While pundits and economists everywhere welcome in the “recovery”, a different story is brewing in the US produce sector, from the Producer Price Index (PPI) report for March 2010, it seems that the price of food rose 2.4% in March alone – the largest monthly jump in over 26 years.

Some of the startling food price increases on a year-over-year basis include, fresh and dry vegetables up 56.1%, fresh fruits and melons up 28.8%, eggs for fresh use up 33.6%, pork up 19.1%, beef and veal up 10.7% and dairy products up 9.7%. OnOctober 30th, 2009, NIA predicted that inflation would appear next in food and agriculture, but we never anticipated that it would spiral so far out of control this quickly.

Source: U.S. Food Inflation Spiraling Out of Control

Firstly, I’m waiting for someone to claim that the cost increases are due (somehow) to the local food revolution, or people growing their own food, or that massive agribusiness is somehow suffering, but for the moment, we’ll have to settle with the facts presented. In all seriousness though, with the cost of produce and oil up and increasing, inflation is set to play a big role in the economic figures for 2010…

Most financial experts in the mainstream media are proclaiming that the recession is over and inflation is not a problem in the U.S. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that rising food and gasoline prices accounted for 58% of February’s year-over-year 3.85% rise in retail sales. NIA believes price inflation is beginning to accelerate in many areas of the economy besides food and energy, and all increases in U.S. retail sales this year will be entirely due to inflation.

That bears repeating – “All increases in U.S. retail sales this year will be entirely due to inflation“.

Now that doesn’t sound like a true-blue recovery, does it?

The availability and price of food has been recognized to be related to the stability of governments and society – should we be concerned? Just a few years ago in 2007-8, we saw massive inflation in food prices that sparked a global crisis including political and economic instability in many nations. The question that remains unanswered is – were there structure conditions that caused or precipitated this event, and have they been resolved? Is this the first sign of a similar situation, or like the French Revolution, could  this price increase be exacerbated by the Icelandic Volcano and food shortages in Europe.

While real food shortages never hit home in this part of the world, the likelihood that any level of government is actually equipped to distribute some magical supply of food, in the event of real trouble, seems slim to non-existent. Poor countries have been hit the hardest with rising prices in recent years, but how will we pay for it? – if you haven’t noticed, the US and Canada are racking up monster debts to pay for almost everything.  Sure we can borrow, but that just devalues our currency against whoever is silly enough to lend it to us, essentially meaning that we have even less to pay for what we need.

Food policy over the past fifty years has been aimed at cost savings and efficiencies in production, we are starting to see a groundswell of concern over the precarious complexity of the food supply situation. It used to be that the milkman would deliver to your door, (after milking the cows that morning), you’d by meat from the butcher, who sourced meat from local suppliers, fruit and vegetable was primarily seasonal and you rarely ate produce from outside your climatic zone. Now we are so removed from the producers and real food that in many areas reversing this trend will be a difficult process.

Ultimately, it should concern all of us for the security of our food supply, and as that involves planting seeds, we should be concerned about the protection of open pollinated non-GMO seeds. Our governments are failing us on many fronts when it comes to the right to choose where your food comes from, food regulations, farming bylaws, and animal control bylaws all support the belief that big agriculture is the way we will feed the world, and that the right to grow your own food is not universal, particularly not in suburbia, where a manicured lawn is more prized than a root cellar full of food.

I imagine a time will come when the Vancouver Sun will run a front page story, “Elderly Man Dies from Hunger While Mowing Lawn” – he couldn’t afford to buy food, didn’t want to ruin his perfect lawn and died for no other reason than a defiant belief in suburbia.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Food Inflation

Technorati Tags: Bylaws, farming, food, food policy, food security, food supply, GMO, inflation, right to farm, urban agriculture

This week we’ve been inundated with Crabapples and Apples. The sweet cloying smell of these tiny fruits ripening in the kitchen kept the yellow jackets and fruit flies bumping against the windows screens.

With so many crabapples, we decided to try out several recipes. And with the aid of a steam juicer, we had an excellent base for jellies and juices. Many people dismiss these little gems as little more than a nuisance, it takes a bit of work, but adding a little sugar or honey to the juice provides an extremely refreshing drink on a hot summer’s day!

Crabapple Jelly and Syrup

Spiced Crabapples

We also made up some Crabapple Juice, Apple Juice and Apple Butter. I think we’ve still got about 150 pounds of apples to process. Here’s some of the Crabapples getting spiced.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Crabapples and Apples

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple Juice, Castlegar, Cooking, Crabapple, fruit, Fruits and Vegetables, Home, Juice, Kootenays, Ripening

Health Care services are entirely dependent on petroleum products – just about every book on the subject of our energy situation has pointed this out, and acknowledged that the level of health care we enjoy today is not sustainable without plentiful oil.

This NYTimes article is one of the first mainstream attempts I’ve seen at getting this information out the the world.

Health Care’s Oil Problem – Idea of the Day Blog – NYTimes.com

“Oil is the glue in our medical system that holds it all together,” says a consultant on energy and health. And it has always been thus, suggests a study in Public Health Reports, which links the remarkable improvement in health over the last 150 years to cheap, easily accessible energy. The study urges preparedness for “peak petroleum” and conservation in a health care infrastructure that has long favored speed and convenience.

What does a post peak petroleum health care system look like? The most recent release from the Transition Network – “The Transition Timeline – for a local, resilient future” by Shaun Chamberlin gives a concise glimpse at a lower carbon future health care. Shaun focuses on the following five areas as examples of how petroleum and intricately related technologies have shaped health care…

• Inefficient buildings
• Energy-intensive modern equipment
• Medical products reliance on petroleum
• Technology replacing traditional skills
• Centralization and Specialization

Climate change has it’s own role to play in the future health care issues we will face, and this is dependent on where you live. Coastal storms, floods, drought and heatwaves are all more likely in the future, each bringing serious health concerns and weakening the existing systems built on cheap, abundant oil.

Resilient Health Care

We need to enact a “cultural story change” to bring health care to a place of sustainability. An often used example regarding alternate health care arrangements is Cuba, with a similar (or better) life expectancy, but using far less energy and engaging more localized services with a higher doctor to patient ratio than the level of service we have come to expect. A resilient future health care system will have to view death differently too – people will have to better acknowledge just where they are headed. Much of the fear of death is likely related to the cold clinical calculated medical environment in which decisions are made and that there is an expectation to be “fixed up” by the doctors and to be able to go out and bat another innings. Many spiritual aspects of life and death have been steamrolled by modern medicine, and a return to what we know as “alternative medicines” may be necessary to regain respect for our bodies and our health.

Ironically, one of the blogs I read Aguanomics, posted a short article on Health Care today as well, and I think the end aim is similar, a resilient health care system based on human scale relationships…

Bottom Line: We will not (or cannot) fix our healthcare system without strengthening patient-doctor relationships. Single payer would do that, but it can also work with multiple payers (gov’t or private insurance) and providers, e.g., as car insurance does.

Source: Aguanomics: A Few (More) Thoughts on Health Care

Finding ways to do health care without the massive building costs, energy costs in running those buildings and the equipment inside, without the disposable petroleum based convenience and the re-localization of services to provide more frontline wellness care, rather than the current emergency based sickness care.

Some of the health care conveniences and products we enjoy and rely on may prove to be a part of the best use of remaining fossil fuels we could imagine, but without an entire systems audit of the existing system against the peak oil lens, we will never understand the best direction for the future of this industry and service.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Peak Health

Technorati Tags: climate change, Cuba, Health, Health care, Health Policy, Life expectancy, Medicine, peak oil, Single-payer health care, United States

The following post was written by my wife Robyn, hopefully we’ll see more posts on her perspective of local food and sustainability.

Looking forward to the harvest…
As I gaze across my flourishing garden my mouth begins to water as I imagine the taste of buttery-baked buttercup squash on a cold winter evening.   I ponder the yield of winter turnips and potatoes we will have packed away in cold storage.  If I let my mind wander further afield, I also consider the tall grain stalks growing in the sunny Creston fields and wonder at the success of this year’s crop.  I am no farmer, well not yet, but I do own a bit of grain growing up as part of Canada’s first grain CSA.  I hope you will read this in time to purchase your own share of what is growing up over in Creston – we have enjoyed the experience immensely.

Kootenay Grain Community Supported Agriculture

The Kootenay Grain CSA is a first step towards thinking differently about our food. We have been working to develop a new approach to accessing a secure and sustainable grain supply. By supporting local grain growers, CSA members provide them with a consistent market and an adequate income while they grow our food using natural, responsible farming methods. As consumers, members contribute to solving many global issues, while supporting healthy, sustainable, locally produced food.

The are approximately 75 individual 2009 Kootenay Grain CSA shares left to be sold.  An individual grain share costs $125 and is made up of Hard Spring Wheat (20 lbs), Hard Winter Wheat (20 lbs), Spelt (20 lbs), Khorasan (20 lbs), and Oats (20 lbs).  As with any CSA model, the final yield share will depend on crop performance.  We purchased one share last year and increased to two shares for the 2009 season and a lentil share.  With the additional purchases of a manual flour mill and an oat flaker, we have been enjoying Creston grain in our baking and cereal almost everyday in additional to our lentil soups and stews.

The Kootenay Grain CSA will be hosting a Farm Tour on Saturday, July 25. All shareholders are welcome to tour the farms, meet the farmers, see your “bread growing in the field” (as one 2008 shareholder put it). We will rendezvous at the College of the Rockies (301 – 16th Avenue S) in Creston at 10:00 am, carpool to the farms for a tour (we’ll split into 3 groups and each group will visit one farm), eat lunch, then meet at Kootenay Alpine Cheese where the Harris family will give a tour of their organic dairy farm and fromagerie.

The Kootenay Grain CSA has allowed us to purchase local naturally grown food.  We have formed a connection with the farmers and have shared in the joy of the harvest.  And now, in our own home, we share in the milling of the grain… and the feast of pancakes!

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Kootenay Grain Community Supported Agriculture

Technorati Tags: agriculture, BC, Canada, Cereal, College of the Rockies, Community-supported agriculture, Farmer, grains, Kootenays, oats, Social Sciences, Spelt, Wheat

Does the City of Castlegar use Roundup? Almost a year ago, a motion was brought forward to council to stop using pesticides – the motion was not seconded by any of the other councillors, so the issue wasn’t even discussed to hear why the council was happy with the current use of pesticides (see page 8 of this pdf for a record of these minutes – not much to see).

I don’t know what varieties of pesticides are used in Castlegar by pubilc works and recreation staff, but Roundup is a likely contender. If so, this recent study is extremely troubling and the use of any pesticides on public spaces should cease immediately. This isn’t some crazy conspiracy theory, this is Scientific American reporting a study from France’s University of Caen.

In the French study, researchers tested four different Roundup formulations, all containing POEA and glyphosate at concentrations below the recommended lawn and agricultural dose. They also tested POEA and glyphosate separately to determine which caused more damage to embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells.

Glyphosate, POEA and all four Roundup formulations damaged all three cell types. Umbilical cord cells were especially sensitive to POEA. Glyphosate became more harmful when combined with POEA, and POEA alone was more deadly to cells than glyphosate. The research appears in the January issue of the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells

This Spring I’ve heard a few complaints about the use of pesticides on public spaces in Castlegar. The practice needs to stop, particularly if Roundup is being used. It just needs to be a policy of council that City staff will not use chemical pesticides. These areas are play spaces for children, not just expanses of lawn or “open space”, they are not suitable for the use of chemicals that may cause damage to humans. Of course, Monsanto is claiming that the tests were unrealistic – but if you read the article, it seems as thought the researchers did their homework on that front.

Send letters to the City referencing this scientific study, asking them to stop using chemical pesticides once and for all.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Monsanto’s Roundup is Confirmed to Kill Human Cells

Technorati Tags: Business, Chemical Research in Toxicology, France, France's University of Caen, Monsanto, Pesticide, POEA, Research, Roundup, Scientific American, Umbilical cord, United States

We’re about to restart out affair with worms. Sadly, on leaving Australia we had to say goodbye to our Red Tiger worms and their lovely black box home. Now, after some prompting form the local worm lady, Betty, Eden’s Girl Guide’s group, and the fact that our outdoor compost pile is under about 2 feet of snow, I crafted a fine home for some new pet worms out of a couple of Tupperware boxes. and some additional fittings.

The New York Times recently posted an article on the growing trend of keeping worms in cities like New York, but an interesting part of the article was about the relative environmental impact of our choice…

Composting does not have as big an environmental effect as recycling, Environmental Protection Agency figures show: recycling one ton of mixed paper is four times as effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as producing the same amount of compost.

But keeping food discards out of landfills does more than twice the good of keeping mixed paper out, E.P.A. officials said, because decomposing food that is buried and cut off from air releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at higher rates than paper. (The ventilation in composting prevents methane creation.)

New Yorkers Try Composting With Worms – NYTimes.com.

I’m interested to know whether you are in on the great secret of worms…

The results of my last poll are interesting, I asked the question, how long could you survive on the food in your house, here’s a graph of the results…

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Worms in the Kitchen

Technorati Tags: Compost, composting, worm farm, worms

We had a discussion at work about fresh local eggs. One comment made was that some people prefer not knowing “where the eggs come from”. My attitude is that eggs are so much better from free range, (sure they eat bugs and stuff), and they are so much better for you too…

Image by Dystopos via Flickr

Mother Earth News reports that free range, pastured eggs contain (as compared to commercially raised factory farm eggs):

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotent
• 4-6 times more vitamin D

via Urban Chickens: in praise of nutritious yard fresh eggs.

Our family is still committed to bringing the idea of Urban Chickens to communities in the Kootenays, starting with Castlegar, our home. After a long discussion with a local reader about the proposed gaming centre in Castlegar, I received a comment agreeing with many of the things I present here on UrbanWorkbench, including the idea of hens in Castlegar.

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Yard Fresh Eggs

Technorati Tags: Castlegar, chickens, Eggs, Health, Hens, Kootenays, Nutrition, Omega-3 fatty acid, urban agriculture, urban chickens

Few people realize the magnitude of change that is being heralded with the new presidency – but most of the change has nothing to do with Barack Obama’s ability to lead, it’s outside of even his sphere of control. The world as we know it is changing – will the leadership of our nations choose a path that honours this change, or squanders it…

Jim Kunstler : Presto Change-o

The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead?

Planning for a future as uncertain as that which faces us requires strength of conviction and a will to protect the basic rights of a nation people. These rights do not necessarily include any of the following, despite the fact that we have had these in bountiful quantities over the past 50 years:

• Health Care
• Education
• Consumer Products
• Automobiles
• Air Travel
• Foods from outside our local area

• Safety
• Freedom

Are there any others? Even these two are likely to be compromised in the near future as conflicts over food, water, oil, gas and arable lands cause major upheavals across the globe.

What is the future for America under Mr Obama?

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Leftovers for Mr Obama

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, climate change, food, gloabl, global warming, Health, Health care, peak oil, politics, President of the United States, Society and Culture, United States

UrbanWorkbench tackles many topics related to Civil Engineering, Urban Planning and Sustainability, and as part of Blog Action Day 2008, I’d like to take a step away from the construction and development side of things, and focus on the issues of poverty and the collision of climate change and peak oil. This is just a quick post looking at some of the issues that come to mind as I write.

Financial Failings

In the past week we’ve seen the highs and lows of emotions in the financial sector, from suicidal depression to jubilant optimism, in many cases due to the reality of end of year bonuses or whether there would be a job for them next week. But the reality for most people around the world is that they don’t even know that there is a global financial crisis going on, they are too busy fighting hunger, disease, civil wars, oppression and generally trying to survive. While America throws hundreds of billions, possibly trillions of dollars to rescue a handful of influential but poorly managed financial corporations from screwing up the whole economy, poverty programs receive next to nothing.

Carbon Tax Trap

The Province of British Columbia has recently levied a carbon tax in an aim to offset the cost of carbon on the environment.Not all experts agree that spending money on efforts to reach carbon neutral have long term value, and in the book “Cool It”, Bjorn Lomborg describes the global impacts of spending – or not spending the unfathomable amounts required to reduce carbon emissions in an attempt to slow the effects of global warming. He reviews the issues as a series of summations of deaths attributable to a cause – global warming (which will cause more deaths in areas of poverty than in affluent countries), or preventable diseases that currently affect poverty stricken nations. The outcome of his calculations is that attempting to slow global warming does not pay for itself, and a small portion of the money that would be spent – should be allocated to eradicating diseases such as malaria in impoverished nations.

Peak Oil and the Issue of Timing

If we are going to tackle global poverty as an issue in today’s world, we’d better get to it. With Peak Oil breathing down our necks, it is impossible to take the level of transportation we have today for granted. The cost of almost everything on the globe will increase drastically once we are in an energy descent scenario, at that point we will be even more torn between our own national needs and seeing the needs of others around the world. Donations to charities that currently fill many of the gaps in national support will dry up as disposable income (if there ever was such a thing) decreases. Peak Oil is going to have a massive impact even on those who currently don’t appear to rely on oil for the everyday needs, as everything will become an in-demand commodity.

What Can We Do Today?

We live on the edge of a massive transformation in global economics and society. Things are not likely to get easier for most people, but we can assist those currently in poverty while there is still the resources available.

1. Support overseas efforts. Organizations such as Compassion are designed to support children, giving them and their families food, shelter and schooling. Growing up through the 80s and 90s I was bombarded with images of starving children in Africa. The truth is that they are still starving.
2. Be part of local efforts. Food banks are getting a workout around North America. Give what you can – there are children and families who literally can’t afford healthy food. It’s not the kids’ fault.
3. Demand the essentials. Water, Food, Clothing, Medical and Shelter are essential for life, we need to demand that these are provided for all people around the world. At the moment we can’t even provide these essentials adequately in our own countries. This would require a major shift in policy.
4. Imagine yourself in the same situation. Many impoverished people are not unhappy, just resigned to a life without. Could you be happy without your comforts, gadgets, satellite TV, SUV, iPod, etc? Empathy is a good place to start understanding the realities of poverty

What are you going to do about poverty today?

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as Poverty and Global Priorities – Blog Action Day 2008

Technorati Tags: climate change, economics, global warming, poverty

At this time of year, it’s good to consider where our food comes from, typically in most areas of North America, we are entering or are already in a period of harvest – when the corn is fresh and sweet, and the fruit is thick on the trees. And this is the case in most parts of the continent, that some form of fruit and vegetable has a pretty good chance of being harvested in reasonable quantities almost anywhere. So why is it that we buy perfect looking but crappy cardboard-tasting fruit from the local chain supermarket? We are so accustomed to getting exactly what the recipe calls for, or the fruit that the kids will actually eat from the supermarket at any time of the year, that we rarely consider what types of produce could be grown in our backyards, or on local farms.

Monbiot.com » Strange Fruit

Most people believe it’s because the supermarkets select for appearance not taste. This might be true for vegetables, but for fruit it’s evidently wrong. Green mangoes, Conference pears, unripe Bramley, Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples look about as appealing as a shrink-wrapped stool. Appearance has nothing to do with it. What counts to the retailer is how well the variety travels.

The travelling is the part I have a tough time with, from a sustainability perspective. It doesn’t really matter how healthy the fruit is – if it has travelled 3000 miles, it probably isn’t the fruit you should be choosing to eat.

To compound the problem, the supermarkets demand that fruit is picked long before it ripens: it doesn’t soften until it rots. This makes great commercial sense. It also ensures that no one in his right mind would want to eat it. But, happily for the retailers, we have forgotten what fruit should taste like. The only way to find out is either to travel abroad or (the low-carbon option) to grow your own. I find myself becoming a fruit evangelist, a fructivist, whose mission is to show people what they are missing.

Having just recently (for the second year in a row) canned up dozens of jars of fruit for the winter, I’ve learnt the value of fresh fruit locally grown, and the need to preserve that crop. In the middle of winter, the pears and apples in the supermarket just aren’t as appealing as the jars of fruit stored in our cold room. Other fruit is still tough though. Bananas are a hit in our household with two kids, but even buying the organic ones bothers me from a sustainable tranportation perspective – I simple shouldn’t be buying a perishable prodict from that far away. It is something we need to work on as a family, ensuring that adequate nutriuents are present in the food we are eating, while choosing to eat more locally and responsibly.

Technorati Tags: fruit, supermarkets, vegetables, sustainability, sustainable food, 100 mile diet, pears, apples, tranportation, local food

This post was written by Mike Thomas for UrbanWorkbench.com ©2010.

Originally posted as The Mystery of Supermarket Fruit