually produced outside of the fruit and is covered by a skin that is similar to poison ivy in that it irritates and can cause burns. It is produced in tropical/equatorial regions (Tanzania, India, Vietnam) and is originally native to Brazil. The trend to eat more cashews however has also caused some exploitation, and often called "blood cashews" because of how the workers experience burns from the skins and lack rights.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.livescience.com/46602-where-do-cashews-come-from.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11577928/Blood-cashews-the-toxic-truth-about-your-favourite-nut.html
In sifting information from the internet, I always try to find articles from both sides of an issue (even if they are polar opposites). I also look to see who authored/is in control of the webpage and who benefits from the information. By seeing both sides, it allows me as a reader to sift through issues and see which ones I need to do more research on and which are closer to "fact". Typically between two polarized sides is where the more accurate story/facts are--there are very current issues that are completely black and white.
In reading about the harmful effects of harvesting cashews, it makes me stop and pause to think about where I am buying my food from (which store) and where they are getting their food (the actual "source"). It pushes me to look at labels and think about purchasing brands that support sustainable practices--especially ones that have to do with proper compensation and care of workers. Yet, I also know that on a tight budget, I often do not have the flexibility to always buy products where I truly know the source and practices of the company. I know that just being "conscious" of the workers and practices of harvesting the food I eat isn't the solution, but it does make me think twice before purchasing and pushes me to look for more local goods and goods from companies with better practices. That being said, what does this look like on a day-to-day basis? I'm not exactly sure and I don't know exactly how to sift through companies and find out their actual practices. But I can practice the Honorable Harvest whenever I forage, garden, or interact with nature and other people (which is constant!).
The other day I decided to try something new and bought a bag of farro, which I made with dinner tonight. The specific brand I bought was from the brand Cucina & Amore, so I figured I would look at their site to get a general feel for their company (as they self-present): https://www.cucinaandamore.com/who-we-are/ The first thing I noticed was their attention to the consumer. Their main mission is to produce healthy and delicious food for the family, and most of their site is geared towards the benefits of consuming their products and not telling us where these products come from. However, they do vaguely mention their farming practices in short sound-bites like growing non-GMO foods, utilizing natural pest management techniques instead of pesticides, and how "Peruvian farm communities that are growing some of our crops thrive by shifting from commodity to value-added, state-of-the art products" whatever that means (hint: it's basically code for the neoliberal economics that are already influencing food webs https://www.agmrc.org/business-development/getting-prepared/valueadded-agriculture/articles). I discovered that all of their grains are grown in Italy. The next logical step in my search then would be to look up the conditions of farro farming in Italy, but this is where I ran into some trouble. The problem with researching a trendy "super" food is that instead of finding information about farming practices, the only search results that show up are recipes and blog posts that talk about all the miracles this food will do for your body. I think an important thing we can do to promote the Honorable Harvest is to avoid getting sucked into these fads that can be damaging to the communities that produce the food. We have already seen the effects of global demand for quinoa on the Bolivian people who can't afford the rising prices of their native staple crop: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/americas/20bolivia.html I think it is important to pay attention to world news surrounding food and change my own consumption habits accordingly. Obviously, in a food network so difficult to untangle and follow a single thread, it is important that I, as a consumer, demand transparency from the companies from which I buy and look for alternative producers to support when I feel the honor of the harvest is being broken.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this isn't specific to farro, but considering how this farro is grown in Italy, this article could give some insight on the labor conditions on the farro farm: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/09/african-migrants-italy-hard-right-authorities
DeleteSo I chose to investigate Trader Joe's Organic Whole Carrots. This upon immediate inspection was a tough choice because TJ's does not disclose the source of their private brand. What is pretty common knowledge (people have done some paper trail investigating) is that TJ's sources it's produce from RalCorp which was bought from ConAgra. SO while this food is organic and GMO free we can't know much about the working conditions. https://gmo-awareness.com/2013/02/02/is-trader-joes-organic-gmo-free/
ReplyDeleteWhat we know from the packaging is that these carrots were produced in California, are non-GMO, and certified organic. Carrots can be harvested year round in California though the seasons shift slightly depending on where in California. Carrots have been produced in California since the 1920s. https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/7226.pdf
When looking at the impact of carrot growth the two primary concerns are the transportation distance, and pesticides. The latter doesn't apply to this organic variety but transportation does. That is something important to think about especially since Michigan is the second largest producer of carrots in the US... would it really be that much harder to buy locally? https://www.sustainweb.org/foodfacts/carrot_fashion/
In terms of who this impacts I am trying to imagine everyone involved in getting these carrots to me: the migrant workers who planted and harvested these carrots, the truck drivers who transported the carrots to the processing plant, the worker who packaged and placed the carrots on my local grocery store shelf.
I think in order to enact an honorable harvest I need to be more personal with my relationship to who produces my food. I feel that I am respectful towards the food itself and always take a moment to be intentional before eating. I have this prayer my family and I say before we eat and we always include 'bless the hands that have prepared this meal.....' and I do like that nod of gratitude to those who produce our food. However, I do still feel distant from them and that does not feel honorable.
This past weekend in an effort to expose a friend to more veggies and to hone my ability in cooking with veggies I cooked a medley of veggies thst included a delicious and beautiful vegetable, the graffiti eggplant. This small and elusive vegetable is one in the family of eggplant which is believed to have originated in India. The graffiti eggplant is grown in Holland and while it is a specialty plant with few growers in the world there is very little to be found on the internet about this plant.
ReplyDeleteWhile the eggplant is of a variety that is little seen and little sold,at least in the US, much of the information on the internet comes from distributors or seed sellers, usually citing the smallest bit of information that much of the time contradicts one another. My specific graffiti said thst it was from Holland and so I was intrigued and interested in Holland and their farming practices.
While I couldn't find much about who works the lands other than agriculture being explained as "the Netherlands" endeavor, I found a lot about agriculture in the Netherlands in general with a National Geographic special article about the way that natgeo is the "future". https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming/ this article is ridiculously thorough about the way that the Netherlands models agricultural technology and progress mostly praising, and outlining the marvels of this system. In my research to find who migrates to the Netherlands to work land (since they have a specific program for this in the naturalization services of the country) I couldn't find any specifics about the who or the why but I did find articles refuting and rejecting the natgeo article praising the model. A large argument is that current models of efficiency have lead to the death of many types of birds, to a decreased soil quality and to the overuse of land. https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2018/03/dutch-agriculture-is-not-a-beacon-of-good-farming-practice-to-the-world/
This was interesting to read especially because the Netherlands is one of the largest exporters and distributors in the world, even beating out the USA. Thinking about this in the context of the honorable harvest, i was invested in thinking about taking what you need and asking for permission, particularly with land. I know that feeding everyone is an important endeavor but most of their harvest is for sale which means their efficiency is in the name of trade and not always solely in feeding the world. Aside from this,taking from the land to sell and trade at this magnitude seems ludicrous. Rather than promote self determination and self sustenance they produce immensely, using resources smarter but still in larger quantities than should be necessary from one locus of the world. Lastly thinking about asking for permission, the problems with wildlife and soil quality seem to indicate that that conversation isn't happening with the land. Having to produce year round means having to constantly put the earth in the place if birthing without renewal, time to heal. I think about the fact that a product made in Holland made it's way to my stovetop in Kalamazoo Michigan. Not knocking trade and movement but perhaps being more mindful of what we eat and when and how and compromising(like maybe growers here which do grow graffitis) are those we eat from rather than from a country that uses energy and pollutes the earth in trying to deliver these eggplants rather than that eggplant being something we learn to plant, steward and care for ourself. The eggplant was delicious and I thank it for its energy and for letting me take nourishment from it and for letting me show a friend thst vegetables are for him too. I hope I didn't take too much.
Sorry for the typos. In the second paragraph i meant that the Netherlands is considered the future.
DeleteIn the last paragraph i mean to say that we can compromise a couple things like taste or yield to steward it or just not eat it at all. Ignore the parenthesis, it's all part of the same thought and sentence.
Also the second article is supposed to be this one http://www.agter.org/bdf/en/corpus_chemin/fiche-chemin-458.html
DeleteI chose to look up Cento San Marzano Tomatoes which are a canned tomato similar to Roma tomatoes and are imported from Italy. I had been in the habit of reading an Italian food blog a couple of months ago and time and time again authors would stress the importance of using ingredients grown in Italy. Italian soil has distinct qualities, or so they say, with volcanic ash and temperate climates which allows Italian farmers to produce some of the best produce in the world. The San Marzano tomato is one of their stars. Italy also has quite the reputation for a lively food culture often stressing the importance of local production, so I thought it might be interesting to read about their export oriented industry with companies such as Cento and the San Marzano tomato.
ReplyDeleteWhen visiting their website, they make it clear that they are producing only the highest quality tomatoes. They reference quality inspection, the anatomy and taste profile of the San Marzano, and the region in Italy in which they are grown. They further note that tomatoes are often started in greenhouses before taken out to the fields, the importance of crop rotation, and that they are non-gmo and 'sustainably' grown (without chemicals).They even have a 'Find My Field' feature which you can use to locate the exact field your can of tomatoes came from. (I sadly could not use this feature because I did not actually have them in stock). Turns out there are a lot of companies selling fake
San Marzano tomatoes, so I think this feature is more to assure that they are indeed, the real deal.
While it was interesting reading up about San Marzano's, I was still left with some questions. I really wanted to find out more about the farmworkers/ factory workers at Cento. Much of the work needed for the production of these tomatoes seems rather labor intensive so I was curious about how the employees were treated. Further, since there is such a high demand for these San Marzano tomatoes around the world, and they can only be grown in a small region in Italy, I was also worried about the ecological impacts on this region. While there are hundreds of websites that will talk about cooking with San Marzano's and whether they are really 'the best tomato', these other issues did not seem very accessible.
In tying this to the Honorable Harvest, my biggest concern regarding the San Marzano tomato is that producers are 'taking more than is given.' Due to their popularity and the high global demand, the small Sarnese Nocerino area where they are grown might have a limit that is being stretched out of proportion.
As I sit here writing this, I have just finished my breakfast: organic whole milk peach yogurt from Trader Joes. Yogurt is a dairy product in which milk is thickened and given flavor through the introduction of bacteria that converts lactose to lactic acid. Then, to enhance the flavor of the yogurt, sugars, fruit, or other flavorings may be added. In my case, a peach puree has been added. Therefore, the two main components in the crafting of my breakfast this morning are milk and peaches. These ingredients were, most likely, produced in California where the Trader Joes headquarters is located. The ecological impact of its production is hard to determine for sure. Yes, it is labeled organic so some of the more damaging agricultural practices were absent in the production of my yogurt. Yet, there is surprisingly little information on where, or by whom, the yogurt was produced.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking for articles on the farms that Trader Joes supports, I found just about nothing. What I did come across was this article: https://groundswell.org/the-truth-behind-trader-joes-what-you-may-not-know-about-tjs-brand/
They describe the striking similarity between some of our favorite TJ products and other brands i.e. Trader Joes Pita Chips with Sea Salt and the Simply Naked flavor of Stacy’s Pita Chips. The article claims that these two differently labeled products are actually one in the same. This holds true, they find, for many other products on the shelves of TJs. Essentially, companies like Stacy’s, Amy’s, and Annie’s have signed contracts with TJs in which TJs can buy their products, but put their own private label on them without fear of companies revealing their business relationship. The article claims that many grocery stores are engaged in this practice, but TJs does so to a much greater extent.
This points to a huge problem, which we have discussed in this class, of a lack of transparency. The article says “if you’re buying from Trader Joe’s and you want to know ‘the story behind your food,’ as Kastel puts it, you’re out of luck. With the current policies in place that keep sourcing private, there’s no way of finding out where your product was made, the conditions it was produced in, the impact on the environment or carbon footprint, and so on.” Thanks to this legislation and the value that Trader Joe’s places on brand loyalty, I cannot find any information on the cows, peaches, farmers, or any other aspect int he production of my organic whole milk peach yogurt.
Another article that I came across (https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Who-s-making-Trader-Joes-food-brand-relationships-6680520.php#photo-9071234) attempts to uncover the business relationships that Trader Joes has. After contacting TJs and their suspected partners and being denied any information on the relationship, the authors of the article turn to taste testing to assess similarity. They find a striking similarity between the Trader Joes brand organic low-fat yogurt and the Wallaby organic low-fat yogurt. So, perhaps, it was the Wallaby dairy farms that produced my breakfast. If so, I must then consider that Wallaby has recently been bought up by Dannon North America, a corporate umbrella that has canceled contracts with family-scale farmers in many states. All of the family farms in Petaluma, California, that formerly supplied Wallaby Organics have had their contracts canceled since they were bought by Dannon.
These findings, or lack thereof, reaffirm that organic does not necessarily point to honorability. Corporations are, at root, antithetical to the honorable harvest. The main connection that I draw between these principles and what I have uncovered in my yogurt research revolves around honesty and openness. How am I to give thanks, as permission, and know that harm is minimized when I can’t even find the farm that my milk came from?
A food that I regularly have a large tub of in my fridge are blueberries. They’re my favorite fruit and I put them in absolutely everything- pancakes, granola, smoothies, and then of course I eat them plain as a snack. I think this became a very ingrained habit when I got blood tests done and they showed up as one of the top fruits I had the least sensitivity to. Interestingly, the U.S. is the biggest producer of blueberries, with ten states accounting for about 98% of commercial production- California and Michigan are among them. I already had an inclination this might be true as many of the migrant camps I visited this summer all over Western Michigan were blueberry growers. Blueberries come from the vaccinium family which is native to North America so it makes sense that they would mostly be grown here. In terms of market value, they’re very similar to strawberries in that they’ve been made into a year round delicacy that not everyone can afford.
ReplyDeleteBlueberry crops are infamous for using migrant labor- and many times because the season is so short workers are constantly moving to follow the harvest (about every six weeks), most likely making for a very unstable lifestyle. Workers complain of children having to constantly make new friends and fall behind in school, as not all schools teach the same subjects at the same time. Still though, there are reports on an NPR episode of it being many workers’ preferred work- as they don’t have to bend down as they do for strawberries and they don’t have to climb trees as they do for apples. Another element that is characteristic to the migratory life is driving, which scares many workers as they didn’t come with licenses- and if they are pulled over it could be the end of the line for them if they are undocumented.
It’s interesting that when I typed in “blueberries, ecological effects,” on the google search engine many of the results that came up were about changing environmental regulations for blueberry growers or the affect of global climate change on blueberry size and shape- language that sort of makes it about the production rather than the coexistence of the crop and the land. In a peer reviewed article on plant science about how blueberries could be bred in a our changing global environment by use of marker assisted breeding and phenomics to aid in identifying individual plants that could carry adventitious traits to warmer weather and inconsistent rainfall.
Finally, perennial weeds are the biggest issue in blueberry cultivation- but apparently there are multiple natural ways to work with them- cover crops such as annual cereal grains and grasses being one of them. One of the ways I believe I could apply the teachings of honorable harvest to blueberries, a crop that regularly sustains me, is by spending more time picking my own blueberries and buying from grocery stores less regularly, where I don’t know how the blueberries or people picking them were treated. A good way to do go about this may be to approach each individual bush and look for the hidden blueberries that may be overlooked by others- always asking permission, ofcourse, and sharing with loved ones after I do so. Additionally, because I have the knowledge of which growers here in Michigan tend to consistently mistreat their employees, I could very easily check labels and avoid buying from those companies. Finally, I could educate myself much more on the cultivation and harvest of highbush blueberries so that when I visit, it is more like seeing an old friend rather than a facade.
So recently I was responsible for buying food for an event, of course, an event that would later be reimbursed by the school REGARDLESS, I was in a time crunch and I bought the largest box of strawberries I could and they happened to be Driscoll’s brand. Now, due to my lack of critical thought and time crunch I did not question much and just threw them in the shopping cart… as many American consumers do at the grocery store… (hello cell phone apps that change the future of consumption) …
ReplyDeleteAnyway, after seeing a ton of posts about that brand of strawberries and their terrible treatment to laborers that the interview with Holmes so clearly outlined and drew our attention to as well as Ayla’s post on the book “Fresh Fruit: Broken Bodies”. I got overly curious if I could dig anything up on this brand, these berries, and the rumors (which are most likely true) that have been circulating. However, my efforts came dry as I could not trace anything beyond the picture I saw circulating around instagram and the websites section “Social Community Rules” which they definitely do not share if they are mistreating laborers.
I honor rules of the honorable harvest in a few ways but that can only take me so far in the grocery store... when I am in a time crunch/ looking for the cheapest item. Sigh. For this reason, I am only lip service.
https://www.grocerydive.com/news/grocery--meijers-year-old-grocery-delivery-partnership-with-shipt-is-popular-with-sh/534556/
ReplyDeleteThis article shows how grocery stores make honoring the rules of the honorable harvest even more difficult and disconnected as there are literally services which drop groceries off at people's door steps now! :O
Something that I have been eating a lot lately is walnuts. They are my expensive guilty pleasure and I love putting them in all kinds of foods - salads, snacks, all kinds of stuff. I typically get the Aldi kind, which is from Southern Grove. Apparently these are actually produced by Star Snack Co, which has headquarters in California and New Jersey. Apparently 99% of the walnuts produced in the US come out of California. 90% of those are shelled (http://www.walnutproduction.com/). If I recall correctly, walnuts also take a ton of water to produce.
ReplyDeleteI feel like researching where this food comes from is part of my own Honorable Harvest. I can also continue to give thanks for it. However, the way that walnuts are grown and harvested within the industrial agricultural system is unfortunately not at all in line with the Honorable Harvest; if anything, it reaps the benefits of doing the exact opposite. I feel like being conscientious of this relationship is important in figuring out my own relationship with that food.
https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/news_and_awards/recalls/Southern_Grove_Cashews_Halves_and_Pieces_Recall_Press_Release.pdf
Also, apparently there was a recall in 2017 of Southern Grove's cashews because they may have contained glass.... yikes. https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/news_and_awards/recalls/Southern_Grove_Cashews_Halves_and_Pieces_Recall_Press_Release.pdf
DeleteI chose wheat.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that wheat is widely produced all over the world (go figure). It is a crop often produced in the 'off season', which can be good, environmentally: it requires less water, fertilizer, and pesticides, and it helps prevent soil erosion. However, habitat loss from farmers converting natural areas (instead of renewing the same fields) is a negative environmental aspect, although 'habitat expansion' seems to have lessened recently.
Nowadays wheat is usually grown in monoculture and mechanically harvested and processed. This means it doesn't necessarily have some of the costs that things like strawberry harvesting have on workers, but it does require a lot of time working with large (and potentially dangerous) machines.
Interestingly, GMO wheat is not allowed, although there have been reports of GMO wheat 'somehow' getting into some farmers' fields. Also, companies are trying, in the US at least, to convince the government to allow GMO wheat. Here's a link about wheat, how it is technically not GMO, and what it is:
https://grainstorm.com/blogs/blog/is-wheat-genetically-modified