Food and Foreign Policy

As I pulled several wilted tomato plants from my sorry, soaked vegetable garden this weekend, I listened to a news report about how global warming and attendant change in weather patterns are expected to lead to famine and massive population movements.

I read two items today that remind me once again how food and foreign policy are so  profoundly linked.

One is a Washington Post story on how Michelle Obama’s celebrity in Russia is to a large degree  focused on her creating and tending an organic garden at the White House.

The other is a sentence in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs:

“Families in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia spend up to 80 percent of their incomes on food; for the average U.S. household, that would mean an annual grocery bill of $40,000.”

How would life be different if 80 percent of earnings had to go to food? I really can’t imagine it.

In 2008, Americans on average spent 9.6 percent of income after taxes for food. But I don’t believe that really cheap food is the answer to food shortages. Food that is American-cheap and processed has given us soaring obesity and diabetes, and diminishing fertility of farmland. I’m sure it will cost more to support  food grown locally in a sustainable way. We should no more be the food provider to the world than we should be the policemen to the world. Both concepts are unsustainable.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Dirty Boots

OK, I have to mention one of my favorite blogs, now that it appeared in www.bestgreenblogs.com

“A Self-Sufficient Life” is a blog by a UK couple who moved to a mountain in Spain where they harvest olives and almonds for very little money. They find adventure in self-sufficiency.  Yes, by all accounts they live the hippie dream. I don’t begrudge them any extra money they might make from the ads on their blog.

They call themselves “Mr. and Mrs. Dirty Boots.”

This week, Mrs. Dirty Boots is sharing recipes for cheap nutritious  breakfasts and lunches. Here’s her simple recipe for one of my favorite Indian foods: vegetable chapattis.

Sustainable Agriculture: Ideal Versus Best for Most People?

MotherJones.com will have an expert-led reader forum  April 13-17 around the provocative question that headlines this article: “Is organic and local so 2008?”

Even if you don’t participate, the article is worth reading.

Food Matters, Local and Organic

Columnist Mark Bittman points out in the International Herald Tribune why organic food isn’t always the best choice, especially when considering carbon footprint. And speaking of local food, Doug Hubley wrote a really nice summary of a presentation by  four Maine-based Bates alumni, each an expert in food issues.

Fun Food Facts from Bates Dining Services

During a recent President’s Council meeting of Bates vice presidents, deans, directors and managers representing the entire College, we heard some interesting factoids from Christine Schwartz, our dynamic director of dining services. Here are a smattering:

(Answers at bottom of this post)

1. Do Bates students eat more potatoes or fruit?

2. How many hand-stretched pizzas are projected to be eaten this academic year?

3. How many meals are donated each year to the local food bank?

4. How much waste goes into the Dining Services dumpster? (Warning: trick question.)

Answers

1. Bates students eat about 6,000 pounds of fruit per month and 2,000 pounds of potatoes. Eighty-five percent of the potatoes were grown in Maine.

2. 35,000 pizzas. The dough balls are produced locally by DaVinci’s Restaurant of Lewiston and by the  Spelt Right Bakery of Yarmouth (owned by Bates alums Beth George ’85 and Tim Kane ’82).

3. More than 33,000 meals are donated each year to the local food bank. It is food that isn’t eaten at each meal, about 40 meals per meal period — which isn’t much, considering that the College averages about  1,700 meals per meal period.

4. None. There is no dumpster! After years of trying new and different ways to recycle (Bates was the first Maine college to divert its food waste to a pig farm), about 90 percent of  Dining Services waste is  diverted from the waste stream. The remaining 10 percent is transported in bags by the same contracted hauler who does Bates’ recycling. It averages about 200 pounds of waste per day, seven bags of waste.

The Relationship of Energy and Food

Thirty five years ago, it became common knowledge for many young people that the Earth’s population explosion had probably pushed us over the threshold for carrying capacity — the earth’s ability to sustain its major living beings with clean water, adequate food, air. Bad enough we were raping the rain forests. But the plankton, which generate most of the world’s oxygen, were dying in the oceans. We were screwed. The last generation.