Food Conference Notes

OK, the internet is back. Whew! I was about to go into withdrawal.

So I may not be able to afford MLA this year, but I won't let that stop me from putting in some time at some sort of conference. 'Cause I like to learn about things that interest me.

I neglected to take a pen to the Future of Food conference yesterday (normally I always have about 15 pens with me, but of course this would be the one time I had no writing implement), but it was an interesting day that as an added bonus featured lots of samples of organic fair trade chocolate.

Mmm, chocolate.

Also, I knitted an entire afghan square. I should have taken more yarn, I could have started another one.

Here are a few notes from the various sessions, presented without editorial comment because I am too lazy to expand upon any of them just now:

• We have a lot more food banks in the United States than there were a few decades ago; it shows a worthy impulse that we donate to charity this way, but clearly, we're not addressing the roots of the hunger problem since the need keeps growing
• We cannot realistically expect to continue consuming the amounts of meat and dairy that we currently do in the U.S. (an average of 200 pounds of meat a year)
• In a related point, it is also clearly unsustainable to spend 10 calories for every one calorie of food energy produced in the current (agricultural and animal farming) system
• Globalization has allowed the "globalization of market failure" as well as of trade
• Cheap food is cheap only because of our failure to account for the 'externalities' of subsidies, damage to worker health, etc.
• The way the food system has collected so much of production into relatively few locations makes contamination, shortages and transportation problems potentially very dangerous
• Genetically modified foods have not so far lived up to the potential of increased yield, higher nutrition, etc., while long-term ill effects remain unknown
• Climate change could actually benefit some regions of the world by extending growing seasons for staple crops; unfortunately, some of the most populous parts of the world are projected to be "losers" in this outcome, with desertification and loss of cropland more likely
• Animals raised for food account for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation industry
• Organic and local are both important concerns for how we eat, but one needn't exclude the other: whole, local/organic and as close to vegetarian as you can manage is the most sustainable diet
• 'Ethical' food choices are relegated to the wealthy in the current system, since eating this way is simply too expensive and time-consuming for many people
• Gardens are good; also, go bake some bread!

I don't have a yard, so no garden, but I did bake some bread today. It came out OK.