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.

Seaweed, wonder ! bread and soda pop

Daughter begged me for a drive to school today. She attends a downtown high school that is adjacent to Toronto's Koreatown.  She is heading into the final few months of high school so I'm an easy and melancholic target these days.

While in New York City I discovered a delicious snack food in one of the many stores and shops that are scattered throughout their subway system: wasabi flavoured seaweed. I have done a half hearted search here in Canada (unsuccessfully) so this morning I thought I'd check out the large Korean grocery store up the street from her school (P.A.T. Central, serving the community since 1972).

I have spent a few mornings in the last few years perusing this store after dropping Daughter off at school. I enjoy the dizzying array of foreign goods. I have purchased a few interesting fresh and packaged goods...including ingredients to make my own (delicious) Kim Chi from scratch.  Today I was there before they opened so I pulled into the parking lot in order to wait. For such a large store they have a very small set of receiving doors. As I waited, I watched two receivers negotiate 4 pallets of wonder bread and then a taller shipment of two litre coca cola bottles into the store.

As a rule, I rarely drink soda pop and after hearing Dr. Vandana Shiva talk at York University this week I don't think I'll ever look at soda pop the same way.  We all know, or should know, that soda pop and it's wide-scale deployment is contributing significantly to the diabetes and obesity epidemic.

But did you know that besides the pillaging of our bodies, the manufacturing process for soda pop involves huge amounts of water which is contributing to the pillaging of precious water resources in communities that have very limited water resources?

Dr. Shiva told the story of one village in India that had the 'good economic fortune' of having a coca cola plant move in. Jobs. Prosperity. We all know the spiel. The tar sands are being touted in a similar manner.

After a few years, the women in this town staged repeated protests and finally had the plant shut down. The reason? The opening of this plant, with it's huge water requirements, had led to the eradication of the local water supply and these women were fed up with having to walk miles and miles in order to obtain and carry back water for their families.

I think of this story as I watch the coca cola and the wonder bread get pushed through the doors of this long running Korean grocery store.

I again saw these same pallets when I went inside, prominently placed next to the more traditional items. I wondered how many 1st generation immigrant Korean children are facing their own diabetes diagnosis after being brought up in Canadian households with parents who shopped in Koreatown and bought North American 'treats' like coca cola and wonder bread. And then these same children go on to feed themselves at college/university with cheap processed food.  The stage is then set for an adulthood of 'convenience' foods that might fill the stomach but leave our entire body starving for quality food.  These processed foods have a basic nutritional deficit since synthetic additives are known to harm our bodies.

This sad immigrant tale can be applied to many of the new cultures brought to Canada after the 1967 change in immigration rules that allowed multiculturalism to blossom here.  Unfortunately, these new immigrants were also working long hours, often with both parents doing so, and they were simultaneously gobsmacked by the sudden access to cheap convenient foods.  My Irish born and raised mother tells me about how she couldn't get over the size and variety of ice cream products in 1967 Toronto grocery stores - the year my parents emigrated/escaped, pregnant with me.  Back in Ireland, ice cream was only commercially available in two forms in 1967.  Fresh whipped cones (that tasted deliciously fresh due to the fresh cream and eggs used) and plain white slabs that were purchased on an as needed basis from the corner grocer since freezers were not in people's homes at that point in Ireland, even in the larger cities.

And speaking of additives, I left the store without my wasabi flavored seaweed. All of the brands they carried had far too many additives. I have dried wasabi powder at home and nori seaweed so I'll try making some myself.  But I didn't leave empty handed!  The contents of my bags contained very few preservatives and no mysterious sounding chemical additives. I look forward to exploring a few more dishes with the products I purchased.

Joyous Anticipation.

In a wee while we shall return to courting more frequently.

I will love your early morning kisses. Especially at the bedroom window.

And our late night cuddles with me in light clothing and you and your naked brilliance finally put to rest for a short nap.

Every year you abandon me for another hemisphere.


And I am a microscopic moon, unable to resist your allure when you return.

Since every year you do return, dear Sun.

You are a right rascal for being so reliable.