ECON 101: Sustainability Work is not Sustainable

I saw two call outs for food activist writing in the last few days.  One was for a chapter/story in an anthology of food writing. The other was for article proposals in a well known magazine on environmental matters.

Reading through the details of both of these call outs for contributors got me thinking about an announcement that was made to a large room of food activists here in Toronto recently.  The announcement was made by one of the partner organizations for the event.  The executive director proudly announced that they had taken the funding for one full time job and cleverly carved out eight one day a week jobs. This cleverness was applauded by the gathering.  I was appalled.

I had seen the advertisement for the eight (identical) part-time positions.  The position demanded a wide range of skills and talents but only offered $15/hour with no benefits (unless you count TTC tokens and lunch every second week) and for only eight hours on that one day.  The contract was for only six months with no guarantee of renewal.  And oh yeah, you had to be a welfare recipient.  So that means that this clever NGO took a job originally intended as one decently paid full time position and created eight ridiculously underpaid jobs out of it.

Underpaid you ask?  Doing the math:  8 hours/day one day a week for 6 months = $3120. If you multiply that amount by 8 for the number of part time positions they created then you get $24960.  So the original grant was for one full time job that would have earned one person $24,960 for six months.  That full time worker would have had benefits and taken home less than that but still it is recognized that this is a living wage and values the wide set of skills necessary for the advertised position.  So back to the eight people who were'lucky' enough to land one of the new part time jobs.  The before tax low income cut off (LICO) line (based on 2006 data) for a single person the city of Toronto is $22,637 and for a family of two is $28,182. Even if each of these people were able to land similar jobs for the other four days of the week - which you and I both know is extremely unlikely, their equivalent earnings would only be $3120 x 5 = $15,600 which is marginally better than the LICO for a single person and pretty close to the LICO for a two person household.  And just because TTC tokens and an occasional meal are thrown in doesn't make the reality of the meager income any more attractive.

At the end of another recent event I volunteered at, every single person from the participating organizations was called out and asked to stand to receive applause as thank-you for their efforts for arranging the event. All of the people asked to stand were getting paid by their own NGOs to organize the event. At the very end of the long list of people called and asked to stand, the MC for the event mumbled "And oh yes, the volunteers too" and didn't ask us to stand but merely started clapping and the audience weakly joined along while also rising from their seats hurrying to get out of the hall (it had been a long day and the long list of contributors and clapping was unnecessary).

Both of the call out for food activist writing submissions I mentioned at the beginning of this post had a token honorarium offered in lieu of a meaningful payment.  A payment that values the work of writing.  In reading these announcements I was also reminded of the truism: the rich get richer.  For surely the only people writing for these type of outfits (Huffington Post being the classic example) are people with decent jobs, businesses or cushy retirements.  Officially, in Toronto, for a single person, that would be a job that earns at least $22,637 (using very old 2005 data).  Anybody else that takes on these kind of positions ($15/hour or token honorariums) is not realizing that by accepting these types of opportunities they are contributing to an unsustainable world.  Not in the climate change way but in the economic change kind of way.

Women have historically been the volunteers.  The ones whose often back breaking work is not valued.  The new economic reality is that now not only women are doing slave type labour but also students and the long term unemployed.  The people desperate for the crust of a loaf of bread  - to toss a Dickensian metaphor out there.  Earning under $22,637 in the city of Toronto is the seemingly new normal in the activist circles I move in.  Applauding the people who manage to earn (significantly) more than that and those that dream up clever ways to perpetuate poverty is ironic in rooms filled with people that publicly pledge allegiance and work towards food justice and food policy change making.

The food justice community in Toronto, with their offerings of meager dollars for work that wants to eradicate food poverty, seems to be part of the problem and not the solution.

Harsh?  Please offer your feedback.

I'd like to see evidence that at least one other person concurs with my observations and conclusions.

Mayonnaise and Aeroplanes

As of the end of February I will have travelled over 50,000 kilometres around the globe in the past calendar year.


That might seem shocking but chances are, in any given day, the ingredients in the food you will eat and the drinks that you will consume will have travelled much more than that.


How is it that we now live in a world where people don't travel large distances that often but our food does?  


About a year ago I went to the travelling Titanic artifact exhibit in Kitchener and it really stuck me then how many people were travelling a century ago.  Technology had progressed to the point that large luxury liners were being built and people were taking advantage of this and going off and exploring.  And today, with travel technology having advanced to the point that the middle class should be able to well afford travel often, it is not happening like I suspect that our forefathers of a century ago would have predicted.  My grandfather was born in 1912 and three of his far flung children allowed him to visit three continents with regularity, especially upon his retirement.  His passing in 1996 allowed my mother to pass along a small amount of money to me that I used embark on my first solo hostel trek to the Rockies and down 101 to San Francisco.  I chose to do that with his money in order to honour him and acknowledge the tremendous influence he had on my explorer nature.


So, fast forward back to today.  I had the chance to re-watch this compelling video promoting local food consumption in Canada.  Ironically, this video just happens to be made by a food company owned by Unilever, one of the world's largest multinational food corporations.


Re-watching this video and pondering the ethics of a multinational creating a local food promotional video got me thinking of my recent travels.  Especially the travels I've taken since having strict dietary restrictions.  I have been dismayed by many food 'movement' related things.  I think that some of these concerns would be most easily presented in a list form:

1. The westernization of the Peruvian food system:  quinoa, a grain I cook with a lot, is native to South America but I only saw it on one menu down there whereas wheat, a non-native South American grain, permeates their food culture now.  I really expected to see this item (and corn) to be pervasive. But sadly, wheat based products were the norm for breakfast/lunch items that were provided by all of the travel industry hospitality providers (hostels/hotels/plane/trains/tourist delis/cafes).
2. A traditional Parisian delicacy is the macaron.  These are supposed to be made with almond flour.  In Paris I had a difficult time finding ones that did not have gluten-based flours added.  Only the really upscale cafes had them.
3. In Newfoundland it has become a bit of a joke with my family.  The outport stores and restaurants are nearly entirely supplied by Kraft.  And who knows? Maybe Hellman's (Unilever) is hoping to penetrate outport Canadian markets with an ad like the one above....there is only Miracle Whip (Kraft's competing salad dressing product) on the plates for most of Newfoundland and perhaps in other remote locations throughout Canada too.
4. Everybody marvels about the food in New York City so I was surprised at how difficult it was to find food that wasn't laced with gluten and dairy. However, the Big Apple redeemed itself when we found Friedman's Lunch via a Manhattan gluten free search on yelp.  This delicious place is located in Manhattan's historic Chelsea market and I heartily recommend a trip there followed by a stroll along the adjacent High Line if you get a chance.

So again, I ask....how is it that a century ago the western culture was focussed on shipping people around the world and in the span of 100 years we now ship food around the world?  A We are shipping basically homogenized food that is easy to grow, store, and prepare (wheat/soy).  Local cultures are being processed into extinction.  It is readily recognized by every culture on the planet that food is a unifying force and the rituals around food are what bring people together.  If a culture can not claim their own local specialized and easily available food then it is less likely to have a strong community.  

Food is a linchpin in all religions and given the long lasting and pervasive power of all of the major religions I think us food activists could take a page from them.  The more we scream LOCAL the more likely we will succeed not only in community building but also the preservation of localized culture.  And if Unilever, or any other person or organization of power, wants to use food to further their own agenda we should be throwing our hats into the air with a celebratory cheer.  

Me at Friedman's Lunch in NYC December 2011.  Best gluten free hamburger, ever!

The Protein Prerogative: Market Mondays

I first found solace by preparing food from scratch in the kitchen as a child - I even had a recipe published in a community cookbook back then.  So I guess I could say the preparation of good food has been a lifelong passion for me. In early adulthood I became interested in food mechanics and that led to me learning more and more about the different types of food and sources of nutrition.


In my evolution into a full blown hippie I had the mandatory vegetarian and then vegan phase.  And upon my first major episode of what was eventually diagnosed as MS I voraciously devoured all the current scientific literature (there is very little) and other respected material on food and disease.


Thus, suffice it to say that I'm an autodidactic food warrior.


And my knickers are really in a knot about protein these days.  Last weeks Toronto Council Committee meeting that squashed the possibility of urban chickens in Toronto added oil to a simmering ember.


Everybody worth their nutritional salt knows that protein gives us the most energy bang for your buck.  That's why the mega-food industry created a whole new market aimed at sports enthusiasts that centred on protein.  Protein shakes are something that many of us consume as a result.  It used to be that mom would go outside to the coop and pluck a few eggs to fry up for breakfast.  Now people reach for the whey powder and the blender.


Food sovereignty centres around protein, in my not-so-humble-autodidactic-view.  On one side of this issue are the people screaming for sustainability: ergo meatless mondays etc.  On the other is the organic food lobby:  Whole Foods meats Birkenstocks.  Or to boil it down to what these two sides tend to really represent:    vegan/vegetarian versus carnivore/pescatarian.


Having been an ethical vegetarian/vegan for a number of years I recognize the gleams of the fervent believer. Part of me is still very sorry that this option didn't work out for me....at about the five year mark of this 'lifestyle' I was craving fish so badly I 'caved'.  Remarkably I felt the energy difference almost immediately.  It wasn't until years later, when I was delving into all the nutrition literature, that I understood what had happened to me on that vegan/vegetarian diet.  My five year stint eventually led to a reduction in energy and a confusion of my body as to how to best replenish it.  My self published vegan cookbook had ample recipes with all the right protein combinations and I made them regularly yet I was still looking for more.  This is why I returned to dairy so quickly and then eventually 'succumbed' to the energy lure of fish and then 'happy' meats (ethically farmed or hunted meats).


So protein is a bit personal, to me.  Especially since I now follow a diet that prescribes a very strict regimen in order to prevent any more myelin sheath from being damaged and may even help to rebuild the stuff that is already damaged.  It is a strict but simple approach and the previous link gives all the science behind it.  It is simple in that it is very easily outlined:  no gluten, no dairy and no legumes.  But the execution of this diet is anything but simple.


Coprorations are out to make profit - they distribute shares to people (or other corporations) that believe that they can make a profit.  I think the Occupy movement has managed to illuminate this plain and simple Business 101 fact home to us.  We are also starting to recognize that our policy makers should be democratically elected but often are simply pawns for the powerful corporations that hire lobbyists that 'hire' politicians.  As my mother, the accountant, is fond of saying, we should always follow the money.


If I was a food corporation looking to make money for my shareholders then I would like to do it in the most efficient manner possible.  Not necessarily effectively, although my food product labelling may claim so.  So what if you were looking to provide a protein product efficiently?  You certainly wouldn't choose meat, poultry, fresh dairy, eggs or fish unless you could factory farm or unethically harvest fish.  You likely wouldn't choose nuts due to allergy concerns.  You'd look around the world and see what protein based substances grow quickly and easily and can be processed into protein products and you'd end up with two sure fire winners:  soybeans and dairy.  Michael Pollan told the food world a few years ago that Americans are basically walking corn stalks due to the pervasive nature of corn and it's derivatives throughout our food chain.  I posit that the sustainable food movement might transform people into dairy laced soybeans and they will be aided and abetted by the handful of global multinational food corporations that not only feed much of the world but also control the food for most of the world.


Like religion, food can be a force that divides or amalgamates communities.  In my solace laced kitchen during the last week I pondered the negative affect that my neurologist approved diet has had on my ability to go out and easily commune with food.  In a world controlled by huge food companies that seek efficiency I realized that this is not likely to change anytime soon, if ever in my lifetime.  And in a world filled with ignorant policy makers like those on that city council committee, I won't be farming my own protein source anytime soon here in Toronto.


But I can start screaming from my soapbox (blog) about it.  The sustainability of our food system is NOT about reducing your meat intake - although that helps.  What would help sustainability (and overall health!) even more would be a commitment by each household to create at least one meal a week, from scratch, with food that is ethically grown - and ideally from a local farmers market that has ethical vendors.  Market Mondays, anyone?

Nourishment 101

"Her eyes were quivering." I am a voracious reader so I no doubt have read this description more than once in my life. Until this past Friday night I hadn't witnessed it first hand without emotions overwhelming me simultaneously so the trite description didn't immediately spring to mind in real time.


I have a certain type of face.  The type of face that strangers regularly approach for directions.  And the type of face that says:  You can confide in me; I am all ears and empathy.  I can thank genetics for this - it runs in the family.  At times it can be uncomfortable but it is always a moment of real communion with a fellow human.


I had such a moment on Friday night.  I attended the approximately bi-monthly, and for now, roving St. Jamestown Community Café.  I learned about this endeavour at the monthly (intentionally roving) Foodie Drinks.  The organizers I met (Nancy Slamet and Lucas Lu) certainly captivated my interest and I attended not only to support their efforts but also as a detective.  I was sussing out the vibe in order to bring back info to my upcoming community association meeting.  The St. Jamestown Community Café is hoping to eventually create an incubator model for other cafés and since Nancy herself interned at the long time successful Queen Street Commons café in Kitchener, I have tremendous faith in the likelihood of the success of the St. Jamestown Community Café.

St. Jamestown community café Friday November 18th, 2011.

I spent most of the evening parked in the same chair munching down on delicious and healthy food that attendees purchase using a pay-what-you-can system so that anyone, with any means, can come participate in the café.  The pay-what-you-can model has been utilized in a few well known establishments and I foresee a huge increase in it's use due to changing worldwide economic circumstances and the increasing popularity and acceptability of social enterprises.

While I stayed stationary at the same table, the cast of characters surrounding me completely turned over three times.  I first enjoyed an amusing rapport with three long term residents (30+years!) from the community.  These three women have raised children and buried husbands together.  The only one with a walker departed by getting up and dancing her way to the front of the room (where the musicians were providing an excellent foot tapping show) before returning to collect her walker and go home.  I was still giggling when a much older woman with a walker came through the door.

The elder woman's paid caretaker saw my now empty table and got the woman seated and her walker stashed away before going to collect her a plate of food.  The woman settled quite close to me and I asked her her name.  She told me and was quite delighted to find out that I knew it was italian since one of my own neighbours that is about the same age (91) has the very same unusual italian name that has fallen out of favour since the earlier part of the 20th century.

This woman was as sharp as a tack and her immediate familiarity with me was a little daunting but quite enjoyable.  We meandered our way through the niceties and I found out that she too is a long time resident of St. Jamestown and in fact moved to the area after her mother died in Kapuskasing, ON.  She was 20 years old so that means that she has lived there for over 70 years!  A veritable walking history book!

In the course of the conversation I thought to ask her if she had any children.  That is when her eyes started quivering and I simultaneously thought of the trite phrase whilst panicking at what I was to find out.  "Yes, my daughter.  But she left me.  Five years ago.  I buried her.  She had taken a job since she was broke.  She hit her head.  Her work didn't phone a doctor, and so she just went to bed that night.  AND DIED."  I capitalize since by the end of this halting speech the tiny frail woman was wailing.  And I was bawling.  And during the course of her delivery I had instinctively reached out and grabbed the tiny arm and felt the life force of this woman humming along, albeit in vast amounts of pain.   I could not choke back my sobs.  So we sat there and cried a bit with me holding on to her arm with both hands now - an awkward but universal type of embrace that is instinctive to humans sharing pain.  After a few minutes I said that I applauded her courage to get up every day and go out and that no mother should ever have to bury a child.  After a few more weepy minutes we gravitated away from the subject and she entertained me with stories of her life as a cleaning woman in Toronto and her cat and the bedbugs that her nursing home is fighting.  She left after eating a healthy sized meal for a 91 year old and I hope to see her again.

The last cast of characters at my table were also fascinating and engaging people.  Two of them were the musicians finally enjoying their repast after entertaining us so wonderfully.  In fact we were all so engrossed in conversing with one another we were literally kicked out (laughingly)!  I had not realized that the tables were being packed up around us and ours was the very last table to be dismantled and put away.

Kudos to the St. Jamestown Community Café.  If my experience can be considered representative of other attendees, I have no doubt that your community development efforts will be successful.  I left the event nourished completely in both body and spirit and I can't imagine any other measure of success that such an effort would desire.

Farmers Feed Cities (and make music?)

I volunteered for Sustain Ontario's City to Country tour yesterday.

I had the privilege of being taken to three different farms and learning quite a lot about supply management issues in the farming industry (pdf link) here in Ontario, Canada.  I also got quite a bit of fresh air and lots of wonderful conversation.






There were fourteen of us on the bus and on our way back to the starting point people remarked on the fact that they had never been to a dairy or egg farm before.  I myself have been to a number of farms from my days living in Waterloo and involvement in the food movement there but never had I been to an egg farm.  In fact, the only reason any of us were allowed to go to the egg farm was because the farm was converting from a 50,000 battery caged hen operation to a 8000 cage free hen research centre.  The public is not allowed to visit working egg farms due to ministry regulations.

The cage free egg research farm was not yet up and running because it was in the midst of conversion so we got to poke around in all the areas and see the old set up (six layers of tiny cages that held seven hens each) and the work in progress of the new set up (large indoor areas where @ 1000 hens will roam free and have access to large outdoor protected areas).

I don't think the images and smells of the defunct battery cage operation will leave me anytime soon.  Nor the thought that the egg production and supply management system in Ontario is flawed and unless  consumers demand cage free operations (from their politicians!) it will not change anytime soon.

After visiting the 'haunted' battery cages we then  luckily got to see free range hens at Coopers CSA.  As we approached the outside mobile hen pen I was struck by the musicality of the birds.  The sounds were so soothing....I tried to capture it with a short video:

Raising chickens in my backyard has been my dream for awhile (much to the amusement of my friends and the dismay of my teenager).  Legally.

Yesterday's excursion reminded me how fulfilling it is to be close to our food and how I long to immerse myself full time in this and be able to pay my bills at the same time.