Stuffed & Starved

A few nice where to buy organic food images I found:

Stuffed & Starved
where to buy organic food
Image by Earthworm
Raj Patel is much sought after these days since the rise in the price of food worldwide. In his book he attempts to explain the world food system in the tradition of Frances Moore Lappe’s Food First and Diet for a Small Planet. I already know quite a bit about the system so there wasn’t too much that was new to me in his account. Some explanations stand out. The Hourglass Figure he describes, with accompanying charts, is a good visual image for how money is made in the food system at the point where it is processed by large scale mechanization owned by a few mega corporations like Nestles. These companies process flour for tortillas, beans for coffee, rice when its milled and soybean crushing, for example and cause bottlenecks that jack the price up because only a few players can process food on large scale to meet demand.

He also describes how, historically, the food system was developed to feed those working in the newly industrialized urban areas. The point was to keep this cheap labor from revolting by feeding them cheaply at the expense of the farmers. Our food system technologies came about because of the needs of war, he explains, in that food had to be preserved for transportation under adverse conditions, plus the surplus created by government subsidizing the war effort in food supplies was the beginning of surplus grain being used to manipulate world politics through AID. The whole sociopolitical impact of government policies, AID and trade all play a part in how destructive agribusiness is to life on earth basically. He shows to what lengths Monsanto and company are willing to go to get their way for GMO seeds.

On the other end of the spectrum he talks about how the supermarket was developed to exploit people’s impulses to buy. And the inputs in our food that allow it to be transported without damage, but have a huge impact on how crops are used—lecithin for instance. In discussing the obesity epidemic he points out that this is rarely discussed as a symptom of the failures of our food system and poverty, but is blamed on the individual. Obesity patterns in US very similar that of South Africa.

He describes a couple of movements working to change the system including the Landless Rural Movement in Brazil which is a voluntary cooperative system that is democratically run and organized by the farmers trying to occupy land. The details he gives from having visited one of these settlements broadened my understanding of this movement which Noam Chomsky called the world’s most important social movement.

He is a fan of the Slow Food movement and farmer’s markets, but not organic food in that organic food production as applied to agribusiness is not much different from chemical agribusiness.

In his conclusion he lists 10 ways to change the system

1. Transform our tastes and get away from what commercial food production has taught us to want.
2. Eat locally and seasonally
3. Eat agroecologically meaning eat food produced in harmony with the local environment as developed in Cuba and embraced by Masanobu Fukuoka’s One Straw Revolution in Japan as well as the UN developed sustainable agriculture network.
4. Support locally owned business not supermarkets or big box stores. He points out the flaw in corporate responsibility because it hinges on profit being made.
5. All workers have the right to dignity through unions that are allowed to organize without persecution.
6. Profound and comprehensive rural change such as equitable land distribution, but also including education, healthcare and infrastructure.
7. Living wages for all so poor can access food.
8. Support for sustainable architecture of food. Local markets and CSAs.
9. Snapping the food system’s bottleneck. Curb power of monopoles through anti-trust laws.
10. Owning and providing restitution for the injustices of the past and present. Forgive debt owed by the Global South to the Global North and start paying back for damage we have done.

Mini Mushroom
where to buy organic food
Image by `James Wheeler
Follow on Twitter | Like on Facebook | Circle on G+

In the fall, mushrooms were all over the place in the forests around where I live. I do not take many macro shots but these little guys were pretty cool so I stopped to take some photos of them.

Commercial stock photo licences and fine art prints can be purchased directly from my website.

For non-commercial use under creative commons licence please link back to my website (NOT FLICKR) @ www.souvenirpixels.com/photo-blog/mini-mushroom

Farmer’s market, Jul 2009 – 07
where to buy organic food
Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in a Nov 12, 2009 Lifehacker blog titled "Hit Up Farmers’ Markets when Cooking for One." It was also published in a Sep 23, 2010 blog titled "A Healthy Badge for Your Smug Organic Pals."

Moving into 2011, the photo was published in a Mar 7, 2011 blog titled "At the Jersey Shore: The Philadelphia Inquirer Food Section in 60 Seconds." It was also published in a July 15, 2011 blog titled "Nice Article Marketing photos." And it was published in an Aug 22, 2011 blog titled "Peak Farmer’s Market."

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in an Apr 26, 2012 blog titled "Cool Article Marketing Images." It was also published in an undated (early Aug 2012) blog titled "Tips On Article Marketing? Try Reading This Article!", as well as a Sep 15, 2012 blog titled "Advice To Tune Your Skills At Article Marketing." It was also published in an Oct 27, 2012 blog titled "Information That You Must Know Before You Begin Any Article Syndication Venture." And it was published in an Oct 30, 2012 blog titled "Fantastic Tips On How To Succeed In Paraphrasing." It was also published in a Nov 21, 2012 blog titled "Business Success Stories Using Proper Article Syndication Techniques."

Moving into 2013, the photo was published in a Jan 8, 2013 blog titled "Article Promotion Advice To Help You Find The Key To Success." It was also published in a Mar 5, 2013 blog titled "Planning Your Moves Correctly With Article Advertising."

Moving into 2014, the photo was published in a May 12, 2014 blog titled "30 Photos Of New Jersey That Will Make You Want To Move There." And it was published in a Dec 3, 2014 blog titled "Consejos para comprar en el Mercado Local."

*******************************

Contrary to what you might think, New Yorkers do not eat all of their meals at Starbucks or pizza joints. Nor do they buy all of their food at supermarkets or corner delis.

We also buy our food at farmer’s markets, where organically grown fruits, vegetables, cheese, and other items are brought from farms in nearby New Jersey and upstate New York. Some of these are large and noisy, some specialize in ethnic foods; and some operate every day, with great fanfare and publicity.

But then there are the neighborhood farmer’s markets, many of which operate only one day a week. In my neighborhood, it’s Fridays mornings: on 97th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus, you can find an assortment of beans and beets, tomatoes and potatoes, carrots and garlic, peaces and cucumbers.

These photos will give you an idea of the kind of food that many of us are lucky enough to enjoy…

This entry was posted in Where To Buy Organic Food and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *