Bugz

This is really what the Mason-Dixon looks like, at least emotionally:



One non-PC bit in there. (HT: Trey)

And this is why we do not live in Idaho:

Focus the Nation

"I think the term Green Democracy describes the citizen awareness and engagement needed to push environmental policy through government. To me the term also brings to mind the ethos that lies (for better or worse) at the heart of capitalism, which is to 'vote with one's dollar.' Similarly, the daily actions of citizens--from the food and vehicles they purchase to the way they consume energy in their homes--can have a significant impact on how our society evolves in response to the climate change crisis."--Athens Focus the Nation organizing committee member Bart King.

Flagpole has a list of events happening at the Center for Continuing Education tomorrow. I'm looking forward to Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, and National Geographic Executive Editor Dennis Dimick. A couple quotes from King that didn't make the article:

In addition, I think Focus the Nation is especially important here in Georgia, where the state legislature decided earlier in the year, based on the testimony of a few hand-picked scientists, that climate change was not a serious issue.

That's outrageous, even President Bush, who has done nothing but hamper environmental causes throughout his presidency, admits that global warming is for real and needs to be dealt with.

In addition to the fact that climate change itself will have disastrous effects on the way of life here in Georgia (all those displaced Floridians will have to go somewhere), we are missing the economic motor boat, so to speak. Green technology and what are being called "green-collar jobs" are on the rise. Economist predict their influence to be greater than that of the dot-com era. Those jobs and technologies will be developed where they are welcome--whether that is Florida, California, Michigan, Germany or China.

King is also the news editor of sustainablebusiness.com.

Farmers Should Wear Lab Coats

Tell me if this looks like a good idea. I'm not fond of the implications. By 2030, 87% of North Americans will live in cities. This doesn't mean necessarily that the countryside will be blissfully depopulated, more that our future cities will be slobbering megapolises.


Vertical farm enthusiast Dickson Despommier is really enthusiastic about the farm of the future: "We shouldn't be at the whims of nature when it comes to providing calories and water." Maybe. The other idea, of course, is that if you don't learn how to cooperate with nature, you destroy it. And ultimately you destroy yourself. But, hey man, whatever.

At least Despommier is addressing a surefire problem.

(U.S. News & World Report, May 28, 2007)

Global Warming & Food Production

On Sunday afternoon Athica hosted Global Warming & Food Production, a local pre-event for Focus the Nation's large-scale global warming function happening later this week. As might be expected, the discussion covered ways in which the current food system needs to be revolutionized in order to curb it extensive carbon emissions, particularly the need to get away from oil-based processes of long-distance transportation and packaging. One answer is to jettison our Platonic ideals of food. Consumers must stop demanding the perfect produce in favor of the local produce. Discard that cylindrical, burnished, and plastic-wrapped ear of corn raised under a herbicidal bath in California—for a more homely local one, perhaps even with a harmless bug in it.

It was disappointing that there weren't any farmers in the building or people who work with food, although there were a lot of academic types who like to think about food. Anyway, John English and Bart King should be commended for their organization. Participants included

• Dr. Carl Jordan,UGA Ecologist & founder of Spring Valley EcoFarms.
• Craig Page, executive director of P.L.A.C.E. (Promoting Local Agriculture and Culture Experiences).
• Julia Gaskin, of the UGA Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department.
• Dr. Elizabeth Andress, director of the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
  

Gaskin, who works directly with farmers through the county extension program and is a leading authority on sustainability at UGA, gave the most spirited answers by far. Who knew that most of Georgia's milk comes from New Mexico? Picture what that must look like. Tits on a bull. There's a big move to re-energize Georgia dairy production, with cattle living on pasturage like they're supposed to. Dr. Andress despaired of all the young Food Science majors who don't know how to peel a carrot. Simply, a whole generation's been raised on pizzas and ready-to-eat meals. And although he didn't, Dr. Jordan would have like to have said something about humanity and hubris—and fertilizers. You can't rewrite Nature or take shortcuts with the land and not royally screw things up.

The Slow-Ass Country Breakfast

Go, eat, learn, enjoy donkey milk. Ass milk. The Slow-Ass Country Breakfast (get it?) is in conjunction with Athica's Ingest exhibition, which is worth seeing and truly weird. Weird like cakes with teeth and hair in them and chicks hatching from oranges.

Get up bright and early February 23rd. I don't know how to put it eloquently, but you need to explore other pages on The Slow-Ass Country Breakfast website. Here's the index. Weird, again, and a lot of fun.

First of the Volley

Lots of posting today as I try to catch up. Expect something on Focus the Nation a little later.

I'd been meaning for some time to post this picture from Athica's Animal Instincts: Allegory & Anthropomorphism exhibit:

White Oak Pastures

Sunday a week ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a good profile of Will Harris, an Early County cattle rancher building a processing facility on his 1000 acre farm. Harris's cows are all grass-fed and grass-finished, which means he's bypassed the traditional route of sending them to feedlots to batten on corn and antibiotics. And it also means that he's got to find his own processors and distributors: thus his very own processing facility and his in-store appearances at Harry's Farmers Market. Someone really intelligent—I'm going to attribute it to Joel Salatin—said that it's not enough today for farmers to be just farmers; they've got to be entrepreneurs in every way.

Some financial info for investigation:

Harris got a low-interest loan from the OneGeorgia Authority, which disburses some tobacco settlement funds to promote the rural Georgia economy. He expects another loan from a Whole Foods program set up to bring more locally grown food into its stores, and he's kicking in another half-million.

Here is the website for Harris's White Oak Pastures.

Lunch Youtubery

From Ray McKinnon's superb short film, The Accountant:



Last Fall, I saw Ray McKinnon and Ralph Reed on the same day. McKinnon was hanging out after screening his film Randy and the Mob. Reed was walking downtown with the shittiest of shit-eating grins on his face.

(HT: Derek)

Niche Marketing Has Its Day

Perhaps this is the last time you'll see something here like this:


Staining the water clear.

I haven't held true to the original intention of this blog, which was to cover topics of food, the agriculture-nouveau, and writing where it appears distinct and irresistible. Pasting multiple videos of University of Georgia players dancing to Soulja Boy was never supposed to be part of the project. Since posting here seems to have been motivated by nothing more than caprice and traffic isn't exactly proliferating, I'm returning to the plan, especially the ag/food part. So for the handful of you who have tuned in regularly for snarky updates on SEC football, travelogues across the Deep South, confessions of lust for that damned temptress Cat Power, and the odd report on New Orleans, I apologize in advance.

Now I could offer an apologia for the blog as a whole—why farming and food, Donn? But I'm not, except for the picture below. At the expense of sounding fulsomely high-minded, I feel that fighting for the health of the family farm and farming in general in the South amounts to fighting for its soul. The city needs the country as much as the country needs the wilderness. Phrased for those of you familiar with Atlanta: would you like everything below the Mason-Dixon to look like Gwinnett County, subdivisions stacked on strip malls stacked on more malls? If so, well, I guess the good news for you is that your side's winning. We're wiring ourselves to a nice antiseptic world where everybody can live in DVD-filled cocoons all of the time. Hopefully, you can watch a couple sunsets and get back to me.

I'll continue to add music and idiosyncratic content, like the coon dog cemetery, but less whimsically from now on.

Take care, everyone,
Donn

The Presidents of the United States of America from their eponymous album (you might have to scroll down; I'm not fond of Divshare's new embedded media player):