"The Real Cost of Cheap Food"

Shortly after making my post yesterday, I ran into this fantastic article in Time magazine. The piece was written last August and is called "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food". It's an excellent article about all of the important food issues of our day. I highly recommend that you read it!


quotable quote from the piece:

"But we don't have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don't take care of your land, it can't take care of you."

(See pictures of what the world eats.)

Greetings from The Farm (Eating Right)

For the last few days, I have been on vacation from LA and that it entails. It's been a good time to slow down, to think and to recharge. My weekends are never times of rest when I'm at home because we're always busy doing something, whether it's community duty or "fun time" or dumpster meetup related.

I've been taking my time off in an organic farming community in Camarillo, CA called the "Abundant Table Project" or "Join the Farm!". There's a small group of girls ("interns") who live here to tend the farm and grow in community. They're very welcoming and friendly folks. I've really been enjoying my time here.

Something that I particularly love about this place is how well we eat here. We have full reign of the goodies that we harvest from the fields (they have roughly four acres of organic veggies) and the produce that the girls trade for at the local framers' markets. Since I have been here, I have been eating raw kale salads, fresh fruits, Swiss chard cooked with tomatoes and chili and fresh eggs from their friendly backyard hens. I have a deep-rooted feeling that this is how humans beings are really meant to eat. I'm sick of these over-processed foods that are shoved down our throats through aggressive advertising. How can anyone think of selling such unhealthy things to people? How many of our health problems could be reduced if we ate more healthily? How much easier would it be to eat right if we were sold the right foods (or if we grew them ourselves)?

I go home tonight, to a community in transition. It will be straight into the summer program, with two new interns to meet and instruct. 

                                     

Until next time, 

greetings from the chicken. ^

Defining Freeganism

In a recent post, I mentioned that my friend Marie started her own Dumpster Diving meetup group when returned to Grand Rapids after a summer visit to the LACW. Shortly after I posted that, she sent me a link to an article her local paper had done on the group, its purposes and its practices. This photo is from the online version of the newspaper article. Marie is the girl in the dumpster, doing the dirty work.

The article is a great piece to spread the ideals of Freeganism. Even the title itself is positive publicity (click the title to read the story): 

Dumpster diving with purpose: Grand Rapids Freegans make political statement by searching through trash

Unfortunately, the majority of user comments on the page are rather negative. Maybe some of my readers can go and change that...

"You People Don't Look Like Criminals"

As many of you may know, we hosted our 7th monthly "Dumpster Ride and Freegan Meal" event on Saturday. We rescued a lot of food, as usual. In fact, we filled up most of our cargo capacity (including the space in two accompanying cars) at our very first stop. The event was a success in all aspects. After the ride, we had a party at our gracious friend Eric Michael's house and enjoyed the bounty of our harvest (and the company of his pet boa, René). (more pics here)

But we had an extra element of excitement in our event this month. As we were leaving our first supermarket stop, some of us noticed that a helicopter seemed to be following our small band of about 8 cyclists. Less than a mile down the road, we paused at a stoplight and were surrounded by police cars! The issue was that an employee of the store was there when we were and he called 911 to report theft. He thought that we were stealing the stock that they keep behind the fence next to the dumpsters. We never met the employee, but the cops we talked to made sure he knew that we were not stealing.

The officer who confronted us asked one of our friends to open a wine box that was mounted on his bike ("That box looks familiar", the cop said). It was a classic moment when the opened box revealed not bottles of wine, but dirty potatoes and lemons. The encounter was a little tense at first, but it relaxed quickly after the cop shared our disgust in the amount of food that goes to waste. He told us that his brother, who works for a large food warehouse company, tried to start an organization to redirect his company's food waste to needy people. The effort crumbled because of tough legal requirements and food standards. Millions of tons of edible food are still wasted every day. In that light, the officer said he could understand why we were dumpster diving. He had to remind us, though, that trespassing is illegal (which I am sure we all knew). At the store we first stopped at, the dumpsters are locked behind a fence near the loading dock, where new stock is also kept. When we climb under or over that razor topped fence, we are incurring the law and suspicion of theft, even though we are careful to never take anything but trash.

One of the first things our officer friend told us was that "You people don't look like criminals". My haughty mumbled response was, "That's because we're not". (To which he replied with a lecture on trespassing laws). The scenario reminded me of a video in which my friend Ashwyn encounters a security guard while dumpster diving. The guard is telling Ash to leave, saying, "It's illegal". Ash counters with, "It should be illegal to throw some of this stuff out". Seriously, who are the real criminals here? The people who break laws about private property in order to make good use of edible waste? Or perhaps it's the corporations who are breaking laws of humanity by denying people food. The huge amount of waste has a negative effect on the environment, and keeps millions of people hungry.

On another note... What exactly did the cop mean when he said that we didn't "look like criminals"? Was he referring to the fact that we weren't hiding (since we don't feel that we do anything wrong, we allow ourselves to stick out like sore thumbs)? Or did he say that because we were a group of white people on mediocre or nice bikes? Just some food for thought...

Freegan Flowers

First, I would like to report that the LA Catholic Worker 40th Anniversary Party was a blast! There will be pictures of the madness, I promise.

But for today, I would like to "consider the flowers". Here at the house, we have beautiful flower gardens in our yard. When I enjoy them, I am reminded that a number of the plants in the gardens were actually foraged from dumpsters by myself and Eric. There are three wonderful permanent "guests" who tend to the yard and they always appreciate bringing new things to life.

This flourishing fuchsia is one out of a box of 12 that Eric and I found in a supermarket bin a couple of months ago. Even the planter is "freegan", thanks to Alberto's clever use and painting of an old coffee can.  

We found these roses in a different dumpster about six months ago. They have bloomed twice so far.

The beautiful plant at the right was dry and suffering when we brought it home in October. It's now growing rapidly.

Last, but not least, I will display the first pictures of Eric's and my vegetable garden. These are beet sprouts, with pretty red stems! It's really exciting, watching life sprout from the dirt. If only more people could experience this natural wonder.

"Take Me Home"

The other night Eric and I were dumpster diving at our favorite place. This store has 6 dumpsters; usually 2 or 3 are full of fresh produce, dairy and other tasty treats. That night, we each got our own dumpster to ferret through for salvageable food. While I was knee deep in trash bags, oranges and discarded containers of yogurt, I saw a box full of intact oranges. On one of the side flaps, it was written "FREE - Please take me home". I loved the beauty of the moment. This ripped up and tossed away box, full of perfectly good fruit, called to us. It told us to do exactly what we were doing.

Yesterday, Eric and I planted a small vegetable garden on the LACW property. It felt wonderful to be working barefoot in the dirt again. I hadn't worked a garden since my time in Kenya in the beginning of 2009. Gardening is a very Freegan concept. If people would grow their own food, we wouldn't have the need for supermarkets and industrialized consumption. I have a feeling that there would be a lot less food waste.

Arlington West Santa Monica at CSULB

in Santa Monica^

I have spent the last two days on the campus of California State University - Long Beach supporting the peace movement and representing the Catholic Worker during the Arlington West event at the school. This memorial typically appears on the Santa Monica Pier each Sunday. Veterans for Peace, the movement behind the memorial, was asked to bring the display to CSULB this week.

CSU Long Beach ^

The display struck me as very powerful. It appeals to people of all persuasions as it remembers the misguided fallen soldiers, fellow citizens of our nation. It brings the battle home and makes the numbers personal. In addition to the crosses, there are displays with photos of the fallen US soldiers, pictures of wounded Americans and Iraqis, and a long list of Iraqi casualties. The whole project is very extensive and moving.