Our Churchill Moment: Will This Be Our Generation's Darkest or Finest Hour?

Professor Kevin Anderson - Climate Change: Going Beyond Dangerous

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I'm not a religious person in the conventional sense, but this new presentation on climate change made me sick to my stomach, put the fear of god into me, and doubled my resolve to do far more to reduce my carbon and ecological footprints. I'll share those actions on this blog, through posts and video, in the coming weeks and months, and I hope you'll do the same.

The presentation is boring in some parts, and it uses charts and scientific jargon. Please be patient. At a minimum, you should thumb through the slides, and listen to the last third of the presentation to get the key points. The key takeaways for me are:

• If we don't make big changes, we're looking at dangerous global warming by 2035, front and centre in our lifetimes. I don't even want to think about our kids' lifetimes.

• We, the 1%, are responsible for 50% of global emissions, not China, not India, not the world's billions of poor. Changes to our lifestyles (flying less, driving less, eating less) are the only place and the only hope for avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

• Action is critical. This is about individual action, community-level dialogue, and collective action in the form of climate politics at the local, provincial and federal levels. We must demand regulation from our governments, starting now.

The Conceit of Air Travel - “Surely You Can’t Be Serious?”

"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." (RIP Leslie Nielsen).

Here's the latest in a series of posts taking on the environmental blind spots and hypocritical behaviour of sustainability advocates like myself (I set my sights on the iPhone and tech boosterism in earlier posts).

Why am I picking on us? Because for reasons I'll explain shortly, the world expects and deserves better behaviour and smaller ecological footprints from environmentalists. It's also the social corner of the world I live in, and as I've come to understand through ongoing research into climate change communication and social change, we can only really meaningfully influence those closest to us, at a community level. This is also the level at which real social demand (political will) for government regulation is generated.

At the end of the day, all of this boils down to a simple moral question: Do you believe all human beings are equal, and deserve an equal share of personal security, hope and opportunity? Most of us would answer "yes," and that means we either reduce our ecological footprints or throw all our morals out the door. In the absence of action, our behaviour says, "We are the exceptional ones, and those most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation are the unlucky ones. And that's okay."

It's not okay. We can and must do better.

So here we go. Sacred cows be damned. It's nothing personal, some of my favourite people in the world fly like there's no tomorrow (but hopefully that will start to change).

Fasten Your Seat Belt

You might think that infectious personality and environmentally-conscious brain of yours is important enough to strap into a 737 and fly it across the continent at just under the speed of sound to attend a few meetings and eat some local greens, all in the name of social change, but it’s not. Not in today’s severely carbon-constrained world, where in the short-term, climate change threatens the most vulnerable, and in the slightly longer-term, the rest of us.

Except in exceptional circumstances, where you’re able to directly trace the carbon saved, from the carbon burned, because your in-person meeting blew some powerful person’s mind and changed the course of history, telecommuting (via Skype or any other video chat) should meet 99.9% of all organizational and personal communication needs. If it doesn’t, you should seriously question the environmental integrity of the people or organizations you’re working with (and flying to).

Some might argue there’s a window of opportunity when it’s okay (or even important) for some “key influencers” to fly around the world spreading environmental messages. Except in exceptional circumstances, I think that’s a selfish conceit. To that argument, I’d answer, it’s precisely because you are a professional social influencer that you need to model the change you want to see in the world. The public expects and deserves a higher standard of sustainable behaviour from those advocating it.

Be the Change When it comes to reducing our carbon footprints by flying less, environmentalists are some of the worst offenders I know. Worse still, some glorify it, making it part of their own self-affirmation. Here are a couple of anonymous examples of environmentalists and social-change types (friends and colleagues of mine) talking about their flying habits on social media:

“On my way to North Carolina in a couple hours....Nvr been! After this trip I will only have to go to Florida to have been to every state in the USA!”

“On the hop in NY - fun couple of days of meetings, making some new and influential friends for our planet.”

Every time you walk down the street with a baggage ticket on your suitcase, every time you “check-in” to your favourite airport online, you’re sending a strong message to friends, family and colleagues that flying is not only okay, but that it’s even desirable.

How can we honestly expect people to take our warnings about climate change seriously when our behaviour suggests it isn’t a big deal? Some environmentalists would prefer to dismiss such questions as ad hominem attacks, or detours that detract from more important targets like big corporations, but the research shows people are paying attention to your behaviour. By "being the change" you put yourself in a much stronger position to ask for serious emission reductions from corporations and government. There needs to be a cultural demand for regulation, and that won't happen if we're all acting like the people in First class.

The Only Way To Fly

When you do fly, as a matter of carefully considered necessity, (and I underline, bold, and italicize that, because really, if we don’t redouble our efforts to actually “be the change,” then our supposed concern about climate change is just bullshit) here are some basic rules to lessen it’s impact:

UPDATE: My buddy Jeffery feels that climate politics and the role of active citizenship and collective action weren't prominent enough in my original post. Well, let's fix that.

• Be a frequent citizen (and an infrequent flyer) - Lobby your local, provincial and federal politicians for real climate leadership. Vote for (and join) political parties that actually have plans to fight climate change (Prime Minister Harper and his federal Conservatives don't have one). Canada needs to support international climate treaties and put a price on carbon. It also needs to put hard caps on major emission sources like the oil sands. Active citizenship and collective action goes hand-in-hand with personal change and strongly expressed values at the community level.

• Fly less (a lot less, almost not at all) - Rinse, repeat and ask, “Why can’t I Skype or video chat?” Do I really need to fly to achieve this goal? On balance, will this trip honestly move the world towards sustainability? If you have any intention to monitor your personal carbon budget, you need to know that a single long-haul flight takes-up more than 50% of the annual per capita emissions recommended by climate scientists to stay below dangerous levels of climate change. That basically means flying (if it happens at all) should only occur every few years (and you better be living like a saint in between). One flight puts you and the world, deeper into carbon debt.

• Don’t glorify it - Flying is a form of conspicuous consumption and it’s one of the most environmentally-destructive forms out there. Flying is a delicious, addictive indulgence, that is completely unsustainable. When you do fly, don’t broadcast it. Social media trip planners that announce your comings and goings send the message to your peers and colleagues that flying (and lots of it) is normal, maybe even desirable. Should each of the approximately 7 billion people on earth aspire to casual flying? What makes you the exception?

• Offset the shit out of it - While they can be problematic, offsets are better than nothing, but only by a little bit. Every time you fly, you’re endorsing and advertising a carbon-intense lifestyle. Offset a little more for your bad influence on others.

• Measure and report your personal and organizational carbon footprints - All roads to sustainability point to low carbon social innovation and low levels of personal consumption. In the absence of measuring and reporting, environmental groups become what they most fear. They become a subset of the economy, mini-corporations similar to film studios, telling moral stories that people want to buy and believe in, but that are never substantively lived, least of all by the people telling them ("Do as I say, not as I do"). Set an example for the citizens, corporations and governments you seek to influence, by including your carbon footprint in your annual report.

• Practice community building on the road - When you do find yourself in foreign lands, get involved with the local community. Consider local activism and citizenship as another form of offsetting. If you see yourself (and your reason for flying) as a source of social innovation diffusion, bringing only light (in the form of information) to the darkness (ignorance of local audiences), pack up your suitcase and go home. You forgot to pack two other components of public engagement: affective (emotion/interest and concern) and behavioural (action). Both can only be generated at the community-level, where social capital is created. Local people are the best people to do this, but if you’re in town and can lend a hand to a local cause, you should.

Adopt an Organizational and Personal "No-Fly Policy"

Let’s be more mindful, and apply a stronger set of criteria for determining when flying is truly necessary (for work or personal pursuits). For long trips, take alternative transportation like buses and trains, even if it takes longer - a lot longer. There was a time when trips across the country were a momentous occasion, requiring immense resources, careful planning, intention and fortitude. Surely the people you would otherwise fly to meet, deserve similar preparation and attention. If the reason you're flying isn't worth the sheer resources, planning and commitment of a Lewis and Clark expedition, then don’t fly. That’s what Skype is for.

Think about implementing a "no fly" policy in your organization and within your household. Have that conversation. Explain that you're trying to keep track of and reduce your carbon footprint. When we start to measure these things with intention, behaviour change comes a lot more naturally.

Fly less and start measuring your carbon footprint today. Practice political citizenship like you mean it. Support political parties who believe that it's important to fight climate change. Prove to the world that you surely are serious.

New Livelihood

For a year or two now (and especially as my thesis nears completion), I've been telling friends and family that I'm trying to carve out a new livelihood for myself, one that strives for a better balance between work online (read computer), and offline, hands-on stuff (in my case, woodworking and urban agriculture). Today, I'm excited to say that I'm one step closer to achieving that balance. Starting this month, I'm (re)joining the ForestEthics team as their new part-time Senior Communications and Media Manager, focusing on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and Sacred Headwaters campaigns. It means that my online time will be spent with a creative and successful ENGO with clear, local campaign goals for making the world a better place, and it also means I'll have more time to work with my hands, learning more about woodworking and urban agriculture (I love getting my hands dirty!).

Both realms of work will be enhanced by one another, a cross pollination of ideas, insights and physical movement that will make for a healthier livelihood while also boosting my productivity in each sphere. Less time on computer = healthier body = healthier brain = greater creativity & results.

Part of my new livelihood still includes my communications consulting and press release service. I'm still open for business. If you or your organization need to make an important contribution to the public sphere or set the agenda about a particular issue, campaign, or policy, I'd be more than happy to help.

I'll provide more updates on "the new livelihood" as it takes shape. Stay tuned.

Simple Citizen: Carbon Budgeting My Thanksgiving Weekend

After I parked the car last night, I checked the trip meter: 936km. Before leaving Vancouver last Friday for a family Thanksgiving in the Okanagan, I zeroed the meter. A couple of hikes, some salmon watching, two family dinners and a late night Monopoly “City” game later, we were back in Vancouver, all the richer for having spent quality time with family (lot’s of laughs). Our trip, like any other, did have a cost though, and I figured I should start keeping track of it.

After entering my vehicle year, make and model (a good condition, used, standard, four cyclinder, four door hatchback), carbonfootprint.com told me I had put .22 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the course of our return trip. That’s 220kg, or the equivalent of 5.5% of our annual household carbon budget for the year.

What the heck is a carbon budget?

Good question, it’s dead simple, but I’m only just learning how to manage it meaningfully. Let’s start with the bottomline: In order for the world to keep global warming below two degrees celsius, scientists say that annual per capita emissions of carbon dioxide need to be two tonnes or less. To put that into perspective, and to give you a sense of the challenge, the average North American has a carbon footprint of 20 tonnes, ten times what is equitable and sustainable. One long haul flight alone will easily eat-up more than half of your personal carbon budget for the year.

Clearly, we’ve got a long ways to go.

Transportation and utilities are probably two of the easier line items to keep track of, other sources of carbon dioxide, like the products we consume (electronics, clothing etc.) and the food we eat (How was it grown or raised? How far did it travel? Does it take a lot of fossil fuel to grow feed, e.g. corn for cows?), are a bit trickier to calculate, but online carbon calculators will make a “best guess” based on your purchasing habits. The rule of thumb is to eat local as much as you can, and to eat meat sparingly. When you can avoid buying new, used is the way to go.

Kicking some carbon ass (aka living simply)

Because this is the first time we’ve kept track of our personal carbon emissions, I have no idea how we’ll measure up (quite poorly I’m guessing). Our annual household (two-person) carbon budget is 4 tonnes (2 tonnes per person). If we were to include a recent flight to Ohio we took to visit family, as well as our other trips and consumption habits earlier in the year, I’m sure we’re already deeply in the red several times over.  However, because I finally remembered to zero the trip meter, I’m going to use the Thanksgiving weekend as the end and beginning of our carbon fiscal year. It seems fitting, given that this is the time of year we make a point of giving thanks for family and the food that sustains us. There's also something about the end of the harvest and the change of the seasons that makes it especially poignant. All of these things are intimately tied to the impacts of climate change.

With those impacts firmly in mind (pick any climate change news story), we’re not going to just measure for measuring’s sake. We want to see what kind of difference we can make. In recent months, we’ve made a real effort to grow more of our own vegetables with summer and winter gardens, and we’re getting close to a plastic-free “zero-waste” lifestyle (more on that soon). We’re also buying a lot more local food, and preserving it (canning and dehydration). Local and plastic free are at the top of our list when we go shopping. All of these things will help to reduce our CO2 emissions, saving room in our carbon budget for the things we really love, like surfing in Tofino, or having Thanksgiving in the Okanagan.

At the end of our new “fiscal year,” what I imagine we’ll find is that we’re still over our per capita carbon budget, but much less than we would have been otherwise. We’ll see areas where we can improve, and we’ll also see the limits of individual effort – those places where we need to come together as citizens to build things (through politics) like better transit systems, cleaner eletricity generation (and conservation), putting a price on carbon, and regulating industrial developments like the tar sands and saying “no” to proposed pipelines.

I strongly believe in a mix of personal low carbon social innovation and government regulation for achieving the two tonne average we’ll all need in short order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. I also think the strong political call for regulation will only arrive when we all begin to think about issues in a bigger-than-self fashion. Rather than getting ahead as individuals, we’ll strive to get ahead together. Without simple (yet rich) lifestyles and a strong sense of community, I don’t see how we’ll achieve sustainability.

I’ll keep you abreast of our carbon reduction efforts throughout the 2011/2012 "fiscal year," and shortly after Thanksgiving, 2012, I’ll give you our annual report. I’d love to hear about your own efforts as well!

Steve Jobs Was The Leader Of A Religion, And We Should Be Concerned About What It Stands For

That a man with a wife and children dies young, is sad. That a brilliant (and by many accounts brutal) billionaire electronics product designer passes away, and is mourned as a saviour, is creepy. I’m genuinely sorry anytime a fellow human being leaves this earth, but I also think it’s important to analyze and critique what society’s apparent outpouring of grief over Steve Jobs' death says about us (sacred cows be damned).

I’m sorry folks, I’ve got a MacBook Pro and a second-hand iPod Shuffle, and they make a great deal of the time I spend on a computer, or at the gym, more enjoyable, but the way some people are reacting to Steve Jobs’ death creeps me out. I say that because he isn’t being mourned for the man he was, but rather for the brand he led as well as the ubiquitous electronics environment he designed and which we work (and apparently worship) in today. In my opinion, the world’s reaction to his death doesn’t say good things about where we’re at as a society.

In addition to the modified Apple logo featuring a silhouette of Steve Jobs as the bite taken out, as well as the countless Steve Jobs university commencement speeches shared on Facebook, there are quotes from other videos like this:

"To me marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is…Now Apple, fortunately, is one of the half-a-dozen best brands in the whole world, right up there with Nike, Disney, Coke, Sony. It is one of the greats of the greats. Not just in this country but all around the globe.”

Indeed, Apple was one of the hallowed names of the corporate world when Jobs retook his position as CEO (after being pushed out years earlier in an internal power struggle). On his return, he had even bigger plans for the brand. Here he explains Apple’s “core value,” something that would set it above the rest:

“We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better…And that those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do."

The Apple Religion

Steve Jobs was the leader of a religion – or at least as close to a religion as you can get in Western consumer society. There are the symbols, the strictures, the loin cloth (Levi's 501 blue jeans, black mock turtle neck and New Balance sneakers), the followers and the evangelists. There are the legends and stories of the leader’s selfless unshakeable commitment to “simplicity, ease of use and elegant design.” There was the famous “1984” ad, touted by Jobs himself as “probably the best ad ever made.”

Indeed many of the things Jobs did were described as “revolutionary.” In asking his followers to “Think Different” he directly invoked historical religious and cultural leaders (for example, Gandhi), building religiosity by associating the Apple brand with ideas and selfless acts of humanity far greater and more powerful than making computers for profit.

He said the company’s ad campaign was to “honour” those people who had actually changed the world. Some were living and some were not. “But the ones that aren’t, as you’ll see, you know if they ever used a computer it would have been a Mac.” Really? Would Gandhi have gotten behind a keyboard in celebration of the indentured servitude, farmland destruction and cancer-causing pollution Apple makes possible in China? I think differently.

How Has Apple And Its Followers Actually “Changed the World?”

As I attempted to convey in an earlier blog post on the serious cancer-causing and ecological consequences of iPhone production in Northern China, there’s a dark side to the Apple religion. There’s a reason Apple briefly became the most valuable company in the world earlier this year: They ship a lot of units. Tens and tens of millions, in fact. In the name of “elegant design” we’ll buy and throwout the latest generation of whatever we bought a year ago, completely oblivious to its ecological footprint.

A couple years back Apple did grudgingly make some improvements to the environmental-friendliness of some of its products, a response to Greenpeace’s “Green My Apple” campaign. Those changes however, are a drop in the bucket compared to the impacts of glorified planned obsolescence, the kind that is so engrossing that consumers will buy a product knowing full well another version with a camera or a wifi connection will be released six months later (“No problem, I’ll sell the old one on Craig’s list and buy the new one in time for Christmas). Now that's changing the world.

Why Not Try Thinking Differently, For Real?

One of the reasons I wrote this post is because it bothers me to see fellow “progressives” and “environmental advocates” mourning the loss (in the way that they are) of one of the world’s greatest CEOs, capitalists, and electronics manufacturing expansionists. Again, it’s sad to lose someone early, but it’s another thing to immortalize a corporate brand and its promise land of never ending beautiful electronics (read growth). Don't preach to me about the values of occupying Wall Street while you wax poetic about one of history's most successful and brutal capitalists.

Environmentalists have lots to say about flows of dirty oil and greenhouse gas pollution, but little to say about the flow of dirty electronics. The religion of Apple, as currently conceived, is diametrically opposed to sustainability. Unfortunately, environmentalists are some of the worst technology boosters I know.

Truly thinking differently in the sense of Gandhi, Martin Luther King or even Einstein (all three invoked by Apple’s advertising campaigns) means that your mouth shouldn’t be watering over the release of the next iwhatever, or at least if it does, you’re also mindful of the real ecological impacts of any given purchasing decision, and your true NEED for it. Frugality (make it delicious frugality) is how we need to start thinking, and living (drive that electronic device until the wheels fall off). Anything else is just the religion of mindless consumerism by any other name.

Dr. Strange Breath or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Garlic

This weekend is Thanksgiving, and there's no better way to celebrate the gifts of the harvest, than by planting the gift that keeps on giving: garlic. I say "giving," because in addition to giving you pungent breath and all kinds of incredible medicinal benefits (cancer-fighting, antibacterial, blood pressure reducing), garlic is one of the tastiest and most productive plants you should have growing in your garden.

Garlic is also a relatively easy and forgiving plant to grow. It doesn't need much watering in Vancouver's wet environment. If you're a houseplant killer, garlic might be right for you.

According to Edible Vancouver, October is the perfect month to plant garlic in the Pacific Northwest, but you can plant anytime in the Fall, up until the first frost. When the cold weather comes, the cloves are ready to work their magic, multiplying from a single clove into 4,5,6 or more cloves over the course of the growing season, depending on the variety. In the spring/early summer hard neck varieties will grow a scape that can be cut-off and stir-fried or, and this is absolute luxury, pulverized with olive oil and served as pesto. Drool.

This is my first year growing garlic and I planted two varieties: Northern Quebec and Leningrad. Northern Quebec has nice large cloves, with pinky purple skin and it grows well in all conditions. It's described as "hot" and "vigorous" with good flavour. The other variety I planted is Leningrad, an early maturing variety that stores well with especially tight skin keeping the cloves tightly packed and protected. You can harvest this variety in July and enjoy eating it right through to the next spring - beats that Chinese soft neck stuff that gets mushy and starts growing as soon as you take your eyes off it.

Because garlic likes well-drained soil, and this is my first time planting in this garden space (generously donated by a fellow East Van resident), I wasn't confident about how the soil drained or retained moisture, so I built up two raised beds and turned them in with compost. Once I planted the garlic (six inches apart in all directions, though eight to nine inches is even better), I threw on some shredded Fall leaves to help with moisture retention and basic weed control (although I'll be watching these beds like a hawk). For real weed control you need a few inches of leaves...come to think of it, I better add some more next week. If all goes well, I should have 85 garlic plants growing in nice neat rows next summer, more garlic than we'll need all year!

If there was ever a plant sold by Ronco infomercials, it would be garlic - you can "set it and forget it." Actually you should fertilize in the spring with something like compost tea, and water periodically, but you get the picture. Put the garlic to bed and enjoy a second Thanksgiving come July.

P.S. Garlic Boundary Farm has an excellent page on planting, harvesting and curing garlic for storage.

Attack Ads Against Local Food Production Show the NPA and Suzanne Anton Are Unfit to Govern Vancouver

NPA attack ads against "back yard chickens" and "front yard wheat fields" may backfire as an increasing number of  Vancouverites embrace community gardening and urban agriculture. Every now and then a political party does something stupid that doesn't just make you want to vote against them, it actually makes you want to volunteer for the other guys, you know, knocking on doors, making phone calls, talking to friends. That act of stupidity has come early in this year's municipal election, and it was committed by the NPA and their mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton, in a recent radio ad that can only be interpreted as an attack against local food production and urban agriculture.

In the ad, a male narrator says city hall is missing "common sense," and the first two pieces of evidence he gives to support this claim are the existence of "backyard chickens" and "front yard wheat fields."

The attack ad is referring to Vancouver's food policy allowing residents to keep backyard hens and city support in the form of a $5000 grant for the lawns to loaves "collaborative city wheat farm," an initiative that aims to educate inner-city kids about "the history of grain and where their bread comes from." Vancouver Sun political writer Jeff Lee says lawns to loaves "actually makes sense" and he compares it to taking kids to the PNE to learn about agriculture and how their food is produced (e.g. milk from cows - I've actually heard stories about kids not understanding this). Clearly both initiatives make sense. In an age of rising food prices, peak oil and climate change, residents should have the right to bring the 100 mile diet as close to home as possible.

In an age of rising food prices, peak oil and climate change, residents should have the right to bring the 100 mile diet as close to home as possible.

As a friend recently pointed out, I shouldn't be surprised that the NPA has embraced the politics of division and ignorance, given that the firm they've recently hired to manage their election campaign, Campaign Research Inc., is the same firm behind the divisive election campaign of Toronto's conservative mayor, Rob Ford (famous for attacking bike lanes and “gravy trains”). They're also the same people behind Kitties4Christie.com, an astroturf website that attempted to derail Christy Clark's bid for the leadership of the BC Liberals by suggesting she was signing-up cats as new party members. Classy stuff!

The NPA's new attack ads rely on a politics of division and ignorance that appeals to the darkest side of voters, and I think that's why they'll fail, especially in community-minded Vancouver. Concern and interest in this city about urban greening and local food production has resulted in community gardens springing up on every patch of available land, long wait lists for community garden plots, and scores of volunteers for public space initiatives. People value the quality of life and renewed sense of community these initiatives help grow. The NPA and Suzanne Anton are directly attacking those values.

The NPA's new attack ads rely on a politics of division and ignorance that appeals to the darkest side of voters...that's why they'll fail.

If the NPA and Suzanne Anton were to focus group their new ads at the intersection of Penticton and Pender, where a bunch of neighbours and I have built a community garden, they'd be booed out of the neighbourhood, not by me, but by a bunch of sweet old ladies and gruff old men.

Since I started a boulevard garden this past summer I've had the opportunity to meet literally dozens of local community members from all walks of life. A good chunk of these people are seniors, many of whom rely on their backyard and front yard gardens to provide an important source of healthy food and an active lifestyle. In addition to hearing an earful about how to prune my tomatoes, I've also heard strong approval for the direction of city hall's food and community gardening policies, as well as a lament that those same policies didn't exist ten years ago during the reign of the NPA. One gentleman admiring my boulevard garden lamented that when he tried to plant one ten years ago, the city told him to plow it over. It wasn't allowed. Today, he said, it as too late for him, he was too old to plant one now. That made me sad and thankful for what we have in Vancouver today.

One gentleman admiring my boulevard garden lamented that when he tried to plant one ten years ago (during NPA rule), the city told him to plow it over. It wasn't allowed.

If you walk south from Pender on Penticton street you'll see yard after yard, fully cultivated, right out to the sidewalk, growing everything from chinese vegetables to onions and garlic, strawberries and currants, figs and cherries, potatoes, you name it. One gentleman has chickens in his front yard and young families delight in stopping in front of his house to watch them strut and peck.

...young families delight in stopping in front of his house to watch them [chickens] strut and peck.

In a city governed by the NPA and Suzanne Anton, what would happen to neighbourhoods like mine? Clearly the NPA doesn't value local food production or appreciate the necessity of it in a time of rising food prices, peak oil and climate change. They're out to lunch, and it isn't local food they're eating. For that simple reason they are unfit to govern Vancouver.

Time to vote for the other guys (and maybe knock on some doors too).

Build Soil. Build Community. (Part Two)

Andrew Manieri and Terry Schneider at Heartbeat Community Farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio, are doing the most important work in the world - they're learning how to grow food in a truly sustainable fashion. Along the way, they're building soil and community.

For a week in August, I had the pleasure of volunteering with Andrew and Terry at Heartbeat Community Farm in Yellowsprings, Ohio, a CSA that goes far beyond conventional organic agricultural practices. The beautiful picture above (taken by someone else, I just pulled it off Flickr) shows the incredibly productive no-till organic farming practiced at Heartbeat. In just six years, Andrew and Terry have built up the soil by at least six inches or more above the hard pack dirt, a reminder of the industrial farming carried out on the land in years past.

Heartbeat is like no other farm I've experienced. That's right, I said experienced (Jimi Hendrix style), because unlike the silent rows of genetically modified soybeans that surround this organic oasis, Heartbeat's fields are positively BURSTING with life. In addition to the farmers' own cries of joy celebrating the fruits of their labour, "Isn't that the most beautiful watermelon you've ever seen!!!??" the air is teaming with birds, Monarch butterflies and other insects drawn to the gardens' flowers, shrubs and trees.

With about 30 CSA members each paying a lump sum for a share of the season's produce, Andrew and Terry aren't getting "rich," but I can say with the utmost certainty that they are two of the wealthiest people I have ever met. These men are doing what they love every single day, healing the land, feeding their community, living close to the natural feedback loops of nature, and making a livelihood on their own terms.

Their money pile is their compost pile.

As I trimmed and cleaned garlic and onions, and helped dig potatoes and pick tomatoes and beans (among other tasty things - have you tried a fresh tomatillo?) Andrew and Terry shared their philosophy of farming with me, a philosophy based on a symbiotic, "non-empire," non-capitalistic relationship with the soil. They don't use machinery, their transportation is by bicycle, and they're doing all the work themselves. What that means is that they aren't trying to make a profit off the land or someone else's back - their capital is their own labour and the richness of the soil itself, which they defend vigorously. They half-joke, because it's true, that their money pile is their compost pile. They collect compost from local sources and amass it over the course of the year.

Andrew, who used to study philosophy at Oxford before abandoning "higher education" for farming, shared his strong belief that as soon as a profit or return on capital is sought in farming, then bad things start to happen for people (labourers) and the land itself (a rule that applies to almost all forms of profit taking). True freedom, he believes, can only be found in frugal living and self-sustainability. Anytime we try to "get ahead" in a conventional sense, then that's "empire," and the profit comes at someone else's expense.

What would you rather bank on these days? A rough and ready chestnut tree, or a newfangled mutual fund?

For all his anti-empire talk, Andrew still has Machiavellian tendencies, like his aggressive investment in chestnuts. This past year he milled an experimental run of 50lbs of chestnut flour, a delicious and nutritious staple that helped feed his family and that he shared with friends. Based on its success, he's planting more trees and eventually he hopes their bounty will become a significant part of his livelihood. The health of the trees will determine the health and happiness of his family and wider community. What would you rather bank on these days? A rough and ready chestnut tree, or a newfangled mutual fund?

Loam wasn't built in a day.

Before I left Yellow Springs, I bought a t-shirt from a local artist. His comedic style reminds me of Gary Larsen, with hilarious cartoons and captions like "Pink Freud" (a pink sketch of Freud the psychoanalyst) and "Much .edu about nothing" (frighteningly true at times). One that immediately grabbed my attention featured a picture of a plowed field with an angry Roman standing in it, waving his sword at an indifferent looking donkey. The caption reads, "Loam wasn't built in a day." I love it, and after my experience at Heartbeat Community Farm, I'm determined to build some loam of my own.

I need an iPhone 5 like I need a hole in the head, or cancer.

With Steve Jobs stepping down as the CEO of Apple on account of a neuroendocrine tumor in his pancreas, we should all take a hard look at the impending launch of the iPhone 5 and our cancer-causing, environment-trashing, socially destructive electronics habit (do they have an app for that?).

I myself don't have cancer (that I know of, knock on wood), but my family, like most others, has had major and life-changing brushes with the disease, and I've personally had close calls with melanoma in the past. Like everyone else, I'm worried about cancer. That's why I'm so frustrated with the glaring blind spot in public discourse about Steve Jobs' battle with cancer and its symbolic connection to his leadership of the world's most financially successful manufacturer and retailer of highly-toxic personal electronics. Most media coverage of Jobs' resignation is focused on questions about the future success of Apple and in the short-term, the launch of the new iPhone 5, the latest lineage of a now seasonal product line that epitomizes our society's toxic electronics consumption.

In case you didn't know, the iPhone in your pocket, and any older versions gathering dust in your e-waste bin, contain rare earth metals, 95% of which are mined in China, with lax regulations and no protection for workers. The processing of rare earth metals releases thorium, a radioactive byproduct that has been found in soil concentrations 36 times higher than normal in farm land adjacent to rare earth refineries. The China Post has a harrowing article detailing high rates of cancer, farmland pollution and other human health impacts near Baotou city in Inner Mongolia, home to the world's largest deposits of rare earth metals:

"Farmers living near the 10-square-kilometer expanse in northern China say they have lost teeth and their hair has turned white while tests show the soil and water contain high levels of cancer-causing radioactive materials.

'We are victims. The tailings dam has contaminated us,' Wang [a local farmer], 60, told AFP at his home near Baotou city..."

There are other reasons to be concerned about the social and environmental impacts of iPhones and similarly frivolous gadgetry. The UK's Guardian newspaper has a good article here. And it's not just the rare earth miners, refiners, local residents and farmers who suffer from our Apple addiction. In recent years, Chinese newspapers have begun investigative reporting into the working conditions inside Apple's manufacturer contractor factories, places that some have labelled "hell factories." Foxconn, one of Apple's largest contractors experienced a rash of suicides last year that prompted a Chinese Liberal newspaper to sneak one of its own reporters into the factory, posing as a worker:

"During his 28 days of investigation, Liu Zhi Yi was shocked to discover how the factory workers live in a sort of indentured servitude. They work all day long, stopping only to quickly eat or to sleep. They repeat the same routine again and again except on public holidays. Liu surmised that for many workers, the only escape from this cycle was to end their life."

I could go on about how the "hell factories" are also powered by the world's dirtiest coal but that would be a moot point relative to the account above. Hopefully the takeaway message and question is clear: Do you really need a new iPhone (or a myriad of other electronic devices for that matter?)? Now that you know the impacts of an iPhone, is purchasing one consistent with your personal or organizational values? Sincerely ask yourself that question the next time you find yourself near an Apple store or similar electronics retailer. Every phone upgrade, every new gadget we purchase (iPads 1 & 2, flat-screen TVs, you name it) has environmental and social impacts that will live on long after we die, and that we can't absolve ourselves from. We need to embrace a mindful frugality when it comes to purchasing electronics.

Steve Jobs' fight with cancer is tragic, and it should serve as a powerful reminder of the carcinogens we are pumping into our environment every single day, increasing the chances that anyone of us could develop some form of cancer, especially when we make it a habit to change our phone every year or two.

Personal pet peeve: While electronic communication has a role to play in building an ecological revolution, I can't help but feel that environmentalists are some of the worst offenders in touting new gadgets. If you're a person ostensibly working for the protection of the environment and human health, you shouldn't be a tech booster. Be the change you want to see in the world! Make sure your phone is produced as sustainably as possible, if it ain't broke don't fix it (or buy a new one), and when it finally does die, make sure it's recycled responsibly.

"Beyond Organic" Farming in Yellow Springs, Ohio (Part One)

I just got back from a beautiful (and borderline sunstroke-inducing) bike ride to Orion Organics, an organic farm located just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio, at 400 North Enon road. For a full account of the farm and the inspiring vision of its owners, the Yellow Springs News has a great article here and a more recent piece on some of the tough little CSAs springing up around town. The trip out to the farm was a powerful reminder of why sustainable, ethical agriculture (certified or otherwise) is so important. While the soybean and corn fields that dominate the land have a pastoral beauty to them, they're not so pretty when considered up-close.

Each field is branded with a sign next to it, identifying the GMO company that sold the seed, and the patented variety being grown. These signs reminded me of Percy Schmeiser's battle with Monsanto over transgenic contamination of his fields and seemed out of place on roads that only see a handful of cars everyday (what's their purpose?).

Then there's the purpose of the fields themselves - mainly to supply calories and protein for factory farming and unhealthy food products: Corn for cows that can't digest it properly and high-fructose corn syrup for humans who can't digest it well either. Soybeans for pigs and chickens crammed into confinement operations with cement floors and fouled air. I biked past one of these operations on my way to the farm and the smell made me sick to my stomach, a stark contrast to the fresh air and monarch butterflies at Orion Organics.

Spotting an oasis of trees and natural vegetation, I turned-in and coasted down a long driveway to discover a large hay bale house nearing completion and a giant hay bale greenhouse behind an older barn. Inside the barn I found Jonathan, the farm manager at Orion Organics. Jonathan was busy trying to find a charitable home for a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes that would soon spoil in the hot Ohio air (his cold storage was out of commission). "I hate wasting food," he said.

In addition to being super friendly and inviting me to tour the farm, Jonathan told me about his own economic rationale for learning to farm and that while he had thought about going back to school to get a masters in teaching (he's in his early 30's), he thought farming was a surer bet, providing a more physical, higher quality of life and the greatest sense of security one can have in uncertain times: being able to feed oneself. This sense of freedom and security was echoed by Andrew and Terry at Heartbeat Community Farm, (another farm I visited - more on that experience in Part Two), and I'm sure it was felt by the other local young people I found picking beans in the lower fields.

After admiring the farm's bean, tomato, zucchini, watermelon and popcorn crops, as well as their neat and tidy herb garden, I biked back to the Vale , a beautiful intentional community where we've been staying with my girlfriend's family. On the way back I passed through more of the same soybean and cornfields with large, plain farm houses spaced out every few miles. I reflected on how every aspect of these conventional operations is dependent on cheap, plentiful oil (chemicals, fertilizers, heavy machinery to plant, till, harvest as well as industrial driers to dry the crops, not to mention transportation).

Biking amidst a giant sea of conventional crops and baking in the hot sun among lonely farm houses (I was also out of water), I felt vulnerable and fragile, but not as fragile, I thought, as the giant monoculture crops that will someday be an impossibility in their present scale and form (not unless we find fertilizer and fuel substitutes that aren't derived from fossil fuels). I was also cheered by the fact that I was heading back to Yellow Springs - a small, strong community with a significant movement afoot to grow food locally and sustainably.

Viewed as an oddity in otherwise conservative, white bread south Western Ohio, Yellow Springs and other like-minded communities are doing the heavy and fulfilling work of moving towards more sustainable local food systems, and that's tasty stuff!