Well. This is quite an opinion piece on the idea of food trucks in New Orleans. I was glad to see it when a friend linked it on fb, although I will have to say that some of the connections the author makes I cannot yet agree with, not having seen all of the information. Additionally, there is some polemic language, like hipster-capitalists, which is an oversimplification in my estimation, although not entirely untrue. Of course, reading the comments one finds even more name calling and ridiculing of the author. Truly this sort of behavior doesn't seem to be a way to learn about each other's ideas and opinions.
Having said all of that, I agree with much of this piece and would hope that those trying to "fix" New Orleans would take a little more time to understand the context of our history and stop comparing us to other places that have almost no similarities with us, except of course what seems to be the important one for those trying to fix us, that those places they compare us to have a large young population that moved there recently. Whether or not our resources should be spent on holding those folks here by offering them what they could find elsewhere seems illogical and quite possibly a fools errand.
I'd much prefer that we invest and legislate for the return of decent programs to help the least fortunate of our citizens and to encourage the widespread ownership of businesses and homes anchored in neighborhoods among those who have roots here, whether new or not. As for roaming trucks: I am for a few of them, within reason. As a matter of fact, as a community food system advocate, I have spent most of the last decade and a half working on behalf of roaming farmers markets. However, the Food Truck Coalition seems to be focused on capturing CBD lunch business and asking to compete side by side with anchored restaurants rather than encouraging healthy food in food swamps or food deserts if you prefer.
If access to food is the goal, then let's legislate that and ask those who are allowed to operate food trucks to offer local products and healthy choices with low sodium or fat options, work in food insecure areas at least 3/4 of their time and also not allow these trucks to pollute with noise or trash or to set up within 300 feet of a existing restaurant.
Let's also stop the name calling and realize that every issue has many more than 2 sides to it and all of them should be heard and read by the citizens that live in our fair city.
Fork in the Road: Who’s Behind the Push for New Orleans Food Trucks? – Antigravity Magazine
Essays, links and visuals highlighting an alternative, resilient place at the strategic crescent of one mighty river.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, March 11, 2013
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Icy.
Boy I am so glad I moved back to New Orleans for the heat. Especially on days that top out at 41...
But as I was riding my scooter to lunch (at La Boucherie where the original Ninja was. Had a great meal. Get to it.) I passed many other riders of 2 wheels, human propelled and motor. Nodded (of course) at all of them. No one looked especially miserable either...
Later that day, as I was walking my dog (Maddie the Cartoon Dog), I noticed a car checking out houses on my street so I stopped to watch them to see what they were up to.. Turned out to be a delivery of food, which I realized (as Maddie danced and tugged at the leash in celebration of the cold air) that it was unusual to see delivery of food here. Folks usually go out or cook when in.
There are definitely cold weather traditions in many cities where cold is a normal occurrence, things like pizza coming to your door, or blocking off front doors for the winter to keep drafts out or putting plastic over windows for same reason. (When I went to the big box retailer to get some of that plastic, I found exactly 4 boxes with dust all over them hanging on the end of the paint aisle. Not a big seller.)
With this cold weather we are all having, I enjoy watching which cold weather tendencies people use here. Most of the ones I name above do not make the list but here are some that do:
People wearing Ug Boots. I'm one, as my mother got me a pair like 5 years ago and I thought at the time WTF? not anymore.
Hats are worn and they don't have JazzFest buttons on them.
Heaters going in cars full blast when you get in. The A/C is probably thankful it finally got a break.
Hot tea replacing iced at lunch.
Sharing recipes for hot toddies. My friend V and I usually start the trend...
Layers of clothes. People look 5 pounds heavier here. After Mardi Gras they really will be but that's another matter.
Less outdoor exercise. Joggers are as scarce as working streetlights.
Dogs wearing clothes.
and my favorite:
lunch which is normally 1.5 hours has become 3 hours long.
So, we adapt and we make the best of a tough situation. But of course, it will be 60 by Sunday and Carnival is just about upon us.
We'll live.
But as I was riding my scooter to lunch (at La Boucherie where the original Ninja was. Had a great meal. Get to it.) I passed many other riders of 2 wheels, human propelled and motor. Nodded (of course) at all of them. No one looked especially miserable either...
Later that day, as I was walking my dog (Maddie the Cartoon Dog), I noticed a car checking out houses on my street so I stopped to watch them to see what they were up to.. Turned out to be a delivery of food, which I realized (as Maddie danced and tugged at the leash in celebration of the cold air) that it was unusual to see delivery of food here. Folks usually go out or cook when in.
There are definitely cold weather traditions in many cities where cold is a normal occurrence, things like pizza coming to your door, or blocking off front doors for the winter to keep drafts out or putting plastic over windows for same reason. (When I went to the big box retailer to get some of that plastic, I found exactly 4 boxes with dust all over them hanging on the end of the paint aisle. Not a big seller.)
With this cold weather we are all having, I enjoy watching which cold weather tendencies people use here. Most of the ones I name above do not make the list but here are some that do:
People wearing Ug Boots. I'm one, as my mother got me a pair like 5 years ago and I thought at the time WTF? not anymore.
Hats are worn and they don't have JazzFest buttons on them.
Heaters going in cars full blast when you get in. The A/C is probably thankful it finally got a break.
Hot tea replacing iced at lunch.
Sharing recipes for hot toddies. My friend V and I usually start the trend...
Layers of clothes. People look 5 pounds heavier here. After Mardi Gras they really will be but that's another matter.
Less outdoor exercise. Joggers are as scarce as working streetlights.
Dogs wearing clothes.
and my favorite:
lunch which is normally 1.5 hours has become 3 hours long.
So, we adapt and we make the best of a tough situation. But of course, it will be 60 by Sunday and Carnival is just about upon us.
We'll live.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Green building, green money.
I recently presented at the Sierra Club's New Orleans Green Rebuilding Conference at the Doubletree. Big fan of the organization. I think they are keeping the conversation going and real issues on the table. Not a diatribe against our leading enviros.
But was troubled by the lack of interest among many attendees in making at the connection with social justice issues around costs of greening. Let me elaborate:
To recycle in New Orleans, one must contact a private company, pay a monthly charge each month. To have the type of ceiling fans that Global Green recommends using as the most efficient, one must fork over 400.00. To install solar in your house, will run you anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 and in a humid, sub-tropical climate like ours, how smart is it to punch bunch of holes in one's roof and hope for good installation during wind gusts of 30-90 mph?
Back when I was working to build a small house post-Katrina, I went looking for info about green and if I could make it downtown to info sessions, I could learn how I could BUY green. I could not see demonstration projects in my neighborhood about building small, not could I go to a group that would just show me how to reduce useage or band with others to buy cheaper. (more on that on the subject of geothermal another time).
What concerned me then and again when reading about building green, most is about buying new products that will allow me to have the same relationship with the environment (meaning how is it to be used to my benefit at my pleasure) rather than being a movement about building an alternative to consumption and to an energy industry that literally controls governments.
I can't ask that the store allow me to use my own jars to fill coffee or spices. I can't demand that the city buy their power from alternative sources. My landlord will not change the orientation of the house so I can get light from natural sources during the day.
I am still in the industrial energy system and I see no way out while it is only a system to encourage me to buy new things and what I get in return is only a reduction in the pocketbook costs for me.
I often talk to groups about the beginning of the "good food" movement back in the early 1970s and how small farmers came out of the hippie movement and started to bring organic products to the marketplace. Unfortunately, those organic apples usually cost around 4-6 bucks each at those tiny, well-meaning natural foods stores one saw back then. And you had to be a member and usually donate time as well. So, it did not spread into a movement. (Recently went back to my first co-op in Cleveland, which is still there more than 25 years later. It was still the same, with crowded shelves dusty and with prices that shocked me now. Funny how perception changes...)
Luckily, many activists in the enviro and consumer movements came to see that food issues were at the core of many of our problems and that the lack of healthy food and healthy spaces to look for food was moving our world to epidemic. Painstakingly, the new open-air markets started to spring up and when they did, those organizers were pretty savvy for 3 reasons:
1. They reached across the political spectrum for supporters. Libertarian farmers, old-money funders, environmental warriors, regular shopppers who didn't even know what a persimmon was, all were invited to join the town square. As far as issues, farmland preservation, soil and water quality, public safety, nutritional access and F-U-N social space were all part of the organizing strategy ever week.
2. They made competition a hallmark of good public markets. Trust me, we argue among ourselves about how much competition we allow in our markets, what underselling is allowed, how to balance different farmers needs, but the point is, we work to manage a fair price for both shopper and farmer. We do that to ensure that price can remain as democratic as possible for all.
3. They designed a taut but elastic structure that allowed for change and growth. Now, with the advent of electronic wireless technology, many of us are bringing debit and food stamp useage into these parking lots, raising money to pilot this and the outreach needed.
Listen, we got our problems. We have angry rural people coming into the city and sometimes missing the point of taking products to market; bringing inferior stuff or charging prices that are unrealistic. We have rich shoppers who are still the face of most markets, and they tend to be white and when in New Orleans, from the other side of Canal. We obsess over every tiny detail and then miss some big ones to our everlasting embarrassment.
And sometimes to my large frustration, I realize how few people have heard our message that we are building an alternative to the industrial system of food and as the alternative, scale is different and success is different. When we are compared to storefronts who buy food from wholesalers, never insuring that the farmer is also winning with this transaction or that price will be managed as fairly as possible, I know it is a marathon not a sprint.
But we know this food movement is not just about buying local. It is about knowing where your food comes from and how it is made and what the benefits are to you to participate- when you can. And the market movement is about more than food. I can define that with one sign you see at many "third places": "Seats are reserved for paying customers" Understandable I guess for a retail store that needs people to buy every hour. With markets, we have no such sign and most of us would leave before that ever even discussed seriously. Storefronts are usually single entrepreneurial activities and do not need to stand in for grassroots movements, so I am not comparing apples to satsumas, but point made.
Reality check: with 4 tiny farmers markets weekly in the city, you had either be very mobile or unemployed or a true zealot to get ALL of your food from them. If you're not a bunny-kissin', tree-huggin' food fringer, you need to get to that industrial food system too once in a while. Yes Whole Foods is part of that. Yes, Dorignac's is part of that. Yes, Terranova's is part of that. It's okay as long as you see the consumer side and the movement side. When so many shoppers of ours tell me that they now grow some food, or seem to know that local is not as available at those stores as it could be, or when we see a kid learn how to dig in a lavendar plant over a lazy, sunny Saturday morning under the tent, I know we are really, truly building a movement and not just another part of the consumer system.
And for those who don't like markets with their multiple check out lines and corny events, I say don't worry- we are building an alternative system that will allow more people to grow food to see good food and to find that food in spaces that we don't manage but (as long as they remember to benefit farmers, shoppers and maybe their own bottom line last) we will assist them. They can surely have access to some of the lesson we are learning. Schools who are building a whole system like Green Elementary, or that Rouse's down the street that is buying a bit directly from farmers, we can work with that while building our movement.
And THAT is what I am waiting for in the green building movement. I think it is coming, I do skeptical friends, but we need to insist that is about more than a 200.00 faucet that is beautiful and energy efficient. We need managed competition and a balance of education, advocacy and marketplace.
We need to see more than retail stores on Magazine street looking at energy efficiency-and those non-profits involved need to find ways to reuse, reduce AND build an alternative system of clotheslines and open windows in the fall to go along with their shiny new products. Like Janna Levitt, the architect from Toronto who was assisting me. She drew a 400 square foot house with every idea used being about my comfort level and knowledge about useage, climate. Spent more time explaining to me how I could reduce whenever needed than ever selling. She gets it.
I end with a quote from my current favorite writer, Rebecca Solnit, who spoke at the recent conference. When talking to these green activists and well-meaning, visionary architects at the Doubletree, she reminded them to not only think of the buildings, but also "remember to build the social space in between the buildings."
In other words, build a movement.
But was troubled by the lack of interest among many attendees in making at the connection with social justice issues around costs of greening. Let me elaborate:
To recycle in New Orleans, one must contact a private company, pay a monthly charge each month. To have the type of ceiling fans that Global Green recommends using as the most efficient, one must fork over 400.00. To install solar in your house, will run you anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 and in a humid, sub-tropical climate like ours, how smart is it to punch bunch of holes in one's roof and hope for good installation during wind gusts of 30-90 mph?
Back when I was working to build a small house post-Katrina, I went looking for info about green and if I could make it downtown to info sessions, I could learn how I could BUY green. I could not see demonstration projects in my neighborhood about building small, not could I go to a group that would just show me how to reduce useage or band with others to buy cheaper. (more on that on the subject of geothermal another time).
What concerned me then and again when reading about building green, most is about buying new products that will allow me to have the same relationship with the environment (meaning how is it to be used to my benefit at my pleasure) rather than being a movement about building an alternative to consumption and to an energy industry that literally controls governments.
I can't ask that the store allow me to use my own jars to fill coffee or spices. I can't demand that the city buy their power from alternative sources. My landlord will not change the orientation of the house so I can get light from natural sources during the day.
I am still in the industrial energy system and I see no way out while it is only a system to encourage me to buy new things and what I get in return is only a reduction in the pocketbook costs for me.
I often talk to groups about the beginning of the "good food" movement back in the early 1970s and how small farmers came out of the hippie movement and started to bring organic products to the marketplace. Unfortunately, those organic apples usually cost around 4-6 bucks each at those tiny, well-meaning natural foods stores one saw back then. And you had to be a member and usually donate time as well. So, it did not spread into a movement. (Recently went back to my first co-op in Cleveland, which is still there more than 25 years later. It was still the same, with crowded shelves dusty and with prices that shocked me now. Funny how perception changes...)
Luckily, many activists in the enviro and consumer movements came to see that food issues were at the core of many of our problems and that the lack of healthy food and healthy spaces to look for food was moving our world to epidemic. Painstakingly, the new open-air markets started to spring up and when they did, those organizers were pretty savvy for 3 reasons:
1. They reached across the political spectrum for supporters. Libertarian farmers, old-money funders, environmental warriors, regular shopppers who didn't even know what a persimmon was, all were invited to join the town square. As far as issues, farmland preservation, soil and water quality, public safety, nutritional access and F-U-N social space were all part of the organizing strategy ever week.
2. They made competition a hallmark of good public markets. Trust me, we argue among ourselves about how much competition we allow in our markets, what underselling is allowed, how to balance different farmers needs, but the point is, we work to manage a fair price for both shopper and farmer. We do that to ensure that price can remain as democratic as possible for all.
3. They designed a taut but elastic structure that allowed for change and growth. Now, with the advent of electronic wireless technology, many of us are bringing debit and food stamp useage into these parking lots, raising money to pilot this and the outreach needed.
Listen, we got our problems. We have angry rural people coming into the city and sometimes missing the point of taking products to market; bringing inferior stuff or charging prices that are unrealistic. We have rich shoppers who are still the face of most markets, and they tend to be white and when in New Orleans, from the other side of Canal. We obsess over every tiny detail and then miss some big ones to our everlasting embarrassment.
And sometimes to my large frustration, I realize how few people have heard our message that we are building an alternative to the industrial system of food and as the alternative, scale is different and success is different. When we are compared to storefronts who buy food from wholesalers, never insuring that the farmer is also winning with this transaction or that price will be managed as fairly as possible, I know it is a marathon not a sprint.
But we know this food movement is not just about buying local. It is about knowing where your food comes from and how it is made and what the benefits are to you to participate- when you can. And the market movement is about more than food. I can define that with one sign you see at many "third places": "Seats are reserved for paying customers" Understandable I guess for a retail store that needs people to buy every hour. With markets, we have no such sign and most of us would leave before that ever even discussed seriously. Storefronts are usually single entrepreneurial activities and do not need to stand in for grassroots movements, so I am not comparing apples to satsumas, but point made.
Reality check: with 4 tiny farmers markets weekly in the city, you had either be very mobile or unemployed or a true zealot to get ALL of your food from them. If you're not a bunny-kissin', tree-huggin' food fringer, you need to get to that industrial food system too once in a while. Yes Whole Foods is part of that. Yes, Dorignac's is part of that. Yes, Terranova's is part of that. It's okay as long as you see the consumer side and the movement side. When so many shoppers of ours tell me that they now grow some food, or seem to know that local is not as available at those stores as it could be, or when we see a kid learn how to dig in a lavendar plant over a lazy, sunny Saturday morning under the tent, I know we are really, truly building a movement and not just another part of the consumer system.
And for those who don't like markets with their multiple check out lines and corny events, I say don't worry- we are building an alternative system that will allow more people to grow food to see good food and to find that food in spaces that we don't manage but (as long as they remember to benefit farmers, shoppers and maybe their own bottom line last) we will assist them. They can surely have access to some of the lesson we are learning. Schools who are building a whole system like Green Elementary, or that Rouse's down the street that is buying a bit directly from farmers, we can work with that while building our movement.
And THAT is what I am waiting for in the green building movement. I think it is coming, I do skeptical friends, but we need to insist that is about more than a 200.00 faucet that is beautiful and energy efficient. We need managed competition and a balance of education, advocacy and marketplace.
We need to see more than retail stores on Magazine street looking at energy efficiency-and those non-profits involved need to find ways to reuse, reduce AND build an alternative system of clotheslines and open windows in the fall to go along with their shiny new products. Like Janna Levitt, the architect from Toronto who was assisting me. She drew a 400 square foot house with every idea used being about my comfort level and knowledge about useage, climate. Spent more time explaining to me how I could reduce whenever needed than ever selling. She gets it.
I end with a quote from my current favorite writer, Rebecca Solnit, who spoke at the recent conference. When talking to these green activists and well-meaning, visionary architects at the Doubletree, she reminded them to not only think of the buildings, but also "remember to build the social space in between the buildings."
In other words, build a movement.
Friday, August 07, 2009
Foods found here help you
I think this belongs here (on my New Orleans blog) since its about liver health(!!) and also shows a number of every day foods we eat here in the Alligator Bioregion:
Leafy Greens: Spinach, spring mix, mustard greens, and other dark leafy greens are good sources of fibre and powerhouses of nutrition. Research demonstrates that their high concentration of vitamins and antioxidants helps prevent hunger while protecting you from heart disease, cancer, cataracts, and memory loss.
Beans and Legumes: Legumes are the best source of fiber of any foods. They help to stabilize blood sugar while keeping you regular. They are also high in potassium, a critical mineral that reduces dehydration and the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.
Garlic and Onions: This dynamic duo of foods contains phytochemicals that break down fatty deposits in the body, while also breaking down cholesterol; killing viruses, bacteria, and fungi; and protecting against heart disease. With a little help from garlic and onions, you can burn fat while warding off illness.
Cayenne: This hot spice lessens the risk of excess insulin in the body by speeding metabolism and lowering blood glucose (sugar) levels, before the excess insulin can result in fat stores. Spice up your next meal with cayenne and lessen those love handles.
Turmeric: The popular spice used primarily in Indian cooking is one of the highest known sources of beta carotene, the antioxidant that helps protect the liver from free radical damage. Turmeric also helps strengthen your liver while helping your body metabolize fats by decreasing the fat storage rate in liver cells. Add a teaspoon of turmeric into your next curry dish to help your body fight fat.
Cinnamon: Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture showed that a quarter to one teaspoon of cinnamon with food helps metabolize sugar up to twenty times better than food not eaten with cinnamon. Excess sugar in the blood can lead to fat storage. Before you sip that chai tea latte or eat your oatmeal, sprinkle on the cinnamon.
Flax Seeds and Flax Seed Oil: These seeds and oil attract oil-soluble toxins that become lodged in the fatty tissues of the body. Once attracted, they help to escort fat-soluble toxins out. That spells fewer fat stores and a trimmer you.
Leafy Greens: Spinach, spring mix, mustard greens, and other dark leafy greens are good sources of fibre and powerhouses of nutrition. Research demonstrates that their high concentration of vitamins and antioxidants helps prevent hunger while protecting you from heart disease, cancer, cataracts, and memory loss.
Beans and Legumes: Legumes are the best source of fiber of any foods. They help to stabilize blood sugar while keeping you regular. They are also high in potassium, a critical mineral that reduces dehydration and the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.
Garlic and Onions: This dynamic duo of foods contains phytochemicals that break down fatty deposits in the body, while also breaking down cholesterol; killing viruses, bacteria, and fungi; and protecting against heart disease. With a little help from garlic and onions, you can burn fat while warding off illness.
Cayenne: This hot spice lessens the risk of excess insulin in the body by speeding metabolism and lowering blood glucose (sugar) levels, before the excess insulin can result in fat stores. Spice up your next meal with cayenne and lessen those love handles.
Turmeric: The popular spice used primarily in Indian cooking is one of the highest known sources of beta carotene, the antioxidant that helps protect the liver from free radical damage. Turmeric also helps strengthen your liver while helping your body metabolize fats by decreasing the fat storage rate in liver cells. Add a teaspoon of turmeric into your next curry dish to help your body fight fat.
Cinnamon: Researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture showed that a quarter to one teaspoon of cinnamon with food helps metabolize sugar up to twenty times better than food not eaten with cinnamon. Excess sugar in the blood can lead to fat storage. Before you sip that chai tea latte or eat your oatmeal, sprinkle on the cinnamon.
Flax Seeds and Flax Seed Oil: These seeds and oil attract oil-soluble toxins that become lodged in the fatty tissues of the body. Once attracted, they help to escort fat-soluble toxins out. That spells fewer fat stores and a trimmer you.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
ginger fish recipe
Sea Bream Surprise
(Your guests will never guess)
courtesy of Sarah Rath, Organizer of Food Corps of America
Ingredients
handful chopped shallots (or onion)
handful minced ginger
butter
32 oz jar “good” sauerkraut, drained
2 T sugar
1 bay leaf
1 c cream
handful chopped pickled ginger (reserve juice)
2 large sea bream or whitefish filets
about 2 lbs red potatoes
Process
1. Boil potatoes 15-25 minutes depending upon size. Dry in pot over flame without water, shaking them so the steam gets out, about 30 seconds.
2. Saute shalots and ginger in butter. Add sugar, sauerkraut bayleaf, 2 cups water and cream and simer for about an hour over a low flame.
3. Add the pickled ginger and line the bottom of baking dish with half the mixture. Arrange the fish over the saurkraut. Circle the edges of the dish with the potatoes and cover with remaining sauerkraut.
4. Bake in a moderate oven... 350 until fish is just cooked through.
when ready, add salt to taste and let the liquids cook off before removing from the heat.
(Your guests will never guess)
courtesy of Sarah Rath, Organizer of Food Corps of America
Ingredients
handful chopped shallots (or onion)
handful minced ginger
butter
32 oz jar “good” sauerkraut, drained
2 T sugar
1 bay leaf
1 c cream
handful chopped pickled ginger (reserve juice)
2 large sea bream or whitefish filets
about 2 lbs red potatoes
Process
1. Boil potatoes 15-25 minutes depending upon size. Dry in pot over flame without water, shaking them so the steam gets out, about 30 seconds.
2. Saute shalots and ginger in butter. Add sugar, sauerkraut bayleaf, 2 cups water and cream and simer for about an hour over a low flame.
3. Add the pickled ginger and line the bottom of baking dish with half the mixture. Arrange the fish over the saurkraut. Circle the edges of the dish with the potatoes and cover with remaining sauerkraut.
4. Bake in a moderate oven... 350 until fish is just cooked through.
when ready, add salt to taste and let the liquids cook off before removing from the heat.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Web of our world
Connecting the Dots on Food, Health, and the Environment
By Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra is the bestselling author of The Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, and other books. A physicist best known for his work in systems thinking, Capra is also cofounder and chair of the board of the Center for Ecoliteracy.
A discussion of the interrelations between food, health, and the environment is extremely topical today. Rising food prices together with the price of oil and a series of so-called "natural" catastrophes dominate the news every day. At the same time, there is a lot of confusion. Why are world food prices increasing so quickly and dramatically? Why is world hunger rising again after a long steady decline? What do food prices have to do with the price of oil? Why is it so important to grow food locally and organically? In this brief talk, I shall try to show that a full understanding of these issues requires a new ecological understanding of life (a new "ecological literacy") as well as a new kind of "systemic" thinking – thinking in terms of relationships, patterns, and context.
Indeed, over the last 25 years, such a new understanding of life has emerged at the forefront of science. I want to illustrate this new understanding by asking the age-old question, what is life? What's the difference between a rock and a plant, animal, or microorganism? To understand the nature of life, it is not enough to understand DNA, proteins, and the other molecular structures that are the building blocks of living organisms, because these structures also exist in dead organisms, for example, in a dead piece of wood or bone.
The difference between a living organism and a dead organism lies in the basic process of life – in what sages and poets throughout the ages have called the "breath of life." In modern scientific language, this process of life is called "metabolism." It is the ceaseless flow of energy and matter through a network of chemical reactions, which enables a living organism to continually generate, repair, and perpetuate itself. In other words, metabolism involves the intake, digestion, and transformation of food.
Metabolism is the central characteristic of biological life. But understanding metabolism is not enough to understand life. When we study the structures, metabolic processes, and evolution of the myriads of species on the planet, we notice that the outstanding characteristic of our biosphere is that it has sustained life for billions of years. How does the Earth do that? How does nature sustain life?
Ecological literacy
To understand how nature sustains life, we need to move from biology to ecology, because sustained life is a property of an ecosystem rather than a single organism or species. Over billions of years of evolution, the Earth's ecosystems have evolved certain principles of organization to sustain the web of life. Knowledge of these principles of organization, or principles of ecology, is what we mean by "ecological literacy."
In the coming decades, the survival of humanity will depend on our ecological literacy – our ability to understand the basic principles of ecology and to live accordingly. This means that ecoliteracy must become a critical skill for politicians, business leaders, and professionals in all spheres, and should be the most important part of education at all levels – from primary and secondary schools to colleges, universities, and the continuing education and training of professionals.
We need to teach our children, our students, and our corporate and political leaders, the fundamental facts of life – that one species' waste is another species' food; that matter cycles continually through the web of life; that the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun; that diversity assures resilience; that life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.
All these principles of ecology are closely interrelated. They are just different aspects of a single fundamental pattern of organization that has enabled nature to sustain life for billions of years. In a nutshell: nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. No individual organism can exist in isolation. Animals depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy needs; plants depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as on the nitrogen fixed by bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals, and microorganisms regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to life.
Sustainability, then, is not an individual property but a property of an entire web of relationships. It always involves a whole community. This is the profound lesson we need to learn from nature. The way to sustain life is to build and nurture community. A sustainable human community interacts with other communities – human and nonhuman – in ways that enable them to live and develop according to their nature. Sustainability does not mean that things do not change. It is a dynamic process of co-evolution rather than a static state.
Systems thinking
The fact that ecological sustainability is a property of a web of relationships means that in order to understand it properly, in order to become ecologically literate, we need to learn how to think in terms of relationships, in terms of interconnections, patterns, context. In science, this type of thinking is known as systemic thinking or "systems thinking." It is crucial for understanding ecology, because ecology – derived from the Greek word oikos ("household") – is the science of relationships among the various members of the Earth Household.
Systems thinking emerged from a series of interdisciplinary dialogues among biologists, psychologists, and ecologists, in the 1920s and '30s. In all these fields, scientists realized that a living system – organism, ecosystem, or social system – is an integrated whole whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller parts. The "systemic" properties are properties of the whole, which none of its parts have. So, systems thinking involves a shift of perspective from the parts to the whole. The early systems thinkers coined the phrase, "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
What exactly does this mean? In what sense is the whole more than the sum of its parts? The answer is: relationships. All the essential properties of a living system depend on the relationships among the system's components. Systems thinking means thinking in terms of relationships. Understanding life requires a shift of focus from objects to relationships.
For example, each species in an ecosystem helps to sustain the entire food web. If one species is decimated by some natural catastrophe, the ecosystem will still be resilient if there are other species that can fulfill similar functions. In other words, the stability of an ecosystem depends on its biodiversity, on the complexity of its network of relationships. This is how we can understand stability and resilience by understanding the relationships within the ecosystem.
Understanding relationships is not easy for us, because it is something that goes counter to the traditional scientific enterprise in Western culture. In science, we have been told, things need to be measured and weighed. But relationships cannot be measured and weighed; relationships need to be mapped. So there is another shift: from measuring to mapping.
In biology, a recent dramatic example of this shift happened in the Human Genome Project. Scientists became acutely aware that, in order to understand the functioning of genes it is not enough to know their sequence on the DNA; we need to be able to also map their mutual relationships and interactions.
Now, when you map relationships, you will find certain configurations that occur repeatedly. This is what we call a pattern. Networks, cycles, feedback loops, are examples of patterns of organization that are characteristic of life. Systems thinking involves a shift of perspective from contents to patterns.
I also want to emphasize that mapping relationships and studying patterns is not a quantitative but a qualitative approach. Systems thinking implies a shift from quantity to quality. A pattern is not a list of numbers but a visual image.
The study of relationships concerns not only the relationships among the system's components, but also those between the system as a whole and surrounding larger systems. Those relationships between the system and its environment are what we mean by context.
For example, the shape of a plant, or the colors of a bird, depend on their environment – on the vegetation, climate, etc. – and also on the evolutionary history of the species, on the historical context. Systems thinking is always contextual thinking. It implies a shift from objective knowledge to contextual knowledge.
Finally, we need to understand that living form is more than a shape, more than a static configuration of components in a whole. There is a continual flow of matter through a living system, while its form is maintained; there is development, and there is evolution. The understanding of living structure is inextricably linked to the understanding of metabolic and developmental processes. So, systems thinking includes a shift of emphasis from structure to process.
All these shifts of emphasis are really just different ways of saying the same thing. Systems thinking means a shift of perception from material objects and structures to the nonmaterial processes and patterns of organization that represent the very essence of life.
Current world problems
Once we become ecologically literate, once we understand the processes and patterns of relationships that enable ecosystems to sustain life, we will also understand the many ways in which our human civilization, especially since the Industrial Revolution, has ignored these ecological patterns and processes and has interfered with them. And we will realize that these interferences are the fundamental causes of many of our current world problems.
It is now becoming more and more evident that the major problems of our time cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are all interconnected and interdependent. One of the most detailed and masterful documentations of the fundamental interconnectedness of world problems is the new book by Lester Brown, Plan B (Norton, 2008). Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, demonstrates in this book with impeccable clarity how the vicious circle of demographic pressure and poverty leads to the depletion of resources – falling water tables, wells going dry, shrinking forests, collapsing fisheries, eroding soils, grasslands turning into desert, and so on – and how this resource depletion, exacerbated by climate change, produces failing states whose governments can no longer provide security for their citizens, some of whom in sheer desperation turn to terrorism.
When you read this book, you will understand how virtually all our environmental problems are threats to our food security – falling water tables; increasing conversion of cropland to non-farm uses; more extreme climate events, such as heat waves, droughts, and floods; and, most recently, increasing diversion of grains to biofuel.
A critical factor in all this is the fact that world oil production is reaching its peak. This means that, from now on, oil production will begin to decrease worldwide, extraction of the remaining oil will be more and more costly, and hence the price of oil will continue to rise. Most affected will be the oil-intensive segments of the global economy, in particular the automobile, food, and airline industries.
The search for alternative energy sources has recently led to increased production of ethanol and other biofuels, especially in the United States, Brazil, and China. And since the fuel-value of grain is higher on the markets than its food-value, more and more grain is diverted from food to producing fuels. At the same time, the price of grain is moving up toward the oil-equivalent value. This is one of the main reasons for the recent sharp rise of food prices. Another reason, of course, is that a petrochemical, mechanized, and centralized system of agriculture is highly dependent on oil and will produce more expensive food as the price of oil increases. Indeed, industrial farming uses 10 times more energy than sustainable, organic farming.
The fact that the price of grain is now keyed to the price of oil is only possible because our global economic system has no ethical dimension. In such a system, the question, "Shall we use grain to fuel cars or to feed people?" has a clear answer. The market says, "Let's fuel the cars."
This is even more perverse in view of the fact that 20 percent of our grain harvest will supply less than 4 percent of automotive fuel. Indeed, the entire ethanol production in this country could easily be replaced by raising average fuel efficiency by 20 percent (i.e. from 21 mpg to 25 mpg), which is nothing, given the technologies available today.
The recent sharp increase in grain prices has wreaked havoc in the world's grain markets, and world hunger is now on the rise again after a long steady decline. In addition, increased fuel consumption accelerates global warming, which results in crop losses in heat waves that make crops wither, and from the loss of glaciers that feed rivers essential to irrigation. When we think systemically and understand how all these processes are interrelated, we realize that the vehicles we drive, and other consumer choices we make, have a major impact on the food supply to large populations in Asia and Africa.
All these problems, ultimately, must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a crisis of perception. It derives from the fact that most people in our society, and especially our political and corporate leaders, subscribe to the concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with our overpopulated, globally interconnected world.
The main message of Lester Brown's Plan B, is that there are solutions to the major problems of our time; some of them even simple. But they require a radical shift in our perceptions, our thinking, our values. And, indeed, we are now at the beginning of such a fundamental change of worldview, a change of paradigms as radical as the Copernican Revolution. Systems thinking and ecological literacy are two key elements of the new paradigm, and very helpful for understanding the interconnections between food, health, and the environment, but also for understanding the profound transformation that is needed globally for humanity to survive.
This essay is adapted from a speech Fritjof Capra delivered at a professional development institute, "Linking Food, Health, and the Environment," hosted by the Center for Ecoliteracy and Teachers College Columbia University in the summer of 2008.
By Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra is the bestselling author of The Tao of Physics, The Web of Life, and other books. A physicist best known for his work in systems thinking, Capra is also cofounder and chair of the board of the Center for Ecoliteracy.
A discussion of the interrelations between food, health, and the environment is extremely topical today. Rising food prices together with the price of oil and a series of so-called "natural" catastrophes dominate the news every day. At the same time, there is a lot of confusion. Why are world food prices increasing so quickly and dramatically? Why is world hunger rising again after a long steady decline? What do food prices have to do with the price of oil? Why is it so important to grow food locally and organically? In this brief talk, I shall try to show that a full understanding of these issues requires a new ecological understanding of life (a new "ecological literacy") as well as a new kind of "systemic" thinking – thinking in terms of relationships, patterns, and context.
Indeed, over the last 25 years, such a new understanding of life has emerged at the forefront of science. I want to illustrate this new understanding by asking the age-old question, what is life? What's the difference between a rock and a plant, animal, or microorganism? To understand the nature of life, it is not enough to understand DNA, proteins, and the other molecular structures that are the building blocks of living organisms, because these structures also exist in dead organisms, for example, in a dead piece of wood or bone.
The difference between a living organism and a dead organism lies in the basic process of life – in what sages and poets throughout the ages have called the "breath of life." In modern scientific language, this process of life is called "metabolism." It is the ceaseless flow of energy and matter through a network of chemical reactions, which enables a living organism to continually generate, repair, and perpetuate itself. In other words, metabolism involves the intake, digestion, and transformation of food.
Metabolism is the central characteristic of biological life. But understanding metabolism is not enough to understand life. When we study the structures, metabolic processes, and evolution of the myriads of species on the planet, we notice that the outstanding characteristic of our biosphere is that it has sustained life for billions of years. How does the Earth do that? How does nature sustain life?
Ecological literacy
To understand how nature sustains life, we need to move from biology to ecology, because sustained life is a property of an ecosystem rather than a single organism or species. Over billions of years of evolution, the Earth's ecosystems have evolved certain principles of organization to sustain the web of life. Knowledge of these principles of organization, or principles of ecology, is what we mean by "ecological literacy."
In the coming decades, the survival of humanity will depend on our ecological literacy – our ability to understand the basic principles of ecology and to live accordingly. This means that ecoliteracy must become a critical skill for politicians, business leaders, and professionals in all spheres, and should be the most important part of education at all levels – from primary and secondary schools to colleges, universities, and the continuing education and training of professionals.
We need to teach our children, our students, and our corporate and political leaders, the fundamental facts of life – that one species' waste is another species' food; that matter cycles continually through the web of life; that the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun; that diversity assures resilience; that life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.
All these principles of ecology are closely interrelated. They are just different aspects of a single fundamental pattern of organization that has enabled nature to sustain life for billions of years. In a nutshell: nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. No individual organism can exist in isolation. Animals depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy needs; plants depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as on the nitrogen fixed by bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals, and microorganisms regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to life.
Sustainability, then, is not an individual property but a property of an entire web of relationships. It always involves a whole community. This is the profound lesson we need to learn from nature. The way to sustain life is to build and nurture community. A sustainable human community interacts with other communities – human and nonhuman – in ways that enable them to live and develop according to their nature. Sustainability does not mean that things do not change. It is a dynamic process of co-evolution rather than a static state.
Systems thinking
The fact that ecological sustainability is a property of a web of relationships means that in order to understand it properly, in order to become ecologically literate, we need to learn how to think in terms of relationships, in terms of interconnections, patterns, context. In science, this type of thinking is known as systemic thinking or "systems thinking." It is crucial for understanding ecology, because ecology – derived from the Greek word oikos ("household") – is the science of relationships among the various members of the Earth Household.
Systems thinking emerged from a series of interdisciplinary dialogues among biologists, psychologists, and ecologists, in the 1920s and '30s. In all these fields, scientists realized that a living system – organism, ecosystem, or social system – is an integrated whole whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller parts. The "systemic" properties are properties of the whole, which none of its parts have. So, systems thinking involves a shift of perspective from the parts to the whole. The early systems thinkers coined the phrase, "The whole is more than the sum of its parts."
What exactly does this mean? In what sense is the whole more than the sum of its parts? The answer is: relationships. All the essential properties of a living system depend on the relationships among the system's components. Systems thinking means thinking in terms of relationships. Understanding life requires a shift of focus from objects to relationships.
For example, each species in an ecosystem helps to sustain the entire food web. If one species is decimated by some natural catastrophe, the ecosystem will still be resilient if there are other species that can fulfill similar functions. In other words, the stability of an ecosystem depends on its biodiversity, on the complexity of its network of relationships. This is how we can understand stability and resilience by understanding the relationships within the ecosystem.
Understanding relationships is not easy for us, because it is something that goes counter to the traditional scientific enterprise in Western culture. In science, we have been told, things need to be measured and weighed. But relationships cannot be measured and weighed; relationships need to be mapped. So there is another shift: from measuring to mapping.
In biology, a recent dramatic example of this shift happened in the Human Genome Project. Scientists became acutely aware that, in order to understand the functioning of genes it is not enough to know their sequence on the DNA; we need to be able to also map their mutual relationships and interactions.
Now, when you map relationships, you will find certain configurations that occur repeatedly. This is what we call a pattern. Networks, cycles, feedback loops, are examples of patterns of organization that are characteristic of life. Systems thinking involves a shift of perspective from contents to patterns.
I also want to emphasize that mapping relationships and studying patterns is not a quantitative but a qualitative approach. Systems thinking implies a shift from quantity to quality. A pattern is not a list of numbers but a visual image.
The study of relationships concerns not only the relationships among the system's components, but also those between the system as a whole and surrounding larger systems. Those relationships between the system and its environment are what we mean by context.
For example, the shape of a plant, or the colors of a bird, depend on their environment – on the vegetation, climate, etc. – and also on the evolutionary history of the species, on the historical context. Systems thinking is always contextual thinking. It implies a shift from objective knowledge to contextual knowledge.
Finally, we need to understand that living form is more than a shape, more than a static configuration of components in a whole. There is a continual flow of matter through a living system, while its form is maintained; there is development, and there is evolution. The understanding of living structure is inextricably linked to the understanding of metabolic and developmental processes. So, systems thinking includes a shift of emphasis from structure to process.
All these shifts of emphasis are really just different ways of saying the same thing. Systems thinking means a shift of perception from material objects and structures to the nonmaterial processes and patterns of organization that represent the very essence of life.
Current world problems
Once we become ecologically literate, once we understand the processes and patterns of relationships that enable ecosystems to sustain life, we will also understand the many ways in which our human civilization, especially since the Industrial Revolution, has ignored these ecological patterns and processes and has interfered with them. And we will realize that these interferences are the fundamental causes of many of our current world problems.
It is now becoming more and more evident that the major problems of our time cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are all interconnected and interdependent. One of the most detailed and masterful documentations of the fundamental interconnectedness of world problems is the new book by Lester Brown, Plan B (Norton, 2008). Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, demonstrates in this book with impeccable clarity how the vicious circle of demographic pressure and poverty leads to the depletion of resources – falling water tables, wells going dry, shrinking forests, collapsing fisheries, eroding soils, grasslands turning into desert, and so on – and how this resource depletion, exacerbated by climate change, produces failing states whose governments can no longer provide security for their citizens, some of whom in sheer desperation turn to terrorism.
When you read this book, you will understand how virtually all our environmental problems are threats to our food security – falling water tables; increasing conversion of cropland to non-farm uses; more extreme climate events, such as heat waves, droughts, and floods; and, most recently, increasing diversion of grains to biofuel.
A critical factor in all this is the fact that world oil production is reaching its peak. This means that, from now on, oil production will begin to decrease worldwide, extraction of the remaining oil will be more and more costly, and hence the price of oil will continue to rise. Most affected will be the oil-intensive segments of the global economy, in particular the automobile, food, and airline industries.
The search for alternative energy sources has recently led to increased production of ethanol and other biofuels, especially in the United States, Brazil, and China. And since the fuel-value of grain is higher on the markets than its food-value, more and more grain is diverted from food to producing fuels. At the same time, the price of grain is moving up toward the oil-equivalent value. This is one of the main reasons for the recent sharp rise of food prices. Another reason, of course, is that a petrochemical, mechanized, and centralized system of agriculture is highly dependent on oil and will produce more expensive food as the price of oil increases. Indeed, industrial farming uses 10 times more energy than sustainable, organic farming.
The fact that the price of grain is now keyed to the price of oil is only possible because our global economic system has no ethical dimension. In such a system, the question, "Shall we use grain to fuel cars or to feed people?" has a clear answer. The market says, "Let's fuel the cars."
This is even more perverse in view of the fact that 20 percent of our grain harvest will supply less than 4 percent of automotive fuel. Indeed, the entire ethanol production in this country could easily be replaced by raising average fuel efficiency by 20 percent (i.e. from 21 mpg to 25 mpg), which is nothing, given the technologies available today.
The recent sharp increase in grain prices has wreaked havoc in the world's grain markets, and world hunger is now on the rise again after a long steady decline. In addition, increased fuel consumption accelerates global warming, which results in crop losses in heat waves that make crops wither, and from the loss of glaciers that feed rivers essential to irrigation. When we think systemically and understand how all these processes are interrelated, we realize that the vehicles we drive, and other consumer choices we make, have a major impact on the food supply to large populations in Asia and Africa.
All these problems, ultimately, must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a crisis of perception. It derives from the fact that most people in our society, and especially our political and corporate leaders, subscribe to the concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with our overpopulated, globally interconnected world.
The main message of Lester Brown's Plan B, is that there are solutions to the major problems of our time; some of them even simple. But they require a radical shift in our perceptions, our thinking, our values. And, indeed, we are now at the beginning of such a fundamental change of worldview, a change of paradigms as radical as the Copernican Revolution. Systems thinking and ecological literacy are two key elements of the new paradigm, and very helpful for understanding the interconnections between food, health, and the environment, but also for understanding the profound transformation that is needed globally for humanity to survive.
This essay is adapted from a speech Fritjof Capra delivered at a professional development institute, "Linking Food, Health, and the Environment," hosted by the Center for Ecoliteracy and Teachers College Columbia University in the summer of 2008.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
(let's keep it) Forever local in FSJ
What if your neighborhood could have a pharmacy (that delivered!), 2 grocery stores, the only fair trade coffeehouse in the city, another coffeehouse down the street, 4 restaurants, a wine shop, a laundromat all within walking or biking distance of your house and all, yes all, locally owned and operated.
Welcome to Faubourg St. John.
With the opening of Canseco's at the old Whole Foods (taking over from the oddly run Market on Esplanade that, sadly, lasted a shorter time than a street vendor outside of JazzFest!), FSJ has the chance to show itself off as the epicenter of local commerce in the Crescent City. What it will take is a commitment from the residents to resist the garish lights and massive aisles of SavACenter at midnight, and surreptitious trips to Veteran's Highway and instead, to walk, bike or yes, drive to Esplanade at dusk a few times a week.
If the residents also speak up when the new grocer misses an item (where are the bulk foods and Louisiana seafood would be my first query to Canseco's), and also continues to support our old friends across the street, the Terranova family, we can keep BOTH stores open and successful so we can never have to send our money away.
(And,for those of you who pine for your Thursday farmers market, please know our vendors are climbing back to financial viability in our first 2 reopened markets and we look forward to the day we have some of them back with another market; in the meantime, know we are working to get their products in your stores, so help by asking for them. And, if you can make it on a Saturday morning (Girod at Magazine) once in a while , the farmers and fishers would love to see your faces again; they do ask me about many of you...)
Let me illuminate with my own choices...
Some things I have already bought at Canseco's:
hot foods (enjoyed the red beans and rice!)
aspirin
cheese
dog food
juice
local produce on a Thursday or an extra bag of lettuce after I ate all of my farmers market produce in record time. (Canseco's: Call me to "hook you up" as the kids say)
Here's a few items on my list that I will continue to buy from Terranova's:
Cool Brew
beer
cereal
soy milk (they started carrying it when WF closed, even when they didn't sell a lot, so I will remain loyal)
Hubig's pies (how smart to leave on the counter!)
local produce (check those labels!) or, yes even me,a bit of produce from "away"-every once in a while.
flowers from Gregory
salad dressing from our local farmers, Jack and Allison Cousin
some Chisesi ham
Here's what I will buy from Swirl:
white wine (picked with the help of the attentive owners)
From the New Orleans Food Community buying club born and run on North Rendon, online at nolafoodcoop.org:
agave nectar
Seventh Generation paper products
assorted vitamins and natural foods
and then, end my trip at Fair Grinds with Robert, Eizabeth and their great crew with a cup of tea and a bowl of Gary's lentils.
And when the day is unbelievably beautiful and I cannot bear to be at home, brunch with Chef Ryan Hughes at Degas or dinner at...
Wonderful.
Welcome to Faubourg St. John.
With the opening of Canseco's at the old Whole Foods (taking over from the oddly run Market on Esplanade that, sadly, lasted a shorter time than a street vendor outside of JazzFest!), FSJ has the chance to show itself off as the epicenter of local commerce in the Crescent City. What it will take is a commitment from the residents to resist the garish lights and massive aisles of SavACenter at midnight, and surreptitious trips to Veteran's Highway and instead, to walk, bike or yes, drive to Esplanade at dusk a few times a week.
If the residents also speak up when the new grocer misses an item (where are the bulk foods and Louisiana seafood would be my first query to Canseco's), and also continues to support our old friends across the street, the Terranova family, we can keep BOTH stores open and successful so we can never have to send our money away.
(And,for those of you who pine for your Thursday farmers market, please know our vendors are climbing back to financial viability in our first 2 reopened markets and we look forward to the day we have some of them back with another market; in the meantime, know we are working to get their products in your stores, so help by asking for them. And, if you can make it on a Saturday morning (Girod at Magazine) once in a while , the farmers and fishers would love to see your faces again; they do ask me about many of you...)
Let me illuminate with my own choices...
Some things I have already bought at Canseco's:
hot foods (enjoyed the red beans and rice!)
aspirin
cheese
dog food
juice
local produce on a Thursday or an extra bag of lettuce after I ate all of my farmers market produce in record time. (Canseco's: Call me to "hook you up" as the kids say)
Here's a few items on my list that I will continue to buy from Terranova's:
Cool Brew
beer
cereal
soy milk (they started carrying it when WF closed, even when they didn't sell a lot, so I will remain loyal)
Hubig's pies (how smart to leave on the counter!)
local produce (check those labels!) or, yes even me,a bit of produce from "away"-every once in a while.
flowers from Gregory
salad dressing from our local farmers, Jack and Allison Cousin
some Chisesi ham
Here's what I will buy from Swirl:
white wine (picked with the help of the attentive owners)
From the New Orleans Food Community buying club born and run on North Rendon, online at nolafoodcoop.org:
agave nectar
Seventh Generation paper products
assorted vitamins and natural foods
and then, end my trip at Fair Grinds with Robert, Eizabeth and their great crew with a cup of tea and a bowl of Gary's lentils.
And when the day is unbelievably beautiful and I cannot bear to be at home, brunch with Chef Ryan Hughes at Degas or dinner at...
Wonderful.
Monday, December 04, 2006
good day lagalou!
I've come up with 2 more good reasons to live here in lagalounola.
1. I just finished kicking off the 4th year of Festivus, the holiday market for the rest of us, and we had amazing crowds who spent their Sunday afternoon outside on a cold (for New Orleans) Saints football day. They spent, they read about fair trade, they ate crepes along with bloody marys with pickled mirliton and they socialized. They didn't drive into the suburbs and enter the mall for a day of suspended reality to throw their hard-earned money at corporate chains that count success only when bettering last year's sales.
They took flattery from roller derby queens, they bought jewelry from Pam Becker and daughter Anna, while Anna's boyfriend Dave assisted. They tried on Tracy's hats, oohed over Renee's button collection, laughed at Heather's clever use of blue tarp, listened to Slewfoot and Cary B. play for them, met old friends and bought, bought, bought local goods.
They came and did it. What a fun and useful day.
2.Eating satsumas in December. come and check it out...
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)