Oil Spill Prompts Genuine Grief

I literally choke up with tears when I see the oil spill reports. Am I the only one? Is anyone else compelled to express grief over this tragedy? Haiti, Chile… I wept for them too. But there is something about this grief… perhaps that it is fueled also by anger…that I am challenged to manage it.

Food on the table, HST on the Horizon

At the end of the day, people worry about putting food on the table. Cliche, I know, but it really is profoundly at the root of much decision-making - people want prosperity, which means they aren’t worrying about the grocery bill when Apple puts out the next iteration of the iPod. Furthermore, if you make food cheap, then people don’t worry about it so much and they go on to pump those extra bucks into the economy.   

This function in the current North American economy (fill unsuspecting citizens full of cheap, unhealthy, unethically produced calories) is what much of the food security movement is targeting for change. Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dillema), the movies ”King Corn” and “Food Inc” are accusing the industrial food system of causing the mass population’s poor health and unthinkable environmental degradation (e.g. ocean dead zones). It’s true – these things are really happening, and all would be well if we could just put an end to it tomorrow, right? Hmm.. not so sure.   

Food on the table

If we look at the whole system, it becomes clear that there is more to industrial food production than coronary ailments and cow patti wastelands. The current economy in North America really does rely on the availability of cheap food. If you were to remove this element of the current system nearly every facet of spending and job creation would decline as people spent more of their income on food. This can NOT be underestimated. And when people get desperate, the environment tends to suffer more, as we have seen in Africa. I’m not going to philosophize on potential solutions here… but at least will suggest that we need to tread carefully (and not anger the economists who hold the ears of politicians).   

So this line of thinking kind of applies to another conflict I am observing – that created by the upcoming HST in British Columbia. Yes, it is going to change the economy – good in some places, bad in others. It is a catalyst in the system that could change our spending habits, but the end result will at least be more income for a government that is struggling to pay for the needs of aging baby boomers. I feel like this is another cliché…  Aging baby boomers… Food on the table…   

These are elements in our society, in our system, that are triggers for unrest. In Canada we expect health care. Good health care. And education too… but  the hard numbers illustrate how we can’t easily pay for these services without some kind of change. Do the HST protesters understand this science? Some might, and think there is a better way to change. But I’m betting that very few have actually looked into the facts of the HST, or fully understand the rational for the government to find more revenue sources… and they are just freaked out that they might have a more difficult time putting food on the table…   

From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter.   

HB

Weeds? What weeds!

As I plan and prepare my gardens for the summer, I have become more and more intrigued by the various things growing in and around my yard. I’ve made such good use of the blackberry bushes so far, which some people might deem a pest (they grow like mad, suck up water, and have pointy bits), I figure I’d try and make use of the other things that have already established.

Okay, so maybe I’m lazy and don’t want to dig out every dandelion… but seriously, there are a lot of plants in roadside ditches that get mowed over without every being considered purposeful, yet might be valued in the right circumstance.

When you were a kid, did you every collect random bits of stuff from outside, throw it in a bowl, add water, let it stew, and then try and feed it to your little brother to see what happens? I’m still like that I guess… curious, resourceful, creative… and if my brother would oblige, I might still engage in unethical experiments… actually, I’m more inclined to keep the stuff I find in my yard to myself, because it might just be useful.

Okay, to the point: When we first moved into our house, my husband Dan discovered a small patch of stinging nettles. This defining moment in our marriage involved lighter fluid, a blow torch, a nearly defenseless plant, and shall we say, a close call. Funny in hindsight, only because the house didn’t burn down, and because the stinging nettles came back.

…I have vague memories of my grandmother sharing some of her world war II histories with me when I was quite young… as we picked blackberries surrounded by a labyrinth of nettles… I’m sure she had knowledge to share about a plant that was considered a vegetable in Germany.

So it might be that nostalgia prompted me to do some research on the uses of stinging nettles. Or, if a crazy man with a blow torch can’t take’em out, they’d better be useful for something! (You know, “can’t beat them…”)

So here is some of what I’ve found nettles to be good for:

• as diuretics,
• as astringents
• as blood builders – aids coagulation and formation of hemoglobin in red blood cells.
• to treat anemia (due to their high iron content). T
• applied to cuts to stop bleeding or taken in tea to reduce excessive menstrual flow, as well as to treat nosebleeds and hemorrhoids.
• Nettle tea has been used to stimulate blood circulation (specifically in particular “regions”…*nudge, *nudge)
• as a spring tonic for chronic skin ailments.
• for treatment of mild acne and eczema.
• as a folk treatment for arthritis.
• hair tonic – topically applied to increase shine and decrease balding
• nettles are rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorous, silica, iodine, sodium, sulfur and other elements including tannin, beta-carotene and amino acids
• nettle leaf product has shown slight activity in the treatment of allergies (they are a natural antihistamine).
• Several studies indicate that the leaf extract depresses the central nervous system and inhibits bacteria and adrenaline.
• In Germany, the herb is used for supportive treatment of rheumatic complaints and kidney infections.Here are some links for more information: http://www.allnatural.net/herbpages/stinging-nettle.shtml and http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/node/216
  

  So ladies,

  when that time of the month hits, you might consider slipping a little dried nettle in your comfort tea… and save a fresh stinging sprig to ward of any PMS commentary! (Note: nettles only sting when they are fresh).

New index for the environmentally-friendly

New index for the environmentally-friendly.

I’m not really a fan of stock markets… but this might be worth looking at.

HB

Convenient meals that cause more than gastrointestinal upset

I would be lying if I claimed to never eat at fastfood restaurants like Macdonalds. I do, from time to time, ingest fast fried, nutrient poor, high calorie garbage. 

But its not just the terribly low quality meals that disgust me. I can live with my decision to eat something that will upset my bowels for 24 hours for the sake of convenience or in the absence of self control when I’m really hungry and drawn in by the greasy scent. What I can’t live with is the waste. And by waste, I mean trash.

The last time I went to Macdonalds I had a  struggle with my conscience. I sat with my 4-year old son and we snacked on a burger each and even treated ourselves to a sundae.  When done, I systemattically piled up the leftovers (wrappers, plastic cup lids, waxy cups, napkins) and walked to the garbage can. But I couldn’t do it.  At home, nearly all that waste would have had a second life: napkins to the compost, cardboard to the recycle, plastic to the recycle…

When we purchase something, we become stewards of that item: Responsible for its appropirate use and eventual disposal.

If you choose to eat somewhere that makes it difficult for you to properly steward the materials that you purchase… well, sucks to be you… and hopefully, you take the time to lug the crap home and compost/recycle it… then think twice about the inconvenience of that “convenient fast food” experience… and never return. (Oh, and maybe write a letter to the CEO on how they should have compost and recycling bins too).

From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter.

HB

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Organizing around food security – why and how

Revolutionary Road… a blog entry I stumbled upon ponders those who chance going against the status quo to change it. The author is a minister who is:

“…convinced that the more we understand our food, what it is and where it comes from, the more we will understand the crazy complex world around us, including issues like globalization, the environment, poverty, hunger and health.”

I couldn’t agree more. And I truely enjoyed the conclusion of the post:

Trying to take on on entire culture, system or “way of organizing ourselves” alone is the definition of madness. BUT when you realize that there are others like you, a whole lot of others, suddenly trying to find a new way to organize life together seems, not only possible, but the only sane option in a crazy world.

Amen!

From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter.

HB

Hungry for a change – A new blogging purpose

I usually update my blog as I’m pondering complex environmental issues… when I need to flesh things out. Not helpful for any one but me, really. Like most of my daily life, in this blog so far, I have multitasked… watered things down as I lack a focus… and been anything but coherent.

Cauliflower

So, time for a change. Time for focus. I will spend my blog time building upon what matters most to me these days – a topic that I have been in touch with for a couple years now, and increasingly so in the last 12 months: food security.

When the UN says: “there is a world food crisis”, one can expect a chain reaction. The first reaction is: “Really? Is there? Cause the biggest food crisis I’ve encountered all week was an egg sandwich that was passed its prime…”.

That is, unless, you live in a nation that is feeling the crunch of the crisis… like Egypt. See this post for a video illustration: Accounting for the basics.

For some of the early adopters of this message, the weight of it struck hard. I know it did me. To realize the pending consequences, one can either compartmentalize and squeeze out a tear from time to time, OR put some elbow grease into sorting the mess out.

One year now, since I really thought “okay, this is the next big foundational thing we homo sapiens are going to have to figure out”, I am reading more and more about food security. People not just talking, but doing. Even Oprah and Martha Stewart.

So, in hindsight, I suppose I did well to name my blog “Earth On A Platter.” I wanted my blog to be a source for delivering Earth with ease – to sort of re-gift the planet  in a way that helps readers see  themselves part of Earth, and how we might keep it “edible”.

Now, I will think and write and converse on how to literally keep it edible.

From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter,

HB

The impossible hampster: economic growth and bust

Upon watching this video, my four year old said: “That hampster ate everything…why?”  Precisely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqwd_u6HkMo

Hawthorn

Childhood inoculated good faith in me.

Not least to thank: the hawthorn tree.

Thorns and berries abound,

From sky to ground, in it, by imagination,

With the birds myself I found.

Offensive, it stands brazen yet sensitive: a place to live.

My exposure to its likes, by trails through grass trodden by bikes,

Could only be, what mom may call, a lesson taught au natural. And so:

Not unlike the pain of choosing, of gaining, then loosing,

Confidence through ignorance,

Is the damage done today

By the human race.

Good faith in nature’s ways brings anguish and dismay,

I sense en masse, and fast paced,

A threshold we soon face.

Yet thorns and berries borne together,

Will choose a fate, for those acquainted with this space

Of limits, learning, and grace.  

Now I, accountable for what scrapes I bore,

Move to give and progress more.

Those little birds – for berries, songs they wield.

Calling others to chance the thorns…

“Come now, from the fields.”

 -Heather Bauer

 

There are times when so many thoughts cannot be succinctly put together in an effective way – without the use of imagery, metaphor, rhyme and simile…

From my sphere to yours, here’s to Earth on a Platter.

HB

Ten Reasons to Care About Biodiversity by David Braun

I love this article. Find the original source here.

Ten Reasons to Care about Biological Diversity
by David Braun, Principal of Braun & Associates, Attorneys at Law, in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Every day the impact of humans on the environment increases. From a myriad of human activities comes a dizzying reduction in the number of plants and animals the earth can support. Scientists refer to this, with alarm, as the loss of biological diversity. Where there were once hundreds or thousands of species, only dozens may remain. Extinction is the final and irreversible result of weakened and dwindling populations. The natural rate of extinction for prehistoric species was one species every thousand years. Extinction worldwide is now occurring at the rate of approximately one species per day. For those people who ask “So what? Why should I care about the loss of some obscure fish or bird?” here are ten reasons to preserve biological diversity.

1. “Because it’s there” or The Moral Argument
We did not create life on earth and it is not our place to destroy it. We share this planet with millions of other species, and it violates all our civilized notions of respect and fairness to shove another species out of existence.
2. “Don’t pop rivets on the spaceship” or The Practical Argument
Nature and all its creatures are one complex, interrelated machine. Killing species is like randomly popping out rivets on the spaceship earth; one or two are not likely to be noticed, but at some point the whole thing is going to come apart. To survive we depend on the whole interdependent ecosystem.
3. “There’s gold in them thar hills” or The Economic Argument
We have not even begun to discover the economic potential of other species. A few dozen plants and animals provide the bulk of our food, clothing, and building materials. Many, many species are being lost before anyone has given any thought to their economic potential.
4. “Isn’t Nature beautiful?” or The Aesthetic Argument
Nature is beautiful and interesting too. Our lives are enriched by it. Our artists and writers are inspired by it. Our hearts are uplifted by the grandness of wild places. We all lose when such beauty is lost.
5. “Incest is for idiots” or The Genetic Strength Argument
In genetic diversity is the strength to adapt and survive. All plant and animal breeders know that a key to improving domesticated species is to replenish them with genes from wild stocks. With the loss of species we impoverish the future gene pool for agriculture and other natural resource based industries.
6. “Oh no! Bread mold in my petri dish” or The Research Argument
Everyone knows that penicillin was derived from bread mold. But did you know that more than half of all modern medicines can be traced to wild organisms? Thousands of species are being thoughtlessly destroyed before they can be thoroughly researched.
7. “Inquiring minds want to know” or The Education Argument
Nature is fascinating. Behaviors and adaptations of plants and animals can be as mind expanding as they are interesting. In each generation, discovering the marvels of Nature can be the spark that ignites a lifelong quest for knowledge.
8. “It’s better than television” or The Recreation Argument
Outdoor recreation is a connection to nature that most of us feel is essential. Biodiversity supports numerous outdoor activities from hunting and fishing to birdwatching and spelunking. In fact, outfitting for camping, canoeing, hiking and related nature study has emerged as one of our fastest growing industries.
9. “Consider the lilies of the fields” or The Philosophy Argument
Humans have always asked the universal questions, Who are we? Why are we here? An appreciation of nature may not give the final answers but it shapes our understanding that we are only a part of a much larger creation.
10. “Were there really elephants, Mommy?” or The Legacy Argument
Can you honestly say you don’t care that the world we leave our children won’t have wild elephants or rhinoceroses? Or a million other species that were here when we came? Or vast prairies? Or rainforests? Or wilderness of any kind? If you can say you don’t care, then let’s hope the future children of the world don’t care either. They won’t have a choice.