P i s t a c h i o

It’s too early to be cynical about the World Food Summit, which opens today. But it’s worth noting that Jacques Diouf, head of the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, staged a 24-hour strike to bring attention to ” the world’s 1 billion chronically malnourished people … and put pressure on world leaders to do something about it,” reports Associated Press.

For a bit of irreverence, it’s also worth noting that AP reports Mr Diouf wore a trench over his pajamas [isn't streetwear the officially uniform of hunger strikes, because you're in public and no one looks dignified in pajamas?].

Here at home, an excellent piece in the Star this morning about the shift in hunger relief from international aid to long-term development, focused on the small farmer.

Writes Star columnist Olivia Ward :

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Sunday it had reached a deal with the Islamic Development Bank for $1 billion in funding to help develop agriculture in poor countries that belong to both organizations.

“This agreement comes at a critical moment, when the international community recognizes it has neglected agriculture for many years,” the Rome-based agency said. “Today, sustained investment in agriculture – especially smallholder agriculture – is acknowledged as the key to food security.”

Read full article here.

Photo: A vendor sprays water on vegetables to keep them fresh at a market in the eastern Indian city of Siliguri Oct. 22, 2009. RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI/REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Despite the atrocities of our culture’s animal husbandry, I’ll never give up meat.

More and more, I’m satisfied with very little of it. Also, frankly, I can’t always afford to buy organic or naturally raised. Better food remains the domain of fuller wallets than mine. But that’s another issue for another day.

Forget organic and naturally raised, says author Jonathan Safran Foer [Everything Is Illuminated], whose new book Eating Animals was released this week.

In this Q&A by Sarah Boesveld, he says:

Even if you want to be an ethical omnivore or a selective omnivore, just given the realities of farming, it means you’re going to eat vegetarian almost all the time.

I’m having trouble thinking of myself as unethical, but I’ll own up to thinking that the best efforts of the local food movement, microfarming and CSAs are still a drop in the bucket and not really impacting factory farming in any real way.

Which is not to say microfarming and all the related efforts around it are for naught. Quite the opposite. It’s just that, when I hear complaints about factory farming followed by one form or other of boycotting, I think, “There’s got to be a better way.”

When Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle [1906], his exposé of the Chicago meat industry, it led to historic reform. His book was responsible for the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, including better working conditions for workers.

I want to hear more about reform for large scale operations. Is Canada as bound to nepotistic relationships among government agencies to protect corporate profits as is the case in the U.S. [See Food, Inc.], or are we more likely to succeed in changing food production on a grand scale?

Image via Tiny Evil Hog | via Burstoid

The French Young Farmers association (Jeunes Agriculteurs) demonstrate today on the Champs Elysee in Paris against the fall in prices of agricultural products. French Farmers are holding a national day of protest in several French cities, led by the National Federation of Agricultural Unions (FNSEA). AFP PHOTO/FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images). Via WSJ

… transparency.

It seems to be in the air right now.

Or should I say the sea?

A great visual sees through 50 years of fishing, thanks to  Good Magazine.

Consider the free lunch of pulled pork sandwiches handed out by the minister of agriculture on the Parliament Hill on May 6th, with replays later in the week in Calgary and Edmonton.

Pork is safe to eat, we get it, but the public needs something more credible, or better PR.

Or better yet, would they not  have taken a cue from the of the book of Maple Leaf?

During the listeria tragedy, CEO Michael McCain acted quickly, put his own face on the crisis, conducted two voluntary recalls, one further reaching than the first, and took public responsibility. The corporation rebounded quickly, financially, in brand health and in public trust.

The farmers were thinking right along these lines. They told the media that they wanted a mass cull, including the farmer whose herd was sick.

He had the most to lose, yet he was ready to sacrifice everything, just to be safe.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency was surely under tremendous pressure to protect the industry. Hogs had started selling $20 less each.

Playing it safe, the CFIA said: “We haven’t decided to cull the herd yet.”

When the herd was finally culled three days later, the CFIA said that it was not because the swine were sick. The pens were overcrowded. Sows had continued to reproduce throughout the crisis, but mature swine had not gone to market because of the quarantine.

A government agency under siege, as the CFIA is today, may have understandably had the interests of the pork producers in mind while delaying  culls, but in the end, nothing would have been better for the industry’s image than to show it’s not afraid to act quickly, responsibly, transparently to show that food safety is their primary concern, rather than the price of a hog.

Even producers afraid to lose money from such a crisis knows that to act quickly and to come clean are the best measures for protecting their industry.

From the Globe archives comes this story about how a Toronto problem could solve a prairie problem.

If we can suck up cold water from the bottom of Lake Ontario to efficiently cool the finanical district’s sky scrapers during air conditioning season, we can do what these farmers propose.

Maybe not then, but wouldn’t we consider it today?

25 YEARS AGO:

The Globe and Mail reported that organic food farmers in Saskatchewan, faced with a spring plague of grasshoppers, proposed a solution to the Toronto gull problem – wing the birds out to the Prairies. The farmers were undaunted by the formidable task of catching and exiling the gulls, which were soiling Toronto’s waterfront. “If science can put a man on the moon, it should be able to transport gulls from Toronto to Saskatchewan,” said a representative of an organic producers marketing co-op.

We’re already feeding a lot of people.

Crystal Mackay, Executive Director of the Ontario Farm Animal Council

Crystal Mackay thinks we could be feeding many more. As host of  last week’s symposium about how to grow farming, she said we’re ready for it.

One quarter of the Canada’s farms are in Ontario. The province is home to a third of the national population, and less than two per cent are farmers. As a case study in enterprise, we can look at how 50 percent of our pork is exported to the US.

We have the soil, climate and infrastructure to support a much larger industry, experts said. But then came the lament that not enough people wanted to go into farming. Manufacturing is going down the tubes, but agriculture isn’t likely to fully compensate. We’re going to need seed money, they said.

The investment fund established two years ago to promote the commercialization of local farming is just the beginning.

A wave of decentralized farming has begun. and it’s going to be huge.

“I wanted witnesses. I wanted to mark the moment so that we would remember it.”

– Jeff Crump

The book had modest beginnings. “We had in mind a little spiral-bound book,” says Jeff Crump, Executive Chef of Ancaster Old Mill. He wanted to document how his kitchen and a local farm had found an exciting way to work closely together. Then Random House got interested, then a New York agent, then Earth to Table: A restaurant and farm relationship began entertaining inquires about Chinese publishing rights.

“A lot of farmers are gun-shy about working with chefs,” says Crump. “Chefs are picky, and kitchens aren’t naturally geared toward buying from small farms. But Crump found his match in Chris Krucker of nearby ManoRun Organic Farm.

“Chris got it,” says Crump….more

Thanks to Gremolata, here’s a London Times piece about the mini cow.

She’ll give you 16 pints of milk a day, and you can drink it unpasturized.

The piece reports that the Dexter is a Irish breed the size of a German Shepard and touts it as “the world’s most efficient, cutest and tastiest cow.” She’ll keep your lawn mowed and be a great family pet for years “before ending up in the freezer.”

Hmmm. Don’t think the kids’ll go for that.

The innovative design of a grad school architect from the University of Waterloo got a lot of attention last month.

Gordon Graff and his Skyfarm design was given some international exposure by Davidson Despommier, the father of vertical farming, at the World Science Festival in New York City .

Despommier spoke on “Future Cities: Sustainable Solutions, Radical Designs,” and Graff’s piece illustrated the New York Times article that followed.

The third photo from the top is Graff’s uncredited building [a shame]. Here’s a better look thanks to Despommier’s design page from his site.

Vertical farming is the new tag for growing crops and raising livestock in urban areas, stacked skyscraper-style, where land is at a premium, and too many delivery trucks clog the streets. Graff’s Skyfarm gives new meaning to local food. He wants to dig his foundation in the financial district and raise his structure 58-storeys high.

I’ve always loved skyscrapers, even those aesthetically-challenged. Being in the sky is exciting, and approaching the city on a descent by plane or on the ground on a highway drive, the clustered metropolis ahead has always been a thrill.

I just adore a penthouse view, I guess.

The whole idea of vertical farming is more exciting than words can relay, and I’m going to expand on this story in the future, because I want to tell it and tell it again. There’s even a business case to relay.

But first, I wanted to put this out there.

Stephen Colbert had Despommier on as a guest that week, and apparently had some fun with him. As soon as I can locate the video, I’ll post.

Stay tuned for the joining of skyfarming and living in the same structure, and architectural lily-pads next week. Ever wanted to live on water, but not on a water vessel?